Ten Common Errors When Building a New World-Class University

ITBHU has always owe much of their success to the exceptional leadership qualities of the founder Madan Mohan Malviya: who inspired, mobilized and showed the way to the establishment of BHU with a vision. Over the long run, however, this element of strength has devolved into a limiting factor. Our institution had not make provisions for orderly transition procedures with changing times and funding of grants. hence have been pushed back by new colleges.

Achieving the ambitious result of launching a high quality is easier said than done. Conversion of IT BHU to IIT will surely give college huge fund. Almost all the structure is established one and need only few bureaucratic changes in administration. So if the entire working culture is same, then what is the difference in new IIT -BHU and old ITBHU ? Jamil Salmi's paper on Ten Common Errors When Building a New World-Class University is presented as blog post here as it is the urgent need of time to rebuild the mission and structure of  the ITBHU at par with the best institutes of the world.

1. Build a magnificent campus; expect magic to happen. The physical infrastructure is obviously the most visible part of a new university. A lot of care is usually given to the design and construction of impressive, state-of-the-art facilities, and rightly so. Good academic infrastructure is certainly an important part of the education experience of students, and researchers need adequate laboratories to carry out leading-edge scientific inquiries. But, without an appropriate governance set-up, a strong leadership team, a well-thought curriculum, and highly qualified academics, the beautiful campus will remain little more than an empty shell that embodies a waste of valuable resources. Remember the Tower of Babel!

2. Design the curriculum after constructing the facilities. It is often assumed that teaching and learning can easily adapt to the physical environment of the institution. This may be true for traditional lecture-based teaching, but innovative pedagogical practices often require equally innovative facilities.For example, interactive approaches, problem-based learning or pedagogical methods relying heavily on teamwork and peer learning are constrained by the physical limitations of conventional lecture halls or even classrooms.

Libraries and laboratories have evolved dramatically in recent years due to changes in technology. The promoters of a new university should refrain from launching into the architectural design stage of their institution until they have established not only a clear definition of the vision and mission of the new institution but have also determined some of the specific content of teaching and research. It is particularly essential (and most prudent) to prepare the academic plan of the new institution ahead of the construction of the physical infrastructure and to tailor the latter to the requirements of the former rather than the other way around. At the very least, the academic staff should be given the opportunity to influence the design of the pedagogical and research spaces of the new institution.

3. Import content from somewhere else. Why reinvent the wheel? The teams in charge of establishing new universities tend to look almost exclusively at the top-ranked institutions in industrial countries to buy or copy elements of their curriculum instead of going through the more labor-intensive process of custom designing their own programs. While this may seem expedient and practical, it is not the most effective way of building the academic culture of a new university that aims to reach high standards. The Harvards and Oxfords of this world are unique institutions that have evolved over centuries, and it is unrealistic to think that reproducing their distinctive academic model is possible or even desirable. And it is impractical to envision shopping around and bringing curricular fragments from a variety of top notch institutions across different countries / cultures, assuming that everything could easily gel together and fall in place to create an authentic learning and research culture in the new university. Curriculum development is demanding work, but it is the main mechanism that can allow a unique and innovative organizational culture to emerge.

4. Design with an OECD ecosystem in mind, implement elsewhere. Replicating the three key features that make flagship universities in industrial countries successful—concentration of talent, abundant resources and favorable governance—is a fundamental requirement, but it does not encompass the full complement of operational conditions that underpin the authorizing environment of a successful world-class institution. It is difficult if not impossible to create and maintain thriving universities when the tertiary education ecosystem within which they operate is not fully supportive. Some potentially important dimensions of a favorable ecosystem include leadership at the national level (existence of a vision about the future of tertiary education, capacity to implement reforms), the regulatory framework (legal provisions, governance structure and management processes at the national and institutional levels), the quality assurance framework, the mechanisms and pathways integrating the various types of tertiary education institutions, the financial resources and incentives, along with the digital and telecommunications infrastructure. To operate adequately, all of these require an overarching set of conditions which have to do with political and economic stability, the rule of law, the existence of basic freedoms, and a favorable location from the viewpoint of the spatial environment in which the new tertiary education institution is meant to operate (local economic, social and cultural life). The absence of even only one of these elements or the lack of alignment among these various dimensions is likely to compromise the ability of new universities to progress and endure.

Among other things, these errors point to the importance of developing an original academic and institutional culture that fits well into the local environment.

5. Delay putting in place the board and appointing the leadership team. The resolution to establish a new university is often a political decision reflecting a visionary ambition at the highest levels that a ministry or a technical project team is then charged with putting into action. This typically leads to a centrally managed design and implementation process.

Given that the establishment of a new university requires passion and drive to create a new organizational culture, it cannot be built by a disinterested committee. A project of such magnitude must be fully owned and carried out by a dynamic leadership team, working under the authority of an independent board with the capacity to offer guidance and empowerment. The first order of business of the new board has to be the identification, selection and installation of institutional leadership. Putting in place an appropriate governance framework from the outset is a key factor of success.

6. Stack the board with political appointees. Founders need to choose a governing board that brings together a range of essential expertise that can evolve over time. The governing board should start out small and grow very gradually to accommodate more expertise as needed. The common oversight is that people are appointed to boards on the assumption that they "represent" their institution or represent a constituency, when really they should represent an area of expertise needed in the management of the new and growing institution (legal expert, financial expert, infrastructure expert, academic experts, retired institutional leaders, etc.). Another, related misstep is to appoint governing board members who have too little time. It is better to have the board skewed toward recently retired university presidents or experts than to have too many members with too little time and dedication to the endeavor.

7. Plan for up-front capital costs, but pay little attention to long-term financial sustainability. The promoters of a new university usually announce with enthusiasm the huge endowment dedicated to the establishment of the new institution, but the initial capital investment is only one part of the total project. It is essential to provide adequately for the first few years of operation and to establish a thoughtful business model that allows the new institution to grow and endure in a financially sustainable manner.

The common errors presented today highlight the importance leadership along with proper sequencing in designing and implementing a new tertiary education institution.

8. Be too ambitious in enrollment targets. The leaders of new institutions sometimes think that they can rapidly enroll large numbers of students, often in the tens of thousands. This is rarely achieved without sacrificing quality. In the 1970s, E.F. Schumacher wrote in his famous book “Small is Beautiful” that successful development projects were preferably of a small size.

Small is still beautiful today, especially when it applies to setting up a new college or university. It is usually a better idea to begin with a small number of programs and student body if quality is a priority. It allows the new institution to deploy resources more prudently, to take time to develop its new academic culture, and to give precedence to quality factors over everything else. Once a strong academic culture is in place, it is easier to scale up from there.

9. Think that everything can be accomplished in eighteen months. A variant of over-ambitious planning is assuming that a new institution can be launched in a matter of months and that high quality teaching and research can be accomplished within a few years of establishing a new university. In reality, rushing through the initial phase of design and implementation can often only lead to hasty decisions that can have an adverse effect on the quality and cost of the project. Furthermore, institution-building is a long-term process that requires stable leadership, continuous improvement, and patience. This is especially true when it comes to developing the robust scientific traditions needed to produce leading edge research and technological applications.

10. Rely exclusively on foreign academics without building up local capacity. Hiring foreign academics is common practice to accelerate the launch of a new university in a country with limited capacity. Indeed, it makes good sense to bring experienced instructors and researchers to help put new programs in place; it can also be a very effective capacity-building strategy when an important part of the mission of the foreign academics is to train younger, less experienced academics from the host country. On the other hand, it can be a risky and counter-productive approach in the absence of systematic efforts to attract and retain qualified national academics. As with most plans that include reliance on outside actors and forces, the strategy of bringing on foreign academic staff should be one that complements the more fundamental aim of local capacity building.

Revisiting the Global 1960s

Widely recognized not just as a decade but as a cluster of experiences that stretched over a period of time, the sixties as we now know it drew into its fold, radical politics, Black power, sexual liberation, youthful rebellion, feminism and more. Intellectual currents flowered all across the world alongside a powerful critique of cultural and political authority. The fourteen day strike by students and workers in Paris in the summer of 1968 acquired a mythical after life. The American war in Vietnam triggered a force field of protest and danger all over the world. The spirit of counterculture led to a critique of the family, the creation of alternative lifestyles and drug culture. Latin American experiences of revolutions, military terror and violence; colonialism, anti-colonialism and racial oppression in Africa; the resonance of the Cultural Revolution in China – these reverberated locally and globally. A series of political assassinations rocked the decade. All theories of civilization, race,history, politics, culture and identity were put to test.

It would not be incorrect to suggest that cultural creativity was never quite the same after the sixties. Music, fashion, design, art, architecture, cinema,theatre and performance bear the marks and the traces of this turbulent period of global upheaval. If Minimalism in art practice emerged as a challenge to Pop Art then Conceptual Art posed a critique of formalism. Modernism and the Avant-garde faced a crisis with the rise of Postmodernism while in India, the dominance of the Progressives began to be challenged by an alternative modernism that had a polemical take on indigenism; one aspect of this developed into neo-Tantric abstraction. This decade also saw the first explorations of kitsch and popular culture that later provided the point of rupture with modernism itself. Political theatre acquired a powerful force and Brecht emerged as a new icon for both the West and the post colonial world. Beatlemania and the events of Woodstock transformed the future of rock music as technology reinvented the aesthetics of performance and reception. All Institutions of art faced political criticism even as cinephilia energized a renewed global art cinema movement. Michelangelo Antonioni captured the world of swinging London in Blow-Up, Jean Luc Godard playfully moved the camera to mount his critique of Hollywood, and the release of the first James Bond film gave rise to a new territorial and technological imagination. Latin America gave birth to the Third Cinema Movement and a politically charged Aesthetics of Hunger while in India the New Wave presented a challenge to mainstream film forms and practices.

The 1960s remains an under studied area despite two wars, the crisis of Nehruvian nationalism and modernization programmes, the genocide and traumatic birth of a new nation (Bangladesh) and revolutionary upsurges.

----Adapted from the pamphlet of conference on Revisiting the Global 1960s and its Cultural After life;

Quotation : "The thing the sixties did was to show us the possibilities and the responsibility that we all had. It wasn't the answer. It just gave us a glimpse of the possibility." — John Lennon

How Populism Works ?

I'm reminded of the well-known satirical novel by Robert Escarpit – The Literatron. I haven't read the novel but just a summary of its review is reproduced from eurozine article. It explains in subtle about how populism works....

I'm reminded of the well-known satirical novel by Robert Escarpit – The Literatron. The Literatron is more or less a machine for creating texts similar to a computer. The idea of its creators was to generate the perfect novel based on the best images from world literature. In response to the highest of expectations, the machine produced a bestseller – Virgin and Typesetter! When the Literatron was asked to compose a political speech the outcome was even more scandalous. After processing the entire history of political rhetoric the machine spewed out a series of gaffs such as: "This politics thing the more it changes the more it stays the same... There are no two ways about it, the clever people are the most stupid of all... All you have to do is hang a few of them (politicians) and things will improve...". This line of thought fits perfectly with an eloquent phrase from the Bulgarian transition, wrought by another merciless critic of his time, the Bulgarian satirist Aleko Konstantinov: "They are all rogues, on both sides!" The speech generated by the literatron was welcomed with raptures by the electorate and the politician whose job it was to make it quickly became a star. Every attempt to deviate from the absurd scenario led to vigorous disapproval.

I can't remember what happened to the literatron, whether it was destroyed as a malicious invention or if it destroyed itself. What was more important was the principles on which the machine operated. Its aim was universality and in the process it purged all nuances, simplified the meaning and looked for an arithmetical mean. The aim was for the text to reach the widest possible audience. The greatest irony was that a message meant for all was in practice a message for no one. This undermined its purpose, since it would have left its audience completely indifferent. The literatron is clearly a metaphor for populism as a leading principle of the political machine. However, populism works. If it didn't, politicians wouldn't resort to it so often.

The story is over dudes..

Bhojpuri Comfortably Numb

Photu used with permission. And the protagonist was really numb at that time. I hope he won't mind it.

*This is a photo of my friend, not me;
From one of the Stanza of English version:

When I was a child I had a fever

My hands felt just like two balloons.

Now I've got that feeling once again

I can't explain you would not understand

This is not how I am.

I have become comfortably numb.

And now, the rough Bhojpuri translation in English script:

Jab hum tha ek bachwa, tab humko hua bukhar

hamaar haath gaye phool, jaise ki du bailoon.

ab humko hua e ehsaas ek baar aur, (par karo gaur)

hum samjha nahi sakte, aap nahi na samjhiyega

hum waise nahi hain jaise abhi hain.

ab ban gaye hain hum, aaramtalbi aur sunn.

Poem is on my state at the college days where I have become epitome of lethargy and anti-bathist. Only watching movies , bunking classes and playing AOE. I am trying to get again that feeling in the corporate world but all attempts are vain till now. This translation is dedicated to all Indian Floydians from my side. Original Material yahan se uthaya aur sanshodhit kiya hai.

The Calvin & Hobbes Super-Stupendous Guide to Design

Even if the only thing you’ve ever designed is a mashed potato volcano with gravy lava, you’re a designer. We all design in some way or other. The best of us get paychecks for their designs. The worst of us have to appreciate our elegant disasters for free. The best designs reach out and pull us in with their creativity, wit, and ingenuity. From the cardboard box of Calvin & Hobbes’ wisdom, five ways to better your designs:

1. Learn to see things differently:

One of Calvin’s most powerful traits is his childlike ability to see things differently than the grown-ups around him. Where they see mundane reality, Calvin sees the fantastic, the monstrous, and occasionally, the downright weird.

Like Calvin, designers must also learn to see things differently. Where others see text, designers see a typographical baseline. Where others see a photo, designers see the golden ratio. In everything, we should learn to see the underlying beauty that holds it all together.

2. Take time to educate yourself:

While anyone can learn to see things differently, designers can’t just depend on their vision to get by. They also need to be able to explain that vision to others. And for that you need the proper background and vocabulary.

That doesn’t necessarily mean going to an art school and majoring in design. There are some fabulous resources available to those who are willing to take a little time to teach themselves.

3. Originality isn’t everything:

In the world of art and design, originality is highly prized, but sometimes the emphasis is a bit too strong. The point of design isn’t to be original, but to speak a message effectively.

If a highly original design does it, so much the better. But sometimes the traditional is all you need.

4. Pay attention to the details:

One crucial part of learning to see differently is the importance of details. A great designer has the ability to recognize when changing things “just so” will take a design from good to brilliant.

5. Keep exploring:

In the end, a designer always needs to keep exploring, to learn new things, to learn new ways of seeing, or to relearn old ways. Exploring is what keeps things feeling new, regardless of how many times you’ve layed out a page or designed a logo. What are you waiting for? Go explore something!

#All images excerpted from It’s a Magical World by Bill Watterson.

Source:Even if creativity is all about hiding your resources, I am giving you source of the adapted post: The Calvin & Hobbes Super-Stupendous Guide to Design By Joshua. I like this article because of its originality and a keen emphasis on explaining the design as child's play. From now on, Bill Watterson (the author of the comic strip Calvin and Hobbes ) is god to me and Calvin & Hobbes as will form holy trinity with him. Thanks to Nimmy for providing link to such a simple and beautiful article.I have also experimented with blog and make it colourful.

Irrational Faith-1

This post is formed by compiling various lines from Internet. Not quoted as original writeup by me but an authentic work to represent mine thinking. Topic will be continued in future as series.

A lethal combination of blog post and documentary input have created havoc inside me to scan the topic of faith. I was provoked to write as a human what I feel. Either I was doubting belief or believing doubt. A thorough philosophical analysis and balancing act about religion and God is done by my friend Rajneesh in his blog brilliantly as he has heard whisper of my conscious secretly.The belief that is not based on evidence is one of the world's great evils. Inspite of providing some peace to the common man, the logic devoid faith has created violent extremist in every religion and nation.

Now, I am diverting my anger towards Islamic and Communist regime for expressing my point of view. Many moderates assume that religious "extremism" is rare and therefore not all that consequential. But we know, religious extremism is not rare, and it is hugely consequential. There is always huge pathos in moderates when hardliners take reign in their hands and take community/ nation in hell. Moderates can plainly speak hollow words when gun barrels and violent action leads the way of destruction. This infidelity of moderates is explained as being too tolerant towards intolerance.

In one of his essays, Professor Russell says “I sometimes have the impression that in the field of Islamic studies more than most, scholars feel a need to be ‘diplomatic’ (which, let us face it, is only a polite way of saying ‘less than completely honest’) so that influential people will not be offended." And then he refers to Hardy in the Explanatory Note to Tess—that ‘if an offence comes out of the truth, better it is that the offence come out than that the truth be concealed.’

Several authors have identified how the writing of history in Pakistan has been systematically distorted to foster an artificial identity and ideology. In History perhaps more than in any other subject, there needs to be a clear balance between presenting complex facts and arguments in a concise and objective manner. Islamic and communist hardliners uses history and educational system as their tool to create mass support to them. It is like amnesia to common public having limited access to finer details of the history and information. History when contradicts the memory of living,the nation or community is on the verge of self destruction. By omitting a critical and honest discussion of these factors and by glorifying and romanticizing these conquests the student is deprived of learning about the forces and dynamics that shape history, in particular those that have shaped the destiny of our own land. Point of view of student become limited and many parameters are not being considered for the fear of creating doubt in the mind of learner. Exposed constantly to a one dimensional, mono-visual world in texts which allows no room for discussion or debate and subjected to a teaching methodology that encourages rote learning as the only means to passing exams. The gender and class biases seed's are sown here in the young minds.

I strongly favour that both doubt and faith should be judged on the basis of logic. I don't deny my diversion towards 'Anubhuti' concept of Hinduism which favours 'Anubhuti' above 'Gyan' as wholesome. But it strongly recommends to obtain 'Gyan' through rational thinking. Received wisdom is something that kills of any form of criticism, and our own ideas to question. The problem with us is that we form judgments rather than asking questions. We have killed our curiosity, because we have already found out the meaning of life.Its sad!...

Always eternal quest for truth start and continue with a doubt only.

"With or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."-Steven Weinberg

BTP Analysis

Let me bring to you most hilarious analysis of B Tech project ever read by me on Internet. This is a piece of adaption from a post of a great blogger who is also alumnus of my college. I am huge admirer of her writings. A tale of B.T.P. analysis in the season of end semester is mandatory for me.Here we go-------------------

Let me first of all clarify to the readers that the above title is read as "BTP A-null-(th)esis".

For the advantage of all non engineering readers BTP as understood or made understood by any technological institute is expanded as "B.Tech Project". As you all know, B.Tech is the degree for which we toil and survive the 4 years assigned to the course. BTP, however, expanded by technological students would conform to any of the following terms but the one given before :

Badly Timed Project

Breath Taking Project

Brain Twisting Project

Bulk Torture Project

Boring Technology Project

Big Tragedy Project

Bravely Tackled Project
Bas Topic Project

Or some people tend to devise less complicated and non-technological terms to comply to the acronym (courtesy: F&S)

The initiation of BTP occurs with the allotment of the topic which may take place any day from the first week of the semester to the day before the report submission depending on the flexibility of your department, (mis)guide and/or your typing speed. But of course I cannot overlook the presence of your conscience. This leads the inevitable mention of some ELITE (Erroneously Lost In Technology and Engineering) students who comply to the university definition of the acronym and actually work for it. My post assumes their non-existence.

The main work of BTP is the preparation of a flawless, acceptable report. This report can be broaly divided into two types:

1. which has been explored by you so well that you can easily baffle the proffesors giving them a false impression of your knowledge, interest and efforts.
2. which is neither understood by you nor the proffesors such that they prefer not to enter the untried domain.

The first type requires some research of the topic (as in surfing, netting, mostly books are considerd orthodox and seldom used) and if possible a know-how/what/why of the proffesor(s) to make sure that you can baffle him(them). This type thus requires a little more effort than just the report writing in addition to convincing evidence to prove your attempt and success.

The second type with the advancement of technology (as in free-flowing internet) is more easily accessible. It is ready-made, requires less efforts and is more or less hassle free. The only thing to be made sure of is that it conforms to the type mentioned above i.e an untried domain at least to the professor(s).

Once the report is made and submitted, the more dreaded moment arrives - the BTP Viva(or presentation). There however is also a good part about it, that being the end of viva more or less marks the termination of the B.Tech struggles.

The viva involves your explaining to the panel:

• the importance of your project- this is the easiest part (thanks to the technological advancements)
• the work you attempted - this is often confusing. Your (mis)guide can help you with this or you can always turn to the omniscient (internet).
• and the reasons for your inability to complete it - this is the hardest part since you can neither blame it on the department nor yourself. If you can find a way through in this part, trust me, your BTP is complete. The most common way through this is to confidently deny that its left incomplete or to simply disregard the part of completion and talk about future scopes in the project.

While dealing with BTP, the important mantra to remember is "If you can't convince them, confuse them".

If you are through with this all, my heartiest congratulations to you. Now you can sit back, look back and have a hearty laugh.

This write-up is dedicated to my seniors who have taught me the importance (or rather unimportance) of BTP, the anecdotes of their BTP, their running/hiding away from guides, their coffee breaks, the F&S team, their thorough research on the term BTP, my friends whom I have seen struggling (or rather not struggling) for their BTP, their evidences and efforts and lastly all engineering students who have a similar story to tell.

[Diclaimer: This post has no intention of making fun of any institution, any of its ongoing tradition, or the ELITE students of the institution and is based on first hand experience, observation and second hand confessions]

Enjoi!

-Anki.

Paane Paane re

An article to aware us about future of humanity about water which is by no mean less important than global warming.When MNC's are drenching water for commercial resources , voices must be raised and examples must be put forwarded by us for fair utilization of water.I have put small paragraph about this scenario.The reference of the author of the article is put at the end of the post.

"At the Polaris Institute, we propose a three-pronged strategy. First, develop a water-alert network so we can know where companies are operating and where they are going next. How are they going to move? And how can we get ahead of them?

Second, we need water-action teams that bring citizens together to build local water-watch coalitions and develop campaigns to protect their water supplies and services from conglomerates. Then we should link those local campaigns with the national campaigns of groups like Public Citizen or the Council of Canadians.

Third, we need to offer alternatives. It is not enough to say we want to defend our public water systems against private takeovers. There are problems with public water systems, and we must find new ways of revitalizing them in our own communities through citizen participation. Engaged citizens can act as watchdogs for their local water systems.

Our local actions should be informed by three global principles. One is water conservation. We cannot kid ourselves about water scarcity. Water may be abundant in one place, but it's scarce in others. Water conservation must be a top priority.

The second principle is that water is a fundamental human right. People need water to live. Water must be provided equitably to all people and not on the basis of the ability to pay.

The third principle is water democracy. We cannot leave the management of our most precious resource in the hands of bureaucrats in government or the private corporations, whether or not they are well intentioned. We, the people, must preserve this special trust, we must fight for it, and we must take our proper role and demand water democracy."

Maude Barlow, national chair of the Council of Canadians, and Tony Clarke, director of the Polaris Institute, are co-authors of Blue Gold: The Corporate Theft of the World's Water. This article is adapted from presentations made by the authors at the Water for Life conference in New York, September 2003, co-sponsored by Resurgence magazine and the Omega Institute.

Azamgarh Connection

I was attending a dinner last night at a friend's friend house when an interesting conversation happen. The host is from Tamilnadu for the sake of the information of readers.

Host: where do you originally belong from ?
Me: Azamgarh.
Host:I have heard the name of this small town in some context. (not remembering)
(After 10 seconds of pause...)
Me:You may have heard this name in the wrong cause.
Host:Yaa, Terrorist origin or something like this..

I was ashamed by the image projected of my native place in so wrong perspective.But the image is not completely false, a bit of truth is in it.If you want to know about this god forsaken place read these articles. Azamgarh Connection-1, The Battle Of Azamgarh and Azamgarh: the gulf connection.

No one knows about Ayodhya Prasad Singh “Hariaudh” a national fame Hindi poet or Urdu poet Kaifi Azmi. These names are no longer an example to emulate for the new generation of Azamgarh specially the youths of Muslim community. Deprived of higher education, the young and the restless of the village have no option but to take up jobs in West Asia or Mumbai. Few of them are ill guided in the name of religion by fanatics.

There is a general feeling in the Muslim community, and not only in Azamgarh, that after every terrorist act the police pick up innocent Muslim youth at random and even if they let them go after interrogation, their lives are already destroyed. They lose their jobs, marriages break down, their Muslim relatives and friends too start avoiding them, not to speak of their Hindu friends or employers. This has already happened to several Muslim youths in different parts of the country.

Injustice to Muslims is the foundation of terrorism.It gives them a chance to spread the propaganda of segregate and orthodox Muslim community. Hindus are not only bystander and victims of the violence. The hatred and intolerance to mix with the people of other caste and religion is most widespread in them.

Any authentic, well-meaning leadership would have guided them towards deep introspection as to why educated Muslim youth, particularly from Azamgarh, are getting involved into terrorist acts. Instead they are being led into total denial of the very existence of the militant fundamentalism virus imported from Saudi Arabia - Pakistan - Afghanistan region that is gradually infecting Indian Muslim youth too. There is enough evidence to suggest that this is happening, but our leaders, both political and theological, are leading the community into total denial. This does not bode well for the Indian Muslim community. The genuine worries of the Azamgarh Muslims are being channelised into wrong directions.

It is easy to blame the police and the government. Not that they do not deserve that blame sometimes. But while we have to try and keep them on their toes, through peaceful protests, through political mobilisation, and so on, that is not going to solve our problems in the long run. We need to introspect deeply and awareness should be our main function for bringing peace.

I have compiled this article just randomly and adapting some paragraphs from here and there. But the incident is true one. Just randomly found links for those who wants to know about problems of our country and voice of minority.

1-You could find a distinct voice on Islam here in this article.
2-Gul Panag clarifies her views on Terrorists and Terrorism. It is not any commanding article from a politician but it is very honest opinion .
3-At last about my native place, Azamgarh: Where guns have replaced roses!

Calcutta Chromosome

I was going through all post of Calcutta Chromosome and after reading 100 posts from archives, posting some of the funniest lines here. FYI, I and that great guy has a similarity that we have degree in mechanical engineering.

1-'I hate Ekta kapoor fans' will find it interesting.

"Religion is the opium of the masses – Karl Marx.
Karl Marx did not know about Ekta Kapoor – Anonymous."

2-Manmohan Desai fans will love and hate it for same reason.

" Manmohan Desai wrote only one story in his life.
x (where x = integer greater than 1) siblings and y sets of parents (where y = integer greater than 1 but not equal to x) are separated due to evil relatives or natural calamities. They have a unique common trait in physical (locket, letter, tattoo) or metaphysical (secret, habit, song) form. They grow up (old) while coming in contact with each other at regular intervals but are unable to recognize each other. They are united after 7 songs, 4 fights and one drunken scene featuring Amitabh Bachchan.

Manmohan Desai: At least two brothers separated at birth. Three religions. Shuddering Nirupa Roy. Doddering Pran. Amitabh Bachchan. One gibberish song. One trained dog/hawk/cow/Easter egg/heroine's bodyguard. One operating theatre scene. One natural calamity (not including Kader Khan's wig). Divine intervention to cure blindness/TB/AIDS/obesity. Fourteen coincidences, each having odds of 786,000,000 to 1.
And he directed 21 films, of which at least 16 were box-office record-breakers."

3-X rated article(not for everyone.....)
I find that after 'Garv' the pride,its gay pride coming into our bollywood by Karan Johar,the fighter of lost causes.Lot of Dostana here.....
"Konkona Sensharma has already become to this what Nirupa Roy was to motherhood! She has already done in twice (Page 3, Life in a Metro) and looking good for more. With more and more films being made on a realistic gay relationship, it is only natural that the most dominant theme – closet homosexuality – will have to be depicted pretty regularly.
What will make it tiresome is the way it will be shown. In both the films mentioned above, the scene unfolds in exactly the same manner in which the hetero partner (cuckold?) arrives at the apartment of the closet-gay for a celebration (Konkona was even holding exactly the same things – a bottle of wine and flowers) and sees her lover in bed with (an)other man.
How long before a man walks on to a lesbian couple? I can bet the expression would not be the aghast look which Konkona had!"

For more post like this just wait for few days or read the blog of that guy only....

Eight Point Someone

Hi,I want you to take a look at: ITBHUGlobal.org: The Chronicle: Eight Point Someone (by Praharsh Sharma, B.Tech. Part-III Electronics Engineering student) .I am a 6 pointer but really admire this post for honest and hilarious opinion on serious matter of grades.

I was deeply influenced by paragraph below taken from the given article.These lines are gospel truth for me and hope it will be same for you.

In the course of our four years at IT BHU, we engineering undergraduates should be proud of one thing to which I am sure, all of us agree unanimously. The ability that gets perhaps, best incorporated in us during these quadruple of years, is to manage anything (that is desperately needed) out of nothing, as and when required. We all manage to learn and exercise this well in due course of our time and efforts here. In the sort of situation we are made to live, the most beautiful part is undoubtedly that, this life teaches us how to keep our cool on, when we are right about to fall into the middle of nowhere but hell. This is only because, just when we are living on the last edge and are about to be busted, life subjects us to an experience where in, a pseudo helping hand just saves us from falling into the hell. Thus, when we are in any situation of almost death, we always assume that there would be a way out and this illogical confidence is the best thing, which engineering undergraduates learn to have during their four years. We here call it the engineering preamble, truly stated by someone –

“We, the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little knowledge that we will one day qualify to do anything with knowing nothing..."