Meaningful education !!??

Finally the taxing endterms come to an end today...Actually am supposed to be logically sleeping right now but for this early morning flight that leaves me with no option but to spend another night sitting if I don wanna risk missing it. And wandering on the internet to quench my thirst of information I stuck at some articles and news items related to educational reforms in India. The path being followed seemed intriguing.
The thing started with making compulsary for the private schools to accomodate some students from poor background. But then when actually these students reached those posh places they found themselves a misfit. They could neither match the affluence of the richer lot nor could they save themselves from continuaal jibery and mockery. In all we have created a frustrated mass of students and parents who find themselves guessing their faults. The fault that actually is of the government. The body who is responsible to provide basic education to all. Shrudding their responsibilty into these banal legislations is not going to address the problem. This actually reminds me something I have been taught recently. The funda of unintended consequences. I believe that intenstions behind the actions were pure and if idealism prevailed these would have in fact improved the level of education in India. but then expecting idealism seems to stretching the demands too far.
Next has been optioning out class X boards exam. We have been living with this for all our generations and now government wants to put an end to it on account of pressure creating activity. Agreed !! it creates pressure on students. Again the logic seems sort of illogical. It is for the first time students are exposed to the competition in true sense. After all they have to see the pressure and competition. or some politicial still planning some miraculous method of eliminating competition itself from the society economy and all other spheres? Seriously scrapping an examination which has over the years developed into a benchmark in itself. What fails my understanding is the way scrapping it would help reduce pressure in first place. You may relieve a proportion of students from the stress of failure at that stage but then what would they do for class XII boards or for that matter competitions ahead(May be bringing down the standard of JEE was a part of this strategy..) And all this would be done at the cost of some of the meritorious students. Just try to think what would be impact of someone supposed to score 89.4% (no points for guessing who is being talked about:). But the point is there is no end to stress, pressure and competition especially in today's world and atleast not by such frivolous attempts. Unintended consequeces again it seems. Now I realize how important those 8:00 AM lectures were that I simply ignored.
The fact of the matter is when we should be actually improving our education system, we are scrapping out some of the better elements of the system. At time when Mr. Obama envies India for its education systems and calling to emulate from it, we aren't concerned enough. I bet government and the HR minister should broaden their focus of outlook and should try bringing wholesome improvements inclusive in character. GLOBE GLOBE GLOBE he he yeah it is but then public policy can never be specific or particularized. Thus we elected a set of white dressed executives to take care of our woes and in them we keep our faith that one day they would steer India to become how we should envisage it to be(.)

the lost vehicle :(

So finally a commendable endeavor comes to an end..The unmanned lunar orbiter detaches itself from the shackles of the mortals trying to keep it under control. But now its a free being in itself exploring the realms of the universe.
Launched in october 2008 it indeed was a milestone in India's space exploration and would always form an important part of the story. Developing an indigenous spacecraft and launching it from domestic facilities was indeed a giant leap and commendable result of the hardwork of the scientists involved. The endeavor has really put India in league with few others who have been able to send material from earth into the space. The craft was supposed to send info about lunar surface and activities taking place on the most fascinated spatial body lovingly called the "Chanda Mama". According to the releases by ISRO I belive the machine did a wonderful job uptil now and has sent hundreds of photographs and loads of data which I am sure would provide meaningful conclusions.
Last few months, the Chandrayaan I has been amidst controvercies regarding of failure of the gyroscopic instrument which provided direction and balance for maneavouring the big machine. However, thanks to the ingenuity of the great minds at work, the satellite vehicle was kept under control by alternate mechanical mechanisms. But finally every conception has a climax and so was the case with this. But only was it abrupt and premature. There was still a 11 month stint that the craft was yet to work and the early loss is indeed a loss of knowledge.
When Mr. Nair from ISRO says that the experiment has been a lot infomative and enlightening, I would like to believe him and would still like to congratulate him for the great job done by him and his team. If nothing else, it atleast was a headstart to the regions unexplored. I hope the mistakes of the first attempt would provide improved insight for the Chandrayaan 2 and timely remeady of them are undertaken. It has positioned Indian tricolour on the surface of the moon and thats and achievement in itself. What I am looking forward is towards the day when an Indian vehicle carries a man to the lunar surface !

A Foreign Avocation

Yesterday a bunch of us were having a candid interaction at the dinner table and the topic of discussion was the latest resume submission due today..and somehow we rambled to the issue of hobbies..and all the usual dropped in..some were great readers while some were such involved in movie watching..(and not the english and hindi flicks I see :) ) ..there were someone who simply loved making softwares..and then there was I ..hobby - number crunching..and then there reactions werent any different from yours at the moment..confused...bemused...as they were..I had their constant attention...
May be its a hobby I inherited from my dad..but then it seems to be a constructive time pass for me...atleast it keeps my brains on toes..which, given my lethargic tendencies, is something I need desperately.
Now what is this hobby of mine. Nothing special- anything related to number..ranging from simply mulling over a number to find out something interesting about it ..learning some of the novel techniques in mathematics..or simply browsing numbers' websites (believe me there are innumberable of those). This hobby of mine got its feathers once I could get myself registered on a coveted website of prime numbers and my few submissions accepted. and then it gradually developed into a past time I have adopted in.
and the discussion ended with one more perspective of my nerdish image..but then I guess thats the way it is...
as far as general update goes..had a presentation yesterday..first presentation in formal dressing..and the whole class dressed up in suits really loooked as if managers were in making.. I do hope we do !! Tomorrow we have two quizzes and that is when I am writing this stuff..studies do have tendency to create distractions...endsems in a fortnight and then am flying back home for a quick chill pill at home..hope life gets a relief in that week...fihaal let me take a break from this and return to the books ..

Meeting of Minds

Two days....Two personalities and loads of food.(for thought)..
Yesterday we had an interactive session with Mr. Y V Reddy, the former governor of Reserve Bank of India. It was during his tenure that the global recession started showing signs of existence and he has been involved with some of the measures taken for keeping its effects external to India.
A close door small group meeting with such a learned personality could be a thought in mind for many which is a fact for me. He expressed his views on the ramifications of separating a Central Bank of a country from state control. An extent of autonomy is desired but complete separations has shown its ill-effects. He also spoke of the concept of decoupling of economies is more a matter of convenience rather than reality. He believes that no economy today is truly decoupled although the extent of interdependence may vary. Decoupling, in his words, is "contextually convenient but logically irrelevant. " He also spoke of need for the government to modify its working and policies to attract young intellectual minds towards state jobs. Importance of govt. sector, which he differentiates from the public sector, has not been truly realized and he maintains that private sector has stakes in the govt. sector. He also touched upon the difference between general and financial literacy and need to increase the financial literacy in India. In a lighter vein he said, that lack of knowledge about financial crisis means that we have been relieved of it upto some extent.
After the intellectually stimulating session, today we had a session with renowned journalist M. J. Akbar who was once the editor of Asian Age. The well read and immensely informed person that he is, he expressed his views on myriad of issues ranging from govt. interference in media to relationships with Pakistan and communal harmony in the country. He was critical about how the government uses media to get along the general support to some of the international policies. He subtly mentioned how he is also one of the victims of such govt. interventions. On Indo-Pak relations he said that temporary peace and betterment of relations was an imminent necessity to both the parties but a long term solution seems evasive at the moment. He also raised the prevelent biases in the country based on communal lines and expressed his concerns of their long lasting effects. He also spoke shortly about the demographic dividend that India enjoys and its benefits that need to be reaped.
In all these two talks opened up plethora of new dimensions of thinking of issues and provided completely novel perspectives to some of them. Looking forward to some more of such talks in coming days...

Socha Na Tha :)

A month full of abstruse assignments, lengthy submissions, sacrosanct deadlines and then finally a short 3 day scheduled midterms....Life has seen some new colors on this campus. Yeah ended the midterms..first exams of my postgraduate life and may be this completes half of many such cyles of trimesters.. And on looking back on last month a thought, intelligible, creeps my innocuous brains - Life is way different for Engineering.
First of all students preparing readings before reaching the classrooms, which by the way are creations of due architectural undertaking to provide with the best of luxuries, was a completely new aspect. Enthusiasm of class participation, without the much needed contribution to grading, was something bizzare for me.
However there has been a lot of change for better. Firstly, all your creativeness and ability to globe and bakar are given proper channels to erupt and all for some useful constructive jobs....including examinations. There is far less to mug-up. Courses are more general in their scope and discussions revolve around topics of daily interest. And if this does not gives a feel one of the course had a case in midterms on Gay rights judgement of high court.

On the life apart academics...Yeah even among all this we get time to have something called life. The janta is fun and rabs every opportunity to enjoy. Birthday celebration is an event everyone looks forward to. The much controversial Hoosh is a nightmare for every mortal atleast on his manufacturing date. And ask aboout that to me..the inaugral being- on victim side- of official hooshing culture of our section. Yet for some one being Hooshed the consolation of being surrounded by friends on the day is more dominating and overwhelming.

On other angles, living besides guys much more experienced both in life and work is making me a bit more sensible, sensitive and groomed. Daily bath, ironed clothes and ordered room are just some of the illustrations. So much has happend in these last 40 days and yet its only around a dozenth fraction of all this life that is yet to come. Indeed I can say - 'Socha Na Tha.
signing off now to catch up with some sleep before this system again loads me with more assignments, submissions and deadlines!! Cheers!!

Entering the Hallowed Halls...

To start with..as has been the issue of plagiarism so emphasized, the title is not my creation but an innovation of some mortal displaying immense linguistic competence during one of the 'fun sessions' meant for us. Now coming to my actual intent of this piece of creation.
Have finally joined IIM Bangalore on 22nd of June. What seemed to be a slacked time of orientation week some how turned into an experience un-thought of. The schedule gave a list of sessions for group activities and other introductions to IIMB and its various components. After the registration, begun the inauguration of the orientation week and then we realized that these guys do not let any time go waste. The same session involved awarding DML entrants, and then a welcome by the direct, the PGP Chair and other dignitories of the college. Following that next few days had some sessions purely aimed at introducing to the systems and operations (managerial jargon !!) of IIMB. Talks by CAO, CC In charge, Librarian and others were informative for daily requirements here. PGP Chair made us aware of various academic and administrative rules and their severity. Then there were lectures by professors introducing to management communication and case studies. And it was this week itself when we had spicmacay performance by an IIMB alumni, a talk by BCG MD and partner James Abrahim and then Mr. Nandan Nilekani coming down to the campus to interact with the incoming batch.
In all the week was a peep into the life of IIM Bangalore and a cushion... a transition mechanism for the newcomers to interact among themselves, with the seniors and with the environment. And then the seniors were always ready to get you into the shoes of 'walking-talking' zombies. Aneways, friends it's now end of the orientation week and from tomorrow commence the regular classes. With an aim to be veritable participant in the classes and solemn student, the same that I set at the dawn of the engineering, I need to catch on with some sleep before the famed excruciating academic life of an institute of management as big as IIM Bangalore.

Graduation Engineered

Finally the coveted degree in hand and am now officially an engineer from an IIT. My last few post must have already enlightened all to the fact of how can this degree be engineered. Still finally having it in hand gives me the special status that comes with it and am atleast a graduate if not an engineer. Atleast the picture that the world sees is bright and thats enough to make me happy.
Yeah during the visit to grab the degree we visited the Pabitora Wild Life Sanctuary which I believe is only place in country where an elephant can take you so near to a rhino that can only be a story of imagination. That was one thing other than the IIT that I guess I would remember for some time.
Filhaal I am over with a phase of life called under-Graduation and am soon to enter the one called post-Graduation and fully enjoying the transition phase. The only matra of life seems to be "Eat Healthy ,Sleep Better" and am truely sticking to it... The apprehensions of sleep being at premium at my new abode furthers my determination.
Leaving for Bangalore on 19th of June and if nothing important comes up I may be back after joining there..Busy with all the stuff U Know...!![:D]