Julia Lermontova

I visited Göttingen recently and spent a weekend there. Visiting Göttingen was a dream come true. After reading about it, for instance in “Brighter than a Thousand Suns”, I had a mental image of it which was clearer than that of places I have seen. But, as it often happens, when a dream does come true you feel that the dream was better. Is it the same phenomenon as the “The book was better”? After all the “the book” is not the book but the image you have of it (or its contents) in your mind! Chew on it. In any case, I was prepared for this and hence had a grand time.


Göttingen has memorials of many greats who lived there at some tome or the other. Benjamin Franklin and Goethe who spent just a month there. The very fact that so many great scientists lived there is the reason for the fascination with the place. I referred to my visit to Göttingen as a pilgrimage, almost sheepishly. After my return, browsing through the net for some missing information, I came across a site of a Japanese scientist who had called his visit to the place pilgrimage too. Ah, that is better. In any case, I posted the pictures of my visit to Göttingen and called the album Shree Kshetra Göttingen.


(As an aside, while talking to my sister about Wimbledon some time ago, I referred to it too as Shree Kshetra Wimbledon. Unfortunately I only passed through the Wimbledon Railway Station in 1985 but never made a proper “pilgrimage”. In a similar vein, I undertook a pilgrimage to Shree Kshetra Heidelberg once. Coincidentally, I passed the village where Boris Becker was born, one of the tennis greats who made SK Wimbledon his abode for a while, on my way to Heidelberg)


With that brief preamble/prologue/tangent/digression let me come to the main reason for starting this post. Julia Lermontova.


There is a plaque on a building commemorating the fact that she lived in that place when she was in Göttingen. Julia who? Lermontova who? Well that was my reaction too.


(Let me admit that this was my reaction to the name Lichtenberg too, which, in hindsight, is unpardonable for an electronics engineer with an interest in biographies of scientists)


But the name Lermontova (Spelt Lermontowa in German) did ring a bell, but, the wrong one. I remembered that there is a famous Russian called Lermontov. But who Lermontov was and what he did to earn his fame, I had no idea. Interestingly the only thing I remembered about him was his portrait - if I am not mistaken, in the magazine Soviet Land, but of course there is no way to confirm it. In any case, I learnt later that he was one of the greatest Romantic poets of Russia. Not unlike Galois, Lermontov died in a duel at the age of 27. This is a tragic thing. Not just the death, which definitely is tragic. The fact that in many cases the circumstances of the death of such people is the only thing we know about them. I can say now that that is all I know about Galois and Lermontov. (To be frank, I know a little more about Galois and his mathematics, even though it is only “journalistic” knowledge.) One more such name is that of van Gogh and that he shot himself and died when 35.


I found that Julia Lermontova was indeed remarkable. So here are two links about her.

Here and here

What a lot of text to put together just two links!

Here is a translation of the text of a commemorative plaque in the Archives of the city of Göttingen.

**********************

Julia Vsevolodovna Lermontova was born on 2. Januar 1847 (According to the Russian calendar in use then, on 21 December, 1846) in St. Petersburg and died on 16 December, 1919 in her ancestral country estate south of Moscow. Because of health problems and the circumstances of her private life she had to give up chemistry when she was 35.

Julia Lermontova is of outstanding importance in the perspective of the history of science in two ways. For one, she can be counted as the pioneer of womens education as she was not only the first one to get a doctorate in Chemistry, but also the first one to graduate according to all the formal requirements. For the other, through her work with the most important chemists of both Germany and Russia she brought together the scientific traditions of both countries and at the same time achieved importance through her own research work in the area of polymerisation.

**************

I also found that Lermontova is mentioned quite often in the articles about her friend and long time companion, Sofia Kovalevskaya. Another remarkable woman!

Credits: The picture of Julia Lermontova and the text of the commemorative plaque are from this site of Dr. Cordula Tollmien, with her kind permission.

Royalty, Cricket and Mobiles

The title of my post reminds me of the name of a Kannada movie - kurubara lakkanoo elijabet raaNiyoo - "The shepherd Lakka and Queen Elizabeth". Perhaps appropriate.

Whenever I see the signs of Britain's preoccupation or fascination with their royalty, "we were amused" oops, I mean, I am amused. Their monarch reigns over a country where the sun almost never rises having once reigned over an empire on which the sun never set. Well he does rise but is obscured by the clouds, most of the time.

My amusement itself amused me because I myself belong to a country where royalty is not even officially recognised any more and we are still fascinated with it. The privy purses they were entitled to was abolished in 1969? But we too are still fascinated by our former royalty.

I was once incenced that the Deccan Herald referred to Srikantha Dutta Narasimha Raja Wodeyar (the son of the erstwhile maharaja of Mysore) as the "Raja himself". The papers and tabloids refer to an actor, the son of a former Nawab as the Chote Nawab. Nawab of what? Bollywood bunkum? There are many politicians who contest elections under the name of Maharani so-and-so and such. 60+ years after gaining independence from the biggest imperial force of the times should have made us immune to royalty. But alas, it has not!

The latest instance of our preoccupation with royalty is evident in the names of the teams of IPL. Royal Challenger, Super Kings, Kings XI (Roman numerals, for chrissake!). The most ridiculous is the Knight Riders. The only (k)night we ever knew was the long night of the British rule.

So being completely democratic I have decided to support only those teams which do not have a royal name. That leaves Mumbai Indians, Delhi Daredevils and Deccan Chargers. Which one of them should be my favourite?

Mumbai has usurped the title Indians. If there was another team with the name Indians attached to it, I would not have minded. So, Mumbai is out. Daredevils. I don't care all that much for daredevilry, so Delhi is out. That leaves the Deccan Chargers.

Now here is a name that is truly pan Indian - even though The Deccan itelf is not. We are neither a very equestrian nation nor do we have a great cavalry tradition. So, the only charger we know is the battery charger. It appears to me that the whole of India is preoccupied with mobile phones. Someone recently wrote that in India there appears to be an unwritten law which goes like "Thou shalt answer the call on your mobile, even if you are at a wedding and it is your own" Next to the phone itself, the most important gadget is the charger.

So Deccan Chargers it shall be that I support!

Puttachi Chronicles - Jag's Chapter

You have to go here for Puttachi Central.

I went to Puttachi's place and gave her a small present. A (stuffed toy) rabbit I bought in Aachen. She loved it.

She was more fascinated by the silk band on the rabbit than the rabbit itself.

When I was leaving her home, her father told Puttachi that she should return the rabbit to me. I was astounded when Puttachi ran in seriously, picked the rabbit up and offered it to me!

When I told her that it was, in fact, her own, she shook her head vehemently and wanted me to take it back. I had to convince her that I had bought it just for her and hence she should have it.

Amazing kid!

Disabled Friendly

Can you guess what the equipment which looks like an ATM is?

This is a device for people on wheel chairs to seek help in the Charels de Gaulle airport, Paris.

A wheelchair-bound person navigates his wheelchair to the machine and presses a button. The blue and white pad on the floor senses if there is really someone at the machine, a camera sends the image of the person someplace and within minutes there is someone to escort the wheelchair-bound person to wherever she/he wants to go in the airport. Very efficient. Very disabled-freindly.

India is supposed to have 70 million disabled people. They are mostly invisible. What is more, it is said that until the 2001 census their number was not even known!

As far as I can see, ours is a very disabled-unfriendly country. Try taking a wheelchair-bound person to a movie in Bangalore and you will know.

Even though, in terms of facilities, we are disabled unfriendly, I should say that the amount of pesonal help rendered by people is staggering. All you have to do is ask. Since most of our disabled are invisible, most people in public places are unaware of how to deal with them. But once you request them and tell them what to do, what you can get done is staggering.

And staggeringly touching and heart warming.

What the people in power have neglected is compensated for by the ever obliging public. Many even look as if you have done them a favour after helping you, instead of the other way around.

Makes me feel that ours is a terrible country manned by a terrific people.

But, the fact remains that a disabled person should feel no need to seek help to lead a normal life. It should be his for the taking, not for the asking.

Blogging in Kannada

It continues to be a painful experience to blog in kannaDa.

I love blogging

I love Blogger and what it offers me.

But Blogger's kannaDa transliteration drives my crazy.

I have been using the transilteration used by baraha and it appears to me to be the most complete tool developed for writing in kannaDa. I do not understand why blaagar I mean blogger cannot just integrate baraha into it and make my life easier? Does anyone know how I could tell Blogger about this?

The silliest thing is that I can write kannaDa properly in kannaDa in blogger. That is the least one could expect. Is anyone from Blogger listening to this cry of frustration?

It used to amuse me no end that the spelling check of Blogger did not know blog, blogging and Blogger. Now it does! It still does not know Blogger's!

This gives me some hope.

Does anyone know how we can help Blogger do a better job of this?

I am waiting, hopefully not for Godot!

Attention to Detail

I came across a board while driving to Ramanagara from Bengaluru. On the way back, I stopped to photograph it. It is an advertisement for a college of management and there is a spelling error in the board.

My further comments are in kannaDa - Here.

Five weeks at Aachen

Here are some of my favourite pictures from my visit to Aachen and the stay of five weeks there. I uploaded the pictures in chronological order and ended up having them in the reverse chronological order. It should not really matter to you as you can see them as individual pictures. I have provided a brief description of each. Here you go!

This is the statue of Gänseliesel. One of the symbols of the city of Göttingen. The city is also called the city of science (Stadt der Wissenschaft) to which title, Aachen also lays a claim. Gänseliesel - loosely translated as Liesel with geese is called the most kissed girl in the world because the tradition in Göttingen is that a new doctorate from the university has to kiss this girl!

Visiting Göttingen was a long standing ambition of mine because of the seated man in the picture of the sculpture above - Gauss - a man who needs no introduction. The standing man is Weber. I felt that it is "blasphemous" that someone has placed a can of coke or red bull in Gauss' hand! I tried in vain to dislodge it before taking the picture. It originally held a (representation of) a copper wire, now lost. The locals call this statue, "It is not fair, you should let me sit too" or some such thing!

This is the grave of Gauss. Next to it is the grave of another great scientist Gmelin.

I call this picture the Bidige (The second day of the lunar fortnight) Chandra (Moon) from Göttingen. I happened to be there on the day after Yugadi (one of the many Hindu New Years days) and the clear sky after a very rainy day was too tempting not to shoot this.

This is another symbol of Göttingen. The towers of this church St. Johns Church are dissimilar. Viewed in brilliant evening sun after the very rainy day. It is the oldetst of the Göttingen churches - originally built in the 15th century. (I have not found out the reason why the towers are dissimilar, yet)

During my stay in Aachen, I stayed in an apartment in Burtscheid. Burtscheid was once a separate village and is now a part of Aachen. The picture of the church of St. Johann (John the Baptist), was shot from the window of the drawing room of my apartment.

A sunset in Aachen. I was returning home after shopping for some food and this was what I saw, from Eupener Straße. One end of this road, meets Weisshausstraße and at the junction is was my office.

The first time I saw frost. A rainy day, followed by a very clear night, the temperature dropped, the dew froze and . .

This is a wall made of trimmed trees. This was in a place called Kalterherberg (Cold Hostel - literally). Trees are planted very close to each other and repeatedly trimmed to make walls out of them. You can see doors and windows cut in them too, Very popular in the region.


A statue on the streetside, in Burtscheid.

Moonrise seen from a small alley called Soldatengässchen (Soldiers' alley) on the way from my office to my apartment.

Fresh overnight snow. I had only seen fallen snow - like this and far thicker too earlier. But never - falling snow. Aachen provided me an opportunity. It was raining - at about 9:30 in the morning and I looked up from my monitor and it was snowing. Got out of the office to the car park in the basement and shot some stills and shot clips too.


This is an interesting device. You can see such contraptions at the doors of many old houses. It is for scraping caked mud off your shoes when you return home on a rainy day. Perhaps nowadays this is no longer of any use in cities - with excellent roads and pavements.

A piece of streetside art on a street in Aachen. This was perhaps erected during an equestrian meet held in Aachen years ago. The horse looks as if it is in a cage but there is no gap between the horse and the vertical bars.

Near the Soldatengässchen mentioned above, is a Kindergarten. Quite a few posters were hung on its fence - all with the same message. The inscription reads "This is no toilet of dogs" to ward off dog walkers using the fence for the mentioned purpose. Looked effective too. Graphic graphics, apparently made by the students of the Kidnergarten!


The drawing room of my apartment and the window from which I shot the church of St. Johann. So this was home for five weeks full of learning.

Away at Aachen

People who know me, find it difficult to believe that I have been "silent" - in terms of blog posts, that is - since February 24, 2009 - that is 7+ weeks.The reason for my silence is that I was in Aachen, Germany. I was being mentored there in the art of drafting patent applications. It was a time for serious learning and I enjoyed it. I had a grand time personally too.

Off office hours I had no access to the net and hence I could not blog. My mentor told me that once I start drafting patent applications, writing for pleasure, like blogging for instance, may feel different. Patent applications are documents written to secure a legal right on inventions - Interllectual Property. Achieving that purpose is paramount and the beauty of composition is the first casualty!

Charles Darwin found that writing the Origin of Species ruined his ability to enjoy literature. My earlier job involved reading patent documents and other technical literature. That did spoil my pleasure of reading literature - especailly pulp (Oxymoron?)! I do sincerely hope that patent application drafting won't spoil the pleasure of writing for pleasure!

Pardon me for talking about myself in the same paragraph mentioning Darwin. No comparisons intended. (Even if it was intended, who would believe it anyway)

Some say that his magnum opus actually contains some really lucid and beautiful prose, though! I have the book but I have not progressed beyond the first ten pages. One day . .

In any case, the camera I bought for the purpose of digitally recording my trip to Aachen has done its job well. I will post them in the next post and the rest of them on Picasa.

Spring in the Air - 2

I had celebrated the arrival of spring with some pictures last year too also. The difference is that this time the camera is my own!

I am preparing to go to Germany for a month and one of the first things I did was to buy a camera! A Sony Cyber-shot DSC W210. I am yet to get used to it - having done all my earlier photography with a Canon T70. Here are some of the first results. Hopefully, more will follow before I leave, in about a week and of better quality than these.

Rain trees with new leaves. N R Colony, Near Nettakallappa Circle

Yellow flowers in bloom. Botanically oriented may please supply the name of the tree. These are to be seen on the from National College to Gayana Samaja.

Spring in the Air

Don't say "Why should I?" like in the joke by George Mikes famous for his impossibly hilarious books such as "How to be an Alien" and "How to be decadent"!

This picture is to celebrate the arrival of Vasanta - Spring - in Bangalore.

This tree in full bloom, is jut around the corner from my home.

Anti-Superstition

At last there is one advertisement to cheer about.

The ICICI Prudential advertisement makes some remark about the futility of adding letters to your name. Kkaran, in this case.

After Jayalalithaa and Yeddiyoorappa successes, perhaps this madness had gained in strength!

So, this advertisement is a welcome change.

Gandhi and Madonna

I am sure that the title is catchy enough. But there is a reason for this title, other than an effort to make it catchy. At least, I did not put Madonna before Gandhi!

The Saturday issue of Deccan Herald carried two small news items. I had missed them and Jayanth Laxman, a friend who could always be relied on to bring such things to my notice, did bring them to my attention.

One said that a nude photograph of Madonna fetched some 37,500 dollars in an auction.

Right below this piece of information was the report that Gandhi's memorablia - sandals, watch, glasses, etc. will be auctioned soon and is expected to fetch 20,000 to 30,000 dollars.

No comments.

The Land of Kamasutra!

I should perhaps write this in my Blog Peripatetica as it concerns an incident from my not so frequent travels. But the context is here and now.

In front of the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris I came across the most unusual description of India.

There used to be a perfumes seller in front of the famed cathedral. He had a donkey kart filled with all kinds of perfumes. This ‘caricature’ of a Frenchman spoke several languages, flirted with all his women customers blatantly but charmingly. I watched his performance for a while and when my turn came (yes there is a queue in front of so humble a shop) I told him what i wanted. As he was preparing my order, he asked me, with a twinkle in his eyes: “Where are you from, Sir?”

“India”, I said.

He stopped his preparations and raised his hands in the air and looked heavenwards with reverence on his face, “Aaaah! The land of the Kamasutra!”. If he had mathematical bent, he would have said, “Aaaah! The land of zero!”, perhaps. Since he was an admirer of the ‘gentler’ sex, as evident by his flirting, it had to be Kamasutra, I guess.

If this happened today, what would he say? I wonder.

“Oh no, the land of the Kamasutra that does not tolerate public kissing?”

"Oh no, the land of Kamasutra that does not like Valentine’s day?"

No, I will not provide a link to that one. Why publicise something that craves just that?

I do not like Valentine’s day, which is just a commerce driven event that destroys the environment – with all the cards that are exchanged. The suspicion is that this is a non-event made big by the greeting card industry – as is often claimed.

But ban it? Threaten the couples with dire consequences – like marriage for instance!!!!?

Amreekandesi took objections to calling the happenings in Mangalore Talibanisation. I wonder if he will change his opinion, after this. Taliban imposed strict “Islamic behaviour” before it could get that kind of power. Men should have beards, women should be in Purdah, etc., and punished the offenders brutally. That was the first step.

A character in James Michener’s “Caravans”, set in Afghanistan, says something like, “Don’t give power to the mullahs. It will ruin the country.” It really does not matter if it is a Mullah or a priest in any other garb, power mixed with religion is ruinous.

I hope that we, as a nation, are better or luckier.

Women Are from Venus . . .

Australian Open mixed doubles final. Great day for Sania Mirza. She has won her first grand slam title. Great day for ‘Hesh Mahesh Bhupati. This is his nth (n>10) grand slam title.

Prize distribution ceremony. The cup is given away and collected gleefully. The check is given away and collected gleefully.

Then the Australian special comes in. Two Teddy bears are offered and Sania’s hands are full – the large trophy. ‘Hesh collects it for her graciously and hugs one and dunks the other FACE DOWN (or bottom up) in the trophy Sania is holding. Sania says something sharply to ‘Hesh. He looks sheepish (or did I imagine that?) and adjusts the Teddy so that it faces the waiting cameras.

. . . . Men Are from Mars

Music or Noise?

Indian classical musicians make all kinds of interesting gestures with their hands when they perform. Each musician has his or her own characteristic gesture, as distinctive as their voices or singing style.

But, all of them seem to share one gesture. Let me try to describe it in words. Left hand pointing to or touching the microphone and the right hand moving jerkily upwards, with the palm facing up. This gesture is performed invariably with the musician's face turned towards the person manning the amplification system. Even the accompanists are no exception to this. They repeatedly interrupt their playing and make this gesture.

The result of this is: EAR SPLITTING MUSIC . I stopped myself from saying noise. At that volume it is very hard to make out the difference.

You might say that I am being overly critical. But I am sure there are many who agree with me. When will our musicians see light? Not that there are none. Sri T N Krishnan for one, pushes the mic away, as soon as he settles down. So does Dr. N Rajam. Runs in the family, perhaps.

Recently, I heard Smt. Veena Sahasrabuddhe's concert. A rare early morning concert so that morning ragas could be presented. She sang Nat Bhairav and Bilaskhani Todi. Very good renderings. But the mic was so close to her mouth and the volume so high that we could hear sounds that should not be heard.

A week before that, I heard an all-night concert in which the same phenomenon was to be seen. I mean heard. There too Dr. N Rajam's concert was the sweetest (Darbari Kanhara. It was excellent.) as the sound level was on a human scale.

Musicians seem to have forgotten that they are practitioners of a fine art!

Are the musicians and organisers listening to this plea? Or should I turn the VOLUME WAY UP?

Has Darwin Failed? II

Quite accidentally I came across the English version of Ist Darwin gescheitert? on Spiegel Online!

Here it is.

Now, I plan to compare this with my own translation and see how I have done. The first paragraph was very encouraging.

Prof Aprameya - A Tribute

I heard that Professor Aprameya of NIE, Mysore, passed away on 5 January, 2009.

He was a legend. I had heard of him even before I started studying in NIE.

The sheer influence of his personality was such that while other teachers struggled to establish some kind of authority over the students, Prof. Aprameya, well, just had it.

Since I was a student of electronics engineering, under normal circumstances, I would not have had the good fortune of being taught by him. But, thanks to an unusual set of circumstances, I did attend one of his classes. We had a greenhorn teacher who enraged us by his behaviour. When he came in to our next class, a roof high tower made out of stools used in the drawing classes confronted him. He promptly made a hasty about turn and went to the staff room and complained to Prof. Aprameya. He came into the class and in a very casual manner, without even looking at the offending tower, asked us to bring it down. It was, pronto. We thought he would chastise us. He gave affectionate advice instead. He told us how we should treat the new teacher like a friend and get along happily. He cited how "Prasanna" (The inimitable E A S Prasanna, who was an alumnus of NIE) played cricket, enjoyed college life and went on to achieve great fame, etc.

He took the day's class himself and taught us some engineering drawing. The way he could draw lines on the black board was unbelievable. The drawings came to life.

It is difficult to write about such a man as he. In lieu of it here is what the others have said about him. Sri Bapu Satyanarayana, one of the writers to be found in this site, kindly sent me the link, so that I could add it here.

Has Darwin Failed?

This year is a year for a double celebration - in science.

• 150 years since Charles Darwin published his "The Origin of Species"

• 400 years since Galileo turned his telescope towards the skies and changed man's concept of the world and himself.

Both brought man down from the pedestal he had placed himself on. There are debates about who did more in that direction. Galileo showed that we are not the centre of the Universe and Darwin showed that god did not create man after his own image.

In honour of these two events, there are many interesting articles in the press. I came across one of them and decided to translate it for myself. I did and here it is for your reading pleasure - hopefully.

The Original German Article from Spiegel Online: Ist Darwin Gescheitert?

My liberal translation of it: Has Darwin Failed?

Zamana Badal Gaya

This has been bothering me a long time.

Indra Nooyi is awarded the Padma Bhushan. Pullella Gopichand, the Padmashri.

Wondering what the connection is?

Nooyi is the CEO of a company that is actively contributing to the ticking time bomb of diabetes in India. The products of her company symbolises imprudent consumption. It uses water that is scarce and converts into a drink that has no benefits, except to the people who make it and sell it.

Pullela Gopichand, a fine human being and a great achiever, refused to endorse some Cola, perhaps even Pepsi. The offer must have been lucrative and hard to resist, to anyone, except Pullela.

Our omniscient government deems it fit to honour her and not him.

This has been boiling inside me from the day Nooyi's award was announced. The anger or frustration was so much that I did not blog it. Today the nudge from a friend finally made me write this. Thanks friend!

Pragmatism

I was reminded of
Cromwell's admonition
To his troops,
"Put your trust in god,
But, keep the powder dry",
When I saw
The three spikes
Of a lightning arrestor
Atop the tall tower
Of a house worship

Mera Bharat Mahan

I was watching some “nature” channel on TV and the programme was on snakes, cobras in particular. It took us to various lands and showed us the different species of cobras in those lands.

The location shifted and there were huge boulders and the presenter was walking on them towards a snake. I could see that there were inscriptions on the rock. No, not the type that would interest an epigraphist. More recent graffiti and quite large. I tried to read what was written and at the back of my mind derived some satisfaction that it was not only in our country that people leave their (ugly) mark on otherwise beautiful rocks.

My satisfaction was short lived.

That new country turned out to be, you guessed it, India.

Dedication

I am living in the present house for more than a year. I had not seen the design of the gate of my next door neighbour at all. Rather, I had not observed it at all.

Here is the picture of that gate.

“What is special?”, you might say. Look closely. What does the white line represent? If you have had any brush with statistics, you will recognise it as the Normal Distribution curve or in the more general parlance the Bell Curve.

The owner’s profession? An expert on Statistical Quality Control. This is the gate of the house of (now late) Mr. Srinivasan. He had a Master's degree in Statistics. He once told me that he had trained some top people in the company I worked for – for nearly 20 years – Kirloskar Electric. When I left that company, I was the head of Quality Assurance for one of its units, Unit IV, Mysore, hence my interest in Statistics.

When I told Mr. Srinivasan about myself, he presented me some books written by him, one of them on Quality Control. You could take a look at his book here: Managing Quality: Concepts and Tasks By N S Sreenivasan, V Narayana. After retirement, he wrote some more books - on self development and he gave me copies of those too. One of them is "vyaktitva sudhaaraNe" published by saahitya sindhu prakashana.

Alas, he is no more.

Happy New Year

I had taken a hiatus to study for an examination. Now I am back but, without even attending the examination. For various reasons, I decided not to take the examination at all this time. Now I am back with blogging, among other things.

Now I have to prepare for the exams again, either during March/April 2009 or November/December 2009. Inshallah!

Many of my friends will ask me where that last word came from. (This is almost like the time when E M S Namboodiripad said “God only knows” in the Kerala assembly. Some people took him to task. How could he say that, after calling himself an atheist? EMS replied, “When I say god only knows, I mean no one knows”.) It is only an expression of uncertainty and nothing more. As someone said, "It is difficult to make predictions, especially about the future" – variously attributed to Churchill and Mark Twain among others.

Let me end with some forwarded e-mail humour.

God had enough and decided to end the world. He decided to announce this to the world through some really powerful people. He chose George W Bush, Hu Jintao and Bill Gates and told them. They in turn told the others.

Bush: I have good news and bad. Good news is that there is a God, as I always said. The bad news is that he is going to end the world.

Hu: I have bad news and worse. We were wrong. There is a God and he is going to end the world.

Gates: I have good news and better news. Good news is that there is a God. But then, we don’t have to release updates of Windows Vista.

Taking a Peep . . .

In my last post, I had said that I had to appear for an examination, had to study for it and hence I was taking a 'sabbatical' from my blog.

The examination was supposed to be in November and it was never even announced. Enquiries with the authorities did not help much, as recently as last Monday.

I decided to take a break and do things that I had either not done or reduced to a minimum. Blog - none. Crosswords and Su Doku - minimum, etc.

Just now, I decided to write a post. So much, that I would have loved to write about, has happened. Obama wins. Anand retains his title. A hundred other interesting things worth writing about. It was hard not to.

Just before, starting my post, took a peek at the website and lo and behold! The examination has been announced! 29 Dec. 2008.

So, here I go again, back into the shell. See you in the new year!

Dasvidania, said Brinda and Amities, said Zbigniew, in their comments to my last post. Let me add "Do widzenia". Back to the drawing board, I mean, study table . .

Auf Wiedersehen

It sounds surprising to me that my last post is dated September 24.That was inspired by the fact that I came across the name of 'Getafix' in the Bangla version of Aserix - Etashetamix. It means a-mixture-of-this-and-that. I was fired and wrote down the names of many of the other characters for the Kannada version - if and when. But that was really not a post by my reckoning.

The post before that was from September 15. That was just a comment on a report. By that standard, I could make another post today. The Pope and The Archbishop of Canterbury find it fit to say good things about Karl Marx! The days of miracles (or of absurdities) are not over after all.

So, why have I not written any more posts?

Let me go off at a tangent. (For the unmathematically inclined, or mathematically uninclined: tangent is not a well tanned man!)

One day, I looked into Blogger.com to see if there is any blogger who shared my profession - at that time entered as Patent Searcher. None. I tried synonyms (a common trick in the patent searcher's bag of tricks) - IP analyst, novelty searcher, patent information specialist. None. Apparently there are very few (none, infact) fellow professional who are inclined to writing blogs. After all, an overwhelmingly large part of our workday is spent in reading and reading and writing seem to be two ends of a spectrum. Please do not ask me, "A spectrum of what?"

Now, at the age of 53, (Thank you, thank you, Today IS my birthday) I am preparing to pursue a new profession. Instead of reading patent lieterature, I am going to write them. I mean 'draft' them and prosecute them. (Apparently, my company thinks that one can indeed teach a new trick to an old dog)

The actual shift takes place on Jan 1, 2009. (My dear mother's birthday incidentally)

Now, it is not as simple as it sounds. I have to pass an examination, to be able to pursue my new profession, sooner or later, preferably sooner. That means I have to study. I have to study in a manner I am not used to. Remember text, and lots of it, verbatim. Do I hear groans?

So what does all this mean? I will not write blog posts for quite some time. I take a holiday. A busman's holiday, is the idiom I guess.

So, off I go, to my study table, to return later, after I have taken the next major step towards my assignment. Hopefully, with the good news that I have passed the exam.

Well I have my work cut out for a couple of years - study/learn patent drafting, under a mentor. I do hope that somewhere along the line, I come back to start writing again "for pleasure". I hope (am sure) I will have pleasure writing professionally too. No one has ever said "professional is professional and pleasure is pleasure, and never the twain shall meet"

So, until then, Bye, auf Widersehen, hasta mañana, varre, barteeni, accha, ami aaschi . . . .

Who on earth?

Can you identify them?

aascharyix OR aascharyasoochix
maastix OR maastikallix
mudkix OR mudiyix
gayix
kunnix OR naayix
mailigix OR koLkix
chaalix OR gaalimaadix
jaalienjaayix
aayurvedix OR vaidix
mukhyaamshix
tondrix
nidrix

These are now subject to copyright!

Darwin

The news that the Anglican church has apologised to Charles Darwin fascinated me.

Somehow, the image of the Church saying, "Sorry Charlie, old fruit!", a la Bertie Wooster passed in front of my mind's eye!

I am doubly honoured!

Some days ago, my friend, fellow blogger, friendly critic (of my posts) and post-publication-spellchecker and grammar-questioner Starry Eyed Shruti gave me this award. I am thrilled.

However, her bestowing the honour coincided with a slump in my blogging. I do hope that that slump is in the quantity and not the quality of my posts. I hasten to add that I am not claiming that my posts are of great/excellent/irreproachable quality. All I am saying is that it has not slumped from whatever quality I normally try to achieve.

The slump was such that I did not even properly acknowledge the award and "brag" about it in a post. So here I am. Thanks Shruti, I am honoured.

This morning I was told that I have been given this award, again! This time by Shruthi.

Are you wondering what this is all about? Look at the spelling. The second one has an 'h' extra. Now, how is that I described Shruti so variously and not Shruthi? Well, Shruthi is my niece, friend, cheerleader and guide, coach, teacher, problem-solver for my blogging.

Thanks again!

Now, how can I sign off without taking a dig at someone or the other? So here goes.

When I describe these two I was uncomfortable that I sounded like many public speakers who introduce someone on the stage with such superlatives that the subject of the praise could start wondering if someone else is being described by mistake. I am sure that Shruti and Shruthi (No reference to Thomson and Thomson intended) will surely recognise themselves without any problems.

Finally, the earlier recipients have all passed on the awards to others. My blog reading is limited. So, I do not pass it on to others. If I had received this award from someone else, I would have (without second thoughts and without a second's thought) given it to these two!

*** Links to the blogs of Shruti and Shruthi are in the list of links below my picture, at the beginning of my blog.

Car Pool

Here is an outfit that is doing excellent work to ease traffic congestion in Bangalore and also contributing towards a greener world.

I was a member from the early days of its inception. But, by the time I got a suitable car pool partner, my office was shifted and along with that move came the office bus. So I commute to the office by bus.

Do try this out and see if you can contribute too?

What is all this Indianness stuff anyhow?

I must admit that the title is inspired by the titles of the inimitable articles of the inimitable Bob Pease.

Flashback: The Aussies came, won some tournament, Sharad Power, I mean Pawar gives away the trophy, in their eagerness to get photographed with it, they ask the power that be, Pawar, to "move away mite". All hell breaks loose. Our senior, respected leader has been insulted. Aussies are boors. In India such things do not happen. Holier than thou attitude surfaces.

Shift to the present day. The coach of the Indian cricket team, is admonished that he should not give interviews. 24/7 "news" channels cry themselves hoarse about it.

Yes, such things happen in India. We invite a guy to make our team perform better. The land where "atithi dEvOBava" is said to be the credo, the news is made public. Would it be too difficult for the BCCI to quietly tell the coach not to do it such that the rest of the world is not even aware of it? "What the left hand does . . . " kind of thing.

PS: Here is a very ineresting article by Pease which is of general interest. If you are an electronics engineer you must explore his articles and some of them are pretty amazing.

Menu

As I looked at the menu in the canteen today, I decided to take the North Indian Thali. Ever eager to try new and exotic food, (I do not call myself a foodie though, more because I hate that neologism than because I am not one!), I was tempted by something called Palin rice that was on offer.

When I looked at the various dishes actually on offer, I was disappointed to find that there was nothing that could have matched that exotic name.

One of the colleagues at lunch offered an explanation that the new dish was named in honour of the "Running Mate" of the republican presidential hopeful, McCain, in the American presidential elections. (McCain, literally, means "the son of Cain" in scottish tradition. Does it mean that his name is really Enoch?) If that had occurred to me earlier, I would have avoided the stuff, as Republicans are not my bowl of rice, (that includes Condoleezza Rice), I mean, my cuppa' tea.

It, eventually, turned out that devil called typo (one more neologism) was at work. What was on offer was just plain Plain rice. How mundane!

(I have written so much parenthetically in this post! Ayyo! Even this!)

Action Oooops?

Looks familiar?

I posted a picture of a hoarding and commented on it. Now I see that it has been replaced! Cause and effect?

I would love to think so but, who knows?

Who cares? This is definitely better than the previous one.

Roll of Dishonour

Whenever I see bad advertisements with worse Kannada, I feel like starting a movement to rouse Kannadigas into some kind of action. Boycott that product or that company's products.

Apparently this does not work. I know of a case that did not work. The issue was far more serious than mauling of a language in advertisements. I refer to the Union Carbide and the Bhopal gas leak tragedy. Quite a few organisations tried to get people to boycott Union Carbide's products, the most visible of which was Eveready.

I am not surprised that it was a failure. As far as I know, that was the most powerful brand at that time and many small shops stocked no other brand. What a pity. I was committed to that boycott and adhered to it for years. Even today, when I buy batteries I look for other brands and if for some reason I buy Eveready, I feel guilty.

Now coming to the mauling of Kannada with impunity, and the recent trigger for writing about it now, was an ice cream advertisement from a company called GRB. It simply states, "Taste andre Taste". (Literally translated, it means: taste means taste, Well, what else can it mean? But what it means in idiomatic Kannada is that it is extremely tasty.)

Another trigger was the name of a restaurant written in Kannada. It is called Jhopdi. (For the denizens of Bengaluru: You can see this restaurant or at least its board in the same building as that of Hotel Chalukya) Below are pictures of how it has been written and how it should be.

The practice of using English words in "kannada" advertisements is not new. One of the worst trend setters was Spice - the cellular service provider. Their advertisement said, "simpallaagi sellyulaar aagi". Ughhhhh!

(Of course, Kannada is not the only language that they ruin. One of the earliest such murder I had seen was the appeal to the buyer to "unpeel" a packet of some biscuits. Unpeel? It is as difficult as filling toothpaste into a tube after having squeezed it out!)

Here is chance to make a roll of dishonour and rank them. Look out for mauling of Kannada and write to me and we will list them in descending order of the seriousness of the crime committed.

It could include examples like that abominable catch line of Radio Mirchi. Sakhat Hot Magaa. That line rewrites one of the definitions of democracy and uses it as a definition of itself: Of the morons, by the morons, for the morons?

Interpretation

I saw an advertisement for a purported news paper. "You deserve the best!", it declared.

My reaction was, "So, read The Hindu"?

Topsy Turvy

I got the following story by mail. I have made some small changes , for instance, removing the capitals from words like church and bar!

In a small town in America, a man decided to open a bar right opposite a church. The church and its congregation started a campaign to block the bar from opening, with petitions and prayed daily against his business.

Work progressed, nevertheless. However, when it was almost complete and about to open in a few days, a bolt of lightning struck the bar and it was burnt to ground.

The church folk were rather smug after that, until the bar owner sued the church authorities for $10 million on the grounds that the church, through its congregation &and prayers, was responsible for the destruction of his bar, either through direct or indirect actions or means.

In its reply to the court, the church vehemently denied all responsibility and any connection between their prayers and the bar's fate. In support of their claim they referred to the Benson Study at Harvard that intercessionery prayer had no impact!

As the case made its way into court, the judge looked over the paperwork at the hearing and commented: "I don't know how I am going to decide this case, but it appears from the paperwork, that we have a bar owner who believes in the power of prayer and we have an entire church and its devotees that doesn't!"

This made me curious and I looked for references to the Benson study and found some contradictory web sites and also a post by "Stimulus" with the same story!

This story reminds me of a quote of Osho - "Acharya" Rajaneesh. - only the priest knows that there is no god!

Another friend tells me a story about a begger finding that the habitués of taverns are more munificent than the people coming out of places of worship! I will get that story from him again and post that too - later.

Olympic déjà vu

Here are my random, rambling thoughts on the Beijing Olympics:

China, the ‘best ever’ opening ceremony, Phelps owns the pool, Bolt runs a 9.69 sec 100 m – an astonishing world record, an Indian wins an individual gold, many firsts . .

Some things do not change, however; people crying that it is a national shame that a country of a billion people does not win anything more. As I write this, there is a distinct possibility that we win some medals in boxing.

But, what all of us who cry that it is a shame that we do not win medals in the international arena forget is that we have a lot more to be ashamed of and that they are the real reason for the ‘Olympic shame’.

The Netherlands recently overtook the US in the average heights of its populations. What has that got to do with medals in the Olympics? Everything! Sociologists think that the reason for this is the greater social equality in the Netherlands. It does not help that the US is one of the richest countries in the world because it has too many who are very poor. What matters is the social equality. That translates into the fact that the people in the NL have access to nutrition that allows them to grow to their full potential.

Does this translate into medals in the Olympics? May be, may be not. But it is clear that NL is a force to reckon with in football and hockey an has won seven medals. At the time of writing this it stands 21st in the medals tally. What is the big deal, you say? It has a population of about 18 million for chrissake! If India won medals at the same rate, it should have won some 350 medals in this Olympics, by now!

OK, is social equality all? Definitely not. There are factors such as tradition. Sporting tradition, I mean. This, to a large extent explains how terribly poor countries like Ethiopia can win golds. Note that they are in fields that hardly need equipment and facilities.

While watching the Olympics (alas only on TV) this time, I had enough proof for the lack of sporting tradition in India. (Incidentally, I watched the first week of this Olympics in a hospital room while keeping company to my son who had just then undergone “Kebab Osteotomy” on both his femurs. That is another long story.) The patient in the other bed in the room switched over to Kannada serials as soon as I left the room. The first opportunity I got I shifted to the Olympics and there it stayed for the rest of the stay.

The ticker tape news highlights provided some indicators to the lack of sporting tradition, apart from the ‘normal’ lack of attention to detail. Women’s Heptathlon was consistently spelt as Hepthatalon! Then there was the Artistic Gymnastics All-Around. I swear, I am not making this up. The person preparing that ticker had perhaps never heard of these two events until he was actually required to type it in.

Most of the time, the TV was in mute. When I did turn up the volume, I heard some interesting bits. For one commentator the name of a Thai boxer was too complex and throughout the four rounds referred to him as the Thai boxer. With his Indian pronunciation it sounded like ‘the Thigh boxer’. Another commentator somehow caught hold of ‘the Finnish player’. I have a suspicion that he does not know the name of the country – Finland! This kind of inaccuracies were not limited to Doordarshan. Aaj Tak kept talking about Fleps instead of Phelps!

The fact that one of the gold medallists in Swimming, Alain Bernard lives in a village with a population of 450 amazes me. In India, anyone living in a village with a population of 45,000 will find it practically impossible to gain access to a swimming pool.

Talking of sporting tradition reminds me of this incident. Some thirty odd years ago, I cycled from Mysore to Bangalore – a distance of 140 km. The reaction of an uncle and an aunt were – “Why? Weren’t there buses?” and “Your father let you go? I thought he was sane”, respectively. Says a lot does it not?

So, those optimists who dream that India will one day win medals by the bushels at the Olympics: Rejoice! The day is not far off. It will happen as soon as we have more social equality, have a better universal education and when we have developed a sporting tradition going back centuries . . . . .”

IIM-B Vs Wharton

A newspaper hoarding in Bangalore proclaims, "It is harder to get into IIM-B, than to get into Wharton".

This is not a tall claim even though the hoarding is.

But, every Bangalorean knows why it is harder to get into IIM-B.

Simply because it is on bannErghaTTa road.

What's it again?

In our canteen, the day's menu is posted on the canteen display board.

The names of dishes are spelt any which way the manager pleases. It is fun. We Indians know what each means (most of the time) whichever way it is spelt and our overseas colleagues don't know what they each means even if it is spelt correctly.

So it does really does not make a difference.

"bisi bELe bhaat" is a popular South Indian (actually Karnataka) dish . Literally, it means hot lentils rice. It is also called bisi bELe huLi anna - hot lentils sour rice. Of course huLi could also mean a dish which is called huLi - a thick lentils soup with vegetables.

Recently the identity of this delicious dish was revealed thus "bisi belle bath!"! on the board.

Sounds like a cannibal's favourite dish. Does it not?

The word bhaat is actually alien to Kannada. Perhaps Marathi for rice. This is appended to the names of other rice dishes too. "khaara bhaat" - hot (as in spicy) rice, kesari bhaat - saffron rice. Saffron here is not just the colour but the spice saffron. Interestingly, both these dishes could be have no rice in it but made of 'cream of wheat' or soji or rava.

The best is the dish called "rice bhaat". Rice rice!

Ooooops!!

One of the new series of hoardings dotting Bangalore. If he loves Bangalore, why is he doing what he appears to be doing?

Or, do I have a dirty mind?

I am surprised the admen did not feel the way I do. Or, don't they have a dirty mind?

Ooooops!

Stockiest? If you do not understand what it is talking about, look at the word in parenthesis for help!

Eclipse

Eclipses always seem to eclipse the good sense of people.

It was a pleasure to commute back from work today. In Bangalore! Thanks to the eclipse.

The city referred to as the High Tech city in a recent article I read, somehow retreats to the middle ages during eclipses.

Years ago, during a near total solar eclipse, there were apparently only two people on the roads of Ranchi, where I lived, at that time. One was, of course, yours truly and the other was his cook. Munna.

I had recently acquired an ability to speak Hindi and I used it effectively to brainwash Munna. He understood the concepts of eclipses explained to him with the help of a candle, a dark room, a lemon and an apple. I wish I could work my magic again . . . .

Come Again?

Thank God, I am not superstitious!