Origami and Childhood Pranks - All Harmless of Course!!

Origami is a Japanese word for "folding paper". It's resemblance to similar sounding words in English brings a completely different and misleading picture in the mind though and this can be pretty comical.

In this ancient Japanese art, the trick is to use one sheet of paper for creating objects without using scissors or knives. I have not seen kids using this art form at all. These days, I guess it is all about computer games that encourages shooting, killing and extreme violence. Destruction versus Creativity during our times. It used to be a fun thing and a rage in our good old days - late 60's and early 70's. New notebooks used to disappear in no time, much to the dismay of parents. Sheets would be torn neatly from the back side of notebooks and converted into various kinds of planes and missiles in the classroom and our teachers would have a harrowing time trying to find out the source of these paper contraptions.

Indian kids took a few concessions from their Japanese counterparts I guess, and cutting and tearing was generally accepted for making more effective flying objects with the purpose of mildly hurting folks for sheer fun during childhood days. One smart kid; smart in the wrong sense I guess, introduced the art and technique of using elastic bands to launch these paper missiles. They were indeed lethal as they traveled like bullets and for a good 90% of the distance in a straight line. One could aim quite accurately at the targets and Bingo! they would be spot on each time and every time. Nylon bands, what we see these days were not available in our days and invariably, the elastic bands available in the market were slim round portions cut from a cycle tube. They were not very flexible and would snap easily. It was primarily used as a substitute for colorful ribbons by girls to tie their hair. My sisters used to stock these bands made out of black cycle tube and lucky for me, this was my perennial source of supply. I am sure after reading this blog, my sisters will now be able to understand where all those packets of black bands disappeared. As long as they do not chase to clobber me now, 40 years later, I am fine. They surely cannot punish me for a childhood prank committed 40 years ago - can we say 'untimely filing of a confession'?

One black tube band was never sufficient to get the speed and momentum on these paper missiles. Another bright spark found a way to combine two or more of these bands to form a long elastic string and these became ideal launching pads. As long as it remained a childish prank and no harm was caused to fellow kids, it was fine. I was however a bit adventurous and wanted to use this to scare the hoards of crows flying around making a racket with their cacophonic caw! caw, every morning! Houses in Durgapur were built on huge plots of land; typically a 1,500 square feet built area would be on a land measuring 90' by 120'. With ample space for gardens all around, every house in the township had all kinds of fruit bearing trees like guava, mango, Jamun (Indian Blackberry), Jackfruit, besides the neem trees and the curry leaf bushes. Sparrows and crows were the most common residents on these trees and occasionally the owl, koil, parrot and pigeons would make flying visits. Come to think of it, I haven't seen many birds around in Bangalore; the rapid urbanization and chopping of trees have made the winged visitors run for cover elsewhere and what a pity! Only squirrels are visible these days with their cheep cheep calls. It is fun to watch them walking precariously on the telephone and cable lines between houses, balancing itself beautifully.

Returning to my childish prank, which eventually turned out to become a nightmare; one of my stray paper missiles launched with the use of a string of 4 intertwined elastic bands, whizzed past a crow which was a regular visitor to the mango tree in our backyard garden. I never imagined that birds could have a strong memory. Although, a bit startled at first with a paper missile flying past its beak, the crow obviously recovered from shock and quickly traced its path to see who had caused this disturbance. With another missile in my hand, it obviously put two and two together and then for the next week or so, I became the hunted and crow a hunter. It may sound a bit bizarre, but these birds seem to have a pretty decent memory. Luckily it was short lived, similar to the RAM in a CPU. Each time I stepped out of the house, it would come swooping on me and I must have a tripped on quite a few occasions trying to side step while looking up to see where and when the bird would strike next, to take revenge. This was straight out Alfred Hitchcock's movie "The Birds" released in 1963, based on the book written by Daphne du Maurier. This went on for a week or so until the RAM lost its power and the memory faded leaving me at peace!

Talking of memory, the human brain which weighs just 1.5 kilos has a staggering 80 to 100 billion neurons and twice that number of glial cells which provides nutrition support to the neurons. Even while asleep the human brain continues to handle traffic that would swamp all the world's telephone exchanges. Although very small in comparison to other organs, it demands 20% of the oxygen inhaled and a fifth of the blood the heart pumps. These 80 to 100 billion neurons are interconnected - some as many as 60,000 times. These neurons or nerve cells transmit nerve signals (electro-chemical impulses) to and from the brain at speeds up to 200 mph.

The most striking feature is the back-up system. Memory is stored in various places. This amazing feature helps a person to recover even after a stroke. Even if one part of the brain is destroyed, the remaining part, over time takes over the job by setting up compensating networks of nerve connections. With time, stroke victims return to a near normal life - speech may return, movement in limbs return. Incidentally, brain nerve cells are the only cells in the human body that do not reproduce. A baby is born with a full complement of these 80 to 100 billion gray nerve cells.

Alzheimer's disease is the name for progressive cognitive deterioration. The short term memory loss or amnesia becomes steadily more pronounced with the progression of illness. Parkinson's disease is a degenerative disorder of the central nervous system affecting speech and motor skills. During epileptic seizures, there is disruption in the generation of electro-chemical impulses as the neurons begin firing all at once and at a much faster rate.

While doctors and engineers have successfully mapped the brain to understand its complex operations, what still eludes mankind is the behavior different people display for a similar set of inputs. It is still very unique to each human being; hence, if there are 7 Billion people on this earth, we have 7 Billion different minds!! Is there a possibility for peaceful coexistence and mutual respect?

Diwali Gift

Last night while returning from Kolkata, Hiro and I without discussing with each other felt an apprehension when we heard a feeble voice on the PA system from the cockpit of Jetlite flight S2 364 on our return to Bangalore. We were not sure whether it was the pilot or the co-pilot we heard. It was an otherwise uneventful flight; it took off on the dot and commenced its decent into Bangalore exactly 20 minutes prior to touchdown. I noticed the pilot making a correction in the flight path just before touchdown and that caused some unknown anxiety and before we knew what was happening, the plane landed on all its wheels with a massive thud. Every passenger must have let off a shriek or a scream involuntarily. It made quite a few jump off their seats, so hard was the landing.

I quickly thanked my engineering fraternity for having designed the fuselage and the hydraulic wheel suspension strong enough to take such a massive impact from a careless nincompoop of a trainee pilot. It was so strong that the pilot did not have to either fire the retro or apply the mechanical brakes. It lost all its power and speed in that instant of impact. On a very warm day, with the runway getting heated by continuous sunlight, the temperatures can reach dangerous levels. Had this kind of landing taken place on a hot afternoon, say in Jaipur or nearer home at Madurai, the tyres would have probably burst.

Obviously nothing like that happened, the very fact that I am writing this piece kind off endorses that all was well in the end. The co pilot must have been shaken too and tried to turn this to humor when he said that it was a bad landing not because of a trainee, but because Jetlite wanted to give a cracker of a landing as a gift on the eve of Diwali. With our heart in our hands, it sure was a Diwali gift, to our families, though!

One interesting fact is the speed at which the aircraft makes contact with the runway during touchdown. The velocity of approach can sometimes reach about 300 km/hour, and a great impact in the horizontal direction is imposed on tyres of the wheels. This impact is referred to as an accelerating impact. Upon landing, the surface of a tyre of a wheel sometimes melts to raise smoke.

The black tyre marks that you see on the head of the runway are nothing but molten tyre material which sticks onto the runway. This tyre material sticking to the surface can be dangerous as it can make other landing aircraft to slip on its surface, especially on a very hot afternoon or when it rains.

If you recall, in the recent past a Concorde caught fire while taking off and crashed. Investigation revealed that the wheels collided with a metal piece lying on the runway causing the tyre to burst and a broken part smashed into the fuel tank, thus starting a fire. Engineers are now working on a suspension system that will prevent a tyre from bursting even when it collides with an object on the runway.

While commercial aero planes are considered path breaking in the list of mankind’s inventions, the amount of carbon dioxide it releases into the atmosphere is phenomenal. On an average, aircraft emission accounts for 3% of carbon dioxide emissions; the most significant greenhouse gas. This figure is likely to reach a whopping 5% in the next decade.

Another interesting fact for those of you with a scientific bent, a 1.5 degree increase in the average day time temperature, because of global warming will thin the air to such an extent that the runway would be required to be extended by 17 to 20% for the aircraft to get the float to lift off. This means new runways will have to be built longer and existing ones extended with more fuel being burnt to get the float to lift off. It is indeed a vicious cycle. One can imagine the painful changes in design that this will entail. Most airports are built within city limits where no further expansion is possible and some like in New York and Hong Kong are built on the edge of the sea. There will be a time in the not so distant future when Airlines would settle for smaller payload aircrafts and carry less of cargo.

Back home, fire crackers lit during Diwali can be a source of air pollution as these emit toxic gases besides carbon dioxide. 95% of the crackers come from a town called Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu and this is a Rs. 1,600 Crore business. There is very little authentic research done on how much effect the crackers have on global warming, but it certainly leaves thick smog in the air and with the pre-winter chill, the plume tends to hang low for a long time making it terrible for all those who suffer from lung related diseases. What can be certainly avoided is the loud decibel level cracker bombs that can even cause an increase in BP and deafness. It is a good feeling when I hear the younger generation wanting to stay away from bursting these crackers and wanting to go green. We all must take an equal responsibility…Planet Earth is not ours to stake a claim…we have merely borrowed this from our children.

A relatively harmless but effective way is to light up the house with diyas, giving the dwelling a bright and elegant look. Celebrating Diwali is all about heralding triumph over evil, light over darkness and knowledge over ignorance. It is a time to reinforce friendship, unite society and bring the family closer. It was a pleasant surprise to see Barack Obama, recently conferred with the Nobel Prize for Peace, lighting the ceremonial lamp at the White House amidst the chanting of Vedic Mantras. Not to be left behind, Brown in UK, likewise participated in a similar function at London ushering an era of brotherhood through intelligent use of religion.

Cheers and Wish you all a very Happy Diwali.

Food for Thought!! Pieces from my mind...all my own, of course!!

Folks,

When I see our people flaunting their laptops and their PDA, Blackberry’s etc I am reminded of the yesteryears and honestly, we don’t have to look too far into the past. Sam Pitroda had not appeared in the domestic political scenario and we had an ancient and archaic telephone network that generally worked to your disadvantage. If you were extremely lucky and got through to hear the ringing tone at the other end it would invariably end up at the wrong number. The increased palpitation for having finally got through to the person would be short lived and the excitement would deflate like a punctured balloon. Such was the dependability of the so called wired telephony network.

I still distinctly remember the palpable excitement with which we, my sisters and I, observed the linesmen draw two sets of thin gauge GI wires from the nearest telephone pole to our home. Our joy new no bounds when the black telephone instrument manufactured by ITI out of Bakelite was finally connected to the set of wires. The instrument was pretty heavy and it took an effort to hold the handset for long. More often the shortest and the longest sentence used to be the word ‘Hello’ and nothing beyond. In our lives those days we must have chanted the word ‘Hello’ a million times or more, but each time the excitement would be fresh with an expectation of hearing another voice on the ear piece, but in vain. Both my sisters were lucky, though…they would talk for hours with their friends and my parents forever would be asking them to put the handset down, lest an important or an emergency call from the Plant would not get through to my dad. They had a huge number of friends, as Durgapur had attracted talent from all over the country.

Establishing a Steel Plant at Durgapur was the dream of Jawaharlal Nehru to make India self sufficient in basic infrastructure. He had adopted a socialistic pattern in building our nation and indeed that was the need at that point in time. Eminent Engineers and personalities from various walks of life had gathered in this distant village called Durgapur, a place selected by the then Chief Minister of Bengal Dr. B C Roy for starting an Industrial revolution on the banks of river Damodar. At one time, Durgapur with its sheer size and number of large and heavy industry was often called as the ‘Ruhr of India’. The Ruhr is an Urban area in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany with an Industry backdrop. With 4435 km² and a population of some 5.3 million, it is the largest urban agglomeration in Germany and 4^th largest in Europe after Moscow, London and Paris.

As the saying goes that Life goes on in circles…it was a full circle when I came back to Kolkata in 1982. After graduating from Durgapur in Higher Secondary, I went on to do my Chemical Engineering at Trichy, worked for a brief 9-month period at Bangalore, then at Mumbai for a year and half before heading home to Kolkata. Work life at Kolkata was quite eventful. I was part of the sales team within an SBU (Strategic Business Unit) selling air pollution control equipments like bag houses and electrostatic precipitators for Steel, Power and Cement industry. Project sales can be very different. The minimum price of the equipment we sold as a project from “Concept to Commissioning” – C2C was easily a Crore of Rupees and I am talking about circa 1980 to 1992. We would end up talking to Assistant Engineers, Procurement Engineers, and even to the Managing Director at the customers end to help them take a decision. Obviously the gestation time was huge from the first quote to getting or losing an order. It could even take a year and half for that final decision.

You can then imagine the sheer number of visits we made to talk to our customers. With phones virtually non-existent, the next best thing was a Face-to-Face (F2F) discussion. We were forever on the move!! Our brief case would be ever ready with the basics for survival. A hard box with a stainless steel band around it, the VIP or Aristocrat as it used to be called, God alone knows how many unknown Indians would have gone for a knee replacement because of these hard brief case. Perched neatly in our hands it would hit the onrushing and unsuspecting fellow human beings in a crowded bus or a train. Looking back at the past, the absence of telephones honestly made us talk to our customers more F2F and we spent quality time with them during office hours and if acceptable, outside office hours as well. We would get to know a number of people in their departments, knew how the hierarchy worked and who would eventually influence the decision makers.

Let me however, get back to the point…I am certainly digressing from my original thought process….in a lighter vein, did I have one?

I wanted to talk about the black-out of information in the family once we moved out of town on duty. Having a phone at home was a luxury we couldn’t afford as we were in the early days of building a career. It came as a shock, when I told my wife, just a week after marriage that I would be traveling out of town. First question was, “Where and how will you travel?” Her heart sank when I said I had to first go to Delhi by flight and then by a train to Chittorgarh, in Rajasthan. To her next question, “When will you return?” I did not have any clue! We were always given an open ticket, since it was impossible to gauge the requirement of time for a decision by the customer and secondly it would cost a bomb those days to change a flight option. The time span between ‘Bye Bye’ before starting and ‘Hi’ after returning was always a big question. The good part of the story is that we survived, and we ended up selling very well!!

Compare this to “Now”….I send an sms after reaching the airport – the speed at which our folks zip on the way to Devanahalli airport will prove the old adage right…..that there are more people dying on their way to the airport than those flying!! Then the sms after reaching destination, at the end of the day in case of a stay back or just after landing back….so on and so forth. In spite of an information overload, we tend to worry these days and less of talking happens.

All the gadgets in the world will not come anywhere near a F2F conversation and for building a rapport with customers. We have learnt to flaunt them, in fact, go to the extent of saying that we cannot achieve anything without them, but touch your heart and think, has this brought you closer to your customers in the real sense? Do you really know what he or she wants from your organization?

I am not for a moment saying that we should not graduate to own these smart gadgets. But, to say that work will be hampered and nothing will get done without these instruments is hard to understand. Before the PDA arrived, a laptop was a ‘must’. With the arrival of PDA, laptop was forgotten. Once these are shut down in the office, it is switched ‘ON’ only after returning to the office the following day. PDA’s aren’t used to their capacity either. Only emails which require a very urgent attention get to be answered in an sms style abbreviated text with scant respect to language or the flow of content.

The above is only a small example of how things are shaping up here in India and hence, the question! Are we Indians getting more and more expensive to operate and thereby pricing ourselves out? In the Year 2000, the slogan for outsourcing work to India was “Come for Cost and Stay for Quality”; can we say that this slogan still holds good or have we somewhere lost control on costs? Are we thinking about what the customer wants and at what price points or, are we happy stating that we are like this only! Take it or leave it!

What worries is the slow change in our mindset about Customer Satisfaction. Gone are the days when we were more than willing to sacrifice ourselves to keep our customers happy and satisfied with our output. We were more than willing to put in additional hours of work to complete a job in hand. Is that fire still burning or has it got doused? Remember, we as a country took pride in our speed of response and the no-nonsense approach to work, similar to other Asian countries. We were once upon a time workaholics, but not anymore. We were known to perform multiple tasks, save on manpower costs with less dependence on technology.

While affordable technology and gadgets have arrived, the old values and the ethos seem to have taken a back seat. Is it then time for us to re-look at ourselves and re-define our goals and objectives with respect to ‘Operational Effectiveness’? While the answer is an overwhelming ‘YES’, the issue is who will show us the direction. While it is easy to point a finger at others, remember, when we do point a finger, three of them point back at us and ‘THAT’ is our answer.

Cheers!!

Leaders are Readers!

Friends,

Reader’s Digest is a storehouse of information, in case you can tap into!! Sometimes, they come out with special editions containing gems from their earlier publications – what I call “Masterpieces”. I picked the following from an article ‘The Puzzle of Personal Excellence’ written by Dianna Booher. Dianna is CEO of Booher Consultant, a communications training firm.

In one of her articles she has made an important observation: Leaders are readers!! An excerpt:

Stay informed: Chief Justice Oliver Wendall Holmes said, “Man’s mind, once stretched by a new idea, never regains its original dimensions.” When I started my consulting and training business, I read everything I could find on the subject. Only high school seniors know it all. The rest of us have to read and learn.

When a US team traveled to Japan in the 1980’s to study the Toyota production system and the innovative Japanese just-in-time concept, they met with the system’s creator, Taiichi Ohno. When the Americans questioned him about what inspired his thinking, he laughed, “I learned it all from Henry Ford’s book.” The book he referred top was Today and Tomorrow; written by Ford and published by Doubleday in 1926. Leaders are readers.

Someone said of us knowledge workers, “Wealth was once measured in gold. Now it’s measured in what we know.” Stay alert and informed. Read voraciously.

Cheers and Best Wishes!!