All about Kanpur

This is an aspirational information-gathering article. Don't consider it an inspirational or nostalgic write-up for the land of the leather industry, Kanpur. Kanpur is a big city rich in history. The summarized details are available on Wikipedia and the unofficial Kanpur website. For highly irrational opinions, take a joy ride with me.

Tourism: Places of Interest in Kanpur.
For more queries, contact: Official blog page of the District Magistrate, Kanpur Nagar.

Hotels and Food:
A lot of hotels are established to cater to thousands of guests yearly. The Landmark Hotel, Kanpur with Mehak Restaurant serves authentic Chinese and traditional Indian dishes. The names are like this--Angithi Restaurant, Little Chet Restaurant, Chung Fa Restaurant. One person has taken a taste & reviewed nearly all of them. FYI, it's not me. Reviews are at --- My experience with Restaurants in Kanpur.

Cuisine:
Dish name: Kanpur Chapathi.
The processing Technique is explained with photos here.

Scholarly works on Kanpur History: (Videshi University se bhaiyaji)
Forgetting the Violence, Remembering the Report: The Paradox of the 1931 Kanpur Riots by Priya Agarwal.

FM radio is now more popular than Vividh Bharati ki prasaaran seva ka kanpur kendra. Times have changed now.

IIT Kanpur:
In all my posts, I have not described in detail a heaven on the land of Kanpur, especially for me. That was indeed IIT- Kanpur. It has a huge campus with a peaceful environment where a feeling of respect & humbleness arises inside the heart. It has sent out many distinct students to the world to spread the name of India.

Official website of IITK.
Again, take a look at Kanpur and IITK from a foreign angle: Kanpur and IIT.
Excerpt of the talk with Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala about IITK history.
Forgotten chapter of the History of IITK & MIT together.

Cricket:
Kanpur is also famous for the exaggeration of a simple line. Sahara was once in talks for an IPL franchise before the recession. Nothing is yet final, but people are damn sure about Subrato Roy's IPL Kanpur franchise. And forget to mention a special series of incidents a few years back would be Crime: A take on Green Park Stadium. The incident was the entrance of a dog in one-day matches. It has happened at least 3 times in front of me. Pretty Hilarious interruptions of the whole police squad running after one dog. Also, GP is a brown park wicket for Ranji teams and turns into a lush green for international matches. Enjoy the account of Ken Herr about watching a match in Kanpur. You will be amazed at why I always give the point of view of foren baba's about Kanpur? For introspection, I am here now with Kanpur Series !!!

24 years of my life

I have became 24 years old today. My birthday is like gentle reminder that I am much more nearer to death and consequently I have that much less time to do whatever I want to do. With each passing day, the indefinite future grows a little bit darker, but the past just keeps getting brighter with nostalgic and sweet memories.

Girish Karnad had written his first renowned play 'Yayati' when he was a 21 year old in 1962. Orson Welles made "Citizen Kane" at age of 26 and Bhagat Singh became martyr at the age of 24. Here, I am inheriting this earth, still offering my service to a foreign company for livelihood rather than solving problem of un-proportionate distribution of power and wealth in my country. It's faith in something and enthusiasm for something that makes a life worth living. Still searching for that missing something !

What better to quote something bhokali on birthday:

In life we all have an unspeakable secret, an irreversible regret, an unreachable dream and an unforgettable love. ~Diego Marchi

All above philosophy is worthless without the joy of celebrating birthday for a moment. Happy Birthday to me and Murali. This year celebration was good but the bumps were drastically reduced in comparison to college. Remembered Tintin's kick ass at GPL ceremony at birthday of each person. Great Days of friendship and feud...

Facts about Higher Education

Let me begin with the paragraph cited from above article: Redefining meaning of world class:-

What a pity! 18% of the worlds population (Indians) call third rate colleges as world class and continue to delude themselves. Not only that, they fight tooth and nail to fight to get into universities which are trash by any standard. To add icing to the cake, these 3rd rate institutions say that they are better than Harvard (factoring in just the exclusivity factor) or say that they are "world class". Its better that they these institutes recognize the garbage they are in and first come out of the trash can, before trying to make any claims to delusionary greatness.

Thats one reason why our colleges never look beyond national rankings. Every year, one sees different magazines coming up with headline breaking news, that some IIT has overtaken the other as the top college or that one of IIM's A/ B/ C has been ranked above the other. And the gullible Indians lap up this trash being doled out to them. Never mind that they learn nothing from such rankings because its the same trash being served in different ways year after year. And everyone is happy, the public with the hope that these institutions would help them get the "world class" status and "world class" opportunities, and the media because it sells a record number of copies of their magazines.

I don't completely agree or disagree with his views. Still, they are worth looking for introspection.

Recently, In the latest issue of Current Science, the director of NISCAIR, Dr. Gangan Prathap has written an article, Ranking of Indian engineering and technological institutes for their research performance during 1999–2008. Three esteemed bloggers has done their work of evaluation on this matter: Prof T Abi of IISc, Prof Giridhar of IITM & Cogito Ergo Sum.

I would like to present a view of my friend who wants to remain anonymous [Highly Credible Source].

Prathap's paper about the 10 years research progress at IITs/BHU/ISM/IISC. He didn't consider a few things like IITs/BHU/ISM are indeed technical institutions which specific mode towards engineering education and they should only compare that component with IISC or Jadvapur. Recently, US NEWS has done that. The rankings should be passed to as many people can be, so that the old faculty of India which is on a constant urge to nullify the best technical commodity to the entire world. ---- World's Best Colleges and Universities

A take on Old Indian faculty problem with reasons:

1: They they are nationalistic by holding PHDs of students from 6.5 to 8 years in fundamental sciences in India. They blame it to the equipments but I don't know how equipments play a role in Theoretical Physics.

2. They don't want any free transaction of knowledge in between you and the collaborator which hinders a lot of insight about the problem. Guys who really solve the problem never get to be on the committees which are meant for having discussion on the problems.

3. Most of the Indian PHD professors have anti-Btech emotions especially at IIT M/K and B. I dont know about your institute. They think Btechs leave India for their own good, but think about it, a PHD student gets a salary of 10-15K in India on a MHRD project worth 25 lacs and I have seen professors billing 1 lacs Rupees on Miscellaneous items, and Believe me he is one of the most famous Professors from India. They will never accept that a good sum of money is going to their individual pockets and they dont spend that money paying the students or buying new equipments.

4. For an equipment, they will write another grant and as usual that will get accepted. A student will be employed to set it up obviously on a low enough salary and expected to do the bullwork. Again Miscellaneous.

5. Newest of the faculty cribs: We should get higher salaries. Okay agreed. Tell me what is the quality of your publication and why should I buy your research when it doesn't solve any problem in industry, only meant for making publications at the cost of hapless students.

Welcome to Kanpur

Every city has a character, a pulse of its own. Kanpur as a city is infamous for its uneven roads, irregular traffic and heaps of garbage. But its people love the city. They add color and spice to this city. They love to live here, no matter how bizarre their ways! This post is all about searching colors of life in this city in the images through the images taken by a foreign tourist.

Business:

Elgin Mill, Kanpur’s oldest textile mill, J K Cotton Mill, Pulse mills, J K Jute Mills, Kanpur Unnao Leather Development Company (KLC), Ghari detergent & Duncan Fertilizers were all part of the industrial culture of Kanpur. The city may have been robbed of its historic smoking chimneys and requisite infrastructure, threatening the expansion of existing industries, but Kanpur still remains a commercial hub for traders. For more, Why Kanpur is still UNDEVELOPED?

Pollution & Traffic:

There is nothing more for me to say about the Pollution of Kanpur. Kanpur has topped the list as the most polluted city in the state. [Ref]. I will give you a summarized view of traffic and pollution from a blogger view---

Dust never settles down on this road, just like a desert rally. The traffic at Ghanta Ghar, Kidwai Nagar and Tatmill always create a lock jam. Most of times, people are trapped in matrix of trucks formed by their grand entry possibly from all directions with Their revved up engines were kicking up dust plumes. The rush of cyclists, hand driven, cards, loaders, tempos, car, buses and trucks, rickshaws has never been easy to conquer. The visibility can become zero and first impression was the entire stretch was shrouded in thick blanket of fog. The lights couldn't penetrate the cover and you will vigil scampered for the missing road. The bravehearts on their motorcycles negotiated the potholes with such speed and perfection, Ghost Rider with all his divine powers might be ashamed of himself.

Always in the media for all the wrong reasons. Run! Quick! Cover the girls! or Fake Cheque Scam.
Kanpur & its people are magnanimous. They will live on if it means living with problems, problems, problems, and problems. Seriously, Nothing rhymes with Kanpur.

Independence Day

A collection of songs for provoking emotion of nationalism in this numb mind.

Hum Hindustani


Hum Honge Kamyaab


Aye Mere Watan ke


Aye Watan Aye Watan


Sarfaroshi ki Tamana


Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength; loving someone deeply gives you courage. Loving my country gives me courage to change it for better tomorrow and alter yesterday's mistake. Despite many intellectuals think 15th August,1947 as change of government, I prefer to stick to mine opinion. All those who sacrificed blood and life for this country were not fools and they deserve respect from our side. And there is also no use of silent gratitude for all martyrs. They deserve more than these patritoc songs, they deserve more...

I know that hundred years of rule did not just colonize the land but it also colonized the body, mind, thought and culture of the conquered people. Independence to the Indian people was supposed to have come over 62 years ago but we are not free because of the brown sahibs surrender and denial of their self esteem and their dominance in politics, media and public discourse.

Still, want to read more. Stop and just think on this line -- "What do they know about India, who only know about India !!!"