Teacher and Student

There was Hindi Diwas (Hindi Day) related programs last week at IIT Kharagpur. Attended one Kabi Sammelan (congregation of poets) briefly. The anchor-organizer told why arranging such a sammelan is difficult. He was told by an experienced person that it is like walking of a clay doll along a path which passes through a river. The creative self of Kabi (poet) can throw up surprises with satire on current time, anti-establishment lines or something which may not be palatable for everyone in the audience.

Stumbling upon a social networking place where young students converse is not easy either for teachers as it may embarrass. It could be one of those 'Confession' pages of facebook or questions posed in Quora. But it is a good opportunity if he enters those pages as students and not as a teacher, as one who wants to be educated. He may get some feedback for himself which may not be available in usual channel. If it is good, his confidence increases. If not, he should humbly introspect. Of course, he should be able to separate signal from noise. He should not get carried away either way as this social networking space is dominated by certain fraction of the student community having strong likes or dislikes and / or specific traits!

Not every teacher may be as lucky :-) to be a part of student conversation, being loved or hated (love me, hate me, but you cannot ignore me :-)) !! In fact, most of them are not. Still if one does not feel uncomfortable with the way young students converse, it is worth going through their experience, the issues that occupy them. And one may be sweetly surprised to see that even if baser stuffs usually purge the space, it is the occasional gems that get most 'like's, the ones that exhibits the higher self of one - the struggle, the sacrifice.

Before I paste two such 'Confessions' verbatim here, for which I would also like to say respect _/\_ like student friends, I remember one lecture of young Ramakrishna Mission monk of a US centre. I first heard it in 2006 during my one semester association with USC. But every time I hear it, it is a humbling experience. The title of the talk is 'Teacher and Student'. I made a youtube version of it with our young students taking the role of teachers in village schools which is available here (Link).

---- verbatim from students' public post ----

[The following is about the range of difficulties a student can face and how he fights them and emerges as winner. We perhaps do not teach this to students. Rather we are taught by them when we read this aspect of their life.]

This one is the best among confessions, i have read till now._/\_ here it goes:

#I see a lot of my juniors confessing about love , sex , make outs, awesum college life. i want to confess something else .

1. I joined heritage in its initial batches. i was very introvert and was a ragged a hell lot . A belt was tied around neck i was made to roam around the college in my first day. When i complained to my dad he thrashed me saying that i was a loser and wasting his hard earned money.( he hoped that i was in IIT) I felt liked being raped that day, not by my college seniors but by my dad.

2. I got a very low grade in my first semester because i was pressurized by my dad to appear for IIT again. I Got a severe thrashing from him again. my mom somehow rescued me.

3. In second semester i mustered up enough courage to propose to my best friend but she rejected me because in her words ""she didnt wanted to be ridiculed by her friends "". she stopped talking to me after that. I was heart broken as she and my mom were the only people i shared everything with.

4.during the 4th semester break , while i was returning home after teaching a student . i got a phone call informing me that my mom had expired. my world came crashing that day. I cried for for days on end and somehow picked myself up as i had no other alternative 

5. My attendance fell very low that semester and i was summoned by the principal . when i told him about my mothers death he replied "I hear this lie everyday .please bring me the death certificate if u have one." Then while i was leaving he told me "no need to bring death certificate , useless guys like u can even fake that .call your dad"

6. my frnds always ridiculed me because i was loser .i dint laugh at their jokes .to mix with them i started drinking .i dint like the taste but liked the high . i often used to act drunk to appear more cool. i learned to call girls "magi "" but never knew its real meaning . that helped me survive college 

7. it was the campussing day , i got rejected that day again .hoped to make it to the next company. but was unsucessfull till the and of campussing . i had tried a lot . attended English speaking classes (my English was horrible) , brought new pair of shirt . when my dad heard this he told me not to call again and this time i didnt feel remorse or regret for him . for the ntire night i contemplated suicide but couldn't as i had promised my mom that i will shine one day .

8 . i started doing private tutiions and preparing for CAT. i gave my everything. I got 99.87 percentile but couldnt make it again to a big IIM because of my low grades. What had i done now to deserve this ? i felt. I finally got admitted into decent college and a helpful bank manger arranged for loan .

9.After passing out i got into volvo eicher as a junior manager . i dint last for 3 months because i couldnt lick my boss s boot properly .My service was terminated because of being inefficient .

10. i started making iPhone apps in my leisure time while i was applying to a few companies . Slowly i took it up as a more serious start up. got hold of 2 more friends like me who were from cs background and were unable to find a job .

11. in 2011 i made a small office. by the end of 2011 i had a small group of 8 engineers working with me. In 2012 we bagged several contracts from companies like mobiquity, exxon mobile and the workforce increased to 80 developers. In march 2013 i will be applying for turnover of over 5 crores .

I dont know how to thank god for his blessings . i thank that senior who ragged me in my first day at college, that girl who dumped me , my professors who ridiculed me, the numerous friend who though i was a loser . it is you who gave me the courage , the fire , the anger to succeed against all odds . seriously no hard feelings guys , u made me what i am. i dont stay with my dad but i send him enough so that he can lead a comfortable life .
My advise to all juniors. shine in life .When a loser like me can why cant u? never let people say u cant do it . many people might have faced similar or more lows in college life but NEVER EVER give up. Let not a broken relationship , failed grade,lost job opportunity or "status" among friends define you . And never lose faith in humanity in goodness. there are few bad people but there are a lot more good people around here . I met a lot of good people,professo­rs in my college .and believe me heritage taught me a lot Lastly MA, hope u could read this. I love u a lot.

[This is about how much sacrifice a young student can make, beyond the manual of a teacher like us.]

If you are one to go by likes, as of now, in 24 hours, this got 21000+ likes!

#884 24th may 2013 was the day which changed my views about life... my room mate at iit had fallen in love in the 3rd year of our college to one of the most chirpy, flamboyant girl of our batch. i had no particular reservations for their relationship other than the fact that they were quite opposites my buddy was shy, intro and she altogether was different and i actually felt that she did not love my friend as much as he did. actually becoz of her nature i thought she took their relationship very lightly. but whatever be my notion both got along well then i got placed in the usa and left while my friend got placed in an mnc in india . we kept in touch for a few months but like it happens usually we got busy in our lives and could not interact much. i took my parents to usa and my links with india got completely cut. now 9 years later i am on an business trip to india i thot of meeting my college friends and contacted many thru fb and likewise. i tried contacting my roomie but met with no responses.when 7, 8 of us met i got this news that my roomie died 5 years ago in the delhi blast at karol bagh. i was shocked and cudnt sink in the fact he was his parents only son and that troubled me more about how those people wud be surviving. so i took his address and went to meet them. when i entered the place(a simple yet utterly beautiful one) i found a group of four 2 old men and 2 old women were having their evening snacks and were smiling, laughing and talking i went on and introduced myself to them they all greeted me with a lot of love and asked me to join in and served me some tea. i took it and was left with no words on how to ask them about how things have been over the years. so i decided to leave and as i was about to rise the gates opened and my friend's gf entered (i thot so these two finally married). she was surprised to see me and welcomed me and asked me to stay over the dinner. after a lot of pestering i agreed and later mustering a lot of courage i asked her so how's life ? to which she smiled and replied good. after a moment silence she continued" we were happy very happy together and were about to get married when it all happened i was devastated but then i looked at these 4 people (his and her parents) and decided that i wud have to move on. i bought a new place brought in all four together and are now living happily." she said when i do sumthing for them i know shubhu smiles and its his happiness that i always want. i asked her how is she managing she said love is not only about his physical presence in my life it is about celebrating togetherness and that we do each day with our parents and i know somewhere he is also around here watching our every move keeping us protected. and then she added wish i had his child. after listening to all this i realised the strenghth of their love and coudnt help envying my friend on how lucky he was to have found this girl who is selflessly busy playing her role in their relation without the society bound order of marriage etc. i cudnt help feeling small at the girl's immense strength and pure love that their relation stands on. i relised how wrong i was in those days. she said she has enough memories to last for a lifetime and said. " log aksar humse humari khushmijaji ka karan pucha karte hai to hum bh palat kat kar kahte hai, huzoor apki aindagi mein yaadein hai par humari to har ek yaad hi jindagi hai" a huge salute to you girl and lots of respect to you. indeed life is beautiful its just the matter of ones view to take the challenges.

Salute to the girl! It is with the hope you get after reading such stories, that the world goes on!

Nine Eleven

In my school days or studentship at IIT Kharagpur, we used to celebrate 11th September as Chicago Day, the day Vivekananda delivered his first address in the Parliament of Religion at Columbus hall, Chicago, America in 1893. The world heard, "we accept all religions as true", the triumph of human quest  and character beyond borders and beliefs. 

We heard or did we? "Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal."

In the concluding session of this Parliament of Religion, we heard, "Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.

Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth."

And there cannot be greater truth than this. "If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension.""

Reproduced below these two lectures in full.

Sept., 11, 1893

Sisters and Brothers of America, 

It fills my heart with joy unspeakable to rise in response to the warm and cordial welcome which you have given us. I thank you in the name of the most ancient order of monks in the world; I thank you in the name of the mother of religions, and I thank you in the name of millions and millions of Hindu people of all classes and sects.

My thanks, also, to some of the speakers on this platform who, referring to the delegates from the Orient, have told you that these men from far-off nations may well claim the honor of bearing to different lands the idea of toleration. I am proud to belong to a religion which has taught the world both tolerance and universal acceptance. We believe not only in universal toleration, but we accept all religions as true. I am proud to belong to a nation which has sheltered the persecuted and the refugees of all religions and all nations of the earth. I am proud to tell you that we have gathered in our bosom the purest remnant of the Israelites, who came to Southern India and took refuge with us in the very year in which their holy temple was shattered to pieces by Roman tyranny. I am proud to belong to the religion which has sheltered and is still fostering the remnant of the grand Zoroastrian nation. I will quote to you, brethren, a few lines from a hymn which I remember to have repeated from my earliest boyhood, which is every day repeated by millions of human beings: "As the different streams having their sources in different paths which men take through different tendencies, various though they appear, crooked or straight, all lead to Thee." 

The present convention, which is one of the most august assemblies ever held, is in itself a vindication, a declaration to the world of the wonderful doctrine preached in the Gita: "Whosoever comes to Me, through whatsoever form, I reach him; all men are struggling through paths which in the end lead to me." Sectarianism, bigotry, and its horrible descendant, fanaticism, have long possessed this beautiful earth. They have filled the earth with violence, drenched it often and often with human blood, destroyed civilization and sent whole nations to despair. Had it not been for these horrible demons, human society would be far more advanced than it is now. But their time is come; and I fervently hope that the bell that tolled this morning in honor of this convention may be the death-knell of all fanaticism, of all persecutions with the sword or with the pen, and of all uncharitable feelings between persons wending their way to the same goal.

Sept. 27, 1893

The World's Parliament of Religions has become an accomplished fact, and the merciful Father has helped those who laboured to bring it into existence, and crowned with success their most unselfish labour.

My thanks to those noble souls whose large hearts and love of truth first dreamed this wonderful dream and then realized it. My thanks to the shower of liberal sentiments that has overflowed this platform. My thanks to this enlightened audience for their uniform kindness to me and for their appreciation of every thought that tends to smooth the friction of religions. A few jarring notes were heard from time to time in this harmony. 

My special thanks to them, for they have, by their striking contrast, made general harmony the sweeter. Much has been said of the common ground of religious unity. I am not going just now to venture my own theory. But if any one here hopes that this unity will come by the triumph of any one of the religions and the destruction of the others, to him I say, "Brother, yours is an impossible hope." Do I wish that the Christian would become Hindu? God forbid. Do I wish that the Hindu or Buddhist would become Christian? God forbid.

The seed is put in the ground, and earth and air and water are placed around it. Does the seed become the earth, or the air, or the water? No. It becomes a plant. It develops after the law of its own growth, assimilates the air, the earth, and the water, converts them into plant substance, and grows into a plant.

Similar is the case with religion. The Christian is not to become a Hindu or a Buddhist, nor a Hindu or a Buddhist to become a Christian. But each must assimilate the spirit of the others and yet preserve his individuality and grow according to his own law of growth.

If the Parliament of Religions has shown anything to the world, it is this: It has proved to the world that holiness, purity and charity are not the exclusive possessions of any church in the world, and that every system has produced men and women of the most exalted character. In the face of this evidence, if anybody dreams of the exclusive survival of his own religion and the destruction of the others, I pity him from the bottom of my heart, and point out to him that upon the banner of every religion will soon be written in spite of resistance: "Help and not fight," "Assimilation and not Destruction," "Harmony and Peace and not Dissension."

Counselling

"I have never in my life learned anything from any man who agreed with me." - D. F. Malone

I borrow this quote from the website of Student Welfare Group, IIT Kharagpur (Link). It is another matter to consider if agreement reinforces learning and clears self-doubt, if any. The message conveyed by the quote cannot be lost in a campus which houses thousands of stimulated-intellect, immensely potent individuals, the would be leaders. Ability to accept opinion of others, feedback obtained from various interactions in a healthy manner and working on them is more than a virtue, a recipe for success.

We can and we do live with some amount of inability in almost every parameter that defines us as human. Imperfections are not uncommon. Some of us work on these deficiencies. Some do not. We are not that sensitive till it crosses the threshold. When it crosses, there can be two extreme scenarios. In one, the person tries to harm himself. In the other, the person tries to harm others. The little I wanted to share on the first count appears in this post (Link). The current post is to share few of my thoughts on the other extreme which starts with building up of anger within, one of the six ripus, the seers say, one must not allow to dominate. My mother often recites a Bengali poem which she studied in her school and remembers even now - "Krodh samo pap ar nahi e bhubane" (Anger is the worst malaise on the earth) and then the poem lists the ill-effects of Krodh, the anger.

XLRI experience

The one month training I had at XLRI, Jamshedpur about twenty years back makes me miss the faculty, the ambiance of that place even today. I remember that there was a photo frame on a wall there on which most important one word sentence, most important two word sentence, .... most important six word sentence were written. What I can gather from memory and search is the following.

Most important one word sentence: Sorry!
Most important two word sentence: Thank you!
Most important three word sentence: May I help?
Most important four word sentence: What is your opinion?
Most important five word sentence: You did a good job.
Most important six word sentence: I admit I made a mistake.

All of us may appreciate the above. But if we try to adopt it in our life the "I" factor comes in between. This in some places has been termed as 'rascal ego' (Link), which is an impediment in our effort to reach our higher self.

A friend indeed

The company we choose has a lot to do in how we grow up, how we respond to situation. The 'ego' may tell that 'I am in control of myself' and thus make me feel secured, insulated. This underestimates the effect of the company I keep. It is true that one has immense power within oneself to overcome whatever be the influence of that company. More often than not, we are not aware of that power and do not exercise that power. We should strive to increase our strength and at the same time be responsible for our act. Till we reach even a moderate level of self-confidence, we should exercise our option and caution to select our friends. We may ask ourselves - Does the company I keep gives me strength and happiness, makes me feel positive and good about life?

We look for a company who is in agreement with my view of life. The more is our association with certain assertion, the more we feel attached to it. A rejection of that assertion or a counter view appears to counter me or reject me. I feel repulsive about the proposer of the counter view. I get angry. I cannot treat him as friend. I forget that I miss an opportunity to learn. I forget that only a friend can take the pain of a potential rejection but can show the courage and strength required to present a counter view. The people who agree to whatever I say, may be my ego booster but not necessarily my friend.

Sympathy vs. Empathy

Even the best of the buddies may feel jealous at times. The '3 Idiots' movie has message for teachers as well as student communities. May be the message for the teaching community was more loud to make it a film for the youth. However one cannot miss quotes like, "Jab dost fail karta hai to dukh hota hai. Jab o top karta hai to bahut dukh hota hai." A weak translation would be, "It hurts if a friend fails. It hurts more if he tops." In a competitive environment, professional jealousy, envy cannot be ruled out. Sportsman spirit, like other character qualities, need cultivation. It is easy to sympathize - treat pain of others as my own. It is not so easy to empathize - treat both pain and joy of others as my own pain and joy.

Facebook anecdote : "Why do we shout in anger?" 

I often am in two minds to accept facebook friend requests. For students sending friend request, the policy I followed is to wait till I am done with my role to apprise them. The small facebook friend circle I have, comprises of my batch mates, relatives, ex-students and people befriended through professional acquaintance. And I must say that this is another very important source for me to get educated and updated. The following anecdote was shared by one friend in facebook with whom I studied together during my BTech days at IIT Kharagpur.  

A saint who was visiting river Ganges to take bath found a group of family members on the banks, shouting in anger at each other. He turned to his disciples smiled 'n asked.

'Why do people shout in anger shout at each other?'

Disciples thought for a while, one of them said, 'Because we lose our calm, we shout.'

'But, why should you shout when the other person is just next to you? You can as well tell him what you have to say in a soft manner.' asked the saint

Disciples gave some other answers but none satisfied the other disciples.
Finally the saint explained, .

'When two people are angry at each other, their hearts distance a lot. To cover that distance they must shout to be able to hear each other. The angrier they are, the stronger they will have to shout to hear each other to cover that great distance.

What happens when two people fall in love? They don't shout at each other but talk softly, Because their hearts are very close. The distance between them is either nonexistent or very small...'

The saint continued, 'When they love each other even more, what happens? They do not speak, only whisper 'n they get even closer to each other in their love. Finally they even need not whisper, they only look at each other 'n that's all. That is how close two people are when they love each other.'

He looked at his disciples and said. 'So when you argue do not let your hearts get distant, Do not say words that distance each other more, Or else there will come a day when the distance is so great that you will not find the path to return.'

The story of three samurai

One of my senior student heard it from his friend of Vivekananda Study Circle (Link). The story is simple but profound.

It is said that Japan prospered under first samurai who believed in, "If a cuckoo does not sing, remove it." It prospered even more under second samurai who believed in, "If a cuckoo does not sing, force it." It prospered the most under third samurai who believed in, "If a cuckoo does not sing, wait. If it is a cuckoo and if there is spring, it will sing".

In my theory class of 120+ students I found that a large no. of students were having 100 percent attendance. There are always some such students. But this semester the proportion was much higher. In IIT, there are so many different societies and activities and there are medical and family issues - it is not easy to find full attendance for a large population. On a lighter thread, I asked this community to start a facebook page and let me be the first to 'like' it. However, there were few who had poor attendance. The threat of 'deregistration' brought them back in the class. Given the time is short, and we ourselves need to work more to motivate students to attend class, and hold them there with inspiring lectures, a combination of three samurai approach may help the student community as a whole. Also we don't know what would have happened if the sequence was different for three Samurais. The first two may have prepared the ground for the third. Also, the tutorial, class test, mid-sem. exam., end-sem exam.  - we just cannot wait for spring to come and cuckoo to sing, more so if it is autumn semester :-)

All the students will perform well if they are serious about themselves; little bit of disciplined life and there is no reason why they cannot reach milestones as per the timelines with ease. There will be no frustration, no jealousy. The problem comes when one tends to relax, feels complacent. My little experience is that this is where IIT system leaves no room, so packed is the program. Two-three fun-filled weeks during the semester, one keeps searching for clues what is happening in the class. There are no holidays before class test, lab-test, mid-sem, end-sem exam.s. Therefore, we try to make students aware all the time through interactions in the class, through emails, thorough posts such as these (Link). The students / parents can say if these are of any help or not.

No injury to others

A question may come in the mind, "Shall I remain quiet if somebody tries to harm me?" It is true that we come across both good and wicked people in our life. Wherever possible we avoid the company of the wicked but there may be situations where we need to confront them. Sri Ramakrishna gives a nice solution of this through one of his parable (Translated in original, suggested  Link1 : abridged :  Link2, All tales and parables : Link3)

There lived a poisonous snake in a thinly populated jungle region.  It was so poisonous and it would attack people at the least provocation resulting in the death of victims.  One day a Brahmachari happened to pass that way and the snake was about to attack the holy man.  He uttered a mantra and immediately the snake was subdued.  Then the Brahmachari told the snake that it should give up its harmful nature.  He initiated the snake with a mantra and asked it to repeat that mantra regularly.  After the initiation, the snake completely changed its way of life and started living only on grass and fruits.  It would not harm anybody.  Once the boys of that area went near the snake and were surprised to find that the snake was not reacting angrily.  They lifted it by the tail, thrashed it on the ground and left it there thinking that it was dead.  The snake was hurt seriously but not dead.  Slowly it went into its hole and would come out only during the night.  After some months, the Brahmachari again came to that area and enquired about that snake.  He started calling aloud for the snake which came out after great difficulty.  Seeing its condition, the Brahmachari asked as to what had really happened.  The snake had become so Sattwik that it was not even able to recollect that the boys had thrashed him.  But, after several promptings by the Brahmachari it was able to recollect and narrated its tale of woe.  Then the Brahmachari admonished the snake saying that, “I told you not to harm people, which means that you should not bite anybody, but I didn’t prevent you from hissing so as to protect yourself.” 

One can protect oneself like this without injuring others. A soldier in army injures enemy as a part of his duty*. The civil society need not consider a fellow being as an enemy. Neither it can be called a duty to harm another person. Any attempt to do that will bring agitation within which will harm me more than anybody else in the long run. Avoiding such a company / situation, hissing as told in the parable (pretending to harm to scare away - since it is pretension and not actual, no harm to others or self) are useful. Also, the power of organization, as told by Vivekananda is helpful. He observed that the secret to have a great future of India lies in organization, accumulation of power, co-ordination of wills. He talked about all the powers of good against all the power of evil. However, we must not forget "Hate the sin, not the sinners." Wicked self of one is an aberration. If one is capable and confident, one can try to make such a person familiar with his nobler self.

[*Told by a research student of another Dept. during recess of an interview. We had some time before the start of the interview and started chit-chatting. The student told that he attended one study circle previous Saturday in his native place called Narayangarh (about 30 KM from campus). The topic of their discussion was : What is duty and how to perform it.]

[Update on 05.9.2012 : Today's Times of India, Kolkata edition reports famous Kolkata premier league footballer Tolgay saying "Everything is forgiven but nothing is forgotten,” on his spat with former club East Bengal as he switches over to their arch rival Mohanbagan this season. Without going into the merit of this particular case, we can ask ourselves in the context of this post, when we say the same - what is not forgotten when we forgive someone. Is it the lesson learnt or something else? The first sentence in wiki (Link) says, "Forgiveness is the renunciation or cessation of resentment, indignation or anger as a result of a perceived offense, disagreement, or mistake, or ceasing to demand punishment or restitution."]

Anger and family life

Last THU evening got a call from a place about 10 KM from a campus where I stayed during student days. My father was in railway service (Link) there. An appointment was requested from me. The nature of my responsibility here needs interaction of many, many people which are not always predictable. The WED evening went in an impromptu meeting with two students of Robotix society. They were looking for a solution to a drift problem where an accelerometer and a gyro are put together. Also there were visits of NSS program officers. There is a meeting with Technology Transfer Group students on FRI evening for 100 days, 100 patents campaign. The SAT is dedicated to NSS activity (Link). And there are few thesis to complete before convocation. Therefore, decided to set off then and there.

Reached the origin of call at about 6:30 PM. Here is a mother who cannot sleep anytime during day and night, keeps standing at the 1st floor balcony holding iron grills at hand, looking at the entrance of the house, waiting for son to come. She visited CMC hospital, Vellore five times and has many different diseases. Her entire thought process revolves around the only son. The son, highly educated and in a high paying job, has distanced himself since marriage and abuses if any effort is made to contact. Even a phone call at home is not made which is the only thing the mother asks for. However, money is sent regularly. I was not in a position to get into compulsion, if any, the son faces, what enrages him so much and the family issues, what happened in the past etc. The little I could do is to counsel the mother with what people taught me, not sure how well I understood them. The essence had been to draw attention to things that she has with her as support system (and not the ones she is not having), the reality of life as prevalent in modern society on service rendered to ageing parents (more among the educated and elite) and lessons conveyed in parables of various holy books. Spent about 2 hours. The lady who cocooned herself in a room upstairs for long, came downstairs to say bye. Assured to visit again. The other day I was wondering if NSS volunteers (Link) can reach out to this section of the community who served the society when they were able and are now abandoned in some sense (social, emotional need).

[The attached pic is shared by a friend in facebook. The narration says : I clicked this picture at Chennai interstate bus terminal. The weight of this boy is around 90 KG,he is mentally and physically ill. He even can’t walk. You can see how his mother is carrying him…???? Can you believe this!!! ……we salutes all mothers in this world!!!! Mom you are great!!!!!

I remember a play that I witnessed in the stage of Durga Mandir, Golebazar, Kharagpur during my student days, most probably enacted by Shaonli Mitra group. A son, who had lost his good sense, decided to oblige a demand that asks him to give his mother's heart as present to someone. He tip-toes to find mother sleeping, with no fear in her face, lest from her son. The son flashes his knife, takes out the heart, stained in blood. As he hurries to offer his present, different kind of feelings descending on him, he takes a miss-step and falls on the ground. The mother's heart in his hand gets an anxious voice, "My child, hope you are not hurt!" It was in Bengali, "Bachha, la ge ni to!"

There are stories of other extreme where possessiveness manifests in another manner. I shall be exceeding the brief of this post to dwell on this complex issue - how much space an individual requires for oneself. May take up in future. ]

Relocation of friend

Received an SMS two days back. Somebody from Civil Service background, who I came to know in course of my professional responsibility and was delighted to receive a 'friend' request in facebook, is leaving Kharagpur and is relocated in Chief Miniser's Office at Kolkata with a higher responsibility. Shall miss him here very much. Our best wishes for the new assignment.

Endnote

Distance does not matter. Let our friend circle continue to grow. Let us always find a friend when we need  - true friend, not necessarily someone who agrees with me whatever I say and dumps on me negative thoughts and ideas. Let us never think of extremes of any kind, that can harm me or harm others. Let us help each other and together the society that we all serve.

For professional counselling service which assures confidentiality, one is suggested to take help of institute counselling centre, the details of which can be found here (Link).

IIT JEE follow up

Since I posted 'Thoughts on IIT JEE' (Link) a lot of material has come into public domain. The opening statement of that post, "The decision making process for new IIT JEE appears more interesting to me than the proposals themselves. " appears more true today. There are quite a few articles in public space widening the discussion in which a lot of people - faculty members, students, alumni, educationist participated. To see PM lending ear and giving time to listen to points-counterpoints himself, shows the enormous value, respect IIT brand carries and also the importance given to it by Government of the country.

While most of the points I raised in that post is articulated better by various columnists and I learnt a lot from their arguments, I am yet to see any article which dwells on the purpose of education and admission process. "..it will do us a world of good to listen to him (Vivekananda) and direct policy implementation related to education on what he said as essence of education, "We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet." We need not interpret the last point of the sentence as making enough money."It is too early but it may not be just weak correlation to see what I anticipated as "But the smarter among the population may try to migrate to certain boards which may appear to provide some extra edge." and what The Hindu finds here (Link).

Also, I do not see any worthwhile discussion on what happens to the students once inside IIT, specially the importance of first year. The non-performance of a student in IIT is very much linked to admission process. Overlooking this, the number of failures and psychological cases will rise. Outlook India reports (Link), "The statistics are shocking. In IIT Delhi, about 600 out of 853 students have gone through counselling because of excessive stress." The story is similar in other IITs. Coaching for objective type test, rather objective type test itself (students will be coached according to the exam.) is to be blamed when "Says Arjun Malhotra, Chairman, Headstrong, and an IIT alumnus: “Today, kids have been trained only in the objective method of answering questions. Ask them to write an essay answer and most of them just do not know how to do that. Subjective skills are just not there.” And that puts pressure when they are swamped by the IIT curriculum." Society, specially the parents should note what Einstein said, before subjecting a youngster to unrealistic pressure, "Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it'll spend its whole life believing that it is stupid".

Now subjective type test for lakhs are not feasible in existing system. Objective type screening is to be followed by subjective type test. I suggested in my earlier post, an interview after that which may carry as little as 10 percent weight or so to have a test on attitude, extra-curricular etc. P. V. Indiresen in his article in Business Line (Link) says, "If the IIMs can have an interview after the CAT examination, if people for the central services are selected after an examination and an interview, if even a peon is selected after an interview, why should not each IIT have the same, independent system? " However, I have a different take on common understanding of autonomy. I am not worried much about who takes decision as long as the decision taken, takes us forward and does good to the people. Ultimately decision is taken by one set of people or the other. It all depends on their ability to read a problem, weighing various options through cost-benefit analysis and arriving at what is for the greatest good. Regarding constitutional right and its interpretation, the experts have already spoken in various forums and some of the links are shared in this post.

I would like to place here few articles available in public domain that I found interesting on this discourse. One IIT Director is very active in cyber space addressing various queries, has given what necessitated the change and what it tries to achieve in his blog available here (Link). To my knowledge the most comprehensive discussion where a lot of academicians from various strata participated and that includes one IIT Director, is this post (Link) and various other posts by Dean, Academic Affairs of IIT Kanpur. Please go through the comments section. The article by an IIT Delhi faculty member that appears in a leading national daily can be found here (Link). Outlook tried to put all the views together here (Link). View of different faculty members of different IITs can be found here (Link).

The blog (Link) by a UG student of IIT Kanpur is very, very well articulated. One may get perspective of an IIT-JEE cleared student there and also suggestions offered by him. There is an element of sarcasm in his writing but considering what he writes is valuable and his age, one may ignore that part and take the substance. The other student article I read and which is quite detailed is that of an IIT Kharagpur alumnus which can be found here (Link). This article is very inspiring which shows how a village boy scores only 39% in Class XII Board exam. but becomes a successful engineer from IIT to get as many as four scholarships from foreign universities for higher education. He can very well be a symbol of "IIT Dream." If you have in it, you can get it! The third student article that got published in a prestigious newspaper like The Hindu is from IIT Roorkee (Link). One 16 year old IIT aspirant's article appears in NDTV's web edition (Link).

I wish there was a more serious discussion on patriotism on the NDTV show 'We the people' on the topic 'Bonding doctors to duty' (Link). The national service was discussed from material plane and very casually. Even the anchor herself was skeptical if patriotism can be coded. A Delhi student talked about the pathological state of National Service Scheme (NSS) in the institute. The IIT JEE 2012 topper's brief presentation in the show spoke of himself. The fact is that love for country, love for humanity are already coded. The environment around tempts us to suppress it for short term gain. Money, comfort are more worshiped than character. Then why complain? Selfishness and unselfishness - both are there. We need that education, that mindset which nurtures and allows the noble qualities to flourish. We focus on falls. We do not see 'fall from what' and do not encourage people or create a condition which applauds a person if he / she tries to rise from a fall. "When Adam fell, he fell from purity. Purity is our real nature, and to regain that is the object of all religion. All men are pure; all men are good. Some objections can be raised to them, and you ask why some men are brutes? That man you call a brute is like the diamond in the dirt and dust -- brush the dust off and it is a diamond, just as pure as if the dust had never been on it..", says Vivekananda.

We know, "As you sow, so you reap."The policy makers need to decide whether investment in education means only preparing one for job market or it is something to do with total personality development. I have seen planning commission taking note of it in its Vision 2020 document prepared by Dr. S. P. Gupta (Link) which says, "We have to locate the hidden potentials of the country, its strong points at the base from which we have to build the foundation.  As has been quoted in the Report, it would be wrong to say that in 1947 India started to reconstruct a modern nation from the scratch.  Rather it began the process of rediscovering its rich cultural heritage and spiritual values that had formed the foundation of India in the past.  It is on this foundation that we seek to formulate the vision for India 2020.  To support this view, I quote Lord Macaulay’s presentation to the British Parliament “I have travelled across the length and breadth of India and I have not seen one person who is a beggar, who is a thief.  Such a wealth I have seen in this country, such high moral values, people of such caliber, the very backbone of this nation, which is a spiritual and cultural heritage”.  Preparing a vision for 20 years ahead is very difficult, especially if we look back at the fast changes that have taken place in India and abroad for the last 20 years, which are very fast and many of them could not have been predicted." (The image on  Macaulay quote was shared by a Facebook friend. There is a debate whether the quotes are actual or this is an impression on his doing) Coming back to NDTV debate, I don't know if Ramakrishna Mission monks, many of them are from IITs and I know one of them as Bhatnagar awardee (Link , Link), participate in such panel discussions or not. Wish they are there to have a 360 degree view of the topic.  

Referring to articles by others does not necessarily mean that I subscribe to their views. I find their takes on this issue interesting. I have shared my thoughts before (Link). Finally, this article (Link) titled "How will you measure your life?" was shared by one of my IIT Kharagpur batchmate commenting on demise of an American Dream (Link). One cannot ignore human values for long for arriving at real solutions to any problem.

Memento

Part I

It bordered on disbelief. "Sir, we the outgoing batch of students, would like to meet you and hand over a memento." It was yesterday morning and I was attending a seminar.  Thanked those students and requested them to come to my office during the break. We had pics together, went to an eatery and chatted at length from what they may expect in an industry job to how they can offer their first-hand service to a village / slum school around their work place or in their native place. They should not be satisfied just by donating money to some organization - first hand knowledge, regular interaction, association will help grow oneness and someday while taking food for themselves, in their thought will come, "Did the boy / girl of that village / slum who is a kind of loner have his / her food today?" It is this concern without which nation building can have all necessary but not sufficient conditions.

Then came the phone call. An alumnus who spent few years in industry got selected for the best business school of the country. He thanked for whatever little I could contribute. It was entirely his effort. The idea also came from him. I still vividly remember the evening when his team met me for the first time. I just tried to see that their idea gets conceptualized and implemented as I had some experience of field level work. We chatted for sometime and he wished to know my availability to decide when he would come down to KGP. Thank you. May you attain more responsible positions and serve to the best of your capacity.

This evening got an email from an UG student who just completed 2nd year. I was with them for a semester in their journey through one particular course. His mail from an Uttarakhand town said, "The course actually gave me a taste of real engineering stuff especially doing some (of) the matlab programs for voice recognition and processing. Thanks a lot for creating a good learning ambiance in the classroom."

These are my mementos received in last 36 hours. Each of these count. Allow me to borrow a stanza from Tennyson poem, 'Home They Brought Her Warrior Dead' (Link) - Rose a nurse of ninety years,/Set his child upon her knee—/Like summer tempest came her tears—/‘Sweet my child, I live for thee.’

Part II

There is a reason for disbelief that I mentioned in the opening statement of this post. The steep target of 'Vision 2020', which the institute has set for itself, needs all of us, the teachers, students, alumni and other stake holders to put up a massive quality improvement effort. This starts with quality consciousness, tying up loose ends, if any within the system at every tier. There are and will be issues. Let us see what we can do within our sphere of influence. I remember the TQM (Total Quality Management) concept of Tata Steel, the organization I served for more than four years. A single drop of oil spillage is to get counted and efforts are put on to stop the same. Besides, we are the best in the country and we have to think and act like the best in every step as we are role model before many. The vibration, the very atmosphere here should induce people, students and teachers alike, to go after the greatest of ideas (does not matter if all of them are not successful) and none to remain satisfied till the best is seen.

It is our failure if we cannot motivate the students enough collectively and their world gets divided into 'Load' and 'Peace'. On personal front, I need to work harder and be friendlier to explain students why quality is important for them, us and all and it is just not an obsession but an integral part of healthy way of living. Every step, small or big counts - even if it is switching off the fan before leaving the class room each day, everyday, not taking a right turn at a road island etc. In Tata Steel I heard: Do the right things right, the first time and every time. The external discipline is equally important to get internal discipline right else there always is a chance to get drifted which is not unheard of.

Enlightenment is not anything that will descend from the sky. We have to act like a one from today and now. This is not to say that we lack quality in IITs. We are unmatched at national level and IITs are pride of the nation. Our students are model before others in discipline, academic prowess and we enjoy the best teacher-student relationship here. But we cannot sit back and relax on the laurels of the past. The future will become more competitive. Also the aim is to get counted among top x institutions of the world. Let us, the teachers, the students, the alumni and all stake holders work together and we can make it happen.

Part III

One of my PhD student gave me this book to read - Affective Computing by Rosalind W. Picard of MIT Media Lab. (I can proudly proclaim that I learn more from my students than they learn from me - that is the dividend one can enjoy for being a part of a premier institution.) The books aims to develop a framework in giving emotional abilities to computer. One arm of our research group works on identifying emotion from speech which drew our interest into the title. The author writes  about popular notion on emotion - "Acting 'emotionally' implies acting irrationally, with poor judgement. Emotional response tend to be inappropriate, and even embarrassing. At first blush, emotion seems like the last thing we would want in an intelligent machine."

 In the preface she writes, " ...the new scientific evidence is that too little emotion can impair decision making. This conclusion is not obvious from introspection. It comes from studies of unusual patients who essentially have too little emotion. These patients, in rather eerie ways, are similar to today's computers - particularly in how they malfunction."

Part IV

We were in a party mood this afternoon after submission of grades of all subjects within deadline. It was a battle against time as I was averaging fifteen answer-script checking each day. In my letter to students where I arranged display of answer-script evaluation, I wrote "...an answer-script tells lots of things - the strength and weakness of a student as seen by a teacher. It won't be possible tomorrow to address each of you individually (needs 15-30 min. for each of the 113 students). If you are interested, you may visit day after tomorrow or later by taking an appointment (you may try without appointment too but I may be in some other meeting)." I was particularly happy that I could explain the students how the evaluation was done and also showed histogram of marks, grades etc. It appeared that the students appreciated the whole of it.

Therefore, was in a mood to disturb others!!! Who could be the best person but the faculty who never visits tea-shop, not seen in any adda and is always flocked with students! No wonder, he draws the maximum cheer from the students in farewell functions. He is always very kind to give his time for such adda when I bang his room and I must say that I have no hidden agenda to make him more involved with the Dept./Institute. There were three final year students and the adda became brainstorming on how we can improve, what we can do as an individual, what we can do collectively, what are our pain points, how can we structure ourselves to address those pain points and explain the students in an unambiguous manner the milestones to be reached at various timelines so that they have clarity from the very beginning.

We also discussed that the competitive environment is to bring the best out of us and not anything less noble to look for a win at any cost. We have to rise above personal/group/Dept./... interest and embrace superior human values. Others may or may not follow. There will be pain down the road, may be pain of a loner who does not find anybody by his side. But has anything been born without pain? What about us, ourselves, when we came out of mother's womb? In a facebook message, an ex-student, now a proud mother writes, "A human body can bear up to 45 del(unit) of pain. But at the time of giving birth, a woman feels up to 57 del of pain. This is similar to twenty bones getting fractured at a time." Today is Tagore's 151st birth anniversary. He wrote, "jakhan tumi bandchhile tar se je bhishan byatha" i.e. when you were tuning the string (of a musical instrument which was out of tune e.g. guitar, sitar) there was so much of pain! If we agree that there is a need to tune our instrument, we cannot avoid the pain in the process. But what should excite us is the symphony that will fill the air once the instruments are tuned.

Part V

To wind up the post, let me get back to the table in the eatery where we (me and outgoing batch of students - about ten of them) were having a sip at cold drink and discussing what had been their experience here and what they see for themselves in the future. I asked if they were challenged enough. They were in all praise of IIT system which takes their UG experience far and forward. The breadth, the depth, the assignments, the lab.s. Then there was a question if they explored something out of their own interest (not prompted by teacher). IIT provides huge infrastructure and each of us nurtures lot of questions from childhood - could be related to cosmos, say singularity associated with blackhole or graphology, making prediction from hand writing etc. Also, I asked if they discussed each others' projects, if there was cross-fertilization of ideas,  if there is a scope to combine the findings of two projects (we teachers are probably conditioned to think in a certain away, the out-of-box  solutions can be expected from fresh minds). I also requested to take their jobs seriously. My own industry experience says that there are so much of complementary knowledge to acquire there to complete another quadrant of personality development.

I cannot blame if some of them thought if they made the right decision to give a memento to me and get drawn into a discussion like this :-) After all, their would be job profiles are miles apart from all these. But the inquisitiveness, exploring solutions as a trait will add to the profile of any job. These days one may need to change jobs. Also the domain knowledge always comes handy in trying times. In IT jobs too, there is a gradual but certain shift from coding to more of domain knowledge based solutions. Finally, Sri Ma Sarada (Link) said, "Jake rakho, se rakhe." i.e. If you take care of some thing today, that will take care of you some other day.

Sometimes I wonder if there is too-muchness in all of these, if there is a potential of getting 'misunderstood' (as told by my colleague). The feeling of too-muchness is but relative. What is too much in some place may be very normal in another place. The question is, what sort of baseline we are targeting to?

Thoughts on IIT JEE

 Tried to make few changes based on inputs that I received later. I probably should have indicated  that the first one was only a beta version of the post :-)  .... A follow up post appears here (Link).

Thanks to all the contributors!

The decision making process for new IIT JEE appears more interesting to me than the proposals themselves. Each of the proposal I read in various forums has its own merit and all contributors deserve thanks from the IIT community. It shows the amount of concern people have for IITs and this goodwill, perhaps is the single most achievement of IIT system in 60 years of its existence. Contribution develops an ownership and when you own it, you care for its well being. Thank you all the contributors in various forums. You own us, you won us!

The dilemma

I tend to agree with almost all the proposals when I find how strongly the arguments are put in their favour, even if they contradict each other!! The decision makers need to take a final decision after weighing pluses and minuses of each proposal. The maxima and minima of different objectives being articulated may not converge to the same point. For example, the maxima for getting the best students to IIT and the minima to be achieved on coaching centre effect may not lie at the same point. There must be some cost-benefit analysis for this before it swings from one direction to other.

Should I, should I not?

Do I have an opinion of my own? I believe that I need NOT have an opinion on everything and comment on it. I may not have sufficient expertize. It could be so that I could not study the issue enough or I lack ground raw data to build an hypothesis. However, being a part of IIT system for long, taking IIT-JEE in 1986, graduating from Electronics and ECE of IITKGP in 1990, working for PhD here during 1994-1999 and serving as a faculty member for little less than 10 years now, I may share a few words not as an expert, but as a simple onlooker who is with the flow.I don't know what I say is in synch with the time - it may be ahead of or it may belong to the time we have left behind. But history repeats! Does it not? :-)

Not my cup of tea

It may not be easy to curb coaching class effect by introducing any change in IIT-JEE. This is more of a social issue. The parents who can afford, will go all out to give any extra edge, even if it is minuscule 1-2%, for their wards in a highly competitive examination like this so that the probability of getting admitted increases. Way back in 1986, I have seen parents who can afford, engaging three private tutors for single subject - each tutor was assumed to be expert in one aspect of the subject. The corporatization of coaching came to take advantage of this space where entrepreneurs saw an opportunity . If some benovalent group provides free but quality IIT-JEE coaching then there will be coaching centres to prepare students to get admission into those free coaching centres. I read in some post (Link) of Times of India that higher dowry associated with IITian label, is the motivation for some. I believe that with the single child family on the rise, the burgeoning and aspiring middle class creating an assertive space for itself and the high stake involved in clearing the exam. will not allow the coaching centres to close, even if you, I and they wish to. They will evolve to fit into any new paradigm to cater to the demand of you and me.

Core issue asking attention

We may speak ill of many things, but when our own turn comes we usually do not fall short of using it, to make our son / daughter reach an advantageous position relative to other children who may be equal or more meritorious. This is my take on the society which is yet to stress on man-making, character-building education and is trying to address the symptoms - not the cause. My little experience is that the young are very good, are more ready to embrace an egalitarian society, give people their due and they need to be nurtured well from early age. We elders inject selfishness into them to protect our interest and cry foul later when they become too selfish, more than what we wanted to make of them.We expect that all challenging jobs will be taken care of child of somebody else, not mine. All comforts and no hardship for my child in life's journey - after all, it is a competitive environment where other children are opponents! But, in this land of Mahabharata, a son goes to his mother to seek blessings before a do-or-die battle. Life's sadhana, tapasya made the mother so powerful that had she wished the son would have won. But in her lips came, "Yatha Dharma, Tatha Jay" i.e. whoever is fighting for the dharma (truth, justice) should win and she knew that the son was not exactly following dharma. I am talking about Mother Gandhari when son Duryodhana goes to her before the battle of Kurkshetra. And we know how Dhritarashtra's unfulfilled ambition was channelized through Duryodhana. I cannot help if it sounds idealistic, but we cannot achieve an ideal system (the motive behind IIT JEE or any reform) without adopting idealism ourselves, in our dealing with our children who are the future of the nation. It will be like pushing the garbage from one corner of the room to other corner and never getting rid of it. With reform in the education sector on the anvil, we can give a deep, hard look at the core issue without which the much discussed 'inclusive growth' will just be a matter of statistics obtained from parametric adjustment of few control variables. The future of the nation depends on how we educate our youngsters, how we educate ourselves before that.

More than ritual

If we try to go beyond ritualistic celebration of 150th birth anniversary of Vivekananda, it will do us a world of good to listen to him and direct policy implementation related to education on what he said as essence of education, "We want that education by which character is formed, strength of mind is increased, the intellect is expanded, and by which one can stand on one's own feet." We need not interpret the last point of the sentence as making enough money. Standing on one's own feet goes much beyond that in making men out of boys. If we want to listen to Tagore who conceptualized Vishwa Bharati, we hear, "The highest education is that which does not merely give us information but makes our life in harmony with all existence". The very first point of Radhakrishnan Report (1949, Link) on education says, "The quality of a civilisation depends not on the material equipment or the political machinery but on the character of men. The major task of education is the improvement of character." He further says, "Education is the means by which we can tidy up our minds, acquire information, as well as a sense of values. Education should give us not only elements of general knowledge or technical skills but also impart to us that bent of mind, that attitude of reason , that spirit of democracy which will make us responsible citizens of our country. A true democracy is a community of citizens differing from one another but all bound to a common goal." It is high time to do what is necessary to benefit from the wisdom our greatest teachers. For us, the teachers, the Radhakrishnan's birthday should be more than the celebration of Teacher's Day to remember what he said, "The right kind of teacher... not only loves his subject, he loves also those whom he teaches. His success will be measured not in terms of percentage of passes alone... but equally through the quality of life and character of men and women whom he has taught." or "The real teacher is like the gardener who nurtures the plant and not a carpenter who cuts pieces of wood to fit into certain locations .... Unless the tutor stimulates thinking rather than mere memorizing, deeper intellectual interests rather than aversion to thought, better perception of values rather than in appreciation, he serves no useful purpose but may nourish wrong habits which will be difficult to eradicate. The tutor has to bear in mind that he is not merely teaching a subject, but is educating men and women to take their places as intelligent citizens of the nation." and ask ourselves how far we are conforming to this.
 
Back to specifics

IIT-JEE can focus on achieving what it is supposed to achieve i.e. getting the right kind of students for themselves. Will inclusion of board exam. marks solve the problem? It may. What about the concern of some that there may be issues with some board? The answer given is that this exercise will make those boards do better. To me, it is a risky proposition in a high voltage situation like this. But the proposer must have thought about a way else there may be litigation one after another. Will it give rise to state quota? Nothing wrong if we are talking about inclusive growth and it may not compromise with meritocracy too as we the top 1-2% of a board will be under consideration. But the smarter among the population may try to migrate to certain boards which may appear to provide some extra edge. Probably, higher board percentage (than 60%) or percentile as eligibility to IIT-JEE can be a middle ground.

Virtue of ISEET

I like the idea of the pan-India common test like ISEET which if treated as precursor to IIT-JEE, becomes important and gets proper recognition. I like it because this prepares some sort of national level merit list and takes away much of the load from All India Rank of IIT-JEE and obsession around it. AIEEE is there but it does not get that much of an attention as it is not linked to IIT. Whether IIT will conduct another test with top x percent student of ISEET etc. and with short and/or long answer type questions is another issue. Probably they should conduct such a test to decide and it should be a subjective type. I see all coaching centre executives seeing red in this proposition. I wonder if they worry more about something else than subjectivity of evaluation. People who talk about golden days of IIT-JEE where best of the best could be selected, are talking about those days where subjective test were held. Also when the nation keeps watching every move related to IIT-JEE there is no such scope. The debate we had before was not on evaluation of answer-script but arriving at cut-off marks. And now perhaps IIT-JEE is the most transparent of all. My interaction with students here show that they appreciate the importance of subjective test and not worried about subjectivity as part marks are well defined in the evaluation procedure. If we are talking about evaluation of scripts of top x% then it can certainly be ensured. On one hand we talk about incorporation of 40% marks from Board Exam., and on the other hand we doubt the credibility of examiners of the nation's most credible entrance exam. - it does not go together. That the coaching centres do not want it (if I could hear the noise) tells that this is the solution.

Importance of 1st Year

Those who are in IIT know that all Dept.s are not equal in demand. I would like to go with the suggestion where institute is chosen based on ISEET IIT-JEE rank and Dept. is chosen after 1st year based on 1st year rank. This will give a major incentive to study in the 1st year where students tend to relax after rigorous IIT-JEE preparation. Once they slip in 1st year, with no parental control and new found freedom with high bandwidth internet and LAN working on body and mind, it is very difficult to recover. If they get into the habit of studying once in IIT, a new environment (parents too will be watchful as a lot is at stake on 1st year result), they are expected to continue with it. The other rationale is that the students go through common curriculum, stay in same environment in 1st year and thus there is a 'level playing field' (Link). The best way to judge their relative merit is at that time which will reduce the noise in merit list due to wide diversity of their background when they enter IIT system.

Update: Had a discussion with a group of 2nd year IITKGP UG students this morning on various aspects of these. They do not like allocation of branch after 1st year. As a student they may want to go to a newer IIT to get a branch of their choice if rank is low and movement across IITs may be difficult. However, they fully subscribe to the idea of giving more incentive to 1st year result. Their suggestion is to increase the current 10% Dept. change (from a less preferred branch to a more preferred branch) option to 20% so that a larger number of students have a realistic chance to go for Dept. change and work for that. The students appear to have a more practical sense than me on this and I am sure on many other things too :-)

From the view point of a commoner

How does people unconnected to IIT-JEE, who outnumber IIT-JEE aspirants, look at all these? The common man in the street is entitled to think that these public funded institutions with huge capital and operational expenditure behind them, should do more than shaping the career of certain select individuals. How can the RoI (Return on Investment) for the country be improved? The Mission statement at IIT Madras website (Link) says,
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The purpose of educational programmes in the IITs should be

• to develop in each student mastery of fundamentals, versatility of mind, motivation for learning, intellectual discipline and self-reliance which provide the best foundation for continuing professional achievement;
• to provide a liberal; as well as a professional education so that each student acquires a respect for moral values, a sense of their duties as a citizen, a feeling for taste and style, and a better human understanding. All these are required for leadership;
• to send forth men and women of the highest professional competence with a breath of learning and a character to deal constructively with issues, and problems anticipated in the next decade relevant to the programmes of development of our country.

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We need to ensure that we have the right ingredients in place to achieve this purpose in letter and spirit. Since the nation looks up to IITs as role model, such achievement will have a snow ball effect and will positively influence secondary and higher secondary education. The leaders i.e. IITs should show that its students acquire 'a respect for moral values, a sense of their duties as a citizen, a feeling for taste and style, and a better human understanding ... a character to deal constructively with issues, and problems anticipated in the next decade relevant to the programmes of development of our country'.

Maximizing RoI for the country

Is competence in Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics enough to ensure right kind of human input to IITs? Is it possible to inculcate the character qualities at UG level at IIT or should it start earlier? Could there be any way to evaluate that? Could there be a personal interview of 2y (y = no. to be admitted) people, similar to current GATE interview which will look into extra-curricular, involvement in community service activity, attitude? Who will conduct these tests? The IIT faculty needs to be trained. Even if the student do not enter the IIT system with the above character qualities, it is the duty of IIT faculty to impart them and thus the training cannot be avoided. The more we empower, the more is our responsibility to see that a student is groomed as a responsible citizen of the country and a good human being. Each IIT has extra-curricular program at 1st year level like NCC, NSS etc. It can be revitalized as it provides the scope for the two worlds to meet - the privileged and the underprivileged. Due weightage can be given to participation to this which is to get counted in the Dept. selection.

The pitfalls

Doesn't the proposed flow chart contain flaws? Yes. But it may have less flaws and can be worked upon. My experience is following: In any two populations A and B of sufficiently large size (say 1000 or so), the top z% of B will always be better than bottom z% of A. Consider, A as the ones who clear IIT-JEE and B who do not clear IIT-JEE but some other exam. The aim of the selection process is to minimize z but it can never be made zero. Coming back to the flow chart, one possible criticism could be the increased stress level in a multi-tier test. Closer scrutinee will show addition of only one personal interview to get admitted and that carries only 10% of the weightage. This is to send a message that the attitude and extra-curricular are important and students should develop healthy life style in parallel. The offering of Dept. at the end of 1st year is to tell that getting into IIT is not enough - one has to work hard here too. If required, the end of 1st year ranking may consider x% weightage from 1st year score and (100-x)% from IIT-JEE.

Past projected to future

Let us see the genesis of IIT JEE and how students were admitted when it first came into being in the year 1955. We may see that it had a flavour of what is talked about here. I quote from one article of April, 2012 issue of Twastha, a journal of Technology Alumni Association, IIT Kharagpur. In this, a senior IIT KGP faculty pays tribute to the institute.

"Admission to the institute were on considerations of merit only. Till 1954 admissions were made on the basis of recommendations of Regional Interviewing Committees which met at 9 different centres throughout the country. On 3rd July, 1954 the Board of Governors resolved that from 1955 admission be made on the result of a competitive examination held at various centres at the country followed by an interview and medical examinations of candidates successful in the written examination. However, on the suggestion of the Ministry of Education, it was agreed that 15 percent of the seats be reserved for scheduled caste and scheduled tribe students and 37.5 percent of seats be reserved for backward sates. Under technical cooperation scheme of Colombo Plan some seats were reserved for students from Nepal, Burma and Indonesia."

Endnote

Let me come back to the decision making process with which I started this post.  IITs should do what it needs to do to serve the country as a whole so that the benefit is accrued to the common man and not to select individuals. Today at the cross road, when decision is being made to get the finest manpower for the finest institution of the nation, it is worth remembering father of the nation, Mahatma Gandhi, "Recall the face of the poorest and the weakest man whom you may have seen and ask yourself if the step you contemplate is going to be of any use to him. Will he gain anything by it? Will it restore him to a control over his own life and destiny?"