Some weeks earlier, I visited an ice-cream parlour at the Yorkdale mall where I ordered a matcha ice-cream and it was obvious that they had topped the generous scoop of cream with a ‘finger’ of greenish KitKat, the world’s most popular chocolate bar. I could easily reckon it was a matcha flavoured bar! KitKats are fun and I mostly carry one during my walks for instant energy to continue with my workout. Their smaller size also makes them a perfect guilt-free snack but provided you are actively exercising. Although chocolate is the most common flavour available I have relished other varieties too, such as orange. Most recently, Nestlé also introduced the four-fingered ruby chocolate with cocoa beans in the UK. So, continuing with my appetite for discovering new tastes, when I stumbled on a new KitKat flavour I had to buy it. I searched everywhere, on Amazon and the aisles at Walmart, but couldn’t find a trace of it, so I wondered maybe the vendors were importing it from elsewhere. Until finally, at my regular grocery shopping spree, I found a Japanese version of this flavour at a local Chinese supermarket. A short online research threw up the name as “Nestle KitKat Mini “OTONA-NO-AMASA” and a website which says it’s flavoured “by kneading “Uji Gyokuro Tea Leaves” into the Uji Matcha (green tea) flavoured dough, a fragrant Uji Matcha aroma and taste is brought out.” I am considering myself fortunate to relish this KitKat which is a “limited regional product” right here in Toronto. Ah, the times we live in!
Below Par Mumbai Indians Are Out Of IPL
Defending champions Mumbai Indians are out of contention for this year’s IPL championship when they lost against the Delhi Daredevils on Sunday. Least to say, they have been inconsistent with their performances right from the beginning eventually managing only 6 wins from their 14 games. Through my analysis, not only did Mumbai Indians failed to capitalize on their home advantage losing 4 of their 7 outings at the Wankhede which primarily made a huge difference to the winning tally they also failed miserably in their away games. There’s another reason why they failed to register their place for the IPL playoffs, they were unsuccessful in beating stronger contenders like the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Rajasthan Royals who have qualified for the playoffs. Looking at their dipping conviction on the field it wasn’t surprising that the Indians couldn’t even muster a win against a weaker Delhi Daredevils who crashed out of this IPL very early on.
Their batting never came to the party. Barring individual performances by Suryakumar Yadav (512 runs), Jasprit Bumrah (17 wickets) and Hardik Pandya (18 wickets), and the young wicketkeeper-batsman Ishan Kishan’s 21 balls 62 versus the Kolkata Knight Riders, it was a pathetic and most forgetful showing ever by the Mumbai Indians who I expected to at least qualify for the playoffs. Though, having won the IPL thrice in 2013, 2015 and 2017 — which is once every two years, I am hoping they could script a comeback in 2019. Only time can tell us, but unless they make changes both in the team leadership and coaching levels they might be looking at a repeat of their previous performances.
About Google Duplex, Robots, And Beyond
Last week’s I/O demo, of the virtual assistant Google Duplex scheduling a haircut appointment with a salon over a phone call, was jaw-dropping and nerve-racking at the same time. You can check this YouTube video of the demo if you haven’t. It was an inventive synthesis of natural language understanding, deep learning, and text-to-speech. Though it reminded me of the unseen implications of AI, the demo, in all honesty, was stupendous! The voice simulation, which incorporated the conversational responsiveness of the algorithm, and the emotional connect with the caller on the other side were so convincing it could feel like a natural conversation happening between real people without any way to know the difference, only that that wasn’t the case here. Whilst it’s a great time to see all the varied experiments around automation and machine learning coming to life etcetera, but the implications of them are obscure and might go beyond the role of ‘assisting’ humans. And here’s why.
I was reading Alec Ross’ insightful non-fiction about the permeating effects of digital transformation, automation, and technology, on our culture and jobs, and it’s called ‘The Industries of The Future’. In which, he presents a vivid image of tech innovations, ala Google Duplex, that is replete with industries that would define the employment prospects in a tech-oriented world, where we would deal with subservient robots, big data for ‘predictive analytics’ and commonly use genome sequencing for a deeper comprehension of our biological composition in areas related to preventive healthcare. In a similar vein, in Don Norman’s evocative writing of ‘Emotional Design’, he outlines in an entire chapter on robotics about a future in which humanoid robots would have access to our homes and personal spaces — just in case, this has already happened with a device such as the Roomba vacuum. The concept seems far-fetched today but not if you consider the events of last week’s Google I/O. So then in his book ‘The Industries…’, the author Alec Ross offers a meek reference to artificial intelligence’s debilitating effect on voice-based interactions including a scenario of committing fraud. He says in the book…
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””][…] A downside is the increased risk of fraud. If my voice can be reconstructed in a way that makes the reconstruction difficult to distinguish from my “real” voice, then it opens up new opportunities for fraud — fraud in dozens of languages, no less. In a world with near-universal translation and communication, an ironic side effect may be that we’ll need to be able to look somebody in the eye to believe what he or she is saying.[/perfectpullquote]
‘Ringan’ Is The Rekindling of A Spiritual Bond
As a fan of regional art cinema, it’s the best time to live right now. Especially more satisfying to realize that the current spate of Marathi cinema continues to enthral audiences by deviating from its commercial attitudes — also possibly the reason why it’s become harder for sensible cinema to find distributors, such as Kaasav, for example, which is disappointing. Nevertheless, it’s precisely this matter-of-fact approach of the scriptwriters, in that, deliberating emotions through personally identifiable characters have created some critically acclaimed and award-winning cinema such as Killa, Fandry, and Deool. In continuing with this trend, Ringan portrays realistic human values in an unvarnished personality, with a poignant tale of a struggling father and an adorable youngster against the backdrop of socio-economic repression in rural Maharashtra.
The title of the movie originates from the Hindu festival of Ashadhi Ekadashi held annually in the city of Pandharpur where a large number of devotees of Lord Vithoba (the ‘warkaris’) congregate to sing and dance making a circular formation that’s commonly referred as a ‘ringan’ in Marathi. It completes a beautiful analogy of this unique celebratory pattern in the film depicting a cyclic order of desolation or dejection, happiness or jubilation in a human’s life span. Which is precisely what a poor and heavily indebted farmer named Arjun Magar (Shashank Shende) has been experiencing in a drought-ridden village in Maharashtra . A widower, and surviving on meagre earnings from his parched land which hasn’t yielded any crops he’s on the verge of surrendering to his fate. But for his dearest son Abhimanyu (Sahil Joshi) and often overlooking his repeated transgressions, it keeps him away from becoming suicidal and to start believing in himself. Frustrated and dejected, he finally decides to dump his tragic past and undertakes a bold journey to Pandharpur braving hunger and fatigue to break free of his misery.
Ringan is a heart-wrenching and a powerful narrative representative of different world views. The perspective of a father facing a bleak future of hardships and later coming to terms with his ultimate destiny, and of a 7-year old in pursuit of discovering nuances in a web of personal relationships as each traverses life-altering situations. Honestly, the simplistic voyage capturing the highs and lows of a father & son’s bonding as they find a new meaning through their emotional & spiritual turmoil, it easily underlines Ringan’s value as one of the greatest cinematic experiences of our times.
India’s Games At The 2019 ICC World Cup
I was marking my calendar with the fixtures for India’s 2019 ICC World Cup campaign being hosted by England and Wales. The first thing that I noticed was the remarkable absence of a group/pool system which is commonly seen in events of such great sporting value (like the FIFA and the FIH world cups). Although, after their stupendous performance in recent World Cups and the team’s successive wins in recent series led from the front by Virat Kohli, the ‘men in blue’ will automatically start as my favourites to lift next year’s World Cup.
[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]vs South Africa – June 5, 2019
vs Australia – June 9, 2019
vs New Zealand – June 13, 2019
vs Pakistan – June 16, 2019
vs Afghanistan – June 22, 2019
vs West Indies – June 27, 2019
vs England – June 30, 2019
vs Bangladesh – July 2, 2019
vs Sri Lanka – July 6, 2019
1st Semi-Final – July 9, 2019
2nd Semi-Final – July 11, 2019
Final – July 14, 2019[/perfectpullquote]
Strangely, this World Cup has been woefully reduced to just 10 teams, down from 14 from the previous two editions, and the other notable factor is that the groupings have been completely eliminated. Instead, all teams have been clubbed together to compete in a round-robin format of 45 matches. Firstly, a global platform such as the ‘World Cup’ deserves to have more teams competing, and a larger representation for ICC’s associate members like Nepal or Scotland would have enabled them to showcase fresh talent to their fans & audiences worldwide. Gone are the days when one could enjoy watching players from the Netherlands, UAE or Canada competing against the world’s best! And if this petition is to be believed, the 2023 edition in India would continue to feature only 10 teams. This dubious arrangement by the ICC, not only diminishes the significance of this mega event but also turns it into an exclusive affair between a handful of established teams.
Financial compulsions notwithstanding, eventually, with only a small number of teams contesting and with a complete lack of sporting standards for the event, the followers of the game are bound to feel miserable & cheated. Though, I would still look forward to a successful World Cup campaign by India next year.