People who influenced me: Bertrand Russel

Russel's thinking is a lineage in a link that begins with the Age of Reason of Bacon and captures the pragmatic issues of the era. Although it is difficult to say which of the works has influenced me his 'Why I am not a Christian' had such a clarity about it so much so that Christ's greatness becomes even more clearer in his critique of Christianity. I believe it is the organised Christianity that he criticises rather than Christ the man. He was one among others who defined the essential characteristic of the twentieth century as one that exposed the nature of Man and one who warns of not using the rational part of Man in solving his problems.

People who influenced me: Samuel Beckett

Samuel Beckett's definitive place as one among the theatre of the absurds in capturing the essense of the 20th century is exemplified in the play 'Waiting for Godot' which has a lasting impression upon me. Waiting as the metaphor for life and the two characters Lucky and Pozzo as representing the humanity with its hierarchy of oppression by one on the other, captures the essense of a world which still does not lose an opportunity in chaining and subjugating the other.

In defiance of the conventions, Beckett answered to the question why there are only two chapters, 'because one would be too less and three would be too much' and to the question who is godot? he said ' if I knew I would have said it in the play' for me indicates the very sentiment of the man against any kind of oppression as the theme of the play.

People who influenced me; Arthur Koestler

Arthur Koestler wrote novels but more memorably non fiction. His 'Darkness at noon' is the most famous of his novels, but I would remember him for his non fiction trilogy ; The Sleepwalkers, The Act of Creation and The ghost in the machine. The fist one speaks about the non liniarity of scientific discoveries; such as that the heliocentric view of the world preceded the actual by about a century and a half and was left forgotten until Copernicus' theory was accepted lately.

The Act of creation intertwines evolution with human advancement and a whole lot of subjects in between. The ghost in the machine speaks about the delusional streak in the human mind where the hierarchical control of the new brain and the old brain are muddled leading to the psychotic streak in human history. He even considers it an evolutionary mistake to have a neo cortex that many times cannot override the limbic system which is the old brain. He also suggests that mankind should develop drugs to correct this mistake and administer them in the same way public water supply is dosed with iodine in certain iodine deficient countries.

Koestler himself was given to mental imbalances but I believe he has not been given his due among the intellectuals judging by the low citation elsewhere. I went all the way to Calcutta to purchase the three books.

People who influenced me: Amos Oz

Amos Oz is a Jewish writer. His 'A tale of Love and Darkness' influenced me immensely. I have not read any other of his novels but the simplicity and profoundness of his writing shakes me even now. Writing about the times post formation of Israel he vividly captures the idiosyncracies of the immigrant Jew mostly with European manners trying to come to terms with the lack of standards back in their own HOME country although it is their dream come true. His love of books goes with the fact of his father being a librarian. I admire him for being so capable of getting outside the Jewish self and examining his own people, but more importantly his complaints to his mother who committed suicide. The passage is so memorable of a child who has not reconciled to his mother leaving him forever... in such a way.

Defence pre submission

There was one more pre-submission defence at the SMS CUSAT yesterday. The presenter Siby Zacharia was as much confused about the topic as I was but I pretended I was listening. It occured to me initially that I was the only one not getting anything because all the others were apparently learned.

Then came the water up the boat. One by one there were questions and there were attempts by the others to quell saying we will ask the questions later and so on. It turned out that the very same doubts that I had was shared by the others as well.

For instance the question of what is consumer based brand equity as distinct from mere brand equity. The cluster based sampling technique was questioned. The quasi experimental design which it claimed was questioned and answered childishly. The use of terms like price, promotion etc were questioned.The classification of hedonistic, FMCG, utilitarian were not in marketing literature.

Then came the bombshell that one of them threw not at the presenter but at the guide that he being the doctoral committee member was not informed. Then how did he sign the presubmission form. He merely signed it.

Then another said there were instances where PhD was awarded without presubmission and none need claim sainthood etc. Also that inspite of these comments the scholar was still defending and not listening. That even after so much the scholar is not saying he would correct the mistakes.

The scholar tried to say politely that it was very difficult to get the questionnaires filled which was besides the technical points raised.

A saner one among them said there is some standard to which the university adheres and clearing it would tarnish if later on rejected.

The questions that remain for me are; Why did the guide not correct the scholar beforehand. What was the scholar doing all these years. Should not the faculty members show a united front at least during an auspicious occassion like this one so the observers get some respect for the university. Finally if post graduate teachers behave so what needs to be said of ordinary citizens. Has there been so much of erosion in our society's overworld. Then what would the underworld be?

Well springs of strength

Well springs of strength


And there was this fiery storm
That swept away all as suspected
The darkness that nearly consumed all
Then gave way to a fresh beaten path

Though none was in sight
And the path remained lonesome
The wellsprings opened and cleared
And showed the depths

That would have remained clogged.
The storm looked every way
The cleansing red that He shed long ago
And divided time in two

Long back at the crib
He did smile and smile
That banked the well springs
For this one big storm to bless the meek

......................

Infrastructure, Ecology and Urban planning

I had been to attend a research pre submission talk at SMS, CUSAT on 29th July, 2009. There were two. The first was on the problems of the textile mills in Salem. The other one was on the urban planning at GCDA. The second one was worth the time though none in the audience appreciated it.

Essentially it used the ratio HDI/Ecological footprint.

The HDI combines normalized measures of life expectancy, literacy, educational attainment, and GDP per capita for countries worldwide. It is claimed as a standard means of measuring human development—a concept that, according to the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), refers to the process of widening the options of persons, giving them greater opportunities for education, health care, income, employment, etc. The basic use of HDI is to measure a country's development.

At the urban development level therefore the HDI can be summarised as infrastructure support for a physical and possibly other well being.

The ecological footprint is a measure of human demand on the Earth's ecosystems. It compares human demand with planet Earth's ecological capacity to regenerate. It represents the amount of biologically productive land and sea area needed to regenerate the resources a human population consumes and to absorb and render harmless the corresponding waste. Using this assessment, it is possible to estimate how much of the Earth (or how many planet Earths) it would take to support humanity if everybody lived a given lifestyle.

At the urban development level this would mean how well to utilise our resources especuially land to the benefit of all.


Urban sprawl

In India except for Chandigarh none of the cities are planned resulting in what urban planners call urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is the low-density expansion of an urban population away from a city center through unplanned, incremental development.

The phenomenon typically results from increased wealth and social desires to "escape the city" and lead a "suburban lifestyle," with more open space and isolation. Urban sprawl is often associated with cities of the western United States, but occurs in cities throughout the world.

In the case of Kochi the urban sprawl is a result of not people escaping the urban areas but people due to changed socio - economic considerations would rather come closer to the city form their traditional villages. The Malayali's individualistic strain viewed the apartments with suspicion and added to the unplanned growth. Kochi has the added feature of the backwaters too leaving it a very sensitive ecosystem.

The answer to the question of urban planning is counter to the way it is going now. Like most cities in India, the development is characterised by a phenomena called urban sprawl. Urban sprawl is a feature where the dwelling places are built with large areas of vacant land often in agricultural land, ecosystems or wasteland.

The trick in planning is to grade the land in sectors into agricultural, ecological and suitable for habitation and then restrict the habitation to the habitable third.

This leaves the agricultural land intact adding to economies of scale, the ecology in tact and more importantly brings human population and sypport infrastructure together. In this way the land which is otherwise left sub optimally utilised can effectively be used to include say a park, football and other grounds, shopping complexes and human habitation together so that even the commute time can be optimised thus adding to huge savings.

My own feeling is that we are past the tipping point in population to have any effective such planning though scientifically it makes sense. That adds all the more expediency to save the remaining before it becomes too late.