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.