I was amazed and astonished the way the problem was analyzed in two incidents , wherein the problem was zeroed down and found by eliminating n number of factors . One, I read in Akbar and Birbal stories and the other, I heard about Dr. Rangachari’s diagnostic ability. ( Dr.Rangachari’s statue is there in GH, Chennai).
Dr. Rangachari -- one lady patient came to him with a severe head ache with a decade of painful experience. By the time she came to him, she has seen many expert doctors in the city . None of them could cure her , as all the available tests (eye,neuro,ent etc ) were showing normal.
Dr Rangachari listened to her about an hour and came to understand that she was going through this pain from the time she got married .While talking, the Doctor casually asked her about the costly diamond nose ring , she proudly replied that it was gifted by their in-laws at the time of wedding. He too wondered and thought the value should be around fifty thousand, then.
He gave her normal pain killer tablets for 2 days and asked her to come after 10 days. While she was leaving the chamber, the doctor asked her to wear some other gold nose ring as soon as she reached home and asked her to wear the diamond one, only for very special occasion.
The lady came after 10 days, wearing beautiful gold nose ring, only to thank him, as the decade long pain has gone even before she consumed the 2 days course of medicine.
Doctor has analysed the problem could be the rays and its angle from the diamond nose ring and it was spot on.
The other one was even more interesting to me – the Birbal’s ability in visualizing the problem:-
An old lady beggar ( begging is her profession in the city Agra) was crying and shouting that she had lost a bag full of gold coins. (equaling to couple of lakhs in today’s value) . Everyone in the city strongly believed that she had gone mad. Logically, as beggar, how on earth, she can possess that amount of money. This news went to the king Akbar and by seeing her, Akbar’s intuition was saying there was a truth in her. So he called the minister Birbal to find this, as quick as possible. He also order that the lady would be the guest in the Palace till the case was solved. Now, Birbal had to solve this hopeless case that too in a very short time because he would be the reason for keeping a ugly beggar in the palace .
He spoke to the lady and found that the lady saved money for several decades and she thoughtfully exchanged the money to higher denomination to keep small quantity but higher value ( like several bronze coins to few silver, silvers to gold like that ).She had hidden that under the vilva tree (bael , bilva) outside the city. The place which was shown by her was the beginning of the forest, where no one was there. Hopeless clues. is isn’t.
The next day he had announced the medical conference for the doctors who had cured diseases with medicines from vilva tree. He had sent all the practitioners with certificates and medals and requested the doctors who had used roots to stay for the next day. There was only one who used the root of the vilva tree. When asked, the doctor said the root was brought by the patient’s servant. He immediately brought the servant and enquired to find the gold coin bag in his house.
Birbal analysed the person who had gone there to dig under the vilva tree, could be, only for medicine. Accurate!
It is amazing because of three things .
how many factors we have to eliminate in these cases . if you put that in excel--à if command - conditions will go in pages.
In the present condition the doctors will ask for scan report from head to toe .by doing so, the patient is poor by couple of lakhs and will surely feel the head ache is lesser painful.
In the second case, the cops will put all the known thieves behind the bar and torture them while the case goes on till the lady dies happily in the palace.
Technological development should help the instinct and it should reduce the solving time and increase the accuracy instead it is making the human brain lazy. I used to remember so many telephone numbers and figures when I was a novice accountant in 1986. Today as consultant, I do not even remember my wife’s cell number. Thanks to cell phone!
In the above two cases, it is the out of box thinking which makes me wonder.
bag theft birbal eliminated thieves
head ache dr eliminated the problem inside the body
are we thinking laterally ? is technology stopping us from doing?
we just don't do it.
am I making myself clear!
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Nice article and started a debate on pros and cons of tecchnological development. In my opinion without technological development it is very difficult to satisfy the needs of people especially in devoloping countries like India. In 1980's number of companies in india is very less and most of them using manual ledgers to maintain the accounts and most of the time is wasted on tallying the trial balances. However the people who maintaining the accounts are very talented and they know each and every figure and entries properly. They got the good training from their seniors and all are very dedicated people. Nowadays it is very difficult to find a person having interest in learning and dedication to the work. The technological development has happened because of increase in lazyness. You just imagine if you are in 1990's and consultant for various companies and the work involved lot of travel by train most of your time wlll be spent on ticket booking or you pay more for your tickets by booking through agents and that to it is very dificult for you to plan the programme suitable for your convenience. thanks to bill gates...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting article sir.. A point on the technological advancements... Technology - Gadgets has become an inevitable thing. It has made people to stop thinking or why waste area in the brain when there is something that does the work for us... :-) If you compare 1980s, 90s and the next millenium, there are lots of changes not only in technology but in all areas includes our thinking too.Unfortunately, any good has a bad effect too.am refering to the addiction that people take to. Again, this is my opinion.
ReplyDeleteThought provoking post...
ReplyDeleteI remember the old Alvin Toffler book, 1970 (40 years before), Future Shock,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Shock
http://smashingtelly.com/2009/05/01/alvin-tofflers-future-shock-presented-by-orson-welles/
Sorry if that video is gloomy. But to me, that book was pretty objective, revealing and useful, at least at that time, and seeing now, it is almost true. In fact I'm surprised that most of the big things now is already found then. Maybe we are just 40 years behind US in technology and we are hastily catching up, hence we will feel the same pain that they felt, technology wise.
Contrasting this with our old Vedanta thought, I don't think we are fundamentally different from our ancestors some 3000 years before. Yes the knowledge on material things have grown, population has multiplied, earth's resources are strained, but the human nature is fundamentally same. After all we still die, so that makes the equation simple. Achieving calmness in life is still the goal, and still a personal battle. No external invention seem to promise calmness by default. That is my solace!
As my dad once related, when Paarkadal is stirred both Amrutham and Visham will come. The world will progress whether for good or not. For foreseeable future, it seems it is each individual's onus to make good of their own changes and experience. We are alone in our discovery of personal equanimity and calmness.
Logic is a known awe for me. How did Darwin understand Evolution, and many others missed? How did Panini wrote such a grammar 2500 years before, which through out history has inspired people (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panini#P.C4.81.E1.B9.87ini_and_modern_linguistics)? We know films are make believe, still we enjoy it. Life could very well be a maya, yet an engrossing one.
Finally I often remember a quote of the kanchi old man (or attributed to him, need to check). It seems someone asked him about why so much injustice and sorrow in world, and what we can do about that. He seem to have said, 'I'm not perfect. If I'm perfect everything will be fine'. I doubt if this is true verbatim, but this idea of equanimity is hard to forge.
"Contradictions do not exist. Whenever you think that you are facing a contradiction, check your premises."
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Atlas_Shrugged
If only good books can make me good, life would be much simpler...
well being in research field, i think we encounter issues on a daily basis that needs to be solved, an unkown peak in the graph, a new compound that stops the process from happening normal etc. The people who come out successful are the ones who apply what they have learnt and can come up with sensible options for solutions, one of which turns out to be a solution. Technology has helped a lot more, how else can u sit at home and talk to people across the globe, the great minds n thoughts are pooled in for everyone to appreciate and gain from. I do agree that the coin has two sides, but its in every individual's hands to look at the side they want to - There is always a choice! And yes, we need technology for progress and we need it to improve to make our life easier and yes, we need to make the right choice each and every time to actually gain from it!
ReplyDeletelove
hemu
PS: great writing, pl do continue
Kannan excellent write up.. a thought provoking one. Is technology making our brains lazy??? I would say NO. It is making us more efficient. If you are an active technology user, you would be better at processing information in parallel.
ReplyDeleteIn the modern scenario, where multi tasking is standard, technology can give us an edge. So activate your memory which you use to work with information. Working memory is a skill which requires connecting between information and quickly shifting from one task to another. Instead of having filled up lot of information such as memorizing the phone numbers, facts and figures, the space could be freed to focus on other things.
Hence to conclude how best we can succeed in our workplace with lot of creativity and using what we know.
(Paru)
Paru Thanks ,
Deletei am not against the technology.
I am only saying slowly people are addicted to it.
preferring lab test to lateral thinking & internet to elder"s experience. etc