The Indian dreams

A lot has been spoken about University education in India, good and bad. But in the past four years I have spent in this college, one of the best engineering colleges in India, I have observed something else. The root cause of all issues relating to University education in India lies not just in the way it is taught or the acceptance the current system gains among students, parents and recruiters. Instead I have observed that it is predominantly ingrained in the primary school education system and on a broader scale, greatly influenced by the innate mentality of the people.

As people in any third world country think, the primary objective of higher education is to ensure a secured high paying job. Passion and job satisfaction take the back seat even today when we compete against global powers for international recognition. As an engineering student I was amazed to see the response for non technical electives like Creative Writing, Marketing Management, Entrepreneurship development etc among my friends who echo the frustration of having been made to study engineering for three long years in spite of it not being their interest. So where does this ‘leading the donkey with the carrot’ scheme actually start?

It starts right in the middle school time when a child identifies his passion for cars, his admiration for a cricket player or a singer, his interests in painting etc. But how many of these children end up becoming racing car drivers, cricketers, singers or painters? Unfortunately, very few! I personally know a few friends who still carry the aspiration to become cricketers and singers, even after three years into engineering. But I think we all can predict what they will end up in a year’s time. Engineering trainees or Officers in engineering firms. Some of them might go to the USA or Europe for higher studies and sometimes even Ph.D. In general it would not be wrong to say that we simply adopt the pre existing path and make ourselves suitable for it. In other words, any dream away from the ideal career is a nightmare!

However I saw a striking difference in the approach with which people in the West take up higher education. Students in UK, I saw, tend to get into a job after their GCSE (Class 10 equivalent). These jobs are not very high paying; however there is a rule in the UK that the minimum wages for a paid work must be at least GBP 4/hour. This rule ensures that these people get the necessary financial support. After they work for couple of years, they identify their dreams and take up a university degree in the relevant field. It is important to note here that they actually end up doing what they want to and hence I believe have achieved a greater deal of success.

When I considered the reasons for the absence of such a scheme in India, I felt that primarily two factors contribute to this. One, the lack of flexibility in curriculum and absence of short term jobs for students, and two, the mentality that does not support the adventure called entrepreneurship. There is a severe dearth for good employment opportunities in India; especially the ones that allow you to learn a trade before pursuing higher education. Here education simply cannot end before one completes under graduation and then it becomes very difficult to chalk a new career away from your ‘degree’. This approach must change, and the system of financial independence for children above 18 years must be encouraged. Students above the age of 18 years must be encouraged to earn, especially with the avenues provided by internet, IT and other growing sectors. As a matter of fact financial constraints used to make this mandatory for the people of earlier generation, however the comforts of upper middle class has actually replaced it and this I think has led to stereotyping of vocational education and entrepreneurial ventures. Also this system will help alleviate the students from the distress of having to become what you never wanted to become, and also to chalk out a career for them and be more successful.

History has always supported people with focused goals and strong ambitions to emerge leaders. Unless this concern is addressed I doubt if India can convert the millions of talented youngsters into global leaders.

Kambaqt Ishq

Just came back from a movie theater here in London that played Kambaqt Ishq.
Crazy movie I must say, but indeed very different. Not a single part of the movie deals with/in India! But definitely a good watch for the stunts, beauty and the Hollywood.

The story line is not so great, and the sequence is highly predictable. Thankfully it has not got extreme emotional content nor complete absence of it. The cliche backbone of surgeons' manhandling of the surgery (Why does it always have to be the watch!!??) and fight turning love plot makes it quite a redundant Indian movie but it is well made up by the presence and action of
Sylvester Stallone and other stars!

So looking out for some action ;) , this might be the movie of your choice! :)

London dreams

Inspired by this booklet
I just picked up at Moorgate,

On my way to Wembley Park
Wondering how I got this spark

Did I really have the ability
To write a beautiful poetry

About this London city
At the same time being witty?

Three long weeks here I spent
A couple of days in Kent

Two different worlds they are
Although not very far

Buses and tubes are that what make
London to go without a break

Somewhere in this wonderland
I lost my way I understand

Crowds of people here and there
Am I in the middle of a fair?

I am told I am at Bank, a place
Unmistakeably London’s face

Well dressed people come and go
In black and white to and fro

Finance is the game they play with cash
All look tensed after the crash

Far away from the madding crowd
I know I have a different road.

I board a tube, the first I get
Into a paradise I can never forget

I almost get lost in my solitude deeper
Like Wordsworth’s beautiful reaper

All of a sudden the good lady spoke
Train is about to terminate bloke

I jumped out of my seat and wrote
High time to stop this quote.

Fight in the bus

I always felt physical aggression is a reflection of the extent of lack of civilization, and hence I
felt pretty odd when i saw some guys duel in the bus in London!

Not that I have seen any thing like that in my last few weeks here. A presumably Asian guy and
his dad were traveling with us when these three people got on to the bus from Brent Town Hall.
They were of course well built, and all set to fight and moved to this guy. Pulled the collar of his shirt and dunk! His poor old dad tried to intervene, and I guess he too got a shot! Poor chap...
Then they threw him down the stairs and what happened later is mystery :P Couldn't see from my seat in the upper deck beyond this.

Guess he should be alright, probably inspired by the Australians. The Ashes always brings about tight competitions between the British and the Aussies, u know...

Psst... It was not a racial attack. They were acquaintances, possibly frnz who were fighting for a girl :P

I need to write...

This post I am sure will be a different one. Its about why you must blog?!!
I sat down to work on my report today and gosh! my pen wouldn't move an inch!

I was absolutely short of words and that too of words I know for sure. And you know what,
I was shocked to learn how my brain could pop out the hindi words for the same :P

I always enjoyed writing both long and short compositions at school. In college, I have to
write long essays (factual or fictitious) only during the exams and guess with the amount of effort
put in for it dwindling every time, I must get back to some other means (like blogging ) to
keep my interest in writing.

Lo! and here I am writing a blog post after months!

Psst... One another thing I realized... In all its bad state with my vocabulary, my brain was very good when it came to finding errors in a document. How much I love criticizing others! ;)

To London

After many days of impatient awaiting, I got my visa and I came to London on 27 May.
Will be here until July 10.

I took my trip to London with Emirates Airlines as many suggested that it was one of the best.
Well, to that, I must say I was not particularly pleased with their service. But possibly it was
because of the vacation season and since the flight was almost full they had no time to attend to the
passengers in the economy class.

Luckily I had a good time as my television set was functioning. I watched the course of the
flight on the screen (they had a downward camera and a forward camera to give us a good picture
of what was below and ahead of us :P ), and spent my flying time with Arvind Adiga's White Tiger.

Toast to technology!

http://www.icq.com/img/friendship/static/card_16961_rs.swf


U don't need to go away from ur laptop to celebrate the new yr...

HAPPY NEW YEAR

So the time has come to welcome a new year!
HAPPY NEW YEAR 2009!!!!

2009 has so many things in store for all of us! A lot of repairs to be done, and hope its a wonderful year ahead!

After a good show at the EEE auditorium !

Cows - next to humans form an integral part of our NITT campus. A funny pic taken from the EEE dept.

Sitting next to a convict

I have been traveling a lot these holidays. The last of those journeys when i was coming
back from Ambalapuha to Trivandrum I was sharing my bench with a convict (handcuffed) and a policeman (with a gun which I strongly feel is .303).

Now this guy was being brought to the Police headquarters in Tvm. And I caught a few secret clicks of them.

I could not help but notice the way they both were sleeping! Like friends on a leisure trip!!

Good bye 2008!

2008 was really a year of ups and downs.

Terrorism was at its peak, financial debacle that left a lot of vacuum (and uncertainties for a lot of us), climatic changes and cyclones..there were all. On the good side, America did vote for change (better late than never), Indian cricket team is going strong, and on a parallel line the Australian supremacy in the game of cricket seems to die out for the rise of other playing countries.

Looking back, 2008 will be remembered as a sad year for the innumerable number of job cuts, coming-to-streets it has been a witness to. The good old American dream was shattered and people like us who are all set to enter into work have no clue of the scenario out there for us.

With a new American government, that has already managed to gain confidence and raise the hopes of the people, at the helm of affairs, CHANGE has to come. Otherwise shoe dealers will make profit as more no. of people show their anger and frustration ;-)

Come back home?!

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/23/weekinreview/23anand.html?ei=5070&emc=eta1

A good article on the children of those Indians who settled in other countries in search of better employment opportunities.

In a chat that followed this. I told my friend in Sngapore about what it was for India to welcome them back. The excerpts are below. Just for fun ;-)
i have deliberately deleted the sections containing his comments.

me: i mean...dogs must ive in kennels and lions must live in dens .. neither are suited otherwise..

u cant be brought up a lion and made to live in a kennel n vice versa

11:26 PM me: nri n ppl like u who study outside learn there... and come bac to spoil the job prospects f ppl in india

me: india has become watever it si now coz of half baked half roasted professionals like us...

who learn to adapt over innovate..

me: and o by the fundamental principles of survivability...

11:28 PM *go

11:29 PM me: while in the case wid ppl like u who hav stideied overseas the case is not so. ur like well manufactured defect less products straight out of sony or toshiba..

so half baked ppl lose preference over ompany products available at affordable cost for indian companies..

right?

11:30 PM

11:31 PM me: if u trace back this is wat happened in america years ago...they found talented (relatively indians then were far more talented than them an also trained at iits )ppl at low price.. n built their gr8 empire yet wid weak foundations only to fall at the sneeze of a financial debacle..

11:32 PM so.. in conclusion...

11:34 PM me: indians like me...who lost on the education (by studying in india) and now also on the opportunty of being the part of building india inc (because better personnel availae at lower price for the employers) .. wil be under serious threat if the article is prophetic..

all this if the finacnial conditions dont get better in two yrs ;-)

howzzat?

i feel that this will result in a pool of Indians affected by unemployment or lack of quality employment.

twenty 20

Twenty 20 ..No i am not talking of cricket filled with colours, glam gals, and all superstars under one banner. In fact I am telling about a malayalam movie Twenty 20 which has all stars, superstars, comedians etc etc who have been around this industry.

The movie has rightfully identified the best role for each one of them and hence the best they can deliver. Mammooty as the lawyer, Lal in his typical style (Narasimham, Devasuram etc..), Suresh Gopi as polica officer with his lavish English that knows no bound, Jayaram in his typical funny way, Dileep the best at timed comedy and Manoj K Jain (as the bad guy).

The major omissions were Urvashi, KPAC, Nedumudi Venu, Thilakan, Janardhanan, Murali...

Whatever, I was only surprised to see the crowd at the ticket counter on this Monday aftenoon when every other person is supposed to be at work!

Have a look at the pic I took outside a theater in Trivandrum!

Dont study today!

Today is Saraswathi pooja or the day of the year when Godess of education Saraswathy audits and inspects the progress made by every student and blesses everyone to have a good year ahead.

This is a part of the Indian tradition and it has been religiously followed by most of the people who believe in Hinduism.

But believe it or not, when all government institutions like banks had holiday, NITT worked!
We had to go to class!

The funniest part is that last year even the college records and stuf were presented for this pooja but this time they have decided to work harder than seek blessing by not working!
Lage raho NITT!!!

THE END OF AN ERA!

Revolution is in the blood of the people of West Bengal. Kerala and WB are the only Indian states where strikes, bandh and hartals are still so frequent occurrences. In that context, I find there is a lot common to these two places. Another thing i admire from this place is Sourav Ganguly.

If there is someone who has dramatically changed the way Indian cricket, it is dada. In an advertisement in yesterday's newspaper i saw RBS tell TENDULKAR, its brand ambassador, to be the one who changed the way the game is played. true! but if there is any mention of who changed the face of Indian cricket and made its presence felt strongly it was Ganguly. Tendulkar was a failure when given this task!

As a skipper, he did the magnificent task of identifying the best talent and provide them the platform. All the youngsters of today's team were his picks. And after Kapil he is the one who has got India closest to the World Cup.

In spite of all the things, he was dropped, insulted, mocked but like a phoenix, true to his style, he arouse and made a grand re-entry into the test team.
these days he is being monitored and analysed every match, every innings.
Sure its disgusting to play under such conditions,and he's gonna quit.

Ah! when has the BCCI ever bothered. They severed ties with Kapil Dev after making him cry in public at the Karan Thapar show and insulting him in different ways. Now with Ganguly they threw him in and out of the team until he has come up to a conclusion that its better getting out before the board goes even harsh!

Adieu Ganguly. We will miss your class and arrogance that define you and your boys!
Indian team will never be the same without the PRINCE.

wake me up when september ends..

June.. july...august... Oh! nothing...i was only counting th no. of months i have managed to keep my blog dormant.

During this time, a lot of things took place. the last being that i got myself an internet connection. Reliance netconnect.

so i got stuff to write. (as usual... ;-P)
but.. not now.. some other day!

The Demanding Customer

Phew! Long time…. A lot of things to tell… Exams, Delhi tour, IPT, to Mumbai, now Kerala…. But yes, let me get back home to madurai. Got some time now so thought I will write something.

“That’s it!” I could not control my laughter any longer.

Actually I was traveling from Mumbai to Cochin in a Jet flight. Rain had already delayed the flight for a couple of hours. I had opted for a window seat. I always do that whenever I come to Kerala ‘coz its simply beautiful looking down from there.

The two people sitting next to me were part of a group of five. This guy whom I call the DEMANDING CUSTOMER was sitting in the seat next to my neighbor’s. He was wearing a green shirt and black pant. Anyways his dressing looked far from impressive.

This guy did a series of funny things and that’s why I simply could stand it no longer.

First as soon as we got in, this guy picked up the Asian Age newspaper browsed through it for a couple of minutes. Then he grabbed the Times of India from the seat pocket in front of me. (No regrets ;-) I hardly read newspapers in flight) then without looking into it for more than a minute, he stuffed that also into the pocket in front of his seat. Well, I thought, he was gluttonous for sure and was looking forward to what he would do.

Then they came with the welcome drink. He took a lime and my neighbor took an orange. After finishing it, my neighbor says, “he changla aahe”. (This ones good, in Marathi.) This guy then signals the air hostess to bring another orange and one for my neighbor too. So there you go, two welcome drinks!

Then, the master-piece. They served us snacks. Being a vegetarian myself, I knew the veg one had potato vada and some kind of stuffed parantha, if I can remember it right. Whatever; my neighbor took a veg and this guy goes for the non-veg one and finishes it quite quickly. Again my neighbor goes, “he changla aahe” and believe it or not! He asked the air hostess to get him an extra veg meal!!!

All this while, I enjoyed his performance and was looking forward to more from him. Now he went for tea. No, you got it wrong this time. He didn’t ask for extra coffee but ravenous that he was, this time he asked for three extra pouches of sugar!!!

No, its not over yet. The air hostesses were winding up the meals and were carrying the trolley down the aisle when this guy flicks (yes, you read it right. ”Flicks” without her knowledge) an additional pack of mouth freshener each for his friend and himself.

“Ha! That topped it all”, I thought as the plane touched the runway of Cochin airport.

Yes, in between all this action, I managed have a beautiful view of Kerala’s greenery and its scenic splendor though cloud had disturbed my vision for quite sometime.

Catch ya later with the many more things I want to write about. The wonderful experiences in Delhi and Mumbai. And yes, the Kingfisher flight ;-)

elections

for the first time i decided to stand for an election yesterday. the decision was taken an hour before the time of election. i quickly messaged most of the ppl i know if anyone else is also contesting...no one.ppl in both the hostels said they will me. so i went there with confirmation ki "is baar to munna paas ho jayega!". sudddenly from nowhere two more ppl also wrote their names for the secretary of eeea.
1st election- a tie between me n naizath. the third guy stepped out. the funniest part is i had asked my friend kc not to come for the election alone because he had bunked the class before. so now i called him

2nd election- believe it or not! he won it with 3 votes!! ppl couldnt believe it nor could i. so they counted the no. n saw that there were bogus votes.
the faculty got pissed off. he has told that he will announce some x or y from our class next week.

elections r always funny rnt they? i think its only now the present guy will how important is te post he was handling, for ppl r fighting n cheating for it ;-)

NITTFEST 08

Everywhere the internal fight is more gruesome and valiant, and the spirit of the warriors is unquestionably high. Our inter-departmental cultural, art and literary fest NITTFEST was no different. It would not be an exaggeration to say all the teams put up a brilliant show.

I don’t want to glorify NITTFEST over here. I want to tell about its conduct. Our dept came third fighting all the irreversible mistakes committed, when too many steve bucknors got into the judging panel. Tell you what; anyone in Nitt would agree ours was the most unlucky dept. If things went by audience poll I am dead damn sure that we would have won hands down. One particular department (perhaps because they learn to communicate) seemed to have an exceptional channel of communication with the judges. The judges seemed to understand and admire every other thing these ppl did. Whatever it is, I don’t wanna write too much on this coz the spirit is still high out here.

In particular, our movie spoof, music, choreo deserved better treatment!! I bet the judges of spoof dint have a clue what Troy is. They also had no clue of what Trojan War is or for that matter who Amitabh Bacchan is… I saw those ppl laughing their heart out for our performance and staring blatantly out of place at the Hindi skit by chem tech. the result: no eee in any positions, chem tech gets a prize!!!! Choreo I don’t know what the hell happened to them. Archi was the only better team. How did ece get in from nowhere?? And what on earth got the two Sarang winners of my dept no prizes at our nittfest? Those judges at music show had no clue of western music… and there were many more of such decisions like the one at zen gardening.

At the end of the day, it’s fun all the way. It was fun before nittfest, no amount of indecisive judgments could mar our spirit during Nittfest, and what a celebration was that after Nittfest… such a wonderful team. Seniors and our batch, we had a wonderful communication. So many new friendships forged in these few weeks. It was a fest to remember for life. That’s the spirit of my dept.!!!

And yeah, my new avtar in marketing team was cool. First time marketing, it was fun convincing and negotiating with people, bossing around with the ppl at stall, and the satisfaction of finishing off all the money settlement today itself!

Overall, three days filled with fun! Lot learnt, many new friends. Sometimes it seems funny how a person seeing whom I wouldn’t have bothered to look at, has become too close in a matter of three days!!

Once again a spectacular show put up by my batch mates vk, pooch, sappai, abhi and the rest and our seniors in particular anand, vishwa, punit, shaan, bong, kutty, deepika, gulji,…hey the list will not end any soon..So let me stop with this…

And yes, to all Steve Bucknors out there, our dept will be set to face you all in next Nittfest!!!

How I escaped death!

I never wanted to catch up with death at least not when I am just twenty years old.

We are planning to shift to Coimbatore and so to get info about the place n basics like house etc we went to the place in a cab last weekend. The hero of the plot, our driver, turns up at 0545 hrs in the morning. A pleasant looking young man of late twenties or early thirties. As soon as he sees us, he goes ”sir I will take your luggage..Sir I will do that... I will do this...”. my dad n I are like this trip will be just fine. At least this guy is very enthusiastic. So there we began the journey.

Journey with my dad is always been a comfortable experience. The first signs of this guy’s ignorance came up when he started deviating from main road claiming short cuts only to find every time that the road is either having work going on or blocked. Stupid guy, in spite of our insisted demand to travel in the highway, he turns to every turn possible and returns to the main road!!

We reach Coimbatore. If you have been there, the Trichy road turns right to the station. There are three ways right, centre and left. This guy is told “rightila ponga” (it means –go in the right side road). Believe it or not, all of a sudden he starts moving in the second (central) lane and we are almost under a bus! First escape from death!!!

We were alarmed. This guy has the potential to kill us. So we now try to explain things to him as if we were talking to a child with mongolism or dyslexia. We tell him “inga stop pannunga”(it means-please stop here). This celestial creature stops the vehicle-an indica- right in the middle of the road in front of Coimbatore junction!!!! I was reminded of the elephant. You know how the elephant stops wherever it is, the moment you command it to do so! Anyway, Second escape from death!!!

Now this is ridiculous, we think. Should we abandon him there and take another cab?! Chuck… we decide to carry on. Yeah then in Coimbatore city near the cantonment area, we ask this guy to turn right into the lane that cuts the main road. You know what he does? He takes a perfect U-TURN!!! Damn it, we conclude, this guy is Deaf too!

The petty ones I don’t want to mention here. We finish our work in Coimbatore and start towards Madurai. It starts raining baldy. We are now very skeptical about his ability to drive in the night that too in the rain! So we follow his turns and moves very meticulously. First thing he does is to turn right and in the process go in the wrong lane. A transport bus is coming in the opposite direction but all the noise we make from inside just manages us into the correct lane. So, our Third escape from death!!!

At one point the indication says right. This guy turns left! So he has a poor sight too!!! I know it is getting dragged. So now this mega one.

The rains aggravated. Visibility is poor. We are kind of tired after patiently keeping track of the route. All of a sudden my dad and I observe none of the milestones have Madurai!! We are shocked and definite there has been a mistake somewhere. We ask our beloved Durai, that’s his name, “ennappa, maduraiye kaaname. Wrong routeila vandittte pola irukku. Check pannikkalame?”(it means-what man, no mention of Madurai? Why don’t we check if the route is correct). With all the pride in his so called experience on road (which I still suspect to be false), he assures us that this is the right way. Every milestone reads Tiruppur. Just then, I see a Madurai-Tirupur bus going past us. Eh?!! I try to explain him all logics possible that if the milestones say we are moving towards Tirupur, then the bus must be coming from Madurai. This guy kind of gets pissed off and says if you are so doubtful we can clarify your problem. We ask a few people on the way and they say, “You are 20 km away from the point you should have turned the other way”. Shit! This is my reaction. I have to get back to Trichy before next day morning.

We divert in the right direction. Our hero is dejected. He says he is sad! Anyway, I decide to get down at Dindigul and take a bus to Trichy. Then again I am afraid to let my dad alone with this moron. So we make sure that he gets off dejection. Have dinner and I get down at dindigul.

I tell my dad “keep callin every 15 mins. I have no peace of mind”. My dad gives me kind of cool I will manage look. Fine.

Next day he tells me, that the driver slept off in the middle of the way!!! Wtf!??so that’s the Fourth escape from death!!

So basically, we happened to scrape past death not once but four times on the same day. All credits to the great driver!!