- 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
India’s Telephone Service in 1970’s and 80’s
India’s 162 year old telegram service (1851-2013) had come to an end on July 14, 2013. At this juncture, I wondered how many of us know how the telephone system worked, especially in the 1970’s or 1980’s, where telephones were not available in our residences.
If you need need to make a long distance call, to your relative residing in a farther location, all you need to do was to walk up to your nearest Postal and Telegraph office, and the following process ensues.
- At your nearest postal and telegraph office, you book a ‘trunk call’ by giving your relative’s name and full residential address (and your details too) to the operator or clerk there. You may also have to typically pay an advance amount of Rs.10/- (Remember this was during 1980’s).
- The operator then calls your relative’s corresponding postal and telegraph office and informs about your and your relative’s details to the operator and asks them to inform your relative.
- A person from your relative’s postal and telegraph office then goes to the residence of your relative and informs him about your call, and requests the relative to come to the office to speak with you.
- After your relative goes to his local postal and telegraph office, the operator informs your operator and then the call is initiated, generally by you (as the caller) and you communicate. Billing is based on “caller pays”, though I am not sure of the rates, and had felt it was generally low – even in 80’s – and have felt that it in many occasions the operator will refund you the money you paid.
In three decades, the voice communications have evolved drastically from the above scenario to landline telephones becoming affordable, telephone booths at every corner, and the arrival of mobile phones that have wiped out both of the above and converted it from a family device to a personal device and future looks bright for mobiles with 4G and LTE knocking at our doors .. oops … mobiles.
The Fine Art of Delicate Balancing
Balancing, especially Delicate Balancing is required in all situations, and if everyone of us could master it, there won’t be conflicts or war, despite difference of opinions and perceptions.
Delicate Balancing is present abundantly in nature, as in case of Water – the most basic and essential element of life – we can find a delicately balanced perfect liquid – composed of water molecules that mingle in a perfect way that are neither tightly bonded (solid/ice) nor completely independent of each other (gas/vapor). Few more examples derived from Nature, Mythology, Philosophy and from real life are given below:
- Planetary System and their orbits that make earth conducive for life
- Even ‘Amruth’ – a drink that is supposed to give eternal life, as in Hindu Mythology, is advised only to be taken in the right quantum; excessive dosage will function as a poison – as per a Tamil proverb – (அளவுக்கு மீறினால் அமிர்தமும் நஞ்சு) .
- The concept of Yin and Yang emphasizes the concept of delicate balancing – as balancing between two opposing forces; balancing between positive and negatives and so on …
- Equilibrium between Supply and Demand in a (free) market, wherein both the producers and consumers will benefit (Consumers pay the minimum possible cost or the minimum sustainable profit in the producer’s perspective)
- If you are a typical Indian married male, you know that balancing the intellectual (!) arguments between your wife and mother, requires delicate balancing, and you know the results of failure 🙂
Yin and Yang is all about Balancing |
To put this in a general perspective, let us consider The Internet – a revolutionary tool created by the mankind – that could eventually allows us to connect with anybody in this world, breaking all borders and barriers (Wish this continues and grows for ever) and where all kinds of information can be found, and sometimes one might find information that is provocative or information that is false.
The Father of Internet, Dr. Vinton Cerf advises on the issue of dealing with such emotional and sensitive information on Internet by applying the Critical Thinking Capability – to know and understand all aspects of an issue or an event or an argument, and this, essentially requires us to develop a trait – the art of delicate balancing to enable us to move forward.
Delicate Balancing is like balancing a coin without taking sides – of the head or tail, but understanding them – and only such a delicately balanced coin will be able to move easily .
The Year 2012 – for me
- The Academic Networking Portal that we were building picked up a good number of users without any promotions and despite our deliberate underplayed stance. We started the year with less than 100 users and by the end of the year, we had more than 1700+ registered users.
- Faced lot of heat and pressure (and sleepless nights) on the project related to a DR setup. As this was the first of the kind project being executed by me, and the first of its kind to the entire organization, it was really challenging as there were too lengthy processes and execution of it took its own sweet time. Spent my full time only on this effort in the last few months of the year, pushing myself hard and taking the extra long steps to see things are getting done.
- Attended a conference on Disaster Management and was impressed by the speakers from all over the world. Had a paper presentation in the same conference and got the ‘Best Paper Award’ but felt bad as the organizers never handed over the promised cash prize!
- Disappointed by the way private schools collect money and wondered what great ideals could be imparted to the children by them!
- Got selected for a Training Program (One among the only 2 participants from India) on Information Security Management System – ISO 27000 organized by Asian Productivity Organization and conducted by Korea Productivity Centre at Seoul, Republic of Korea. Had a very nice, interesting and useful experience.
- Got Selected for the Internet Society’s Next Generation Leadership Program – an E-Learning Course on History and Future of Internet and Governance. Very happy and cherished the learning’s and experience I gained through this. Successfully completed the course.
- Got involved in a project proposal that was very innovative, and will change the digital landscape of e-governance services – a project related to authentication. However due to prolonging delays and certain other issues, I exited out of it.
- An Organizational change happened, at an unexpected time, and in a very rapid way, which no one expected it to happen in such a way. It created lots of doubts, fears etc… though such a change was logical and was bound to happen one day. It shook us.
- Received my PhD Degree in Convocation
- Internship Guidance: Guided a good number of students/interns. Learnt a lesson that not all students come with open minds and interests in doing Internship – some of them have their own self-interests and will waste your time and energy – So lesson is to be careful and choose only the right students.
- Some Moments: Wireless Internet Connection, Conduction of Internal ISO Audit;
- Travel: Nagercoil, Tirupathi, Andaman, Seoul and Hong Kong. So travel in 2012 was exciting!
Seoul and Hong Kong
Namsan Seoul Tower |
Seoul is a neat, clean and big city. I had the opportunity to visit few places like the Namsan Seoul Tower and the Gyeongbokgung palace. In Seoul’s love tower there is an interesting practice of lovers tying locks – called love padlocks to fences and then throwing the keys away. The Gyeongbokgung palace has a long history dating back to 14th Century. It is a beautiful and picturesque place to watch.
King Sejong |
While roaming around I found a number of shops that sell women’s beauty products and I should say such shops were almost everywhere, and I realized the magnitude of this business only here. BB (Blemish Balm) Cream and perfumes are something to look out for in these shops. I also observed a good number of Coffee Shops like Starbucks and assumed that Koreans are fond of Coffee and Chocolate (Lotte is famous and has huge presence here, as the founder is from Korea), till I discovered Ginseng Tea.
On the way back, I managed to spend few hours in Hong Kong. I roamed around the streets, saw a good number of Indian restaurants, spent some time in Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Museum, knowing about his life and traveled to the Kowloon Island through the Star ferry service – saw the Star-Cruise luxury ships on the way. In Kowloon, took a local bus to go and see Sky Towers, which was quite disappointing,(probably it would have been better in day times) and then took the Airport Express – Metro train connecting three islands – Hongkong, Kowloon, and Chep Lak Kok (An artificial island) to reach Airport.
Hong Kong Skyline |
Both HongKong and Seoul are nice places to visit for an Holiday
The Laminated Truth in Digital World
Kaapi and Coffee
- Add 20 grams of fresh roasted coffee powder to the brew basket.
- Pour 200 ml of freshly boiled water over the coffee powder and close the brew basket.
- Allow it to brew for 4-6 Minutes
- Wait for the brewing cycle to complete.
- Pour the brew into the cup
- Add fresh hot milk and sugar to the brew
- Cappuccino – Espresso (1/3) + Steamed Milk (1/3) + Milk Foam(1/3)
- Espresso – Espresso (Black Coffee)
- Cafe Latte – Espresso(1/3) + Steamed Milk(2/3) + Milk Foam(as a topping)
- Cafe Mocha – Espresso + Chocolate Syrup + Steamed Milk + Whipped Cream
- Latte Macchiato – Steamed Milk (1/2.5) + Milk Foam + (1/2.5) + Espresso (< 1/6th)
- Americano – Espresso (1/3) + Hot Water (2/3)
- Cafe au Lait – Coffee + Milk
I also found that WMF coffee machines are used in high-end restaurants and hotels, like the one below.
Think it’s enough of writing about coffee! – Looking for a hot Indian filter coffee!
Why new religions find it difficult to evolve?
Religions and Institutionalization
2011 – The year that was for me!
- My Current project had been driving me – as, I got more passionate about it, as days passed by in 2011, and I believe it will surely be of help to students and the academic community
- My successful completion of PhD in Computer Science – The long awaited final defense examination (viva-voce) happened on a day that’s simply unforgetful! – on 11/11/2011, and ofcourse, had a sigh of relief! after the declaration of PhD award
- Attended WWW2011 Conference for the first time, and was very happy to listen to few great people, including Tim Berners-Lee and even managed to have a small discussion with him on Semantic Web, and ofcourse a photograph with him.
- A lot of learning happened in a very different project, relating to setup of a DR. Though had to encounter and learn too many things that are far from my profession, I was happily taking on the challenges!, and did not have much regrets even when the bosses fired us on our slow pace of work!
- Continued to lead the ISO activities in the office; and managed to organize a Project Management Training for the staff members.
- Managed to coordinate and organize two National-level Symposiums on PKI and Digital Signatures along with my friend and colleague Mr. Misbahuddin. Though I was only a team member here, I was happy that this effort came to a good end.
- Started Tweeting! and found to be really interesting and useful (This is ironic, because when twitter started, and when I saw the way people were using it initially, I thought it may not be of much use for me!) – This gave me a lesson – Any tool can be used effectively, and it all depends on the user and their context!
- Travel: Hamirpur in Himachal Pradesh (and also visited Dalai Lama’s residence), Indore, Kashmir (Beautiful Valley; Visited Srinagar, Gulmarg and Pahalgam), Kanyakumari & ; Nagercoil in Tamil Nadu; and my usual trips to Delhi. A very interesting thing happened was I had to travel from Kanyakumari to Kashmir within a span of a day or two.
Overall, many things were falling in place, and really got a sense of accomplishment, despite some odd firings from few bosses!