Why dont we take a break and do a little introspection??

Its a bit too late for something serious i know, but lot of random thoughts seem to be occupying my mind in this most unusual time. Its 2 o clock in the morning and my roomies are all fast asleep and its a weekend. But these kind of things keep on bothering you. So i thought i l just share it.

My college life has been the most valuable learning experience for me. I am not talking about the 40 odd subjects that i have ’studied’ over this time, but the real learning in terms of the experience gained. Its the part of the year when the auditorium is booked everyday for some sort of a farewell (state, branch…..). The most common thing said during such meetings is about the cruel world that we are just about to enter. But what exactly makes the world so ‘cruel’. Is it not people like you and me who makes the world what it is? So are we actually going to enter a cruel world or is this ‘cruelty’ a mere consequence of the callousness that is gradually developed in us as everyday passes?

If there is something that has been so vital in defining our social life but is on the decrease now, then i feel it would be compassion. It has become so rare a thing to be seen nowadays that even a small gesture of compassion is seen with much reverence and the person showing it is respected. Wherever we are or whatever roles we adore, we are always bound by self imposed shackles of rules and regulations, prejudices, selfish interests and ignorance that we cannot move out of this wretched system to show some compassion as we will have to do it at the expense of the things that i have above mentioned. Worst is that we cling on to those things so much that the moment your empathizing with someone comes in conflict with any one of these, we just stop doing it. Ans as time goes on, the scale of these prejudices just go on increasing making us more narrow minded.

As Gandhiji has said it requires immense courage and will to tread the path of ahimsa. I consider compassion as one of the most beautiful manifestations of ahimsa. We students have got this wrong notion of strength and courage. Agression which is a result of a turbulent and fearful mind is revered while such intricate qualities of ahimsa which can only come from a calm and composed mind like restaint, compassion, empathy are looked down upon. I feel ratioanality is nothing more than a polemic if we take emotions out of the picture. Lets try to a little bit more compassionate to our fellow beings. I strongly believe that even this ‘little bit more’ can make this world a far better place to live in…

Curriculum Review:an informal meeting at Deepak sir’s room

In the first place, let me give a note of warning to  all those cribbers like me who might get excited at the phrasing of the topic. So i l better explain the term ‘curriculum review’. Its an exercise done every three years or so in which radical changes like swapping an S6 subject and an S7 subject or deleting a module in a subject only for it to appear in some other subject are made in the curriculum. But this time, as Deepak sir put it, more people are thinking out of the box and still more have become receptive. Thus he said there is room for hope. Also considering the changes to be implemented in IIT B, we can expect real changes this time, he said. It is in this context that he called an informal meeting of students in his room one fine evening.

Our year was represented by four. Ullas (cribber like me, sick and tired of the system, doesnt mind speaking out), Srinath(pretty much tired, has reservations when it comes to speaking out), Tony(ok, this is one person whose is so difficult to understand…i think he also fed up with the system, but doesnt mind going with the stream..no cribbing i  mean) and me. We(me and ullas) had everything planned before going for the meeting. Ask for the stars so that they might be benevolent to give atleast a photo of the moon. Voluntary attendance, 4 courses in a semester and one lab (2 hours), flexible electives and supplementary exams. Now thats too much in the bag, especially the first two points.

We were quite surprised to know that both the faculty in th room, Deepak sir and Dhanraj sir were thinking in line with us. Chk http://deepakwrites.blogspot.com/2009/03/engineering-education.html for confirmation. The second years were also strongly in favour of a radical change, although they didnt have a conspiracy like us as it was obvious in their lack of co-ordination.

Ok now everything is going so well. Although its almost sure nothing of this is going to be implemented as the system drags along with its ultimate curse of encouraging mediocrity, there were a bunch of dreamers envisioning a better future. Thats it guys, wake up…this is no fairy tale. If its not a fairy tale, then we have the villains. Yes i am talking about the final year delegation. They had entirely different plans in their minds. They found the system to be ‘too light’ on students. Six hard core subjects and two labs and a mini project in 65 working days were not enough for S6, they said while some of us are seriously contemplating on beginning an ascetic life after going through such a semester. One of them argued that as we will be in the academic area during the morning anyways, we will be jobless for at least two hours a day if our 4 course plan is implemented. Our natural choices of going back to the hostel to sleep or going to the library to read the newspaper were mysteriously evading him.

Deepak sir had a hard time moderating such a discussion when the two groups poles apart. I am not being judgemental with this article. But we represented the attitude of at least 90 percent of the students while they a handful. What we argued for was a flexible system in which students can chose courses according to their priorities. Reduce the minimum credit requirement so that we can use the free time to pursue our passions and get credit for those. For some it might be taking up challenging courses offered by their department or some other department or maybe spending time in the library reading current affairs or maybe devote more time for extra curriculars improving their chances of winning laurels outside college. In any case, credits should be given to the work done during this extra time, if its constructive. No credits for sleeping off, although its really constructive for ones body and mind. That not only avoids uninterested students forcefully studying boring subjects but also make campus life more interesting and fruitful.

The face of terror

This is the second time i m writing about a terrorist incident, guess ably its about the recent attack on Mumbai. Unlike all the previous terrorist attacks on our soil, the perpetrators managed to do something extra ordinary this time. By making a fool of the already much discredited intelligence machinery of ours, they converted our economic capital into a war zone. Although none of the regular services in the city was affected, the resilient city of Mumbai came to a grinding halt. And how much insensitive and naive was the reaction of the media by airing military movements live on tv which reminded us of the Munich hostage situation in which the hostage takers watched the movements of the German special forces live in the tv in the olympic village, it was able to bring the horror of a terrorist attack right to our drawing rooms. Suddenly the whole of  India could feel the horror of the hostage desperately waving for help from the windows of The Oberoi, the pain of the GM of the Taj who worked with rescue team even after knowing his whole family had been killed inside the hotel, the grief of young mocha who lost both his parents and together we prayed for the brave men in uniform who went into the war zone without any regard for personal security. We also hailed the heroics of senior police officers Karkare,Kamte who went into the line of fire obviously beyond the call of duty. It also brought right in front of us the faces of the terrorists in action for the first time.

Until Mumbai, the general idea of a terrorist was a tall long bearded man carrying an ak 47 wearing Pathan attire. But the images we saw from CST that day was a far-cry from this. Apart from the loaded Kalashnikov and the explosives filled bag, the duo caught on tape was no different, atleast in looks from an average college going student in his early twenties. The images of them walking into CST and spraying bullets at ordinary people eager to get into their respective trains back home wearing versace t shirts and cargos cant be more chilling. It shows how even ordinary young people like us are being converted into ruthless savages by mindless brainwashing. It should also lead to more thoughts regarding the real causes of terrorism. Thoughtless and futile responses like Americas war on terror can only bring more people into this track as we are seeing nowadays. When western dominance in Islam following regions is used as the reason for propagating terrorism, how can more dominance through outright invasions cure this problem? When derailing Indo-Pak talks is one of the major objectives of such forces, wont our response by cutting our ties with Pakisthan be in line with their goals? Still the insensitive media was, throughout the 60 hours of terror was not only trying to stir public response towards a violent response but also gave unconfirmed rumours like Indian troop buildup in the border headline status. Inspite of all this, the highly matured response by the government to use the situation to create international pressure on Pakisthan and to expose the nexus between that country’s military and the terrorists was exemplary and something that other nations who give dis-proportionate responses to such incidents pulling both the parties into a deeper quagmire should try to emulate.

A memorable teacher’s day

I make it a point to say this everytime i get the chance that my batch is the closest knit group in the whole college. We are not the loudest but when it comes to bonding, we are second to none. We proved that again today by giving our teachers a memorable teachers day.

We presented our teachers with a hand made card and a rose as a token of our love and appreciation. All the girls worked together upto 3 in the morning (who knows…you cant check that out) making the cards. Hats off to you people. But it would have been better if it had been a personalized message in each card. But that was impossible as we didnt know half of them. Ijaz, our day scholar who would rather lose a meal than miss a class bunked the first hour to get flowers. Now thats dedication. We the rest of us supported them in all possible ways by frequently calling up and enquiring about the progress and letting them know that we were sleeping at 12 knowing they had only started their work.

Finally we gave them the mementos in the morning. Raghu sir seemed to be the most happy among all as it was his first teachers day. My dear friend Febin also seemed to have made it memorable by the succesfull execution of “operation KuKu’. At the end of the day, it was quite memorable for both the teachers and us.

Jammed number lock:first day in college cant be any better

So it came, as easily as it started;the end of the mammoth vacation. It was going to be the second half of my engineering life and every information from ‘how to hold a pen’ to ‘frequency response of amplifiers’ would have to be dug out from the deep trenches of my ‘long term memory’. Still the usual buoyant feeling was inside me on the first morning of s5. I got up early, was one of the first to reach the toilets and was back in my room to dress up with more than half an hour to spare. Like everyone, I was planning to wear my finest new dress for the first day, infact these are some of the few days you actually worry about what you are wearing. I took my trolley and dialed the key of my number lock, the faithful combination of three digits that have guarded my case for two and half years. But quite unusual for its behavior in the past years,it didn’t open.Natural i thought;some mistake in the alignment.I reset it and dialed again.Still no intention of opening up.So i try my old combination and then again my original. Inspite of the fact that me myself have personally locked and bid him farewell last night, the VIP case of mine seemed to have caught a terrible case of amnesia. Me, wrapped only in my bath towel worked on it for more than half an hour and leaves hope. I wear the dress that was worn the last day and check my watch only to know that not only am I late to have breakfast but also have to run just to reach the class on time.

Fortunately I had kept my hostel dresses out which gave me a breather for a few days. That evening I had to take my large case with half luggage stil in it all the way to the city to open it.With the city 22 kms away and all the buses plying in the route packed to ‘capacity’ even at unearthly hours, it was without doubt the journey of the semester. As my friend Renjith later pointed out it may be my due for taking my luggage all the way from home after vaccation in my car without a hassle.Anyway it was really funny answering people as i walked out of the college, to the shop with my luggage on the very first day itself

Trash can: ‘Madambi’, a movie from the past

Who said the long 100 days vacation for us is a global waste, good for none, it is obviously beneficial for the malayalam film industry at least, else I would not have ventured with my friends to see this latest Mohan Lal release on the very first day. Although its a bit early to come at any conclusions, I don’t think that this new director will not bring any respite to an industry that is currently reeling under lack of good scripts and acute civil strife. The title ‘Madambi’ roughly means ‘a feudal lord’. Thus the base story line is almost obvious. The legendary malayalam actor, who has so easily donned larger than life roles in many flopped movies cant be expected to be no one other than the ‘madambi’ in the movie.

The first thing that strikes you are the names of the characters. The younger brother of the hero, who is in his twenties in the movie sports an age old name with a caste name as a tail. The name ‘Ramakrishna Pillai’ is one that you would attach to an aging Head Master than a twenty year old dude. Conspicuous caste remarks are also made throughout the movie in dialogues and in the names of the major characters which was the norm in our state a few decades back. The plot is happening in a village, far removed from any town to have any bank in the vicinity. The current situation in Kerala makes it almost impossible. Any village in Kerala cannot be far from a town or a small commercial centre by not more than 20 kms. Its impossible not to have a branch of the State Bank or at least a  Co-operative bank over there. But ok, lets forget that fact and think that this village is so far removed that the state bank people couldn’t find it in the map. Then how could it be possible that the first bank to be opened there is a multi national one. Oh my God, now things are becoming tricky. This is the problem of taking your brain also along to the movies. In such movies the only thing that gives you value for money are the beautiful members of the opposite sex gracing the silver screen. But Kavya Madhavan, who has proved before that shorter clothes is not the gateway to a longer career in the film industry, proves that again rather brutally in the movie. The 23 or something old actress, clad in thoroughly de glamorized saree throughout the movie and eventually develops a crush on the 48 year old hero looks and behaves at least 10 years older. Then there is finally the larger than life cast of the hero who appears in almost all the scenes in the movie. The generous and rigid hero saves the day for the poor people and punches the bad guys into oblivion every time a situation arises. And finally the director goes as far as playing a drama in court room to clear the hero of certain mistaken character traits that the hero was forced to take up when his father died(in a black and white flash back). And the most generous magistrate forgives him for doing that, even though the same could have been far easily solved by going up and revealing the facts(99% of the hero’s wealth is in his brother’s name, that might be teh point when the director wanted the audience to cry thinking of the magnanimous nature of the ‘big brother’).

It was only when I reached my home, with my joints aching because of sitting in that filthy theatre with damaged chairs that my mom told me that the director of the movie is a renowned T.V serial director. I replied back that I should not have expected anything more from a man who makes money making B-Grade mega serials exploiting the job lessness of the middle class house wives.

Encounter with the police, episode 2

When I was writing my last post, I was wondering why I was keeping on writing all serious stuff in this page. Was that because there was nothing funny happening my life? Obviously not, with the kind of people around me. One of the striking reasons in the funny incidents of our lives is being at the wrong place at the wrong time. This incident was no different. This was also strongly reminiscent of something that happened when I was in plus 2……

After our usual game of badminton in the local club, we four: me, aravi, deepak and fayaz (as I am introducing my friends for the first time in my blog; whenever I say ‘we five,six…..’ it will be me and the members of an elite club called RRD who are not at college at that point of time. The first three people mentioned above are also members of a more elite sub group called GRADHS, with Hari, Rahul and Dhanya making up the remaining slots. Actually there used to be a 7th member in this group, but her membership (name undisclosed) has been temporarily suspended by a popular vote due to capricious misbehaviour. So coming back to our topic, we four were thinking what to do next. Time was only 5.30 or something, not the time for any of us to go back home. Then the three fuckers think of taking a puff. I am also forced to go with them(I am the good guy, no smoking or boozing) to their favourite spot as I was the one with a bike(fayaz’s vespa was obviously a two wheeler but i wont call it a bike or a scooter).

Their favourite spot is an isolated road spinning off from the highway. On returning, we were confronted by a police patrol jeep. The driver gave me pass light indicating me to stop. As I slowly parked near the jeep, I was wondering what to tell them and also how fayaz made it without being stopped.

Constable:License?

I hand him my license with an air of pride.

Cons:evide entha paripadi (what are u guys doing here?)

Me:Kaatu kollaan vanatha (nothing, just came to enjoy the breeze)

That is obviously the last thing that you will ever tell a policeman. But believe me, nothing else came to my mind then..

Cons: pha @#$%%^………where r the papers?

me: paper?(Hindu or manorama)…..(hmmm…I am not so dumb).

As I didnt know where the documents where, I call up my dad. Then the C.I comes into the scene. And he happens to be the friendly neighborhood police officer who came to talk about community policing during our local New year night. He takes the phone from me.

C.I (to my dad): makane thooki.nalla stalamalla.shookshichaal kolaam (your son has been found wandering in a bad locality. Just check it out)

Throughout all this, I was sitting in my bike with one leg on the road and the other on the footrest. The C.I gets pissed at this. He looks at me throughout and shouts:

“pha ezhunelkada” (get up you @!#$%).

Finally, with a few more not so friendly warnings, he let us go. As the jeep guzzled away deepak and me were looking at each other trying control our laughter. Fayaz and aravi came back in that vespa a few moments back but left at twice the speed the moment they saw us being questioned by the police at a distance(now thats friendship). As we finally laughed when the jeep completely faded from our sight, I knew that I would have a lot of explaining to do on reaching back home…

Let no other mother meet this fate

No single terrorist incident would have blotched the collective conscience of humanity than the inhuman hostage situation in a school in Beslan which left hundreds of innocent children victims of the most gruesome plague spreading across the planet:terrorism. It was a few years before that the perpetrators of this ghastly crime:the chechen terrorists, came into international lime light through a similar hostage situation in a Moscow theatre. A few days back i saw a documentary on that incident in NGC. An incident that happened during the crisis involving a mother and her daughter touched my heart so much that i feel that no mother should have the ill fate to undergo something like that ever.

This mother, named Tamara was shot in a cross fire in the stomach. Red cross was called to take her out. She was with her daughter. She begged with the commander of the terrorists to allow her daughter to come with her. Although he refused initially, he finally allowed that when the mother begged in the name of Allah. She was holding her daughter’s hand as she was being taken out in a stretcher escorted by the rebels. When they were just about to reach the entrance of the theatre, a terrorist came forward and forced the daughter’s hand from Tamara’s hand. Before the mother, who was lying in the stretcher injured seriously could make out what was happening and look back, the terrorist had already taken her daughter back into the theatre. The sixteen year old girl was later killed as security forces stormed the theatre in line with Kremlin’s policy of no dialogue with terrorists. As the mother narrated the story of not even being able to say goodbye to her daughter for the program, there were tears flowing through her cheeks.

Tamara is just one of the countless many mothers who have lost their sons and daughters in this futile inferno of terror. Incidents like this highlight the inhuman nature of such atrocities when innocent civilians are used to ‘wake up’ the government. Just like how we Malayalees and NITians pray that no father should meet the fate met by Echara Warrier, father of Rajan, lets pray that no mother should meet the fate met by Tamara.

Delhi metro: a world class engineering feat

The first thing that you notice as you enter the national capital, either from hazrat nizzamudin or from the Indira Gandhi airport is the elevated and electrified tracks of the delhi metro. The former chairman of the konkan railway corporation has worked magic again by completing this infrastructure challenge right in the heart of the capital ahead of schedule. The work of phase 3 and 4 are progressing at steady rates and when the mammoth project is completed in 2011 it will be larger than the London metro in size.

Quite contrary to the Indian stereotype, the whole network is world class and can be considered one of the best. As i was staying in karol bagh one of the busiest markets in delhi a short walk from my place of stay with guidelines by locals took me to the karol bagh station of the metro. It is an elevated portion of the track. Multiple escalators take you to the elevated station. Ticket system is token or card and you have to show it to a card reader which will open an automated gate which gives you access to the platforms. This system virtually eliminates ticket less travel or traveling with expired passes which is so ubiquitous in the mumbai metro. The most striking thing is a customer care center in each station. It was the good mannered person in that office who recommended me to take a ticket to indraprastha, which was five stations away and which would take me through both underground and elevated sections of the track, when i told him that i was a tourist and i just wanted to get the feel of the metro. Al though the ticket reader is a bit of a headache for the novice, the platforms are quite easy to interpret as each of them took you in different directions. The train came smoothly into the station. Contrary to Mumbai metro which has cabs protruding into the platform, there is a small gap between the cab and the platform.

I went in through the automated doors. The doors closed and the train started moving in a few seconds. The cab was completely air conditioned. As it went in a straight route it had no pilot or any other railway staff. The cabins were spacious and quite comfortable. A voice announcement system gave warnings and information regarding the approaching stations. The night view of the city from the elevated track was beautiful. Opposite to this the underground section offered no view but it was a good experience traveling for the first time. With no interesting view outside i looked inside the cabin to see the home going people after a days tiring work. How much better and relieving would it be for them to travel so fast home without the noise and smell of the busy city. In the Indian scenario it is always the journey back home that is the most tiring thanks to our outdated transport network. It would be so better for the city folk to tarvel so comfortably in ac cabs, something that an ordinary citizen would not have dreamt 10 years back. In less than 15 minutes i reached indraprastha. The automated system warned me to take care of the gap between the cab and the platform. As I got out and headed towards the escalator to reach the ticketing counter to get my ticket back to the original station, i looked back at the train which had already started to accelerate back to its original station thinking of the change that was spreading through our cities. The metro is just one of the many edifices of the new, changing India which is riding on the strength of its masses and the hopes of the emerging new generation. We need more projects of similar nature across the nation, cutting across political opposition, government red tape and petty land disputes with the people in charge showing character and shrewd will if we have to make a mark in the competitive world as an everlasting superpower.

The Reciprocity Theorem

Please dont be carried away by the name of the theorem and mistake that I am referring to a theorem in that dreaded circuits paper. Rather the topic I m referring to is supposed to be more deadly:philosophy. I think after writing a few excerpts from my life, I should write something philosophical, atleast for a change.

The name of the theorem can be changed if you can come up with a better name that does justice to what i mean. So the theorem goes like this:

“If you develop a perception about a person, that person is also most likely to develop a similar perception about you, even if you try to behave in an exactly opposite way”

This has its own exceptions and the theorem doesnt mean that if u feel Tom Cruise is cool, he is going to feel the same about you. It is to be applied between two persons who know each other and exchange words or atleast looks once in a while. The possible explanation for this is as follows.

Suppose you develop a perception about a person(like he s good, that man sucks, i hate his attitude etc), how ever hard you may try to hide this from the person(if its related to the first example i have given, it wont be the case because you wont mind the other person knowing that you think high of him, even you may want exactly that to happen), you wont be able to do it with 100% perfection. It can be your words, or your actions or even the way you look at him/her that give you away. In short, how hard you may try to hide your feelings and behave normal, you wont be able to do that unless of course you are a born crook. This causes the other person to develop a similar perception about you.

I formulated this theorem back in +2 not just from my own experiences as one of the two persons mentioned but also as a third person, with the above mentioned two people opening his/her mind about the other person to me. But there is one incident in my life that I think is a strong proof of my theorem.

I met Abraham for the first time in my entrance classes. My first impression about him was that he was one big fool.I was even surprised to find him in the top batch of the centre. A few months later, after i befriended him, he tells me “Gokul, you know what, initially i thought that you are one big fool”. This episode takes particular meaning when read with the fact that we two were the ones who eventually topped the class in entrance with one getting 29 and the other 60 in Kerala entrance.