Book review: Between the Headlines

'Between the Headlines' by Shweta Ganesh Kumar is a slice of life story of a TV reporter, Satyabhama Menon, as she struggles to come to terms with the harsh realities of her cherished career. Lured by the thrill of being on national TV, driven by the altruism of journalism - she takes up an unconventional career path and works hard to finally become a TV reporter. The 'travails' that follow are well narrated, well paced and just about long enough to keep the reader hooked on. The fictional new organization NEWS India is a chaotic place, with all the chaos associated with a mismanaged organization. Reporters don't look like the most valuable assets of the organization, but instruments to used at the whims and fancies of the senior editors at the top. 

Is that the state of the TV media today? The book does paint a very gloomy picture. We have got a taste of that earlier with 'Peepli Live', the paid news cover-up and the Radia tapes, and the book only reinforces that image. The TV media has anyway become the butt of jokes in many living rooms, office and cafes around the country. But it is sad to see that many reporters understand this, feel ashamed of it but can do nothing just like Satyabhama. Truly, the news channels have becomes advertising and propoganda channels for corporates with 'filler' news thrown in. 

I don't know if the truth is as harsh as potrayed in the book. There seems to be nothing positive in the potrayal of the TV media. Even within Satyabhama's bureau, there seems to no sense of purpose or camaradrie but just office politics as usual. This forces Satyabhama to do make a tough choice - whether to endure all this purposelessness for the thrill of being in front of the camera or put her skills to do something that may make a difference -  but where she wouldn't be in the limelight. She chooses the latter. 

Book Review: The Polyester Prince

While poring over books at a street shop, I noticed Hamish MacDonald's The Polyester Prince. Knowing  that the book would not be available at any book stores in India, due to pressure from the Ambanis, I immediately snapped it up. Having read it, I can say that its not only the Ambanis but a lot of other people who wouldn't want the book to be widely read. The Polyester Prince is an unofficial biography of Dhirubhai Ambani, chronicling his and Reliance's rise to the high table of the Indian industry. The books specifically focuses on the some of the inconvenient facts about Ambani's super rapid growth. Though a biography, it almost feels like reading a thriller as events move fast, there is always a conspiracy in the air and the years roll on quickly. The book is well researched and presents as balanced a point of view as possible, given that the Ambanis refused to answer any of the author's questions in the course of writing the book. It is a mixture of facts, suspicions, strong rumours, hearsay and legends around Reliance. The book is one of the very few bold accounts of contemporary Indian history. The book is almost surely an inspiration for Mani Rathnam's movie - 'Guru'. 

The book tracks the growth of Ambani from his humble origins in a Bania family in Gujarat. Given the region and the community that he came from, it should be no surprise that he ended up in business. The trader community and Gujaratis are particularly well known for their trading and business skills, having perfected the skills over hundreds of years and have contributed in no small measure to make the Indian sub-continent the economic power it was. Ambani learnt the tricks of the trade during his stint in Aden and starting understanding how to manage money and finance. From then there was no stopping him, as he understood the importance of raising capital. He must have been the most innovative financier India has had and it is this skill that has taken Reliance where it is. Reliance isn't a polyester or petrochemical or telecom (or whatever sector it is investing in today). It is basically a financing company that knows how to raise capital with all kinds of schemes and then put it to use and showcase it to raise more capital. 

That's not the case with Reliance alone. Every major Indian industrial conglomerate today - the Tatas, Birlas, the Ambanis, etc. come from a trading background and it looks like this is the standard operating procedure of most of these family firms. So, my hypothesis is that India's industrial growth is not oriented towards building and innovating solutions geared towards the country's problems but rather importing and retrofitting someone else's solution to some similar problem - a trader's solution. Since the Indian economy opened up, the Indian conglomerates have adapted and been hugely successful at their core competency - trading, and they can stand up to any challenge in the world on this front. 

Ambani was not only a master financier but a great manipulator of the license-raj system that Indira Gandhi converted the Indian state to. The Govt. Of India controlled a lot of economic activity like - what industries to allow, who gets to run it, what manufacturing capacity, what items to import and in what quantity and basically everything under the sun. The Govt basically ran a huge patronage network, where favored people would get their needs met; all rules and regulations being malleable and subject to convenient interpretation. The book illustrates how bad the license-raj was and how Ambani exploited it to the hilt with the help of his cohorts in the Government, some of whom still hold the highest posts in the country.

And the government was ruthless too. It could make life miserable for anybody who would not do their bidding. The way the governments cracked down on the Indian Express group for their expose of Reliance and on Ambani's rival Nusli Wadia (and Dhirubhai too, when his enemies were in power) shows all that is wrong with our arbitrary system of government where those in power have a lot of discretionary power. This system is best expressed in S. Gurumurthy's first salvo of his now legendary Reliance expose:

If the mail rule prohibits something, get a sub-rule added which permits it. The main rule will no doubt exist in the book but the book alone.  ...  Rule of law at once becomes sub-rule of law and the sub-rule eventually becomes subversive rule.

Dhirubhai was a product of his times, and the book is an indictment of that bad system which created a person like him and allowed his tactics to flourish. The moral of the story is that Government should have minimal discretionary powers, and create a level playing field for competition. Some liberalization has happened in the last 20 years, but real reform of the Government is yet to happen. Afterall, A. Raja of 2G scam fame seems to have referred to Pranab Mukherjee's coaching manual of the 80's when he was the Finance Minister and had Ambani's backing.

Post script: It is downright hypocritical of the large banias (all our big conglomerates) to plead for the interest of the Indian consumer and demonise their own brethen (the small banias who run the kiranas) in the FDI-in-retail debate. The big fish is now are just waiting for an opportunity to eat the small fish. Don't be taken in by the propaganda.

Book review: The Lost River

How many times have we heard praises to the triumvirate of rivers - the Ganga, the Yamuna and the Sarasvati? While we know where the Ganga and Yamuna flow, we have been conventionally told that the Sarasvati is a mythical river that joins the Ganga and the Yamuna at the triveni sangam at Prayaag. However, for more than a century a debate has been raging, unknown to most layman in India, about the real truth of the Sarasvati.

'The Lost River' by Michel Danino explains the issues involved, the various viewpoints that exist and provides a beautiful narrative of the story of the Sarasvati. It is a good scholarly work, and an interesting read at the same time. A few questions that have been asked in the course of the debate, and I have tried to summarize them and the answers/viewpoints from the book's position on the issue :

• Is the river Sarasvati for real? 
• Where did it flow? Since the mid 19th century, a seasonal stream in Rajasthan's desert with an unusually wide bed, the Ghaggar-Hakra, has been postulated by many to be the lost Sarasvati river. The archaeological, literary, geological and local folklore evidence is very strong to suggest that there was indeed a very large perennial river flowing through the desert of Rajasthan and Pakistan. 

• The Ghaggar-Hakra may have been a large river in old times. But was it the Sarasvati? Again the circumstantial evidence is strong - mainly from our literary sources. The 'nadistuti hymn' from the Rg Veda enumerates the major rivers of Northwest India - the Sapta Sindu - in east to west direction; the Sarasvati lies exactly between the Satluj and the Yamuna, just like the Ghaggar-Hakra. Balarama's journey along the Saravati in the Mahabharata and the places he visits correspond to places in this region. 
• Over the last fifty years, the Ghaggar-Hakra basin has also seen the discovery of a large number of Indus valley civilization sites from Haryana to deserts of Cholistan in Pakistan.  This has led to the realization that the Indus Valley civilization was built around two major river systems, the Indus and the Sarasvati.  Some of the largest Indus valley sites like Kalibangan, Banawali, Rakhagarhi, Ganeriwala and Lothal are in the Sarasvati's basin. 
• What happened to the Sarasvati? The Sarasvati's major tributaries were the Himalayan rivers, the Satluj and the Yamuna; whereas traditionally the Sarasvati has itself been identified to originate from the Shivalik Hills at Ad Badri. At some point, the Yamuna and the Satluj changed courses, the Yamuna joining the Ganga and the Satluj joining the Indus thus depriving the Sarasvati of its major water sources. The Satluj is known to have a very volatile history of changing its course, the latest being somewhere in the 17th century. Some tectonic movements may also have contributed to these changes. 
• When did this drying take place? Studies show that the river was in full flow in around 3000 BC, but it had dried up in its central sections by around 2500 BC. That means in the Mature Harappan age, the river was already dry in some parts and this is clearly observable from the settlement pattern of Indus valley sites. Most sites during this period are either near the northern end in Haryana/Punjab or in the southern portions in Cholistan area of Pakistan. The sites in Rajasthan from the Early Harappan phase seem to have been abandoned by then. 
• What happened to the people in this region once the river died? Here is where the story gets even murkier and gets intertwined with the Aryan Invasion theory. Traditional history says that what followed was a dark period in the history of India till the Aryans from Europe invaded and settled in the Gangetic plains which evolved into the classical Indian civilization from which our present day civilization derives. The contention of many historians is that there is simply no archaeological or genetic evidence to support such a theory, whose only basis seems to be the need to explain the commonality in the Indo-European languages. The author argues for a strong continuity of our present day culture from the Indus valley civilization. As the river dried up, people migrated to the east settling in the Gangetic plains and carrying over their science and technology, architecture, religion and arts. A couple of chapters in the book are dedicated to exploring these connections and make for very interesting reading.

In addition to the debate on the Sarasvati, this book is also good material for anyone wanting to read on the Indus valley civilization. One part of the book is devoted to the Indus valley civilization, with one chapter on a few prominent Indus valley cities on the Sarasvati river. 

As a footnote, what is most depressing is that our history books make no mention of these facts. Why are these alternate views presented in our history books when the evidence for these theories too are not trivial at the least? Our history books too live either in Indus valley time or truly in Kaliyuga.  

Thanks to mankuthima for recommending this book, and you can find his summary of the book here:

• Sarasvati-The lost river - Part I
• Sarasvati-The lost river - Part II
• Sarasvati-The lost river - Part III

Book Review: The Man who knew Infinity

Till a few days back, to me, Srinivasa Ramanujan was a well known and eccentric Indian mathematician. Now, after reading Robert Kanigel's  'The Man Who Knew Infinity', I am better informed. Ramanujan was  one of the most original mathematicians of the 20th century.  More specifically, he is acknowledged to be a great formalist comparable in skills to the all time greats - Gauss, Euler and Jacobi. And Robert Kanigel's biography of Ramanujan is the one of the best biographies I have read, and one has that has made a lasting impression on me. 

Ramanujan's story is a most extraordinary one. He arrived from nowhere and cast his genius on the mathematical world in a short, dazzling life (1887-1920). Born in the Kumbakonam town, Tanjavur district of Tamil Nadu in the Kaveri delta, he spend a childhood in tight financial conditions, yet not in penury. However, given his Brahmin roots there was an emphasis on education. He did very well in school in all subjects, excelling in Maths and was given a scholarship for the Government College, Kumbakonam. Around this time he developed a fierce appetite for mathematics. The turning point came with Carr's 'A Synopsis of Elementary Results in Pure and Applied Mathematics'. This was basically a book for preparation to Cambridge's Tripos exam, so it basically listed results and hints to get to them. A totally unremarkable book, that may be despised as one of those 'exam guides'. However, he had little access to mathematical texts and this book hooked him to mathematics. He lost all interest in all other subjects. He proved results in Carr's book by developing his own methods, finding his own ways through the mathematical maze, totally immersing himself in mathematics. The book proved influential to Ramanujan's style of mathematics which as Hardy said was a "curious mix of reason, intuition .." Today, Carr is famous only because Ramanujan read his book. As a result, Ramanujan flunked other subjects and lost his scholarship to college. He spent a few years in wilderness, with no income and just about sustaining himself. He tutored a few students to support himself. He got another scholarship, but the temptation for mathematics would again lead him to ignore other courses. He spent a lot of time at home or being supported by his friends. Yet, he continued his mathematics and started maintaining notebooks of his results. which were to subsequently become the famous Ramanujan notebooks. He was so hard pressed that he didn't have any money for paper, and did the proofs on slate and chalk transferring results to paper later. In this manner he ended up "rediscovering a century of Western mathematics and added his own astounding finds". His mathematical skills of no use, he spent very harsh days barely surviving and working on Maths. Through his friends, he got a monthly stipend from a wealthy benefactor and finally a decently paying job at Madras port trust as a clerk. 

In Madras, people started noticing his mathematics, and he was encouraged by his boss. He was soon publishing in the Indian Mathematical Society. But no one really understood his maths, and he needed validation of his work from a more established authority - so that he could be justified of his achievement, so that he could support himself while doing maths. He sent letters to Cambridge mathematicians, one of which was to Prof. Hardy. This event was to change his life. Hardy soon recognized that it was the work of a great mathematician. With Hardy's stamp of approval, the Madras University made an exception for him and made him a research fellow though he did not have a Bachelor's degree. But Hardy was not satisfied, and wanted to bring Ramanujan to England. Ramanujan was not ready given the caste restrictions on travelling to foreign lands and concerns about food given his strict vegetarian needs. Finally he relented, supposedly after a commandment in a dream from the family deity Namagiri.  His stay in England was most fruitful, where in collaboration with Hardy he made significant contribution to partitions, prime number theorem. However, the alien conditions took their toll on Ramanujan, both physically and mentally. He attempted suicide once, and returned home in poor health. He was now however an FRS and Fellow of Trinity, and was given a generous research grant with which he could live comfortably with his family. In spite of failing health, he continued to work and in the last year of his life did some pathbreaking work on mock-theta functions. 

His is a story of true determination and integrity as much as it is a story of genius. Against all odds, in a society where there was no particular place for his mathematics and with no mathematical pedigree in his family, how did a genius like Ramanujan arrive? A writer best described him as 'svayambhu' - 'self-born'. As Kanigel says - "He was self-willed, self directed and self-made. Indeed, some might conceivably label him as 'selfish' for his preoccupation with doing the mathematics he loved without any concern for the betterment of his family or country. Ramanujan did what he wanted to do, went his own way." It was his unshakable confidence in himself that carried him so far. He found his own methods and stuck to them. When the whole of Europe was moving towards a maths based on rigor where intuition seemed to have little place, Ramanujan displayed his brand of mathematics which was "a curious mix of intuition and evidence".  

Kanigel's biography is a great effort that goes beyond Ramanujan, the legend to discover Ramanujan, the man. Kanigel has done excellent reseach in understanding the culture of South India prevalent at that time. His attempt to describe South India, its geography, landscape, its people and culture is admirable. Given that the book is written for a western audience, it is a very beautiful account of a part of the world for readers who don't know about it.  A lot of what we know about Ramanujan is due to Hardy, and Kanigel rightly delves deep into the story of Hardy. It is almost as if the book contains a mini-biography of Hardy within. As Hardy himself has acknowledged - it was his good fortune to be associated with Ramanujan and Littlewood. Kanigel paints a picture of English middle class at that time, of the Cambridge culture. Its seems eerily similar to ours today - the focus of parents on education then, the Tripos exams - which is the equivalent of the JEE today, the coaching culture. Truly, history repeats itself. 

But Ramanujans occur but so rarely.

Breaking India - A review

Rajiv Malhotra and Aravindan Neelakandan's 'Breaking India - Western interventions in Dravidian and Dalit Faultlines' is a detailed work on much under-studied internal security challenge that India faces - "Dravidian and Dalit separatism being fostered by the West in the name of human rights".

The roots of this separatist thought go back to the colonial times, when the British for political reasons concocted the stories of Aryan and Dravidian races. Then Dravidians were made out to have a separate culture and religion historically, and they were shown to have been subjugated by the tyrannical Aryans and 'cunning' Brahmins. Thus Dravidians were made out to be the oppressed original inhabitants of the Indian subcontinent, who were assimilated into the Vedic culture. Tamil culture was made out to be the torchbearer of this alternative Dravidian culture. Such interpretations were drawn through malicious interpretation of Vedic literature. I am simplifying the story, which is always a dangerous thing to do with history. But the authors have presented a good history of how the alternative identify was created.

This has already caused us national integration problems in the past with the rabid Dravidian political forces in Tamil Nadu. However, that Dravidian movement has lost steam - but not the idea. In fact, trouble is still being brewed up by a group of western think-tanks, academic circles - probably with tacit support from elements in the Western establishment. Add to this the extreme Christian evangelicals who see India as the next big target for evangelicism. They have a vested interest in dividing up Indian communities so as to make them more amenable to conversion. The route they take is to first delink communities from a larger Indian civilization , by promoting divides like the Aryan-Dravidian divide. This sets the stage for missionary activity. However, to convert a community there needs to be a cultural connect that Christianity has to make with them. There is an effort to do the same with Dravidian identity. First, Tamil spiritual works like 'Shaiva Siddhanta' and 'Thirukural' are proclaimed to be non-Vedic in identity. All the good in the Tamil culture was ascribed to these works whereas all the bad was ascribed to the Vedic literature. Then mischievous mappings were done from the Tamil works to the Bible and Christian theology, to show how they derive from the Bible and is thus an impure form of Christianity (Dravidian Christianity). For this the story of St. Thomas visiting India and his persecution has been accepted as fact without verification, and additional embellishments were done on top of that - like claiming that all the Tamil works originate from the teachings of St. Thomas. Now, the stage is set for evangelism, and indeed a lot of NGOs and activists have been co-opted by the evangelicals. It is said that among some communities the conversions are being done at a rapid rate, and this is causing social tensions. The authors elaborate on these issues and provide insightful instances.

In a similar way, the Dalit identity has also been forged and sought to be separated from the Indian civilization. As the authors mention, Westerners have attempted to foster such ethnic divisions in other parts of the world (Rwanda, Sri Lanka), and the results have been disastrous for the people. Wasn't the Indian Partition also a result of such a divide-and-rule policy? They caution that we should maintain our vigil against such attempts at social engineering by a these trouble-mongers.

The book is a work of great detail running into 600 pages, including 200 pages of appendices, notes and references. However, the basic idea is essentially what has been mentioned above. The authors have of course argued their ideas and presented an analysis in a much better way than what this little post can do, and have given extensive examples and instances. It is generally said that history is written by the victor, and hence its always a refreshing change to learn another perspective and then to draw your own conclusions.

Book Review: The Numerati

With the advent of the Web and the fall in electronic prices, we have seen an explosion in digital data in the form of huge databases collecting various pieces of information to ever larger collection of documents. The Numerati (a portmanteau between the Number and Illuminati) are the statisticians, mathematicians, computer scientists, linguists and others involved in making sense of this data using sophisticated statistical techniques. The book describes the kind of problems being solved in the following areas, citing various examples at a bunch of organizations like IBM, Intel, Umbria, etc.:

• Workers - building employee profiles, understanding employee networks, using it for optimal use of resources
• Shoppers - microtargeting shoppers using personal information to customize service, give recommendations and increase sales
• Voters - Understanding voter intent, issues - so that campaign messages can be targeted to focussed groups.
• Bloggers - Understanding public opinion from the information on blogosphere, useful to understand sentiments on products, etc.
  
• Medicine - Baker focusses on futuristic health monitoring (like floor tiles which capture your walking patterns!), whereaas he totally ignores contemporary challenges and work in analyzing medical records, genomic and proteomic data.
• Terrorism
  
• Match Making

All this comes at a cost. The Numerati has access to vast amounts of personal data, and we don't need an Orwellian Big Brother who is going to use it to learn about us, turn us into commodities and control our lives.

That's about it in the book - it can be a brisk read, which - you can give it a miss if you think you are familiar with the above topics.

Book Review: The Lady Tasting Tea

A lady claims that the taste of tea differs when milk is poured to tea leaves as opposed to adding tea leaves into a cup of milk. Everyone at the small party scoffs at the suggestion, except Ronald Aylmer Fisher. Fisher designs an experiment that would statistically establish the lady's claims. He creates a sample set containing tea prepared in either ways, and lo and behold - the story goes that the lady identifies each cup correctly. Fisher uses this example to explain the design of experiments in his book 'The Design of Experiments'. This anecdote sets up the book. 'The Lady Tasting Tea' is the story of the development of statistics, Fisher having built the pillars of statistics as it stands today.

I started reading this book, while looking around to brush my statistics; thought it would be a good idea to know the history of the subject I am exploring. That's particularly relevant in sciences filled with uncertainties like statistics, economics, linguistics; where the characteristics of the individual seem to contribute to the development of the theory, and there's a story behind things which seem arbitrary.

David Salsburg takes us through an entertaining journey starting with the earliest breakthroughs by Karl Pearson and William Gossett, going to the pioneering foundational works of the acerbic genius Ronald Fisher, the cheerful Jerzy Newman, and the multitalented Andrei Kolmogorov. Apart from these pioneers, Salsburg very vividly sketches the lives and contributions of Egon Pearson (hypothesis testing), Chester Bliss (probit analysis), John Tukey (exploratory data analysis), Frank Wilcoxon (non-parametric methods), EJG Pitman (non-parametric methods), Prasanta Chandra Mahalabonis (sampling theory), Samuel Wilks (Founder - Statistical Research Group, Princeton) , George Box (robust statistics) and Edward Deming (statistical quality control).

Some of the chapter names are interesting, and they are as good as the title of the book. It reminds me of 'The Mythical Man Month''s memorable illustrative sketches. Sample this:

• The Mozart of Mathematics - Andrei Kolmorogov
• The Picasso of Statistics - John Tukey
• The March of the Martingales - on the work of Paul Levy

Read this if you are a fan of scientific history.

As is what is - Book Review

There is so little I know about technical innovations that have come out of India, that I was keen to read the story of an techno-entrepreneur out of India. That is when I came across 'As is what is' in the office library - the autobiography of the founder of Praj Industries, leaders in ethanol technologies in India. Turns out Chaudhari is an alumnus of IIT Bombay and hails from Pune, so that made it a must-read. In fact, his descriptions of the campus life at IIT Bombay brought make memories of the good times spent there, and there should soon be a much needed post on that here soon :).

Unlike many other books written by CEOs/managers, this one isn't stuffed with any management jargon. Instead, it is a sincere and simple account of the journey of Praj industries and its techo-manager founder. Chaudhari recounts his early professional life at Bajaj Auto, Widia, and Rapicut Carbides and the lessons he learnt during his stint here. He describes his forced plunge into entrepreneurship, the industrial and agricultural climate in India and how the seeds of Praj were sown in the distillery industry. Surely, there are no gains with pains and risks as the story of Praj shows. Each step has been a bold risk - which happened to pay off, with the efforts of a dedicated team. The glorious opportunities that came with the opening up of the Indian economy, and the subsequent hit to Praj following the 1997 East Asian crisis just go to demonstrate the perils of business. Praj re-invented itself subsequent to the recession as a major provider of ethanol technology. Praj's journey has been one of quality delivery backed with necessary innovation, along with collaboration to acquire technology.

The book is a short and nice read for someone who likes to hear it straight from the heart with no unwanted marketing jargon.

East and West

Fritjof Capra's 'The Tao of Physics' has been an interesting reading so far. He has tried to compare classical Western philosophy and ancient Eastern philosophies, and point out how modern physics is bringing the two schools of thought closer. This post is an attempt to capture my little understanding on the basic tenets of Eastern and Western philosophies, their differences and parallels, based on my reading of Capra, a little bit of Swami Vivekananda and lots of Wikipedia.

First, to the basic beliefs of Western thought:
1. Central to the belief is that the universe, with all its complexities, is decomposable into discrete, fundamental entities. The quest of all sciences is the search for these building blocks and the understanding their interactions which bring about the universe as it is.
2. It distinguishes the self from the world, the observer from the observed, the mind from the matter. All observed phenomena can be explained independent of the observable. The ultimate aim is explain this reality, which lies outside of the self.
3. Everything is deterministic, and all phenomena can be explained by a set of invariant laws.
5. The whole process of acquisition of knowledge is based on creation of concepts, refining, classifying and discriminating between concepts. These concepts are only approximations to the reality, but there always exists the danger of identifying them with reality.
4. Rational, sequential thinking is given more prominence, as opposed to intuitive thinking - hence the emphasis on logical rigor in the development of theories.
6. Knowledge is refined in a gradual process through endless iterations of this cycle: theory -> prediction -> validation -> correction of theory.

By Eastern philosophies, I mean Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, etc. The central tenets of the Eastern philosophies can be summarized as follows:
1. The core belief is the unity and interconnectedness of everything. All that we see are different manifestations of the same unity - which is referred to as 'Brahman', 'Tao', 'Dharmakaya', etc.
2. The observer is an integral part of the world, and an active participant in the observed phenomena. The ultimate aim to reach the reality through realization/observation of the self.
3. There is an acknowledgment of the fact that all our knowledge is relative - the world of concepts is a construct of the mind and hence not absolute.
4. There is an emphasis on the intuitive reasoning, aimed towards a non-sensory and direct experience of reality.

Though the contradictions between the two are apparent, there are some commonalities:
1. Both systems understand the limitations of language and concepts in describing reality. Yet, such a concept-based description is unavoidable.
2. There is a place for intuitive and rational knowledge in both philosophies. But, the degree of emphasis varies.

Capra's argument in his book is about how modern physics has redefined the understanding of reality in Western thought, and brought it closer to the Eastern philosophies. It makes for interesting reading, and certainly some of the esoteric concepts of modern physics seem imaginable when some of the thoughts from the East are used to interpret them.

Recent Reads

I have been reading some bits and pieces for some time, and thought I could roll them all into a single post.

Understanding Nanotechnology: A little book, which serves as an introduction to the world of nanotechnology. It describes in quite easy to understand terms the cutting-edge in nanotechnology. What you can expect to know about: fabrication of nanostructures, carbon nanotubes, self-replicating molecular machines, nanotechnology in electronics, medicine. From the book, I could scoop out two more interesting reads. Richard Feynman seems to have put forward visions for everything under the sun. 'There is plenty of room at the bottom' is the genius' vision on nanotechnology. Eric Drexler's 'Engines of Creation' is a futuristic take at nanotechnology.

The Indian approach to formal science: Got my hands on this paper from Abhay at Pune BarCamp 5. Published in the Scientific Heritage of India - talks about the technical language for formal theory used in ancient India, which is a refinement of Sanskrit. This is as opposed to content-indpendent, purely symbolic languages developed in the Western school of logic.

Pune - Queen of the Deccan - Did you know that Kasba Peth is the oldest settlement of Pune? Did you know that there is an 8th century AD temple on J.M Road? Do you know how the Peth system evolved in Pune? This book is a history of Pune since its beginnings, well illustrated with wonderful photos and maps down the ages. A pleasure to browse through.

The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid - I have just started reading this book, which talks about how social development and access to products can be provided to the people at the bottom of the social pyramid by the private sector, while being profitable. The premise of the book is that the 'Bottom of the Pyramid' customers should be "respected as individuals, treated as creative entrepreneurs and value-conscious consumers" to open up this vast market for the benefit of all - the BOP people, the private sector companies, entrepreneurs, social agencies and the govt. Sounds interesting, and the first few pages have been impressive. There are case studies of how institutions like Amul, Hindustan Lever, Aravind Eye Care have successfully tapped into this market with innovative products and processes.

Hackers and Painters: An unbashed recommendation

The best way to describe "Hackers and Painters": for the hacker, by the hacker and of the hacker. Paul Graham's essays are a treat to read, and they give an insight into a programmer-nerd's mindset. Graham starts with the nerd mentality in the typical American school and why nerds are different and why it is good to be a nerd. In another essay, Graham paints hacking as an art rather than a science, and does so by comparing it to, well, painting. He goes on to describe what programmers can learn from painting. Further, there are essays on the spirit of inquiry and why hackers are non-conformists and don't like authority.

The book then takes a more technical turn. One of the best essays here is about how web-based applications will change the rules of the game, load it in favour of innovators rather than the big companies and why they would make software engineering easier. Graham is quite clearly a big fan of Lisp and describes its use in his startup ViaWeb and why it is the ideal programming language of choice. There are quite a few other interesting topics he touches upon.

If that doesn't sound impressive, you can be rest assured that coming from a practitioner who has seen it all, it sounds absolutely natural, with a sense of deja vu. His writing is witty and very lucid. The arguments are well reasoned and the chain of thought is well presented. And there are quite a number of smart one-liners you can smile at. This is a case of text book essay writing (if I may use such a term). Highly recommended.

You can find many of these essays and more on Paul Graham's site.

Note: Cross post from my tech blog. Original article here.

It Happened in India - India's Retail Moghul Speaks

This book is the autobiography of Kishore Biyani, the founder of the Future Group. Future Group is India's leading retail group, which owns Big Bazaar, Central, Pantaloons and Food Bazaar among others. I picked this up out of the urge to read something on contemporary India.

Kishore Biyani narrates the story of his rapid growth to being India's retail moghul. There are some distinctive traits in Biyani's style of business, which are mentioned umpteen number of times in the book. He talks about the need to develop solutions for the Indian customer and emphasizes the Indian way of doing things. Biyani is obviously a risk taker, who dreamt big and bet a lot on the success of the retail business. He also comes across as a street smart business who understands the Indian customers. He registered one of his men's wear brand as John Miller, to make people it was a foreign brand. This man is big on branding and marketing. He made the Hrithik-Roshan starrer 'Na Tum Jaano Na Hum' to promote Pantaloons! The Future Group's forays in the value segment of retail, developing niche retail formats, consumer finance, retail media, retail real estate are elaborated upon.

I don't think you can categorize autobiographies as good or bad. They are never completely factual, but are meant to present a point of view. The book is a bit of a marketing vehicle, potraying a sunny future for the Future group and putting in a lot of management cliches from design management to scenario planning to memetics. These were new to me, so those for informative bits. The book could be a fast read.

The best part of the book was a pointers to a few other books [:)]. Here are a few that interested me.
I too had a dream: Verghese Kurien
Made in America: Sam Walton

Blink: : Trust your instincts if you have the experience and expertise

Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking is about how decisions taken instinctively can at times be better than those taken with a lot of thought. The author's argument is that in crunch times we discard all irrelevant information and concentrate only on solving the task at hand. The author coins two new terms 'blink' and the act of 'thin slicing'. The author does not substantiate his premise with a good theory, but rather resorts to a series of anecdotes, which sometimes seem contradictory and sometimes irrelevant to the matter under discussion (the author forgot to thin slice his ideas!!). The book is a good example of how not to propound radical ideas.

The basic message of the book is this: Trust your instincts if you have the experience and expertise, else you are better off trying to think hard.

Be Aware that the world is flattening

Thomas Friedman's The World is Flat is a timely book, worth a read. It is about the creation of a level playing field for millions of people across the world, a process Friedman terms 'Flattening' and attributes it to a conversation with Nandan Nilekani, former Infosys CEO. The flattening occurring is political, economic and social. The canvas is vast and Friedman discusses the forces responsible for the flattening, its implication for America, the world at large and the dangers lurking around if the process does not go to its logical conclusion.

No prizes for guessing the most important flatteners: the fall of the Berlin Wall and the PC and Internet revolutions. The end of the Cold War brought an end to trade barriers and brought the Asian giants China and India onto the world stage, changing the market dynamics. The technology revolution is empowering more and more people with information and the ability to innovate and be productive like never before.

Friedman illustrates the processes of offshoring, outsourcing, in-sourcing, supply-chains at work, which are using these technology tools and the more liberal economic climate boost innovation and productivity. In each of these, the Web and the PC have enabled people to communicate and innovate. Wal-Mart's supply chain, Dell's manufacturing chains and UPS's delivery service are well illustrated.

Friedman is unabashedly a supporter of the free markets. The flat world will mean more competition and tough decisions to take. No more protectionism. It is not the government's job to protect trade interests from competition, not the job of the company to ensure your employment. Instead, the government must do all it takes to promote healthier competition, the companies must ensure that their employees are employable. Every organization, every individual must carve out a niche for herself to survive in the competition.

And what threatens the flattening process? While macro-economic reform has opened the markets, the benefits have still not reached a vast populace due to corruption, lack of transparency and democracy. That may build up resentment which explodes into acts of violence like the terrorist movements, rebel insurgencies, etc.

This is just a brief summary of the book. You may find Friedman too loud, but that's the price for reading a serious topic in layman's words. And I haven't kept a count of the number of times Friedman uses the word 'flat' !!!

Life of Pi

When I started reading this book by Yann Martel, I had impressions that I was about to read something like Paulo Coelho's beautiful poetry-in-prose 'The Alchemist'. Well, it turned out to be nothing like that. I wouldn't say I was disappointed, just because it was not something I expected it to be. 'Life of Pi' is nevertheless a nice, enjoyable book that can be read leisurely. There is an innocence in the narrative that makes for an enjoyable read, with a world painted from a child's view - the zoo, the animals, the hypocrisy of religious zealots, the beauty and the darkness of life on the high seas. Piscene Molitor Patel survives 200 odd days in the Pacific with a Royal Bengal tiger to tell his tale. Shades of Robinson Crusoe, and is there any symbolism there behind the story? I couldn't think of anything naturally, and so I see no point in thrusting one which does not come out naturally out of the tale. So, for me 'Life of Pi' remains a wonderful fantasy of adventure and survival, not quite the 'Alchemist' kind of inspirational tale. Oh, I can't get that early impression out of my mind!

A few words about 'My Experiments with Truth'

Finally, a long time after I bought the book, I finished M.K.Gandhi's autobiography, 'The Story of My experiments with Truth'. Presented with a very simple narrative, it mostly covers Gandhi's early life and his formative years in South Africa. If you are looking to read about the genesis of Gandhi's political philosophy, Satyagraha and Ahimsa, you will be disappointed.

For, the central theme is constantly seeking self-improvement and putting service before self. It is these two ideas that seem to have shaped his early life. Guided by these two principles, we see the transformation of a shy, not-so-confident young man into a selfless public servant with strong convictions. Although, I could not find any mention of where this transformation occurred. It probably grew on him during his observation of the plight of Indians on South Africa, the Pietermaritzburg incident not really being projected as the turning point. I may not agree with his extreme experiments in dietics, self-restraint, brahmcharya, etc., but I can appreciate the underlying belief that seeking simplicity in life as important for improvement of the self.

Above all, it is a pleasure to read about Gandhi, the person versus Gandhi, the Mahatma.

"Made in Japan" - Lessons for India

Finally, I have finished reading Sony's founder and former chairman, Akio Morita's autobiography "Made in Japan". Having read it across five months, it is difficult to sum up the book, yet I can't do without a vote of recommendation for this elegant book which holds a lot of words of wisdom. The book traces the growth of Sony Corporation from its origins as Tokyo Tsushin Kogyo from the ruins of World War II to the leading, pioneering electronics giant it is today. It required men of vision like Morita and Masaru Ibuka to start a company dedicated to producing quality electronic systems, while Japan was still devastated by the Word War. While Americans were still to realize the importance of the discovery of the transistor, Sony successfully revolutionized consumer electronics using the Americans own technology.

Morita spends quite a lot of pages talking about his business philosophy and the Japanese way of business. Especially, he is quite sceptical about the short-term goals with which American companies are run, the culture of litigation and the hire and fire policies in the U.S. His contrast of the U.S. way with Japanese business outlook made me think that we in India too need to develop practices that harness our strengths, address our cultural sensibilities rather than aping Western management practices. Today there is a lot of outcry over outsourcing to India in the U.S. However, it is not the first time the Americans are doing that. Morita minces no words for the U.S administrations attempts to curb exports from Japan to the U.S, pointing out the inefficiencies of the U.S. industry, which had started relying too much on other nations' productive capacity. Can we say the same thing about the Americans relying a lot on the brainpower borrowed from across the globe?

It is nice to read about different cultures and this book offers gllimpses of Japanese lives in the pre-World War II era. I don't know if this book is a translation, but I just loved the very simple usage of English and the plainspeak Morita indulges in.

Recent Readings

Long time since I posted on this blog; caught up in the end-semester and exam rush, then went home to enjoy a vacation. I read three books in the last two months - not impressive considering that I had a month off, but have been watching too many movies lately. So, as is the norm, here goes a few word on these books.

1. The Large, the Small and the Human Mind
   This arises from a series of lectures given by the renowned astrophysicist, Roger Penrose, on matters relating to human consciousness and a scientific explanation for the same. He starts by explaining the physics of the large (relativity) and that of the small (quantum mechanics) in a delightful way. However, the central theme of the book is how conscious thought and intelligence arise? Are these things beyond the scope of science? Are these computable? If not, then is there a grand new theory waiting to be explored to explain intelligence? Penrose goes on to say that our science is incomplete till we have an understanding of the human mind, which will give us a window into the unknown third of the triad of worlds:
   • The Platonic world, which is the world of mathematical laws , of truths.
     
   • The Physical world, which is physical world around us. The laws of physics explain this and are modelled with Maths. So, is Physics just Mathematics?
   • The Mental world, which comprises human intelligence and consciousness. Can these be completely explained with Physics and Mathematics? Or is it something in itself? (As an aside, coming to think of it maths is just a mental construct - creating something of a cycle between the three worlds. So, where does the cycle break? )
   
   Penrose then goes on to claim that human consciousness and intelligence are non-computable and they can't be explained by the current laws of physics. One thing that physics lacks today is a unifying theory of the quantum and the macroscopic world theories. Penrose doesn't find the uncertainty principle as a fundamental law of nature (explanations like the many worlds interpretation are esoteric), but just an approximation to a more fundamental law. Something wrong or missing in our physics cannot explain the transition from quantum-scale to large-scale phenomenon, where different set of laws apply. He conjectures that this transition process (which he call Objective Reduction (OR)) is non-computable. He then goes on to claim that the non-computability of the human mind can be explained through this unknown theory of OR and appying it to the physiology of the brain. Seems incredible and an attempt to solve a vexed problem. But as Stephen Hawking notes in his comments, it seems to be a case to taking two unknown problems and saying that they are related. Penrose discusses the problem in great length in 'Shadows of the Mind', which is now the object of my reading.
   
   
2. Freakonomics
   
   • 'What do school teachers have in common with Sumo wrestlers ?'
     
   • 'What do drug dealers live with their moms ?'
   • 'How do the names of children affect their future ?'
   These are weird questions Stephen Levitt tries to answer using the economist's favourite tool - numbers.
   Ofcourse any attempts to answer such questions are bound to be speculative. But Levitt asks smart and intelligent questions and tries to glean answers from the numbers; this makes for interesting reading. Even if it does not conclusively answer the questions raised, atleast it does provide data which questions conventional wisdom. Although Levitt claims that the book has no unifying theme, this thread seems to run through the book - questioning conventional wisdom. But what interests me is the fact there is so much data around from which information can be extracted using statistical tools.
   One of the most interesting parts of the book and the one that Levitt clearly cherishes the most is his research in linking the falling US crime rate in the 90's to the legalization of abortion in the US about two decades earlier.
   
   
3. The Fourth Estate
   Reading pure enteraintment fiction after quite some time. This is a real, fast-paced book built around the rivalry of two business magnates. Jeffrey Archer maintains the tempo in this business story by narrating the parallel lives of Richard Armstrong and Keith Townsend. However, the end let me a bit dejected. Why was it that only Armstrong met his doom? My sympathies lay with the Armstrong, who rose from rags to riches.
   

That's the first blog for the new year and I will be more regular with my posts here and also on my much neglected Machine Learning blog.