akbar

Agriculture Information Index

This is something thats been hovering over my head from the past 2 weeks. One of my extremely smart friend talked to me about this idea and without spilling a lot of details about it (since he still wants to pursue this as a business) – I want to give my 2 cents on this.

The idea is very simple – basically create a searchable index with a REST API in the front for the agricultural information for a certain region – in this case it would be some county/district in India. This index would be a subscription based one for people who want to sell services and goods to farmers in this farmland. That’s the idea – but when you get down to implement it – it’s an uphill task. Since I have been thinking about this I want to take a crack at this – in theory for now. The difficulty is in collection of data – it needs to be cheap but network connected. The one thing that comes to my mind when I think about it is – Raspberri Pi – RPi has made inroads to some serious business models from a hobby and I think a simple prototype can be built which have multiple sensors and can capture them and store it temporarily. This could further be powered with solar (yeah I know the cost might go up with this one). The networking part can be solved with a simple solution. The Rpi unit doesn’t need to be online all the time. It could be a simple app running in background on an Android phone which will collect data as you pass by Rpi and send it across to a central location. There is a lot of scope for innovation in getting the data out from fields to a central db.

Then there are human problems – like vandalism and people stealing these things away for copper in it. This is going to be tricky. The farmers are mostly poor and they would need a incentive to keep these Rpi’s buzzing and collecting data. I think there is a scope here to involve a CBO or a micro lending company to turn this into an interesting investment option for the farmers. Imagine treating Rpis as cattle and as the data gets collected they would get paid some amount. It might be less than what they can make over cattle – but this one would be reliable and more recurring. Also the fact that the data might actually help them find the resources like fertilizers etc faster and might raise their land value is pretty convincing.

That’s just a small sample of what I think about the Agri data. I would love to jump into something like that and build a nice usable prototype if I have enough backing.

I did explore a very similar idea in Education area with another friend of mine who is equally skilled and passionate about bringing in cheap hardware and rich content to teach kids in remote areas – but that’s another blog post.

I think if you scale back and take a look at bigger picture – the bigger index is the social index – which would be hard to create but with incentives and some good planning it would be possible to create a social aspect index of Indian rural area which would then help other CBO and NGOs to be able to target specific issues at grass root level in the areas they want to.

The possibilities are unlimited and my imagination is buzzing!

Some moments

There are some moments in my life – where I would be in between of something and God knows what happens – may be some neurons fire together – a specific memory flashes back. Today I was writing some code and a distinct memory of my dad on a particular day lit up in my head. I was trying to subdue it but it wouldn’t go away. I accepted what was coming in and stopped what I was doing and reminisce about that day.

When I finished my high school, I appeared for every premier institute entrance test. My favorites were IISC (Indian Institute of Science) or ISI (Indian Statistical Institute) but it was a long arduous selection process. Every institute had this written test which was hours long and it would be a one whole day spent on it. I did my best to prepare, but my dad would want to make sure I am taken care of well. So, he would drop me off at the place and say that he would pick me up.

But sometimes he would never leave. He would take time off from his work and just spend all day waiting for me to finish the test. I would know once I get back out by the look on his face. Tired but eager. I don’t know why he did that. At that time I used to ask him not to do that but he wouldn’t listen.

That particular image popped up in my head today and refused to leave till I paid attention to it. I don’t think I am being nostalgic but I feel that there is some meaning to it. Also, I wouldn’t lie that this particular memory was easy to handle – it moved and churned a lot of things in me.

Mourning

This morning I got a call from my home in India. My dearest grand dad passed away. It hurt so much to learn that. He has been sick from some time and I made it a point to spend a lot of time with him on my trip to India last month. It’s been a weird day. I tried so many ways to find solace in many things. It’s hard. Death is such a full stop to everything that happens around it that it throws people off their rhythm.

My grand father was the sweetest person in the world. The only person who would let me do and let me have whatever I want while growing up under my strict dad. I don’t remember when it started to happen but I think around the age when I was 7 I started to go spend all my summer at my grand parents place. It was so much fun. I used to look forward to that. The summer was the best. I would just spend time with my friends and watch movies. My grand parents took care of me.

Then later when I was went to college, it so happened that it was like 20 miles from my grand parents place. I loved it. Every weekend I would go visit them and spend a good amount of time. My grand father was so much fun to hangout with. He was a farmer. I would go to fields with him and watch him do the work and try to help. He loved farming. He has un-usual way to telling weather. Just by smelling the air and looking at the sky he could tell if it’s going to rain or not. It was fascinating to me.

It was always sad to leave their place to go back to my place. But one thing that got etched into my memory when I was kid was – as I was saying good bye to him – my grand father started to cry. I could never imagine that he could cry and I was shocked. I still remember that day.

10 years ago he had a stroke and everyone thought we would lose him. But he came back like a rock star. He got healed and miraculously also managed to do his pilgrimage and live this long. He was 80+ and in a good health. He doesn’t have any of the modern lifestyle diseases, no eye sight and still was going around on his bi-cycle.

I love him so much and I am going to miss him a lot. My only solace is that I saw him last month and he saw Sahana and was able to bless her. It’s painful to digest this and there are no words sometimes to express it. One song keep going on in my head and I just keep listening to it. It somehow soothes me.

Rest in Peace Nana. I will miss you a lot.

Dream

This morning I had a pretty amazing dream. I mean this one really tops the list. I was led into a chamber by my mentor or some person who I don’t remember now. This chamber is a special one which bestows on you special powers if you are ready for it. There were other people behind me who were getting inside.

As soon as I got in, I felt this energy wrapping me and I was feeling completely different. Then I put my legs on the wall and was able to walk on the wall! Later I was pulling things out of walls etc.

That went on for quite a while but the cool comprehension I came out with was – I am creating my own reality. That’s what the main message was. This energy which was within me was letting me do that. And it felt like the dream went on forever.

That was one of the coolest dream I ever had!

Permission

Every night sometime after 10pm – I get into this (if I am not watching TV) mental mode where my mind is ripe with ideas and I extend my thinking with new things and thought and dreams. Then I go to sleep – still thinking about some of those things and sometimes I don’t sleep and end up thinking about those ideas. Then when I wake up, the monotone banality sets in – as I walk to work – like everyone around me in this part of the world does – this so called reality tries to mess with my mind saying that – the past night thoughts were fluke and I need to get real.

This literally happens like almost regularly. As regularly as I get a Latte at Starbucks.

Last night as I was getting into my dreamy mode – I was able to stop myself and and then I realized that this critic has infiltrated into my most amazing kid like dreamy state and was trying to stop it at its root. I was surprised and as I was thinking about it – I realized that I really don’t need to ask for *permission* from my own critic. I mean it dominates the rest of day and tells me what I am supposed to do but this time was my exploration time.

As that thought settled in – I also realized that this critic no matter how useful it is for me to do day to day jobs – needn’t run my life the way he runs it. And as I saw the bigger picture – all my life has been one long list of permission list from this critic. Can I do that? Can I participate in it? Am I capable? Do I have the skills? Am I good enough? And on and on…

It also made me realize that how futile fighting this critic is. The more you fight, the more you make him stronger. The only way to escape him is to ignore him. I know it’s impossible to change my behavior over night (that statement was sponsored by my critic) but ignoring him works like a charm. If I see something painful or start to feel anxious about something I don’t know of – I just need to become aware that it’s one of those tactics of this critic.

The way to drain the critic out of you is to stop asking for his permission. Stop empowering him. You can do whatever you want to do. It doesn’t matter if you are good or suck at it. What matters is – whether we are all man enough to overcome this fake critic which got installed into our psyche when we were like kids. This hero worshipping culture enables the latent critic. Makes it stronger. But I don’t have to play by it’s rules.

I am going to to drain him by stopping to ask for permission.

Memory and Expertise

I am reading this fascinating book called – Moonwalking with Einstein. It’s a story of a journalist who went to write about World memory championship for Slate and ended up being challenged by one of the participants and trained for a year and won the championship the following year. It’s really cool book. The book in general is his one year delving into this memory learning techniques and also explaining a lot about how our memories work and what it means to have a good memory.

One thing I read in there stuck with me. He talks about Chess champions- where they did a study of average chess players and world class chess players, they found out that the difference between them is – basically memory. A chess champion is good because he/she can remember thousands of chess positions. It’s totally true. When I was playing chess long time back, it was all about memorizing positions and improvising on a stable position. They also found out that these chess champions didn’t have great IQ or exceptional memory when it came to remembering their shopping list. What they also found out was that when they were given a randomly arranged chess board to remember they had a hard time to remember it.

So what it means is that – they needed context to remember chess positions, they needed a story to remember a chess position. They also took a brain scans of experts and novice players and saw that for an expert every position lit up the parts of the brain which holds memory and for novices, the learning parts of the brain.

This gives an unusual twist on expertise. I believe this applies to any field, including writing software. If you think about it, when you are writing a program and say you are an expert at it – what your mind does is look in your memory to find similar scenarios from the past and how you solved it. A software expert is someone who knows how to solve a particular problem using software and it usually means that they have already solved these problems or similar ones in the past.

So, how do you build this memory whose other side is expertise? Remember Malcolm Gladwell talked about 10,000 hours of practice? There is no other way. Practice is what helps one to build such a strong memory and the outcome of that is expertise. This may sound very obvious, but there is a perception of Intelligence out there which is purely wrong. People assume, some people are smart and some aren’t. But that is a lock in position.

I believe nature plays a role. Some people are gifted and they are exception to the rule. But for the rest of us, it’s all about practice.

Talking to the 6 year old in me

Last weekend – as our dear friend Rebecca agreed to babysit Sahana – we decided to go watch a movie together! Just me and Sangita. Sangita picked a non-commercial movie called – The Sessions – to watch. I had no clue as to what the movie is about. When it started out with a man who is paralyzed – I was expecting a miracle and thinking that the movie will end in a happy ending by Mark getting better! (It’s based on a real story of Mark O’Brien). How lame of me.

The movie is very touchy and moving. It shows a completely basic level of human nature which we don’t encounter in a day to day life. No drama, just great stuff. There is one scene in the movie which moved me a lot and I have been thinking about it a lot. In one of the scene – Helen Hunt who is the sex surrogate asks Mark – who is getting upset about how he is doing – to close his eyes and imagine the time when he was 6 years old in a nice place. Not in the body of the 6 year old, but as if he is watching the 6 year old version of him. Then she asks him to tell that 6 year old – There is nothing wrong with him, he is not the reason for his disability.

That was really moving. The 6 year old in me keep banging on my door asking for me to talk to him. After a lot of thought, I relented. I imagined a time when I was 6 year old. This was 1980, so we were in Bapatla, AP. After my school the best place to play was in a big pile of sand in our backyard. I would take a bunch of bricks and make them bus, car etc and drive them around – often resulting in some accidents. I watched my 6 year old playing for a long time and then approached him and said these 3 things-

There is nothing wrong with you
You don’t have to be perfect
You are loved, always

I know that this may sound very kooky – but there are 2 things to take into consideration. First, if you study time. I mean the time time, you will know that past and future are nothing but ideas – temporal placement of events in our minds. They don’t exist. To add a meta-physics level to it, you will learn that everything is happening at this moment. Irrespective of how hard it is for linear mind to understand it – I believe in that. The 6 year old is playing with those bricks right now as I type this. Second, the emotional release it had on me was immense. I just couldn’t take it and it explains why I had to wait like 5 days before I talked to the 6 year old – even for my imagination.

My Second Childhood

I grew up in India. All my education was in India. The only reason I got out of country was for opportunity and better life. With Sahana in my life I am experiencing something extraordinarily new that I believe wouldn’t happen again in my life. I am experiencing a second childhood. I have many bits and pieces of memory from my childhood. I remember some sweet ones and some sour ones. But what I am experiencing now is totally different.

I am part and parcel of American culture, but mostly contemporary. I mean if you refer to something from India which has roots in every kids childhood there, I would get it – but if you refer something related to American culture which every kid born here gets it, I probably wont. I mean I can read up history and politics and understand it – but I won’t be getting the essence of growing up here in this country – ever. Well until recently.

After Sahana turned like 14 months old – she has become more active with couple of things – TV shows (not much), language & education. Tv shows are fascinating because I had the same response Sahana has when she watched Elmo. I was surprised how well made is Sesame Street. When we watch Elmo – trust me I watch it with same intensity like Sahana does and I love it.

Language – Talking with Sahana and teaching her words has been a totally unique experience. The way she is picking up words and the way she remembers names is very interesting. Like many Indians who don’t speak much English but only written – there are some things which I do which usual Americans don’t do. A lot of Indians convert questions into statements and then add a visual or verbal cue in the end – signifying it’s a question. Like for example: “Do you like this?” becomes “You like this? No?”. I know it’s confusing. Similarly, when I ask Sahana – ‘Do you like this?’ – she would say “No”, and when I confirm by asking ‘So, you don’t like this’ (a statement) – she says “Yes”. I know this may not be special but thats just fascinating. I mean she understands – a question from a statement. And it took me 25 years to see the pattern in me (and other Indians) about that.

Education. I have always been fascinated by Education. I mean the whole idea of receiving knowledge from outside source. I mean a source outside of me other than my intuition and my reasoning. I don’t mean that the outside sources are bad but it’s been interesting to test out a lot of things at least for me to see how I learn better and how having better education changes things. My education made me who I am today. Escaping middle class in India. But I did had a crazy education. I was part of the boarding schools which competed on how long can you keep a student awake and make him sit in front of a book. They would make us get up like 4 am and would not sleep till 12am. Those were some crazy 7 years of my life.

But what made me stand out from the crowd during the period was how I was internalizing my learning and how I was spitting out a completely different notion of what I was learning. For example – they would teach us from 2-3 text books for a subject and we are supposed to write up what we understand. Instead of just filling up all the junk from remembering, I would draw stuff and make comparisons which was at least new to my teachers and they loved it.

Anyhow, when coming to American education – I am excited about how I would participate in Sahana’s learning and have my say in it. Only last year I learned the school system here and picking up on a lot of information from what Sangita tells me. I think I want Sahana to learn 3 things:

1. Mathematics – Whether or not if it’s a queen of sciences – Math is definitely needed not for calculating stuff but to expand ones imagination. I mean math is a science about perfect world. It proposes an alternative reality, one better than what we experience – but in a sense it’s perfect. I believe Math would teach Sahana how to imagine better and see things in her mind’s eye. I want to introduce Math as an art form and let her deduce her own things. Learn by exploring.

2. Science – If Math expands imagination, Science expands reasoning, causation. Science is cool because there is no BS in it. It doesn’t fool around. Whether it’s there or it isn’t. I want to teach her the curiosity through science. I want to strengthen her rational thinking through Science.

3. Computation – I think computation is nothing but problem solving. The tools, utilities and reminiscents are actual physical computers, programming languages etc. But where else would you get a world for yourself to create, craft and test out solutions for problems. Computation is tightly packed with Math and Science. Math gives one a liberty to imagine things and craft an ideal solution, Science builds limits and makes it more creative to solve it within the limits.

I know I am missing a lot of stuff in the list. The above 3 are the ones I am most excited about. I am having a second childhood experience through Sahana and what’s coming up for her. Super exited!

November Books

I buy and read a lot of books. But there has been no pattern to it. I mean, I start like 5 books and then close up on them in like a year. But whats happening with that mode is – I do get to think about ideas a little longer (or forget about them and re-read them) but I am missing the connections. I like it when I read a couple of books and my mind when it’s idle, just starts to connect things. Like when I was reading The Whole Brain Child (Highly recommend it for parents and would be parents) – I was able to connect a lot of ideas to how we perceive time – past, present and future.

To give a structure – I am going to try a new method. I am going to try to read and finish 3-4 books next month. I will take notes and document all the ways that my mind creates connections. I will write a post about it at the end of the month. Here are the 4 books I am considering. At the outset it may looks this is a total random selection, but I see some similarities in them. And that is the goal of reading this month to make the connections.

Google please make this…

I have a request for Google. I believe only Google can make this happen, well Apple can too but they won’t. Given how Google maps trump Apple maps and given how the usage of WiFi everywhere has gone up, I firmly believe this will be a great device. Here are the details.

– Create a GPS device with Google maps on it.

– This could be android based and it doesn’t really matter.

– I should be able to see the device through some Google interface.

– So, when I am looking for directions on my laptop – I should be able to save the directions and send it to my device.

– The killer feature of this device would be – in addition to GPS connection, it would also be connected to a cellular network.

– This device will take the cellular network and spit out a local WiFi network. Like what those Verizon MiFi devices do.

I believe this would be a cool device. Imagine if you can stream Elmo on Netflix to your kids in the backseat of the car (on their iPads or iPhones). Imagine that every address search you make online is saved as a maps search history on this device which you can conveniently use it. The device could be small enough so that when I am out of my car I can carry it with me and still use it as a MiFi device.

So, Google please make this device and I am willing to pay for it!