APJ

Dr. Kalam, the man who breathed his last while delivering his lecture at IIM-Shillong, is going to be paid tribute by 6 chief ministers and the prime minister himself at his funeral in Rameshwaram! For all, Dr. Kalam is only a former president. This, I believe, shows how much Dr. Kalam has set himself distinct from other presidents and has lived a life of honor, a life of inspiration - all beyond politics, yet within the political system! Salute! The tributes paid to him by the citizens of India - yes, they would, for the inspiration and relentless work he did for their upliftment. But pucca politicians   paying tribute - I think that is something to say about the life he lived during his tenure!  

A History for the Future

How common is it to come across someone who has deeply thought about the issues of his motherland? Among them how many came up with a deeply thought solution to address the issues and had a vision and action plan for it? One man did. Dr. Abdul Kalam. He rightly believed that tomorrow's India lay in the hands of the younger Indians. He made the best use of his tenure and the post-tenure period of his presidentship to inspire millions of students. He may be no more, but he lives in the hearts of younger India. What more fuller way to have lived life? Salute to one of the greatest minds and a true citizen! He will be a history to learn from and be inspired from for the future!

New Again!

It is that time of the year again
When the wind is chill
The breathe is warm
The air is filled with the the holiday mood,
Yet, it is not the same as previous
For, the new year starts again with new responsibilities! 

Open Text Based Assessment

It is quite heartening to see the initiative by CBSE to implement open text-based assessment (click here).
Often times in daily life we meet problems that do not have an answer that falls in the yes/no category. Education should prepare students to face such situations. Open-ended questions can develop such caliber in students and should be encouraged. While it could be taxing on the teacher/question-setter for such type of assessment, the results, on the long-run will be very rewarding, I believe. I wonder when this type of assessment will come into colleges! 

Are IITians not contributing or are we NOT allowing them to contribute?

The news of three IIT graduates getting placed in google with salary package of 92 lakh rupees is perhaps the talk of the country. What is particularly distressing to me is that, the talent has been brought into lime light only because a foreign company has hired them and has offered a huge package. By merely talking of it, we are only welcoming the foreigners to harness and exploiting our domestic talents. Our acts of celebrating such an incident is in paradox to the majority opinion that IITians do not contribute to the nation. The fact is, we do not recognize our own talents and hence the talented people go to places where they are recognized. 

Religion evolving?

The catholic church initially held that God created man. Darwin's theory of evolution did not fit into its theory and hence was not supported. However, 100 years later, now, the same catholic church has "tuned" its reaction to evolution by saying that God created the soul, evolution occurred, human beings may have descended from primitive organisms. This is a very fine (recent) example of how religious ideas and beliefs keep changing.

Religion seems to be a framework developed by humans to explain/theorize their observations and experiences. When compelling evidences that stand contradictory to current ideas surface, religion does indeed seem to absorb it. This is similar to science theories wherein a theory is modified to incorporate exceptional observations.

Go placidly amid the noise and haste,
and remember what peace there may be in silence.
As far as possible without surrender
be on good terms with all persons.
Speak your truth quietly and clearly;
and listen to others,
even the dull and the ignorant;
they too have their story.
Avoid loud and aggressive persons,
they are vexations to the spirit.
If you compare yourself with others,
you may become vain and bitter;
for always there will be greater and lesser persons than yourself.
Enjoy your achievements as well as your plans.
Keep interested in your own career, however humble;
it is a real possession in the changing fortunes of time.
Exercise caution in your business affairs;
for the world is full of trickery.
But let this not blind you to what virtue there is;
many persons strive for high ideals;
and everywhere life is full of heroism.
Be yourself.
Especially, do not feign affection.
Neither be cynical about love;
for in the face of all aridity and disenchantment
it is as perennial as the grass.
Take kindly the counsel of the years,
gracefully surrendering the things of youth.
Nurture strength of spirit to shield you in sudden misfortune.
But do not distress yourself with dark imaginings.
Many fears are born of fatigue and loneliness.
Beyond a wholesome discipline,
be gentle with yourself.
You are a child of the universe,
no less than the trees and the stars;
you have a right to be here.
And whether or not it is clear to you,
no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should.
Therefore be at peace with God,
whatever you conceive Him to be,
and whatever your labors and aspirations,
in the noisy confusion of life keep peace with your soul.
With all its sham, drudgery, and broken dreams,
it is still a beautiful world.
Be cheerful.
Strive to be happy.

                           Max Ehrmann, Desiderata, Copyright 1952.

Honesty

There was a time (until recently) when I was of the opinion that the only non-corrupt people are the academic people (that is, the educators and teachers). But of late, this has been proven to be a myth and nothing more. Lies, prejudices, jealousy and dishonesty are not alien to the academic people. At the root of all these lies vanity.

Recruiters scrapping aptitude tests – A good sign?

(This is something that I wrote long back...but never got it published anywhere. So, just posting it here. )

Science educators across the country have been discussing the need to improve the Indian educational standards, particularly calling attention to the “pattern recognition” type of training in the current educational system¹.  Researchers have been calling the need to inculcate ‘irreverence’ in science education^{2, 3}. However, it is not only the educational and research institutes that play a role in setting the standards of the graduates. Students’ motivation to learn, apply and achieve are, in part, inspired from the recruiters. Particularly with the engineering colleges, majority of the students aim to get placed in the IT companies. Thus the IT companies, or any other recruiting company for that matter, play an important role in setting the standards as to what to expect from graduates. In this line, the aptitude tests that these recruiting companies conduct as a form of screening the potential candidates has been helping to set the necessary levels of ‘thinking’ that a graduate should possess. Whether these aptitude tests are indeed up to the standards is a question of separate debate and discussion though.  The recent news article that appeared in Hindu (http://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/money-and-careers/article938221.ece shows a policy change towards what recruiting companies want from students. The news article says that the companies are looking for “consistent performers”. A consistent performer from our current educational system is one who has successfully been able to recognize patterns among words and numbers and was able to reproduce it effectively without error in exams. Moreover, this initiative is also a bias against the ‘late bloomers’. There can be no reason to discriminate the late bloomers against ‘consistent performers’. Such initiatives do not facilitate the goals that educators and researchers are aiming to set up. Recruiting companies should realize their role in education and devise recruiting strategies based on discussions and views from educators and researchers. With a long-term vision, recruiting companies along with academicians can, and have the ability, to transform Indian educational system and hence the society as a whole. 

REFERENCES

1.            Mohanan, K.P. (2010) Entrance examinations for science and technology. Curr. Sci. 99:1321.

2.            Mashelkar, R.A. (2010) Irreverence and indian science. Science. 328:547.

3.            Balaram, P. (2010) Irreverence and advancement. Curr. Sci. 98:1155-1156.

A misconception

A major misconception that I am currently seeing is that people, in general, think that those in the teaching profession know "everything".

Peace

The days are new, fresh and lively. Music sounds more euphonic. The stillness of silence is enjoyable. The stillness in the air brings ecstasy. Six years now. And my mind is not preoccupied only now. Maybe this is what is called peace. :-) 

Uniform Syllabus

I was wondering if in UG colleges we were told/helped realize the relevance and the interconnect of each modules we study. My guess would be everyone would say no. Unlike in PG programmes, students in UG programmes (engineering) do not have much flexibility in choosing modules. The modules and its contents are decided by an "expert" committee which are then "handed down" to faculty members. Since it is a "handed down" structure, I doubt if the faculty members would ever know why a particular chapter was included in the syllabus, or why it was not - without which (s)he cannot pass on the intended purpose. While the goal of having uniform education is laudable, I think it has such practical constraints which severely impact the quality. (Of course, this is relevant to the TN situation...not sure how it applies elsewhere.)

India Rising

Check out the latest issue of science for an exclusive interview with the Indian Prime Minister, Dr. Singh. (Click here for the interview and here news focus.)
What really captured my attention was this statement of his:

"unless one is optimistic, one is overwhelmed by the dimension of the development task that we have to accomplish"

 And check out what he has to say on the nuclear energy issue as well! 

Mathemagic

Fear gripped the bones during Math classes in the primary/high school. Algebra and Muliplication tables - Oh Man! How do we remember all those formula and numbers? But there seems to be new and easy ways of understanding/learning these! Check out the videos below.

Longest Straw

Am sure each one of us wrote this definition for 2 marks in one of our examinations:

The movement of a liquid along the surface of a solid caused by the attraction of molecules of the liquid to the molecules of the solid is called capillary action.

(Am sure many of us used solid and liquid interchangeably.)

Honestly, how many of us were able to fully grasp the importance of this phenomena? There of course were several examples cited in the text book and some of them that I recall are oil rising in the wick, drying towels, transpiration in plans. Although these examples were supposed to enhance our understanding, the million dollar question is whether it enhanced understanding or increased the burden of memorising.

When I came across the below video, I could immediately understand and appreciate what a capillary force is...and all the examples I memorized made sense! So, what is the difference? Why couldn't I grasp and appreciate capillarity from the book as much as I did after watching the video? The primary reason, I think, is because here (video) they have used a practical day-to-day activity to explain the concept. Further, the practical way of explaining, that is showing it "in action" further interests and keeps the mind involved unlike the bookish texts.

Let us think and create more such videos!

Forever Dependent?

Are we going to be forever-dependent on others? When are we going to harness our own potential and be self-dependent?

http://www.thehindu.com/business/article2793429.ece?homepage=true

The above news irritates me. 

National Unique ID

Although I haven't been following the issues on the National Unique ID, this article caught my attention. It tells that two different groups, the Nandan Nilekani group and the National Population Registry group are doing the same work. Further, it also tells that the National Identification Authority of India has raised issues on dealing about illegal immigrants. I certainly don't understand why there would be no inter-communication between officials and make works simpler by sharing the load between the two groups. As to the issue of illegal immigrants, that is the first thing anybody who is going to issue a national ID would think of. I wonder what they discuss before they start working on such projects - money?

Whatsoever his motivations are, Dr. Swamy, is undeniably a bold politician.
http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2697711.ece?homepage=true

Rejections

An interesting article on rejections: http://indiabioscience.org/node/228 

Indian government - sincere or is it naive?

The last of couple of days, the media has been reporting about Mr. Kejriwal's tryst with the IT deparment - for a mere 9 lakh rupees, when Ms. Kanimozhi, Mr. Raja are enjoying a luxurious Tihar jail residence for still not accounting for the over 200 crores of money that vanished into thin air. And I am really wondering if the government is really that naive to think Mr. Kejriwal would back off from his civilian fights under such petty pressures, or, has it become very sincere to account even for a penny?. (Note: Mr. Kejriwal claims there has been no correspondence in this regard from the IT department since he resigned, and only before the fasting of Anna had he recieved the notification. That is too much to be a coincidence.)