India vs. Bharat

Observations to come later ... occupied with grade preparation ... DND notice pasted all over ...

Times of India reports on 07.12.2011

TIME TO THINK

Income inequality doubles in India in 20 yrs

TIMES INSIGHT GROUP

New Delhi: Inequality in earnings has doubled in India over the last two decades, making it the worst performer on this count of all emerging economies. The top 10% of wage earners now make 12 times more than the bottom 10%, up from a ratio of six in the 1990s.
    Moreover, wages are not smoothly spread out even through the middle of the distribution. The top 10% of earners make almost five times more than the median 10%, but this median 10% makes just 0.4 times more than the bottom 10%.
    “The main driver has been an increase in wage inequality between regular wage earners ie contractual employees hired over a period of time,” says the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in a new report on inequality in the developed world and emerging economies. “By contrast, inequality in the casual wage sector — workers employed on a day-today basis — has remained more stable,” the report says.
    South Africa is the only emerging economy with worse earnings inequality, but it has halved this number since the last decade. “The combination of marked spatial divides, persistently high shares of informal sector jobs and disparities in access to education accounts for much of the widespread variation in earnings from work in the EEs,” the report says.
    Wage inequality has driven more general income inequality in the country.
India has got more unequal over the last two decades — India’s Gini coefficient, the official measure of income inequality, has gone from 0.32 to 0.38, with 0 being the ideal score. In the early 1990s, income inequality in India was close to that of developed countries; however its performance on inequality has diverged greatly since then, bringing it closer to China on inequality than the developed world.
    There is evidence of growing concentration of wealth among the elite. The consumption of the top 20% of households grew at almost 3% per year in the 2000s as compared to 2% in the 1990s, while the growth in consumption of the bottom 20% of households remained unchanged at 1% per year.
    In comparison, the income of the bottom 20% of households in China grew at double the rate in the 2000s as compared to the 1990s, while the increase for the top 20% of households was much slower. In Brazil, household incomes have been growing faster among the poorest households than among the richest for the last two decades.
    Of all the emerging economies, India has by far the highest proportion of informal employment, by any national or international measure. “In India… informal employment includes a disproportionate number of women, homebased workers, street sellers and workers subcontracted by firms in the formal sector,” the OECD report says.
    India spends less than 5% of its GDP on social protection schemes as compared to Brazil’s more than 15%. Its tax revenue as a proportion of GDP is under 20% — the lowest of all emerging economies, and just half that of developed countries.

Yours sincerely

Dear student,

Welcome to our research group. Hope, this association will be mutually beneficial. You will learn from the group. We shall also learn from you.

The beginning of a research career starts with placing right questions that comes from a probing mind. In the initial phase, you will mostly contribute to the group by asking questions, looking beyond obvious - mostly 'why's and 'why not's. There is no question that can be called 'silly'. An inquisitive mind filled with innocence looks at the world with bewilderment, like a child - amused, excited, - a child having untiring zeal, indomitable spirit to ask endless questions. In the pursuit of knowledge which is infinite, we all are like a child and should possess such a quality. You will learn from the group, skill set we have already acquired. But you have to make it your own by not taking them as blackbox and asking relevant questions.

I was waiting for this day for your induction to the team. There could have been a better start had you performed better in the test. It is not easy for somebody to come back to academics after so many years and getting only few weeks to prepare with a completely different type of project responsibility to attend to in parallel. You had been brave to appear for the test with such a short preparation. Have faith in yourself. Your P.I. (who talked to me earlier) is very much satisfied with your contribution to the project. Feel proud of what you achieved in such a short stay at IIT Kharagpur. You will definitely earn what you deserve.

As far as reaching life's milestones, my little experience is that life gives opportunity. Our job is to remain prepared and make the most of opportunities when it come. The preparation is in our hand. It is not always possible to create opportunities ourselves. We are entitled to feel bad if we do not exert ourselves enough in the preparatory phase and let go an opportunity. You have worked hard since you joined and your responsibility ends there. There is no reason to feel bad. Take the feedback from the test - written and interview in right spirit and work on it. It is important to maintain a positive attitude and prepare oneself for the next opportunity. It will come.

Be strong. Vivekananda says, "Strength is life, weakness is death." "Life is short. The vanities of the world are transient. They only live who live for others. The rest are more dead than alive." The milestones achieved in life are not for self or are vanity stuffs to flaunt about. It is owning up of more responsibility, telling people that I am to deliver more (not from a point of ego, true education never does that), they should expect more responsibility to be shouldered by me, they should make me aware if I am failing in my duty vis-a-vis capacity I possess. Reaching milestones are important as that gives us more capacity to serve. Let us hope and pray that each of us can raise ourselves to achieve more not just for self but for the society at large which in a nation like us constitutes of millions of underprivileged.

Let us find sometime tomorrow and discuss how you may chart next part of the journey. Allow me to end this longish welcome message with one of my favourite Lord Buddha quote, "Let us rise up and be thankful, for if we didn't learn a lot today, at least we learned a little, and if we didn't learn a little, at least we didn't get sick, and if we got sick, at least we didn't die; so, let us all be thankful."


We all know that "Lives of great men all remind us that we can make our lives sublime." I may suggest at least 5-10 minutes of study of lives of great men and women in everyday's routine. My own experience is that I have found Vivekananda quotes from "Call to the Nation" (Link) or his letters to young disciples like Alasinga (One Link), Nivedita (One link) very inspiring.

Welcome again and cheers!

Yours sincerely,
 
GS

P.S. The older one grows, the more one starts giving sermons!!! And I am not getting younger day by day. Pls. get used to that as you join this group :-)

Happy Diwali

Happy Diwali to all! Wish I could send individual mails or cards to all I know, that includes who remembered and sent greetings cards but left no email id / phone no./full address. Perhaps, a post on this blog is the only way to reach out to all and say, "Thanks".

Diwali in IIT Kharagpur is unmatched with its Illumination and Rangoli. I find that this post (Link) from a student captures it beautifully.

It was wonderful to meet faculty colleagues and students yesterday evening while moving from one pandal to another with family and exchange greetings on the way. I must say that the IIT campuses are unparalleled and IIT Kharagpur campus is perhaps the best on human quotient.

Silenced

Three months back, there was a conversation with a mother (stationed abroad on an assignment) on google, me not knowing the tragedy that occurred recently. She was referring to the Arthur Ashe quote in the section 'A friend in need' of a previous post (Link) in the chat. Suddenly I realized that the 10 year old son was no more. The physicians tried their best but it was one of those rare diseases. Tears knew no bound when the mother said that she wished but could not be my student and wanted to bring the son to me someday. Wish I can rise to the expectation of parents / guardians / students and be worthy enough to be called a teacher. Let me share the talk (Link) that comes to my mind whenever such a discourse arises. The link may not open in some browsers.

Steve Jobs Quote

“Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve ever encountered to help me make the big choices in life. Because almost everything — all external expectations, all pride, all fear of embarrassment or failure — these things just fall away in the face of death, leaving only what is truly important. Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to lose.

“When I was 17, I read a quote that went something like: “If you live each day as if it was your last, someday you’ll most certainly be right.” It made an impression on me, and since then, for the past 33 years, I have looked in the mirror every morning and asked myself: “If today were the last day of my life, would I want to do what I am about to do today?” And whenever the answer has been “No” for too many days in a row, I know I need to change something."

Digging Deep

What we see in the surface is not what one is but what one wants to show. "If hard work is what pays then the donkey would have been the king of a forest and not lion." I placed the quote before a class of 100 students. The class said that they do not agree with it. I told, "I am not asking if you agree or not. What do you think of the person who writes this in his public portrayal?" May appear that he is in control of himself, very strong and knows what he is doing. An expert in psychology may say. With 284 facebook friend, his other public note was, "hell is d new hanging adda, when nobody is wid me." Wonder any of his friend could see it and make out what he has in his mind. An IIT final year with no backlog, no apparent reason to develop such a distaste of life at this age! And IIT Kharagpur was again news for a student who bade adieu to life.  Requested all to share with us (teachers, elders) issues they face. May be the experience of the struggle each of us go through help one another. My experience can be found in a previous post (Link). What does great teachers like Vivekananda say? He asks the youth to be strong and exhorts (Link1, Link2, Link3) in his call to the nation "Go from village to village, do good to humanity and to the world at large. . …… ‘When death is certain, it is better to die for a good cause.’"

Student Welfare Group

Jumped on a Student Welfare Group, IIT Kharagpur under Dean, SA website (Link) which is recently launched. Had a conversation with one of the content developer who worked in NSS last year. He was one of the lead volunteer and thus we got acquainted. A very good effort from IIT Kharagpur students. I also liked the shoutbox of scholars avenue blog (Link).  Let all stake holders of IIT system come and work together to see that every flower blooms.

And there was light

It was wonderful to read in the newspaper that students of one High School did not buy new dress materials in this Durga Puja and urged their parents to donate the money for costly treatment of a needy classmate. The other day television news showed friends coming together to make a pandal which looks like 'Academy of Fine Arts' of Kolkata. There the paintings of one club member who is a rickshaw puller by profession and painter by passion are displayed. The rickshaw puller painter does not have money to exhibit his work in Academy of Fine Arts at Kolkata. The friends decided to create one for him in the locality.

Real vs. virtual friend  I often worry about the abundance of virtual friends in recent times. These days we prefer to converse on chat with my next door neighbour than taking a walk together. May be the virtual platform helps the shy to unshackle themselves in the beginning. But a real friend is the one which never goes off-line.  I remember the Chanakya Shloka we memorized in our Sanskrit class of Class VIII. "Utsabe byasane chaiba durbhikkhe rashtrabiplabe / Rajadware, Shashmane Cha Jasthishthati Sa Bandhaba." A weak translation would be : He is a friend who is with you in fun, in famine, in revolution, in front of the king, in crematorium. It is not just fun which gets shared but more challenging situations such as those. The English adage says : A friend in need is a friend indeed. Let us hope to get one, let us be one.

Directors Speak

The Diamond Jubilee convocation function had a very interesting panel discussions on 22nd August, 2011 morning at Netaji Auditorium. We had former IIT Kharagpur Directors Padmashree Prof. K. L. Chopra and Prof. Amitabha Ghosh; current Directors of IIT Bhubaneshwar, IIT Ropar, IIT Indore and Prof. P. Chakraborty from IIT Kanpur. Prof. M. S. Swaminathan of TIME magazine fame, member of Planning Commission and National Advisory Council also graced the panel. What followed is a feast of thoughts, an introspection on 60 years of IIT system and the way ahead. I could not locate any report on this and hence presenting here what I could take as running notes.

Prof. Chopra initiates the discussion by saying that we are supposed to be think-tanks. We may have been so for UG studies. But emphasis is too much on UG studies. Integrated M.Tech., PhD should be preferred. To shift from teaching based to learning based i.e. outcome based, learning how to learn. He emphasized on breaking barriers among Departments, reducing no. of credits to be cleared by students. He gave example of MIT where 130 credits are enough (compared to IIT's 175) and 30% of this is constituted by core subjects and students enjoy a lot of flexibility in selecting subjects. He expects new IITs to show new way and does not like the idea of being mentored by older IITs (as it hinders new thinking). He wishes to see DST change how it functions.

Prof. Amitabha Ghosh was the next speaker. He stressed on importance of planning and preparing the country to be at centre stage of 3rd industrial revolution. He talked about revamping curriculum at least in a few IITs and opening the door of IITs to world students (at least MTech and PhD) on its way to become world institutes.

Prof. M. K. Surappa, Director, IIT Ropar spoke next. He explained the challenges in setting up of  a new institute. He emphasized on quality focus. All IITs together have 6000 publications a year with citation index 5-6. MIT publishes 4000 a year but citation index is 20. He worried about languishing university system and if IITs can help them, NITs to get good students for research. He talked about creation of new knowledge that will be put in application over next 20 years; in areas like waste management, water, energy, healthcare etc.

Prof. M. Chakraborty, Director, IIT Bhubaneshwar talked about issues faced by a head of a new IIT. He mentioned how his IIT is unique in offering interdisciplinary exposure to students, to strike  balance between domain knowledge and broad area. Every final year project must have supervisors from two different departments.

Director, Indore explained the present infrastructure situation at his IIT and challenges faced. He told that it is easier for newer IITs to adopt a change. In his IIT, a student has to undergo six month's industry / shopfloor experience.

Prof. Partha Chakraborty of IIT Kanpur said that IIT education should make one socially aware, become a good citizen, contribute to nation building - becoming broad based. Research environment should be there in the country. Many smaller universities feed Stanford. This should hold for IITs too.

Prof. Swaminathan spoke last in the first round. He said that the 60 years of IIT was not only the time to celebrate but also to introspect where we had gone wrong. He talked about reducing food spoilage, environmental impact of new technology, helping nationwide poverty alleviation programs like MGNAREGA with technology. He said that it is better to look for individuals and build institutions around that individual.

Then it was a kind of open house.

Prof. Chopra observed how MIT focused on infrastructure in first 75 years, industry in second 75 years and planning (health, global) in third 75 years but there are no such things for IITs. More than the money, the power of mind holds key. How could C. V. Raman, S. N. Bose, Meghnad Saha perform with junk equipments!

Prof. Ghosh narrated one anecdote where a young faculty wanted to leave IIT for a foreign university not for money or comfort, but for poor quality of research students he was getting. He said that even a mediocre US university get bright students from India, China. He wondered how US universities would perform if foreign students are not there. Prof. Chopra observed that the IIT students go out for money as well as lack of inspiration from IIT teacher. Prof. Ghosh said that the prestige in our country increases i one goes outside the country or publishes work in foreign journals.

Prof. M. Chakraborty brought the topic of collaboration among faculty members. He said that the competitors can be collaborators and it is worthwhile to work in a group. There were a lot of questions from the audience. The discussion came to an abrupt end when the hard time cut-off was reached. But it was great experience to listen to these experienced people and get educated.

Rejoinder:

Prof. K. L. Chopra's interview as published in IIT Kharagpur's student mouth piece 'Scholars Avenue' (Link) leaves more food for thought. Excerpts from the interview as appeared in the link is pasted below.

There are presently 3,500 private technical colleges and 350 private universities to do the job of producing over 93% of the engineering graduates in India. It is wiser then to concentrate on quality rather than increase the number and intake of IITs which will not significantly change the overall percentage of graduating engineering manpower for the country. The magnified numbers today have become a burden on the existing IITs. Just imagine herding 4 students in one room in the hostel.

As for educating a class full of two hundred students, even Feynman, the great physicist, the great actor, declared his efforts at Caltech a failure. “It is the inspiration from the teacher that makes you a scientist or an engineer,” and this, KL Chopra says, cannot happen unless there is an eye-to-eye contact and direct interaction between the teacher and the student. The IITs were supposed to be the think-tanks of the country, but he believes the kind of reforms being incorporated is converting them to regular universities.


“The vision of education in IITs was to create knowledge, which is more important than dissemination. Also, the focus needs to be on translational research,” says KL Chopra. It isn’t that people in the IIT system aren’t competent, but there is nobody accounting for the deliverance of knowledge in a country whose economy is heavily dependent on science and technology. He believes this is a form of intellectual corruption: a condition where no questions are asked. “Fortunately the government did not know what was going on with the IT industry and thus it flourished very well.”

We learned that India is a signatory to the Washington Accord, a document with benchmarks for education quality. The IITs come under its purview and will have to be judged sometime, an evaluation KL Chopra says they will not necessarily pass. While IITans have hitherto enjoyed global mobility, foreign organizations now realize that given the bulk of students, a spectrum is bound to exist. While he believes a transition to a system involving thorough evaluation is going to be difficult for students as well as teachers, that is what the world today demands. It is not what is taught that is important, but whether and what students have learned, and whether they have learned to learn.

Listening To

This was 18th August, 2011 Foundation Day lecture at Netaji Auditorium by Mr. Sandipan Chakravortty, our alumnus and M.D. of a TATA enterprise. I tried with our alumni office who in turn made a contact with Mr. Chakravortty. But as it appeared this was an extempore and he did not carry any written material that can be mailed. Therefore, I present here what I could scribble in the invitation card that I carried to the auditorium.

Mr. Chakravortty told the students, "As IITians, first brand yourself as human being. Being IITians, you are different from others. You are inspirational leader with a backbone of integrity." He talked about wide spread corruption and felt proud when he said that there are "no IITians in this space and IITians hold head high."

He continued on what Industry wants from an young engineer, a being who is physically and mentally healthy; has good domain knowledge; good communication ability, believes in team work, integrity, by nature ambitious, dynamic, innovative. He observed that we grow up as individuals in school. However, the IIT life teaches team work.

Next, he said, "You must have spiritual feelings." By this he meant listening to the call of conscience. He differentiated 'good' and 'great' by this yard stick. Good people are efficient. Great people are efficient and listen to the call of conscience.

He warned if 'lust of knowledge' is replaced by 'lust of money' among IIT students. He feels hurt when media highlights highest salary received by an IIT student from campus placement as a scoring point of one IIT over another. Finally, he said that TATA enterprises are highest tax payers and do not do accounting tricks to reduce tax burden. The guiding philosophy of J. R. D. Tata "is not to look at profits but how much tax that has been paid. Paying tax is a matter of pride."

Life is precious!

Disclaimer : This post is in response to an unfortunate incident that occured last week or reported to happen at IIT Kanpur, IIT Madras in recent times . This is to share some of my life’s experience which may be found useful by some. The aim here is not to find fault with an individual, institution or a practice but to complement the efforts being made by the stake holders of the society.

Section I

Last week I got a ‘Like’ from a student on an inspiring quote of Goutam Buddha that I pasted on Google Buzz. Following back I found that the student’s own posts in the buzz are inspiration abound. There I found this youtube video. What I liked most in this is the ability to face the life by not feeling bitter about it in such a situation. The glow in face indicates a sense of fulfillment which most of us, blessed not being challenged like that, lack. Salute to the spirit of life!

Happening on the Ground!

Few days back, one student entered my office in the evening, thoroughly shaken. Hours back one final year student of a different Dept. but from same hostel, has taken the extreme step. Apparently, he was struggling to put up a good academic performance and he largely confined himself to his room. The remedial part needs timely assistance from fellow students, family members, faculty members, admin. etc. The institute has a counseling cell and every hostel has a student group to assist it. Since the results are computerized, an algorithm could be put in place to generate an alarm and forewarn all concerned if some sort of pattern is found in the progress report. The guardians can remote log in through their ward’s log-in, password into institute’s ERP system and track the performance. They may visit the institute at least once a semester to talk to faculty members and discuss the progress.

Being Multidimensional

However, it is wiser to be less dependent on environment or remedial measures. It is better to acquire important life skills oneself from early stages of life. The guardians should appreciate this and not engage their wards in career oriented study only. The playgrounds are empty these days as the students are running from one tution teacher to other, trying to make every single minute of the day count. For youngsters, there is no time to study biographies or teachings of great people and drawing inspiration from them as they are ‘out of syllabus’.  Reading novels or classics are replaced by watching television which does not allow imagination to grow. It is not only sublime thoughts, as a whole we are thinking a lot less these days or have less time for ourselves to think what, how and why?

More Practices

Few days back I was insisting one of my relative to take at least one week break every year so that the family can spend quality time together in some travel destination. They cannot do that not to miss the private tution of their ward. I wonder if I can suggest participating in cultural functions in the school or locality – it could be a play or group dance, song or recitation. I would even suggest taking some time out on a weekly basis to do something for the underprivileged. It could be teaching Math. / English for one hour to the kid of the housemaid or spending some time in the nearby old age home or orphanage. The value of spending some time on a weekly basis (if not daily) in a good company or a study-circle is so much underrated! If I talk about few minutes of prayer and mental concentration on a daily basis, I am talking more about calming down of one’s nerves that can focus the energy better, than making one spiritually inclined.

What we Miss

The sportsman-spirit – the ability to accept victory or defeat gracefully, the ability to communicate with others or work in a team, the sense of responsibility to oneself or the family or the community are found wanting in the ‘me as centre’ way of life. We the elders are more responsible to allow such an attitude towards life as we never worried about what is healthy and what is unhealthy in trying to push a youngster towards some sort of competitive advantage in a career-only life.

Are we these?

We try to tell that if somebody does not get into IIT, he is a failure; if somebody does not have a 5 figure monthly income, he is unsuccessful; if somebody manages to skip Independence Day celebration at school and attends special class of the coaching centre at that time, he is clever; if somebody manages to hide tips received for study / exam. from fellow students, he is intelligent. We do not value patriotism, love, unselfishness, truthfulness, trustworthiness, honesty, …. in fact, we treat them as deterrent to make our ward ‘smart’ or ‘street ready’ …. the idea is to counter the ‘selfish world’ with greater amount of selfishness … in the process we run into a vicious cycle …. all the while we believe that I have equipped my ward enough to scrape through or outlive others. Alas! We are making hell out of this world what could have been a heaven.

 It is all about striving!

Nothing is automatic in life. We have to earn what we deserve. Else we have to leave our life to chances. Will a young individual prefer that or lead a life of one’s choice? Then please do not neglect development of different faculties of life. Develop yourself as a complete human being. Life is to be enjoyed. The less self-centred we are, the more we are able to enjoy ourselves. You don’t need to believe these words. Practise and experience yourself. The sign of life is ‘strength and happiness’. Mind the word ‘and’. It is not ‘or’. Both are required. Find a way that gives you both. May you all become inquisitive about life. It is precious!

 Section II

Since 1986 (the year when I got decent ranks in 10+2 Board Exam., Medical Entrance Exam., Engineering Entrance (IIT-JEE and WB-JEE) Exam.), several students and their guardians approached me for discussions on how to excel in career oriented study and not life as such. I appreciate if they thought I am too inexperienced to comment on excellence in life. But that I do not see them as two different things and one is a part of the whole did not cut much ice. My father (Link) allowed me to attend only three felicitation functions. I got an opportunity to speak on two occasions – one at my school and the other at a district level function. The state level function was the one hosted by Chief Minister and was formal in nature. In both places, I talked a lot about what helped me in my preparation - sports and games, drawing inspiration from Vivekananda quotes, the positive impact of discussions conducted in weekly study circle etc. Perhaps I talked too much on this to make the organizers feel rattled in both the places.

 Speaking from experience!

I am sure that everybody understands the importance of hard and systematic work. I request you to have sufficient time for self-study to assimilate what gets into head. Running from one tution to another which does not give space for oneself, perhaps is not the best idea. At 10+2 level, I took two tutions. Each teacher taught twice a week for about 2.5 hours and thus only four slots per week were blocked. This (i) reduced the financial burden of my father (ii) allowed more time or self-study and (iii) allowed me to hit playground every afternoon. Please refer to the segment titled 'Lady with a lamp' in this post to appreciate the longing for study.

 And now!

Yesterday (Saturday is Extra Academic Acitivity day here as per institute curriculum) a group of NSS (National Service Scheme) volunteers asked me to attend a meet for a brief period. These are the famous Super-30 pass outs. They are motivated by their mentor there to do something for the needy. NSS gives them a platform. They have gathered some 15 students from two state Govt. run schools. They have an intensive training plan to work with Class XI-XII students on Saturday and Sundays. When I reached there, I found that the school students cannot come on Saturdays and there is only common slot available on Sunday. Each has already three or more private tutors. I asked the school students, with another training program like this, when will you have time to study yourself?

 Beyond MCQ (Multiple Choice Questions)

The intensive and exhaustive beat-the-MCQ-based-exam-pattern training of some coaching centres may allow some of you to crack the entrance exam. A good memory is a big plus point. But the life beyond is no more MCQ based. The solutions will not come from what you have memorized alone or the tricks that you have learnt that exploits the weaknesses of MCQ type evaluation. Life beyond will always test your fundamentals. You have to decide if you should enjoy the success of cracking a tough entrance exam., make merry for months or a year OR assess what you missed in your preparation and make up for that. The choice is yours!

 You have a right!

Life is beautiful and exciting. Please feel curious about it. Never ever think about pushing yourself to an extreme. Read the biographies of great people. Develop interest in sports and games, community welfare initiatives. Give more time to next door and physical (not virtual) friends. Be in touch with family members. Talk or write blogs. Express yourself. Whenever you feel any need, ask for assistance. It is your right. The world belongs to you. You too belong to this world. Always give each other another chance.

Silent Hours

(I wanted to talk on a more serious issue related to a recent happening. A new post follows.)

 Extended Week

We hear about extended weekend. Last 14-15 days were like an extended week where I had to work without a break. I don’t remember having been exhausted so much in recent times. On two occasions, I had simultaneously three meetings to attend. The dignitaries from outside the institute, the chairman, the rest of the committee members were kind enough to accommodate my hopping around once I finished placing my observations in the meeting. Whether it is a discussion on Diamond Jubilee Celebration or setting up of a national test and research facility or registration of new students all considered my appearance and disappearance very sympathetically. Grateful to all!

 Welcome to new students!

This week also saw infusion of two fresh bloods in our research team. After 3.5 years we got any institute scholar and this time two joined simultaneously. One is to work in speech and the other one biomedical signals, the twin pillar of our group. In between, students joined various sponsored projects and kept contributing to research. One QIP scholar, and three MS students also enrolled formally this semester though they were with us for a few months now. Anyways, it always is a pleasure to welcome new members in a family. My best wishes to all the new members.

 Environment and We

The extended week brought a completely new experience. Our team of three faculty members and three technicians moved around Kolkata for two days and collected some field data. This was on the request of Dr. Sudarshan Ghosh Dastidar, Minister-in-Charge, Environment, Govt. of West Bengal. It was very inspiring to see the minister joining us in one field data collection. Then he took us to his office. He has far reaching research theme in his mind to correlate environment and civilization by a statistical model and thereby predict disaster. I was thinking if it would help in tweaking some of the primary variables and prevent a disaster or if the worst happens, remaining prepared for it. My IIT colleagues told MIC that it would excite me as I work on modelling. I listened while taking a print out of a recent WHO (World Health Organization) report.

 Missed Students

I worked in industry before. There I worked on shop-floors for more than two years. But this field data collection from Kolkata para -s was an experience of different kind. Interacted with a lot of common people. We were surprised to see the awareness level. In one small Govt. school, we never realized till we were on the verge of leaving the school, that we had been interacting with an Academy Award winning writer. So humble he is and so concerned about the well-being of his students! Be it a young girl studying law or panicky elders, all had a great respect of IIT and I always wished if we could include some of our IIT students too in our team.

 The Grand Meeting

The breakfast meeting at Oberoi Grand, Kolkata was scheduled for one hour duration. The Senior Pro from US has just arrived. Their Indian Officials were also there. I have worked with the Indian team on several projects since 2003. I worked with the US team briefly for about 2 years. Except this 2011 summer vacation, I was always engaged with them. We had a lot of things to talk and we did not realize how THREE hours passed. They invited us to take a new US project which is free from encumbrance, addressed as ‘partner’ and I happily agreed. It is a very big challenge though, a good two year long project but I am confident and as always I seek good wishes of all and blessings of elders.

 Lady with the Lamp

I was totally drained yesterday (Saturday) evening after finishing all the tasks in hand. I decided to retire for some time and randomly picked up a novel of Shekhar Mukhopadhyaya from a 2010 festival collection. I must say that it could not have been a better choice at that time and went to sleep only after finishing the same. The story started with corporate war and corporate ethics (or lack of it). Enters a very strong, compassionate character as company secretary and there on the story drifts with her. She does her part to inspire others and brings an human element in the approach of those who matter. Finally, she decides to abandon the corporate job and proceed for research and a Ph.D. at the pinnacle of her corporate career. But why? What is wrong there? The near and dear ones ask. Comes the calm but resolute voice, “I miss my silent hours with books.”