chaotic order

The Millennials of India may not know T. N. Seshan. It is possible that many were born just after the cataclysmic changes this daring civil servant brought to the Indian electoral system, the undaunted courage he displayed in encountering and altering the perception of what an Election really means in a democracy, and the seminal role he played in exposing the deeply entrenched arrogance and audacity of unrestrained political power. If the younger generation experienced a much more organized, sane and law-abiding election in 2019, it is so because this strict brahmin took it upon himself to reform and revise the way elections were run in India. Between the years of 1990 - 1996, T. N. Seshan was the rockstar of the Indian bureaucracy. As Election Commissioner, his name was splashed on the front pages of mainstream new papers, and almost every day Seshan's official actions or deliberate straight no-nonsense talk would provoke an angered politician to denounce him on the pulpit, o

( Note to the reader: This is a lengthy essay, easily a twenty-minute read - if not more. I wrote this while waiting for my flight to take off from New Jersey on Thursday night. Will and Ariel Durant passed away within two weeks of each other between October 23rd and November 9th, 1981. I consider myself fortunate to have read Durant's fascinating work early enough, and be transformed by it. In a joint-life spanning nearly seventy years, the Durants wrote and lectured profusely. Many of their initial works are out of print and available only at rare-books stores at high prices. I am again privileged to own and to have read most of them, but few are still eluding my intense search. I owe my intellectual interests and development to the Durants. When I realized it was October 24th, and I had about two hours of time, I quickly wrote this piece condensing the story of my first acquaintance with Durant's work, and the story of their lives as best as I could remember without note

In the Indian subcontinent, playback singing is not merely a part of cinema, but a consummate, eclectic and widely embraced art form in itself. From the very beginnings of Indian cinema, the makers have always attempted to tell their stories through songs. “Alam Ara”, the first full-length feature film released in 1931 had seven songs, the next film in the same year, “Shireen Farhad” had forty-one songs. Early Indian Movies resembled the operas, and before long, like operatic music, the songs began to take a life of its own. For a nation fighting its way out of foreign rule, and for millions of people unaccustomed to any entertainment beyond their regional folklore (and deliberately kept out of classical music by the pundits and upper castes) film music became a luxurious national entertainment encapsulating the mood of the nation, the ebb and flows of human life and above all a reflection and voice of the innermost feelings and aspirations of the common man. By the 1940s, Film mus

Jottings - Slice of life - 325 The marriage of US Open 2019 to IBM Watson - the Artificial Intelligence engine, that helped conjure the magic of tennis on our screens. The digital experience of watching the 2019 US open was exemplary. Along with the spectacular tennis demonstrated by top players in the world, the USTA and IBM combination created a technological revolution in collecting, analyzing and presenting the game in all its varied and frenzied splendor that made the event look so intimate and personal to millions of viewers across hundreds of countries. The USTA ( United States Tennis Association), like many other sporting bodies, is a non-profit organization. The only season to rake up big bucks is the two weeks of US open. Broadcasting rights, sale of food and beverages and sporting memorabilia bring in hundreds of millions of dollars; but among the three, It is the undiluted and enhanced user experience on the television sets or mobile devices of tennis fans worldwide t

Jottings - Slice of Life - 316 ( The quest for Artificial intelligence - Part 1 - The Deep Blue story ) (Note to my readers: This piece is the first of my intended three-part essay on Artificial Intelligence, and some of its glamorous role models in the last three decades. The essay is nearly 2500 words long and should take about 15 to 20 minutes of reading time. As always, I attempt to write for the general reader, who has the time and curiosity to learn more. I don't expect any prerequisite knowledge in computers to follow this essay, and at the same time, I haven’t diluted the technicality of the language to make it mean something less technical. Popular writing mustn’t presume its readers to be ignorant or lazy. If there are terms that are new, I request the reader to pause, look up the term and proceed.) In the early months of 1997, within the majestic Equitable center building in midtown Manhattan, occupying the 32nd floor in its entirety, sat one of the most powerful c

Jottings - Slice of life - 319 ( a tumultuous political week in India - Abrogation of article 370 - Modi's masterstroke, and the sad story of the appointment of the interim president of the INC) It has been a momentous week in Indian politics. The Modi government, fulfilling one of its primal election promises, have acted decisively within months of being reelected. The beautiful valley of Kasmir is once again the theater of a massive political experiment. A state has now become a Union territory. Without much dialogue or consultation with the opposition party, and within few opening hours of deliberation in the legislative assembly, the ruling party - the BJP, on the 5th of August 2019 introduced a bill abrogating the special status accorded to the beautiful valley and making a part of India albeit with reduced status. The provisions under Article 370 -promulgated under the most fortuituous conditions in those crucial early years of India Independence - is no more valid, and w

Jottings - Slice of life - 318 ( Grace, passion, eloquence, and integrity - The legacy of Sushma Swaraj) Integrity is a misconstrued word in public life, especially in the political world. An elected representative of the people has to balance several different personas, only very few manage to keep their heads consistently above water and present an honest face, and not lose the basic thread of morality, honesty, decency and a firm anchoring in the convictions which got them to the position they are in. Because it needs extraordinary strength of character and courage to defy opposing tendencies that not many statesmen and women retire with the same grace they enter politics during the heady spring of their youth. There is a sense of inevitability about the fact that political lives are meant to get scarred, maligned, and misunderstood over the course of time, and that very few can come out at the other end unscathed with their respect and dignity intact. Sushma Swaraj was an exc