Posts from — December 2004

Here’s wishing you all, a very happy 2005!!

Take with you the best of what 2004 gave you and leave behind what 2004 tried to spoil.

For those who reflect on the past year and see failures, here are a few lines by Thomas Hood to welcome the new year by,

And ye, who have met with Adversity’s blast,
And been bow’d to the earth by its fury;
To whom the Twelve Months, that have recently pass’d
Were as harsh as a prejudiced jury -
Still, fill to the Future! and join in our chime,
The regrets of remembrance to cozen,
And having obtained a New Trial of Time,
Shout in hopes of a kindlier dozen.

“There is no need to panic!“. This is the stock statement that government makes for public consumption when faced with a crisis. It is aimed at reducing panic and confusion among the people.

But what about the government?! … what if they are confused themselves?!

Don’t be foolish! The government can never be confused at a time like this, of course!!

1a. India plans no new tax to fund tsunami relief.
1b. Government may levy 1% tsunami cess.
1c. No calamity cess, PM assures taxpayers.

2a. Government refuses foreign aid to fight disaster.
2b. India has not spurned foreign aid.

3a. Panic grips south India after fresh tsunami alert.
3b. No tsunami threat, says TN Met dept.

I agree! … the government isn’t confused! It is sending out completely unambiguous signals, is it not?!

It is surprising isn’t it, that with all the advances in science, we still haven’t come up with a way to predict natural disasters like earthquakes and volcanic eruptions. The best thing that we can do is to make an informed guess about approximately when an earthquake might occur. And then too, it’s only mathematical probability. So all we know is that an earthquake may (or may not) occur at around so and so time at a given place. To complicate matters further, these predictions are really only applicable at places which have a history of earthquakes. Not the most comforting of thoughts, is it?!

But to be fair, earthquakes rarely strike at completely unexpected places. There is a lot that goes on before an earthquake strikes. And geologists can usually sense these going-ons well in advance. By this, I mean that the chance of an earthquake occuring at a place that has absolutely no history (and I mean really age old history) of quakes is very remote.

I do not want to sound too technical, but earthquakes can be of different types and the one that rocked Southeastern Asia on Boxing Day was of the most common variety - the tectonic earthquake. The earth can be visualized as a fractured sphere fitted together by a jigsaw-puzzle-like pieces of crust known as plates (or the tectonic plates). Underneath these plates (i.e. underneath the crust) is the hot, molten magma. When you take into consideration the size of the earth, the crust is just a wafer-thin layer of solid rock. So the plates lie atop the magma and when the magma moves, the plates move alongwith it. Picture a sheet of metal moving along over a conveyor belt. It’s something like that!

When the plates move, they could press against each other. So when an ocean plate (the oceanic Indo-Australian plate in the case of the 26th December earthquake) pushes and grinds up against a continental plate (the huge continental Eurasian plate in this case) one plate wins the battle (usually the continental plate wins this battle). And the plate that loses gets pushed beneath the other plate. The constant pushing and grinding leads to tremors within the earth’s crust. These tremors are what we feel as earthquakes. Usually, the process of one plate getting pushed beneath the other, known as subduction, is a painstaking process and the resulting tremors are low intensity. But sometimes, the pressures on the plate boundaries gradually build up to such an extent that suddenly one plate gives way. When this happens, we get the whopper earthquakes like the one that occured on Monday, 26th December, off the coast of Indonesia.

Taking the above example ahead, when the ocean plate (which is obviously at the bottom of the ocean) suddenly sinks beneath the continental plate, a huge column of water above that spot (where the subduction occurs) is suddenly pulled downwards and then is pushed upwards with an unbelieavble amount of force. This action sets off what are referred to as Tsunamis. To understand this, simply visualize that happens when u throw a pebble in a pond. Ripples start propagating outwards from the spot where the pebble struck the water. This is about what happens on a much much larger scale in case of Tsunamis. Huge waves start propagating outwards from the spot where the subduction occured. These waves move outwards with speed and when they encounter a shoreline, rush onto land like a huge huge tide… flooding everything in the path. It is worth noting here that inspite of popular conceptions that Tsunamis involve gigantic waves crashing down upon the shores, the fact is that Tsunamis usually hit the shores like a sudden and exceptionally huge tide. As they reach inland, the flooding tide loses force and suddenly starts receding dragging anything and everything in its path towards the sea. It is this strong current, trying to return back to the sea, that causes the most destruction of life as the water carries hapless victims with it into the sea.

Of course, the dynamics of a Tsunami are much more complicated than this. But I’ve just tried to give a rough idea of what led to Monday’s events. For further reading, there are a number of sites all over the Net where you can get a lot of detailed information on this subject.

Earthquakes have been a way of life for earth. Earth’s history is violent. In the past, entire species have been wiped away by the fury of nature. The ones that survive live to experience Earth’s dangerous beauty with the knowledge that they are but transient inhabitants of the Blue Planet.

It is an amazing coincidence that India is simultaneously witnessing two high-profile cases involving the (mis)use of camera phones. I don’t need to spell it out explicitly that I’m referring to the DPS MMS case and the Shahid-Kareena kiss episode.

And I’m sure that this strange coincidence will precipitate an immediate ban on camera phones in places like schools, colleges, etc. And that is unfortunate!

I don’t say that I’m against banning camera phones in schools/colleges, but as trigger-happy as our government is, I don’t think it’ll be wrong to assume that pretty soon the only place you might be allowed to use a camera phone would be within the confines of your home! And THAT is unfortunate!

Already, Anna University has banned camera phones on campus! Sure as hell… other universities will promptly follow suit!

I find it silly that our first impulse is to ban outright.

I mean… how far will this go on? Today they’ve banned camera phones on campus. So anybody carrying a camera phone within the campus would be ‘punished’. But what about those tiny digital cameras that are very cheaply available in the market? Would they be banned too? But then that would mean banning digital cameras in general… coz how are you going to decide on what size to ban and what to allow?! And then what about things like USB keyring storage devices that include a small digital camera on them?! These devices can turn your ordinary phone into a camera phone! I’m just randomly picking devices! There are zillions of pieces of technological innovation that could be candidates for banning! Yet another example is that of a hi-tech pair of sunglasses that have a tiny digital camera fitted in them!

The point I’m trying to make is that technology is fast outstripping the bounds of imagination of most lay-people. And this is challenging their fixed notions of what privacy should be! Either we need to redefine privacy in this all-seeing age or we need to shut ourselves into a cocoon, completely shutting out the infinite possibilities that technology affords to us!

The powers-that-be seem to have chosen the easy path of blaming technology! What will YOU choose?!

Rarely does Bollywood churn out a movie that makes you feel good while you are filing out of the cinema hall. Good… about yourself… about your country… and about cinema in general. Swades is one such movie. It does not grip you, it does not wow you, it does not thrill your senses. It just grows on you and leaves you feeling touched in some way or the other.

[Read more →]