TIME TRAVEL UNDER THE APPLE TREE

                  Last week it was sunny and hot, a rather rare meteorological event for Manchester, temperature reaching up to 29⁰C. After a hearty breakfast I pulled the reclining canvas chair under the apple tree, only shaded bit in the garden and put my legs up with the E-Book and a glass of lightly sweetened lemon water with plenty of ice cubes. I decided to reread the book “Catchers in the Rye”.

I could not read more than a couple of pages. The blue sky with a few Santaclausian beard-white clouds, moving in slow motion seemed much more fascinating. Looking at the sky through the green leaves of the apple tree just took me years back when we were children. Who said time travel is only hypothetical?

As was the norm in those days we always spent our summer vacation, most of it if not all, in our ancestral village,. Being part of an extended family, there were many children. In the mid day all the adults would be taking siesta after a good lunch. Younger ones, the babies and the toddlers would be doing the same with their mothers or grandmothers.

We, the older ones always managed to escape and spend time outside, mostly unsupervised. The heat waves of midsummer could not dampen our spirits. We passed most of the time in the garden behind our house. The shady area under the large Neem tree was the most sought after place when the sun was really intense. There were always a couple of bamboo bedsteads kept there and I often lay there with a story book or a children’s magazine. We were very fortunate that there were lots of books and magazines in our house, almost a mini library. 

We often used to play a game: trying to dissolve the small cloud patches by staring at them. We felt very powerful that we could make the clouds vanish or at least change their shapes at our command. Little did we know that it had nothing to do with us! Ah, the pleasures of ignorance!

These memories appeared so vivid, real and three dimensional. I could see myself in a white sando ganji (sleeveless cotton t-shirt), and a khaki half pant, the ganji little damp with sweat. I could touch the dried fallen Neem leaves on the dusty ground underneath and hear the excited voice of my younger cousin.

It feels like a true recollection of past but I know, it rarely is. The past is what

our episodic memory bits choose to reconstruct and bring the composite scenario to our conscious mind. We cannot remember each and every detail that happened at that moment in past but the brain reconstructs a very convincing, plausible story, filling the gaps with imagined or trans-located bits.It may be flawed but this unique human ability to reconstruct the past in all dimensions is absolutely essential to imagine different scenarios which our mind does all the time to keep us prepared for any future eventuality or even to enjoy a novel like “Catchers in the Rye”. 

Ref: E. Tulving, “Episodic Memory: From Mind to Brain”, Annual Review of Psychology, Vol. 53, pp. 1-25, 2002

A NIGHT OF POETRY AND SUNK COST DILEMMA

A NIGHT OF POETRY AND SUNK COST DILEMMA

A friend rang me three months ago to tell me that a Hindi Poetry Evening had been organized in his town hall. The entrance tickets was £15 per person. I bought two tickets, for me and my wife.

On the morning of the show I came to know that Mr. Sondhi, the main poet cum entertainer, in whom I was really interested, was not coming. The weather should have become warmer by the end of April but it was still bitterly cold and wet, thanks to a swathe of freezing air from the North Pole.

Normally we would have taken the tram to go to the town hall because parking around there is scarce and expensive. But in this weather I did not relish the walk on either end of the tram journey.

 “What is the point in going if we would be wet and cold by the time we reach there, and particularly if Mr. Sondhi and his team were not attending” Bibha said. As you know she is my other half.

I said “but we have already paid. Why to waste the tickets? We should take the car. If we go an hour earlier, we could find a parking place”. The idea of losing £30 pounds which I had forked out on the tickets was not very palatable and it would keep niggling me for a few days at least.

My better half prevailed in the end and we cancelled the program. We enjoyed the evening at home in front of the fire with home cooked food and Pinot Noire.

I am constantly amazed and pleased (sometimes irritated) on how Bibha makes intuitive decisions which produce better outcomes.

My thinking was a typical example of what is called 'Sunk Cost Dilemma'. I was prepared to incur further cost in terms of parking fee and waste more time in order to justify the money already spent on the tickets. When one spend money and time on a project, one gets emotionally attached to it usually in direct proportion to the money and the effort invested. Even when it becomes clear that the project is not going to achieve its goal, people and organizations keep on investing more money and time.

The concept of sunk cost is well known and researched subject in business circles. In our day to day life it is equally important.

It explains, why many of us perpetually keep expensive but unfitting dresses in our wardrobes, carry on watching an excruciatingly boring movie and finish a bad tasting meal in a high-priced restaurant.

But hey, who wants to run his/her life like a corporate business!

SHRINKING OF THE TEA CUP IN INDIA BY THE ECONOMIC AND GENETIC FORCES OR AM I JUST FOOLED BY SCARCITY HEURISTIC?

What is happening to the tea cups and mugs in India? They are getting smaller and smaller every year! By the time I have taken a few sips and started to enjoy the taste of the tea, the cup is empty!

When I came to UK about four decades ago, the size of the tea cup was same as in India. The tea cup and saucer has now mostly been replaced by the mug, except in a formal set up. Mugs are much more convenient, single handed operation and less washing up later. It also has a smaller footprint on the coffee table.

TEA TAB

COFFEE TABLE

Tea on a coffee table? Well, you will be surprised to know that initially tea/coffee was served on a tea table which was rather taller and more suited for high back chairs. With increasing use of low back sofas, lower tables which were kept behind the sofa were used to put magazines, and other nick-nacks.  They were also convenient for resting the cups of hot beverages between sips. Later these sofa tables were brought in the front, made even lower and became today’s ubiquitous coffee tables in the living rooms all over the world.

Here in UK, the size of the mug has gradually gone bigger and bigger. Exactly the opposite has happened in India. What is going on?

Tea arrived in UK in the early 1600. It was very costly and was served in small cups. It has become cheaper over the years and being a cold country no wonder the cups have gradually gone bigger.

Why have the cups become smaller in India? With globalization tea price in India has gone up relative to the average wage. I used to bring tea from India previously but for the last few years I found that good leaf tea is almost the same price as in UK if not costlier. No point in slugging a heavier suitcase any more.

In many Indian homes and tea stalls tea is made in milk rather than water. Milk prices have also gone up considerably. Tea granules or leaves are added to a pan of boiling milk (sometimes the milk is diluted with a bit of water) and then let to boil for few more minutes. Sugar is added at the same time as tea. A large cup of milky tea taken too often every day will certainly upset many a tummies.  Contrary to common belief the incidence of milk intolerance is very high in Indian population*. In one recent study three out of every four person turned out to have milk intolerance#. Given these genetic and economic pressures, no wonder the tea cup in India is getting progressively smaller.

This enlightenment into the reasons behind diminishing cup sizes did not help me an iota. I still felt unsated. It is not very polite to ask the host for another cup, when all other guests are complaining that they had too much tea. When you know you cannot get another cup, your yearning just gets multiplied. This is what is known in psychology as scarcity heuristic**. When something becomes less available, we put a higher value on it.

This scarcity heuristic produces a cognitive bias which is exploited every day by salesmen all over the world “Only few pieces are left, Sir. They have been flying off the self fast.” In reality the backroom might have hundreds of them since the last season.

Anyway whether it is lack of lactose tolerance in India or Scarcity heuristic causing cognitive error in my mind, I am still lamenting the diminishing size of the tea cup. On my next trip to India I am taking my own mug. I just have to find a socially acceptable way to persuade my hosts to give me tea in my mug.

* http://sciencelife.uchospitals.edu/2011/09/14/lactose-tolerance-in-the-indian-dairyland/

 # http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/lucknow/Three-out-of-four-Indians-have-no-milk-tolerance-Study/articleshow/46522488.cms

** Worchel, Stephen; Lee, Jerry; Adewole, Akanbi. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol 32(5), Nov 1975, 906-914. http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/psp/32/5/906/

ARE THE YEARS BECOMING SHORTER AS I GET OLDER?

 The Hour Glass attributed to Giorgione (1477 - 1478)

          20 days have already passed in this New Year. The resolutions made at the stroke of midnight on the Eve are fading if not forgotten completely.

          Looking back, 2015 passed very quickly. I know, in reality it would have taken the same chunk of time as the years before. Mother earth has not suddenly accelerated her ceaseless run around the Sun. But to me, it does seem that the years have started to pass a bit quicker lately. We came in our present house many years ago but the day we moved in does not seem that far away.

          As a child I remember eagerly waiting for Diwali and Holi, when we used to go to our village home and celebrate the festivals with all our cousins. It used to take ages from Holi to Diwali and then Diwali to Holi. But now one New Year eve comes tumbling fast the last one and so are the birthdays of nears and dears.

          Though for my grandchildren, the Christmas Eve when Santa was going to bring their presents, seemed unbearably late. Every day, at least thrice, they kept on asking “is it tonight ?”

          Time certainly seems passing quicker for me, but the same is not true for the grand children. Has getting old anything to do with this speeding up of time?

         Does our biological pacemaker that determines the perception of time slows down with age, maybe due to reduced blood flow or decreased levels of certain neurotransmitters in the brain? No such pacemaker has been clearly identified but there is a good probability of its existence.

          Perhaps it is more likely to be a cognitive illusion even though it feels very real.

          Early in our life many experiences were our firsts, like first crush, first kiss, first job, and so on. These new experiences made lasting memories and seemed to have lasted longer than they actually were. Higher numbers of these experiences make these years look longer when one recalls back.  But now as we become more experienced, most events are no more new and do not make lasting impressions. Scarcity of new episodes makes the year seem shorter.

          It may also be that we subconsciously measure time intervals relative to the time we have already lived. For a five year old child, one year is 20 percent of its whole life. For me it is less than 2 percent. No wonder it seems shorter!

          To make this year last longer, I am going to do more new things and have some fresh experiences. Today is youngest I will ever be again!

Hoping the same for you all, I wish you all a very Happy New Year.