Baidu, Tencent and India

Khushwant Singh once remarked to a Pakistani friend " The difference between you and us is that you import your cars and build mosques. We build our own cars. " That was a very important statement. Its about Sovereignty. We had our own heavy indsutry. We had our own education institutions, even our own space reasearch program that was boo-ed by the naysayers, but doggedly pushed. (One of things for which I love Nehru)

And then, the currency of the game changed. In addition to physical assets, digital supremacy became key currency. While we were demolishing mosques and trying to create temples, while we were tomtomming our fat packet google and yahoo salaries, what was China doing? It was creating Baidu, Tencent, and other internet giants - basic stuff that ensured that it did not come to depend on anything external. Who has the best techies in the world? Arguably, we do. And who has the ONLY known competition in the world to Google? China Does.

Who sends software engineers to the West like a staple export? We do. And who has the courage to take on MS and Yahoo in their own domain - English, French et al? Tencent, from China.

Who has the most coding experience in the world? We do. And who has an instant messaging company that pips Apple in growth rankings? China does.

When we are done discussing the application devleopment growth numbers and the fat salaries, when we are done with honor killings, Barkha Dutt's arrogance and the color of Saif Ali Khan's shirt, maybe it will be time for that long forgotten concept - nation building with a long term vision.

Guess who will win the supremacy race in the long run? We will. Because we have it in us. :-)

Book Review: Absolute Khushwant

Like I've maintained earlier, a book has to be exceptionally good or bad for yours truly to review it. Not because I m hoity toity, but because I am not a good book reviewer. Films, yes. Books, no.

Absolute Khushwant can be summed up in one word - Unputdownable. After how long has one read a book that is not a murder mystery by Agatha Christie and can be called unputdownable? Ummm....really, really long.

The man is straight from the gut, the conversational style (and the large size print) make for a breezy yet extremely engaging read. Engaging, because he forces you to think.. to almost talk back with him. The style is so conversational that you are tempted to jump in with "But you are obviously biased Khushwant. Remember when..." then you realise he is not there. Just the paper.

To make it brief, lets talk about what works and does not work for the book.
Pros
1. The very conversational style.
2. The honest writing.
3. Fresh perspective on a lot of things.
4. His absolute insistence on secularism and his correct identification of lack of tolerance being our cancer.

What doesnt work
1. A lot of opinions are not entirely based on facts, though he would like to have us believe that they are. But they are his opinions and we respect his right to have them.

In the end, I have only one complaint. The title of the book should have been Absolut Khushwant. Equally intoxicating - the book, and the man who peers through the pages of the book. 5 stars and a double Thums Up to this book.

Jab We All Met

Today was a very special day for moi. Today, we had a small gathering of the very close blog friends that we have made over the years. Mampi, nm, and ihm.

Each one of these women is very, very special. Because we know each other from the blog, we know each other first, from the inside, and then socially. Some of them dont blog so much any more, but we have to thank the blogsworld for bringing us together.

Today, sitting there, listening to conversation.. one felt.. comfortable... like in the company of old friends.. and that is what makes it very, very special. Small blessings.

Unfortunately, we were so busy having a good time, that we took no pics at all.

When...

When did it become ok, fashionable even, to hate? When did tolerance and co-existence become "weakness"? When did pride in one's culture, faith, or language start being based on hatred for another faith, culture or language?

For a people just 3 generations away from one of the biggest recorded massacres in history(The partition of India, in case you forgot.), aren't we incredibly snug about hatred and violence?

Unfortunately, i have no answers. I do not understand this culture. Or this thought process. Or the need to hate to feel secure. When did it stop being about personal excellence, and start being about the rat race, through and through?? I feel like i was standing by the river, and everyone else took the fast lane on the road. I feel left behind, alone, but not lonely. I see the achievers and the haters and the smugness, and feel no envy at all. Just wondering.. when did all this happen?

Quote from Calvin: Nothing changes from day to day. One day, you wake up, and realise that nothing is as it used to be.

2 years after 26/11

I can only share these links:

This is a spine chilling, must watch documentary. Do find time to watch it: (49 minutes)
http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=1e4_1246490858

And this event, which is happening in multiple cities. We find time to go pandal hopping, we find time to go for religious processions.. find time for this one please (you will have to scroll down to find the contact for your city)

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/IndiaArmyFans?v=wall

Beautifying the Hotel

If you are a facebook junkie, you might have heard of a game called "Hotel City".Here, players have to create a hotel, and as they play , they make game currency. What is that currency used for? Beautifying the hotel. There is no game benefit to beautifying the hotel. It is just that people "like" to do it. A lot of money that Second Life makes is based on this "like to beautify" instinct in humans.
Have you seen the new Airtel logo and heard the new tune? It sure looks like someone was playing Hotel City there. Sure, the brand logo needed repositiong because there was a possibility of visual confusion with a new entrant - Aircel . But the tune? Why would you kill one of the best known advertising tunes in india? WHY?
This is not the first time organisations have played Hotel City. (Made expensive, but essentially cosmetic changes to their corporate presence without any known strategic, marketing or other benefit).
 
But in some companies, a lot of Hotel City is being played right now. Nokia about tops that list in mind. What are some other Hotel City playing companies that come to your mind?

To Abid Khan posted at Nathu La

This October, i took a holiday to Sikkim and for the first time, visited Nathu La - the China Border.

There was a soldier posted there. Coincidentally, there were 2 soldiers with the same name. As we were getting down, a child of about 11(walking a little ahead of moi)  looked at the 2 name plates and said "aap dono ka naam same same hai? " (Both of you have the same name?) The soldier replied with a smile "haan hamara naam same same hai." (Yes, we have the same name)
The child replied with wonder "Aisa kaise ho sakta hai?" (How is that possible?)
To which, the younger of the 2 soldiers replied, with so much ...hope .. and ...  innocence on his face "Kyun aap same same nahi ho hamare jaise?" (Why, arent u the same as us?) the child looked from one to the other, and really had no answer. At this point, i looked at the 2 name plates. They both said "Abid Khan". This post is for the Abid Khan(s) at Nathula. That was one of the most touching moments ever for me. It will be a long time before one forgets the look on that face as it said "Kyun, aap same same nahi ho, hamare jaise?"

The second instance was, when we were at the top, requesting the soldiers to pose with us for pics. And Abid Khan (the older one) said " zaroor pose karenge. aap log itni door se aaye ho yahaan tak sab kuchh chhod kar. ye bahut badi baat hai. " I said "Aap log itni door rehte ho sab kuchh chhod kar, ye us se bhi badi baat hai." He looked at me, then pointed to peaks still higher up and said "vo dekho, hamare bhai vahaan.. hum se bhi oopar rehte hain.. hum akele thodi na hai..." I dont think any of us city slickers could think like that.. to live in such difficult conditions and still to think of other soldiers - living even higher up. It takes a lot to be that....

Why is telepathy so hard to understand?

How does information travel over the internet? Do you see it travel? No. But you know it does. How do you know its all "real"? Because you see it on your computer screen - right?

But you also know, and see, in equally "real" terms, that on some days, your computer(or your grinder, or the garden) seems to hate(or love) you. On some days, the person you are thinking of tends to call. When you are fervently hoping for something to happen, it does. That is equally real too, right?

So why is it that we believe in the "real" of the internet more than we believe in the "real" of the "Real"? Why is the bad mood of a "tool" less tangible (God knows we suffer real enough with it) ?

I've been thinking of this a lot. Why is Reiki, telepathy and auras still "occult"? We saw auras with Kirlian Photography and then some people started to believe it. Like our own eyes are less reliable than a camera. If we devised a camera someday that could, magically, capture "thought waves" as they flow out of our bodies, into the auras and then into the area around us, if such a camera comes into being, THEN, we will believe in the power of thoughts to make things happen. Until then, all the proof that stares us into the face, every single day, is "unreliable" and "coincidence".

THEN, we will see that thought waves emanate from every single entity - from our "non living" tools (anyone who has worked with tools knows that they are as living as it gets) , from plants, animals, and of course, people. We will see these thought waves travel from one person to another, miles away, and THEN we will believe in telepathy. We will see that thought waves of positive emotions make people happy and thought waves of negative emotions make people unhappy too. We will know why mass meditation works.

We will see that its perfectly possible to understand why, when some people enter the room, there is a sudden calming effect on everyone, and when some other people enter the room, the same set of people is somehow more agitated. We will then understand the power of using the most potent power that we share (other than breath) with every entity that exists in the physical and metaphysical world - the power of thought waves.

We invented the Sanskrit Script?

The Sanskrit script, belonging to the Aryans, is considered the most scientific script in the world. It is exactly phonetic, it has a separate place for vowels and for consonants, and the consonants are arranged in a scientific manner. How cool is that?

Except that, there is a doubt that is nagging the back of mind for a while now. The Aryans, no doubt traveled from the West to the East. It is widely believed that they brought Sanskrit with them. However, the scripts of the entire route taken by the Aryans, are based on the alif, be, ABCD, alpha beta gamma.. NOT the vowel  - consonant differentiation . The European scripts have no vowel consonant differntiation at all. The middle eastern scripts have this differentiation, but the basic structure of the alphabet remains aliph , be...

Something happened, in the movement from Persia to India, to cause the creation of a script that is organised fairly differently. What was it? I havent been able to find an answer to that one. Neither in the head, nor in the research papers online. There are pointers to an ancient Indian script called the Brahmi script. Am impressed with what one knows about the Brahmi script now.

But the Brahmi script could not have come from the West. For the simple reason that the Brahmi script has two major differences  - One, it makes it possible to represent vowels separately, and Two, the breakdown of the alphabet itself, into the now familar and almost universal ka - kha - ga- gha - Dha.. that we know from Hindi, Sanskrit, and every other Indian language. This phonetic(based on which combination of the tongue-mouth-lips was used to create the set of sounds) breakdown of the alphabet was just not there - not even as an idea, in any other script. Thats why i refuse to buy the argument of an Aramic parentage of the Brahmi script or the Sanskrit script. Influence, yes. parentage, no. (There is a reason why i m leaving Kharoshti out of this.)

My hypothesis is that this script, the structure of the script, and the layout, was worked out right here in India. I started with the hypothesis that this script was in some way derived from the Indus Valley script, or from the other native civilisations. That the Aryans adopted the principles of the native script and then, as is characteristic of them, obliterated all mention of the native scripts and that the new script has only learnt from the original. However, there does seem to be a bridge script - the Brahmi, which is dated at about 3rd - 4th Cent BC. I think the date has to be before that. Why? Because, if at this time, Ashoka got his edicts carved on rocks to be put up all over the kingdom, a certain level of literacy among the subjects will have to be assumed. That means that the script itself, should have been widely understood and used before those rock edicts were created.

All scholars indicate little knowledge of what India used from 1500 BC - the estimated end of the Indus Valley civilisation,to the 3rd Cent BC - when the Brahmi script was used by Ashoka in his edicts. (If you know of anything from this period, please do point me to it)

However, i have not been able to shrug off the pictoral similarity in the 2 scripts. (Indus Valley and Brahmi)

Compare this:

With this:

The images on top are simpler, but there is an amazing pictoral similarity.
This is the entire set of the Indus Valley symbols.

Soo.. we took the symbols from the Indus Valley civilisation people, added elements of Aramic, and slowly refined the script to its most scientific form, right here in India.

What do you think?