STATUS QUO IN THE EDUCATION SCENARIO

It’s been long since I gave serious thoughts to things. I usually write when I’m tired, and need a break, to unwind a little. But today, it’s something different that has got me keying in. It’s like a realization creeping from behind, out of the blue!

What follows, is my take on the student-faculty community I’m dealing with on-campus. And I’ve reason enough to believe that the situation isn’t much different in most of the premier institutes of technology.

The best that we get from our colleges is a handful of guys here and there, pulling hares out of their hats. That sure is good. But the fact that one out of a score of bright guys dares to dream, innovate, and materialize his/her brilliance into a work of genius, works out to be not too great a feat.

It’s up to us, the citizens of the morrow, to learn, think out of the box, and broaden horizons. I believe that students in technical institutions in India are a lot obsessed with the mathematics of all physical phenomena, which results in ignoring the actual phenomena. Well, the truth, however unwelcome or bitter it may seem is that most of the research and scientific progress being made these days isn’t on mathematical and theoretical platforms, but on observational and physical-quantum levels. We don’t want to become mere substitutes for calculators, do we?

The need of the hour isn’t how much information we’re loading our heads with, but channelizing information to solve our problems. Take for instance, the Internet. It always has all the info we require. But it’s up to us, to search for it, and that’s precisely what engineers at Google, Yahoo and the likes are doing- looking for better ways to optimize searches. A similar approach to all of our real-world problems would do us a whole lot of good.

Professors and Lecturers too, need to work hard on not letting the high student-faculty ratios come in their way, when it comes to motivating and pepping up their pupils. (It pained me once, when a lecturer got angry when I’d accidentally written a letter to him with a ‘professor’ against his name) Their job has to be integrated with modern scientific and engineering needs.
In the last century, India has to its name only 4 Nobel Prizes, including Mother Teresa. Hargobind Khorana and S Chandrasekhar won the prize only after years of working in the US! Universities and Research institutions in India are in a mess. It’ll take massive funding to change status quo. As of now,they are pools of mediocrity, coming out with occasional strokes of ingenuity. Careful nurturing of us, the future scientists and engineers, would be top on stratagem.

It’s a pointless exercise, trying to show patriotism in Sunita William’s glory back in the US, or APJ Abdul Kalam’s individual brilliance. Winds of change need to be set into motion. And they can never be individual pushes.

ON 'LIVING IN' WITH PALS

Vinayak, Abhinav and I started off on a debate yesterday. We were trying to reach consensus on a topic which may not ‘concern’ us at this point, and would certainly raise more than mere eyebrows, were our parents there to witness the intensity with which we were pondering and weighing up the pros and cons of a ‘live-in-relationship’.

Yes Sir! We guys here have lot more things to do than just swotting away. Well, actually, more of other stuff, and less study...in fact, it left me flabbergasted when I realised, that what started as a dig at the third rate duplicity in aping the occidentals, eventually led to a three hour animated conversation between the trios, with yours truly largely playing moderator...and that too on some live-in crap!

Vinayak noted that there has transpired a status-quo in the industrially efficient world, which is complemented by a live-in association, wherein, a couple have a mutual understanding of the limitations of time and energy in the fast paced lives of one another, and are more of room-mates than a law bound stree-purush duo. And that, according to him, makes their job easy, though I’d like to clarify, he personally doesn’t support the idea.

Abhinav on the other hand, seemed to have committed to memory all the Hindutva ideologies, that stirred the Indian in you (to an extent), which goes without saying, won on the emotional aspect. Plus, this guy raked deep into history to cite examples that the ‘live-in’ system surfaced many a times in the past, only to die out, in the hands of the sanity of civilization.

And in the end, the one who’s typed in all this, under the spell of drowsy slumber, spoke aloud, “Guys! Cut this crap. I’m happy living in with you guys. C’mon, ek jaadu kee jhappi do yaar!”, only to get kicked on both tashreef ke tokrees and finally pinned down to...zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZ... sweet ‘living-in’ shuteye.

RANDOM LEAF OUT OF MY DAY

It's been long since I last typed at 30 wpm(heck, I'm that slow!), and I find myself lost, hunting for words. Content, actually. But that's never a deterrent. I'd blabber anyways.

This time, college has proved to be lot more fun. It's a huge load of my chest, personally, that I'm no more the 'easy-to-lick' junior, and also a recurrent bearer of the brunt of countless jokes, pratical, or otherwise. But our juniors this time, are a merrier lot(and we suspect, a brainier lot too). They've been ragged less, and three cheers for that.

Preparations for Technozion 2008, the annual technical fest of NIT Warangal, have begun with verve(a bitter-sweet symphony, my folks!). All second, third and final years are up to the task...though there could be a slight exaggeration.

The not-so-bright side of life Down South manifests as filthy layers in hostel bathrooms...certainly not an understatement. First years get a fairer deal on that. No more do we have the saarus at our beck and call. No more, do our toilets get the daily dose of cleaning, and no more do we have water 18/7. Ahemm....well, 18/7 was what we had last year, so I'm really entitled to complain.

Oh God. One good thing, though. We're getting tastier food. That's the saving grace.

Classes aren't that heavy as of now, but you never know. I see myself glued to my study-desk one more week through college. Pooh...

I ain't complaining.