Kora Kaagaz

2011-11-23T00:16:00.001-08:00

Experiences at the USA

The one week training here at the USA comprised academic sessions of high quality by different experts – an Internal Revenue Service Officer; economists, accountants, professors of the Kennesaw State University, lawyers and tax practitioners from various law firms.

The first day started with a very interesting session on viewing taxation from the perspective of Game Theory. The professor drew conclusions from the perspective of a taxpayer who has the option to decide between paying and not paying the correct tax while the tax administration has to decide between auditing a case and not auditing a case. This situation was shown to be a partial equilibrium wherein no one decision is better than the others. Hence, a probabilistic solution has to be given to this problem and the solution, which is the probability with which the taxpayer will cheat and the IRS will audit, will depend of factors like the cost of audit to the taxpayer, the penalty to taxpayer for cheating and the amount of tax owned to the state. Other important sessions on the same day were an overview of the principles of international tax treaties and transfer pricing with specific reference to the USA, an overview of the state and local taxes in the USA, the IRS whistleblower program.

Another very important session was an overview of the tax administration in the USA by Ms. Karen Russel, an Internal Revenue Service officer. She spoke in detail about the correspondance examination during the tax audit (similar to assessment proceedings in India) and the different third party sources from which information is gathered for assessment. The privacy laws are strict in the US and information flows only on a “need to know” basis among the IRS officers. She also pointed out various think tanks like the Tax Foundation, the Citizens for Tax Justice, the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, in the area of tax policies who raise their voices by submitting reports to the Congress based on the detailed tax statistics released meticulously by the Statistics division of the IRS. We learnt that the US tax code i.e. the Code of Federal Regulations is even more detailed and complex than ours – the US income tax laws come in five voluminous books, with the total number of sections exceeding one thousand.

Almost whenever a systemic improvement is intended, we make references to the similar state of affairs in the USA. Before going to the USA, we had a theoretical understanding of the USA and its economy, people and culture but this visit to Atlanta gave us a closer peep into the actual state of affairs. Now, whenever in future, somebody makes comparisons with the US, we will have a better context and would be in a position to visualize the picture better thereby making us more capable of taking good decisions. The one-week training at Atlanta has definitely broadened my perspective.

Submitted by:-
Vikram Pagaria,
Officer Trainee, 64th Batch of IRS

2011-11-16T17:28:00.000-08:00

During the one-week attachment here at the SARS (South African Revenue Service), i am extremely impressed by a visit at the Computer Forensics Laboratory. I am penning down my experiences below.

The highpoint for me during the attachment was a visit to the Computer Forensics Laboratory at the Large Business Center here at the SARS. The Computer Forensic Laboratory has five computer experts working who manage the entire operations for South Africa. Mr. Arvind Maharaj, a brilliant computer expert heads the laboratory. The high revenue tax-related cases which go to courts and possessing a detailed scrutiny of electronic evidence are referred to the Computer Forensic Laboratory.

The laboratory appeared to be small with only one big room and four small rooms but the discussion that followed consequently stumped us completely. We were shown the hugely powerful computers that the personnel here use for their operations. All the computers are custom-made, possessing 24 GB RAM, a 3.2 GHz quad core Intel processor and a hard disk of around 9 TB. We were then demonstrated a standard hardware device that is used for making an image of a seized hard disk or an external hard disk. The image that is made is a read-only image and hence nothing new can be over-written on these images as well as the viruses in the hard disk also do not infect the system on which the image data will be viewed. Arvind also told us that it is possible to retrieve the files which have been previously permanently deleted by the user. In fact, the current technology allows the retrieval of files which have been deleted upto seven levels e.g. if a hard disk has been formatted for six times, the data that existed on the hard disk initially could be retrieved. This was surely an eye-opener for us but others followed one after the other from Arvind in response to our questions to him.

A smart phone kit was then demonstrated to us which had around 100 different adaptors to charge a phone. It also contained a sleek device which is capable of taking a backup of all the data on the phone and the SIM cards (including data that has been deleted upto seven levels, as above) - contact details, call logs, SMS data, MMS data, photos, images, audio, video, e-mails.

Mr. Zeoline, a very enthusiastic member of the five-membered team then demonstrated us a software named FTKImager, which is used for analyzing the data in an image of a seized hard disk or an external memory. The files which have been deleted permanently could also be retrieved using this software. Additionally, those files whose file types have been intentionally modified to avoid being opened could also be easily opened in this software.

Mr. Arvind then showed us a skimmer, a device which can capture the details on a credit, debit or any other electronic card. He also said that this device is prone to a lot of misuse particularly by restaurant personnel who swipe the customers device on the device that they possess and also on this skimmer. The information stored in the skimmer device could later be retrieved by connecting it to a computer using a USB port and duplicate cards could be made.

All in all, it was a mind-boggling session. The immense knowledge and skills that Arvind and his team members possess was clearly evident in the way they responded to our bombardment of questions. The stipulated duration of the session was 30 minutes but the session continued for over an hour as a result. Finally, all of us were sent to the classroom as the next faculty was waiting.

2011-11-16T17:25:00.000-08:00

A One Week Training Program at the South African Revenue Service (14-18 Nov 2011)

I am sorry that i have not penned anything for so long. Let me write about my experiences here at the SARS.

The one week attachment here in the Maxwell Megawatt Park has been an exceptionally great learning experience. Insights into almost all aspects of tax administration here at the SARS have been provided in the small span of four days and this surely reflects the amount of effort that the organizers Ms. Seboya Mogoba and Mr. Brandley Ngcobo from SARS International have put up under the coordination of Ms. Varsha Singh, Head of SARS International.

The sessions started with the history of SARS by Mr. Aiden Keanly, a very senior officer here at the SARS. This lecture set the context for the sessions that followed, covering aspects from tax legislation to tax administration. One key feature that was conspicuous was the vision and mission of SARS along with its mandate to modernize and reform itself continuously. Mr. Franz Tomasek, a senior SARS official who spoke on “Tax Law and Administration” pointed out that there are many different ideas that can be implemented to modernize SARS but what is vital is to prioritize and focus on four-five ideas rather than seeking up to implement all the ideas. Mr. Jerome Frey on the lecure on “Business Systems and Modernization” revealed SARS phased strategy to modernize itself in a span of seven years. This phased strategy has merits over sudden impulsive steps to change the procedures and processes of the tax administration given the fact that tax environment is itself very complicated and feedback of taxpayers and other stakeholders also need to be taken into account. These messages hold a lot of importance in the Indian context as well and there is surely a lot to learn from the way SARS has given a professional touch to tax administration, which is very unlikely a bureaucratic setup, even here at South Africa.

The highpoint for me during the attachment was a visit to the Computer Forensics Lab at the Large Business Center here at the SARS. We were shown demonstrations on how to make a read-only image of a seized hard disk, to retrieve and analyze the deleted data from a hard disk, to decrypt the files, to analyze the files whose file types have been modified, to make an image of all the data (call details, SMS, MMS, emails, photos, movies, contacts) from a smartphone, to retrieve the information on a credit/debit card etc. The Q&A session was very long and Mr. Arvind Maharaj and the five members working under him at the Computer Forensics were extremely patient to answer our queries.

There are definitely so many lessons to be learnt from SARS. The way in which modernization has been taken up in a phased and structured manner is worth emulating. The efforts of SARS in the field of tax education also are commendable. In this regard, we need to take cues from their practice of keeping the various brochures, pamphlets and similar educational material at all the libraries, national parks, malls and other public places so as to reach to the taxpayers. It was encouraging to listen to their future steps on spreading financial literacy by setting up stalls at the various malls and to include a cartoon-based chapter in the textbooks for school-children.

All in all, I am honored to be here at this training program and sincerely hope that all of us do justice to the huge amount of investment that has been done on us to send the entire delegation to South Africa. There are miles to go before we sleep !!!

2011-03-26T12:41:00.001-07:00

UPSC INTERVIEW 2011
Me: Good Morning, Madam. Good Morning Sirs.
Shashi Uban Tripathi (SUT) : Good Morning, Vikram. So, are you doing training?
Me: Yes, Madam.
SUT: Where?
Me: NADT. National Academy of Direct Taxes, Nagpur.
SUT: Oh..Nagpur (as if it was something new to her). So, Vikram, tell me, in very brief, about your academic and professional life?
Me: Madam, I completed my B.Tech in Biological Sciences and Bioengineering. Then, I worked in a start-up company working in the field of intellectual property and then I am here, in the IRS.
SUT: But, what did you do at Vellore?
Me: Madam, I had enrolled for a Ph.D program in Biomedical Devices and Technology. This program was good in the sense that I could enroll without having to do my masters. This program is an integrated Ph.D program among IIT Madras, Shri Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Trivandrum – essentially a blend between medical science and technology.
SUT: So, you were there for how many months?
Me: Four months.
SUT: So, why did you leave?
Me: Madam, I wanted to do research on tuberculosis but there were not many professors working in this area. In fact, none in the IIT Madras was working in this field. This program required that one has to necessarily have a guide from IIT Madras and one from either of CMC or SCTIMST. They were suggesting me to change the problem but I was not interested. Fortunately, I got into the services. But, still I would like to work on TB in future.
SUT: But, that’s not possible given that you are into service and would have to do justice to your current job. Ok, so you read non-fiction. Which books have you read?
Me: Madam, I’ve read the ‘Google Story’ by David Vice, ‘Ideas and Opinion’ by Albert Einstein, ‘The Audacity of Hope’ by Barack Obama, ‘India Unbound’ by Gurcharan Das, ‘Imagining India’ by Nandan Nilekani..
SUT: So, can you tell me in very brief one of these books which you liked the most and why?
Me: Madam, the book which had the maximum impact on me is “The Audacity of Hope” by Barack Obama; the main reason being the way in which he has written as to how he got the idea of bringing change in the world. In one of his stories, he mentioned that his daughter had to be hospitalized and during this time, he saw the reality of healthcare in the US. He mentioned as to how healthcare reforms were the need of the hour. Similar is the case with his views on foreign policy.
SUT: But, if that is the case, then why is Obama’s popularity dropping by?
Me: Madam, I agree with you that his popularity is decreasing but I think the reason is the political constraints and compulsions in which he works.
SUT: But, compulsions are everywhere.
Me: Yes Madam, you are right. I know he hasn’t delivered but I sincerely hope that he does in the remaining period of his tenure.
M1: Ok Vikram. You have been running from pillar to post from Kanpur to Bangalore to Vellore. During this time, have you done anything for the society? Can you elaborate one incident which shows that you did something for the society?
Me: Sir, I worked with an NGO named Jagriti during my college days. Jagriti works in the field of education for the children of migrant workers. They have set up around 22 centers at various brick-kilns in Kanpur. We used to go there and teach. At one of the center, there was a girl named Sarita who had Rheumatic Heart Disease and needed a heart-valve replacement. The operation was to cost around Rs. 1.8 lakh. We, in our college, could manage to raise the amount and got her operated at Bangalore.
M1: But, that must have been a team effort. What was your role in this activity?
Me: Sir, I went along with Sarita and her father to Lucknow to get all the medical check-ups done. I collected all her medical reports, scanned them and mailed them to various charitable hospitals throughout the country. In the fund-raising, I had to coordinate with each hostel representative.
M1: Mr. Vikram, you appear to be so soft. Do you get angry? Have you ever beaten somebody? (laughs all around) I mean, physically or verbally.
Me : (I smiled for a second or two). There was one incident which I can recollect in which in our college, there was use of plastic glasses for drinking water, milk and tea. Inspite of repeated urges to the Mess Committee, when there was no action, I got very angry.
M1: So, it was a verbal fight.
Me: Yes Sir.
M1: So, have you ever beaten somebody.. I mean physically?
Me: No Sir, that I used to do in school..not any more.
M1: Vikram, what according to you is your best quality?
Me: Sir, my sir told me that although I am not very talented…
M1 (interrupts): I am not asking about your weaknesses but your strengths.
Me: I think that would be my being dedicated to my work.
M1: You are a student of psychology. How do you measure motivation?
Me: Sir, measuring motivation is something very difficult, the main reason being that it is something which is very subjective. The only way one can measure is through one’s actions. If somebody does something with full commitment and to the best of his/her capabilities, I think he/she is very motivated. He/she has found a purpose of life.
M1: So, can you give an example which shows your dedication?
Me: Sir, recently, I along with my friend were given the charge of making identity cards for all 152 of our batch. It was done because although it is the responsibility of the administration but since they had not done it well, our institute purchased a new identity card printer and we were supposed to design the card from scratch. We managed to do the task from designing till taking the final print outs one by one.
M1: So, did you work for long?
Me: Yes sir. Sometimes, it used to become 10 o’clock 11’o- clock and one day, I could sleep only at 4:30 in the morning.
M2: You have worked in the field of intellectual property. Can you tell me about your opinion on whether we should go ahead with GM food-crops or not?
Me: Sir, I think that we should not go ahead until we are absolutely sure about the safety of these crops. We, in India, do not have an independent regulatory body, that can testify that “Yes, everything is fine.”
M2: But, ICAR approved of the GM study?
Me: Sir, but as Jairam Ramesh, Mr. Jairam Ramesh has pointed out there are contradictory studies as well. Some studies have been done by Monsanto, which itself is a corporation and hence there is an underlying conflict of interest. Until we have a clear-cut conclusion that green signal can be given to GM crops, we should not go ahead with them.
M2: Tell me, what is ‘gene-erosion’?
Me: looking thoroughly confused…I asked him to repeat the same.
M2: Gene-Erosion i.e. the same as “terminal technology’’
Me: Sir, the terminal technology is the brain-child of Monsanto. It essentially means that a farmer can grow the crop using the GM seeds purchased from Monsanto only once. The next time, he has to sow the seeds; he would have to purchase the same from Monsanto again. This technology has been widely criticized as it is detrimental to the interests of the poor farmers of our country and the world.
M2: What are the different types of Intellectual Property in India?
Me: Patents, Trademark, Copyright, Trade-secrets, Service-Mark
M2: Anything else..
Me: thinking.
M2: GI
Me: Yes Sir, Geographical Indications. In Goa, there is …(i was forgetting “Phenny” here)
M2( started giving his inputs..i felt relieved because I was not able to recollect any other example of GI): They are very important e.g. Darjeeling Tea, ..(he gave one more example but I am not able to recollect that).
M2: Tell me about the importance of intellectual property. I mean, why do we have IPRs in the first place?
Me: Sir, the main intention behind IPRs is to foster innovation. It is basically a reward for the inventor for the efforts he/she has put in to come upto that invention. For example, a pharma company has invested so much in R&D to design a miniscule drug, we need to make sure that after the drug is invented, nobody else is allowed to freely manufacture the drug and sell in the market. A time-period of 20 years, in the case of patents is given to a company to sell that drug exclusively.
M3: What is Neemuch famous for? (Neemuch is in MP and is my place of birth)
Me: Sir, it is the eye-donation capital of india. The number of eye-donations from this district is the maximum in India.
M3: What type of donations are these?
Me: Sir, they are cadaveric eye-donations.
M3: Ok..but this could also be due to the population of Neemuch. Do you know the population of Neemuch?
Me: Sorry Sir, I am not aware of this fact.
M3: How long did you stay in Neemuch?
Me: Sir, till my 7th standard i.e. around 13 years.
M3: And you still don’t know the population of Neemuch. Ok, what else is Neemuch famous for?
Me: Sir, Neemuch is famous for opium-production.
M3: What are other places in India very opium is produced?
Me: Sir, Chittorgarh and Kota in Rajasthan..
M3: Any other place
Me: (Did not answer…I was thinking..may be, I think ‘pretending to think’ would be a better phrase here.)
M3 : In MP
Me: (did not answer..genuinely thought this time but it didn’t help)
M3: Are you aware of any war that was fought on the issue of opium?
Me: No Sir, I am not aware.
M3: Something in which East India Company was involved. It relates to an important event in history.
Me: Sorry Sir, I am not aware of the opium-war.
M3: What is “law of attraction”?
Me: Sorry Sir, I do not know.
M3: Do you not go to the bookshops? You have interests in reading non-fiction books.
Me: Sir, I do visit bookshops. I go to Crosswords..
M3 (interrupts) : This is a very famous book. The exact title is “The Law of Attraction – The Secret”? It was a best-seller for a long time on the stands.
Me: Yes Sir, Secret – I have heard that book. Is it that book which is a kind of self-help book?
M3: Yes, it is a sort of self-help book.
Me: Sir, my friend had recommended this book to me
M3: But you haven’t read it, did you?
Me: No Sir, I haven’t read it.
M3: Ok, in the book “Imagining India” by Nandan Nilekani, what has he mentioned specifically about the English language?
Me: Sir, Nandan Sir says that English is responsible for the IT revolution in India. Since we knew English and we could couple it along with our computing skills, we were able to successfully market ourselves to the developed countries and the entire outsourcing boom came. Also, English is a major unification force in the country. Since the South-Indians could not speak Hindi and the Hindi-speaking people in the North India have trouble learning the languages of South-India, both can interact in English. Hence, English brings us together.
M3: Inspite of the fact that English is a colonial language and not our own.
Me: Sir, Nandan Sir has said that the IT revolution occurred in India and not in China because Indians could communicate readily in English with the companies of the West. Hence, English was crucial in bringing the IT revolution.
M4: Vikram, have you heard of “black swans” in the context of public administration (I don’t know why he asked me this question..public administration was never my optional)
Me: No Sir….Does it mean ‘’something bad’’.
M4: No, it means that something unexpected. Do you think that unexpected events are a hindrance in public administration?
Me: Yes Sir. For example, the Japan earthquake. Nobody knew that it is going to come but it…
M4 (interrupts): Can you take an example from India?
Me: Sir, 2-3 days back, a police officer was burnt alive by a group of miscreants in Sawai-Madhopur district. There was fire in IOC godown in Jaipur. Suddenly, we had the 26/11 Mumbai attacks. So, something that comes without anticipation creates new hurdles in the already challenging life of the administrators.
M4: So, is there a strategy where in one can anticipate these events?
Me: Sir, it is possible. Through disaster management, we can create systems so that we can anticipate if an earthquake/flood/drought comes and what should be our strategy to tackle them. If we see the case of the Japan earthquake, authorities in Japan could disseminate the information to every Japanese citizen that a Tsunami is going to come within an hour.
SUT: Who are opium-eaters?
Me: Sorry Madam, I do not know.
SUT: Ok, your interview is over.
Me: Thank you madam.
As I stood up, Madam told me that opium-eaters are the Chinese and one board-member who was mentioning about opium-wars was actually fought between the Chinese and the East-India company. I thanked them once again and moved out.

2010-09-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

Be the change that you want to see in the world

Most of us feel extremely bad when we hear time and again of stories depicting how bruthlessly our politicians have let our country go to dogs. Ask even an illiterate person about the problems of our country and he/she'll immediately bounce back saying, "Our politicians are corrupt. They make a lot of promises before the election and once they are elected, they are busy making money." But, is putting the entire blame on the government for all the problems of the country justified? Is government responsible for the casualties caused due to unavailability of blood in the hospital? Is government responsible for the hardships faced by a large number of patients who are waiting for a donated kidney/lung/eye? There are a number of issues where it is not the government but individual action matters. Infact, merely blaming everything on the government is brushing away our responsibility towards our country and the world. Sure, an individual can't go and announce a scheme like MNREGA for the emancipation of the rural poor from the vicious circle of poverty. It is because legislation is the exclusive domain of the politicians. However, there are many things which an individual can do and should do to make this world a better place to live in.

So, what change I alone can bring about? Will my donating blood ensure that others also come and donate so that the blood bank will always an adequate stock of blood? Will my throwing the garbage in the dustbin ensure that the roads are clean, because anyways, whether I do it or not, others would still throw the garbage on the road? Will my using public transport ensure that others will not use their private vehicles indiscriminately? Will I be able to change the system? These are extremely valid questions and more often than not, are responsible for people turning a blind eye towards the problems of the country. A feeling of helplessness creeps in, leading to total loss of faith in the current system. This is one of the reasons for extremely low voter turnout in elections since people think they don't have a choice – whoever is elected, he/she'll be corrupt. In addition, the question of "How does this matter to me" also is a powerful deterrent from taking an initiative to bring about a positive change in the society.

Let me first try and list those tasks that can be done readily, without facing much inconvenience or investing too much time and energy.
Donate blood
Pledge your bodyparts to be donated after your death
Plant atleast 5 trees
Dispose your garbage judiciously
Follow traffic rules
Waste food minimally
Conserve electricity and water
Shun plastic bags and try to be eco-friendly
Sign online petitions if they reach your inbox
Never give bribes
Keep public places (e.g. Public toilets) clean
Use public transport. Give seats to the aged, women and children.
Don't smoke and don't allow others to smoke in public
Be a genuinely good person

There are many who might not be satisfied by the above list arguing that most of these are merely good manners and are things that need to be done on a personal level. For those enterprising people, I wish to present a list of tasks which would require more time, energy and resources but would be able to bring about a change on a bigger level.
Associate with a local NGO
Contribute by using your skills – if you are a website designer, you can design websites for some NGOs in your locality. You can teach children/adults what you are good at. Help them in learning computers/English/vocational skills so that they become employable and can earn a living. The best example that comes to my mind is Google. Although Google doesn't do charity, Google has made an enormous impact in our lives by asking its employees to go into villages and make maps; which led to the launch of Google Maps. Google Books, Google Earth, Google Docs and Google Translator are other extremely powerful and noble initiatives of Google.
Use RTI – RTI is immensely powerful. If you think that there is anything wrong going around in your society or you need to get information about the roads/pipelines constructed in your area, you can file an RTI. Don't be a silent observer, try to bring about a change.
Take up the cause of marginalized or less empowered people around you. Be accessible to everybody around your locality and at your work. Listen to their grievances and if you feel they are genuine and you can do something about it, do it.
Online Activism – There are lot of things that the Internet has made very easy. If there is anything that you feel is unreasonable, try to spread the message around. Use twitter, facebook, your gtalk status messages, write blogs, network with other like-minded motivated individuals, create online petitions, write letters.
Online volunteering – Go to www.onlinevolunteering.org and find out about this extremely powerful idea of making a meaningful contribution sitting in your home.
Take initiatives to conduct health camps, blood donation drives, tree plantation drives,
Have the guts to challenge archiac social norms (e.g. Dowry, same caste marriages). You don't always have to follow the crowd. One needs to win over the myth that an ordinary person can't bring about a change and you got to be Bill Gates/Narayana Murthy/an IAS officer/politician to bring about a change. Baba Amte, Mother Teresa, Anna Hazare were all very ordinary people to start with. If everybody thought that I can't change the system, will there ever had been wikipedia, a completely philanthropic effort. Yes, we can. Yes, we can. Don't try to become a part of the problem, try to think of meaningful ways to solve them. Actively spread the message around and try to do something about it, however small it is.

We must realise that we are living in a democracy and democracy is a government of the people, by the people and for the people. The onus of 'by the people' part is on us and we got to play this part in order for smooth functioning of the world's largest democracy. It is not that all of us need to become revolutionaries or become social activists; if all of us can manage to contribute a drop in the ocean, it is commendable. We sometimes feel extremely charged and motivated when we see movies like "Rang De Basanti" or when something bad happens to our near and dear ones. But, these thoughts must be supplemented with action. We need to keep ourselves motivated, be patient and continuously try to bring about a change. It will take time but it surely will come. We don't need to lose our heart. Sometimes, we take a bold initiative and we feel that it was not worth it and it didn't bring about the required change. I think we must reward ourselves in those situations by realising that atleast we did something about it. If we didn't have done something about it, the problem would have stayed as is but atleast a honest try to do something about it was made. Atleast, we tried to come out of the comfort zone. Atleast, you acted and as Gandhiji said, "Almost anything that you do is insignificant, but it is very important that you do it."

2010-09-03T05:14:00.000-07:00

My first day at RCVPNAA, Bhopal

Today is the 29th of August, the day which I was looking forward to since the last 3 months.

We arrived in Bhopal at around 10 am. The autorickshaw, although cunning enough to charge us 130 Rupees (and we gullible enough to be trapped into his trap) was effortlessly telling us about the situation of Bhopal - the nice places here, the weather here, that the rains were not good this time, that the CM is discriminating between Old Bhopal and New Bhopal, as a result of which old Bhopal's development has been compromised.

We reached the academy and the two ladies at the reception were kind enough to check the file and told me that my room number will be 217. The keys were handed over to me and there was an attendant who helped us (Papa and me) to get the luggage upstairs.

The room was out of bounds of my expectations. It looked like a 3-star hotel room - with 2 ACs (it is a double-occupancy room and my roomie is yet to arrive), neatly arranged beds, a small sofa, a study table, two wardrobes, a tea-table and a clean bathroom. There was a strange feeling of pride saying, "Hey, you deserve it." But, I know that I am not here for luxury. Papa was taking bath and I was putting my clothes into the wardrobe when some of the other trainees came into the room. They were around 5-6 of them and I already knew one of them (I met him at CMC Vellore before). We introduced ourselves (most of them spoke about the states where they were from and the service they were allotted). I deliberately asked them when they had come and the room number they are staying so as to prorogue the formal talk and to talk something which is not a matter of personal pride (like what rank did you get, whether it was your first attempt and other things which might be linked to one's ego).

We then headed for lunch. We met some more trainees there. A guy from Indian Corporate Law Service, who hailed from Bangalore, was giving some fundaes in a typical accent. He seemed to be boastful and to know a lot of things. I was a bit critical because I made these conclusions merely due to his extrovert nature. But, sometimes among strangers, one person should be an extrovert, I thought because it becomes easy for the group to come together and talk. There was another person (he was incidentally from Jammu and was a Sardar) - I am not able to recollect his name. He said that he was 29 years old and was very happy that he had got into IRTS. He said that he had talked to rank-21 person (who is currently an IAS at Uttarakhand) who was very unhappy with his life as an IAS officer. He seemed to be a knowledgeable person and what I liked in him was his sympathetic attitude. This was reinforced when we later had a session on abusing the UPSC and its various ways of not changing with time, delaying the results, asking the preferences before the mains exam, lack of information about the various services. It was a good discussion and I think that there are a lot of people who think and want to change/improve the system - something that I was desperately hoping for, since the last couple of months.

We then headed for a walk towards the Shahpura lake (thanks to the initiative taken by that Bangalorean ICLS guy). We were around 14-15. Naturally, there were around 5-6 groups of 2-3 people each. I was in a 3-member group along with that Bangalorean and my CMC Vellore friend, Dhruva. They were doing most of the talking and I was just listening. Then, the Jammu Sardar also joined our group and a discussion on the Kashmir problem started. I was doing most of the listening since I really wanted to hear something from a localite. But, he couldn't tell something new, most of it was the stuff which I had already listened on the news channels. I caught up with Papa, who was walking alone towards the lake. We walked around 200 m, saw the lake, it was fenced all around and also, it was dirty. We headed back towards the academy.

Now, that we are back to the room and he is sleeping, I am on the sofa with an edition of "The Week" on the tea-table along with a book on Physical Geography. When I was reading about the earthquakes, there were a lot of thoughts going on in my mind and hence I thought that let me pen them down. So, I have started writing this column.

This day, is many days, similar to the first day at college. There is a strange feeling of inferiority complex, the fact that I am not very vocal and do not have much to say. The photo of Mother Teresa on "The Week" reminds me again that anybody can bring about a change, if one desires to. She was not even a university graduate and she started at the age of 40, yet she brought about a change. Here, I am sitting and wondering whether it is worthwhile to join IRS (IT) and bring about improvements in the system or I should study for the next exam and become an IAS officer. This constant dilemma is not leaving me. Let me read for the next 2 months and then see if I can get selected. Otherwise, I have IRS in my hand, I will try my heart out. Salute to you, Mother Teresa...hats off to you.

2010-08-07T00:00:00.000-07:00

My marksheet

2010-06-15T01:25:00.000-07:00

A big myth - Writing skills a mandatory requirement for clearing UPSC exams
There has been a belief that one has to have very good writing skills so as to clear UPSC exams. Many coaching institutes are leveraging on this rumor since it is easy money for them. They conduct test series and try to lend help by giving 'feedback' on the answers that one writes. However, I believe strongly that rather than writing skills, knowledge is imperative for success in the UPSC exams i.e. One should know first what to write rather than knowing how to write. No flowery language is desired by the UPSC, except otherwise your optional is English literature. One just needs to express whatever one knows in a manner that if one reads your answer, he is able to assimilate what you wish to say.
So, the question comes, “What should be a good style to write the answers?”, “Should I underline the important points?”, “Should I write in paragraphs or in bullets or number the points?”, “Is handwriting important?”. I think all these questions and many more are logical questions in any person looking for clearing this exam. But, the point that I wish to make here is that “It doesn't matter as long as you've written what you wished and explained it well”. There is no need of a specialized training on how to write answers. Everybody has its own style and you should follow that.
The only guideline that I wish to give you is that before answering any question, think for a couple of minutes and jot down on the last page (you can use it as a rough page) the key points that you wish to cover in the answer i.e. Try and give a structure to your answer. I can illustrate this by an example. Suppose the question is ''Elaborate the issue of Jammu and Kashmir in light of India-Pakistan relations?”. When you read this question, you've some idea of what is expected. Now, you try to think of whatever you know about the J&K problem. Just jot the points on the rough page (you may recollect something about the history of the problem, Raja Hari Singh's gesture to India for protecting J&K, some dates you might recollect e.g. The 1948 war, 1965 war, 1999 Kargil war, peace agreements like Tashkent Agreement, Shimla Agreement, Gen Mussharaff's visit to India, UN view on J&K, what India wants, what Pakistan wants, what US wants, what the international community wants, what the people of J&K wants, current problems in J&K, the social angle, possible solutions, conclusion). Now that you've written whatever you know about the J&K issue, try and put these points in order keeping in mind chronology as well as continuity e.g. Before discussing the history of the problem, there is no point in discussing what India wants and what Pakistan wants. Also, one needs to enumerate what India wants and what Pakistan wants before writing about what the US/UN/the international community wants. If I had to write the answer, I would have written as:-
a) A short history of the J&K problem – post-independence scenario, Raja Hari Singh, India and Pak involvement, special status given to J&K under the Indian constitution, a brief war, UN intervention in 1948, UN resolution, 1965 war, Tashkent agreeement, Shimla agreement, 1999 war, efforts at reconciliation.
b) current situation of J&K – the problems there, local lives affected, seperatists' movement, Indian army, infiltration, terrorism
c)What India wants – considering LOC as the international border, no chance of mediation, worried about close relations between India and China,
d) What Pak wants – considers it as a freedom struggle, wants the entire J&K, supporting infiltrators, wants a referendum in J&K.
e) What the people of J&K wants – lot of local parties like the Hurriyat, National Conference, PDP, worried about Indian army's wrong doings with general public.
f) What the UN wants – wants the situation to be solved bilaterally, still the UN resolution of 1948 needs to be implemented, doesn't have teeth to implement
g) What the US wants – not very worried, giving aid to Pak to solve its own problem of Afghanistan, good relations with India as well on the economic front.
h) Problems – local life affected adversely, tourism disrupted, huge drain of money on the part of India and Pak who are struggling to wipe out poverty
i) Possible solutions – LOC as an international border, status quo, India gives up, Pak gives up, 'Aman ki asha' – friendly relations between India and Pak, bilateral diplomacy
j) Conclusion – All in all, a very complex issue but it is high time that leaders who have the political will step in to solve this crisis otherwise the people are affected.

2010-06-15T01:24:00.001-07:00

Preparing for Geography as an optional for UPSC exam
Geography is a popular optional for UPSC exams particularly because of its objective nature – if you know it, you get the marks unlike other subjects like sociology/political science which seem to be extremely subjective. Geography also has some subjectivity particularly the 'human geography' part but still I feel is a good choice for science & technology graduates. If you liked geography during your school days, I think you should have a look at the syllabus and previous question papers (available on www.civilserviceindia.com) and then decide. Since the syllabus is vast, you need to allocate a considerable amount of time for this subject.
I want to put a disclaimer here that although I took Geography as one of my mains optional, I couldn't do full justice to this subject due to lack of time. I could only read the NCERTs and was not able to read any other standard books like Majid Hussain, Rupa's 'Geography Made Simple' and other suggested references. So, I am a sort of novice to this vast subject and so would advice to take everything I write down with a pinch of salt. Inspite of this, I am writing this article because I managed to pass through the exam studying very little since I focused on the basics. I've not been successful to receive my marksheet for this year's exam although they've been up on the website but it seems that it doesn't consider my e-mail id (vikrampg@gmail.com) a valid e-mail id. So, as and when I get my marksheet, I'll post it on the blog. My roll number is 383943 and my birth date is Dec 15,1986. If you know somebody who has the marksheet or can find out my marks, please let me know.
1. Start with NCERTs: Start with NCERTs (recent – freely available for download from ncert's website or you can do a google search for the same) from Class 6. Underline/highlight and/or keep noting the important points. Pay specific attention to the three NCERTs of Class 11 and 12. These three textbooks are extremely informative and cover almost 50% of the course. I would suggest you to go through these three textbooks twice or thrice and learn the facts therein by heart. When you read other reference books/notes, you should try and assimilate the extra information. For example, the NCERT book will contain the locations of iron and steel industry in the country. Learn these locations and the basic information given in the NCERT (e.g. Durgapur steel plant set up with British support, Bhilai steel plant set up with Russian support). Now, when you read a specific reference or some notes from a coaching institute, try and build on the existing knowledge that you had from the ncert (e.g. What are the turnovers of this industry, which is the biggest steel plant, what grade of steel does India manufacture, what are the problems, how does India compare to the international scene etc.). Thus, other things that you read will help you build up on what you already know from the NCERTs. Essentially, what I am suggesting is that build up your basics and get a broad overview from the NCERTs and then try to deepen your knowledge from reading other things. I am stressing the point over and over again primarily because I think the syllabus is huge and one has to manage it somehow. Thus, cover the breadth first and then the depth.
2. Use internet if you can: Don't leave any portion of the syllabus. Atleast, know the basics. Take the syllabus in your hand and do a google search for any entry that you wish to know about e.g. I did this for the different theories (rank-rule hierarchy, central place theory) and atleast got an idea of what the theory is. Internet will help you also for phsyical geography e.g. The mechanism of monsoons, the different winds, El Nino and La Nina effect. Numerous animations are available. Wikipedia is a wonderful resource. Search about different places in the news or places that you've heard of but you are not sure as to where exactly they are (e.g. Casablanca, Timbaktu, Tashkent, Kyoto, Montreal, Miami).
3. Also, learn to make a rough map of India (world is optional) so that you can quickly make it while answering questions for paper 2. e.g. On the question of location of the iron and steel industry, you can quickly make a rough map and mark the different locations. This will fetch you a lot of marks. A picture is worth a thousand words, really...
4. Map entries: Locating given places on the map or identifying marked places on the map has been the standard question (worth 60 marks) in both Paper 1 and Paper 2. Thus, maps comprise 120 marks out of 600 marks i.e. 20% which is huge by any standards. So, how should we maximize our chances of marking the correct entries on the map. The first obvious thing is references – atlases in this case. The Oxford Atlas is very good particularly in regard to Indian entries while the Orient Longman Atlas is a good choice for the international entries. I studied mostly from the Orient Longman but later also got the Oxford Atlas xeroxed. I'll also suggest you to get some unlabeled maps of India and the world (preferably without any state or country boundaries) so that you can practice on it or put important places on it for later revision or as a reference
1. Make/get a list of important rivers/seas/deserts/mountains of India as well as the world – The idea here is to do it one by one. Get a list of important rivers of the world (from wikipedia or any other resource) and label it on one of your unlabeled map. If the list is very big e.g rivers, you can do it continent by continent otherwise e.g. If you are marking seas, then you can do it once and for all. You'll find that doing this will give you a confidence that “atleast, now I know all the seas of the world.” Moving piece by piece will further boost your confidence. You can follow the same strategy for India.
2. Mark all the countries and their capitals & important cities on the map : This will also help you a lot, you'll know a lot of places. Some of these places are directly asked in the exam.
3. One entry is usually of 6 marks – 3 marks for the entry and 3 marks for its description or 2 marks for the entry and 2 marks for its description (if one entry is worth 4 marks). The point here is that how should we prepare for the description part. I think the answer is not simple. One has to know a lot e.g. About the place where a river rises and where it drains finally or why is a city famous or what are the countries in which a given mountain range is located or some nearby areas; I'll suggest you to prepare yourself atleast for writing one sentence on the location of the entry (e.g. This river flows in the continent X and is situated to the north of mountain/river/sea Y and it flows through these countries). Other things that are expected from us are daunting e.g. Where does the river rise, does the river flow eastwards/westwards/southwards/northwards, where does the river drain itself. I myself couldn't do this but I would like to mention that this is the level of details that the examiner expects. If you write all this correctly e.g.one can write this for the river Ganga, then you get full marks. However, step marking is there and let's try to maximize our marks rather than brood over the difficulty of the task.
4. Anticipate: Most of the times, the entries that are asked in the question paper are not random; these places are important if an international summit has happened there (e.g. Kyoto, Copenhagen, Rio De Jenerio, Montreal, Bali, Doha etc.), an earthquake/tsunami/volcano has struck there (e.g. La Aquilla, Haiti, Chile) or some oil/gas/mineral has been found there (e.g. Sakhalin, KG basin, Mangala). So, any place which is in the news, try and ask in which country the place it is, what is it famous for.

2010-06-15T01:05:00.000-07:00

Preparing for Psychology as an optional for UPSC mains
I think psychology, in addition to being an obvious choice for psychology graduates, is also a very good option for medicos as well as people from science and engineering; particularly because of the scientific nature of the subject. The knowledge of neurosciences will be an edge for aspirants with medical and/or biology background (minimum criteria here is studying biology till class 12). Another good thing about psychology is that the syllabus also is not as vast as geography or public administration. In addition, good reference material is available thereby enabling you to complete the subject reasonably in around one and a half months (in emergency) to three months (almost comfortably).
I had taken psychology as an optional for my mains exam so I've focused on strategies that can help for mains and not prelims. I am not sure about the guidelines for the prelims exam as I myself have not taken it. Thus, this article is meant as a guide only for psychology as a subject for mains exam.
Psychology is on the realm of the boundary between science and social science i.e. It is an 'arts' subject yet it shares many things with science – it is logical, it employs the scientific method of experimentation and rational approach to derive theories of immensely abstract things e.g. Motivation, emotions, values. The abstruce and abstract subject material brings in the features of social science into psychology.
So, if you feel you wish to go ahead with psycho, read the following section on 'how to go about it'.
a. Start with the NCERTs: Class 11 and 12 psychology textbooks (take the recent version) are awesome. They cover almost 60% of the mains syllabus. Start with the NCERTs slowly, underline important things and note down key definitions along with important case-studies/experiments on any topic e.g. Note down the 1$ -20$ experiment as a proof for cognitive dissonance.
b. Mukul Pathak Sir's notes: Mukul Pathak Sir is a teacher in 'Vajiram and Ravi' coaching institute. His notes are phenomenal. They are very well structured and contain a lot of vital information. Another good point is that he has followed verbatim the syllabus as has been given by the UPSC for psychology. His handwritten notes are easily available at almost any stationery shop in Mukherji Nagar/Rajendra Nagar in New Delhi.There are six registers that cover the entire syllabus for paper 1 and 2.
c. A standard reference : There are some concepts which need to be read elaboratively for deep understanding. Additionally, since the NCERTs as well as Mukul Sir's notes are mostly pedagogical, there is a need for a text book which explains psychology in a layman language as well as explains it with pictures, examples and interesting experiments. Two books could be suggested here - “Introduction to Psychology' by Baron or 'Introduction to Pscyhology' by Morgan and King (this book has a yellow cover). If you haven't read Morgan before, then I suggest you to read Baron since it has a summary section at the end of every chapter. The summary is superb and will help you during your revision. You might as well start reading the summary first followed by NCERT and Mukul Sir's notes.
These six registers, along with the NCERTs and one reference (either Baron or Morgan) makes your arsenal complete. Now, you've to read meticulously and complete the things. Note down the definitions in a seperate copy as it will help immensely to reproduce the same definition in the exam. Only one definition is enough (no need to learn multiple definitions as has been given in Mukul Sir's notes; take one definition either from Baron/NCERT/Mukul Sir's notes). Also, keep writing the various experiments/case studies which form the basis of a psychological phenomenon. e.g. Decrease in motivation for solving puzzles when a child is offered chocolates rather than when he used to solve it for personal satisfaction is an example for 'overjustification effect'.
I'll like to give you an additional advice which I benefited a lot from. This advice was written by Shubra Saxena (UPSC 2009 topper) on her blog. She adviced students to summarise every chapter in 2-3 pages so that these pages could be handy while you revise 1-2 days before the exam. These notes could also be helpful during the one or two hours that you've before the exam. Try and summarise each chapter in 2-3 pages, it definitely helped me and I'm sure this piece of advice is very practical.
Writing skills don't matter a lot in psychology. Try and recollect the important points; the task then is to present the recollected points in an organized way. Before writing any answer, think about the structure of the answer that you'll write. For example, if the question is “Should mentally challenged children be taught in special schools or the same schools as normal kids study?” and if it is a 60 mark question; then you need to think before you write. You can give the structure as follows:-
a. Explain who are mentally challenged?
b. Explain their constraints/problems/limitations?
c.Give points on as to why they should be taught in the same school (so that normal kids understand them and appreciate their problems, they don't suffer from inferiority complex, they'll add to the diversity of the class, more humane way of teaching).
d.Give points on as to why they should be taught in a different school (they have special needs which need to be dealt seperately, they'll feel inferiority complex when they go to normal schools, two mentally challenged kids will have higher probability of becoming friends rather than a mentally challenged kid and a normal kid)
e. Some solutions which if taken could help solve the problem (e.g. Ensuring a counseler in the school whose duty is also to look into the special needs of the child will help in diagnosing if anything is going wrong with the kid)
f. Final Conclusion (what do you think -after giving both the pros and cons, what do you feel? Should they be taught in the same school or in different schools?)
Thus, it can be seen that writing is not particularly difficult if you have knowledge (here, the definition of mentally challenged, types of mentally challenged, their psychological as well as medical limitations/barriers) as well as some analysis (which i think is very easy and nobody should be afraid of).
So, just get going with the NCERTs and Mukul Sir's notes along with occasional help from one reference (Barons or Morgan)

2010-06-14T05:36:00.000-07:00

A detailed study plan for GENERAL STUDIES, UPSC Civil Services Exam

Remember the numbers : Be it economics or history or current events or for that matter, anything; try and collect important numbers related to that. For example, one should know the GDP, GNP, foreign reserves, fiscal deficit, public spending in key areas (education, health, defence, subsidies, national highways, bharat nirman, nrega), percentage of population in different age groups etc. In this context, a thorough study of the “Economic Survey” will help you a lot, particularly the first chapter (which gives a glimpse of the Indian economy) and the last chapter (which contains a beautiful summary of the different social programs run by the Indian Government).

Start with NCERTs: NCERTs cover beautifully the basics of history, geography, economics, civics/political administration. I'll advice you to start from class 6 onwards but I only read from class 9 due to paucity of time. These books, available for free download from the ncert and even otherwise (on other blogs) are much better than the previous versions in terms of the quality as well as the visual appeal of the textbooks. NCERTs make up the base and you'll have to build up on that. This building up can be done by internet, notes of coaching institutes (vajiram's notes are good), other references.
Current affairs form the base of your understanding of the world. They are also a fundamental part of GS and the interview. So, an indepth reading of newspapers, magazines, blogs, tv news, coaching institutes' material etc. is expected. But, the question again comes how do we manage to keep ourselves abreast of all the current affairs in a fairly indepth manner. To me, managing current affairs was an arduous task. I think the strategy which could help is to try and put things into context. What i mean by putting things into context is to analyze the current affair into the already existing perspective. For example, if you read that israel is starting heavy bombarding on the gaza strip, then simply memorizing the number of persons killed or the immediate reason of the bombarding will not help much. Instead, trying to put this event into already existing perspective of Israel-Palestine relationships and some critical appreciation of the current event will help. Hence, our first task should be to read Israel-Palestine relationship. What has been the history? What has been the role of international community on this? What is India's perspective on this issue? Using this strategy might take a huge amount of time initially but as you move on, the number of issues on which you would have to read indepth would decrease for the simple reason that you already know about a lot of events now. Be judicious in devoting time for current affairs as they drain a lot of time. Simply skim through magazines by reading the key point(if it is bold or separately mentioned as a paragraph, for example, in frontline). Simply reading the titles of all the magazines will also help. I am an ardent fan of Yojna and Kurukshetra. Frontline is good but drains away a lot of time but make it a point to go through the headings once or twice a month. This magazine also is freely available for download on Hindu's website.

Important References: The following is a list of things that you should try and get access to, if possible. If not, then there is not much to worry because already there is a lot to study and not reading one or two things will not matter because they might anways be overlapping/could take too much of your time. Some of these are available online as well as in print while some of them are on TV.
1. Vajiram Notes on Indian Polity and Indian Economy: These notes are very well structured and are very informative. You can call them up for asking the correspondance charges if you are not in Delhi.
2. Gurcharan Das blogs (also published in the Times of India) : Gurcharan Das is the author of the famous book, “India Unbound”. He writes mostly on economic issues and the need for effective governance in the country. His writings on comparison between India and China are full of insights. His articles also contain correlations of present circumstances with the Mahabharata, which also form the subject material of his another book, “The Difficulty of being good”.
3. Swaminomics (also published in the Times of India): This section is also on economics. The most wonderful part of his articles are that they are full of information and numbers. He explains current economic affairs as if he is wrting the article for ncert textbooks. In one sentence, “easy to understand, remember and retrieve”.
4. www.indiatogether.org
This website is an archive of articles from eminent journalists and writers on social issues, ranging from environment to poverty. Authors like P.Sainath, Harsh Mander, Kalpana Sharma contribute to this blog.
5. www.en.wikipedia.org
This well known website is a brilliant resource for understanding almost anything – abstract to real, from economics to biology, from literature to quantum physics – it has it all. Written in superbly layman language, this is a wonderful place to get your concepts clarified. Any phenomena that you do not understand, just do a search here; you'll get your desired entry almost 90% of the times. It will serve you not only for your General Studies but also for your optionals. In addition, read the article India and follow the links in that article. Also, it has arranged articles on India in a gorgeous way e.g. Military artillery of India, different satellite programs.
6. www.news.bbc.co.uk
This website is a beautiful resource for preparting the international affairs section of the GS paper as well as issues of global affect and/or which are tackled at global level e.g. Climate change, terrorism, United Nations, issues related to United States (yes, issues related to US have become global issues !!). The 'special reports' section in this website is also very informative and should be read to assimilate global events in detail. e.g. I read the section on Copenhagen Climate Summit for the interview and it was very informative
7. Economic Survey : As has been mentioned before also, this document is phenomenal. Although the Hindu criticizes this document a lot for it being pro-governmental and extremely optimistic, I would suggest you to compulsorily read the first and the last chapters. Other chapters are optional for you. The Economic Survey is available for free download on the website of Ministry of Finance although its hard copy (although a bit too costly) is also available for sale at book stalls, particularly those having books for UPSC exam preparation.
8. Articles by P.Sainath : P.Sainath writes on issues related to agriculture. His book “Everybody loves a drought” has been acclaimed a lot. He spends almost 300 days in a year in rural areas and his insights on the plight of Indian agriculture has no parallels.
9. Articles by Harsh Mander: Harsh Mander became a journalist after his experiences as an IAS officer in Gujarat during the 2002 riots. He writes a lot on communal violence and has been pressing for a bill on communal violence to be passed in India. But, his immense knowledge and rich experience makes him adept at almost any issue that he picks up, which are almost always social. He writes regularly in 'The Hindu'
10. Articles by Kalpana Sharma: Kalpana Sharma writes regularly in 'The Hindu'. She writes particularly a lot on women issues.
11. Articles by Dr. K S Jacob: Dr. K S Jacob is a professor in the Department of Pscyhiatry at Christian Medical College, Vellore. His insights on public health as well as medical health and contemporary medical practices & healthcare are phenomenal. You'll love it when he mixes political concepts of communism/capitalism/governance with medicine/health and comes out with an interesting insight.
12. www.time.com This website is phenomenal. This is a website of the Time Magazine. Although there are no sections which I can directly point it to you for the fact that this magazine is written for people who read for leisure. However, the lists of 100 most powerful men of the year, 100 most powerful women of the year, 100 most powerful thinkers, 100 persons of the century are worth looking at. Similarly, Forbes list of richest persons could also be seen as knowing about eminent personalities help a lot in the exam. In addition, some of the articles in the website www.time.com, particularly on health or other social issues might help you a lot. There are articles by Barack Obama also on this website.
13. The India Year Book: This book is available for free download as well its hard copy is available for sale. This bulky book has a lot of material but you can read sections what you like. I just browsed all the sections but would have loved to read it completely, if I had time.
14. TOI Blogs : This section is an archive of different articles written by eminent journalists in the TOI. Sometimes, browsing these articles could be very helpful.
15. Hindu Opinion : These contain the articles on the mid page of the Hindu. You'll particularly benefit by the editorial section of Hindu.
16. Files on Hindu website : Another good thing about the newspaper Hindu is that it publishes a lot of original material on its website www.thehinduonnet.com e.g. Jairam Ramesh's letter which contained his decision of issuing a moratorium on Bt brinjal, Ramalingam Raju's letter in which he announced his crime, a copy of Karan Thapar's interview with eminent personalities. These files help you get an independent opinion on various issues rather than listening to/reading the analysis of these original materials by the media.
17. Down to Earth : This website is a very good resource on environmental issues. This magazine is published by the Center for Science and Environment, whose director Sunita Narain is a very dedicated lady championing environmental issues. You'll also benefit a lot from reading her articles.
18. Articles by Vir Sanghvi : Vir Sanghvi is associated with the Hindustan Times. His articles on international affairs as well as India's foreign policies are very informative as well contain deep insights, primarily because he is an extremely knowledgeable and well read person.
19. Resources on Television: TV is a wonderful resource for learning since its audio-visual nature helps us to retain a far greater fraction than we read from the books. Also, since it is not possible to read all throughout the day, taking breaks sometimes can help. Watching something meaningful on the TV can be a lot more meaningful and additionally, you save a lot of time being wasted since you've utilized your time for a good purpose.
1. Lok Sabha TV: Although this is a new channel, some of its programs, I feel are very beneficial. There is a program called 'Conversations' which showcases interviews with eminent personalities discussing contemporary issues. e.g. Sam Pitroda, Nandan Nilekani, Gurcharan Das, C P Chandrashekar. Just try to catch up this channel if anything interesting is coming there once in a while when you are bored.
2. Arnab Banerjee: You might have seen this journalist on Times Now. He is wonderfully inquisitive. He gets hold on to top-notch ministers during his prime time show (i.e the main news at 9 pm) and asks them critical questions.
3. Other journalists to watch are Pranab Roy (NDTV), Rajdeep Sardesai (CNN IBN), Karan Thapar, Barkha Dutt (on her program 'We the People' on NDTV), Deepak Chaurasia (Star News)
4. National Geographic, Discovery Channel and History Channel have now been showing a number of documentaries on India e.g. The story of Tsunami that struck India, the Gujarat riots, the IC-814 hijacking etc. Also, their other documentaries are phenomenal.

2010-05-29T01:57:00.000-07:00

Suggestions for IAS aspirants based on my experience of UPSC exam preparation

The intended audience for this post are people who are preparing for UPSC civil services examination. This post is a general synopsis of how to prepare ourselves for this unique exam. I'll write more on specific things like GS, Geography and Psychology. So, here it goes:-

UPSC, to be very frank, is a test of your patience and ability to hold your motivation and efforts without being given immediate results of the efforts put in. Unlike IIT JEE and CAT, this is not essentially a test of your aptitude but a test of how much you know. Thus, the amount of information you know plays a crucial role. So, I think that the only way for cracking this exam is hard work.

Regarding the approach to study for this exam, I think that it should be exploratory and one should endevor to connect the dots. An exploratory approach essentially means that one tries to ask questions based on what one reads. For example, if you read an article on 'The population policy of India', try to 'THINK ABOUT IT' and ask questions like 'What is the population policy of china?', 'What is the population policy of japan, or the US or Europe?', 'How have these countries performed?', 'Is it ethical to force citizens to not have more than two kids?','How do we go about supporting such a large old age population'?. Being exploratory is thus thinking logically and trying to amass knowledge by extending from the existing knowledge. If you have internet availabililty, try and find the answers. Even if you do not have access to internet, it will help if you write the questions in a copy made specific for this purpose and ask some of your friends/teachers for the answers. You might also get these answers when you subsequently read other references/textbooks. Logical thinking is trying to ask 'How?', 'What?', 'When?', 'Why?', 'Is it always true?', 'What is the data to support the given argument?', 'What if we vary one of the conditions, will the conclusion still hold true?', 'If the same thing happens in the US/Europe/China/Japan, will it hold true in Indian context?' For example, most of us know that chlorination is used to purify water but do we know the mechanism as to how chlorine purifies water? Probably not. Why? I feel because we never asked anybody who taught us or ourselves when we ourselves read. So, let us not take things for granted. It will help surely to develop the attitude of questioning.

Thus, the exam is also a journey of exploration where we can appreciate the things going around us and develop a better understanding of the world that we live in. Ofcourse, there is no limit to what we should know. Hence, time management is also crucial. How do we about managing such a big syllabus? How much time should be devoted per day? How does one distribute his/her time among the three subjects? The answer is surely not simple and might vary from person to person. Rather than imitating somebody (the toppers, i mean) or following the premise that the number of study hours is directly proportional to the quality of study, might not always help. Hence, i feel that each one of us should be in coherence with what one is rather than forcing ourselves very hard. It is because this exam is a marathon race and running fast only bears fruits during the last phase. My personal experience has been mixed. Since i was working, i wasn't able to study regularly so it was around 5-6 hours on the weekends while one hour on the weekdays. Inspite of the fact that i managed to get through, i will still suggest you to develop the habit of studying on a regular basis rather than studying too hard one day and not studying anything subsequently. When you study on a regular basis, take an approximate count of the number of hours that you study. Try and maintain this strike rate for atleast a week. I don't think increasing the number of hours abruptly will help because a slow change will help. Studying should be in intervals. inspite of all the above advice, i would like you to develop your own style rather than blindly following anybody. The premise is hard work so whether you work hard in early morning or late night, in intervals or a continuous session is of little relevance. Work hard as much as you can, as long as you can. Motivate yourself on a regular basis. You can refresh yourself by watching news on tv or listening to news on radio. I also benefited a lot from music.

Another thing which gave me strength was that you've to score only fifty percent to get selected, be it prelims or the mains exam. Many a times, we are bogged down by the huge number of people taking the exam. But, if we think about it, our competition is with ourselves. Nobody is stopping you from working hard albeit others are also working hard but we need not worry about others. We just have to work hard to reach the fifty percent mark and then you are there - you've cracked the exams. I was extremely happy when i analyzed this from the marksheet of candidates selected in the year 2009 . Hope you would also be encouraged to devote yourself to hard worK and put in your level best effort. But, if you are still not convinced, then send me a mail at vikrampg@gmail.com . I'll send you the marksheet.

Another problem is that we tend to forget a lot. Since there is so much to remember, forgetting is natural. One can thus only minimize the amount of information that one forgets. I used to make notes of almost whatever i read, be it an article in a newspaper or a blog article or a chapter of the textbook. Making notes helps in two ways - when you first understand and write it in a copy, you are less likely to forget it. Secondly, instead of reading the entire book again, you just need to go through your notes at the eleventh hour.

Pnemonics - making formulas/easy ways for remembering a lot of things, also help a lot. Since there is so much to remember, one needs to devise clever ways of learning. For example, 'BHAJ' might mean babar, humayun, akbar, jehangir; 'My big elephants have no chronic problems' means mexico, belize, el salvador, honduras, nicaragua, costa rica and panama (in the order from north to south). Sometimes, they can be very funny and personal as well :). Cultivate a habit to learn things by linking places/sentences/words. Slowly and slowly, you'll do it. One can also discuss this among his/her friends.

I am also working on a more specific post for General Studies preparation, Psychology and Geography. If you have any comments in this regard, please feel free. When I was preparing, I wanted to talk to somebody who got through the exam so that I can ask what should I do and how should I manage. At the end of the day, I found nobody. I consoled myself that the only way out is hard work and that there is no magic formula for success. I still have an ardent belief in this philosophy of the supremacy of hard work, however if you still want to ask something, please feel free.

2010-05-09T09:04:00.000-07:00

Do as you wish because you think no one is watching

This year IIMC selected only 8.5% OBC students for the PGDM program as opposed to the declaration of 27% announced post discussion with MHRD couple of years back (detailed out in http://www.iimcal.ac.in/iimc-cat-inf.pdf). Many deserving candidates, falling under this category, anticipating call from IIMC were left disappointed. One of the candidates filed an RTI against IIMC seeking explanation as to why quota of 27% for OBC was not reached. The RTI response can be seen on
Rohit's blog

As the RTI response points out there were total of 408 seats (241 general seats i.e 59% , 74 OBC seats i.e 18 % , 62 SC seats i.e 15 %and 31 ST seats i.e 7.6 %) in the previous year, while this time there were 375 seats (232 general seats i.e 62 %, 48 OBC seats i.e 12.8 %, 56 SC seats i.e 15 % and 28 ST seats i.e 7.5 %). In response, IIMC replied that due to lack of adequate infrastructure these decisions were made. Even if the reason is to be believed, no document stating why only OBC selection was reduced to 8.5%. The number of general seats were unchanged since there is a SC directive for the same. As per the SC's order, the number of general seats shall not decrease when compared to the base year (which I think was 2008-2009), is what the directive was.

Another issue is regarding the correctness of the RTI response. As per the response, they have admitted 48 OBC candidates while the actual number of OBC candidates admitted are only 39. We can ourselves check if the number 39 is correct by checking these urls - 29 OBC students admitted to the PGDM and 10 OBC candidates admitted to the PGDCM program on IIM Calcutta's website.

Even if there were internal concerns in expanding the infrastructure, Who is responsible for the delay in setting up the infrastructure? Why was the number of seats reduced this year as compared to last year? At least they were on the path to full implementation of OBC seats (3 % in the base year, 18 % in the last year but now 8.5 %). Why did take a step back? Additionally, no such information was shared with the candidates prior to their interview. Such ignorance on the part of premier management institute demands logical explanation and measures which shall be taken to avoid such confusion.

Another issue is that they have called 409 OBC students for GDPI and selected only 48. Albeit the number of OBC candidates selected including both the programs is 29+10 = 39 (another big inconsistency in RTI!! ) which dilutes case of people with high percentile and shows that they were more "selective" about OBC guys.

If you have any suggestions on how should this issue be pursued, please let us know by your comments here on this blog or on Rohit's blog or mail us at vikrampg@gmail.com or rohitesh.gupta@gmail.com. We are looking for a lawyer, a journalist or an RTI activist who could assist us in following up on this issue. Please let us know if you know one of them. Additionally, we were thinking if this issue can be filed as a PIL. If you know more about PILs and related procedures, please let us know.

Relevant Links:-

http://www.indiaedunews.net/IIM/IIM-Calcutta_hikes_fees_by_50_percent,_intake_reduced_11171/

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/OBC-reservation-in-institutions-to-spread-over-six-years/articleshow/5654132.cms

2010-05-04T07:10:00.001-07:00

Information Dissemination Challenge

Rohit and I were discussing about a situation where information dissemination is critical. The idea is to have a counseling service in general (the broad theme) and to disseminate health information in particular. Let me narrate to you the exact situation which we faced. At 11 pm in the night, I got a call asking about an hospital in Lucknow (or a private doctor) for emergency care of a student (she studies in Kanpur in a school run by the NGO Jagriti) who was diagnosed to have a stone in her pancreas. The doctor in Kanpur (of Abhishekh Hospital) concluded that the case is critical and expressed his inability to treat further (after he had been prescribed saline and glucose drips + general antibiotics + pain killers for two days. The immediate thing we did was to think about any acquaintances in Lucknow and to call them and ask for information about doctors/timings/who is good or who is bad.

After this incident, it came to my mind that in this world, most of our time is spent in acquiring information and information really is power. There could be a case where the girl & her family would not be knowing anybody who could tell about the doctors in Lucknow. What about a situation where in we wish to know that which is the nearest hospital in our locality and what are the timings? Also, there could be cases where in we need quantitative information e.g which hospital in Bangalore is the best in Gastroenterology? Which doctor would be good for a bone marrow transplant? Which is a good as well as an affordable hospital?

Another thing that disturbs me is the lack of a streamlined way of accessing information e.g there are far too many websites for blood donation in emergencies but just because of the sheer number of players, one doesn't know who to contact when exactly one is in need. If we put ourselves in somebody's shoes who has to look for medical care of his family members, it appears that there are lot of avenues where people can be assisted. Mostly, they need information rather than anything else. How do we provide the information to them is a challenge. Additionally, if we can somehow use technology for streamlining organ donation, we can really make a change. There are lakhs of people wanting kidneys, corneas, lungs, bone marrows. How to do this is a challenge to me. I wrote all this because if you have any idea regarding how all this can be done, please tell.

Can we do anything about it is the fundamental question.

2010-04-25T14:19:00.001-07:00

UPSC interview 2010

Board : Shri P K Mishra
General Background: My name is Vikram Pagaria. I am a B.Tech in Biological Sciences and Bioengineering (IIT Kanpur). My birth place is Neemuch (Madhya Pradesh). This was my first attempt and my mains optionals were Geography and Psychology.

If you wish to read this in a pdf, then send me a mail. I'm facing trouble in linking the pdf on this blog. If you can help, it will be great.

Chairman - What are your service preferences? Why? Why did you choose irs above ifs?
Me - Sir, my first preference is ias followed by irs, followed by ifs. My intention of choosing ias as the top service is because of the diversity of the job, one can work at the village, state as well as the center. My experience with the ngos that i worked with has been phenomenal. I look forward to working at the grassroots.
The reason behind choosing irs over ifs is primarily in the instruments that you've only one instrument of action i.e diplomacy. I do not consider myself good at being very diplomatic. When i filled the form, i could not imagine myself as an ifs officer. However, if i become an irs officer, i can contribute by using my technical background and may be, we could help streamline the taxation system better.
Chairman - so, status doesn't mean much to you? IFS is a higly respectable and lucrative job.
Me - Not much (to the question if status means much to me).I thought that if i am not good for a particular job, i should leave it for others to contribute.
Chairman - what is cyber crime?
Me - It is a multitude of malicious and illegal activities on the internet.
Chairman - Go on..
Me - Sir, for exmple, hacking into government websites, leaking confidential information, hacking banking passwords and stealing money.
Chairman - what is email bombarding?
Me - It is also a case for email spamming. In this case, your inbox is flooded with a large number of irrelevant/spam messages that you are not able to figure out which mail is important.
Chairman - Also, the speed becomes low.
Me - Yes, the speed as well as storage becomes an issue in such a case.
Chairman - what is morphing?
Me - Sir, i am not sure.
Chairman - Morphing is putting the head of one person and body of another.
Chairman - is there any law related to cyber security in india? What is the full name of the act?
Me - Yes, i am sure that there is a law, something called information security act or cyber security act.
Chairman - Do you know the exact name of the law?
Me - No sir
Chairman - It is cyber security act 2002 .
Chairman - what is salami attack?
Me - Pardon sir. Can u say that again?
Chairman - Salami?
Me - You mean S A L A M I
Chairman - yes.
Me - Sorry sir, i've not heard that before.
Chairman - It is also a cyber crime where the bank account information is appropriated in such a manner that is inperceptible to the user.
Me - Yes sir, the similar thing happened in a bank where the missapprorpriation was of the order of 1 billion dollar. It happened when a bank employee transferred a miniscule amount from each bank account into his own account. E.g. If we see our account balance as Rs. 3600.63 , we don't worry about the 63 paisa. Sometimes, hackers appropriate this information and transfer some/all of the 63 paisa into some other account. So, the next time when you check your balance, it would be Rs. 3600.55 paisa and you think everything is fine inspite of the fact that a big scandal has happened.
Member 1 - what is the relation between a hardware & software? How does the hardware interact with software?
Me - Madam, the interaction is via an operating system.
Member 1 - So vikram, what is an operating system? Can you explain how does this relation work when we type something on the computer and this is printed? How does the bits sequence recognized again by the printer? How does the computer manage with 0 & 1?
Me - Madam, when we type a word, say 'abcdef' on a word processor, which is a software that converts 'abcdef' into a binary sequence which the computer understands. This binary sequence is then trasmitted to the printer which is then again decoded while printing. (i explained this on a sheet of paper kept there using general concepts and she seemed to be convinced. The chairman passed the questions to the second member)
Member 2 - Do you read newspapers? Which ones?
Me - Yes sir. I read ''the hindu'' and the mint (published in bangalore).
Member 2 - Nehru ji once remarked about this newspaper, ''Everything is good about the newspaper except the name''.
Me - Yes sir, i agree with that.
Member 2 - No, i am not asking about your opinion. I am just making a general comment. In the newspapers, there is a lot of mention about 'tightening of monetary policy''? What is it?
Me - Sir, this is an instrument that is exercised by the rbi to control the money supply in the market. We are amdist high inflation circumstances. So, rbi is trying to reduce the money supply in the market. The instruments that rbi uses are the repo rates, reverse repo rates and the crr.
Member 2 - What is crr?
Me - Crr stands for 'cash reserve ratio'. This is the ratio of the total money (of the commercial banks) that the banks have to keep with the rbi. Altering the crr would affect the total money available to commercial banks for credit.
Member 2 - what is the difference between monetary and fiscal policy?
Me - Monetary policy is the policy that the rbi uses to control the money supply in the market while fiscal policy is the policy used by government to control its expenditure, receipts and deficit.
Member 2: Why should there be fiscal regulation?
Me: Government handles it finances by regulating its borrowings and expenditure. Recently, the fiscal deficit of our country grew up to 6.5 % which is not good for the economy and the country. So, government tries to controls its expenses and increase its receipts.
Member 2 - which is the tallest building in New Delhi?
Me – Sorry sir, I am not sure
Chairman – Vikram, it was inaugrated only two days back
Me – Is it the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Civic Centre.
(The chairman passed me to the third member)
Member 3 - what is morphine?
Me – (I thought that just now, the chairman had asked me about 'morphing' and when i couldn't reply, the chairman told me the answer too. So, I thought that this member is trying to check whether i still remember it or not.) Hence, I answered, “Sir, morphing is the “head of one person and body of another”.
Chairman – No, he is not asking morphing, he is asking morphine. (There was a big laugh)
Me – Ok. Morphine is a drug which is used as a pain killer. However, it is also used as a drug illegally. Morphine is a steroid.
Member 3 – What is morphine made from?
Me – Sir, I am not sure.
Member 3 – You are from Neemuch (my birth place) and you do not know.
Me – Is it made from opium (I realised that there is large scale farming of opium in Neemuch and he might be giving that as a clue).
Member 3 – Yes, it is made from opium. There are a lot of cement companies in neemuch district. Which cement company was closed recently?
Me – Sir, there was a PSU named CCI (Cement Corporation of India) which was shut down since it became a sick unit.
Member 3 - which is the most efficient cement company among all the companies there?
Me – Sir, I think it is Vikram Cement.
Member 3 – Why do you say that?
Me – Because the turnover of Vikram Cement is the maximum. I've seen CCI, Vikram Cement and J K Cement and the Vikram Cement cement factory is the largest.
Member 3 – The turnover doesn't matter. The installed capacity is what decides the efficiency.
Me – Sorry sir, I don't have those figures in my mind.
Member 3 - if you are a dm of a district, what will be your priorities?
Me – Sir, my fundamental priority will be health because I think that the public sector health system is in shackles. We don't have medicines there, we don't have doctors there.
Member 3 – But, doctors and medicines can be made available if one has funds. So, how will you raise funds for health? Also tell me, how does the government raise funds?
Me – Sir, if the available funds are not sufficient for raising the standards of the public health system in our district, then i will request the concerned minister to allocate funds for this.
The money that the government has comes from :-
a) the borrowings from IMF/World bank
b) money raised by rbi by selling government securities.
Member 3 – What else?
Me – (I was thinking about the other sources. Meanwhile, the chairman said taxes.) I am so sorry, I forgot that.
(The chairman passed me to the next board member)
Member 4 - you have graduated from bio engineering colleges studying in one of the best colleges of the country? Why do you not join research and contribute? Becoming a generalist or a postal/revenue servant could hamper your plans about improvements in public health? You are defeating the purpose of investement in you?
Me – Sir, I've thought about that. If I am not able to become an IAS and contribute to public health system improvement, then I've chalked out a plan. I would join whatever services that are allotted to me and would try my level best to bring about an improvement in that service because I believe that improvement is needed everywhere. I'll work for 10 years and if I feel that inspite of my best efforts, I am not able to bring welfare to the society, then I would leave the services and join research because the main pupose of research as well as civil services is to reduce the number of mortalities. The condition in our country is that half of the people die from hunger, diarrhea, malaria and other perfectly preventable diseases. Hence, I would like to work in this area of implementation
(The fourth member doesn't look satisfied. He passed it over to the chairman again)
Chairman - what comes to your mind when you think about ''vikram''?
Me – Sir, there is Vikram Sarabhai
Chairman – Who was he?
Me – He was a visionary. He designed our space research program.
Chairman – Who else?
Me – Sir, Vikram Seth, he is an author; King Vikramaditya; Vikram Rathore, he is a cricket player.
Chairman - Is there something called ''vikram'' in transport?
Me – (I was thinking)
Member 1 – It is not the name of a person. “vikram” in transport corresponds to a product.
Me – (I was still thinking. Chairman did a gesture of driving an auto.)
Me – Oh, yes sir, i remembered. These are the big “vikram” autos which are very common in Kanpur.
Chairman – Thanks Vikram, your interview is over.
Me – Thanks a lot.

2009-12-20T11:59:00.000-08:00

Just watched the movie "Paa". Inspite of possessing some purely co-incidental facts (like both Vidya and Abhishek's family living in the same city) and some bad dialogs (particularly that "hichki" one), the film was good for the following reasons:-

1. Galti karne waala ko galti sahne waale se jaada dukh hota hai. (A fellow-student of Auro tells it in the end to Auro)
2. Realistically placed.
3. Depiction of social issues like media sensationalization and slum empowerment.
4. Amitabh's and Bum's acting.

2008-12-24T15:51:00.000-08:00

A Little Inspiration

People are often unreasonable, illogical, and self-centered;
Forgive them anyway.
If you are kind, people may accuse you of selfish, ulterior motives;
Be kind anyway.
If you are successful, you will win some false friends and some true enemies;
Succeed anyway.
If you are honest and frank, people may cheat you;
Be honest and frank anyway.
What you spend years building, someone could destroy overnight;
Build anyway.
If you find serenity and happiness, they may be jealous;
Be happy anyway.
The good you do today, people will often forget tomorrow;
Do good anyway.
Give the world the best you have, and it may never be enough;
Give the world the best you've got anyway.
You see, in the final analysis, It is between you and God;
It never was between you and them anyway.

Author Unknown

2008-06-09T01:32:00.000-07:00

During the four years of my undergraduate education, I was fortunate to be exposed to various different areas in the field of biology. These were molecular biology, systems biology, structural biology, bioinformatics, biochemistry, biomaterials & tissue engineering, evolutionary biology, developmental biology, ethology, neurobiology, biomedical instrumentation, biomechanics, biomedical signal and image processing. Some of the areas which I find appealing are biochemistry, ethology, neurobiology, biomedical instrumentation and biomechanics. In particular, getting to know about and working at the confluence of different disciplines has been a pleasurable experience.

But, given an opportunity to identify one area, I will choose the area of designing point of care diagnostics – cheap, non-invasive, quick and sensitive so that they are accessible to the common man. Most of the villages in our country do not have pathology facilities; even if they exist they are far-off or are very expensive. One example where this is showing positive results is the pregnancy testing kit – no need of going to pathology, even the patients can use it on their own; all they have to do is to pour the urine sample and wait for 5 minutes to check the color. However, these on-the-spot assays have not been commercialized for blood-glucose level, WBC/TLC count, malarial parasite detection; stool and urine sample analysis.

One unsolved problem in this area is to design a cheap, easy-to-use assay system for diagnosing malaria; the current state of affairs is that diagnosis is symptomatic/ one needs to have a reasonably well-equipped pathology facility so as to just diagnose the disease. With the recent advancements in BioMEMS(which have led to ELISA, microPCR etc.), the task seems possible. Using immobilized marker molecules, immunochromatography or may be detecting a simple change in physical property (pH, viscosity, optical/electrical/thermal/mechanical properties) can be a solution. The ultimate dream is to make these tests as simple and cheap as using a thermometer.

2008-04-24T02:44:00.000-07:00

PROFOUND QUOTES BY LEO TOLSTOY

"All violence consists in some people forcing others, under threat of suffering or death, to do what they do not want to do."

"Boredom: the desire for desires."

"It is amazing how complete is the delusion that beauty is goodness."

"Love is life. All, everything that I understand, I understand only because I love. Everything is, everything exists, only because I love. Everything is united by it alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a particle of love, shall return to the general and eternal source."

"The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity."

"And all people live, not by reason of any care they have for themselves, but by the love for them that is in other people."

"The two most powerful warriors are patience and time."

"Without knowing what I am and why I am here, life is impossible."

"All happy families resemble one another, but each unhappy family is unhappy in its own way."

infinity: this way: Inequality

2007-09-01T23:41:00.000-07:00

infinity: this way: Inequality

2007-07-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

Profound Quotes by Helen Keller

1. I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something; and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can do.
2. Everything has its wonders, even darkness and silence, and I learn, whatever state I may be in, therein to be content.
3. Instead of comparing our lot with that of those who are more fortunate than we are, we should compare it with the lot of the great majority of our fellow men. It then appears that we are among the privileged.
4. It is wonderful how much time good people spend fighting the devil. If they would only expend the same amount of energy loving their fellow men, the devil would die in his own tracks of ennui.
5. Knowledge is love and light and vision.
6. Many persons have a wrong idea of what constitutes true happiness. It is not attained through self-gratification but through fidelity to a worthy purpose.
7. No one has a right to consume happiness without producing it.
8. No pessimist ever discovered the secret of the stars, or sailed to an uncharted land, or opened a new doorway for the human spirit.
9. Optimism is the faith that leads to achievement. Nothing can be done without hope and confidence.
10. People do not like to think. If one thinks, one must reach conclusions. Conclusions are not always pleasant.
11. Science may have found a cure for most evils; but it has found no remedy for the worst of them all - the apathy of human beings.
12. Self-pity is our worst enemy and if we yield to it, we can never do anything wise in this world.
13. The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched - they must be felt with the heart.
14. The highest result of education is tolerance.
15. The world is moved along, not only by the mighty shoves of its heroes, but also by the aggregate of tiny pushes of each honest worker.
16. Until the great mass of the people shall be filled with the sense of responsibility for each other's welfare, social justice can never be attained.
17. Walking with a friend in the dark is better than walking alone in the light.
18. We can do anything we want to do if we stick to it long enough.
19. We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world.
20. When one door closes, another opens. But we often look so regretfully upon the closed door that we don't see the one that has opened for us.
21. When we do the best that we can, we never know what miracle is wrought in our life, or in the life of another.
22. Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties.

2007-06-22T23:45:00.001-07:00

http://www.hindu.com/2007/06/23/stories/2007062350161000.htm

This article is titled "why are levels of child malnutrition high". It very nicely and convincingly rules out the intuitive possibility that low per capita income or widespread poverty is responsible for this phenomena but things like education, immunisation of mothers as well as the infants etc. are the more prominent reasons.

2007-05-09T09:24:00.000-07:00

Why blog if you have the option of picking up a pen and scribble in your own notebook?

This was the question I had in mind which would continuously discourage me from writing on this blog. However, whenever I felt like, I did write my worries and joys in my notebook. Today, I was just wondering about "privacy". This was the word which Lilavati madam used very frequently to refer to something personal, which you don't like to share with others. But, then if you do not wish to share it with others nevertheless you do it and one man knows that you have done that and that is obviously -your soul. I used to wonder ever since I came to live in this hall as to why people would immediately latch their rooms once they come to their room after class or lunch..I mean, it appeared cynical to me, particularly the bang of the room and latching, clearly audible from at least a distance of five-six rooms. Why is that we wish to remain away from others..is it because of your worry that others should not know what you are doing ( it happens with one of my friend, who doesn't wish anybody to know that he is studying and he himself curses every other person who studies) or is it because of some stable personal disposition.

Today, I made a promise to myself - which is actually a corollary of my previous promise - I pledge that I will not hide/ conceal anything (however big/ small it is) with anybody. So, now I can blog easily sitting before the comp without feeling why should others know what I am feeling/ is it appropriate to share your "private" feelings with them. But, then if you can never conceal anything with one man, why you should run and flee from others. If you have done anything, good/bad, you should have the courage to accept. The example which comes to my mind is the most accessible one (may be because of my age or because of the atmosphere where I live in) - watching obscene material on the computer. You don't want others to see but then how can you prevent that from yourself. Have the courage to accept. Some of my friends can counter this argument saying that why do you close the door when you bath? Well, I don't have an answer to this but then I think that after bathing, everybody knows that you have bathed.. this may not be true in other cases.( particularly of those which are talked of above)

2007-02-26T07:33:00.000-08:00

A blunder I committed

How bad one feels if somebody has taken something from you but is not returning it inspite of promising it to do so. add to that a constant reminder to the taker atleast two times. Certainly, very bad..
Sorry to say taht I am such a bad man. Yaar, I took the copy from Balaji Sir, I wanted to read it, i did read some of teh protion but then I just forgot to return it. He reminded me atleast a couple of times( I thought I will give it after I finish it because he might ask a question and what if I tell me that I haven't read).
Now, this man will never even dare to give a book to any of his student. I have spoiled the image of my batchmates. I want to cry, I never meant it Sir. But, he'll feel very abd, I know. I can imagine this from his position. Even I have sploit the condition of the book.
I am Sorry Sir..please forgive me.
These are really annoying instances. One should keep oneslf in other's shoes, think what you would feel if you ahd been the person and then do the task.

2006-12-31T07:47:00.000-08:00

What I do for living is more important than how much I earn

Money may be the husk of many
Things, but not the kernel
It brings you food, but not
Appetite
Medicine but not health
Acquaintances, but not faithfulness
Days of joy, but not peace or happiness

We are living at the dawn of an info-millennium. Our lives, powered by superb communication, fabulous electronic gadgets, powerful computers, speedy transport, and extraordinary healthcare, too have changed a lot; for the better or for the worse, it is debatable. Mouthwatering restaurants, fabulous supermarkets, refreshing beverages, magnificent multiplexes, gorgeous multiscrapers, cool outfits, splendid 3D games, movies loaded with special effects, excellent music, and beautiful books; have undoubtedly affected the way we make sense of this world we live in.

It appears that there is a kind of rat-race going on. Cut-throat competition exists in almost any field today. People have a lurking sense of insecurity; insecurity of getting a desirable job being the most prominent. But, simultaneously, people in India have a pervasive tendency to follow the crowd; they literally and not only metaphorically, act cowardly, they wish to play safe. The increase in number of software engineers reaffirms this phenomenon. Irrespective of one’s branch of engineering, the prospective engineer cares the least to make sense of what he learnt during these four years, he simply takes a software job and then life is decided; everything is over. It is the strong fear of failure that grips all of us, people do not want to experiment even things in which they have a high probability of success. What if I fail in this venture? What if I will come in the eyes of people, then I will be called a failure? People justify this by arguing that one should be pragmatic as well but in essence all these are defense-mechanisms, they are just the latent manifestations of their lust for materialism, their reluctance to do something novel, and their indifference to intrinsically interesting but not lucrative things. They are lured by this seemingly glamorized but inherently enigmatic and depraved world.

Take for example, why am I writing this essay? Is it because it can help me earn a lavish internship at one of the most prestigious college of the world or is it because it is about an issue which is close to my heart, about an issue which I feel so strongly about, which innervates my feelings.

It is true that every man is ambitious, everybody dreams of becoming a billionaire, wants fame, a big bungalow, a big luxury car, maids, servants, attendants, a fun-loving comfortable life. But, this crave for material benefits have deprived us. The world has become selfish and as Swami Vivekananda propounded, “One who is selfish is immoral”; the world has become immoral. Ends matter more to us than the means to achieve them. We forsake knowingly or unknowingly all our values (if any) and do not even question ourselves whether what we did was ethical or not; just our ends should be met.

Take a familiar setting like an academic setting. Grades/marks earned at the end only matters to us not the toil which we put in. We don’t acknowledge the effort our teachers have put in; we don’t try to appreciate how researchers have made marvelous discoveries and how tactfully they have invented wonderful gadgets. It is a selfish world, students read to get grades, teachers seldom put efforts and teach merely to complete the course, caring the least whether anybody is following their lectures or not. It is not that grades are not important, studying for grades is justifiable and is a reasonable benchmark to measure excellence but forsaking the valor, indifference to novelty, reluctance of finding trivial things on our own, cheating in examinations, copying assignments, bunking classes, the “Copy and Paste” culture; this is where futility creeps in. This was not the purpose of setting up these institutes of learning. Except the software industry, the research scenario in India is gloomy. We still look to other countries for technology. Why? It is because of the pervasive “Me Too” approach. Whatever novel ideas the scientists elsewhere generate, we wish to work on them rather than trying to think afresh. Whatever little research that is done, it is done not with the spirit of uncovering things and understanding phenomena but the ulterior motive is to publish because publishing papers will get more grants, more money to spend on. It is called the “Publish or Perish” phenomena.

In short, we have succumbed to this rat-race. Most of us are running so fast that we sometimes forget not only where we’ve been but also where we’re heading towards. We tend to dismiss those dreams of ours which are not in coherence with the rules of the world, following which can make us separated from this crowd, following which is not very lucrative. We don’t want to come out of the comfort zone. The thing is that we see, perceive and weigh everything with respect to its market value. Anything which is intrinsically interesting but doesn’t have a market value is immediately shunned. Unfortunately, most of our dreams and ambitions fall in these categories and are repressed. Everybody wants his/her child to be nobody but a doctor or an engineer or a MBA. Nobody wants them to be a painter, a scientist, a philanthropist, a social-awakener, Bhagat Singh, Gandhi. Why? To answer the cause of this attitude is straightforward. It is because money has sort of become like an anchor in our life. Today, the amount I earn decides my social status, it decides how broad my smile is, it decides the girl to whom I’ll get married and it controls the things I am interested in. People deliberately generate an interest in software engineering because this will fetch them money and money is the thing which only matters. No doubt, money is inevitable in one’s life but then it becomes futile after a threshold is achieved. Money in the need hierarchy, according to Abraham Maslow, a renowned psychologist can help us fulfill our basic physiological needs (hunger, thirst etc.) and some safety needs (needs for security, stability and order) but it seldom has a role to play in fulfilling our higher needs for self-actualization, our esteem needs and our belongingness and love needs Money can’t buy the happiness a scientist gets in conducting experiments; it can’t buy the satisfaction of helping a needy to cross the road; it can’t buy the flush of energy you feel when you are thoroughly engrossed in your work and realize that you have forgotten your lunch/dinner; it can’t provide you the contentment at the end of the day when you have put your level best effort to work out things; it can’t buy the pleasure of sketching/reading; it can’t buy you the zealous feelings during a morning walk; it can’t buy you the saturated state when you play with your full vigor; it can’t buy you the melody; it can’t buy you the sweet sleep at the end of the day. The truth is that life has its pleasures and beauty in small things, most of which are free- the fresh air, water, friends, smile and the list goes on. “Success is 99% perspiration and 1% inspiration”. The feeling of saturation when you put in your level best has no parallel. The guide is to listen to your heart’s call, introspect pragmatically whether your earnings if you choose your intrinsic interests will fulfill your basic physiological and security needs and then get set for work. A feeling of satisfaction after this resolution ensures the lighted path to bliss. It is because life is not a race, but a journey to be savored each step of the way. “Following what has meaning, soul, passion and spirit for you, following the dictates of your own awareness and blissfulness, trusting your own inner guru; and walking your talk” is the well-known law of two feet.

In a nut shell, choosing a job/path strictly on the basis of what the gains are and not taking into account one’s intrinsic interests are, is an irony. Some people may call it a pragmatic strategy but this is not a far-sighted strategy. It will create detrimental chaos at some point of time. This is a the reason behind the increasing number of suicides these days in the working class; the surge in number of people visiting psychologists reporting depression, dissatisfaction and frustration; the growing cases of corruption, scandals, forgery in our country.

If you had to look back on your life what would you remember?
The promotion? The performance bonus?
The plaque in the conference room?
It doesn’t take supreme intelligence to know what really matters.
And yet, you do little besides look in the distance and sigh.
Wouldn’t it be tragic to realize too late
That you didn’t see the trap, that you didn’t recognize
The two words that are the biggest curse of humanity…
Maybe someday?
It takes little to RECLAIM your life
Otherwise life would cut like a knife.

2006-09-12T14:09:00.000-07:00

"Nature" is what we see -
The Hill - the Afternoon -
Squirrel - Eclipse - the Bumble bee
-Nay - Nature is Heaven -
Nature is what we hear -
The Bobolink - the Sea -
Thunder - the Cricket -
Nay - Nature is Harmony -
Nature is what we know -
Yet have no art to say -
So impotent Our Wisdom is
To her Simplicity.

Emily Dickinson

2006-08-12T11:53:00.000-07:00

Love and Genes Can Beat Poverty -Study 5/26/2004 1:41 PM
Wed May 26, 6:15 AM ET Add Science - Reuters to My Yahoo!

LONDON (Reuters) - Love and genes can overcome even the most abject poverty, according to a study into the effects of environmental factors on child development.

The study of 1,116 mothers and their five-year-old same-sex twins in poor households in England and Wales found that poverty did not have to be a life sentence and the right combination of parental care and genetics could triumph over adversity.

"Children in our study experienced more than just poverty as measured by family income level, Julia Kim-Cohen of the Institute of Psychiatry at King's College in London wrote in the May issue of the journal Child Development.

"Living in the poorest neighborhoods, their homes were rated as being overcrowded, damp or in disrepair," she added.

The study differentiated between twins sharing all the same genes and those sharing only half.

It showed that genetic makeup does play a role in the ability of children to rise above their poverty and not suffer behavioral or cognitive setbacks, but it was not the whole answer.

"The warmth, mental stimulation and interest that parents pay toward their young children can make a big difference in their children's lives," Kim-Cohen said.

Fellow researcher Terrie Moffitt said they only studied mothers because in many of the poorest households the father was absent, so trying to look at both parents in families where the father was still present would have skewed the study.

"The main point of the research is that neither genes nor poverty can determine a child's fate," Kim-Cohen said.

2006-06-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

It is a real inspiring stuff, read it in class 6th or so,
Just had a feeling- some words/sayings remain immortal
not because they say a new thing but because they say
the same old thing in an entire new fashion.
Hindi writers like Kabir,Premchand, Ramdhaari Singh Dinkar,
Sumitranandan Pant and the list never will end.

But, we people do not even care to look what these
great men have done rather we are too much fascinated
by the writers in the west. I do not want to say that
we should not read them but one should also marvel on
the great achievements of one's own culture.It is
debatable but I think I can convince you that there
are lot of things you need to explore more about Indian literature.
I say Indian and not hindi because I don't want to categorise
India by Hindi rather languages like Oriya, Telugu, Tamil, Bengali
etc. are also equally enriched in terms of literature. I mean,
literature is an inherent part of society.
In hindi this saying is aptly called"saahitya hi samaj kaa darpan hai"
meaning "The literature is the true reflection of the society".

JO BEET GAYI...
                   (Dr. Harivansh Rai Bachhan)

                  Jo beet gayi so baat gayi|

                  jivan main ek sitara tha,
                  mana, veh behad pyara tha,
                        veh doob gaya to doob gaya,
                        amber ke aanan ko dekho,
                  kitne iske taare toote,
                  kitne iske pyaare chhoote,
                        jo chhoot gaye phir kahan mile,
                        par bolo toote taaron par,
                  kab amber shok manata hai,
                  jo beet gayi so baat gayi|

                        Jivan main veh tha ek kusum,
                        the us par nitya-nichhwar tum,
                  veh sookh gaya to sookh gaya,
                  madhuwan ki chhati ko dekho,
                        sookhi kitni iski kaliyan,
                        murjhaayi kitni ballariyan,
                  jo murjhayi phir kahan khilin,
                  par bolo sookhe phoolon par,
                        kab madhuban shor machata hai,
                        jo beet gayi so baat gayi|

                  Jivan main madhu ka pyaala tha,
                  tumne tan-man de daala tha,
                        veh toot gaya to toot gaya,
                        madiralaya ka aangan dekho,
                  kitne pyaale hil jaate hain,
                  gir mitti main mil jaate hain,
                        jo girte hain kab uthte hain,
                        par bolo toote pyaalon par,
                  kab madiralaya pachhtata hai,
                  jo beet gayi so baat gayi|
                  mridu mitti ke bane hue,
                  madhughat phoota hi karte hain,
                        laghu jivan lekar aaye hain,
                        pyaale toota hi karte hain,
                  Phir bhi madiralaya ke andar,
                  madhu ke ghat hain, madhu pyaale hain,
                  jo madakta ke maare hain,
                  ve madhu loota hi karte hain,
                        veh kacha pine wala hai,
                        jiski mamta ghat pyaalon par,
                  jo sache madhu se jala hua,
                  kab rota hai chillata hai,
                  jo beet gayi so baat gayi|

2006-06-02T23:23:00.000-07:00

Vande Mataram (in Bangla: বন্দে মাতরম Bônde Matôrom) is the national song of India. The song was composed by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee in a highly Sanskritized form of the Bengali language. The song first appeared in his book Anandamatha, published in 1882 amid fears of a ban by British Raj, though the song itself was actually written six years prior in 1876.

सुजलां सुफलां मलयजशीतलाम्
शस्य श्यामलां मातरं .
शुभ्र ज्योत्सनाम् पुलकित यामिनीम
फुल्ल कुसुमित द्रुमदलशोभिनीम्,
सुहासिनीं सुमधुर भाषिणीम् .
सुखदां वरदां मातरम् .. वन्दे मातरम्

सप्त कोटि कन्ठ कलकल निनाद कराले
द्विसप्त कोटि भुजैर्ध्रत खरकरवाले
के बोले मा तुमी अबले
बहुबल धारिणीम् नमामि तारिणीम्
रिपुदलवारिणीम् मातरम् .. वन्दे मातरम्

तुमि विद्या तुमि धर्म, तुमि ह्रदि तुमि मर्म
त्वं हि प्राणाः शरीरे
बाहुते तुमि मा शक्ति,
हृदये तुमि मा भक्ति,
तोमारै प्रतिमा गडि मन्दिरे-मन्दिरे .. वन्दे मातरम्

त्वं हि दुर्गा दशप्रहरणधारिणी
कमला कमलदल विहारिणी
वाणी विद्यादायिनी, नमामि त्वाम्
नमामि कमलां अमलां अतुलाम्
सुजलां सुफलां मातरम् .. वन्दे मातरम्

श्यामलां सरलां सुस्मितां भूषिताम्
धरणीं भरणीं मातरम् .. वन्दे मातरम्

Though a major aspirant for being the national anthem of India, Vande Mataram was eventually overtaken by Jana Gana Mana, which was ultimately chosen. The choice was slightly controversial, since the Vande Mataram was the one song that truly depicted the pre-independence national fervour. The song was rejected on the grounds that Muslims felt offended by its depiction of the nation as "Ma Durga"—a Hindu goddess— thus equating the nation with the Hindu conception of shakti, divine feminine dynamic force; and by its origin as part of Anandamatha, a novel they felt had an anti-Muslim message (see External links below). There is some controversy with Jana Gana Mana also as it mentions some areas as part of India which are now no longer with India. However, in recent times, there has been much more of an acceptance of the historically passionate patriotic cry and, for example, famous Muslim popular music composer A. R. Rahman has released an album with the same title, which had become a resounding success.

2006-06-02T15:15:00.000-07:00

"Cleaning Lady"

During my second month of college, our professor gave us a pop quiz.

I was a conscientious student and had breezed through the questions until I read the last one:

"What is the first name of the woman who cleans the school?"

Surely this was some kind of joke. I had seen the cleaning woman several times.

She was tall, dark-haired and in her 50s, but how would I know her name?

I handed in my paper, leaving the last question blank. Just before class ended,

One student asked if the last question would count toward our quiz grade.

"Absolutely," said the professor. "In your careers, you will meet many people. All are significant.

They deserve your attention and care, even if all you do is smile and say "hello".

I've never forgotten that lesson. I also learned her name was Dorothy.

Just a clarification, this is a real story which I read in a book along with children at "Prayas". It's a nice one and I think the moral of the story is to say that some morals should be there in the bloodstream. I mean that this moral should be innate.

2006-05-28T13:47:00.000-07:00

I read this inspiring news and this set me on fire, made me feel what wonders can success do in one's life. Topping the exams and coming in the limelight means a lot; it boosts your morale and gives you a new purpose of life.

This particular example is a perfect answer to guys like Hitler and Churchill who advocated slaughter of the physically and mentally challenged. We also have a lot of things to learn from them. I feel that we do not recognise our potentials to the full( or probably do not want to); we have everything but we do not use anything instead those who do not have takes it as a challenge and show us our mediocrity.

Hats off to Govind, chaapte rahon

Gilvester

Sunday, May 28, 2006 (Kollam):

A 15 year old in Kollam suffering from a congenital physical disability has scored a remarkable 95.2 per cent.

Govind never really expected much from his Standard X CBSE results. He suffers from a congenital physical disablity.

But despite his disability he's managed to score 476 out of 500 marks, which is 95.2 per cent. The secret, he says, is in keeping a cool head and regular study.

Govind cannot sit straight for over an hour and can't write fast. He gets exhausted after walking a short distance and often, his schoolmates carry his bag for him.

No different

But his parents Ravi Kumar, a psychiatrist and his wife Jaysree, who's an ophthalmologist, have ensured that he never feels like he's any different from the other kids.

"We have never interfered with his studies, allowed him to do whatever he wants. There was no tuition for him, only encouragement from our side," said Ravi.

Like his sister Parvathy, a second year MBBS student, Govind also wants to study medicine. But its not just books for the boy.

He loves football and Wayne Rooney is a hero. He is also a carnatic vocalist and spends time reading thrillers.

Not one to rest on his laurels, for Govind, these results mark only the beginning of a journey that will take him to much greater heights in life.

2006-05-21T10:32:00.000-07:00

If we knew what we were doing, it wouldn't be called research.
--Brian Foley ( Molecular Genetics Dept.University of Vermont )

I found this signature on an on an online newsgroup and it just changed my mood instantaneously. I am not aware why I am not able to do anything substantial since many days. Research appears to be difficult(atleast to me on my first venture).

It just amazes me that how tiny findings have changed the world completely and still there are many puzzles whihc are left for all of us to find out.
Another thing which lets me to think of the classical "Nature or Nurture" problem. Will all problems be solved if Ramanujam would have been alive till today? or any person who is motivated and applies his/her mind could crack?
I am in affirmation for the second option.

Go in for watching " Good Will Hunting" just to explore more about these issues.

2006-05-12T09:31:00.000-07:00

" The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it"

How true and how profound?
I'll say more after your comments.

2006-05-11T12:48:00.000-07:00

Why should you sneeze and why should you cough?

why should you smile and why should you laugh?

Why should sulk and why should you sigh?

Everybody does it, thats why thats why.

Why should you love and why should you hate?

why should you suffer and blame it on fate?

why should you weep and why should you cry?

Everybody does it thats why thats why.

Why should you always sleep in the night?

why should you always try to be right?

Why should you live and why should you die?

Everybody does it thats why thats why.

Source:
http://halfhearted-funny.blogspot.com/2006/04/evam-indrajit.html

2006-05-11T12:43:00.000-07:00

Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;
Where knowledge is free;
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;
Where words come out from the depth of truth;
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action---

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake.

- Rabindranata Tagore

2006-05-11T12:37:00.000-07:00

CComb your life by smiles not tears,
Count your life by friends not years

How profound these words are?

I

2006-05-11T12:07:00.000-07:00

Two roads diverged in yellow wood, and I
I took the one less travelled by
And that has made all the difference.

-Robert Frost

How true? How profound?
It appears that it is a fundamental streak in human nature not to take risks, follow the crowd and do the things in the sterotypical ways.

more to write but feeling sleepy.

2006-05-07T10:05:00.000-07:00

Now, finally the time has come. The time to imbibe all the energy so as to put in my level best for my project- the SURGE program.

The project is on a phenomenan called " codon bias" and hey it starts from tomorrow.
Common monu, you can do it.

I just have one feeling now- that there are many things to discover and they will be discovered in the same way as the old have been discovered. By old, I meant the phenomenal discoveries.

In the end, I have only one desire- to put into my level best and try to the best of my ability what really is strange about codon bias and yes what application we can think of. We have heart transplants, somebody would have thought about it. There are all kinds of things that could be done but what it needs is constant motivation.

yes, I can do it.

2006-05-05T13:33:00.001-07:00

Story of a Mother with one eye
Son's Statement:

" My mom only had one eye. I hated her... she was such an embarrassment. She
cooked for students & teachers to support the family. There was this one day
during elementary school where my mom came to say hello to me.

I was so embarrassed. How could she do this to me?

I ignored her, threw her a hateful look and ran out.

The next day at school one of my classmates said, "EEEE, your mom only has
one eye!"

I wanted to bury myself. I also wanted my mom to just disappear.

So I confronted her that day and said, " If you're only gonna make me a
laughing stock, why don 't you just die?!!!"

My mom did not respond...

I didn't even stop to think for a second about what I had said, because I
was full of anger. I was oblivious to her feelings. I wanted out of that
house, and have nothing to do with her.

So I studied real hard, got a chance to go to Singapore to study.

Then, I got married.
I bought a house of my own.
I had kids of my own.
I was happy with my life, my kids and the comforts

Then one day, my mother came to visit me. She hadn't seen me in years and
she didn't even meet her grandchildren. When she stood by the door, my
children laughed at her, and I yelled at her for coming over uninvited.

I screamed at her, "How dare you come to my house and scare my children! GET
OUT OF HERE! NOW!!!"

And to this, my mother quietly answered, "Oh, I'm so sorry. I may have
gotten the wrong address," and she disappeared out of sight.

One day, a letter regarding a school reunion came to my house in Singapore.
So I lied to my wife that I was going on a business trip.

After the reunion, I went to the old shack just out of curiosity. My
neighbors said that she died.

I did not shed a single tear. They handed me a letter that she had wanted me
to have. "

Mom's Letter:

"My dearest son,
I think of you all the time. I'm sorry that I came to Singapore and scared
your children. I was so glad when I heard you were coming for the reunion.
But I may not be able to even get out of bed to see you. I'm sorry that I
was a constant embarrassment to you when you were growing up. You
see........when you were very little, you got into an accident, and lost
your eye. As a mother, I couldn't stand watching you having to grow up with
one eye.

So I gave you mine.

I was so proud of my son who was seeing a whole new world for me, in my
place, with that eye. With my love to you,

Your mother.

2006-05-05T13:33:00.000-07:00

Staying in Summers

One thing is clear to me-whoever wishes to stay in the summers over here is definitely an aspiring active creature who wants to do something good in his life. Also, one can ejoy those things which we normally are not able to avail off during the semesters.

I am entitled to do a research project in the SURGE program here at IIT Kanpur. Initially, it is a feeling of pride in my bosom but I just look forward to it not only as one another thing but a thing which I will try to pursue to the best of my abilities.

Things are becoming tough. Lot ost higns to do- but my prime focus should be on the project.

I have just gotten up. Time to bathe and get back to work. Common monu, you can do it.

Have a nice day.

2006-05-05T13:32:00.000-07:00

test

2006-05-05T13:30:00.000-07:00

Too often we don't realise
What we have until it's gone.

Too often we wait too long to say
" I'm sorry. I was wrong. "

Sometimes it seems we hurt the ones
We hold dearest to our hearts.

And we allow stupid things
To tear our lives apart.

Far too many times we let
Unimportant things get in our minds.

And by then, its usually too late
To see what made us blind.

So be sure that you let people know
How much they mean to you.

Take the time to say the words
Before your time is through.

Be sure that you appreciate
Everything that you have got.

And be thankful to the little things
In life that mean a lot

2006-05-04T08:59:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, a fourth year student, Shailesh hung himself to death. Why, only because he got a 'F' in a course he was doing for the third time. It is the second incident of suicide in the past 5 months.

I do not understand how one can be so sensitive on one hand and one can be so heartless on the other. It is such an acute feelign of uncomfort that it fills the whole heart with paina and distress.

I don't know whether he did was right or wrong but definitely, the system has many flaws. I agree we got to excel but see studying to become a database is not the thing which should be envisaged from us. The faculty here behaves as if we are all thieves, we are useless. No one tries to understand us and motivate.

The faculty should enthuse a spirit in the students so that we get interested. Although, we should also be responsible but I think they have to play a big role. Faculty here teaches as if they have only one job- to distribute grades, exactly in the same way as a vendor sells vegetables in the market. It is such a bad situation that we can't help.

Students are so naive and soft when they come here but in the end what they become- negligent to studies, hard-hearted and merely a database kind of thing. Why?? was this the purpose to come to IIT? These three magic words transforms the expressions of any third person but it changes everything.