O P I N I O N S

Touchstones
The power relay within family circle
The sense of entitlement and of inheritance that almost destroyed our business families may similarly destroy the political dynasties that have reached their sell-by date.
Ira Pande
From time to time, one reads something in the newspapers that revolts one’s very being. Mind you, we have reached such a level of public indifference that a ghastly road accident as a result of drunken driving, the rape of a little child—these no longer evoke the level of disgust that they once did.

profile
Following the brain’s mind
Harihar Swarup writes about Partha Mitra, 
neuroscientist who’s been awarded $300,000 grant
Mapping the brain is a very difficult task but the challenge has been taken up by an Indian neuroscientist, Partha Mitra, who moved to the US years ago. He was recently awarded the prestigious $300,000 grant under President Barack Obama’s initiative to map the human brain.

Off the cuff

ground zero
Lanka fishing for trouble on Tamils
Raj Chengappa
When I met Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa at a reception at Hotel Waldorf Astoria in New York recently I asked him what he would discuss with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who he was scheduled to meet the next day on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Touchstones
The power relay within family circle
The sense of entitlement and of inheritance that almost destroyed our business families may similarly destroy the political dynasties that have reached their sell-by date.
Ira Pande

From time to time, one reads something in the newspapers that revolts one’s very being. Mind you, we have reached such a level of public indifference that a ghastly road accident as a result of drunken driving, the rape of a little child—these no longer evoke the level of disgust that they once did. Unfortunately, we have become so inured to the brutal crimes that happen every day in our country that often we just turn the page and read on. This is why what really shook me was a post on social media by the son of a police officer proudly proclaiming that his father had not tied his own shoelaces for almost 15 years. That the boy thought this was something to boast about and not feel any remorse or shame speaks eloquently of the values we live by.

India was led to believe the Nehru-Gandhi clan was born to rule.

In the aftermath of the October 31 debate on whether Patel or Indira Gandhi is more worthy of respect, we have to remember that many politicians of Patel’s generation never foisted a dynasty or threw their weight around. They took their cue from the Mahatma whose own children were cast away by the man whom they called Bapu even as he became the Father of the Nation. The first exception to this rule was Nehru, whose daughter and sister chose to follow the family tradition of public service. However, after Nehru passed on, the notion of public service was subtly tweaked to carve out a personal space for the ‘family’ and India was led to believe that—like the Kennedys and the Bhuttos—the Nehru-Gandhi clan was born to rule this country. No wonder that 50 years after Nehru’s death, virtually every state boasts its own First Family. From Kashmir to Kanyakumari, state after state has succumbed to the lure of personal power and fiefdom. Patrick French has written of how our Parliament is packed with sons, daughters, sons-in-law, daughters-in-law and wives. How then can we claim to be a free, egalitarian democracy? A plutocracy or hereditary feudal state perhaps but a representative democracy we most certainly are not.

The sense of entitlement and of inheritance that almost destroyed our business families may similarly destroy the political dynasties that have reached their sell-by date. History is witness to the fact that even the mighty Mughals could not survive beyond a few generations. It was said of Shah Alam, one the last Mughals, that his kingdom extended from the Red Fort to Palam. In a delicious irony, this is almost the territory that the Congress now controls. Sadly, as Shakespeare tells us, the good that people do is often interred with their bones. So with the Nehru-Gandhi clan: all that one remembers of a woman who was hailed as the Empress of India and a Durga is the Emergency she imposed and the imperiousness of her political style.

Perhaps we are too close to recent events to read them in the correct historical light and perhaps we have a problem telling the truth to our elders and betters: whatever the reason, we have yet to reach the level of maturity where reasoned and valid criticism is not interpreted as a malicious attack. We also need to acknowledge that parliamentary democracy will take time to mature in a land where for centuries feudal lords and princes held sway. In fact, all over the erstwhile Indian subcontinent, political power is still controlled by political dynasties. Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Pakistan, Bangladesh— once collectively known as India (which included East Bengal and Pakistan), Ceylon, Burma—all these nations are still ruled by children of political ancestors. Ironically, the only two countries struggling to become democracies (Nepal and Bhutan) were kingdoms until recently.

To come to another topic: last week I was in Chandigarh at the invitation of a person who is surely the most spry and bouncy 92-year-old I know. Shri Navjeevan Khosla (popularly called Navli Uncle but always Khosla sa’ab to us old timers) was my husband’s first boss in the Chandigarh Secretariat. In those faraway times, bosses did not take their bossiness home and so he and his charming wife Bimlaji (the world’s best chef) and their two children became our friends for life. Khosla sa’ab is passionately devoted to classical Hindustani music and his Indian National Theatre group has been holding the Chandigarh Sangeet Sammelan for the last 37 years. I know of no other bureaucrat who knows more about Indian classical music than he does. Although the ambience of the sammelan has changed ever since it has started to be held indoors rather than in the beautiful Leisure Valley, it still draws music lovers in droves. Apart from us outsiders, there was a contingent of genuine videshis from Pakistan there this year. All of them came for the music and for Navli Uncle.

As I heard them speak of their love for him, I realised that what we must all learn from Navli Uncle is to nurse a passion beyond our work lives that will sustain us and give untold pleasure. Altruistic work is its own reward and I can tell you that it is Khosla sa’ab’s passionate involvement in organising this annual event that has given him such enviable energy and youthfulness. May he live to organise the 50th sammelan and may we be alive to attend it. 

profile
Following the brain’s mind
Harihar Swarup writes about Partha Mitra, 
neuroscientist who’s been awarded $300,000 grant

Mapping the brain is a very difficult task but the challenge has been taken up by an Indian neuroscientist, Partha Mitra, who moved to the US years ago. He was recently awarded the prestigious $300,000 grant under President Barack Obama’s initiative to map the human brain. The grant will help him develop an artificial intelligence system that can identify cell and neural structures in microscopic images of brain slices. Mitra is working on an integrative picture of brain function, incorporating theory and experimental work. He is also the founder of the Mouse Brain Architecture Project, an experimental effort to develop a brain-wide connectivity map of mouse brain.

The human brain has an estimated trillion neurons and many neurons have dendrites (branched extension of nerve cell) with thousands of connections. Mapping the brain is tough. And if somehow the entire brain can be mapped, it would still be difficult to know how it works. It apparently uses parallel processing rather than linear processing like a computer.

A professor at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory, Mitra’s work involves developing an understanding of the behaviour of complex biological system by developing tools for analysis and building knowledge bases of neurobiological literature. His experimental work includes the study of memory formation.

Mitra says: “Our goal is to obtain conceptual breakthrough into how brains work. Despite extensive research, we are still far from comprehensive understanding of how the nervous system gives rise to the behavioural complexities, cognition and affect. We do not yet know what precisely goes wrong in human brains in most major neuropsychiatric disorders, and therapeutic advances remain slow. Nervous systems are complex, with multiple scales or organisations ranging from single cells to the whole organism and social-environmental inactions. As a result, there remain large empirical gaps in our knowledge that can only be filled in experimentally. However, an equally important problem is that of integrating the information thus obtained.”

His work has spanned the different scales of nervous system organisation. The laboratory has previously focused on analysing behavioural and electrophysiological measurement in a number of model organisms. Currently, the laboratory is focused on the Brain Architecture Project which aims at a whole-brain level of analysis of neural circuitry. The project aims at a whole-brain level of analysis of neural circuitry. The Mouse Brain Architecture Project is systematically mapping the whole brain of the mouse, and simultaneously addressing the computational and theoretical questions that arise. An ongoing theoretical programme also addresses the fundamental engineering and design principles of the nervous system.

According to reports published in the New York Times, the breakthrough in mapping the brain technology will provide answers to Alzheimer disease and Schizophrenia and lead us out of the “impenetrable jungles of the brain” that neuroscientists have wandered over the past century.

Off the cuff

We must all work to ensure Palestinian boys and girls, and children everywhere, receive quality education in a safe environment. Without this, there will never be peace.

Malala Yousafzai, nobel laureate
Donating $50,000 to Gaza schools

The BJP cheated the farmers by not implementing the Swaminathan committee report, as was promised by it in its election manifesto. Badal should lead an all-party delegation to the PM on the matter.

Partap Singh Bajwa, ppcc chief
On wheat MSP hike

I am concerned about and share the disquiet that so many Indians feel about the stream of ungenerous and ill-informed advice that is directed to India, offering unsolicited counsel on how India should conduct its democracy.

Lord Swraj Paul, nri industrialist
Saying the UK should let India be

I don't know how I get it right each time. Rather you should ask that question to my directors and script writers, who seem to know how the audience is going to like me and how will I fit into the role.

Shahrukh Khan, actor
On the success of “Happy New Year”