Bhrigu's question

Sarmad - an Iranian Jewish mystic in Delhi

2015-08-20T09:32:00.003-07:00

I had shared this with friends on August 15th.

On India's independence day, a tribute to a naked gay Jewish Iranian mystic who has a dargah in Delhi. Let us celebrate the independence of thought.

In "The Jew in the Lotus', Rodger Kamenetz accompanies various hues of Jewish rabbis to India where they discuss deep religious concepts with many Buddhist teachers, including the Dalai Lama. This experience transforms him from being an agnostic to being an agnostic who is proud of his Jewish identity.

Kamenetz narrates a wonderful story of an Armenian Jewish naked sufi saint called Sarmad who collaborated with Dara Shikoh to write the Jewish chapter of his interfaith book. Sarmad was deeply in love with a Hindu (male) called Abhi Chand and when the authorities forced them to part, Sarmad shed all his clothes and lived naked from then on. Some believe that he converted to Islam while others believe that he did not [1]. After Aurangzeb murdered his brother, he began rounding up his associates and sure enough, Sarmad was one of them. He was called before Aurangzeb and asked to recite the shahadah (la ilaha illa-lahu - There is no God, but God) and Sarmad recited the first half (There is no God). When Aurangzeb asked him to continue, Sarmad said, "Forgive me, but I am so caught up in the negative, that I cant not yet come up to the positive.I cannot tell a lie." Of course, he was invoking the kabbalistic conception of God, Ain Sof. He was beheaded. Later, the Jama Masjid coopted him after Aurangzeb's contemporaries embellished the story with incredible stories about Sarmad's severed head narrating the remaining part of the shahadah.

Kamenetz visited Hazrat Sarmad's dargah in Delhi where he is still revered today. The irony is that he might have been a sufi mystic, neither fully Jewish, nor Hindu, nor a Muslim. Some, like the Italian visitor Manucci believed, perhaps mistakenly according to modern researchers that he was an atheist since he saw him praising 'Islam with Mohammedans, Hinduism with Hindus" and after Aurganzeb imprisoned him, "he had a wonderful relationship with Jesuit fathers". So, this 'hazrat', who might have been all or none of the above is worshipped as a saint today.

Kamenetz - remember, he was an agnostic - went to his tomb and said kaddish. He wrote, "It all felt quite right, a recognition of our predecessor in dialogue - or a martyr to intolerance, take your pick. That there was such a thing as a Jewish Muslim saint who opened yet another door"

[1]
The Identity of a Mystic: The Case of Sa'id Sarmad, a Jewish-Yogi-Sufi Courtier of the Mughals by Nathan Katz - Access this paper at http://www.jstor.org

[2] Maulana Azad was an admirer of Sarmad. You can read his essay 'Sarmad Shahid' and Sarmad's rubaiyat here

Ramayana and Buddha - a feminist perspective

2015-08-20T09:27:00.000-07:00

Two of Maithili Sharan Gupt's popular poems 'साकेत' and 'सखि वे..' retell historical events from the perspective of women who were left behind by their husbands. While 'साकेत' views the Ramayana from Urmila's eyes, 'सखि वे.' speaks of Siddhartha's abandonment of Yashodhara. [HT: Random conversation with my mother who mentioned that she studied साकेत during her B.A in Bangalore, way back in the 1950s.]

सखि वे मुझसे कह कर जाते

सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते,
कह, तो क्या मुझको वे अपनी पथ-बाधा ही पाते ?
मुझको बहुत उन्होंने माना
फिर भी क्या पूरा पहचाना ?
मैंने मुख्य उसी को जाना
जो वे मन में लाते ।
सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते ।
स्वयं सुसज्जित करके क्षण में,
प्रियतम को, प्राणों के पण में,
हमीं भेज देती हैं रण में -
क्षात्र-धर्म के नाते ।
सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते ।
हु‌आ न यह भी भाग्य अभागा,
किसपर विफल गर्व अब जागा ?
जिसने अपनाया था, त्यागा;
रहे स्मरण ही आते !
सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते ।
नयन उन्हें हैं निष्ठुर कहते,
पर इनसे जो आँसू बहते,
सदय हृदय वे कैसे सहते ?
गये तरस ही खाते !
सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते ।
जायें, सिद्धि पावें वे सुख से,
दुखी न हों इस जन के दुख से,
उपालम्भ दूँ मैं किस मुख से ?
आज अधिक वे भाते !
सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते ।
गये, लौट भी वे आवेंगे,
कुछ अपूर्व-अनुपम लावेंगे,
रोते प्राण उन्हें पावेंगे,
पर क्या गाते-गाते ?
सखि, वे मुझसे कहकर जाते ।

Listen to a wonderful rendition of a part of the poem here.

An Indian librarian and modern search techniques?

2015-08-20T09:25:00.001-07:00

A birth anniversary we missed this month was that of Mr. Shiyalli Ramamrita Ranganathan (born August 9, 1892), known as the father of library sciences in India. [1] [2]

According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, "Ranganathan’s chief technical contributions to library science were in classification and indexing theory. His Colon Classification (1933) introduced a system that is widely used in research libraries around the world and that has affected the evolution of such older systems as the Dewey Decimal Classification. Later he devised the technique of “chain indexing” for deriving subject-index entries. Other works of his included Classified Catalogue Code (1934), Prolegomena to Library Classification (1937), Theory of the Library Catalogue (1938), Elements of Library Classification (1945), Classification and International Documentation (1948), Classification and Communication (1951), and Headings and Canons (1955). His Five Laws of Library Science (1931) was widely accepted as a definitive statement of the ideal of library service. He also drafted plans for a national and several state library systems, founded and edited several journals, and was active in numerous professional associations."

It turns out that the his colon classification system that was not favored due to the adoption of the Dewey Decimal system is now much better suited for computer-search. "S. R. Ranganathan was the first to introduce the word "facet" in Library and Information Science (LIS), and the first to consistently develop the theory of facet analysis. His Colon system was the first classification to apply the principles of facet analysis." [3] [4] [5]

The man seems interesting too. Here's an article on him. [6]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._R._Ranganathan

[2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colon_classification

[3] http://www.iva.dk/…/l…/CONCEPTS/facet_and_facet_analysis.htm

[4] https://www.miskatonic.org/library/facet-web-howto.html

[5] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Faceted_search

[6] http://garfield.library.upenn.edu/essays/v7p037y1984.pdf

(c) Arun Simha

Philippe Jaroussky (countertenor), Händel - Lascia ch'io pianga

2015-05-01T07:49:00.003-07:00

Let me weep
My cruel fate,
And that I
should have freedom.

The duel infringes
within these twisted places,
in my sufferings
I pray for mercy.

Philippe Jarousssky singing Handel's Lascia ch'io pianga from Rinaldo. Back in the day, the falsetto range was the domain of castratos but as NPR put it, M. Jaroussky is "still intact". His voice is not for everyone and you may recoil after hearing this for the first time. Then Handel will overwhelm you with his music and you will begin to appreciate the confluence of religion, mythology, and music in the Baroque era.

"He's a countertenor who achieves that high pitch through vocal technique — singing in a 'head voice,' the way the way a female soprano would, rather than in his speaking register. It's the reason, he says, that he'll never sound exactly like a real castrato."

Ina Mina Dika's Glasgow connection

2014-03-23T18:03:00.001-07:00

I was reading the biography of James Herriot this morning. While describing his childhood, author Graham Lord quotes from 'Murder, Murder, Polis', a collection of Glasgow street songs compiled by Maureen Sinclair. Kids often sang songs to eliminate (or choose) the 'it' in a hide-and-seek game during the turn of the previous century. One song went thus;

Eeeny meeny macka racka
Em oh dominacka
Alla backa sugaracka
Om pom push
Obviously, my eyes lit up and I scoured the net and discovered many web pages that contained references to this ditty. It has also been used in a TV show in the UK. I wonder where C. Ramchandra heard it and how it inspired him to compose his most famous tune.

(c) Arun Simha

Steve Inskeep - Instant City

2011-11-10T21:35:00.000-08:00

‘Instant City, Life and death in Karachi’ is a non-fiction work by Steve Inskeep, the host of NPR’s All Things Considered. It offers great insights into how this Hindu majority trading port of 400,000 became a bustling Muslim metropolis of 13m and how its transformation offers lessons to other cities around the globe.

Inskeep begins by exploring the secular nature of the city. At the time of Pakistan’s independence, Karachi’s population was 51% Hindu. Most businesses were Hindu owned and the largest shipping company was owned by a Parsi, Dawn columnist Ardeshir Cowasjee’s father. Jinnah’s dogmatic belief that Muslims in India comprised a separate nation led to the formation of Pakistan. The economic reality of a city run by Hindus pushed him towards a more pragmatic compromise. This arguably led him to make the famous speech about his vision of a Pakistan as a secular and not theocratic state. However, Karachi’s minority population was at the mercy of the incoming refugees who were in no mood to heed to, what Inskeep termed in an interview, as the nuances of a lawyer. He quotes from various editorials by Punniah of the Sindh Observer who warned about the city being swamped by the onslaught of incoming refugees. The city was indeed, swamped, and Punniah had to flee to Bangalore. Cowasjee’s father was persuaded to stay.

The city became 90% Muslim overnight, but they newcomers unleashed other divisions to fight over. Whilst the city was relatively liberal during the 1970s, Zia’s policies changed its profile during the ‘80s. Bars and nightclubs were banned. Plans to make Karachi into a Macao for wealthy Arabs were shelved. The Pathan immigration during the ‘80s and ‘90s brought them into conflict with the Mohajirs with each group trying to defend its territory. Millions of illegal settlements were built, and then legalized by succeeding governments that were split along ethnic lines. The land mafia made a killing by capturing public land outside Karachi and settling refugees of their own kind. Public services such as electricity, garbage-removal and water were illegally tapped from government sources or were offered at a premium. Obviously, the poorest of the poor squatted in these to-be-made-pukka settlements. Homes were built on top of each other until they started to sink below the level of the roads. Sewers were blocked, leading to flooding during the monsoons. Interestingly enough, an NGO official is quoted as calling the political mafiosi as ‘land suppliers’. Efficient governance being absent, a bizarre spontaneous order has taken hold in Karachi with multiple parallel administrations that provide basic services to the illegal, semi-legal and newly-legal settlements. NGOs have resigned themselves to working with these ‘land-suppliers’.

Perhaps apocryphally, Jinnah is supposed to have said that every Pakistani government would be worse than its predecessor. Every administration, from Ayub Khan to Zardari, has attempted to solve the problem of Karachi, but have failed. They city was too fluid to govern in any organized manner. A Greek city planner was hired by Ayub Khan to build extensions to Karachi in order to house the poor migrants, but the adminstrators did not follow his plans for low cost housing. Daily wage workers cannot be ‘banished’ to the city’s boundaries since it costs them exorbitant rates in terms of time and money to make it to the center of the city for work. They soon migrate back to the center and prefer to squat.

The affluent have increasingly cordoned themselves off in Defence and Clifton. There are some notable idealists who believe in the city and its people and are trying their best to affect change. Inskeep befriends an affluent couple, idealistic architects who do not have a generator in their home. They prefer to suffer as the city suffers since they believe that their children should not be isolated from the less privileged. The mayor Mustafa Kamal, a MQM member, goes from project to project, country to country, to build infrastructure and attract invesment. A doctor, Shireen Jamali, works countless hours in her public hospital to administer medical aid to people who’ve been wounded in terrorist bombings and shootings. She gets used to the sight of severed heads being brought in ambulances every time a bomb explodes in the city. In fact, on one terrible occasion, a bomb explodes outside the emergency ward while she is receiving Shia patients who were bombed during an Ashura procession and were brought there by the admirable Edhi’s ambulance services. A second bomb that is placed inside a computer monitor outside the ward is diffused by Edhi’s son with a screwdriver. It is a bomb that is constructed with explosives surrounded quite beautifully by hundreds of symmetrically arranged metal nuts that aims to inflict maximum civilian damage. Journalists have to perform a tricky balancing act for fear of violent retribution. Thus, Cowasjee begins a column with the words ‘To digress’ and pummels Zardari for giving a high profile job to a relative, but in the succeeding paragraphs he suggests that a garden be named after Benazir.

Despite the violence, the city offers hope and employment to millions. Buildings are built, and workers are hired. The pathan who fled the violent northwest frontier, or the Mohajir whose grandparents fled India make do. They have ambitions for themselves and for the city. Cities around the world are undergoing such transformation. Cities such as Mexico City, Rio, Mumbai, Delhi, Los Angeles, Tokyo, and Seoul have expanded miles beyond the limits that their planners envisaged. Cities burgeon as nations transform from rural economies to industrialized urban ones. No centralized government can hope to cope with the staggering rate of growth. The informal economy often laps the organized sector in providing vital services to the desperate migrants. They also create divisions to stay in power. Inskeep does not offer solutions. He is a journalist and not a policy analyst, and his focus is to highlight the stresses that a mega city undergoes during a few turbulent decades.

‘Instant City’ is a warning to other cities, such as Mumbai and Bangalore which are ethnic tinderboxes even if the divides are not in the same magnitude as those in Karachi. If efficient and firm governance that values law and order is not firmly established in these cities, the administration will surrender its basic responsibilities to parallel forces. If that happens, the very attributes that attracted investment and economic migrants to its bosom, will push them away.

You can listen to an interview with Steve Inskeep here.

(c) Arun Simha

Fire in Babylon - a review

2011-11-02T15:57:00.000-07:00

I liked 'Fire in Babylon', the documentary on the great West Indian cricket team of the 1980s. It seems to have been made for an audience that comprises of cricket lovers from generations that did not get to see that team first hand. My generation developed an appreciation of the struggles of WI cricketers during the pre 1960 era from C. L. R. James' 'Beyond a boundary'. In that work, he spoke about the intersection of colonialism, racism and marxism and how the understanding of the West Indian experience was necessary to develop an appreciation of WI cricket. In fact, the first words of the book were, "What do they know of cricket who only cricket know?" affirming that events outside the cricket field affected what happened inside in equal measure. 'Fire in Babylon' does an adequate job of book-ending that work by showcasing how the succeeding generation of cricketers took it to the next level.

While Constantine and Worrell were influenced by the Calypso generation, Llyod's cricketers were deeply rooted in the rebellious tradition of reggae, and the socialist/marxist movements of that era. While the documentary does not cover it, the countries that comprise the West Indies had been granted independence and they chose to go in different political directions. Jamaica, was an on again, off again Socialist nation with a white man Michael Manley leading it for
many years. T&T and Guyana, countries with substantial Indian populations went somewhat the same way. But countries like Grenada got violent revolutions. By most appraisals the economic policies of these countries were disastrous and WI cricket stepped in to not only unify a fragmented country, but also provide pride in...something...

And this is where the documentary gets problematic. It covers the macho pride of the cricket team as reflected by the confidence provided by their fast bowlers. Most of the cricketers spoke about black pride and the mandatory references to Rastafarianism were made. The documentary reinforces how these players were heavily guided by black power, but leaves out the inconvenient fact that the cricketers of Indian origin felt alienated in the new atmosphere. Kallicharan, Jumadeen, Bacchus, Shivnarine et al were effectively sidelined during that era.
The film makers should have conferred with Kallicharan who had decided to stay loyal to WI cricket by not joining Packer. He captained the official team and was effectively shunned when the rebels got back. This was what prompted him to go to South Africa. A fall from grace for a person who had effectively won them the '75 world cup through his batting.

Secondly, the footage is inconsistent. A reference to the 77 Packer supertest is shown with footage of a photo shoot of the 1981 tripartite series (Eng, WI in Aus). Gavaskar is showing walking off in Melbourne 1981 when the speakers are talking about the infamous '76 Jamaican test. Plus, there was no introduction to that test. It followed a humiliating defeat at the hands of India. Set a target of 400+, India scored 406-4 in Port of Spain to win. The WI team had three spinners in that test. Llyod decided once and for all that he would never rely on spinners again.

But that's nitpicking. The documentary was good for a layman to understand the astounding talent that the turbulent times created. And if not for anything, the film redeemed itself by showing footage of two incredible feats; Dujon flying to what would effectively be third leg slip to catch a nick, and Viv stepping on his front foot to sweep-pull a short ball from a paceman.

So I give it a 3 star rating (out of 4).

(c) Arun Simha

Friday doggerel: For he is a very sad man

2009-09-18T10:58:00.000-07:00

Sing to the tune of "For he is an Englishman" - Gilbert and Sullivan, HMS Pinafore. The doggerel is based on the current Shashi Tharoor-Twitter brouhaha. For the humour impaired, this is supposed to be sarcastic and is based on this classic quote.

For he is a very sad man
For he is a very sad man

The Congressman has said it
and it calls for many a repeat
when solitude and wine meet
that tweeting is no great feat
For he is a very sad man

And he could be from any nation
rich, poor or the middle station
he could be your distant relation
even indulges in self fornication
For he is a very sad man

Thinks he has no cause for worry
so he writes in a bloody hurry
the high command makes merry
now the news is not so dreary
For he is a very sad man

He always hits the whiskey bar
while he stays at the five star
often behaves like a great czar
doesn’t even drive his own car
For he is a very sad man

Hope the Congress lynch mob
lets him keep his big job
else Vinod Mehta will rob
he’ll write and we’ll all sob
For he is a very sad man

Origin of Nike's "Just Do It"

2009-09-02T14:08:00.000-07:00

Morbid quiz fact of the day: Nike's slogan "Just do it" comes from murderer Gary Gilmore's statement "Let's do it" to the firing squad that executed him. Wow. Here's the creator Dan Wieden talking about it.

Quiz question. Fill in the blanks (Yeats poem, famous film)

2009-02-02T22:18:00.000-08:00

Fill in the 5 blanks. Film related hint below the poem

Sailing to Byzantium
- William Butler Yeats

THAT is __ _____ ____ _____ ____. The young
In one another's arms, birds in the trees
- Those dying generations - at their song,
The salmon-falls, the mackerel-crowded seas,
Fish, flesh, or fowl, commend all summer long
Whatever is begotten, born, and dies.
Caught in that sensual music all neglect
Monuments of unageing intellect.

An aged man is but a paltry thing,
A tattered coat upon a stick, unless
Soul clap its hands and sing, and louder sing
For every tatter in its mortal dress,
Nor is there singing school but studying
Monuments of its own magnificence;
And therefore I have sailed the seas and come
To the holy city of Byzantium.

O sages standing in God's holy fire
As in the gold mosaic of a wall,
Come from the holy fire, perne in a gyre,
And be the singing-masters of my soul.
Consume my heart away; sick with desire
And fastened to a dying animal
It knows not what it is; and gather me
Into the artifice of eternity.

Once out of nature I shall never take
My bodily form from any natural thing,
But such a form as Grecian goldsmiths make
Of hammered gold and gold enamelling
To keep a drowsy Emperor awake;
Or set upon a golden bough to sing
To lords and ladies of Byzantium
Of what is past, or passing, or to come.

==
Hint: The blanks gave the title to a famous novel published in 2005। This was made into a film that won 4 academy awards in 2007, including Best Picture.

Interview with Danny Boyle

2008-12-12T21:08:00.000-08:00

Interesting interview with Danny Boyle, the director of Slumdog Millionaire:

AVC: Were there places it was difficult to get permission to film?
DB: There's lots of things that can be solved with cash. [Snickers.] And there's occasional things that can't be solved with cash, which become a bureaucratic nightmare for some reason, and there's no distinction between the two. There's no way of reading a situation and saying, "Yes, that'll be a bureaucratic nightmare, but that one we'll be able to buy off." It just depends on the day, apparently. The most extraordinary thing, you'd be given permission for, and then the weirdest, simplest things, you just wouldn't be able to obtain permissions. And it would go on and on and on forever and ever, and there was no way to know. You have to kind of approach it with an open, quite optimistic mind, no matter what's thrown at you, because it will only ever result in damaging the film if you let any kind of despondency get to you. You have to remain optimistic, and that's clearly how people live their lives there. Against all the odds, they retain kind of a spirit which allows them to get through against insufferable odds. The poverty, the traffic, the lack of infrastructure, the flooding during the monsoons—there's just so many things that are coming at you at the whole time that your spirit has to remain, and that's certainly true. It enters the minutia of filming

Quiz Question: Name the English equivalent

2008-07-01T09:35:00.001-07:00

Fill in the Blanks: (cut and pasted from Wikipedia)

Fulano, Zutano y Mengano — in Spanish
Hinz und Kunz — in German
Jan en Alleman — in Dutch
Tizio, Caio, Sempronio, Mevio, Filano e Calpurnio — in Italian
Fulano, Beltrano e Sicrano — in Portuguese
Ivanov, Petrov, Sidorov — in Russian
Are, Oore, Shamsi Kooreh — in Persian

_______, _____________ & _____________ in English.

Hint: Think of the 3 tortoises from the Galapagos brought by Charles Darwin in HMS Beagle

Nissim Ezekiel: Irani Restaurant Instructions

2007-10-26T10:22:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday folks! Here's a nice Nissim Ezekiel poem for your enjoyment:

IRANI RESTAURANT INSTRUCTIONS*

Please
Do not spit
Do not sit more
Pay promptly, time is valuable
Do not write letter
without order refreshment
Do not comb,
hair is spoiling floor
Do not make mischiefs in cabin
our waiter is reporting
Come again
All are welcome whatever cast
If not satisfied tell us
otherwise tell others
GOD IS GREAT

------ Nissim Ezekiel, 1972

For more poems by the great Indian poet Nissim Ezekiel, please refer to his works in the Digital South Asia Library.

'Awaara' of Raj Kapoor & its Turkey connection

2007-06-20T12:18:00.000-07:00

Raj Kapoor's Awaara in Turkish

The IMDB entry has this interesting information:
Comment 1: "The movie and the song were quite famous in Turkey during 50s, 60s, 70s and even 80s and it inspired a whole genre of films produced in Turkey"

Comment 2: "yes, it is. it is remade starring Sadri Alisik and Ajda Pekkan in Turkiye. The remake was named "avare" and released in 1964."

[Btw, IMDB lists a 1970 Turkish remake of the same name too.]

Sure enough, here's the Turkish version and the Turkish version of the song.
And yes, hear Raj Kapoor "speak" in Turkiye in the final scene of the dubbed version of Awaara. Beautiful. And other scenes from links.

I found other Turkish sites/youtube videos where there are references to it:
like this tv dance competition, this remixed version (Hindi and Turkiye), and this looks like a wedding celebration dance set to the song.

HBR: Daniel Vasella's inspiring story

2007-06-14T13:12:00.000-07:00

From the Harvard Business Review article (Feb 2007) by Bill George and others. Bill George is a Prof at Harvard, and was the CEO of Medtronics. He has written bestsellers on leadership, including his latest "True North". You can listen to Bill George being interviewed my Michael Krasny on KQED Forum here.

excerpt from his HBR article
==

[..]Novartis chairman and CEO Daniel Vasella,whose life story was one of the most difficult of all the people we interviewed. He emerged from extreme challenges in his youth to reach the pinnacle of the global pharmaceutical industry, a trajectory that illustrates the trials many leaders have to go through on their journeys to authentic leadership.

Vasella was born in 1953 to a modest family in Fribourg, Switzerland. His early years were filled with medicalproblems that stoked his passion to become a physician. His first recollections were of a hospital where he was admitted at age four when he suffered from food poisoning. Falling ill with asthma at age five, he was sent alone to the mountains of eastern Switzerland for two summers.He found the four-month separations from his parents especially difficult because his caretaker had an alcohol problem and was unresponsive to his needs.

At age eight, Vasella had tuberculosis, followed by meningitis, and was sent to a sanatorium for a year. Lonely and homesick, he suffered a great deal that year, as his parents rarely visited him. He still remembers the pain and fear when the nurses held him down during the lumbar punctures so that he would not move. One day, a new physician arrived and took time to explain each step of the procedure. Vasella asked the doctor if he could hold a nurse’s hand rather than being held down. “The amazing thing is that this time the procedure didn’t hurt,” Vasella recalls“Afterward, the doctor asked me, ‘How was that?’ I reached up and gave him a big hug.
These human gestures of forgiveness, caring, and compassion made a deep impression on me and on the kind of person I wanted to become.”

Throughout his early years, Vasella’s life continued to be unsettled.When he was ten, his 18-year-old sister passed away after suffering from cancer for two years. Three years later, his father died in surgery. To support the family, his mother went to work in a distant town and came home only once every three weeks. Left to himself, he and his friends held beer parties and got into frequent fights. This lasted for three years until he met his first girlfriend, whose affection changed his life.

At 20, Vasella entered medical school, later graduating with honors. During medical school, he sought out psychotherapy so he could come to terms with his early experiences and not feel like a victim. Through analysis, he reframed his life story and realized that he wanted to help a wider range of people than he could as an individual practitioner. Upon completion of his residency, he applied to become chief physician at the University of Zurich; however, the search committee considered him too young for the position. Disappointed but not surprised, Vasella decided to use his abilities to increase his impact on medicine. At that time,he had a growing fascination with finance and business.He talked with the head of the pharmaceutical division of Sandoz, who offered him the opportunity to join the company’s U.S. affiliate. In his five years in the United States, Vasella flourished in the stimulating environment, first as a sales representative and later as a product manager,and advanced rapidly through the Sandoz marketing organization.

When Sandoz merged with Ciba-Geigy in 1996, Vasella was named CEO of the combined companies,now called Novartis, despite his young age and limited experience. Once in the CEO’s role, Vasella blossomed as a leader. He envisioned the opportunity to build a great global health care company that could help people through lifesaving new drugs, such as Gleevec, which has proved to be highly effective for patients with chronic myeloid leukemia. Drawing on the physician role models of his youth, he built an entirely new Novartis culture centered on compassion, competence, and competition. These moves established Novartis as a giant in the industry and Vasella as a compassionate leader.

Vasella’s experience is just one of dozens provided by authentic leaders who traced their inspiration directly from their life stories. Asked what empowered them to lead, these leaders consistently replied that they found their strength through transformative experiences. Those experiences enabled them to understand the deeper purpose of their leadership.

===end excerpt==

Origami and a space telescope

2007-06-05T14:30:00.002-07:00

You may wonder what the two have to do with each other.
Short answer: Dr. Robert Lang.

I read an article recently in Smithsonian Magazine about Robert Lang, a laser physicst who has worked in NASA's Jet Propulsion lab, and has authored 40 patents and 80 publications He has been an origami buff since childhood. He has mastered the art of making mind-numbingly complex folds based on complex computation of geometric shapes using math.

Now, how does this connect to the space telescope?

Lang has also consulted with engineers at California's Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory on a new generation space-based telescope dubbed Eyeglass. The goal is to put huge telescopes—up to 328 feet in diameter—into orbit for purposes that include the viewing of planets outside our solar system. Getting such a behemoth into space poses a problem because the hold of the space shuttle measures a slim 15 feet in diameter. Lang devised a folding pattern for a 16-foot-diameter prototype that can be folded for transport, then unfurled like a flower coming into bloom once in space.

Also, see a related New Yorker article.

Book Review -Nora Ephron

2007-04-05T16:24:00.000-07:00

I wrote this for Amit's Rave Out.

Navigating the Big Apple

Title: I Feel Bad About My Neck: And Other Thoughts on Being a Woman

By: Nora Ephron

Buy from Amazon.com

Nora Ephron, the famous writer of films like, ”When Harry met Sally” and the writer-director of films such as ”You’ve got mail” and ”Sleepless in Seattle” writes about turning sixty. It is often said that there exists a very symbiotic relationship between the music of Gershwin and the New York of Woody Allen. Ephron, on the other hand, navigates around the Big Apple with the ease of Tony Bennett and Billy Joel, what with her joyous takes on what women carry in their purses, dealing with hair dye, bad skin, and nails, to ruminative outpourings on the difficulties of buying an apartment in an area that will eventually become fashionable.

One wishes that there were more than fleeting anecdotes on her troubled relationship with her second ex-husband, the Washington Post reporter Carl Bernstein, whose name is never mentioned in the book. She claims that he was in love with the British ambassador’s wife and that the ambassador and Ms Ephron met to weep in each other’s arms, during which time the former dryly remarked; “What is happening to this country?”

While there are no notable quotes or terribly witty statements to take home, this is certainly a cheery book to read on a short flight.

Quiz Question: Identify the town

2006-12-05T19:45:00.000-08:00

It is a town situated in the north-western region of Koderma District in Jharkhand, India. It is one of the only two towns in the Koderma district, the other being Koderma. It is situated in the Damodar River valley. The pin code of this place is 825409.

Which town?

Hint: The website of Koderma district lists the district (and town) as having a very high literacy rate. Clearly, the folks from this place are men and women of letters.

Quiz Question: Identify the author

2006-11-30T14:51:00.000-08:00

Quote from an article that will be linked after I receive some responses:

"The ______ attained a certain degree of popularity, which, though pleasant in itself, brought in its wake involvements that turned out to be ludicrous and even tragic." It was made into a film which mutilated the original storyline much to the author's chagrin. A planned Broadway edition was as reckless in its treatment. The author had to withhold his permission to present it on stage, even as the adaptation was done by an old friend of his, a former literary editor of the New York Times. As an example of the outrage, The author mentions, "For instance, his version managed to abolish the heroine. I objected to his omission and to two irrelevant characters of his own; above all I objected to the hero's turning around and urinating on the stage."

Matters became rather acrimonious over this script and the author had to leave New York at a very short notice to avoid being summoned for a subpoena; he found asylum in his country's consulate before boarding a flight out of the United States. However the script was later revised and “The _______” opened in Broadway in March 1968. It closed in less than a week.

If you fill in the blank with the name of the book, you can easily identify the author. Another hint, he was rumoured to be in contention for the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1986, but did not win. He explained what the deliberation of the Nobel Prize committee must've been like:

"...His writing is too simple, and too readable, requiring no effort on the part of the reader. ...He has created a new map called X in which his characters live and die. Story after story is set in the same place, which is not progressive, a rather stagnant background..... We hope some day {the author} will develop into a full-fledged writer deserving our serious consideration."

Ans. R. K. Narayan and Guide. Ravikiran got it right. The article can be found here.

Kabir translated by Rabindranath Tagore

2006-10-17T16:22:00.000-07:00

Project Gutenberg has Songs of Kabir translated by Nobel laurete Rabindranath Tagore.

No 68
=====
Bai koi satguru sant kahawai

He is the real Sadhu, who can reveal the form of the Formless to the vision of these eyes:
Who teaches the simple way of attaining Him, that is other than rites or ceremonies:
Who does not make you close the doors, and hold the breath, and renounce the world:
Who makes you perceive the Supreme Spirit wherever the mind attaches itself:
Who teaches you to be still in the midst of all your activities.
Ever immersed in bliss, having no fear in his mind, he keeps the spirit of union in the midst of all enjoyments.
The infinite dwelling of the Infinite Being is everywhere: in earth, water, sky, and air:
Firm as the thunderbolt, the seat of the seeker is established above the void.
He who is within is without: I see Him and none else.
==

Azam Ali and other things Persian

2006-10-14T14:10:00.000-07:00

Azam Ali is an interesting person. She was born in Tehran, did her schooling in India and then migrated to the US, where she began a career in World Music. She is part of two groups, Vas and Niyaz. Check out three interesting music videos here, here and here.

She has got a song with Laxmi Shankar. Also, she was the vocalist whose song we heard in the recent ABC miniseries '9/11 - Path to War'.

I like her sound.

But Googoosh, Iran's legendary singer will always remain my perennial favorite. She had a gap of 21 years in her singing after the 1979 revolution resulted in a ban. While she could've easily emigrated and formed a new career among expats, whilst exploiting the large overseas market for her music (her songs are famous in Iran's neighborhood as well), she did not leave her country. It was only in the 2000s that she went overseas to give concerts. Her voice hasn't lost its edge. She has now settled in Southern California.

What a tragic loss for many years though. For some examples of her singing prowess & soothing voice, do visit this and this.

Reading recommendations while you listen to the above music:
1. Let me tell you where I've been, New Writing by Women of the Iranian Diaspora by Persis M. Karim . Simply the most amazing collection of poems/short stories, I've read in 10 years or more.

2. Strange Times, My Dear. The Pen Anthology of Contemporary Iranian Literature by Nahid Mozaffari (Editor), Ahmad Karimi Hakkak (Editor). Ironical that it was almost banned in the US!

3. Lipstick Jihad, A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America And American in Iran (Paperback)by Azadeh Moaveni. Btw, Moaveni has written a book with Shirin Abadi recently.

4. Funny in Farsi: A Memoir of Growing Up Iranian in America by Firoozeh Dumas

5. All books by Marjane Satrapi.

Protecting women

2006-09-25T15:45:00.000-07:00

Apropos to the post by Amit:

An Assurance To Womankind

Rest assured and have no fear.
So long as you do not lift your head,
you will find men all around you,
guarding.

If a Ravana was to abduct you
or a Dushyasana was to pull your robe,
there are many a Rama and Krishna around
who will shroud you with cloth infinitely long,
and pass you through the test of fire,
and make it all nice and flawless and sound.

Kannada Poem by D. Vijaya, Translation C.P. Ravikumar

Pundita Ramabai - Article in the New York Times

2006-09-25T14:51:00.000-07:00

Mar 7, 1886 New York Times

Women’s education in

India

What has been done by the Brahmin lady now in this country.

Pundita Ramabai, the distinguished Brahmin lady, who with her little daughter, 5 years of age, arrived here yesterday in the British Princess to witness the graduation in medicine (at the women’s medical college, Philadelphia) of her relative, Mrs. Anadeebai Joshee, is a remarkable character. She is the daughter of the famous pundit of Poona, Bombay Presidency, India, who sacrificed his wordly prospects and eventually his life to the cause of emancipating the women of India. He gave his daughter the same education that he gave his only son, and both the sister and brother became famed for their learning and traveled together throughout India. The brother dying suddenly, the sister married (as few Hindu ladies are permitted to marry), the man of her choice, a graduate of Calcutta University, a Sanskrit scholar and a pleader at law. About a year and a half of this marriage, which was a happy one, the husband died of Asiatic cholera.

Stricken to the earth by this bereavement, parents and brother also dead, darkness for a time encompassed the widow. Then, she rallied, to devote her life to improve the degraded condition of her countrywomen. For this purpose, she returned to her native city, Poona, and formed a society of ladies known as the Arya Mehila Sabba (sic), whose object was the establishment of native schools for girls. She then went from city to city throughout Bombay Presidency, establishing branch societies, and arousing the people through her eloquent appeals.

She is chiefly known in the United States through a remarkable scene in which, she was a prominent actor, in Poona, in September, 1882. At this time the English Education Commission visited this conservative and wealthy city to inspect the educational institutions, whereupon the leading Brahmin ladies, members of this newly formed society and others, to the number of about 300, notwithstanding a heavy rainstorm, assembled with their children in the Town Hall to welcome the education commission to show them that although the municipality had not encouraged girls schools, a real movement was being made by the best families of the Maharatta country. This was quite an unparalleled occasion among Brahmin women who are kept in such strict seclusion.

Pundita Ramabai Sancrita was the orator of the occasion. She read a leter in English to the commission, and made an eloquent speech in Merathi (sic). She dwelt upon the difficulties which, as women of good family, they had to encounter from the absence of trained female teachers and the absence of school books fit to be placed in girls’ hands. “We want” she said “education for our girls as much as for our boys, but the English government has supplied trustworthy teachers and suitable books for the boys and none for the girls.” The President of the Commission, Dr. W.W. Hunter, in replying to the address, expressed his pleasure at meeting such an assemblage, which was altogether a new experience for him in India. “If the women of India” he said “have really made up their minds that their girls ought to be educated all minor difficulties will quickly disappear.”

As an immediate consequence members of the Poona municipality intimated to the commission the next day their willingness to take up the cause of the girls schools and to provide the necessary funds. Now, four years later, not only are there elementary schools, but a native high school for girls is in successful operation in Poona. IN 1883 Pundita Ramabai went to England to acquaint herself more fully with their methods of teaching, and in educational work in general. Her scholarship was tested by Prof. Max Mueller and others, both in Cambridge and Oxford, and pronounced sound, and on the recommendations of these distinguished friends she was appointed Professor of Sanscrit in a women’s college in Cheltenham. This position she has held for two years, in the meantime, improving the rich opportunities on every hand for special courses of study.

Her purpose in England accomplished, she is now about to return to India to resume her educational work. But the great event so fraught with significance to India, about to occur in Philadelphia, led her to decide to visit the United States, “that holy land called America” as she styles it in a recent letter, to witness the graduation as a doctor of medicine of Mrs Joshee, a Hindu Brahmin lady.

Quiz Question: Identify the actor

2006-09-02T10:10:00.000-07:00

This is a quote from an article in the New York Times.

"Where Dawn comes up like thunder - Also Talkies in Urdu and Hindustani, Myths, Blurb-writers and a Child star" - New York Times, May 31, 1936.

The annual issue of India's chief film magazine, however, floats a full-page advertisement in tri-color announcing in the international monotone of the blurb writer, "Bravo India, thy sons and daughters deserve unlimited admiration. Heaven be praised! Shirley Temple, Hollywood's child star is now excelled by Baby Rani, 5 years old, India's youngest child star who has done wonders in Bai Jaddan-bai's "Talash-e-Hag" or "The Search for Truth", a Sangeet production, remarkably wonderful, now being lavishly produced.

Question. How do we know Baby Rani better?

Mom and Pop stores

2006-08-22T15:15:00.000-07:00

A different perspective from Matt Yglesias:

Mom and pop may be admirable, hard-working, decent people, but their store probably sucks.