Comprehending the nuances of problem solving

What is the first thing that comes to mind when we hear problem solving? For majority of us it would mostly be solving math problems in school. From basic arithmetic to complex geometry and trigonometry the terror of math increases so exponentially every year kids choose courses to study in college which has no math papers. In engineering courses there are advanced math papers to study in the first two years. When I was in college I was under the impression that because there are many theoretical papers to study which contains complex equations studying advanced math would be helpful. When I started working I realised there was no use of math anywhere so much so that when I went for my MBA program I struggled initially with basic finance courses. Jobs that require math skills are far and few and they require extremely high level skills.

So what was the purpose of learning math for all those years? Took me years to realise that math was the medium to develop crucial life skills. Problem solving, focus, concentration, patience, perseverance, resilience. I used to go for math tuition classes when I was preparing for engineering entrance exam and the teacher, regardless of the courses he was teaching would ask students to solve every math problem in their curriculum text books. Unsurprisingly every student used to score 100% in their exams. If his focus was on the 100% result then unknowingly he was inculcating in his students the skills of  patience and perseverance.

Problem solving is not just limited to solving math problems as is commonly believed. Every question in every subject is a problem we are required to solve. When visualized in this manner it leads us to the understanding that we have been solving problems from our kindergarten days. So why such focus on problem solving? Because after we enter our adult lives we will be expected and required to solve problems every day in all spheres of our lives.

Problem solving manifests in myriad ways in our professional lives based on the professions we choose. For medical professionals it is treating people and helping them recover from health issues. In many industries it is Root Cause Analysis (RCA) wherein the expectation is to dig deep into problems to determine their root causes in otder to find the most appropriate solutions. Having decent math skills did help me develop good RCA skills.

One of dad’s friends studied mechanical engineering in my alma mater in the late 70s-early 80s. He was neither interested in attending classes nor writing exams. He was obsessed with repairing any device that was not working. He fixed everything from my mom’s wristwatch to motorbikes of friends. Not content with just repairing he used to carry a doctor’s stethoscope to check if the device he fixed was sounding correctly. Friends asked what he was going to do with his engineering course and his response was to clear 18 back papers in one go. The man retired as a Director at Whirlpool. Repairing is one way of problem solving and that skill took him to the top management of a large company.

There is a huge cultural shift everyone has to face when moving from academic to corporate life. Problem solving is no longer about answering questions or solving math problems. When a bottle of water is spilled on the floor in a house the normal course of action is to take the bottle away and wipe the floor. In the corporate world the first step is to understand who are the people in the house most affected by the water on the floor, inform them and ensure they do not go to where the water is spilled.  The corporate jargon for this is stakeholder analysis.  Problems are resolved only after the relevant stakeholders are informed.

Problem solving skills are also tested in competitive exams and as part of recruitment process especially for fresh graduates. A few days back I was speaking to someone who had written NEET exam (qualifying exam for medical aspirants in India), he is not confident about getting admission for MBBS course and is contemplating taking the exam again next year. Just like with the math example above aspirants have no idea about the true purpose of the exam and believes they are getting tested on science subjects.

Any exam has two parts, preparation and performance. To successfully navigate through an exam preparation and performance have to peak and complement one another. This is especially true for competitive exams. All candidates prepare as well as they can for competitive exams. So merit or rank list can be created only based on performance variation and to achieve this what exams like NEET do is create performance disruption. Candidates are assigned to random locations for writing exams. When they appear for the exams a totally new place combined with the crowd of faces they have never seen before triggers distraction and stress in them. This is completely normal behavior in us. Then a timed exam with different subjects is given .

Subjects are the medium used for the exams. What is actually getting tested are 3 factors – 1) how many questions can one answer correctly (problem solving ) 2) in a given timeframe (time management) and 3) maintain focus and concentration in a disruptive environment (self management).  All these factors are crucial for professionals like doctors when they are treating patients.

Companies conduct tests and interviews to reduce number of candidates and zero in on the best fit candidates for the roles they are interviewing for. Aptitude test is used as an important filter in this elimination process especially when the candidate pool is large. A staggering 80% candidates supposedly fail in aptitude test according to industry numbers.

Aptitude test contains questions similar to CAT and GMAT, qualifying exams for getting admissions in Indian and foreign business schools to study MBA. Purpose of the exams is the same, how nany problems can one solve correctly in a timed exam.  These tests typically contain 3 sections, numerical (quantitative),  english language (verbal) and logical reasoning.  Numerical and language questions are based on high school math and english. Why? We leave them behind to study far more complex subjects in college. When forced to return to fundamentals boredom sets in and that is precisely the purpose of the test. Eliminate candidates by enticing them to become bored during the test. I am currently working with a friend whose company trains engineering students for aptitude test. Many students don’t prepare for practice tests, get bored quickly during exams and some openly fall asleep.

I am increasingly seeing people questioning the purpose of learning all the subjects in school that have zero to negligible use in our adult lives. Those subjects prepare us to study more complex ones in college and everything we learn during our academic years builds in us the skill of self learning which enables us to grasp and quickly learn anything new in our professional and personal lives.

Modi’s immovable authoritarianism has met the unstoppable students force

In the corporate world, the RACI model is a responsibility assignment matrix used in projects and departments to define roles and responsibilities. Here, the R is for responsible, A is for accountable, C is for consulted and I is for Informed. Of interest in the context I am writing here about is R and A. In every project and department there will be several tasks and someone will be assigned the responsibility to execute each task. The ultimate responsibility of all activities and tasks lies with the head of the project or department which is accountability. If something goes wrong with a task the one mandated with its execution is usually held responsible. Depending on the magnitude of the task and magnitude of the mistake people at higher levels can also be held responsible. When execution of multiple tasks goes wrong the one who is accountable is held responsible.

This is the premise on which Delhi the capital city of India is on the boil now. Multiple national level exams have been rigged and compromised over the years and the ensuing overwhelming stress has claimed the lives of several students. This is the reason students are out on the streets and are demanding accountability which is why they are asking Dharmesh Pradhan the education minister to be removed from the post. The bigger and relevant question here is why no action has been taken by the Central Government till now and why is the education minister not held accountable.

The reason is far deeper than the fact that Dharmesh Pradhan is an important member of BJP, the ruling political party. When Lal Bahadur Shastri the erstwhile railway minister resigned after two train accidents in 1956 he held himself accountable for the mishaps and loss of lives because Indian railways is under the administration of the Central Government. Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru never held Shastri accountable for the accidents but taking accountability is the hallmark of a true democratic leader in a thriving democracy. Cut to today and zero accountability along with suppression of any form of dissent and unwillingness to do any discussions are classic signs of an authoritarian regime. There is no accountability as long as everyone plays by the same authoritarian playbook.

Student protests take dissent against any government to a higher dimension. They are in or just out of their teenage years, adrenaline is surging through their blood and there is an element of reckless fearlessness in the face of any opposition in them. This is why all governments everywhere tries to stay away from stoking students into protests. For any authoritarian regime giving into any demand especially under external duress is unthinkable because one surrender will lead to more and eventually bring down its authoritarian wall.

The unstoppable force of students has collided head long with the immovable body of the Modi government. Who blinks first is going to be an interesting wait.

My perspective on the rise and evolution of Global Capability Centers (GCCs) in India

The world of technology I had left behind when I took sabbatical from work in 2010 transformed remarkably in the next few years. I took some time to mourn the passing of my grandma, travelled around a bit, wrote qualifying exams for MBA, applied to colleges and got accepted for a one year international MBA program. Dad’s massive heart attack combined with a volatile job market still recovering from the 2008 global financial meltdown slowed down my job search after MBA considerably. By the time  I joined a startup in 2015 new buzzwords and acronyms were flying around and it took me a while to figure out what was going on.

One acronym had become the reference point for the technological shift – SMAC for Social media, Mobile, Analytics and Cloud. Chronologically revolution in the mobile phone industry started in 2007 after Steve Jobs took down the world with Apple’s first version of iPhone. Emergence of open source Android operating system and rapid improvement in internet technology made it possible to maximize the reach of mobile phones among people all over the world. Combine this with Apple’s app store and Google’s playstore which enabled companies to run their business through every mobile phone using their apps. What Orkut started with social media led to the emergence of Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn. Business related data getting generated exploded which led to development of analytics tools to extract relevant information from data and develop business intelligence. All of the above led to the emergence of the Cloud to store data remotely and securely.

Then the world got engulfed by the AI wave.  Disruption caused by AI has affected the working of every industry. Companies are grappling to figure out how they can optimize the use of AI for improving efficiency and reducing cost while the enigmatic question of where to and where not to use AI endures.

AI in theory has existed from the 1950s. My final year engineering project 27 years ago was a small scale implementation of pattern recognition.  A discussion with an ex-client’s IT head had led me to providing him with solution for a business problem based on augmented/virtual reality (AR/VR) in 2011 but AI implementations hadn’t developed to that level. Those with technical know how would know that Cloud is nothing but virtualization enabled through the internet. As technology grows we will keep finding novel ways to improve and grow businesses.

So when I heard about Global Capability Centers (GCC) I initially thought it was another fad. But understanding the concept of GCC reminded me of a business opportunity I considered before my MBA program but had to let go due to multitude of reasons. Outsourcing of IT activities had become the norm for companies across industries in order to cut down massively on operational costs. India has become the primary destination for IT outsourcing because of the large technical talent pool available and better communication skills in English and Indian and foreign MNCs have been thriving as service providers. Over the years companies had literally become enslaved to the service providers and aligning technical activities with business outcomes wasn’t going well in spite of following IT service delivery standards.

Way back in 2004 I was working in a remote technical team supporting the IT infrastructure of a Scandinavian company when we received a ticket for an issue with a software application client was using.  The priority assigned to the ticket was 3 which meant we had 4 hours to resolve the issue. We checked the issue and had an application team look at it while we worked on higher priority tickets. When we reported to the client that the issue had been resolved the lady who was using the application was not impressed. The client was a shipping and logistics conglomerate providing shipping and inland delivery of cars of brands such as Mercedes and Volvo. It was an invoicing application that we had fixed and 4 hours of resolution time meant the client couldn’t take any new orders for half the day. Business lost or delayed by a few million Euros.

Companies needed an entity in India that would understand their work culture and business requirements, work on their behalf with the service providers and ensure timely delivery of outcomes according to their expectations. Such an option never materialized. Starting their own technical hubs in India has given companies new dimensions for running their businesses.

GCCs are not being envisaged as mere cost centers but as strategic innovation hubs which means they are meant to play integral role in the business improvement and growth of their parent companies. By hiring the best people from India’s vast technical talent pool and setting up world class technology centers provides 3 dimensional strategic edge for companies.

1) Traditionally if a company is looking to grow it’s yearly revenue from the previous financial year and the business strategy created for it points to the development of a software application the entire designing and planning for the development of the application would be done by the company and only the execution part of developing the application would be outsourced. Now, since the GCC is the technical arm of the company everything related to the application from strategy to execution will be the responsibility of the GCC.
2) Companies that built internal technical infrastructure to improve their business operations and reduce operational costs have built GCCs and are offering cost efficient business services to companies in their own industries. Case in point is Logixhealth, the US based company in the healthcare domain offering medical coding and billing services through their GCC located in Coimbatore in the state of Tamil Nadu.
3)  Companies can still engage with IT service providers in India but all IT related engagements will be through their GCCs which will be the local clients for the service providers. Billing with service providers will be in Indian rupee rather than in US dollar which considerably reduces outsourcing cost.

But there is an underlying issue with the GCC India strategy. Work culture difference. US, Canada, UK, Europe, Australia and New Zealand allhave the adhocracy and market work culture. Adhocracy focuses on innovation and entrepreneurship whereas market culture focuses on business outcomes and market success. India has the hierarchical work culture where priority is given to processes, approvals from higher ups and risk averseness. India has a hierarchical society and these factors are embedded in the social structure. Hierarchical work culture has led to poor management practices including  micromanagement of employees resulting in poor workforce management and high attrition rates.

GCCs are an excellent option for technology based business transformation for companies but I am wary about the impact of work culture difference. It would be interesting to see how GCCs evolve in the coming years.

The paradox of ophiophobia

Ophiophobia may not be a commonly used word. It summarizes everything about an animal that was revered in ancient societies and became detested with time.

Of all the animals we come in contact with, be it animals in the wild or in human settlement areas, majority of them hurt us physically or damage our assets. Dogs, cats, cows, elephants, crows, all chase and attack us. But there is one animal that does neither and strives to stay away from us as much as possible yet we kill them at every possible opportunity. This is humanity’s complex and paradoxical relationship with snakes.

From my early days at my dad’s ancestral house I have seen snakes getting killed. That was a time when houses were less and there was greenery everywhere. The last snake I saw getting killed was a cobra in 2007. Killing snakes in the name of them being venomous is so normalized even now the only thing that comes to people’s minds when they see snakes is to kill them.

I started going to the wetlands as part of my morning walks from 2014 and  got into photography of birds and other wetland wildlife. The pathways around wetlands are narrow with dense foliage on both sides. Such places should normally teem with snakes but all I saw were the non venomous rat snakes and chequered keelbacks.

So where are all the other snakes? They are cold blooded animals which means they don’t sweat and consequently cannot bear sun’s heat. So from 7 am to 7 pm they hide in the foliage and hunt at night making them nocturnal animals.

I befriended a 60+ year old guy at the wetlands who has been a lifelong wildlife enthusiast and has been monitoring and photographing wildlife at wetlands for decades. One day while walking with him I asked him about the snakes at wetlands and he responded saying there are cobras all around us. Turned out his brother used to work at the state forest department and used to bring injured animals home in cagesfor nursing them and he developed the ability to find animals by their scent. Snakes smell by opening their mouths and flicking their tongues in the air and he could recognize the smell from cobra mouths.

So I dug into snakes and what I learned about them completely changed my perception about  them. First of all humans are not on the menu of snakes except the extremely rare cases of small children getting killed and consumed  by constrictors such as anaconda and python. Venom produced by venomous snakes is for hunting prey and self protection. Proteins are the building blocks of life on Earth and snakes and other venomous animals have developed the remarkable ability to convert proteins into venom. Snake venoms are either neurotoxic or hemotoxic which means they either destroy the nervous system resulting in paralysis and death or destroy blood coagulation leading to death by bleeding.
.
Complex life forms most likely started off as herbivores and some among them evolved into carnivores because of stiff competition for food. Herbivores developed the ability to process protein from plant based diet and carnivores adapted to getting protein from their herbivore prey. All animals need continuous supply of protein to suvrive and reproduce. It is this precious protein snakes use to create venom which can take up to 7 days so it makes complete sense to use it judiciously. Humans are not their prey so it makes no sense to waste venom on us. Then why bite us?

We kill them because we fear their venom and they feel threatened by us. The fear factor is reciprocal. Most venomous snakes display warning signs to stay away from them because they don’t want to waste their venom on any animal that is not their prey. Self protection is the only other reason for using venom. Some snakes also do what is known as dry bite wherein they bite without injecting venom. It is said that almost 80% of human deaths caused by snake bites are due to fear and not because of venom.

Snakes have adapted to live in human areas because of rodents such as rats that are food source for them in abundant supply.  But what most people do not seem to understand is, snakes that come before us are mostly sub adults and not adults. For better understanding kittens of cats have four development stages -1) immature when they feed on their mother’s milk 2) juvenile when mothers start feeding them food 3) sub adult when they become independent of their mother and 4) adult when they are ready to reproduce. Snakes in comparison cannot feed their babies so they emerge from eggs with venom to hunt which means they skip the immature and juvenile stages and start off as sub adults. They are in the process of understanding the world, learning to hunt, figuring out the do’s and don’ts and most importantly avoiding us.

Recently in Kerala two children were bitten by a venomous snake inside their house. It was a sub adult and had wandered into the house and on to a bed. One child was bitten on his back as he lay down on the bed and the other was bitten on the sole of his feet. The first child became gravely ill quickly and died in a few hours in spite of getting treatment but the second child recovered. Turned out the snake had injected a large amount of venom into the body of the first child and consequently did not have enough venom when biting the second child. Injecting the right amount of venom could be a crucial aspect for the survival of snakes which they have to learn through experience.

Snakes are an integral part of our environment and we cannot simply kill them all. They have adapted to us now it is upon us to understand them and adapt accordingly. We cannot expect to walk anywhere we want after dark and not get bitten by snakes when it is their time to feed.  We need to understand that they are cold blooded animals and prefer to stay in dark places so we should educate our children about snakes and make sure they know to avoid places where snakes can be present.

Snakes have been vilified from the time of the Bible but they were revered in all ancient civilizations. In the Hindu pantheon of Gods Vishnu the preserver is depicted as sleeping on the coils of a serpent and Shiva the destroyer is depicted with a serpent coiled around his neck. We are yet to decode the scientific meaning of the depictions. Our phobia about snakes has descended into paranoia which is why even a thought or comment about them evokes fear in us. I have asked several people if they have ever seen or heard about snakes chasing and biting humans. They have no answer but still get the chills every time they hear the word snake. Over generations we have been groomed to detest their faces, scales, venom and everything else about them.  Greater understanding about the role they play in nature’s ecosystem could help reduce the paranoia.

Below is the picture of a Checkered keelback variant swallowing a bull frog taken at the wetlands.

Fragmentation of humanity

I have always wondered what an extraterrestrial civilization with at least our level of intelligence would think about us when they see us. 8 billion and more of us spread across the planet looking almost similar, obvious differences being skin color and facial features. But a closer look would be extremely revealing.

Biological separations such as blood groups and skin colors are part of our evolution but social segregations we have created is mind boggling. Religions, cultures, races, castes, economic and wealth based classes, the list goes on. To top this, individually we are competing with one another right from our school days. Getting more marks and winning competitions in the academic years matures into buying bigger houses and bigger cars for the employed people. Those who are in sports and arts compete for medals, awards and recognition throughout their lives. We are literally fragmented in every possible way. Our fragmentation has been so normalized no one bothers about it now.

Is this fragmentation the reason for our absolute lack of value for the life of another human? Every day thousands of humans are assaulting and killing our own kind. Gladiators killing each other in arenas was eagerly watched and consumed by thousands of blood thirsty spectators in ancient civilizations which has been etched into our genes. The same interest can be observed in football fans who throng stadiums across the world and especially the hooligans who indulge in mindless violence and public property destruction. In any species of animals fights occur only for habitat domination and mating rights and rarely result in death. So what explains human fragmentation in this manner?

Of particular interest to me are two historical incidents. We were already fighting with one another based on race and culture and kings were massacring people in the name of conquests when Jesus received enlightenment which subsequently led to the creation of Christianity.  Some centuries later, Muhammad received enlightenment, not in Asia, not in Europe, not in any other part of the world but in the same region which led to the formation of Islam. Add to this both religions are offshoots of Judaism and one holy land for all three –  Jerusalem. The powers that gave enlightenment to Jesus and Muhammad must have known how this was going to play out in the future. Then the underlying questions are was enlightenment given with good intention for humanity or fragmenting us further and was that power benevolent or malevolent? The violence and atrocities we have inflicted on our own kind in the name of the three religions in the past and which continues to this day is beyond comprehension.

Human society has fragmentation built into it which is why ancient India’s efficient profession based social structure devolved into caste based society with time and those divisions still exist in the country’s hinterlands. Fragmented societies can become dangerous systems with time and violently oppose changes threatening it’s existence. Gandhi denounced partition of India and Pakistan and wanted Hindus and Muslims to live in harmony. The consequence? He was assassinated. The newly elected Chief Minister of Kerala, my home state in India has always taken a vociferous stand against communal disharmony and I am fearful about how the system will react.

Discussions, debates and narratives about religions, politics, gender and other contentious topics are meant to play on our ego and ignite anger, hatred, envy, greed and similar emotions ingrained in us thereby luring us into violence and committing crimes, verbally and physically. I have this message to all fellow humans, to cease and desist from engaging in any activity that creates disharmony among us. Maybe there are powers that do not want all of us to unite and only when we unite will we know why.

An election that has underlined how democracy should really work

An unprecedented political event has unfolded in my home state of Kerala. After 10 years of the Left party coalition (LDF) in power, the Congress party led coalition (UDF) won a thumping mandate from the people. But no one was prepared for what came next.

There are predominantly 3 people who architected this historic win. V D Satheesan (VD) the Leader of Opposition (LoP) in the Kerala Legislative Assembly, K C Venugopal (KC), General Secretary of AICC and Ramesh Chennithala (RC), a senior Congress figure with decades of political experience under his belt. RC was also the LoP during the 2016-2021 period when VD had worked under him. What is noteworthy here is, after the election debacle in 2021 when Congress won only 22 seats, Sonia Gandhi had anointed VD as the LoP. After the election results were announced the expectation was that there will be two contenders for the post of CM, VD and RC. The entire Congress ecosystem went into spin when KC entered the fray as potential CM candidate and for two important reasons – 1) The AICC had made a rule that barred all MPs from Kerala from contesting in state election. Not only was KC a member of AICC he was also an elected Lok Sabha MP from Kerala 2) In the past couple of years in many media interviews KC had openly rejected even the thought of aspiring to be Kerala CM.

What transpired was, no one and not even the Congress party expected UDF to get such a landslide victory. Starting  from 2021 for the next 4 years VD went into the grass roots of Kerala politics, united coalition partners into a tight knit unit, named it Team UDF and faced elections as a single unified entity. Results first started trickling in with bypoll victories which led to massive resurgence in corporation and municipal polls last year. But every news outlet and poll analyst was sceptical of UDF winning majority n state assembly polls. Many were predicting a neck and neck contest between UDF and LDF and some were even contemplating the possibility of a hung assembly. But as they say in the game of cricket VD seemed to be playing on a different wicket. He was predicting poll outcomes and margin of victories by votes with uncanny accuracy from the time of the bypolls. He was the only UDF leader who predicted a victory margin by 100+ seats and even claimed publicly that he would take up political renunciation or sanyas if poll results proved him wrong. The man has a real alternate career as a psephologist for sure.

KC pitching for CM post turned it into a 3 way race between him, VD and RC. Being a member of AICC he had the final say in selecting Congress candidates for the election and he is also very close to Rahul Gandhi. Both these factors gave him unfair advantage over VD and RC. Out of the 63 candidates from Congress who won 47 pledged their support to KC predominantly as gratitude for selecting them as candidates. Moreover there are two dominant groups in Congress, the A and the I groups of which KC belongs to A group and RC to I group. VD did not get into these groups and was isolated. Just as the CM’s chair seemed to slip away from him, two things happened. First, the coalition partners in the UDF predominantly the Muslim League came forth in public support for VD.

Then the unthinkable miracle happened. UDF workers and supporters poured out in large numbers on to the streets across Kerala in support of VD. People had rallied behind VD in the last 4 years because of his stint as a strong opposition leader in the state assembly, political views, vision for governance, bonhomie with all sections of society and uncompromising stand against divisive religion based politics. People voted for UDF because they wanted VD to lead the state.

A bigger and more valid concern raised by UDF coalition partners and people was, electing KC would trigger two bypolls, one to make KC MLA so that he can be elected as CM and the other for the MP seat vacated by him. Agitated Congress workers openly warned that trying to parachute KC in this manner into CM’s chair would force them to rebel against the party and the party could end up losing both the seats. Outside the Congress district committee office in Wayanad from where Priyanka Gandhi is the current Lok Sabha MP, messages were pasted warning Rahul and Priyanka to forget Wayanad if anyone other than VD was made CM. Under such immense pressure AICC called on all senior Congress leaders from Kerala for consultations. The final nail in the coffin was the ground report submitted by an agency secretly appointed by AICC to submit a report of the ground reality of Kerala which overwhelmingly favored VD.

One rumour floating around on news channels was Rahul Gandhi wanted to replace KC with Sachin Pilot in the AICC but had to give KC a meaty enough role as replacement and that’s how KC entered the CM race. If this is indeed true what is surprising is how this possibility was persisted with in spite of knowing the support on the ground for VD with potential damage to KC’s future electoral prospects.

The Congress has rigorously followed the same selection process in every state wherein people would elect MLAs and MLAs would elect their leader, the first among equals who would then go on to become the Chief Minister. This was the first time the party had to shelve the process.

VD becoming CM without ever becoming a minister was the other sore point. Both KC and RC have far more political experience than VD, have already held multiple ministerial positions at the centre and state governments and are prime candidates for the CM’s post. Overwhelming support from the public along with unwavering support from some senior Congress leaders as well as from the coalition partners decisively swung the CM’s chair towards VD.

As V D Satheesan and his council of ministers take oath on Monday there is renewed hope of better governance and politics in Kerala. More importantly, the world and India in particular has been witness to true democracy in action, that democracy is by the people for the people.

Politics and elections have barely interested me through the years. I have been in the search of someone for whom people would stand up in unison not as a leader but as someone who understands the pulse of the masses. I never thought I will see it happening in my lifetime but has eventually come to pass.

Thrissur pooram – an unraveling disaster

A tragedy of catastrophic proportions has unfolded in my hometown of Thrissur in the state of Kerala. Known as the cultural capital of Kerala, Thrissur has been host to a temple festival for more than two centuries that can rival the biggest carnivals in the world. Called Thrissur pooram, it is renowned for its elephant parade and the culminating fireworks. Thrissur is situated around a hillock on which stands the mighty and mysterious Vadakkunadhan temple dedicated to Lord Shiva with no recorded details of its construction. The elephant parade and fireworks are conducted every year at the hallowed ground of this temple. Rapid development of the city in close proximity to the temple ground had warranted drastic reduction in the quantity and strength of explosives used for fireworks over the years.

Preparations for this year’s festival has been in full swing which falls on the 26th of this month. The explosives for the fireworks which was being assembled for one of the temples participating in the festival in an isolated part of the wetlands suddenly caught fire and resulted in the deaths of several workers and many more have been hospitalized with critical injuries. Explosions were continuing hours after the initial blast making any rescue attempts impossible. Initial reports are suggesting that exposure of explosives to the toiling summer heat may have triggered the initial explosion because explosives have to be dried thoroughly for creating the best firework effects.

Temple festivals have become far too dangerous for multiple reasons. Many moons ago I had written to Ms. Maneka Gandhi, a former member of Parliament who supposedly champions animal welfare asking for her support for banning elephants from being used in temple festivals. These festivals happen during summer months and summer temperatures were nowhere close to what it is now when the festivals started decades or even centuries ago. Elephants, with their black skin and soft soles are completely adapted to live in dense forest. Nothing can be more high stakes than 30 elephants being made to standi next to each other for hours on tarred road in temperatures of high 30s while multitude of drums and trumpets blare continuously and a sea of people around them. One irritated elephant can easily trigger a stampede causing deaths in hundreds or even thousands. What I wanted from Ms. Gandhi was a letter of support which I could use when initiating discussions with the relevant stake holders but she refused to provide one.

While it is fortunate that the tragedy did not happen during the festival what is saddening is, the people who died yesterday were dealing with explosives in spite of the risks involved for the money because they were bread winners for their families. Temple festivals were created during a different era of human history and in the name of tradition, culture and beliefs they are being dragged through generations in its original form when their risks have multipled and relevance has nose dived. It is high time society evolved with time and moved on from ancient structures especially in this age of technological transformation when for example fireworks are increasingly being replaced with laser shows all over the world.

The Iran conundrum

The playbook has been clear, decisive and successful. Support opposition parties, arm resistance groups then take out the existing regime by wiping out its leaders and watch the country descend into chaos. Iraq, Libya and Syria one by one they all crumbled. But one didn’t or hasn’t yet. As they say in Kerala my home state in India jackfruits don’t fall on rabbits every time.

From being friends and partners in the 1970s during the Shah regime to becoming antagonists and eventually going to war with each other Iran and the US have had a tumultuous relationship over the past many decades. Politics in itself is complex and is intertwined with innumerable social aspects. Combine this political soup with foreign affairs and foreign policies and it becomes mind boggling.

Islam is broadly divided into the Sunni and Shia sects. Sunni sect is the dominant one and they account for 85-90% of the global Muslim population. Shia is the majority population in a few countries such as Iran and Iraq. The Sunni vs Shia theological divide has driven a regional power struggle between the Sunni dominated Saudi Arabia and the Shia dominated Iran in the Middle East.

So what did Iraq, Libya, Syria and Iran do to incur the wrath of the US? The narrative that has been sold to the world is, all these countries were ruled by cruel dictators, Iraq was developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and Iran is on the verge of developing nuclear weapons. But the reality lies in a single word – petrodollar. After decades of wars between Israel and the Arab nations, the US came up with a double impact plan in the 1970s. The petrodollar agreement with the oil producing Arab countries which mandated all global oil sales to be conducted in US dollar not only consolidated it as the world’s primary reserve currency it also threw cold water on the animosity between Arab countries and Israel. But the 1979 coup in Iran that led to the overthrow of the US backed Shah government resulted in the formation of the hardline regime under Ayatollah Al Khamenei. The US did not have to worry though because it knew the Sunni dominated Arab world would never align with the Shia dominated Iran.

I remember reading somewhere that if the dominance of the dollar is even minutely challenged on the global stage the US will counter with bullets and missiles. After the Saddam Hussein and Gaddafi regimes were overthrown in Iraq and Libya respectively there were rumours that they were trying to end the petrodollar domination by replacing it with gold backed currencies. No WMDs were found in Iraq and US and Israeli intelligence agencies must have clearly known this well in advance.

Non-compliance in nuclear energy development may be just an excuse for attacking Iran. I believe there could be two reasons. 1) Israel has wanted to destroy Iran’s Khameni led regime and it’s military capability for decades. Iran is the only Arab country standing up to Israel by supporting and arming the Hezbollah and other Islamic groups fighting Israel. Only now has it found a US President and administration complacent enough to agree to its demand 2) The US has a far greater reason for attacking Iran. The emergence of BRICS. China has become equally powerful as the US both economically and in military might. It has been pushing to replace the dollar with the Chinese Yuan as the primary reserve currency. Many countries in Africa, South America and Iran have started using the Chinese Yuan when doing business with China. India has also bought oil from Iran by paying in Indian Rupees. China buys most of its oil from Iran and Iran controls the Strait of Hormuz, the only sea passage from the Persian Gulf into the open ocean. The US cannot go for an open military confrontation with China so the only other option is imposing economic controls.

Geopolitics is extremely complex and nuances are hard to explain so it’s easier to sell to the world that Iran is a rogue nation and needs to be brought in line. But what has happened after the US and Israel attacked Iran and killed Khameni and the top brass of the Iranian government has shocked the world. A short 4-5 days of military engagement has extended to more than 2 weeks now and shows no signs of abating. It has become more and more apparent that Iran has been prepared for a military conflict with the US and Israel with counter military strategies and by stockpiling weapons. It has clear knowledge of Israel’s assets in Israel and US assets in other Arab countries. It knows the US and Israel have deployed expensive air defence systems and are using cheap drones to attack which have ballooned the economic cost of war for both the US and Israel. Iran seems to have worked out their entire military strategy on one premise – attack us and all the oil producing Arab nations will burn effectively depleting oil supply to the world. To add insult to injury dictate terms over the Strait of Hormuz thereby choking all oil supplies from GCC.

Iran has repeatedly rejected ceasefire offers from the US and seemingly wants to end the conflict on its terms. It seems to be clearly prepared for a long drawn attritional war and the longer the conflict drags on the less leverage US and Israel will have on how the future plays out. If this conflict ends on Iran’s terms which looks to be the most likely outcome now a global shift in power is going to emerge.

Amidst the geopolitical tussle missiles and drones are taking lives of innocent people and children. The impact of reduced oil and gas supply from the Middle East is already showing in other countries. The economic cost of global politics and power has eroded away the cost of human lives to the point where missiles hitting schools and killing children could soon become foot notes on news channels.

Decoding the viral Nihilist Penguin memes

The Nihilist Penguin memes have taken the internet by storm. Penguins normally go from the snow to the icy cold water because that is where their food is. But this penguin chose to walk in the opposite direction, where there was just mountains more frigid cold no food and certain death. Why did it make such a choice?

In 2024 during the annual bird migratory season the wetlands in my hometown came alive with wildlife photographers from everywhere because an Eastern Imperial Eagle had arrived. They are usually found as far west as east-central and south western Europe and can travel all the way to Africa during winter. They are mostly seen in the north and eastern parts of India during migratory season and very rarely towards south of India.

I came across it by sheer luck during birding one day and was able to take several good shots. When I came home and checked on the internet I found that those Eagles are darkish brown in color that turns black during breeding season. The one I photographed was as large as an adult but plumage color was different which meant it was a sub-adult and was a straggler that had deviated away from its usual migratory path.

Many sub-adult animals take decisions that separate them from their groups and can even lead to death. The Nihilist Penguin was also a sub adult and chose differently but we do not know if it died or returned to its flock. Similarly we do not know if the Imperial Eagle survived and went back to its flock or died.

As teenagers even we take decisions that can have many unintended and sometimes unsavory consequences which are all part of our growth and evolution. So why is this going viral now? Because human brains are going haywire. Our emotional intelligence is making us interpret it in ways ranging from loneliness to motivation. Why? Primarily because we are stressed and tired and we want to emulate the penguin by walking away from everything in life that is weighing us down. Predator animals kill their prey not out of anger or revenge but only for food. Prey animals run when chased by predators not out of fear but because survival means opportunity to reproduce more which ensures their species can thrive in nature. Our emotions created by our emotional intelligence blinds us from the rationale and logic on which nature runs.

There are two worlds on our planet, the natural world where all other lifeforms live and the illusionary human world where we live which runs on our emotional intelligence and our 9 sins.

How to comprehend pictures of natural world faked with AI

Came across this image of a White-throated Kingfisher with an enormous fish catch on social media. These Kingfishers are common in my hometown and consume a wide variety of prey. Kingfishers dive head first into water grab the prey fly out of water and go back to the same place from where they dived all in one go. Understanding how animals hunt and especially birds is extremely important to get photos of the entire sequence of the hunt and Kingfishers are extremely nimble hunters.

Now, in the image see where the water is and how high the branch is on which the Kingfisher is perching with the fish. To fly out of water with such a huge fish and on to that branch is impossible for a bird of that size. Water birds such as Cormorants will definitely try to catch such a fish. Predator animals try to maximize the size of prey they catch so that one hunt is enough to satiate their hunger. But for a White-throated Kingfisher this is an impossible fish to catch.

The beak of the Kingfisher is open in the picture so most likely the prey it had originally caught has been replaced with the image of the fish. Advanced photo editing tools can expose this.fictures and videos of animals in the wild.

Fake pictures and videos of animals in the wild are flooding the internet especially after the advent of AI powered tools as people are stooping to any level they can to get views on their posts and subscribers for their online channels. Understanding behaviour of every animal is crucial for preventing such posts from going viral and preventing the spread of misinformation and ignorance about nature.