"`Young' party to contest Assembly elections"-The Hindu dated march 3rd, 2006. This young party, called 'LokParitran' has been launched by a few IITians. There's a lot of debate going on in our hostel whether the IITians who established the party borrowed the idea from a movie or whether the director of the movie has borrowed it from those IITians. Needless to mention, the movie is Yuva. Whatever be it, it may take some of you to surprise if I now claim that it has been my idea for quite a long time. Long- atleast longer than the two things mentioned ,have taken place. If you ask me to prove it I can't. Simply believe me ...thats all. Anyway let me tell you my ideas about this.
Along with some of the like minded friends of mine I'll go to each and every village in AP - to start with -because thats the state to which I belong. I'll address their problems and possible solutions to them, become very close to them and it eventually happens that they themselves force me into politics and so along with my team, I float a new party called the APPP (Andhra Pradesh Peoples Party.) It shouldn't take more than 10 years to do this. Having done this, there's a lot of possibility of my party securing a good number of seats in the AP assembly. Thus a base has been established in AP. Now, with the help of my like minded friends in other states I'll try to establish a base in other states even. This shouldnot take more than 5 years. By then , my party would have gained the respect of the people all over India. Then, all the state units of my party contest in national elections, under the name NPP-National Peoples Party. From then on, an entry into my party requires people to take an entrance test, followed by an interview.This is how I make sure that my party adheres to its moral values. With such a ground work done I see no reason why my party would not win. Then I shall not be the the PM of the country. I'll be the Railway Minister as I've many plans for the upliftment of Indian Railways. I shall not list them all in this speech . Read my party's manifesto then. Indian Railways shall be made much better than those in other countries ;I promise you. Then, ofcourse a second term and a third term and a fourth term and it goes on. No question of anti-incumbency factor, as this will be a selfless, corruptionless, development oriented party and thats what people like to have. I shall then retire from active politics, thus paving way for the younger generation to take over.
Then.... a slow muffling sound of a door knock, intensity of which was slowly increasing... Suddenly , the background changed, the audience listening to me disappeared and disappeared forever. Where's the mike, where are the newspaper reporters who asked me about my future plans?With a lot of effort, I got up from my bed and opened the door, only to find a fat little pod standing before me and asking, " Jimmy! What's the D-Slot portion." It took two minutes to me to realise that , that fat little pod was Taru, my classmate.
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Thursday, March 02, 2006
I Have a Doubt. What is a Doubt?
" Don't feel shy to clarify your queries. If you have any, donot hesitate to ask them." I haven't seen a professor (any damn lecturer in IITM is referred to as a professor by the students, for reasons the readers have to interpret) in IITM who hasn't told this to his students in some form or the other.
The B- Slot prof says 'alloy solidification', the name of a topic and nothing else; and people have a couple of 'Doubts' about it. Then he continues with the principle behind it-suddenly,I see a series of glittering faces,each with all the 32 teeth out- whence MSB 208 looks like a room where auditions for Close Up advertisement are taking place. The reason for this enlightment in the 'Young Genious' of the country is that they have heard of a similar concept in E-Slot a few days before and they recognise that they have heard of it. And as expected by you now, not by me then , a 'doubt' springs up: "Sir! Is this the same as the 'zone refining ' method that we have done in our E-Slot." Tone used in asking this so called doubt-needless to mention-"Don't worry. I knew about this since my childhood and how I pity my classmates that they donot know of this." If both the methods are the same how can they be named in two different ways. Moreover, the names of the topics suggest that one is a phenomena and the other one, a method. The prof answers saying ,"Not exactly..mmm...we use this principle in that method."The guy is quite happy about the prof's answer and his face is filled with subtle pride as his 'doubt' was well attended which indeed is a confirmation that his 'doubt' is a 'good' one. He achieved something.
One more example: Mr X asks Mr Y something about which he's almost sure that Mr Y wouldnot be able to answer, just because MrY didnot read the book that Mr X had, very rare of its kind. Wonder of wonders,Mr X has a feeling of satisfaction iff Mr Y doesnot answer him.Incase he does , Mr Y turns the arch rival of Mr X.
A person sincerely attends all the E-Slot classes, sits in the first bench, takes notes. Before the exam he comes to his friend's room on pretext of doubts,almost certain that he is better of the two. Incase of a flawless explanation for the 'doubt' by his friend, he would rule out his friend from becoming better of the two, by atleast saying that his way of explanation is somehow not very catchy.
One more guy, fanciful of using the word 'pedantic' in particular, and demonstrating his skills of 'english' in general creates some 'doubts' and asks the profs. Worst of all, he involves the entire class in his doubts. He is the self appointed representative of the class and by and large feels his 'doubts' are the 'doubts' of the entire class.
Just to make his presence felt , a guy asks 'doubts'. Just to make people believe that he is interested in something, a guy asks 'doubts'.
'Good doubts may yeild good grades. So keep on asking doubts, as repeated number of trials remove the noise (silliness) from the doubts .' This is Mr Z's logic. In an institute like IIT, though this is literally impossible with qualified teachers all around , there may be a meagre probability of this happening in labs. Some smart guys like Mr Z do try and exploit it. The whole point that they miss is what I call an 'efficiency factor'.
Until the incidents like these have taken place, I thought ,a person asks doubts if the instructor speaks something ambiguously or if he didn't understand what's being taught or if some concept as told by the instructor was understood but still unclear. I also thought that there should be an element of thought involved before asking doubts. But after all these incidents I've a doubt: What exactly is a doubt?If at all I were asked for an advice by any lexicographer, upon review of his dictionary, I would ask him to consider all these while defining the word "Doubt"
PS:No doubts on this topic shall be encouraged.
The B- Slot prof says 'alloy solidification', the name of a topic and nothing else; and people have a couple of 'Doubts' about it. Then he continues with the principle behind it-suddenly,I see a series of glittering faces,each with all the 32 teeth out- whence MSB 208 looks like a room where auditions for Close Up advertisement are taking place. The reason for this enlightment in the 'Young Genious' of the country is that they have heard of a similar concept in E-Slot a few days before and they recognise that they have heard of it. And as expected by you now, not by me then , a 'doubt' springs up: "Sir! Is this the same as the 'zone refining ' method that we have done in our E-Slot." Tone used in asking this so called doubt-needless to mention-"Don't worry. I knew about this since my childhood and how I pity my classmates that they donot know of this." If both the methods are the same how can they be named in two different ways. Moreover, the names of the topics suggest that one is a phenomena and the other one, a method. The prof answers saying ,"Not exactly..mmm...we use this principle in that method."The guy is quite happy about the prof's answer and his face is filled with subtle pride as his 'doubt' was well attended which indeed is a confirmation that his 'doubt' is a 'good' one. He achieved something.
One more example: Mr X asks Mr Y something about which he's almost sure that Mr Y wouldnot be able to answer, just because MrY didnot read the book that Mr X had, very rare of its kind. Wonder of wonders,Mr X has a feeling of satisfaction iff Mr Y doesnot answer him.Incase he does , Mr Y turns the arch rival of Mr X.
A person sincerely attends all the E-Slot classes, sits in the first bench, takes notes. Before the exam he comes to his friend's room on pretext of doubts,almost certain that he is better of the two. Incase of a flawless explanation for the 'doubt' by his friend, he would rule out his friend from becoming better of the two, by atleast saying that his way of explanation is somehow not very catchy.
One more guy, fanciful of using the word 'pedantic' in particular, and demonstrating his skills of 'english' in general creates some 'doubts' and asks the profs. Worst of all, he involves the entire class in his doubts. He is the self appointed representative of the class and by and large feels his 'doubts' are the 'doubts' of the entire class.
Just to make his presence felt , a guy asks 'doubts'. Just to make people believe that he is interested in something, a guy asks 'doubts'.
'Good doubts may yeild good grades. So keep on asking doubts, as repeated number of trials remove the noise (silliness) from the doubts .' This is Mr Z's logic. In an institute like IIT, though this is literally impossible with qualified teachers all around , there may be a meagre probability of this happening in labs. Some smart guys like Mr Z do try and exploit it. The whole point that they miss is what I call an 'efficiency factor'.
Until the incidents like these have taken place, I thought ,a person asks doubts if the instructor speaks something ambiguously or if he didn't understand what's being taught or if some concept as told by the instructor was understood but still unclear. I also thought that there should be an element of thought involved before asking doubts. But after all these incidents I've a doubt: What exactly is a doubt?If at all I were asked for an advice by any lexicographer, upon review of his dictionary, I would ask him to consider all these while defining the word "Doubt"
PS:No doubts on this topic shall be encouraged.
Friday, February 17, 2006
It was friday morning. Normally I wake up very late on friday mornings, for fridays are holidays for people in meta level (what I mean is the people in meta branch). But this is a very special friday; not only for me, but for the entire bunch of people sharing the common meta level interests with me. I woke up at 7.OOAM and for a moment thought of the devil about to approach me in about one hour from then-that was the E-SLOT quiz ;and shall I name it? EXTRACTIVE METALLURGY. I knew something was going to happen. Superstitions donot direct my intutions but clearly statistics do. Never had I managed to do well on any important occasion. Poor performance in exams became a habit to me. I had a notion since my Ramaih days, that I was the best among people. Though it had been consistantly proved wrong , I never had the courage to accept it. Whenever my performances and scores were poor ,the occasions being more in number, I used to remind myself of the good scores that i got and thus console myself that still I remain the best.
The JEE results did shatter my convictions. For a while I thought whether I was worse than Tom,Dick and Harry who got better ranks. Worst of all, my public image was affected. A bit history about this public image. I was one of the very few chaps who made it into Ramaiah, literally countable on fingers, from my place. So, obviously people had a very good opinion about me. Moreover, a senior of mine, who is one of my kind(who got into ramaih from my place), set a precedent,a very bad one -I realised later, by getting a rank in two digits in JEE. So, there were lots of hopes on me,all of which were shattered by a simple rank card reading " Your JEE rank is 2057."
Later I got a reason for my poor performance in JEE. I attributed it to public pressure.Seemed logical then. I thought of proving myself after coming to IITM and as expected I've given up. Quizzes seemed no longer interesting. My feelings about myself changed. I thought, there is nothing to prove in me. Worse, during the first and second semesters I did courses with the computer science students . What else better reason can one have for giving up.
Things began to change from my third semester onwards. People started asking me doubts and praised me if I clarified them. I was in a state of complete confusion.When I thought,I was the best,I was proved wrong by the society,when I thought I wasn't , I was asked to rediscover myself again by the same society. Is this not obfuscating?I mean, the concept.
Having thought all about this,I looked into my watch. My God!! It was 5 to 8 and E-slot exam in five minutes. I still had to brush my teeth.
PS: All characters (numbering one) in the above post are fictitious. I wanted to start this post with "it was a friday morning," because great writers generally start with "it was a saturday morning" and obviously had to create some idea to continue it.
The JEE results did shatter my convictions. For a while I thought whether I was worse than Tom,Dick and Harry who got better ranks. Worst of all, my public image was affected. A bit history about this public image. I was one of the very few chaps who made it into Ramaiah, literally countable on fingers, from my place. So, obviously people had a very good opinion about me. Moreover, a senior of mine, who is one of my kind(who got into ramaih from my place), set a precedent,a very bad one -I realised later, by getting a rank in two digits in JEE. So, there were lots of hopes on me,all of which were shattered by a simple rank card reading " Your JEE rank is 2057."
Later I got a reason for my poor performance in JEE. I attributed it to public pressure.Seemed logical then. I thought of proving myself after coming to IITM and as expected I've given up. Quizzes seemed no longer interesting. My feelings about myself changed. I thought, there is nothing to prove in me. Worse, during the first and second semesters I did courses with the computer science students . What else better reason can one have for giving up.
Things began to change from my third semester onwards. People started asking me doubts and praised me if I clarified them. I was in a state of complete confusion.When I thought,I was the best,I was proved wrong by the society,when I thought I wasn't , I was asked to rediscover myself again by the same society. Is this not obfuscating?I mean, the concept.
Having thought all about this,I looked into my watch. My God!! It was 5 to 8 and E-slot exam in five minutes. I still had to brush my teeth.
PS: All characters (numbering one) in the above post are fictitious. I wanted to start this post with "it was a friday morning," because great writers generally start with "it was a saturday morning" and obviously had to create some idea to continue it.
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