  The problem of understanding quark mass and mixing hierarchies has been an
outstanding problem of particle physics for a long time. The discovery of
neutrino masses in the past decade, exhibiting mixing and mass patterns so very
different from the quark sector has added an extra dimension to this puzzle.
This is specially difficult to understand within the framework of conventional
grand unified theories which are supposed to unify the quarks and leptons at
short distance scales. In the paper, I discuss a recent proposal by Dutta,
Mimura and this author that appears to provide a promising way to resolve this
puzzle. After stating the ansatz, we show how it can be realized within a
SO(10) grand unification framework. Just as Gell-Mann's suggestion of SU(3)
symmetry as a way to understand the hadronic flavor puzzle of the sixties led
to the foundation of modern particle physics, one could hope that a
satisfactory resolution of the current quark-lepton flavor problem would
provide fundamental insight into the nature of physics beyond the standard
model.
