My 3rd speech at Toastmasters
Hi friends. A very good afternoon to all of you! Remember those days when you have an important interview and get stuck in a traffic jam? Remember those days when you start a few minutes late from your home and miss the office bus because it was a few minutes earlier than usual? My point is, sometimes things go wrong, that too at the most inappropriate moments. And you don’t know whom to blame. Take heart, because after my speech, you’ll know exactly who is responsible for all the miseries in your life.
It’s not fate, it’s not God. This villain is called Murphy’s Law. Unlike other complicated laws which you take a lot of time to understand, this law is very clearly-worded. It simply states “Anything that can go wrong will go wrong”. That means that if there is even a 0.1% probability that something can go wrong, it will go wrong in the worst possible manner.
The law owes its origin to the American Air Force. In between 1948 and1949, the American Air Force took up a project to study human deceleration. They wanted to test how many Gs a pilot could withstand in a crash – where one G is the force of gravity acting on a body at sea-level. Earlier estimates said that it was 18Gs. However some crashes during World War II proved otherwise. These estimates were used in designing aircrafts. So if the earlier estimates were incorrect, lives of many pilots were unnecessarily at risk. These tests were being conducted by Colonel John Stapp, a physician, U.S. Air Force colonel and Flight Surgeon.
During the tests, questions were raised about the accuracy of the instrumentation used to measure the g-forces. Edward Murphy, an American aerospace engineer, proposed using electronic strain gauges to measure this force. The sensors were wired. But guess what? They showed a zero reading. It turned out Murphy’s assistants had wired the sensors incorrectly. This prompted a disgusted Murphy to make the pronouncement “If there’s any way they can do it wrong, they will.”
This was how the law was born. But just how did the Law get out into the world and gain public attention? Well, John Paul Stapp held a press conference a few weeks after the incident. And he was attempting to explain his research in clinical terms when a reporter asked the obvious question: “How is it that no one has been severely injured — or worse — during your tests?” Stapp replied nonchalantly that, “we do all of our work in consideration of Murphy’s Law.” When the puzzled reporters asked for a clarification, Stapp defined the Law and stated that “you have to think through all possibilities before doing a test” so as to avoid disaster. If anything can go wrong, it will. It was a concept that seized the cumulative imagination at the press conference. So when articles showed up in print, Murphy’s Law was cited right along with Newton’s Second.
As time progressed, people found that this rule is ubiquitous. It is all-pervading. Every person I know swears that their lives are governed by this one single rule. In fact, so many people are affected by it that over the years, this law has been quoted in thousands of articles and news reports, been the subject of several books, appeared as the title of a movie and a TV show, and inspired about a dozen zillion corollaries, or correlated laws. I would now like to tell you about a few of those dozen zillion corollaries, which will make it clear to you how this law affects every aspect of our life.
Murphy’s Law governs your love life. You see a beautiful girl or a handsome guy at a party. This is THE person you had dreamt of all your life. You go and introduce yourself to this person. And the next thing you know, you are being introduced to this person’s spouse. After all, there is a corollary which says “All the good ones are taken.” “And if the person isn’t taken, there’s a reason.”
There are laws that pertain to your job. Maybe your job is well-paying, but it bores you to death. Maybe you found a job description which was fun, interesting and high-paying. You went to interview for it, and you didn’t get it. The following quote sums it up aptly. “The job you want is well-paying, interesting, fun, rewarding, conveniently located, or attainable; pick one.”
All of us who are automating test cases face a peculiar problem. When you don’t have any deadlines to meet, when you don’t have any urgent tasks to finish, the stage will work as if it never had any load problems. However, you have some important test case to deliver and you’ll find that someone has uninstalled Silk from your TPA, or better still, you cannot connect to your TPA at all. Your stage will not work, you will need to file a ticket and you’ll take hours trying to find what ticket to file. A saying sums it up correctly “If something breaks, and it stops you from doing something, it will be fixed when you:
1. no longer need it
2. are in the middle of something else
3. don't want it to be fixed, because you really don't want to do what you were supposed to do”
And there’s a law which developers would certainly identify with. It says “Bugs will appear in one part of a working program when another 'unrelated' part is modified.”
And speaking of the theme of the day, there is a corollary to Murphy’s Law which sums it up aptly. It says “Anything good in this world is either illegal, immoral or fattening.” It very clearly brings out the fact that temptations are what we want to do, and they maybe different from what we do. The key is to strike the correct balance between the two.
To sum up, it might seem to some people that I am taking a very pessimistic view of life by saying that everything in life has to go wrong. However, to me it is a reminder that life can be defined just as much by its inherent challenges as anything else. These challenges make life enjoyable. Murphy’s laws just help us to take it all with humour. :)
My 2nd speech at Toastmasters
Hi, a very good afternoon to all of you… Sydney J. Harris said “Demoocracy is the only system that persists in asking the powers that be whether they are powers that ought to be.” Last week Angesh talked about PP – “Power of Publicity”. This impelled me to think of a bigger PP, namely “Power of People”. The 15th General Elections being conducted this year are a celebration of the same phenomenon. So I thought I’d talk about a democracy, its different facets, and most importantly, the role we play in a democracy.
A democracy is a form of government where citizens hold power directly or indirectly. It is derived from the Greek work “demokratia”, which in turn was coined from “demos”, meaning people, and “kratos” meaning rule or strength. In short, democracy means rule by people or popular government. There are two major characteristic features of a democracy. One is that of equality - all citizens have equal access to power. And the second is that of liberty. All citizens have universally recognized freedoms. Moreover, freedom of speech, freedom of political expression and freedom of press are important so that the citizens are informed and are able to vote in their personal interests.
When I started reading about democracy, the first question which popped into my mind was “When did it all start, and how did it evolve into the present-day democratic system?” The answer to the first question turned out to be, as early as 2nd millennium BC. Arwad, a small island which is a part of the present-day Syria is one of the first known democracies in the world. Closer home, the city of Vaishali, which is a part of Bihar now, was one of the first known governments in the world to have elements of the present-day democracy. In the earlier days of democracy, not everyone had the power to vote. Only males of certain tribes, or families were allowed to vote.
During the medieval ages, many bands and tribes also followed the principle of democracy. A very interesting fact regarding these democracies is that this system was not based on the principle of majority. The leaders needed to reach a consensus while making decisions. Also, all the tribe members were expected to share communal duties and participate in the decision-making process. There used to be one “big man” or “big woman” who was influential. However, that influence was conditional to their continuing to demonstrate good leadership. In other words, bushmen were not only more informed and more proactive than us, they also had greater powers!!
During the 18th century, the founding fathers of America decided to root the American experiment in the principles of freedom and equality for male land-owners. They adopted a constitution which provided for an elected government. Democracy became a way of life, but not for women, slaves and free black people. It was only later that these people got the right to vote. In 1893, New Zealand became the first nation to grant universal suffrage, or right to vote.
During the 20th century, most of the democracies were formed as a result of wars or rebellions. There was a wave of decolonization and most of the newly freed countries started forming democratic governments. India emerged as the largest democracy in the world and still continues to be so. Presently there are 123 democratic nations and there is an upward trend in this number.
A major criticism against democracies is that it is a majority rule. So in the absence of a responsible government, it is possible for the majority to abuse the rights of the minority.
Another major criticism is that many voters are irrational. They might be highly uninformed about some issues or have a strong bias towards something. For example, members of a labour union are very passionate and informed about labour policies. They might come together and lobby the government to adopt policies favourable to the labour unions, but not to the rest of the population. In Winston Churchill once stated “The best argument against a democracy is a 5-minute conversation with the average voter.”
This is where we, informed and responsible citizens come into picture. It is our duty to know about different political parties, their manifestoes, their ideologies, the policies – economic or otherwise – propagated by them. Only when we know all this can we make the right decision.
Tata Tea showed a very hitting advertisement as a part of its Jaago Re initiative. It shows a young voter questioning a candidate on his policies. The voter puts it to him very aptly. We give interviews when we take up a job. You have applied for a very important job – that of running the nation. So it is quite obvious that you will be interviewed. This brings to front the role of an active citizen in a democracy.
In fact, we would do well to learn about activism from our counterparts across the border. Pakistan may shelter terrorists. However, the Pakistani citizens have shown us what the power of people can do. They forced a dictatorial president, Pervez Musharraf to conduct free and fair elections. They forced a stubborn President, Zardari to reinstate the sacked Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhary. They showed the world that when citizens come together and fight against corrupt power, even dictators have to bow to them. The day we Indians recognize the power of a billion + population, we also become the best democracy in the world – of the people, for the people and by the people.
My 1st speech at Toastmasters -
A very good afternoon to all of you!! I am here to present my first speech at Toastmasters, and what better way to do this than to introduce myself to all of you. Well, my story goes through a lot of name changes – it seems that the places I was associated with had unfashionable names, so their names had to be changed. In fact, these name changes make me feel totally confused.
So I’d like to start with something I’m very sure of, my name. My name is Sujata Rathi. Some people might say it’s not a fashionable name, but I’d point out to them that I’ve managed to get through 23 years of my life without changing it. I was born in a city called Calcutta, yes I know a lot of people will jump at me for not calling it “Kolkata” … but the fact is, when I was born, it was called Calcutta, and to me it still is. Anyways, I was born into a Marwari family, not the sort of family you see in Ekta Kapoor’s K-serials… Mine is a close-knit family of four, and apart from plotting and planning against each other, we do find time to help each other out in time of need :). My parents have always encouraged me to do the things I love and have taught me to always be optimistic. I also have a younger brother and we fight a lot, so there have been times when we’ve been locked into separate rooms, to increase the level of peace in the house. I have been brought up in Ranchi, a beautiful hill station which people recognize as soon as you say “you know Dhoni”? It used to be the summer capital of Bihar, and one fine day in 2000, it was suddenly a part of a new state called Jharkhand. But jokes apart, the competitive environment in the city was one of the main reasons for my clearing JEE and coming to the oldest IIT - IIT Kharagpur.
Kharagpur is a very small town. Its claim to fame is its 1072.5 m long platform, the longest railway platform in the world. Just imagine spending the four best years of your life in a town which is covered with houses resembling bhoot-banglas (or haunted houses), which houses all sorts of species you don’t want to get acquainted with, like snakes, frogs and insects. Sounds horrible, right? But truly, those were the four most enjoyable years of my life. There were lots of shady places to be explored in and around the campus. And because the college campus was the best hangout in the town, the students spent a lot of time with each other. The extra-curriculars were great, and the inter-hostel competitions were matters of life-and-death. People came down to blows for their hostels. Of course, being in a campus which had a male-female ratio of about 30:1 ensured that we were always in the thick of things, whether we liked it or not.
But all good things must come to an end, so even this roller-coaster ride had to. The life at IIT Kharagpur equipped us to handle big challenges, so here I am, handling the challenges which PayPal throws up every day. It has been a great learning experience working here, raising bugs and tickets, harassing unsuspecting developers :). Moreover, staying at Chennai has equipped me with the skills to stay at any place – if I have been able to stay in Chennai for more than an year and a half, I guess I could go and live in Timbuktoo and learn a few words of their native language too. I have just one complaint from this place – and that is the way my name has been mauled here. Yes, I know Shakespeare said “What’s in a name”, but I’d say “everything”. That is my identity after all. You see, the problem is that in the north the syllable “TH” is pronounced as
THA. So when my name is spelt as SUJATHA, I end up thinking someone else is being addressed, not me. Every time I get a mail starting “Hi Sujatha”, Sujatha with a THA, my heart bleeds. I once accidentally sent a mail to a friend from my official email address, where my name is spelt with a THA, and you can imagine how many jokes were cracked in my friend circle at my expense.
There’s one more thing I’d like to tell about myself. I love people. I don’t mean to say that you would find me hobnobbing with people I don’t know, or that you’d find me jumping out of joy because I’m in a crowded street. I just mean to say that I truly care about people around me. Their suffering pains me. And what pains me even more is when we human beings generate all this suffering. I wish we could get over our insecurities, the threat we perceive in other regions, religions, castes and their cultures. I wish we could start taking pride in our culture and recognize that our culture is too strong to be affected by anything, and that we would realize that living in harmony is the only way forward. After all as someone said, “Once you replace negative thoughts with positive ones, you'll start having positive results.”