FOMO on a Silver Jubilee!

Finally, yours truly now has something more silver to look forward too than just the silverware at home or a scanty silver haired cranium.

We touched our Silver Jubilee as wedded husband and wife. 25 years back, falls under the prehistoric era in the evolution timeline of the so-called Big fat Indian weddings. Those days the weddings were neither fat nor were the bride and the groom, they looked famished by the end of the wedding ceremony, and with no Toni or Guy around to make us look like a Bollywood hero or heroine and we also did not have the right lighting to make us look fairer than we claimed in our matrimonial ads.

To reminisce the day, I had a glance at our Wedding Album after ages... Was shocked to see, I had been devoured from the cover page of the album by other inmates who co inhabited with us the last 25 Years. Wondered why only I was taken apart while my wife was still smiling, consoled myself saying I must have been the sweeter of the two! When I saw a copy of the same picture, I realized I was all sweaty, famished and glaring without any emotions and the photographer then did not have the tools nor the skills to make me look otherwise... The insect inmates must have mistaken me to be glaring at them and devoured me to glory.

The entire ceremonial affair was done and over with in less than 72 hours, and I’m talking about the engagement, marriage and in some cases even meeting the girl / boy for the first time. The closest I got to the Sangeeth ceremony of today was when the cab driver of the car I was travelling in for my engagement churned out a creaky version of Congratulations and Celebrations from his archaic car stereo!!!!

Less talked about the photo shoots of the days the better. It was more like a shoot at sight for me. May 18^th in Madras is like being barbecued and here comes the photographer with super bright lights at my face, the heat from which literally tanned me and took the sheen out of the efforts I had put in to look fairer the previous evening.

The staple menu in almost all weddings was, a Biriyani followed by a scoop of vanilla ice cream and if you are lucky they would throw in a few pieces of fruits of the season and viola you had a fruit salad too.

Fast forward to today, The Indian wedding industry is a 159 Billion Dollar industry, starting from hiring the likes of a globe-trotting Seema Taparia for your match making which technically was a freelance activity for your neighborhood aunties then, to date nights that cost a bomb now which were limited to samosa cut in two and a cutting chai then. Not to forget the tribe of Wedding Planners who would go any length to ensure you were shot from tree tops or underwater, bedeck your venue with Tulips from Keukenhof, Michelin Star Chefs would be dishing out the choicest Foie gras and Sushi and finally not to forget the designer wear that might look good at Met Gala events but not quite designed for Madras Kathri in May.  Ah and not to antagonize the senior citizens of the household, add a dash of tradition too into this cacophony with the likes of Mehendi and a Haldi ceremony which is a fixture, irrespective of the cast or creed you belong too, they would justify it saying after all turmeric is just an anti-oxidant. Mind you, this trend is not just confined to the ultra-high net worth strata but has trickled down to the middle and lower middle-class India too, albeit in a marginally scaled down fashion.

The latest addition to destination wedding is in a space capsule and to add salt to the wound it was announced on 18^th May 2023 exactly 25 years after I got married. You can have up to 8 guests in the capsule that will take you 100,000ft above poor Earth and will also feature a play list, my guess is that Stairway to Heaven would feature in them and how much more literally closer can you to get to the old adage “Marriages are made in Heaven”, but the Indian version says for it to last, it should be written in the stars. So, all you folks who are going up there please read the script on the stars as well and pray that it lasts on humble earth too.

As we celebrate our Silver Jubilee, I am going through a sense of FOMO (Frustration Of having Missed Out) on all of the above. I want to shake a leg, but cannot, as the knees are creaking, had hair then but no stylist or a head spa, designer wear these days come only in slim & super slim sizes and on the best days I can fit just about an arm into these shirts, the closest I get to haldi is in our kitchen while cooking and no drone photo shoots from tree tops for me, else they will capture a barren head. Wish I was born 25 years later!!! Having said that, I still cherish going through those moth-eaten photographs in my wedding album and vividly remember every guest who came on stage (and the gift he / she gave me). I can vouch, this joy, no wedding planner or a big fat wedding can give.  

Here’s Wishing my wife of 25 years all patience and strength with help from all Gods & Stars to endure another 25 with this annoying man!!! 

BOT (Bought) me not!

The buzz around the new BOT on the Tech block was making me go crazy, and I decided I will join the bandwagon too. Google will be out of business someone mentioned, while another said education is going to become redundant, well the thing about education becoming redundant had little effect on me as I had already used and misused what was taught at school and work and hardly had another decade of effective working life ahead of me and realized education cannot get me far anymore. Then someone said writers are going to be extinct as the new kid can write Prose and poetry with poise. Now, that hit me and I had to take a quick call and write a Requiem for my Blog. RIP Writers and bloggers, I told myself.

The doubting Thomas in me still refused to believe and buy into the idea that a couple of chips, wires, waves and cryptic codes could invade and hijack my thought process and creativity. After all we are “The Creation” isn’t it? And the new kid is just our creation.

So, armed with a user name and password I decided to confront the new Frankenstein in the room out to destroy the creativity of mankind. The gladiator in me walked into the coliseum to take on the massless but artificially intelligent rival!

Will a writer become redundant now that AI can write poetry and prose with ease? I asked

The speed at which it/he/she/they replied amazed me. I heaved a sigh of relief as I read the contents with bated breath...Relieved I was!

The new kid ChatGPT surrendered saying it can only generate text and acknowledged the fact that it does not have the same level of creativity, nuance and emotional depth as human writers and will not be able to bring the cultural context that a human writer can bring to text.

I have posted the complete transcript at the end of this blog. But what impressed me was the humility with which ChatGPT acknowledged its limitations. I totally admire the quality and speed at which technology surprises us every day. However, we humans are gifted with a power unique to us when compared to other living species that inhabits the universe. It is the power of discernment, which is also considered a virtue, decision making with discernment involves both the heart and the mind. Discernment is an important tool in Management, Personal life, and even Technological decision making.

ChatGPT might have an edge over us in the head part of decision making as our brains are wired in a complex way which can, to a certain extent be replicated outside the boundaries of the skull. But, the way of the heart is out of bounds to tech yet, except for the fact that tech can keep it oiled and working for just a while and not more.

Chat GPT stands for Generative Pre-Trained Transformer and as the name suggests it is Pre-trained and it needs a trainer, that is us, to transform our queries/prompts. I’m not a naysayer of Tech and hope that it goes on to add value to human existence, but with the same humility that ChatGPT exhibited to my query I should admit that 'THE CREATION', that we are, happen to be far ahead of anything we create.

So, our 1000+grams of grey matter, any day will outclass the creation of latest chips, waves, codes and wires

Now for the fun part!!! Please find below the transcript of my interaction with ChatGPT

My Prompt: Will a writer become redundant now that AI can write poetry and prose with ease?

Artificial intelligence (AI) can generate text, such as poetry and prose, using a variety of techniques, but it does not mean that human writers will become redundant. While AI can generate text that may be grammatically correct and coherent, it does not have the same level of creativity, nuance, and emotional depth as human writers.

AI-generated text is based on patterns and trends found in existing text data, and it can produce results that are impressive in terms of its technical capabilities, but it lacks the ability to understand the human experience, emotions, and the cultural context that a human writer can bring to the text.

Additionally, the creative process of writing is not just about producing text, but also about exploring and understanding the world, expressing oneself and connecting with others. For many writers, the act of writing is a form of self-expression and personal exploration, which is not something that can be replicated by AI.

Moreover, as technology advances, so too do the expectations of readers. They are becoming more sophisticated and discerning, and they expect to be engaged in a way that is hard for AI-generated texts to match.

In conclusion, while AI can generate text, it does not replace the role of human writers. Human writers bring creativity, emotional depth, and cultural context to their writing that AI cannot replicate. The role of human writers will continue to be important in literature, journalism, and all forms of written communication.

The Happiness Paradigm

I have just rung in the New Year... But, given all the new age hype about living in the ‘now’ and not worrying on the morrow or not dwelling on one’s past, I was wondering if dwelling on the past is as bad as it is made out to be. Dreaming / planning about the future, may be yes. The past teaches you lessons and shows you the path not to take, while dreaming of the future only helps in aspiring and planning for the future, a future that can be offset by events we have no control over. So, my two cents would be to embrace the past, use the experience, tend the bruises from the falls and learnings and learn to live in the now.  

As one rings in the new year we are being flooded with Happy New Year messages digitally every other minute. Images, GIFs, videos, memes and what not... ‘Happy’ in the Happy New year seems to be an abused adjective. Circa 2022 was a year of mixed emotions for me, more biased on the side of sorrow than the joys. Lost a dear cousin at an age I shouldn’t be losing him. The gurus of happiness say cliched stuff like happiness is a choice and one choose to be happy and all. I totally disagree with that.  Did his family or me have a choice to be happy when he left us on a Friday evening? No, Not all. Happiness is not an individual perception, Happiness cannot be a choice, Happiness is a state of mind heavily influenced by the past and present events. One can be unhappy or happy thinking about the past, one can be happy or unhappy thinking about the present, but one can never be happy or unhappy thinking about the future.

So, wishing someone a Happy New Year is just a cliché and means nothing. New Year greetings should be changed to Wishing one a New Year with whatever it has to offer you! Offended? Call me a pessimist or whatever, why should I be an Optimist when it comes to happiness? How can I decide on the unknown as defined by the Latin root of Optimist, Optimus which means it is not only good or better but the best, that is utter rubbish, it might soothe my senses but rationally I do not know if the future holds the best or worst for me? 

We live in a world today that says data is king. Can someone confidently tell me with the assistance of AI and all the data over the last 2022 years that you can confidently predict a Happy New Year to the 8 Billion plus people around the globe.

So, Here’s Wishing you all a Year filled with 365 ‘Nows’, How the ‘Now’ will turn out to be, neither You nor I know. Take the experience from the past in your stride, buckle up and ride the roller coaster of life in the present!  Unbuckle as you reach the destination and be ready to buckle up after another365 nows.

Future can only be understood when the Future becomes the Now!!!

...and the final whistle is here!

 The final whistle of the FIFA 2022 is just less than 8 hours and with the end of another year in 12 days, I thought It would be best to end my rather inconsistent blogging year with my views on the World cup and the bon-homie around it, as I had the fortune of living in the host country and be part of the festivities first hand.

From the time, the State of Qatar won the rights to win the World Cup on 2^nd December 2010, I have been fortunate to have played a small part in the related infrastructure works starting from the City that is hosting the finals, the Stadiums and the Drainage networks around the country, it gives me a sense of joy and pride to have been part of this history.

Though not an ardent football fan, I tend to follow only the World cups and the earliest in memory is the 1986 World Cup in Mexico which was famous for the wrong reasons with Diego Maradona’s Hand of God becoming more famous than God gifted feet of his. I was 14 when that happened and here I am 36 years later watching it with my daughter all of 14, as World Cup unfolds in front of her. I followed a world cup on paper while she was fortunate to actually watch it live. Football or for that matter any sport has evolved greatly over this period of 3.5 decades and had there been a VAR then, Argentina might not have qualified and gone on to win the world cup. That was a period when God played a hand and technology was not around, but in my opinion, technology brought in that unwanted perfection to sports.

My knowledge of football continues to be pathetic so much so that if they call an offside now, I am immediately reminded of how brilliant Vishwanath & Ganguly were on their offsides while it is scorned upon in Football. Its not that I love football less but I love cricket more.

As someone who witnessed this from close quarters I can say this was a seamlessly organized World Cup with close to 25K volunteers of diverse nationalities putting in their heart and soul with a smile to welcome the world to Qatar. I am no FIFA guru to compare it with the rest of the World Cups but from a resident, and an unbiased spectator point of view I can say the organizers did not leave a stone unturned.

As in any GCC country the Indian population which is a predominant one, found itself in the thick of things and this was the first time a World Cup happened closest to the Indian Subcontinent, the time difference being a mere 2.5 hours.  The majority of the Indian diaspora come from Kerala which unlike the rest of India love their football. Can’t blame them as the state’s only notable contribution to Indian cricket has been the fiery Sreesanth and the constantly fired but always fired up Sanju Samson. Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar and even some of the un-pronounceable Croatian & Polish players were worshipped as Gods in Kerala, some went under water with a hoarding of Messi, some prayed for him in institutions cutting across the sensitive religious divisions. The Keralite fans sporting the favourite team jerseys outnumbered and out voiced the native Brazilians and Argentinians and luckily their jerseys were not the ‘Besharam Rang’ (thankfully Netherlands were ousted in the Semis!). Though there was an entourage of Bollywood and Mollywood Celebrities including Deepika Padukone who will unveil the World Cup later today, I am hopeful someday a country of 1.3 billion people produce 11 Mbappés to pose an Indian challenge in the World of Football, and graduate from being just super fans to players to watch out for. Waiting for the 1983 moment in Indian Football!

As the curtains come down on the month long festivities in my adopted city, I can vouch that this has been a truly inclusive and the most diverse world cup, but at the same time one which glaringly highlighted a deepening East-West divide.

No country or region can claim the right to a sport. Cricket is a testimony to that. A sport has no boundaries, only rules. Anyone who is skillful enough and can play by the rules can claim the sport to be his/her/their own too. As the FIFA Qatar 2022 tagline goes Now is all...I certainly believe Now is just the beginning to all. Mexico / America / Canada are all set to host the next World Cup in 2026, from the diversity point of view I believe you will see Tacos, McDonalds and I don’t know much about Canada, just like the visitors knowledge was limited to Shawarmas in Qatar. No offense to any one from those three countries, my excuse is that I am as ignorant as you folks there in the west when it comes to the knowledge of Geography and culture on the other side of the world.