Did we get it right?

Sagar and I made the dreadful mistake of crossing an unmanned railway track at a local train station in Mumbai a couple of years ago. What a mistake. We were greeted by the railway police in normal clothes on the opposite platform. They lined us (along-with twenty others who made this stupid mistake) and took us into the station to have a ‘discussion’ with us, I guess. They kept us all in one room. The others were mostly day laborers, and being unaware of the consequences, had unassumingly walked across the tracks. A couple of minutes later, a constable came in and announced that each person would be taken into the inspector’s room where they would have to choose between spending 24 hours in jail, or paying Rs. 1500 as fine. Sagar immediately told me that till we left the station, the two of us would talk only in English or Kannada, and pretend to not know Hindi or Marathi. Guess what? That worked! The top cop gave us an earful, saw our college IDs and let us go.

Only yesterday, I was riding around my Hayabusa and the front number plate literally broke off and came out while I was on the road. I stopped, put the broken piece of metal in my bag and continued to ride. I was out looking for the first place where they make number plates. As rotten as luck can get, a few turns later at a signal, a cop spotted my bike sans the number plate, and as they so often do, he promptly walked up, turned off my gaddi and confiscated the key. So when a cop catches you, what do you do? Whatever you do, pretend like you don’t know the local language. If that ideology worked with the cops in Mumbai, then logically it should work with the cops in Bangalore too, I thought. How far from the truth was that? I rattled and rambled on in English and Top Cop wouldn’t reduce the fine by a rupee. After close to five minutes of this nonsense, I decided to give Sagar’s theory a rest and started off in Kannada. Result: Fine amount cut in half, Top Cop says he acknowledges that the number plate breaking off was unfortunate, and lets me know that his daughter is in eight semester of engineering at ABC College (don't ask why).

The approaches were of opposite nature in the above events, both leading to a desirable result. Which then is a better approach? You can most surely understand how knowing a language can help get your work done faster and in many cases as in mine, it can mean money in your pocket. But not knowing a language can sometimes cause sympathy and end up in a positive result as well.I was telling a friend recently about taking up Dutch classes. After a brief discussion, we came to a consensus that a foreign language class could be expensive. So we said, “Junk it.”

If Bachi Karkaria were to write about this fact- “How much does it cost to learn a language?” she probably would have concluded her article with:

Alec Smart said: “I know how much it costs to learn a language, but I sure don’t know how much it costs not to learn the language.”

Houston, we have a solution

The United States National Academy of Engineering (NAE) has put out the top 14 engineering challenges for the 21st century.

http://www.engineeringchallenges.org/

Close to two weeks back, Dr. Charles Vest, President Emeritus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology was speaking at the Faculty Hall of the main building at IISc, Bangalore. He is currently the President of the NAE. The topic of the lecture was ‘Engineering Education in the 21st century'. What caught all of us by surprise at the very outset of his talk was the statement that he made, which said “the world is actually getting better.” This was a refreshing change from the common handout that the world has taken a nightmare pill. The world is actually getting better.

Part of this talk covered the 14 greatest challenges you saw above, and how solving them could render a great impact to tens of millions of lives around the world. However, a cursory glance at the list will tell you that there are many other challenges that are equally important if not more, but haven’t made it to the list. For example, the issues of recycling the world’s waste or space exploration don’t feature on that list. But the 14 we have here are big enough to keep our heads and hands occupied for the next 100 years.

I’ve been spending time over the last few weeks meeting with people in academia, government and industries trying to gleam an understanding of where technology, especially enabling ones like nanotech (which I hold rather dear to me) are moving us towards. Invariably in each of these discussions, the topic gets derailed from the technology per se, to the fact that the world is beating inroads to the Indo-China region; and how everybody wants to be a part of the growth story. In my discussion earlier today with Ms. Indira Samarasekara, President of the University of Alberta, Edmonton, Canada, it became abundantly clear that policy makers and influencers of tomorrow will need to root themselves in one particular 'center of gravity' of a technology/science/engineering issue, and bring forth an economical or societal or legal understanding of the same problem.

This points out to two steps the Indian government ought to consider. Firstly, the issue of Brain Drain that so famously filled debate topics during the 90’s is now not on the radar. And as Dr. Vest pointed out in his talk too, we’re now on our way to Brain Circulation from Brain Drain. This is but a passing phase where we should in all eventuality end up talking about Brain Integration. I can’t get a grip on the third phrase yet. However, brain circulation seems like a logical extension of a globalized world. I can now grow, harvest and sell my ideas to the world while living in my own country, thanks to so many other enabling technologies that could require an entirely new post to talk about.

Secondly, we’re looking at integrating the micro-technologies of info, bio and nano and bridge the gap on to the macro systems like energy, healthcare, defense and so on. India has a huge slice of this pie, and we’re only getting started. That will call on technocrats to draw on multi-disciplinary skills. We need more programmes at the masters level at Indian science and engineering institutes to implement this.

There’s never really been a better time to live and grow in this country. Houston, we have a solution!

Cristina Fernández de Kirchner

Cristina Kirchner is the current President of Argentina. She assumed office in December 2007, taking over from her husband Néstor Kirchner who was President from May 2003 to December 2010. And as the story goes, Cristina won the election by a comfortable margin. That meant, the President on retirement, became the First Gentleman of Argentina.

That’s a real tale. Hillary Clinton almost wrote the same story too, but not quite. So one gets wondering, what’s all this fuss about ‘upliftment’ of women. What’s all the noise of women and emancipation? In India, many women even in senior positions of corporate, academia and politics have an attitude that the men are out to ‘get them’; and in many cases they are. But isn’t it unreasonable to spend your years fighting when instead following successful examples would have made life much easier. It really isn’t a battle of the sexes as many women like to keep it: a fight for you v/s me; good v/s evil; strong v/s weak and the list may go on.

Michelle Obama has begun addressing audiences of women after becoming the first lady, like she did recently in London on the sidelines of G20. Our Indian ladies that are caught up in battle with the courts just for the sake of the fight need to stop and listen to successful women like Michelle, Cristina or Indora Nooyi. Our country would move ahead quicker. The rules of success don’t care if you’re man or woman. They just need to be applied with a purpose at hand.

Hope the ladies in the current elections take a leaf out of the Presidential office in Buenos Aires.

My President and other follies

President Pratibha Patil on Wednesday inaugurated ‘India’s Air Force One’, christened Rajdoot.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/4343550.cms

And before the tape was cut, there were cries from all over the country questioning the need for this unnecessary luxury at this point in time. Read the comments on the Economic Times article if you want this validated. I think the issue is not so much about luxury or with the plane in itself. My view is that it is more to do with the person who is getting it. I mean, think of it this way: if Dr. APJ were still the Prez, and had he inducted the Rajdoot, do you think there’d be all these comments on the article? No one would have thought it as being unreasonable that the Head of a Country is getting an official plane to match his tag as the first citizen. But when this President does the same thing, it is unreasonable. With all due respect, I don’t think she deserves the plane. And if the debate must really go on, the expense for the Air Force in purchasing a Boeing Business Jet is no where near what all our politicians take home in a year.

As an afterthought, here’s what is unreasonable: The President hardly has powers in India. If at all anything must change, it’s not the plane or the motor car that ferries the President. I think a wider scope of responsibilities and power needs to be instituted for the first citizen. That could reduce some of the roles of the Prime Minister. And if the PM needs a new jet, let’s get it for him or her after the results of the first year in office. Perks tied to performance! Makes sense?