Captain..Captain..

(Disclaimer: This is a work of fiction & a figment of Arbitmind's imagination)

Hello there!!!

Welcome to the fifth edition of the the Show-Must-Go-On League.(SMGOL)

We have a huge match here today!!

The "Right Nighters" coached by the legendary Mr.Boka-hon versus the "Conventional Royals" coached by ..umm...no one in particular.

We are bringing it to you live.

The stadium is jam packed. We have a game on here.

Its toss time,Coach Boka is walking up to the gallery. The crowds roar. He is an immensely popular man out here.

It is a novel idea..a stroke of genius..the Toss captain would be selected from the supporters of Right Nighters.

This is in line with his philosophy of having multiple captains & bringing about equality among the masses.

..& as Boka had said earlier,"We need to pick the luckiest man for the toss. The toss is very vital in cricket.

Logically, somebody who draws the lucky number among a crowd of 30,00 is definitely a lucky man...& very rightly he will be our man for the toss on that particular day."

Lets see who gets the honours today. Lots are being drawn out here...& we have our winner..the friendly neighbourhood dada...Poltu-da. 

Poltu-da has drawn the lucky number. He is waving towards the dressing room. The dressing room stands up

& waves back at their leader..for the moment that is. 

I can see the players are jotting down his name in a notepad..

..or in wordpad..may be even be a Scintilla editor. If someone amongst them turns out to be the man-of-the match today, he has to thank Poltu-da for the toss in the post match conference.

The coin is tossed up...Poltu-da calls 'Heads' & it is 'Heads' indeed. The giant screen is showing a close up of Boka.

The man is a genius....his method has ensured that no chances are taken with the toss. Surely Boka has worked out the Binomial & Poisson distributions for this.What an unprecedented genius!!!!

The "Conventional Royals" skipper shakes his head in dejection. 

Its Poltu-da's decision now...he wants to bat or he wants to field.

There you are...Poltu-da has decided to field first. Lets see what he has to say to our man in the middle.

 

(Camera onto the pitch):

Anchor: "So poltu-da , why did you opt to field first? You presume the wicket to assist the seamers in the first half?"

Poltu-da: "Well, first of all I would like to thank my local club, my friends & family. Without their support

I would not have achieved this. Also through this platform I would like to invite everyone to our yearly cultural function..my wife is singing "Aloker ei jhornadhara" this time & my son is taking part in...."

Anchor: "Err..Poltu-da..has decided to field first..the Nighters are coming onto the field. 

The Conventional Royals' batsmen are here already. Back to the commentary box."

Thank you mate. 

The Nighters are on the field. Their field is being set. The off-side captain & the leg-side captain are 

placing their fielders on the respective sides. The wicketkeeper is captaining the slip fielder.

Here comes the first delivery......

Ohh!! Wait..we have crowd trouble here....a huge fracas is going on in the stands. The match is on hold.

Let us go to our man who is in there.

What is the issue ?

Anchor: "Well, apparently here we have a Tarini Jethu..a man who many claim was thrown into the sea by his fellow shipmates , some 10 years ago. However, legend has it that Tarini Jethu managed to come ashore with a fish in his mouth. He was conferred the  "Siddhu, Luckiest Man" award, an award named after the man who coined the phrase, "throw a lucky man into the sea  & he will come out with a fish in his mouth". People out here are protesting that it is grossly unfair that Tarini-jethu was not given the chance to be the captain. He is the original lucky man they say. Back to the commentary box "

Well..there you are..we have more trouble. Supporters of Tarini Jethu are moving towards the pitch. The players have retreated. The latest news is that a " Justice For Tarini Jethu" committee has ben formed & we are having a mid pitch elections for the post of the General Secretary of the committee. The committee plans to do sit-in demonstrations & gherao coach Boka for his alleged acts of favoritism towards Poltu-da.

We are signing off for the day...the match has been postponed. 

This is Arbitmind for SMGOL Telecasters International.

Have a good day !! 

Excuse..

Work kept Arbitmind too busy & he could not put in the posts for a month. Pheww!!

Now that is a reason or an excuse? 

Prima Facie it seems that the same statement can be interpreted as a reason or an excuse depending on

the interpreter's perception.

For example the same response can actually lead to two very different kind of conversations depending on whether  your response is being perceived as a reason or an excuse:

Type-I:

 X: "I could not be on time for the meeting. The traffic is really bad on this road"

 Y: "Yeah. The traffic is really bad. Something should be done about it"

Type-II:

 X: "I could not be on time for the meeting. The traffic is really bad on this road"

 Y: "Well..you know pretty well that the traffic is bad on this road. 

You should have started a bit earlier than usual to make sure that you are on time"

Clearl,  in the second case,  Y has taken X's statement to be an excuse.

You cannot really blame Y for that. He has a point. Likewise X also has a point. 

X did not expect the worst case scenario & hence started on the normal time. After all, no one(at least a good majority) wants to start off his day by expecting the worst case scenario.

From Y's perspective it is not acceptable that X did not factor in the possibility of bad traffic wherein he

was fully aware of the prevailing situation.

Both have a point & the debate becomes a sort of "what came first..the egg or the chicken?"

However there are some cases where debate is totally lopsided. 

X believes he has a watertight case.

Y thinks that the response is preposterous.

like the following ones. All of them are real life stuff.

Location: School Chemistry lab.

Teacher :  "This is the third test tube you have broken in as many sessions. For God's sake why can't you be careful?"

Arbitmind(indignantly): "It just broke by itself, seriously, I barely touched it."

Location: BITS, Pilani

Prof-In-Charge: "You want a make up for this test of Lin AL? Why ?"

Arbitmind (bristling with confidence) : "I was sick"

Prof-In-Charge: "What happened?"

Arbitmind(merrily): "stomach ache, headache, dizziness, giddiness."

Prof-In-Charge: "Anything else?"

Arbitmind : "No, this is enough for a two day rest..right?" 

Location: Pune

Arbitmind : " Work kept me too busy and I could not put in the posts for a month. Pheww!!"

 

The Toymaker

This Sunday Arbitmind had the privilege of meeting a great visionary - the likes of whom

are  the last bastions of humanity in an increasingly consumption oriented world.

He was invited to talk to the BITS,Pilani Alumni-Pune Chapter as part of the 

half yearly meet.

He looks like the quintessential scientist. A rag tag kurta, unkempt beard & a bag.

He doesn't call himself a scientist though. 'The toymaker' is what he prefers.

Meet Prof. Arvind Gupta. http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/

(A winner of the National Award for Science Popularisation)

You can explore the site to marvel at what Arvind Gupta has accomplished.

The site also has detailed instructions for scores of scientific toys.

A bit of personal interaction during lunch revealed much about the man.

His parents had never been to a school. He made it to IIT,Kanpur in 1970.

Joined TELCO as an engineer but (in his own words) soon realised that 

he did not want to make trucks. He was not sure of what he wanted to do but

was reasonably sure that what he did not want to do was to make trucks.

He wanted to make toys.

Toys that would catch the imagination of young children & fire their curiosity.

Thats what he has been doing for so many years.

As Arvind says "I have lived my life on the roads, rather, I have thrived on the roads".

The presentation itself was a pleasure. Arbitmind does not remember the last time when he was so captivated. 

Arvind created pumps from junk material, a fan from a pencil & paper & string helicopters from waste paper. 

The unique thing was that each of his toys had complex physics behind its functioning.

Theories which Engineers like Arbitmind have read about in Resnick- Halliday books without actually encountering them. 

..& what does he do with this expertise & vision ?

Arvind Gupta & his team visits hundreds of Municipal schools all over the place to ignite

the spirit. He says "They are the ones who need us the most". Very True.

His team visits schools , explain scientific phenomenon, teaches the concepts of 

vibrations, pumps, geometry, structures - all through simple & joyous toy making sessions.

This man left a high profile job to pursue his passion of teaching in a different way.

He may not be a wealthy man today. He may not have a fancy car to zip around the town.

He may not have a six figure salary. However he has earned a few things which money can never buy.

Respect & Admiration. 

How many of us would have the zeal & the passion come out of our cozy little cocoons

for the sole purpose of positively contributing to the society ?

Most of us have mapped the journey of our lives hopping from one material gain to the other.

'n'th stop - A degree. 

Next stop - A nice job. 

Next stop - a nice car. 

Next stop - a nice house.

(There's no harm in being self indulgent. All of us are.)

But along the way, how many faces we have managed to put a smile on?

How many dreams have we created ?

People like Arvind Gupta have their journeys peppered with those smiles & dreams.

That's why they are special.

Manipulating Luck

Being superstitious often comes naturally to most of us.

Arbitmind hazards a guess -

most of us have a lucky shirt, a lucky pair of shoes or something to that effect tucked away somewhere.

Back in school Arbitmind had this concept of  a lucky shirt.

Nobody drilled that concept in...it was one of 'those' brainwaves - the kind which

seemed to strike Arbitmind every once in a while .

Every half-a year during the examinations,the first paper would invariably be English. 

It was one of those subjects where Arbitmind would do well.

Now who or what should get the credit for this?

Using his 'profound' logic & insight Arbitmind would conclude that the white shirt which he wore

to the exam hall was behind his success.

Washing the shirt would wash off the good luck charm too. A stern warning to a disgusted mother would  follow..."the shirt was not to be touched"...There was a series of question papers to be negotiated and the shirt was his magic wand.

Things would go up to the extent that by the time the Chemistry exam ended Arbitmind would come back home & hide his shirt because his mother had made up her mind that the goodluck charm needs to be washed off for a greater good of the society in general & the surroundings in particular. 

By the time the Statistics paper ended(which was the last exam), Arbitmind(with the goodluck shirt on) would have had transformed himself into a public health hazard. 

Tathagata(the guy who sat behind Arbitmind during the examinations) had plainly voiced his disapproval once.

The poor guy could not take the olfactory torture anymore.

Even then things did not change. Arbitmind risked the ire of friends, parents & teachers for the sake of the white shirt...the good luck charm.

(Remember : behind every excellent marksheet there is a soiled shirt)

The question is does it really help ? The obvious answer would be a 'NO', the most plausible explanation for Arbitmind's above mentioned folly would be 'teenage naivety'. 

So why are such superstitions such a widespread phenomenon then ? 

What makes even mature, level headed people succumb to such superstitions ?

..& for that matter superstitions are not restricted to teenagers or the proclaimed naive.

Arbitmind believes attributing such behaviour to simple naivety would be an over-simplification.

A stronger reason can be that all of us, in our own little ways try to manipulate our luck.

We tend to explain events as 'cause & effect phenomenon' & believe that outcomes can be manipulated by extrapolation. 

Someone wears a certain tie before every important client meet. Someone uses a certain

bat every time he goes out for an important cricket match. 

Sometimes things go beyond the individual.There are mass superstitions as well. 

Cricket teams believe that if the first wicket to fall is a run out it spells doom for the team.

Ask a BITSian. While going for a test, very few dare to look up

towards the famed clock tower of BITS,Pilani. Legend has it that anyone who does so has a disastrous test.

(It is altogether a different matter that Arbitmind has had numerous disastrous tests even when he did not

look at the clock tower.)Both are examples of collective attempts at manipulating luck.

Luck, though, has its own ways of smiling upon people...thoroughly unconcerned with individual or collective efforts at manipulation. 

That's experience.