Tangled blues

I see the end nearing with
each passing day
I hold you tighter with
each passing day
I see your laughter clearer with
each passing day
To get hurt
To get tangled
in your blues with
each passing day

effective. not efficient!

This thought has been in my head since long. It has to do with my inherent necessity to ask “why”? As I am experimenting with different types of writing flows, I am going to start off this with a question, er…two questions may be.
Would you be willing to give complete credit to your friend/loved one/family for a creative piece (could be a sketch on a paper towel, could be a small write up/blog post) you have produced? I am not asking in the way authors dedicate and thank their dear ones in the foreword but I am asking would you be willing to say, this has been made by he/she and not me. The answer in most cases is a “No” right?
Now think about this- your mom and dad are visiting you and you want them to see your girl/boy in the best light. You make the tried and tested recipe and say your girl has made it. How easy was that?
The difference between them is that one is your original imagination, it was completely about you and the other was only part you. It is always easier to let someone take credit if it is something not originally yours.
Applying this to the discussion of copying in school exams, Should our efforts be in the direction of making the exam better, by making questions which would need original thinking or in investing watch guard infrastructure? My vote is for the former.
language is of central importance to human thought because it structures and limits the ideas that individuals are capable of formulating and expressing….the party controls this by introducing language of NewSpeak replacing English….1984

My view point on design

This is something I wrote for school blog.

Last semester has been a whirlwind of knowledge exchange for me. Now, as I leisurely freeze each vortex, I find some things right at the top of the swirl. One such is development of my new view point towards design. To start with-being an engineer, Design for me has always been in relation to material things- from the design of a new boiler to the newest comfort footrest. However, I was sure of one thing all along i.e. design increases the utility of a product. Later, the discussions in Fred’s class (Design practice by Fred Collopy) have imbued in me the relevance of extending this point to systems and processes. I remember this one particular example

This led me to explore more in the direction of process design and I stumbled upon video game developer Dino Dini’s view point on design, which is-

Design underpins every form of creation from objects such as chairs to the way we plan and execute our lives. (From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Design)

As I tried to embrace and apply this to things in my life, I noticed that any improvement we seek for a process /product is a reaction and the very best reaction leads to the best design. The most important process design I witnessed was how our LEAD team improved the way a team meeting has to be conducted in order to finish a project effectively. Each new change was a result of reaction to existing process. And the talk by design legend Mr. John Spirk at management society meeting (Thank you Professor Taylor!) has reconfirmed my observation. So did the lecture – The changing nature of design: The case of China by Victor Margolin, organized by Department of Information Systems. A very interesting discussion emerged from the lecture- Consider how Wikipedia works. A contributor contributes and then the content is available for everyone to edit/react. These edits lead to the improvement in quality of the article. A much more interesting aspect of the discussion was that, is it possible to build a blue print of a city plan by using the same method. In my opinion it is not possible to arrive at a best city design by this method. In the Wikipedia example, the content is information and information is the same for everyone, may be the way each person uses it might be different. However, in the later example, a design which could be a utopian haven for a city dweller could be a nightmare for another. For these reaction changes to work, the product/process should have the same kind of utility for everyone. In the LEAD team example, if our united goal was not to complete a project effectively, we would not have come to the best design.

An Un-embraced Victory

The smell of burnt blood and flesh made me cough. I cleared my throat. I knew that I had little time until the next swarm of the carnivores come in. I rechecked the battery; it was good enough for the kill. I inwardly laughed at the speculation that earth favored stupider species-a speculation born out of judging the survival of bacteria. But here I was with the superior weapons massacring the blood suckers. And I was an expert in handling the newer range of electronic killer machines. The government as always drugged the communal water, a haven of these carnivores, but to no effect-neither preventive nor direct. We are on our own, each for his family.





Briefly in a leading News daily

Hyderabad: Increasing swamps and slums made the citizens turn to new mosquito killers. Chinese made electric mosquito bats are selling heavily. Some site that the increase in prices of mosquito repellants is one reason for the change.

Two sides of the coin

She had the tattered, broken appearance of a beggar. Indeed she was one. She approached us, my friend started looking for loose change in her purse. But the old woman mumbled something and gripped my arms. Surprised, my friend raised her voice a little and said " Aapko kya chahiye?" (What do you want?) She said, with all breath, " wazifa, wazifa". (pension, pension) Meet Farima Begam, her story not unique but still makes you weep for her helplessness.
Farima begam lives in Muslim chowk of Gulberga. She has seven children, all of whom left her to fend for herself. I was one of the team doing a survey on pension schemes(old age, widow, disability) of Govt. Farima heard someone say we were delivering pensions and hurried to see us. She tells me that she last received the pension during the other Ramzan and never since. Exhaustion and hunger are written all over her fragile body. Karnataka govt. has suspended pensions in Aug, 2007 in view of complaints about bogus cases. After an inquiry which lasted for eight months, the pensions were distributed along with compensation. But, for many like Farima the pension didn't resume and the rejection letter was lost in mail.
For such deserving cases, the officials at Tasildar's office advice to reapply. An application for pension requires passport size photograph, ID proof and Age proof. All of which need money and assistance from a literate. Farima evidently has none and is reduced to begging to fill her stomach.
Now meet a young clerk at the Tasildar's office, who is opposite of typical bollywood's govt. official. He is in charge of one of the pension scheme's and the job description gives you a fair idea of how over-loaded he is. And unlike his corporate peers he gets no overtime money. He strongly feels all these problems are because of over population, less resources and in compassion of people. He wants to pursue higher studies and make policy changes and his voice heard. But his personal and professional responsibilities make it impossible. You can see the fire in his eyes while he talks about the condition of the poorest of the poor and how a little sensitivity from people can change a lot. And did I mention that of all the officials I have met he is the only one who didn't think we are a threat to his job?

The balloon

"Do you wear ribbons on school holidays too?" she was asked.
"Yes."
"Do you have pink ones?"
"Yes."
"Oye! sab log suno...Here is a girl who wears ribbons at home too and they are pink."
Everybody who otherwise never looked at her turned round and laughed. She could feel herself going red.
"No. I don't wear ribbons. I don't have pink ribbons." she shouted.
Nobody heard.

The corner window is a nice place. It has a sill which fits her elbows perfectly. It gives her a clear view of the research institute. A balloon floated above the institute. It was not gay but translucent white. It was like the tear drop on her lashes. She wondered why any grown up at the research institute would buy a dull balloon and abandon it. But it was good to watch it soar. She would lose sight of it when the balloon hid in the clouds. Then suddenly she would spot it. It was like a secret hide and seek game.

Next year in eighth standard when she would learn about weather stations and weather devices, she would know that it was a weather balloon.

Of Bedtimestories

A pleasing land it was;
Of dreamy castles and fair mermaids,
of damsel in distress and her knight in Ferrari,
forgotten by the old, on the lips of the young,
The land of innocent indulgence.