Immigration

Immigration has been on my mind a lot lately. I'm not an immigrant - am happy & satisfied being a foreigner in the US. Yet I need to jump through some mind-boggling hoops just to live here legally.

The topic of immigration is a source of constant tension and dialogue with my employer - neither of us understand what it means to the other. It affects my vacation trips back home to India a lot lately. I struggle to not roll my eyes at the people who think it's perfectly normal and ask me to give them my exact travel plans 6 months in advance. Frustrated? Blame the lawyers, the politicians, the government...

I listened to an audio book today - "A Century of Immigration" by Christopher Collier & James Lincoln Collier.

It's informative and talks about the motivations for the different immigrant groups of people who moved to America, whether they stayed or returned to their homelands, how and why they interacted with or influenced society and the impact it had on their personal lives.

The authors seem to believe that America is the only democratic country that has seen waves of immigrants who have tried to integrate and create a new multi-cultural, multi-ethnic society. They seem ignorant or have chosen to be blind about India - the world's largest democracy and cultural melting pot. People from all over the world have migrated to India for millennia and formed their own sub-societies while also becoming an integral part of a larger common society. Would be good if they had paused a moment to think about how the 'New World' was discovered in the first place.

It appears that the immigrants never fully assimilated the American culture, choosing to retain several of their own traditions. However, their descendants were more likely to be 'American' due to their schooling. From what I've seen and by my own experience, I believe that's true.

It was interesting to note that many of the current immigration laws seem to have stemmed from ideas & prejudices that go back as long as the 1920's. Every country wants to keep the 'outsiders' out, America behaves no differently.

Coworkers asked me the other day whether I plan to get an American citizenship. They seemed surprized at my 'No'. There are lots of great things about America, but there are also lots of not-so-great things, which make me yearn to go back to India.

I'm content being a law-abiding foreigner in the US and a citizen of India. Never mind the truism 'The US passport is the most coveted document in the world'.

Recycle your money and become a social investor

Crowd funding projects is quite common these days. But this Bangalore based NGO crowd-funds micro-finance projects. Simple idea : Recycle your money and become a social investor.

http://www.rangde.org/how-rang-de-works

"You are hardworking."

"You are hardworking."

How do you interpret this statement? Is it a compliment? A mild insult hinting at the fact that you're not fully qualified to do your job, but make up for the lack of skill with great effort? Or a meaningless observation akin to smalltalk?

If it is a compliment, then it's a consolation prize. If it is an insult, sarcasm is a great way of putting it across. If it is smalltalk, it is no good as feedback. Nonetheless, the speaker chooses to focus entirely on the effort, with complete disregard toward the result.

Today I heard "hardworking" being called a skill. I'm stumped!

The staring contest - Size does not matter (24-Jan-2012)

Symbols

Namaste. ನಮಸ್ಕಾರ. नमस्ते. 

This little ritualistic gesture is a common Indian greeting. Irrespective of the language you speak, it is a respectful gesture symbolizing the thought “I bow to the lord within you”.

Madam Toastmaster, fellow toastmasters and guests,


Today I’d like to share with you some thoughts about the power and meaning of symbols in our lives.

I recently read an interview of a well-traveled, highly educated man of science who filled his house with symbols from various cultures and followed some highly traditional rituals. He explained “Rituals give good anchoring. Never underestimate the power of symbols in your life.”

I think that's true. A symbol is a very concise representation of a set of ideas. A ritual is a sequence of actions which are performed for their symbolic value. These actions are in no way arbitrary.

Our lives are shaped by symbols and simple rituals - be it personal, traditional or religious.

Let's examine some common symbols.

They say a picture is worth a thousand words. What does this symbol convey to you?

The Toastmasters emblem.

To me, this represents having fun with you guys here at EMC on Thursday afternoons.

This bumper sticker has left an impression on me.

Notice how it is made up of many religious symbols, each of which have their own unique meanings. Put together in this creative manner, they form the word "COEXIST". I interpret this to be symbolic of "Each religion paves a different path to the same end". Or, as a simple directive to "Live and let live".

Here is an Indian symbol of good luck : the Swastika.

You’ll see this painted on the walls of most shops and enterprises in India. People use this symbol to brand various items to increase their good luck. It is a positive symbol.

A slight variation of this symbol has the exact opposite effect.

The Nazi Swastika evokes strong negative emotions in all of us.

How about this?

The picture screams “pirate”! :)

On a cheery note, let's look at Amazon's smiley logo.

Through its simple logo, Amazon conveys its motto : Do business with Amazon and we'll make you smile with satisfaction.

Symbols need not be only 2-dimensional. 3D symbols are used in most classical forms of dance and in sign language. Other areas where symbols are widely used include traffic signs, alphabets in the script of any language and mathematics.

Symbols are an essential part of technology as well. We use them everyday in our PCs and smart phones as icons.

I don’t think I could live without my iPhone and the 20-odd apps that I use daily. I LIKE this !!

All Facebook users know how frequently this symbol is used. 'LIKE' is used to communicate a whole spectrum of emotions such as "I love it!", "I agree" and "You have my support". I have even noticed people "LIKE'-ing obituary messages.

Rituals use symbols to reinforce ideas. Rituals may be performed on specific occasions or at the discretion of individuals. You may have an exclusive ritualistic way of greeting certain people – a handshake, a hug, a kiss, a verbal greeting or even calling out an insult as a way of greeting someone you’re very close to.

Here are some symbols that I grew up with.

The Rangoli is a traditional art form in India and is part of a daily morning ritual in most South Indian households. People wash their doorsteps and paint these patterns in front of their door as a way to ward off evil spirits and bring good luck.

According to Kundalini yoga, the seven yoga chakras represent the different states of consciousness / energy-levels. Each energy center is activated by performing certain routines (rituals). The goal is to gradually raise your awareness from the lowest chakra to the highest chakra leading to spiritual enlightenment. 

Please take a moment to reflect on the simple rituals that you follow in your life. Every culture has its own set of unique symbols and some of us have developed our own personal ones. I’d love to hear about the symbols and rituals that hold meaning to you. Please share your thoughts with me.

I have an idea

What's the most resilient parasite? An idea! A single idea from the human mind can build cities. An idea can transform the world and rewrite all the rules... which is why I have to steal it!
- Leonardo di Caprio's lines from the movie Inception.


I feel an infectious, unbridled enthusiasm when my mind gets around any new idea. Therefore I'm constantly looking out for new experiences. This was my primary motivation to join our Toastmasters club as well. However, I was desperate for ideas for my ice breaker speech and looked to the Toastmasters Competent Communicator guide for suggestions. I found a bunch of topics, but was unwilling to speak about them since I found them mundane and uninteresting, personally.

One line caught my attention though ... "Speech ideas can appear suddenly and disappear just as quickly. Keep a pen and paper or handheld computer handy to note it immediately". I had none of these implements at hand. However this set me thinking tangentially about ideas themselves, and I couldn't help making the connection with the movie and the many long, memorable, intense, thought-provoking conversations that had ensued. There! I had the topic of my speech. I decided to present some ideas that I found very interesting.

I've discovered that TED talks are very interesting sources for ideas. Invited speakers share their ideas about diverse topics under one roof. As a nonprofit organization, TED is devoted to "Ideas Worth Sharing". I think that's an ambitious tagline and TED is doing an impressive job of living up to it! Apart from the official TED conferences, TEDx conferences are organized by independent bodies, in the same spirit.

Someone recently shared a TEDX video of Dr. Devdutt Pattanaik on Facebook and I was inspired by his passion. Though he's a physician by education, Dr. Pattanaik has been a management consultant and is passionate about Indian Mythology. Subsequently, I picked up one of his books on Indian Mythology from the town library and devoured its contents in an marathon reading session, without a precedent in recent times. I was spellbound by the depth of his knowledge and immensely entertained by his narrative.

By the power of his ideas, Dr. Pattanaik has turned his passion into his profession. He brings the wisdom of Indian mythology into Indian business, especially in human resource management. I was thrilled to learn of his title at the Futures Group, one of India's largest retailers. The story goes that the founder of the Futures Group, Kishore Biyani, approached him once after one of his talks and offered him any designation he wanted within the company. And, Dr. Pattanaik chose Chief Belief Officer.

How does one generate good ideas? I read that the Japanese inventor Dr. Yoshiro Nakamatsu has an interesting technique. He dives in his private pool and holds his breath underwater until he experiences a flash of creativity and comes up with a new idea. He then makes a quick note of it on a waterproof plexiglass pad, which he invented for himself for just this purpose. This octagenarian credits this ritualistic, oft-repeated, near-death experience as the source of ideas for his inventions.

While still researching ideas for my speech, I spoke to my mother and bounced some of these ideas off of her. She connected this breath-control technique to the well known yoga technique called Kapalabhati Pranayama. The word kapalabhati is made up of two words : kapala refers to the skull (including brain) and bhati means shining or illuminating. Due to this process, the organs under the skull, mainly the brain, are influenced in a positive manner.

Talk of positive outcomes made way for stories of my grandmother. I believe my grandmother was convinced of the power of prayer through some remarkable events in her own life. In any difficult situation, she prayed frequently and fervently for good ideas to be implanted in her mind and in the minds of her loved ones, to guide them out of their troubles. Being a little tongue-in-cheek, I'd say my grandmother resorted to prayer for 'Inception'! ;)

Come Toastmasters time, I felt rewarded for all my efforts in research and practice. Score! :)

Transience

Aate hain log, jaate hain log, paani mein jaise rele
Jaane ke baad, aate hain yaad, guzre hue vo mele
Yaadein bana rahi hai, yaadein mita rahi hai


Just can't get over this feeling of transience today.

Amor fati

Random Thought #1

Was reading an article about how the next gen of hydel power is going to be from oceanic waves. Set me thinking...

How about attaching turbines to generate energy from waves to all ocean going vessels - submarines and ships? If nothing else, at the very least, it should be possible to generate enough energy to sustain all activity on the vessel.

Google - the Omnipotent

I find myself coming back to this topic yet again... how Google has completely taken over most of our lives. That Gmail servers were down for some time today has been talked about extensively all over the web.

I started out the day with my friend complaining how crippled and helpless he felt because he was unable to access his Gmail account. As unusual as this is, it comes as another sharp reminder. He said he spent the first 1.5 hours of his day waiting for Gmail to return to service and I sympathized with him.

I got to work and found another friend cribbing that the Gtalk feature in her Gmail window was acting up. All of us in the room spent the next 10 minutes talking about the issues Gmail seemed to be having since the wee hours of this day. I was glad to note that at least Gmail was now working.

I was reading some lecture notes about computer networks and found a mention of Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. I caught myself thinking whether that was the reason the Google servers were down; also wondered how powerful/critical the attack was and when and how Google might recover from it. A few hours later my friend left, still annoyed at the fact that she couldn't talk to her husband over Gmail, as is her norm.

I read an article that quoted an expert who categorized intelligence into two types - fluid intelligence and crystallized intelligence. Fluid intelligence is having knowledge of how to go about things, while crystallized intelligence is knowledge of the specific details. Interesting, I thought ... I guess I'd say I have fluid intelligence since I usually figure out the broad approach to take to solve any problem that I'm tackling and turn to Google for the 'crystallization'.

Come evening, I called up a company I am interviewing with and was trying to schedule an online timed test. The lady at the other end asked me to send her an email and told me she would respond immediately and administer the test. I sent her the mail and prayed that Gmail wouldn't let me down and would deliver it immediately. I spent the next half hour hitting the refresh button on my mail client, waiting for her response. Nothing! I logged into Gmail - thanking my stars that it let me do so. No mails there either. I checked the Spam folder and the Trash folder. Nothing still!

I called up the company again and asked them if they'd received my email. Thankfully they had and it turned out to be only a confusion about the start time of the test. I gave them a specific time within the next half hour and took what I felt was a truly deserved break. I met a friend for coffee during my short break and once again we were discussing the troubles we had been having with Google so far in the day. I returned quickly hoping mightily that the test had been delivered to my Gmail inbox. Was glad to note it was!

I was expected to work on the test and email my answers to the company within the next hour. I completed the test in less than 40 min and yet again prayed that Gmail be back to normal since I had to email my answers or the whole effort would have gone a waste. It worked - Go Gmail!

I come home and am Stumble-ing as a way of relaxation and Stumble hits me with an article describing why Google servers were down today. The article termed it something like the digital equivalent of a power blackout. True indeed! I find it just as obstructive of all my activities as a power shutdown. Power failures are quite common in my hometown, Bangalore. But I know how to deal with them and we have a UPS there to give us upto 2 hours of backup power. But how do I deal with a Gmail failure? Especially since I depend on it solely? Redundancy is a good way to have a failback system, they taught me in EMC. Maybe I should create an email account with another service provider and get Gmail to forward all incoming mails to that as well. Even then, only mails received will be forwarded. What's the guarantee that they will be received at all - if the servers are down? I'm still trying to think of a reliable fail-back system.

In effect I've spent most of my waking hours today realizing just how dependent I am on Google. To top it all, I consider my dream job to be at Google and fantasize about all the great things that I would work on, the power (ie technology) that would lie at my disposable and how I could make an impact on millions of people I'll never meet but who will thank me for making some part of their lives easier. Wouldn't it be nice to turn this preoccupation into an occupation as well! Should I start working at Google, I wonder, could it get worse(!!??) than that?

Google, you fill me with both anxiety and admiration - I don't know how much of each, but in my mind they coexist for sure! Go Google! :D