Punjabi Humpty Dumpty

Humphty Dumphty sat on a wall,
Humphty Dumphty had a great fall,
All the kings' horses, all the kings' men Couldn't put Humphty Dumphty together again

Punjabi Translation:
बाबा करनैल सिंह बैठा सी दूकान ते'
बाबा करनैल सिंह दिग्ग्य धडाम से,
पिंड दे लोग फिर आ के कहां लग्गे,
बाबा करनैल सिंह ते गया हूँ काम से

'Baa Baa Black sheep have you any wool?'
'Yes sir, yes sir, three bags full
One for the master, one for the dame, And one for the little boy who lives down the lane.'

Punjabi Translation:
'कलि भेद, कलि भेद, है कुच्छ उन्?'
'हाँ भाई,हाँ भाई, तिन पानदान गिन,
एक तेरे वास्ते, एक तेरी वोटी ली एक उस मूंदे ली ! जेहरा खरा रस्ते'.

'Pussy cat Pussy cat, where have you been?'
'I have been to London to see the Queen'
'Pussy cat Pussy cat what did you there?'
'I frightened a little mouse under the chair!'

Punjabi Translation:
'मनो बिल्ली, मनो बिल्ली, किथे गई सी?'
'रानी जी नु मिलन मैं विलायत गई सी'
'की चन चरेय तू ओथे जा के?'
'घर वापिस आ गई मैं चूहे खा के!'

A brief history of IIT Mumbai

Monastery, Sanctuary, Laboratory (Rohit Manchanda)



A book about IIT mumbai: http://www.easternbookcorporation.com/moreinfo.php?txt_searchstring=16310
got me thinking about IIT alumni and their contribution to the industry. The book is written in the style of narrative history. It traces IIT's history from its inception following the seed soviet UNESCO grant to its unarguable prominence in IT symbolized by Nilekani and Nrayan Murthy's grand success. I have been googling for anecdotes related to IT, ITans, IIT and IITans.

Both Nilekani and Narayan Murthy happen to be of Karnataki origin with strong links to Bangalore, where their empire is based. Both had been influenced by some shade of socialistic thinking. Here is a wiki article about Fabian socialism which is the philosophy Nandan Nilekani's pop subscribed to. I prefer a lighter word like altruistic federalism to describe their orientation in life.
Suprisingly, distinguished applied mathematician Narendra Karmarkar (right below) existed at the same time as Nilekani, who is the other super distinguished alumni as noted by the book. Here is an anecdote I found about these luminaries :

"Here I will describe a few incidents (will add more later if I have the time) that will throw some more light on Nandan Nilekani's personality and why I thought highly of him. Nandan Nilekani Leads Narendra KarmarkarIt was a rare event. Karmarkar, Nilekani, Somnath Sinha (likely or was it Prem Kamble?) and I were assigned to the same group in our electronic circuit design lab course by a professor who wanted balanced groups. Normally, toppers didn't associate with non-toppers. Here was poor Karmarkar in risk of losing a grade point or two and jeopardizing his chances of getting the president's gold medal. Whatever thoughts crossed his mind, outwardly he remained calm. We had a meeting to decide on our shares of the workload. I was quite enthusiastic, as was the case with me during the first week of most semesters, and proposed a fairly equitable distribution of work. Nobody else said much and the meeting was adjourned.After that Nandan left with me towards our hostels and then asked me in his Bombay Hindi, what was I trying to do. I asked him to explain what he meant. He asked me why din't I leave technical work to Narendra Karmarkar who was best suited for it and we manage the project. At beginning I didn't like this idea since I wanted to learn and contribute too. However, I agreed to his idea. In our next meeting Nandan proposed a solution that passed on major share of the lab work to Narendra Karmarkar and he seeemd happy about it. At the end of the semester when my grade report card showed an A for that course, I too was happy."

Jairam Ramesh (top left), Kanwal Rehi(top right) and Jug Mundhra (bottom left)

Manchanda's book leaves out a few colorful products. Jairam Ramesh (senior politician), Jug Mundhra ( B movie maker in LA), Kanwal Rekhi (venture capitalist) are not in view.

Music and the mind

Known well is that prodigious mathematician Manjul Bhargava plays the Tabla professionally . A few others, lesser known :
Ravi Dattatreya : Emmanuel Derman mentions Raavi as his mentor at Saloman Brothers. Ravi hails from Karnataka and studied OR at IISc and Berkeley. He now runs a fusion factory with Russians http://www.ravalex.net/
Arun Dravid : IIT/PhD MIT chemical engineer, stood first in his class at IIT while studying hindustani vocals in the Jaipur Atrauli tradition with Kishori Amonkar and her mom Mogubai Kordikar.

Hum Naujawan (1985)

This is a movie you do not want to miss. Dev Anand plays Hans, principal of Oceanic college. Hans is an idealist. He exhorts his students to abide by good moral values and culitivate good study habits. Hans deplores smoking, drinking and partying. Most students love him. But despite this popularity, he has his enemies. Prodigal Shammi (Atlee Brar), son of major national politician Desai (Lagoo), rallies a bratpack of amoral wasted youths against him. These rambunctious party animals prefer indulging in cigarette, daru and 'kothas' (places of ill repute) to books and lectures. One day Hans's daughter Priya (played by debutante Tabu) is found murdered and the autopsy reveals a rape. An underwear and a caricature taunting Hans, both with fingerprints of the suspected, are also discovered. The rest of the drama is a tale of vengeance. It is the tale of a man caught in a decript social system that systematically misguides youngsters. Can Hans wade through the intricate web of political connections that refuses to chastise the powerful ? इन् सब सवालों के जवाब के लिए देखिये हम नौजवान. An amazing performance by Dev sahab and drop out actress Richa Sharma known to Page 3 geeks as Sanjay Dutt's long term wife.

Prof Apoorva Patel

Check out Dr. Apoorva Patel's page.
http://cts.iisc.ernet.in/Personnel/adpatel.html
He now has a note on his time at IIT.
http://cts.iisc.ernet.in/Personnel/adpatel/Apoorva_Patel.pdf

paranjpe trivia

Some may be surprised to know that director Sai Paranjpe, the director of films like Sparsh, Chashme Baddoor and Disha, is the daughter of a Russian artist and an Indian film actress. Her name originates from her second father R P Paranjpe, better known in Maharashtra as Wrangler Paranjpe. Wrangler Paranjpe was a Cambridge educated Mathematician and administrator. He is an enduring cult symbol in the state.

रोज रात का राडा

रात को राडा हो गया। पोलिसे आया। अर्रेस्ट बर्रेस्ट नहीं हुआ पण राजू को बोहोत देर तक सताया। If you've come across people from all walks of life in Mumbai, you might be quite familiar with Munna speak. I grew up in a quiet middle income lakeside neighborhood near the rustic outskirts of what was then Mumbai. So it amused and depressed me when we came across individuals who lived in colonies which were a lot poorer or more 'illiterate' and who described in tragi-comedic frustration the vagaries that affected the communities they lived in; someone was found singing konkani songs under a copious overdose of whisky, someone got mugged on the way home, someone got arrested or someone got brutally mauled. At these times, I thanked my parents and grand parents for being boring and diligent, for working their way through the system and for raising us in morally sanitized neighborhoods. An antagonism would be the worst mess we would face. We would head for the shores of foreign countries an order of magnitude saner in their civic conduct. We would live there not knowing shortages, having to ourselves a piece of unaffected land in a green haven and commuting at odd hours without fear. When we returned back home, hit a local poolroom to rub shoulders with some of those we had left behind, we would feel like movie stars in suits. Sure, they can say that corporate lives are fake and needlessly enervating but, I would say, the sanity they offer is heaven in comparison to your daily dose of maximum city. Dealing with organized crime for these less fortunate brethren is not an extreme event. It is something like a daily chai or cigarette. Roj ka hai. And that is why they wish their parents could have been successful people at any cost. At the cost of breaking queues, at the cost of a guilty conscience and at the cost of their family jewels. So that they could have been blessed with the life of an actual doctor, not a society ka doctor. I walk by the table, changing sides restlessly. Perhaps I resemble a greek or a persian, a moghul or a rajput or maybe an english babu. I wonder if this is the thought that reverberates in the stifled pool room. It shakes my faith in law as a paradigm. What if one of these brawny pakyas decide to rob or kill me ? Thankfully, I am a small fly. There are better targets in the vicinity. Worst case possibilities are usually not a healthy consideration in life but I am still grim. I feel arrested. What if this were the philosophy that our youngsters wake up to. To raise clean shaven bankers and doctors, you must first obtain necessary resources which could be done by any means available. It seems oxymoronic. But it is probably just cryptic if not logical.

Power on Demand

Recently visited our farmhouse near Shahpur, south of mumbai. This time I noticed the diesel generators that power this "pollution free" region. The air is clean and the land green. But you can hear them grinding away when in any office. Even the police station has one, rated at 750 VA. It is loud but it does the job. I checked with a relative of mine. He owns a small industry in this area. It is the most convenient thing. Every day between 10 AM and 4 PM, there is no power in the mains. Occupying a tiny chamber next to his factory, it generates a 50 KvA with ease and produces unit kWh at about 11 Rs, about twice the cost of government power. Diesel is the major expense. He says he does not care if he lost the unit. Power is available on demand and for the convenience, the pollution and the cost bump may well be worth it.

PAL to NTSC

It is pleasing to see my 4 year old LCD TV being used at home in Mumbai. I find it bit hard to bear the sight of people throwing equipment without excellent reasons. This one was bought in NY 2006 and when I moved to Singapore, I figured it could be used with a TV tuner box (obviating a PCMCIA and a dedicated computer) which would convert anything to VGA through AV cables. This approach works - in case you happen to be a curious web surfer googling out conversion of PAL2NTSC. I was a little unsure how easy to use it might be to my parents and how durable the box might not turn out to be. But with Tata SKY it is very straightforward, and the box which you can get in any good hardware store has lasted well over an year now.

LED DLP micro projectors

I bought Samsung P410M SVGA (800X600) "pocket projector". It is about 2 pounds with wiring and fits into your palm. We could blow up DVD prints to 60-70 inches and it can look good except for rendering darks which is a minor bother. For VCD a 40-50 inch size is better. You cannot compare the quality with LED TV but the portability compensates.

Mumbai Blues

What if you returned home after 14 years and found everything you had left virtually undisturbed. Perhaps I am striking a chord with Nagesh Kukkunoor's character in 'Blues. As his low budgest flick has it, the then 35 yr old engineer had bored himself away and although he had a good life in Atlanta driving a lexus, living in a mansion all to himself and working as a senior chemical engineer at Coke, he wished he could time travel 15 years back into his pre college shoes. There are his friends, his family, his Bo Derek wallpapers and quite possibly more importantly a hopeful love life. I guess you do not see charming indian MDs riding kinetic on the Atlanta turnpike.

delhi power woes

Every once in a while u hear people harping about it. Rajdhani mein bijlee ki problem. This time it was from my brothers' prospective father in law. He whines about power cuts all the time. They could happen at a critical time. I hope not to experience a monsoon wedding like situation. The lights just went out. Hopefully it is a wire trip but god forbid it could be another 6 hour power cut. What if it happens in the summer at formidable temperatures of 40 C and above ? How do delhiites chill in the summers. Maybe they do not. Relatedly, what about people who cannot afford generators or trips to barista. Uttaranchal might have helped but the capital city and much of the north indian hinterland is still quite powerless. Maybe parabolic concentrators are the solution. Maybe thin film PV's which are around the corner. They could help reduce the cost of solar conversion consuming land and wall space instead of expensive silicon. It is such an embarrassment that our rajdhani unlike for example Kuala Lumpur breathes heavily at every picture perfect moment. Rings are about to be exchanged. Pepole are waiting with bated breath. Bhagwan, aur dus saal power mat dena par abhi mat kaatna.