Sparsh

I have read and heard many on the issue of the conversion of IT-BHU Varanasi to IIT. I am reproducing here the lectures and views given by Prof Gopal Tripathi way back 40 years. I call these views as an acute vision and analysis of future. Read it and retrospect where IT-BHU stand now as technical college today. In 1968 the three colleges were merged into an Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi with Prof Gopal Tripathi as its first Director. Later Prof. Gopal Tripathi served as Vice Chancellor, Lucknow University. Various Disabilities And Disparities Between The IIT's And IT-BHU : The Handicaps Facing The IT-BHU (Edited portion of the Lecture delivered on March 9, 1968, on the occasion of Annual Function, College of Technology, BHU, by Late Prof. Gopal Tripathi , the Principal- College of Technology from 1950, and Director- I.T , BHU from 1968) In this era of technological revolutions and scientific break-throughs, technical education is fast changing its pa...

Frederick Douglass had written over a century ago. “ Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them … . The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress.” Naxal problem is making up a civil war like situation in India. And we are talking the losses in the terms of loss of life in encounters. The big picture is going beyond our imagination and tales of exploitation of dalits , labours and adivasis is echoing the real India. Shoma Chaudhary examines the tricky and dangerous terrain of Operation Green Hunt , the offensive against Naxals, might blow up in our faces: " Dalits and adivasis comprise a staggering one fourth of India’s population, yet are disproportionately destitute and low on the Human Development Index scale. Worse, they suffer the most humiliation and indignity: the proverbial insult on injury. Our country represents a show where 77 percent of Indi...

The map is not the territory. --Alfred Korzybski Or take this simply. The blog is not the real world but its a route for me to become Neo from Mr. Anderson. I am on rampage enough to publish 300th post on my beloved blog. I congratulate myself in the sense of vanity and proud over this. Driven by basic instinct to compose and compile all crazy ideas at one place seems flourishing now. I could have easily forgotten this triple centurion post like previous centuries but Amit reminded that I was near triple century. And first time someone appreciated that my words are a source of inspiration. Hence celebrating mine minor joy in full pomp and show. Thank you Amit for your kind words... You Should Write Blogs by Steve Yegge. It is most most most pushing article that prompted me to write my bakwaas or preachings as a blogger. It explains why should I blog inspite of the fear and anxiety. Most people give various reasons why not to write something in the life . Reason #1: I'm too busy. R...

Talking of ‘IP’, here’s what Krzysztof Zanussi has said about it. ( Source ) “ Intellectual property, to me, is important because I benefit from it when sometimes, author’s rights are paid to me. However, I doubt it from the moral point of view that intellectual property should ever be protected. I want to be popular and I want my work to be accessible to anybody who wants to read it. When I saw pirated cassettes of my films in Russia I wanted to embrace the seller because they bhad taken pains to make it accessible. I found pirated DVDs of my films in China and was proud. I probably lost some money, but what a joy. There is a contradiction between my desire to be accessible to anybody who is interested in my work and my greed to be paid for it. I was paid for making the film. In fact any intellectual who is defending his property has already been paid for it, and now we want something extra. I am not in a position to find a solution to this issue. I have participated in a number ...

Literacy specialists say that giving children a say in what they read can help motivate them. “ If your goal is simply to get them to read more, choice is the way to go. ” I am presenting here few interviews and speeches given by beautiful minds who are/were shaping our thinking. 1- Uttarpara Speech by Sri Aurobindo in 1909. Aurobindo made this speech after his release from prison, where he had been incarcerated on charges of conspiracy to murder an English magistrate. Another speech of Sri Aurobindo when he was requested by the All India Radio, Thiruchirapalli, to give a message for India's independence. This is the message which was broadcast from the All India Radio on the 14th of August 1947. 2- Edward R. Murrow gives a speech at RTNDA Convention, Chicago on October 15, 1958. He is famous for bringing down of ' McCarthysim ' in America. A movie ' Good night, and good luck ' inspired me reproduce his speech about power & responsibilities of journali...

Why people in India die for the government service? I got the indirect answer of not only this question but few more by an article by Gurcharan Das. It explains our mindset and employment of large amount of workers in unorganised sector. "India's labour laws protect jobs, not workers. They assume that a job is for a lifetime, and do not allow employers flexibility to lay off workers in a downturn. Thus, Indian companies avoid hiring permanent employees, and 90 per cent of India's workers have ended up in the informal sector without any benefits or safety net. This is one of the reasons that the manufacturing sector has not become an engine of mass employment in India." One more worth reading page about India's tryst with corruption is available for readers. Your concern and opinions are welcome.

Henry David Thoreau , US Transcendentalist author (1817 - 1862) quotes this paragraph in Walden (1854): " I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived … I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practice resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms... " Every time I watch ' Dead Poet's Society ' or read ' Walden ', this photo appears in my mind. Sitting under this tree had given me a sense of calmness and sense to enjoy natural beauty. The photo is taken in Germany where I visited for summer internship. I had written my one...

Banaras Hindu University is an internationally reputed temple of learning, situated in the holy city of Varanasi. This Creative and innovative university was founded by the great nationalist leader, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya , in 1916 with cooperation of great personalities like Dr Annie Besant , who viewed it as the University of India. Recently, The South Campus of the Banaras Hindu University is attempting to become the first carbon neutral (rate of emission and absorption of carbon being equal) university campus in the country , with a massive plantation drive of 1.76 lakh saplings on 400 acres of land under National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) Scheme in the region. Already BHU has placed a ban on Coke and Pepsi on campus. They are the positive aspects of the development and more can be found out here . These are good news but now I will embark our journey to some 'negative items' unknown in mainstream media. I often quote the Spanish born American phi...

The first list is of the books which are rusting on my book shelf from very long time. I have to finish them as soon as possible. The other books are in the list which I will finish one day. I have also put the name of person who recommonded me name of the books directly or virtually. Books Rusting on the Shelf Stay Hungry Stay Foolish by Rashmi Bansal --- Sonal Rai The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwelll --- Sonal Rai The Jungle by Upton Sinclair --- Self Diary by Chuck Palahniuk --- Shubhank The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger --- Shekhar Iyer Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Beecher Stowel --- Sonal Rai Walden and Other Writings of Henry David Thoreau --- Self Selected Short Stories by Franz Kafka --- Self The Renaissance in India and other essays by Aurbindo Ghosh --- Self Thus spake Zarathustra by F. Nietzsche --- Rajneesh Books to be bought & read in future Our Films, Their Films by Satyajit Ray --- Nitesh Rohit Something Like An Autobiography by Akira Kurosawa --- Nitesh ...

Let me recall the punchline of Popeye the Sailorman : “That’s all I can stands, I can’t stands no more!” . Cast out caste from our social system, it is killing talent based on the merit. The paragraphs given below are the the reproduction of a part of the interview of N. Murthy , Infosys Founder . " The Indian society is a society of ideas. It is a society that has revered talk. In this society, articulation is mistaken for accomplishment. We are quite satisfied with our voice, with our writings. This is not a society that is focused on execution. Frankly, the problem is due to our caste system and the dominance of Brahmins in our society for long period. The Brahminical system said my job is to think of the higher worlds. My job is to think of connecting you people with God. I don't want to do anything that has a relationship with the real world. Now that is a problem that has played havoc with the Indian culture. So, here in this culture, if you do anything with your hands, ...