Thoughts which I want to pass on to my kids:

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My Dears,

 When you will be grown up, the nature of work will be completely changed, Our generation and previous couple of generations made living and fortunes primarily knowing "How" part of any task. However, with advent of new technologies (read #AI) which will keep improving in future; the knowledge of "How to do something" is going to be commoditized and no longer will be a competitive advantage. 

What is going to matter is "What" and "Why" of any work. So whenever you take any task in hand, try to understand the "Why" of that task first rather than thinking about "How" to do the task. For "How", Large Language Models are already here; but I believe they still can't match the creativity of human mind. "Why" of any important task is going to be domain of humans only for a foreseeable future.

Develop a habit of dig deeper and don't become a shallow thinker. Once you start gathering different perspectives, you will realize that you have something which is still can't be matched by LLMs. Creativity, inductive thinking and empathy are going to be human domains for long. Keep working on those aspects while leveraging the advancements of technology.

Yours,

Papa !  

 

Thoughts which I want to pass on to my kids:

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My Dears,

 Many a times in your life, you will face questions from outside about your process to achieve what you want. Many time you will face dilemma if you are doing right thing. What if you fail ? What if you fall short of your own expectations ? What if you fall short of others' expectations ? 

Always remember, to achieve something one needs to follow a process and believe in that process. Results are never going to be in your hands, but sticking to the process is always in your hand. On the contrary, the punditry or the analysis by outsiders is always going to start from the results first. They will have the benefit of hindsight and advantage of not being in a position to make decision which impacts the results.

Before you start, listen to people who have really gone through that process and have failed. They will always have better insights to offer than those who succeeded. Also listen to those who succeeded, they will give inspiration to you and show what is possible. Understand your strengths and weaknesses and create a process which uses your strength and allows you to work on your weaknesses side by side. Give yourself time and stick to the process even you face temporary failures.

Don't ever judge yourself by the outcomes or analysis of those outcomes by others. Be observant not judgmental ! Life has a lot in store for everyone. If you are observant, you will find many hidden treasures. If you are judgmental, you will lose many ! Believe in yourself, believe in the process, believe in knowledge, believe in hard work. Don't believe in short cuts, don't believe in punditry of others who start from results !

Yours' Truly,

Papa ! 

ये हंगामा क्यों है बरपा .....????

Today is one of the most historic day of India's history. Government has finally agreed to people's demand for "Jan Lokpal Bill" and hopefully we will have a strong anti corruption law in place soon. :-) This is victory for India's youth, out own generation. In April'2011, Indians have got two moments, which belongs to this generation.

But two very important points, which have lost or I would rather say that nobody has pointed those, are misuse and under/wrong use of our rights. In India, we have a healthy democratic system; we have been given rights to elect our representatives, who would be someone among us only. Then why this kind of revolt by civil society against those who have been elected by civil society only ??????

It is a point to mull about. For long back, we have been sending our representative as someone, who is not capable enough or tested enough. We have followed casts, religions, regionalism, cash but have forgotten the idea of collective development. Many of the times, we preferred not to vote but sit at the couch and watching a cricket match or enjoying the voting day as a holiday. Somehow we have become very complacent with system and forgot that if we are citizen of this country, each and every move made by us is going to effect us. Many people talk about leave India, some talk about frustration of living in this system, but nobody talks about exercising their own rights and performing their own responsibilities in a proper manner.Where was the civil society, which has erupted in protest now, when the voting percentage dipped to 50% in Mumbai and other big cities. We need to think about this. It is high time !!!

We have inherited a very healthy system and it is our responsibility to make it healthier. We are lucky that a selfless man from our civil society like Anna Hazare is leading our protest, not an Army General. We have seen few of the results, where Army Generals or dictators have gained from people unrest and frustration and ultimately it has proved disastrous for people themselves.

It is the rise of new India, who can stand united. I wish we would show the same spirit when we would go and elect our representatives. Bihar is a great example of that. The change of power and continuation of good people in power is itself a great but silent revolution. It is nowhere less than what we are witnessing now. The voter in Bihar needs a salute that he/she realized his/her power and brought the change without any Dharna or Fast or Rally. We should take a leaf out of Bihar's turnaround story and think, where we went wrong that we needed to put this much effort; when it could have been done very easily.

Everybody is talking about one positive outcome of "India Against corruption Movement" : Government has realized people power ; but the second and more important outcome, which has almost gone unnoticed is that "People have not realized their rights and true responsibilities; and this is outcome of that". It is very important to say this outcome also and in loudest way; because if still people don't realize their responsibility, they must remember that every time an "Anna Hazare" wont come for their rescue.

At last, few lines are coming in my mind:

ये हंगामा क्यों है बरपा .....

जब दी थी तुम्हे ताकत आशियाने में गुलशन बसाने की, क्यों तुम सो गए और उजड़ने दिया आशियाने को ????
 

आखिर  ये हंगामा क्यों है बरपा .....????

"Independence - The Journey" - How Far We Have Reached Till Now ??

Yesterday morning, a casual morning talk with one of my good friend gradually turned into a serious discussion and then a verbal altercation !!! I don't know how and when the reactions started coming out from me spontaneously. By nature, I am not a reactive person. I know very well that in this world of more than 600 crores people, everybody has his/her own opinion and that needs to be respected in a context. Despite of this strong understanding and maturity, I spoke out ...... I wonder !!!!

Indians have some grudges with the country (everybody has different, but everybody has some) and in our age, apparently the grudges come out in strong (or sometimes abusive) words.I retaliated these thoughts and tried to put my point that in the diversity of India, everybody wants his own country, every single person has some negative thoughts about the person, who is not of his own religion, caste, region or complexion (!!!) too.People from UP and Bihar are on receiving end in Mumbai and similar was the case with South Indians few decade back. Sometimes, people from North-East get alien treatment in some or other part of the country. The protest in Kashmir is very much visible to everybody.

Its true that there is a lot of work is still need to be done. Lacking of transparency has marred our democracy in last six decades of independence. Problems are getting bigger and bigger ...... but I do not think that it gives an ample reason to rebuke the country. After all ,our identity comes from the country. People aspire to go to The US and UK and other developed nation; but they often forget that their they will always be treated as third class citizen there(not second class too !!!! ). They will always be of Indian origin, wherever they go in the world. People always start comparing India with The US and UK; but they often forget that there are many other nations in the world, whose citizen aspire to be as par with Indians. United Sates and UK are matured democracy with almost ten times of democratic period than that of India. They have resolved most of their internal conflicts(despite of far less diversity than India, they had the differences !!!! ), and still working on. Are we so impatient that we want to resolve everything within a whisker of moment. It is not possible at all. After six decades of independence, its good that the differences and grudges, which were trying hard to come out from the cozy independent feeling, are finally coming out. Unless they come out, we would not be able to resolve those. Independence is an ongoing journey, it is not a one time phenomenon. It is like a journey, in which you always set a new target after crossing one. There might be some hiccups, there might be ups and down; but we need to address all those because it is our journey. Nobody else would do anything for us.If we want to achieve next milestone in the journey, we must have to take the pain to cross the hilly areas, desert and every other barricade.

We want to achieve everything, we want to see India mighty like US but most of the time we forget that they also have their share of issues; which we cant realize sitting here. The US is "THE US" because their citizen made it. Its the generosity, vision and tolerance of their own citizens that they allowed people from other countries to come and build their nation. In India, we even don't want people of UP and Bihar to come to Maharashtra and hope that India will become The US in five years.

When US or UK were building their own respective nations, India used to be a prosperous country. But they never thought to escape from their own conditions and decided to build their own country.They tried to found out every possible means to build their own nation. They might have taken short cuts and decided to settle in India as it had all the prosperity; but they didn't do that. They continued their journey with all the challenges and their journey is still on.

Our independence journey is in very early phase now. Problems have just started coming out as our generation is the generation who opened their eyes after Independence from British. Our previous generations had a target to get the freedom from The British Raj; which they achieved. They gave us an independent Indian nation; they gave us an Indian Nationalism, which unites us. Now its our generation's turn to take this baton forward to achieve the next target rather than trying to find out short cuts and cursing our own country.

"Other Gender" option in admission form -- Yes it is true now..

In India, while traveling in the train or at a busy traffic signal or at other public places, most of us must have faced transgenders disturbing our peace of mind as asking for some money. Rather they threat one to shell out some money from one's pocket otherwise they would create some unpleasant situation. We all generally shell out Rs. 10/- to get rid of this situation and proceed to our work (the same I do too).

Meanwhile, from my college days, while filling up any of the form, one question always struck to me - Why we are not having a third sex in form - Male, Female and Others. God has engineered all and why Third Sex is not getting the opportunity to prove themselves as a normal human being?? Many of the times I discussed this with one of my roommates, Mr. Ramakant Pathak . Yesterday, he e-mailed me that one of my long standing dreams is getting true. NLSIU, Bangalore has decided to add a third sex in their form as "Others". It gave me a great delight and satisfaction. Newspapers or media didn't give it as much focus as it deserved, but it is a great step taken by one of the premier institute of the country and a great leap towards the end of inhuman discrimination faced by transgenders. Naturally, they are devoid of sexual pleasure and by not giving them a fair chance in other fields, we were committing a sin.

Most of us might not be aware, but in the UN's Civil Society Task Force on HIV/AIDS, India is represented by an eunuch. Laxi Narayan Tripathi is the only "Others" in this task force. I came across to this fact last year while watching one of the most controversial television series "Sach Ka Samna"("Sach Ka Samna" is the Indian version of Moment of Truth ). I recommend all the readers to please watch the episodes of this series, featuring Laxi Narayan Tripathi, once. Laxmi Narayan is a person of strong will who proves that trans-genders are as capable as any of normal Men or Women. They only need support from society and law.

With NLSIU coming with this historic decision, we can hope other institutions and government bodies will come with an "Others" option in their employment, admission and other forms. It is not only an issue of ending discrimination, but also a move to prepare a huge workforce to contribute constructively towards the nation growth.

55% of Indians are Poor and Rupee Gets its Symbol

Almost an year ago, I was discussing the notion of Europeans about India, with my German language trainer. The very first thing she mentioned was that it is a land of extremities and contradictions. I am not sure whether it is only a coincidence or fate, that almost every time, whenever India celebrates its economical success or flexes her power muscles, in parallel some other activity starts which forced me to think whether this celebration is fake or real. Few of my previous blog entries have reflected this, and this article is one in that series.

Two days back India released the symbol of its currency. It is nothing but another show of India's economical might and one forward step towards becoming a powerful economy. India is preparing herself for next moon mission; we are organizing Commonwealth Games this year and targeting for Olympic. Now, we are producing winners not only in Cricket but in other sports also. India is one of the biggest defense equipment buyers and our energy thirst is forcing us to explore all the fields to get energy. Sounds Good ...... really we should give a pat on back to ourselves.

But almost the very same day a report released by Oxford University (Multidimensional Poverty Index) shown India her another face. According to it, 55% of Indians are poor (Country Briefing:India). Eight of our states are poorer than the poorest African countries. I would like to name those state - Bihar, U.P, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, M.P., Orrissa, West Bengal and Chattisgarh. Lets have a look the geography of these states. Bihar, U.P. and West Bengal lies in the one of the most fertile land of world : The Great Ganges Planes. The Ganges has provided a natural assistance to the soil of these areas and that is why it add to one of the most densely populated areas of world. This land is one of the best land of world for agriculture which made it one of the first choices for human to live. Rajsthan, Jharkhand, Orrisa and Chattisgarh are most mineral rich states of the country. Still they are poorest !!!! Many of these states are facing Naxal insurgency now a days and government is finding it tough to combat them as they are our own people fighting from our own land.


This all force me to think where did we go wrong in this development saga. Half of India is proceeding to compete few of the richest European nation and the rest is preparing to compete in poverty with poorest of African nations......!!! How contradictory; but its true. It again echoes the words of my German trainer in my ears.

For last few decades, we have talked about social inclusiveness, where all sections of society should get benefited from the development. But it seems that it has been rather social exclusiveness, where the development has become exclusive phenomenon of few areas. Definitely, the credit goes to the government and public of those regions as they made themselves empowered. But what about other states. Have they been found dozing off when the cherry of development has been distributed or they made themselves reluctant to accept any new change and decided to stuck with old ideas of development or the government made them fool ? I think all of the above reasons apply to these backward states. In U.P. and Bihar, the blatant caste politics has made the society blind. The public don't know anything but caste while voting. The ancient idea behind choosing the caste representative has been the development of the particular caste; but now, it has become only a means to make fool of public. So politicians are also milking the cow and drinking the all milk themselves. It has nothing to do with development. The public of these states have made themselves reluctant towards new and progressive developmental ideas and is still stick with age old caste based society. West Bengal has become a battleground of two political parties. Rampant corruption has made M.P. and Rajasthan handicapped while Orissa, Chattisgarh and Jharkhand are being exploited by their own people due to their natural resources. At some places, government has been failed to provided a social inclusiveness and at some places public has handed over a cane to government to beat them.

Ultimately it is the responsibility of government and public both to decide in which league they want to be shown. Social inclusiveness is not about the reservations on basis of caste, it is about the proper implementation of policies and identification of disturbing elements and their removal.Public must realize its responsibility as they are going to be labeled with "THE POOR" tag.

May Cricket Prevails

Yesterday, while having a discussion with one of my friend, I got a point to ponder. Now days, the IPL controversy is in limelight and naturally it drew our attention at tea time. He loves cricket but he does not love IPL. Let me generalize the thing; there are many who are ardent fans of cricket but ardent critic of IPL. Apart from controversy and limelight, IPL provides a full package to a cricket lover. Nail biting matches, extremely good performances, fours and sixes, dream teams where Sachin and Sanath can open the innings and Shane Bond and Shoaib Akhtar spearhead the bowling attack; all what a cricket lover would love to watch. With lightening performances of Sachin, Saurav, Rahul, Kumble, Kallis, Symo.....it has also been proved that this format of game has a lot to do with class and it’s not all about power. So why people do not treat it like a sport......??????????????????????????

After few minutes I got the answer too....it is not an India-Pakistan or Australia-New Zealand match or its not Ashes, where prestige of a nation is on stake. Agreed....but it is a reason enough to strip IPL??? After all it is all about cricket; money is involved but professionalism is very much needed to raise the standards of any sport. Nobody complains about English Premier League?? Except World Cup Football, soccer only played at club level. There is no series like Ashes or no rivalry like Indo-Pak or Trans-Tasman and there is more money involved in this than IPL; but why more than cricket people love to watch EPL(now Barklays Premier League-BPL)????? Because they want to see Rooney, Ronaldo, Ronaldinho, Rivaldo, Zidane, Bekhem. So why there is partiality with Cricket???????

Some have also the views that it is entertainment not a game.....but I think that the sole purpose of any sport is entertainment and physical exercise. That is why our forefathers have evolved with concept of sport. A sporting concept was never been thought as a War. It was and it is always for the art of that game, entertainment of others and physical fitness of participants...That is why we have SPORTING SPIRITS not WAR SPIRITS.

I agree that the recent controversy has marred the image of IPL but it has nothing to do with Cricket. Those who have marred it either are politicians or are businessmen. Business Houses run EPL(BPL) too; but EPL is still clean!!! Reason......a proper regulation. Government is doing all what it should have done two years back. There are few other aspects which have degraded the IPL image in general public i.e. Late Night Parties etc. These things need to be regulated properly. After all cricket is cricket and it is what a cricket fan would love to watch. I would like to quote Nawab Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi (former Indian Test Captain and IPL Governing Council Member) " Baby is clean, only water is dirty; we need to clean the water"....

I wish Cricket would win among all of this.....I wish the spirit of sports would win....