Viswanathan K's Thoughts

Once upon a time, humans “gathered colors from naturally occuring materials in the world around them”, writes Whitney Balick. Ochre dug from the earth, charcoal, minerals found locally, local plants, saffron, those were the sources.   All that changed in 1856 when William Perkin, a British chemist, stumbled upon a way to turn coal tar sludge into a colored dye: “Perkin’s discovery jump-started a revolution in synthetic dye-making that would change the way most of the world made color. It wasn’t long before other chemists began to figure out how to synthesize seemingly every color of the rainbow from coal tar and other petrochemical products.” This industrialization of color set off huge environmental damage.   Multicolored waste would find its way from industry into waterways and poison the local ecosystem. Humans nearby had reactions to the chemicals, from rashes to outright poisoning. The colored products could also wreak havoc, like the lead used in paints perm...

American airports suck (to be fair, they’re not international hubs). European airports are overcrowded, chaotic and unintuitive. Bangalore’s T2 terminal is beautiful and scenic, though it doesn’t have many shops or eating places (yet). Hong Kong airport is spacious, sparkling, and has lots of shops.   And then there’s Singapore’s Changi airport. It is the only airport one would like to be “stuck” due to a delayed flight or a long layover! That’s partly because parts of the airport are a mall cum fun area open for all, not just people catching a flight. Locals come for family visits, the way you might go to a mall or a movie!   It even has a (paid) swimming pool and gym. The food options are numerous, though the more popular ones can be very crowded (it’s like a mall for the locals, remember?). Like a few European airports, it offers a city tour between flights for an overview of Singapore, though you’d need to apply for a visa if you are just passing through.   ...

The Mustafa Center in Singapore is the go-to mall for affordably priced items. Everything from phones to clothes to watches to daily use items. We spent a few hours there shopping for various things. Most malls in the city have a counter where you can apply for the reimbursement of VAT (only for foreigners like us). The details (including your passport) get keyed in, but the reimbursement happens later. How/when?   When you are leaving the country, at the airport, there’s a section for the reimbursement. Go over to the scanners and scan your passport. Bingo! It pulls up all the reimbursements from all those shop counters, adds them up and asks you whether you want it paid in cash or credited to your credit card. That simple. Quick, frictionless, no struggling to find receipts (The contrast to the difficulty in equivalent reimbursements in Europe is zameen aasmaan ka farak) . ~~   Then we went to the Singapore zoo. It is way out of the city (not surprising) which mean...

Facts rarely make anyone change their mind. We know that all too well. This is true not just about political matters but also about every belief that people hold.   Why is that? Seth Godin takes a stab at the question. We have consciously or unconsciously built stories around our beliefs, political or otherwise. And that, he says, explains why facts rarely convince anyone: “Because a good story feels true. A good story resonates.” So he says: “If I bring facts to rebut your story, they will fail .”   Is there no hope then? Godin says one can succeed: “(If) the facts I bring are the foundation for a new story .” Therefore, he says: “Part of the job of making change is working to make sure a bad story doesn’t get in the way of good facts. ”

In an earlier blog , I mentioned the discovery of bacteriophages (viruses that kill bacteria) and asked why they weren’t used as treatment/prevention for bacterial diseases? Pranay Lal’s Invisible Empire answers that question.   First, says Lal, hierarchy matters. Some top biologists at the time offered alternate explanations – what if, they said, the killer wasn’t a virus but enzymes released by other bacteria? While d’Herelle was outranked, he used bacteriophages to treat a handful of patients suffering from bacterial dysentery. Years later, he cured a few more patients suffering from the bubonic plague. He tried his method in India to treat cholera outbreaks with great success. Sadly, his successes were few and even with the India case, where the effects were on large number of people, the trials had to stop due to the start of the Satyagraha movement (non-cooperation).   The few trials conducted after that didn’t help the case for various reasons: “The small-...

Marina Bay Sands. An iconic landmark of Singapore.   A 5-star resort with a casino. It includes a luxury shopping mall. An ArtScience museum. A huge theatre. A floating Apple store. Celebrity chef and signature restaurants. The hotel part consists of 3 curved towers of 55 floors each. Joining their tops is the Sands Skypark, a 340 meter skyway shaped like a ship. The purpose of this resort? To aid with Singapore’s economic and tourism objectives. The video below gives an all-round view.   As our 14 yo daughter never tires of reminding us, we rarely never splurge on anything. So we decided to spend two days at this iconic hotel (We initially considered a one-day stay, but that would have meant we’d barely have unpacked before it would be time to checkout).   Our room was on the 13 th floor, with a great view of the Gardens by the Bay and its light show. That is a huge urban park with cooled conservatories (lounges for growing delicate plants), a (pay) area with a spe...