Leaders & Administrators

Hi,

Well, I feel that there are two types of managers:

Leaders and Administrators.

Leaders are essentially dreamers. A leader sets seemingly impossible targets and then inspires his followers to achieve them. A leader uses unconventional means to solve problems. He goes more by the instinct/intuition/gut-feeling than logic.

He/she is not much worried about the details. He just provides the outline, the framework on which others act on. People do not just respect the leader, they love him as a person...Indeed they follow him in first place because of his character rather than his intelligence. A leader is more accessible to the people but he is not dependent on them. He is always in the lime-light and knows how to make use of it to achieve his end. Most of the times a leader has no authority in a legal sense, and yet they exert power.

I consider Mahatma Gandhi is one person who fits this description quite perfectly.

Administrators are the ones who convert dreams into the reality. An administrator is more close to the task at hand rather than the person who is doing it... and yet he is dependent on that person. He is logical, methodical and goes more by the rules. He/she is the one who fills in the crucial details in a rough draft to make it a concrete plan. His authority comes from the position he/she occupies.

Of course, sometimes we find a combination of a visionary Leader and a realistic Administrator rolled into one. The first example that springs to mind is Chhatrapati Shivaji. He saw a dream to build up an empire and also had the administrative capability to put it in order once it was achieved.

Today if you look around, almost everywhere you find 'leaders' - most of them self-proclaimed. I think what India needs today are some efficient administrators, people who will work at the background to get things moving.

Yours,

-Gautam.

Book Reviews : Biographies

Chandrashekhar

-Madhuri Shanbhag

Raajhans Publication

The book gives a detail insight into the life and work of Dr Subramanian Chandrasekhar, Nobel laureate in Physics (1983). Reading it makes oneself feel inspired and motivated.

Frankly, I had a feeling of anger against this man, since he opted for American citizenship. But as he himself said, ''For one thing, I couldn't have done this kind of work in India; the environment, the facilities just didn't exist then...and secondly, I feel that Science goes beyond the limits of nations."

I am glad I read this book; it cleared up my grudge and also made me aware of different facets of his personality. We know him only for the work he did on black holes. Apart from it, he has written well-researched books on variety of subjects ranging from Beethoven (Music), Shakespeare (Literature) to Isaac Newton (Science).

One of his remarks made me wince a bit ..." It is very difficult for someone to work in India... other people are busy putting you down."I wonder, have the conditions changed for the better during last 50 years? I hope they have.
Other books which I would like to recommend in this context are :

1. Chandrasekhar and His Limit: G Venkatraman

A bit technical ...but nevertheless can be easily understood by any science graduate.

2. Frozen Star: George Greenstein

There is an entire chapter dedicated to the work of Dr Chandrasekhar and his clash with Arthur Eddington. It makes a thrilling read !!

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Alfred Hitchcock : The Man Who Knew Too Much

- Yashwant Ranjankar

Raajhans Prakaashan

Don't get fooled by the name; the book is in Marathi.

I have seen about half a dozen movies by Hitchcock, most favourite being "Psycho". Undoubtedly he was a genius in his field. During his career spanning almost five decades, he directed 65 movies and was rightfully entitled as the "Master of Suspense".

The book gives an insight into the making of the Hitchcock as the man as well as the director. We get to read the labour that went into making his movies, anecdotes and moments of fame and despair.Good printing quality and more than 75 photos make the book a pleasure to read.
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I Am Alive

- Kittie Felix Hart

Many ppl who seem to hero-worship Adolf Hitler. For these , I would recommend this book.
It is autobiography of a Jew girl who, along with her family, was captured by Gestapo, the German secret police, and sent to concentration camp named as Auschwitz.
By the time allied forces freed them three years later, her father and brother had perished, but Kittie and her mother had survived due to sheer determination.
In the book, she recounts the horrifying details of the life at the concentration camp…. the torture, the inhuman medical experiments, the gas-chambers, everything. It sends chills down the spine when you read it.

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Shubhra Kaahi JeevGheNe [Marathi ]

-Ambarish Mishr

Raajhans Prakaashan

The book outlines the lives of maestros like Shobha Gurtu, Begum Akhtar, Saadat Hasan Munto,O.P. Nayyar, Sajjad Hussein & Pankaj Mallik. Of these, I especially liked the matter on O.P. and Sajjad.

Here are some other books in this category, which I have read over past few months.
1. Phule Vechitaa : Lata Mangeshkar

It was admittedly a surprise to see a book written by the Nightingale herself. It is a collection of various articles she has written from time to time. The nature is more of personal reflections and memories rather than any analysis.

2. Saptak :Dr Mohini Varde

This book is about the Mangeshkar family which gave seven 'sur' to Indian music : Dinanath Mageshkar, Maai Mangeshkar and their five children Lata, Asha, Usha, Meena and Hridaynath. It details musical background of each one of these and discuses many beautiful songs.

3. Noorjehan te Lata : Isaak Mujaawar

This one attempts to compare two female playback singers par-excellence, Noorjehan and Lata, with emphasis on their styles, strengths and finer details.

4. Gaaye Chalaa Ja , Yaadon Ki Baarat : Shirish KaNekar

Written in the famous "KaNekari" style of his, The books make a great reading.

5. Lata Mangeshkar - A Biography: Raju Bharatan

The only ''proper'' biography, I would say. Here you will find a chronological sketch of Lata-ji's rise as India's prominent singer, as well as a thorough analysis of her important songs, her strengths and , yes, her short-comings, too. A book really worth reading.

Yours,

-Gautam.

A Thought on Thoughts

Hi,

1.

What exactly are thoughts ? Do they have a mass ? If two brains are taken , both of equal physical dimensions (such as mass, size, structure, etc ) , but one among them that of a genius (like Einstein) , and other one that of a ignorant fool ( like me , ha !), then based on knowledge in them , will there be a difference in their weights ?

Or are thoughts just a stream of energy ? But what happens to this energy when we "forget" something ?

If thoughts have mass, then they can be 'captured' and 'stored' and 'transferred' like any physical object , isn't it ?

2.

Astrophysicists capture spectrum of distant stars, from which they determine a whole range of things: the distance, size, age, temperature, the constituent elements, etc.Spectrum of a Red Giant is markedly different from that of a White Dwarf. A mere glance would tell an observer what type of star it could be.

From what I have read, the neuro-transmitters in our brain pass signals in short bursts of electrical impulses. The PET, CAT scans make use of these impulses to detect abnormalities in brain.

It is safe to assume that when we think, our 'thoughts' also create a train of electrical impulses.

Surely these electrical impulses must be forming a pattern (a very complex one, of course), which must vary from person to person, just like the spectrum of the stars of different categories.So, Einstein's ''brain-spectrum'' must be highly different from that of a dumb fellow (...like me!! ). By carrying out experiments on a large sample, we can convert this data into a set of standards.

As you know, the concepts of IQ, EQ are highly subjective ones. Is it possible that we will be able to measure intelligence in quantitative terms, the way we measure our weight or height?

3.

While reading Asimov's "Nemesis", I had another idea...If we have a tiny electric field inside our brain, surely there must be a magnetic field associated with it too. So we have a 'sphere' of electro-magnetic radiation, however weak and complex it might be.

We have Geiger Counters that detect presence of nuclear radiation; we have photo-diodes which detect the presence (or absence) of light waves, antennae that detect the presence of radio waves...Physicists have built devices to detect the presence of gravity-waves or gravitons.

Can we build some device which will detect the 'presence' of intelligence?..The "Neuro-Detector"?

Yours,

-Gautam.