Woods. And the Sound of a Tree Falling

Over the last week or so, much has been said and written about Tiger Woods and his recent 'transgressions'. The morally conservative have expressed outrage and disappointment over his infidelity. The more open-minded liberals, like my friend in his blog post, have taken a more tolerant view, drawing distinctions between his private / personal life and his sense of professionalism and commitment to the game, and questioning the sanctimoniousness of his critics. As for me, I do believe in the morality of not hurting people, but do not believe in the morality of sexual conservatism. I think it is OK to do pretty much whatever you like as long as you don't hurt people you care about by reneging on commitments that you've made to them. What that actually translates to in terms of degrees of sexual freedom (or constraints) is for you to work out with the said people in your life, whoever they may be. 


Agreed, a man's private life is nobody else's business, as my friend's post also opines. However, if the man is a celebrity who endorses big brands, who signs contracts that makes him accountable for his behaviour in some way or other, then it's a bit dumb to conduct his life in a cavalier fashion. Not immoral. Just plain dumb. Accenture summarily dropped Tiger Woods as their brand ambassador yesterday and this comes as no surprise. I mean .. duh .. what was he thinking?

In the course of letting myself get a little carried away with the spirit of word play (thanks to all the metaphors, puns and other figures of speech that bloggers like my friend have been spinning around 'woods' and 'trees'), I was reminded of the old zen-like ponderable: If a tree falls in the woods, would it make a sound if nobody is there to hear it? I think celebrities who endorse brands (especially those where 'integrity' is an important brand value) should conduct their lives with this question in mind. They should make sure that the tree doesn't fall, and if it just has to, then they should make sure that nobody is around to hear it. That's the only way to ensure that private lives remain so.

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Minor Observation

When it comes to punctuation, the question mark seems to have become as much a victim of wrong usage as the much abused apostrophe.

For instance:

How to win friend's and influence people

is incorrect, because of the apostrophe (as may seem obvious). So is:

How to win friends and influence people?

because of the question mark (though I'm not sure how obvious that is). If you really wanted to find out how one may learn the art of winning friends and influencing people, you should ask:

How does one win friends and influence people?

If you wanted to phrase that as a request, instead of a question, you should say:

Please tell me how to win friends and influence people.

Clearly, we don't seem to be teaching the language with as much rigour as we used to. It may be OK for the hoi polloi to make these mistakes, but I really wince when I see such appalling neglect and decline in writing and editing standards, as brought home by the output of several copywriters, reporters, columnists, editors, authors and others who earn a living out of their (professed) proficiency with the written word.

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And The Prize Goes To ...

... Nobody!

That's right. According to news reports from Silicon India and DNA, the Infosys Science Foundation Prize in the 'Engineering and Computer Science' category for the year 2009 (the very first year of inception of this august institution) will not be awarded, since the jury for this category has determined that out of a list of 34 nominees not a single one fits the bill.

If that is indeed the case, then why do we see so much chest thumping by the Indian IT industry players about Indian software engineers being the most gifted at innovation? (A claim that has been endorsed by reputed consultants as well - something I've criticized in an earlier post.) 

And if that is not the case, then isn't it a bit surprising that Infosys can't get a jury together who can separate the wheat from the chaff in this category, considering that their juries in all other categories and sub-categories have been able to pick winners?

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The Compulsion to Explain India

What's wrong with this picture? For one, the title of the talk is "Why nations should pursue 'soft' power" but the only nation being discussed is India (with just a passing reference to the US and other countries). Second, the talk was delivered in Mysore, Karnataka. TED held this event in India, presumably, because they wanted to bring TED to Indians in India (which I think was a great idea, by the way). But Indians already know stuff about their country, even if they had not already looked at it in precisely the same way as presented by Shashi Tharoor. This video is hardly an eye-opener, in that sense. In my opinion, this was a wasted opportunity - either Shashi Tharoor could have talked about something else, or they could've got some other speaker to talk about some other topic.

In contrast, this other talk at the same event at least offered some slightly more interesting insights (relatively speaking) into cultural diversity, to Indians who may not have figured it all out on their own. But again, it suffers from the same disease: the title is "East vs. West -- the myths that mystify" but the only "East" being discussed is India. And falls prey to the same temptation: the stereotyping of mystical yet modern India, on whose streets bullock carts jostle with BMWs, where 'Jugaad' is what makes it all work.

I fail to understand why speakers participating in an event held in India should explain India to a predominantly Indian audience. And if the audience was not predominantly Indian, then why take the trouble to hold such an event in India?

What TED should do is to get "standard" TED content and speakers to places like India, and invite speakers on all things Indian to their events in other locations (with strict instructions to stay away from cliche, no matter how innovatively packaged / eloquently presented). This would go a long way in facilitating cultural osmosis and in helping people all over the world embrace and celebrate diversity.

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