Blue Peepal

The night seemed long and interrupted with expectancy. At the early light of the dawn, I looked outside the window at perhaps one of the most exciting day of the year – a day of riding and living. The bike was cleaned, and I sipped my coffee after a shower. As the key turned on the ignition, the bike sprang to life with anticipation. The reluctant winter sun with mellowed warmth greeted, as the bike climbed outside the basement parking slope. There were vendors selling vegetables, shops still with shutters and few school buses with children in warm clothes. The dust of the day was stamped below the morning dew. The clear blue sky gave the morning a brand new identity. The road and thoughts It was my third solo ride, and did not require any distraction of maps for the familiarity of the destination. The city was giving away to the highway as the bike rolled past the tall buildings, metro stations to the distant metro pillars that were under construction. Th...

The Professor Back in my undergraduate college as a student of Manufacturing Science & Engineering, it was charting an unknown territory. In 1996, except one IIT, no other engineering college or, university had any such stream of studies that aimed to elevate and specialise components of traditional Mechanical Engineering. The courses were heavy on design, mathematics, manufacturing science from prehistoric metallurgy to robotics, computer aided design and manufacturing. It was a tough experiment for the professor who founded it as there weren’t many professors, teaching staff or fully developed laboratories that could reliably deliver the course or, the vision. I belonged to the first batch of students post the launch of this branch of engineering studies. The several moving parts that fuelled uncertainty about the future were calmly sedated by the founding professor. He was in his mid-40s, wearing multiple hats from course design, administration to developing...

What do you associate with the word start-up? If your mind connects with headlines grabbing large VC rounds, college drop-outs to professional drop-outs and yes, some who managed to complete degrees, technology, gravity defying growth rates and lot of breaking convention from approaching a problem to new solutions, then we are fundamentally on the same page and welcome to the article. Let’s explore more. Why Start up? That’s because it’s how we have managed to innovate, survive, become creative, solve and learn from mistakes. David Eagleman and Anthony Brandt in their book Runaway Species argue that humanity’s unique capability to remake the world is unmatched by any other living beings. F ar from being a professional activity, it is an institutional exercise in solving existing or new problems, or build a new experience. T he case for institutional exercise is when it is developed with an objective to manifest over a long-term. The Society For the ...

It started with a misadventure 2 years back, when driving back from dinner to our hotel in Ooty (hill station in Southern India), Google Maps led me to a dead-end in one of the narrow roads in the hill town. It was drizzling and dark. There was not enough road space to take a U-turn, so my wife got off the car and called for some help. I had to reverse my car downhill for about 20 minutes down 50 meters of the slope, with the valley on my left. With luck, patience and some generous assistance from the local resident, my car got back on the road; with offline guidance, we reached our hotel. The Maps experience left me intrigued; I tried to think of it more as a technology problem or, algorithms that power it, than with Google. Algorithms all around us Algorithms in simple terms are problem solving tools that run from aerospace, medical science, recommendations on most content to commerce sites, best candidates for a job fit to the Maps et al, with a pred...

The celebrated ghazal singer broke into explaining the beauty of poet’s imagination: “Pyaar ka pehla, ishq ka doosra aur mohabbat ka tisara luvz adhura hota hai” (The poet describes that first letter in pyaar , second letter in ishq and third letter in mohabbat are half characters) “Iss liye hum aapko chahte hain, kyunki chahat ka har luvz pura hota hai” (Instead, the poet chose to describe his love as whole, using the word chahat which has no half characters!) The auditorium sprang with applause as the meaning steadily seeped into the consciousness of its audience. The poetry enveloped in Hindustani classical music made the evening riveting. It was my third consecutive year of spending one musical evening with greatest artists from India’s rich musical heritage; each time it grows my curiosity, awe and reverence. Here are some impressions from the craft that these artists display, that I find every day relevance. Humility Each of the artists had over...

A maiden trip to any country is not without its curiosities and anticipation; my US trip wasn’t either. Couple of weeks before my journey, an interesting slice of history caught my attention about United States link with India. In the heat of World War II, when India’s own struggle for Independence was reaching its inflection point, Franklin D Roosevelt (FDR) had attempted more than once to persuade Churchill to commit to self-government of colonies post-war, and with reference to India in particular. For some more context from history, FDR and Churchill had issued a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter in August 1941, which was a statement of “common principles” towards the war aims. FDR’s nudge to Churchill for India’s freedom was under the agreed principles – peoples right to self-determination. The Atlantic Charter was one of the foundation stone to modern United Nations. As my flight touched down on JFK, the excitement did have some historic fervour. The cloudy ...

A reflection on future of work, society and self Imagine waking up to your personal assistant (PA), say like an Alexa, Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana or, may be an independent chatbot greeting you, then walking you through the important To-Dos of the day and asking what would be your breakfast preference! Let’s then have this PA on to a drone like device, which means your PA is not a static device like your TV or, music system but flies around the house and can also fly in your neighbourhood and some more. When you are not around, it is connected to other devices in the house including your security system. It has a good idea of your preferences, and with your usage also understands your family and friend circle. Interestingly, the drone with a PA like smart-device is not a projection into the future, but featured in a science fiction comedy – “Flubber”, starring Robin Williams that was released in 1997 , a good 21 years ago . The PA was called “Weebo”. The professor’s home ha...