'Inferior' Works

Economists describe some goods as 'inferior'. That has nothing to do with their quality as such, but about how consumers treat these. I will describe the inferior goods here to make a point right after, please bear with me. 

Investopedia defines an inferior good as one 'whose demand drops when people's incomes rise. These goods fall out of favor as incomes and the economy improve as consumers begin buying more costly substitutes instead.' In simple words: if we see that in a society as people get richer they consume less of some good, we call those inferior. An example of an inferior good is white bread, potatoes, or  instant noodles, somethings that will be replaced with proteins, in most societies, as incomes rise. In converse, when income drops one decreases the consumption of proteins and increases the consumption of the cheaper goods for their calories.

I think just like consumption goods, there are 'inferior' ways of spending time, consuming activities by at the cost of time if you will. Allow me to explain. Let's say one is employed, works, and the work takes 8-10 hours of the day. This time is non-negotiable. In terms of economics, it has the most utility in return of time spent (otherwise you would not be doing it). Then there are other tasks (in no particular order), taking care of kids, if one has them, cooking, gardening, writing journals, etc. (okay, I lied, that seems to be my own order or preference). Once one does not have the large committed 'work', one has a lot of time at their hands and they increase the consumption of other ways of spending time - income has reduced and the consumption of these other ways of spending time has increased - the converse definition of inferior good. I do not put inferior in quotes every single time, but let me press that the economic term has nothing to do with the quality of the goods or works in this case, but the way market prices them - I do not get paid to spend time with my kids, cooking, or gardening.

*** 

It has been many years since I wrote on this blog post. I am sure all my readers have unsubscribed. A long time has passed in terms of events as well. I am in USA permanently now. I am married. I have two kids. I have a PhD in Economics now. I am a stay home father now (better than a stay home not-father). 

 I am going to start musing more often in this space. 

 

Dementia Do’s and Don’ts (Hindi)

ढ़लती उम्र का Dementia अक्सर मुश्किल समस्यायें प्रस्तुत करता है। ऐसे लोग - गुस्सा , confusion, डर, और उदासी महसूस कर रहे हैं जिसके वजह से आक्रामक और कभी-कभी हिंसक भी हो सकते हैं।

Communication (बातचीत) कि कठिनाइयां Alzheimers या किसी और प्रकार के Dementia वाले व्यक्ति की देखभाल करने कि सबसे बड़ी परेशान है - रोगी और family, किसी के लिए अच्छा नहीं है। हालांकि यह समझना मुश्किल हो सकता है कि Dementia वाले लोग ऐसा क्यों करते हैं, ज़्यादातर ये उनकी बीमारी और दिमाग में होने वाले परिवर्तनों के कारण होता है। वो कमज़ोर और बेबस महसूस करते है, और किसी तरह से अपनी बेबसी और कमज़ोरी से छुटकारा पाना चाहते हैं |



Dementia होने पर उत्पन्न होने वाली कुछ सामान्य स्थितियों के साथ खुद को परिचित करें, ताकि अगर आपका Family member कुछ चौंकाने वाला कहता है, तो आपको पता चलेगा कि शांतिपूर्वक और प्रभावी ढंग से कैसे जवाब दें:

# 1: आक्रामक हरकत या भाषा

Example: "मैं नहाना नहीं चाहता!", "मैं घर जाना चाहता हूं!" या "मैं ये नहीं खाना चाहता!" आक्रामक व्यवहार में बढ़ सकता है।

Alzheimers association का कहना है कि भाषा या शारीरिक आक्रामकता के बारे में याद रखने की सबसे महत्वपूर्ण बात यह है कि आपका Family member इसे जान-बूझ कर नहीं कर रहा है। आम तौर पर किसी चीज से शारीरिक परेशानी, आसपास की जगह कि वजह से - जैसे अनजानी जगह में होने या मायूस होने की वजह से होता है - दूसरों पर बोझ होने का गुस्सा, अपना ध्यान न रख पाने कि मायूसी |

हर बात खराब communication (बात-चीत) से शुरू होता है। मनोवैज्ञानिक कहते है कि कई बार ऐसा सिर्फ डर कि वजह से होता है - फिसल जाने का डर, चोट लगने का डर । "असहाय महसूस करना या डर लगने के जवाब में Dementia वाले लोग हाथ पैर चलाते हैं।

एक व्यक्ति जिन कि माँ को dementia है - "जैसे मेरी माँ की बीमारी बढ़ी, वैसे ही मूड बहुत तेज़ी से बदलता रहता है । वह एक पल पूरी तरह से ठीक हो सकती है, और अगली पल वह चिल्लाना और शारीरिक होना शुरू कर देती । अक्सर, यह समझ नहीं आता कि वो ऐसा क्यों करती है । उसके देखभाल करने वालों के लिए, अक्सर कपड़े पहनने या नहलाने वाले पर वो ग़ुस्सा उतार देती | "

DO: Dementia के कारण आक्रामकता (हाथा पाई) का जवाब है - कारण की पहचान करने की कोशिश करना

इस व्यवहार कि क्या वजह है ? एक बार जब आप यह पक्का कर लेंगे कि वे खुद को (या किसी और को) खतरे में नहीं डाल रहे हैं, तो आप एक शांत, Confident तरीके से बोलते हुए, किसी और चीज़ पर ध्यान करवाने कि कोशिश कर सकते हैं। दवाइयों से उनकी anxiety/ डर कम हो सकता है |

वास्तव में आपके Family member को जानना बहुत महत्वपूर्ण है। मेरी माँ के मामले में, अगर वह परेशान होती, तो कई बार उससे बात करने की कोशिश कर के और उसे शांत करने की कोशिश उसे और ज़्यादा गुस्सा दिलाती । इसी तरह, उसे छूने या उसके हाथ को पकड़ने या धीरे-धीरे उसकी बांह या पैर को रगड़ने के लिए-उसके परिणामस्वरूप वो मरपीट पर उतर आती । उस मामले में सबसे अच्छा तरीका ये है की दूर चले जाओ - उसे अपनी जगह और समय की जरूरत थी।

Don’t: सबसे बुरी चीज जो आप कर सकते हैं वह बहस में लगना - उस से बात बढ़ सकती है | जबरदस्ती व्यक्ति को तब तक रोकने की कोशिश न करें जब तक कि कोई दूसरा तरीका न हो । आक्रामक व्यवहार को रोकने का सबसे बड़ा तरीका है कभी भी 'ना' मत कहना - उन की हाँ में हाँ मिलाते रहना ।"

# 2: जगह (शहर, या घर) या समय के बारे में confusion

Example: "मैं घर जाना चाहता हूं? यह मेरा घर नहीं है? हम कब जा रहे हैं? हम यहां क्यों आए हैं? कोई मुझे लेने रहा है"

घर जाने की इच्छा एक alzheimers या Dementia रोगी के लिए सबसे आम बात है। याद रखें कि alzheimers से सोचने की शक्ति काम हो जाती है और यही confusion और याददाश्त की कमी का कारण है।

अक्सर लोग ऐसे जगह (शहर, या घर) पर वापस जाने की कोशिश कर रहे हैं जहां उनके जीवन में ज़्यादा control था |

DO: ऐसे सवालों का उत्तर देने के कुछ तरीके हैं -

Alzheimers association का सुझाव है, फ़ोटो की मदद से time और जगह बताएं । अगर Family member को किसी दूसरी जगह (शहर, या घर) पर ले जाना ज़रूरी हैं - इस case में जितना संभव हो उतना कम कहना अच्छा है - ये बताना अच्छा है की उनके सभी सामान पैक किए गए हैं और ध्यान किसी और तरफ लगाने की कोशिश करो - चलने के लिए जाएं, नाश्ता करें, आदि। अगर वे clear सवाल पूछते हैं जैसे 'हम वापस कब जा रहे हैं?' तो आप जवाब दे सकते हैं, 'हम नहीं जा सकते क्योंकि ...' यातायात भयानक है / खराब मौसम / आज रात बहुत देर हो चुकी है । आपको यह पता लगाना होगा कि व्यक्ति को सबसे सुरक्षित महसूस करने के लिए क्या किया जा सकता है," भले ही वह एक झूठ हो।
Don’t: लंबी discussion/बहस मत करो |

आप किसी ऐसे व्यक्ति के साथ बहस नहीं कर सकते जो alzheimers या Dementia से पीड़ित है | यह नहीं किया जा सकता है। वास्तव में, कई बार ऐसा करने से हम गुस्सा या डर बढ़ा रहे हैं - जो हम पूछ रहे हैं उस में anxiety के trigger हो सकते हैं | बहस करने की कोशिश और समझाना “कि वह घर है; यह उसका नया घर था। चीजें धीरे-धीरे बदतर हो जाएंगी” - कभी काम नहीं करता |

# 3: विश्वास कि कमी -

Example: अनजान आरोप: "तूने मेरा (कोई भी सामान) चुरा लिया है!" या पैसे के मामले में किसी पे भरोसा न करना

Alzheimers/Dementia के कारण दिमाग़ में त्रुटियों कि वजह से एक विशेष व्यवहार है दूसरो को अपराधी मानना । ये confusion, या गलत फहमी पैदा कर सकते हैं। इनमें से कुछ समस्याएं साफ़ हैं, जैसे कि जब घरेलू सामान जमा करना, सामान बांधना, या कुछ चोरी करने के किसी और पर आरोप लगाना |

Do: Alzheimers association कहता है कि यदि आप इन बदलावों को देखते हैं तो उनसे इस बारे में प्यार से बात करें | हो सकता है उनकी बता में सच्चाई हो, मगर ना भी हो तो भी बात करने से राहत मिली सकती है ।
Don’t: जब कोई नया इलज़ाम हो, आप को नए सिरे से सोचना पड़ेगा - मगर उनके साथ बहस करने कि कोशिश कभी भी करें - उन का दिमाग बीमार है । बहस से डर बढ़ जाता है, आप गुस्सा करोगे तो वो अपनी बात पर अड़ जायेंगे ।

Loosely translated for personal use based on: https://www.aplaceformom.com/blog/2013-02-08-dealing-with-dementia-behavior/

Things I didn't think I could like OR Let's try it!

I am in my mid-thirties and I think I should start straightening my stories and lessons I will tell all the children around me who think of me as an old man.

Life is weird, and we have very limited rationality about what we may or may not like. Most often we may be forced to make decisions based on this limited rationality, since cost of gathering intelligence, wisdom, and sampling may be too high, but if you have no choice in the matter and are thrown into an unknown, don't be too judgie-wudgie, or if you can afford to try and test, I highly recommend it! Here are a few case studies in what I mean.

*** *** ***

I couldn't ever imagine myself thinking, 'that coffee is not strong enough', but that is indeed a thought that has crossed my mind often in the six months or so.

It's dark, it's bitter, it's hipster, it's expensive, and most Americans like it: what's there to like about coffee? Well, the Tamil know how to brew it and drink it in style. It would be a lie to say I started liking it due to the Tamil though, I started liking it due to its association with a person I admire and love. I loved her ritual of AeroPress®™, choosing and buying coffees from different places, the whole shebang. Sometimes I would make coffee for her before she woke up, to gain a few brew-nie points. Lovely associations!

Well, now I like coffee for itself and enjoy it at least 5 days a week, without sugar or milk, as bitter and dark as it gets.

*** *** ***

In 2011, anyone who suggested I should run, would have received an all knowing smirk from me. I knew for sure, that if I could choose to do a workout it would be weight lifting and would not involve anything even close to running in any form. Not even bicycling. 

 But circumstances led me to run. Mostly because it is cheap and accessible: doesn't need any special gear or planned space. It started with 10 mins everyday in Mar 2012, and soon I was running 30 or so minutes on the streets of towns villages and cities wherever work took me: Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Khammam, Madurai, Pondicherry, Puna, and Shimogga. In a few months it was 5 km, then 10 kilometers and then half marathons(21.1 km). 

It was clear that I have found true love. We worked hard towards the relationship: running and I, and we are in it for the long run. True enough, in 2016 I ran four marathons (422 km), a few 30 km, and numerous  half marathons, trails, city roads, all kinds of stuff. Now I have my sight set on an ultra marathon 72 km in Leh, and on the way to it, a 50 km trail run.

Known unknowns

"As we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns—the ones we don’t know we don’t know. "
  - Donald Rumsfeld.

Same concerns on reality and information is asked in useful contexts in other places, such as the book Mostly Harmless Econometrics.

When I moved out of my humble context as a school teacher in a mid-sized town in Northern India, for a further education in public policy in Singapore and then New York, I did not know much about Rumsfeld or Angrist or their famous confusions, but those were not the only things I did not know, I did not know many things I did not even know.

Whenever I thought, "oh now I get it" I would see how much I do not know and how many holes there are in my perfectly good enough thinking. Very humbling. Now, that I am in the third year of my PhD and have passed my oral exams, my prof.s think of me differently. They act differently. I got the bees and birds talk from my advisor the other day, when he told me my career path and choices. I think the tables have turned. Now I am not just the one asking questions, I am the one who is supposed to supply answers.

So here I am in search of known unknowns, something that I can measure, something I can inform the policy with, something of value to the community, rummaging through ideas and paper, rejecting dozens of original ideas every day. Very humbling.

Of beanstalks and rodents

April 22, 2016

Chennai, India

I think they were moles or shrew. But they could be field rats or any other rodent. I don't really know how to tell one from the other. But they were able to dig up most of my legumes and kills them. It was an uphill battle to keep my black eyed peas alive for a month and a half. But we managed, plants and I. Like the first child of a family, these are the most hardy and the closest to my heart.

I had a vague idea that beans had stalks but I had forgotten I guess. So when the beans started shooting out feelers for twining and climbing, I was at a loss. It was a good few weeks until I realized I should try to support these with sticks. And a month until I got over my procrastinating to actually doing it.

When I reached the entangled mass to support the ten or so survivors with sticks, I was a little taken aback. My little babies had inter-twined, supporting each other to reach up to the new heights. Black eyed pea to black eyed pea. 

Their silent stern look said in a quiet firm way to me "wood would be good, but we can do without it."

*** 

Every night I would go to sleep with my ears pinned at the garden, half expecting to hear them scurrying and doing their evil deeds. I would wake up and go out as soon as I could, 4 am - 4:30 am, with a head lamp on my head, inspecting my, now a 30 feet by 20 feet garden. 

They would not do anything to any other plants: flowers, squashes, other things I was growing, but they would uproot beans and legumes, eat their roots and throw the shoots around. A scene of massacre.

It is not difficult to kill rodents. There are so many easy and inexpensive ways to do it. But I had done it one in the past and regretted it -

It had been rainy for a few day in Banaras ten years ago, the whole school ground was flooded. We were sitting in the library and reading children's books. I saw what I thought was a rat scurry to the reading room. I followed it and tried to shoo it away. It was moving very slowly. Much too slow for a rat, but I did not think about it. Some of my colleagues were scared of it, so I took a stick or broom or something, and killed it, and did not think about it twice.

I was living in a room in the school guesthouse which was very close-by. The next morning, very early, I heard some squeaking sounds outside the library. I went there to investigate and found a pink small rodent baby. I looked around for a squirrel nest, but I did not find any. Slowly it dawned on me that it was the orphaned baby of the rodent I had killed last night. Deep guild took over me, and I decided to take care of the baby. 

As the days went by the baby developed teeth that distinctly set it apart to look like its parent and a quick search on google showed me that I was a father to a shrew baby. 

My baby was pretty blind, but she started recognizing my voice. I would call it when I come around with milk on cotton sponge. If anyone else opened the box the baby would come forward to the light but if the voice was not mine she would recoil to the back in fear. 

One day I saw that the baby had eaten some bugs and I saw the legs and other appendages lying around. I felt that I was not doing well as a father. Moved I looked around the campus for inspiration and found some earthworms. When I left for dinner, she had started chewing on the live juice worm shaking it with every bite. 

After a leisurely dinner I came back to see that the baby was asleep, which was pretty normal. But when she did not squeak the next morning I was worried. I opened her box to find to an awful smell. She was gone. Earth was poring from her nose. It seems she chocked on the earth inside the worm.

The memories of the shrew baby have haunted me since. I always feel bad about it. 

One morning I woke up to check on the plants and I saw that they had chewed up all my squashes and uprooted them. They had even dug up some of my flower plants! Let alone destroyed all my mung beans I had sprouted. 

That was it. I was furious. In my mind, they had crossed a line - uprooting to eat is fine, but there was no calling for this kind of mindless uprooting of my flowers and other plants. 

After working myself up, I acted on my anger and bought some rat poison. The poison instructions said that it would kill the rats 4-5 days after it was consumer. I put the poison out in the garden at night and found it gone in an hour or so. 

The next morning there was much of the same kind of massacre of beans and squashes. But I also found that there was some digging under a piece of rock. I was pretty surprised to see this. I moved the rock to investigate and found some juicy worms under it. I looked at the roots of the flowers the rodents had uprooted. Worms as well.

A few days later my garden was filled with a familiar, guilty smell, that lingered for a long time.

Dense and cold

Note: names and identities are changed to protect privacy. Fiction and reality is mixed with the interpretation of reality, and fiction, very liberal and atheistic. 

A medium sized town in Maharashtra. The dust doesn't settle down until 10 pm here. 

Cold is extreme to someone not used to it, 14 degree at sunrise can be a scary. Day is chilly even when the sun is out. Skin is dry. Movements are slow. There are extinguishing ambers of anger at the betrayal of indoors that makes one feel safe rest of the year, when it fails at protecting them from cold. Outside is warmer than inside most of the time when sun is out. When moon is out, indoors are still very cold, but one is robbed of the respite of an option to go outdoors.

Insides are colder than outsides. And nights are lonely trials. Each person in his own winter. Fighting a lonely battle for long years. 

-----x-----

I don't know what to do now. 

I regret what I did then, but what can I do now?

What can I change in my situation? 

What can I do?

I love her, but I cannot stand her when she is like that. I wish there were children, women seem to get completely absorbed in children. 

I wish circumstances were easier in some way. I have a lot of endurance, but there is no respite of any manner, anywhere I look. Other than this packet of tobacco. (Opens a pack of tobacco mix and empties it in the his mouth).

My work is slow. The real estate market is slow. Trade would be good if there were the capital. Friends have turned away and showed their true colours, brothers treat me like I have no worth. 

There aren't many with whom I can even share my thoughts freely. And even those I trust, every time I talk to them, I don't feel the burden lift. It just feels heavier that now I have to worry if this new information make me fall from their graces? No one wants to associate with the unlucky. And I don't blame them. I have borne this forever and I will bear this for ever. 

I just wish there was some respite, somewhere. Other than this packet of tobacco. I wish there were children.

-----x-----

Things are all beyond me.

I have no say.

There is some comfort in money for now, but it will not last long. 

And he will never listen to me. He is not much smarter than I am in these matters but he will just never listen to me. And the children, we did so much for them. We went through so much together, now they do not want to think about us. We are just in their way.

(She walks into the living room where a middle aged man is sleeping on the floor. In the darkness, other than the light of phone gleaming on his face.)

He buries his worries in Internet. 

Should I turn a light on son? Are you warm? Why don't you sleep in the bedroom?

He hates me. They all hate me.

I wish I was wiser. Richer. Younger. I wish I had children of my own. They would love me as their own.

-----x-----

Why did I let her go?

Why didn't I hold a little longer?

Why did I accept this life, I knew I was not made for this life!

I walk around in these circles. I come to these loud marriages, I endure these people without taste or style. Without any respect for themselves. I endure it all.

Look at her, she is one of them. All dress up in gaudy clothes and smiling pretty. Not an original thought in her empty head. I can't stand her vacuous smile and laughter some days. And look at them, these dirty urchins. They have taken on her. And they like their uncles. Not one has taken on me, not one.

So many children, and a passionless cow for a wife.

This was never going to be me. I had promised myself that it was not. 

Why did I let her go without another push? Why did I chicken out? I wish I had a second chance. I would change it all. Like this Enfield, renovate and shine it all up.

My Heroes of 3rd Dec - Chennai Floods

you can help in many ways depending on your ability and reach:
http://www.oneindia.com/india/chennai-rains-floods-help-know-what-where-how-to-donate-1945428.html


*****

I spent much of the 3rd Dec 2015 in T P Chatram. Here thousands of homes are submerged in water.

I have a new respect for Chennai and its people. While I am sure there are brighter stars in the universe, in my system these are the heroes who shone the brightest:

1. Rajesh and his friends - take the first spot. These unassuming half dozen friends just standing idly in the darkness at the (knee deep water submerged) street corner, jumped into action and led me with all the sincerity, alacrity and courtesy of professionals. Helped me identify homes with infants and helped deliver baby formula. Also helped me distribute fever meds, milk and candles.

2. Unknown individuals and unnamed NGO who were distributing food in T P Chatram at lunch time.

3. Sub-inspectors of T P Chatram police station who were helping with all the efforts and keeping order. They also were making jokes and keeping people smiling, agreed I did not understand any of the jokes in Tamil but I know for sure some of these jokes were on me.

4. Ambulance drivers who worked relentlessly and helped all, especially infants and elderly reach hospital from T P Chatram.

From the rest of the city,

5. The solid waste disposal vehicle operators and drivers.

6. Bus conductors and drivers who kept the city connected.

7. Auto drivers who were willing to go in the direction no one was taking me to for making my work possible.

Perhaps these people will not go in any other history, but in my books, they are heroes.

*****

Incentives and preferences:

All the people who I rubbed shoulder with yesterday were excellent people. But everyone, perhaps, had motivations other than philanthropy.

     Rajesh and his friends decided who will lead in which building based on who (of perhaps which girl) lives in that building, make a good impression. All the people employed by city and state, were perhaps working on orders of their superiors and were getting paid for it for sure. NGO workers were employees. Auto drivers charged way above the usual fares

But does that reduce our contribution to the efforts? Does that make the food they delivered less nutritious or the candles burn dimmer? 

I guess my lesson for the day was that what one does counts at the end of the day. Why you started doing it and what you got out of it, who knows?

He knows a song will move the life along

It's all better with a song and a little magical dance.

Hakuna Matata is definitely not a passing fad.

What is around that river bend, now?

Can't really worry about what I could have done. I need to let it go!

Trust your feelings!*

It is the time and a city in the empire of  Rome. An augure sits in front of Angus Aurilius, a [made up] owner of a big business house. The augure cuts open the entrails of a pig and makes a prediction about the safety and profitability of next consignment of spices coming from India. He gets gold if his predictions turn out to be true.

Angus was literally trusting his guts. But we are all far above that kind of superstition aren't we?



My colleague and I are working on using someone else' code for making a data analysis result sheet for quite some time and are tired. After the [for a large number] 50th correction and they tell me that they feel the code will be debugged and work perfectly this time. They also add with a tired smile that they have felt that about ten times so far. 

Lo! the code is debugged. We celebrate, they assert that they have learnt that they should trust their feelings. 
 
Ten times of being wrong, and once being right, conclusion: I should trust my feelings.
A type II error - a false negative.



The position of a finance manager is vacant in a firm. There are three female candidate within the organization with the experience and qualification to do the job, but the general manager has interviewed them all and they feels in their guts that these candidates are not ready for the job. When they do find the perfect candidate, it turns out to be a guy with deep voice.

Aren't you glad they did not betray their gut-feelings?



A police person in the USA takes his gun out and shouts at two teenage black girls to "get their asses on the floor", does a gymnastic move and chases another set of black boys who were trying to run. 
The situation is one where someone has called the police to say a group of people are vandalizing a community pool. The police person act on their gut-feelings and get the situation sorted in less than a few seconds with the result of several teenagers sobbing and crying sitting on the floor, worried for their safety and life.

Great job, trusting your gut-instinct, white police person, except that these black-teenagers happen to have membership to this pool for many years. You could have just asked before jumping the gun. People in skimpy swim suits with rubber floater are not very likely to bring out concealed weapons and threaten you.



Thrice in a row the made-up augure of the roman times saw that the gut of the pig had small specks of dark brown when the rain destroyed the spice consignment of the made-up business owner, enough to make him genuinely believe his correlations of pig-gut and storms.

Add to the mix some greed, profit motive, clever language, and rigged consequences - good prediction gets him lots of gold and bad only perhaps he has to change his patron, no one will hang an augure.



Modern day blind-faiths are not much different from reading guts. If you lost a job in the 2008 crisis or had a bunch of your savings lose their value due to market devaluations, you should be one to hate gut-thinking. What do you think the executioners of the financial deals were doing when they were betting on products (or the meaning of the assigned risk) they did not understand?

Add to the mix some greed ...




From global financial crises, to personal level reservations and chauvinism - gut-instincts are a close second to religion when it comes to the motivation of acting bigoted, racist, nationalist, and gender-biased. And I say that with all the rigor of gut-feeling analysis and zero data.

There is no non-thinking. What some of us very happily want to call instincts is sub-conscious or unconscious thinking. Humanly and scientifically there is no voluntary action possible without some level of thought. For a science refresher, involuntary are actions humans have little or no direct control over, such as the beating of heart, the working of nerves, or the knee-jerk reflex.

So then what is this feeling or gut-feeling we keep talking about?
Perhaps harmless hope and impatience, as in the case of code debugging. But not always harmless - sometimes it is the act of following deep rooted beliefs as a default, as in the case of the police person, the general manager, or the financial executive.

Conscious thoughts, reflexes, blind faiths and myths, cat-calls and wolf-whistles, smiles and frowns, all our reactions come from millions of years of evolution. Identify the pattern of wrongs in the following of gut-feelings all around you, and do what we do best: evolve! Let's be better humans.



*Apologies for the title. The kind of people I write this piece for, would not have even clicked to open the link if the title said do not trust your gut-feelings. But I expect they will not read this through to get to this part, so I write of them in third person.

Lunch With an Expat. - A Data Report

Description of Sample: 

N (effective stupid expat(s) [see 1]) = 1
N (foreign nationals) = 2 

N (total) = 7

Instances of the Phrase
"Indian roads suck/are horrible"	3
"It is so hot"	999
"POON-jabi" [see 2]	10

Topics of Conversation
Restaurants (run by Indians) serving other cuisines suck	10
Indian food is too hot [see 3]   (not spicy, she likes spicy)	5
Making fun of Indian head motion	7
Bollywood, Tamil cinema  (without any clue)	9
Laughing and making fun of people who went out of their way to help her [see 4]	21

Other Important Numbers
Indians looking at each other and smiling at the silliness of expats	= SUM(Cells above - [see 4])
Indians enlightening the expat  with some facts	3
Expat quickly changing topic to  POON-jabi or head movement	3
Expat thinking "Indians suck at making conversations"	51
Number of jokes that came out of the lunch, keeping Indians entertained [see 5]	17

[1] This number is not calculated based on nationality but by demonstrated faith and dedication to expatism
[2] A POON-jabi is a special variation of the regular Punjabi that is found only in the head of the expat

[3] In the head of an expat English is a monolithic language, spoken only in the way they speak it in their country. And thus, spicy can only mean "using non-hot spices" and all Indians are dumb to use the word in any other way

[4] Say the meanness+ugliness index of such thinking and conversation is X

[5] The meanness+ugliness index of such thinking and conversations is Y,  then 

X >> 4*Y 

Thus, I can post this without guilt. 

I weight a tonne

Running - a poem

I run a lot, since I like to run.
You should try it too,  it's a lot of fun.

I start running early at 5 am,
to beat the Chennai heat,
That is just something I like to say,
watch the sun rise is the real treat!

I hear the morning azaan,
when I run by the Adyar mosque.
I smell the fresh sambar,
cooked by the girl in blue frock.

On beaches of Chennai, my home,
New Delhi through the smog and din.
Through Hong Kong once, I had a stop-over,
I run in any city I am in.

In the french quarters of Pondicherry,
through the morning markets of Bombay,
in Santa Cruz, so many times,
through San Francisco too, but only one day.

I ran with a policeman once,
who was much taller than I am.
She had magical stories to tell
of far away Asom and Mizoram.

I have run with a few children,
who are no good at it;
but if someone else runs past them,
could they just watch and sit?

I run with this dog everyday,
in the morning coolness she basks.
She owns and reigns the streets,
before people start their tasks.

Dogs are a considerate lot,
they run around me to-and-fro.
They would leave me far behind if they didn't;
oh! I run so slow.

I ran with a horse one day,
I beat him at a 5 k by a shot.
The horse was only walking by the way,
while I ran with all I'd got!

I run across people who look at me,
And loudly wonder why I run.
I look at people who zip past me,
and silently ponder why I can't.

When that happens, I feel bad and tired.
But then I remember why I run:
It's not because I am good at it,
but because it is so much fun!

Madras Again

I ate at a road side dosa place for first two weeks of my arrival in Chennai. It was run by an old couple. Their children, two boys in their twenties and a younger girl also helped them in running the everyday show.

As usual all my communications were limited to key words and numbers, since I still do not know Tamil. Shame on me. Well, that's topic for another blog. In this one interesting things happen on the day 9.

After 9 days, the lady, I called her akka, which means older sister, spoke to me in clear and well pronounced Hindi. She pattered away in good bambaiya Hindi as I looked at her with my mouth open.

When I did speak I only said Kyun? (Why?) She laughed a hearty laugh and her family joined in. 


**********


I was in Mahabalipuram, there are some really good granite rocks for climbing around there.

I reached very early and tried my hand at a few easy climbs, warming up for a decently steep climb. I had run 30 km a day before and I did have much faith in my toes. I could barely trust my hands: it had rained the morning: I would keep chalking them up and water hidden in cracks would keep wetting my hands. You get the picture, I was struggling and making excuses.

There was a pair of friends (males) watching me sitting near the carved elephants. When I reached the top, they seemed so far away.

I could not trust myself on the way down, but luckily there  was a tree for me to climb down on. And so I started my hesitant descent on the tree.

"Shoes Tamil Tamil" one of them shouted. I understood he was asking me to take my shoes off.

"No, no. Okay. Special rubber" I replied in my excellent Tamil.

"Grip-pa?" he replied in amazement and approval.

I got down and went to speak with them. They smiled and asked me in a friendly way: "training-ga?"

"Ama."

"Training two Tamil Tamil"

"Oh no, I am okay alone." I tried to explain. And added a joke "one man army," trying to be friendly to the uninteresting but interested locals. I come here and climb their rocks, they probably never think of climbing these. Maybe they will get inspired. Maybe one day they will also try climbing.

They spoke to each other for some time. "He going, one man army" said Arun pointing at Karthik. And I turned to see Karthik attempt the climb. I was worried I may have made it look too easy. "Rain, slippery" I tried to warn Karthik. But he did not listen, he slipped at the second foothold and slipped all the way down (8 feet or so) scratching his face on the way down. I felt rally bad. I tried to pick him up, but he refused help, a little embarrased.

Arun was laughing at him insensitively. I felt like saying something but I said nothing.

"I go" Arun said bragging. Foolhardy locals.

He made the whole climb in 30 second with bare feet. And screamed from the top. "Easy". Then he climbed down. Karthik and I urged him to take the tree after he was near the second from bottom foothold. He conceded.

I had still not got over the fact that an untrained local had done so much better than me. What do you do I asked. "Fisherman, two" he explained. Mahabalipuram is a fishing town! It all came together to me. 

I have been humbled many times before in life, and I should be smarter by now. But, well.

I hope to remember next time.

As a face saver, I should add this: "You army?" Arun asked me. It is one of the best compliments I have got in a very long time.

Meri Kaum *joke*

Doodh-Pak

Doodh-pak is a sweet. But it is synonymous with an institution pervasive in the society I grew up in.

For a 6-year old their elder brothers and sisters are like gods. They are infinitely more capable and they make you feel safe. But like gods they are not always there. And very much like gods, they like to play with other people like themselves, instead of spending all their time thinking about you.

And thus the 6-year-old sits on the fence or the boundary and watch the games the gods play. Pakada-pakadi (Tag?), Thappo (hide and seek), Nargoliyu (see footnotes), Cricket, and what not.

The six year old watches the gods play and completely immerses himself in the excitement, forgets his physical reality... And then in happens, a mere human wants to rise and join the ranks of the gods!

"I want to play! I want to play!"

"Hey! He is too young, he will not be able to catch anyone. No no we can't let you play!" interjects a more pragmatic and meritocratic god.

"Come on! Let him play, he will not get in anyone's way," a more generous (likely female) deity defends.

"Okay, you are doodh-pak. Listen everyone this one is doodh-pak. Okay? Let's continue our game."

And there it is! Explained and understood.


Doodh-pak is a player in training. They play like everyone else, almost. If everyone is running they run. If everyone is running away from someone they also run away from that person. They learn what the gods were doing, the laws of the universe, but safe in their doodh-pak shield. They are not chased too often. They are allowed to get tagged many times before they have to be the dav (it). And when they are the dav, it is not for too long: organically, one of the more pious and generous deities will alleviate them of their burden and they can start running around free!

Much later they will realise Doodh-pak is childhood itself, the sweet growing up.






Nargoliyu: A game played in two teams. It begins with one person of a team will hit a pile of 7 rocks with a ball. Then the players of this team (A) will have to put the pile of rocks back in order while the other team (B) try to catch the ball and throw the balls at the A team. Anyone from A team who is hit with the ball is dead in fact they are not allowed to to touch the ball at all.

Judicial Juggling: The Case of Exploding Flowers

For a very long time, I suffered the illusion that USA has very little or no corruption. Compared to India the context I am most familiar with, of course, it is very different scale, but it seems the USA has interesting internalised and legal methods of corruption. Most often this corruption is in favor of large corporations.

Lobbying is a very popular example. And large political donations. But that is the institution of democratic legislative branch, flawed everywhere. But when instances come from the judiciary, it makes me sit up and take notice.

As a disclaimer I am not a student of the law, and my commentary is nothing more than a reflection.




There is a provision in the judiciary of the US called the Rational Basis Test.

The level of judicial review for determining the constitutionality of a federal or state statute that does not implicate either a fundamental right or a suspect classification under the Due Process Clause and the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution. When a court concludes that there is no fundamental liberty interest or suspect classification at stake, the law is presumed to be Constitutional unless it fails the rational basis test.

Source: http://www.law.cornell.edu/wex/rational_basis_test



In its face it seems a very smart idea, why change status-quo unless it is impeding a fundamental right or constitution? It is great not to have excess laws and lawsuits, right? But in practice this law means that as soon as someone challenges the status quo, the judges and the representatives of the government put their heads together and try to figure out a way to make the existing law pass the Rational Basis Test. And the instances of how brashly and indelicately this is done will illuminate why I was moved to write about it. One instance, the only one I will discuss here, on top of my list of absurd, is the case of Louisiana Florists.

The source I am quoting here has a serious conflict of interest as they represent the firm that challenged the status quo, but I think they make a coherent case.


I will summarize the case here paraphrasing the source:

Louisiana is the only state in the nation to require florists to obtain a government-issued license before they may create and sell floral arrangements.  In order to comply with the law, aspiring florists must take a test (sounds worse than Asia) judged by their future competition—licensed florists. The law makes it very difficult for new entrepreneurs to work as retail florists and gives existing florists protection form from new competition.

When this law was challenges by unlicensed florists, the judges and the lobbyists of  licensed florists and government officials put their heads together and found a way to sustain this law by finding a way to make it pass the rational basis test. They came up with an incredible (and I do not use this word lightly) defense: The unlicensed florists arranging flowers pose threat to public safety!


Again, individuals who want to be florists need to pass a written and practical test, conducted by their competitors, to become florists because the arrangement of flowers presents a threat of danger to public.

The curious case of exploding flowers.

Read more here:
http://www.ij.org/freeing-louisiana-florists-licensing-law-is-blooming-nonsense
http://www.nola.com/politics/index.ssf/2010/03/florist_licensing_requirement.html

Or listen:
http://cato.ramp.com/m/audio/34499291/the-right-to-earn-a-living.htm

Pic-credit:
http://www.booooooom.com/2009/05/12/ori-gersht-photography/

Various thoughts

On Writing

I have not written in a while. I had thought if I did not write for a long time I would have a lot to say, that I would be flooding in thoughts and lines will flow out. But that doesn't happen.

I am flooding with thoughts, but lines are not flowing out. Thoughts are bumping into each other, honking: blocking all the flow and kicking up a ruckus.

On Inhibitions Or On Bouldering

Children remain my favourite people, 8 - 15 my favourite age group. 

I go to this indoor rock climbing gym. For those who may not be familiar with such a setting: in an indoor rock climbing gym, there are tall walls of different slants and angles, on which creative and experienced climbers set interesting routes as challenges for the patrons. Each of these challenge routes is then color coded using tapes and assigned a difficulty level. All this is a system to encourage learning to use the body in specific ways and it is a lot of fun.

People like me, older and too serious about what they do, do not like to break rules or "cheat" - step on a "hold" that is not on the "route". And that is why with my limited abilities the toughest routes I have ever finishes is V4.

At my stage of learning a break of a few weeks, and I need to build up my muscle, body positioning, memory, and confidence from V0 up. On one such day, I was making progress and doing my first V2 in quite some time. When I take a break I watch others do the same route, appreciating how scary it all looks from the non-climber's perspective, and feeling great about the feats my body is now capable of.


 

Enter a bustling 12 year old girl with a shock of bleached white hair, and a surprising outfit.

There are many children in this gym who are much better than me at climbing or I would be even if I was given six more years - and one such person is a six year old. Since there are children who are much better than me I have learnt to sit and watch and learn when I see children climb.

But this girl was not doing it right. She was not following any route or even difficulty level. All the routes on this wall were V2 and above and she just came in and did many moves which took her some way up, and she would climb down. And then she would do another set of moves up and climb down. At one point she got stuck and was unable to move up or down. She asked over her shoulder "what should I do?"

Being the only person around, I jumped in and gave some pointers on an easy climb down.

When she was down and safe, I asked her if she had climbed before. She said that she has been climbing for many years on and off, but never in a gym. So she does not know or recognize the color codes. I explained the system of color codes to her. Then I shower and helped her on her first V0 climb in the gym. She was good at it.

She looked happy and satisfied, and then she went straight on doing what she was doing before: no codes, no routes, no rules!

On my first day in the gym I had figured out what these codes are and since then I have been a straight arrow. I have never done what this girl was doing, ever! And I often credit myself with being the adventurous type.

I am inspired to spend a lot of time in the gym doing non-routes and having random fun!

On Signage and Informal Advertisement

Santa Cruz likes to think of itself as a very organic city. There is quite a lot of informality in the small spots in the middle of all the observed rules that is USA. 

There are many yard sales and other informal events that people want to share the news of. Usually they put up a cardboard with a sign. For example, "Yard Sale, 121 California St., Sat and Sun all day".

Now more than once I have showed up to places and events only to discover that there was nothing going on. Helpful neighbors told me the sale was a month ago perhaps. 

Ideally people who go around posting signs, would also go around removing them with the same diligence in the interest of the city and its beauty. But that maybe asking too much of mere humans. So how about when one posts something in the way of an advert, specify dates with month of the event, so that more people can trust the advert. I, for one, have decided to not pay any attention to such signs that do not have such details, learning from bad experiences.

As Saranya

I should run around the pile of beds. Mother will get angry if I play too far away. I should try to run around the bed and keep the game here. Raju always runs far away and I have to run after him to catch him. Raju is not a good boy. Vishnu was a good boy. He was also a fast runner. But he never got me into trouble.

Mother was not always an angry person. It is the heat. Where we lived before we had a shaded house and mother would sleep in the afternoon. Now there is no shade in the day. Heat makes her angry. And hunger.

All our things are near that tree, but this tree has no shade. My feet are still hurting from when I slipped from trying to climb it this morning. I landed on concrete.

Hey look at that piece of wood. It is shaped like a gun. That gun I had in the village, that was really like a gun. I will never find a gun like that one, ever. There aren’t many trees here. That is why I don’t find any surprisingly shaped wood.

Ok Raja is not chasing Raju now. He is coming for me. Okay Raju! I will keep it around our beds. Oops! I bumped into a man who has woman like long hair. 

“Sir food sir. Hungry sir. I will eat sir. Food sir!" 

He patted my head but did not give me any money. Maybe because I was laughing. When you laugh they also laugh. But I am getting good at the words, I can say it and get back into game very fast.

It is strange that I will never see Vishnu again. He was swept away into the ocean. He must have not woken up. I also did not want to wake up. My mother slapped me and handed me a load of things to carry. I cried. It was so strange. Everyone was leaving in a hurry. I did not think about Vishnu then. I only thought of him many days later, someone was talking about their family.

And then we came to Chennai. And now we live here under this leafless tree and wait for the hot day to pass, waiting for the cool evening. A lot of people gather here in the evening, everyone seems to wait for the hot day to be over to come out of their homes and be near the breezy ocean. Many people take buses to come here for the breeze! Lot of them also come in cars.

That car is big, its seats look soft and smell like food. I only touched it. There is nothing to get angry about. Anyway they can only shout, they can never chase me, I am too fast for them. Like the car. One day when I grow up, I will also have a car. That will show them.

http://mona-wakeuppeople.blogspot.com/

Human Dignity Vs. National Dignity: The Khobragade Row

"There is nothing like a 'mistreatment of a maid' - it's a misnomer! Mrs. Khobragade was only doing what we all do all the time!"  
- The Indian Political Class

This is a response to the row about Devyani Khobragade, the Indian Diplomat stationed as deputy consul general in New York, USA.

As a summary of events:
A 1999-batch Indian Foreign Services officer, Ms. Khobragade was arrested on December 12 on visa fraud charges, and was released on a $250,000 bond only after pleading not guilty in court. Her diplomatic immunity was waived, she was handcuffed and strip searched. This is unusual treatment for a diplomat. The prosecutor, Preet Bharara, the United States attorney for the Southern District of New York, said Wednesday night that the diplomat’s conduct showed that “she clearly tried to evade U.S. law designed to protect from exploitation the domestic employees of diplomats and consular officers.”

Ms. Sussman is the lawyer for the Indian woman Sangeeta Richard, who had been employed by Ms. Khobragade as a domestic help and babysitter. Ms. Sussman explains that the case is about the diplomat lying to the federal government about the wages she was required to pay to her client. Ms. Khobragade grossly underpaid the maid, required that she work far more than was expected, and wrongly represented this information the U.S. government.

The ill-treatment of the diplomat evoked a sharp reaction from India which initiated a slew of steps to downgrade the privileges enjoyed by the U.S. diplomats and their families including withdrawing airport passes and stopping import clearances. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had on Wednesday described as “deplorable” the way the diplomat was treated in the U.S. Indian Foreign minister Salman Khurshid demanded that the charges be dropped.

And thus, a case about a diplomat mistreating a domestic help brought to USA on fraudulent papers has become all about how the diplomat was lawfully treated when she was arrested and charged of such behavior. For the Indian political class: ruling party and opposition alike, the diplomat's single strip search and reported handcuffing is a huge concern requiring national uproar, while the original crime, the reason for the arrest of the diplomat - her mistreatment of the domestic help, making them work 70-80 hours a week, not paying the wages due to her by US laws, and the general mistreatment, is NOT an issue of concern. In fact thrice in the last three years now, Indian diplomats placed in NY have been found guilty of ill treatment of maids.

The actions of the political class roughly translated in parlance: "What? Are you seriously going to strip search a woman of education, status and class for mistreating a worthless maid? There is nothing like a "mistreatment" of a maid - it's a misnomer! Mrs. Khobragade was only doing what we all do all the time! How dare some other govt. punish us for behavior we don't even consider improper?"

There is a widespread culture of ill-treatment of domestic help in India. I am saying nothing new, anyone familiar with India knows this: Indians have not let go of the caste system completely. Rich folks: businessmen, diplomats and academics alike, do not mind paying low wages and uphold the sub-human treatment of domestic help. For a very common example, domestic help can be severely reprimanded if caught using the cutlery, cups or glasses not meant for them, a vestige from untouchability, and are expected to do almost any kind of work that the employer may demand, a vestige of caste based labor structure.

Many of these individuals of privileged class (most often also upper caste) actually think that by employing a domestic help they are benevolent saviors worthy of a medal! When one starts such discussions one often hears arguments such as "if she was not working here, she would be working on a construction site, carrying loads of brick. She has it much easier here," white-washing the reality that these lazy rich people would have to spend many hours cleaning and scrubbing (something they hate to do) and would cost them a lot of money in work hours.

But this economics is trivial to people who are accustomed to generations of discrimination, even the nicer ones. No wonder when their deluded realities come in contact with another culture, such as American, which value human equality differently, clashes are bound to happen. When reacting to protect one of their kin, these idiots cannot even see that they are aggrandizing their idiocy in international media by issuing statements promoting more discrimination, against homosexual individuals this time.

Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha said on national media: "My suggestion to the Government of India [...] we have issued visas to a number of US diplomats' companions. 'Companions' means that they are of the same sex. Now, after the Supreme Court ruling, it [homosexuality] is completely illegal in our country. Just as paying less wages was illegal in the US. So, why doesn't the government of India go ahead and arrest all of them? Put them behind bars, prosecute them in this country and punish them."

What a shame!

Sources:

The Hindu

NDTV

New York Times

Some More Pencil Drawings

Pencil Drawings Made in Aug - Nov

 Winter - 10/Nov/2013

 Nicole 2 - 24/Aug/2013

Nicole 1 - 24/Aug/2013