My New Laptop

By Robert W. Lucky

I'm admiring my new laptop computer. For a while it will be my best friend when I'm traveling, but I'm already resigned to having only a transient relationship. These things are fragile and fickle, and its predecessor had betrayed me on my last business trip.

I'm sure this will be a familiar story to many readers, but there I was at the start of a long trip, firing up my trusty laptop. Well, it had been trusty. This time, however, in the middle of the boot sequence, a message suddenly popped up on the screen that read: "Disk I/O error." My computer had suffered an aneurysm. What had been a beautiful electronic machine had been converted into useless junk by the fragility of a mechanical spinning disk.

You can't live on the road these days without a laptop computer. At meetings every attendee buries his or her head in one. If you don't have a laptop, there is nothing to protect you from having to watch and listen to the speaker. And people would stare at you. Who is this person without a laptop?

My sickly five-year-old laptop had reached an age of senility, where it was far too old for expensive surgery, so I had to put it down. Using a borrowed laptop, I surfed the Web for deals. Every day for a week I checked prices, and every day they went down. I sat there frozen, knowing that as soon as I clicked "buy," I would be overcharged.

Finally, I ordered a customized laptop from a large, well-known U.S. company, which informed me that my machine would be built in two weeks. In a few days short of that time I got an e-mail telling me that my laptop had been shipped, and that I could track its status with FedEx. What a wonderful world this is! I click a mouse somewhere, bits fly through fiber optics, go to some undisclosed place, money electronically changes hands, and then atoms in useful arrangements are flown in airplanes and hand-carried to my doorstep. When you think about it, this is miraculous.

Then I wonder where my new laptop is. Can I expect it tomorrow, or will I have to wait for the next day? I am shocked to discover from FedEx that my new machine is in a pickup station in Shanghai, China. Obviously, I am going to have to wait a while.

Two days later there is new tracking information from FedEx. My laptop is on the move, but now it's resting in Almaty, Kazakhstan. I have to look this up to find out where it is, and I discover that my laptop is now marginally closer to New Jersey than it was in Shanghai. Still, I am resentful. What is my computer doing in Kazakhstan?

A few days later my laptop reaches Paris. I know where this is, and I am encouraged. Still later I get the glad tidings that my laptop has reached Memphis, Tenn.—the center of FedEx's universe. In my mind I see all the planes swooping in and the swarming exchange of packages before they swoop out. My laptop is practically home.

After two days of limbo, I am happy to find that my laptop is in a truck about 8 kilometers away. Within an hour the package is on my doorstep.

Now I'm looking at the laptop and thinking about the flat-earth theory of the new world economy. In New Jersey I order a computer from a California company, but it is assembled in China. Some of the integrated circuits are probably fabricated there, too, while other chips might have come from Japan and Korea. A lot of the design was probably done in California, and much of the software came from the state of Washington.

But where did the ideas come from that made this machine possible? Just consider some of the brilliant and complex concepts that are embedded in this little box—the laser for the DVD drive, IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi, the TCP/IP protocol stack, Ethernet, trellis-coded modulation in the dial-up modem, sophisticated data compression and error-correcting codes, tens of millions of lines of source code, computer-aided design tools for the integrated circuits, and so on. The ideas came from your friends and mine, all over the world.

So this laptop epitomizes the world of technology today—ordered electronically, assembled with worldwide parts, delivered via a sophisticated logistics system, and replete with ingenious ideas. Yet in a world of commodity products, this brilliance is largely unappreciated.

And if this laptop dies on me, I'll stop appreciating it, too.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Copright reserved IEEE and with the author !!
About the Author
ROBERT W. LUCKY (IEEE Fellow), now retired, was vice president for applied research at Telcordia Technology in Red Bank, N.J. (rlucky@telcordia.com).

Ilu and Rangoli 2005

It's a unique tradition at IIT Kharagpur to have inter-hall illu-mination aka ilu and rangoli competition during Diwali every year. The tradition is as old as this IIT itself. This time I was fortunate to witness another ilu and rangoli event for the third time. Also, my hall residents have given me opportunity to present the Rangoli theme of my hall (B. C. Roy) to the judges. It's a different matter that, we could not win any prize for this Rangoli, though my previous hall (Azad) won second prize for their Rangoli work. B. C. Roy Hall rangoli was a remake of famous oil painting by Donnie Jupiter titled stone_age_chase. Following are the excerpts of the theme presentation made to the judges of this competition (with some inputs by our local dada officially known as Ranadev Datta),

"The heart beat echoes the sound of a trumpet
Awaiting a Chase that is hard to forget
The Chase has not yet started
The pace of life seems to be lost amidst the green grass
All the humans can foresee is their own ghost
The mass destruction has not yet started
The sky is shrouded with dark red clouds without a trace of a silver lining
Hold on, the devastation is yet to be started
With you will start a new spirit of civilization
Where there will be life where there will be hopeful imagination.

The Chase is going to start, NOW.

Honourable judges, myself, NS, on beahlf of team rangoli of B C roy Hall of residence, welcome to you all at our ilu and Rangoli exhibition. Our Rangoli theme being, The Chase -- Depicting quest for human survival since time immemorial against adversaries of the Nature. Here an example from Neolithic era is shown when homo sapiens have learnt to make basic stone arms to fight animals and learnt to dress somewhat as well :-) . As you can observe the couple here is being chased by this a furious, wild, monstrous looking elephant having a long, flexible, prehensile trunk, long curved tusks of ivory and extra large fan-shaped ears. Isn't it threating enough for the couple almost bare-handed? Though the male has stone javelin, still they have no option but to run away against this fury of Nature. A volcanic eruption is added to their misery by the mother nature. It's all gloomy out there? The sky is no longer nice blue and clean. It's appearing smoky red due to the volcano eruption nearby. It's the quest for survival, the survival instinct, fear of death, a hope to live longer of we humans which is making them run away when chased by such a fury. As you can observe in our Rangoli these people are running away towards green grass. They are moving together by holding each other's hand. The green grass here symbolises love for mother nature !!

In Darwinian Natural Selection terms we human being should be termed fittest as we have survived the chase whenever confronted by the forces of Nature. The only proof is that "We are alive" !!This chase is not limited to only Neolithic era, it manifests itself across all the eras OR in Thomas Kuhn's terms across all the Paradigm Shifts be it Paleolithic, Mesolithic, Iron and bronze age, Middle Age, Renaissance, Industrial Revolution or the Modern age in which we live in. With the beginning of the stone age as civilization started, mankind was being chased by the thought of security;they had to protect themsleves from nature and wild animals; they were simple minded and worked in harmony with nature; their chasers forced them to reach to a securer, greener pastures.

Analogoulsy, In the modern age with the passage of time as we have detached ourselves from Nature, we are chased not only by nature but also our expectations to achieve more, more and more. We have isolated ourselves from nature and are chased away from happiness and peacefulness. We are now more concerned with fellow human beings who are more monstrous than the wild animals of Neolithic era. It is not possible either to draw a picture of the chasers on the graph that will spread all over the sheet making the chaser look like a devouring monster trying to chase us beyond time. If one could peep into the cerebral of our brain he will find that a certain portion has been occupied by the chasers; they are creating immense sensation causing sparks of tension , high pressure and a palpating heart with a trembled humanitarian approach. The chasers aspire you to soar high above the sky, to become as omniscient as next to God. It makes you forget your roots and you are tempted to work for your benefits; at times by going against nature. Today we are chased by terrorism, fear of nuclear war, dishonest people craving for wealth, furies of nature, e.g., Tsunami, Katrina,Earthquake, Incessant rain followed by flood and even draught. It has always been a race against time for we humans. And we have won this race.

Let us hope on this festive occasion for some kind of role reversal and become chasers from chasee. Let us chase only the love of nature and crave for the green grass, the wild trees and the cool breeze. Let us all try together. Together we can. We have done in the past and we will do it. Let's just do it !!

Now something about logistics. Our team consisted of all residents of B C Roy Hall with the core team of about 10 members. They took about 5 man days to create this beautiful piece of art. We have used mainly primary colours viz. Red, Green, Blue and others like White, Buff & Red oxide.
Thank you !! "

Second prize winning rangoli of Azad hall is shown on LHS.
The first prize winning rangoli and ilu of LLR hall is shown below:

Speed

Moving with high speed in the car
Objects moved opposite and gone far

But why such a haste?
Seems there's no time to waste
Though it's not a race
Yet life should've some pace

Moving with such a speed
Came a revelation indeed

Those who were closer
Moved away faster
And no matter how fast I moved
Farthest one remained unmoved

Good that miles away you are
Hence with me always you are

Farther you go away from me
Longer will you stay with me
That's how relativity relates
Amalgamated by speed and Pace
------------------------
-Narendra Shukla

R & P

Research and Plagiarism ( R & P) are two sides of the same coin. As they that, "Copying from one is Plagiarism (P) while from many is Research (R) ". It becomes particularly important in our indian context where R & D practically and ironically stands for "Read and Duplicate" rather than its usual meaning i.e. "Research and Development". There is a thin line dividing Research and Plagiarism and usually it's very context-sensitive. All top universities in the world treat P as a criminal offence and they have publicised their anti-plagiarism policies on their web-sites. But our premier research institutions like IITs and IISc don't seem to have a policy on this in place. Even if a policy exists who cares in this country. There are so many policies and only policies on other matters also but .... I guess you got the point.

Again, as usual, there are two school of thoughts. One which says that there is nothing wrong in borrowing the idea than trying to become failed but so-called original creative. And the other which values the capability or Human mind to think independently and to create something new. This is what research is all about. It's not always putting old wine in a new bottle rather it's a creation of new flavour itself. Imagine without true researchers what would our life had been? Have a look around in your surroundings? Could you mention even a single thing which is a result of plagiarist's effort?

Let's become devil's advocate for a moment and ask ourselves, Why should not people plagiarise? What's wrong in sticking to reverse engineering and rejigging a tried-and-tested formula? To put it Shakespearically, If to P or not to P, that's the question, then why not P? i.e. the easier way out of the two. There are so many strict deadlines to meet, so much researh fundings to get, and there is so little time for research. Who has got the patience and time of Thomas A. Edison or Claude E. Shannon to spend so many years on single research topic? Then why is it a criminal offence? If people say it's just an act of morally-impaired researcher, let them say that. Well, I would exclude software copyright supporters vs open source movement enthusiasts from this writing. Interseted are directed to this article by Richard M. Stallman.

So, let's stop worrying about P and assume that our researchers too responsible to make any policy to check P. In my views, P has always been there and will continue to exist as a shadow of R. e.g. Louis Kahn got inspiration fom Piranesi, Mozart copied tunes from his arch-rival Salieri; Martin Scorsese did a remake of J Thompson Lee’s Cape Fear, and Spielberg’s background score in "Raiders Of the Lost Ark" is virtually copied from a Tchaikovsky composition.

Now coming back to the "original" question, To P or not to P? I neither advocate P nor I say that it's good for R. Since there is nothing absolutely good or bad, everthing is relative. So, I leave the ultimate choice to you. I would like to end this monologue by quoting a very famous statement by bollywood film maker Mahesh Bhatt,

"For me, there is nothing like plagiarism, since there is nothing like originality. The human brain is a recycling bin. If you hide the source, you’re a genius." :-)

--------------------------

-Narendra Shukla

Aren't you God?

Miles away you are
From me
But it seems
Always you are
With me
Every single beat of my heart
Takes your name only
The reminiscence of moments
We spent togther
Flash with every breath-in

They say that
God is with me always
Similarly you are
With me always
In every moment
With every passing second
All the time
So, Tell me,

O adorable !
Aren't you God?

-Narendra Shukla

The Road Not Taken

The Road Not Taken
by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I--
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
From The Poetry of Robert Frost by Robert Frost, edited by Edward Connery Lathem. Copyright 1916, 1923, 1928, 1930, 1934, 1939, 1947, 1949, © 1969 by Holt Rinehart and Winston, Inc. Copyright 1936, 1942, 1944, 1945, 1947, 1948, 1951, 1953, 1954, © 1956, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962 by Robert Frost. Copyright © 1962, 1967, 1970 by Leslie Frost Ballantine.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

Rules

Rules

-R. W. Lucky
(IEEE Fellow)

Once upon a time, there were rules. They gave order to my career from the first day of my first electrical engineering course. It was then that I was introduced to Ohm’s Law. For a whole year, I dealt with the many possible manifestations of this one great rule that defines the relationships among voltage, current, and resistance. There were countless problems involving such longforgotten concepts as current loops and Thevenin’s theorem.

The rest of my engineering education was similar. In these engineering courses, there were relatively simple rules underlying all behavior. Educational life was reduced to endless repetition: given a particular problem, apply the appropriate rules, derive a solution, and so on.

When I started in industry as an engineer in the Bell System, there was a similar rule-driven paradigm for business behavior. No one who ever worked in that company will forget something called the “GEI”—the giant loose-leaf binder containing the General Executive Instructions. These were the rules of employment. In that thick binder was a rule for any situation that might be encountered in the business environment. Need to have a paper cleared? What about outside employment or when it would be proper to receive an honorarium? How should you handle an employee with a drinking problem? Every conceivable event had its own page with the relevant rules.

Those were the quaint days when there were twice-daily deliveries of paper mail. On each of these deliveries, my mail would contain new inserts for the GEI. In addition to these new pages, there would be instructions that certain pages should now be removed. The rules kept changing, but mostly they just grew. It seemed as if my secretary was kept busy just making sure my GEI binder was up to date.

I used to wonder where these rules originated. Who was making them up? I imagined that it was the mail department writing them secretly at night in order to fill up their mail baskets and promote job security.

The omnipresence of the rules was so palpable that the absence of a rule in a particular situation was a disturbing event in itself. These disturbing events would usually herald new pages for the GEI. The greatest exception was the lack of clear-cut rules for how employees would be evaluated in the annual performance review. Time and again, one of my subordinates would complain about this. “How am I to be judged?” he or she would plead. “There must be rules.” The implication was that without written rules, management could not be trusted and would undoubtedly be rendered incompetent.

After several decades of this, one day the rules seemed to disappear. I don’t know when it was, and perhaps it happened so gradually that I didn’t notice until much later—like now. I surely don’t recall hearing any proclamation like “Henceforth, there will be no rules.” Nevertheless, the inserts for the GEI became less regular, and then sporadic. The Bell System itself was torn apart, and perhaps whatever group was responsible for creating the rules was shipped to some doomed offshoot.

My theory is that life was growing so complicated that the number of rules was increasing without bounds. Before long, every employee of the company would have been occupied with the task of writing and distributing rules, and no one would have been left to do the actual work. Rules were becoming both too expensive and too constraining. Someone must have recognized this and decided that life would have to proceed without rules and would become—well, fuzzy.

I think much the same thing happened to all my cherished rules of engineering. Somewhere, I am sure, Ohm’s Law still applies, but I’m no longer confident about just where. As the size of circuits shrinks, the life of the electron becomes complex and fuzzy. In the presence of electromigration, parasitic effects, quantum tunneling, and other phenomena of the small, the electron may not realize that it has to obey Ohm’s Law. For every rule I used to know, I have to stop and ask myself: what were the assumptions behind this rule? Do they still apply? Worse yet, there is no Ohm’s Law for software. In the face of its enormous complexity, it can’t be depended upon to behave as if it knew any rules.

Living without rules gives us an uneasy freedom. We make up things as we go along amidst an increasing uncertainty and unpredictability. Life in the business world, and in technology, is fuzzy.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Article "Robert's Rules" by ROBERT W. LUCKY (F), now retired, was vice president for applied research at Telcordia Technology in Red Bank, N.J. (rlucky@telcordia.com).
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Neo-Economics

Japanese save a lot. They do not spend much. Also Japan exports far more than it imports. Has an annual trade surplus of over $100 billions, that is Rs.5 lakh crores. Yet Japanese economy is considered weak, even collapsing.

Americans spend, save little. Also US imports more than it exports. Has an annual trade deficit of over $400 billions, that is over Rs.20 lakh crores. Yet, the American economy is considered strong and trusted to get stronger.

Indeed a contrast.

But where from do Americans get money to spend? They borrow from Japan, China and even India. Virtually others save for US to spend. Global savings are mostly invested in US, in dollars. India itself keeps its foreign currency assets of over $50 billions in US securities. China has sunk over $160 billion in US securities. Japan's stakes in US securities is in trillions. Result. The US has taken over $5 trillion from the world. Want to know it in rupees? Rs.2,50,000 crore crores! So, as the world saves for US, Americans spend freely. Today, to keep the US consumption going, that is for the US economy to work, other countries have to remit $180 billion every quarter, that is $2 billion a day, to the US! Otherwise the US economy would go for a six. So will the global economy.

The result will be no different if A Chinese economist asked a neat question. Who has invested more, US in China, or China in US? The US has invested in China less than half of what China has invested in US. The same is the case with us. We have invested in US over $50 billion. But the US has invested less than $20 billion in India.

Why the world is after US?

The secret lies in the American spend, in that they hardly save. In fact they use their credit cards to spend their future income. That the US spends is what makes it attractive to export to the US. So, US imports more than what it exports year after year.
The result. The world is dependent on US consumption for its growth. By its deepening culture of consumption, the US has habituated the world to feed on US consumption. But as the US needs money to finance its consumption, the world provides the money. It's like a shopkeeper providing the money to a customer so that the customer keeps buying from the shop. The customer will not buy, the shop won't have business, unless the shopkeeper funds him. The US is like the lucky customer. And the world is like the helpless shopkeeper financier.
Who is America's biggest shopkeeper financier?

Japan. Yet it is Japan, which is regarded as weak. Modern economists complain that Japanese do not spend, so they do not grow. To force the Japanese to spend, the Japanese government exerted itself. Reduced the savings rates, even charged the savers. Even then the Japanese did not spend. They're traditional postal savings alone is over $1.2trillion. that is. Rs.60 lakh crores, about three times the GDP of India. Thus, savings, far from being the strength of Japan, has become its pain.

What is the lesson? That is, a nation cannot grow unless the people spend, not save. Not just spend, but borrow and spend. Dr. Jagdish Bhagwati, the famous Indain-born economist in the US, told Dr. Manmohan Singh that Indians wastefully save. Ask them to spend, he said. On imported cars and, seriously, even on cosmetics! This, he counseled, will put India on a growth curve. But like Japanese we too are not obliging.

Modernists may not, but one who has read the Mahabharatha will, know. A Rishi by name Charuvaka gave the same advice when Pandavas were around, which modern economists are giving today. He told the people to spend and be happy, if need be by borrowing. No need to repay, if you cannot, he counseled. No sin would attach, he assured. Fortunately his advice was rejected by us thousands of years back. That is why perhaps we are alive as a nation. Our old companions are in archives today. Now we have the very same advice. That is saving as sin, and spending as virtue. This is central to neo-economics.

Caution. Before you follow these Neo-Charuvakas, get some fools to save so that you can borrow from them and spend, after you exhaust your savings. This is what US has successfully done in last two decades.

Gender Discrimination

An angry letter from a young lady made JRD Tata change his rule.
THERE are two photographs that hang on my office wall. Everyday when I enter my office I look at them before starting my day. They are pictures of two old people. One is of a gentleman in a blue suit and the other is a black and white image of a man with dreamy eyes and a white beard. People have often asked me if the people in the photographs are related to me. Some have even asked me, "Is this black and white photo that of a Sufi saint or a religious Guru?" I smile and reply "No, nor are they related to me. These people made an impact on my life. I am grateful to them." "Who are they?" "The man in the blue suit is Bharat Ratna JRD Tata and the black and white photo is of Jamsedji Tata." "But why do you have them in your office?"" You can call it gratitude."Then, invariably, I have to tell the person the following story. It was a long time ago. I was young and bright, bold and idealistic. I was in the final year of my Master's course in Computer Science at the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, then known as the Tata Institute. Life was full of fun and joy. I did not know what helplessness or injustice meant.

It was probably the April of 1974. Bangalore was getting warm and gulmohars were blooming at the IISc campus. I was the only girl in my postgraduate department and was staying at the ladies' hostel. Other girls were pursuing research in different departments of Science. I was looking forward to going abroad to complete a doctorate in computer science. I had been offered scholarships from Universities in the US. I had not thought of taking up a job in India. One day, while on the way to my hostel from our lecture-hall complex, I saw an advertisement on the notice board. It was a standard job-requirement notice from the famous automobile company Telco (now Tata Motors). It stated that the company required young, bright engineers, hardworking and with an excellent academic background, etc.At the bottom was a small line: "Lady candidates need not apply." I read it and was very upset. For the first time in my life I was up against gender discrimination.Though I was not keen on taking up the job, I saw it as a challenge. I had done extremely well in academics, better than most of my male peers. Little did I know then that in real life academic excellence is not enough to be successful.After reading the notice I went fuming to my room. I decided to inform the topmost person in Telco's management about the injustice the company was perpetrating. I got a postcard and started to write, but there was a problem: I did not know who headed Telco. I thought it must be one of the Tatas. I knew JRD Tata was the head of the Tata Group; I had seen his pictures in newspapers (actually, Sumant Moolgaokar was the company's chairman then).I took the card, addressed it to JRD and started writing.

To this day I remember clearly what I wrote. "The great Tatas have always been pioneers. They are the people who started the basic infrastructure industries in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher education in India, such as iron and steel, chemicals, textiles and locomotives. They have cared for higher education in India since 1900 and they were responsible for the establishment of the Indian Institute of Science. Fortunately, I study there. But I am surprised how a company such as Telco is discriminating on the basis of gender."I posted the letter and forgot about it. Less than 10 days later, I received a telegram stating that I had to appear for an interview at Telco's Pune facility at the company's expense. I was taken aback by the telegram. My hostel mated told me I should use the opportunity to go to Pune free of cost and buy them the famous Pune saris for cheap! I collected Rs 30 each from everyone who wanted a sari.

When I look back, I feel like laughing at the reasons for my going, but back then they seemed good enough to make the trip.It was my first visit to Pune and I immediately fell in love with the city. To this day it remains dear to me. I feel as much at home in Pune as I do in Hubli, my hometown. The place changed my life in so many ways.As directed, I went to Telco's Pimpri office for the interview. There were six people on the panel and I realised then that this was serious business. "This is the girl who wrote to JRD," I heard somebody whisper as soon as I entered the room. By then I knew for sure that I would not get the job. The realisation abolished all fear from my mind, so I was rather cool while the interview was being conducted.

Even before the interview started, I reckoned the panel was biased, so I told them, rather impolitely, "I hope this is only a technical interview." They were taken aback by my rudeness, and even today I am ashamed about my attitude.The panel asked me technical questions and I answered all of them. Then an elderly gentleman with an affectionate voice told me, "Do you know why we said lady candidates need not apply? The reason is that we have never employed any ladies on the shop floor. This is not a co-ed college; this is a factory. When it comes to academics, you are a first ranker throughout. We appreciate that, but people like you should work in research laboratories."

I was a young girl from small-town Hubli. My world had been a limited place. I did not know the ways of large corporate houses and their difficulties, so I answered, "But you must start somewhere, otherwise no woman will ever be able to work in your factories."Finally, after a long interview, I was told I had been successful. So this was what the future had in store for me.

Never had I thought I would take up a job in Pune. I met a shy young man from Karnataka there, we became good friends and we got married.It was only after joining Telco that I realised who JRD was: the uncrowned king of Indian industry. Now I was scared, but I did not get to meet him till I was transferred to Bombay.

One day I had to show some reports to Mr Moolgaokar, our chairman, who we all knew as SM. I was in his office on the first floor of Bombay House (the Tata headquarters) when, suddenly JRD walked in. That was the first time I saw "appro JRD". Appro means "our" in Gujarati. This was the affectionate term by which people at Bombay House called him.I was feeling very nervous, remembering my postcard episode. SM introduced me nicely, "Jeh (that's what his close associates called him), this young woman is an engineer and that too a postgraduate. She is the first woman to work on the Telco shop floor." JRD looked at me. I was praying he would not ask me any questions about my interview (or the postcard that preceded it). Thankfully, he didn't. Instead, he remarked. "It is nice that girls are getting into engineering in our country. By the way, what is your name?" "When I joined Telco I was Sudha Kulkarni, Sir," I replied. "Now I am Sudha Murthy." He smiled and kindly smile and started a discussion with SM. As for me, I almost ran out of the room.

After that I used to see JRD on and off. He was the Tata Group chairman and I was merely an engineer. There was nothing that we had in common. I was in awe of him.One day I was waiting for Murthy, my husband, to pick me up after office hours. To my surprise I saw JRD standing next to me. I did not know how to react. Yet again I started worrying about that postcard. Looking back, I realise JRD had forgotten about it. It must have been a small incident for him, but not so for me."Young lady, why are you here?" he asked. "Office time is over." I said, "Sir, I'm waiting for my husband to come and pick me up." JRD said, "It is getting dark and there's no one in the corridor. I'll wait with you till your husband comes." I was quite used to waiting for Murthy, but having JRD waiting alongside made me extremely uncomfortable.I was nervous. Out of the corner of my eye I looked at him. He wore a simple white pant and shirt. He was old, yet his face was glowing. There wasn't any air of superiority about him. I was thinking, "Look at this person. He is a chairman, a well-respected man in our country and he is waiting for the sake of an ordinary employee."Then I saw Murthy and I rushed out. JRD called and said, "Young lady, tell your husband never to make his wife wait again."

In 1982 I had to resign from my job at Telco. I was reluctant to go, but I really did not have a choice. I was coming down the steps of Bombay House after wrapping up my final settlement when I saw JRD coming up. He was absorbed in thought. I wanted to say goodbye to him, so I stopped. He saw me and paused.Gently, he said, "So what are you doing, Mrs Kulkarni?" (That was the way he always addressed me.) "Sir, I am leaving Telco." "Where are you going?" he asked. "Pune, Sir. My husband is starting a company called Infosys and I'm shifting to Pune." "Oh! And what will you do when you are successful." "Sir, I don't know whether we will be successful." "Never start with diffidence," he advised me. "Always start with confidence. When you are successful you must give back to society. Society gives us so much; we must reciprocate. I wish you all the best."Then JRD continued walking up the stairs. I stood there for what seemed like a millennium. That was the last time I saw him alive.

Many years later I met Ratan Tata in the same Bombay House, occupying the chair JRD once did. I told him of my many sweet memories of working with Telco. Later, he wrote to me, "It was nice hearing about Jeh from you. The sad part is that he's not alive to see you today."I consider JRD a great man because, despite being an extremely busy person, he valued one postcard written by a young girl seeking justice. He must have received thousands of letters everyday. He could have thrown mine away, but he didn't do that. He respected the intentions of that unknown girl, who had neither influence nor money, and gave her an opportunity in his company. He did not merely give her a job; he changed her life and mindset forever.

Close to 50 per cent of the students in today's engineering colleges are girls. And there are women on the shop floor in many industry segments.I see these changes and I think of JRD. If at all time stops and asks me what I want from life, I would say I wish JRD were alive today to see how the company we started has grown. He would have enjoyed it wholeheartedly.My love and respect for the House of Tata remains undiminished by the passage of time. I always looked up to JRD. I saw him as a role model for his simplicity, his generosity, his kindness and the care he took of his employees. Those blue eyes always reminded me of the sky; they had the same vastness and magnificence.

Sudha Murthy was livid when a job advertisement posted by a Tata company at the institution where she was completing her post graduation stated that "Lady candidates need not apply". She dashed off a post card to JRD Tata, protesting against the discrimination. Following this, Mrs Murthy was called for an interview and she became the first female engineer to work on the shop floor at Telco (now Tata Motors). It was the beginning of an association that would change her life in more ways than one.

Article sourced from: Lasting Legacies (Tata Review- Special Commemorative Issue 2004), brought out by the house of Tatas to commemorate the 100th birth anniversary of JRD Tata on July 29, 2004