Author Interview - Ashok Kallarakkal in Deccan Chronicle

Curiosity Kills the KatHA review in Kalakaumudi Weekly

Author Interview - Ashok Kallarakkal - Mathrubhumi Nov 17, 2012

Lesser Mortal...

Couple of months back I was coming out of a Darshini  (clean - self service- stand and eat- vegetarian restaurants  common in Bangalore) in Jayanagar, when I came across a blind  beggar, walking on the road.   I dropped the 'change' I had received from the  restaurant in his plate and continued to walk, feeling happy about having helped a poor soul, close to noon.

By the corner of my eyes I watched  him pass the restaurant and trying with difficulty to cross the road. For a moment, I thought I would go back and help him. By the time I made up my mind to do so,  a lady - in her late twenties - walked up to him and held his hands, carefully helping him to cross the road, braving the traffic.  She looked like an employee from one of the shops, on her way to run some errand during the lunch hour. By the time, they reached the other end of the road, I had also crossed the road on my way to the nearest bookstall.  After dropping the blind beggar on the other side, the lady started retracing her steps.

Half way through, she stopped at the middle of the road, thought for a moment and went back to the beggar.  'Did you have your lunch?', she asked him in Kannada. I was quite surprised, because one does not get to witness such acts of compassion, often in one's life.  

The beggar replied in the negative.

 'Shall I buy you a meals?, she asked. The beggar said 'no' with a smile on his face.  The very question itself must have addressed his hunger.

She did not push him. But she rummaged her bag,  produced a few coins and gave them to him and continued her journey.

I saluted the lady in my mind. How couldn't I?

Then... I realized to my sadness, I could never make myself to ask that question to someone like him, how much ever I appreciate the deed.

In that sense I am a much lesser mortal!!!

How about you?

Psychohistory, Big Data and me...

Way back in 1942, Isaac Asimov had conceived a new field of predictive science called 'Psychohistory' which he used later, as the backbone of his 'Foundation' series. Asimov's 'Psychohistory' combined history, sociology, and mathematical statistics to make general predictions about the future behavior of very large groups of people. It depended on the idea that, while one cannot foresee the actions of a particular individual, the laws of statistics as applied to large groups of people could predict the general flow of future events. Asimov used the analogy of a gas: an observer has great difficulty in predicting the motion of a single molecule in a gas, but can predict the mass action of the gas to a high level of accuracy.

You can read all that from Wikipedia. So why am I wasting everyone's time about what Asimov explained and expanded well in  his books?

There is a reason. I believe I am  on to something!

One of the limits the 'Psychohistory' approach had so far, was the inability to capture the behavior for sufficiently large groups of Individuals to enable meaningful  predictions and analyze the past to predict the future. It was both a technical and logistics issue.

Now there seems to be a solution for this. Social media data ('exhaust' in the lingo of data scientists) along with the emerging BIG DATA technologies could provide us a great solution for the problem.

That means....?

It is only a question of time,  before  someone funds Psychohistory research using Big data.

I believe, in less than a decade we could hear fairly dependable predictions on the rise and fall of countries and empires. we might get a chance to get back to the Newtonian clockwork universe again...

Note - One caution here...'Psycho History' in modern science  is something totally different.

Curiosity Kills the KatHA is now Available!!!

Finally, my first book - CURIOSITY KILLS THE KatHA, a collection of short stories in English,  is published!!!
It is available at online stores likeAmazon,  Flipkart, Infibeam,Crossword, Landmark etc.  as  below.

http://www.amazon.com/dp/938183637X/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_hist_2
http://www.flipkart.com/curiosity-kills-katha-938183637x/p/itmdbds7a6ftrdhe?pid=9789381836378
http://www.infibeam.com/Books/curiosity-kills-katha-ashok-kallarakkal/9789381836378.html
http://www.crossword.in/books/curiosity-kills-katha/p-books-9789381836378.html
http://www.landmarkonthenet.com/curiosity-kills-the-katha-by-ashok-kallarakkal-books-9789381836378-22493894/
http://www.homeshop18.com/curiosity-kills-katha/author:ashok-kallarakkal/isbn:9789381836378/books/miscellaneous/product:30080252/cid:14567/
http://www.indiaplaza.com/curiosity-kills-katha-ashok-kallarakkal/books/9789381836378.htm
http://www.uread.com/book/curiosity-kills-katha-ashok-kallarakkal/9789381836378
http://www.bookadda.com/books/curiosity-kills-katha-ashok-kallarakkal-938183637x-9789381836378
http://www.bookstok.com/books/details/book-curiosity-kills-the-katha-938183637X-83714

It will soon be available at book shops like Landmark and Crossword....
Please buy, Read and Comment....
Please also spread the word and encourag eall  your friends to buy, Read and Comment....
Thanks in advance....
Ashok

 

Curiosity Kills the KatHA - Making of the Book - Cover Design

It is probably late for tracking the progress of the book, now that the editing and pagination work is over

Cover design got completed couple of days back. Mishta has done a wonderful job of bringing out the 'mystery' aspect of the book through a fantastic cover.

The initial design from Mishta was not much different (see below); but the self promoting person that I am, I requested inclusion of my photo in the back cover.

You can decide which one was better. Was our coice, the right one?