Naren's weblog

Slumbitch Billionare

2009-02-01T00:05:00.011+05:30

As all of you know something wonderful happened in the World Cinema this year. Indian press is going gaga over a movie touted as largely Indian and nominated for 10 Oscars including 3 oscar nomination for People of Indian Origin (PIO) but Global Citizens viz. A. R. Rahman, Gulzar and Sukhvinder Singh. Click here for details.

Yes you got it right. I am talking about Slumdog Millionare (SM) by Danny. Even Ms. Nikhat Kazmi rated a movie as 4.5 stars in ToI 23rd Jan in her review and it was one of the first by Ms. Kazmi as noted by me. I may be wrong here :-) Let me quote from her reveiw
"quote"....Forget the twitter about aggrieved national sentiment. For Slumdog Millionaire is neither poverty porn nor slum tourism… No Slumdog is just a piece of riveting cinema, meant to be savoured as a Cinderella-like fairy tale, with the edge of a thriller and the vision of an artist. It was never meant to be a documentary on the down and out… And it isn't..... "\quote"

And this prompted we (yours sincerely and Jaya) to watch this euphoric movie which has taken Indian intellectuals on a ride. The following comments are purely personal and similarity with anybody living or dead is purely co-incidental :-)

"movie_review"...IMHO, it is a pathetic movie but not poverty porn with excellent music and direction. It deglorifes India, indian police, brothels (RLA) but fails misrably while attempting this with the indian slums. They gets are glorifed in the process. Movie succeeds in glorification of the Goras visiting Taj Mahal and slumdogs' childhood romance. "\movie_review"

We both were having a big headache after coming out of Big Cinema at Palam Vihar. Even "welcome to sajjanpur" by Mr. shyam benegal was more entertaining than this movie. We felt like somebody robbed us of our 400 bucks which is a big money to save in this recession times rather than donating it to Big cinemas. :( Had Mr. Danny Boyle learnt something from Bollywood movie Mukhbir's producer of "Satisfactory Guarantee Challenge", I would have been richer by INR 400 today ;-) But it seems Mr. Boyle had full confidence in his marketing and moreover Gora-bhakt indian crowd. Do you think that a similar movie by an Indian director like Meera Nair on Vikas Swarup's Q&A had even gone for Golden Globe, forget about Oscar nominations?

After finding out later that Mr. Arindam Chaudhuri of The Great Indian Dream fame also agrees with me on his latest blog, I propose the following:

Movie Name: Slumbitch Billionare (SB)
Director: Arindam Chaudhuri
Producer: TBD
Music Director: A. R. Rahman
Lyricist: Gulzar
Location: London, slums around posh Oxford Street {:-) as you know every second bollywood movie is shot in London now-a-days}
Game Show Name: Who wants to be a billionare?

Quizmaster: Mr. Siddhartha Basu (the other person with me in the pic of this post)
Game Show Host: No prize for guessing this. It is the fellow participant at Big Boss season 1 (who faced Racial discrimination charges against Shilpa Shetty). Hope you remember!!
Lead actors: Darsheel Safary of TZP and Freida Pinto.... and role 0f Jamal can be given to Aman aka Banku from Bhootnath.
We may do one more twist in the movie adaptation of the novel Q&A in the movie to show our contribution. Since "Becoming a millionare is an individual's aspiration while becoming a billionare is an organization's". Hence in our movie, Darsheel would be working for a Slumbitch Indian BPO company having its office in London's Oxford Street aspiring to become Billionare. Who wants to be billionare? No, not Darsheel; it is that Indian BPO. By the way, nothing is much different in SB from SM by choosing UK office of indian company as our hero from SM also works for a Mumbai BPO. And everybody knows what happens in India's call centres now-a-days by reading Chetan Bhagat's One Night at The Call Centre :)

So I am looking for a producer for this movie as that is the only name which is To Be Decided (TBD) in the above schema of things. Even if movie is made and released in India with "Maza na aaaye to paise wapas" (money refund) challenge it is not going to run for even a single week. You can very well guess that this movie will not win any filmfare or screen awards forget about Golden Globe or Oscar nominations even ;-) And you know how many stars Ms Nikhat will give to this movie in her review.......Just one * ...... :-(... Still if somebody is willing to become producer; of this movie please contact me :-)

Hence we say,
Itne saare slumdogs
Aur us se bhi jyaada dogs
Aur us bhi jyaada bade logon ke Kaan (ears)
Phir bhi Mera Bharat Mahaaaaaaaaaaaan (my india is great)!!

Jai Ho!!
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© Narendra Shukla, 2009. No part of this post should be copied and used anywhere without prior approval from author.
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Welcome to State Sponsored Criminalisation of Politics

2009-01-05T23:54:00.003+05:30

I sincerely wish A very Happy new Year 2009 to all the MLAs of Delhi. May you keep on winning all the future elections in this country and Keep India as number one Investor in Swiss Bank.... Coutnry's GDP will feel proud of you for your contribution to Swiss Bank...

In lighter vein, I sincerely wish that 40% of you go to your deserved places by the end of this year and you should never see the face of Delhi Assembly. Please don't mind it sir!! You are the honourable law maker for Delhi...Sorry zaara jubaan phisal gayi :-)

http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_1wyvHyrZDgs/SWCa-VCUjtI/AAAAAAAAAFI/AC16M0qnNyc/s1600-h/Picture+2.jpg

Transcript of few lines overheard by AAm aadmi (while YFE members were posting these posters on foggy winter night of this 1st Jan to WAKE this capital city from the Deep Sleep)

1) Bharat Maata ki Jai.....

2) Ye jo desh hai mera..

Criminals se bhara...

3) Ye Delhi Police se itne fog me itni mehnat kyon karwa rahe hai YFE waale...

4)Arre behan _ _ _ _, ye poster kon laga gayo re _ _ _ _ Maari naukari le doobega ke .. Behan _ _ _ _ Raat kharaab kar di in Behan _ _ _ _ _ _ Inki Maan Ki _ _ _ _

5) Delhi Goverment Amar Rahe..

6) SD Teraa raaj Kaayam rahe..

7) Arjun bhi jaldi hi tumhaare saath honge...Aur krishna Geeta bhool kar Prapanchtantra ka paath padhayega is kalyug mein.... Is Arjun ko Gyaan do bhagwan....Bhaut Bhatak Gaya hai..

8) Question: Jab Delhi mein har roj kam se kam ek draupdi ki aabroo loot te hain, tab Krishna kahan hota hai??

Answer: Krishna, Arjun ke saath 40% MLA ki rakhwaali kar raha hota hai..These MLAs are biggest asset to our nation.. Hence Delhi Govt has recruited Both Krishna and Arjun for their personal Security

9) Hum honge kaamyab ek din....saathi haath badhaana.. ek poster utar jayegaa.. doosara waala bhi poster utarwaana.. jaldi se utaaro aur ghar jao.. bahut fog hai aaj kal !!

10) Kam se kam traffic police maamu ko logon ki breath analysis check karne se better kaam karne ko to Diya YFE waalon ne ;-)

Jai Hind!!

Govinda - The Lord and the Business of Devotion

2008-07-18T12:54:00.007+05:30

Click on this link to see an abridged, humourous version of this post Fursat Friday 23 - July 18, 2008 - Lord Means Business

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In first week of this month, I ventured on a FSAT (Family Satisfaction) trip to Bengaluru and Tirupati. The occasion was head shaving ceremony (aka Mundan ) of my 10 month old niece named Pihu. We thought it would be great to get Pihu’s Mundan performed at the Devasthanam (Place of God). It’s customary to tonsure and offer your hairs to Lord Venkateswara to demonstrate that we completely surrender our ego at the feet of the Lord. But Pihu had little choice left to think about this objective of tonsuring as her parents had already decided it for her. Further our appointment with Lord Srinivasa was co-inciding with my b’day and it was different feeling to spend it amidst sacred Sapthagiri (Seven Hills). So with lot of mixed feeling inside and b’day wishes pouring into my ears* through wireless channel outside; we started our uphill journey from Tirupati to temple at Tirumala.
(* Thank you Ravi for being the first caller of the day and your nice b’day wishes!)

The place looked quite changed since I had visited here last time about 7 years back. I could sense commercialization of devotion everywhere starting from altercation with the cab driver who took us uphill. He demanded us more than what he had agreed upon at the foothills of the Lord. Finally after the payment, we moved to KalyanaKatta for the Mundan. It being Saturday, the queue for buying ticket to tonsure was long and by the time I reached at the head of the queue, it was lunch time. I thanked Lord for making me at the head of the queue when counter re-opened after the lunch time. Then it was testing time for Pihu as she sat on the lap of her father while her head being shaved by a very experienced barber. She cried furiously but nobody listened. We could feel her pain through her tears. It was difficult task to bring her back in good mood after tonsuring. After lot of persuasion for about one hour she smiled as shown in the picture.

Now it was time for us to get Darshan (face to face meeting) of the Lord. We did not bother to buy the Darshan ticket as Arul P. (from Nalanda team) had arranged a Member of Parliament (M. P.) letter for facilitating VIP cellar entry ticket for us. I was surprised to see the long queue of crowd even at VIP counter and started wondering whether so many family members of VIPs visit the Lord on every weekend or was it our sheer bad luck? The security person locked the door after some time and announced to everybody “अभी टोकन नहीं मिलेगा, चार बजे आना (Come at 16:00 hrs)”. It was just 13:30 and we had lot of time to kill. I called up Arul and he suggested that we should have reached earlier. I felt bad about killing my time in tonsuring token queue. Instead, I could have tried here in this queue and might have received the Darshan token. Anyways, we roamed around in Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanam (TTD) campus till 15:45 or so getting a glimpse of majestic temple complex and people waiting in Darshan queue chanting (rather shouting) Govinda. In anticipation of early Darshan, when we reached at VIP counter again at 16:00 hours the counter was still closed and lot of VIP crowd still waiting for it to re-open. Closer to the counter they had put one old rusted iron plate placard announcing, “No cellar entry tickets will be issued on VIP letters due to heavy rush of the pilgrims.”

We read this with a sense of shock. So there was no hope for us to rendezvous with God using VIP letter. After some time, I could observe some persons getting VIP letters issued from the backdoor with the help of the touts roaming around. They had letter head of various MPs (as well as other TTD trust recognized VIPs) and they were issuing these letters on the spot for a fee. And the VIP counter was secretly issuing the tokens to these selected few. I felt pity for the people taking services from these touts. A pious activity like Lord’s Darshan should not be obtained using this kind of unethical means. I expressed my wish of not obtaining Darshan by using touts and returning back to Bangalore to everybody in my Team. Everybody agreed except my better half Jaya. She said let her explore more about getting a Darshan. She returned with some success and told there are three possibilities now:

1) Wait till 21:00 hrs when VIP counter will possibly re-open
2) At 18:00 hrs. there would be entry through the shortest possible queue for elderly, physically handicapped (PH) and babies lesser than two years accompanied by their mother
3) Pay the touts and get Darshan for everybody

First option was ruled out as we had train to catch at 23:30 hrs. The second option seemed quite interesting to us. Since Jaya and Pihu were the only debutants in my team at this temple, so they can enter in the queue as proxy mother-daughter pair. Rest of us had already been here before, so we agreed to wait outside as they would anyway come out in about 40 minutes. So we decided to forgo our Darshan and let these two go inside. As they started waiting in that queue, I felt something was not correct. What has happened to our ethics? We were using a big lie for Darshan but probably observing the deity was more important than the means used to achieve it at that moment. The other thing which went wrong simultaneously was that the youngest one started crying. As soon as Jaya handed over her to me she started feeling better. Perhaps she liked her maternal uncle more than her newly found proxy mother. So we three now started waiting in that queue full of senior citizens, PH persons and babies with their mothers. I was prepared to leave Pihu with Jaya as soon as we would reach near the entrance. But HE had something in store for us.

While we were waiting a PH person approached us and asked me whether I am also interested in accompanying the baby and her mother. A foul smell of local liquor was coming out of his mouth and upon a closer inspection it looked like he was handicapped just for this “profession”. His right leg was butchered badly and he must be in acute pain. May be alcohol was the only pain-killer he could afford while on the “job”. I wanted to plainly refuse but Jaya signaled me to listen to his offer at least. He said since he is allowed to take one attendant with himself into the temple he could take me (of course for a fee). And thus I would be getting Darshan of the Lord with my “family” and he would take his money only after coming out of the temple. The offer sounded interesting since both Pihu and Jaya needed my presence with them inside the temple. So we agreed to his offer. He told me, when TTD officials ask us before entering the temple, tell them that he was Ram from Mumbai and he got his leg butchered in a road accident. Since he was not in a position to walk on his own, we both had travelled from Mumbai this far. I understood whatever lie he had asked me to tell to TTD person issuing tokens. Thus I became his attendant and we stood like famous “blind and amputee” pair of old B/W movie Dosti (1964). I felt like singing, “Raahi manwa dukh ki chinta kyon sataati hai…”

I did just what he had asked me to do. I told his name as Ram for getting an entry ticket for both of us for Darshan. As soon as we gained entry into the temple he did not require my help as attendant. He started to walk normally albeit with a limp. He seemed very popular figure inside the temple as he was treated equally with smiles as well as hatred (may be because of alcohol smell). I joined Jaya and Pihu with a surety that he would find us out for his money. With the little one piggybacking on me we three crawled through the crowd of devotees chanting Govinda. We could finally manage to get Darshan using NOT so appropriate means. It was shortest possible queuing time for me in my three trips to Tirupati Balaji so far. As we were coming out “Ram” came to me and asked me to come with him for the Tirupati laddu prasadam. We purchased a plastic cover and two laddus at very subsidized rate on Ram’s ticket, that too again in the shortest queue. He told me that he manages to sell these laddus as Rs 250/- per piece and we need to add this amount to his final fees. And we actually verified his claim later. If one wants more laddus than what is prescribed on the entry token you need to pay similar amount for purchasing in black. We all were happy that every one in my team has obtained Darshan of the Lord at least once including Pihu. May be she was happiest to get Darshan at such a young age. So with happy mind and a very heavy heart we paid the service fee to Ram and said Twama di vastu Govindam, tubhayamav samarpyami (what is mine is the Lord's)…Ram bid a formal bye to us but not before taking my mobile number. May be he was in the process of compiling his list of clients so that he can circulate his number as soon as he get one. J

We started for Bangaluru and "Ram" for his next client. This was Pihu’s Mundan and my birthday spent so nicely in Lord’s company witnessing commercialization of devotion at the richest temple in India.

Nature's Computer

2008-07-18T12:48:00.002+05:30

Fursat Friday 10 - April 18, 2008

The following thoughts (rather absurdity) are side-effects of my ongoing reading of "The World Within the World" by John David Barrow of University of Cambridge…

As Cicero once said: There is nothing so absurd that it has not been said by philosophers. So the following piece is absurdity pennified. That's good way to become self-proclaimed philosopher... :-)

We always wonder when we look at the world around us. Is there any order and certainty OR is it completely random OR there is some order in such seeming disorder i.e. Nature is Chaotic? (Ref. http://narendrashukla.blogspot.com/2006/07/711-and-chaos.html)

Apparently, behind this ever changing world of ours there lies a changeless world of order and certainty. i.e. This visually changing world is overlaid (as SS7 is an overlay network on PSTN) on a world upon which we can exert no discernible influence. It is completely oblivious whether its operations are intelligble to us or not? But without which there would be no cosmos and no life. Whether observable "Mother Nature" presents before us is governed by certains laws OR there are no laws altogther? Who has built these laws bounded nicely by deterministic mathematical equations?

Who else but us, the homo-sapiens. We have built it up, step by step, through observations, and trial and error...or so, it seems…

Nature appears to possess laws which are mathematical not because we know so much about the nature, but because we know so little; it is only its mathematical properties that we can discover (Bertrand Russell). How limited we are in our sensory capability? How accidental our existences are really and how full of influence by circumstances...

Looks like we are confronted with a cosmic computer whose output we are trying to decipher through our limited five senses… though few people possess the sixth sense as well... we observe patterns presented to us and the responses given by tinkering with its keyboard. We try to piece together the inner logic of its programming .. very similar to 20 questions game where just by Yes/No kind of answers, you can read presenter's mind.

Is it possible to physically build an elephant by enumerating its, say, 20 characteristics? Reminds of famous Buddhist parable of the Blind men and the Elephant ... Isn't it ?You will agree that behind this apparent rationality of Nature's Computers there must be some expert programmer (or say the Architect of the Matrix)… so who is that architect or programmer? Is it a Divine programmer, or just Man, the Mundane keyboard operator, seeing the reflection of his own mind as it struggles to describe the Elephant?

The search continues… Can Google OR SWoogle help?

As Robert Frost says : You're searching, For things that do not exist. I mean the beginnings. Ends and beginnings. Ends and beginnings - there are no such things. There are only middles

Till next post…
Have a Great Weekend…
Narendra

Re-Visit to Alma Mater

2008-07-18T12:43:00.001+05:30

Fursat Friday 6 - March 21, 2008
Read at your own risk. No guarantees about sanity of the writer and the readers who finished reading till last !!
Ravi is responsible for rekindling those smoldering embers in me which used to be fire till July 25 2006 (Ref. my last blog @ http://narendrashukla.blogspot.com). Thanks Ravi!
You may ask the reason behind the transformation of bright fire (?) to smoldering embers. Well, the simplest possible reason which I can think of at this moment is, "I came in contact with Jaya around this time and eventually she agreed to tolerate me for next seven lives (read in SUD's {98.3 FM} accent : Oops.. that's limit of somebody's tolerance) on 14th Dec 2006" :-)
Time just flew off and everything was going on cool and then entered Ravi "Saki" with his Fursat Fridays (FFs) and to trigger me out of my inertia. Well, thanks Ravi for all those thought provoking FFs. All your four FFs had been fun to read and quite educative too. You may wonder whether I am writing a Bloggerazi here or just paying my gratitude to the pioneer blogger in L & E team by thanking him twice so far in this blog. You will definitely agree with me when you understand the writer in me. And I assume that you would, one fine day !! And, we shall overcome... we shall overcome... One day... So he deserves it. Isn't it?
So once again, Thanks Ravi :-)
This week has been quite wonderful for me and still it is. I started it with four sessions on Monday which were followed by 4 on the last Friday too. So there was no fursat on last Friday to read FF4. Finally on Wednesday I found time to read FF4 as the TCL/Tk technical training got over one hour before the scheduled closure time. We love such trainers who don't torture us with their download of Tech Gyaan for very long time and leave early. Isn't it? Hmm.. that's some point to ponder upon for us at Nalanda ;-)
I decided to revive "those best days of my life" by paying visit to my Alma Mater at Hauz Khas on Tuesday morning. Though the purpose was as simple as visiting the IIT library as well as meeting with one of my junior doing M.Tech. there. This guy is being offered nice scholarship by Aricent to work on 3G LTE project as a part of his M.Tech. Project (MTP). I wish, Hughes SS would had offered similar scholarship in 1998 when I joined as a student there in the same stream this chap is presently enrolled in. Ah.. that's why we tend to blame everything on that luckless luck.
Anyway, I could finally reach IIT after about 2 hours of drive from Kapashera border, thanks to nice traffic and nicer people driving on RTR marg. This fellow was in a lecture by the time I reached in campus and I had about 20 minutes before I could meet him in person to get an update on his MTP. So I visited Alumni office to get an update on the events to come and then visited library to just have a look at ... You know na... what we get to see in engg. college libraries? And IITD is also just another engg. college though not that privileged one...
As IITians say, 99% of the girls are beautiful and 1% are in IIT campus ... I may be sounding like some MCP at this moment, but feminists please forgive me. I am just quoting a campus legend and may not necessarily agree with the quote. The true beauty lies in the eyes of the beholder and rest is just Maaya . Don't ask me who is this? Each one of us are after this elusive, (may I call?) lady ;-) That's enough philosophy.
Finally, clock struck 11:00 and I was still having a look at ... you know what? Books na !! That's what is there in the library. My junior met me at Library only and we started strolling out of library to cause least disturbance to everybody there and readers' in particular. He updated me about his progress and we just chit chatted for some time. Met Prof Brejesh (ex-Aricentian) too, near the tea stall. I feel a sense of kinship with Prof Brejesh as he is my Guru Bhai (His PhD thesis supervisor was my MTP supervisor). It is always nice to meet a cheerful personality like him. Wish I could be ever cheerful like him ...
It was time to leave the campus for me as I had promised Sibu to join him as secondary trainer in TH9. The time was running fast and so was me in the vehicle. After a nice traffic condition near Uloff Palmay marg I found some congestion free road near the upcoming Vasant Kunj Malls. I was driving NOT very fast towards the office and completely oblivious of what was waiting for me before I could make it up to the TH9. And then in next moment I was standing in front of a traffic police Mamu, curious to find out my crime as he was writing my name very fast on the challan form, while reading it aloud from my DL. After finishing his clerical job he asked me to sign on the form and collect my DL from Kapashera court. I said that's fine with me but please tell me my crime. I was pretty relaxed by hearing challan court word from him, as I had been to that court earlier too for missing out PUC deadline by just one day. He took me near to the van and told with the proof on LCD screen that I was overspeeding.
Just reminded of my driving experience at Staines (at the outskirts of London) with similar result in 2005. There the cop let me go after some persuasion but here in India things are different. I felt there is no point in telling this guy about Ignorantia juris non excusat.
So I asked him about the alternative route to avoid my visit to the court. He said, "Just look at other fellows" and I immediately decided महाजनो येन गतः सा पन्थः !! So paid him 1000 bucks as fine and he promptly agreed to give "pink receipt" for that money. I just oversped by 10 kmph and paid 1K. It happens here in this country only where we get to drive on whatever is left on the road in addition to driving on the left of the road with some "American drivers" coming from the opposite direction. :-)
So I could not make to TH9 before 12:30 and Sibu thankfully managed TH9 without me. Then heard the news of whole L&E gurgaon team sharing same geographical coordinates at Nalanda. At least this co-presence of team members would work wonders for Team L&E at Gurgaon.
Thanks Radhika !! And Thanks Ravi once again for confirming this in yesterday's PMR meeting. That makes thanks count to you to four. But I am really thankful to you. ;-)
I hope that enough in my first post on L&E bloggerazi. Till next post....Have a great weekend and Holi-days ahead :-)
Naren

7/11 and Chaos

2006-07-25T00:17:00.000+05:30

7/11/06 , Chaos and beyond

Recent media coverage of 7 serial blasts in Mumbai local trains on 11th July (7/11) prompted me to update my blog. You may ask, "Is it really recent?" Or news of rescue operation of a kid called Prince is more recent. Well, thanks to first immediate action after 7/11, by our attentive government, i.e. blocking all the bloggers, in a large national interest, there is a obvious "postal delay" in this post. So it is recent as per me and more recent than the news of prince.

7/11 can be easily deleted from our short term memory (i.e. forgotten) , but not from the memory of those, who lost their near and dear ones OR who just had a narrow scape. There were few who had given up the idea of boarding one particular train as it was crowded, hence got saved and there were those unlucky ones trying their best to reach their home early with crowd without knowing that they were on their final journey. Just imagine a person Y, starting later than usual from his source to catch a train on that fateful day. He goes to the station, the train is just pulling in and he makes to it just in time in the first-class compartment. He shouldn't have made to that train - had he known the future. Isn't it all feel like a bollywood cinematic trick? Where 1 minute in the movie takes 2 minutes of narrative time (time-expansion). Can you see his beaming face towards his fellow passengers announcing that he finally made it? :-)

Then there was another person Z, trying to catch the same train, say from the same source, with plenty of time to spare, yet, her every step goes wrong. She receives a phone call from a friend and while talking to him, she misses her BEST bus. Manages to take lift from some "courteous mumbaikar" (sorry reader's digest, this entity does exist!! ). On their way to station, they hit red lights at every congested intersection of Mumbai and finally, Z just narrowly misses that fateful train. The next train from the station is after 10 minutes. So now she has full-time to have a quick bite of vada-paav at the station. While eating she realises that she didn't have lunch on that day. May be God was looking out on her. HE has been so kind to her. Now what would you call the opposite fates of these two persons? One was given opportunity by HIM to stay in this world by letting her miss the train and the other one boarded the same compartment which was going to blow away after few minutes. He becomes from *a regular local train traveller* to a *blast victim* in a matter of minutes. What is it that makes these two persons appear to have very different fate?

It implies, to put it in Einstein's words, "God does play dice" !! Isn't HE? He can control small events. Events so indiscernible, that mathematicians are inclined to label them as random. On the roll of the dice, traffic congestion at that very moment, untimely phone call, the precise departure of BEST bus, the precise arrival of the train -> Y jumping in, Z missing it narrowly !! It's all random. Imagine, your bumping into some stranger on the street and later turning of that stranger into your best friend ... This all is truly random...It has to be !!

But just reflect back upon a bit, are these events truly random? I would say, "No, they aren't exactly"? Nothing in the world is truly random. To put it in mathematicians' language, things like these are deterministically random. Since everything is rule-driven, so how could be a pure randomness generated from these fixed set of rules. The point is when too many of these well-defined rules interact, intertwine with other, the resulting phenomenon is beyond human comprehension and we are forced to term it as random. But if you think closely, there is

"Order in Disorder"->This is chaotic.

Chaos by definition is deterministic, meaning, that we can theoretically predict all eventualities given the pre-conditions. However, the few motions are too complicated to predict with our mathematical shortcuts. It requires good computer simulation to predict, which way the chaotic event would turn. Perhaps God has designed us to have these sorts of fundamental sensory limitations. So that, HE can mask his actions through these "random" or "chaotic" events. And that's why HE stays supreme !! Most of these random or chaotic events are self-folding so that their effects are dampened and they have a very limited scope. When they aren't self-folding, the effect may be what is better known as, "the butterfly effect" (Refer to "Chaos" by James Gleick) i.e. A butterfly flapping wings in Africa may give rise to a Tsunami in coastal south east Asia.

Let's take a simpler example, a mosquito lands on a snoring sleeping giant, sucks his blood and flies way. Simple enough, could have no consequence at all. However, now suppose that mosquito, while taking its food, had woken up that sleeping giant briefly, and this fellow just happened to be the mosquito-phobic type. He squeels and slaps himself in an attempt to kill the mosquito. A bullet-phobic biker on nearby road hears the squeel and the commotion, thinks it's a gunshot killing somebody and is distracted. Not paying attention to where he is riding, he hits a pedestrian girl. That girl was taken to the hospital (of course not by the same biker, as he is adept at hit-and-run), but was denied admission and treatment, because of flurry of injured patients in the bomb blast on the very same day. She lies on hospital bed unattended amidst all that chaos surrounding her and later dies of titanus !! Later in the night, somebody (again another courteous mumbaikar) takes her SIM card and informs her family about her death and her family learns that their daughter named Z is no more. What an evil fate? She was made to miss that fateful train to later die of titanus. In this situation, a small cause has had a magnified effect. This is known as the butterfly effect. How elegently chaos has linked two seemingly "independent" events on 7/11 evening through butterfly effect? HE definitely uses it as a clever way to disguise himself, knowing that we humans will always try to pin things down to root cause.

So when, Y caught the train or Z missed the train, HE was looking at both of them !! Isn't HE? So where this chaotic world is heading after 7/11? Aren't we living on the edge?

To answer these questions, may be we need "The One" to decipher all the rules of the "Matrix" !!
:-)

P.S. Pictures courtesy 7/11 slideshow of mumbai blasts from rediff.com.

Responsibility of Print and Electronic Media

2006-04-05T12:46:00.000+05:30

This has reference to a so-called sensational news by Mr. Kamran Sulaimani in Indian Express Ahmedabad Edition "partially" available at the following URL

http://cities.expressindia.com/fullstory.php?newsid=176564

Why there is so much rush to create sensational news which may be absolutely wrong sometimes? Why Mr. Sulaimani doesn't understand the responsibility of print and electronic media? Mr. Sulaimani, I would like to bring to your notice a following excerpt of the judgement by Honourable Supreme Court (Interested may get a complete copy of the judgement from me by mailing me at narendrashukla[AT]yahoo[DOT]com). DA-IICT being a university set up under the state act and recognised by UGC is supposed to abide by this judgement of honourable Supreme Court.
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AIR 2001 SUPREME COURT 2861
(From : 1998 Writ LR 821 (Madras)
S. RAJENDRA BABU AND
DORAISWAMY RAJU, JJ.
Civil Appeal No. 2056 of 1999, D/-24-9-2001.
Bharathidasan University and another Appellants v. All India Council for Technical Education and others - Respondents.
All India Council for Technical Education Act (52 of 1987) Ss. 10(1)(k), 2(4), 23 – Technical Education – Running/conducting courses and programmes in technology courses by university – Prior approval of All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) – is not necessary – Definition of “Technical Institution” under AICTE Act does not include university – AICTE is not intended to be an authority either superior to or supervise and control the universities – Regulation 4 compelling university to seek and obtain prior approval of AICTE before starting any new Deptt. Or course or programme in technical education are void.
1998 Writ LR 821 (Madras), Reversed.
(1997) 1 Andh LT 629, Over ruled.
The appellant University created under the Bharthidasan University.
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As you can see this judgement is self-explanatory. Can Mr. Sulaimani be at least now act like a more "responsible journalist"? I would like to request him to do a proper research on status of those current 1200 students of DA-IICT alongwith those who are already working in industry Or studying at places like IITs and US/European universities before misguiding Junta with absolutely false information just for sake of creating irresponsible sensational news!!

Hope reponsible journalism will overrule this kind of sensational journalism someday !!

Naren

My New Laptop

2005-12-15T11:15:00.000+05:30

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.

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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

2005-11-02T15:13:00.000+05:30

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

2005-09-26T03:15:00.000+05:30

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

2005-09-23T18:04:00.000+05:30

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?

2005-09-21T15:37:00.000+05:30

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

2005-09-17T16:12:00.000+05:30

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.

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Rules

2005-09-06T11:52:00.000+05:30

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.

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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).
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Neo-Economics

2005-08-23T16:00:00.000+05:30

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

2005-08-22T18:00:00.000+05:30

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