When I think of Data Science today, I cannot help but realize with a sense of pride and belonging that I had a Data Scientist at home all along while growing up.
Thirty years ago in our home in India, Data Science was unknown the way it is known today but the Data Scientist, my father, T. Sampath Kumar, was always at work. He was adept at noting down precious little data nuggets from newspapers, the daily news on TV, electricity meter readings, price charts, train timetables, packaged food ingredients, local temple festival times, names of people who showed up at social gatherings, food menus at family events, daily temperature, humidity and rainfall etc.
So, what was the point?
When my mom declared that the summer that year had been the hottest – out came the Data Scientist with temperature statistics across many bygone years proving that the summer in question was not quite so.
When a relative complained that though there was more food spread at a certain family event but there weren’t as many takers for the same – out came the Data Scientist with his diary to classify people across multiple events who binged, who skipped and who came so late that little of consequence was left.
When I expressed that I used the water heater sparsely in winter and asserted that my tolerance of the cold was improving as I grew more robust – out came the Data Scientist with electricity meter readings to prove that our consumption of electricity had actually increased over the years and even more so in winters given the fact that we went out less and stayed at home more.
I fondly look back at what I learnt then and use now as Data Science even though that Resident Data Scientist is long gone.
Note: This was first written as a submission to the weekly DATAcated story writing challenge run by Kate Strachnyi. This went on to win that weekly challenge and is featured there.