A startling truth

I watched the 1st episode of Satyayamev Jayate (I don't watch much T.V. so I came to know about the episode some days after it was telecast and downloaded it from YouTube) in which it was pointed out that the incidence of female foeticide is higher among city-bred, educated, economically well-off people than among illiterate, poor rural folk. Even though I was aware of this, the revelations still shocked me.

I first came to to know of this counter-intuitive piece of information in The Argumentative Indian by Amartya Sen.He analyses the data for children from 0-5 yrs. He takes the German figure of 94.8 girls per hundred boys as the benchmark. He finds a clear regional divide with the East and South being above the benchmark while the West and North were below the benchmark. Within this divide, there were revealing trends.

...the contrast does  not seem to have any immediate and clearly explicable economic connection. The states with strong anti-female bias include rich ones (Punjab and Haryana) as well as poor (Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh), and fast-growing states (Gujarat and Maharashtra) as well as growth failures (Bihar and Uttar Pradesh). It is clear that we have to look beyond material prosperity or economic success or GNP growth into broadly cultural and social influences.

[SNIP]

... even in the eastern and southern states in which the over all female-male ratio is still within the European range, there are signs that urban centres have, by and large, a somewhat lower ratio than rural parts of those very states. For example, the female-children ratio per 100 boys is 93.7 in urban Orissa as opposed to the ratio for rural  Orissa of 95.4. Karnataka’s urban ratio  is 93.9, compared with its rural ratio of 95.4. West Bengal’s  urban ration of 94.8, while much the same as the German cut-off line, is still below its rural ratio of 96.7

A Lancet study pointed out the disturbing possibility that recent increases in literacy and Indian per-person income might have contributed to increased selective abortion of girls. There have been other disquieting reports. What it shows is that eradicating this blot on Indian society is not a matter of economics but of changing mindsets in a patriarchal society. How much blame for this and other horrors can be attributed to the 'Devi paradox'?

Laguage as a window to the mind

Remember the notes I keep to remind me of various blogging material? While writing my previous post, I noticed that I had noted page no. 29 of The Language Instinct and I wondered what it was. It was a passage where Steven Pinker shows that even so-called unsophisticated languages follow sophisticated rules.

Here is an example, from an interview conducted by the linguist William Labov on a stoop in Harelm.  The interviewee is Larry, the roughest member of a teenage gang called the Jets. (Labov observes in his scholarly article that "for most readers of this paper, first contact with Larry would produce some fairly negative reactions on both sides.")

You know, like some people say if you're good an' shit, your spirit goin't heaven...'n' if you bad, your spirit goin' to hell. Well, bullishit! Your spirit goin' to hell anyway, good or bad. 

[Why?]

Why? I'll tell you why, 'Cause, you see, doesn' nobody really know that it's a God, y'know, 'cause I mean I have seen black gods, white gods, all color gods, and don't nobody know it's really a God. An' when they be sayin' if you good, you goin't' heaven, tha's bullshit, 'cause you ain't goin' to no heaven, 'cause it ain't no heaven for you to go to.

[... jus' suppose that there is a God, would he be white or black?]

He'd be white, man.

[Why?]

Why? I'll tell you why. 'Cause the average whitey out here got everything, you dig? And the nigger ain't got shit,y'know? Y'understand'? So-um-for-in order for that to happen, you know it ain't no black God that's doing' that bullshit.

Pinker then goes on to analyse auxiliaries, non-declarative statements and other grammatical paraphernalia.

In this BBC interview, the presenter says that Pinker and his wife Rebecca Goldstein have been called the brainiest couple in the US. Pinker is an excellent speaker. For eg., see his TED talks.

Just like ours

New Guinea is the second largest island in the world. It has a line of mountains at its centre which are surrounded  by plains. Till the 1920s, it was thought that people only lived in the plains and the mountains were too inhospitable for people to live. It was then discovered that there were actually two mountain ranges at the center running parallel to each other. In-between them was a plateau with many fertile valleys where lived about a million Stone Age people who had been cut-off from the rest of the world for thousands of years. Both the highlanders and plains people were equally surprised to meet each other. In The Language Instinct, there is a description of what the highlanders thought about their discoverers:

The highlanders conferred intensively, trying  to agree upon the nature of the pallid apparitions.  The leading conjecture was that they were reincarnated ancestors or other spirits in human form, perhaps ones that turned back into skeletons at night. They agreed upon an empirical test that would settle the matter."one of the people hid," recalls the highlander Kirupano Eza'e, "and watched them going to excrete.  He came back and said, 'Those men from heaven went to excrete over there.' Once they had left many men went to take a look. When they saw that it smelt bad, they said, 'Their skin might be different, but their shit smells bad like ours.'"

I often resort to the 'Feynman manoeuvre' when watching Indian politicians on T.V. I watch their minions clapping their hands for some standard pablum. I will look at the large crowds listening attentively to the speeches and wonder how many have been brought in by the truckload, how many fit Gabbar Singh's description of Jai and Veeru in the film Sholay - kiraye ke tattoo. There will be numerous people falling at the feet of The Leader and I  will keep thinking how embarrassed I would be if people kept falling at my
feet.

I will do similar things while watching American politicians. I will not pay much attention to the speeches. Instead I look at the crowd clapping rapturously at the thunderous bromides of their messiah. I watched the State of the Union address of the American President a couple of times. The fun part for me was the sight of the rich and powerful of Washington standing up to clap and sitting down every couple of minutes. I wonder how those with dodgy knees manage.

You must be wondering what some remote New Guinea tribe has to do with Indian and American politicians. It occurred to me  that their skin might be different, but their shit is just like ours (that is, if you ignore the elephantine statues). Stimulating democratic debate is not what you get.

when the obsequiousness goes to extreme lengths, one witnesses the strange scenes seen in North Korea after the death of Kim Jong il. Actually it is difficult to interpret the scenes of sobbing. On the one hand , the grief might be genuine because the people are so brainwashed and cut off from the rest of the world that they actually seem to believe that their country is paradise on earth. (The video at that link is surreal.) On the other hand, they may be acting because if they don't sob in front of the cameras, they may be thrown into the dungeons.

I heard that when Kim Jong-il was  alive, his father, Kim Il-sung, who had died in 1994 was President. (I heard this in a speech by Hitchens.) According to Wikipedia, Kim Jong il was proclaimed the Eternal General Secretary of the Workers' Party of Korea and Eternal Chairman of the National Defence Commission in 2012.

The ethics of food

I did all my schooling in Jamshedpur. I used to visit my ancestral home in Palakkad, every couple of years during the summer vacations.  My grandparents used to keep a couple of  cows for milk and I used to enquire before every trip whether there was a new calf I could play with. I wasn't too concerned about whether there were other kids with whom I could play. Apparently, I had once asked why we couldn't take a calf back with us in a suitcase!

I am telling you all these stories to let you know that I like being with farm animals. So  I was horrified to see the video in this post. The picture of the sow suckling its young has been giving me nightmares. I could watch only part of the video in another link in that post because the way the animals were being treated was sickening. (I had uncomfortable reminders of the short story about meat.)

Before my stroke, I  used to occasionally eat non-veg. food.If I had seen these videos then, I would have stopped eating them. I would not have been able to get the images out of  my mind.

PS: Rabbi defends animal sacrifice.

PPS:  There was a series of articles in NYT some years back on The Food Chain.

PPPS: A talk on critical thinking.

I can type!

Some months back, a classmate of mine at IIMA, Rashmi Bansal had visited us. She asked Jaya  to contact Prof. Prabhat Ranjan from Dhirubhai Ambani Institute of Information and Communication Technology (DAIICT) who she said may be able to help me. (Rashmi has the whole story here.) Accordingly, Jaya contacted Prof.Ranjan, told him  about my difficulties and also gave him the address of my blog so that he got more pointers about my needs. He thought that I would benefit by using a brain-computer-interface. (There was a story in ToI regarding this. And yes, the Karat guy is me.)

He then sent a couple of his  engineers, Ajay Roshania and Hiren Shah, to help train me in using the device. They were accompanied by a s/w engineer from a Coimbatore based company, Mr. Vickneswaran. Since the initial training, they  have been immensely helpful in sorting out various small issues that kept cropping up from time to time as I learnt various nuances about how to use the device. One particularly helpful feature has been increasing the size of the keys on the on-screen key board. This has ensured that a certain amount of shake  can be tolerated. Before using this device, I had not realised that my head shook so  much.  (It is as if my head rests on a moderately stiff spring.)

The s/w could be installed only on the laptop. For some reason, it could not be installed on the desktop. This proved advantageous for me because I could use the battery back-up in the laptop to type when there was no current.(The load-shedding here is about - hold your breath - 8 hours.) An inverter has been fitted for the computers so this no longer is a problem. I now have the problem of deciding whether and when to switch off the computer to read a book. Believe me, you can always find a reason to crib if you try hard enough. (From the day the inverter was installed, load shedding has reduced. Just saying.)

I had fun showing off  my magic skills to visitors - the cursor moving around on the  monitor of its own accord, letters  appearing out of nowhere...I was like a kid showing off his new bicycle to his mother - 'Look ma,  no hands!' Fortunately, there have been only 2-3  visitors at a  time. (If  you recall, I am not at my best in front of large audiences.)

Even small audiences are a problem. This is because, when people are around, I tend to get excited and laugh which makes the cursor go all over the screen. If I am alone, I concentrate only on the screen, there is no distraction from any quarter and my typing speed increases considerably.  So there is a paradox -if people are around, my typing is laborious;  if I am alone, my typing is much better. In other words, if you watch me typing, you will get tired.

Another reason why I prefer using the device when I am alone is that I use eye blinks for all communication. When I blink in response to someone's queries, the computer might register my blinks and click whichever icon the mouse-pointer happens to be in. When I turn back to the monitor, something would have happened that I wouldn't have wanted. There are other options in the s/w  for mouse-clicks like smile, clench teeth etc. I can use only blinks because I don't have voluntary control over the other expressions.

Some days I type well. On some days, my head seems to shake a bit more, I get a bit more cough or my blinks don't seem to work properly. I notice them when I use the headset, otherwise I would have not been aware of them.

I only use the device when Jaya is at home because there is a 15-20 min procedure in the beginning before I get control of the mouse.I have also to call her occasionally to get me out of some mess that I had created.  The physiotherapist comes in the evening when generally most guests also come, thus the preferable time for using the device is in the mornings.  I generally don't use the device when Sujit comes back from school because he will be more interested in what I am doing than on his studies. (This is not a factor for another month or so because it is his vacations.) I now sometimes sit in the afternoons also even though Jaya will be asleep because Sujit will be able to pull me out of any hole I find myself in. He rarely sleeps in the afternoons. (That only happens when he has an exam the next day.)

When using the headset I am mercifully free of the tyranny of mobile phones. They may have their uses but I hate them. Whenever I want to  type something in the computer, the nurse will get a phone call and for the next 10 minutes, I will be admiring the screen saver and thinking of some song.It is amazing how often Jaya or the nurse gets one of those interminable phone  calls. It is a wonder that I have not burst a blood vessel yet.

Another advantage of the device is that I am now occupied when the nurse is on leave. Previously during these times, since Jaya will have a hundred different things to do, I try to avoid asking her to be my typist also. Now, she just has to spend a few minutes in the beginning to activate the device and leave me alone for the next couple of hours. I can work for only a couple of hours at a stretch before my neck muscles get tired because of constant movement and my blinks become a bit erratic.

I have told you about two  methods that I use to type my posts. Now I also have this device.  My typing speed has been increasing with practice. I suppose it will be optimum when I lose my initial excitement at being able to type and the device  becomes like just another pair of reading glasses. Of course, no device will be able to reach the speed with which I dictate  to Jaya. This is because, when dictating to Jaya, I often resort to the Adrian Boult principle. In The Extended Phenotype, Richard Dawkins explains the principle:

Once,in rehearsal, Sir Adrian turned to the violas and told them to play out more.‘But Sir Adrian’, protested the principal viola, ‘you were indicating less and less with your baton’. ‘The idea’, retorted the maestro, ‘is that I should do less and less, and you should do more and more!’

For eg., I might dictate a couple of letters and Jaya might guess the whole word or she might guess a large part of the next sentence depending on the context.   Sometimes  I may indicate a word by moving the head or by looking in some direction. Jaya will be able to guess the word because of years of practice interpreting my dumb charades. Humans are good at using theory of mind which machines cannot, at least not to the same extent.

I am sometimes asked why I don't indulge in other activities like travelling or participating in various fora.  The answer is simple - it is a question of opportunity cost. Whatever method of communication I use, it will be slower than what any normal person can manage. Thus any time I spend on other activities means that I get a correspondingly less time for reading and blogging which I enjoy. When my interest in blogging starts waning, I will move on to something else.

So I now have 3 methods by which I can keep wasting your time. I will be using a mix of the methods to type the posts depending on the convenience at any point of time. I have thought of some splendid things to write about in the next few weeks. (Really! I am not joking!) So now, apart from Jaya and the nurse, you also have Rashmi and Prof. Prabhat Ranjan to crib about. Good luck!

Interesting passtimes

I heard that when Ricard Feynman was learning to paint, he used to visit a topless bar. (Presumably the building had a roof.) While there, unlike other people who drew the girls, he drew the the faces of the men watching the girls. He must have got some interesting portraits!

Taking a cue from this, I often amuse myself during conversations that  don't grip me by looking at the faces of the people who are listening rather than the people who are talking. I will think about how interested a person is in a conversation, whether he is just being polite, whether his mind is elsewhere etc. I can do this because after the initial flurry following my entry into the room, I generally become part of the decoration and no one will observe what I do. I guess my cover is blown now! I will sometimes listen with interest to tales of my exploits in ancient times that I was hearing for the first time. (I once heard that I was a Hindi pundit. I used to barely pass in the subject.)

If someone similarly tried to read my expressions, it would be an exercise in futility due to some stroke related quirks. Once a family friend, while taking my leave, told me that he will try to come the next day. He then hastily said that he will definitely come the next day. I wondered why he had suddenly changed his mind. Jaya told me that he had thought that I was about to cry while I had thought that I was giving a polite smile! Someone said that every communication is an act of interpretation. My communication is often misinterpreted.Interpreting the expressions of even normal people is tricky business and in my case it is even more difficult.

I use the 'Feynman manoevre' even while watching songs and other programs  on T.V. It is fun to watch the extras with funny expressions trying their best to keep up with the lead pair, the vague dance, the crowds assembled for the song gawking at the stars... This is a song in which there are a lot of extras who don't have anything much to do except smile, nod and clap occasionally.

I also like watching the biases that people commonly display. For eg., confirmation bias plays a major role in the reinforcement of religious ideas. People having similar ways of thinking keep exchanging similar stories  with each other and the superstitious beliefs of that particular tribe thrives in this echo chamber.  In Stumbling on Happiness,  Daniel Gilbert writes:

Our tendency to expose ourselves to information that supports our favoured conclusions is especially powerful when it comes to choosing the company we keep. You’ve probably noticed that with the exception of Wilt Chamberlian, nobody picks friends and lovers by random sampling.  On the contrary, we spend countless hours and countless dollars carefully arranging our lives to ensure that we are surrounded by people who like us, and people who are like us.

Once a person said that he did not believe in various superstitions that people had. (It is obligatory to first say that you don't believe in something before you say how you believe it.) Once he had to have an injection for some illness. When he saw the size of the needle he became nervous and prayed fervently, 'O Krishna! And you won't believe but I did not feel any pain.' There were nods of approval and 'I told you so' expressions from different quarters.

It is interesting to watch the easy familiarity that quickly develops among people who know the correct superstitious shibboleths. Even if you don’t know the members of a group, if you know the right passwords, establishing a rapport with them is easy.

3rd blogiversary

We have completed 3 years of blogging and we are pleased that we have managed to be a bit more prolific than this blog. A guy once told me that he thinks so deeply about what he writes that he has written only one post in two years. In contrast, I am a shallow thinker with more output. Guess you can't have the best of both worlds simultaneously.

At first, I used to write only about my stroke related experiences but then I started mentioning interesting bits from books I read. Most people get blog fodder from their travels, conversations with people, office experiences etc. A large part of my input comes from the books and blogs that I read.

This time, instead of indulging in my usual Sesquipedalian Obscurantism I thought I will just ask a simple riddle. I had second thoughts about this but then I thought that may be you can have some fun with kids so here goes :

Three Indian women are sitting side by side. The first, sitting on a goatskin, has a son who weighs 170 pounds. The second, sitting on a deerskin, has a son who weighs 130 pounds. The third, seated on a hippopotamus hide, weighs 300 pounds. What famous theorem does this illustrate? (Riddle from The Game of Words by Willard Espy.)

On the off chance that a couple of you may be a bit off colour, I have given the answer below. Just scroll down a bit.

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Naturally, the answer is that the squaw on the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws on the other two hides. I told you it was simple!