A nation full of 'engineers'

Asmita smiled as she put the finishing touches on the purple horizon in her painting. It depicted the beautiful dusk she had one seen from her Aaji’s house in the village. It showed a glowing sun setting amidst the blue mountains, far away in the evening haze. Cows grazing on the yellowed landscape, and a silhouette of the dry trees parched for water, in the hot, dry Indian summer. With a last sigh, she glanced with wistful eyes at the painting as she put away her tools - her palette, paintbrushes and the oil paints she had just finished using - into the box-bed. This was the last time she would paint in a long time to come.
Rohan’s Mom called him back home for dinner just as he was about to score the last fifteen runs required for his team to win the T20 cricket match with kids from the neighboring building. “Coming Mom”, he shouted back impatiently, slightly angry. Cricket was the only thing he had ever cared about for as long as he could remember. His eyes twinkled as he faced the opposition’s bowler, his bat swinging in a wide arc, cleanly striking the ball along the pitch for a boundary. This would be the last time he played the game for the next three years.

Nakul sat crouched under the bush, patiently and noiselessly as he waited for hours for the bird to show up. He had spotted its nest just after noon. It was high up on the tree, cozy between the trunk and a thick branch, away from the wind. It was close to dusk, surely the bird must return now, as they always do. Maybe it had gone out hunting for the day, as they always do. His legs hurt from sitting all day in this position, the camera hanging around his neck, his neck sunburned. He waited with baited breath, and... There it was! She had just flown home. In a sudden rush of excitement, he clicked away furiously, capturing the bird in its full glory; swooping in on its nest, landing nimbly on the edge, trying to be fair to all the bird babies as her beak went around distributing the spoils. The chatter of the babies made him happy, joie de vivre running through him. It was the last that that camera ever clicked nature.
Today, and later in the month they will all be appearing for their engineering entrance exams. Fighting to get into the 10,000 or so seats that ‘good’ engineering colleges in the country on offer. Not one of them will get a seat. None of them will be good engineers.

Not because they are not smart. Not because they are not intelligent. It is because, they were not supposed to be engineers. They were supposed to be painters, and poets, and athletes and ornithologists, all excelling in their fields. 5 years later, they will all be working for as ‘software engineers’, working at a tiny back-office, fixing bugs created by some unseen overlord in some far away land where they have never been. Or faking accents, helping some middle aged lady in Wyoming figure out how to use the new blender she just bought.

Working for a different overlord than the one they gained ‘independence’ from 60 years ago. Or the same one.

Very few of them will actually go back to work at their passions.

Very few of them will actually do work that will change the world in some way.

Very few of them will actually be ‘independent’.

Very few of them will ever be free...

Partition - and Indian History in General

This article appeared in the Times of India - written by S A Aiyar, who at times I feel is the only saving grace of the tabloid that the newspaper has now become.

I guess, we will never conclusively know what actually panned out. The sad part is, our politics still cant accept a scholarly book without getting bitter about it. Its sad that today, children in India learn history only till 1947, that is when it ends! Did we as a nation stop making history that day? Nothing about the Indo-Pak wars, nothing about our achievements in space technology, nothing about the changes in every field that the country has undergone till now.

Sad.

We keep pondering over our Shivajis and Chandraguptas while continuing to ignore our very recent - and ten times more relevent past.

Anyway, please find the article below for convenience.


Jaswant pays price for telling the truth S A Aiyar Sunday August 23, 2009

For decades, Congress and BJP have jointly nurtured the myth that Britain teamed up with Jinnah to impose Partition on India, to institutionalise divide-and-rule even after leaving. No, says Jaswant Singh in his new book. Partition was largely due to Nehru and Sardar Patel, who insisted on a centralised India and vetoed the loose federation favoured by Jinnah.

The BJP has expelled Jaswant, and, outrageously, banned his book in Gujarat. He wonders why the party is upset by his expose of Patel/Nehru. He should have known that his expose would damage the anti-Muslim ideology of the BJP more than that of Congress.

Historically, India was a land of a thousand warring kings, along with divisions of language, region and religion. Division was a fact of life: the British did not have to invent it. Rather, as Maulana Muhammad Ali said to the British, ‘‘We divide and you rule.’’
British rule consolidated a hitherto fragmented India. Even so, British India covered only half the area and two-thirds of the population of the sub-continent. The rest lay with 600-odd princely states. Had Britain wanted to continue divide-and-rule — and Churchill certainly did — it just had to stand by its treaties with the 600 princes, who wanted independence. But the Labour Party that came to power in 1945 was against such imperial games. Mountbatten, the last Viceroy, told the princes they must join India or Pakistan. This helped create two countries out of 600 princedoms.

Jaswant portrays Jinnah as a secularist wanting a loose federation of states, each with substantial autonomy. A loose federation was initially proposed by Mountbatten but rejected by Nehru, who said it would Balkanize India. Nehru wanted a strong federal government for unity. Jinnah said this was a cloak for Hindu hegemony.

Jaswant is perhaps too soft on Jinnah, who had a communal streak as well as a secular one. His insistence that only the Muslim League could speak for Muslims was pure communalism. At one time he favoured a loose federation, but ultimately insisted on a separate Pakistan.

The interim government of 1946-47 included Congress and the Muslim League. Jinnah quarrelled daily with Congress on issue after issue to deny it legitimacy.

Liaquat Ali of the Muslim League was finance minister in the interim government, and had the power to block any expenditure. He constantly queried and blocked spending proposals of Congress ministers. Patel said he could not even appoint a chaprasi without Liaquat’s approval, which took ages.

In February 1947, Liaquat presented a socialist ‘‘poor man’s budget’’. This imposed a 25% tax on business profits over one lakh rupees, doubled the corporate tax, imposed capital gains tax, and doubled the export duty on tea. It also proposed a commission to unearth tax-evaders.

Socialists in Congress supported these proposals. But others like Patel were outraged, claiming that Liaquat was really attacking Hindu businessmen (like G D Birla) who had long financed Congress. This was a Hindu communal interpretation of a budget that equally affected Muslim and Parsi industrialists. Hindu businessmen also feared that Liaquat would selectively target them for tax evasion via the new commission, a fear some Congressmen shared.

This reflected, in part, an unwillingness to accommodate the agenda of a prickly coalition partner. Ironically, the Congress of Sonia Gandhi would in 2004-08 swallow more humiliations from a prickly partner than it did in 1946-47. But in 1947, Congress saw itself as the natural party of rule, not a mere coalition partner.

Liaquat’s tactics were stunningly successful. They convinced Patel — and later Nehru — that working with the Muslim League was impossible. Alan Campbell-Johnson says in Mission with Mountbatten that Nehru and Patel accepted Partition because ‘‘by conceding Pakistan to Jinnah they will have no more of him and eliminate his nuisance value; or as Nehru put it privately, that by cutting the head we shall get rid of headache.’’

This supports Jaswant Singh’s claim that Congress opted for Partition rather than share power with Jinnah. Pakistani historians like Ayesha Jalal argue that Congress was unwilling to make the compromises necessary in a diverse democracy, and this led to Partition. Other historians blame Jinnah and Liaquat for sabotaging any chance of a unified India.

Either way, we need to abandon the myth that the British imposed Partition on India, though Mountbatten saw it as desirable and helped promote the Jinnah-Congress agreement on it. The clincher was Liaquat’s budget and obstructionism, which drove Congress from opposing Partition to becoming a fully consenting partner in it. Jaswant Singh could have been tougher on Jinnah, but has correctly highlighted Congress’ role in Partition

____________________________________________________________________

Also it hurts that the BJP is running around like a headless chicken, not proving to be a worthy opposition to the government... Blah :x

Memories: BITSAT

Some of the best things you get in life are the ones that you plan the least for. Call it Murphy's law or whatever. Take getting into BITS for example. All of 11th-12th was spent in preparing for the JEE. The BigDaddy of exams, the thing which was going supposed to change your life forever. After hundreds of hours of misdirected preparation, when I finally gave the JEE-mains, I knew that I was not going get a seat of my liking at an IIT of my choice, or for that matter, I wasn't going to clear the Mains at all. (This doesn't mean that I didn't shed a tear when the results came out ;) )

BITSAT was just an aside to the main story. A till-exam-day neglected poor brother of the JEE, for which I wasn't even sure whether to appear or not... I remember, my family had a holiday planned out at Mahabaleshwar, immediately after the BITSAT. So I was kinda looking forward to that, the exam being a minor hiccup in the euphoria of FINALLY being free from all entrance exams! Who in the lord's name would go to godforsaken Pilani, or the tourist haven of Goa, leaving a seat in the COE, Pune. Pune, the Oxford of the East! Pune, my hometown! If I was to leave Pune, it had to be to go to an IIT! I even seriously contemplated retaking the JEE next year.

I know BITSians will not like this, but in my pea-brain, BITS did not figure in the list of must-do things! I think, this was more because of the environment than because of my own doing. I did not know even one student who was at BITS at that point in time. Later, when I decided to go to Goa, I had to dig out contacts of contacts of contacts who had passed out from BITS 15 years back. So much for the BITS network! Also, I think, the BITSAT being in its first year, I didn't know what to expect out of it, what the cut-offs for various branches will be, and so-on.

For the record, the exam went well. I scored 305 (later re-evaluated to 309) and I remember cursing my PC, coz I was so sure that at times, all options on the Maths test were wrong! But who cared, right, it was all over in 4 hours or so. Yay!

After the exam, I remember driving back in the car. The radio was playing 'Zaraa Zaraa' (The song still takes me back to that moment!). Not even 20 minutes on the drive back, we were held by the traffic constable from aamchi Mumbai. Mama, so to say. Oops, stupid Puneite me, who cares for seat-belts in the post-exam euphoria! So then ensued the pleading, the 'Mama, Punyahun alot, lakshat nahi ala.. Jaudya naa..' Typically, he retorted with, 'Udya gaadi station warun gheun jaa, fine bharun.' (Take the vehicle tmrw from the police station, after paying the fine.). Then, the path of least resistance. Bribe the fellow :)

My mood (and pocket), considerably lighter, I headed back home, where a delicious Mom-made meal awaited a ravenous me!

Turns out, the heavens had conspired to make it the biggest day of my life. It shaped the course of the next 4 years. 4 wonderful years; and when I think about it, its not just 4 years, but my entire life! Looking back at all the wonderful experiences I had in Goa, I would not trade that for anything else. But that makes for an entire different series of posts...

For now, some of the best things you get in life are the ones that you plan the least for!

CASH in Goa!

This weekend I had Chinmay, San and Hrushya over in Goa. It promised to be a whale of a time, and it ended up belittling all expectation! Colva, Palolem and Panjim, OMG!

Here is the picassa link:

http://picasaweb.google.com/aniketponkshe/CASHInGoa#

Might put in the details of the journey some other time...

For the sake of general public, the pics are all nice n clean :P

Goa Rocks!

Melancholi(ty/ness)

Its been ages since I posted. Haven't found a topic interesting enough recently, I guess. It seems getting into a retrospective/self effacing mode is when I feel like posting the most!

I have had a vague sense of longing for the past 3-4 days. Finally, was able to pinpoint it to being homesick! Its just been 4 days since I got back to Goa, but I already miss Pune. It is the most awesome place to grow up, changing with the times, from the rustic pensioner's paradise, to the busting IT hub of today, a place which makes you think twice about going out at the peak traffic hours.

It has given me the most awesome friends that one could possibly asked for - never will I again find a set of people whose thoughts are so compatible with mine. With whom I have grown up with, shared teenage pangs ( and an infinite number of coffees!).

Last time I was home, I had a walk around my apartment building. It gave me an awesome high. Reminded me of the wonderful childhood that it provided me. The cricket, the hide-n-seek, the evening discussions with people who were so close to me then, but who just drifted away with time, to an extent that now we have nothing to talk when we meet. The well on the backside, through the railings of which I peered in as a kid, throwing stones into it, to see the fish swim up to them, the N number of cricket balls we rescued from it. The water tank, which acted as a makeshift pavillion. I haven't been there for the Ganesh festival for the past four years, and wont be for the next few too. I could go on!

It reminds me of the Jagjit Singh ghazal:

Ye Daulat bhi lelo
Ye Shaurat bhi lelo
Bhale chin lo Mujhse ye meri Jawani
Magar lauta do Mujkho Wjo Bachpan ka Sawn
Who Kagaz ki Khashti Who Baris Ka paani

Life will never again be so simple. So much fun! Now half the people have moved out of Pune, its all changed...

Still miss the place... :)

The zoo behind my room

Outside my window, there stands a great, big mango tree. It plays home to many birds and chipmunks. Ever since I was a kid I have been fascinated by the menagerie that sits on my window sill, fleeing as soon as I so as much look at them. Sometimes there is even a mongoose couple out there!

Mom puts out chapatis every morning since I remember, and I think the animals have got used to finding free food here. Bit like a tree which bears regular fruit! The chipmunks have grown quite plump I must say, and they must be feeling a bit disappointed if they do not find their breakfast out on the sill!

Today I did a bit of dilettante research. I managed to google the red-crested bulbul, the five-striped Indian squirrel, the bharadwaj (besides the house sparrow, and the common crow. :P)

This one is the red-crested bulbul. Very beautiful!

The five-striped Indian squirrel. Not very uncommon, but I just love the way he nibbles with his tiny hands! Cute, ain't it? Mind you, I consider it to be the most agressive of the animals that come to my sill. Very timid against humans, but makes the poor birds run away. Legend has it that this small creature help Lord Rama help build the Sagar Setu (sea bridge) to Sri Lanka in its own tiny way. It used to roll-over in the beach sand, and go shake all of it onto the bridge! Lord Rama stroked it on the back in appreciation and ever since then it has had the stripes!

The bharadwaj (crow pheasant). Biggest of all birds here. To spot this bird is considered to be good luck in India. Ahem! It stays right in front of my window. Imagine all the luck I must have had over the years! Why doesn't someone show this to Harry Potter instead of making him drink Felix Felicis!

"The bird is quite large around 48 cm. Its head and body are purple black, the wings are chestnut above and black below, and the long tail is dark green. The bird feeds on wide range of insects, caterpillars and small vertebrates. It occasionally eats other food items.

The call is that of most cuckoos is a simple repetition, in this case of a deep booming note."

The pictures here aren't mine. I will one day buy a very excellent camera. Till then, Google zindabad!

Indian Railways

I fail to understand how the man who fell on the tracks had such a bad experience. Right in the middle of the cuty, you fall and it takes you 1 hour to get treatment for a severed leg, its just too disturbing.

If Mumbai aims to be a global city, basic amenties like an ambulance at railway stations is a must.

Laloo, are you listening? Or just busy dolling out sops with the elections at hand...

Whats wrong with Maharashtra?

This post comes more out of worry than anything else.

What is with Maharashtra? We are supposed to be one of the more forward states in the country, one of the more industrialized places, somewhere for the rest of India to look up to. Maharashtra has a very rich culture, the people a very strong sense of identity and are very tolerant traditionally.

My watchman left for Bihar frightened by the MNS voilence. Thats when I decided to write this post. He was a nice guy. What is he was from Bihar? What gives anyone the right to generalize rowdyness with Biharis? And so what if they are? Pushing them out of Maharashtra is no way to get back. Its more logical to try and make them more civilized. Improve implementation of law and order so that only the ones not follwing it are punished.

25,000 migrant workers leaving Pune isn't good for the economy. You simply can't let one person hold the state to ransom.

Think about Maharashtrians outside the state. What if Deve Gowda says something similar and pushes all the IT people out of Bangalore?

Its important for Maharashtrians to understand that the so called 'Bhaiyyas' who flock to Bombay, Pune, Nashik come here only because of the opportunities that exist here. They are mostly doing jobs which localities find to be too low-statured. Instead of killing them, its more important that the government makes it mandatory for their employers to better living conditions for them.

The youth of Maharashtra had such great expectations from Raj. Turns out that all politicians are as stupid as the other...

I still believe that the Marathis are a very tolerant breed of people, and the MNS behavior is nothing but a blip on the radar.

Baba Amte

Since decades, people have just been bent and exploited. We have been given hands to lift them up, not to strangle them.

These were the words of the noted social reformer Baba Amte, a man also known as the Messiah of the poor.

Born Murlidhar Devidas Amte, on December 24, 1914, Baba Amte, hailing from a family of Brahmin jagirdars defied rigid caste hierarchy and often shared meals with servants and played with children of lower castes.

A qualified lawyer, Amte's tryst with social activism began early in life. While a lucrative practice at Wardha was ready for him, his heart beat for the poor and the destitute.

His motto "Charity destroys, work builds" finally culminated in the building of Anandwan, a sprawling rehabilitation centre for leprosy patients in the Chandrapur district of Maharashtra.

Even in his last days, Baba's thoughts were thought-provoking and challenging.

"One 's hands should be used for help and for reforms. Not for killing others. This is the only message to the present generation," he said.

Although he won several awards - the Padma Shri in 1971, the Padma Vibhushan in 1986 and the Magsaysay Award in 1988 - he continued to rendered service diligently and selflessly.

It is no wonder that even the Prime Minister was touched by this immense loss.

"An era in India comes to an end. He was a great son of our country who devoted all his life to Gandhian values and the service of the poor and the down- trodden," PM Manmohan Singh said.

Baba was also a strong supporter of the Narmada Bachao andolan and fought relentlessly against displacement of the tribals. His constant refrain was that compassion has no party or ideology. His message of love for the poorest of the poor will be forever remembered and worthy to be emulated.

My tribute to the great man. May his tribe increase...

Microelectronics

Just had my 4th paper.. Microelectronic Circuits. Its a beautiful subject. Its amazing how you can control devices at such small scales. The sad part is, you have to everything on your own. Faculty crunch hurts here the most. Not enough people is one reason, but what about those who are here? Shouldnt there be some quality control on teachers?
A big step in that direction needs to be evaluation of teachers by students, not the other way. Coz lots of times, I am more interested in learning than that guy is interested in teaching (or more likely, its the lack of ability on his part) :(
Anyway, got no paper for next two days. So peace...

Two idlis and a wada.. life at IGCAR, Kalpakkam, TN

Doing my B.E. at BITS-Pilani, Goa gave me this wonderful opportunity of doing an intern at Indira Gandhi Centre of Atomic Research, Kalpakkam – one of the top research institutes in the country. Now that its over, and I got some free time, I ll pen down some of my observations.

1. The first thing to notice at the place was that it has practically infinite funding. It as THE most amazing library and a 1 Gbps LAN connection.. Awraa..

2. For a ‘top’ research institution, real high end work goes on only a few of the departments. At other places, people are typical govt office lazy. Lethargy stinks through many of the departments. Its not that people there are not intelligent, but when straitjacketed and asked to complete the given work, and only the given work, even the brightest minds will be disillusioned. Then life tends to reduce to a dreary routine, with days after days of pushing through.

3. The department I worked in – Radiochemistry Lab (RCL) was one such dreary place. Still with some amount of push, we were able to get work done. Literally, we did a bit of pushing – there was no one, but us, to shift the comp from one room to another!

4. At still other places a huge amount of research is on, places like the Research Physics Laboratory, or the Reactor Safety Division will surely be interesting for people in that field.

5. Despite being in a not-so-gud dept, I did get an amazing project. I got to learn lots. Apart from working on the actual 8051 related hardware, the LabVIEW part was also very interesting. LabVIEW is a totally different idea. A graphical programming language, not a single line of code, it’s the most amazing thing I have worked with.

6. In my last week, I went to see my contact at the Safety Division. Got to see the weather prediction model software he has developed. It acquires data from the World Met Council (or something like it) and uses it to predict the radioactive fallout that would happen if there was some leak from the center. It was awesome. You could predict weather with a resolution of 2*2 km.. Talk about cool…

7. Also saw the Instrumentation Dept there. They work with a higher end software similar to LabVIEW – DasyLab. Wonder how it would have been to work in that department…

8. Now for the title: it was my standard breakfast at IGCAR. There was variety, but this was the stuff that I found to suit my palate. Seriously, the only negative aspect of life there was food. Didn’t exactly like it. Still, eventually, by the end of PS-1 found out a couple of good (more like, not bad), places. But walking 40 min way to reach a restaurant isn’t exactly the most sought for luck now, is it?

Chennai... Its blacks and whites

1) Staying at Kalpakkam for the past month, I have visited Chennai atleast thrice.. Time n again, Chinmay’s words resonate in my mind: “This place is a pseudo-metro”. Its like a small town grown which has grown too big. It doesn’t have the metro culture. Other metros; Mumbai, Delhi or even Pune and Bangalore, have a distinctly western influence on the lifestyle of the junta. You see Baristas, McDonalds, Coffee Days and Pizza Huts and the like mushrooming around every street corner. Around Chennai you are still likely to see Adyar Anand Bhavan or some Udipi Restaurent.. All around is a distinct color of conservativism. You would be lucky to see a girl and a boy talking to each other at the street corner… Case in point: Two weeks back on my way to Bangalore, overheard this conversation between two ladies on the train:

(Lady 1 – In her early thirtees, among the type who wear jeans but only with an Indian top. Lady 2 – Pompous 50 year old who would consider love marriages nothing less than blasphemy. Topic : How Bangalore has changed)
L 1: I grew up in Bangalore and I have seen the city has changed a lot.. The IT industry has brought alongwith it very western influences.
L 2: I know. Now you see pubs n discos everywhere. It was never like that before.
L 1: When I was in colleges there would be no such thing. (C’mon lady maybe you didn’t know them, but surely they existed!)
L 2: Last time I was in Bangalore, I got the shock of my life.
L 1: What happened?

(Hold your breath… Such a huge thing happened.. Wait for it.. Now its coming.. You see.. the expectation is nerve jangling.. What a scandal…)

L 2: I had just woken up, and looking out of my balcony at 7 AM, I saw (C’mon I cant take it anymore) a girl and a boy, (What?? Were they doing it??) they were having tea together. (Phew??!!!!)

…Chennai isn’t still westernized. Its still very conservative at heart… Its interesting to see this direct contrast between Mumbai-Pune & Chennai-Bangalore. It makes you think what times would have been around 40 years earlier-even in urban areas…

2) Another thing worth noting is the Poster phenomena – All over TN you will see posters of politicians put every 100 metres on the road (Or is it 10!) Huge faces of Amma (Jayalalitha), Karunanidhi, MK Stalin(How could you name anyone like that??!!) staring down at you or smiling into the emptiness. A poster would be anything from around 6 feet high to a mindboggling 50 feet. I don’t know what they say (they are in Tamil), but below these figures which we generally know are smaller faces of local politicians, of every Tom, Dick n Harry who ever got into politics.. Geez.. The funniest part: When in Pondicherry, there was a poster- huge- of Stalins. Not 1, but 10.. Stalin at his graduation, Stalin as mayor, Stalin with a gold necklace. Infuriating… How do people bear with it? ( And how do these politicians themselves? After all, what happens to the posters after their use? Burnt off? Shredded.. Hehe..)

3) Last weekend Rajnikanth’s movie released. Sivaji- The Boss. All hell broke lose. The whole of South India went crazy to see their superstar. This guy seems to be a cross between Govinda and SRK. Apparently, he is a people’s actor – like Govinda, or Laxmikant Berde in Marathi- he charges rates higher than SRK. From what I hear he charged a cool 35cr for this film.. That’s more than half the film’s budget. But from the crowd pulling ability he has, the spending is totally justified from the producer’s POV. Again from hearsay, his movies aren’t even that good. Just common junta stuff.. I had thought that atleast in the south, where people are more educated, such mediocre stuff wouldn’t sell.. But then I guess, India is still just 60 year old. That’s just a kid in terms of nation-age. She has a long long way to go…

4) The only thing in Chennai that is metro-class (by that, I mean Indian metros, mind you) is public transport. The city’s bus system would be a great envy to Pune. Pune out to learn. Without going into numbers, I bet the public : private vehicle ratio is 5 times that of Pune. The buses aren’t exactly comfy or anything, but they RUN. They will be so crowded, that you cant even stand on the footboard… But still, they RUN… And they do that well… In the overpopulated cities of India, that is what is the order of the day.