A Game of War

‘War’ and ‘Patriotism’ – seem to be two favorite topics of American TV channels – especially in their news channels, as if these two are integrally built in their cultural heritage. During my stay at Dave’s place in the year 2007, every evening I used to surf these channels and often find programs related to them.  It is also a fact that no other nation fought as much as Americans did in recent times, in particular in last twenty years or so, and none of those wars, were fought in their own land. Nevertheless you would find American soldiers fighting through out the world for some reasons or so; be it a peace keeping mission, or a mission for eliminating weapons of mass destruction.  The only major war or aggression, they faced in their territory in the last century, was from Japan during the Second World War. That too took place far away from their main land in Pearl Harbor. In return, the horror and devastation that it brought into Hiroshima and Nagasaki, was beyond anyone’s imagination. No doubt it brought a quick end to the Second World War, but it also terrified the whole world by sending a clear and loud warning of beginning of the era of nuclear warfare threatening the very existence of this planet. Then in the beginning of this century, a similar mistake, though in a different magnitude, was committed by a little known terrorist group, Al Qaeda. They blew the twin towers of New York using their indoctrinated followers in the September, 2001. This single act of terrorism was sufficient enough to invite the American wrath and war in this part of world. They showered all the modern conventional weaponries from their arsenal in the hilly terrains and caves of Afghanistan to chase the then rulers, Talibans, away from their safe havens.  In 2007, America was at the height of their Iraq campaign, and was bleeding heavily in the battlefields there. So it was quite natural, that all the pro-establishment media would take proactive roles in fanning sentiments around ‘war’ and ‘patriotism’ to counter a rising popular dissent against the campaign. When Dave told me, “Next Sunday, let’s go for watching a game of war,” I was curious, but not surprised at all. The week-end before, the nation observed the Veteran’s day. I thought the show, Dave was referring at, must be a continuation of that event.  But he clarified, “It’s like enacting an incident of our civil war, with all the melodrama and fan fare. It’s a part of our tradition.”

“Where will it be held?”

“In a place near my brother’s house.”

“Does it take place every year?”

“Probably.”

“Is any particular day fixed for it?”

“I am not sure. Even I do not know the place, where it is taking place. But round the year we have this fun. You will find soldiers in two camps dressed differently, are fighting with each other. It would be interesting to watch their mock fight. Let’s go. We have to go to my brother’s place first. He has also invited you to the dinner.”

“Oh! Great! My pleasure!”  

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We started a bit early in the afternoon.  Dave’s brother  lived at a place which was around 40 miles from LA.  Dave took a bottle of wine for his brother’s family. I bought two packs of Indian sweets from an Indian store on our way. We had also the company of a young Saudi student – Adil. He was doing Masters in Computer Science in the USC. We were introduced before. He also rented an apartment in the same housing complex, where I lived.  During our introduction Adil did embarrass me by asking my year of graduate study in the University then. When I replied that I had finished it exactly two decades ago, and was visiting the University on a different purpose, he himself became embarrassed, and observed, “You should have a few more grey hairs by now to account for your professorship!”  Dave was quite fond of him, though he did not approve his love for Western culture and neglect (according to Dave) of his own culture and religion.

Dave loved to talk while driving, and there was no dearth of topics on which he could not speak. However, his favorite was anything connected to religion, and the next would have been on his utopian project of bringing peace and harmony among all religions.  I found Adil was also equally eloquent on different matters. He seemed to be engrossed with contemporary US presidential election, and started discussing on the election of possible Democratic candidate. A few days ago the first debate of Democratic candidates took place. Though Hillary Clinton was supposed to have an initial advantage to win this race, there were a few other names also drawing attention of the media. In fact immediately after the debate, Barak Obama, the young Illinois senator, was declared as a dark horse in that race. Adil thought Hillary would finally be the candidate.  He asked me, “Who do you think, should win this election? I am for the Democrats.”

I told, “How does it matter? Will there be any difference?”

Dave replied, “Oh! Sure! There is a lot of difference between these two parties. It matters who in power is. I am out and out Republican. I give huge donation to their election fund.”

I was aware of his affiliation before. There were a good number of certificates and receipts of donations displayed on his door. Even I found a picture of George and Laura Bush there.  I told him, “Dave! You may feel the differences in your domestic affairs. But, an outsider like me does not find any difference in policies of these two parties.”

Adil told, “But if a Democrat candidate wins the presidency, she will stop war in Iraq and withdraw American forces from there.”

I disagreed, “This decision is not merely a decision of an individual. Finally it is the bureaucrat and the corporate lobby, which matter. You can see Hillary was evasive on this aspect. Though Obama was a bit explicit, but he also played a dubious role in voting against Iran. None of this candidate promised any immediate withdrawal of force after their win. I do not think there is any soft ending of this war.”

Dave changed the topic. He said, “Last weekend my son came to see me. He drafted a will for me. He wants my signature. What he wants do you know?” He looked at me expectantly, and then replied on his own, “He wants my property. The whole bunch of it!”

I asked, “What would you do?”

“I’ll sign.”

I was surprised at his meek submission to his son’s demand. I knew he loved him very much, but he was also not very happy with his life style, which he confided to me previously. As Dave was always strong in his opinion and quite outspoken on matters of his liking and disliking, I thought he would not relent to this demand. So I asked, “What about your daughter? Will you not keep something for her?”

“No. She is not fit for keeping the property.” He was candid enough to declare his intention, and continued, “She has a disease. A very infectious disease!”  He winked at both of us, and explained, “She wants to see everyone happy in this world. I hope you understand. Is there anything worse than this craziness?”

I tried to argue, “But, Dave! Is it proper to keep you daughter left out?”

“Why not? It is my property. I can do whatever I want. Don’t you think that is where the justice lies? Besides, my son will take care of her sister. So where is the question of injustice?”

I found him a bit irritated, and kept mum on this subject. After a few minutes, he said again, “But, I went with him to a party last week, and realized that he is insane.”

Adil reacted, “Nonsense!”

Dave said, “It is true. He could be very rough. Suddenly he could become very angry. At that moment, he may even kill a man. When he returned to Santa Barbara, I wrote him a long mail. I told him that he should realize that he has a crack in his brain. He should take care of this. He replied to my mail in one word – ‘agreed!’ A real CrackJack!”

After a few minutes, Dave once again asked Adil, “What do you think? Will he kill me for the property?”

Adil replied, “I do not think so.”

Dave agreed, “Me too.”

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There was quite a bit of gathering in Dave’s brother’s house.  He was a lawyer, as well as an accomplished lyricist and singer.   A few weeks ago I met with Dave’s brother and his niece on the occasion of a concert, where his brother played guitar.  That day, he invited also many of his friends and his secretary, a lady in mid-thirties, with their families. Dave’s niece welcomed us.  When I handed over the sweets, she wanted to know how to eat them.  I told her, “Just take them raw. You require neither heating nor cooking.” They were in fact laddus and barfis (typical North-Indian sweets).

The house had a small backyard lawn. There we played a game called ‘Croquet’. I never played it before. However the rules appeared to me simple, though I was not a good learner of the game. I had to pick them while playing only. We played in teams of  three. Dave and Adil were my partners. Each team had a colored ball and a player of a team in turn would have to hit the team’s ball by a stick fitted with a short bar. The stick was called ‘mallet’. The ball had to go through wickets; nine of them were placed on the ground. There was a typical tour path that had to be traversed through these wickets. Each wicket had to be crossed twice in a complete tour. A ball could advance for a wicket only if it goes through the wicket placed before it in the charted path. There was a starting position and a wicket marked to begin with.  Finally, a person succeeding in finishing the track, became a monster or poison. He or she could hit any one’s ball and put the opponent out of the contest. I played quite poorly among all of them. I was not sure how the game ended. It appeared to me, near the end Dave’s brother became a poison and started hitting opponents’ balls to conquer them one by one. However, there was not much of time left for a conclusive finish. We had to rush to the battlefield as Dave’s niece sounded the warning bell for being late at the show.

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When we reached the venue, we could see that a good number of people were walking across a field to reach the final point of assembly. We also joined the procession. After traversing the field, we walked over a small wooden platform to cross a very narrow ditch. Immediately after it, was the arena of the war-game, which was almost hidden from our eyes by trees, and bushes around its fences. No sooner than we made our entry into that soft muddy corner of the ground, it revealed its secret antique world.  I felt as if we went back to an eighteenth century hamlet, where bearded men wearing top hats with knee long black suits and tight trousers pushed into the leathers of  high boots, were roaming on the pebbled road. Some of them were accompanied by ladies with long striped skirts and long sleeved jackets. They too were wearing colorful and feathered hats. By the side of the roads there were wooden houses, displaying items of yonder days. There were shops with different house hold items for sell. They had kitchen stuff, knives, dresses, mirrors, flutes, toys, hammocks, candles, hats, etc. There were drugstores displaying different colored bottles on a table. It had a old fashioned wall clock and a calendar displaying the dates of 1864. On the road, a few horse drawn empty carts were lying.  In our left side, a makeshift high-wall was erected. We could hear the sound of beating steps of marching soldiers and the shouts of their commanders coming from the zone behind the wall. A soft sweet tune of flute complimenting their marching beats was being played all around us. Occasionally we could hear blowing of whistles from here and there. Against these good number of people in their ‘go as you like it’ nineteenth century dresses roaming, gossiping, laughing, or selling different items in shops, we in our usual attire looked like foreigners there. But very soon, we could also feel our attachment to this new world.  Like us there were many other visitors of this century. However, everyone seemed to be enjoying becoming a part of this field drama on depicting an episode of the American civil war.

Our group came to an area where several tents were fixed by the two sides of the pebbled road. In those tents there were soldiers with their blue uniforms.  By looking at their uniforms Dave commented, “This is the Union camp.” The soldiers in their tents were busy in various activities.  Some were cleaning their rifles, some reading newspapers; even some of them were having a chat with friends. A few of them had special badges indicating their status of officers. At places, a small group of soldiers were standing in rows, and were getting addressed by their commanding officers.  In front of some tents there were also small gatherings of visitors, who were satisfying their queries on tactics and ammunition used during civil war. We also listened to one such conversation. The person was explaining the mechanism of loading a rifle with seven gun shells in a magazine, and removing it after the firing. Dave as usual joined the conversation, and carried on satisfying his queries on different aspects of war tactics. There was an aged man standing aloof from these gatherings. He had many badges in his uniform. Dave went straight to him and asked, “What is your role in this battle?”

“I am the General,” he replied.

“It means, you are General Grant!”

“Yes.”

Dave turned towards me and whispered, “Just imagine, the General Grant himself is standing before us.” Then he asked again, “When will the fighting  start?”

“About half an hour later.”

“Where is your  opponents’ camp? I always side with the opposition.”

“The other side of the ground.”

“Who will win this battle?”

“Today it is the turn of the confederate army.  This is the battle of Cold Harbor. In this battle on a single day, 7000 soldiers of the Union camp were killed.’

Dave remarked, “Great to know that! Then we need to place our loyalty to the victors. Let’s leave these losers, and take shelter in the Confederate camp.”

In the camp of Confederate army too, the soldiers were busy in drills and in other preparations for the war. They were wearing grey uniforms. We did not stay longer there. We had to be near the battle ground for the final show. So we went for visiting various other exhibits in that ground. We visited different shops selling replicas of old items during the days of civil wars. Dave wanted to get a hat. He gifted me one too, and said, “Now, let’s have some vintage touch. Put it on.” I had to wear it. That was the first and the last opportunity I had for wearing it.  After my return, when my wife discovered it, she immediately took it into her safe custody, and would give you a cold look, if you mention about its existence.  She was afraid that I would be crazy enough to ask for it again.

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There were fences around the battle field. All the spectators were lined up around it. Though there were chairs to sit, many of them remained unoccupied. Most of the spectators preferred to watch the show standing on the ground. The field was quite large. We were standing near the trenches of the unionists, where soldiers took positions with their rifles. The ground was made uneven. At places there were heaps of muds. However, mostly it was an empty corn field. One could see the dry foliages, traces of reaped corns, and their roots scattered around. The other end of the ground was extended towards the left, and met a wall of the compound. Near the wall a barricade was constructed with sacks, wooden planks, and tree-trunks. The confederate soldiers were behind it waiting for the battle. 

Before the show began, a brief description of the episode was narrated over a PA system. The particular battle took place in Cold Harbor in 1864 on the 3^rd June. Cold Harbor was a place at a distance of about ten miles from Richmond, the capital of the Confederate States. At this place both the generals from each side assembled with their soldiers. General Grant was encouraged to attack General Lee’s camp to cause severe damage in his battalion. He wanted a decisive victory at that stage. On the other hand the confederate General Lee was more than determined to save his bastion. Initially the unionists made a good progress and did make push towards the confederate territory.  However that proved fatal for them. The soldiers got exposed to the open fire of the confederate army, who were waiting behind the barricade, and a lot many (7000 as mentioned before) union soldiers died on the spot. From the confederate side, the number of deaths was about 1500. Later, General Grant in his memoir regretted the fact that he gave a marching order on that ominous day. Incidentally the battle of Cold Harbor was the last one, where Confederate army had a major victory. Very soon they were defeated in subsequent battles loosing a great number of their ranks and files. In the absence of new soldiers joining for their causes, the army became thinner, and lost its capacity of mounting any serious attack on the unionists. Finally in April 1865, General Lee surrendered to General Grant thus bringing the end of the civil war.

Finally the phony war started. The excitement of the evening was settled with the sounds of firing from guns, and cannons from both sides.  A group of confederate soldiers took positions around the middle of the field and crawled on the ground with guns pointing towards the union camp.  The union soldiers too crawled near the mid-area, and then the exchange of fires between them started. As told, initially the unionists marched forward, while the confederate army moved back behind the barricade. During the exchange of gun-shots a few soldiers from both the camps were found lying on the ground.  Presumably, they were dead or seriously injured.  Then began the bombardment of cannon shells, and firing of gun shots from the barricade on the advancing soldiers of the Union camp.  Most of them fell on the ground. A few could run away towards their trenches. The whole field was filled with smokes and smell of gun powder.  The grayish shadow of the autumnal dusk was spreading its wings over the battleground. Through the smoky fog, we could see the outline of a tall figure limping across the field. The dejected general was returning to his camp stooping his head mournfully, sometimes stopping near a fellow soldier lying on the ground, sometimes watching carefully at the enemy camp. All of us knew that it was merely a staged drama, and were taking consolation from the fact that none of our soldiers died that day. Yet the depiction of the bloody war befell a supreme silence across the arena.  We could feel the trauma, helplessness and sufferings of soldiers in every battle-field. Yet so many are bleeding and dying in today’s world!

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On our return, there was a long queue of cars waiting to take the exit from the venue. I was in Dave’s car, and his brother was also accompanying us. Adil was in the car driven by Dave’s niece. Dave became impatient while waiting behind the pool of cars for a few minutes. “Let’s do something else,” by saying he drove aside on a non-metal road. None of those cars before us vouched for it. Yet he wanted to check how far he could go driving along it. His brother got nervous and pleaded him to enter the queue. He told him, “What are you doing? No one is following this lane. It should not lead us to the exit. Please turn back, or at least get into the queue from the side. We would be in trouble! You do not know where this road ends. We might have to come back again and wait behind all of them.”

But Dave kept on driving.  He laughed at his brother, “Let’s see. Who knows where it ends?”

It took around five minutes to reach the end of it, meeting at a junction of the entry point of the highway. All other cars were patiently and slowly making their turn to take the exit.  Dave joined them without any difficulty. Throughout this journey his brother never stopped pleading him for turning back, and was scolding him for his impatience and for being unscrupulous. Moment we reached the main road, he called his daughter, “Take the non-metal road running beside. Otherwise you have to wait there for hours.”

10/03/2012

Living in a Digital World

Pythagoras, the famous Greek philosopher and mathematician, once said, “Everything is a number.” For a long time, people thought the idea is overstretched and metaphoric in his interpretation of creation. How could you convert everything a number, or how numbers could justify the existence of this material world? However, in today’s world of internet and digital computer the maestro’s metaphor is thriving with resounding resonance at every corner of this planet.  We can have everything now in numbers – music, art, dance, movies, images of every animate and inanimate object, the three-dimensional flora and fauna – they could be described by numbers – their colors, texture, seamless interactions with the environment – it is the Pythagorean world mirroring our existence as well as aiding its sustenance. This virtual world maintains a symbiotic relationship with our real world. We create it by digitizing the objects and concept, and it recreates our experiences; thus guiding us to face and overcome new challenges and stresses of life. The synthesis of our life with this virtual world is so strong that we have also become numbers in various ways. We now have digital codes for almost everything be it’s a subatomic particle or a large galactic body in the Universe – sometimes using a global standard, sometimes a local number limited to a specific system of operations. Thus our personal identities are numbered in the form of different IDs including in the recent Aadhaar scheme of the Govt. of India intending to provide every citizen of this country a unique identifier (UID). 

Digital Characteristics

How digital being differs from our common notion of this material world, in particular in space and time?  What we see, feel, touch or listen, appears to us as a continuous stream of experiences over space and time. An object in a space could be of finite size and discrete. But, object occupancy in that space, however infinitesimal it may be, is considered to be continuous. The same is true over time. A period of time interval could be also finite and very precise. But, it has infinite number of time instances (or moments) within it. In digital form a finite space and a finite time interval has a finite number of cells and time instances, respectively. So an object in digital form is described as a collection of cells, occupied by it. Similarly, over a time interval, only discrete events are recorded or observed at a finite number of time instances.  Since the cells or time slots are countable and could be specified using numbers (integers) only, the digital representation becomes an ordered set of numbers. Not only the object occupancy, but also various properties or attributes of objects at those locations, e.g. surface texture, volume transparency, color, etc., can be represented in the digital form.  The values of these attributes over the digital space or time are encoded by numbers.

Mathematically, we denote the variation of values as functions over space or time or both. Consider an example in one dimension. Let x be a variable, which takes any value within the interval [a,b] in the real axis. We denote f(x) as a function of x. In this case f(x) is a function in continuous space. Its domain is x. We may refer it also as an analog function. An example of a digital function g(i) following f(x)  could be in the form of a finite sequence say, g(i)=round(f(a+ik)), i=0,1,…,n, i.e. g(0)=round(f(a)), g(1)=round(f(a+k)), g(2)=round(f(a+2k)), …., g(n)=round(f(a+nk)), such that (a+nk) ≤ b.  In this case, rounding of real numbers into an integer value is expressed by the operation round(.). Hence, the values in the sequence are integers. The process, by which a sequence is generated selecting functional values at regular intervals, is known as sampling. The length of the regular interval is known as sampling period.  In our example, the sampling period for generating g(i) from f(x) is k. We find that the digital function in some way approximates the analog function f(x). It gives almost the same values at points of x from where the functional values are sampled. Even the intermediate values between two points could be computed by using interpolation techniques, say by imagining a straight-line passing through these two points, and determining the functional value at any intermediate point lying on the straight line. More we take the number of samples within the interval of a and b, better is the approximation. This implies that we need to take smaller sampling period. Suppose these points are plotted on a paper. With decreasing sampling period, the gaps between these points become smaller, and the curve would appear to be closer to that of the analog function. So one may naturally ask a question, how small this sampling period should be so that f(x) could be obtained faithfully from g(i)?

Science of digitization

The answer to the above query comes in the form of a theorem, the Nyquist sampling theorem, named after the American Scientist Harry Nyquist, who discussed it in 1928. Let us understand this theorem intuitively. Consider a sinusoidal function in the form of A.sin(2πmx+ɸ). From its mathematical form, we attribute A to be its amplitude, so that in every cycle the functional value varies from A to –A, and -A to A. The length of the period is 1/m. m is also called the frequency of the function, and ɸ is the phase term.  Given a sampled sequence, both the positive to negative and negative to positive transitions of the function could be captured, only when there are at least two samples per cycle. This implies that for sampling a sinusoidal signal, the sampling period should be at most half of its period, or in another form, the sampling frequency (number of samples per unit scale of x) should be at least twice of its frequency. Now by performing Fourier series analysis (introduced by  Joseph Fourier, the French mathematician and physicist, in 1830), we express almost any function f(x) as a superposition of a number of sinusoid functions. Each component sinusoid is called a frequency component of the function. In most cases, the number of components is infinite. However, for functions related to a physical system (for example a time varying signal of an electrical circuit), the contributions of high frequency sinusoids become negligible. In that case, beyond a frequency m_h we need not bother to sample any component. This requirement guides us to select a sampling frequency no less than 2m_h, twice the highest frequency component of the function. Nyquist sampling theorem says that the minimum sampling rate should be twice the bandwidth (the length of the frequency interval of the components) of the function.

The other factor, which is also associated with the approximation of the analog function in digital form, is the conversion of a functional value to an integer. In the example given previously we have used rounding function to get this conversion, which keeps the difference between an actual and the corresponding approximate value within 0.5. Not necessarily rounding is the only method of conversion. For example, truncation could also be another form, in which only whole number part of the real value is retained, by throwing away the fractional part. Even in a more general situation, one may divide the values by a scale factor and keeps only the integral quotient to represent the digital functional value. In the reverse process of computing analog values from their digital counter parts, the same scale factor is used in multiplying with the quantized values. The scale factor is also referred as quantization threshold, and the process of converting real values to integers in this way is called quantization. The reverse of quantization is termed de-quantization. Smaller we take the quantization threshold; less becomes the error of conversion.

Reconstruction Process

Let us consider the other side of the story. Given a digital sequence, how one could get back the analog function? As intuitively we have seen earlier, one may carry out linear interpolation between successive samples to get the values at every point in the domain. However, it is far from a close approximation of the original analog function. This can be understood from the digital representation of the sinusoidal function. As we have discussed, it is sufficient to recover a sinusoid function with two sample values per cycle of it. However, the linear interpolation of successive sample points would provide us a triangular periodic function. So, is there any better way to recover this sinusoidal variation?

The answer to the above question is provided by the linear system theory. In fact the Nyquist sampling theorem is based on the assumption of reconstruction of a function through a linear shift invariant (LSI) system. A system is something, which accepts input in certain form, and provides an output in the same or a different form. It is characterized by its input-output relationship. In a simpler form, a system may be considered as a function, which takes an input (say, x) and provides an output (say, y). However, in general, a system is more than a function. Rather a function could also be its input (say, f(x)). In that case, its output would be another function (say, g(x)). For example, in a radio set the electromagnetic wave (or radio wave) transmitted in free space is its input and the sound played by its speaker is the output. A linear system follows the superposition principle of input-output relationship. It implies, given an input x₁ if the output is y₁, and for x₂ if the output is y_2, a linear combination of the inputs (say, ax₁ + bx₂) produces the same linear combination of their respective outputs (i.e. ay₁ + by₂). A system is shift invariant, if a shifted input produces the same shift in its respective output. For example, if f(x) produces g(x) in a system, in a shift invariant system f(x-x₀) produces g(x-x₀). An interesting property of an LSI system is that given an input in the form of a sinusoid function it also produces a sinusoid function of the same frequency as the output. However, the amplitude and phase of the output sinusoid go through changes. Due to linearity, output amplitude changes with the same proportion of the amplitude of the input. This proportion is called gain. Similarly, due to shift invariant property shift in phase of the output sinusoid function from the input at the same frequency remains constant.  Hence, an LSI system could be characterized by the variation of gain and phase shift over varying frequencies of input sinusoids. This is known as the transfer function or frequency response of the system. If the frequency response is known, it is possible to determine whether a sinusoid of a specific frequency would provide a significant output response or not. If the gain at that frequency is very low (nearing zero), the output response would be negligible and in all practical purposes it is ignored. As we have already seen that almost any function f(x) can be expressed as an additive combination of sinusoid functions, applying the principle of superposition of a linear system, it is possible to determine the output from its frequency response.  In the output, depending upon the gains at varying frequency, some of the sinusoidal components would be present and some of them would be filtered out. As an LSI system is capable of selectively passing and modulating the frequency components by the respective gain factors and phase shifts of its frequency response, the system is also referred as a filter. A filter which suppresses the high frequency components and passes low frequency components till a cut-off frequency m_l is called low-pass filter (LPF), whereas a high-pass filter (HPF) passes only high frequency components beyond a cut-off frequency. There is also another class of filter known as band-pass filter (BPF), which allows frequency components within an interval to pass through. The reverse of the BPF is a band-stop filter. A physical LSI system has characteristics similar to those of an LPF or a BPF. This means that there exists a high-frequency cut-off beyond which the sinusoid functions do not respond. For example, the human auditory system responds to sound waves between 20 Hz and 20 KHz.  Our color perception is restricted within a band of wavelengths (roughly 390 nm to 710 nm) of electro-magnetic radiation, which we term as the visible spectrum. This property of physical systems enables us to process the input with an LPF or a BPF, and then apply sampling with a sampling frequency at least twice of the frequency band of the processed input.

Now, let us consider the response of an LSI to a sampled digital signal as its input. As an example, we may consider how our auditory channels would respond to chopped off sound waves at regular intervals. As expected such a discrete sequence would be a nuisance to our hearing. This is due to the fact that in this digital form the function has a lot many high frequencies, additionally introduced due to sampling operations. Those frequencies within the allowable range of the LSI would make a chaos in the output. However, the sampled function still has the frequency components of the original function in the same proportions. If the Nyquist sampling rate is used, the original frequency band would be well separated from those additional high-frequencies. Hence to recover the original analog signal, we need to design an appropriate LPF, which allows only the desired frequency components of the sampled function. This is how we get back the function again in the analog domain from its digitized version, i.e. by processing it through successive stages of de-quantization and low pass filtering.

Discrete sensing and perception

It is not that our perception of continuity of any event itself is continuous. Apparently we are immersed into a continuous flow of events and sensation. However, if we consider the anatomy and physiology involved in this process, we find that there is discreteness both in sensation and perception. Our sensory organs receive the stimulation from the environment through different nerve cells. As these cells are discrete, there is an inherent sampling in the process of receiving the stimulation. For example, in our retina of eye, there are about 120 million rod cells and 6 million cone cells. Hence the images formed by the retina are sampled by them. Moreover, the sensation is processed by these cells and transmitted through the visual path to our brain, where the final visual perception takes place for understanding the scene before us. The whole process roughly takes 100 ms, out of which around 3 ms are spent for the transmission of the excitation through the optical nerves. The rest are almost equally shared by processing at the source of reception (retina), and at the final destination (brain). However, due to this latency, our brain is not capable of processing any visual sensation within this period of 100ms, which implies that it works at the rate of 10 scenes per second. This fact is used in cinematography, television sets, etc. Similar discreteness is also observed in other sensory mechanisms. Our auditory nerve takes around 0.4 ms for conducting auditory sensation. Hence, though our ears are sensitive to sound wave with a frequency as high as 20 KHz, our audio perception, for which we have a very little understanding till today, should be limited by a rate of 2.5 KHz. In fact, the speed of cognition is much less as there are processing in the receptors as well as in brain. This is the reason, why we cannot understand any fast playing audio recordings, sometimes used in advertisements broadcast in television channels, where the law dictates a compulsory announcement on financial risks (say, of new investment bonds issued by a company), health hazards, etc.  In general, any sensation needs to be carried to brain or muscles through nerves. There is a finite time by which this could be accomplished. Besides, there is a refractory period in our nerve cells, within which it does not accept any new stimulation. In addition, it requires also processing in the source as well as in the destination. All these put a limit in the cognition rate and sometimes, even at the rate of sensation. Hence, not only the creation of digital content of the real world analog entities, such as sound, images, 3-D objects, etc., is guided by the principles of sampling and quantization, but also their realistic rendering takes place by exploiting the discreteness in our sensory and perceptual mechanism. Next we would examine, how through identification of the factors responsible for sensation of depth, direction and color, we can stimulate such illusive sensation from the virtual world.

Creation of illusion in virtual digital world

It is not clear what processing precisely goes in our brain, which empowers us to perceive the depth variations in an object in the 3D world. But we could identify the factors responsible for this sensation. These are from the two images of the same scene formed in the retinas of our left and right eyes, respectively. The corresponding image of a 3D point goes through a lateral shift in the right image, with respect to its position in the left image. This we would be able to sense, if we look at the same scene with one eye (closing the other eye) at a time, first by the left, and the next one by the right eye. It is observed that the amount of shift is inversely proportional to the distance of the point from us. Technically, these shifts are called parallaxes. Our depth sensation has causal relationship with these parallaxes. Hence to provide an illusion of depth in images, in 3D movies, we project two images of the same scene simultaneously on a screen. One image is meant for viewing by the left eye and the other one is for the right eye only. In addition, necessary care is taken so that a viewer does not see them by both eyes at the same time. This is achieved by various means of technological advancements. One is to use polarization of light in the projection of superimposed images, and watching them through polarized glasses.

A processing somewhat similar to visual stimuli goes in our hearing system also. We hear the same sound by our two ears. However, sound wave received by one of them reaches faster than the other. This difference of phase between these two simultaneously received sound waves gives us a sense of direction of the sound source. This principle is used in the recording and playing of stereophonic sound.  While recording, two channels are recorded by two separate microphones with a phase shift in their sound tracks, and during production of stereo sound, they are played simultaneously in two different sound speakers. This provides a relative depth variation in the source of sound in our surroundings. However, the sensation becomes more realistic, if we use a stereo headphone attached to our ear, as it reduces the effect of interference of surrounding sources during hearing. Moreover, with this gadget the emulation of phase differed sound tracks in our ear-drums, becomes more flawless.

Compared to depth and direction, our color sensing is better understood. In our retina, we have three types of cone cells. Each of these types acts like a filter, allowing only a certain band of optical wavelengths in the process of stimulation. One category of cones operates around the wavelengths near red colors. The other two allow those around green and blue colors, respectively. Though physically color is the property of the wavelength of light, in our sensation it is perceived by the superimposed stimulation of these three filters. This implies that even an appropriate mixing of these three primary colors, i.e. red, green and blue, respectively, can produce the same color sensation. It is not necessary to have an external simulation of the light energy of the precise wavelength representing the color in the optical spectrum. This enables us to design a system which produces all different colors using just three colored light sources, as opposed to use of infinite number of light sources of pure wavelengths. This principle is used in production of colors in a television set. Even in capturing color information also, we use the same principle. In this case, we use optical filters corresponding to the frequency (or wavelength) response of our cones, and then use optical sensors for capturing colors of an object. This is what is done in color cameras, both in analog and digital forms.

The above are only a few examples by which we realize how information related to the objects and various sensations of this real world could be put in the form of numbers, stored into computer memory, and used in their rendering as and when required. Day by day with the technological advancement we are increasing our power of recording our existence for the posterity in the digital form, so that at any point of time our 3D surroundings including us, are captured digitally with colors, sound, smell, touch, taste, emotion, etc., extending an invitation to others to share our experiences and emotion in this virtual world.

The Real Digital World

So far we talked about a virtual world, which may act as a mirror of our real world, and is capable of recreating itself with reliability and authenticity. In reality in sensing this illusive world, the discreteness in our sensation and perception plays a major role. Naturally one may ask the question, what about our real world? Does it exist with discreteness too? Or, is it inherently continuous? Let us see how modern science explains our existence in its very fundamental forms of matter, force, energy, and life.

The thing which should form the core of our understanding is our objective observation of this world in terms of measurements and quantifications of physical entities. From our school physics we know that basis of all such observations lies in measurements of three fundamental concepts, namely, mass, distance or length, and time. Whereas the last two are related to measurements in space and time, respectively, the first one is a measure related to matter. For a long time as our common intuition dictates, we considered the invariance of these measures in every state of an object anywhere in this universe. In particular for a moving object with uniform velocity, though its velocity is measured with respect to the inertial state of the observer, the measurements related to mass, length and duration are considered to be the same for identical objects or periods in any inertial frame. However, a simple physical fact posed a paradox to this apparently sensible assumption. The speed of light in vacuum for any observer in any state of motion is always measured the same. As the measurement of speed is associated with measurements of distance and time, the foundation of their invariance in any inertial state becomes fragile. Albert Einstein by proposing his famous theory of special relativity resolved this riddle. According to this theory, none of these measurements has any absolute frame of reference. They are all relative with respect to the inertial frame of an observer. The only quantity which is invariant in these frames is the speed of light in vacuum. Hence the length of a speeding vehicle would appear differently to its rider and to an observer standing on the road. The road side watcher would find it shorter than the rider. Even the duration or period between two events occurred within a vehicle would deem to be longer in the frame of reference of the observer at rest (with respect to the road). The measurement of mass of the object also becomes relative. Its value increases for an observer with a relative motion compared to that obtained by an observer who is at rest with respect to the object. We practically do not observe this variation in our common day experiences, as speeds of common objects in our inertial frame (stationary with respect to Earth) are much below the speed of light, and the variations are negligible. But for subatomic particles which move with a very high velocity, the measurements of their masses are shown to follow the laws of special relativity with high accuracy. Their observation for a longer period (their life-times in free space) is also possible due to time dilation in the static reference frame of the observer. Even though these measurements are different in different inertial frames, the laws of nature are the same and uniform in each of them. Hence, though the measurements are relative for a given inertial frame, they are dictated by uniform scales set by their standards. For example, a stationary rod of length of 1cm will always be read the same in every inertial frame.  However, there is no apparent discreteness in time and space even in relativistic world. Let us consider whether the same is true for the objects and events, which occupy a certain amount of space for a certain period of time.

Discreteness in material existence

Since the birth of modern civilization, ancient philosophers thought about matters composing of tiny indivisible particles. The Greek philosopher Democritus and his teacher Leucippus named them atoms. In the modern scientific era, the English scientist John Dalton proposed that atoms of elements combine to form compounds and hence they combine in a definite proportion of their masses. Till the end of the nineteenth century this was the single most discovery showing the discreteness in the behavior of material world. However, the scientific world started to wonder on the rule of numbers in nature by observing the periodicity in the molecular weights of elements with similar chemical and physical properties. The famous Russian scientist Dmitri Mendeleev catalogued these elements in a periodic table paving the prediction of existence of many other elements, which had remained undiscovered till his time. It is only at the end of the nineteenth century, subatomic particles were discovered by observing the phenomena of radioactivity (discovered by the French scientist Henry Becquerel in the year 1896) and cathode ray discharge in a vacuum tube. The English scientist J.J. Thomson in 1897 explained the cathode ray as a stream of negatively charged small particles confirming the hypothesis of existence of such a particle by the Anglo-Irish scientist G. Johnstone Stoney, who named it electron in the year 1891. Using radioactive emission Ernest Rutherford in the year 1907 showed the existence of a heavy concentration of positively charged mass within an atom, which he named nucleus, and proposed a model of atom where electrons are revolving around the nucleus. Later in 1918, Rutherford confirmed the positive charge particle in the Hydrogen atom and named it proton. In 1932, another subatomic particle in the nucleus, named neutron, was discovered by the English scientist James Chadwick.  The mystery of periodic table became unfolded with these discoveries, as we understand now that the number of protons in the nucleus of an atom does uniquely identify an element with its distinct physical and chemical properties. On the other hand arrangement of electrons (the same number as of protons in a neutral atom) around the nucleus, specifically the number of electrons in the outmost shell, provides explanation to its various chemical properties. As the number of electrons in the outmost shell varies periodically with the increasing number of protons (or the atomic number of an element), we observe similar properties in elements separated by a length of a period, which could be 2, 8, 18, or 32.  Even the arrangement of electrons also follows a rule of numbers (called quantum numbers) as they exist at discrete energy levels while revolving around the nucleus.

Within a few decades the simple picture of atoms containing only the above three elementary subatomic particles got shattered by the series of discoveries of many more elementary particles. Of course, electron itself is found to be elementary, and falls under a group of subatomic particles called lepton, which gets affected by electroweak force. In the group there are five more particles (besides electron), they are mu-meson (or muon), the tau-meson, and three types of neutrino. The second group of particles is known as hadron. This group contains more than 100 subatomic particles, which includes proton and neutron also. However, hadrons are formed by more fundamental particles, called quarks. There are six types of quarks, up, down, top, bottom, strange, and charm. For example, a proton is made up of two up-quarks and one down quark, whereas a neutron is composed of one up and two down quarks.  The combined family of hadrons and leptons are called fermions. It is not only in their material existence, but also in their interactions, these sub-atomic particles exhibit discreteness. They interact among themselves by exchanging another type of particles, force particles, called bosons. There are four fundamental forces observed in nature, namely strong nuclear force, weak nuclear force, electromagnetic force, and gravitation. Out of these four, the first two are observed within nucleus, and the third one (electro magnetic force) is observed in the microscopic world of atoms and molecules, and also in the macroscopic world. However, gravitational force is so far observed only with the bodies in our macroscopic world. We are yet to explain its presence in the subatomic level. The strong nuclear force is responsible for holding the quarks together in hadrons by exchanging a type of particles known as gluons. There are eight types of gluons. The weak nuclear force is responsible for the decay of large nucleus, and there are three force particles associated with it namely, W⁺, W^-, and Z-bosons, respectively. The electromagnetic force acts through exchange of photons. In 1905, Einstein proposed that the light, which is also a type of electromagnetic radiation, contains stream of photons, each carrying a finite amount of energy (in quanta). In atoms, energy transfer takes place discretely through the exchange of a number of photons. It is similarly hypothesized that gravitational force is also carried out by a force particle, named graviton. However, the existence of graviton is yet to be confirmed experimentally. There is also another particle which is much smaller than any of the above particles predicted theoretically, called Higgs boson.  It is hypothesized that the mass of a matter is determined by its interaction with Higgs bosons. Its existence is also yet to be confirmed, as for its generation and observation for a longer duration, one has to collide two hadrons using a very high energy particle accelerator. The recent experimentation in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) of European Organization of Nuclear Research (CERN) is an attempt towards this. The analysis of the experimental data is yet to be confirmed. However, there is an initial report of success, which requires much more careful investigation by the scientific community.

Life in discrete form

It is not easy to define life. In comparison the definition of a matter is simpler, as we may term it as a substance with a mass. According to this definition, a living being is also a matter. But then, what is the essence of life in it, is a mystery, a very little of which is understood today. However our modern understanding of life started with the observation that it functions in discrete form within the cells of an organism. That the smallest unit of life is a cell, was discovered in the middle of the seventeenth century. In 1665, the English scientist Robert Hooke observed the cellular structure in a cork using a microscope, invented by a Dutch tradesman Antoni van Leeuwenhoek. Inspired by Hooke’s work, Leeuwenhoek on his own extended the microscopic study in other substances, and reported existence of bacteria and protozoa in 1678. Finally the proposition that all living being are grown from pre-existing cells came from the German biologist, Rudolf Virchow in 1858. The most fascinating discovery of discrete nature of transmission of inheritance in the reproduction of organisms came from the work of an Austrian Augustinian friar, Gregor Johann Mendel, considered to be the father of modern Genetics. However, Mendel’s work remained unnoticed for a long time, and rediscovered again in the beginning of the last century with its revolutionary impact in developing the theory of genetic transmission of inheritance, and understanding the fundamental role of genes in cellular metabolism. During the same period of Mendel’s work, Charles Darwin introduced the theory of evolution as the origin of species and variations among them. Evolution and inheritance play an important role in sustenance of life. That is why in a modern perspective life is defined by NASA in their program of astrobiology as “a self-sustainable chemical system capable of undergoing Darwinian evolution.”  In view of this, the discrete form of genetic components and their pivotal roles in orchestrating a chain of events in the form of synthesis and interactions of proteins, RNAs, etc., are truly fascinating, as these are essentials in the sustenance of life.

In the second half of the nineteenth century it was understood that the hereditary factors are residing in chromosomes. There are always a fixed number of chromosomes in a cell for a specific organism. For example, a human non-reproductive cell has 23 pairs of chromosomes. Today we know more about its structure, which is a thread of double helical structure consisting of two DNA strands. A DNA is a sequence of four types of nucleotides, namely, adenine, guanine, cytosine and thymine.  In this long chain of nucleotides, there exist segments, which are responsible for synthesis of proteins, and RNAs.  Each such segment has a specific sequence, determining the amino acid chain of a protein, or a chain of ribo-nucleotides of an RNA. In fact a triplet of nucleotide in that segment is mapped to a unique amino acid in this process of synthesis. These triplets are termed codons, as they carry the protein translation code. There are twenty possible amino acids, and four types of nucleotides. Hence, we have 64 different codons, which are to be mapped to one of these twenties. This shows that there are multiple codons meant for a single amino acid. Moreover, there are a few codons which control the process of synthesis (called transcription followed by translation). They take part in initiation and termination of synthesis. It is amazing that this codon table is almost universal for every living, and extinct species of this earth. As more and more the secret of nature is unfolding, and the technology is moving fast with digital precision and robustness on synthesizing biochemical molecules in our laboratory, the scientists hope today what was unimaginable even a few decades ago, synthesis of life from lifeless inorganic chemical substances.  In June 2010, an attempt in a very nascent form was reported to the amazement (and also with some concerns!) to the scientific community. Dr. Craig Venter and his team of twenty scientists of the John Craig Venter Institute, USA, were able to create artificial life by implanting synthetic DNA containing around 850 genes into the cytoplasm of a bacterial cell.

The dual world

We live in a dual world. Nature works with both continuity and discreteness in our real world. We could find this discreteness in existence and interactions among living and non-living substances. On the other hand, they exist with the continuity of space and time. Who knows one day with new findings and new realization of laws of nature assumption on their continuity would not be at stake? In material existence also, the discreteness has a vague boundary. We know that a particle too, has a dual existence of a wave. Hence, it is not possible for us to determine exactly both the position and momentum of a particle. Nature has put limits in the precision of these measurements.  At the same time it offers us new challenges to uncover its mystery.

In our social life also we have to face another duality. We have to interact with both the real and virtual world. Day by day, it is becoming difficult to ignore the digital world in our social interactions. This digital world is created by us. It has many facets. It could be bothering your privacy, and monitoring you at every sphere of your activities. Again, it could be refreshing and entertaining. We could fly our imagination in its exploration. It can act as a tool for better understanding our nature, and thus controlling its resources and energy to our advantages. It is true that with the help of digital technology, we are presently going through a very exciting phase of social interaction and information sharing. But it has become possible only through our continued pursuit of knowledge to refine our understanding of this real world in its dual form.

12/02/2012

Pentis Ortega

“Are you from the south?” the old lady asked me. I was waiting for the bus to the University. The lady too was there for the same reason.  I had seen her previously during my daily commuting in morning hours. During that period there used to ply only one bus towards the University from our locality. So it was quite common to see every day those same faces, who would commute to their places of work using the city bus. Other days, I used to board from a different stand, a little ahead of the place, where I was waiting then.  Every morning I used to be in the bus earlier than the old lady, and would see her getting inside with the help of a young man. In that morning also, the same person came with her. He appeared to be in his late twenties - a little short and bulky, wearing a baseball cap, a loose tee-shirt and knee long shorts. He had been pulling a bag with wheels over the cemented surface of the side walk, and after reaching the spot kept it on a side. Though we were co-passengers of the same bus in every morning, we had not talked previously. The old lady used to take a seat just behind the driver’s place. I preferred to keep myself aloof at some corner of the bus. But that morning, the moment she saw me, she came forward, and dragged me into the conversation.

She could be in her seventies. Like the young man, who came with her, she was also short and bulky.  However, unlike him her complexion was brown. She had a hat on her head, and dressed herself by putting on something similar to an apron which almost touched the ground covering her feet, and on top of it she wore a sweater. She had been walking slowly with the help of a stick, and drawing heavy breath at every step. In fact after reaching the spot, she took some time to regain her strength and breathe normally.  Then she turned her attention to me.

“No. I am from India,” I replied curtly.

“Oh! Indian! Oh yes! You also look like an Indian. My son-in-law is also an Indian.” Though she was speaking English fluently, from her accent I could sense that it was not her native language.

“Are you an American?”

“No! No! Mexican,” was her immediate reaction. After a while she explained, “But you can take me also an American. After all I am living here for so long.” She paused a little and then continued, “My grand son and grand daughter are Indian. Well, they are American too!” Once again she stumbled at her own narrative riddles of nationalities, but kept on talking, “My grand son’s name is ‘Satya’, and grand daughter is ‘Aruna’ -  Aruna Ortega. I am Pentis Ortega. We are Mexican. When my daughter was only nineteen, she met my son-in-law. She was going then to the University. There my son-in-law was teaching  Maths. You Indians are very good at Maths! And also with Computer! Like a ticking clock, you are fond of fingering ‘tick’ ‘tick’!” She laughed while making those sounds, “My grand son – a kid of fourteen – the same he is! All the time ticking with a computer! My son-in-law fell for my daughter the moment he saw her. He asked her so many questions. Where did she live, what her parents did? A lot many, hundreds of questions! One day, he came straight to our house and proposed to marry her.  Now he has grown a long beard. Everyone calls him Guru. Says ‘Namaste’ (a gesture for showing respect to a stranger)  by raising and folding palms.”

“Where does his family live in India?” I asked her.

Instead of uttering a name of a place or a state of India, she took me in a short mental trip over a hypothetical map of India. She pointed her stick in the direction of the bag kept on the side walk and said, “Suppose that is Madras. You arrive at Madras, and then..” she drew the stick towards North (It appeared to me so!), and brought it to rest at some point on the cemented floor with a firm conviction, “here – this is the place, where my son-in-law’s family stays.”

“In which language do they speak?”

“Telugu. Their children can  also  speak that language.”

“Where does your son-in-law live now?”

She told a name of a near by place. There her son-in-law was teaching Mathematics in a college. Previously they had spent four years in India. After a brief stay, they came back to America, and settled there for ever. While this conversation was going on, the city bus arrived at the stand, and its door was flung open for our entry.  So far, the young man, the companion of the old lady, was standing there without uttering a single word. I was also not sure whether he was listening to our conversation. The moment he saw the bus, he became active. He kept the bag on the foot-stand of its front door. The bus-driver on his own came forward, took the bag inside, and kept it on a platform just behind his seat. The old lady also followed him carefully with her sticks and heavy steps. She put two quarters in the vending machine, and took the ticket from it. Then she occupied the seat just behind the driver. I had to take the next seat beside her, as it was empty. The driver then closed the door, and the bus started moving forward. The young man, who helped the old lady boarding, waved his hands, and remained standing there looking at us through the window screen.

The driver’s name was written in the front of his seat – “Yerni”. He was an old acquaintance of the lady. No sooner she took the seat, she started conversing with him. After exhausting all the details to be known, since they last met, she again turned her attention towards me and asked.

“What are you doing here?  Did you come here to study? A PhD student?”

“No. I am a visitor. Not much of a work. I came here for two months.”

“Only for two months!” she appeared to be disappointed.

“But, to me it sounds pretty long!”

“Oh! Are you home sick? Where do you live in India?”

“In its eastern part. Near Calcutta.”

“Oh, Kalkutta! The famous Kalkutta! I heard its name. It must be a big city.” She exclaimed. After a while, she again asked me, “What do you do there?”

“Teach.”

“Mathematics? Computer?”

What an intelligent guess! I had to nod my head in agreement. She gave a smile of victory, and said, “I knew it! You Indians do all the time Maths and Computers. Always ticking before the dumb screen. Satya Raju, my grand son, he does not want to leave his Maths book. You know Yerni, my grand son and grand daughter also went to junior schools in India.  They spent four years there. Everyone in India took them as foreigners.”

The driver commented, “As Mexicans are treated here.”

I asker her, “Did you ever travel to India?”

She replied, “No. I never went there. But, my mother went once for attending my daughter’s marriage.”

“Was the ceremony held here?”

“No! No! It was in India. In my son-in-law’s village.” She continued, “The members of his family took great care of her. But they were strange. They would not allow my mother to touch anything. If she wanted to carry her luggage, they would say, “No! No! No!” If she wanted to get a spoon on her own, the women in their house would run towards her and cry out nervously, “No! No! No!” They would not let her touch their utensils. Nor permit her to enter the kitchen. My mother got very upset and angry too. My daughter consoled her, “GrandMa! You are their guest. That’s why they do not want to give you any trouble.”  It was both a shock and a surprise to her!”

She took a pause and then told Yerni, “You know, Yerni! In India they do not use tables and chairs for dining. They would sit on a floor to take their food.”

He asked, “How did you know?”

“I saw the photographs. My mother was quite fatty and heavy. It was hard for her to sit. It was funny for them too to see her trying to put herself on the floor! Then, everything for us was kept separately, from utensils to bed sheets. Even if you ask for water, they would serve it with a small spoon, and pour it into your glass a number of times, as long as it gets filled up, or you asked them to stop. It was so strange!”

Yerni replied, “In India, they have caste systems. They will not allow you to touch anything, if you are an outsider.”

“Oh God!” The old woman could not suppress her disappointment.

Yerni told her, “Pentis! You could have visited India.  There are so many sages and hermits in India. They know many tricks and magic. They could have treated your diabetes and arthritis.”

“Is it?” she asked me.

I said, “Not at all! In India there are also many patients like you. I have not seen anyone getting cured out of those exercises.”

“Look at my legs.” She showed me her legs which were covered under her apron. They were badly swollen, and wound up with clothes and cottons. “It is so painful. Wuh..Wuh..Wuh!” She made a groaning sound to make us feel for her sorrows and sufferings, “I have arthritis from my childhood. It’s so painful. Especially if it rains, it almost kills me!”

I asked her, “Were you born here?”

“No. No. I was in Mexico. I studied also there. Of course my father and uncle lived here. It is quite easy to go to Mexico. From here Texas is about three hours’ drive. From there you can easily cross the border.” Then she pointed her finger to Yerni and said, “Take this boy, Yerni! He is also a Mexican boy. But he would never marry an American girl? What do you say Yerni?”

Yerni answered, “Don’t listen to her.”

She objected, “No, No I am speaking the truth. These Mexican boys would go to Mexico for searching their wives. My brother once went there for a week. From there one day she rang my grandmother saying, “Grandma! I am married now! I am bringing my wife to your place.”  See, how professional he was! It took only one week to finish his business.”

“How do their wives come here so quickly? Do they get Visas so soon?”

“Visa? Are you crazy? They just come and stay here with their husbands. It would take around four to five years to get a legal paper. But if you have a child born here, you may accelerate the process. By birth the child becomes an American citizen. So the mother also gets a preference.”

In the mean time, our bus reached the University stop. So we got down. She was helped by Yerni, who dropped his bag on the pavement. I asked her, “What do you do here?”

She told me, “I work in the Library. Professors here put forward their requests to me to get different books and journals. I make a list of them and buy those books in the Library. Sometimes, I help them to search a book from the catalog.” She gave a little pause, and then said in a melancholy tone, “My son also came to this university to study. But he could not withstand the pressure.  He lost his mental balance, and could not recover from the depression. You have seen him; the man who came to see me off in the bus stand, he is my boy. He has also crossed forty now. For him only, I have to work, even at this old age. Otherwise who would look after him?” Then she suddenly changed her topic not giving me any chance to say any word of sympathy to her, “Anyway! It’s nice to meet you. You must be taking the road by the side of the administrative building. I watched you other days walking in that direction.  I will walk diagonally across the field. Come and visit me, when you are free. Have a good day!”  I also wished her good day. She took leave from me, and moved forward dragging her feet with the help of the stick.  She was also pulling her wheeled bag. She had to carry it on her own in this part of her lonely journey.

18/01/2012

At a concert

Dave asked me, “How do you find me, a bad guy or a good fellow?”

He looked at me diagonally with a mysterious smile in his face. I instantly replied, “Good! Definitely good! Why shouldn’t you be?”

Had I any other option? I was at the mercy of his goodness. His hand was on the steering of his car, and a part of his mind was negotiating the busy evening traffic in a highway of Los Angeles. I reasserted, “Undoubtedly, a good person you are!”

He agreed readily, “I also think so!” Then after a while, he told with a hushed voice, “But some people do not think so. They consider me an evil devil.”

I could not make out from his voice, whether he was making any jest, or feeling sorry for the injustice he received from those unscrupulous minds. We were going to attend a concert, where Dave’s brother would play guitar. His brother was a lawyer, and Dave told me that he might not be the most sought after in his profession. But he was an accomplished singer, and a good lyricist. He had his own band, and brought out a CD recently with a collection of his songs. The concert was meant for celebrating the twentieth birthday of one of his musician friends, who was a promising drummer. Dave’s brother was invited to play guitar to accompany a song, when his friend’s group would perform on stage.   

Dave reemphasized, “Some do consider me a bad person.”

I asked, “Why?”

“There is a fine line between being good and bad. You understand, what I mean? I may be good to someone for my role on certain matters. For the same reason, others may consider me bad. So why should you bother? At the end of the day, it is more important to know, whether you survived or not. I learnt it from my long experiences in the real estate business. I have been in this business for almost thirty years. The rules are grey in this sector. You can twist them, and surprise your adversaries.”

He took a pause. I was still staring at him, expecting something more to hear. He backed up, “The area where you live now is the downtown LA. Fifteen years before it was infamous for robbery and mugging. Even in daylight, people were afraid of roaming in the street alone. But, now you see, do you feel any disturbance or tension there? Things have become so quiet and peaceful. Do you know who brought this change?”

“Who?”

“It was by none other than me, Sir. It was me, who was instrumental in changing the demography of this region.”

“How come?” I wondered, but knowing him so far, I had no doubt on his honest and sincere claim on this unique feat.

“Well. You see. Who used to live there previously? Poor people, harboring thugs and criminals among them. I bought their land, built houses, and either sold them to the rich, or rented to University students and visitors. The poor were driven out from this locality.” He wanted to impress me further, “Do not think, it had been a cakewalk? I had to be very nasty in some cases. But, in any case, with my action the peace and prosperity followed in this part. You can call me bad or good, whatever, who bothers?”

He remained silent for a while, and then again carried on, “I hope you’ve understood how I could get hold of these properties.”

“How?”

“I had to be rough and tough in many cases, not a perfect example of a law-abiding citizen, and naturally I had to face many adversaries. Local police were after me during this whole period. My record was not so clean.”  He narrowed his eyes, and rested them on me.  He asked, “Had you ever spent a night in a jail?”

“Jail? – No,” I was honest in my declaration.

“Oh! Then, you are not yet grown up, Sir! It seems you are afraid of jailhouses? Why? You should spend a few nights there, just for fun. At least once in your lifetime you must have this experience.”

“You might have a different opinion, if you stayed for a night in a jail of our country.”  

Dave nodded his head, “I see, what you mean. In Afghanistan, I had escaped it narrowly. Otherwise, I would have been hanged readily.”

“For smuggling?” I tried to hit upon an intelligent guess from our previous conversations on his business in Afghanistan.

“Yes. For smuggling drugs,” He elaborated, “I could avoid imprisonment there. But, after returning from that country, I did spend a number of nights in prisons here.”

“Why?”

“For keeping a gun with me.”

“Yours?”

“No. Someone else’s.”

“Did you shoot ever?”

“Oh! I had to, but never killed a man. But who knows, one day I may require doing so?” By saying this he turned towards me and asked, “Perhaps, you do not have much interaction with the under-world.”

“Not so. But I could guess a bit.”

“I see. You all live into your secured little comfortable shell. I wish I could break that, and show you the other world.”

He appeared to be serious, as he went into an unusual silence for a while, quite unbecoming of his character. I too was seriously contemplating whether to revise my previous certification on the ‘goodness’ of his character!

The evening traffic in the road became quite thick, and cars were moving very slowly shoulder to shoulder. It made Dave very jittery.  In the mean time his brother made a few calls. They were waiting in an Ethiopian restaurant for us. Dave asked me, “Do you have such a heavy traffic in your town.”

“My town is very small. We do not have so many cars there.”

“Oh! You are living in heaven then. The traffic in LA sometimes kills me. That is why I hate driving car in these evening hours. But I love this city. A comfortable temperate weather round the year.  It rains occasionally. That too mostly at night! Almost every day is sunny here.  Roads in your cities must be very congested gasping with traffic-jams in busy hours.”

“Yes. It is quite common.”

“When I started my business, I had an Indian partner. He was from Bombay.  He told me so. We became quite intimate. Even he was pushing me to marry his sister. But his father was a shrewd businessman. An ideal feudal lord of a third world country! I learnt from him how to recover the rent from an unwilling tenant.”

“Did they go back to India?” I asked.

“No. They are still here. But we are no longer partners. The relationship broke on account of an incident of tax sale. Do you know what a tax sale is?”

“No,” I frankly admitted my poor knowledge on the matter of real estate business.

“It is the sale of a property by the Municipal Corporation to recover unpaid taxes of its owner. The sale is made through an auction. I took advantage of its loopholes, and forced the corporation to change its rules.”

“Is it? How come?”

“Whenever there is an auction on account of a tax sale, I used to be present there, and get to know the price of the sale. The municipality would pay the owner the balance amount of the sale by deducting the tax dues. Then I approached the actual owner of the property and told them, “Look! You have lost the property. Why don’t you give it to me? I would take care of your dues. In addition, I am also giving you reasonable ready cash.”  As the poor owner had no idea of the proceedings, and had almost nothing to bargain at that point, he would be more than happy to sell it to me. So I became the owner instead, and readily encashed the amount from the corporation, which it received out of the sale of the property. Of course, the corporation deducted the tax-dues from the selling price. Yet I could keep a significant margin from what I paid to its actual owner.”

“But, why didn’t the original owner of the property collect the money from the corporation?”

“Well! They are usually ignorant about such deeds.”

I felt sorry for the deprived ones, but kept mum on this matter. But Dave could sense my disapproval of his action. He cast a sharp eye on me, and asked, “Do you think, I have a moral obligation to inform them?”

I hesitated, “Well! Should you not?”

“Why should I? What is my interest in doing such a social service, when they could themselves get the thing by knowing the procedures? But, I must admit, I overdid it. I made millions out of those sales. At certain point, I had profited from four such consecutive tax-sales. It cautioned the authority, and they brought a change in the rule to stop me. They now allow the handing over the proceedings of the sale to an owner, who possesses the property at least for last one year. So that was the end of my making easy bucks from such a golden goose.”

After a pause, he told me, “There is another kind of sale. Probate sale. In this sale, the property of a deceased person is sold. It’s a real fun to make a deal out of this sale. Specially, if you find the lawyers responsible for the sale are corrupt. You could cut a deal with them. But you need to be thorough about the laws and regulations. You must be extra careful”.

When we reached the restaurant, where Dave’s brother and his niece were waiting for us, it had already become dark outside. It was an Ethiopian restaurant. After exchanging our greetings over introduction, Dave told me, “You got a vegetarian company now! My niece is a vegetarian like you. Let us order two dishes of non-veg and two for veg.”

Dave’s niece must have been in her early twenties. She was a teacher of a school of mentally retarded kids. She was not only a vegetarian, but also carrying on additional restrictions on her diet. She would not take anything produced from animals, neither egg, nor milk, butter, etc.  She was a vegan. Dave commented, “If you meet any young American girl, most likely you would find them willful, crazy, and vegan.”

I found Dave’s niece was smiling at her uncle’s observation. I remarked, “She let you off, just because you are his uncle. Otherwise, you would have got a nasty lesson for having such a reactionary male-chauvinist view.”

Dave told, “Well! That’s what I am. But, I am also proud to be uncle of such a beauty!”

I asked his niece, “How do you maintain the balance of your diet? In our country milk is the major source of protein and vitamins for vegetarians. But you do not take it.”

She told, “I take beans, milk of saya.  Also I take vitamin tablets.”

The Ethiopian food was served in a big bamboo plate.  At its four corners different vegetarian, and non-vegetarian items were placed.  There was also a separate dish containing thin and soft pieces of breads prepared from rice and flour. All of us, both vegs and non-vegs,  ate on the same plate at its four different corners.

After our dinner we moved to the place of the concert. I expected it to be a decent auditorium. Instead I found it a small night pub, named ‘The mint’. There would be usual entertainment from different bands in that evening. As I mentioned previously, Dave’s brother would play guitar in one of them. On my entry a young girl welcomed me by rubber stamping on my wrist. It was the ticket to the world inside. She said jokingly, “Did you cross eighteen?” Dave replied, “Just a few weeks ago, my dear!”

Not many persons were there in the semi dark interior of the pub, which was immersed in a reddish glow all around. In stark contrast, an empty stage as white as in midday sun was waiting for us. There were drums and sound systems in the stage. In front of it, a few tables were placed, mostly unoccupied.  A bar was running at one corner of the wall. Dave said, “We are lucky enough to get a table. Very soon the place would be crowded, and you would taste the real rock ‘n’ roll in a mad house. We are not going to stay here long. As soon as my brother’s program gets over, we will push off.”

Four of us took a table, and a young waitress greeted us for taking the order.  It was written on a piece of paper on the table that to occupy a chair one must order for two drinks, or a dinner. Dave promptly asked for two pegs of black jack, and looked at me expectantly. I went for white wine – to justify my occupying a seat. Dave’s brother and niece also joined us.

Soon the music started. I was never close to such a high volume trauma previously. It reminded me of my night mares of early hostel days, when the sound system in our common room would blast my ears with high metallic sound of instruments and bombardment of western drums. Yet, I could take shelter then in my room by closing its door and window. It was also at a tolerable distance from the source of audible anarchy and chaos. Sometimes victims like me, could make a united foray against those crazy music lovers and put a social pressure on them for sparing us from their passion and fashion. But, in that evening I had no means to shut myself out of the living merriment going all around. Dave clarified, “It’s pure rock ‘n’ roll! Soon the dancing will start.” However, that evening there was not much of dancing. There was hardly any space in the floor for dancers. The stage was very near to the tables. The audience was mostly standing behind us resting against the railings of the bar counter. The barmaids were regularly keeping vigils on our glasses, and attending tables whenever they became empty. Dave went on filling his glasses at periodic intervals. His brother was also following him. I had to be extra careful not to finish my drink before we leave the place.  I was hoping for his brother to perform on stage at any moment. But it was getting deferred at every new song and appearance of a new band other than his friend’s. In the mean time, Dave could discover two budding talents from one such band. They were in their teens, and must be out of their schools recently. Both of them played guitars for a band. Dave invited them to his table, offered drinks, and ordered dinners for them. He appreciated their performances in short phrases, “You guys are really good! You have a great future! Please carry on.” I could  see the happiness and joy in their faces by getting appreciation from a senior person like him.

Finally, the band, with whom Dave’s brother would play the guitar, took the stage. Dave was very fond of the young drummer, whose birthday was celebrated that evening.  He told me, “He is a very talented young drummer. I love to listen his playing.”

In this band the main singer was a tall young man, with curly hairs. He appeared to be in a trance, most likely under the influence of some drugs. He never looked at the audience face to face. Rather, he directed both the pupils of his eyes toward his nose, and took the microphone stand as his dancing partner, or an enemy soldier, whatever you might consider. Even a bad critic of rock ‘n’ roll like me, could not help appreciating his wild jumps, and high pitched terrifying vocal delivery on stage. He also got an able partner, a giant electric guitarist, who was shaking his body with the vigor and rapidity of a fighting bull. Their movements were aptly reciprocated by beatings of drums and cymbals, and high decibel emotion of the singer. Amidst this hulla bolla (hue and cry), Dave’s brother’s name was announced for accompanying the singer in a number. He was ready by then. At that moment, Dave was tabling a fresh order for another two pegs of black jack. His brother told him, “Who would drive the car? Jay or You? My daughter will drive me back.” Dave casually remarked, “Him!” His brother became assured, and went to the stage. I got alarmed and looked at Dave whether he was serious. It was not that I had not driven before. But, my confidence was restricted within the boundaries of my residential campus in India, and I had never crossed its border driving a car. Dave knew it. He winked at me and said, “Don’t worry. I can drink poison, but be steady on the wheel. But, there might be one problem. If I get caught by the police, you have two options. Either spend the night with me in a jailhouse, or walk straight to the safety of your shell.” I was not so fortunate.  Though we flew back home in the dead of night, no police car stopped us.

29/12/2011