Desicritics Author: Suresh Naig

What an Idea?

Suresh Naig — Wed, 17 Feb 2010 08:29:37 EST

I exclaimed “What an Idea?” in disgust, because of its foolishness and lack of forethought. My son was in possession of a prepaid SIM from the service provider Idea Cellular, which along with the handset he had lost a couple of days back. When I called up the number, surprisingly someone answered and I sincerely felt that the handset and SIM were in the hands of some Good Samaritan. However I was jolted when the person arrogantly answered that the phone and the number belonged to her, which she was in possession for over a year.

I immediately called the customer care division to register the loss and block the number. I was in for a second round of shock. The call was transferred to an executive, and after listening to my complaint he said a prepaid cell number cannot be blocked, as per the company rules. Instead he gave me a docket number acknowledging my complaint reporting loss of SIM. I also learnt to my consternation that any person can pay and augment the talk time which will not be refused by idea cellular, in spite of the docket number.

If a handset with a SIM which is lost cannot be blocked, and can be used by any person whose identity could never be established, is it not a farce to demand ID proof while activating the connection. Is it not a possibility, that any person with criminal intent can acquire a SIM and later report loss, so that he can be absolved of a crime, still the SIM continues to be used by his associate?

I feel the Government had banned the sale of prepaid SIM cards in Kashmir, due to this loophole. It is time the Government changes the rules to plug this loophole, lest criminals will continue to rejoice, “What an Idea?”

My God Cannot be The God

Suresh Naig — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 14:31:19 EST

Recently I was engaged in conversation with a person on the hype created by the doomsday theory as per the Mayan calendar. He is one of the contemporary gullible, who believes in the prophecy of the new age soothsayers - the English electronic media people, be it elections, economy or weather. When I refused to buy the arguments - Mayan calendar or not, he argued that even many scientists in the program believed in it. When I delivered my sermons about the fallibility of doomsday theory and the credibility of the electronic media, he realized that I was adamant - which I am on many things, he thought he threw a bombshell at me by saying,

'Do you agree that if God decides to destroy this world he could do it without fail?'

I told him, 'that depends on your perception of God'.

'What is your perception of God?' He asked me.

I said, 'I wish I knew it'

He thought that I am an obstinate idiot and stopped the argument realizing the futility.

When I pondered over the point, I was knocked down and started seeing stars.

What is God and who could be God?

If God had created the earth - one of the planets in its solar system having its outer planet Pluto removed from its Sun by 5.9 billion Kms in the milky way galaxy, with several such solar systems and planets in one galaxy, several such Galaxies making up the ever expanding Universe - the limited neurons in my head failed to conceive the limitless superbeing called God.

The more I thought about the limitless God, the more I realized our fallibility.

The first and stark reality was the fallibility of religions, since the religion has limited the limitless by a name. Having confined the limitless GOD to a limited frame, religions have further narrowed our thoughts and forced us to believe in their GOD as perceived by someone. Organized religions, instead of encouraging individuals to perceive God in broader terms, have restricted the vision of individuals to narrow practices. While every religion claims superiority of its practices, mocks at other religious practices, without realizing that all practices have stemmed out of our limited knowledge and folly.

The second fallibility is attributing benevolent and malevolent attributes to God. We have downgraded the stature of GOD to a HR manager, appraising individuals on their good and bad deeds. An individual should indulge in good deeds and refrain from doing anything bad, only as a social requirement and not as a religious dictum.

Usurping is a tribal mentality; most religions classify usurping as a dreaded sin, but encourage and sanctify usurping in the name of GOD, belittling the limitless God. When religions try and define a magnificent being which is beyond definitions, into a narrow human firmament, the folly of the human mind is laid bare.

With all the apparent achievements we boast of, no human laboratory could create a living creature as simple as protozoa. When such is the limitation of our knowledge, I am amazed at our capacity in creating the Creator and attributing different names to our creation.

We Create, Christine, Cherish, Celebrate, attribute infallible attributes to our own creation, organize the ways and means to appease our creation, and finally get disorganized to fight to protect our GOD.

If it is GOD, yes, the limitless and if it is MY GOD, it cannot be, because it is limited.

Solar Eclipse and the Haiti Earthquake

Suresh Naig — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 16:03:02 EST

On the day of solar eclipse on 15th Jan, there was a debate in Bangalore specific English news channel. As usual, a scientist who believes in nothing other than science, an astrologer who has a mixed belief system, a rationalist who neither believes in science nor astrology and a moderator who gave an impression that he never listened to anything other than his own voice were assembled in the studio.

It was a live program and so many persons participated in the program asking silly questions most of the time and occasionally sensible ones too. One caller wanted to know whether there could be any connection between the Haiti earth quake and the solar eclipse. As usual the scientist gave an emphatic NO and when asked to explain by the astrologer, he explained Haiti was nowhere on the path of solar eclipse.

It appeared to me that the scientist was arrogant, in the sense that brushing aside anything without an open mind and scientific study is unscientific. Unlike the religion which has strict rituals which cannot be questioned, whereas the question is the essence behind scientific discoveries, if brushed aside could become counterproductive to the very science. Answers to certain questions gave us electricity, anti-biotics etc. If those right questions were not asked by the right people, science at large and we in particular would have been the losers.

When scientists confess that earth quakes cannot be predicted, I understand that it cannot be predicted 'today', with the present knowledge and gadgets in our possession. Our met department has created a model, collating all the details for the past 50 years or so on the monsoon pattern and try to predict the future monsoon with such limited details of half a century, resulting in widely off the mark prediction of monsoon every year. What is wrong in collating the details of past eclipses and earthquakes? Most of the discoveries in the past were serendipities and who knows yet another could be waiting in what scientists brush aside as coincidence.

Eclipsing the Eclipse

Suresh Naig — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 14:01:25 EST

Solar and lunar eclipses are usual occurrences and so also are the controversies surrounding them. Astrologers claim certain untoward incidents attached to these celestial events and rationalists dispute the same. Certainly eclipses are eclipsed by these people.

It is quite common for religious Hindus to abstain from eating food two hours before and after the onset of eclipses. Equally, it is a common occurrence for the rationalists to distribute freshly cooked food during the eclipses, to dispel the myth. Eclipses are certainly eclipsed.

Many people belonging to the IT sector in Bangalore worked on 9th January, a Saturday, to take a compensatory off on 15th Jan on account of annular solar eclipse. I was wondering why the well informed people from the IT sector were becoming gullible to the religious or scientific myth. Then I realized 14th being a declared holiday on account of Sankranti, these people could avail an extended weekend and the solar "Grahana" came handy. The hype created by the scientific community towards the annular solar eclipse has surpassed the religious fervor and the well informed IT guys have taken an informed decision, to have a long week end.

I remember the last significant solar eclipse in the 80s where it was such a rare event. The media created a hype about it, warning people about the dos and don'ts during the eclipse. The media hype was something similar to the Skylab crash, wherein some Newspapers used to print on their first page the countdown for the crash, 7 days to go, 6 days to go etc. Some villagers in India had vacated their dwellings and moved to faraway places, because it was declared by the media as a probable Skylab crash site and many public transport drivers abstained from duty on the solar eclipse day, fearing untoward consequences. Our group of friends enjoyed the solar eclipse with chilled beer and playing cards staying indoors. Skylab crashed and the solar eclipse occurred without any perceptible damage. Now the next one is around the corner with two consecutive lunar and solar eclipses in quick succession.

I was intrigued by the raging controversy between the religious zealots and the vociferous rationalists and wondered why the Hindu religious practices are always the easy targets for these people. Religious practices such as fasting are common to all religions and why only Hindu practices are mocked at? Is it because the Hindu religion is a soft target making them vulnerable, while all other religious practices are untouched.

Perhaps in all other religions, a religious practice remains as a religious practice and only the Hindus attempt to give a scientific perspective to their practices, irking the scientific community. As long as Darwin's theory of evolution is disputed in the closed walls of Sunday schools in Churches, replaced by the Genesis theory, scientific community is not bothered. If abstaining food, taking bath after eclipses etc are going to remain only as strict religious practices, I am sure the scientific community will ignore it.

Grooming Starts in a Barber's Shop

Suresh Naig — Mon, 11 Jan 2010 08:31:47 EST

Yes. Grooming starts in a barber's shop literally and metaphorically too. This morning I sat on a barber's chair; the rhythmic movement of his soft fingers on my head coupled with the tingling sensation of mentholated oil forced my eyes to close and I was enjoying the delirium sans narcotics. The TV up on a corner was playing a Music channel watched by none other than the barbers and the small table in front of the sofa was strewn with glossy magazines with flashy girls on the cover page.

The glass door of the hair salon was opened and a young boy stepped in, accompanied by his father. The boy was around 10 years of age, looking pretty with overgrown locks, curly and lustrous. The father instructed the barber to crop it short, and the young boy grimaced.

The father shouted, 'you don't know. Just keep quiet and he will do a nice job' and left the beauty salon leaving the boy fuming.

I felt that certain things have not changed over years. The father and son duo had triggered my grey cells and I vividly recollected my boyhood days in the barber's shop. Whenever I return from the barber's shop after a haircut, however short was the cut, it was difficult for me to satisfy my father. He always admonished me by saying that the cut was not short enough. Out of disgust, once I got my head clean shaved which forced my father to throw tantrums, for we were not allowed to shave our head completely, other than for religious vows. Later I learnt the reason for his tantrums, which was nothing but a reverse cause and effect fear. Sons would tonsure their heads only when the father dies and now that I have tonsured my head the fear of reverse effect had gripped him, resulting in his tantrums. However my innocuous act never impacted his longevity.

As a boy, certain things I had resolved and one among them was not to interfere in the hair cut of my children. However, I never expected such positive accruals out of a silly resolution. I used to drop my son in a barber's shop and instruct the barber to give a hair cut as desired my son, ignoring the surprised look of the barber. I had even encouraged my son to pay the charges of the barber from the cash I had given him. This had inculcated a sense of responsibility in him, that he had developed a sense of right and wrong spending, from an early age 10years.

His grooming had started literally from the barber's shop and he had learnt by trial and error. He had learnt to take decisions; short, medium or close crop and the resultant impact of comments from his peers. When mocked at for a lousy hair cut from his peers he never had an easy way out, blaming the elders of the household, but to own up his decisions. Having learnt from a very young age on what is decision making and how to own up decisions; he had matured into a man with fine virtues. He is respected in the large family of several cousins for his insight and judgment.

When I credit the barber's shop for my son's grooming, many consider it as humor and never realize the sense behind it.

Will Behavioral Change be an Effective Remedy?

Suresh Naig — Mon, 28 Dec 2009 07:14:52 EST

I am recalling a well known old story, which is pertinent even in today's circumstances. A king wanted to test his subjects' integrity and he announced that each family should pour one measure of milk into a common container towards a public cause. Against his expectations of a few defaulters, the entire container was filled with only water and not a drop of milk. Everyone thought what if I alone pour a measure of water and in turn everybody had poured only water and no one contributed milk.

This simple story has lots of morals and I have used this effectively in training sessions. A simple inference could be that, all the people in the small kingdom were cheats, but which could not have been true. Every head of a family, would have been regular in paying taxes, taking care of the younger and older people in the household, consistent in getting the daughters married, imparting education to the male wards in the family and nowhere any negligence at personal level would have been noticed. Then why this misbehavior towards collective responsibility of pouring water instead of milk?

When personal integrity is beyond question, what could have gone wrong? Was it due to Parkinson's second law- "There is always a disregard for work among a group", popularly known as passing the buck? Everyone thinks the other would do it and eventually no one does. Perhaps that would answer the "only water no milk" phenomenon. But again, if the milk is sought from every family towards a temple ritual, I am sure no one would have played the spoilt sport.

The moral of the story could thus be, since there was no clear incentive for doing an act, people have defied and because the fear of divine punishment was the great deterrent, everyone had contributed milk towards a temple ritual. It might appear so simple, but delving into human mind is not so simple, that it fits into the binary theory of "good and bad", "malefic and benefic", "positive and negative".

There was an interesting anecdote in the book Don't say yes when you want to say no authored by a psychologist. The author treated a person, a compulsive gambler who had ruined his life betting on horses. The solution appeared illogical but it worked wonders as per the author. The person's urge towards gambling had a specific sequence and the psychologist had broken the sequence weaning his habit. The routine as per the author started in the morning at the break-fast table, where the patient would skim through the daily Newspaper and he would compulsively go to the Sports page to see which all the horses are participating in that day's race and by post lunch he would be in the race course to lose his money.

By simply changing his Newspaper to Wall street Journal which does not have a sports section, the psychologist claimed that he could break the gambling habit of his patient. He further says in his book that though the patient's wife was happy that her husband stopped gambling, she harbored misgivings that it was not out of a moral insight. But the author claimed in his book that the person never gambled as long as he was followed up. A simple behavioral change towards a better discipline.

A similar behavioral therapy had a cascading positive effect in Bangalore in the eighties. During the eighties local buses were operated by the Government and it was known as BTS. Many contemporaries of the Super Star Rajinikanth - conductors of BTS busses would never issue tickets and offer unofficial discounts to commuters, which would directly go to their pockets instead of BTS. What had started as a small time pilferage turned out to be rampant corruption, eating away the profits of BTS. Periodic checking with mobile squad could not contain the corruption and one person had introduced a simple scheme which had changed the behavior of the commuters and the conductors fell in line.

In the early eighties, owning a color TV set was prestigious and BTS had given away one color TV each day using BTS tickets as raffle. Though initially it was not very popular, by repeated advertisements in Newspapers about people winning the color TVs it gathered momentum. Commuters started demanding tickets from conductors, obviating the need for checking squads and controls.
Even after the scheme was withdrawn later, the behavior of buying tickets in Government owned buses had become a habit with fewer defaulters. It was to the credit of the public that a bad practice was halted, inculcated by a simple behavior change.

Will the idea initiated by Narendra Modi, to declare a person who does not vote in local elections as a defaulter, bring in the necessary behavioral change?

Security Agencies & Personal Freedom

Suresh Naig — Wed, 9 Dec 2009 10:38:57 EST

A news item caught my attention recently. A person had moved the Supreme Court claiming infringement of his personal freedom, for the security personnel at Chennai airport had detained him for over 15 hours. He was carrying Rs.65 lakhs in cash which was properly accounted for and the money was returned to him after 2 months by the Income tax department. He contended that though the money was accounted for, he was detained at the airport for over 15 hours which he claimed as infringement of his personal freedom by the security personnel at the airport.

The Supreme Court rightly rejected his petition without passing any strictures on the security personnel as sought by the petitioner. The court had observed that the security agencies should be sensitized against the allegations of personal freedom, for any inconvenience is aimed only for the safety of the public at large. The Court also observed that the security agencies had reacted as expected, since terrorists' transactions are mostly in cash. At the same time the Court had mildly reminded the security agencies to refrain from its enthusiasm of going to the press, without verifying the facts which was the main contention of the petitioner.

When a huge amount of Rs.65 lakhs is carried in hard currency it only attracts the suspicion of the security agencies. If Courts are moved against security agencies for doing their duty, we become vulnerable.

Three years back in a construction site the M.D. of the organisation was stopped by the security person manning the inward gate, for he had not carried his ID card. He called me on my mobile and I had to take him inside. Contrary to everyone's expectation, I complemented the security agency in general and the person in particular, for he did not lose his balance on seeing the BMW car or the authority my M.D. flaunted.

Praising the British - A Psychological Malady

Suresh Naig — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 08:07:45 EST

As a part of my work, I was involved in discussion with a person regarding some chunk of land put up for sale. He was one of the persons having interest in the land and we were verifying the survey diagrams with the official records. During the process of discussion he was praising the British for the meticulous survey records officially available with us now. He implied that, but for the English we would not know records keeping and land survey.

The person who made the comments was highly qualified and in no way could be considered ill informed. These statements are familiar, for I have come across similar ones right from my school days for a long time. During my school days I was made to believe that, but for the British we would not know school education and we might have stayed as nomads without knowing trousers and shirts. After a very long gap when someone made a similar statement belittling our capabilities, I realized that propagating ignorance in the name of spreading knowledge is easier and effective.

Most of the inventions are need based and that is why we say “necessity is the mother of all inventions”. Egyptians knew geometry so many years back, which is borne out of sheer necessity. When the man made land boundaries used to be devastated by the regular floods of Nile, they resorted to an ingenious method of preserving land records. They preserved burnt clay models defining the boundaries of landed properties, so that after every flood they could easily identify the boundaries.

Ancient monuments such as the Sun Temple of Konark, Hawa Mahal of Jaipur, Brihadeswara Temple at Tanjore are the standing testimonials for our civil engineering capabilities. In spite of our rich knowledge in executing civil engineering marvels, I am dismayed by the people proclaiming our inadequacies vis-à-vis the British supremacy. Extrapolating the statement, one should conclude that land records should not be available in the countries which were not colonized. It is common for many persons to praise the English for Indian Railways, Postal department, Parliamentary democracy, our Constitution etc.

If the statements are to be true, we should have stayed where the English have left us without any advancement. It is common knowledge we have made impressive strides in the fields of agriculture, space research, Information Technology, Tele communication etc. Since we have either departed significantly from the olden ways or started afresh, we could attain significant progress in these spheres.

We have deteriorated in many areas, because of our lack of will to depart from where they have left us. Parliamentary form of democracy, Bureaucracy and Judiciary are the glaring examples of our inept English legacy.

Smoking, Cancer and Maoism

Suresh Naig — Tue, 3 Nov 2009 10:10:06 EST

We all know how easy it is to get into the habit of smoking and how difficult it is to get out of it. In spite of several efforts by the health ministry, by banning smoking in public places such as hotels & restaurants, Airports, Railway Stations and Bus stations smoking habit has not abated. Even conveying the statutory warning visually has done precious little, in weaning the habit. However we all know that people eventually stop smoking once afflicted by lung or throat cancers. Cancer only ultimately stops a person from smoking. Honestly, how many of us would prefer cancer as a cure for smoking?

Once a person is afflicted with cancer, it is combated with equally painful treatments as that of the cancer. No sane person would resort to a futile analysis of how the cancer is caused at this stage. In the case of cancer of the human body we all accept it as a malady and all of us are very clear as to the treatment, however painful it might be.

In the case of Maoism many of us lose sight in recognizing it as a disease. Whatever could be the reason for the existence of Maoism – social, economic, fanatic or a plain idiosyncrasy, Maoist terrorism should never be accepted as a mere manifestation of something else, but a disease by itself. Apparently Maoism survives due to social and economic disparities, from which it derives its sustenance and how one could expect the movement to eradicate its survival plank?

In other words, even if we buy the argument that the Maoists are striving for the upliftment of the deprived, wouldn’t they turn redundant once the cause is removed.

Certainly the movement would invent other reasons to exist, because for them the cause is secondary, but the enemy is the establishment. That is the reason the movement miserably failed in Nepal, because they became their own enemy by becoming the establishment. Democracy is a lesser evil with in-built safety measures towards improvement, whereas Maoism is a movement with evil propensities towards leading a nation to doom.

Let us not look up to cancer as the effective step to stop smoking.

Brand Confusion in Indian Pharma

Suresh Naig — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:36:39 EDT

Last week I received a frantic call from Dubai. The call was from the cell phone of my MD but the caller was his wife. They had left for Dubai just tThat morning. Due to some goof up, she couldn’t locate the pouch which contained all the medicines. My MD is on a host of drugs for hypertension and diabetes. In addition, he was consuming medicines to facilitate digestion and tension relievers too. When she tried to buy the medicines, whose brand names she had remembered well, she was in for a rude shock, that none of the brands she had mentioned were available with the chemist in Dubai. She had left her cell back home, which contained the Doctor’s contact details.

She started reeling out the brand names to find whether I knew its generic composition, for she knew about my pharma background. I couldn’t help her since my knowledge about the medicines was at least two decades old and the Indian pharmaceutical industry had grown big without my help, introducing many new drugs. Left with no other alternative I barged into the consultation chamber of my MD’s physician for help. My MD’s wife picked up the cell on the first ring and I handed over the phone to the doctor. The physician talked with the pharmacy attendant at Dubai and the matter was settled to the relief of everyone.

I realized then, that the pharmaceutical industry in India had not grown in quality, however much they have apparently grown in size and prosperity. The old tactics were at play even now. When any new drug is invented and put into the market in western countries, the same would be swiftly copied in India and sold under a different brand name. It is very easy in India. We follow what is known as “process patenting” and not “product patenting” as followed in USA and many European countries.

When a new drug is invented and put into the market in USA or UK after lengthy formalities the molecular formula becomes open document. Once it is known any person with the requite knowledge of chemistry could synthesize the chemical through a different process other than the patented one in India. Many pharmaceutical companies in India market their own brand names for a single chemical drug. Many original inventions are driven to a corner by these me too brands, claiming a huge price advantage. These brands are akin to the pirated books we get on the foot-path; it has everything other than the rewards reaching the author.

In the USA, brand names are available only for the original inventions and all other companies have to market the drugs only in generic name, after a stipulated time period. When a drug is successfully launched in USA or UK it is replicated and marketed in different brand names in India. These look alike drugs look alike in brand names too. “Viagra” would morph into “Penegra”, “Zenegra” or for that matter “Zeebra”. The Zebra with an extra “E”, which stands for that extra virility. Many single ingredient drugs are marketed in India under different brand names, inconveniencing many patients.

My father was on a particular drug, which he was consuming while in Tamil Nadu, which was not available at Bangalore. It took some time for me to ascertain its chemical name so that I could get the “substitute” here. Some doctors lose their cool when a brand prescribed him/her is substituted by the chemists, not realizing that what they have prescribed in itself is only a substitute many a times.

There are not less than 50 brands each for “Enelepril” a drug prescribed for hypertension, or another anti hypertensive “Atenelol” or “Metformin” which is prescribed specially for obese diabetics. In India a failed attempt was made in the 80’s, when” Tagamet” was not allowed to be marketed under its exclusive international brand name. Many Indian companies instead introduced this drug under its generic name “cimetidine” and it met with an orchestrated failure.

From then on all the companies reverted to their age old comfortable game of re-invention, euphemizing it as reverse engineering. Certainly it has moved many pharmaceutical companies in the reverse direction, engineering or otherwise.