Magician Vs Actor Vs Politican

After a long time, thought of publishing a post in Tamil. Though this was written by me, over 15+ years ago, and discovered recently, I thought this still sounds fresh and spicy in this election season!

வித்தைகாரரின் திறமை – நடந்ததை நடக்காதது போல் காட்டுவது
நடிகரின் திறமை – நடக்காததை நடந்தது போல் காட்டுவது
அரசியல்வாதியின் திறமை – இவ்விரண்டும் ஒரு சேர பெற்றிருப்பது

Quick Translation:
A magician’s talent is in acting that nothing has happened, while an actor’s talent is in acting as if something had happened. A politician’s talent is in mastering both the acts!

Amar Bose and his Bose Stereo: Passion for Excellence

Amar Gopal Bose, an American with Indian origins (born to an Indian father, who was a freedom fighter) was a professor at MIT, and CEO of the (World renowned) Bose Corporation passed away recently (June 12, 2012 at the age of 83). This short post recounts his quest and pursuit of excellence in creating world-class systems.

Bose Stereo Speakers are world-class and there is no need to shout it over the top, as its systems are installed in Sistine Chapel in Vatican City and also in the grand mosque, Masjid al-Haram in Mecca – cutting across different religions but unifying through its quality product.

Amar Bose’s venture into creating the world’s best audio system starts like this: Bose bought a high-end stereo system in 1956 with technically impressive specifications, thinking it will be able to reproduce the quality of sound as in a live performance in an auditorium, but failed miserably. Bose, then a professor at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), researched on acoustics and produced a stereo loudspeaker that would reproduce music as you would listen in an auditorium, and without any sub-woofers.  

Bose then founded his own company Bose Corporation in 1964 with funding from angel investors and from his mentor and professor Dr. Lee. Bose said he never wanted to do business to make money, but to try out his creative ideas and research. A point to note is that though the first speakers were a flop, subsequent product releases delivered through extensive research garnered huge appreciation and gave them required reputation. 

Bose had varied interests and developed technologies for regulating electric power on Jets, noise-canceling head phones, suspension system in cars (a very innovative technology developed after 24 years of research!)

Though a founder of a firm, he continued as a professor at MIT, till 2001; and he also donated a major chunk of shares in his company to MIT – as a gratitude to the institution. 

As I write about this genius, two thoughts occupy my mind. One is the link between passion and excellence – his passion for excellence coupled with his curiosity and persistence (what can explain several years of research without results for many years) lead to greatness; and the other is about when will the Indian academic system will create such an conducive environment for such passionate researchers to thrive?

Few Notable Quotes by Bose: 

•  I wanted to teach thought, not formulas; – as a professor to his students at MIT

•  Learn how to work through the problems you’ll experience in life, in any subject – to his students

•  Better Products through Research – his company tagline

•  I went into business so that I could do interesting things that hadn’t been done before

Dog’s Day Out

Lot of things to write about and my memory lost traces of many!. So before I lose further, here goes one.

Last month, as usual when I was trying to board the local (BMTC) bus to my office, along with the hustle of fellow co-passengers, a street dog too was suddenly hustling to get inside the bus!  I slowed down a bit, and was wondering what the dog would do, though the fellow co-passengers did not mind it, and were only focused on entering inside and trying to catch (yes ‘catch’, and not ‘get’) a seat.

Thankfully the street dog managed to enter into the bus, with some fellows stamping on it unknowingly. Then I too manged to get into the bus, and as I myself pushed inside, the dog was just lying. Half a kilometer would have gone by. The conductor emerged into the scene, where the dog was lying. He shouted “Whose dog it is”, in local language, and since no answer came, he blew the whistle and stopped the bus, and forced the dog to get down.

Of course the street dog got down at that point. But there were lot of questions lingering on my mind.

• What was the intention of the dog ? (If the driver had not made it get down, where it would have got down, does it know the stops and places)
• Who the dog was searching for ? (Whether it’s friend or love, – probably carried by some one in a car!) 
• Did the dog do it, for the sake of fun, or did it do for some thing else?
• What made the dog to take such a ‘risk’ ? (It has to fight with ‘wild’ human beings to get into the bus, and in that process it could get hurt. It also has to face the risk of fighting with other street dogs in a new street – Street Dogs usually have their own well defined boundaries, and they will chase other dogs, if others enter their area – only slightly worse than human beings! )

Interesting questions, but no answers.

BodhiDharma and Bogar

Lately, I have been conducting my Internet surfing research, about a great saint. Well, I got initiated into this due to the interest generated by the movie 7 aum arivu.

I watched the Chinese movie “Master of Zen” (Made in 1994) which depicts the complete history of Bodhi Dharma. Bodhi Dharma (before becoming) was a prince in the Pallava Dynasty, that was ruling Tamil Nadu, with Kanchipuram as their capital, during 5th-6th CE. Most of the literature available on the Web, concur that he was born in Kanchipuram, and after adopting Buddhism, and then becoming a Buddhist monk, he moves to China, as per the wishes of his Guru Prajnatara (Buddhist monk).

Bodhi Dharma first goes to Southern China (Obvious, if you are from India), and then after spending some time there moves to Northern China, and was known to use unorthodox methods of teaching. Primarily he wanted to convey that one needs to perform a self-realization to understand himself, nature and God. He also have taught about physical exercises or self defence (probably a form of varma) to Shaolin monks, to protect themselves. Some more information about Bodhi Dharma, especially the cave where he lived for 9 years, and his burial place could be found here and here.

It is said that Bodhi Dharma during his last days, wanted to travel back to India, but died in China, and buried in the Shaolin temple. But later after his death, some one cites him, and when asked where he was going, he supposed to have told, he was moving towards West (towards India).

Bogar or Bhogar: Bhogar was a Siddha, meaning a holy saint, who practiced meditation, and other techniques (Mantra, Tantra, Yantra) to attain liberation.They were primarily Saivaites who worshiped Shiva.  Bhogar was known to be a great alchemist. He installed the idol of Lord Muruga in Palani temple (known as Karthikeya, and brother of Lord Ganesha, and son of Lord Shiva) which is made of nine special herbs, and known to have medicinal effects, and stronger than Granite.  He also helped or advised in the construction of the Brihadeeswara temple in Tanjore, around 1000 CE.

Now the interesting part. Some accounts say that Bhogar travelled to China, as per the instructions of his Guru, and then to Srilanka, and lived for several centuries. He also have said to taught tantric techniques in China, and  was known as Lao-Tzu (known to be founder or influence of Taoism) (The theory Yang-Yin is correlated with the Shiva-Shakti). Then in the same accounts it is mentioned that he returns back to India. Incidentally his Guru was Kalanginathar, who was originally from China. The period of Bhogar also seems to be from 8th CE.  Bhogar did have a Chinese disciple Pulippani (renamed in Tamil), who was also a Siddha. Bhogar completes his life’s journey in the Palani Murugan temple.

Another interesting thing is about the dates. Bodhi Dharma, said to be from Pallava Dynasty, belongs to 5th -6th CE, and  said to have lived for 300+ years. The Pallava dynasty come to an end during 8th Century CE, and Cholas emerge as the stronger dynasty, starting from this period. Bhogar’s time period starts from 8th, and said to have lived several centuries. Both of them had some connections with China, and both were saints with extraordinary capabilities. Hope this is a enough material for a researcher to carry on further.

Update – October 2013:  As can be read from the comments section, though there have been references to texts that states Bhogar’s time period as starting from 3000 BC, there is a significant convergence in many of those accounts from 6th CE onwards and during that period Bhogar is said to have travelled to China (for the second time) with few of his Tamil disciples and supposed to have returned back few centuries later. So, that raises another question – If BodhiDharma and Bhogar were different people, then “Was BodhiDharma one of the disciples of Bhogar, who went to China along with the latter’s visit?”

Why I am a fan of Sachin Tendulkar

Now, India has won the ICC world cup, fans and followers of Cricket from 1984 can heave a huge sigh of relief! Finally India has got the dream cup in their hands. As one of the followers of the game, who had been following it for more than two and half decades, it gives lot of happiness and a great relief for passionately following and cheering for such a long time.

Though I was born in 1978, I did not knew about Cricket in 1983, and so missed the moments of victory, glory or pride. I started watching and learning Cricket in January 1986. I even remember the first match that I saw in Television. It was between India and Australia (happening somewhere in Australia), and India lost the match by 4 wickets.

Sketch of Sachin Tendulkar by Narwadeshwar Sharma

During those times, I used to hope that India win every match! It was a time, when India had great players (like Sunil Gavaskar, Mohinder Amarnath, Kapil Dev, Ravi Shastri etc…) but somehow was failing to win matches against top teams like Australia, England, West Indies, and Pakistan (Yes pakistan was a very strong team at that time!). Though India did win matches against the minnows like Srilanka (yes, they were considered as juniors in Cricket at that time!), Zimbabwe, New Zealand and some other odd teams like UAE (Yes, they existed!), somehow, the fans like me were not very happy with India losing against the big boys of Cricket!

In those times, even against strong teams, the Indian team would typically start well (thanks to Srikanth, Sidhu), but finally end up as bad losers, pushing the viewer to despair mode. To put the point clear, scoring at a runrate of more than 5.5 became an impossible task for the Indian cricket team (Kapil Dev was nearing the end of his career). It was during those times, that the Sharjah cup was very popular, where India used to meet Pakistan. And against Pakistan, India failed miserably, many a times.

It was during that period Sachin Tendulkar, a young boy of 19 years, (whom I could easily relate to, as he was just 5 years older than me), entered the scene. He gave hope and hope, to the viewers that India can win such matches. It was this hope that made me (and probably millions of such other people) an instant fan of him. He gave the required amunition for India to fight and though we lost matches against better teams, losing by putting up a fight was much better than losing without it.

This started to develop as a trend, and as years passed by, he got promoted himself to the opening position, which he did not give up till today, and in that position, he shook even the strongest of teams, and there was a point in time, when Tendulkar carried the entire team on his shoulders – which meant, that if he goes without significant contribution, then the game is lost for India. Tendulkar did really well against strong teams like Australia, South Africa etc…, which differentiated him from others.

Ofcourse there were periods when Tendulkar performed badly, but his hunger for runs and continued passion and focus on the game, with some support he received, saw him as an indispensable member of the team. He also quickly realized that Captaincy is not for him, and his decision to focus on his game, eventually won him accolades that he is getting now.

MS Dhoni too entered the scene in almost a similar fashion, proving that he can win matches. His hard-hitting coupled with his leadership abilities did make India a strong team, in all the cups or tournaments it contested. This was this hope, that made many a millions, a fan of him. In some sense, he can be related to Kapil Dev, who was admired by many during his times, for many of his qualities.

Update – November 2013: As Sachin Tendulkar retires from all forms of cricket, it’s been really emotional to all who admire him, especially those who belong to his generation and who watched him play from the beginning of his career. He acknowledges this by saying “Each generation gets this opportunity to take care of this sport“. Accepting that Change being the only constant in the concept of time, this was expected, and probably was anticipated after India won the world cup in 2011. Here’s the link to his farewell speech.

His message urging to play the game in the right spirit and right values will for sure be the quote of future.  His passionate commitment had made him a great achiever  – the one who spent 24 years in between 22 yards! which his detractors could not understand or relate to, despite all physical injuries. Well, for now his detractors can go and look for somebody else!

As said earlier, when he entered the Indian Cricket team, he gave ‘hope’ that India can win matches against the best teams, and now he leaves a team, that has been doing it! Needless to say, all of the current players and many of the future players have been and will be influenced and inspired by this true legend.

WWW2011 and Interactions with Sir Tim Berners-Lee

The dub-dub-dub 2011 Conference (that is how they call WWW2011) was held for the first time in India, at Hyderabad, during March 28th to April 1st, and I attended it from March 30th to April 1st. The keynote speakers included: Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and also our former president, APJ Abdul Kalam.

Our former president Kalam, was as usual at his best, highlighting his vision for the nation (empower the rural and underprivileged people, through Internet & Web), and sought solutions from the research community, for NLP related challenges especially in Indian languages.

On 31st, I got a chance to listen directly to the inventor of Web: Sir Tim Berners-Lee. He did not use any slides for his presentation!, and probably it was not required, as his talk was very much animated and everyone was listening with rapt attention.

Ask him a question related to Web, and you are sure to receive a long reply, which shows his enthusiasm, excitement, and the commitment he still has over his creation, which I understood from the Q & A session, that followed his talk.

He asked the businesses, and the governments to put their data on Web, and create mechanims for an inclusive Web. He also mooted for a multi-stake holder model for governing the Internet, and eventually the Web. He talked about the extremes: Finland and Libya; He also talked about privacy concerns, and the need for being anonymous, and at the same time, highlighted the negatives associated with allowing full anonymous status.

During later part of the day, when I got a chance to directly interact, I asked him whether he still believes in his top-down approach towards Semantic Web, and after finding out that I was from C-DAC (an agency under the Govt of India), he said that govt and their departments should put all their contents on Web, in the form of Linked Data, which could pave the way for the realization of Semantic Web. He was very keen in wanting us to contribute to the linked data.

And then, I took a photograph with him, – really a memorable moment for me!, followed by my colleague and friend – Dittin Andrews.

Also, I need to mention about the General co-chair of the event: Prof. Sadagopan, who was as usual at his best – Warm & Witty. He was the prime person responsible for bringing this conference to India; first tried in 2001, and then in 2006 successfully won the bid, to bring the 2011 conference to India! Lastly about the Venue: HICC – Wonderful place to be; and I could not forget the Coffee that was served throughout the event from the WMF combiNation vending machines.

Boring Coincidences

The last day of the Year 2010.

I had been busy with my thesis writing, conferences, and projects, in the last couple of months. So, could not give priority to writing or blogging, for the last 3 months. So, restarting to bore!

This month (December, 2010) I surprisingly noticed a couple of boring coincidences. I was at a conference in NewDelhi, and it was during the Coffee break, that 6 (known) people saw me one after the other, and asked the question “Where are you staying”, and the interesting thing was that the first person who asked was still standing next to me, followed by the next, and the next, and the next …. I was just wondering what would be in the mind of atleast the first three people, who posed me that question.

Though I was bored to repeat the same answer, I tried my best to be creative, like saying – I am staying in Accord’s, I am staying in C R Park, I am staying in a area, predominantly occupied by Bengalis, and so on… to keep myself overcome the tiredness of answering

Another interestingly boring (What a Contradiction!) coincidence happened when I was travelling in a local bus (BMTC) in Bangalore. I was standing, and I noticed a girl next to me, who was carrying a book that was appearing to be a novel. Curious enough, I wanted to know the title, and it read “Mister God, This is Anna”, and as I was struggling to read the last word “Anna”, suddenly a boy from behind was calling me “Anna” – meaning brother in Kannada!, showing me the vacant seat next to me. I noticed his call, when he called me the second time, with a loud “Anna”!!.

Coincidences are a subject of great debate. But let me stop here, as I had bored enough!

Are Great Achievers born?

Well, I am not sure of the answer.

However, when we look around the most famed people in the modern history of the world, we find that most of them had nursed their talents from their childhood days and followed it up with great passion and commitment. Here are a few legends, who have created history in their own right

• Thomas Alva Edison (Came up with his first invention at the age of 16)
• Bill Gates (Started programming at 13, – at a time, when no one did)
• Warren Buffet (Bought his first shares at the age of 11)
• A R Rahman (Started to play instruments before the age of 11)
• Michael Jackson (Debuted with his brother, at the age of 6 )
• Viswanathan Anand (Started playing Chess at the age of 6)
• Sachin Tendulkar (Started playing cricket as a Toddler)

So, do you need to start things very early, and continue for very long (or if possible through out your life) to become a legend or a great achiever? The answer appears to be affirmative, but not everyone who started early was a great achiever later, as another list of people, who had a promising start, but could not live up to the expectations or failed miserably could easily be put up.

So, what separated the great achievers from people who also started early, but could not attain the fame that great achievers attained? The answer is Passion, Focus, and Commitment. These legends were passionate about one particular aspect, and they worked on it with sincere commitment and focus, and as time passed, they automatically excelled, in what they did, and that lead to the list of great achievers.

Most importantly, these great legends, though would have faced great disturbances, or influences or diversions, than others, in their lifetime, it was their passion and commitment, that should have helped them to cross or ignore the diversions easily.

I also believe that most of the great achievers, including the above legends were never behind money, and their prime intention was on achieving some thing else, and money followed them as an end-result of their achievements.

So, to conclude, if something is started from a very early age, and religiously practiced with passion and commitment for years, then great success is bound to happen.

Research is Costly!

If you had been guessing that I am going to talk about some Sci-fi or life-involving scientific research here, then you are going to be disappointed.

This week, I had the privilege of attending two events – one was an open discussion forum (that had two renowned guests – one was Dr S P Mudur, and the other was Dr N Vijayaditya), and a project review committee meeting for a project, that was into developing a product, out of research efforts.

In the open discussion forum, after a few questions (including one by myself, on IT infrastructure), the discussions steered towards research in general (with IT or other innovations at the back of the mind). The summary of the discussion was that even a very non-critical research involves risk – risk of time, manpower, & money. Out of several attempts made in research, only a few of them may succeed over time, and that too the success is not guaranteed. This is in a country like India with more than a billion population, translates to spending very less on research, and expecting results in a short time, which imposes constraints on the researchers, to focus on short-term goals rather than long-term goals.

In the later project meeting, there were comparisons drawn between the product developed on home-grown research efforts, and products developed by well-known MNC’s. Though the fact that the cost involved in terms of money, time, and manpower, are in no way comparable with those of the MNC products, the expectations were always there. Also, the costs associated to take the product beyond the labs, to a wide-scale user base was even more prohibitively costly affair!, which is the main reason that most of the research prototypes do not see the end of the light, and just lay in the labs.

What’s more is that, even cash-rich companies or developed western nations do not expect all their research efforts to produce great outcomes, despite significant costs being associated with them, and here, there is a pressure on many fronts to get a great outcome in a short-time, and with the least of the infrastructure. Of course, this too could be achieved, by an extra-ordinary person in a select field, but could not be replicated every time and every where!

To summarize, research is a form of learning, and one should be open for failures and involves huge cost – not only in terms of money, but also in the form of time, and other risks such as a evolution of a superior technology in the future, turning the scales upside down, for an existing research effort.

Remembering Professor RN

Prof. R Narasimhan (known as RN), was a pioneer in the field of Computer Science; and considered as the Father of Computer Science in India. He joined TIFR in the 1950’s and was the senior member of the team that built the India’s first indigenous electronic digital Computer known as TIFRAC (Tata Institute of Fundamental Research Automatic Computer). He was a director of NCSDCT (National Centre for Software Development and Computing Techniques) in TIFR for a decade between 1975-1985, and this institution later turned into a separate autonomous organization called NCST (National centre for software technology; which I joined in 2001 in NCST as a Staff Scientist) and now part of CDAC (Centre for Development of Advanced Computing).

Prof RN, has authored many books and papers, and had interests in AI and linguistics. He had won many awards and has played the role of informal advisor on many occasions to the Government of India. He was instrumental in the formation of CMC, now part of the Tata group. In one way, he was also instrumental for the development of this niche IT sector in this country.

He passed away on 3rd of September 2007, and a number of them whom he had mentored and/or worked with attended his funeral, Myself and many of my senior staffs were also present on that day. A lot about him and his work could be found at: http://prof.r.narasimhan.googlepages.com/

I had an opportunity to do a small task for him, a few years back, while he was writing his book on ‘Artificial Intelligence and Study of Agentive Behaviour’. He was nearing 80 years at that time, and wanted to help him in scanning a few photographs for his book. The photographs were containing ‘kolams’ (similar to rangoli), where he was trying to illustrate the concept of patterns being created by joining different dots, as done in a kolam. He was always insisting for perfection, and as I was doing, was questioning about the technicalities of the scanner such as the depth, color, and time taken etc… for the process of scanning. I understood that he was a soft man, seeking absolute perfection.

It was ironic, that I compiled his photographs into a silent film to be played while observing silence as a mark of respect to his soul, by a huge gathering of Who’s who of the Indian computer science researchers, at the annual CSI National Convention held last month. In this regard, I also got an opportunity to work with yet another leader in the field of research in Indian computer science – Dr. S. Ramani.