Archive — lzerobzero

Murali (also known as Seshadri)

My next anna, Kumar's younger brother was Murali. His birthday fell on 16 MAY, a birthdate I have always missed until 19 MAY, my beloved cousin Sudarma's birth day. In some ways Murali sprung on me when I moved in with my grand mother/uncle's family to start pre-university. I never thought about it until now, but it could be because he spent bulk of my childhood years in Salem, and even when my uncle moved to Coimbatore, I can't say I saw much of him. We made up for any lost opportunities to bond in the three and odd years as we shared the roof at our grand-mother's.

Murali was the king of vetti-gnayam - purposeful discussions on significant issues of political and national significance with no other purpose than to have such purposeful discussions. Murali himself was a graduate in Political Sciences, on full academic scholarship, with his medium of study being Tamil. A killer combination had he chosen to enter politics, he didn't, and it ensured his prolonged unemployment status - amongst us I had a nice handwriting and I used to make copies of his resume- may be I didn’t bring him enough luck - if he was hurting, he didn’t show or may be it allowed him more time to fine-tooth-comb the pages of every Tamil daily that he could get his hands on to power the next vetti-gnayam session. He had a way of teasing me into biting a point of difference on an issue or other, and egg me on to defend it until I would have been convinced of my position with no room to budge so much as an inch. And laugh it off with a "naan pidichha muyallukku moone kaal" leaving me to deal with/refelect to see if my logic was off at a tangent at any point in time. I knew he loved me to bits, so, next time he laid the bait for another argument, my prior experience did nothing to deter me from falling a prey, knowingly at times.

Murali also taught me chess. We would play for hours on end- best part of which was spent between moves by myself to his swift "chekka sivalingama??" repetitively driving me to concede. He was a chain smoker, and hence I was a passive-chain smoker for those three years, so much so that I used to get a headache at a whiff of cigaret, my only expectation of my husband of arranged marriage being that he is a non-smoker. We also played a fair bit carom as a screen to avoid our grand mother's prods for not wasting time in empty chit-chats, carom for some reason not seen by her as wasting time.

His sarma name was Seshadri. Murali was very close to my cousin Sudarma, his sister. He was also very knowledgeable in philosophy and social justice, imparting several sound insights that would at times knock even my grand mother- an ardent devotee of Saint Seshadri ,off the parks. I can still recollect his interpretation of how Kalidasar became wise, his rationale in defence of Ravanan’s abduction of Seetha as “marran manai kavarthal” being an acceptable norm in the times for establishing superiority and so on… He was well versed in Tamil, and words will role of his tongue flanged by such powerful vioce. He was also, like my younger uncle, very fond of peraignyar Anna Durai. Though not Anna's own ideas, his famous last lines on any discussion on mythology would end with a "puranigan vitta puzhugu" - some of his ideals such as seeking objectivity in religion, have stayed with me to date, despite my own devotion to my personal deity and respect for every one else's personal deities.

When my uncle retired, his pension fund came in handy to alleviate the unemployment situation of Murali, as he started an automobile spare-parts shop. Not knowing the exact business environment, I can not comment on whether its the environment in those years or his own inadequacy in the trade that led to the downfall of the business with in a few years. He moved to Chennai. He took to alchohol, and some strange illness that he never recovered from. I loved my cousin very much, an affection so deep that effortlessly helped us move on on the one odd occasion when he crossed the line. The last I saw him was at my wedding. I wish I had kept with his wellbeing more than I did after leaving Coimbatore.

He passed when he was barely 32. I'll never forget that phone call - I think it was late August in 87/88 - I forget... you don't loose cousins that young… and not so suddenly… I remember plunging to the floor and sitting and starring at the phone books that doubled up as a phone table, waiting for the phone to ring again and some how tell me I heard wrong... but it didn't.

I miss Murali. A name I intend to epitomise as a synonym for following his heart in the choice of his study in his mother tongue, when conventional wisdom pointed otherwise; and if my social enterprise takes root, I also would strive to develop language independent pathways for career progression.

affectionately,

Sumathy

Sydney

Tuesday 16 MAY 2023

Iyane en Iyane
___________

An adaptation of the historic 17th attempt of Gajini Mohamad on Somanathapuram. I have written it in barathanatya margam format intended for a solo portrayal of a devout bramin girl as she seeks the help of Somanathar to defend her people as Gajini's army ravages through the beautiful streets of her beloved city.

Allrippu - the girl dances her way through her garden collecting flowers for her beloved Somanathar as she proudly looks over her gates at the beautiful city and the temple gopuram.
intricate play of varying rythmic phrases

Jathiswaram - the girl hears the bugles, intermingled with the crys of battles, the trots of horses, the rumble of the chariots, the thumps of the elephants, the clangs o the swords smothering into muffles as as they slice through the flesh, the collapse of the stone walls and the blinding whiff of the dust from its rubbles

bugles blare
நீ | நீ | நீ | நீ | நீ | நீ | நீ | நீ |

the rumble of the chariots as they race down behind the horses

க ப த | க ப த | ப த ப | க ப த | க ப த | க ப த | ப த ப | க ப த |

the clangs o the swords smothering into muffles as as they slice through the flesh

the collapse of the stone walls (in lower octave)

blinding whiff of the dust from its rubbles

ஸா | ஸா |ஸா | | ஸா | | | |

Shabdam - the girl frightened, blocks out all the sounds from the city with her own song, reminding herself of the glories of her people and continues to collect her flowers, knowing in her heart, that its a matter of time before the plunderers would leave and her people will heal and rebuild.
த திங் கிண தொம் | தத் திங் கிண்ண தொம் | ததிங்கிணதொம் ததிங்கிணதொம் ததிங்கிணதோம்

to be completed.

Varnam - the girl walks in to her home, making sure every door and window of her home is opened wide, clearing every path to her door and window for easy access fo her people to come in and take asrama as the war raged through out the city, finding every item of food ready for consumption for those who walked in weary of the battle, keeping every jug filled with water from her pond, every piece of garment she can find laid out and every seat prepared to welcome and sooth the weary, and every lamp lit to assure them of recovery finally retiring to her deity, seating herself with her flowers to start stringing them, one at a time.
TBD

Padam - the girl, picks herself up finding the courage in her heart and reminding herself that she fears nothing.

ஐயனே என் ஐயனே

ஐயன் நீ ஐவனவெனில்
ஐயனே நான் ஐயனே

ஐயன் நீ என் ஐயனானபின்
ஐயனே நான் ஐயனே என் ஐயனே

I won't be afraid, my Feraless
Given, you the Fearless are in all that I should be afraid of has been established, the Fearless, I won't be afraid.
You the Fearless have become mine, hence, Fearless, I won't be afraid, my Fearless!

thillana- the girl, instructs her beloved deity as to what to do as Gajini's forces continue their attack; she asks Him to shoot them down with flowers, the only weapon she knows, she being tired to stand up and fight herself after having expended all her energy preparing her home for the wounded.

தொடுத்தேன் மலர் தொடுத்தேன் உன்னை பணிய நான் தொடுத்தேன்
தொடுக்க கணை தொடுக்க நான் தொடுத்த மலரெடுத்து தொடுக்க
தொடுப்பேன் நான் தொடுப்பேன் நீ தடையின்றி கணை தொடுக்க

I strung, I strung the flowers, I strung the flowers to worship you
You shoot the attackers down with the flowers that I strung and bedecked you with, plucking them from the string one at a time
I'll continue to string more flowers, so that you can shoot the attackers down with a stream of flowers with no restrain or worry as to whether you'd run out of them.

mangalam - the girl opens her eyes in her bed to the loving gaze of her family; the temple gopuram stands tall unscathed by the attack in the distance, teasing the sun as it dips below its walls turning red in shame after loosing its claims to the farthest reaches of the skies to the chiseled vimanam of the Somanathar temple.

இமை பிரிய உம்நன்முகம் கண்டு உவந்தேன், உவந்த நான்

வரை இலாக்கோபுரம் விண் மருவ முகிழ்ந்தேன், முகிழ்ந்த நான்

சிகை சிவந்த கதிரவன் நிலை உணர்ந்தேன், உணர்ந்த நான்
சுமை சரிய முறுவலுடன் கண்வளர்த்தேன் மறுபடியும் கண்வளர்த்தேன் இளநகையுடன் கண்வளர்த்தேன்

As my eyes parted, I saw your beautiful face looking over mine and I rejoiced in happiness

In the distance I saw the endless kopuram of the Somanathar temple sweep the skies and I rejoiced in jubilance

I realised in jest, the predicament of the Sun, whose crown reddened in shame, having lost to the kopuram in its claims to the skies

Relieved of the weight of the burden I bore upon knowing all things are back to normal with our glory restored, I fell asleep, I fell asleep once again, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

Murali (also known as Seshadri)

affectionately,

Sumathy

Sydney

Tuesday 16 MAY 2023

Iyane en Iyane
___________

the rumble of the chariots as they race down behind the horses

க ப த | க ப த | ப த ப | க ப த | க ப த | க ப த | ப த ப | க ப த |

the clangs o the swords smothering into muffles as as they slice through the flesh

the collapse of the stone walls (in lower octave)

blinding whiff of the dust from its rubbles

இமை பிரிய உம்நன்முகம் கண்டு உவந்தேன், உவந்த நான்

வரை இலாக்கோபுரம் விண் மருவ முகிழ்ந்தேன், முகிழ்ந்த நான்

As my eyes parted, I saw your beautiful face looking over mine and I rejoiced in happiness

In the distance I saw the endless kopuram of the Somanathar temple sweep the skies and I rejoiced in jubilance

I realised in jest, the predicament of the Sun, whose crown reddened in shame, having lost to the kopuram in its claims to the skies

Relieved of the weight of the burden I bore upon knowing all things are back to normal with our glory restored, I fell asleep, I fell asleep once again, I fell asleep with a smile on my face.

WORK IN PROGRESS… I am painting the our swami cabinet depicting the poetry, the top layer depicting the mangalam, the one below the thillana, the next one below the padam and so on… I’ll write about the details of the depiction later.

Iyyane en Iyyane!
-----------------
A Padam, a poetic construct, from a barathanatya margam I have started writing as a depiction of the seventeen attempts of Mahmud of Gazni in the eleven hundreds, to conquer the baratha desam.

ஐயனே என் ஐயனே

ஐயன் நீ ஐவனவெனில்
ஐயனே நான் ஐயனே

ஐயன் நீ என் ஐயனானபின்
ஐயனே நான் ஐயனே என் ஐயனே

I won't be afraid, my Feraless

Given, you the Fearless are in all that I should be afraid of has been established, the Fearless, I won't be afraid.

You the Fearless have become mine, hence, Fearless, I won't be afraid, my Fearless!

affectionately,
Sumathy
Founder | lzerobzero.com | Sydney
Wednesday 25 JAN 2023

copy of my article in linked-in:

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sumathy-ramesh-a8894610_activity-7010084868172771328-7pfA?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Some observations this week defied Physics in shaping my response, and I know there is no way I can apply my knowledge of physics, chemistry, mathematics, material or computer science explain them. In other words, there is manifestation of a phenomenon in the physically tangible world, perceptible by humans that doesn't fit any objective analysis. You can call it divine if you like, but make sure, you don't ascribe everything else that you don't have time to think through as divine. (for example, my experiences bringing my mother back home is (REF 1) not one such inexplicable experiences, I can easily explain every one of them, including the Wdou components.

I have nailed practically every observation in my 62 years of life as a derivative of/derivable from Physics as I understand -that the Omniverse (REF 2) is inherently dispersive with no place for gravity. There have been many a, what- to my annoyance, would go under the name of, divine experience in mylife. I could explain (REF 3) all my observations or learnings on/from this planet to the efforts of inanimate (eg. space, air, soil, gold, water) or living species(eg. gumtree, koala, deep-sea-sulphur- based plants, humans); I could explain bakthi/devotion within the realms of physics, and concluded that personal deity is a personal medium of expression of bakthi/devotion. As adversity of disproportionate magnitude reasonably handleable by humans knocked me down, I could resort to various layers of manifestaion of physics, and find myself again stronger with more clarity than conceivable by myself previously, let alone accomplish through hard work/delivery through truth (REF 4, 5). Its like some one voiced once when I picked myself up from a near impossible situation, "its your diligence, there is no God".

CONCLUSION:

My conclusion is that human potential is unlimited, if you are willing to work hard, its almost divine.

COROLLARY:

Human potential is almost unlimited - if you have the gethu (REF 6) to hold your deities accountable.

Let me explain why the corollary is important:

When all my efforts to secure the life for humans looked all but blown when I took stock of the extent of continued reinforcement and commitment to defence spending world over and my recollection of, I think, episode seventeen of the documentary series on world war II, where bulldozers clear soldiers from the battle fields with bodies of young men and women from many a country and many an ethnicity and background, tumbling over each other in unison with their differences forgotten, their lives shortened either by the war machines or the conditions in the theatre or the cleanup operations in the aftermath of what they called victory, because, bulldozers can't pick the live soldiers lying in waiting to return home to their family and friends from those who gave their life fighting.

All my efforts to make many a decision maker around the world aware that when you turn your reliance on software based technology for autonomous decision making with consequences to human life, its the end of humanity; when you adopt not too dissimilar technological solutions for the purposes of delivering products, infrastructure, information, service and support to the defence industry, health industry and professional research industry, you send humanity into a path towards irreversible calamity or what I call irreversibly devolve the human species, looked to be slipping beyond my reach.

It was a working day, so I was pensively logging on to divert my attention momentarily, and a penny dropped on why we have landed where we have despite our vast experience, intellect, human power and economic clout. I wanted to quickly jot it down; not having the time to go downstairs and pick up my current note book, I decided to find some space in the margin of any one of the pages of in one of many previous note books strewn over my desk to think about later. A technique I have adopted for my social enterprise to validate that my new ideas do not contradict any of my previous thinking is to pick a page in random from old books and vet my new thought with what's in there; so it would give me a quick validation also, given the weight of the issue that was rendering me pensive. That morning, I also chided my secondary deity Vishnu saying his teachings in Bagavath Geetha works at most to the point where the human imbibes the essence of every yoga(paths of proficiency, such as dispassionate engagement in the adopted role, renunciation of wealth to asceticism, governance, recognition of all pervading divinity, recognition of all consuming divinity and so on) and integrating them into a coherent whole and adpating it for their current situation as a human, that the bits in Bagavath Geetha where he promises that he would protect the gentle ones amongst us from those who attempt to destroy our gentle attitude and practices, he is completely in capable of in 2022.

There were three books on my desk, I consciously left one of them as I recognised it as the one I'd opened for a personal purpose and RANDOMLY picked one from the other two and RANDOMLY opened a page to jot down my following insight to think through:

? the reason most businesses, big or small, fail is because of the expectation of employees to prove themselves on expected performance for the business goals while with a fixed-eye on the stretch goal for personal performance; unless you are a grad student or intern, you would fail the expectation of the business as well as personal goals. - solution perhaps is to reorganise such that one could grow achieving the business goals without having a stretch personal performance goal, a protection for employees as long as the business stands, you stand with it and vice versa.

The entries on the open page were from 20 February through to 26 February were on: failure of news as a mechanism intended to inform, software platforms that excel in mediocracy, notes for symposium on Truthful and accurate, log of cyber interference, address of the location of the rehersal for kannagi enbathen peyare, an lzerobzero initiative in collaboration with Samskriti School of dance, notes to explore options to circumnavigate potential conflict of interests in my day job. The page also included, clearly RANDOMLY for I had no intension of going back to that page any more than any other page, a) 2 x bookmark I made as a prop for my first symposium Self-respect and Respect for others with my poem, Let Me be and b) an invitation for the show kannagi enbathen peyare with the superceded date of 30 OCT 2021.

Running my new insight quickly over all of what presented themselves into one action showed me a fresh approach to reverse devolution of humanity:

A new lzerobzero initiative, WDuh. and its socialisation as an entry on my coloumns in my linkedin thread, waking up to my weekends. (Ref 7)

more later,

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Founder | lzerobzero | Sydney | Sunday 18 DEC 2022

REFERENCE:

References to material I wrote with links are provided below; I resorted to self publication upon several unsuccessful attempts to seek collaboration interests:

Sumathy Ramesh, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sumathy-ramesh-a8894610_activity-7009675924753301504-4CM4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Sumathy Ramesh, Omniverse, a self-publication of lzerobzero, ISBN 978-06451052-5-4
Sumathy Ramesh, zeroharm, a self-publication of lzerobzero upon unsuccessful attempts to seek collaboration interests, ISBN 978-06451052-2-3
Sumathy Ramesh, https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:6949952371317702659?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Sumathy Ramesh, https://www.thaureyam.com/cle
Sumathy Ramesh, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sumathy-ramesh-a8894610_bfbbfybfqbgfbfqbft-activity-6976675114767572992-Ye_V?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop
Sumathy Ramesh, https://www.linkedin.com/posts/sumathy-ramesh-a8894610_activity-7009675924753301504-4CM4?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

“… she is straight shoooter…”

- an observer of my communication style

Sunday 4 December 2022

If my 62 years of life experience has taught me anything, its that communication is a straight shot from your heart to that of your listener. the effectiveness of communication is proportionately diminished depending on the number of natural faculties, including our own vocal faculties built over generations of proficiency in our cultural lineage, years of language skills built on our years of learning in our mother tongue, and every other validated device intentionally placed by us for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other validated device intensionally placed by those who are responsible for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other unvalidated device intentionally placed by us for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other validated device intensionally placed by those who are responsible for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other validated device unintentionally placed by us for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other validated device unintensionally placed by those who are responsible for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other unvalidated device unintentionally placed by us for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other unvalidated device unintensionally placed by those who are responsible for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other validated device malliciously placed by us for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other unvalidated device malliciously placed by those who are responsible for the purposes of transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other validated device intentionally placed by us for the purposes of detecting and preventing mallicious interference from transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners, every other unvalidated device unintensionally placed by those who are responsible for the purposes of detecting and preventing mallicious interference from transferring our voices and non vocal expressions to our listeners.

All this is, by the way, humanity should be proud of as technological advancement, and human evolution in handling engineering complexity.

The problem is in our pride in strengthening every one of the device playing the every other space, we have burdened the original communicator, i.e. us humans from communicating to our listeners with the result, the distrotions at varying degrees is destroying human releationships. Humans distinguish themselves as an evolved specious from other species becasue of how we relate with each other… we can’t start devolving under the burden of technological advancement we proudly adopt to eventually become what goes on in popular vernacular as zombies. We built cities and towns and villeges and access to national parks to live, not for zombies to roam!

It took me a very long time, precisely 12 years, 10 months and 14 days of extensive adverse experince that I took enormous effort by myself and I can’t even quantify the burden it might have placed on my loving husband and children and brother, my goto people for picking myself up when I got knocked down, to isolate the root casue of what has been derailing humans, myself being one of them, and articulate a practicable approach to correct and steer course toward our continuous evolution as humans.

in a nutshell, as I replied to a dear friend’s question on whatsapp yesterday, the solution is not hard. It calls for each one of us to a) expend the effort to be comfortable with who we are b) expend the effort to be comfortable with who every other human on the planet is. EVERY HUMAN MATTERS, we all come from the same material this burst of the omniverse spewed thirteen and half billion years( to be verified) ago. [REF: applied grand unification, Sumathy Ramesh | lzerobzero]

Below is transcript of my whatsapp msg to my friend, that resolved it all for me concluding my theses Grand Unification and flagged transition into applied grand unification :

Which is important? the wisdom that comes about by way of knowledge or Scinece?

ரொம்ப சுலபமான கேள்வி:

உலக அனுபவம் தான் உண்மையான ஞானம்

அனுபவிக்க ஆபர்ட்டுனிட்டி இல்லாதவாஅந்த அனுபவம் எப்படி இருக்கும்ன்னு அதை கற்பனை பண்ணி தனக்கு தெரிஞ்ச கலை மூலமா வெளிப்படுத்தறது கலாச்சாரம்.

ஒவ்வொரு அனுபவத்துக்கும் தனி தனியா ஒரு சப்ஜெக்ட் வைச்சு 15 வருஷம் படிச்சு அப்பறம் 20 வருஷம் ஆராய்ச்சி பண்ணி நம்மக்கிட்டயே வந்து நீ அனுபவிச்ச விதம் தப்பு, இப்படித்தான் அனுபவிச்சு இருக்கனும்ன்னு சொல்லறது விஞ்ஞானம்.

எனக்கு அனுபவத்துல மதிப்பு. செலருக்கு விஞ்ஞானத்துல மதிப்பு. எது சரிங்கறது ஒங்க இஷ்டம்I:)!

I love that we have a பூர்வ ஜென்ம பந்தம் as சகோதரத்வம் இத நான் உணர்ந்து உங்ககிட்ட பிரியமா இருக்கறத சொல்லறுத்துக்கு எனக்கு சயின்டிஸ்ட்ஸ் வேண்டாம்; ஜெனெடிக்ஸ் வேண்டவே வேண்டாம்.

Launching neoTech, based on my understanding of neoPhysics as documented in my booklet Omniverse.

The solution is not hard. It calls for each one of us to a) expend the effort to be comfortable with who we are b) expend the effort to be comfortable with who every other human on the planet is. EVERY HUMAN MATTERS, we all come from the same material this burst of the omniverse spewed thirteen and half billion years( to be verified) ago. [REF: applied grand unification, Sumathy Ramesh | lzerobzero]

Outcome intending to deliver for FY 23:

establish thresholds of acceptability of risk of wellness measures exceeding any tangible benefit to humans and other living species
establish thresholds of acceptability of risk of telecommunication infrastructure exceeding any tangible enhancement to the integrity of human communication.
where establish takes into account upto seventy years of continuous validity with built in measures for adequate review to detect and correct faults to assure continuous validity for the next seventy years on any given day, afterall we are accountable for keeping humanity meaningful for the baby being born today who can be reasonably expect to live for seventy years, median life expectancy in advanced societies. ( I am avoinding democracy, becasue it requires an overhaul- but that is for another day)

affectionately,

Sumathy

Sunday 4 December 2022

Githobadesam

An adaptation of Bagavathgeetha as a barathanatyam margam in 7 pieces

piece - 5 Padam

An adaptation of Arjunan's reluctance to pick up the arms at kurukshethram, with - as you may have guessed, my personal deity Nataraja, standing in for Krishna !

Ragam Saveri

எதை விடுப்பேன், என் ஐயனே நான் எதை விடுப்பேன்

எதை விடுப்பினும் அதனுடன் உனை விடுப்பேனாதலால் (எதை விடுப்பேன்)

எதை விடுப்பினும் உனை விடுத்த எனை விடுப்பேனாதலால் (எதை விடுப்பேன்)

What(which relationship) can I leave behind? My Iyyane, What(which relationship) can I leave behind?

What ever (which ever relationship) I leave behind, along with it, I would have left you behind as well (because, its attribute of unfailing affection that has been the basis for each one of my own relationships, and leaving anyone of them amounts to leaving you) Hence, what can I leave behind?

What ever (which ever relationship) I leave behind, having left you behind, I would infact have left myself behind as well (because, without you, a personification of pure affection, there is nothing left in this world for me as well and it would amount to leaving myself behind) Hence, what can I leave behind?

affectionately,

Sumathy, Sydney

10 NOV 2022

எதை விடுப்பேன் என் ஐயனே நான் எதை விடுப்பேன்

எதை விடுப்பினும் அதனுடன் உனை விடுப்பேனாதலால் (எதை விடுப்பேன்)

எதை விடுப்பினும் உனை விடுத்த எனை விடுப்பேனாதலால் (எதை விடுப்பேன்)

sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

Wednesday 9 NOV 2022

Omniverse it is!!!!!

I am excited about this year’s nobel prize for physics.. it vlidates my theory of dispersion, as quantum entanglement can be derived from dispersion. Omniverse- based on dispersion has no attractive forces such as gravity, so in some sense, the entire omniverse is entangled, finding manufestation in some degree or other depending on the reach of teh observer.

Sumathy, Sydney

Wednesday 5 OCT 2022

தமிழ் கண்டதோர் வைகை

- an adaptation of mahabaratham in carnatic concert format in line with acceptable concepts and solutions steeped in today’s reality and insights

I have taken the liberty to set it in Madurai, one of my favourite cities in Tamil Nadu.

1.Droupathi sabatham - pada varnam - bairavi

pallavi

வைகையில் காலூன்றி வரலாறு படைப்பேன் (வைகையில்)

anupallavi

கொய்கையில் எனதன்றி பிறர்பொருட்கு குறைவின்றி (வைகையில்)

mukthayi swara sahithyam

உய்கையில் பயனின்றி உவப்பதென்பதன்றி

துய்கையில் மேலொன்றி தூய்மைக்கு இடரின்றி (வைகையில்)

charanam

உண்மைக்கு புறம்பன்றி வரலாறு படைப்பேன்

chittai swaram sahithyam

1. உயிரெதற்கும் வதையின்றி (உண்மைக்கு)

2. செய்கையில் பிழையின்றி செய்வோர்க்கும் தடையின்றி (உண்மைக்கு)

3. எய்கையில் தவறின்றி எற்றுணையும் ஐயமின்றி

பெய்கையில் விதயூன்றி பிரபோதில் வேரூன்றி (உண்மைக்கு)

4. தோய்மதுவில் மனமின்றி தோகையர் தம் நிழலூன்றி

சேய் கையில் கலையூன்றி செந்தமிழே சிறப்பென்று (உண்மைக்கு)

Sincerely,

Sumathy

28 MAY 2022

2. Indraprasitham -invocatory piece

pallavi

பளிங்கினை பழிக்கும் எழிலுடைத்தெம் இல்லம்

anu pallavi

களங்கமில் அன்பரும் நண்பரும் அரண் எனச்சூழ

charanam

விளங்கும் முன்னோரும் மூத்தோரும் தினம் எமை வாழ்த்த

துலங்கும் இறையோரும் மறையோரும் நிறைந்திருந்தேற்ற

3. Droupathi vasthraharanam - pre-main

pallavi

உரித்த என் துகிலை உடுத்த நினைத்தனையோ

anupallavi

பறித்த பொருட்குவியலில் பொருத்த உடையில்லையோ

charanam

சிரித்த சிரிப்பொலியில் மறித்து துவண்ட நீ பின்

தெறித்த ஒலித்திவலையில் உயிர்த்து பிழைத்த நீ

SIncerely,

Sumathy

29 SUNDAY 2022

4. Yuddam - quick clensing prior to main

pallavi

திருத்திடுக பிழை திருத்திடுக உடன் பிழை திருத்திடுக

charanam

1.மறுத்திடுக படை மறுத்திடுக கொடும் படை மறுத்திடுக

திருத்திடுக பிழை திருத்திடுக உடன் பிழை திருத்திடுக

2.ஒருத்திடுக நிலை ஒருத்திடுக கடும் நிலை ஒருத்திடுக

திருத்திடுக பிழை திருத்திடுக உடன் பிழை திருத்திடுக

3.வெறுத்திடுக முறை வெறுத்திடுக இடும் முறை வெறுத்திடுக

திருத்திடுக பிழை திருத்திடுக உடன் பிழை திருத்திடுக

5. Samarasam - main Sankarabaranam (chavukka kalam)

pallavi

வாழ்வோம் வாழ்வோம் வாழ்வோம்

anupallavi

அன்பில் தோய்ந்து பண்பில் கனிந்து

வாழ்வோம்

charanam

நினைவில் துணிந்து நெஞ்சில் மலர்ந்து

வினையில் தெளிந்து விரைவில் உயர்ந்து

வாழ்வோம்

6. Udanpadu (Treaty)

pallavi

உன்னை பிணைத்தேன் என்னுடன்

உன்னை பிணைத்தேன்

anupallavi

என் கணை தொடுத்த கரங்களால்

உன்னை பிணைத்தேன்

chranam

தென் நிலத்தரும் வடவரும்

பின் அணையெடுத்தும் மடை உடைத்து

உன்னை பிணைத்தேன்

Sincerely,

Sumathy

1 JUN 2022

7. படைக்களம் மீட்டல் (post war rescue directive) Thillana

eloborate thillana in ragamaligai and complex jathis to depict the complex multi facetted rescue operation that is required to rescue every one of the humans caught in the cavitation, by busting the cavitation at the right, precise moment so that NO HUMAN, including those who were gaurding the cavitations knowingly or inadvertantly, is harmed.

In Mahabaratham, one of the startegic military formations is called chakkara vyugam. Its is a formation where armed soldiers are set in concentri circles; each circle parting momentarily to lure the brave in, and close-behind him/her once in recursively until they are cornered in the middle where a battalion of armed are awaiting to take out the one-mostly unarmed and injured, as he or she would have faught his/her way in. Mahabaratham, while elaborates on the startegy land indicates there is a way out, leaves out to your imagination as what it could be - and uses it to exemplify the valour of the youth who, in their urge to do the right thing, not remembering that they don’t know how to protect themselves, brave the untrodden,and face the otherwise wise and fair, brutalised by their involvement in the theatre, alone. No one, even Vyasaa who wrote 100,000 verses and compiled all the vedas could have imagined what those young boy or girl would have been through.

Resolving the chakkara vyugam has intrigued me for a while as a model for demonstrating cavitations that burgeon unhindered in almost all systems we have derived from exisitng laws and bench mark standards. You need a lot of - an awful lot of- life experince both in the social and professional sphere to internalise what it takes to develop immunity to be not stung by the chakkarams as you find your way into the inner most circle to give yourself teh best chance to fight/remind the wise and fair that that’s who they are and show them that they, infact are also caught in the chakkara vyugam they set-up for you and rescue them as you find the right moment to stimulate the chakkaram along with the strength of those who were waiting to kill him/her, so every one can live happily ever after :)! That is a lot of work … in the meanwhile, others can go in and rescue the trapped, not unlike existing laws or standards can be sufficiently regulated to identify and open up the cavitations to release the trapped and progress justice/product development..

My thillana spells out this, what product development calls an immediate containment(of human harm) action.

தில்லானா

தருணமன்று அழல் பூண்ட எவ்வொருவரையும் கேட்க

தருணம் இன்று சுழலுண்ட ஒவ்வொருவரையும் மீட்க

தருணம் இன்று கழல் பூண்ட இவ்வொருவரையும் சேர்க்க

தருணம் என்றும் நிழல் கண்டு அவ்வொருவரையும் காக்க

This is not the time to ask any one who is still armed/arming you to harm.

This is the time to find and rescue every one of the people who are trapped in the cavitation(that has burgeoned knowingly or inadvertantly)

This is the time to add to your list of to-be-rescued, even those who are soldiering to trap others

It is ALWAYS the time to see so much as the shadow of those who could be potentially in harms way (either by intending to pick up the weapons in the pretext of protecting some or those who are facing the weapons in teh pretext of protecting someone else!!!

affectionately,

Sumathy

2 JUN 2022

8. vazhthu - Thukkada meditaive jubilance

Thanking all those who have been who have inculcated thier insights through our genes finding expression at the time of our birth as each one of us, to independently evolve from then on, to be nourished and flourished by our riveres and committing to live happily from the dawn of this new sathya yugam. (no mor excuses of kali mutthiduthudi or mankind has always been selfish, or committing blatatent crimes in the name of religion or science that excuses our behaviour by ascribing it to our selfish genes, or jelaousy under the coat of bias, or insecurity revamped as sustainability, or any more of some such what my friend Raman Ganesh from undergrad years used to call, Dalton age notions.

There is plenty of us, there is plenty in each of us, there is plenty of land, plenty of water, plenty of air, for say, TEN BILLION of us to live happily on this planet.. Here’s my wish for the the 10 BILLION humans: ( the references to my personal deities should not be construed as my wish being limited to people of my religion or lineage; the names I have chosen to address them are secular in nature: Iyan- a name Siva is called means, the one who has absolute clarity of mind, and hence is fearless; Vaiyapuriyon - one of the names Murugan is known by at the shrine of my home town, Pazhani, seated at the temple at the banks of a small lake, Vaiyapuri kulam, means, one who belongs to a place that has no boundries i.e., the entire universe; both connotaions can be applied to any deity or human)

வாழ்த்து

வைகைக்கு எம் ஐயன் அணையெடுக்க

வையாபுரியோன் கணை தொடுக்க

வைகறை யாமம் விடை கொடுக்க

வையை கரையினில் யாம் களித்திடுவோம்

Let us rejoice in this endless Omniverse*.

Let us rejoice in this endless Omniverse, as the fearless conscince in the heart of each of our being as coded in our genes protect us from interefence to being our selves as expressed through our genes that are continuously evolving us.

Let us rejoice in this endless Omniverse, as us, born and grown to be our individual selves belonging to this boundless Omniverse, flow imparting what we can with in the limit of what the Omniverse at that given point in its flow can absorb.

Let us rejoice as the darkeness bestowed on the 8-10 billion of us owing to the misunderstandings and ensuing mindless actions of times and people form centuries by defining a crisp line,saying NO MORE, parting the seas for light to flood in and flourish us.

Let us rejoice in this edge of the endless Omniverse*.

Sincerely,

Sumathy, a பழனி, தமிழ் ப்ராமண பெண், who has made home for her family** and friends*** in Sydney.

*omniverse - you can buy copies of my booklet Omniverse on neo-physics where there is no room for black holes, however massive they may be, via https://www.lzerobzero.com/books

**family and friend - https://www.lzerobzero.com/data-dictionary

Leading Yourself on leadership as self-respect, powering respect for fellow humans

My book Evolving Sapiens is coming to fruition, with a target date set for 1 MAY 2022, my fathers birthday, for publication. I love him. I didn’t know how much when I was growing up in Palani learning my world from all things that was enabled for by him not just since my birth, but his own. [ref: TBD possible approaches to genetics derived from my understanding of Physics conceptualised in my booklet Omniverse, set to be expanded into a chapter in the book] I didn’t know it when I spread my wings on my own at sixteen for tertiary education in Coimbatore nor when I scrawled the restaurants and cinemas in Bangalore learning to balance work and fun until I learnt to find fun in work and work in fun.(to teh amusement of my daughter and son,s I have take-homes watching Simsons, some profound ones at that, but I digress) I didn’t know it when he gave me away in marriage, mother, grandparents, uncles and aunts and cousins and a thousand friends/friends of friends adorning me in silks and gold and to MLV, Kanyakumari and Eswaran winding down the two day jubilance spending probably some 10 years of his savings. I didn’ know it when he swelled with pride at the very name of my husband and my children. I din’t even know it when he deteriorated over a six years loosing a toe, then leg, then eysight, then the will to live with nothing but my mother’s will for him, fragile as she was, to live keeping him alive. I didn’t even know it when I was informed of his move to the hospital to be put on ventilator to prolong his life by a few days as my mother sturggeld to come to grip with his loss. I didn’t know it when I saw the empty room that had become his everything for his last two years or so. But I did, when I realised, upon my return from our travels to Prayag a couple of years ago. I can’t find a better day to culminate my life’s work in a publication to etch his memories in the world in a way it will pass the scratch-test for atleast a hundres years in every walk of life.

Leading Yourself is another chapter in the book. to me personal leadership is to understand and perfect self-respect and to learn to use it to power respect fo fellow humans, every time, towards every human.

I am going to explore it through three poems:

me lamenting to my personal deity, calling him out as shunning his promises to me as my faculties fail (uyir vazhi mei enra mei thanai kanen)
my personal deity lifting me up, not unlike my father, reminding me that I haven’t lost anything, that the world is mine if I want to conquer it ( anbil thilaitha pinnum iyamenadi)
myself, having lead myself out of all that tried to knock me down, declaring a world order shattering all excuses for inaction forging a Renaissance for all mankind (muyalamain enbathi illamar pom)

Affectionately,

Sumathy, Sydney

Saturday 5 MAR 2022

முயலாமை - giving-up

My brother in law is one of the wisest humans I have come across, believ me I have come across many in my 60 years of life in this planet either directly or indirectly through their writings.

He asked me to compose a poem on முயலாமை (mulayamai, meaning not trying, or giving up). The message he wanted me to embed in it was that people project their failures incorrectly on to their inabilities, which in itself is a manifestation of their envy at the accomplishments of those who succeed under similar circumstances and inability to relish in their success, leading to deceiving themselves and other around them. He gave me an example from the life of a law-clerk in Tamil Nadu, who under adverse circumstances by his sheer perseverance, focus and making the most of his innane intelligence climbed the ranks of the profession and became one of the well respected judiciary. And there were many who couldn’t find it in themselves to acknowledge, let alone rejoice in his accomplishments, wallowed in misattribution of his success to advantages stemming from disadvantaging others on racial bias.

I take liberties with my brother in law, and expanded the brief by delving a step deeper in to the root cause of why such manifestations come about and what can we do about it now by committing to correcting with the understanding of what resulted in முயலாமை.

Below is my poem -

முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

பொய்யாமை உருக்குலைந்து தலை எடுத்த
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

களவாமை அழிந்தமையால் முளைத்திட்ட
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

அறியாமை வேரூன்ற விழுதுவிட்ட
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

நிலையாமை இடர் விளைத்து தடம் புரட்ட
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

இயலாமை உயிர்கொண்டு உடல் வீழ்ந்த
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்
முயலாமை என்பதினி இல்லாமற் போம்

Let the attitude of giving up be no more;

the attitude of giving up that came about because of the distortion of the value of not lying,

the attitude of giving up that came about because of the destruction of the value of calling others assets( intellectual or otherwise) as their own,

the attitude of giving up that came about because of misunderstanding or inadequate understanding taking roots and spreading,

the attitude of giving up that came about because of instability( arising from ill-formed values) hindering stability of thought flipping the pursuit of what their heart desires,

the attitude of giving up that came about because of inability that is ingrained in their soul rendering their limbs and factuties week,

Let that attitude of giving up be no more!

affectionately,

Sumathy, Sydney

Saturday 12 FEB 2022

கம்பன்

31 December 2021

Maxwell’s equations are but an approximation assuming sinusoidal oscillations and hence breaks down at sub-photon scales.

Instead of adjusting them, we should probably start on a clean slate and derive new mathematical representation for propagation of what is currently known as electromagnetic energy in terms of dispersion - you probably don’t need to deal with entanglements or limit of speed of light or inexplicable dark enery or dark matter or their off shoots, black holes, super massive or otherwise!

Physics is simple- everything wants to spread/disperse, flowing through paths of least resistance until there is nothing to disperse.

To applied physics in 2022.

Its exciting, imagine, Maxwell’s equations drove explosion of technology for some 160 yeras… even if dispersion drives it for half the time, we’ll be well out of all uncertainties and forge a life for say, 10 billion people on this little planet of ours!

Happy 2022 my friends,

Sumathy,

Sydney

31 December 2021.

link to my post in linkedin.

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/aus-lzerobzero_a-little-word-i-explored-to-condense-all-activity-6882443224934424577-_qCQ

29 December 2021

We just came back from a road trip to outback NSW, blown away by the rich landscapes and richer history. I was touched by the hospitality of the youth of Cobar and Wilcannia in a way I can never forget them; with an abundant land to call their own, they can’t be denied access to cutting edge opportunities to enjoy what’s theirs. Some thought s.. just parking them here as a visual with some pictures we took .. to be developed further with appropriate people…

Sincerely,

Sumathy

29 December 2021

என் ஐயனே

பல்லவி

உயிர் வழி மெய்யென்ற மெய்தனை காணேன் (உயிர் வழி)

என் ஐயனே

அனுபல்லவி

நின் உயிர்வழி எம் மெய்யென்று உயிர் கொண்ட நான் (உயிர் வழி)

சரணம்

காலனை கடிந்த நின்

காலினை காணேன்

காலமும் கடந்திட

கலங்கிய கண்களால் (உயிர் வழி)

சேக்கிழார் செப்பிய

செவியினை காணேன்

செப்பலார் செப்பிட

சிவந்த என் செவியினால் (உயிர் வழி)

நந்தன்பால் நகரென்ற

நாவினை காணேன்

நாளது நடந்திட

நலிந்த என் நாவினால் (உயிர் வழி)

தருமியால் தமிழ் காத்த

தசையினை காணேன்

தருணமும் தவறிட

தோய்ந்த என் தசையினால்(உயிர் வழி)

புன்னகை புரிந்தெரித்த

பற்களை காணேன்

பகை அழிந்தும் புகை வளர

பெயர்ந்த என் பற்களால் (உயிர் வழி)

மறுப்போரும் மதித்திடும்

மணிக்கட்டினை காணேன்

மணித்துளிகள் திரிந்திட

மரத்த மணிக்கட்டினால் (உயிர் வழி)

வருமுன் கா வென்ற

வாக்கினை காணேன்

வந்தபின்னும் காத்திட

வளர்த்த செல்வாக்கினால் (உயிர் வழி)

sincerely,

Sumathy

Sydney Saturday 4 December 2021

I AM ARCHIVING THE CALL FOR INTEREST TO ENGAGE ME FOR REGULATORY REVIEW GIVEN, I HAVE NOT SCURED A SINGLE ENGAGEMENT IN INCEPTION OF THE OFFERING 16 MONTHS AGO. I AM PURSUING EMPLOYMENT TO SOURCE REVENUE TO SUSTAIN MY SOCIAL INTERESTS, INSTED.

Scope of engagement

Scope of engagement is limited to efforts to preserve and foster the intent of regulations as a framework for the assurance of

- objectivity in analysis of the issues or assessments related to the product or process being regulated

- fairness in decisions made towards the entities accountable for the products or processes and the consumers of the products or processes

- transparency in execution/demonstrable sincerity in adherence to objectivity and fairness

as tech cuts new edges in unprecedented scales, inadvertently leaving cavitation unequally in unprecedented scales.

Write to me if you have an interest in my patents or if you would like to engage my skills in a 3, 6 or 12 month contract in the medtech space for any of the following:
- requirement analysis and specification
- delivery strategy for new product development and draft project plans
- project management where the project scope is identified as deliverable with in 3, 6, or 12 months (personally I don't think projects that change managers midstream work)
- medtech market approval for AU, USA, Latin America, Canada and EU
- medtech postmarket critical responses
- competent autority reviewer of software artifacts. Particularly with TGA opening the doors for new Australian corporations to become an Australian Conformity Assessment Body from 1 July 2021, there is opportunity for a lazy investment capital tucked under some one's belt and wanting to add a software artefact reviewer to their claims to expertise
- preparation of business plan for some one wanting to become a Australian competent authority
- project manage establisment of some corporation becoming a competent autority
- any other general management skills in a technical environment

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

26 January 2021

Congratulations to Grace, Wendy, Brendan, Shane, Dinesh, Helen, Tanya, and Donna!

Forgive me, its customary in the scientific tradition to drop all attributions or titles and refer to high achievers by their names out of at most respect and recognition that the scope of their accomplishment is clearly more than the scope of any of those titles or attributions; its in that spirit that I take the liberties to address you so in all humility.

2020 has been a huge year in so many respects - it sped from January to December in seconds, like an Australian Summer storm with its lightening bolts, down pours and wind speeds spewing destructions along its path of traversal, demanding the higher angels and every limb in each of us to pull our weight behind as we clean up and rebuild as Australians. Whatever each of choose to do today, 26 January 2021, whether we choose to spend the day to reflect on its appropriateness warranting recognition on our national calendar, or we choose to respect every Australian even if we were blind to their lineage embodied by their cultures and lives at varying degrees at varying arms of the Australian society, or we choose to celebrate our ability as Australians to call a spade a spade, reconcile and move forward correcting the errors of the past - to me, your lives and how you got be where you are today shows the magnitude and complexity of the task ahead of us and show, but it can be done if we don’t forget that we are humans.

Its easy to be humans; we are born humans.

As we felt the snip of the umbilical chord, we dispersed what was left of life from our mother’s womb into all we had. We knew to give our all - to find our breath and forge our life.

As we open our airways to inhale our first lungful, exhaled letting our voice known; even if it sounds like an unintelligent cry or scream to those around us we didn’t care, it was our voice, marking our very identity leaving a trail in the super-fluid that’s curled up every which way for billions of years to its current form on this planet. An identity that is etched in our mother’s being. We knew to let our voice known - true to ourselves, unhindered by the consequences.

As our lips were placed on our mother’s bosom we knew to curl our mouth to take the first gulp of nourishment and let go when we didn’t need anymore for the purpose of appeasing the nerves in our gut. We knew to take no more than our fair share - knowing our needs and our capability.

As our ears picked up its first sounds, our necks moved to protect our ability to disperse excess energy allowing us to continue to hear. We knew to absorb pain to protect - knowing what needs protection and what can absorb pain of excess.

As our eyes took their first light in they knew to look into the eye of our beholder, score our first recognition and open our face in a smile. We knew to not let the colour of the skin or the shape of the nose to interfere with our ability to recognise fellow human or break into a smile.

Congratulations once again to Grace, Wendy, Brendan, Shane, Dinesh, Helen, Tanya, and Donna! No matter what we call today, 26 January 2021 gave us an opportunity to celebrate the accomplishments of fellow Australians connected by the common denominator of of being a human.

For my part, its a day for me to commit to collective-individual-upliftment-to-be-humans in case we forget to be so.

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

26 January 2026

The Industry Multiplex in 2021 that serves humans requires a systematic review, almost immediately

There are so many ways one can dissect the industries that serve humans. Humans however have a limit on how they can perceive such dissections. The smaller the number of dissections, the deeper the understanding. To me, I think I am sufficiently intelligent to have lived well for sixty years on this planet with all its complexities, three is the ideal number to land any idea precisely with sufficient traction with diminishing control from four onwards; if its any more than twenty, it spells chaos, let alone loss of control.

to be continued later this afternoon…

Cool Runnings II - story line good enough for the next international block buster for the ages!

I am so proud of players, every one of them who lifted the game to unforgettable levels with a full day’s play at the Gabba yesterday. Forgive my ignorance, I don’t know much about cricket, I only have one question: why didn’t the last over got bowled in the Sydney test? I mean, we only needed five wickets and there were six balls left to play!

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

20 JAN 2021

The smartest way to get what you want is to work hard for it

If you want something, you need to know what you want and work until you get it. The more you want the harder you have to work for it. There is no other way.

The concepts of work-smart-not-hard has perhaps been popularised by those working hard or very hard to sell that concept potentially along with the multitude of tools and systems or partner solutions. And you probably fell for it at a weak moment when you were struggling to lift your head ever so little as a respite from your hard work to get to where you wanted to get to.

The smartness perhaps plays a role in finding the time and courage to know what you want so that your hard work is meaningful to yourself.

I am greedy- I want to be able to explore my full potential in this life of mine - I have done extensive study of the concept of after life and other fringes that come with it; they are non existent. And I want every other human on the planet to be able to explore their full potential in their lives. As we are not Motorolla’s 200 manpowered sterile demo project to demonstrate accomplishment of CMM Level V in the nineties, what I want for myself can’t be prioritized over what I want for others. I have to achieve what I want for myself while doing everything I can to ensure everyone in my space achieve their full potential as well.

I had to work hard to get where I am and probably set myself up to work harder than ever before.

But then I wouldn’t have it anyohther way! May be I am smart :)!

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

19 JAN 2021

Cricket is not my game

Some one asked me this morning if I had any tips for the Indian cricket team for Brisbane - not sure if the fulfillment of my little wish from Monday led them to believe I am some sort of a cricket aficionado. Sorry to disappoint you- only expertise I claim with respect to anything to do with Brisbane is where to pick up a good stainless-steal skillet on boxing day, let alone my lack of knowledge on cricket intricacies. The only little piece of information my brain spontaneously held in its sixty years glory as a learning organ that may be relevant to the Brisbane test is that Australia records a win in Brisbane and there hadn’t been any other information to counter that belief. The only thing I can say though is, its like, if my forte is making a fortifying soup and my experience is to serve it in a delicate wedge wood bowl on my dining table and if I am asked to serve it to a recovering human in a bedroom, I’d first check out if there is a tray that I can put my wedge wood on before resorting to a plastic bowl with handles and would never change the soup one bit.

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

13 January 2021

A wish for a full-day’s play at the SCG

Cricket was not even on my radar since the boxing day test I abandoned in 2017 around the third session to check out the fashion stores for a little present for my daughter who was abroad at that time. Not until last week, when a chance glimpse of Ashwin’s I-don’t-know-what-you-call-a-audiovisual-cooms-on-youtube drew me back in full; not for the love of the game- I didn’t even know Ashwin was a cricketer himself at that time, but for the pride it filled me with the professionalism of what was on display. The simplicity of the interviewer’s style resonated with me. It is characteristic of humility achievable only through one’s own personal mastery of subject and his unreserved respect for the person he was interviewing so much so that his own accomplishments and stardom could only be derived through the respect and affection the stars he interviewed extended to him. I was grateful to my friend for treating myself and my husband to the first-day at SCG. There were interference, but it only provided an opportunity to enjoy the soul and spirit of the game through the eyes of another legend in professionalism, Waugh. Except for the packet of chips I crunched through waiting for the play to resume, it was a perfect day for a Sydney sider in summer. I promised myself never to miss a test at SCG ever again - even if only for one of the days.

I wish there is a full day’s play today, SGC deserves nothing less. Nor does 2021.

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

11 January 2021

Intelligence and machines don’t mix in my dictionary

Intelligence has very little to do with data; its about what to do when you don’t have data. Its presumptuous to some how think that credit risk assessment and clinical trial risk assessment can be effectively understood by not too dissimilar thought process.

Let me illustrate my conclusion that intelligence and machines don’t mix using credit risk assessment and clinical trial assessment.

The following definitions are applied to the use of the terms throughout this discussion.

intelligence ability to respond following a conscience deliberation of the stimuli

assessment review of the stimuli in the context of formulating a conscious response

credit-risk possibility of failure to recover the credited amount

clinical-trial-risk possibility of causing harm to the clinical trial subject or personnel administering the clinical trial

human an intelligent species evolved over 200 000 years bounded by skin and biological protrusions from the skin such as hair and nails

machines tools developed by intelligent humans to assist them achieve the outcome they intend to achieve, bounded by the tangible enclosure perceivable humans

environment space along with what fills it in which humans and machines operate

conscience a reverberation of a human in realization of a change in the environment or stimuli

credit-risk assessment

The purpose of initiating a credit-risk assessment is to ensure business continuity in accordance with the expected/defined critical business performance indicators in the eventuality of failure to recover the extended credit.

It requires extensive financial and commercial expertise and enormous understanding of the local economic climate and regulations to come up with the mitigating parameter such as interest rate, credit limit or re-payment period built into the credit-offerings of the lending entity.

…

2021: Let it be the year of correction

Its around 4 in the morning- practically every other year, a time when we’d hit the bed after filling our senses to the brim with a cocktail of a million voices heralding the new year with the fireworks at the city enough to keep you intoxicated as we inched our way through the packed station in to the trains and draping my tired limbs on my husband’s shoulders already loaded with his camera gear. This year its different. After wishing our children a happy new year, we went to bed well before the fire works would have started. I couldn’t sleep for my heart was heavy with the burden of the fragility of human progress that 2020 laid bare. It need not have been this way. We are humans with a legacy of some 200 000 years, with ample intellectual and economic clout and abundance of natural resources to resolve to never to allow artificial or arbitrary distinctions to keep us apart- let 2021 be the year of correction, let us find every wart in the fabric of our society, remove it, and heal together. Let 2021 give the generations to come a reason to be proud of how we corrected the wrongs of centuries of back log and spend their time making Netflix feel good documentaries so that I can open a VB with my husband on the eve of 2022 in the opera house forecourts, even though both of us have been teetotallers all our lives.

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

1 January 2021

Neurophysics

Not sure if it has been recognised as a dicipline in its own right, if not, well, you heard it her first on 23 December 2020, because, I have just determined I would submit my thesis under the subject neurophysics. Now for finding a university that offers research in my subject…

Ah, what do you know, Max Plank Institute already has a department of neurophysics. GUT (Grand Unification Theory) when established, may only port Maxwell’s equations over from the lat us call it, physics of teh Einstein’s era.

Writing this note more for myself, so that I don’t get burried toomuch into my symposiums prior to copleting writing. Its already a couple of months past the target date I set to myself.

Sincerely,

Sumathy, Sydney

23 December 2020

I can’t retire, not just yet

I am an Australian with an Indian lineage. I am a woman and I will turn 60 this month, after a fulfilling career in the medical device industry with a strong foundation in product development serving the defense industry.

It care deeply about my people, i.e., people of my homeland Australia and people of my motherland India, every one of them.

Neither my family nor any of my fellow countrymen would question my integrity and adequacy of contribution as a citizen to the productivity of Australia if I bought a Land Cruiser and travel around Australia with my husband leaving the advancement of Australia in the capable hands of those who are currently employed in various capacities in various entities. But I am answerable to myself, and as it had been throughout my career, that is the only thing that matters when making a choice when all else don’t add-up. I am thus compelled to find a role that would enable me to handover the insights from my, at times excruciating, experiences and practicable strategies for resolving complexities. Its in this context I am looking to work.

I recognise we are in a unique place in History. We have access to information, it takes patience to sift through misinformation and information blown out of context before isolating relevant information, but thanks to the technological advancements since the second world war, technically every one of us on the planet has access to information whether every one of us on the planet has the capacity to handle it with intelligence or not. This places unprecedented demands on the regulatory agencies in stipulating measures to assure intent that doesn’t stifle the delivery of intent.

The technology employed to acquire, analyse and disseminate information over the past three decades have been homogenised to provide continuity of user interface experience. The benefit of ease of use from these advancements have come at the price of loss of integrity of the data structures underlying the interfaces hidden from detection by the user, as exemplified by the current state of the cyberspace that has caught us unawares, the industry, consumer and the regulator alike. Business success had reduced to being measured in terms of dollars saved at the peak of economic growth; there is no reason to believe it would be any different in the years ahead as economies are struggling to find their feet post declaration of COVID as a pandemic. Combined with significant push from several quarters to progress the digital transformation with artificial intelligence as a core component of the digital transformation tool, it leaves every entity that serves humans vulnerable.

I am looking to bring my - rather unique critical experiences spanning a range relevant functional disciplines working for world class corporations, GEC Marconi Systems, ResMed Ltd, Medtronic Australasia, peak body ARCS Australia, and fundamental research institution, Raman Research Institute, to fore in meeting the requirements of a leadership role as understood today and as it may potentially emerge in response to the cultural, technical and economic complexities converging to demand more out of the role in the near future.

Sumathy, Sydney

8 October 2020

Nobel prize for peace

As the week of announcements for Nobel prizes for 2020 are but a few hours away, it just struck me we have an Australian worthy of the peace prize: Honourable P J Keating: A leader with his feet on the ground and eyes on the skies when it comes to correcting injustices done unto his fellow country-men. The extent of correction dependent on the nature of injustices and not the colour of the skin of the victims nor the country of their origin and certainly not which party they voted for in the previous election. His implementation of universal healthcare, superannuation for every employee(ARTICLE 25), native title act of 1993 (ARTICLE 17) and floating the currency to find its true with are, but a few examples alleviating the injustices sustained due to unequal access to healthcare, mitigating the potential for under privilege in old age (Article 25), correction of deprival of ownerships to land (ARTICLE 17) and courage to strip delusions on prosperity as a necessary step for economic advancement, to support sustainable peace.

I am holding my breath to see who all have made it.

Sumathy, Sydney

5 October 2020

2 October

T M Krishna, a dear friend and a renowned musician, once told me if you want to commemorate a person of stature, you don’t wait for an anniversary of sorts- you do so all through the year at every possible occasion- otherwise, all you are doing is probably commemorating your association with the person. The reactions at the luncheon varied from blatant dismissal of another useless notion to outrage. It struck a chord in me and stayed with me with a take-home to celebrate my association with those I love, admire and worship at every possible opportunity.

Today is one such opportunity. 2 October is Mahatma Gandhi’s birthday. I was introduced to Gandhi while in primary school, and not surprisingly the only aspect of his life that made sense to me was when he was beaten up by his teacher for lying when he told the truth of the reason for his lateness to class as his misreading the time because of the overcast skies. A Tamil translation of his Sathya sodanai (an experiment with truth) was a text book for the non-detail component of, probably my ninth grade Tamil class. The book’s core chapters were on his experiences in South Africa; with no knowledge of the political or social background in South Africa, the bits that stayed with me were his effective use of time by breaking the norm for the choice of place and code for spiritual engagement by sticking pages of Bagavath geetha next to his shaving mirror to help him keep up with his pursuit to recite it. Off-shoot of such assumption of liberties with worship has come in handy on several times particularly when I chose to recite sahasranamam(1000 names) once every day as opposed to studying for exams and the flow of engaging in the romantic ebbs and tides of my hostel-room mates were too important to interrupt at the Godly hour of twilight, pushing my commitment to 11:45pm. A more reasonable application was when I allocated the drive from Carlingford to Epping to teach my children sahasranamam a couple of lines a day as I carted them to their violin lessons. Strictly it wouldn’t be truthful statement if omitted the fact that their sahasranamam still short of some 800 namamams as the car rides gave way to music practise. probably a good thing because, my children chose to study for their exams instead of reciting sahasranamam!

But then I digress… Its Ben Kingsley, who finally etched Gandhi in me. I would have been in my early twenties, in Bangalore with independence of spirit and mind reeking out of every pore in my skin, with freedom to explore and upturn any tradition if it didn’t hold up to my rational deductions, wanting more out of every living moment with a thirst to taste anything that came my way and make my own decision as to what I do with it. And when Gandhi stood-up for truth and justice in the court room on the larger than life screens of Galaxy, a mega theatre it committed me to his resilience under pressure to defend what is right irreversibly. I can understand why he didn't receive a #nobelprize for #peace - peace is an outcome of correction of injustices against humanity, a victim by definition can't correct and there isn't a category there for exemplifying humanity.

Krishna was right, I have commemorated Gandhi throughout every year at every possible occasion and pause to commemorate my association with him on his birthday.

Happy Gandhi Jayanthi,

affectionately,

Sumathy

2 October 2020

Work

The past five months gave me a clean run to learn the world systematically. The paths of knowledge and wisdoms I traversed nourished me, starved me, rejoiced me, saddened me, enlightened me, broadened me, lifted me, corrected me, strengthened me, enriched me and most of all showed me why we are where we are and why we can’t afford to tow what’s been as the norm to anchor on and adjust towards progress and get away with calling it innovation!! Core vocabulary with precise meaning, useful for business communications for that very reason, have been subjected to தேசல் over the decades with no semblance left to their original meaning!

Take the word work for example.

Work to me has been when you engage in an activity to produce artifacts when you have understood the person or people who would be the direct or indirect recipients of what your engagement/activities would produce to the extent of what your engagement/activities produce can impact the recipient and every one else in the context of use of what your engagement/activities produce, directly or indirectly. Until you have such an understanding, you are learning. Businesses had several terms such as trainee, apprentice, intern, student and so on to distinguish them from people who are workers contributing to the production of the artefacts the business offers to its customers. Over the years, this notion had whittled to any one who receives a pay is working with activists fighting to correct the misalignment in small ways on contributions of unpaid workers, domestic workers and so on. Combined with pressures to drive down business expenses in salaries and wages, some businesses run their entire production streams with interns! Notions of on the job training, out sourcing, training platforms, communication systems, use of recorded communications for potentially out of context training of humans, use of recorded communications for potentially training machine learning algorithms with a potential to stay undetected tangential contexts, humans trained on artefacts produced by humans or other algorithms using such undetected out-of context algorithms- I can go on but, its suffice to say work as a useful measure to understand productivity for business purposes and more so for economic management by governments has been pounded by தேசல்.

Every day when I try to learn about how the world works, I come across artefacts which are teaching me the world is infact working to make those who work not work upon advise of those who probably have never worked!!

on தேசல்:

Referencing extract from my article in Cognitio, issue 39, Autumn 2020, ARCS Australia:

“ There is a word in my mother tongue viz., thésal, not sure if there is an English equivalent. It means ever so minute a deviation, completely insignificant when assessed in isolation, perceived only through nuanced inquiry and unnoticeable otherwise”

Sumathy, Sydney

1 October 2020

Unnecessary information - plaque restricting the blood flow

lzerobzero, by my own criteria based on my critical professional experiences , has five and half months to validate it can be a viable business by:

- demonstrating that it can bring in revenue offering my stated offerings based on my stated intent

- it has identified funding sources to assure resilience for the following twelve months

First step is to dispassionately shed or shelve activities that do not contribute to such a validation- particularly because I am a one human operation, wearing every-cap as appropriate. It’s quite difficult to do so in 2020- particularly because the digital tools that enabled consistent information flow in the nineties are straying from their scope. They introduce interferences that intensionally or inadvertently exploit my human response to stimuli and my developed trait to listen to every input with equal respect and absorb the message, if any. How much ever hard it may be, its my business; its not a blog as some might like to think of it as just because I use the digital stationary which can also be used for blogs; nor do I have other revenue source from other subsidiaries of a parent company to bankroll my venture. I have to deal with it, and I am going to do so in my business communications, using my website lzerobzero.squarespace.com. I do so for two reasons: 1) I may not be the only one who would be struggling to keep a small business initiative alive; there may be others with much less critical experiences than myself 2) In 2020 if you can’t publish your business documents some one else will- probably shamelessly in their own names! So here I go.

At a fundamental level, one can think of a business as a flow of information, created and consumed by various identified internal and external functions. Mine is a simple one-offering-business. The identified internal functions of lzerobzero are:

Founder, responsible for specifying the intent of the business and engaging with the community the business is intended to serve by way of validating the relevance of the intent and aligning as required; identifying a successor and training them

note: can only be a human, hence the choice of declension for the noun

[ref: lzerobzero.squarespace.com/abouts (NOT A HYPERLINK)]

Systems Engineering, responsible for specifying the offerings

[ref: https://lzerobzero.squarespace.com/portfolio (NOT A HYPERLINK)]

Engineering responsible for realising the offering

Regulatory responsible for realisation of the intent of the business

[ref: lzerobzero.squarespace.com/abouts lzerobzero Quality Management System manual (NOT A HYPERLINK)]

Procurement responsible for sourcing material to enable operations (eg. my web-host, my email-host)

Resource maintenance responsible for maintaining correct functioning of the material procured to enable operations

Supply responsible for identifying the customer who has a need for my offering and realise the transfer of the offering to the customer

Operations responsible for enabling the functions

Being a one-human business at the moment, depending on what I am doing, I wear a different cap. Thus, for example, when I wore the Operations cap yesterday, the Founder and Systems engineering were given the stick to hold back until let the Supply caught up to its deliverables. Like all Founders, wanting to have the last word even when following the orders from their subordinate, I pushed back the Operations to go and cull activities that is vying for my time.

Jokes apart, information flow is key to any business to achieve its goals; a few tips to assist sort-out information flow:

text, graphics, visuals and audio do not constitute information by themselves
what the receiver assimilates from what was received is information
depending on the experiences of the receiver, what is assimilated may be misinformation, disinformation, partial information, incorrect information, irrelevant information for immediate needs (Note I think all correct information is useful for personal development whether you monetise them or not and all other information tones your resilience arms)
it takes varying amount of times to assimilate information; there are too many dependencies starting from the shade of the graph to ones prior knowledge in the given domain and attitude to assimilating new information

When I set up my business to refine the space I wanted to play, I subscribed to several news lettres. Thanks to the generosity of my social media platforms’ autonomous algorithms, several more news letters also find their way to my mailbox, some of them, I must give it to the algorithms, nail my interest so precisely. (most don’t, but that’s ok, machine learning algorithms, I understand are allowed thousands of run prior to claiming accuracy and I have not written nearly half that much yet) But then they chew on my precious time. So I am going cold turkey, at least until thanks giving, and going to go through my mail box and unsubscribe from newsletters I don’t have the bandwidth to read until I get my first paying gig. I was just watching The Social Dilemma the other day; I hope the algorithms or humans who process unsubscriptions don’t misread my intensions or take offence!

Sumathy, Sydney

18 September 2020

Revenue - the life blood of a business

lzerobzero is a business. By definition, it should bring in revenue*.

I founded the business on 30 April 2018. I had thought about running my own business on and off ever since my husband reflected on retiring and starting a small consultancy, Meru, bringing in enough to cover the weekly grocery bills and every second model of Leica and associated gears as they get released. I started reflecting on what my core strengths are and began my research on what I wanted my business to be when I left ResMed on 2 October 2009, armed with Chesbrough’s Open business models. But then, like any businesses, until the point you commit your name to a business number, how much ever useful they may be, the insights are, but academic. The problem is, you don’t realise it until you stare at the first page of diary wanting to write down:

what am I offering?

why am I offering it?

who am I going to offer it to?

how much will they pay for it?

is it enough for me to sustain my business?

I quietly went and applied for a four-day-a-week job giving myself a day to fill my books with analysis, insights, visions, design and revenue targets, sketche and poetry to pick myself-up when my will to keep away chocolates and chips were edging a nose-in. I squeezed a two human-month of lzerobzero feasibility work into an elapsed period of two years. I quit my job at ARCS when the initial COVID lockdown directions didn’t seem to converge anytime in the near future in my eyes and chose to give my little business all the air I could muster.

Four and a half months more under the bridge; having sorted out what I am offering and why I am offering it; [ref: lzerobzero.squarespace.com/about ! NOT HYPERLINKED] time to review my little business viability criteria baselined on the financial module I completed as part of a session of the NSW Enterprise Workshop, overloaded with my own thoughts on fair-expectations:

Day one - secure source of funds to guarantee salaries for the next twelve months for all employees plus all costs to deliver the offerings

First twelve months - zero revenue

Second and Third year - secure source of revenue to guarantee complete repayment of funds that supported the first twelvemonths in addition to funds to guarantee salaries for the second - fourth year for all employees plus all cost to deliver the offerings through the same period

Fourth year onwards, recursively every year there after - secure source of funds to guarantee salaries for the next twelve months for all employees plus cost to deliver the offerings; remaining revenue after tax is profit for the business

Barely hanging in there :)!

My Gods are teasing me, the merciless task masters!

A few weeks ago I claimed closure for myself on my pursuits of understanding Gods and religions and christian, vedic, saivite, vaishnavite, vedandanthic and Tamil sidic and atheistic philosophies and summarised them into a song vindpinnum ninnai kanden [REFERENCE: lzerobzero.squarespace.com/grand-unification prologue]. Long prior to this I had hypothesised that:

1. The best a God could be is intact the best a human can achieve, and over the millenniums the humans and their Gods evolved lifting each other

2. The best a human could be is in imparting hitham in everything they do at every moment of their life through every one of their faculties. What christianity stands for viz., God is love is the verbatim the same in sidic philosophy, அன்பே சிவம் and other philosophies I have thought about say the same thing differently hence specifics are but various manifestations of hitham as the ultimate experience. I am unfamiliar with Islam and intricacies of buddhism, but given they are offshoots of christianity and Hinduism respectively specialising to address a context relevant at the time of their inception, its hard to believe they would be any different in intent. My understanding of neuroscience physiology as relaxation or release of pressure/contraction/built up energy or charge as a rewarding experience at every perceivable tissue restoring hitham also is in perfect unison with divinity.

3. The highest perfection a human can achieve for themselves, thus is கனிவு, the ability to mellow in response to perceiving harm imparted on fellow humans and summarised it into a song kaninthanan. [REFERENCE: lzerobzero.squarespace.com/grand-unification, epilogue]. And because கனிவு is a response to fellow humans, it translates to respect for the fellow human as they respond. (Note its easier to mellow to animals in distress, because, the human-animal relationship assumes superiority in the ability of humans to give/protect than that of animals, where as human-human is a peer relationship allowing for misunderstandings, impatience, hatreds, jealousies, and similar manifestations of intolerance imposed on them due to incomprehensible constrains beyond their individual capacity to resolve- a completely understandable biological mechanism to protect those nerves by projecting one’s own stressors on to the other in the relationship.)

But my Good are teasing me :)!

I was very happy that as humans we have the capacity to deal with everything that’s going on around us if we learn to understand ourselves and each other. So, on Saturday, while making my Ganesa out of clay for an annual worship, in another word, re-calibrating our faculties to go and conquer whatever we set our mind to, I gave back Ganesa his broken tusk and asked him take a bit of rest stating we will humans will take it from here on; I summarised the thought in e song, தந்தோம்; தந்ததை தந்தோம் [REFERENCE: ARCHIVE 23 August 2020]

The next piece in the opera is a Jathiswaram. This morning upon researching the grammar for Jathiswaram, I learnt its pure rhythmic structures of notes of a given ragam sung using the syllables ஸ ரி க ம ப த நி. And without going into the details of the considerations that lead to my decision for want of brevity, I had allocated புகார் காண்டம் - almost one third of the whole silapadikaram- to this composition in the margam. In short, my spec restricts me to seven letters to communicate the summary of புகார் காண்டம் and a musician to identify a ragam to tune it such that the way I have strung the seven letters do not compromise the grammar of the chosen ragam! How am I going to do it???

All the deities in my alter are smiling at me in indulgent-defiance in the light of the lamp I lit this morning, as if teasing me with a well-you-asked-us-to-take-a-rest.

You know they always do- whether they do so to bring my feet back to the ground or to lift me because I have decreed their own evolution is limited by the humans lifting themselves at every challenge, I don’t know. But they forget that my strength is that I am a stupid Australian, sport runs in veins (even if I barely move out of couch) that I will never let a good challenge pause by without a sincere stab at it giving my all.

There goes my plan for the day to go saree-shopping for my nephew’s wedding in Washington this weekend. Back to hard work!!!

Sumathy, Sydney

24 August 2020

Its Ganesa chathurthi - an anual celebration of the remover of all obstacles

I made a little clay idol of Ganesa for an anual celebration. I have long thought about updating our deities or religious symbols so that they are more relevant to the world we want to see. WHo better to start this than Ganesa, who i traditionally invoked prior to commencing any new enterprise as he is personified as a remover of all obstacles. The legend has it that Veda Vyasa was a fluent poet and he commissioned Ganesa as a scriber as he composed the epic Mahabaratha, a cronicle of a brutel war and the conditions that led to the war intertwining philosopy, tactics, virtues, and practices of the period- some five and odd millinium ago. I think, in 2020, its no longer acceptable for humans to resort to wars as a means of resolving disputes. So I made a tiny change to the idol by reinstating his broken tusk. As communicated before, I am also making an attempt at an opera, an adaptation of silapathigaram. I learnt, the pushpanjali/invocative worship which is customary these days, some belive is not strictly an element of the margin format that I have adopted for the opera. I struggled with how to bring in Ganesa in the prescribed invocative piece Alarippu. My doble tusked Ganesa gave me an idea. Below is the result- I hope you like it:

Alarippu

An adaptaion of புகார்கண்டம்: மங்கல வாழ்த்துப்பாடல் where the poet sets out to narate the story of Kannagi; the song integartes the tradition of invoking Ganesa,the remover of all obstacles.

தந்தோம்

தந்ததை தந்தோம்

மறு தந்ததை தந்தோம்

பகையிலையினியென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; மறு தந்ததை தந்தோம்

போரிலையினியென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; மறு தந்ததை தந்தோம்

போர்வரைபணியினியிலையென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; உம் தந்ததை தந்தோம்

போர்வரைபணியினிஉமகிலயென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; உம் தந்ததை தந்தோம்

சற்றினி இளைத்திடுவீரென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; உம் தந்ததை தந்தோம்

பத்தினிதிறமினியென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; நின் தந்ததை தந்தோம்

உத்தமிவழியினியென தந்ததை தந்தோம்; நின் தந்ததை தந்தோம்

நின் தந்ததை தந்தோம்

தந்ததை தந்தோம்

தந்தோம்

We gave back;

We gave back the tusk;

We gave back your other(previously broken-off) tusk (the tusk, Ganesa was supposed to have broken off to scribe the Mahabharatham including the battle of the Mahabaratham as Veda Vyasa composed the epic leaving Ganesa with just one tusk for the past five millennium or so)

Stating there would be no more wars, we gave back the tusk; we gave back your other(previously broken-off) tusk.

Stating there would be no more enmity, we gave back the tusk; we gave back your other(previously broken-off) tusk.

Stating there is would be no more work for you as documenter of wars, we gave back your tusk; we gave back your (previously broken-off) tusk.

Stating you can rest for a while (after the 5 millinium and odd of documenting conflicts in some form or other) we gave back your tusk; we gave back your (previously broken-off) tusk.

Stating the strength of devoted women (like Kannagi would bring an end to enmity and wars, would lead us) from now on we gave back your tusk; we gave back your (previously broken-off) tusk.

Stating the ways of righteous women (would lead us) from now on we gave back your tusk; we gave back your (previously broken-off) tusk.

We gave back your (previously broken-off) tusk;

We gave back the tusk;

We gave back.

Sumathy, Sydney

23 August 2020

Leadership core competencies required for 2020 - Isolation of messages from the messenger

Never shoot the messenger has been identified as the fundamental operational requirement of courts of kings from time immemorial. In the 1900s when the commanders of the wars were remotely fighting their battles leaving the theatres for their troopers of varying ranks, the principle had evolved into protection of ambassadors and its’ corollary, protection of journalists who documented the unfolding victories and atrocities with equal rigour to enable the decision makers to make the right call at every juncture. The post WWII era extended this protection to ambassadors in all walks of life treading in foreign territories, and its corollary journalists objectively reporting on all walks of life as they travel around the world.

Never shoot the messenger,I think, is a necessary sign of sufficient maturity for candidature to any leadership.

The problem with what we call tech nowadays is , messengers become so successful, that they start divesting their businesses into that of messagers a problem in itself when the message is harmless but immensely significant when the message is harmful. It impacts messengers who divested just as well because in 2020, its hard to distinguish between which message they are really accountable for.

In 2020, where home theatre has become commonplace along with social media platforms for bringing the journalist in every one of us to fore, application of the time honoured principle of never shoot the messenger becomes a necessary sign of maturity for candidature to leadership, technical or otherwise is to have the perseverance to isolate the message from the messenger and understand the source of the message. Its a particularly imperative trait while understanding the messages from the desks of those amongst us who have chosen journalism as the profession of choice and livelihood.

The solutions are many. A practicable option that comes to mind until we have emerged out of the current volatility, is to contain tech to focus on delivering the message truthfully and accurately as scribed without adding value by parsing it from say, spelling to malicious communication. There may be others, ofcourse.

Sumathy, Sydney

5 August 2020

REFERENCE:

“It’s practically an inevitability of the digital world: The middleman eventually becomes a villain.” Shira Ovide, on tech with Shira Ovivide, 24 June 2020, NewYorkTimes

கண்ணகி என்பதென் பெயரே - an opera

ARTICLE 03 Everyone has the right to life, liberty and security of person.

If you think about it correcting 2000 years exploitations, intended and unintended, is not very hard if we remind ourselves of our humanity. My understanding of the Declaration of Human Rights has shown me that practically every other article can be derived from ARTICLE 03 and serve as a basis forthe path to sustainable peace through acknowledgement and correction of injustices as a necessary first step. The geo-techno-political environment in which 2020 has landed humanity has thrown up all the cards allowing us an opportunity to show personal and collective or organisational leaderships for the necessary introspection to review what has been for violation of compromise of individual’s right to life, liberty and security of person; in doing so , we shouldn’t forget to allow benefit of doubt to all humans involved- because ARTICLE 03 protects all humans, the exploiter and the exploited alike, not unlike the physics that underlies the universe or என் ஐயன்(one’s personal God- refer to the page on grand unification for further clarification)

I was born in India in the state of Tamil Nadu, where governance epitomised righteousness towards all humans. To me the story of a young women கண்ணகி of சிலப்பதிகாரம், an epic poem, depicts the norms for accountability in practice two millenniums ago. I was in grade 5 when I played the role கண்ணகி in a skit and in my own little way internalised her characterisation. I think the time is right to share my கண்ணகி with everyone for I understand, the ability to storm out of our comfort zones to call out injustice inflicted on the innocent is universal and probably was entrenched in the mammalian DNA as beautifully expressed as a simile for courage in one of my favourite songs: கன்றின் குரலை கேட்டு கனிந்து வரும் பசுப்போல் ஒன்றுக்கும் அஞ்சாத.

My first attempt at an Opera…

கண்ணகி என்பதென் பெயரே

An opera in the Bharatha natyam- margam format.

Alarippu (adaptation of புகார்கண்டம்: மங்கல வாழ்த்துப்பாடல் )

Jathiswaram (adaptation of புகார்கண்டம்)

Shabdam (adaptation of மதுரைக்காண்டம் up until ஊர்சூழ்வரி)

Varnam (adaptation of மதுரைக்காண்டம்: வழக்குரைகாதை)

Padam (adaptation of மதுரைக்காண்டம்: வஞ்சினமாலை)

Thillana (adaptation of மதுரைக்காண்டம்: அழற்படுகாதை

Mangalam (adaptation of வஞ்சிக்காண்டம்)

Thillana

An aaptation of மதுரைக்காண்டம்: வஞ்சினமாலை ln 50 - அழற்படுகாதை, depicts Kannagi’s direction to the deities of fire asking whom should be consumed and whom should be left and how the fire executes her errand.

பிழையற்றோர் விடுத்தது பிழை நாடி

பிழையுற்றோர் விடுத்தது பிழை முதல் நாடி

அழல்கொள்கவென ஏவினாள் பொற்கொடி

சென்தழல்தோன்றி பிழைஅடுத்து எரித்ததடி

( Kannagi, ) supple ( as a) golden vein, bids the fire to consume (or correct) the mistakes (injustices) by tracing to the root-cause of the mistakes(injustices) leaving (protecting) those who are faultless and those who might have incurred the fault (due to reasons beyond their control); the fire thus raged clinging to the faults (and preventing possible paths that can lead to further propagation of the fault) (leaving the humans unharmed as per her bid)

Mangalam

An adaptation of வஞ்சிக்காண்டம் , the last of the three parts of சிலப்பதிகாரம் depicts the recognition of Kannagi’s stories from hearsay, her devotion to her husband, and her courage by the kings of the neighbouring kingdoms and adoption of her as their protecting deity.

கனிந்தனர், கண்ணகியால் ஒளிரும் தம் அணியினின் கனிவுணர்ந்தவர்

நினைந்தனர், தம் வரை முறைதனை நினைந்தனர்; புவிதனின் நெறி உணர்ந்ததும் (கனிந்தனர்)

அறிந்தனர், நிகழ்ந்ததென்னென்றறிந்ததும் என்செய்வதென்றவர்

அறிந்தனர், அவளுயிர் வதைநிலை அறிந்ததுமென் செய்வதென்றவனர்

அறிந்தனர், தளைதனை அரிதலில் பிறிதிலையென

அறிந்தனர், அவள் கனிமொழி தம்முயிர்வழியென்றுணர்ந்ததும் (கனிந்தனர்)

(The kings) mellowed, sensing the shine in the eyes of those from their understanding of Kannigi (knowing they are living to tell her story a very testament that they enjoy her protection).

(The kings) thought about the scope and terms of their reach- but realising righteousness as recognised by (their) people (overrides what ever was defined in their scopes) mellowed.

(The kings) knew exactly what to do the moment they learnt what has happened; they knew what to do upon realising the torture her (simple - untrained in the ways of tradesmen or their misinformation leading to injustice resulting to her husband in the hands of the king of Madurai) sole sustained; they knew there isn’t another way than to shatter all things that bound her (and) they (at once) knew their own survival is reliant on their appreciation of Kannagi’s words (of calling out the incorrect assessment of the king of Madurai on misinformation stating her expectations based on the righteousness of the kings of Poom Puhar), of wisdom.

Varnam

An adaptation of மதுரைக்காண்டம்: வழக்குரைகாதை

Ragam- Bhairvi

TBD: Pallavi, Aunpallavi, Sahithyam for Mukthayiswaram, sahithyam for chittaswarams(4) of charanam

Charanam -lead line: (tune similar to dhrona karma.. samraksharakara in balagopalam)

(த்ரோண கர்ண துர்யோதனாதி ஹர)

கண்ண கிஎன்ப தென் பெய ரே

(திரௌபதி மான சம் ரக்ஷர கர)

கண்ணகி என்ப தென் பெய ரே

Sumathy, Sydney

26 July 2020

ARTICLE 25 as a basis for deriving criteria for the review of systems, platforms and processes

When Covidien, a medical device manufacturer I worked for as a Regulatory Affairs Associate was acquired by Medtronic, another medical device manufacturer, my manager at the time encouraged me to attend a global conference of all regulatory professionals at the head office. I was originally ambivalent; for one thing the proceedings were available via online portals and again it meant I had to be away from my family for the best part of a week. But I could resonate with my manager’s reasoning that it wouldn’t be possible to get an understanding of the breadth and scope of the new mega-organisation from the steaming, an understanding that would enhance the appreciation of what we are all doing. It indeed was a humbling experience reiterating my appreciation for the sincerity of the regulatory professionals in their efforts to distill human consequence of device development and commercialisation amidst technological complexity and information overload. I got much more than that: the killer tortilla, a version of which is on my regular repertoire! Jokes apart, the appreciation of the attitudes of the people I met in the conference, helped me drive technical solutions objectively in-touch with the environment in which the individuals serving my team, every one of them were as sincere as every one else in striving to do their very best.

In more generic terms, you can’t organically scale solutions intended for humans with out leaving the solution provider out of touch with the humans they serve. History is full of examples: as Dalrymple explains in one of his recent accounts on the perfectly understandable- even noble, aspirations of the East India Company in 1599 to add pepper and spices to the soups of the commons, turned one of the first global traders in to ruthless mercenaries in 1765 bleeding the country dry; it had to morph into I-wouldn’t-have-the-vocabulary-to-name-it in 1919 before the reality of what was happening on the ground to be understood by the common people, who by then were probably bottling their own brands of pepper and spices, to reject structure and its interfaces. My eyes want to well-up, but acknowledging the injustices was the important first step to the correction viz., independence in 1947. World war II provided a similar impetus for numerous International organisations to sprout, some under the auspices of the UN and others with their own mandate, with the intent to prevent proliferation of injustices to individuals as other individuals and entities lost-touch-of consequences of their actions feeding cavitations. The Declaration of human rights, one of the off-shoots of such impetus.

Prevention of resurgence of similar cavitations everywhere in the world is what drives me to lzerobzero. In 2020 amidst all the mishaps thrust on us by the COVID situation, as governments and institutions all over the world are focusing their efforts to rebuild the economies, I request every individual and entity to regroup and review their systems, platforms and processes for cavitations which would leave them out-of-touch with the reality of every human they interface with. Cavitations, by definition are erratic- they do not distinguish whom they topple nor leave meaningful traceability for accountability but their presence would unequivocally demonstrate the systems, platforms and processes themselves are out-of-sync with the intent of the individual or entity.

ARTICLE 25 of The Declaration of human rights, can serve as a basis for deriving the criteria for the review:

Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being and of his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care and necessay social services, and the right to security in the event of unemployment, sickness, disability, widowhood, old age or other lack of livilihood in circumstances beyond his control.
Motherhood and childhood are entitled to special care and assistance. All children, whether born in or out of wedlock, shall enjoy the same social protection.

Sumathy, Sydney

24 July 2020

ARTCLE 28 as a vehicle to incorporate caring attitude into recovery of social-order post COVID

I was listening to a recording of David Ignatius’ interview of EU central bank President Christine Lagarde on Washington post-live this morning, one of the clear thinkers I admire. While the discussions on the collaborative measures towards the path to recovery after the COVID-19 onslaught was heartening, it was staggering to hear that fifteen years of economic growth was wiped-off in the last two-quarters. Her insights on the need to incorporate a caring attitude in leadership and recognition that recovery is sustainable only if the recovery includes that of all states resonate with my own reading of the Declaration of Human rights; application of the articles will assist towards clarifying the subjectivity inherent in the application of a caring attitude.

Take for example, ARTICLE 28

Everyone is entitled to a social and International order in which the rights and freedoms set forth in this Declaration can be fully realised.

I understand:

social order to be the ability of every individual to function relying on the truthful representation of every entity that interfaces with the individual constituting the society
International order to be the ability of a nation to function relying on truthful representation of every entity established in a foreign nation that individuals or entities with in the nation interfaces with

As we embark to restore social and International order after significant disruption due to various COVID containment efforts, it could be a great opportunity for individuals and entities to review systems, platforms, and processes that encompass the use of such systems and platforms by individuals and entities such that they do not violate the social order or International order; if found deficient, show caring leadership to acknowledge the deficiencies, correct injustices if any and implement preventative measures as appropriate. Additionally, if necessary suspend use of such systems, platforms or processes until corrected, for all but stated critical purposes. In particular, autonomous technologies that use autonomous technology in its developmental stages require conscious reviews because, there is potential to miss violations once their usage is proliferated in the market place.

Sumathy, Sydney

23 July 2020

Understanding Software

Around 1972-73 my grandmother opened her home for an elderly couple and their daughter for tenancy. She held he couple in high regards through her devotion to their intellect that they enjoyed the privileges of revered guests, often much to the annoyance of my cousins who would be asked to run errands on their behalf taking precious moments away from their profound discussions on வெட்டி ஞாயம், actually a pretext to get through as many cigarettes as their lungs could hold without being reminded of the damages to their pockets nor health. Needless to say they were fully roped in while the family planned the wedding of their daughter, an event I understand in retrospect, must have run on skin-tight budgets. One such errand was to organise accomodation for an unplanned attendee. The wedding went on well and all was good until the old man received a bombshell in the mail saying he owed the hotel 167 rupees towards the accomodation of our unplanned for attendee, an expense hitherto he had been comfortable with based on his understanding of one-sixty-seven being one rupee and 67 pise! Can't blame the guy 'cos he had probably never experienced paying so much as a pisa towards accomodation in his entire life given, he probably stayed with a relative in every place he travelled to. Nor could one blame my cousins. Knowing my cousins, the only bit of thinking that would have driven the whole exercise would have been how many milliseconds they spent as opposed to any other consideration.

Software to me is not unlike my cousins- completely loveable, completely happy with their own being, do what they are bid to do, highly useful transactionally with the potential to get you offgaurd in the absence of adequate oversight particularly if your values are not aligned.

Golden era of software

I am no veteran when it comes to software engineering nor have built a career to boast developing software. But I understand enough about software engineering to pick signs indicative of the worn-out fabric that was once the golden-era of software engineering!

After a brief glance at a pdp-9 machine in the computer labs of RRI while picking up used punch cards to make little caddies to dry and store my surface treated slides in early eighties, it was'nt until 1989 I actually used a computer. I was expecting our second child; with the first one barely out of her cradle, we knew it would be impracticable to trek to UNSW to pursue my research interests in Physics. Jobs were far and few in science those days. Digitisation bug had bitten most big businesses and prospects of employment, particularly with the possibility of flexible work arrangements seemed promising with software literacy. Upon my husband's recommendation I started my degree in Computer Science. He bough me a little Acer desktop running 186- primarily to use as an editor because my lecturer marked my hard earned 55 or so further down because my assignment was hand written. Note computation assignments needed compilers and I used to do them at the Uni with the help of my friend who provided inspiration as well as comic relief as we struggled to learn COBAL and FORTRAN ably aided by his Korean to English pocket dictionary. I was terrible until I was introduced to Bertrand Meyer's Object Oriented software construction. Suddenly software made sense - I aced my barber-shop simulation with C++ the subsequent semester. There were compilation errors which probably took me just as long to fix as my COBAL assignment a couple of years prior at the tutorial lab with my little two year old slept at the itsy floorspace between my terminal and the door while my husband, who came to pick me up stepped out for I-forget-exactly-for what. But they resolution of the errors helped me learn to identify design flaws and strengthen my understanding of software engineering. It was fun. As I said before I have not written a lot of code* but I can fully understand the dopamine flooding through the brains of software engineers as they designed and developed and saw the fruit of their labour in the understanding of the fullness of their solution, a feat that is impossible in today's scales. So to me the golden era of software was when every software engineer worked on assignments that allowed them to indulge and relish their design in all the essential aspects of software engineering Meyer defined:

- Correctness

- Robustness

- Extendability

- Reusability

- Compatibility

- Other ilities such as,

Efficiency

Portability

Verifiability

Integrity

Ease of use

It probably ended a couple of decades ago.

* My first coding assignment was to fix one bug in the Inertial navigation module of the test bed for flight programs for FA18; a line or two of code change at most. The second one was to build a software module to run on an embedded processor serving as an interface between the HP application modules and other embedded modules- including codes for sockets integrated from the libraries, less than 500 lines of code. The last one was to add one function to the application programming interface(we didn't call it so in those days)- less than 30 lines of code. But then, not unlike passive smoking in a crowded bar, I had the privilege to get drunk on the design and codes of some brilliant software engineers.

Autonomous software

Avathars of Software

Learning

Machine learning

Software as a machine

Oiling the software machine

End of useful life of a software machine

Scavenging for retired software machine for scrap metal

Recycling scrap scavenged from the software machine

Concluding remarks - title to be determined

Its no longer the nineties; in 2020 its ethics

A few weeks ago when I sat at my desk on a Monday morning, I promised myself that I'd keep my Sunday to myself, to pause from worrying and give my husband a hand while he tidied our home and shopped for the week.
With the week spanning to pile disruption of livelihoods powered by entrenched stupidity from the same parts of the world that's leading cutting edge solutions to save lives in the rest of the world, how can I pause? Particularly when my instinct tells me its a problem we can solve quite simply by recognising its May 2020, not nineties, not fifties, and my god, certainly not the fifteen hundreds!!!
Elections were won in the nineties on singling out the economic success of governance; the focus on economy over the past few decades has been so much so that economic success now governs human endevours almost everywhere to the detriment of both governance and humans.

Its Ethics.

Infact ethics is binary- you either have it or you don't. The chase to line the pockets of day traders to validate the predictions of analysts has lead even mature industries whose employees have ethics coded in their DNASs have, to a degree reduced ethics to how much you spend when you take out your customer for a meal. We can change this. In order to do so however, we need to understand the limitation of humans as individuals. Say for example, hyenas, though a perfect end point in zoology, can not be expected to graze with the antelopes nor can we judge them for this inability without understanding the environment that drove hyenas to become predators. Ofcourse, humans don't have such inherent shortcomings due to the past 200, 000 years of evolution and language skills. My enquiry over the years has taken me to the roots of modern biology, the concepts of natural selection as the survival of the fittest and to concepts of selfishnes of genes- my own life experince contradicting both notions: its வினயம் that is spontaneous and reseliant, வினயம், the antithesis of selfishness and brutal might as necessary attributes for a fulfilling life. My interest in cosmology converged as I explored the origins of specious to ask the simple question, which is in alignment with the nature/fundamental physics, to give or to hold? My answer is to give, to give ever so naturally, the act of dispersion being the ultimate divinity realisable by humans; for non believers, act of dispersion is the only attribute of nature we need to derive the whole of physics.
For practical purposes, thus, to be ethical is spontaneous dispersion of your life with that of those around you; inflicting harm contradicts our very nature. Cultivating வினயம் is a path to changing the contradictions that is derailing our livelihoods globally.

Sumathy

Sunday 5 July 2020

We are all humans- there are no demons or devils in 2020

Irrespective of one's religious denomination, its my humble belief that the understanding of one's religion can not be complete until we conquer the demons and devils ourselves with our own experience as did our gods.

A case study using one of my favourite artistic expression of the cosmos in the form of the deity Natarajar of a town in TamilNadu, India, called Chithambaram as an example. Muyalagan under the feet of Natarajar is typically identified as a demon. The method should work for any objective enquiry to any religious symbol- it takes time and a bit of trust in our Individual ability to plough through hundreds of perspective until we can find one that resonates with all our other experiences. I have written up my understanding in the form of a song in my mother tongue, Tamil followed by an English (annotated) translation.

அறிந்தும் அடக்கி மறைத்தனை

பரிவினால் அறிந்தும் அடக்கி மறைத்தனை

பரிவினால் நெறி பிழந்த கொடியனை நின்திரு

அடியினால் அறிந்தும் அடக்கி மறைத்தனை

அறிவி உடன் அறிவி

தெரிந்தும் உணர்த்தி மருவிட

பரிவினால் தெரிந்தும் உணர்த்தி மருவிட

பரிவினால் பிழை திருத்தி நெறிமுறை தனை எம்

வதைநிலை தெரிந்தும் உணர்த்தி மருவிட

அறிவி பரிவுடன் அறிவி

(Nataraja) Knowingly you hid (the face of muyalagan) from us; with full knowledge (of his short comings) out of your kindness you hid from us; out of kindness of you hid the torturer who strayed from the righteous ways (out of his ignorance) from us with your left foot (ever so casually under the guise of the nuance of your dance to protect him from us, lest we hurt him in our anger or fear or both in our own ignorance of the others or situations that forced him to stray)

(I worship you because you personify kindness, so rest your feet and) show (his face to us) at once.

(Nataraja) Inspite of knowing (the cruelty he has inflicted on us) to enable (me to) trigger his understanding by embracing him (as one of us) out of kindness(that I learnt worshiping you, so not unlike your own kindness in wanting to protect him); with complete knowledge of (the immeasurable, unconscionable, cruelty he has inflicted on us) to enable (me to) to correct (his erroneous diversions and) to trigger his understanding of the righteous ways by embracing him(as one of us).

Show his face to us with your kindness (knowing mine is no less; you are my guru, the best there is and I am your student, as sincere as any one else you might have)

Sumathy Ramesh, Sydney

3 June 2020

A moment of weakness when the burden of injustice around seemed unbearable

உம்மில் உயர்ந்தோர் யாம் என்றுணர்ந்தீரோ - எம் ஐயனே

உணர்ந்ததும் மதியிழைந்தெமை மறந்தீரோ
உண்மையை உரைப்பீர் - எம் ஐயனே

உம்பர் உம்மிலும் பிறரில்லை; உத்தமர் எம்மிலும் பிறரில்லை
பின்னர் எமை வாட்டிட கரணம் யாதென்றுமைச் சினந்தேன்
தம் பகுத்தறிமதி தேய்ந்து எம் ஊன்உயிர்க்கு விலை பேசுமிவுலகில்
யாம் உய் வழி யாதென்று உரைப்பீர் - எம் ஐயனே

i.e.,
Have you come to the realisation that we have attained perfection beyond your comprehension, my Nataraja?

Upon such realisation, have you lost all your virtues (in envy)? is that the reason you have forgotten us? Speak-up the truth, my Nataraja!

There isn't a divine virtue that doesn't define you; just the same, there isn't an aspect of fairness that doesn't define us.
Given these, I was annoyed at you for I couldn't see what reason you could have for withering our lives thus!
We live in such times where those who have lost their ability to distinguish between what is fair and what is not (the very characteristic that distinguishes a human from other species) aren't shy to trade our muscles and lives. Speak-up, is there a way to live (as humans)in such times (for we are but humans), my Nataraja?

Sumathy Ramesh, Sydney

29 February 2020

Validation of my God

"If there is a God, he should work for every one" my brother, forget exactly when. Bakthi or Faith is real; it is a personal neural experience as Individual as one's own fingerprint irrespective of if one belongs to the same denomination of a given religion or all-together a completely different religion. Every one's experience is as good as anyone else's; god, a symbol of faith has as many manifestations as the number of Individuals who have walked the planet. Articulation of the symbol is most probably a limitation of the choice of Individual's tools exaggerating the differences and should not be misconstrued as differences in the nature of faith.

Today's knowledge of physics could be just as effective a tool at a level of abstraction necessary for demonstrating the universality of all religions, bringing us together.

APPENDIX- EXTRACTS FROM MY NOTES/ANALYSIS

I used one of my favourite theological works as a study sample- but the method is just easily adoptable for any work. the analysis from 2013/14 stays true todate; it took six years to sort out the physics!

March 2013 Intent of the validation

“God” is probably the ONLY abstract notion that every human being ever born on the planet has encountered at least once in their lifetime. Depending on the context of the encounters each one of them takes away a unique understanding of “God” and determine the extent of its relevance to their individual lives. Such understanding spans complete irrelevance on one end of the spectrum to the only relevant notion worthy of pursuit on the other!

Born a Brhamin in Tamil Nadu, the land that cradled the likes of Manikavasakar, my induction to God was inescapable from the very moment my parents took the fifth step of the sapthapathi! My experiences over the past 52 and half years have shaped:

- my understanding of God as each individual’s inner conscience that attempts to find an expression through one's thoughts and actions

- my understanding of religion as each individual's attempt to recognise this conscience in others and find a manifestation for it in their thoughts and actions

- my understanding of divinity as moments in an individual's life when an expression of one or more other's conscience resonates with that of the individual's recognition of his/her conscience

In these pages I want to validate this philosophy; I choose a systematic reading of Sri Sankara's Sivanadhalahari to provide a framework for this exercise. I would plough through each verse systematically and attempt to a) recognise the message i.e., facet of Sankara's conscience that has found an expression in that particular verse b) see if it rings true with my own experience i.e, resonates with the recognition of my own conscience.

I do not know where this journey would take me- but I know my God will be walking with me every step of the way! I want to start with the 100th verse as I see it at the start of this journey and come back to it and see if its has changed my mind in any way!

Original-December 2013/updated-January 2014 Verse 100 Sivaparathvam

ṣtothrenalam aham pravachmi na mruśa deva virincadaya,
ṣthutyanam gananaprasanga samaye tvam agra ganyam vidhū।
ṃahatmyagra vicārana prakarane dhanathuśasthomavath,
ḍhūthās tvam vidhuruthhamotham phalam śambho bavat sevaka।

The construct of the verse, its tone, its voice, the simile - everything resonate with Sankara's acknowledgement of the supremacy of his Siva over everything else, let alone himself! Just the opening word says it all- stothrenalam aham pravachmi na - it connects his exploration of Siva's attributes over the preceding 99 verses and the fact that another 99 would not change his unequivocal conclusion! Does this contradict his advaitha philosophy? I don't think so! When human beings find a manifestation of all that their God personifies in their attitude every living moment they themselves personify their God; that defines the limit of humanity- and for all practical purposes, that defines the limit of divinity too!!!!அந்த சமயத்ல ஸ்வாமி மனுஷாளாராளா இல்லை மனுஷா ஸ்வாமியாராளான்னு தெரியாது! தெரிஞ்சுக்க வேணுங்கர அவசியமும் இல்லை!!!

December 2013:

Verse 1 Invocative Salutation

kalābhyām cūḍālaṃkuta-ṣaṣikalābhyāṃ nijatapa

phalābhyāṃ bhakteṣu prakaṭita-phalābhāṃ bhavatu me

ṣivābhyā-mastoka-tribhuvana-ṣivābhyāṃ hudi

punarbhvābhyā-mānanda-sphura-danubhavābhyāṃ natiriyam

kalabyam My instinct was to explore this notion drawing allusions from those sparks of bakthi in the renditions of krithies that lit spots in my heart in numerous concerts. This however would be restricting divinity to a small fraction of the seven billion! If Sankara's God is personified by art, the only common denominator I can elicit between Thyagaraja's evarimatta and Steve McCurry's Afgan girl is the ability of both the portrayals in reflecting what the conscience of each artist experienced in the conscience of the connoisseur.

cūḍālaṃkuta-ṣaṣikalābhyāṃ Sankara's Siva and Parvathi both adorn their heads with the crescent when Chandra sought refuge in them on different occations. Thus the crescent symbolises their ஈரம் which I have come to understand as it springs from many a heart as I've sought solace in them.

nijatapa phalābhyāṃ The intent and expression of an individual's conscience is indeed the fruit of each other's penance.

bhaktheshu prakatitha phalabyam The question of a deity bestowing grace on the devotee is probably the most difficult notion to map. Its a little bit easier if we start from the premise from Geetha, viz., vasanar vasudevasya vasitham bhuvanathrayam or Eesavasyamitham sarvam hath kinjith jagathyam jagath: It demands religious faith that individuals who strive for perfection in the alignment of their conscience in their thought and action would one day find the ability to tune to that of all around them. Probably this was easier in earlier times where the conscience of individuals were moulded by similar values, particularly under the guidance of local Gurus. Under such circumstances probably it was easier to achieve what one prayed for.The complexities of the Globe we live in today where human values that should drive individual conscience are at logger heads with several governing philosophies that have direct impact on an individual's thought and action on the other side of the Globe, renders it incredibly difficult to retain this faith. Yet there are many amongst us who strive! punarbhavabyam: Anchored on the strength of staying true to one's conscience one discovers newer expressions of themselves in their own hearts and in those of others. I found a newer expression of You in every one today with bakthi as one of the pathways to reach the conscience of others. I pray that you help mellow my thoughts so that I get to share them with all.

sivabyam: The personification of Siva as the sakshi bootham has stood the test of time. The conscience dancing in a state of bliss as an impartial witness has defined the limit of life a human could live. At times, when my very conscience is choked out of expression, I have wondered if we need to expand the scope of Siva to give him an attribute that would enable Him to respond with some kind of a tunnelling mechanism to snap the narrow focus of those who try to wall me in!

Jan 2014 ConclusionThe journey is over; I just have to complete my journal one verse at a time!

Sumathy Ramesh, Sydney

6 January 2020

A visual distrubance while asleep

In response to a haunting disturbance from my sleep where the leg of my natarajar idol was flung from behind me...

காலைக் கழற்றி வீசக்
கனாக்கண்டேன் உறு துணையென நான்
பற்றிய நின் [காலை]

பெற்ற அனை அற்றோனிவன் என்றெண்ணினாரோ
அற்பர் நின் [காலை]

கற்றோர் அருட்பயனோ மற்றோர் வினை விளைவோ
உற்றோனென நினையென் சிற்றத்தில் சமைந்தேன்
எற்றோரு ஐயமுமின்றி என் சித்திரப் பொற்சபையில் நீ
நிற்றமும் நடனமிடச் சற்றும் துயிலேன் அனையென நான்
[காலை]

My song laments, I dreamt that some one tore and flung your leg that I have taken permanent refuge in. (if the leg is flung out, where does it leave those like me who have taken refuge in it?) Why would anyone do anything like this to you, Nataraja? (there is nothing you don't have, except a mother, because Siva is swayambu) is it because you do not have a mother? my relationship to you has been established in my mind (over the years) either through the grace of those learned who have passed on their insights through literature and music or through actions of those (actions that I didn't know how to deal with) who drove me to your feet for solace multitude of times. (given the closeness of our relationship) let me watch over with my wakeful eyes like a mother(only thing I know to do), you dance without fear of (of mutilation)in the golden theatre I have drawn for you (in my kolam)

Sumathy Ramesh, Sydney

23 November 2019

“Tom, the playing field is being levelled”

Inspired by a conversation with the then CEO of Infosys, Thomas L Friedman titled his book on globalization, The world is Flat - A brief History of the Twnety-first Century. The first edition published in 2005 explored his observations and thoughts on how the technology equalised opportunities for globally dispersed businesses.

The 21st century rolled on beyond 2005 warranting Friedman to add a new section You and the Flat world, a mere two years after the first publication recognizing that globalization is not an exclusively economic phenomenon and its impact is not exclusively economic. (I think I'll forgive him for the cover drawing which represents the world as a coin with an image of the planet painted on its face!)

In my mind the uncontrolled thirst for innovation hit the tipping point precisely on 2 April 2013 when the white house announced the BRAIN initiative (Brain Research through Advancing Innovative Neurotechnologies) in the absence of an adequate- no not just adequate, I should have said necessary- regulatory initiative to comprehensively explore, constrain and guide such a fundamental field of research in a climate where a software engineer trying to cross the next milestone in a mile-long project plan had the ability to stumble upon concepts that could tumble values humanity has fought to establish over many years!

But then, I trust there is still a narrow window of opportunity to reign in the sprawl.

Well, I am going to use the two editions of Friedman's book to draw my baseline to assess the current position and progression of technology.

Sumathy Ramesh, Sydney

13 November 2017

Trust

I have always known what the right thing to do is.

My life has been defined by a continuous string of moments finding an expression for what I have known, an awareness that is integral to my existence, an awareness unhindered by the forces resisting it.

It had not been easy to do the right thing all the time even if I knew what it was. It became easier as I learnt to recognise the same awareness in others. It inspired my ability to trust in the ability of fellow humans to do the right thing, an ability that enriched my life every time I exercised my trust in seemingly improbabe situations; I have humbly realised the lives of those around me has been enriched as well!

I turned 57 last month. I have fought my fair share of battles along the way and have come out unscathed. When I reflect back on my career and isolate the one behaviour that has placed me where I am today it is this Trust.

I love my husband and my children. There is still two things I owe them before I pass:

- establish measures to eradicate the existential threat posed by some of the technology that exists today

- establish self-strengthening measures to divert and contain fundamental and applied research leading to such technology so that such a threat is altogether eliminate from the future

The only tool I have to achieve my commitment is Trust. Probably that is the only tool I need!!! Luckily, you can't simulate Trust :)!

Sumathy Ramesh, Sydney

12 November 2017