Indian Buzz at the Spelling Bee

Scripps Spelling Bee is an annual competition for kids who have neither turned 16 nor passed beyond the eighth grade. I have been following the competition since 2000 and it has come to become lot more popular now than in 2000. Kids of Indian origin tend to win the competition beyond comparison and there leads to a lot of stereotypes and spite. I will address them in this post.

I started this post about a year ago. I left it unpublished having not found clarity to my thoughts. Having struggled with vocabulary for the GRE exam, I had a sense of what is invloved in the spelling competition. I appreciated the effort put in by the young kids who manage to spell out arcane words that nobody has heard and they do all this under the glaring eyes of the TV spolight and pressure from fellow contestants. The first few years I saw this contest on TV, I felt deep sympathy for the kids. The stress was very visible on the faces of the contestants. It is hard to not notice that majority of these kids are geeky looking and more so that they belonged to the minority South Asian(Indian) community. Over the years the geekiness of these kids is replaced by a witty sense of humor in some of these kids. That was a welcome change.

The South Asian kids have dominated the event(ever since I have been following it) and their participation has grown over the years. Eight out the last twelve winners were of Indian origin. Here are some links on 2010 spelling bee champion
Spelling bee winner part of Indian-American streak
Veeramani wins for Cleveland
Washington Post Image gallery on National Spelling Bee

It is astounding if you see the statistics of how many Indian kids make it to the top and win it. Consider this, last year 14 out of 41 spellers in the semi-finals were Indian Americans. This year(2010), an estimated 30 Indian americans will compete among a total of 273 - 11 percent in all. This is a big if you know that Indian Americans are about only 1% of the US population. The winners of the last three years were all Indians. In 2008 it was Sameer Mishra from Lousiana, in 2009 year it was Kavya Shivashankar from Kansas and this year it is Annamika Veeramani from Ohio. The list of all the champions so far can be found here

However every success by an ethnic minority surely leads to stereotyping and mockery of the group by regular folks and mass media alike. I know the sterotypes associated with successful children of immigrant parents - they have pushy parents, not well rounded, book worms, geeky etc. Here is a recent article by Washinton about spelling bee contestant stereotypes - 'Spelling bee participants work to dispel the stereotypes'. While trying to find the stereotype on Indian parents, I found a clip from a famous sitcom Goodness Gracious Me. You can view it here or embedded video below



To see the sterotype associations, one just has to view the comments on any of the articles covered in the major news websites to see how much negativity is fostered by people. The negativity is fostered in International portals as well as in Indian websites by both Indian and Non-Indian readers alike. Here are some excerpts of some negative comments on news about kids of Indian origin winning

Belittling the efforts is a comment at slate.com -
Rote memorization is a waste of time. They should focus on more creative problem-solving skills: science, math, even art and literature. Thankfully, neither I nor any other Indian kid in my area cared about the spelling bee.


Mockery in a comment at nytimes.com
14 year old Anamika Veeramani from Ohio won the National Spelling Bee. She won when her opponent was unable to spell “Anamika Veeramani”.


Ethnic insult at rediff.com
Indians are best "parrots"..they can like parrots memorise words and keep uttering..rediff reporters are junk..


Jon Stewart, with all due respect for the topics he covers, could not avoid the stereotype either. But his daily show takes aim at everybody and that he what he does best-satire on current affairs.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Headlines - Asian Fusion
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Tea Party

Brushing aside the stereotypes, the competition itself is gaining in popularity and was telecast live primetime on abc this year. The journey to primetime has been slow but is aided by the documentary Spellbound made in 2002 which was very popular. In 2005 there was a movie titled 'Bee Season' staring Richard Gere. Then in 2006 the movie 'Akkelah and the Bee' starring Lawrence Fishburne was also based on the Spelling bee competition. Spelling Bee is now mainstream and covered as a sporting event on ESPN every year.

Popularity is good as it brings exposure to the competition and hardwork of the kids. But the real question stills remains. Why are Indians so good at Spelling Bee? My Google search did not give me a closure.

Here are some links to what I found myself looking for answers to the above question. I answers ranged from
Silly by joe six packs at Yahoo Answers! -
How come indians or east asians always are the winners of Spelling Bee?
to sensible at Slate - Why Are Indian Kids So Good at Spelling?
and rumination at The Root -
Is Spelling a Cultural Activity?

While success can bring stereotypes, it can also bring patronizing people to the front. Look here - Indian Americans: The New Model Minority. You can find refutation here -Nobody's Model Minority

I am still looking for answers. Let me know what your thoughts are on this.

---------------------The End-------------
What to know more, here are some more links
Striving in America, and in the Spelling Bee
Once again, yet ANOTHER Indian kid wins the National Spelling Bee
Spelling Bee contest in US: Indians cast a spell
Kansas gal Kavya Shivshankar bee-comes spelling princess
W-I-N-N-E-R! Desi Kid Wins Spelling Bee, Again

Why Blame Culture?

A few weeks ago, I wrote a post about blaming the culture. I felt that it was incomplete without some more questioning as to why people do that. This post will outline some thoughts on why people blame culture. I conclude this post with what an individual can do without falling into the trap of blaming culture.

In the wild, most animals stick to their own type. It is mutually beneficial for their long term survival to trust their type. Trusting a different species can most times mean end of life or severe physical harm. It is the reason you see birds flocking together, fish swimming in a school, lions hunting in a group and hyenas hunting with their gang etc. It is very easy to find this mistrust of other types in humans as well, after all humans are descendants of vertebrate animals. However we humans have become so vast in numbers that we have sub-groups who differ in the way we look physically. This difference is loosely called race sometimes, it is also referred by the term ethnicity. Whatever name we call it; there is an inherent mistrust among these different looking people. May be we are genetically disposed to mistrust.

My previous post had two anecdotes where people were blaming culture. My European colleague did not say that Japanese hide truth, he just said 'It must be Japanese Culture to stay silent in crisis'. The colleague of my friend did not say that Indians lie, he just asked 'Is it common in Indian culture to lie.' But they can be linked indirectly. When a person belonging to a different race does something negative, our genetic mistrust is switched on and we seek answers. We need to associate that negative trait to something and somehow satisfy our animalistic mistrust. According to me, satisfying this animalistic mistrust is the key.

I would like to know what my colleague would have to say about the current corporate disaster from a company bearing the name of his home country - BP. Toyota had always been apologetic about the safety of its vehicle. But BP had constantly lied about its involvement, it never owned the problem, had been blatantly trying to find a victim, lied about how much oil was flowing into the ocean (Recent estimates put the outflow of oil at 11k/day while BP stated it is close to 6k/day). I could generalize this behavior from BP to a statement - it is in British Culture to lie. While colonial history can be cited as a validation of that statement, I cannot agree to the generalization of this statement to represent the habits of common English people, and I am sure my colleague would agree with me.

Thanks to some great social and political movements, we live in a time where it is a must to be sensitive and politically correct at work. That has not stopped some people making unacceptable comments, but by and large today's work environment is very conducive for people from different races and countries to work harmoniously. So this expectation of diverse workforce does not allow the negative association with race, a nation, religion or a region. However, culture is a term that is associated with all the above and not with a single person. When a person blames the culture, the person is safely blaming the race, religion or region of the person who looks physically different than him/her.

What can we do? Though this is a very sensitive issue, there will always be people who will hold on to the theory that other people hold value systems different than themselves. They attribute culture to these values. It is important to take a stance and refute these claims whenever they are mentioned. But do so subtly and without being argumentative. While defending your values, do not fall into the same trap yourself. It is very easy to get carried away in conversations when it involves a third person that is different than all the people in the conversation. The same guy who gets offended when his 'culture' is blamed will not think twice when it comes to a different persons 'culture'. It is the nature of the conversation and our inherent mistrust that causes us to do it. It is important to subdue that subconscious criticism. Be very careful of what you say in such conversations. Don't get carried away. It is important to listen rather than say something irrationally to be a part of the conversation. Most times our urge to get heard makes us say something, that in retrospection, we do not even agree with. It does not mean that you have to stay silent, but just think and know what you are saying. The world will be a better place for others and yourself when you do that. It is also time for me to put these principles in action myself.

Blame it on, hmm.. let's say, culture

A few months ago there was a discussion about safety recalls by Toyota with some colleagues of mine. I shared an information with them about finding the safety recalls and coincidentally I wrote an article about Toyota's trouble at that time. This lead to an intriguing comment from a colleague of mine who was European. This is what he said "I do not trust Toyota. I don't think they are revealing the real truth as it must be cultural to stay silent" or something along those lines suggesting that the reason for Toyota's remaining silent is related to that country's culture. What he was insinuating is that hiding facts during crisis(I could read it as lying) is ingrained in Asian culture. This is not the first time and will not be last that someone will invoke culture as the cause whenever a negative connotation is to be associated.

A friend of mine narrated a similar incident at his workplace involving a mix of diverse international workforce. Apparently an employee at their company called in sick. It turned out that the guy had actually taken up a new job offer at some other company and used the 'sick' excuse to buy some time to switch. It was very apparent to everyone that the guy had lied about being sick. To my friend's surprise, his European colleague asked him 'Is it common in Indian culture to lie.' My friend and the guy who left his company for a greener pasture were both Indian and my friend's European colleague was linking lying to Indian culture. I have been asked similar questions associating something negative to my culture or some other immigrant's(the guy under scrutiny in the discussion) culture.

The culture paranoia is not limited to regular folks like the ones I mentioned above. In a book titled 'The Selfish Gene' by Richard Dawkins, the author expresses his concern where culture could be transmitted genetically. He gives the examples of faith, mythology and perils associated with religious fanaticism. Infact he coined a word Meme and Memetics is now studied and researched as a science. Richard Dawkins is a very famous British Ethologist who had published several books, mostly on Evolution. While I am convinced about the evolutionary concepts, I feel the genetic transmission of culture, a little far fetched and based on paranoia. The case against Memetics as a science can be found here.

All the proponents of the culture blame theory, in the examples cited above, were coincidentally Europeans. I do not however believe this is a belief held only by Europeans. I can recite several anecdotes where this association of negative traits to a culture came from my Asian and American friends and colleagues alike. The topic of debate is not who does but rather why they do it. Is it because it is easy? Is it because it is convenient? If they are quick in associating negative connotation to culture, are they equally likely to associate positive traits of other fellow humans to their culture. I do not believe so. The positive traits are ignored because we take it to be natural for humans. How can we explain this dichotomy of association to culture? Are these guys consciously perpetrating the negative association to culture with someone belonging to different culture. I don't think so, but there are times I doubt my own assumption. It is done at a subconscious level?

Walking Among The Dead

It was a Saturday morning and I was having breakfast, muffin and cold coffee, at a franchised coffee shop. I sat there reading a newspaper and saw out through the glass wall, a local cemetery. I always felt strange about cemeteries. They are spooky at once, all the dead people buried there for ages among other dead people. But somehow they had an allure for me with the all the grand tombstones, located in the serenity of the woods. They always felt out of the world, and out of the world the buried people are, but the area itself is kind of isolated from the hustle and bustle of the urban world, kind of serene.

I decided to take a drive through, may be take a stroll as I had some time to kill. At the entrance read "All seasonal decorations need to be removed by March 31st". They might as well make it July 4th. I will tell you why later. The speed limit was set to 10mph which is understandable. There were few cars here and there and handful of people walking or jogging there while I was driving slowly. It was a nice day and calm. I bought down the windows of my car and could hear the birds chirping and cool breeze. It’s been a while since I took some time off with nature though I live in a region very close to several beautiful valleys and parks.

After a few minutes of driving I decided to take a walk. I parked my car to the side of the driveway and started walking in the woods. Since it was a cemetery, the ground was lined with tombstones with the name, date/year of Birth and Death of the person buried underneath. It felt kind of strange and creepy, but as time passed I felt some strange peace take over me. It was calm, cool breezy day. My thoughts quickly wandered to the people I had personally lost during my lifetime. I remembered my maternal grandfather who was grace personified. He was a farmer and strongly believed in hard work. Then there was my paternal grand mother who had a personal presence like no one I have known. I can still remember the look in her eye that had shades of strength and sorrow from her life experiences. She had lost her one eye when she was young in an accident while painting her house in the village when my dad was in school. My grand mom died on Indian Independence Day(Aug 15th) when I was a kid, whereas my grand father died about 5 years ago from old age. They both had a huge impact in my life. There were other relatives and friends that passed away, whose memories were both good and sad at the same time. Some of them struggled in their last days like my father-in-law who died of complications from CKD. I regret not being able to spend more time with him.

I continued my walk and tried to lose my thoughts by observing the various kinds of burial descriptions and decorations. I began to observe what people had placed on the burial grounds of their loved ones. It was clear that there was a social hierarchy among the dead as well. The richer among the dead, I think, had bigger almost cathedral like structures. While most were regular folks with regular stones. There was one shaped like a pyramid, probably representing free masonry. May be the dead guy was a mason. There were some gothic roman styled structures. Some even had gates in the front with dome shaped roof like a pagan temple. I am sure the dead cared less about social structure and hierarchy. It is the alive, loved ones of the dead that wanted to show their social status by throwing in money. It could even be an innocent gesture of love by constructing a unique structure and uniqueness can sometimes be shown by making the home bigger. Either way, every burial had a story to tell about the dead person and about the people related to the dead person.

The other observation I had was the decorations on the ground. If the dead person was really young, they had toys like Angels and Easter bunnies on the ground, while some older person's had weird stuff like golf balls. Some had flowers mostly plastic, but some had natural flowers and flower pots placed on the ground. The most popular adornment was surprisingly the American flag. Nationalism and patriotism did not escape the dead. The sign at the entrance could as well be read July4th or removed entirely as there can be no end to a season for patriotism. Some stones had the picture of the dead person's face on the stone. The oldest person I saw was born in 1811.

While I was making these silly observations, I got a call from my wife and I decided to head back to my car to go home. While I was going back, I saw an old white woman adjust some flags and decorations on the burial grounds of someone she probably was related to. The dead could have been a soldier. She gave me a distrustful stare. I smiled and said an audible “Hello"! She continued staring at me without a reply. I did not want to bother her anymore and continued walking towards my car.

My car was parked about half a mile away from where I was and the road I was walking was narrow with tall trees on the side with grass lawn. A few yards from where I was on the road, I had to take a right to go to my car and I saw the old lady, I saw earlier, driving a white van taking a left towards me. She was still staring at me and I came out of my philosophical self to being myself - regular pragmatic cynic. I can see why she had a distrustful look. There she was the lightest white old woman taking care of the ground under which her loved one was laid and here I was the darkest brown guy who could not have anyone buried there related to me to the sixth degree. I quickly took two steps to the right onto the grass and slipped behind a tree to let her pass by me. I did not want to be buried there from an accident caused by an angry old woman. I wanted to live another day. I saw her pass by me, with her continued mistrustful stare that truly caused me discomfort. I continued my walk to my car and I was greeted by another old lady who was jogging there. I regained my composure, went to my car and drove home slowly to have lunch with my wife.

Golha in Phila; Full Court Press for Public Libraries

On March 17th, 2010, I attended the Closing Event celebrating the One Book, One Philadelphia project conducted at the Free Library of Philadelphia. Per the handout given at the event 'One Book, One Philadelphia is a joint project of the Mayor's Office and the Free Library of Philadelphia. The mission of the program is to promote reading, literacy, library usage, and community building thoughout greater Philadelphia.'

The closing event was celebrated by the recreation of a Persian radio programme called Golha. Golha was introduced in 1956 by the Iranian government owned radio and ran through 1979 before being shut down by the Iranian Islamic Revolution in 1979. Being lazy, I reproduce what the closing event handout says about Golha -'Each week, the foremost Iranian musicians, vocalists, literary critics, poets, and radio announcerswere invited to perform a selection of the best modern and classical music and poems.'

The recreation of Golha at Philadelhia was conducted by Jeri Lynne Johnson, Music Director of Black Pearl Chamber Orachestra. The event included recitation of poems by Ursula Rucker, Homa Tavangar and Jahan Tavangar. I am not a big fan of poetry, often times I dont understand them. But one poem by a legendary Persian Poet Rumi impressed me. You can find the transalted version of a Poem by Rumi here . This Poem titled 'Not Ever Sea Has Pearls' is translated by Jahan Tavangar. I found a shorter version of the same peom online and here it is.

My heart, sit only with those who know and understand you.
Sit only under a tree that is full of blossoms.
In the bazaar of herbs and potions don't wander aimlessly
find the shop with a potion that is sweet
If you don't have a measure people will rob you in no time.
You will take counterfeit coins thinking they are real.
Don't fill your bowl with food from every boiling pot you see.
Not every joke is humorous, so don't search for meaning where there isn't one.
Not every eye can see, not every sea is full of pearls.
My hart, sing the song of longing like nightingale.
The sound of your voice casts a spell on every stone, on every thorn.
First, lay down your head then one by one let go of all distractions.
Embrace the light and let it guide you beyond the winds of desire.
There you will find a spring and nourished by its see waters
like a tree you will bear fruit forever.

--from the website http://www.rumi.org.uk/divan.htm
Rumi: The Hidden Music
by Maryam Mafi & Azima Melita Kolin

The program also had a intrumental music recitation by Cello artist Udi Bar-David, Santur artist Kazem Davoudian and Negin Moshtagh on Daf. I was familiar with the know what Santur is from watching famous Shuv Kumar Sharma as a kid. Daf is Dapli in Hindi. I enjoyed the classical music as I was somewhat familiar that was played live at the event. As they say, music and art are beyond boundaries and there is something about live music - It is as if classical music comes to life when heard live.

The recreated Golha at the Free Library of Philadelphia is one of the several such events conducted by the public libraries across the country. The public libraries serve several important roles in the society, not just places to get free books on loan and restooms for the homeless. They are a wealth of knowledge, great places to find information for research. But those are expected roles on the outset. Libraries also play other key roles, that of community gathering, policy dissemination by the local, state and federal government, cultural exchange, author events, book reading, writing and art workshops for the kids and adults, free access to internet, resume critique and job search workshops, free advise to small business people and several more. Most of these services are provided for free of cost to all. In the absense of the public libraries, the underprivileged have to pay up which they cannot afford.

In the last couple of years, the city of Philadelphia as part of its budget deficit trimming efforts have begun plans to sadly shutdown some public libraries in the Philadelphia region. This seems not just a Philadelphia event, rather a state wide and possibly nation wide course of action to trim budgets. It makes me cringe when any city/town targets the libraries whenever there is a discussion of fat trimming. Libraries as a fat of the city budget is a very wrong notion. In an increasing divisive society where the difference between the rich and poor is growing, libraries are one of the prime resources for the poor and underprivileged to know what is happening in the society, what policies are available to them to improve their lives and ofcourse free books for knowledge and entertainment.

Research has shown that the education gap between the rich and poor kids can be explained by the number of books(thereby greater reading oppurtunities) and words(vocabulary) the kids are exposed to in their environments(home, school, friends etc). Libraries help in supplementing this deficieny by providing books to read, events to participate and interact with other people.

This in earnest is the gist of my rant; the next time you see a library, get yourself and your family member a membership card, make use of the library, participate and/or volunteer in the events conducted by the library. Be a part of your library community and that simple act can save the library from closing. Your town administration is definitely looking at the number of people using the library. You will be helping the underprivileged indirectly by keeping the libraries open. Also if you find out that your local library is closing, call or write to your local administration and express your support for keeping the library open. I did that along with thousands of other libraries in my local community. Hopefully the powers that be are listening.

Links of interest:
http://www.radiogolha.com/
http://www.nalbeki.com/RADIO/golha.htm
http://radiotime.com/station/s_81726/Radio_Golha.aspx
http://www.javad-maroufi.com/pageid=7.htm
http://www.khamush.com/works.htm
http://www.rumi.org.uk/divan.htm
http://freelibrary.org

Not Every Sea Has Pearls

Not Every Sea Has Pearls

O my heart, sit with someone who is enlightened with the matters of the heart.
Sit in the shade of a tree that is alive with the blossoms of spring.

Don't go around aimlessly in the market, like those who are lost.
If you are after sugar, go to the one who sells sugar.

If you don't possess a scale to weigh the merchandise, the shopkeeper will cheat you.
Someone will produce a fake piece and you will mistake it for gold.

You sit by the front of the house, waiting for one who goes inside and cleverly tell you to wait there.
Don't sit there waiting for him. This house has another door, and he is already gone.

Don't take your bowl and sit by every pot that's boiling with some brew.
Every pot is cooking something different. Know what's inside.

Not every cane contains sugar, not every down has an up.
Not every eye has vision, not every sea has pearls.

Cry out, O soulful nightingale,
For prayers said in the wilderness of suffering are answered.

Your enlightened hear is like a lamp; protect it under your robe.
Pass through these storms, for the winds are blowing hard.

When you pass through these storms, you will discover a spring of living waters.
You will find a companion who is enlightened.

When your heart becomes enlightened, you will be like a verdant tree,
whose branches continually bear fruits, and you reflect the light of the universe.

--Rumi, Translated by Jahan Tavangar.
Recited by Jahan Tavangar at One Book, One Philadelphia concluding event on March 17th, 2010 conducted by Free Library of Philadelphia.

Planning, Procrastination and Life Leeches

The last couple of weeks, there was heavy activity at my home. The day was coming close for the return of my sister-in-law to our hometown in India. I am not a big fan of airports which I disclosed with ample detail in my previous post here. International travel causes a lot of stress to me, with the shopping, packing, weighing bags with no end until the departure of the flight.

My sister-in-law began packing a month and half in advance. She would weigh the bags(which is not suitable for weighing bags) every weekend. However, there would be more shopping every weekend and more items added to the bags. So the contents in the bags would be rearranged and weighed again. I concluded that my sister-in-law is a kind of person who likes to get things done ahead of time and likes to be in control. The lesson I learnt through my international trips, is to postpone packing until the last couple days before the day of journey.

The day of the departure finally arrived. While we were driving to the airport I saw the bumper sticker on a car ahead of me saying 'I was gonna procrastinate today... but I'll wait till tomorrow'. I like bumper stickers messages like that; It was funny and messages like that bring a smile on your face unlike the serious and sensitive religous and political messages. I felt that my sister-in-law should take a cue from the message. But is there a broader lesson to be learnt for my sister-in-law and myself included who like to be in control of every aspects of our lives.

During the senior(final) year of my Bachelors, I was travelling in a train from Kolkata, what was then called Calcutta, to my hometown after a disappointing performance at a job interview. Train rides have left great impressions and memories on me. While I was watching through the cabin window, I saw rows of fields; sugarcane, corn, rice paddy immaculately swaying in the distance. As I watched the fields and electric ploes passby, I thought about my performance and blamed my poor lack of planning and procrastination. I pondered and repented the number of hours I wasted each day instead of practising or reading a book in preparation for the interview.

My friends tried to help me by saying that they didn't do any better either. They always denied doing well in an exam. Even good students deny they did well and that re-assurance was of little effect as I felt they were lying and I could care less if they did any worse than me. The competition was with other students from the entire country and not just a bunch of my classmates. I concluded that I should plan better if I was do good in future for my GRE, GATE and other upcoming competitive exams coming up later that year. A few months later, I got the job offer from my interview in Kolkata.

As I grew older, I did not grow any wiser. There are still ocassions where I blame myself like a guy on deathbed thinking about not having spent quality times with his family. I think most humans fall into that pschological guilt trap. And sometimes life chores can be burdensome, they can be simple but their multitude can be overwhelming. Also the randomness of life can throw something unexpected at you inspite of all the detailed planning.

We live in an age where 24 hours is not enough to do the things we need to do. Each one of us have things to do every day and every month of the year; rent, mortgages, utility bills, credit card statements, automobile maintenance, laundry, home and lawn maintenance, health, life and home insurance, immigration, investments, retirement planning, vacation planning; and responsibilities; kids, spouse, parents, sublings, relatives and friends.

The above items are just the personal tasks. The list expands when we add the tasks from that we have to do at work. In the current world where multi-tasking is not a 'good-to-have' trait but is required, one has to juggle between projects, meetings, scheduling, prioritizing various tasks, follow ups, documenting etc.

All these life leeches(tasks and chores) can leave a perpetual mental burden on us. This overwhelming list can cause us to procrastinate till the last day. Then there are modern inventions; the killers of limited productive time; Internet, TV, Sports, Cell Phones. There is no doubt that these all add value when used optimally and when consumed in moderation. These modern day distractions have caused much unwanted procrastination for many of us.

Over the last couple years of pondering, reading and watching, utilizing many or all of the aforementioned modern day inventions, I did come up with some ideas and tricks that I utilize to accomplish the various tasks. Some of these are not so modern and might need a pen and paper. Neither are these ideas in any form earth shattering(I am fully aware of the limitations of my brain) but they work for me. These ideas and tricks can be found in the concluding post to this article.

Note: The concluding post will be linked to this article later when it is published.

Did the Bee beat the Beatle?

Recently NPR, the much revered Public Radio Station, ran an article titled Bee Vs. Car: Who Gets More Miles Per Gallon?. You can listen to it on the embedded mp3 link below.


The article states that the new VW prototype will be giving a mileage of 170 mpg. I was very much surprised and felt happy that someone out there is working on creating better cars with vastly improved mileage.

The sad part is that NPR would not let the carmaker have their day of glory. I don't think NPR is anti-technology or anti-science. If anything, they are the opposite. One would wonder why they would run such an article under the science section. The only reason I can thing of, is that the creators of the segment thought it was funny. But sometimes, being funny can be out of character for somebody like NPR that’s known for its sincere, thought provoking, serious news content. Also at time the naive joke can do unintended harm to other worthy causes. I know VW has a long way before they can have a successful car on the road with 170mpg and this article will have little impact if the technology advance becomes a reality. Here is a CNET review from the 2009 Frankfurt Auto Show. This car can be on the roads by 2013.

So, what is the beef that I have with this article? The article states that VW new car is promising 170 miles per gallon of car fuel gasoline. They think that a Bee beats this car hands down with its 4.7 million miles per gallon of bee fuel i.e., honey. They also had a bee expert supporting their claim who came up with the number for bee mileage - 4,704,280 mpg.

So I did a small math. A bee weighs 80-100 milligrams, lets take the upper end 100 milligrams. Also lets say it carried twice it's weight during the test which is being very liberal. A bee typically carries about 50% of its body weight in the form of pollen during its regular daily job. So a bee carries a weight of 300 milligrams and covers 4.7 million miles on a gallon of honey. With those numbers, the bees takes 1.41 miles to move a ton of weight. Let us compare this with the VW. A car weighs anywhere from 3 to 12 tons; 3 tons being the compact care and 12 tons being the heavy pick up truck. A compact car gives about 30 mpg. So a car not including the passenger, can move a ton of weight to about 90 miles. To me the math is very simple, 1.41 is far less than 90 and the car is the clear winner. There are other problems with this article as well. But I don’t want to list them all out and appear that I am anti-bee. On the contrary, I thank the bees for producing the sweet honey I use in my tea. For all the other views against the article, please view the comments in the NPR site at the end of the article.

What about the unintended harm that this article causes? Consider this; it took decades for the NHTSA fuel economy regulations to enforce fuel economy improvement of 5-10mpg by the carmakers. If a car maker tries and succeeds in making a car that improves the fuel economy from 20-30mpg to about 170-200 mpg, I would give them all kind of support. They are attempting to achieve something far beyond the minimum standards set by the government regulatory bodies. When fuel economy is improved by 8 times, it significantly reduces the current fuel consumption and thereby, provide the fruits of the current cheap fossil fuel we enjoy now to couple more generations. Any endeavor to extend the life of fossil fuel and the benefits we enjoy to future generations needs all the support.

We are in an age where every scienctific view is questioned. Consider this article by USA Today - Is the global warming movement cooling? The problem with the article is not the content but the title itself. Most people read just headlines. They conclude that global warming movement is cooling off and don’t trust any news in support of it adding to the feedback loop. Thanks much also to the conservative political and news media who have already discounted scientific evidence on global warming. They think that green house gas effect is a myth and they drill their way into having their way of life.

Articles like the bee humiliating a car can only cause more people lose interest in scientific and technological advancement. So this is my advice to NPR. Leave the thoughtless, provocative ridicule to someone else (the world has enough of those) and act your normal responsible way. Being serious can be nerdy, but the world needs the nerd to spread the scienfic word out. NPR please be that nerd. You are lot cooler that way.

Mr.Toyoda goes to Washington

Mr. Smith Goes to Washington is an american classic movie starring James Stewart. It is about a boy ranger who is appointed to the senate by his state's governor who wants a puppet in that post. James Stewart character named Jefferson Smith(cleverly deduced from Thomas Jefferson and Adam Smith) goes to capitol hill and ends up fighting the evil political machinery of US Senate through filibuster process. A detailed review and story of the film can be found here. This fictional movie was released(in 1939) during the great depression era.

Cut to current great recession non-fictional age. Last week, the grandson of the founder and president of Toyota was invited to the hearing of the US senate committee. Here too is a guy not familiar with the DC and it's politics. He comes to DC unwillingly and is asked several uncomfortable questions. Though Mr.Akio Toyoda is no country bumkin, a guy from Japan is as comfortable in the Capitol Hill answering to the Senate committee as Jefferson Smith was answering about his alleged profiting from the land purchase he proposes in his bill. Mr. Toyoda was appointed as President of Toyota less than 9 months ago and is faced with the daunting challenge that his company has ever faced. The similaries are very few, but it made for a good beginning for my post and I could not resist invoking the famous movie.

But getting to the actual point. I loved Toyota for several years. Infact I own a 2007 Corolla and I absolutely love it. It is a great car. I loved the fact that, unlike the US big three car makers, Toyota put reliability, safety and fuel efficiency as the primary goals and it won significant consumer following over the years. Infact they became the number one car seller in 2009 pushing GM to #2. But just within a span of few months from October 2009 to January 2010, the reputation of Toyota went downhill. The stories of the recall have been in the news for some time now. I first heard and read about the recall of Toyota vehicles at my delear during one of my 15K routine maintainance of my Corolla.

If you look at the newspapers they are filled with several articles about Toyota and the mess they are in. Here below you can find some of them that I have read just in February.

Toyota’s Blind Spot dated February 5, 2010.
Twitter Toppled Toyota? dated Wednesday, February 17, 2010.
Toyota Official Says Recall May Not Fully Solve Safety Problem dated February 23, 2010.
Back to Basics for Toyota WSJ op-ed dated FEBRUARY 23, 2010.
Toyota chief blasted by lawmakers despite apology dated 02/24/2010.
Toyota loses rank to Honda
Analysis: Cultures Collide With Toyoda Testimony dated Wednesday, 24 Feb 2010.
'Toyota defense' might rescue jailed Minnesota man dated Thursday Feb 25, 2010.

I spoke to several friends and colleagues. Surprisingly the opinion was divided on the lines of immigration status. Immigrants had the opinion that Toyota is being penalized to make way for the American Big Three to regain share. US Citizens(born and naturalized alike) felt that this is just a beginnging of a lot more recalls, that Toyota is hiding facts and domestic companies should be preferred and incentivized over international firms. (A thing to note is that recent naturalized citizens tend to think like immigrants and citizens naturalized about a decade or long tend to think like citizens.) I dont agree with either of them. I think the above two opinions are prejudiced.

Audi, Ford and GM have had recalls that caused severa damage to the reputation and market share of the makers. Only GM seems to have managed to escape recall crisis with less damage. But what we have now are different times. Audi and Ford had lot of time to fix the faulty vehicles before the actual news of the recalls became widespread by the news dispensing mechanisms-newspapers, TV and Radio of that time. In the current times, news can spread repidly and instantly to almost every corner of the world with Internet and more so with the help of social networks. In the current social networking world, one doesn't have to depend on traditional media to get the news. For eg.:The earthquake in Chile was delivered to me not by the traditional media but through my family and friends way away in India. So politics had nothing to do with the bad publicity that Toyota is getting. It is just the instant news dissemination age that is compounding the trouble for Toyota. The politicians in DC are always late to react and react only to appease their constituencies, vote banks and special interests.

A recent news mentions the call from a southern republican senator who advised the senate hearing committee to tone down on the criticism and political rhetoric against Toyota. It is not surprising given the fact that Toyota has some maufacturing facitlities mostly in the southern states and that it employs about 36,000 people in the maufacturing facilities directly and employs about 166,000 people indirectly through dealerships and suppliers in the U.S. The myth of a naive foreign company in U.S. caught in the storm like a deer in a headlight can be dispensed of when you look at the list of Toyota’s powerful friends in Washington in the linked article dated Mon., Feb. 8, 2010.

Lets get to the other side of the criticism. The criticism that this is not an end of the recalls cannot be either supported or discarded as only time can tell. Leaving speculation to speculators, we can only deal with facts at hand. The slow response of Toyota in responding to the recall and publicly accepting, apologizing for the faults has given some fuel to the critics. But this delay could as well be attributable to a different managerial style-that of a Japanese rather than to Toyota trying to hide facts. It is definitely a failure of US PR wing of Toyota. Despite this debacle, Toyota is still in top three in the recent report card from the independent and widely popular Consumer Reports. In spite of the criticism and bailout from the government, Chrysler dropped to the bottom, and GM held on to it's bottom but one position. Only Ford improved one position better than last year and that position is very far from the top three. So the Big Three are still a far distance away in quality and reliability ratings of foreign makes.

So where did Toyota go wrong. Between the highly reliable period of the 90's and the deadly late 2000's, something went wrong. Before we look up the history, I want to express my own impression of Toyota of that period. My impression is purely based on watching their promotions on TV and talking to people. I felt that Toyota cars were highly reliable, cheap and very good with mileage; infact best in the market. They were the first to bring in Hybrid vehicles with Prius. But if you watched their promos on TV, none of these aspects were highlighted. Take a look at this Toyota Tundra commercial video. More of those can be found here, here and here. Infact Tundra dominated Toyota's commercials, emphasizing power over every other positive side of thier company. Commercials for their flagship Corolla and Camry were far and in between. In fact the cost of these two models fell by a few percetage points during this period. It is as if they were trying to move into a new direction.

I looked at the history of toyota to find who led toyota during the 2000's. The president of Toyota from 2005-June 2009 before Akio Toyoda was Katsuaki Watanabe. His Wikipedia entry will tell you that he was responsible for building a full-size pick-up truck manufacturing plant in San Antonio, Texas U.S.A. It utlimately resulted in a huge loss for Toyota. He also led a rigorous effort to cut cost at every possible oppurtunity, thereby sabotaging their quailty and the Toyota Way. He and his predecessor also rigorously led toyota into nascar. On hindsight the shift from traditional emphasis on quality to quantity and getting to No.1 in a rush is conspicous. But one does not have look at history to get to that conclusion. Mr. Akio Toyoda himself has mentioned that during several press conferences.

What can Mr.Toyoda do now. With toyota death count at 56, the time for action is now. They should be frank and find a fix for all the faulty vehicles and do them quick. It is easier said than done, but that is the only way to do. Redo their commercials on TV around the fixes and reliability and give up their power dream of Tundras. Emphasis on quality and fuel economy(with oil close to $2.75 and expected to rise) will surely bring back the customers. Until then they just to wait out the media damage and not do anything stupid.

I am sure Mr. Toyoda is doing what is best for him and the company of his forefathers including public apologizing and crying. But what can we as customers do about it. Keep a watch for Toyota recalls at autoblog's ultimate toyota recall guide and at Toyota's recall site. Contact your dealer if your vehicle is on the list and get it fixed. While driving on the road, if you see a Toyota approaching you, get out of it's way if you can. I am kidding but watch out if your own toyota has problems with acceleration and braking systems. In case you are stuck in a car with unintended acceleration, here is something you can do and hope for the best.

Stereotyping Current Telugu Movies

I used to watch a lot of movies during my days in graduate school. I still do but a lot less than I used to. But I do keep in touch with the current movies and their trends. Recently I was driving and listening to NPR where the host and guest were discussing a hypothetical thought-if aliens would somehow get to see today's movies, TV drama or any literature, what kind of opinion would they form of us. They would think there was a lot of drama with violence and people hardly worked as most of our current literature rarely touches on the day to day aspects of our lives. This post is my crude attempt at extending this idea to Telugu Movies alone.

Imagine in few decades or centuries, humans do not exist and aliens landed in the part of India where people speak Telugu. In such a time suppose that aliens reach there and find videos of our current successful Telugu movies. If they were preserved without a blemish and these movies are their only means of knowing our world. What sort of opinion would they form? Here are my ten thoughts on what they could potentially theorize.

1. Men are from Orphanville: Most of the males of our times are orphans. They are either bastards whose mother dies giving birth to him or lose his parents when the guy was a kid in some violent or tragic accident.
2. Women are from Desperateville :The female protagonist is always trying desperately and unsuccessfully to make our male lead fall in love with her. Add to this drama, there is always competition - another lady tramp who is falling for the love of her life. She eventually succeeds.
3. Macho Men: Our male lead is macho in every aspect; no matter his upbringing and family history. He can make men and vehicles fly by touch of his fist. He is like a bee that will sting when disturbed and can make people(mostly men in white lungis) fly at regular intervals. Some guys machismo can make trains move.
4. Teleportation: The male and female lead can transport themselves to a distant colorful land(either a snow clad hilly mountains or just a small room with colorful sets) where they jump, dance and sing their guts out. The amazing thing is that there is big group of other people sharing the joy of our leads and dancing to the tunes that are well synchronized. They would be surprised as to why these guys are joining in on the fun; they have no relevance to our leads and disappear as quickly as they come.
5. Dreadful Dads of Beautiful Daughters: The father of the female lead is evil and very unpleasing to the eye. You wonder how he could have had such a beautiful daughter. If he is not a mafia don, he is factionist leader, or just plain evil dude who dotes on his daughter but doesn't like the guy his daughter is dating.
6. Bad Governance: The politicians, police and law are all evil and work hand in hand in creating trouble to our leads.
7. Dog like Friends: The male lead and female lead hang out with a bunch of loyal chums who are willing to follow and do anything for them. The male lead often abuses these chums but they still follow him with no animosity.
8. Sibling Situation: The male leads' sibling often end up in a tragic death. The female leads sibling often elope which makes parents become more protective of her. Tragedy of such measure is followed by locking her in a huge palace or bunch of goons escorting her where ever she goes.
9. Parallelism - humor and tragedy happen in life: Our society believes in parallelism. While there is tragedy and drama going in the main story, there can be humour either interwoven with the main leads or sometimes disconnected with them.
10. Disrespectful, Alcoholic and Violent Youth: Young people of the society were prone to drinking alcohol, disrespectful of elders without repentance and prone to violence.