Stigma of 'Somehow Seven'

Every goddamn brilliant work induces a few common feelings viz. motivation, envy, sympathy, judgement etc.

Well this piece of work will just give sympathy which I don’t want and a sense of awe for wrapping up a mistake in a glossy excuse beautifully. It’s not about me. Almost everyone thinks this way only they never put it in words. They’ll applaud and a lot many will pass a contemptuous smirk for giving a convincing reason for laziness, slothful youth and wasted genius.

Yes, my brain is rotten now; a part long since inactive and an active part working continuously thinking about a lot of things. But, for convenience I’d put up just one thought here. Obviously who will read tons of pages of shit?

I’ll keep it short not because I’ve to wake up early to make my practical file to copy aim and procedure, but because the people don’t have the time to read without any reason.

“Somehow seven” isn’t a story it’s the glory of an untold genius or it’s a justification of a lazy moron, an incapable loser – whatever you choose to believe.

So, when Somehow Seven a.k.a SS entered into the field of higher education after the formal schooling, she had a lot of expectations. While in school, the answer to all her queries used to be, wait you’d use all this in college, remember it for now. Her school life will be a story some other time.

But, right now we are talking about college. So, SS joined college. The subjects were familiar initially like Physics, Chemistry, and Maths etc. Her first day in the class wasn’t good; nothing lived up to her expectations.

Gradually she realised that here one has to study all on his/her own. “You are grown up now, too big to be taught. The old, unenthusiastic professors are here to mark your sincerity (75% compulsory attendance) and to tell you the syllabus”, told a senior.

And not to mention that at least some of the professors tried really hard to teach us something, but the incorrigible brains never understood a word – I don’t know who should take the blame.

It’s not the fault of professors obviously, because a few students really knew what to pen down during class and how to score in the exams by learning all what was taught. SS felt deceived, she felt as if their brain was some computer that could store information for some time and empty it right after the exams as whenever she went up to ask something to the top scorers, they always forgot.

She loathed no one, but she respected those students who really loved their subjects, who gave a different answer to her question – “Why do you study so much?”

Mostly people answered, “To get a good job, to score good pointers.” To her amazement, there were also some people who did this because they didn’t have anything else to do, I mean how boring, isn’t it?

Still, there were students who could write down a lot during the exams without understanding that what it actually was and most importantly that why was it needed? SS couldn’t learn this way; the rationality hardwired in her brain stopped her to do so.

She loved to write. Cramming thousands of words and readings volumes of literary work was never a “load” for her. Still she wasn’t a literary genius because she was pursuing B.Tech.

She failed to understand that why these books seemed boring to her, as if it had been written to make no sense. She was never really afraid of the thickness of the book. She felt as if whatever she read here, she won’t be able to retain it, because she couldn’t believe what was written there. Moreover she couldn’t fathom the “use” and practicality of these subjects.

It was her fault as there were people, who could learn from it, prove existing theorems and made exact copy of the circuits given in the lab sheets. She felt that it wasn’t learning it was cheating. But, the silly girl didn’t know that the process is slow. It’s not copying, it’s inspiration which would help you in your inventions tomorrow, but maybe, if only you wish to invent something, most engineers choose to take orders from big MNCs. She believed that she just wasn’t designed to be an engineer.

She compared it with sports. “You don’t read a book on ‘How to play Basket ball’ for a year, read theories, imitate moves of the top players, read history, names of the top players etc. You simply jump into the court, grab a ball and play and learn. This is how it should be”, she thought.

Oh! Silly SS didn’t know that one couldn’t play with atoms, machines and wires. They have to be read, learnt from the book, re-learnt when the need arises.

Unfortunately for SS the ‘need’ never occurred before exams.

SS, the careless girls was good at mathematics and thought that numbers weren’t important.

“How can a number on the scale of 10 rate my intelligence? I don’t care about it, to study and to answer the questions asked in the exam is my duty and I’ll try this”, she felt determined.

She tried but failed, always, because she questioned a lot. “Something as useless as chemistry, I wonder how one can score an A+. No doubt there is a lot of practical use but here it all seems to be a big sheet of data to test our memory skills. My senior in chemical engineering told that even they don’t have to use it ever, anywhere. I’d rather learn a dictionary, it’ll be used at least”, she yelled at her friend who was a chemistry genius. She said, “Grapes are sour, buddy!”

She liked mechanics, she liked FBDs (Free Body Diagrams), she could connect with it, and she could get the feel of it. And thanks to the mechanics professor, she could devote all her time to other subjects and still manage to get an A.

The results were declared; SS managed a decent 7 out of 10. But the judgement day lurked in ambush. She had to explain the three missing numbers to her parents.

“I asked my seniors and even they never use actually what was taught to us in Chemistry and Engineering Drawing is not meant for me. I was never good at drawing straight lines. Moreover, the teacher was boring and I’m not going to use it anyway, not my branch”, SS explained.

But, she felt as if her mother wasn’t listening, she thought that the words were hitting an empty vessel.

Her mother interrupted and said, “You’re just making a lot of excuses. Nothing is going to be of any use anyway. You’ll do MBA after all. But, didn’t I tell you to seek inspiration from Sharmaji’s daughter? She did MBA and during her B.Tech period, she was a 9.6. Now, don’t say that she has a photographic memory. I know that girl since school. She couldn’t even do speedy calculations as you can. Pointers are a measure of your sincerity and intelligence. Improve it! Your problem is that you are finding a lot of reason, a lot of purpose in everything. Seeking purpose in every task is vicious. You don’t seek purpose when you hang out with your friends, do you? Just work harder. Make flash cards if it helps.”

Time passed and it was now her time to prove herself in the subjects of her own stream. Whenever she failed to ‘understand’ something, she went up to her classmates for explanation, only to hear that, “Samajh nahi aaya to rat lia, tu bhi rat le (I didn’t understand so I mugged it up, you do the same).”

And hence her flashcards converted to handbooks and her frustration grew. She failed to learn because deep down she didn’t want to, she didn’t believe it. The culprit ‘Purpose’ was still counting on its last breaths. She stopped all her writing and reading only to devote more time to staring those handbooks.

She looked up at the top scorers with awe sometimes and sometimes with disgust. She really wondered if they could do something real on their own, that if most of them really had an idea of where their learning was going to be used.  And people looked down on her as a dumb and beautiful girl who would get success because of her latter skill.

She hated it. She preferred to die than just be a showpiece, however, she couldn’t.

Placement session started and there was a fight to learn a lot of algorithms, codes, theories etc to get placed as an engineer, to wait to be told by the boss to do something, to make something out of these swots.

She did get a job albeit not because of her face but because she knew who she was and how she could benefit the company. She was not an engineer but she was happy.

Yet, a question always used to trouble her that whether she really failed as an engineer? Or she failed to regurgitate the swallowed texts during the exam?

She never found an answer.

P.S – It’s purely a work of fiction and it is not meant to be generalised even if the same is the opinion of some people. It is not true everywhere and for everyone. However, if you think it is, please do let me know the reason in the comments below. Other views are also welcome.

Criminal

I live in India whose greatness lies in the freedom enjoyed by it's citizens, or more specifically freedom of speech and expression as mentioned in the Article 19 of the longest written and the least understood constitution of the world. To introduce myself, I think just one word would suffice, and that is, Criminal.I’d like to thank this column to give me an courage to express myself. I want to make some confessions but I won’t go to a church. Solely because, Church, or in fact Temple or Mosque or Gurudwara are sites granting us "forgiveness". I want to make it right here as an apology to the victims and an advice to other criminals like me. I don't want forgiveness, I want to set my mistakes right.I hereby confess, that my crime is “Inactiveness”, the slumber of my conscience. My mortal sin, which in fact proved that I'm less than a mortal, is that I never did anything in my entire life. My fault is that I just live my life peacefully and I don’t harm anyone except a few insects and mosquitoes. I breached the god within me by wasting immense potential in me by following the herd and making money and fun. Well, I could have made money and enjoyed my life and yet not wasted my potential but still I chose to make more of it, make more money like a maniac, think of just money, love, fun, entertainment, my beauty, skin, movies, this girl, that boy, gossip, career plans etc. My crime is that I could have been much happier and made others happy too but I chose depression, laziness and distractions for myself. I ruthlessly killed the trying angel inside me because of the fear of being mocked, because of being too much out of the league, because of being too different, because of being too impractical, empathetic, and philanthropic, I didn't even let that final scream of my inner self be heard. I suppressed it, for days, months and years. I got tired of doing the little good I was perhaps doing because I saw others utilizing that time in again making money or above mentioned things. I wronged my just self by never speaking. I silently watch others commit a crime because the change might just be too small. I kept quiet when others said that the crime they just committed was a mistake and too small to make a change.And to enlighten you all about the scenario, it indeed might be trivial, but I feel like a criminal if I do so like waste food, water and other resources. I see people taking a hit at the system but I just keep quiet because I over-think probably.So, let’s call it mistakes and talk of the bigger crimes I’m guilty of, crimes that make newspaper headlines.I could have done something to curb what ills are taking place in the world, especially my country but I chose to wait for others. I did nothing more than shedding a few tears at the plight of girls who suffer excruciating pain daily, at the cry of the 6-year old who was raped by her Gods (read: Teachers).Moreover, I stopped reading newspapers so that I stop being sad about something which I can’t change. I started running away from the truth like that innocent pigeon which closes its eyes and thinks it's dark for the whole world and the hunter won't be able to shoot at it.Okay, I realize that solving the problems of a country is a big and impractical task but I did nothing to improve the situation of my very small city, forget the city I did nothing for the area I live in. The reasons again are the same what I mentioned above.I did nothing to preach the guys I know who encourage prostitution by visiting one such area in the vicinity. I did nothing, I knew everything but I was just too lazy or too scared to say it. I was aghast to know that prostitution is encouraged by such educated, young boys. My mistake was that I was disheartened by this fact and I didn't try further.My inability lies in the fact that I just tweet or share the indignant remarks made by the politicians and other esteemed people blaming the rape victim while I just sit back and plan a business idea instead of planning on how to curb all these crimes to bring a change.I appreciate this stirring movement, the awakening, the revolting students against the fee hike in MNNIT. But, I feel like a hypocrite for I never stirred a movement when a young girl was being raped in the neighborhood The reason, because the fee hike affects me, not her unheard cries.I never travel alone, because you see the current scenario, it’s dangerous when rapes can take place almost anywhere, if not schools, hospitals, buses then you may read the old ladies or young girls being raped in their house itself, it’s easy to break into a house, isn't it? I feel lucky to have a chaperon with me always to accompany me for the entire journey to make me feel safe. But, my offence is that I would never raise my voice until my chaperon is killed during the journey and I’m raped. My inanity is that until something happens to me, my world will be beautiful, full of joys, stress and burning desire to succeed, while I read others being burnt alive just because she was a poor girl.I write this just to avoid you all from feeling like a criminal and help me do the same. Trust me, we can start right now and bring a change, if only all of us unite. Do you think it’s impossible? If an aeroplane, a cell phone, a computer, a touch screen phone can be made, why not this have a solution – the only reason is that we aren't trying hard enough, we aren't united, and we ourselves are criminals. When we can study a whole book right a night before the exams and score 90% do you think we can’t eradicate this problem? When we can code solutions to lengthy, difficult problems, when we make huge circuits work – do you think we can’t find a solution to this?The crime is that none of us is trying, after all enjoying the college life is more important.

100 Days Of Success

He might not have portrayed himself as a system changer like others did, he might not have over promised, but now surely, he is over delivering.  Yes, we’re talking about none other than our very own – NaMo. In his short 100 days tenure, he might not have made huge significant changes, but ‘innovation’ and ‘change’ have surely become rampant in the power corridors. He is living up to his motto – ‘Minimum government, maximum governance.’
Call it his bad luck or whatever, but since he came into power, he has had to deal with a lot more challenges, for instance, India’s primary occupation of agriculture is obscured by the forecast of insufficient monsoon, and a rise in geo-political tensions can cause immense increase in oil prices, further adding to the effect of inflation.
However, I’d like to throw some light on the remarkable changes that have been brought about within the system, which are surely markers of a new beginning. For the purpose of precision and easy understanding, I have listed them down in bullet form –

• There is now proper balance of power, right from peons to bureaucrats and ministers, all are required to come to the office at 9:30 am.
• The Government has finally set out to implement long pending reforms like increasing FDI limit in defence and railways.
• Cabinets meet regularly, and a lot of these meetings happen either at home or at office, where projects worth thousands of crores are cleared over cups of tea and snacks, thereby saving the institutional mechanism of delay as was during the previous government’s rule.
• Ministers are reaching out directly to the people via social media and hence creating transparency.

Apart from these, which I would call small revolutionary changes within the system, NaMo has also contributed significantly to the development of the nation in his first 100 days. For example, India’s GDP growth in April-June 2014 was at 5.7%, which has been the highest in two and a half years, and sale figures of July in terms of cars, SUVs etc. have also shown an increase, hence signalling development in the manufacturing sector, as well as an overall improvement of India’s economic market.

Also, in the last 100 days, one could detect a bold reformist objective in his speeches, reflected in his easing of foreign investment caps in defence and railways, as well as his plans to open up the insurance sector, which had earlier been eluded due to a lack of capital.
He might not be targeting very big problems all at the same time, but at least he is successfully addressing problems one by one. His E-governance ideas are already creating fast, effective, easy, and economic governance. His foreign policy is also commendable, and his approach to the world platform – warmth and close engagement with smaller South Asian neighbours and multi-layered engagement with big powers is worth appreciating. The PM has confidently managed ties with China and Japan.

To sum it up, I want to say that Modi definitely has huge challenges lying ahead of him, but with his smooth, effective ideas, the nation feels that he will be able to successfully handle it.
When Franklin D. Roosevelt came up with the 100-day concept, he had the Great Depression to deal with. Now I agree that India of 2014 is probably not the USA of 1993, but Modi has the intimidating task of lifting the mood of the nation, and his initial 100 days have been a good start in the right direction, making the people of the nation very hopeful.

Iraq - A Close Look

This isn’t the first time that Iraq has been in the global headlines. In 2003 also, the UK government sent British troops to the country in a US-led invasion.

But, the current situation in Iraq is much more dangerous as the people are under immense threat and this may have catastrophic repercussions on the development of the country. The Islamist extremist group called Isis, has taken control of several cities in the country. Lakhs of people have left these areas to avoid conflicts, which is getting closer and closer to the capital city, Baghdad.

Recently, the Iraqi army found counter offensive techniques to fight more effectively after the Sunni insurgency began. According to local channels, thousands of government soldiers with warplanes and tanks had recaptured Tikrit. Preparations were on track for government forces to move north towards Mosul. Sources said that more than 50,000 Christians were forced to run away from the villages near Mosul after the insurgents attacked. They sought shelter in the Kurdistan region of Iraq, which is now an independent entity.

Daily riots and fights are common news to the Iraqi population and the rest of the world which thinks that despite the fact that a lot is going on within, Iraq hears only 50% of it. A spokesperson for the Sunni insurgents fighting primarily against the Shia forces supporting the government of Nouri al-Maliki claimed that the attack had failed, and also reported continuous battle. Insurgents have secured power over large swathes of the territory to the north and west of Iraq.

The Obama administration made a delayed move against Maliki. It called upon his State of the Law coalition and his opponents to form a government of national salvation approving Shia, Sunni and Kurdish parties.

This equates to a demand for Maliki to go—a move considered a precondition for ending the insurgency by the Sunni tribes.

Maliki on the other hand has also begun parley for the return of more than 100 Iraqi planes detained by Iran from the Iraqi pilots during the 1991 Gulf War. A top Iraqi intelligence official told the Guardian that Iran was secretly supplying huge destructive weapons in large numbers. Maliki has also secured planes from Russia and Belarus to counter the failure of the US.

According to the information available over the internet, the US response to the extrication of its previous Middle East policy seems incoherent. Consider the Syrian case, where for years it supported ISIS and other Al Qaeda-linked forces. Washington has officially provided $287 million to the Syrian opposition since 2011 and has trained its fighters in the camps in Jordan.

There is no way to determine where US weapons would end up, especially as the FSA is a much less effective and influential force than the Islamic Front coalition.

There is confirmation of a degree of US cooperation with Iran as well.

Obama sees to it as Iraq needs support to break the momentum of extremist groups and that he may take military action if required. But military advice and support won’t accomplish much if Mr. Maliki and other Iraqi leaders refuse to join together to save their state. Whatever action Obama decides to take, it must be grounded in a larger political strategy considering all the dangers that are developing in the region.

Because of the persistent violence by the Sunni militants, it seems less probable that Iraq might become a unified state.

Events in Iraq are an upsetting denunciation of the role played by US there and throughout the Middle East. The rapacious aims of the US risk a combat that could engulf the entire region. Hence, the role of US is very uncertain in insurgency and this ongoing rebellion in the Middle East. Since Iraq has failed as a state, the UN should intervene as they did in Afghanistan. Only, if peace is seen as the last resort and nothing else, only then the situation can ameliorate. Hence, there should be an extensive modern educational program in Iraq, Iran and similar states to curb the orthodox Islamic organizations’ attempts to rope in youngsters of the region.

There should be job opportunities and foreign investment. Instead of the sanctions posed on these countries which kills jobs and alleviates the violent situation, more financial assistance should be provided. There should be democratic elections moderated by the UN and not the US as was the case in Afghanistan. In the latter case, it becomes the case of puppet governance by the US.

For women empowerment, propaganda should be run with examples like that of Malala Yousafzai. The UN can help and improve the condition of Iraq unlike any other ally.

If that happens, we can hope that the people living there will get a huge relief. But till then we can just pray for peace and raise our voices to support the poor innocent common people suffering in Iraq.

Amen

Do we need an IIT in each state?

The first IIT was founded in May 1950 at the site of the Hijli Detention Camp in Kharagpur. Jawaharlal Nehru, in the first convocation address at the IIT Kharagpur in 1956 said:

“Here in the place of that Hijli Detention Camp stands the fine monument of India, representing India’s urges, India’s future in the making. This picture seems to me symbolical of the changes that are coming to India.”

So, IIT was constructed with this motive. It was supposed to be the driver of India’s technological advancement, producing the best human resources the country would need to make a dent in the world after independence.

Recently our HRD minister promised to establish an IIT in each state. At present, there are already sixteen Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) viz. at Bombay, Delhi, Kanpur, Kharagpur, Madras, Guwahati, Roorkee, Hyderabad, Patna, Bhubaneshwar, Ropar, Jodhpur, Gandhinagar, Indore, Mandi and Varanasi.

Now, is it wise to open new institutes in every state? Can India actually afford it in the present scenario where other issues are of a much greater concern?

I don’t think so. Because, establishing a quality institute or especially an IIT requires a lot of resources. While the total government funding to other engineering colleges is around Rs. 100–200 million (USD 2–4 million) per year, the amount varies between Rs. 900–1,300 million (USD 18–26 million) per year for every IIT. Not just this, it needs well trained and experienced faculty, which is its lifeline. Faculty is the driver of IIT, money is just the fuel – very important, but insignificant if there is no good driver.

Honestly, given a population of 1.2 billion and a GDP of 1.8 trillion USD, it seems an obvious ‘yes’. But it does not. It has the money, but even the existing IITs lack a world-class faculty. The conditions of other institutes are even worse, call it infrastructure or facilities. Well, on a lighter note, students are trained to live in extreme adverse situations which make them tough enough.

A lot of regional engineering colleges and private institutes do not have necessary equipments and a good teaching staff. My friend who joined a engineering college complains that most of the time either the faculty is absent or the college is closed. Surprisingly the newer NITs do not even have a campus of their own. NIT is an institute of national importance. In such a condition establishing IITs namesake with poor infrastructure will just denigrate the brand value of the institute.

Okay, for a while let us even consider that we’ve funds. But, a very important question that arises here is, do we actually need an IIT in each state?

While India produces millions of engineers every year, industries are complaining that they are facing a severe shortage of well trained people. This is a real challenge for India. While we have the world’s largest population of young people, we are ignoring the fact that they many of them are untrained, which would become a liability rather than an asset.

We should keep in mind that creating more IITs would probably give us a few thousand more engineers, but unless vocational institutes and other universities are upgraded, the problem cannot be solved.

A typical engineering graduate follows this treaded path: work for a private firm (most of them end up in the IT sector or consulting, irrespective of their stream), get an MBA and then work for a private firm or go abroad for studies. It is rare that they would join some research institute, or go on for civil services. Some of my friends joined the government agencies, but they told me that they have nothing to do there. I definitely blame them for the brain-drain problem, if the government can’t excite the fresh or talented graduates, then one must not resort to the term “patriotism” and blame the students.

Furthermore the education in our country focuses more on a paper-pen module and mugging up whereas in the US and other countries, there is an emphasis on practical aspects, training and projects. The Government can fuel this sector instead of generating more and more bookworms so that people consider India as the first option for research instead of foreign universities, where they have to go unwillingly and spend huge sums of money.

In addition to that, with the mindless reservation system in India, it is really tough for general candidates to get into this. Definitely they’ll prefer to work where they are chosen for their work and not their surname.

So, the real talent of India hardly serves the nation. In this scenario, will more IITs help? Are we magically going to create new minds at the new IITs?

Think over it, that we have NITs in every state, if we could focus on improving the condition and quality of the existing institutes will lead to development and it’ll produce quality engineers. Moreover, with so many IITs and NITs, we can surely erect buildings but we can’t mould each and every brain. It’s high time that we understand that not every brain is meant to be an engineer. There exist artists, businessmen, and writers as well.

With the increasing number of IITs and other engineering colleges, are we increasing the number of talented technocrats in India? Maybe yes, or maybe no. The answer is uncertain because there are a lot of talented engineers in India, meeting the current technological demand along with several frustrated students who are contemplating on other future options while doing engineering like writing, acting, journalism, hotel management, MBA, IAS etc. It’s not wrong, but most of the times the reason behind this is, as they say, that they can’t understand engineering or they never wanted to be one. Most of the students choose engineering because it’s a trend or because it’s a safe option.

It’s time that now we question that ‘Why is engineering the best and perhaps the only safest graduation option?’

Instead of establishing more IITs we should focus on improving the existing institutes, promote and create opportunities for other professions as well. A student should opt for a stream out of choice and not due to the availability of opportunity.

We should really stop this IIT, Kota hype and ask the children, what they actually want to be, where they think they can prosper and give their best, instead of making them mindlessly following the IIT-IIM herd.

It’s a request to the HRD minister, to create opportunities to train students instead of building IITs. Let them secure their dream job; can earn more than just money. I feel that in this way, we can also cope-up with the rising dissatisfaction, frustration, crime and increase the number of skilled people in various fields and not just engineering.