HAS ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE CHECKMATED HUMANITY?

 

DIGITAL INTRUSION?

Last June I posted an entry titled ‘Google As Pied Piper’. That chronicled an experience with Google maps that I found to be not only alarmingly but intrusive to the point of being definitely dangerous. The good news that time was that we were able to reach home unmolested. But it could have been anything depending upon how the so-called algorithms behind Google Maps functioned. However, much has come into public focus since then and it turns out that large sections of people all over the world are coming alive to the real danger posed by social media to the fabric of society. It has been recognised that it poses a clear threat to democratic processes and that it has played no small role in muzzling the voices of millions of people across the world. Most recently it has been Facebook and Chinese apps that have been facing flak. Mark Zuckerberg was summoned by American congressmen after the Cambridge Analytica uproar over sharing of personal information. But other bigwigs of the digital world like Amazon, Facebook and Google were also summoned by the Intelligence Committee of the American Senate on the apprehensions of foreign interference in US elections. Curiously, neither Alphabet CEO Larry Page or Google chief executive Sundar Pichai appeared for the hearing, raising suspicions about what they may have had to hide.     

The Watergate Scandal it may be recalled involved the bugging of the US Democratic Party headquarters by President Nixon and his Republican boys. So huge was the Watergate Scandal that it resulted in the unceremonious exit of President Richard Nixon. The book and the film ‘All the President’s Men’. (Those interested in knowing more about it could see an interview of Richard Nixon by Robert Fox, ironically available on the site of another social media giant – YouTube). Earth shaking events by any standards, considering that in those days the United States was one of only two super powers in the world. In terms of economic might, it was the only super power. The ripple effects of a drastic regime change there was sure to be felt all over the world.   

But the world has changed vastly since those days both in terms of US power and the value of privacy. Soviet Union, the other Super Power, disintegrated in 1991 apparently leaving the US as the unchallenged power. In terms of technology the internet has seemingly trapped the entire world in its so-called world-wide net but instead of a spider there are several giant corporations that have become the biggest private media companies ever known to man. The older seven or eight giants have paled into insignificance compared to new companies like Google, Facebook and Amazon all of which gather enormous amounts of information from individual human beings who also happen to be their customers. Getting bugged or spied upon is no big deal any longer, partly of course because of the fact that few people are actually aware that they are under close surveillance. People just walk around nonchalantly with such scandals literally in their pockets. I am of course, referring to the ubiquitous mobile smart phone loaded with applications or apps and “wonderful” high definition cameras on both surfaces of the phone which are actually two-way cameras. You use it like an ordinary camera while images are passed on to the various software operators on the phone.

And to top it all, the bugging is even considered to be prestigious if your grossly overpriced device carries the sign of a moth-eaten apple on it!! Reminds one of the economics propounded by that Wizkid who helped Obelix market his practically useless menhirs in Asterix comics. The tragi-comedy of it all is that most people who use smart phones are not even aware that the wonderful multi-megapixel cameras with which they click those cute selfies are also used to spy on their every activity and gather all manner of information. Do you want an example? Well, my phone informs me every evening ‘ten minutes to home’ just about half-an-hour before the end of work time. No such messages now as I work from home. Un-nerving, for it rubs it in that my movements are not only being tracked but also recorded.

Its laughable to think that not so many years back one of the indicators of development was the number of phones per thousand of population – the higher, the more developed. India, of course was way down in the list and dismissed variously as underdeveloped, least developed or developing, according to taste. After a great deal of ‘progress’ Indians own an estimated five to six hundred million phones, roughly one for every 2.5 persons (the .5 possibly referring to children)? Now it seems virtually impossible to get rid of that instrument somewhat in the manner of Mary’s little lamb. People responded to Arogya Setu app with great suspicion and only about a hundred million downloaded it, and a large number had it forced down upon them. The Orwellian ‘big brother’ seems to have become a reality.

A rather startling declaration in this connection was made in recent television documentary ‘Social Dilemma’ by Tristan Harris, a former Google employee. According to him, eventually technology is destined to overtake human intelligence and strengths and replace them. But that is in the future. The tipping point it seems has already occurred. Technology, he asserts “already exceeds and overwhelms human weaknesses – and is at the root of polarisation, radicalisation, outragi-fication and vanityfication…. this is checkmate humanity.” In simple terms, what Harris is saying is that machines have already crossed a threshold that will enable them eventually to take over (or overtake) man. Are Harris’s fears well founded or was he overstating it? Was it just a digital social media marketing ploy? “Don’t even try…you don’t stand a chance,” most of the characters seem to be saying in the documentary. Remember, he is a former Google employee and part of the team that created the behemoth. So it is surprising that about the only thing that he found objectionable in the whole Google project was that there was no one thinking of making it less addictive. So why should, to draw a parallel, a cigarette manufacturer think up ways to make cigarettes less addictive? Or cocaine cartels seriously working to reduce dependence on hard drugs? D..n it, their business model works on the human weakness of addiction.

As I watched the documentary, I definitely got the impression that most of those who were interviewed were convinced that technology and social media were unique events in human history in which machines would simply push human beings to the second spot. But it also had a participant who pointed out, sensibly in my view, that humans had successfully negotiated new technology in the past and would do so in future too. But Harris sounded like he was roughly the first person, an insider at that, who had noticed this very grave danger though no one in the entire documentary offers any way out of the apparently inevitable social dilemma. In fact, I did not see any evidence of analysis of the problem, always the first step towards dealing with it. But perhaps Harris and his colleagues would be happy to know that the problem had been recognized and analysed long back by not an American but by an eastern philosopher - Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941). The answer too lay in the analysis. Alas, only if it had been heeded.

Delivering a lecture 88 years back, ‘Asia’s Response to the Call of the New Age’, Tagore accurately diagnosed the problem of Western Civilization. He said that Europe had made science the vehicle of its greed “hurting the very spirit of science which is disinterested and high above all clamour of profit-hunting. When excess of passion in any form becomes the principal motive power in man’s nature then he is wire-pulled by it like a mechanical doll and is powerless to check its blind movements even when urged by reason. Such uncontrollable spasms of greed or of anger, or jealousy or of suspicion are truly materialistic, however intelligent may be their method and means.” It was not the use of machinery itself that was responsible for this “degradation”, Tagore said, and identified the cause in the “spiritual lacunae, in emergence of primitive barbarism in some civilized form. When a free lunatic hurts himself, then it is not the external freedom which is the cause of his hurt but lunacy itself, and if he is a skilful one his danger is all the more fatal.”

The plot in the Silicon Valley contains all the ingredients mentioned by Tagore and like a mechanical doll it seems powerless to check its blind movements even when urged by the reason of the likes of Tristan Harris!!

The Case of Mystery "Sources" in Modern Journalism

 Reading newspapers is often a trying affair these days. This is because some reporters, particularly those based in the capital, resort to the indiscriminate use of anonymous sources, particularly in political stories which are rarely challenged. And mind you, these stories can hardly be described as falling in the category of ‘great public interest.’

The only explanation that I can think of is that there is a wide-spread belief among reporters that resorting to this “little trick” lends mystery to their stories making people wonder who those unnamed sources could be. These reporters are convinced that stories attributed to “sources” not only reveal their close proximity to the founts of information but also lend them authenticity. Remember Watergate and the anonymous ‘deep throat’ that eventually led to the ousting of an American president. The reporters (Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein) of the Washington Post achieved celebrity status and are the most commonly quoted examples when the conversation veers around to investigative reporting. Perhaps our home-grown humble reporters too dream of becoming heroes who eventually write books and hopefully have films made after them.

But the ‘poor fools’ don’t realise that far from raising credibility, the gimmick of using anonymous sources gets exactly opposite results. I remember one colleague who had earned the nickname of “planter” due to his penchant for using “highly placed sources”. I suspect these sources could be any of the following: the fevered imagination of the reporter himself. Or misplaced and mischievous people who want to achieve private ends from the safety of anonymity- essentially using the shoulders of the reporter and the news organisation to fire their guns!! There is, of course one more possibility which I think is highly unlikely: that the source was sitting on the top storey of the Empire State Building or the Eiffel Tower!!

 Many years back, when I was less aware of the ways of the world, I started a small newspaper. The flame of idealism burnt bright in me and inspired me into a path that I later discovered was full of pitfalls, not the least of which was financial. However, to get to the nub of the matter, one interesting incident occurred during the short life of that neighbourhood newspaper. One of my neighbours who was perhaps feeling neglected submitted to me a piece attacking his rivals accusing them, in sum of grave irregularities. I published it, but with his by-line. As soon as the paper was out, the very upset author paid me a visit demanding why I had given it under his name instead of using the term sources. In other words, he was grumbling about me not offering my shoulder for his dirty work. No doubt he had received a mouthful from those he had attacked.

Moral of the story: Reporters, senior or junior, must put the interest of the paying subscriber uppermost which means ensuring the authenticity of the information and not play “politics” with it. The use of anonymous sources raises suspicion that the reporter is not objective but in cahoots with one of the parties – a thing that should be strictly avoided by the media no matter what the lollipop or threat.

COVID19 DAY 49-95 (26.6.2020)

COMPASSION IS THE CALL OF CORONA

Much water has flowed over more than the past one month. The worldwide toll taken by this “stubborn” virus is closing in on the half million mark while the numbers infected has gone past the nine million mark. Of course, optimists point out that more than half have recovered. After just under two-and-half months of lockdown the government opted to relax it rather than to risk an economic catastrophe in addition to the pandemic. But the dilly dallying continues as India has climbed to the fourth place in the total number of cases reported and is second only to the United States in the number of serious and critical cases. This number though for some reason has remained stationary at 8944 for well over the past week. There are regular changes in the number of new cases, deaths and recoveries but the number of serious and critical cases remain constant.

The question arises as to whether statistics are important at all or are they merely numbers that bear little relation to the reality. One is reminded of the stratagem adopted by the dispensation under Napoleon the pig in George Orwell’s satire on the Soviet Union ‘Animal Farm’. Just to give an outward show of well-being, grain bins were filled mostly with pebbles and then topped up with corn to make it appear as if there was no food shortage. I wish authorities take statistics more seriously particularly in the time of a pandemic when numbers are of paramount importance. That is perhaps the reason why many high-ranking government officials have come down with Covid19 since neither statistics nor contact tracing has been taken seriously enough. Experts have said again and again that the only way to bring the pandemic under control is to follow the virus. And if information about people who are getting infected is swept under the carpet, the virus gets the upper hand no matter how good it looks for us now.

However, looking at the past weeks and months what has struck me most is the lack of compassion in people at all levels. The attitudes of many leaders is utterly insensitive and shows complete disregard for human life. The American president, for example, has no qualms about saying that he would consider it a success if 80,000 people should die. It does not strike him that it is a failure even if one death takes place. (The toll is now over 126,000, seemingly leaving the president’s dreams in tatters!! What an exhibition of inhumanity). The Brazilian president describes this deadly infection as just a little cold. Is he out of his mind? At one million, Brazil now has the second highest number of positive cases in the world just behind the US. More than 53,000 Brazilians have already lost their lives to this “little cold”. True, for most it is just a little cold but for some it is fatal. Many leaders in their eagerness to appear realistic and practical have floated the idea people acquiring herd immunity. Maybe they are trying to cover their poor response stemming from the lack of a sense of urgency. Do they even know what this might mean in terms of loss of lives, pain, loneliness and loss of jobs and livelihoods and economies and livelihoods destroyed? Urgent action to save lives does not even figure in their agenda. Clinging on to power seems to be their single-minded pursuit. Rest is just “collateral damage.” For they seem to be sure, mistakenly though, that the virus will leave them alone.  

Over the ages India has been showing the beacon of compassion to the world beginning with Buddha. Compassion stems from the belief here that everything is a part of the Brahma whether it is man, animals, plants or inanimate objects. I recently learnt of a story of compassion about Sri Sarada Devi, known among her disciples as the Holy Mother, the wife of mystic sage Ramkrishna Paramahansa Dev – the man who was called Master by Swami Vivekananda and worshipped by many disciples. Sarada Devi, who outlived her husband by 34 years, belonged to Jayrambati in Bankura district of Bengal and lived there after the death of Sri Ramkrishna – an extraordinary being whose greatness was underlined by his simplicity and humility. Humility and simplicity also marked the life of Sri Sarada Devi who was a very kind hearted person who tried to help people in need without asking their caste and creed – the very essence of compassion. The incidents that I am going to relate are about Sri Sarada Devi bring out these very characteristics in her and should act as a guide and precept for all, whether they are powerful or powerless, wealthy or poor, particularly at a time when we are in the presence of a virus, sometimes deadly, that is totally non-discriminating. She was no revolutionary but she was supremely compassionate.

Shiromanipur was a village neighbouring Jayrambati. Its population was predominantly Muslim who traditionally were silk cultivators. Though India had been a major producer of silk for centuries, it had fallen on bad times due to stiff competition from China and Japan. This also affected sericulture (called ‘toont’ in Bengali) in villages like Shiromanipur which impoverished the cultivators. As a result, many of them had turned into thieves and highwaymen known as dacoits. But surprisingly many of inhabitants of Shiromanipur including those who indulged in thievery and dacoity held Sri Sarada Devi in high esteem and devotion since she appreciated their predicament and did not adopt a holier than though attitude. She not only treated them with great affection and love but also made sure that whenever they came to her house, they did not return to their village on empty stomachs. In addition, she plied them with many gifts of food and other stuff. Knowing the hard times that the Shiromanipur Muslims had fallen upon, she insisted on employing them to build her new house in 1914-15, dismissing fears expressed by many villagers including her own relatives.

Amjad was one such silk farmer turned dacoit who would visit Sri Sarada Devi often at times carrying vegetables for her grown in his patch of land. ‘Toonte dakat’ was his notorious nickname. One day he brought a hand of bananas as an offering for the temple that Sri Sarada Devi happily accepted, overruling the objection of a woman devotee asked why should the offering of a bad man be accepted. But despite knowing of his devotion, Sri Sarada Devi never tried to reform Amjad into a pious man as usually happens in many stories. He continued with his ‘badman’ ways though it must be said in his defence that he never molested Jayrambati, perhaps out of regard for the Holy Mother. She refused to condemn him to the nether worlds just because he was a dacoit. Once when he showed up after a long interval, Amjad explained that he could not come for some days as he had been rounded up for cattle rustling. Sri Sarada Devi accepted this in a matter of fact way, only replying that she was wondering why he hadn’t turned up for such a long time and now she understood why. When she was told some years later in Calcutta (now Kolkata) that he had been arrested by the police for dacoity, her only reaction was: “Oh, and I thought that at least he knew all about dacoity.” She even looked after his wife Motijan Bibi and his mother Fatema Bibi when Amjad was in lockup. Incidentally, Amjad succumbed to a sword wound he suffered during a dacoity raid sometime after the death of the Holy Mother. It takes a liberated soul like her to accept human beings for their intrinsic worth rather than sermonising to them.

No wonder other Muslim inhabitants of Shiromanipur held her in high esteem and some even considered her to be a Pir or Dervish as was recalled many years later by Roshan Ali Khan, who too was a resident of Shiromanipur, in an interview in 1993 to Prof. Taritkumar Bandopadhyay. (Shree Shree Mayer Padaprante, Udbodhan Karyalaya, Kolkata,2001, p. 657-661). remembered the kind and compassionate ways of Sri Sarada Devi when he met her a number of times in the company of his uncles Mafeti Sheikh and Hamedi Sheikh. Roshan Ali also related a mystic vision of the Holy Mother that Mafeti Chacha experienced. Mafeti Sheikh had gone to Sri Sarada Devi’s house to gift to her some vegetables grown in his garden. She was in prayer and so he decided to wait. As he waited in a corner of the veranda of her hut and watched her at the prayers, it seemed to him as if the Holy Mother was levitating a few feet above the prayer mat. As soon as he called out to others to see the miracle, the vision was no longer there. “She was no ordinary mortal – she must have been a pir or a dervish.”

True Sri Sarada Devi was no ordinary mortal. In addition to being compassionate she was courageous and never hesitated to act in accordance with her conviction. If what is recounted here looks like it showed her compassion only towards Muslims only, that is by no means true. She was compassionate no matter what the faith. When Swami Vivekananda fired a Hindu cook for pilfering stuff from the kitchen, the Holy Mother saw to it that the man got the job back as she knew that he was a poor man with many mouths to feed and no other means of making a living.

COVID19 DAY 39-48 (11.05.2020)

BUDDHA AND THE INWARD LOOK

The number of Corona cases worldwide is close to the four-million mark. Life in our city, which happens to be in a ‘red’ no-go zone, is at a virtual standstill though people can go out to buy vegetables, milk, meat and, if one is lucky, a bottle or two of the ‘tissue restoring’ stuff. In the meantime, the lockdown continues and peace reigns. By and large, this is due to much reduced traffic and the absence of planes which in normal times shatter the silence every few minutes. As a result of this when I sit near the window, I can hear the calls of at least a dozen different kinds of birds, most of whom I rarely paid any attention to. I can recognize the sounds of the bulbul and the parrots among them. Then there are the usual flock of seven sisters bringing the ceiling down and of course, the koel with its mellifluent song. The ubiquitous crow and pigeons we all take for granted while the noisy squirrels prance about chasing each other or squeaking in alarm when a cat is around. Across the road is a rooster that crows regardless of the time of the day. Perhaps it is not aware that its duty is in the morning, though this allotment has been made by humans. There is also a black brahmin bull that seems to hold discourses in the shade of a tree with several devoted dogs in attendance who sit quietly.  

Plants and trees are not to be left behind. Many gulmohar trees nearby carry a canopy of flaming red flowers. I am not surprised that in many parts of the world this flower, native to Madagascar (so says the ever-helpful Wikipedia), is known as the flame of the forest. As the leaves of other trees sway in the breeze and catch the sunlight, they display various shades of green. Nature in full flow and most of us miss it most of the times, busy as we are doing god only knows what and rushing about hither and thither, getting stuck in traffic jams, eating breakfast in the car, cursing other commuters, meeting mythical targets and making a nuisance of ourselves in general. Apart from what we do to others we ill-treat our bodies giving it blood pressure, diabetes and heart problems. I suppose the lockdown has forced on us the realisation that life can be enjoyed to the full if we are relaxed and at peace with ourselves.

Talking of peace, Thursday was Buddha Purnima (full moon), not just the day of Gautam Buddha’s birth but also the day of his Mahaparinirvana. Therefore, in the evening on that day a beautiful reddish yellow moon rose from the horizon into the sky which I watched. The sight was unusual because of the clear pollution-free skies but what I missed was a landscape bathed in moonlight, one of the most soothing views. This was because of the excessive streetlights that have become the norm these days to maintain security. Returning the topic of Buddha, the most important thing that I can think of is that I live in a district named after him – Gautambudhnagar. Though a bit long, it sounds much better than NOIDA, an acronym for New Okhla Industrial Development Authority set up more than three decades back. A wonderful giant statue of the Buddha adorns the entry to the town though it is almost universally ignored.

I have, however to confess that my eyes were opened to the greatness of this great founder of an atheist religion not in this city but in Ajanta, about 100 kilometres from the Maharashtra city of Aurangabad. I had often heard of the Ajanta caves and the Elora rock cut Kailasa temple. But it was Ajanta that I became really aware of the greatness of Gautam Buddha who began to spread the message of peace five hundred years before Jesus Christ. The frescoes and sculptures in the caves of Ajanta are simply marvellous. The peace that they exude has to be seen to be believed. It is believed that some of these caves were excavated in the second century B.C. and the rest in the fifth and sixth centuries A.D. The peace exuding from these unsigned works of art made two things evident to me – first that they were inspired by the Buddha who lived between 300 to 1000 years before the artists and second, the great humility that is their hallmark. This seems to be extraordinary in our world today when the artist is greater than his work of art!!

Painting from Ajanta, Cave 1, Bodhisatva Padmapani 

and the inward look

 (By Unknown author - Hugh Honour y John Fleming: Historia mundial del arte, Ed. Akal, Madrid, 2002, ISBN 84-460-2092-0, Public Domain) https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=12052163

Reverence for the Buddha grew in me after this experience but I was filled in with much more intricate details by photographer and art connoisseur Benoy K. Behl. Behl is remarkable not just because he developed a technique of photography in low light but also because he has managed to imbibe the philosophy of Indian art as well as its techniques. It was no accident that I was thus moved by the art in these caves located in the gorge of the Vaghora river which he called an enchanted place. According to Behl, the Ajanta paintings are the fountainhead of Buddhist painting around the world. In his lectures around the world at which he showed these paintings, Behl found that art historians and critics were of the unanimous view that “this must surely be the finest art of mankind… not just of the fifth century but all the art of the renaissance, impressionists, expressionists and modern art.” He says that in the vision of life in these paintings is the “same that is in you and me and in all the animas, the birds, the insects, the flowers, the leaves…” This vision sees a great unity in the whole of creation and this imparted a great sense of compassion to every line which the painter made.

The art of Ajanta is no longer viewed around the world as a flash in the pan as it was earlier but was part of a continuous tradition of art that continued for many centuries afterwards. The philosophy of aesthetics in ancient India was very highly developed in which it was understood that the when one looked on something beautiful, like the paintings of Ajanta, the experience was that of “brahmananda itself. The ecstasy of salvation itself… for in that moment the veils of the illusion of the material world or maya or mithya are believed to be lifted and you are seeing the grace which underlies all that there is.” That is the reason why art has played a fundamental and very important role in the philosophic life of India.

The COVID19 virus has brought the worst and best in humans throughout the world. But those in power should remember that compassion and sympathy are much more important in the battle to conquer fear, pain and misery.

COVID19 DAY 22-38 (30.4.2020)

AN ERA IS PASSING

Covid19 is not showing too many signs of abating as the worldwide toll crossed three million positive cases. American President Donald Trump was true to his reality tv star status with the help of histrionics that has spawned a plethora of comedy shows. The USA, in the meantime continues to occupy the leading spot (if that is any comfort) in the total number of cases as well as deaths from the virus. India by the way is slowly creeping up on the US and has climbed from position 22 to position 16 on the worldometer chart. The number of cases has trebled over 15 days from 11,555 on April 15 to 35,000 on May 1.

Covid19 pandemic has somehow come to resemble the Mahabharat story of Arjun’s son Abhimanyu who knew how to enter the battle ‘chakravyuh’ or maze but had no idea of how to get out. Lockdown appeared to be an attractive idea in the beginning but most are finding it very hard to design a way of coming out of it unscathed. It might be all right on the one hand as humourist P.G. Woodhouse use to say in his stories about uncertain situations. On the other hand, things may simply spin out of control if the exit is made too early and the biggest irony is that nobody knows when is the right time or when is too early.

However, as the pandemic rages an era seems to be slowly passing out in India with the deaths of stars from an earlier era. Chuni Goswami, captain of the Indian football team that won the Asian Games gold medal in 1962 defeating South Korea 2-1 (can you believe it?) died at age 82. The handsome quicksilver forward was a hero of our times. Now one newspaper has reported in a headline that former cricket captain Sourav Ganguly has mourned the death of Subimal Goswami (not Chuni Goswami - I can’t believe it. Its like referring to Pele as Edson Arantes do Nascimento). Goswami’s team-mate P.K. Banerjee too died last month. Just shows that old times are passing.

Another star that passed away was Rishi Kapoor who launched the ‘Rajdoot GTS’ mini bike (175 cc) in his hugely popular film ‘Bobby’ in 1973 alongside the beautiful Dimple Kapadia. The only problem was that this mini bike was given the sound of a Harley-Davidson in the film soundtrack. The ‘Rajdoot GTS’ has become a dinosaur though Kapoor and Kapadia had continued their film careers in character roles. That was indeed a different era that few in this post liberalisation time can imagine. For youngsters (and I was one at that time) there was a very limited variety of motorbikes available. One was the 'Rajdoot' manufactured by Escorts, better known for manufacturing tractors. The other was Czech 250 cc Jawa which later came to be called Yezdi. These were pushed out of the market by the more fuel efficient and lighter Japanese bikes. The only other two-wheeler available was the Bajaj (earlier Vespa which has made a comeback recently). The choice of automobiles too was limited to three brands - good old Ambassador that evolved from the British car Morris and FIAT, an Italian car assembled and later manufactured in India as Premier, and Standard. The latter had a variant in Standard Herald that was modified Triumph two door sporty model. The liberalisation and entry of many Japanese, Korean and American brands of automobiles drove the cars out of the market too. So really, an era passes.

In ‘Bobby’ Rishi Kapoor also popularised the long woollen scarf that resembled the scarf worn by Vanessa Redgrave in the 1968 film ‘Isadora’. The film was based on the life of an American dancer who died after her scarf got entangled in the wheels of the automobile in which she was travelling. Of course, nothing of the kind happened to Raja, the role played by Rishi Kapoor. Another star to die was Irrfan Khan who however belonged to an intermediate era but will be missed by all.

Sad times.

COVID19 DAY 16-21 (14.4.2020)

A SHOCK FOR MASS SOCIETY

On the 21^st day of the lockdown, the prime minister announced that it would be extended till May. Rumours fuelled uncertainties as many had expected the lockdown to be lifted substantially on April 15. Looking at the situation, it was a pre-eminently sensible decision. The number testing positive has crossed the half million mark in the United States with deaths rising to 26,000. Worldwide this virus has claimed more than 125,000 lives and has infected more than two million. By and large lockdowns are being continued around the world.

As the pandemic rages it has come as a big blow to mass society said to have been born with the French Revolution of 1789. Most affected are three categories of people whose careers are tied up closely with mass society – sportsmen, entertainers and politicians. Though newspapers have reduced the number of pages in cost cutting efforts, the sports page has shrunk to just one side. The Olympic extravaganza has been put off, not only severely depriving sportsmen of competition, but media of content of all kinds. It appears as if it will definitely be some years before we go back to stadiums to watch big ticket games.

But sportsmen are not the only ones to be affected. The entertainment industry is in shambles since all cinema theatres are shut and social distancing means that shooting of films and serials are off. If and when it resumes, it cannot be said whether the heroes and heroines will appear in masks in the future. We’ve already had masked comic characters like ‘The Phantom’ or ‘Batman’ but the imagination stretches to the limit at the thought of masked protagonist. Akshay Kumar is appear to be no different from Shahrukh Khan. We may be able to make out Anupam Kher due to his bald pate but we will miss out on the most important element of acting – expressions while dialogues will be muffled at best. In any case, most films will look like the Wild West Hollywood movies with masked gunmen or Bollywood dacoit films of the ‘60s and ‘70s in which people like Sunil Dutt made their careers. The advertising industry too has to look for new ways of promoting products instead of riding on well known faces from sports or entertainment. They will also have to figure out new ways of brand building.  

But it seems the worst affected are politicians who are at their wits end to find ways of keeping in the public mind. Of course, our prime minister can always give ‘messages’ on television to the people. But he has to be careful not to repeat it too often as it will lose its novelty. The American president carries out daily briefings for the press and gets upset when news channels threaten not to carry them live. For him this is the crucial election year and there is no other way of campaigning other than these briefings as thousands of Americans have already lost their lives. Mr. Trump bashes the media people as he can’t get his hands on his opponents at debates and campaign speeches. And the only way in which he can stay in the limelight is to make outrageous statements because he knows very little about the COVID19 virus. The Indian National Congress has of course come up with the wonderful idea of online daily online briefings which not only save money but also enable them to showcase regional leaders.

Let us see what the future upholds for these unfortunate people.

COVID19 DAY 15 (8.4.2020)

THE SMILING ELEPHANT

The Novel Corona Virus is not an accident or a conspiracy sprung to destroy countries. It is typical of human nature to look for a scapegoat when trouble looms over our head. As indiscriminate charges fly about, the death and destruction caused by the virus only mounts, adding to our miseries. Our food habits too have changed considerably as now most of our non-vegetarian demands are met with the help of large-scale animal farming. It is believed that it is here that the transmission of the virus from the wild to humans have occurred through the intermediary of the animals that are grown specially for the table in farms.

The last few scenes of the 2011 film ‘Contagion’ are significant. They show how exactly the virus travelled from the wild to the human. The starting point was the bat that was eating a banana at a plantation and accidentally dropped a bit that was consumed by a pig that was being grown for the table. That is how it was transmitted to a human. However, the last scene is particularly disturbing as it shows the destruction of palm trees where bats live to get rid of the source of dangerous viruses. Bats would not have entered into our food cycle but for the destruction of their habitats and food sources. The message is that nature will have to be destroyed to ensure our protection from, among other things, pathogens.

But this may not be necessary if we learn to respect and live with nature which is as essential for our survival as vaccines that protect us from pathogens. In our race for industrial development and search for minerals we destroy forests, the habitat of a large part of nature (including ourselves). This has not been the human approach through history, specially in India. Here nature was looked upon as a harmonious whole consisting of animals, plants, man and even so-called inanimate objects. That is why even animals were endowed with emotions just like man as is depicted in the ‘Smiling Elephant’ as it appears in a drawing at Amber Palace, near Jaipur. The picture of this drawing was taken by Benoy K. Behl in 2001. “The smile on the face of the elephant and the twinkle in his eye are remarkable!” says Behl. 

'The Smiling Elephant' at Amber Palace, Jaipur. (photo by Benoy k. Behl

“This is a most difficult time that the world is passing through. However, we do have a choice to use it to look at ourselves, rethink our lives, take care of all that is around us and to reshape a better future for this planet.  We will have achieved something positive and learnt something very important even in the midst of our crisis. We are very fortunate to have a heritage of a great philosophy, which has always taught us universal love and the interconnection of all creation, including us, animals, the trees and rivers,” Behl adds.

COVID19 DAY 14 (7.4.2020)

ELABORATING DR. BRILLIANT

I must point out the Dr. Brilliant’s interview was carried by the American news journal ‘Wired’ and taken on phone by Steven Levy on March 19, 2020. A condensed version was reproduced on the website of ‘Seva-Canada’.( https://www.seva.ca/news/doctor-who-helped-defeat-smallpox-explains-whats-coming ).Seva is an organisation that Dr. Brilliant helped form and which helps in fighting pandemics.

There are a couple of points that he made in the interview that needs to be highlighted so that we can make an informed guess about how long this atmosphere of uncertainty lasts and the world finds its feet. The first is on whether lockdown by itself can end the pandemic. Dr. Brilliant’s answer is ‘no’. The lockdown will spread out the disease over time. “By slowing it down or flattening it, we're not going to decrease the total number of cases, we're going to postpone many cases, until we get a vaccine—which we will, because there's nothing in the virology that makes me frightened that we won’t get a vaccine in 12 to 18 months,"feels Dr. Brilliant. Eventually the human species is going to get "herd immunity"from a combination of two two things - a large enough number of people get it and develop immunity and second, the development of a vaccine. So, the time frame at which he is looking is between a year and a year-and-a-half for things to begin to normalise. He sums up the situation with a metaphor, "If this were a tennis match, I would say advantage virus right now." So there has to be increased testing and early detection and early response to eliminate the virus completely.  

The second point that he makes is the potential damage due to the irresponsible comments by the American President. “But did we get good advice from the president of the United States for the first 12 weeks? No. All we got were lies. Saying it’s fake, by saying this is a Democratic hoax. There are still people today who believe that, to their detriment. Speaking as a public health person, this is the most irresponsible act of an elected official that I've ever witnessed in my lifetime." But he holds out hope, particularly for Americans that they have a man like Dr. Antonio Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Communicable Diseases, in-charge of matters. 

COVID19 DAY12&13 (6.4.2020)

“I AM THE LUCKIEST MAN…I SAW THE LAST CASE OF SMALL POX

These were the words of American epidemiologist Dr. Lawrence Brilliant, who I mentioned in my last entry. He was in the World Health Organisation (WHO) team that ended the career of deadly small pox in India and also Bangladesh. Rahima Banu was the name of the last victim. Dr. Brilliant is now 75 but luckily for us he is still actively giving advice on the current pandemic, bringing to bear on it his vast experience. Much as we need doctors, we also need the experience of people who have dealt with such diseases in the past. So many people died in the tsunami that struck India in 2004 because no living person had a memory of it and therefore people were unable to gauge the danger. 

Dr. Larry Brilliant and his wife Girija

Dr. Brilliant, like many other members of that WHO team including Indians, is quite an offbeat doctor if one can call him that. After his internship he came to India, like many of his back-pack contemporary looking for spiritual upliftment. Dr. Brilliant’s journey, along with his wife Girija, has been unusual and he did get the spiritual upliftment that he was seeking. In this quest, he met Neem Karoli Baba and stayed at his Ashram at Kainchi Dham near Nainital for some time. The Baba, a devotee of Lord Hanuman, changed Brilliant’s life forever when he asked him to shed his kurta and pyjama and put on a three-piece suit and work in the WHO. The Doctor, the Baba predicted would end the scourge of small pox from India. Many credited the Baba with supernatural powers but this prediction of his came true.

Dr. Brilliant has settled in the up-market Bay Area of Los Angeles, USA with his wife and three children. Though he never adopted an ascetic life and lives in luxury, he continues his love affair with India and other Asian and African nations helping them out of their difficulties in health care. It seems that the good doctor has been endowed with powers of future forecasting, probably a blessing from his Guru who died in 1973. About 14 years back he had spoken of just such an epidemic as the world is witnessing today. He was speaking at a TED talk in 2006, Dr. Brilliant said many epidemiologists feared the outbreak of a virus epidemic that could infect a billion people worldwide and result in 165 million deaths. He had said that it would be like nothing like what people had seen till then. “There will be no airplanes flying,” was his ominous forecast and the US economy would lose one to three trillion dollars and the “consequences will be unthinkable.” A group of top epidemiologists he had spoken to had felt that it would occur within the next generation or the one after that. Dr. Brilliant was also the chief technical advisor of the 2011 film ‘Contagion’ that has suddenly become very popular again. It seems he was pretty accurate and the unthinkable has happened.

What does Dr. Brilliant have to say now? Well, he revealed that at least the United States has not just walked into the epidemic with its eyes open but the administration has even worked to dismantle the team that had been part of the National Security Council. And this had been happening for the past couple of years. The Washington Post reported in May, 2018 that the top White House official responsible for leading the US response in the event of a deadly pandemic had left the administration and the global health security team he headed had been disbanded by National Security Advisor John Bolton, a Trump supporter. The man who headed the team was retired Rear Admiral Timothy Ziemer. “I mean Trump pushed out the admiral… And then Trump removed the (early warning) funding for countries all around the world.”

“That there is no human being in the world that has immunity as a result of having had it before. That means it’s capable of infecting 7.8 billion of our brothers and sisters … But there's going to be tens of millions of us or hundreds of millions of us or more who will get this virus before it's all over, and with large numbers like that, almost anything where you ask “Does this happen?” can happen.” See what you can make of it.

COVID19 DAY 10&11

SURVEILLANCE AND CONTAINMENT OF THE SPECKLED MONSTER

Europe and the United States of America continue to be the hot-spots of corona virus as the number of people infected by this deadly pathogen has reached one-and-quarter million and the number of deaths has touched 65,000. Going by the numbers, the situation in India does not seem to be as alarming and many are hoping for an early calling off of the lockdown that has brought the country to a halt. However, this may be deceptive as recent statistics reveal that the speed with which people in India are getting infected is accelerating. Be that as it may, the world seems to be in for the long haul and it doesn’t look like the virus is going to go away anytime soon. Three months have gone by but scientists are still racing to find a vaccine. Many experts have estimated that it may take as much as 18 months before the vaccine becomes available. So, what will the world be like in the meantime? And how are we going to take care of the situation till then and even afterwards with this deadly infective virus around.

It is possible that the recent outbreak has been the result of complacency, particularly on the part of countries that have been long industrialised and have excellent health care systems. It is also a reminder to the less fortunate countries whose health care systems are not much to write home about. Maybe we have lost the touch as it has been nearly half a century since the last great campaign to get rid of another deadly killer disease – small pox – was undertaken. Maybe Indians will do well to recall the strategies adopted with the help of the World Health Organisation to eliminate small pox that had achieved such great success.

The strategy adopted at that time is known as “ring vaccination” or “surveillance and containment” as it was officially called. This in effect was like ring fencing a forest fire in which a band of trees is cut down around those that are on fire to stop it from spreading. And mind you this had to be adopted after mass vaccinations had failed to wipe out the disease. A little less than 200,000 cases had still been reported from 8,000 villages in 1974. So, 150,000 trained field workers fanned out to India’s 575,721 villages and 2,641 towns and cities, according to records of the massive campaign donated to the University of Michigan Library, USA, by Dr. Lawrence Brilliant, a member of this large team.

Dr. Brilliant’s own story is worth recalling though. Relating it in a TED talk, he said that soon after graduating in 1967, he came to India “like everyone in our generation.” There he ended up in a Himalayan monastery where the Guru predicted that he would help eradicate small pox. So what is the mantra that Dr. Brilliant discovered to contain small pox? “Early detection, early response.” He said that “small pox made its last stand in India” but his mantra meant that there would have to be wide surveillance. This became possible due to the full backing of the government which made money and a large team available for the WHO team.

Dr. Brilliant, however, found a strange thing. “Every time we did a house-to-house search we had a spike in the number of reports of small pox. When we didn’t search, we had the illusion that we had no disease.” Often there was under-reporting perhaps due to economic reasons or stigma or simply religious beliefs. (Utkarsh, a final year journalism student has written a piece in his blog ‘Decoding the Social Stigma’ on stigma that is accompanying the current COVID19 pandemic in India  available at the following link: https://truthadvocator.home.blog/2020/04/04/decoding-the-social-stigma/ . “It was the largest campaign in United Nations’ history till the Iraq war,” recalled Dr. Brilliant in a lecture delivered in 2006. More about Dr. Brilliant in the next entry.

A Cartoon from the 19th century from the anti-Vaccine Society(Roots of Progress)

Here I would like to mention the good work done by Jason Crawford, https://rootsofprogress.org/smallpox-and-vaccines   apparently an American on uncovering not only the progress of developing a vaccine for small pox but has also mentioned some of the controversies involved in his blog ‘Roots of Progress’. He has also used an excellent cartoon on the vaccination effort by doctors in Europe which I have reproduced here. Like the COVID19, the small pox virus (variola) can strike anyone. It had no respect for weak or powerful, rich or poor or even for religious persuasion. Small pox has claimed the lives of many high and mighty like Ramses V, a 12^th century B.C. Egyptian Pharaoh. According to Jason, it struck George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, though both of them survived it.

Edward Jenner is credited with have developed the vaccine for small pox through the cow pox, a less virulent strain of the same disease. But inoculation was known to people in Asia and Africa for a long time. It was noticed that those who survived small pox never got it again. So, people took the liquid from the body of a person who had the disease and injected it in their own bodies. They developed the same symptoms but in a milder form though some also died. But those who survived got immunity for life. This process was known as inoculation. Jenner and other Western doctors then refined the vaccine. But on one matter, I disagree with Jason when he claims credit for the West and capitalism for all the great developments of recent centuries. The West was prompted by selfish motives to colonise large parts of the world but for which large numbers of indigenous people, as he himself admits, would not have been wiped out because of diseases imposed on them by their aggressors. And the latest pandemic is clearly the result of that very capitalism that promoted globalisation after 1991.

COVID19 LOCKDOWN DAY 8&9 (2.4.2020)

MAN AND NATURE

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson termed the steps taken in Britain to check the pandemic as a “national fightback against the Corona virus… by staying at home we are going to beat it and beat it together”. This sums up the western approach pretty neatly … that life consists of a constant struggle against the chaotic forces of nature and progress consists of defeating these forces and bringing them under control. Recall the words of English political philosopher Thomas Hobbes who said felt that the state of nature was that of war of all against all. This way of thinking has quickly spread to many parts of the world and man’s mission in life seems to be taming nature.

I am reminded of a trip some years back to the Pueblo cliff dwellings at Manitou Springs in Colorado in the United States. Just like at other archaeological sites, descriptions about the site and the people who lived there were engraved on stone and concrete. Now Manitou Springs is located in the Rocky Mountains, the mountain chain that runs from north to south in western United States. What struck me most was a piece which said that the Pueblos who lived there called mountain range as ‘Shining Mountains” as they had a lot of metallic ore veins that sparkled in the sun. When European immigrants saw the place, they called the mountains the Rockies. So, while the indigenous Americans chose to note the beauty and man’s harmony with the mountainside, the European-Americans emphasised the toughness of “taming” the rocks to get at the metals – looked merely as a resource to be used for the benefit of man.

So, the West looks at the world in terms of conquering it. That is why they ‘conquer’ the North Pole, the Everest, the South Pole or the highest and toughest mountains putting their lives in danger. Indians lived with the tallest mountains of the world for centuries but it never occurred to them to conquer them. Many Indian sages are believed to have retired to the high Himalayas for meditation but they did not leave any signboards. Not only did the British think it essential to measure the mountains but also to reach its peak but in the process set off a procession that continues to this not just leading to tons of garbage being left on the Himalayas but also leading to ‘traffic jams’ of climbers. The legacy has been carried forward in Bengal where many people are madly eager to scale the Everest and other tall peaks.

As against this habit of plundering and conquering nature, the Indian and Oriental way of thinking envisioned a harmonious one-ness of nature and man. Humans were part of nature and were not meant to exploit it. This is evident in the centuries old philosophy whose remains are to be found among the Buddhist sculptures, stone carvings and frescos. A beautiful rendering of this is the composite creature found as a wall carving in the Sanchi stupa. 

COMPOSITE CREATURE, SANCHI STUPA (PHOTO BY BENOY K. BEHL)

The photograph has been taken by Benoy Behl who brought it to my notice. this joyous depiction. It is a composite creature, says Behl who has made many documentaries on Indian art and architecture. “The depiction displays the oneness of all life forms. It is such a delightful and happy creature, with the qualities of an elephant, cow, deer and even a horse. All of creation is seen in a vision full of warmth.

In today’s time, the message from Indian art and philosophy is of the oneness of all beings, human, animal, birds…It is time to stop being cruel to bats, chicken, all animals, trees…nature.”

COVID19 DAY 7 (31.3.2020)

SCIENCE AND SUPERSTITION

SITALA MATA (FROM A KALIGHAT PATA PAINTING)

Several thoughts come to my mind as the lockdown enters its seventh day. The one that strikes most is this old debate between science and superstition. Among Bengalis for instance there was a belief that keeping the Sitala Mata happy was the best protection against the scourge of small pox, one of the deadliest diseases that mankind has ever known. This one single disease perhaps killed more people in India than any other infectious disease as recently as 1974, as many as 188,000 cases were reported from India, according to an online exhibit at the University of Michigan library. Over the years millions lost their lives due to small pox and even the ‘60s India accounted for more than half of small pox cases in the world. But this disease was wiped out of the country by the middle of 1975, mainly by the administration of mass vaccinations.

So, the battle in the case of small pox was won by science rather than faith in the powers of deities. Of course, the Sitala deity has now been entrusted with many other ‘portfolios’ following the eradication of the disease. But perhaps the problem arises from a confusion in people’s minds between faith and superstition. Does a black cat crossing the path result in bad luck? Now that is pure superstition as there is absolutely no evidence to support this assumption. Nobody has yet cleared a doubt – does this rule hold good if the black cat’s tail has a white tip? Yet I have seen many educated people change course when their paths are crossed by a black cat.

Then there is the matter of mascots. Sportsmen are said to be most susceptible to mascots. Famous football players have quirky beliefs about actions that they think will bring them success. Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, for example, makes sure that its always his right foot that crosses the line first as he enters the field and he also the last to come out of the tunnel. Former England player David Beckham was known to clean a fridge before matches as it got his team victories. Many people also have strong beliefs in evil or good omens. Somebody sneezing just as you are leaving a place is considered to be an ill omen. On the other hand, an itchy left palm is promise of wealth flowing into the coffers. Another one is the twitching of eye-lids which usually is believed to portend misfortune.

Faith is quite another thing and unlike superstitions has a certain logic. There is the old story about Tulsidas and his faith in Lord Ram. He wrote something on a chit of paper and gave it to a man who found that with it in his hand he could walk on the water in the river in spate. Curious, he opened the chit to find the name of Lord Ram written on it and thought “its only Ram” and began to sink. “This is not your Ram…this is Tulsi’s Ram,” shouted Tulsidas from the river bank. Whether or not this incident actually happened is not material. What it speaks of is the power of Tulsidas’s faith in the Lord. Faith, and its close relative trust, plays a huge role in life. In fact, life would be virtually impossible without faith and trust.

But superstition is not as dangerous as half-baked scientific knowledge. United States President Donald Trump for instance said that chloroquine promised to be the wonder drug that would control COVID19 as health experts in his administration standing next to him squirmed and could only say that this was based on anecdotal evidence which means virtually no evidence at all. Similar are reports that say that consuming large amounts of tea would help control the virus and that is how the Chinese had succeeded. No scientific evidence based on logic to confirm this exists but many people actually believe in it. Cow urine and cow dung fall into this category as well. Had they really worked our leaders would not be so alarmed as to order a lockdown at all. There is enough of both in India.

In sum, while faith is important, superstition is dangerous in crisis situations like the present one as it could mean the difference between life and death. Faith, however, takes one through life giving strength to face its many problems and successes. One need not depend on some magic in which Lord Ganesh drinks milk to have faith in the deity. It is enough to know that he is the lord of the intellect and faith in him will help intellectual pursuits.

COVID19 DAY 6 (30.3.2020)

COVID19 DAY 6 (30.3.2020)

By day six people are becoming used to the lockdown though as the days go by and news comes in from all parts of the world the risks of COVID19 virus flu are becoming clearer to the people. The festive air that had followed the first one-day curfew last Sunday seems to have evaporated at least in urban areas. The importance of social or physical distancing seems to have sunk in.

But the same seriousness does not seem to have percolated down to the countryside. Vishal, a student who has returned to his village from Delhi due to the lockdown, says that people in his village, a few kilometres from the town of Sonipat on the Grand Trunk Road, are taking things lightly. But Vishal himself has moved to the village from his house at Sonipat since the town has reported cases of Covid19. Gurgaon though is the town in Haryana that has reported the highest number of cases.

Vishal reports that though the menace of this deadly flu is yet to enter the rural areas, the lockdown is already posing problems as there is no labour available to cut the wheat crop which is ready. 

Only vendors are allowed at the main vegetable market which is open from five in the morning. Since ordinary people are not allowed into the market, the vendors have formed a cartel and sell vegetables at higher prices than the people are used to. The administration has also stopped construction work leaving the labour to idle with no wages and no means to take them to their homes. Locals however are doing some screening and are distributing sanitisers.

COVID19 DAY 5 (29.3.2020)

People queue up for food at New Kondli, East Delhi (photo: NISHI SHARMA)

As the lockdown entered its fifth day, I began to notice some positives though the worldwide infected figures has is well above the half-million mark. India, luckily has just over 1100 cases. An old lady in Hyderabad is of the opinion that the Americans and Europeans and Americans have been hit harder by the virus than Indians as the latter are a hardier people. But I am not very sure.

 The Prime Minister had exhorted the people to be kind to animals. His advice has been taken seriously and I saw a few young women on the main road feeding the numerous stray dogs. The dogs of course showed their great appreciation of the thoughtfulness by vigorously wagging their tails. They also seemed to be smiling in welcome.

The government too has become wiser than before in treating the citizens. They distributed food packets to the people in the village across the road to people who had been unable to stock up. We were told that the distribution took place in the morning, afternoon and evening.

Nishi Sharma from New Kondli in East Delhi bordering Noida reports that the lockdown is being enforced strictly, with only medicine shops being allowed to open. Other shops can open from seven to ten in the morning and from six to nine in the evening. The Delhi government has made food available for daily wagers and poor people twice a day at a government school. The most to suffer from the lockdown are autorickshaw drivers, vendors, rickshaw pullers and domestic servants.

The big need of the hour seems to be protective equipment for those treating COVID19 patients. The requirement of personal protective equipment (PPE), those space suit like things that we see doctors and health workers wearing (in India only in Kerala) which prevent the transmission of this deadly disease, is estimated to be in lakhs. Millions of masks are also needed but not seen. Not that this is the situation only in India. The United States is also suffering from these shortages. But to add, this kind of protective equipment is required by workers at medical stores as well as municipal workers who collect garbage most urgently as they are equally at risk. Protective clothing is also essential for delivery boys and courier services. Let us learn from China and not the United States!!

This brings me to the ‘China’ angle of the pandemic. Many people are now busy trying to find out whether China is hiding cases of COVID19. Some want to immediately expel China from the United Nations Security Council for its misdemeanours. But I am at a loss to understand how the answer to this question will check the rampage of the disease in Europe or America and now even Asia and Africa.

Sakshi Srivastava reports from Dehra Dun that the lockdown is being implemented pretty strictly in the town. Some construction labour who had wanted to walk back to their homes in the terai district of Lakhimpur Kheri has been persuaded by the police to stay back on the promise that they would be provided with the necessary food. They are now back at the construction site in Prem Nagar.