Ravi Blogs about IT Topics

Thanksgiving is upon us… Everyone interprets this time of the year differently… The busiest shopping season starts, the stock market is going to be swayed by the initial in-store and web sales by the retailers, and many wait for the big sale on Black Friday. But, for most, Thanksgiving Thursday offers a time to gather with friends and family and be thankful and grateful for things that have happened to them in recent memory. During these gatherings, we always reminisce about our family gatherings during various celebrations when we were all growing up back home.  One thing that always has bothered me is the lack of documentation about families in Indian culture. Of course, the Western culture’s record keeping has been far superior. In our case, the information about the ancestors is passed on from one generation to the next  by “word of mouth” – mostly through stories that the elders tell you.

Obviously, in this mode of communication, selective information mutation happens and I feel this to be unreliable. For example, several years ago, I asked a couple of elders in the family to tell me their recollection of our ancestry so I can record them on my video recorder. I consider this to be a really prized collection. However, I have my own doubts about the authenticity of certain information conveyed to me. For example, they were carefully avoiding talking about certain things that were considered extremely controversial.

I am always eager to find out more about my ancestors. Frankly I know very little… so little that sometimes I feel ashamed for not having tried hard enough to seek the information. So, I am always looking around on the web, or writing to people on the web as well as the government offices asking for more information about my father’s birth place. Zilch… No one cares to respond!

So, it is with great interest that I read a story about 23AndME, a company that will decode your DNA for $1000 today. It is really a fascinating story and it is my hope that the price will come down to a point that many people around the world can afford it. I totally understand the ethical issues surrounding this including possible misuses (similar arguments have been made about the content on the web). However, IMHO, the benefits this offers outweighs the risks.

What is exciting about this is the ability to trace genealogy in a community sense – a facebook or myspace of geneology. May be I will have a better chance of finding others who are related to me as well as get a much better understanding of who I am and where I come from. Above all, I really hope that our children, at some point in their life, will be seeking the same information and I am hopeful that technologies such as these can help answer these questions to a large extent.

BTW, there is a strong Google connection to all this… Read the article if you are interested to know.

Finally, I am thankful to have such a wonderful family and a great group of friends who make my life very interesting and rich… and thankful that I have such a great group of hard working and bright colleagues in ITS who make my professional life an exciting one!