Monday 10 February 2020

Should premier institute students of India actively participate in politics?

India has always been a politically colourful country. Even in medieval India, the princely states engaged in political diplomacy to either exist peacefully or join forces. The roots of foreign rule in India also lies in the political mal-function of erstwhile rulers. In modern India, the freedom struggle owes a lot to the political activism of the various leaders who helped shape the country and create an independent future. Many of these leaders were products of student political movements. It was a time when the youth had an option to either follow the British by the letter, or, join the movement. The question in modern times is this: is it still required for the students to focus on politics?

I believe that knowledge of current affairs is paramount in many fields especially for those who are preparing for civil services exams. Even those who are not participating in the exams may find it useful to collect the information about the “who’s-who” of the country. Students of today will eventually be elemental in running the country; awareness about which political party is claiming to have done something and promising to do what more, will help them cast the correct vote. In a democracy like India, with limited natural resources and a huge population, good governance is as important as the citizens fulfilling their duties.

Having said that, what about the active participation of students in politics? In an earlier time, 70 years ago, it was not only required, but, imperative. In modern times, in my opinion, student participation in politics should be discouraged. To support my opinion let me draw the reader’s attention to Lucknow University, Banaras Hindu University and more recently, Jawaharlal Nehru University, Aligarh Muslim University and Jamia Milia Islamia. There was a time, when the education at these universities was at par with the world. Some students continue to make contributions, however a larger majority is less and less interested in actual education (there are more than one reasons for this) and more in the political movements that are almost a continuous occurrence at these places now. Most of these centrally funded universities have very low fees and attract some of the very best talents (questionable) as faculty. These investments from the tax-payers’ money is wasted in activism.

In my opinion, again, students can and should make true contribution through their superior knowledge acquired through education and utilise it to change the country and solve its problems. Law students can focus on improving judicial system, science and technology students must innovate to create and emulate technology for the betterment of the country. History students can help either to uncover any lost information in time or simply in preserving knowledge of the old the world. Political science students can study the political workings of the parties in the country and around the world. Everyone should be allowed to take part in active politics, but only after completion of their education. Once they have developed a good understanding of the pros and cons of any political idea, which can be done through a combined understanding of all aspects of education itself; they are to be deemed eligible to enter active politics. For example, what affect can a mathematics student have on the relationship between India and the U.S.? Think of the butterfly effect. A mathematician may come up with a theory or formula that may affect some product manufacture/marketing eventually affecting trade between the countries.

As an artist would say, beauty is in the details. We can see lot of protests in the country going on in the country today. Some of the protesters don’t even know what they are protesting about. On the flip side, some have raised some very valid doubts that would be the long term consequences of applying the laws in the country. Those in support do not see these effects. Thus, education of both sides is necessary. Violence caused by protesters, especially student protesters is un-called for. These students are either wasting their future or do not see one anyways, hence the participation in anarchy. Only benefactors of the fate of these students are politicians who themselves are not affected by these protests. Thus I emphasize that students should refrain from political activities.

Now I will focus specifically on the IITs. IITs were setup with the sole purpose of ensuring that the best minds of the country (inclined to science and technology) can forget all distractions and focus on mastering one or more fields of engineering to either provide specialised workforce to the country, specifically or to the world, in general. Let us not delve on the fact that mostly everyone aims at acquiring a degree and then a high salaried job. The original idea was that these technocrats will create technologies and jobs for the people of India. I am not sure what went wrong and where, but, IITs have become more of another industry - on one hand they drive the coaching industry, on another they act as coaching centres for foreign universities. At the same time, I should not downplay the efforts by almost all IITs to incubate tech-startups that can generate jobs. Although we have not seen companies of the scale of Google, Microsoft, Apple, Mathworks, Bosch, Boeing, Lockheed Martin, etc., but, for a country independent for only 70 odd years, we are doing great on the technology front, and by the way, most of these companies employ graduates from IITs.

To conclude, I can only say this: our country has many problems, some caused due to politics, some due to finances, some due to natural resources, population, lack of technology etc., but, compromising with all-round whole hearted distraction-free-education, is not a viable solution if we want to make India a developed country and a world superpower. Indeed, we need ever more educated people in politics, but, individuals should join politics only after completing education and not while attaining it. Students of IITs, specifically, should not take active part in politics and focus on the primary goal that the country expects from them. A lot depends on what path the bright minds of our country choose.

Thursday 18 October 2018

Curious

Why the grass yonder green?
Why are squirrels so keen?

The dew drops on leaves they shine,
Render beauty till the end of line

Why does the dog bark, why purr the cat,
With these and other musings, I sat,

Why does the cricket critter, why buzz the bee,
Who made this all, even you and me,

Why does the wind blow, why are hills and valley,
There's science and there's religion, but, why don't they tally,

Why men fight; to one another, why are they mean,
Answers, I will ever find, chances of that are lean...

Monday 15 October 2018

My Mistakes...

Mistakes, ever-repeating, I make again and again,
And little do I suspect they will hide in night or rain;

They count, add, sum and pile,
When was I right? I know not, it has been a while;

A cool winter wind has come ashore,
I hope it blows away my worry chores;

All is well, they say, when the apple is in,
Where that apple, of my life has been?

Let me put all my good deeds in vain,
Oh! there, I made a mistake again...

Never Lose Hope...

What art thou if not thou dream,
Dark is the terra if not thou the light beam;

Stray not from the path ahead,
Let stones, rocks, make thy bed;

Many a hardships, on you, will take toll,
Hold it not, let roll the ball;

Giveth you, when God a reason, you ran,
Hold ground, steadfast, 'coz this will make you man...

Friday 30 October 2015

Move On

i tried again, to move the rock,
that life had placed ahead;
thrust aside, i was mocked,
reduced to win just bread;

fame, no glory, loft nay,
i looked for a purpose;
pushed down, cast away,
dreams became a yonder buzz;

i got up, i dust myself again
prepared to fight for new dawn;
even if cometh all bane,
i will not falter to move on....

Friday 17 April 2015

Life, work, search of purpose...



Allow me to introduce myself. I am a Computer Science and Engineering graduate. My job is something that some 10,00,000 strong engineering graduates all over India do right out of their college. The problem is we as Indians have proven our might as cheap and effective technology labour (with our national leaders focusing on making more “workforce” for the world). It is overall good for the country. It is one of the biggest source of revenue for our country, our biggest export after crude material. It provides for jobs and livelihood to so many. And ofcourse it doesn’t let our professional education go waste. So, it is great. Period.
Or is it?
With a country like ours which is essentially 5 or 6 thousands of years old in its heritage and culture, but, roughly only 70 years of being independent and self-governed, we are behind time. Seriously.
Our country is credited to have given the world the decimal number system’s greatest asset, the zero and also introducing surgery (sorry I don’t have any official source for either, it is mostly “let-me-tell-you-a-story”), but, then we bailed out. Our country is not credited with any revolutionary invention or innovation (save the Radio Communication, which Marcony got credit for instead of J. C. Bose). We have not yet been able to produce a product that has changed the world.
Yes, product.
Much of the country’s budget depends on maintaining a balance between imports and exports and a country actually becomes developed if it has successfully surpassed the exports over the imports. We have unfortunately become a country of consumers. Our imports far exceed our exports and we barely export any engineered product (only exception being petro-products like engine oils etc.).
Let me focus on my sector. As if it was mine.
Our country as I have mentioned earlier, has made a name for its IT expertise, and yet we do not have a single software company that releases any major software product. One might argue that tally is an exception, but, then tally is not something you would gift your child on next deepawali.
So, what is it? Are we not competitive enough? Are we not able?
To answer these questions, one has to go back to beginning. Literally; read the first line of this post.
Most of us may actually be quite energetic and dreamy, looking for lofty purposes in life, but the purposelessness imposed on us in the form of the job (we actually are rubbing our posterior anatomy off, for the sake of building another country) makes us non-believers. We lose our faith that something grand can actually be achieved. Those of whom that are not tainted, either find their way out of the country or become non-technical money earners (to not offend that community of high level corporate bureaucracy, I am not naming them!). This results in loss of knowledge and ability to achieve feats of technology. We turn into bozos. May be someone will break out of the mold. May be someone will show us the way. We are but cattle. Ready to be herded. Period.

Friday 21 February 2014

Does Indian Education System Need A Change ?

The education policy of India is to filter out the best from the rest. This has its merits as well as demerits. The top rank holders are further trained to excel and master some aspect of their field. This is theoretically good, but, as is evident hasn't quite worked out. According to stats, the erudite are leaving the country in search of higher salaries or better facilities. There are many who have made a global mark after they left the country behind. A recent example could be Mr. Satya Nadela. One may also consider Mr. Ajay Bhatt the co-inventor of USB technology.

The policy itself is not flawed, the elite were supposed to learn at a higher level and apply their knowledge to improve the status of society at various levels. Initially this may have been the case, but, media-hype and an urge to pretend to be extraordinary led our savants astray. Instead of staying back and getting their hands and feet dirty, they took the foreign route. However the fault is not entirely of these individuals. When a child is admitted in a school in India in most cases parents tend to cease taking interest in the learning process of their children. The child is supposed to score marks and pass all exams. The focus is not on developing a life long nature of learning and implementing. Children are not interested in mediocrity of school life, they want things to be magical. Alphabets form words and words form sentences which in turn form the wonderful rhymes. Children love to enjoy. The current pedagogy throws them in a race.

By the time the child reaches college level (XI and XII in India), its choice of higher studies is biased by what parents, relatives, elders round the block want or have chosen. After somehow getting past this stage the under-runners have to face the embarrassment of not being able to qualify the prestigious national competitive exams, which, their schools did not prepare them for. The sense of mediocrity and inferiority remains stuck in their minds. The toppers on the other hand, have a sense of accomplishment and blooming confidence which helps them advance in their careers. An average IITian (best engineers in India) then seeks a job in some multinational company and eventually leaves country.

The question, however, still remains unanswered that why won't they stay in their home country. There are numerous factors the most important being the socio-economic one where parents and teachers encourage fresh graduates to prove their mettle in foreign countries and "earn accolades" offshore. Then there are the political reasons, MBA grads from IIMs (bests in India) have to undergo a harrowing experience if they try to setup their own companies with political and anti-social elements seeking undue shares in profits. The grad rather decides to pursue dreams in foreign lands. The competition which shaped the entire life of the child since school through graduation eventually fails to deliver the gem the country needs. The policies, the pedagogy, the entire model of teaching needs to be refurbished from scratch.

The key elements of derogatory impact of present system on the minds of the child are: peer pressure, feeling of failure, being evaluated for worth and judged. On one hand unless we have tests and exams we cannot ourselves be certain that the young ones have learned what we taught, on the other, the above factors take over. In my opinion remote learning via networking is a far better option where one has deadlines, homeworks and exams, but, need not compare with others. Human teachers are indispensable, but, they will remain as guides and not evaluators. At a higher level, parents and elders must encourage the idea of serving the country with the power of knowledge instead of merely contemplating better employment.

In old tribal days, when a child was born, not only the parents, but also the entire tribe made it point to teach the child and carve a winner out of it. The child was taught to live and die for the tribe. That hasn't changed even to this day, it is just that the tribe has grown bigger in size. One day, not yet, the tribe shall span the entire world, is all that we can hope, but, till then we must not reject the residuum but make that extra effort to carve winners. Unless we believe that our country is a better place, we will not begin to make it so.

Monday 31 December 2012

May "Nirbhaya's" soul rest in Peace

बहुत कुछ कहा जा चुका है "दामिनी" के बारे में।  हमने ऐसे कानून बनाये हैं जो मासूमो के बजाये अपराधियों का बचाव करती है। हमारे देश में एक नारी की अस्मत की कीमत बस कुछ हज़ार रुपये एवं कुछ साल ही होते हैं। ऐसा मै नहीं भारत का कानून  कहता है। भारतीय दंड संहिता के अनुसार एक बलात्कारी को मात्र कुछ  हज़ार तक का जुरमाना एवं  सात से दस साल तक की कैद ही होती है।


But, think of the agony that a woman has to go through during the entire life wrecking experience. And trust me, her soul dies even if the woman herself remains alive. And that is the price of a woman according to our society and its laws.


According to the legal procedures that actually happen (let me inform you, the law in letter says otherwise), the victim is forced to recite the painful and shameful incident again and again to various officials involved in the investigation and justice procedure. What kind of justice is this? The woman is already broken, but, the law breaks her further.


Instead of making the accused prove his innocence, the victim is forced to prove that rape has actually happened. The victim has to undergo a physically penetrative test (by mostly a male doctor, think what the woman has to go through). The entire procedure is rotten. The woman has to prove that she is of "right character", she has actually been "raped", has to recite it in front of many unknown males and all this if the police lodge the FIR at the first place.

The women are mostly threatened by the rich culprit to keep quiet and in this the police also help the accused. The recent suicide of a victim in Punjab is a sordid example of this 
(Punjab: Girl commits suicide a month after being gangraped Punjab, Updated Dec 27, 2012 at 07:03pm IST). 
The politicians are playing with laws and they neither try to bring in the strict laws nor they force the police to act with moral and legal responsibilities. The reason ? They themselves are rapists.

We need to change the law book seriously.  The need is urgent.

People and all citizens of INDIA are requested to  send their decisions and suggestions to ex-CJI of India for his committee that will be presenting the report for the DAMINI case.

mail your suggestions to: justice.verma@nic.in

Wednesday 14 November 2012

School Life: Days at School...

I was born, with an ambition to make a name,
and my parents wanted me to do the same;

I was admitted to a school, where, I have till now spent a part of life,
Those days and their memories, I will try to describe;

The first day when I reached the school, I wept,
It was because of the feeling of loneliness, in me that had crept;

All these years, some or the other led me the way,
My teachers, I must say;

I have had many friends all through,
But, the days have passed as if they flew;

Once, I had had a tiff, a bitter one and tensions got dense,
I said sorry to him and we are friends ever since;

I made many mistakes and am still learning from them,
The experience I have attained could be weighed by the most precious gems;

I have never been a good player I don't think I am game,
But, then, I was born with an ambition to make a name...

- Bane Havoc