Unique Identification Number

For friends in IT, you know what I mean. I'm not going to talk about the unique id or primary key used in relational database, but unique 16-digit identification (ID) number to be issued to all the residents of India. Yes...UID is the concept recently introduced in India and managed under the guidance of Nandan Nilekani, former Infosys CEO. After a person is allotted an UID, his/her identity linked to biometrics would be established to uniquely identify the person. This is similar to Social security number(SSN) in US. 

The project is named Adhaar meaning foundation to remove confusion over the name among the people. The Numerological Meaning of the word Adhaar seems very interesting. "They are extremely reliable and are often found taking care of others. They have a deep need to try and create harmony in their surroundings. Unfortunately, this can sometimes lead to getting taken advantage of. " So true...if the card falls in the hands of bad guys...Govinda GOvinda....

All these identity stuff is being stamped for each person to protect and identify his/her OWN identity. Why do we need this identity? God is great... he gave unique identity to each person. No two persons are same in features...even though twins look the same, there are still some differences that are unique to each person. So the first identity given by God is the FEATURE SET. <getting distracted by Abhilasha's song on SaReGaMapa...too good>. So is feature set sufficient for unique identification? Nope....each person needs to be tagged with a NAME. 

Without name, imagine how your friend will call you with God gifted feature set "hey...long hair, brown eyes, short nose..." or may be a Tarzan yell. But human raised one step further and TAGGED each person with a name for easy identification. But with so many names in the world, LAST NAME came into picture to identify certain set of people based on region, religion, profession, caste etc.etc.. Slowly ID cards and biometric measures came into picture to identify or authenticate a person's identity.

All these ID cards and identity theft seems to be part of new era. How about olden days? Did they have identity theft back then? First thing that comes to our mind is NO.. as there were no ID cards ;-). But the identify theft back then seems to be more dangerous than today. Hope you heard of ParakAya Pravesham - leaving one’s body temporarily and entering the body of another person. Shri ShankarAcharya used the ParakAya pravesha vidya and entered body of the king amaruka. Recent Hollywood hit Avatar also has the concept of Parakaya Pravesham. Read more at Avatar The Movie – Similarities with Hindu Teachings and symbols and concepts in Hinduism.

Not just Parakaya Pravesham, but Gods and demons used their powers to take different forms to disguise their identity. In Ramayana, Mareech assumed the guise of a lovely golden deer and moved about in the presence of Sita and then Ravan took the form of Rishi and kidnapped Sita to his kingdom Lanka. In Sasirekha Parinayam,  Ghatotkacha takes the form of Sasirekha to avoid her marriage with Lakshmana Kumara, while the real Sasirekha is married to Abhimanyu. Being an Andhrite, who'll forget the good old Maya Bazar song with great actress Savitri playing the role of Sasirekha.

Also Krishna replicated his identity with each Gopi during Rasa dance, that way each Gopi thinks that Krishna is with her. And in the latest movie, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, many people take the form of Harry potter to protect him from bad guys. Krishna followed one to many entity relationship whereas Harry potter followed many to one entity relationship ;-). But at the end, it is the disguise that matters.

Now coming back to Kaliyug, man has many measures for uniquely identifying a person including ID card, blood group, finger print, polygraphic test etc...etc.. Then, what will be the future identification of a person? 

My vision into future.....once a baby is born, implant a small chip inside the body...let's say inside finger and then swipe the finger under/over the scanner. I'm sure all the electronic gadgets will have in-built scanners in the future. This relieves a person from carrying a card. Oh....wait...is it safer than carrying a card? What if the thief cuts the finger and uses it to scan and steal the identity. Man....this is more dangerous than carrying a card...you'll lose your life for the chip :-(. 

So what else can be done? May be the scanner will be intelligent enough to detect if the chip is inside a living entity that sends and receives signals from the brain. Oh...well...the thief can hijack a person and use him/her as a card....too bad again. So what next? May be the scanner will be intelligent enough to figure out if the person swiping the finger is not under any pressure...the integration of Lie detector/Polygraph test. Punya....you are giving new product ideas....time to patent your invention ;-). Anyways, human identification has long way to go....