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Indian Languages #2: Aspiration

In her book, Wanderers, Kings and Merchants , Peggy Mohan talks of another feature of Sanskrit that is absent from the Indo-European languages - aspiration . That refers to the sound of the following letters – ख , घ , छ , झ , ठ , ढ , थ , ध , फ and भ . As Peggy Mohan amusingly puts it, these are sounds that require the vocal cords from being close together to suddenly move away from each other, a feat “difficult for anyone not used to such acrobatics to manage”. Dravidian languages too lack these sounds.   Strangely, while Hindi has these aspirated sounds, other languages of the North West (like Punjabi, Sindhi, Balochi, and Pashto) don’t! This suggests, says Mohan, that even the North Western languages have a Dravidian substratum – and Sanskrit is the exception when it comes to the aspirated sounds.   Such sounds that are unique to a language, writes Mohan, can help track population movements. How? By seeing if they start to “absorb” new sounds, structure and grammar; or alter

Indian Languages #1: The Linguistic DNA Tag

In her book on Indian languages, Wanderers, Kings and Merchants , Peggy Mohan writes: “(Languages) did not sprout in continuity like new branches from the same tree from where they started, but were like different trees that happened to be neighbours stretching their branches, touching each other and sharing structure.”   Take Sanskrit. It seems to have taken an entire sound system from other languages, feels Madhav Deshpande from Michigan University. (Note the difference – he isn’t talking of individual words ; he is referring to sounds ). How did he come to that conclusion? To understand that, we first need to understand “dental” sounds and “retroflexion” sounds. If you’re like me, you probably have no idea what that meant! But worry not.   Dental sounds are made by the tongue touching the upper teeth (that means त , थ , द , ध , न , and श) . Whereas retroflexion sounds are made by the tongue curled upwards ( ट , ठ , ड , ढ , ण , ष ).   Sanskrit started off similar to

The Manuals Problem

In the Healthcare industry I work in, we have to “validate” the product before we start selling it. In our context, the term “validate” means something more than just “to test”. Rather, it means “testing by the person who would be the actual user of the product”. Why is this so important? An example will clarify.   An engineer who is designing the product may use the touch interface on the screen and conclude it’s all good. But what if the nurse or doctor wears gloves in their work environment? Does the touch interface still work fine? Or maybe the terms used onscreen are obvious to engineers but make no sense to anyone else? It is to try and discover such issues that validation by a “real user” is critical.   But even our doctors who validate our products won’t help validate the manuals. Who wants to go over a manual and give feedback as to whether it is clear or not? This, of course, is a problem with all manuals, across product categories and across industries.   As Tim

Normal ain't What it Used to Be

Seth Godin made an interesting point : we tend to assume all kinds of data has a “normal distribution”, the famous Bell curve shape, even when it doesn’t. It’s become the default option in most people’s heads: the one thing that sticks from statistics taught at school.   The problem, of course, is that lots of things don’t follow a Bell curve. As Steven Strogatz writes in The Joy of x : “Curiously, these types of distributions are barely mentioned in the elementary statistics textbooks, and when they are, they’re usually trotted out as pathological specimens. It’s outrageous.” That bias explains why the Bell curve is called the “normal” curve.   But the real world is different. A flood or earthquake can cause a huge spike in damage in a particular area, raising the cost to insurance companies. Stock market can have massive moves on a particular day, not a steady movement. The number of deaths in wars follows the same pattern: an outlier can be off the charts (like the World

Brief History of Xiaomi

In his book on the Chinese mobile phone manufacturer, Xiaomi , Jayadevan PK describes Clayton Christiensen’s “Greek tragedy of outsourcing”. Outsourcing starts off for the obvious reason – it’s cheaper to get certain work elsewhere. Which in turn adds to the company’s profit. Progressively, the agencies and companies to which outsourcing happens move up the value chain. They learn about the technology, manufacturing and other aspects of the product. In China’s case, as the importance of China as hub grew, the government actively pushed for technology and knowledge transfer to happen. Most Western companies had no choice – if they disagreed, they might be kicked out while their competitor who agreed, would continue to get products made for cheaper. At some point, the entity to which outsourcing is being done has learnt enough to make its own products. Sure, those products are not great to begin with. But sooner or later, they become good enough. They are much cheaper. And so they begin

Covert Advertising

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One of the Civics chapters for my 12 yo daughter is on advertising. After describing the purpose of advertising (to persuade you to do something), it gets into the various types of advertising – commercial (buy something), social (change your behavior), and political (vote for X). Interestingly, it also has a section on “covert advertisements”. I tried explaining that to my daughter with an example – if Virat Kohli wears Ray Ban glasses when he is out at an event, notice that he is never saying that Ray Ban is the best. But people notice what he is wearing and may decide it is a good set of shades and buy it. That’s covert advertising, I told her. I was very amused that her teacher had used a similar example too. Back in 2020, Cristiano Ronaldo had famously pushed aside Coca Cola bottles at a press conference as if to say it wasn’t good (either in taste or for health – Ronaldo is a fitness freak). If you haven’t seen it, or don’t remember it, have a look at the video before you read fu

The Mexican

Guess what the man who said these things does for a living? Vision : “When I look at something, I don’t see it for what it is, I see it for what it could be. When I look at something, I see how it ends.” Ambition : “What I’m doing here… is building an empire.” Calmness : “I am afraid of panic. Turns out it’s bad for business.” Adaptability : “Business is changing and we must change with it.”   Made your guess? Did you think they are all by some business leader? Nope, they’re by a drug lord from the real world! Netflix’s series, Narcos – Mexico , tells the story of the Mexican drug cartels and their top boss, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. That’s quite a mouthful, so I’ll refer to him the way everyone in the serial does – Felix.   Before Felix, Mexico was splintered into rival groups, each owning a part of the country – this was called the ‘plaza system’. Felix managed to bring all the plazas under a single umbrella – for which, of course, he’d be the boss. But the

Folding a Paper in Half... Repeatedly

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I remember the dare from childhood that said nobody can fold a piece of paper 7 times. I tried and failed, of course. Since nobody else seemed able to do it either, I assumed it had to do with strength (or rather, the lack of it).   But that’s not the answer, explains Steven Strogatz in The Joy of x . The reason is more prosaic: “Each folding approximately doubles the thickness of the wad, causing it to grow exponentially (1, 2, 4, 8, 16…). Meanwhile, the wad’s length shrinks in half every time, and thus decreases exponentially fast (1, ½, ¼, 1/8…)” That much is obvious. But here’s the next step in the train of thought that most of us don’t think of: “For a standard sheet of notebook paper, after seven folds, the wad becomes thicker than it is long, so it can’t be folded again. It doesn’t matter how strong the person doing the folding is… (It) can’t happen if the wad is thicker than it is long.”   Britney Gallivan, in high school, derived the formula for how many times a

Chinese Perspectives

The view from the other side. There can be nothing more “other side” than China, so I was happy to see there are many Indian blogs based on reading up Chinese publications (in English, of course).   How, for example, do the Chinese view the Indo-Canadian spat ? Amit Kumar went over the articles in the Chinese media on it, and the view is interesting, to say the least. Just as we view more and more things with China-in-the-equation, China views most things with America-in-the-equation. Thus, the fact that the US did nothing to pressurize India wrt Canada’s allegations is taken as a clear sign in China that India is super-critical from America’s Asia strategy, that America will look the other way to Indian actions (this was written before the US indictment of an Indian hand in a plot to kill a Khalistani leader in the US). Further, China feels India knows how important it is to America in Asia, and is hence increasingly emboldened to do whatever it likes, be it in Canada or in its

Maths in Freedom Struggle, and Love

In his book, The Joy of x , Steven Strogatz points out every field of maths has “one notoriously difficult topic”: “In algebra, it’s word problems. And in geometry, it’s proofs.” The reason why proofs are so hard is because it’s usually the first time in their life a student has to prove something. Everything until then was always “because I said so”, be it from the teacher or the parents…   With hindsight, with the benefit of life and experience, (some) adults look back at proofs in a different way, as something relevant to areas of life far beyond “triangles, circles, and parallel lines”: “It trains you to think clearly and logically… What’s important is the axiomatic method, the process of building a rigorous argument, step by step, until a desired conclusion has been established.”   Half tongue-in-cheek, he cites the American Declaration of Independence as an example. Thomas Jefferson wrote, “We hold these truths to be self-evident”, and listed the basic things all pe

Student of the Year

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As a toddler, my daughter loved Alia Bhatt’s songs, esp. the ones from Student of the Year . (That movie did have many good songs and well-choreographed dances). Fast forward to present day, when she is 12 yo. She rarely watches Hindi movies now, but one of the few ones she likes of late, Raja aur Rani ki Prem Kahani has, yes, Alia Bhatt.   If I had any hopes that there was anything to be read in the name of her toddler-time favorite ( Student of the Year ), they have been dashed. Our conversations come exam time are perfectly captured by this photo and its caption: In fact, the pic below captures how she and I look at her answer sheets – me intently, she with an expression of “It’s over, so why are you even looking at it?”   Of late, we pull her leg and tell her that she isn’t showing any signs of academic prowess, she’d better find a rich guy to marry. Some time later, she showed us this meme on the Internet: “Me No Study, Me No Care Me Go Marry Millionaire If He Die

Policy Towards Pakistan

I found Pranay Kotasthane’s view on what should be India’s policy towards Pakistan interesting. He cites the common argument that trying to improve ties is a waste of time because the Pakistani military-jihadi combo will scuttle any such attempts anyway.   Kotasthane argues India should continue its current policy of “treating Pakistan as a distraction rather than a prime focus area ”. He says: “India benefits far more from having China—and not Pakistan—as its main rival.” Why/how? “Focusing on a larger, richer, and more advanced adversary makes Indian policymakers think of “levelling up” rather than “punching down”. Countering China as a mission statement makes India focus on national power across all its dimensions — technological, economic, and military. In contrast, a focus on Pakistan makes Indian policymakers narrowly focus on counter-terrorism and conventional military power. ”   But he adds a caveat – don’t be dismissive of Pakistan either. Take Israel, he says.

The Commutative Property

In The Joy of x , Steven Strogatz points out that the commutative property (the fact that the order of actions doesn’t matter) isn’t intuitive in multiplication. Forget for a minute that you know multiplication is commutative, that 3 X 7 is equal to 7 X 3. Instead ask yourself: If you add 3 + 3… 7 times, why should it be equal to 7 + 7... 3 times? He elaborates the non-intuitiveness of the problem: “Try counting by sevens: 7, 14, 21. Now turn it around and count by threes instead: 3, 6, 9… Do you feel the suspense building? So far none of the numbers match those in the sevens list, but keep going… 12, 15, 18, and then, bingo, 21!”   Shifting to a different perspective, he says the commutative law is hard to come to terms with, because in daily life, the order of things does matter. Cause before effect. Socks first, shoes second.   And then he tells the amusing tale about the physicist, Murray Gell-Mann. He had been rejected by Princeton. Harvard said Yes, but weren’t commit

SpaceX #5: Reusing Boosters

At one point in his book on SpaceX, Liftoff , Eric Berger quotes Elon Musk on the next challenge he set for the company: “One of the hardest engineering problems… is making a reusable orbit rocket.” Booster reuse was high on SpaceX’s priorities. To that end, they tried attaching parachutes to the top stage of the rocket to slow it down when it fell back. The idea was doomed because the speed of re-entry was too high and the stage burnt up long before the parachutes could deploy. As Musk said with hindsight: “We were very naïve… We were huge idiots.”   Why was SpaceX so obsessed with reuse? Cost reduction was just one reason. Remember Musk’s intention to make human flight to Mars affordable? “If an airline discarded a 747 jet after every transcontinental flight, passengers would have to pay $1 million for a ticket.”   If the rocket would burn up on re-entry, what was the way out? A heat shield was the first step, to protect the rocket. The second step was a never-done-be

The BMW Lover @Ladakh

During our trip to Ladakh, I found all varieties of cars running perfectly well even at the high altitudes of the Himalayan passes (17-18 thousand feet). The internal combustion engine works even with the lesser oxygen, I mused. The moment I thought that, I realized that the difference in oxygen level couldn’t be all that much, otherwise tourists like ourselves would be struggling for breath.   But I wasn’t totally wrong on the point either. Our driver told us most new vehicles are tested in Ladakh. If they can run with the slightly lower level of oxygen there, they can run anywhere.   Like all kids, my 12 yo daughter is a lover of high-end cars. Mercedes and BMW top the list, of course. Thankfully, she doesn’t see Ferraris in Bangalore but I guess things will change if we visit Dubai. Needling her, I pointed out that most of the cars in rugged Ladakh seemed to be Hyundai’s and good old Maruti’s. Don’t see any of the fancy, delicate BMW’s or Merc’s, I added for good measure, I

SpaceX #4: Money Problems

By 2008, Musk had almost used up his Internet fortune between Tesla and SpaceX, but “had nothing to show for it”, writes Eric Berger in Liftoff . His rocket company had had many failures; while Tesla was eternally in need of cash. As if that wasn’t bad enough, the 2008 recession happened. It was the worst possible time for Musk – (1) funding was scarce; (2) to get funds, he needed results; (3) to get results, he needed funds. Chicken and egg problem. The logical thing would have been to abandon one company and focus on the other. Musk agonized over such a decision – “It was like having two children”, he said.   But there was a possibility of getting a $1 billion contract from NASA for cargo delivery to the International Space Station (ISS). But first, SpaceX had to prove it knew how to fly into space. They scrambled to launch a rocket into orbit: “After sinking six years and $100 million into SpaceX, Elon Musk finally had a real rocket.” Thanks to that, the NASA deal went thro

That "G" Word (Genocide)

As the Israeli assault on Hamas and thus Gaza continues, the word “genocide” is increasingly getting used by those critical of Israeli actions. And since Israeli actions are only possible due to America’s support in both military and diplomatic terms, within the US, some accuse Biden of “funding Netanyahu’s genocide” and the term “Genocide Joe” (Joe Biden) has some traction.   A UN official quit over the powerlessness of the organization and wrote: “In just 4 weeks, Israel with US backing has cut off food, water, power & then brutally exterminated more than 10,000 imprisoned civilian men, women & children in Gaza, destroyed their homes, churches, mosques, schools & hospitals because they are Palestinians. Name it? #Genocide. ”   While specific incidents can be questioned and individual photos may be faked, it is hard to argue with the big picture truth of what is being described. Unless you are a Westerner. (I understand Israel’s fury, though I wonder what their p

SpaceX #3: Decisive and Aggressive Musk

Elon Musk, remember, is always on multiple projects companies at any given instant. Of the time he spends on any company, he spends 80-90% of his time on the engineering questions, writes Eric Berger in Liftoff . Since he is also the guy who is funding the company, Musk says: “Normally those are at least two people. There’s some engineering guy who’s trying to convince a finance guy that the money should be spent. But the finance guy doesn’t understand engineering, so he can’t tell if this is a good way to spend the money… Whereas I am making the engineering decisions and spending decisions.”   Of course, some decisions went wrong. Like the time he OK’ed aluminium nuts instead of steel ones because they were lighter – “with rockets, every ounce matters”. But the aluminium nut had not been able to tolerate the continuous salt water spray from the ocean when the rocket was being prep’ed, setting off a cascading set of problems that caused the rocket flight to be aborted mid-flight

Wars and the Western Media

Throughout the Ukraine war, the Western media has been very vocal in calling out any and all instances of Russia hitting civilian installations. Their “coverage” during the ongoing Gaza war, on the other hand, ignores all such instances.   Don’t get me wrong. I totally get why Israel has gone in with guns blazing – the anger and fury is totally understandable. (Is it the best course of action, has Israel gone way overboard are different questions). Rather, my point here is about the hypocrisy of the Western media.   A small strip of land is being pounded continuously. Water, electricity and essentials are cut off, civilians are also the victims on a large scale, hospitals have been hit. But God forbid if a Western publication should shout out the words, “war crimes”. The civilians of Gaza have nowhere to run to – Egypt won’t open its border, and why should they? Egypt didn’t create this problem. When those refugees were pouring out of Syria into Europe, the Western media was ha

Cashless and Card-less

While UPI makes life oh-so-convenient, there are still situations where one needs cash. But when you are outdoors and suddenly need cash, what do you do? It’s not like people carry their debit card around anymore.   What’s the solution? UPI-ATM ICCW . The first two abbreviations are well known, the last one stands for Interoperable Card-less Cash Withdrawal. (1) If the ATM supports ICCW , the menu will offer a choice of “UPI cash withdrawal”. (2) Enter the withdrawal amount. (3) A QR code will be displayed on the ATM screen. (4) Scan the QR code with a UPI app that supports UPI-ATM transactions . (5) Authorize the transaction by entering the UPI app PIN. (6) Money is debited from the UPI app; and the ATM dispenses the cash.   See how easy that was?   Currently, there is a limit of ₹10,000 per transaction. But it could vary by bank. The facility is limited to BHIM UPI app and a handful of banks to begin with; but it is expected to expand soon. If you use your own bank’

SpaceX #2: Launch Pad Stories

Eric Berger’s book on SpaceX, Liftoff , next talks of the launch pad challenges. Elon Musk’s company got permission from the Air Force base in California to conduct its tests and launches. The good thing was that it was close to their factories. But it was also close to the ocean, which meant the rocket that went so many checks and inspections prior to launch would be lashed with salt carried from the ocean by the winds for long periods.   But there was a much bigger problem with the Air Force base in California. To launch a satellite into equatorial orbit, the rocket would need to fly over the US. But flying over land was forbidden by US law (what if the rocket crashed or things went horribly wrong). SpaceX needed to find an eastward facing launchpad. Ideally, the launch site needed to be close to the equator, because then it could “piggyback on the earth’s rotation”, thus reducing fuel needs (and weight).   So they picked the Marshall Islands, a set of islands owned by the US

India and Israel-Palestine

There is a lot of talk on if/how Modi has overturned Nerhru’vian doctrine on Israel as a result of the ongoing Gaza war. On foreign policy matters, countries act based on self-interest, so I don’t agree with that view. Of course, in domestic politics, the right will act as if Modi overturned Nehru’vian policy, and the left will behave as if yet another Nehru’vian achievement is being dismantled. But that is just politics as usual.   Pranay Kotasthane though says that nothing significant has changed in India’s Israel-Palestine policy now. He bases this on a Dutchman, Nicolas Blarel’s book on India’s policy on Israel since, believe it or not, 1922!   Between 1922 and 1947 , the Khilafat movement meant that India’s freedom struggle suddenly did care about matters in faraway (modern day) Middle East (See my earlier blog on that). As the Congress and the Muslim League jockeyed for the support of Indian Muslims, the Congress decided the smart move was to oppose the Zionist moveme

SpaceX #1: A Different Kind of Company

Elon Musk is a software guy, a man who made his first (multi) millions via a Silicon Valley startup. And it is this software guy who has gone on to create Tesla, the electric car company, and SpaceX, a rocket company. Both those companies stem from his belief that we humans may make Earth uninhabitable, and therefore need alternatives – (1) electric cars instead of the fossil fuel guzzling ones (Tesla), and (2) well, if we can’t save Earth, we should prepare to move to Mars (SpaceX). Yes, Musk doesn’t think small.   Eric Berger’s book, Liftoff , tells the story of SpaceX. It all started when Musk was surprised that NASA didn’t have plans to send man to Mars. Perhaps their website didn’t talk of it, he thought. But no, NASA really didn’t have plans to send humans to Mars. The more Musk dug into NASA, the more he was convinced that NASA “would probably only lead to more flags-and-footprints missions”. That’s Musk for you – cocky, brash, outspoken, a man who wants to change the world,