Dual number in English

That English had a dual pronoun is not surprising — after all it belongs to the Sanskrit family:

Indeed, the English language more than a thousand years ago had not only singular and plural pronouns, but optional dual as well: wit for “we two,” and yit for “you two.”

Just that I did not know the words for the dual pronoun, which I learnt from this very interesting post, which incidentally talks about the respectful form of speech by addressing a singular person by a plural pronoun.

Hazare the good and Hazare the bad

Shiv Visvanathan’s opening lines are priceless:

Imagine the news a month from now. The Anna Hazare group faced its own democratic crisis as other NGOs working on RTI and corruption claimed it was intolerant and deaf to suggestions. The NGOs then conducted a sit-in in front of Hazare’s Mayur Vihar home.

The piece is published at EPW (pdf); take a look; the link will only work for a short while. Thanks to Swarup’s pointer, but for which, I would have missed the piece.

Two books and a movie

Girish Karnad recommends Stages of Life by Kathryn Hansen:

Hansen opens the book with a crisp history of the Parsi theatre. But it is her magisterial review of the critical literature on the ‘form’ of autobiography and in particular of the significance of autobiographies written by theatre artists that poured out during this period, that makes this volume invaluable. Having just written my own autobiography (in Kannada), I found her analysis of the various attempts at defining ‘Indian autobiography’, and, in the process, of arriving at an ‘Indian’ notion of the Self, illuminating and provocative.

The book is a typical product of Permanent Black, beautifully designed, impeccably edited and a delight to hold and read.

Gopikrishnan Kottoor recommends the Oxford Anthology of Bhakti Literature:

Schelling’s book is a treasure-house with remarkably well studded interiors. Two omissions disappoint: Bahinabai (Maharastra) and Puntanam (Kerala). Bhakti poetry, innate to Indian poetics, will continue to plume and fascinate. Schelling’s Oxford anthology is not just a beginning. It is an event.

T M Krishna recommends Binna Shadja, a documentary on Kishori Tai:

What makes this film very special is that Amol Palekar has been able to get Kishori tai to discuss and describe her philosophy of music and her idea of creation, in the most honest and uninterrupted manner. The conversations are the life of the film. We almost feel like she is talking to us, completely personal and intimate. The greatest relief is that we do not have an over-voice describing anything. This is truly a great offering to this living legend.

As a musician some of the most arresting moments are when Kishori tai talks about music. Her description of the svaras , their form, character and their completeness when understood as a creation and not a technical tonal position and their relationship with the Raga is almost like describing the relationship between the antaratma and the paramatma . This philosophical connection cannot be missed in the way Kishori tai describes svaras and ragas. Equally stunning is her description of the note Shadja . The crafting of this note where the Raga takes ownership of it, giving it an unique character, is beautiful. She calls it the “Omnipresent, all-encompassing note”.

A time to read and a time to watch a movie! And they both are here.

Note: I know how to locate the two books; however, even though I understand that the DVD of the documentary got released in New Delhi, I do not know where to get a copy. I would appreciate any pointers in this regard.

Mathematics and its effect on communication

It is Bacon who said:

Histories make men wise; poets witty; the mathematics subtle; natural philosophy deep; moral grave; logic and rhetoric able to contend.

He went on to recommend the study of mathematics to make the mind “less wandering”:

Nay, there is no stond or impediment in the wit but may be wrought out by fit studies; like as diseases of the body may have appropriate exercises. Bowling is good for the stone and reins; shooting for the lungs and breast; gentle walking for the stomach; riding for the head; and the like. So if a man’s wit be wandering, let him study the mathematics; for in demonstrations, if his wit be called away never so little, he must begin again.

At the AMS Graduate Student blog, Luke Wolcott writes about the effect mathematics on his emails (which reminded me of the above sentences of Bacon):

Doing math has trained me to communicate concisely, tersely even.  As I became more and more socialized into my math department, my email correspondences became shorter and denser.  At some point, friends in other departments (e.g. Gender Studies, Communications) started to comment on the Robot Luke that sent them emails, and I started to wonder if I should intentionally increase verbosity.

The post of Luke also reminded me of Sheila Dhar and her music teacher Pran Nath; Pran Nath believed that if you have to sing Hindustani, you should stop speaking English!

Impact of blogs

At least in economics have been quantified (via MR):

There is a proliferation of economic blogs, with increasing numbers of economists attracting large numbers of readers, yet little is known about the impact of this new medium. Using a variety of experimental and non-experimental techniques, this study quantifies some of their effects. First, links from blogs cause a striking increase in the number of abstract views and downloads of economic papers. Second, blogging raises the profile of the blogger (and his or her institution)and boosts their reputation above economists with similar publication records. Finally, a blog can transform attitudes about some of the topics it covers.

Take a look!

1493: a recommendation

The second creation by Robert Crease and Charles Mann is one of the most influential books for me. I had it issued during the summer vacation of 1995 and read it again and again. I thought I understood what it means to do research while reading the book. And reading is certainly one of the factors that influenced my decision to do a PhD. I have always been meaning to revisit the book to see how it reads to me now. I will do it someday and write about it here.

In the meanwhile, I see that Charles Mann is onto other things:

Razib Khan posts an interview with author Charles C. Mann, whose new book 1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created is an account of the social and ecological effects of the Columbian exchange on the peoples of the Americas.

I knew that Asians had worked under brutal conditions on the railroads. But I had no idea that something like 250,000 Asian slaves had been taken to the Americas in the 19th century. Similarly, I suspect that most Mexicans don’t know that Mexico City had a thriving Chinatown by the early 1600s. And most Peruvians don’t know that Asians were a significant presence in Lima as early as the 1611 census. And so on.

I liked his earlier book, 1491 a lot, and I’ll be reading the new one soon.

May be I should add 1491 and 1493 to my to read pile!

The neurology of pleasing music

The most pleasing musical chords have simple mathematical relationships between the different sound frequencies within them, but the source of this perception is mysterious. A recent mathematical model suggests that the key may be the rhythmically consistent firing of neurons in response to a harmonious pair of frequencies. Now the researchers who developed the model report 2 September in Physical Review Letters that they have quantified the effect by calculating the information content of their model’s neural signals and showed that it increases for tone pairs that are more pleasant sounding. The model may also provide insights into other sensations besides hearing.

From here; do read the whole piece. It is short, lucid and also contains some nice pointers to other reading material towards the end, if you are so inclined.

Before you become a research student, you need to do

Some research:

I think most prospective graduate students do some research into potential advisors and/or programs, and that’s a good thing. We all want to increase the chances of a good fit between advisor and advisee, and just as the potential advisor is looking at student records, so too should prospective students be looking at the professor’s record.

Good advice.

Privilege and obligations

Swapan Dasgupta:

… Parliament has fiercely guarded its nebulously defined privileges that extend to society at large — as opposed to those privileges and immunities necessary for the smooth internal functioning of both Houses. Article 105(3) stipulated that the special privileges of Parliament shall be defined “by law” and “until so defined” shall be those that prevailed before the enactment of the 44th amendment in 1978. Prior to 1978, it was defined by the precedents set by the House of Commons until 1950.

It is revealing that in the past 60 years, Parliament has turned a blind eye to its obligations and not lifted a finger to codify its privileges and immunities into law. When the subject was last debated in 1994, most MPs were opposed to codification. This was in sharp contrast to Canada, Australia and New Zealand — countries that also traced their parliamentary privileges to the Bill of Rights (1689) — that have enacted laws defining parliamentary privilege.

In the United Kingdom, a seminal report by a joint parliamentary committee on parliamentary privilege, chaired by Lord Nicholls of Birkenhead, has become the de facto rule book on the subject. The Nicholls report defined parliamentary privilege as “the rights and immunities which the two Houses of Parliament and their members… possess to enable them to carry out their parliamentary functions effectively”. It did not list privileges. Instead, it specified the functions legislative privilege sought to achieve — passing laws, holding the executive accountable and voicing the concerns of ordinary citizens. Protecting the reputation and dignity of Parliament was missing from the list.

The Nicholls report, in fact, suggested doing away with the right of the House to punish non-members. It suggested that disputes could be heard by the high court under existing laws of libel and defamation. In any case, the last occasion a non-MP was committed by the order of the Commons was in 1880.

Take a look!