Dream factory v.2011

The juggernaut has rolled by yet again. Results of any nature are looked forward to in the same trepidation as Balaji looks forward to bowling a yorker or Seaman looks forward to guarding a Ronaldinho free kick. But nothing matches the sheer intensity and the nervousness that palls the hapless candidates when the sun finally dawns on the day the JEE results are to be declared. Of course, there is a minority which sees this day as the day of exoneration, when the very qualities that might have led to events of humiliation are turned inside out into a day of celebration. and redemption. I was never one for redemption, so I don't know about that.

All I can remember is that 5 years ago, on May 31, I was forced to visit an internet cafe by my mother at 9 AM, a good hour after the results were out. Call it reluctance or bravado, but all my results were declared on 3 consecutive Wednesdays that summer, and the 2nd one, the AIEEE, didn't bring good news at all. All it brought were images of opportunities lost and time wasted in long chats in the school parking lot that ended up going nowhere. Thankfully the JEE brought some respite and the day ended in one massive celebration (read: going to sleep with no worries about my future). Back then, JEE 2006 had thrown a curve ball at many a candidates due to the late announcement of a tweak in the examination pattern, compounded by the visions of Judgement day (not the sorts that can be miscalculated by a senile godman!) for all those who had been toiling for more than a year after their 12th. Come to think of it, even the number of goats going to the altar was humongous at 320,000. Still, it pales in comparison to the number of applicants for JEE 2011 and AIEEE 2011, which clock at 485,000 and 1,200,000 respectively. Yes, a million candidates now have their fate hanging on a single day of crunching. Wait for another 10 years and it will surpass the population of a large number of medium-sized countries.

How is it that for all documented proof of India's progress, a seat at an IIT (note to the responsible members of the media, IITs are not associated with the place they are seated, so stop calling IIT Bombay IIT Powai and IIT Madras IIT Chennai) or an NIT is still considered the 'be all-end all' of higher education. I will not describe the pains of a candidate preparing to study medicine in this country which has appalling medical facilities, because IIT has softened me to the extent that I cannot share their pain. Back to engineering (and Science)- while IITs have mushroomed all over the country, so have the coaching centres which promise the ultimate reward to any middle class parent who can shell out a hefty sum to these agents of prosperity. I truly believe, especially after gaining the treasured tag of 'been there, done that', that a large number of students in IITs are there only because they were made to believe that IITs are the gateway to a cushy job and a lifestyle akin to Ambanis and Birlas. I am not joking- there are people out there who believe that the minimum salary paid to a fresh graduate is at least in 7 figures, so beware if you know an over-interested neighbor. Even I was one of the believers till I entered my 3rd year, and even now, I can safely say that an IIT tag helps in more ways than one.

So how is it that so many hopes ride on a small number of institutions, which according to the umbrella ministry, don't even figure in the top-150 in the world in research. No matter how stupid the remarks of these honorable ministers are, the answer lies somewhere between complacent faculty and disinterested students. As somebody who has participated in a fare share of research projects in the last 2 years, you cannot force somebody to churn out scientific publications when he only came to this institution to earn a respectable living post graduation. And considering the less than flattering prospects faced by a researcher in India till the time he turns 30, you can hardly blame a student if he wants to make his life comfortable on a less tedious route. There's your answer Mr. Ramesh, and considering that you yourself went on a path of fame and wealth, that makes you a hypocrite for questioning those who are at least putting in some effort.

The facts remain firm. The lack of lucrative front line employment opportunities, coupled with the silos of government funded research institutions, exacerbates the acute shortage of options for any student in India. What we choose to do should remain our prerogative, and all dictum of 'serve your country' should only come from those who have traversed the path themselves. If anything, this shows that the government is willing to throw one of its premier educational institutes under the bus to grab some headlines (and possible divert attention from the larger issues of drift in governance).

PS: A cursory glance at this article brings back some good memories. Kids, a lot will change between now and the time you graduate, and I mean a lot!

"PhD to yaha bhi hoti hai!"

Translation: You are a duffer who wants to go to a foreign country for 5 years rather than taking up the MNC job so coveted by the masses in India.

It has been quite an eventful week, and believe me, I had no inkling of any of the events since I had barely been home for more than 3 weeks for the last 3 years. First, you pack up from IIT, college life ending in a matter of minutes and the feeling of having paid one's dues missing altogether. In true IITian fashion, all packing issues were resolved in the last hour before departure, and it is probably one habit which I shall be absolved of in the near future (almuni experiences warn me to the converse). After a much hallowed ride in the 1st class compartment of the Mumbai local with a dear friend and sifting through the multitude of platforms on CST, the realization dawned on me- College is over! Not so soon, echoed didi's rail vibhaag, and the summer special made my last Mumbai-Jhansi trip for a while a rather special journey, one to remember, by halting between Kalyan and Igatpuri for 2 hours! I would later learn that this was a pre-journey check, and more abrupt halts were peppered throughout the journey in a train lacking the basic facilities of waiters selling drinking water!

Ultimately, I came home, unpacked, and stripped down to minimum clothing in order to withstand the scorching North Indian summer. The monsoon may only be 2 weeks away, but those 2 weeks couldn't come sooner for a region which regularly makes headlines due to the spirited battle between the ruling BSP government and Rahul baba, as they blame all and sundry for the rot in Bundelkhand. Sadly you losers, what you are fighting about is my hometown. With the only development coming in the form of pukka roads and 16 hours of power supply since I was gone (perhaps broadband internet can be included here, but I am tempted not too), Jhansi is to Bundelkhandis what Miami was once to the Cubans. So what is the big fuss in the title of the post all about?

Turns out, my decision to enrich my brain some more (fancy term) and 'expand my horizons' came to naught in front of suspecting uncles and aunties, and even distant relatives. The queries are rather fundamental in nature- Beta, IIT main jaakar padh liya, naukri bhi lag gayi. Ab naukri karo, kitni padhai karoge? PhD to yahi se kar lena, 20-22 hajaar main ho jaati hai!

As you'd expect, all efforts to explain that this is not a 20-22k worth 'sit at home-pay a bribe-get a doctorate' PhD are useless when the well-wishers have your greater interest (read Marriage) in mind. Moreover, my trusty scooter that ferried me to many a last-minute school dashes and coaching trips has winded down considerably in horsepower. In a sign of overjoyed surprise, it did try and push upwards of the 50 kmph mark on a return trip, but sadly age has caught on to another long time friend. What else? How about the stray dogs on the street. What is so special about strays you may ask, for they are as much a sign that you are in India as stray cows (and pigs in MP). These strays are of the pedigree once the great Jesse Owens might have run against. They'll give you a nice 'run' for your money, and will escort you right to your doorstep for half a kilometer. And the easiest way to get a file noticed is to, as you have wrongly guessed, espouse a long relationship or acquaintance with the person in charge. Bribes are for novices!

With my internet finally working, I look forward to sharing more of my hometown tales with you. Beware, all posts are subject to more of such interesting incidents, like the one where we reached the cinema late and missed our first day show of Samundar ke lutere- Ek anokha rahasya.

Real catchy lyrics I must say!

Busted!

Funny are the laws of nature, and funnier are the instruments of enforcement. From time immemorial, tales of the victory of good over evil are being passed from generation to generation as the biggest treasure of mankind. They form the basis of our religious beliefs, or rather spiritual beliefs. Our festivals like Deepawali, Holi, and Onam are a testament to the spirit of virtue and honesty. Of course, just like all good things must come to an end, these stories ended up becoming just what they were, mere tales. People celebrate the pomp, not the essence, and humanity moves deeper into a pit of impiety. And therein comes the importance of the judiciary, or the court system, which is designed to serve as a reminder and guardian of the good old times when the 'good' stood above everything else.

But we had to make things complicated, so the system of laws and codes came into existence. Facts took precedence over logic, and muddled images of evidence being dug up from history became commonplace. While I agree that a code-defined judicial system is of utmost necessity to prevent harassment and misuse, I would like to corroborate the point that rationale is as important as hard evidence, especially when the case in question pertains to a national query on the welfare of citizens. And there can never be a better time to discuss this than in the wake of 3 important judgements passed by the Supreme court this week. All of these matters are still sub judice, so a final decisions is imminent sometime soon (soon by definition means 'the next 10 years' in the Indian judicial system). In the first one, and sadly not the last in the history of a ridiculously long drawn case, the Supreme court stayed the decision of the Allahabad high court, which mandated the trifurcation of disputed land in Ayodhya once home to the Babri masjid. In a nutshell, all peace that prevailed in the last 7 months since the Sep 30 judgement looks in danger. The masses were moving to better things like the movement against corruption and demanding accountability from the legislative as evident in the robust voting pattern in assembly elections. Now the media will play up this issue again, because as Advani and Rahul Gandhi showed us, nothing is more sensational in India than the talk of Ram mandir. A litany of litigations is again imminent. Agreed, the Allahabad court's decision was based more on beliefs than hard evidence, as some would say. Still, it was not out of the bounds of law. The fundamental groups like the VHP were upset by the decision to give away one-thirds to the Waqf board, but the overall masses breathed a sigh of relief that the matter was put to rest for good. What followed was a petition in the SC by the so called representative groups, seeking restraint on the order passed, and that is exactly what has happened! Choose thy representatives wisely.

The next is the Supreme court's directive in the sensitive matter of honor killings. With the dipping child sex ratio and worsening demographic data in a number of northern industrial states, it is necessary that old customs die and be replaced by neo-modern approach to society building. Honor killings have braved all progressive talk, and our politicians are once again to blame for giving legitimacy to the khap panchayats and their nonsensical judgments, which ironically are based on logic alone. Hence, as I said in the beginning, emphasis on evidence checks lacunae in the system. The SC bench made it clear that all cases of honor killings be considered in the 'rarest of rare' category, implying a sentence amounting to death to the accused should not be out of the court's purview. In a country where people still pray for their lives day and night, this comes along as a balanced and fair directive, and a necessary corrective measure, even though most countries are shunning death penalties and human rights organizations are up in arms against any such decisions.

The last is the sad tale of a city in the heartland of India, Bhopal, where the lakhs who survived the worst industrial disaster in the history of mankind on Dec 2, 1984, still await a fair judgement in their case against those responsible for the poisonous leak which engulfed them in the middle of the night. The SC today refused to alter its judgement pronounced in 1996, and chided the CBI and the MP government for bringing up a curative petition seeking a change in the nature of charges leveled against the accused. This decision is perhaps one worth debating all night. The SC has a bonafide concern; its judgement deem the highest legitimacy to a case under question, and altering the charges against the accused would perhaps be seen as a weakness of the highest and most honorable court in India. Passions are raging, and rightly so. Not only was the sentence of 2 years inadequate when one considers the quantum of damage caused by the carelessness and apathy of a few, the compensation settled upon by the government is hardly anything to cheer about. The SC has left it at the discretion of the sessions court to consider the change in the severity of the charges, and one can only speculate upon the future course of this case.

In some cases, hard evidence needs to be given center stage, and feelings of empathy and logic need to be kept aside so that the impartiality and objectivity of the court is preserved. However, as the above cases illustrate, judgements based on logic are equally important. For example, a federal jury in the US indicted a wealthy Wall street fund manager on charges of insider trading, and hard evidence as well as foresight helped build up the prosecutions case. In an year marked by the hard stance taking by our judiciary to set things right in a deteriorating governance, sensitivity becomes all the more important!

Here's some Rolling Stones for ya..

Time to wake up India

The week started with probably the biggest news of the decade (too early to assert, I know) and unless 2012 is for real, I doubt anything can top the much-awaited announcement from the White House confirming the death of Osama bin Laden in a covert military operation by the US. I will not inject my own opinions on this news; too may learned people have spoken and written about it, and the media is still buzzing with the finer details of this operation.

Common sense would dictate that the time is ripe for the Indian government to demand answers to tough questions on the extent of Pakistani military's and ISI's backing to terrorist organisations operating from its territory. While Pakistan has been crying hogwash to continued reports of areas in its posh cities serving as hideouts for leading fundamentalists and terrorists, India is as much to blame for its inability to get the whip cracking. In fact, in the light of horrific events that unfolded on Dec 13, 2001, when LeT terrorists attacked the seat of India's democracy in broad daylight and nearly succeeded in vending mortal harm on our MPs, the central government did initiate military deployment (Operation Parakram) at the Indo-Pak border. Vajpayee made it clear in his address to the nation that water has indeed crossed the bridge, and Pakistan can no longer hide behind the pretext of domestic terrorism marring its efforts. Unfortunately for India and fortunately for Pakistan, the standoff that culminated to serious levels coincided with the allied forces' operation in Afghanistan to hunt Qaeda terrorists, and international powers soon entered the frame in order to cool things down. Since 2001, India has witnessed one terror attack after the other, be it in the form of bomb explosions in the crowded Mumbai local trains at peak service time or the heinous attack on Nov 26 at the CST and the Taj, with the number of fatalities reaching hundreds. And for all talks of diplomatic pressure on Pakistan, the US has showed the way with what is to be done when national and sovereign interests are at stake.

While it was opportune for India to extract the US' help in its effort to bring notorious criminals like Dawood Ibrahim and Hafiz Saeed to the book, clearly it has not yielded any results. It has been acknowledged that the civilian government in Pakistan is inept at handling or exercising any control over its military establishment, and Gen. Ashfaq Kayani is seen as the de facto premier of Pakistan. Hence, it should be clear that all talks with Pakistan are futile till its military is willing to cooperate. For India, this cooperation should be seen in the form of military operations to wipe out terror camps being run in Pak-owned Kashmir, and weeding out of terrorists who try to cross the LOC 24x7. However, as history shows, Pakistani military cannot be trusted on any of these accounts; the Kargil war was after all waged by a man who later went on to become its president, and is for some reason beyond my comprehension, a noted public speaker and an invitee to talk shows on our news channels. Therefore India should have prepared its own military for any eventuality arising out of Pakistan's miscalculations. Quite the converse, a cursory look on the state of our defense military contracts, out in public domain, show that the government is moving at a snail's pace on this front. Admiral Gorschkov is still savoring the Russian hospitality, the MMRCA contracts are yet to be finalized, and Tejas was only recently inducted into the IAF after being under development for over 20 years.

On the diplomatic front, the Indian establishment has patently developed a blow hot-blow cold methodology to deal with Pakistan. Talks were held and Indian position was ascertained at the Sharm-el-Sheikh conference. Yet, Pakistan has declined to allow Indian investigators on its soil for the questioning of Hafiz Saeed or other perpetrators of 26/11. More importantly, its own courts have failed to deliver a sentence on the charges being leveled on Saeed and the JuD, which incidentally is a pseudonym for an earlier organisation which was banned by Pakistan. This exposes Pakistan's bigotry if nothing else. The right approach forward should be to press for stringent action against the suspects in the 26/11 attacks residing on Pakistani soil, and at the same time reinvigorating India's defensive might through speedy procurements and comprehensive show of military might. Remember, China's advances in indigenously developed military technology is one of the reasons for its march to the position of country no. 2 on the global power list. India cannot afford to sit scooped up between a Pakistan-China nexus, with increasing signs that the US is expediting its operations in Af-Pak to a speedy conclusion. When the time comes, India will have to defend itself, and to do that, it needs to support our brave soldiers with superior technology and a clear-headed strategic policy making. Secret operations might be too risky; why take the risk when we can stand up in the world's view!

PS: In a sad news, a final year IITM student committed suicide today. All my thoughts go out to his family and may his soul rest in peace.

Being civil

The mood on the street appears to be clear - of the civil, by the civil, for the civil. Somewhere in the last 3 months, the moniker of 'people' gave way to that of 'civil society'. My two cents on it- Were you not civil when you elected those representatives of yours, the ones whom you paint in the darkest of light now, that you are hell bent on making a mockery of India's democracy?

I am not against public participation in affairs related to policy-making, in fact I was among those 700-odd who marched from H13 to the main gate in a show of solidarity with India against corruption and Anna saheb's crusade to get the society's voice heard. Yet, the past few weeks of consternation on both sides and the ensuing shallowness being put on display in the public sphere makes this exercise appear useless. The thing is, I don't trust our legislators to pass a strong Lokpal bill, and demonstrate we may, it doesn't work till you have representatives in the house acting as a bulwark. The way the UPA has reacted to the Public accounts committee report on the 2G scam, which for all its sensational remarks, offered a nutshell view of what is already being discussed in the open, leaves a gaping hole in the Congress' line of defense that it fully supports all democratic and constitutional provisions to ensure accountability of legislators. Yes, we can march again and the media will promptly come back in its effort to grab eyeballs, but does it answer the larger question? You cannot hold the parliament accountable if you don't have a headcount in there. Therefore, elect wisely, and hold them accountable. West Bengal is facing an acid-test of sorts, but if the Trinamool-Congress does sweep in to power as projected, expect them to paint the town red with slogans of victory and representation of 'people's choice'.

Sadly, it is not just the polity which is adding to my worries. The civil society hasn't held back in making a fool of itself, perhaps even trying to supersede the 'luminaries' likes Sibal and Chidambaram, who use their mastery of words more than their mastery of thought. So after the government, in a rare display of responsibility and vision, decided to introduce a bill in the Monsoon session of the parliament decreeing setting up of an independent Nuclear regulatory authority of India, Indian express today reported a letter written by alleged civil society activists, addressed to the PMO, demanding participation of civil society members in framing of this body. It went a step ahead and asked the government to ensure members of the 'civil society' accompany the AERB officials on current security checks being carried out at India's civilian nuclear plants. Since I and you have every right to demand an equal representation in all such efforts to ensure civil society's participation, I demand to be included in such visits (hey, I have always been curious of how a nuclear plant works). Also, in the same vein of public representation and accountability, I demand members of the civil should be called in for invigilation and correction in competitive exams all over the country. If time permits, call them to our semester exams as well. Also, some civil society members should come and see how Reliance extracts gas from KG-D6, because they appear to be knowledgeable enough in all matters which require specific expertise.

This whole thing has clearly gone too far. A movement to demand efforts to curb corruption on the part of the ruling establishment is a different thing, but proclaiming the higher ground in all matters of policy making is ridiculous. You might as well go ahead and appoint yourself the PM of India. Peculiarly, the one event where civil society representation has been a vintage tradition is marriage, and perhaps the old mentality of 'marrying under the society's eyes confers legitimacy to the whole affair' has carried over to the way we observe our parliament. Then perhaps it is time to start looking for the right pandit, or a good therapist!

On the culture of chief guests: