Vikram Chandra is on a break. Both, from writing fiction and his classroom at the University of California, Berkeley. It is all very fortuitous for us, because we are sitting at a Bandra coffee shop, discussing his first work of non-fiction, Mirrored Mind, and his friends and family here (he is Anupama Chopra and Tanuja Chandra's brother), whose lives he feels, he is "disrupting."
"Usually, when I am on a break, I listen to music, read. This time, I had this idea of writing something about computer coding and the anthropology of programming; marrying it with Indian literary theory," he says. And what emerged from this little literary detour was a book that "started off as an essay intended for a computer glossy, but turned into something else altogether," he laughs.
Mirrored Mind reflects that aspect of Chandra's life that we have only read about in passing — his passion for coding. Other than the one character in his previous book, Love and Longing in Bombay, who is a programmer, there has been very little in work that leads us into his other world. It is also his "first public statement" about some rather disturbing aspects of the glamorous world of programmers and the curious and "apalling" politics of Silicon Valley. Having started off as a hobby programmer in Texas during the '80s — who fixed his friends' computers for a quick buck and sheer thrill — Chandra is keenly aware of the hierarchy, caste system and power play in an industry that prides itself on being "meritocratic" and thus "glossing over the issues of colour and gender that can constrain an individual or group."
One of the "problems" he feels strongly about, and explores in the book, is that of gender inequality. "There was a time in the '50s and '60s in the US when programming ceased to be considered a manual craft. So, as long as there was no prestige attached to it, it was alright to let the women do 'clerical' work. One of the resources applied to give the role a certain aura and better pay was attributing the idea of male-ness to it," he says, "You know, a certain cowboy machismo."
Talking about how both, in literature and tech, women's contribution has been overlooked, Chandra quotes from Indian literary theorists and tech biographers to validate his point. "Over the last few years in the US, tech blogs and general media has been reporting about some scandal or the other because someone does something idiotic... harasses some woman," he says. "It has been a problem for a while. Only now has it reached a pitch of debate."
Chandra cites the case of the sole woman programmer he met during his early years, and speaks of the numerous instances of women dropping out of the industry because of bullying. "I thought this is a global phenomenon, but no, it is very uniquely American. In countries like India and Egypt, women have been very successful programmers. This is not to say that other problems ceased to exist in these countries. But at least, this knowledge isn't confined to men."
As a father of "two young women", he feels concerned about the world they are going to live in. "My younger child is three, and she already calls herself an engineer..." he says with a glint of fatherly affection. "I am worried as an individual, yes."
On a lighter note, Chandra, who writes about how he used to bore people at parties with his favourite topic of assembling a 'logic gate' (read the book to know more) with matchsticks, says he has found a new "party trick". "Synthetic biology," he says, excitedly. "We are at a stage when you can use computer codes to hack genes. Any half decent kiddie hacker with a wet lab at home and a computer can cut and paste together codes and go online to produce a new form of life," he says, adding, "With billions of dollars being poured into this field, things are about to explode... you can play God. And it is very exciting, very dangerous and... very weird."
Does that mean his latest obsession will find its way into his next work of fiction? "There is a high probability," he says, by way of a teaser. From the lords of the underworld to playing God with genetics — that's one incredible sweep, no doubt.
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