Skip to main content

Matter of Origin

In elementary school algebra we are taught about the X and Y axes and that their intersect is called 'The Origin'.  It is where two zeroes meet.  0,0.  Everything else is in relation to these two heroes.  You always want to be in the top right quadrant and not the bottom left. 

Most management types you learn later in life build their whole careers on painting pictures based on this elementary concept when selling something.

So it is with life.  You experience life as it happens on this planet and chart those experiences as being in one of the four quadrants.  I do.  Gives me something to do.

So this trip to India was a good use case to chart I thought.

For someone whose origins have shifted (me) in terms of life spent living equal parts in India (the first half) and post interval the second half in the self-proclaimed most powerful nation on earth (USA) which I dearly love, it was a difficult exercise to put each memory in the right quadrant.

Partly because being unbiased is unnatural.  It is so because you have a variety of baselines to compare A to B with.  Food, Lodging, Travel, Infrastructure, People, Service, Weather and so on.

The USA and India in some respects similar (large democratic and young demographic) couldn't be more worlds apart.  That they are 12 hours apart in time zones from their respective geographic centers is no coincidence. 

If history was a guide, my first hand exposure to the architecture and engineering that prevailed 1,000 years ago in India would put the US panting in the dirt (bottom left quad) trying to catch up to this past civilization's glory.  Without seemingly having access to any microprocessors and heavy earth moving equipment or lasers and other hardware the precision and scale of some of the temples in the deep south is jaw dropping.

Fast forward to today and the tale takes a nasty twist.  We got the US in the top right and India is IMHO not on the chart.  In all matters except the variety of food and inspite of the so called tech boom India has lost its way.  Big time.  I will elaborate on these things when I am able to articulate thoughts a bit more coherently.  Right now I have still got 500 emails to catch up on - ensure we stay in the top right quad you know...
 
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A few good books

 On an informal mission to read one book a week as long as the eyes allow for such ambition. Fiction or non is not important as long as it entertains and /or educates. To that end the past few weeks have brought a bounty in the form of some wonderful and then not so engaging literature. Among the notables are - Non fiction category: 1. Good arguments by Bo Seo (how to handle a dispute or debate the most efficient way possible) 2. Genesis by Eric Schmidt (and former US Secy of State Henry Kissinger, who recently passed) - how AI might affect our lives as we know it 3. One in a billion - Zarna Garg (an autobiographical look at an Indian born American woman with a bindi narrated in a standup format - yes it is at times cliched but still funny) Fiction: 1. Personal by Lee Child (a vigilante story with Jack Reacher the giant, nomad protagonist of Child's novels goes hunting for a sniper) 2. Ramayana unraveled by Ami Ganatra (she might disagree about it being a work of fiction but oh wel...
Post a Comment
Read more

Back in DC

This time for a tech conference in the realm of what else? AI. But applied to an oft neglected space called Knowledge Management. The latter is a community of practice that focuses on analyzing, organizing and making available reams of data that have been gathered over time by various functions within an organization for anyone in the company to utilize. This function or process is ripe for applying AI agents (or agentic AI framework) and optimize for better outcomes. It was informative. More rewarding was getting acquainted with folks who practice this craft as well as learning of what they see in the corporate or public sectors. Since the venue was Washington DC it also afforded me the chance to take evening strolls albeit the weather was trying. With wind chill in the single digit it still is a glamorous place to perambulate through history absorbing what this country has been through since its founding days. I was able to visit the place Lincoln was killed along with his monument t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Costa Rica

 Our first foray into Central America. That elongated isthmus that forms the geographic boundary between two vast continents of North and South America. Specifically landing for NYE 2026 in San Jose, Costa Rica. Capital city for this region that does not have its own army, instead relying on its big bro the Estados Unidos to the north is a metropolis of approx. 500K people. Largely wilderness and with both a Pacific and Carribean/Atlantic coast the country is rich in bio diversity. In Spanish it means the rich coast so named by Columbus landing in early 16th century and being mesmerized by the local tribes sporting gold jewelry.   Our stay included visiting the foothills of a large strato volcano called Arenal and enjoying the naturally heated thermal baths for a while.  Lunching amidst lush forest and watching indigenous species of avian noise makers fly overhead. Toucans, some sort of pea hens, multiple song bird species completed the spectacle. Iguanas and a lonel...
Post a Comment
Read more