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Martin Luther King Jr. Day

“True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar; it comes to see that an edifice which produces beggars needs restructuring.” – MLK Jr.

January 21 2008 is Martin Luther King Jr. day and I took this opportunity to learn more about him. Here are some things that I learnt during the past week about this great man –

1. Only 39 years old when he died (January 15, 1929-April 4, 1968).
2. He received the Nobel peace prize in 1964 (the youngest one at that time) and gave the money away to help the civil rights movement.
3. I knew that he was a follower of Gandhiji’s non violent civil disobedience movement, but did know that he visited India in 1959 to learn more about Gandhiji’s philosophy and met the Gandhi family there.
4. He was for reparations to the Black Americans as a way of righting historical wrongs and perhaps providing a mechanism for them to catch-up.
5. Towards the latter part of his life King expanded the scope of his campaign to fight economic injustice and fight for the poor (not to be confused with support for communism).
6. King eulogized himself and a sermon he gave on Feb 4 1968 was played at his funeral.
7. The notorious J. Edgar Hoover, as his wont, tried to portray King Jr. as a communist but to not much avail.
8. He is considered a saint by many protestant churches (this came as a real surprise to me).
9. He was Time Magazine’s man of the year in 1964.

Every time I listen to his speech “I have a dream” it gives me goose bumps. Watching the video, I was surprised to see the folks in the back ground wearing Gandhi Caps.

I salute this great man and a true American icon.

Ganesh

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Reduce, Reuse and Recycle

Please join me in welcoming guest blogger Sujatha Manivasagam  (she reads and comments on many of the posts here). She is a former team mate of Priya Raju and I.  She reads a lot on a variety of topics. And it shows in this first ever blog post that she has written. Please be generous with your comments and encourage her. She eventually wants to start her own blog.  Way to go Sujatha. – Sukumar

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Right from the days of childhood, as a new year unwinds my dad would sit with us, talk about what we did last year and also plan on a few new resolutions for the year. Some of the resolutions would happen but most of them would go down the drain in a few days, anything relating to studies especially…. This trend continued through my adulthood, but over the past few years, my husband and I plan on changing one thing in our life every year and work around it. Last year we decided to eat healthy and avoid eating outside. Since it was one small change it helps us focus and we did stick to it for the most part, occasionally when we eat outside we did make healthy choices.

During our family TV time, we had watched movies like Al Gore’s “Inconvenient Truth”, “March of the Penguins ”, Discovery channels “Planet Earth” series etc. and we always talk about what we can do about it, Last week we watched an Oprah’s show on “Going Green” with simple changes we can make around the house to save the environment. And we put together our goal for 2008, “Reduce, Reuse and Recycle”– the 3 steps to Going Green. As a first step, we started looking around our house and made a few changes on our journey towards going green.

The amount of trash accumulating in the landfills are alarmingly high, so before we throw anything into the trash bag, think if we can reuse or recycle it. Over the past couple of years we have donated books, clothes, toys, computers, furniture etc. to local donation centers, libraries and schools. I have also made up my mind to think twice before we buy something – this is not easy, but I am working on it.

Paper is the number one material we all throw away everywhere – for every 100 pounds of trash 35 pounds is paper, my second area to sneak into and explore. In my kitchen, I use my kitchen towel mostly and also got the select-a-size napkin (it is the half-way perforated one) which cuts the napkin use by half. Just cutting down one paper napkin a day makes a huge difference. We went Paperless with our bank statements; it is saving trees and also preventing identity thefts. Every time we say “no” to the ATM and gas station receipts. At office my husband reduces the paper usage by making double-sided prints. In the grocery shop, instead of paper or plastic grocery bags I am planning to use reusable cotton bags which can be washed and reused.

As part of reducing the power usage around the house, we did simple changes like replacing regular light bulbs with Compact Florescent Light bulb (CFL), using a Power strip to plug in our TV, computer and other appliances and switching it off every night and unplugging empty cell phone chargers. We use rechargeable batteries for all our daily home electronic devices such as wall clock, remotes etc. that reduces the amount of combustible metals going into the landfills.

Using energy efficient Washer and Dryer and also using cold water to wash that saves a lot of energy. One major change we made is to program the thermostat 2 degrees below average during winter months and 2 degrees above during summer.

We use the car for my husband’s work commute, running errands etc. and use the SUV only when the whole family goes out. It’s also easy to understand that shutting down the engine of the car while waiting for somebody reduces the carbon emission and fuel.

Water conservation is something every Chennai resident learns from the early days of their life, so I do use water efficiently. We changed the shower head to a low flow shower to save 50% of the water used. I always run the dishwasher only if it is full, hand-wash the dishes if it is less. In the washing machine, we reset the run cycle every time based on load size.

Other major plans and changes around the house is to use natural (plant based) eco-friendly cleaning products instead of chemicals thus reducing the amount of toxic gases and chemicals around our home.

I read a news article about our former President Mr.Kalam’s visit to Kochi, where the local folks had cut down trees in a small area to create a helipad for his visit. On hearing this, Mr.Kalam expressed deep concern about the cutting down and immediately ordered to plant 3 new saplings for every tree that was cut down. This summer I plan to plant a single tree, a shrub or a small container of herbs that will help clean the air.

Global Warming, Energy Conservation, Saving the world these are some of the alarming words we hear everyday as we flip channels or newspapers. Although it may sound a monstrous task at first sight, making small changes around our house and in our lifestyle can help save the environment and help the beautiful universe survive for a few more years. So, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle and please pass the word and try to make one change today – “Let’s be the change we want the world to be”.

Here are a few numbers which would force you into Going Green.

1. If each American household replaces one bulb with a CFL bulb, it is like reducing the carbon emission equivalent emitted by 800,000 cars.

2. More than 380 million plastic bags are thrown away in the United States every year, and those plastic bags can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills. And while paper bags do eventually biodegrade, an estimated 14 million trees a year have to be cut down to make 10 billion paper bags.

3. We use 2,200 paper napkins a year, per person on average. So if we all gave up one napkin a day, we could save a billion pounds of paper waste from going to landfills a year.

4. Receipts from 8 billion ATM transactions every year are one of the biggest sources of litter on the planet. If everyone left their receipts in the machine, it would save a roll of paper more than 2 billion feet long—enough to circle the equator more than 15 times,

5. Shutting your car off while waiting for 10 minutes less per day can keep 550 pounds of carbon dioxide out of the air every year.

6. People use an average of 2.5 gallons of fresh water for every minute they shower.

All data presented here have been collected mostly from the following websites

Oprah’s Going Green 101:http://www.oprah.com/tows/pastshows/200704/tows_past_20070420.jhtml

Elizabeth Rogers “The Green Book”: http://www.readthegreenbook.com and Google Search on “Going Green”.

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Blog Pongal #2 – Best posts of the year 2007

In keeping with the knowledge is scrumptious theme, i had this bright idea last year to celebrate Pongal with a harvest festival of my own – harvesting the best posts of the past year. This is the 2nd edition of the Blog Pongal covering the best posts of the year 2007. It was another great year, with a number of posts generating a good amount of discussion. And yeah, our blog is finally on WordPress, my favorite blogging platform and we now have our own domain name as well.

First a few words about Pongal – yeah, we all know that it is the Tamil harvest festival, but did you all know that it is probably the only festival which is based on the solar calendar? [Most other Hindu festivals are either based on the day of the moon phase or a star position] Pongal is celebrated during the winter solstice or the first day of the Uttarayana punya kalam – the sun moves northwards on this day. In North India it is celebrated as Makar Sankranti – Sun’s movement into Capricorn. It appears that Tamils follow the solar calendar whereas the rest of India follows the lunar or luni-solar calendar. I am not sure why or how this dichotomy happened. Need to do some more research on that.

I picked the 12 posts that I consider the best from last year [last year used the google search rank, but the pagerank has fallen dramatically after the move to the new URL]. I picked one for each month in chronological order, oldest first:

1. My Celibate Dog by Priya Raju – Her rib-tickling yet sentimental post about her dog Brownie.

2. Why do human females have menopause – For the longest time, menopause was thought to be another uniquely human trait, which is unfortunately not true.

3. When you praise someone’s talent, you are most likely discouraging effort while the focus of this post is children, it applies equally to adults.

4. Lot of people are stumped by the differences and different uses of blogs, wikis, forums. This is a post created out of comments based by the readers of this blog. A fine example of how community intelligence can be tapped into using blogs.

5. My observations on how the reading habits of children has not changed even a wee bit since i was a child. Some excellent comments on this post.

6. Can passion be taught is a question that has haunted me forever. The insightful comments on this popular post have helped me a lot on this subject.

7. Why do we ask less as we age? Sibu Kutty’s thought provoking post generated a lot of interesting discussions.

8. Great teachers don’t teach – The best teachers we have come across in our lives actually let us learn things ourselves instead of teaching.

9. You can become a better conversationalist by listening more and talking less.

10. It may be difficult to agree with the fact that words that we use have a powerful influence on our behavior – why is this so?

11. Ganesh spots a new technology called Freebase that may usher in the age of the Semantic Web. Check out the comments as well.

12. Why do beautiful people make more money and are generally more successful? Ganesh responds by connecting it to the Warren Harding effect from Malcolm Gladwell’s Blink.

Hope you all have enjoyed reading this blog as much as we enjoy writing this blog. Here is wishing you all a Happy Pongal/Makar Sankranti and this being my first post of the new year, Happy New Year 2008 as well.

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The Many Ills of India Inc

This is not a short story! No hay cuento!

I had this desperate urge to write a short story this week. I even brokered a deal with you, my dear reader – that shafts of fiction will radiate from my (not so puissant) pen this time. If only this were a grammar school, I could have blamed it all on my pet: I wrote a story, but the dog ate it. But, this is not school & I don’t have a dog. So, I’m laying it all on the paper boy. Yes, I was so prostrated with grief that I couldn’t bring myself to write a story.

What monkey-business did the paper boy indulge in, you ask. Well, he launched his projectile in a trajectory that ended with a dull “plop” on my nose. He timed it to the exact second of my opening the door, Your Honor. It set my already askew spectacles askewer & out slithered the “Job Opportunities” section. When I quickly skimmed thru that, it so outraged me that I had to read it fully in my toilet. The listings were that crappy.

I’m considered more bellicose than the norm, but this is uncalled for. My ire is always on tap. It doesn’t wait for a cue from the Media: “Ooh, there’s so much media coverage & frenzy about this issue. Now, let me get totally pissed about it for like, 3 days!” I get all het up, because India is the “Land of Probable Causes”.

Before you could say “Equal Employment Opportunity”, I could have shown you 5 Job Listings that specified the Age Limit of the applicant. “Are you a mid-level Engineer? Is your age a Prime Number between 25 and 35?”. “Looking for a Plant Manager below 40 years!” Jesus Christ. What’s this – a Job Listing or a Dating Site? Many people put up with this balderdash & supply their Date of Birth in their resume in India.

If you think its perfectly legitimate for all/most employers to screen people based on their age – say after me: “Age Discrimination is Evil & Stupid”. Filtering by age has nothing to do with performance. It has everything to do with “Ye Olde Fashioned Mentality”, where your boss is always older than you. Well, times have changed. And unless you are Rip Van Winkle, you know that these days performance matters more than length of tenure.

Before you could say “Women’s Emancipation”, I could have shown you the Job Listing from Finolex Pipes (“The Hindu” Jan 9th 2008 “Opportunities” – Page 7). “Ideal Candidate for a Finance Director! He will be a Chartered Accountant! He will have 20 years of experience! He, He, He!” Remind me never to buy their blasted pipes – They are probably as clogged & constipated as them. I felt indescribably depressed. Faintly, I heard my neighbor screaming at her child to get ready for school. Clearly, I could hear the child setup an inhuman squeal of protest.

Though the Listing didn’t expressly prohibit women from applying, my neck prickled with its subliminal message. Women don’t really become accountants, right? Even if they do, they won’t have 20 years of experience – Ha, Ha! And in the off-chance that there is such a mythical creature – We really can’t hire her as a Director, right? Her place is in the kitchen – Right? Wrong on all counts, you antediluvian dingbat. Women walk on space, run their countries and act as able stewards of their companies. They are as good and as bad as men.

Yes, discrimination against women in the work-place has come down. But like an ugly stain of red wine on white lace, its difficult to remove. If you are the kind that argues that “He” is a general purpose term & can be used in the place of “She” – Congratulations, you’ve been brain-washed to become Gender Insensitive. Civilized people use the neutral “S/He” – Anything less is highly disrespectful to women. Only Neanderthals & Male Chauvinists think women are a subset of men. You see, we are not the floating rib of Adam. If you are a woman & you think I’m over-reacting: God help us. Where’s Gloria Steinem when you need her?

Implied or otherwise, discrimination is dumb. Why would you meaninglessly restrict your pool of eligible candidates? It can land you & your company in a legal tangle in the developed countries. Unfortunately, human rights boarded a plane to India, but the flight was canceled due to inclement weather.

I wish enough Indians would take their cudgels to this, this blot, discrimination. But that’s when pigs fly. When all hell freezes over. Till then, we’ll be spewing brim-stone at the Australian Cricket Team. They, like, insulted our boys Down Under – Didn’t they?

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To walk or not to walk

Happy 2008 to all of you!! Feels good to start the New Year with some cricket.

A lot has been written and talked about the poor standard of umpiring in the ongoing 2^nd test between India and Australia. There were at least 4 bad decisions during Australia’s innings – 3 going against India and 1 against the Aussies.

One was a very blatant out – the Symonds catch by Dhoni. Symonds accepted as much later – that he knew there was an edge.

Here comes the question – Should a batsman walk when he knows he is out? I can hear the standard arguments from both sides.

Not Walk –

• One should not, because things will eventually even out and there have been instances when a batsmen has been wrongly given out
• There is too much at stake – both monetarily and patriotically and it is hard for the batsmen to walk out

Walk –

• It is a gentleman’s game highlighted by individuals such as Gundappa Viswanath who has always walked when he knew he was out. Glichrist is known to do the same today
• Cricketers – fielder’s bowlers and batsmen owe it to the game to make the job of the umpire easier etc.

With all this there is a push for more use of technology available and options for captains to use a ‘challenge’ twice during an innings (like it is available in Amercian football today).

Given the high stakes of these matches, I am a fan of using technology and anytime an umpire has a doubt, he/she has to refer it to the 3^rd umpire. The captain’s challenge can come above and beyond this. Note that even with this there is no guarantee that the 3^rd umpire will get things right as noted by Symonds’s stumping decision – he was given not out when it seems like he was out (though I have to agree that the decision was extremely close). But we can eliminate a big chunk of the mistakes by leveraging technology. What is your opinion?

While watching the highlights on youtube, there was an interesting comment by Harsha Bhogle and it goes something like this – The Aussies and particularly Ponting expect the batsmen to trust the fielder when a catch is in doubt – i.e, if it is not clear if the fielder pouched the ball before a bounce on the turf. If Aussies expect batsmen to trust the fielder and take the fielder’s word at face value, should an Aussie batsmen also not walk off the field when he knows he is out? Is there a double standard? I believe there is. What do you think?

Ganesh