The Octal Numbering System

The current events celebrating 8 years of rule induced me to research to see if there exists a numbering system with a base of 8. By Jove, or rather by Byju the eEdu expert, such a system does exist used in computers

Mortals like us are used to the decimal system of numbers which uses 10 as the base. A number, say 1064, is explained as 1x10^3+0x10^2+6x10^1+4x10^0 + 1000+0+6x10+4x1= 1000+0+60+4+ 1064. We have used the successive powers of 10 from 0 to 3 in the direction right to left. In the Octal system, we use various powers of 8 to write a  number.  So, our number 1064 in the decimal system would be written as 1x8^3+0x8^2+6x8^1+4x8^0 =512+0+48+4x8^0 =512+48+8=568

In the normal course of our lives, we are so used to the decimal system that we celebrate major events like birth and wedding anniversaries on completion of one, ten, fifty, sixty, hundred, and so on, all multiples of 10. A decade is 10 years and a generation is 25 years.  Film producers celebrate 100 days from the date of a film’s release as a major event. For Kangana Ranavat, the octal system would give a different number for our year of real independence.

 The Octopus, which is an eight-limbedmollusk mollusk, should be comfortable in the octal system, while we humans have to find new uses for our extra two fingers in our hands and toes. The time is ripe for us in India, after Aryabhata who devised the decimal system of positional numeration, to change to the Octal system of numbers.

 

Who is Who in India?

The recent NSE scam resulting in the sacking and subsequent arrest of its CEO has once more confused me as regards names and their associated gender identity.  Except once in the beginning when newspaper and TV channels mentioned the scamster’s name Chitra Ramakrishna, led me to think that the accused is a woman by the name Chitra.  However, in subsequent reports of the scam the name mentioned was   Ramakrishna, an unambiguous male name.  . Mercifully for me, the accompanying photo was that of a middle-aged woman thus ending my confusion. Similarly, when  Prabha  Narasimhan’s recent elevation in Colgate & Palmolive was announced in newspapers with her photo, I had no doubt that she was a woman; but two paragraphs down in the report where the profile appeared,  the name was  Narasimhan,   an obviously male name.  It made me wonder why the impressive profile of a male should find a place in an announcement of the elevation of a woman.  

What is the name of the Chief Executive Officer of Alphabet and its subsidiary Google? Is it Pichai or Sundar?  His own company Google mentions, “ Pichai Sundararajan, better known as Sundar Pichai ……, Pichai earned his degree from IIT ……..” and records the names of his spouse, parents, and children in two parts with  Pichai as a common second part. Am I to infer that his given name is Pichai though he is usually referred to as Sundar Pichai? As one of the richest men in the USA, his name as Sundar (handsome) Pichai (donation) appears appropriate!

After the Adhaar card and Passport, I leave it to you to choose for my name one or the other from   Venkata Raman Arunachalam or Arunachalam Venkata Raman or A. V . Raman.     

 

Kohli's Resignation

 

It has happened, the worst-feared catastrophe; Virat Kohli has announced his resignation as captain of our Test cricket team suddenly in the wake of losing the series against South Africa.  The news has hit the nation like a thunderbolt.  Newspapers are carrying analysis of this national tragedy in column after column by everyone connected with cricket. BCCI officials, sports correspondents, cricketers  past and present, his team mates, managers, coaches, support staff and cricket fans from across the country, advertisers et al, are dissecting this with reference to its timing like when BCCI President is recuperating from his recent illness, the oncoming series in SriLanka, and not the least elections in five States. Not to be left behind, TV channels are beaming the news in every edition besides conducting panel discussions on the impact of this Tsunami on the future of Indian cricket with particular reference to The World Cup, The ICC Cup etc.  The emotional tribute by his wife Anushka Sharma and other Hollywood persona is particularly heart rending.  Short of an official Gazette Notification from Government, every other form of communication like social, print and electronic media has come into play carrying  the poignancy created  by  this  news of the decade. Twitter is agog with this unexpected calamity wondering what would happen to the moneybag Corporates bidding for cricketers for IPL and sponsors like Byju.   

There is also the question regarding his successor as captain causing great anguish. Will  he  a batter like  Rohit Sharma or K.L.Rahul or, for a change, a wicket keeper captain like Rishabh Pant or a pace bowler captain  like Jasprit Bumrah.  Social commentator and columnist  like Santosh Desai in his weekly column in The Times of India has addressed this earth shaking news under the caption “A Resignation Foretold” and discussed the matter threadbare including   Kohli’s souring relationship with BCCI. He  asks “ Was it Kohli’s growing unpopularity with a vocal section because of his advocacy of a cracker-free Diwali and his standing up for Shami when he was being trolled communally ? ” He also says that BCCI has decided to do what politicians excel at – insert itself into a situation and mess it up thoroughly  without a plan and no clear successor in place .

In the Indian context the views and opinions of two other cricket aficionados, Ram Chandra Guha and Shashi Tharoor will be eagerly watched.

       

A Single World Leader

Today we live in a world, where thanks to technological advancements in communication and digitization, countries have only geographical significance. Even problems such as Covid 19 pandemic with its variants like Delta and Omicron, climate change, terrorism, drug menace, human trafficking, etc., affect all nations.

  The fight against these scourges also tends to get global with nations coming together under the aegis of The United Nations (UN) through organs like  World Health Organisation(WHO),  the UN Counter-Terrorism Committee, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, the  Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change(IPCC). Besides these,  other bodies like NATO, G20 summit, Conference of Parties 26 both held recently in Rome  Glasgow respectively also discuss ways and means of dealing with the problems.

 A fair assessment of the results of these global initiatives however points out that the problems still persist. The main reason for this is that though nations gather to find unanimity of approach, their respective national interests take a higher priority than the compulsion of implementing an agreed decision or solution. 

Take the Covid 19 pandemic for a case.  When the first and second waves of Covid were in full swing calling for vigorous vaccination drives, strict quarantine of victims,  area lockdowns, and travel restrictions,  many nations faced problems of insufficient quantities of vaccines, hospital beds, oxygen cylinders logistics difficulties, and demand outstripping supply,. Production of vaccines to meet the global needs at affordable costs is fraught with disputes over vaccine patent waivers. The WHO was crying hoarse to speed up vaccination of all adult population and enforce rigorous enforcement of Covid Appropriate Behaviour like masking the face, social distancing, and frequent handwashing. Individual nations or even areas within a nation decided these issues weighing the pros and cons of lockdowns vis-a-vis livelihood needs of the people. Then there was the problem of resistance to vaccination by some people. 

 The Paris Agreement as a legally binding international treaty on climate change has set a goal to limit global warming to a level below 2, preferably 1.5 degrees Celsius compared to pre-industrial levels. This calls for all nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions like carbon dioxide which is the main pollutant from burning coal for power generation. Both China and India have resisted attempts for a G20 declaration on phasing out domestic coal consumption. Here the economy of using locally available coal for the generation of power overrides the global good of reduced pollution arising from power using non-fossil sources.  

 The question arises as to why global initiatives for dealing with global problems have not delivered the goods in spite of the existence of global organs like the UN and overall laudable efforts by leaders of various nations to find solutions. Is it the respective national economic, political,  social, governance, ideological interest overwhelming global good.?

 Can there be a leader(s) to lead other leaders? What will be that entity's source of authority to lead? Will a group of public intellectuals, activists, authors, statesmen, artists, academia be able and acceptable to provide unified global leadership to leaders of governments? The UNGA and UNSC are only assemblies of governments with some of them threatening to stop funding and with weapons like Veto power can and have indeed torpedoed many viable solutions for many problems in the past. 

  

 

The Old Man and the GK

For Delhites GK is the abbreviation of Greater Kailash. This blog however talks of another GK . Most Delhi University graduates of my age have either made it , or failed to make it like me ,to the IAS, which if nothig else, made us great in GK, i.e., General Knowledge. GK was a compulsory paper in the wrtten exams and a favourite mind- teaser with the interview panelists. The Manorama Year Book was one of the the main sources and approaches to gain the bookish GK . Many bits and facts inputs were required to be learnt as GK . Examples: Babylonian civilization, marvels of scientific inventions and discoveries including Wagner's theory of the continental shift, milestones in world history, Hindu and Greek mythology, politics, plant , animal and sea life, evolution of the State from Plato to Marx and last but not the least current affairs. Famous authors and their works are another an important part of GK, like Kautilya's Arthshastra, Kalidasa's Shakuntalam, Milton's Paradise Lost, Gibbon's The Rise and Fall of The Roman Empire and so on which none of us have even heard about much less read. Perhaps this type GK was designed to make the IAS personnel know everything except Indian Adminisration which they would in any case learn later in their career from the political masters. Talking of books, Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea which has inspired me to title this blog after it with Gk in place of Sea though I have not read it. In one of his recent pieces , Jug Saraya , the columnist for The Times of India, divides the modern age into BC standing for Before Covid and AD for After the Disease . My piece here is about both these divisions in my life . My recent BC years were marked by personal mobility at my will and pleasure for shopping, haircut, attending concerts, evening meetings in our Society senior citizens group, taking morning/evening strolls in and around our residential campus, visiting bank ATMs and temples . Iwas particular about my attire choosing the right combination of shirts, short/long sleeved, and trousers. In the mild winetr months of Mumbai, I showed off with my wardrobe of blazers, scarves, shawls and sweaters. There was also the undisclosed agenda to present myself with charm and elan to the ladies of the Campus. Occasional academic tasks took me to a couple of local management institutions for delivering lectures, attending college development committee meetings etc, where I exhibited my extensive GK acquired for IAS exam to audiences sitting dazed at my wisdom. My questions at faculty selection or students admission meetings were not so much on the subjects like finance or HRD but based on the ever green GK gained years earlier for IAS. Except Current Affairs , most other GK has remained the same over the years. My current AD life is marked by more or less solitary confinement in our home with strict Covid compliant prtocol behaviour enforced by the family. New skills have been learnt like washing the hands frequently with soap and sanitizers, wearing a mask all the time and speaking clearly for others to understand and keeping social distance. The last requirement was not new to us as my wife and I have always maintained cosiderable distance of body and mind between ourselves. Not only our Society was declared as local containment zone, we too have our inhouse cotainment zones with me sitting in the hall watching the TV and lazing while my wife is locked in another room talking endlessly on phone with her daughetr, sister living abroad and brothers and cousins and local acquinatances . The Mask has given rise to one more Murphy's law i.e the itch in the nose occurs more often when one wears a mask than when not masked.Other noticeable changes in my persona are overdue hair cut , a lackadaisical approach to dress and apperance and opinionated or polarised views. It is said that the endemic will usher in new normals in every aspect of our familial, social, occupationalrelationships , behaviour and lifestyles.. Hope my accumulated GK would survive.

The Dreamy Writer

I dream most nights in my sleep. I have no clue to their duration but they are long enough to result in nice short stories involving themes and characters I have not thought of before. My dream stories occur in parts i.e., before, during and after brief spells of my waking up during the night. The stories are in my mother tongue Tamil. Occasionally I dream delivering speeches in excellent English. I am scarcely able to recall my stories and speeches in full the next morning and I fail in my attempts to write them on paper. Only sketches remain in my memory for few days and fade away. My dream of becoming a writer thus remains only in my dreams.

The "Auto" graphy of my First Car

Like Mahatma Gandhi's autobigraphy is titled "The Story of My Experiments with Truth", this blog may be called an "auto" graphy with the title "The Story of My Experiences with my First Car" My first car was actually a second hand car. In 1980s when I bought it, the term used car was not in vogue. It was a black Fiat , produced perhaps in late 1960s and was one of the last batch with doors on both sides opening from front to rear , fit to be graded as a vintage car. Though called second hand, I am sure it must have passed through several hands as the RC book showed may owner names. To avoid being cheated by touts dealing in used cars , I took the help of a friend to test drive and certify its health and roadworthiness. The price was settled at Rs 18,000. I did not know driving and my firend volunteered to teach me driving .As good leaarner I picked up the rudiments correctly and in quick time and within a week my friend was satisfied that I could drive on main roads without him by my side. I got my two wheeler driving licence upgraded to driving automobles, thanks to some over friendly RTO agents . The only thing I could not get over was taking my left foot off the clutch pedal while driving. This habit resulted in a comic episode when I could not drive the car up the small gradiant of the Gharware bridge in Deccan Gymkhana area in Pune.The car started sliding down backwards and both my daughter and son gotting trying hard to push it up the bridge.. Like most proud owners of newly acquired cars with limited driving skills and even less knowledge of automobiles and traffic rules, I was not deterred from taking the family on frequent round rips from home to home city without parking anywhere . This is because I could not for my life master parking in narrow parking space between two vehicles. In my opinion, parking needs different skill sets and training. The car showed great propensity to consume petrol in tens of litres frequently as well an insatiable thirst for water in its radiator. My ascribed this to age of the vehicle and need for an overhaul of the engine. Then one day it happened what I dreaded not to happen in my driving life. Taking a practice drive alone one afternoon close to my home, the "Leftist" leanings of my car resulted in its hitting the barbed wire fencing off the road and it stalled with engine running. I left the car on a "as is where is" basis, walked back home and phoned up a nearby garage. The car was towed home with its left side mauled beyond recognition of what might it have looked like earlier. An estimate of charges for removing dents, straigtening and painting was submitted to me by the garage man. He gave me the option to consider reconditioning of the engine and other major work like brakes,suspension system etc right then since the car needed all these items too attended. My wife on her part suggested body repainting of the colour of the car with something other than black as she was convinced that black colour was the reason of the accident. I was firm in asking the mechanic to repair only the effects of the accident and that I would take up other items later in due course. Nonetheless, I asked him for a tentative quote for all the repair work including engine recondtioning etc . He mentioned something of the order of the price I had paid for buying the car. Next day I visited the garage to see if the work has been taken up. I did not find my car . When asked about it, the mechanic showed a heap of parts of an automobile engine spread on a tarpaulin sheet saying they have been dismantled from the engine of my car for repair/replacement and refitting . When I remostrated that he had no business to start these major jobs without my consent, he said that since he had no immediate work on hand for such major repairs he had better started the work on my car. After all one day or other I had to get the same done. I protested threatening to report to the police and insisted that he gave me the car back with engine refitted . He agreed to do that and quoted refitting charges payable by me! I had to agree to an astronomical figure for all the work except body repainting . For my misfortune all this happened when the DoorDarshan was featuring a comedy serial Waghle ki Duniya . The main character was one Mr. Waghle who was the victim of cheating at the hands of others. Many of my friends who knew my story of my first car called me Mr. Waghle