Here’s a very good read on “behind the scenes” making of the global financial crisis we are in today and how it all started with the U.S. home loans market and spiralled into a worldwide phenomena.

On a different note, I believe this whole crisis and the recent happenings have removed all doubts, confusion and hesitation, if there were any, about the rules of the game in the “Flat” world we live in today.

I can no longer ignore or be oblivious to what happens in a remote part of the world, 12 hours away from me, because whether or not I can earn my daily bread depends on that!

So, now that our fates and lives are so closely entwined, can’t we, as citizens of the world, use this as an opportunity to come together and resolve not only the current financial problems but also the problems that mar humanity once and for all - poverty, hunger, illiteracy, global warming, terrorism…

Perhaps this is our chance?

Ever since my phone decided to go quiet and I became dependent on my earphones, I end up being frustrated every single time I have to attend or make a call!

No matter what I do, however neatly I fold the wires, every time I take the earphones out from my pocket, they are horribly messed up, with the wires entangled into such complicated knots, that untangling them is, I’d say, at least as challenging as, if not more than, solving a complex mathematical puzzle.

I wonder how these knots form!

One plausible explanation that I can think of is Entropy. My line of reasoning is similar to the one generally adopted to explain why things tend to break: There is only one way for the earphones to remain untangled but an infinite number of ways for the wires to be entangled.

I find it a bit strange, and funny, and yet awe inspiring!
Think of it, as if it’s God - the ultimate developer - proclaiming that all the chaos in the universe is ‘By Design’. Imagine if the developers at Microsoft (used here as a placeholder … it could have been Google or Adobe or Yahoo… ) could say something similar. Something like, “All the chaos in the software is by design, and it will only increase over time!” (Some people may argue that it is, in fact, already true, but I am discounting those protests here ).

If everyone realized that ‘chaos’ was unavoidable, the ultimate truth, God’s doctrine; we could perhaps save trillions of rupees, dollars, euros etc which are being wasted on futile efforts to overcome chaos like forming governments, putting in place ‘Law and Order’ systems, recruiting (and this includes the medal winners at the Olympics from Haryana!), transferring and dismissing policemen….
These funds could then be put to more meaningful uses like feeding the hungry and designing and manufacturing better earphones which don’t get entangled easily.

Coming back to my original problem, while it gives me some comfort to know that it is not a targeted attack to frustrate me but just another manifestation of a universal phenomenon, I wouldn’t mind somebody gifting me a pair of retractable earphones or a bluetooth headset. It is at the top of my wishlist as of now!

I have my foot in my mouth (again ).

Here I was, going about bashing the recently announced ‘Live Mesh’ every time a discussion around Microsoft’s online story came up, without actually having used the service! (Yes, I know I work at Microsoft but then, being “Self-Critical” is a company value around here ). Now that I have actually used it, I stand corrected! I actually like it (though the UI could be better), and am finding it pretty useful (especially the folder synchronization part).

For the uninitiated, Live Mesh is being positioned as Microsoft’s platform for enabling ‘Anywhere Access’ to users’ data and applications. The philosophy is that the user owns the data (and the software applications). He should be able to access it seamlessly, irrespective of the device and / or place. A user can add the devices and /or applications he owns to his “Mesh”. The “Mesh” abstracts the fragmentation of user’s data stored in isolated devices (or even the cloud) so that, for the user, his/her data is now accessible from any device connected to the mesh. For example, you start preparing a presentation for a meeting on your office desktop, go home, start your PC, continue from where you left off in the office and complete the presentation, go straight to the meeting the next day and project the slides from your smart phone!

But this is already possible, right? You could as well have emailed the slide deck to yourself and accessed it, isn’t it? Well, yes, it is doable that way. In fact this was exactly the argument I used to make in support of my stand above. But you really have to try out the folder sync feature to be able to appreciate the experience it provides. (Which means, you have to wait Live Mesh is currently in limited tech-preview).
Using email for doing this once in a while is probably Ok, but what if you had to do this day-in and day-out? It’s at least an order of magnitude simpler to have all your devices automatically synced, based on the rules you specify, but without being bothered every time and without you having to consciously attach and send mails.

In it’s first avatar, Live Mesh will offer two services: Folder Synchronization (which enables scenarios like the one illustrated above) and Remote Desktop. If things go well, we may see a number of existing applications becoming “mesh-enabled” and perhaps a sizeable number of new applications built on the platform.

It’s not winter yet;

But the road I took is misty.

It’s a cipher and I stand nowhere,

My destiny lost!

While I count, countless moons pass by.

Helplessly, I count!

Have I been driven by imagination?

A mirage, in my sheer color blindness, did I see?

Or was it a lesser God I followed,

Who now himself wanders free!

Interestingly, yesterday’s (Sunday’s) TOI editorial carried an article by Shashi Tharoor on the M.F. Husain issue. He provides more perspective on some of the issues I argued for by quoting from the recent Delhi HC judgement on this matter.

Time and now, our judiciary has acted in a manner which helps to restore at least some faith in a system otherwise marred by short sightedness and vote bank politics.

Here’s a related recent article on the HC judgement.

P.S.

Today’s editorial also carried an article (Swamionics) criticizing the govt’s policy of continuing to subsidize oil prices despite the atrocious rise in crude oil prices in the global market - an issue I had touched upon in one of my posts some time back.

Yesterday I received a mail with some supposedly controversial M.F. Hussain paintings of Hindu deities. I felt that it was important for me to make my stand clear, so despite it being a spam, I replied to the mail. What resulted was a debate which I am reproducing here as is.

My intention is not to pass a judgement on M.F. Hussain or his work but to raise some issues which I feel are critical for the functioning of a secular democratic system and my views on culture.

(I am not posting the names of people to protect their privacy)

Original Mail Text:

it is a kind request if u hav an inch of respect on the religion u r born and the almighty god u that u worship ….plz think for a  while  and introspect and take decision on your own ..and forward this to countless people u know and with a bare minimum of 10 people u know.
and reply………

(Me: Attached with this were some paintings whose captions had been deliberately worded to influence people so that the phrase ‘take your own decision’ was really not useful!)

My Reply to original sender and the mailing list:

I would not have normally replied to this mail but given the fact that this is not merely spam but something much more dangerous because it evokes communal feelings, I felt compelled.
 
I do not find anything offending here as my respect for a religion or God is not dependent on whether someone else depicts them with or without clothes.
 
I believe that in a free democratic country, everyone has the right to freedom of ‘peaceful’ expression. At least as educated mature people, we should understand that artisitic freedom is important for growth and enrichment of our culture.
 
Also, whether or not M.F. Hussain or anyone else has respect for my beliefs and faith does not, in anyway affect me unless he/she forces his views upon me. Similarly, I should not try to force my views upon M.F. Hussain!
I have as much respect for a fellow human being as for any religion.
 
I am sure M.F. Hussain is not going about sending mails or barging into people’s houses with his paintings and forcing them to see his work. You can choose to criticize his work but please don’t turn this into a communal issue.
 
In any case, we are all born naked, aren’t we?
 
Thanks,

Tushar

Reply (From someone in the ‘To’ list, not the original sender) to my mail:

you have done a good job indeed but it is the diversity of that vibrant culture in which we all are born which allows us to express our feelings like you expressed.But dear there are some ethics ,morale and code of conduct which should be maintained by everybody .
No one would allow any artist such a freedom making  xyz  mother’s nude pictures in a derogatory manner whosoever he or she may be just because he is an artist .It is not the first time he has been summoned by court ,in 1970 .1990,1996 simillar cases were registered against him.
As you rightly said it is not the God who feels weather He is presented in any nude form or not & He will never feel bad even if we pray him by spitting on him rather it shows our perception & thinking  how do we pray Him ???and this is why we pray by closing the eyes.by assuming certain picture in our minds
when the sensibilities of million of hindus are hurt and soft targeted and also if it is peacefully   protested even through mail by allowing them taking their decision on their own  people call it “COMMUNALISM”
it is critical situation  where in secularism does not takes care of hindu sentiments,if it takes it is ornamented by the “communal” word
.lata mangeshkar is also a great artist but she never hurt anybody’s sentiments.
 
i remind you art is a beautiful creation of God like human beings . a real  artist  
always takes note of this. and always respect other religious beliefs.
 
dear,it is  merely a  childish perception culture never enriches by nudity rather it deteriorates
 
if he   is a real artist why he fled away????  he has not even send an apology letter .He is only a born indian   because he has outrightly denied the trials and Democratic Indian Law and is living in dubai  and Dubai Govt and many extrimist org has awarded him for this act and he has recieved it wid full pleasure
 
 
think before you write…….

My Reply to above mail:

I have written after I have thought well and I stand by what I have written.
 
There are more important reasons in this world to worry about, for me, then to be worrying about what one particular person does or feels. There are millions who die of hunger everyday, millions who are rendered homeless, not only in our country but around the world. I’d rather worry about them.
 
“It is a childish perception… culture never enriches by nudity”
What is culture, and what it is enriched by, is not limited by what you and me believe. Culture is all encompassing. There are good and bad aspects within a culture so that people can make choices. You can not disrespect people’s wisdom by making this choice (of good and bad) for them. Moreover, what you see as wrong may be right for me. For an example, I do not believe depiction of nudity is bad.
I am entitled to my opinion as you are to yours. Terming somebody else’s perception as ‘childish’ is disrespecting difference of opinion and doesn’t lead to a healthy debate. And difference of opinion is vital for democracy to exist.
 
As for M.F. Husaain’s fleeing the country, I believe that is a matter of shame for our country that an artist had to flee because he could not pursue his art freely in a democratic country.
 
“Many extremist organizations have awarded him”
What proof do you have? Please do not accuse anyone without ample proof.
 
 
“No one would allow any artist such a freedom making  xyz  mother’s nude pictures in a derogatory manner whosoever he or she may be just because he is an artist”
Absolutely not. Did I ever say that an artist had the right to make personal attacks against a fellow human being? Please do not extrapolate my words.
 
My intention is not to defend a certain person. If M.F. Hussain has done wrong, let him be brought to justice but let it happen under a court of civilized law and not under a court of religion.
 
“When the sensibilities of million of hindus are hurt and soft targeted and also if it is peacefully protested even through mail by allowing them taking their decision on their own  people call it “COMMUNALISM”
Religion is and should be a personal matter and not one of the society or country. Who are I and you to decide if ‘Millions’ of ‘Hindus’ were hurt. Did they come and tell you so? Let us not impose our opinions on others. If you feel hurt, you have every right to go to a court of law and demand justice. You have the right to speak for yourself but not for so called ‘millions’.
Let them speak for themselves.
 
What I am against is intolerance and disrespect for difference of opinion. Without these, it will be impossible to sustain a democracy.
 
Thanks,

Tushar

This is getting creepy. Almost all the time Linked-In is suggesting names of people that I actually do know but I have no idea how they can figure it out. These people are not in my immediate or even second degree network. I have not uploaded my contacts from gmail or any other address book. How do they know then?

A lot of people seem to be asking the same question on blogs and forums but so far I haven’t seen anyone from Linked-In dropping even a hint of how they do it. Some really smart data-mining and AI? I’ll be glad if it’s that (and in that case Linked-In will go right at the top of my ‘The places to work for’ list). But what if they are somehow accessing some data which they shouldn’t be.. at least not without asking me?

I’ll try to dig deeper into this.

[P.S. Manas, just suggested that these people might actually have uploaded their address books. Very possible. At least I didn't think of this possibility (I'm dumber than I think :P). I'll try to cross check.]

This is the text of the Commencement address by Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computer and of Pixar Animation Studios, delivered on June 12, 2005.

I felt like crying after watching this. Thanks Rajat for the link. Here’s the youtube link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D1R-jKKp3NA&feature=related

“I am honored to be with you today at your commencement from one of the finest universities in the world. I never graduated from college. Truth be told, this is the closest I’ve ever gotten to a college graduation. Today I want to tell you three stories from my life. That’s it. No big deal. Just three stories.

The first story is about connecting the dots.

I dropped out of Reed College after the first 6 months, but then stayed around as a drop-in for another 18 months or so before I really quit. So why did I drop out?

It started before I was born. My biological mother was a young, unwed college graduate student, and she decided to put me up for adoption. She felt very strongly that I should be adopted by college graduates, so everything was all set for me to be adopted at birth by a lawyer and his wife. Except that when I popped out they decided at the last minute that they really wanted a girl. So my parents, who were on a waiting list, got a call in the middle of the night asking: “We have an unexpected baby boy; do you want him?” They said: “Of course.” My biological mother later found out that my mother had never graduated from college and that my father had never graduated from high school. She refused to sign the final adoption papers. She only relented a few months later when my parents promised that I would someday go to college.

And 17 years later I did go to college. But I naively chose a college that was almost as expensive as Stanford, and all of my working-class parents’ savings were being spent on my college tuition. After six months, I couldn’t see the value in it. I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and no idea how college was going to help me figure it out. And here I was spending all of the money my parents had saved their entire life. So I decided to drop out and trust that it would all work out OK. It was pretty scary at the time, but looking back it was one of the best decisions I ever made. The minute I dropped out I could stop taking the required classes that didn’t interest me, and begin dropping in on the ones that looked interesting.

It wasn’t all romantic. I didn’t have a dorm room, so I slept on the floor in friends’ rooms, I returned coke bottles for the 5¢ deposits to buy food with, and I would walk the 7 miles across town every Sunday night to get one good meal a week at the Hare Krishna temple. I loved it. And much of what I stumbled into by following my curiosity and intuition turned out to be priceless later on. Let me give you one example:

Reed College at that time offered perhaps the best calligraphy instruction in the country. Throughout the campus every poster, every label on every drawer, was beautifully hand calligraphed. Because I had dropped out and didn’t have to take the normal classes, I decided to take a calligraphy class to learn how to do this. I learned about serif and san serif typefaces, about varying the amount of space between different letter combinations, about what makes great typography great. It was beautiful, historical, artistically subtle in a way that science can’t capture, and I found it fascinating.

None of this had even a hope of any practical application in my life. But ten years later, when we were designing the first Macintosh computer, it all came back to me. And we designed it all into the Mac. It was the first computer with beautiful typography. If I had never dropped in on that single course in college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally spaced fonts. And since Windows just copied the Mac, its likely that no personal computer would have them. If I had never dropped out, I would have never dropped in on this calligraphy class, and personal computers might not have the wonderful typography that they do. Of course it was impossible to connect the dots looking forward when I was in college. But it was very, very clear looking backwards ten years later.

Again, you can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards. So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future. You have to trust in something — your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever. This approach has never let me down, and it has made all the difference in my life.

My second story is about love and loss.

I was lucky — I found what I loved to do early in life. Woz and I started Apple in my parents garage when I was 20. We worked hard, and in 10 years Apple had grown from just the two of us in a garage into a $2 billion company with over 4000 employees. We had just released our finest creation — the Macintosh — a year earlier, and I had just turned 30. And then I got fired. How can you get fired from a company you started? Well, as Apple grew we hired someone who I thought was very talented to run the company with me, and for the first year or so things went well. But then our visions of the future began to diverge and eventually we had a falling out. When we did, our Board of Directors sided with him. So at 30 I was out. And very publicly out. What had been the focus of my entire adult life was gone, and it was devastating.

I really didn’t know what to do for a few months. I felt that I had let the previous generation of entrepreneurs down - that I had dropped the baton as it was being passed to me. I met with David Packard and Bob Noyce and tried to apologize for screwing up so badly. I was a very public failure, and I even thought about running away from the valley. But something slowly began to dawn on me — I still loved what I did. The turn of events at Apple had not changed that one bit. I had been rejected, but I was still in love. And so I decided to start over.

I didn’t see it then, but it turned out that getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened to me. The heaviness of being successful was replaced by the lightness of being a beginner again, less sure about everything. It freed me to enter one of the most creative periods of my life.

During the next five years, I started a company named NeXT, another company named Pixar, and fell in love with an amazing woman who would become my wife. Pixar went on to create the worlds first computer animated feature film, Toy Story, and is now the most successful animation studio in the world. In a remarkable turn of events, Apple bought NeXT, I returned to Apple, and the technology we developed at NeXT is at the heart of Apple’s current renaissance. And Laurene and I have a wonderful family together.

I’m pretty sure none of this would have happened if I hadn’t been fired from Apple. It was awful tasting medicine, but I guess the patient needed it. Sometimes life hits you in the head with a brick. Don’t lose faith. I’m convinced that the only thing that kept me going was that I loved what I did. You’ve got to find what you love. And that is as true for your work as it is for your lovers. Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work. And the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it. And, like any great relationship, it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking until you find it. Don’t settle.

My third story is about death.

When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something.

Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure - these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose. You are already naked. There is no reason not to follow your heart.

About a year ago I was diagnosed with cancer. I had a scan at 7:30 in the morning, and it clearly showed a tumor on my pancreas. I didn’t even know what a pancreas was. The doctors told me this was almost certainly a type of cancer that is incurable, and that I should expect to live no longer than three to six months. My doctor advised me to go home and get my affairs in order, which is doctor’s code for prepare to die. It means to try to tell your kids everything you thought you’d have the next 10 years to tell them in just a few months. It means to make sure everything is buttoned up so that it will be as easy as possible for your family. It means to say your goodbyes.

I lived with that diagnosis all day. Later that evening I had a biopsy, where they stuck an endoscope down my throat, through my stomach and into my intestines, put a needle into my pancreas and got a few cells from the tumor. I was sedated, but my wife, who was there, told me that when they viewed the cells under a microscope the doctors started crying because it turned out to be a very rare form of pancreatic cancer that is curable with surgery. I had the surgery and I’m fine now.

This was the closest I’ve been to facing death, and I hope its the closest I get for a few more decades. Having lived through it, I can now say this to you with a bit more certainty than when death was a useful but purely intellectual concept:

No one wants to die. Even people who want to go to heaven don’t want to die to get there. And yet death is the destination we all share. No one has ever escaped it. And that is as it should be, because Death is very likely the single best invention of Life. It is Life’s change agent. It clears out the old to make way for the new. Right now the new is you, but someday not too long from now, you will gradually become the old and be cleared away. Sorry to be so dramatic, but it is quite true.

Your time is limited, so don’t waste it living someone else’s life. Don’t be trapped by dogma — which is living with the results of other people’s thinking. Don’t let the noise of others’ opinions drown out your own inner voice. And most important, have the courage to follow your heart and intuition. They somehow already know what you truly want to become. Everything else is secondary.

When I was young, there was an amazing publication called The Whole Earth Catalog, which was one of the bibles of my generation. It was created by a fellow named Stewart Brand not far from here in Menlo Park, and he brought it to life with his poetic touch. This was in the late 1960’s, before personal computers and desktop publishing, so it was all made with typewriters, scissors, and polaroid cameras. It was sort of like Google in paperback form, 35 years before Google came along: it was idealistic, and overflowing with neat tools and great notions.

Stewart and his team put out several issues of The Whole Earth Catalog, and then when it had run its course, they put out a final issue. It was the mid-1970s, and I was your age. On the back cover of their final issue was a photograph of an early morning country road, the kind you might find yourself hitchhiking on if you were so adventurous. Beneath it were the words: “Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.” It was their farewell message as they signed off. Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish. And I have always wished that for myself. And now, as you graduate to begin anew, I wish that for you.

Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.

Thank you all very much.”

I love train journeys.

It might be because I’m a lazy, laid-back person and like to do things at my own (slow) pace. I love ‘travelling’ more than ‘arriving’. I don’t like it, when a book ends because it forces me to come back to the real world. Probably, if I had a girlfriend, she’d have vouched that I’m hopelessly romantic!

For me, a train journey is about the countless raw sensual treats that the polished, professional comfort of an aircraft cabin can never provide. The incessant ‘tutter-tutter’ of the wheels on the rails, the aroma of home cooked food that the guy on the facing berth savors (he might just offer it you sheepishly if he realizes that you have been watching!), the joy on the face of the little girl who waves excitedly at you as the train passes by her house, the sight of the smoke rising from the engine as the train wiggles and meanders her way through vast lush fields, the drop of early morning dew which hangs from the the rickety window frame and, before you can react, leaps onto your face!

The hustle-bustle of a busy junction teeming with passengers eager to reach their destinations contrasts fittingly with the serenity of the ‘unimportant’ stations where the train slows down but doesn’t stop. People from nowhere, wanting to go nowhere, yet belonging to everywhere!

It is near these stations that you can catch ‘third-person’ glimpses into the lives of people busy with their day-to-day chores. A farmer on a tractor, tills his field; a woman carrying a pot of water on her head, walks with a careless caution to ensure that she doesn’t spill a lot before reaching home; a cow-herder whistles to keep his animals from straying too far (he rarely uses the stick he carries). In all probability, none of them has noticed you! They are too busy for that, like most of us! But, quite unlike us, they don’t seem to be in a hurry!

There are times during the journey when tracks run parallel, times when they converge and cross and times when you are all alone. When you reach a fork, you know that different tracks lead to different destinations but thankfully, it is not you who has to choose between the two otherwise you would not know which one was which! A train journey is like life except with the difficult parts taken out! I don’t know if it is this symbolism which lends it its romance!

Two articles in today’s ET woke me up from my mini writing-slumber.

One: Worried by rising inflation, the government is contemplating invoking the long defunct section 18G of the Industrial Development & Regulation Act, 1951, which would allow price ceilings to be imposed on ‘essential’ commodities. Now, one doesn’t need to be an economics or public policy expert to understand that the govt. does need to keep rising prices under check, and, not only because this happens to be the election year! Hence, I do not doubt the FM’s intentions behind this move. What worries me is the execution part.
I do not think that our corrupt-to-the-core state politicians (not that most of them at the center are any better) are eligible to handle this extra authority. Horror tales of the pre-liberalization era force me to believe that this might be another Frankenstein in the making.

The second article was kind of funny (and tragic!). It read like a spoilt child throwing a tantrum, “Papa, change the rules of this game because I can not win it by fair means!”
(Well, it didn’t literally say that but almost did…)
The gist is this: The Indian Postal Department wants the postal and courier services to be regulated so that:

1. The private players have to obtain a licence from the postal department for offering their services.
2. The private players have to price their offerings at least 5 times higher than the corresponding services provided by the postal department!!!

The second point is so ridiculous, I still can’t believe they actually asked for it! Apparently, the PMO has shot down the proposal. (Thank God!).

Those of us born in the 80’s (and later) are fortunate to have grown-up in an open economy. Today, a passionate middle class young person without any political connections can at least dream of and hope to start his/her own entrepreneurial venture and be a wealth-creator. An employment-generator rather than a job-seeker.

Please, we don’t want to go back to the licence-raj!