2022: The Year Gone By

After the horrors of 2020 & 2021, Covid-19 was finally off the main headlines in 2022. It’s still not over though with the year bookended by the Omicron wave at the beginning and apprehensions of a new wave emerging from China (where else) at the end. The war maybe be under control but battles are still raging on. While we wait and watch, hopefully much better prepared, here is a recap of some major (and not major) events to look back upon (or maybe not)

1. News Event of the Year: Russian invasion of Ukraine

On 24th Feb ’22, Russia invaded Ukraine. It’s been 10 months, but the battle rages on with territories gained, wrested back and lost again. Apart from the actual battle on the field, there was another one being fought online between two propaganda machines. After a while, no one was quite sure of what was happening on the ground. Only one thing was clear - the human cost was huge and so has been the military spend. There have been economic sanctions and sports bans imposed. Yet the war keeps going on and on. And as a collateral damage, it has spawned arm-chair geopolitical experts, with most having a minor expertise in petroleum economics as well.

2. Designation of the Year: Chief Twit

Elon Musk acquired Twitter (rather was forced to buy after having announced his intent to buy), announced himself as Chief Twit and turned Twitter into a dark comedy channel. Proclaiming free speech, then banning accounts which he did not like, changing policy, firing people and then trying to rehire them, restoring banned accounts, finding himself being voted out as CEO on a poll he conducted! More than the company – he has become a non-stop source of amusement!

3. Work Jargon of the Year

Be “Extremely Hardcore” – the ultimatum given by the “Chief Twit” to the remaining Twitter staff. The deadline passed and far less people remained (What A Surprise!).

On the other end of the spectrum was trend of “Quiet Quitting” – where workers did only what was supposed to be done and not more (Again, What a surprise!).

4. Management Course of the Year: The Football World Cup

From being the “beautiful game” football evolved into a full course in management, with every match, every play, every goal scored, every shot saved, the actions of players, coaches, the watching dignitaries being dissected and ending up as a “what life lessons you can draw from them”? post on LinkedIn.

5. The fall & fall of Big Tech

There were the antics of Musk, the single day drop of $ 230 Billion in valuation of Meta, large layoffs at Amazon & Meta, Elizabeth Theranos (once touted at the next Steve Jobs) sentenced to 11 years jail and finally Sam Bankman-Fried – from appearing on Fortune magazine as the next Warren Buffett to be arrested a few weeks later for what could potentially be the biggest financial fraud! Tech industry was in turmoil to say the least!

And then there was the bizarre case of Chitra Ramkrishna who was running NSE based on advise of a “Himalayan Yogi” who communicated with her via email! 

6. The Eyjafjallajökull of the Year

Remember the volcano with the most exotically unpronounceable name which disrupted European airline traffic in 2010. It found its successor in 2022. The Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha'apai Volcanic eruption which cut off Tonga from the rest off the world and caused damages worth ~$ 90 Million in a country whose total GDP is less than $ 500 Million

7. The New Fad of the Year - Wordle

There was Wordle, a fun game. You play it and then spam the whole world with your grid of grey, yellow & green! It also spawned variants, more numerous than even the covid variants! It may be off the headlines as the year progressed but remains fun!

8. Lost & Found of the Year: Endurance

1915 - Ernest Shackleton’s ship Endurance sinks off Antarctica.

2022 - 107 Years later, it is found again, resting in the depths of the ocean

9. Book of the Year: Ret Samadhi

Geetanjali Shree’s novel became the first Hindi novel to win the International Booker Prize. Now for a twist in the tale. On Amazon, the original Ret Samadhi is available cheaper than its translation Tomb of Sand!

10. Vegetable of the Year: The Lettuce

Why not, after all it outlasted a Prime Minister. So short was Liz Truss's term, that her biography had to be updated before it could be published! But she did oversee a regime change during her brief stint.

11. Quote of the Year: “I am Mr. McAdams”

So this was a bit of 2022. Wishing all readers a Very Happy 2023!

2022 - TYIL

The more I learn, the more I realize that I know nothing.

This Year I Learnt (#TYIL)

Another year draws to a close. And as has become a tradition, made a list of random factoids learnt during the year. Mostly encountered while trawling the interwebs, others via TV, movies & books and some through various Quizzing platforms/leagues.

1. Creatcoeus Period in the Geological Time Scale comes from Creta, Latin for Chalk (the softest stone) (The Guardian). 
2. Erdos-Bacon Number: sum of one's Erdős numbe, which measures the "collaborative distance" in authoring academic papers between that person and Hungarian mathematician Paul Erdős, and one's Bacon number, which represents the number of links, through roles in films, by which the person is separated from American actor Kevin Bacon. (Wikipedia) Why the need for such a number combining disparate fields is a mystery though! 
3. Graham Number: measures a stock’s fundamental value as {22.5*(Earnings Per Share)*(Book Value Per Share)}^(1/2). Any stock trading below the Graham number is considered undervalued. (Investopedia) A good rule of thumb for investors but need to consider in many more factors.
4. Harshad Number: A number which is divisible by the sum of its digits e.g. 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10,12,18,20,21 and so on. (Wikipedia)
5. Lindy Effect: the idea that the older something is, the longer it is likely to be around (Wealest). A decent measure for judging works of arts, books, popularity of movies etc.
6. Cantillion Effect: the change in relative prices resulting from a change in money supply (SWFI)
7. Weismann Score: Performance Metric for lossless compression applications. Fun part - its a fiction metric developed by a Stanford University professor for the show Silicon Valley (from which I learnt about it) (Wikipedia) 
8. Allen Curve: represents the exponential drop in frequency of communication between engineers as the physical distance between them increases. (Wikipedia) Wonder how this holds with increased WFH!
9. Virtual Water Content: volume of freshwater used to produce the product, measured at the place where the product was actually produced. (Water Calculator)
10. Argentina and Uruguay’s first sporting encounter was a game of cricket (not football), in 1868 predating the Ashes by 9 years! (Cricinfo)
11. Geomythology: study of etiological oral traditions created by pre-scientific cultures to explain—in poetic metaphor and mythological imagery—geological phenomena such as volcanoes, earthquakes, floods, fossils, and other natural features of the landscape (BBC) at times the entire subject of geology seems a myth and not a science!
12. Stendhal Syndrome: visitors to Florence suffer psychological breakdowns after being overwhelmed by the city's abundance of great art! (BBC) I guess another of first world problems.
13. Stephen Wilhite invented the gif in 1987. The first gif was a flying airplane. (The Guardian) 
14. Palm Oil is known as Red Gold. (The Conversation).
15. Jennifer Joseph: model for the Columbia Pictures logo. A real person whose image is familiar across the world but name is not (Link) 
16. Enigmatology: the study of puzzles; Will Shortz is the only known person to hold a college degree in this subject (Wikipedia) 
17. There are more Indians than Qatari citizens living in Qatar! Qatar’s demographics are quite interesting (Wikipedia) 
18. Hofstadter’s Law: It takes always longer than you expect. Named from Dr. Richard Hofstater who also lends his name to Leonard’s character in The Big Bang Theory. (Techtarget) 
19. Overshoot Day: the date when humanity has used all the biological resources that Earth regenerates during the entire year. In 2022, it fell on July 28th. (Overshoot Day)
20. MCC (Marylebourne Cricket Club) were the custodians of the rules of Tennis in the 19th century! (Britannica) Wondering if there is "spirit of tennis" also?
21. The world’s loneliest tree – an isolated spruce on an island in New Zealand (The Guardian)
22. The Ghan: longest passenger train in regular service, runs from Darwin to Adelaide, in Australia (Link) 
23. Operation London Bridge: The funeral plan for Queen Elizabeth II, with the phrase “London Bridge is Down” announcing her passing. The plan was first prepared in 1960s with constant updates as the years went by (Wikipedia)
24. Nora Polley: 1st Indian woman to participate in the Summer Olympics (Tennis, 1924) (Link)
25. One Piece by Ilan Manouach: the longest single volume book (21,450 pages) and also physically impossible to read and hence is sold as a sculpture rather than a book! (The Guardian) 
26. Streisand Effect: the attempt to suppress something only brings more attention or notoriety to it (Webster)
27. Stone House, the meaning of Zimbabwe in the local Shona language. (BBC) 
28. The Smiley Company owns the trademark for the smiley image, which was created by Harvey Ball. And it is currently a $ 500 Million business. (The Guardian)
29. Meme was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book “The Selfish Gene” by shortening the Greek word mimeme. (BBC)
30. The Great Emu War: In 1932, over a 6-week period, Australia waged a war against the emus and lost. The emu population survived the battle against Australian artillery and continued with its crop destructive ways! (Wikipedia) 
31. And the Chinese fought a battle against Sparrows (1958-62), seemingly won and realized that not having sparrows was more harmful to the crops (due to increased insect population) and ended up importing 250,000 sparrows from Soviet Union! (Wikipedia)
32. The Beatles’ “Hey Jude” and The Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” were recorded on the same piano (Link) 
33. Enheduanna: the world’s first known named author, who lived around 5,000 years ago (BBC)
34. Bihar was the first state formed in India, in 1912! Maps changed later with first Odisha and later Jharkhand being carved out of it though (Wikipedia) 
35. The “Iron Law of Megaprojects” - Over budget, over time, under benefits, over and over again. (Link) 
36. Khaki colour originated in the British Indian Army. The word Khaki originated from Urdu and means soil-coloured. (Link) 
37. Dora the Explorer is a 7 year old girl and 5 feet 2 inches tall! I know it’s a fictional character but still that's one tall kid! (Comicbook) 

This was 2022. Hoping to build on in 2023.

P.S. Lists from 2019, 2020 & 2021

2022 – Top Ten Moments from the Indian Sports Arena

As we enter the last week of the year 2022 AD, it is time to make a list of things to remember the year going by. Presenting the Top 10 moments from the Indian sporting field (rated by yours truly).

1. Thomas Cup win: Stirring performances from Lakshya, Srikanth, Prannoy and Satwik-Chirag lead India to become just the 6th country to win the Thomas Cup. It was a culmination of a long journey to becoming a badminton powerhouse.
2. Neeraj Chopra becoming the Diamond League champion. Such is the amazing consistency of India’s first ever track & field Olympics champion that a silver in the World Athletics Championships (the first ever Indian to do so) is not his biggest moment of the year!
3. Avinash Sable winning the silver medal in 3000m Steeplechase at the Commonwealth Games and breaking Kenya’s dominance of the event. This is the first time since 1998 that Kenya did not have a clean sweep in this event!
4. MCG, Men's T20 World Cup, India vs Pakistan, Over 18.5 – Haris Rauf to Virat Kohli, lands for 6 behind the bowler off one of the most stunning shots seen in cricket – a straight punched loft over the bowler’s head! And somehow India sneak in a win out of nowhere after a dramatic last over.
5. Lawn Bowls Gold at Birmingham Commonwealth Games. An afternoon spent plonked in front of the TV watching Lawn Bowls 4s Final wasn’t a part of any plans. But Rupa Rani Tirkey, Nayanmoni Saikia, Lovely Choubey & Pinki Singh combined to bring a new sport to the collective Indian sporting minds. After all, we are fast learners (at least in learning the rules of a new game).
6. The Women’s Hockey team won the inaugural Nations Cup, getting their rightful place in the next season of Pro Hockey League. They should not have had to play this round given that as alternates the team finished 3rd in the previous edition of the League. But they proved once again that they belong in the top tier of World Hockey.
7. Deepti Sharma runs out Charlie Dean at the non-strikers end to seal a whitewash for India over England. A non-striker run-out (formerly known as Mankading) and that too at Lords! As expected, all hell broke loose on cricketing social media with the defenders of the so called “spirit of cricket” marching in on full battle mode! The debate kept going on and on for seemingly ages! Don’t remember so much attention to an incident in women’s game before!
8. Nikhat Zareen became the Boxing World Champion, India’s 5th ever female boxer! She also added a Commonwealth Games gold confirming that Mary Kom’s legacy is in good hands.
9. Mirabai Chanu lifting the silver at the World Championships with a sprained wrist!
10. Achanta Sharath Kamal, at the age of, 40 won 3 Golds and a Silver at the Commonwealth Games!

Other honorable mentions: Manika Batra winning the Bronze at Asian Cup; Rudrankksh Patil winning a World Cup Gold to qualify for the next Olympics Shooting; Bajrang Punia adding a 4th Wrestling World Championships medal and Vinesh Phogat getting her 2nd medal.

Finally for an announcement off the field of play. In a major step towards gender parity, BCCI announced that the women players will be given the same match fees as the men for internationals. A great initiative, but just the first step in a long journey to parity. And this is something basic to be done for all sports.

Now looking forward to the sporting year 2023, which has Hockey & Cricket World Cups, the postponed Asian Games (fingers crossed given the re-emergence of the Covid situation) and many Paris Olympics qualifiers scheduled!

Learn N Blog #20: Off 15th December

Came across one of the weird connects from history

15 Dec 1944, Imphal

Two officers of the then British Indian Army are decorated with the Military Cross by the Viceroy Lord Wavell for their services in 2nd World War. Their names

• Major Sam Manekshaw, 12th Frontier Force Regiment
• Lt. AAK Niazi, 14th Army

Fast forward 27 years to same date

15 Dec 1971

Lt. Gen Niazi conveys the decision to surrender the Pakistani Eastern Command to General Manekshaw and signs the Instrument of Surrender the following day.

Same two officers, now lead protagonists in another war, this time against each other!

Links:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A._A._K._Niazi#World_War_II_and_Burma_campaigns
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-Pakistani_War_of_1971

Previously on Learn N Blog: The Hydrogen Rainbow

BookMarks #108: Dying To Meet You

Title: Dying To Meet You

Author: Rich Amooi

Genre: Fiction

Published: 2019

BookMarks

The book presents an interesting premise, showing all the crests and troughs that life can present in one go. Liz wins a huge lottery, and a few days later is diagnosed with a life-threatening disease with minimal survival chances. While waiting for a donor, she decides to knock a few places off her bucket list, all in private charter flight. The journey takes her from Peru to Kenya to France while also meeting the new love of her life. Then things go astray, but everything ends up well. And they all lived happily ever after.

After an interesting beginning, the story becomes contrived, and especially the ending which is abrupt and is too contrived even for a pure work of fiction!

Does give a glimpse of some of the challenges faced, when you suddenly have more money than what you know what to do with it. And a peep into the super-luxurious life which only the uber-rich can afford! 

Previously on BookMarks: How To Win Friends & Influence People 

BookMarks #107: How To Win Friends And Influence People

Title: How To Win Friends And Influence People

Author: Dale Carnegie

Genre: Non-fiction, Self-help

Published: 1936

BookMarks

One of the most successful books in history and reading through it gives the answer why. After all who doesn’t want to be an influencer! And to be successful in that, one needs to understand people and why they would want to help you.

An important line from the book “Every man I meet is my superior in some way.” Always keeping this in mind!

Following are some of the major points from the book.

Techniques to handling people

1. Don’t criticize, condemn or complain. Criticism is dangerous, because it wounds a person’s precious pride, and his sense of importance, and arouses resentment. As much as we thirst for approval, we dread condemnation. It takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.
2. Give honest and sincere appreciation.
3. Arouse in the other person an eager want - get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own

Six Ways To Make People Like You

1. Become genuinely interested in other people.
2. Smile – It is a messenger of your good will.
3. Remember that a person’s name is to that person the sweetest and most important sound in any language.
4. Be a good listener. Encourage others to talk about themselves.
5. Talk in terms of the other person’s interests.
6. Make the other person feel important-and do it sincerely.

How To Win People To Your Way Of Thinking

1. The only way to get the best of an argument is to avoid it - When one yells, the other should listen-because when two people yell, there is no communication, just noise and bad vibrations.”
2. Show respect for the other person’s opinions. Never say, “You’re wrong.”
3. If you are wrong, admit it quickly and emphatically.
4. Begin in a friendly way.
5. Get the other person saying “yes, yes” immediately.
6. Let the other person do a great deal of the talking.
7. Let the other person feel that the idea is his or hers.
8. Try honestly to see things from the other person’s point of view.
9. Be sympathetic with the other person’s ideas and desires.
10. Appeal to the nobler motives - people are honest and want to discharge their obligations. The exceptions to that rule are comparatively few
11. Dramatize your ideas – presentation is the key
12. Throw down a challenge – everyone has a desire to excel

Be a Leader: How to Change People Without Giving Offense or Arousing Resentment

1. Begin with praise and honest appreciation.
2. Call attention to people’s mistakes indirectly.
3. Talk about your own mistakes before criticizing the other person.
4. Ask questions instead of giving direct orders.
5. Let the other person save face – Don’t hurt the dignity
6. Praise the slightest improvement and praise every improvement. Be “hearty in your approbation and lavish in your praise.” But nobody wants insincerity. Nobody wants flattery.
7. Give the other person a fine reputation to live up to.
8. Use encouragement. Make the fault seem easy to correct.
9. Make the other person happy about doing the thing you suggest.

Overall, simple guidelines which are easy to implement. All it takes is a little conscious effort to start following them, However, do wonder what people who have been played at by these principles feel on reading this book!

Previously on BookMarks: My Journey 

Also by Dale Carnegie & Associates: The Leader In You 

Road To Paris: Episode 4

Our first Qualifiers are here for Paris, with 3 Quota places earned in Shooting. There has been a slight lull in the overall action post the Commonwealth Games completion and the Asian Games sized hole in the sporting calendar. Here is a summary of the major events in the past couple of months

Quota Places Won

• 
  Shooting: Men’s Trap – Bhowneesh Mendiratta claimed the first Quota place for India at the World Shotgun championships. Good to see a comeback in Trap shooting for India.
• Shooting: Men’s 10m Air Rifle – Rudrankksh Patil secured a Quota Place by winning the Gold medal at World Rifle/Pistol Championships.
• Shooting: Men’s 50m Rifle 3 Positions – Swapnil Kusale secured a Quote place by finishing 4th at the World Rifle/Pistol Championships

There were a couple of near misses as well in the women’s section. But still a long way to go in the Qualifiers.

In other action

• Neeraj Chopra becomes the first Indian to win the Diamond League Champions Trophy – the man continues to be trailblazer!
• Wrestling: At the World Championships, India returned with 2 Bronze medals – Vinesh Phogat becoming the first female multiple medalist from India while Bajrang Punia claimed his 4th World Championships medal. Overall, the campaign was mixed, with some youngsters showing promise, while some favored ones getting knocked out early. Also a few of Commonwealth medalists were missing from the lineup. Begs the question – are we prioritizing an event like Commonwealth Games (with a better probability of medal) over World Championships (which are far more prestigious)
• Table Tennis: World Team Championships. Sharath Kamal was missing. Indian men upset the 2nd seeded Germans in the group stage but couldn’t make much headway in the knock-outs. Same was the story for the women’s team also.
• National Games have been held after a gap of 7 years!

Doping Menace: Two Tokyo Olympians have been given bans for doping - Shivpal Singh (Men’s Javelin Throw) suspended for 4 years and Kamalpreet Kaur (Women’s Discus Throw), banned for 3 years.

Qualification Summary: Sports: 1, Events 3, Entries:3, Athletes: 3

That’s it for this episode. The qualification action will be picking up in the coming weeks

Till next time!

Links: Road To Paris – Episode 3

More the Corners, More the Cobwebs

Diwali is around the corner. The biggest celebration of the season - the festival of lights, crackers, sweets, and savories. But before the main event comes its precursor - the Diwali cleaning!

Apart from being a health & hygiene activity, Diwali cleaning is also a practical demo in the subjects of archaeology, history, and mining.

You might not spot a single spider in the house the whole year but there is a cobweb, in every possible place, the corners, the beams, the pillars, the doors, the window ledge, curtains, wall hangings and showpieces. In fact, any place with a corner, there is a cobweb! How it got there is a mystery unresolved, but it is there.

The house itself seems to be generating dust – under the beds, behind and on top of the almirah, the table, on top of the shelfs, everywhere there is a thick accumulation of dust hiding, just beyond the reach of the daily jhaadu. Only excavated during deep cleaning.

There is an old English saying – “a rolling stone gather no moss”. Might be true for a stone but a rotating fan gathers dust, lots of it. The thickness of the layer of dust on its blades is the best indicator of the usage of a particular fan!

From the deepest recesses of the drawers, come out the chronicles of our shopping history - the bills. Many with the ink completely faded and some whose products may have been used and disposed of, but the bill has been retained, for what purpose, no one can say!

Of course, add to this our tendency of squirrelling away stuff for a later day. And that’s how we end up with lots of disposable cutlery (courtesy Swiggy & Zomato), a big plastic bag filled with smaller bags, old clothes which have lived their full life but still hoarded away as they await nirvana by becoming a pochhaa! Our deep entrenched habit of not wasting/reusing/recycling just ends with lot of unwanted stuff occupying all sorts of nooks and crannies in the house!

Diwali cleaning – the only time in the year when your apartment starts giving the vibes of being a bungalow in size. And during the course of it, we also decide to do the clearing more often, but as is wont with such pledges, doesn’t really happen. It is back breaking stuff, especially when at times you take a pause to catch your breath, look around and realize that somehow the house seems messier than before you started. But at the end of the day, also an oddly satisfying one!

Wishing all readers, a Very Happy Diwali! 

P.S. Expect to see a lot of LinkedIn gyaan on the subject of cleaning in the coming days!

BookMarks #106: My Journey

Title: My Journey: Transforming Dreams into Actions

Author: APJ Abdul Kalam

Genre: Non-fiction, Autobiography

Published: 2013

BookMarks

Dr. Abdul Kalam’s life story in his own words, covering key moments/incidents in his life from his childhood in Rameswaram, to his scientific work and onto becoming the President of India. In simple words he has narrated his life experiences, his influences and the lessons which we as readers could draw from them.

Here are the passages which I bookmarked from his journey

• On Dreams - Dreams are not those that we see in our sleep; they should be the ones that never let us sleep.
• A summary of his life - love poured to the child…struggle…more struggle…bitter tears… then sweet tears…and finally a life as beautiful and fulfilling as seeing the birth of the full moon.'
• On basic human nature - Whenever human beings find themselves alone, as a natural reaction, they start looking for company. Whenever they are in trouble, they look for someone to help them… Every recurrent anguish, longing and desire finds it own special helper.
• The survival instinct - the only way to survive is to face your troubles and rebuild your life.
• On happiness - Joy is fleeting, whereas true happiness and calm can come to us only after intense pain, when we have confronted ourselves in the mirror of our souls and understood the self.
• On success - The best way to win is not to cover a win but to keep a calm and open mind to new challenges
• On the importance of space studies in a developing country like India - on the relevance of such a programme when a vast majority in the country was battling the demons of hunger and poverty….India could only play a meaningful role in the affairs of the world if the country was self-reliant in every manner, and should be able to apply advanced technologies to alleviate real-life problems. Thus our space programme was never simply a desire to be one among an elite group of nations, neither was it a matter of playing catch-up with other countries. Rather, it was an expression of the need for developing indigenous capabilities in telecommunications, meteorology and education.
• On what brings out the best in people - People like me, who are intrinsically shy, with the added quality of coming from a different background than my city-bred colleagues, tend to remain hidden in the shadows unless something or someone pushes us centre stage.
• On things beyond our control - often there are powers greater than yours who dictate the consequences of your work.
• On success & failure - we don't just build on successes, we also build on failures.
• On Work Ethics - Total commitment is not just hard work, it is total involvement. It is also about setting a goal. It is having a goal in front of you that makes a difference to the final outcome of your hard work.
• Life Mantra - That humaneness, generosity and understanding can never let you down.

Fairly simple but thoughts worth their weight in gold from a fascinating human being! Really liked the simplicity of words, the preciseness in thought and the flow of the narrative. This book is great example of the adage "Write to express and not to impress"

Previously on BookMarks: The Great Gatsby 

Engineer's Day

September 15 - celebrated as Engineer’s Day in India as a tribute to Bharat Ratna Sir M Viswesvaraya – India’s first ever civil engineer and instrumental in developing many projects across the country.

From one in 1884 to more than 15 Lakh engineering graduates every year, it has been quite a journey for the Indian engineering education. However, that has also given rise to another facet - more and more students are acquiring an engineering degree and then deciding their vocation – be it Marketing, Finance, HR, Software, Various Arts fields, Politics – almost every sphere has people with engineering backgrounds in it.

Now on Engineer’s Day, floated in on WhatsApp, a few greetings, and a question about best engineering solutions to problems. While detailed solutions and SOPs are plenty and specific to the instrument/system, there are two basic steps which are almost universal (and they work, most times)

1. Restart/Reset – Off karke On karo, a favorite of the IT world. There may also be an added step off letting the device rest for a while!
2. Percussive Maintenance – any malfunctioning machine can be fixed by smacking it a few times. Often also followed by a restart.

And lo and behold the device is no longer malfunctioning!

Happy Engineer’s Day to all engineers!

P.S. A post on the subject from 2010

BookMarks #105: The Great Gatsby

Title: The Great Gatsby

Author: F Scott Fitzgerald

Genre: Fiction, American

Published: 1925

BookMarks

Had heard about this book a lot, thanks to the eponymous movie which had come out a few years earlier. While I had started, but could never finish the movie, the book got better treatment. Managing to finish it entirely although the start was slow, but the pace picked up later.

The Great Gatsby is considered a classic and one of the “Great American Novels”. Showcasing the life in post-World War I New York. It has the glitz and glamour of super-rich parties contrasted with the more ordinary working-class people. And yet in essence it is just a love story with a tragic ending!

There are lots of references in the book, but the author never gets to detailing them out – the flourishing bond trading (probably a precursor to the Great Depression); the class divide between neighbourhoods; fortunes made during the Great War, Prohibition & bootlegging, fixing of the World Series. The readers get barely a glimpse of the events, although all these may or may not have played a role in building Jay Gatsby’s fortune.

Here are a few lines which stood out for me from the book.

• Whenever you feel like criticizing anyone, just remember that all the people in this world haven’t had the advantages that you’ve had – a point to be kept in mind in this social-media triggered world
• There are only the pursued, the pursuing, the busy and the tired – a simple classification for all human beings
• Let us learn to show our friendship for a man when he is alive and not after he is dead – what a simple yet profound statement.

And there were some “General Resolves” in the end. 

“No wasting time…. No more smokeing or chewing….. Bath every other day…. Read one improving book or magazine per week… Save $ 3.00 per week… Be better to parents”

If one follows these simple tips, our lives would certainly be much better!

How usage of words change – holocaust is used to describe the ending tragedy. Yet how its use has evolved post the second World War into a much bigger tragedy!

Previously on BookMarks: Mendelevski’s Box 

Road To Paris: Episode 3

Time for the belated third episode in the Road To Paris series.

Since the last Episode, we have seen quite a bit of activity in the Indian Olympics Sports front with the action not limited just to the field of play.

Starting with the on-field action

We had the Commonwealth Games, where India learnt about a new sport – Lawn Bowls. Unfortunately, its not part of the Olympics roster yet! Here is a short sport-by-sport review of Indian performances in the Olympics disciplines.

1. Athletics: 8 medals, a significant increase from 3 in 2018. Avinash Sable’s steeplechase run was the highlight as he broke open the Kenyan dominance with a stunning 2nd place finish, denying Kenya a clean sweep of the event for the first time in decades! The racewalkers after a decade of promise have now started delivering the medals as well. There was an India 1-2 in Triple Jump, as well as medals in Long Jump, High Jump and women’s Javelin. Things are looking up especially in the field events. Although there are doping cases also coming up. Thankfully all caught before they could make the tournament!
2. Badminton: The Thomas Cup success was carried forward with Golds for Sindhu, Lakshya, Satwik-Chirag, and Bronze medals for Srikkanth and Terasa-Gayatri. Losing the Team Gold to Malaysia would have hurt a bit though.
3. Boxing: Amit Panghal is back after the disappointment at Tokyo. Nikhat Zareen continues to carry the flag for women’s Boxing and there was an impressive start for Nitu Ghanghas. While not the toughest of fields, overall, it was a decent show by the Indian boxers.
4. Cycling: David Beckham and Ronaldo being in the squad created quite a flutter. However, the performances on track did not live up to the names
5. Gymnastics: there was nothing to write home about. The brief spotlight from Dipa Karmakar’s Rio performance has now dimmed.
6. Hockey: Silver for men & Bronze for women – both teams back amongst medals. However, the manner of loss in the Men’s Final to Australia would have certainly hurt. And when will our teams get rid of this habit of conceding last minute goals. Lot of unnecessary heartache for the fans!
7. Judo: 2 silvers & a bronze on Judo’s return to the Commonwealth fold with Sushila Devi replicating her 2014 silver medal.
8. Swimming: Once again no medals, but there was an increase in the number of finals appearances by the Indian swimmers with Srihari Nataraj making two finals.
9. Table Tennis: Achanta Sharath Kamal at the age of 40, just confirmed his status as the greatest Indian TT player. Playing multiple matches daily, he ended the tournament with 3 Golds & a Silver. While the men’s side had great returns, there was disappointment in the women’s side especially for Manika Batra who had been the breakout star of the 2018 edition. Sreeja Akula finished a creditable 4th in Singles and helped Sharath Kamal to his first-ever Mixed Doubles Gold.
10. Triathalon: We are not in the picture yet.
11. Weightlifting: India continued their dominant show at the event 3 Golds, 2 Silvers & 4 Bronze Medals. As expected, Mirabai Chanu dominated her category, while the likes of Jeremy & Achinta Sheuli got their first international success.
12. Wrestling: 12 entries, 12 medals (like 2018) including 6 Golds – another dominant show by India. Not much to be read in the performances, but 2 players – Vinesh Phogat and Sakhsee Malik made quite a comeback to the national ranks.

Outside the Commonwealth Games also there was a lot of action

1. Neeraj Chopra recovered from injury to win his first ever Diamond League event and qualify for the Diamond League Finals.
2. At the Badminton World Championships, the Satwik-Chirag duo became the first Indian pair to win a Men’s doubles medal and continue the trend of a medal for India at every major event (World Championships/Olympics) since 2011. The others could not reach the medal rounds though.
3. Linthoi Chanmabham became the first Indian judoka to win a World Championships gold (senior or junior) at the Cadets Championships.

And now for some off-the-field action (or rather mess)

1. The Anti-Doping Law has been passed by the Indian parliament. There have been too many doping cases, especially in Athletics & Weightlifting with some leading names also involved. To be honest, the number of doping cases involving Indians is a national embarrassment. This is certainly a step towards cleaning up their act.
2. Meanwhile the All India Football Federation got suspended by FIFA. Although the suspension was lifted, it doesn’t show our federations in good light. And there are administrative troubles in various other associations as well. Wonder how these will be cleaned up given the number of political figures involved in all these sports.
3. And its not good to see Courts getting involved in matters of team selections – Tejaswin Shankar and members of TT teams were involved in multiple court battles to ensure their participation at the Commonwealth Games! As it is our Courts have a huge case backlog, no point in adding to them!

That’s it for this episode. More qualifying action is set to commence in the coming weeks.

Till next time!

Links:

• Road To Paris – Episode 2 
• India at Commonwealth Games 2022 
• NADA Bill - Firstpost 

India @ 75

15th August – our Independence Day. Also, time for the annual blog post on all things India, a tradition which now enters its 15th edition. So, before we head into this one, here is the link for the 2021 edition.

75 years since independence – it has been a remarkable journey. The Government decided to mark the occasion as #AzaadiKaAmritMahotsav and launched the #GharGharTiranga campaign. A campaign which also resonated with the citizens. And the result - tricolours displayed everywhere, on buildings, individual houses and vehicles presented a beautiful sight (or a vihangam drishya, to borrow a phrase from Doordarshan’s Republic Day commentary).

After the travails of 2020-21, we finally seem to have got a grip on the pandemic (though still not completely over it). The covid waves are still coming, although its impact has reduced. The roll-out of vaccines, an arduous task specially in a country of our size, certainly seems to have had an effect in controlling the damage. Although we still don’t know the long-term impacts yet, but life is slowly coming back to normal.

I always believe in reading the newspaper from back to front. Because the sports pages (which come last) are filled with the stories of human achievements, unlike most of the other pages! In a non-Olympic and non-World Cup year, it would have been difficult to match the highs of Neeraj Chopra’s Olympics Gold. But our men’s Badminton team provided it by winning the Thomas Cup. Chopra himself followed it up becoming the first Indian athlete to win a World Championships Silver medal. And finally, we had the sports fans cheering the Lawn Bowls team at the Commonwealth Games, while simultaneously trying to learn the rules of this novel sport they had come across. Meanwhile the Football federation gets banned by FIFA, putting in jeopardy the upcoming Women's U-17 World Cup. Somehow, finding a cloud for a silver lining!

Where sports exist, so does betting. Although illegal, there are now a multitude of apps and sites providing a chance to win cash based on fantasy leagues! Most of them exploiting the grey area between a game of chance and a game of skill. However, some enterprising folks took this to a whole new level. They organized an entire fake IPL, streamed it, and made money off Russian punters! The sheer chutzpah of the scam is simply unbelievable! This is one story filled with lots of audacious elements – but finding people in Russia willing to bet on cricket matches takes the cake.

Whilst on the subject of online scams, there has been a surfeit of them. The mobile phone has become a minefield to be treaded through carefully. Fake job offers, fake tenants, changing numbers of legitimate businesses, sending links for payment, threatening to cut electricity supply, fake calls, hacking people’s social media accounts. Just how many traps can you avoid daily?

The initial lockdown days of Covid brought to light, how clean our environment could be with reduced human activity. While a lockdown is not the solution, it did show that the climate emergency could still be managed. In this regard, we have made a major commitment towards Net Zero by 2070. The economic costs of this transition will be quite high but something which needs to be done.

Which brings us to the economy. While we are not the worst performing, there are dark clouds looming all over the horizon. The collateral effects of Ukraine crisis, soaring energy prices and a looming food shortage are all potentially leading to a global economic recession. It will take significant political will to navigate through these VUCA times. Credit to the government for taking a stand and getting cheaper Russian crude.

On the political front, we had a change of leadership at the top. Meanwhile, in various states, the state governments keep changing not through elections but via backroom political manipulations and resort management. Certainly not a sign of a healthy democracy.

Meanwhile the social media discussions and debates continue to become more and more toxic. The balance is completely gone and replaced by a “with us or against us” mentality. Wonder what vaccine will help in resolving this.

Overall, it has been a year of coming out of chaos but there are threats looming everywhere. Let’s see what the next one holds.

On that note, Happy Birthday India! Jai Hind!

BookMarks #104: Mendelevski’s Box

Title: Mendelevski’s Box

Author: Roger Swindells

Genre: Fiction, Historical

Published: 2019

BookMarks

Mendelevski’s Box is the tale of a Holocaust survivor after his return from Auschwitz to Amsterdam and how he rebuilds his life picking up the pieces of his erstwhile life with help from some old and many new acquaintances.

Overall, an engaging read, although it is a bit difficult in the beginning to read through the not so familiar Dutch names. The story is not about the holocaust itself but how survivors emerge from it. We still get to learn about the horrors. Yet, it is also a tale of humanity. How different people tried to help and support the cause against the Nazis and then post the war how they helped each other in rebuilding their lives. It also depicts the chaos in the immediate aftermath of the war – shortages of almost everything, the currencies becoming invalid, trying to figure out the genuine cases when all paperwork has gone missing, the insurance money and property disputes etc. And there is the backdrop of punishing both the war criminals and those who profited from it.

There is also a tiny twist in the tale! Overall, a good story of humanity rising from one of its worst sufferings. 

Previously on BookMarks: Life Is Short And So Is This Book 

Road To Paris: Episode 2

The Paris 2024 Summer Olympics have been declared wide open. The events calendar is also out now. The qualifying processes have also commenced with the first qualifiers also identified in a couple of sports.

It has been almost a year since the Tokyo Games were held. The Indian contingent while still in celebratory mood from their best Games ever is also slowly getting back to action after the euphoria of the Games. A combination of felicitation ceremonies and the pandemic ensured that most top athletes were out of action for quite a while. Sometimes, looking at all the felicitators, one wonders what success India could have got if there was similar support during the preparations!

Meanwhile here is a selection of some key Indian performances with an eye on Paris.

• Badminton: The biggest success in the past year with the men’s team clinching the Thomas Cup for the first time ever showcasing the tremendous depth of the side. And prior to that Lakshya Sen & Kidambi Srikkanth had both won a medal at the World Championships. Add to this a resurgent HS Prannoy and the doubles pair of Satwik-Chirag, and a still impressive PV Sindhu Indian Badminton is in safe hands.
• Athletics: Neeraj Chopra, the Olympic Champion, continues to break new ground becoming the first Indian to win a silver at the World Championships and also improving his own National record multiple time. The past few months have also seen quite a few long-standing national records being broken (multiple times) with Avinash Sable adding the 5,000m record to his record-breaking streak in the steeplechase. Hopefully it’s the dawn of a something good for Indian athletics. On the flip side, there have been high profile doping cases including members of last year’s Olympics contingent. The doping menace needs to be seriously nipped in the bud.
• Hockey: Both men’s & women’ teams finished 3rd in the Pro League campaign, proving that performances at Tokyo were not just a flash in the pan. However, the women’s team did not have a good World Cup finishing 9th and unfortunately, they are not part of the next Pro league cycle.
• Boxing: Nikhat Zareen is now a world champion but has to follow up the success of the legendary Mary Kom. So not much pressure there!
• Shooting: After the disappointment at Tokyo, the Indian team is back to winning medals at the World Cup stages. Given the uncertainties in this sport, can’t really say what will happen in Paris. But another performance in lines with Rio & Tokyo will certainly lower the sport’s reputation for the Indian fans. Similar to the state of Indian Archery.

That was a short summary of the goings on at Indian Olympics sports.

The Asian Games which would have served as some of the Qualifiers has now been pushed back by a year due to Covid. So next stop for some of the contingent will be the Birmingham Commonwealth Games starting 28th July, 2022. While not exactly the most competitive of events, performances here will an inkling of the things to come over the course of the next two years!

A review of the CWG performances will be part of next Episode!

Wishing the best for the Indian contingent at Birmingham.

Links:

• Road To Paris: Episode 1 
• Games Wide Open - IOC 
• Paris 2024 Schedule 

BookMarks #103: Life Is Short And So Is This Book

Title: Life Is Short And So Is This Book: Brief Thoughts On Making The Most Of Your Life

Author: Peter Atkins

Genre: Non-fiction, Self-help

Published: 2011

BookMarks

“If I’d had more time I would have written a shorter letter”- said Winston Churchill once. And that is the brief of this book, keeping things short and simple and not meandering towards unnecessary examples/anecdotes and taking inspiration from them. It is a very short volume, easy to read and gives general guidelines on what is to be done with life and not how one should go about doing it. It is not something which people do not know, but it is always good to keep revisiting.

Here are the nuggets which I liked best from the book.

“If I wanted to do my best work, I needed to do fewer things, and really focus on what mattered.” Very well put, the author also does his bit to shatter the myth of multi-tasking. “A number of people I know claim to be great multi-taskers. The brain, however, doesn’t work that way; instead it focuses on one activity at a time. If you switch back and forth between multiple tasks, your brain works more slowly than it would if you focused on each activity for a period of time.” And yet, everyone I know claims to have varying degrees of proficiency in multi-tasking!

These are terrible times. The last couple of years have been an especially harrowing one, with no one sure if the worst is over or not! Then comes this bit of advise – “you can focus on something going well, or something beautiful, or something interesting -- even amidst terrible times.” There are things one can do something about and others where one can’t. So focus attention and energies where something can be done. Quite a simple advise and yet very difficult to follow.

The easiest way to success or avoiding failures/mishaps is not doing dumb things. Proceeding when there are obvious issues is a dumb thing to do. Even if it’s inconvenient or painful it is better doing nothing when the only available choice has glaring issues.

On character - Do what you think is right. Don't follow other people blindly. Be honest and keep your word. Admit your mistakes.

On dealing with success and failures which everyone encounters We learn more from our failures than from our successes.

On how to work towards success - You may delay but time will not. There is no overnight success but a series of continuous efforts. Progress depends on action, taking small steps which work. Over time, small steps add up, and you end up in a different place.

On being happy - To be happy, you need to pay attention to who you are, what you want, and how you feel. And most importantly Life has to be lived forwards and not backwards.

Success is not final, failure is not fatal: it is the courage to continue that counts. – Another Churchill quote to round up this post.

Overall, a good read with actionable, implementable advise.

Previously on BookMarks: The Tattooist of Auschwitz 

The Perfect Jinx

Started reading (once again), Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus. And on the second page came across this passage.

One line stood out “…. in the last few decades we have managed to rein in famine, plague and war”.

This book was written in 2015. The existing diseases were being managed; the new ones (SARS, Ebola etc.) were being controlled before they acquired pandemic proportions. The world’s political boundaries had been more or less stable for years except for few localized hotspots. Meanwhile, technological innovations were ensuring that global hunger was reducing despite an increasing population. In fact, obesity was becoming a bigger issue than hunger. And the efficient global supply chains ensured that men and material could be moved fast to the place of need in the event of any natural disaster.

Fast Forward to 2022. We have the “plague” - It’s been two and a half years since Covid 19 pandemic struck and upended the world as we knew it. We have “war” - the Russian invasion of Ukraine gave the western world its biggest war since 1945 with the added threat of nuclear weapons. And we are also staring at a global famine – the pandemic and the war disrupted the global supply chains, which combined with climate change has created the beginning of a global food shortage.

All of a sudden, the future is not looking so rosy for the homo sapiens!

As any sports fan can relate, this line is the perfect epitome of the “commentator’s curse” or simply “the jinx”.

Yet, jokes aside, the human beings have become more and more resilient and have better control over such matters. Fast-tracked global development of vaccines certainly helped in curbing the covid19 pandemic (although a lot of damage has already been done, but things could have been much worse). The Russia-Ukraine stand-off has not spiraled beyond the region (yet!). And steps are being taken to manage the food crisis. So overall, while not a rosy picture, history is replete with examples of things having gone much, much worse. 

So, in essence, Harari is right, we as a species, certainly have matters in our own control. How we handle it is also a decision totally in our hands and we have only ourselves to blame if do not evolve for the better!

BookMarks #102: The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Title: The Tattooist of Auschwitz

Author: Heather Morris

Genre: Fiction based on true story, Biography, Holocaust

Published: 2018

BookMarks

“The Tattooist of Auschwitz” is a fictional take on the life of Lale Sokolov and his incarceration in Auschwitz. The story is simultaneously one of brutality and the never-dying hope. It is a story of a determination to survive the horrors all around even though there are not many signs of things going in your favour. It is also tale of people fighting for themselves as well as one another in a quest to survive.

While the novel is set inside a concentration camp, it somehow does not bring up the real horrors of them. They are mentioned in passing, sometimes directly witnessed by the protagonists and yet somehow the true impact just does not hit the reader. Probably on account of the easy writing style which glosses over the more terrible brutalities. Or it could be because the protagonist is one filled with a firm belief of hope, which dims the rest of tragedies unfolding around him.

Some of the situations described are simply too fantastic. For instance, throughout the story, never really understood why Lale was given certain privileges for tattooing numbers on to all new arrivals to the camp. This wasn’t exactly a job of high skill and replacements were readily available. But one never knows, the truth is always stranger than fiction.

Overall, a decent read. I certainly did not like the almost celebratory sounding notes of the author at the end when the Slovak edition of the book is launched. 

Previously on BookMarks: Don’t Go There 

BookMarks #101: Don’t Go There

Title: Don’t Go There: From Chernobyl to North Korea—one man’s quest to lose himself and find everyone else in the world’s strangest places

Author: Adam Fletcher

Genre: Non-fiction, Travel

Published: 2018

BookMarks

Don’t Go There – a travelogue which is collection of not so popular tourist destinations which the author has visited – a collection of places from across the globe, some of which have not so clear standing as well. Amongst all the places North Korea and its on-the-spot-guidance from “Dem two bruddas” stood out!

I like how the author has defined a functioning society with the following equation

People + Resources / Time = Functional Society

Those of us born as majority people will never know how much of a fight it is to live as a minority, not protected by the cushioning of statistics. The wrong group gets too certain about themselves, their beliefs, and their rights. They pull society’s levers and inflict the repercussions upon everyone else. History is what happens when ego meets happenstance.

Quite a succinct description of how everything has come to its current state and its ever evolving.

A line which stood out for me - Boredom is a Luxury Good. Don’t feel so safe and secure and bored that they actively go out looking for danger, just to feel more alive. A perfect description for everyone In this social media world bitten by the #wanderlust bug!

And a few more for the Bookmarks

• Being where you don’t belong frees you from any expectations about how things there are supposed to work, and, in turn, how you will react to them. A childlike naivety takes over.
• I guess we all do—recast ourselves in the stories of our lives, giving ourselves starring roles in our successes and minimising the role we play in our failures, working back from our actions to justifications,
• the only way you know that something has value is if you find yourself willing to make sacrifices for.

Quite an interesting and hilarious book. Seemingly funny yet also making a deep impression at the same time.

Previously on BookMarks: Peaky Blinders – The Real Story

P.S. The narrative also reminded me of another world adventure – A Bear, A Dog and A Kangaroo!

Thomas Cup 2022 Champions - INDIA

Scarcely believable but true. What a performance this has been from the men's badminton team over the past week as they went past one opponent after the other. The path wasn't easy filled with higher ranked opponents throughout but every time they were cornered the team fought back and hung in there. Fighting off match points, coming from a game down and in case of Prannoy not even letting a bad fall come in the way. And with each passing day, having to ward off the myriad jinxers on the social media timeline as well (As a sports fan, I am a firm believer in the power of the jinx).

What a performance it was - especially from Srikanth, Satwik-Chirag, Prannoy & Lakshya. Just showcasing the depth in Indian Badminton - not just individual brilliance but the collective strength. Living true to adage of whole being greater than the sum of its parts.

Now to rewind a few years. I first heard of the Thomas Cup back in the early 90s. It was more of a GK question back then – which sport is Thomas Cup associated with? At the time it was dominated by the usual big names – Indonesia, China, Malaysia, Korea, Denmark etc. For India, even qualifying for the main tournament was an achievement in itself! And now we are the Champions! What a journey this has been. The 2022 crown has just been a culmination of the Badminton’s steady rise since Gopichand’s All England win in 2001.

Now that we have tasted success, what next for Indian Badminton? Uber & Sudirman Cups should certainly be the next targets. And while we have had a steady flow of World Championships & Olympics medals in the past decade, certainly looking forward to winning more titles now. And the best part is all these are well within the grasp of this young Indian contingent!

What a lovely and inspiring sight it was to see the Indian Team with the Trophy and hearing the national anthem being played.

India – Thomas Cup 2022 Champions – that sounds right! 

P.S. Pretty sure Voot & Sports18 subscriptions would have seen a significant bump in the past couple of days! I certainly did my bit!

Road To Paris: Episode 1

It has been a while since the conclusion of the Tokyo 2020 Games. The best day to start my “Road To Paris” journey was the day after the Closing Ceremony. However, as usual, there was some dilly-dallying. So chose the second best day to start off this journey. Today!

It will be a shorter journey this time (hopefully). Fingers crossed that the covid disruptions are minimal. Although this year’s Asian Games, which would have also served as first qualifiers for a few events has already been postponed.

The events list has been officially released. This episode focusses on the changes made to the events roster in comparison to Tokyo.

There will be a total of 329 events across 32 sports down from 339 events in 33 sports at Tokyo. Following are the changes:

Sports Dropped: Baseball & Softball and Karate

Sports Added: Breaking (also known as Break Dancing)

Changes in existing sports

• Athletics: Men’s 50 km race walk has been dropped and replaced by Race Walk Mixed Team event.
• Boxing: Men’s events have been reduced from 8 to 7, while there has been an increase in the women’s side from 5 to 6. Consequently there has also been a re-jigging of the weight categories on both sides to accommodate the changes.
• Canoeing: For both men & women, the Extreme Canoe Slalom event has been added. And one individual sprint race has been dropped for both.
• Sailing: One Men’s Dinghy event has been dropped and replaced by a Mixed Dinghy event
• Shooting: Mixed Trap has been replaced by Mixed Skeet.
• Weightlifting: Number of events has been reduced to 10 from 14 with 2 events dropped in both men & women’s sections. The weight categories have also been rejigged consequently.

There have also been tweaks in the qualification processes in some sports, while others have had changes in the number of participants. Overall, continuing the move towards improving the gender parity.

Will start focusing on Team India’s qualification journey from the next episode (hopefully soon). 

Links: Paris 2024 Events Programme 

BookMarks #100: Peaky Blinders: The Real Story

Title: Peaky Blinders - The Story of Birmingham’s most notorious gangs

Author: Carl Chinn

Published: 2019

Genre: Non-fiction, History

BookMarks

Peaky Blinders – gangsters/ruffians/hooligans from Birmingham who blinded their opponents using razor blades stitched inside the peaks of their flat caps. Or this is what the mythology has been built upon, especially with the hit TV show of the same name.

This book states its goal as giving the real story of these gangs. Over its 200 odd pages, it keeps reiterating that the show is a fictional depiction and the real “peaky blinders” were not so sophisticated. Yes, they were notorious, there were many incidents of violence committed by them especially against policemen, they controlled a fair chunk of the illegal betting market. And some could have used the signature cap as a weapon, but it is most likely to be a myth! The author, himself a descendant of an illegal bookmaker has tried to give the history of the rise and the later fall of these anti-social elements. Class divisions and poverty were the major reasons for the rise of these gangs. Better policing and involvement of the communities through youth sports and clubs channelizing their energies certainly contributed to the decline.

However, the book is a too long for the subject it covers. Given the repetitious content and lots of unnecessary details, it could easily have been a third of its size without losing any essence. This book seems more like an attempt to cash in on the success of the TV series!

Previously on BookMarks: 51 Accidental Inventions That Changed the World

P.S. This is the 100th blogpost in the #BookMarks series! Certainly been a long ride!

BookMarks #99: 51 Accidental Inventions that Changed the World

Title: 51 Accidental Inventions that Changed the World

Author: Kimte Guite

Published: 2019

Genre: Non-fiction, General Knowledge, Science, Anthology

BookMarks

As the title suggests, the book describes 51 important discoveries which have shaped the modern world. And as the conclusion says that these are just 51, there are many more. Anesthetics, Dynamite, X-Ray, Vaccines, Ice Lolly, Monopoly, even the Wheel are some of the discoveries which came by accident. The discoveries may have been accidental, but they happened because someone actually noticed and then spent time and resources investigating how it happened and perfecting it.

A change I would have liked would have been to present the discoveries in chronological order – showing their impact on human life. Also that would have shown how humans have been continuously trying to improve their lifestyle.

Overall, a good book filled with trivia and whets the appetite of the curious mind. 

Previously on BookMarks: The Holiday

BookMarks #98: The Holiday

Title: The Holiday

Author: TM Logan

Published: 2019

Genre: Fiction, Drama

BookMarks

This is the second book by TM Logan which I read after “Lies”. The expectations were high after that thrill-a-minute rollecr-coaster, but “The Holiday” wasn’t upto the same level.

“Seven Days, Three Families, One Killer” – the cover page announces, the last phase being critical. Unfortunately, most of the book just meanders along with every character just not talking to each other. The book would have been much shorter if the characters had just communicated better! And then there is the fiery ending, which does little to redeem the entire story.

While most of the book is a first-person account, there are a few POV chapters also thrown in the middle to carry the story forward (a la A Song of Fire and Ice). But it just muddles up the story a bit more instead of helping it.

An interesting question about the villa – Is there no staff or even a caretaker present at the site? Quite astonishing given the size of the building and its surrounding land!

Overall, not too engaging a tale.

Previously on BookMarks: A Thousand Brains  

Also by TM Logan on BookMarks: Lies 

BookMarks #97: A Thousand Brains

Title: A Thousand Brains: A New Theory of Intelligence

Author: Jeff Hawkins

Published: 2021

Genre: Non-fiction, Biology, AI

BookMarks

As the foreword says – this is a book about how the brain works. Although it is not just about the working of the human brain. The book ends with questions on intelligence and how the collective human knowledge can be preserved for the future.

There are some fundamental questions

What are we?

How did we get here?

What is our destiny?

What makes us intelligent?

How did our species become intelligent?

What is the destiny of intelligence and knowledge?

The book is a step in answering these questions. The answers are not perfect. As the author, Dr. Hawkins says, we are still exploring these answers.

Dr. Hawkins presents his theory of how the brain works. There is an ongoing battle between the two parts of the brain – the reptilian (old) and the mammalian (new) which have grown on top of the older ones. Older parts control primitive behaviour while newer ones create more sophisticated ones.

The world we perceive is a simulation of the real world. All thoughts and perceptions are relative to the brain's model of the world, not the physical world outside the skull. The very act of thinking is a form of movement. The brain's neocortex creates a predictive model of the world based on information acquired throughout. Any deviation from this prediction is immediately noticed. The model is based on predictions, perceptions and actions. The neocortex learns a rich and detailed model of the world which it uses to constantly predict what it's next sensory input will be.

All our thoughts and actions are results of activity of neurons. Knowledge is distributed in the brain and not stored at any particular neuron. Brain has 150,000 cortical columns and each column is a learning machine.

The book then turns to the question of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The author asks the basic question “Where is the I in AI?" Today's AI can only do the thing which it is trained to do, unlike humans who can perform multiple tasks. e.g. a chess playing computer is great at playing chess, but doesn’t know if chess is a game? The search is for creating Artificial General Intelligence - how to make a machine learn everyday tasks like a human. Intelligence can't be programmed into a software. It can be given a model which needs to be learned and takes time.

Will AI become a threat to its creators, i.e. humans. Life is based on a simple idea. Genes make as many copies of themselves as possible. And brains act as a facilitator for this. Hence, anything which can self-replicate is dangerous e.g. a virus. A meme is something that replicates and evolves much like a gene but through culture. Our biggest distinguishing features, language helps spread beliefs both true and false. It also helps in expansion of knowledge beyond what is directly observed.

Then we come to the section on Merging Brains and Machines. (seems to be the concept of the Amazon series Upload!) Uploading a brain into computer even if possible would create two beings which will have then distinct lives. Creating a direct connection with a computer seems a better and more feasible option. But why would humans do that. The answers being preservation of our collective knowledge, of intelligent life, signal to other intelligent lives in the universe.

These are the intriguing notes at which the book ends. The book is an amalgam of ideas – attempting to understand how the brain works, is there any artificial intelligence and if one can be created and finally to ideas for preserving human knowledge. 

Overall, an interesting read into a subject in which humans have made lots of progress and yet we are still a long way from really knowing it. Certainly a subject which makes you think and use your brain a bit more!

Previously on BookMarks: Lies