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Met Anjan on the way to hospital. He said that he would come in half-an-hour. Ma (my mother) is recovering from U.T. infection at IIT Kharagpur hospital. Osteoarthritis is there as company for quite sometime now. Knee replacement is planned at the earliest opportunity. That is when she comes over the present ailment. Both orthopedic surgeon and Ma are confident and keen to go ahead.

Anjan enters. Ma is very happy. She greets Anjan with "Kemon achho, Baba (How are you, my child)?" We laughed and took a dig at Ma. How come being a patient, she is asking the well-being of the visitor who comes to see her! Yes, Ma is stable now. As I type this at 7:30 PM from hospital cabin, waiting for the night-shift attendant Ritadi to come, Ma at my back is reading anecdotes from Ramakrishna Kathamrita aloud. And her active listener is the morning shift attendant Parbatidi.

Ma was admitted for one day in March, 2013 at Chinsurah Govt. hospital for fever and cold. Even there within one day she became very popular. She always carries positive vibration along with her and always thinks of well-being of all. Her motherly feeling extends beyond the family boundary. In fact, in my young days all my friends were at equal ease, if not more, in interacting with Ma.

Ma now is trying to teach reading and writing alphabets to Parbatidi. For want of notebook, the writing effort started on blank space of newspaper that Ma reads everyday. Happy to see this effort, the ward sister said that she would provide a notebook. Once Parbatidi's husband came to talk to her for some reason. Ma told the husband to take good care of the wife. Ma was full of pride when she narrated to me how Ritadi is raising her two daughters by earning little extra by this night shift hospital duty. Ma makes sure that both get adequate rest / sleep as they have families to look after when they go back.

In our family, it is no surprise that my daughter is closest to her. Her every arrival in hospital makes Ma forget almost all discomforts. They play ludo, gossip. Today the visiting doctor told that if her daughter is free he would bring her in the evening round to play ludo with Ma.

Feel proud and pray to be a worthy son. Feel blessed and remember my father too (Link).

Convocation 2013

The 59th Convocation of IIT Kharagpur was held yesterday. Such a day is always special. More so for the parting message graduating students receive from the alma mater - the responsibility, the challenges ahead, the expectation around them and their role.

It was overwhelming that Honourable Higher Education Minister of the country in his message expressed 'regards' to the graduating batch. In his opening note his message was, "The stars of this convocation of course are graduating students and therefore I want to begin my talk by offering them heartiest congratulations, best wishes and regards."

And it was no surprise that he has high expectation from IITians. We heard, "IIT has presented us most successful model of empowering India’s youth. ..Students of IIT have a special place and also a responsibility since they symbolize India’s urge to become a technological superpower. I am certain that all of you are full of ambitious ideas for your future path. May your dreams come true. Look for the highest. Aim at the highest and you shall reach the highest. Remember “Education is the manifestation of perfection already in a man” and Character is the test of that manifestation. It is my firm belief that it is the contribution of the youth which is at the core of India’s rapid economic progress. While all of you have been fortunate enough to upgrade and empower yourselves to quality education and training, the path of social and economic revolution India is undergoing, there is a much larger segment of young Indians expecting to be a part of this process. We need to face the challenge for creating better access for young people for quality education and training and make them a part of the national development process to ensure an all inclusive growth. ..Let there be a smile in every Indian’s face.".

 This was echoed in the voice of Director, IIT Kharagpur. "Let there be a smile in every face of our countrymen. And let there be rays of hope scattering from every corner of the nation." At the end of the Convocation ceremony, new Director assumed responsibility.

Chairman of the Board of Governor was clear and direct. He was straight to the point when he said, "Now it is your turn to generate new and path-breaking ideas. Dear students, please remember, knowledge has no limit, no boundaries. Your quest for excellence must continue. You should not bask in the glory of your current achievements as that will soon become the past. This is what the IIT System teaches you…The country is looking at you with hope and expectation. You have all the talent an brilliance. .. You should use technical knowledge for the benefit of the people and create wealth for the nation…IIT degree holders, you will carry with you the spirit of IIT education system. From now on, you will be the brand ambassador of IIT Kharagpur in India and all over the world. Today is the beginning of new era of dissemination to follow for the passion of the profession of your choice. Dear students, honesty and integrity are two tools to give you mental strength. These two coupled with sincere effort effort will take you to the path of glory in your profession. In turn the country will benefit with the obstacles and challenges India is facing today will soon be overcome…. I would like to end with what Mahatma Gandhi said, “Live as if you were to die tomorrow. Learn as if you were to live forever. Education can end. But learning is a journey."

 Not only our outgoing students, we educators too got educated. Hope, we can build further on this.

 

The President Gold Medal (PGM) Holder conducted the oath in Sanskrit to all graduating students (youtube link). The chief guest told students if they understood the meaning of it - dedicating themselves to the service of the nation.

It was convocation lunch venue. PGM holder who happened to be from our Dept., came forward with his friend. Both tried to touch feet which I stopped somehow. And I had also the same to say - what is the meaning of the oath taken.

In the evening, attended the Sitar recital by maestro Pt. Sahid Parvez briefly, taking a detour from the evening walk. (The youtube video has glimpses of few of the events. Some of the photos is credited to one of my Dept. colleague <Link>. There may be error of 1-2 words from my side in taking down notes from the speech made.)

 

Aashiqui

A July 18 mail led to a new awakening. The "Film projection unit of Netaji Auditorium has been converted to a DIGITAL CUBE SYSTEM with the latest state-of-the-art UFO Satellite links." The mail also told that with this we "pay homage to our old PH... system which had served so well over six decades since the inception of IIT Kharagpur."

I was not a movie-goer type during my B.Tech. or Ph.D days here. However, I oblige myself with 2-3 movies a semester now. In those days, we had a yell emanating from the movie hall "T-a-r-a-p-a-d-a", every occasion something went wrong with movie projection. We were told that the character Tarapada is a myth. Whoever handles the projection system becomes Tarapada.

One of the reason why I do not hear Tarapada-shout now is the decreased number of footfalls. The 60 year old movie projection system was no more reliable in terms of audio and video quality. Also, it is difficult to get movie prints of all the films on reels. The technology has moved to digital systems - hard disk, satellite download etc.

An effort started this year to  move to digital projection system. I was a part of the team that visited few modern cinema halls in Kolkata. We educated ourselves with lots of literature, met people, visited projection rooms. The new system implemented is what our Technology Film Society (TFS) found good and what takes care of technology, operational and other issues.

This has been the first movie weekend with the new system. Wanted to meet our TFS colleagues, with whom I spent few days earlier this year, after this transition which is major for them. Also, wanted to have a feel of the new system.

The 3:00 - 6:00 PM show was housefull! Chatted with TFS staffs, and learnt how they are handling the new system. Visited the projection room. They told what more they need. Watched the movie till halftime. The movie was Aashiqui II. Both audio and video quality have improved and there was no interruption. Didn't watch after half-time as (i)I learnt that there is a sad end (Hero dies) and (ii)I had some other responsibility. 

I watched two movies last sem. and felt so bad that the persons with shady character and doing unlawful things were portrayed as hero in those movies. No wonder that we see so much indifference or rather inclination towards such stuffs if this is what we feed our young population. Yes, they were primarily comedy (Race 2 and Special 26) but people who watch them take the comic as well as the unlawful stuff. Not so easy to unmix them and slowly but surely they enter our value system. Compared to that this movie was more of tragedy but has certain respect for value system. The hero, however, does lots of unnecessary and illogical maneuvers to increase melodrama quotient. But who watches mainstream Bollywood movie to find rationality in it :-) Perhaps, I would have liked struggle or ending like Ek Vivaah .. Aisa Bhi [Youtube Link], watched two semester back where too one comes forward to extend help to another. But there is a difference between Rajshri and Masheh Bhatt production!! Isn't it? 

People watched Aashiqui with the first projection system IIT Kharagpur had. They begin journey II with the second movie projection system here when Aashiqui II is screened. While we welcome the new, we feel sad for the demise of the old system that stood by us for six l-o-n-g decades. Our homage to the old system. It is time to see if we become Aashiq of the new system and TFS officials get what they were lamenting for, more footfalls, more yaarana from movie buffs. One must say that the beginning has been good.

Five Years With NSS, IIT Kharagpur

[Before I could type a single letter for the body of this post, a phone call came. RKMVU (Link) has sent about 200 English Grammar titles for two village high schools in our neighbourhood where VIVEKDISHA, an online two way distance learning program (Link, Link) is implemented.]

One faculty member from a different department came forward in a faculty meeting held last week. The word of appreciation that followed was nothing but an assertion of the collective will that exists at IIT Kharagpur. Then there was a short term course dinner. One faculty opined that the work got expanded quite a lot. Yes, that is why to assist new Program Coordinator, the institute is providing one new position who too will be associated with coordination. Not only in this, whenever NSS team requested support from the institute or larger IIT Kharagpur community, the same was available.

We worked as a team. I don't mind if someone says that I was lucky to get such a strong faculty team in NSS :-) The dedication, the discipline, the camaraderie, the leading from front, the sense of responsibility from all team members - it was a privilege to be a part of such a team. The students as well as the village / slum people were little skeptic in the beginning. Most of our students do not know the local language. NSS fund is next to nothing (Rs. 6000 per semester per village/slum) to make the kind of contribution which village people were expecting from us. Gradually, we could establish our foot-print which is now has spread to about 20 village / slum of our neighbourhood. Glory to the spirit of the youth!

We got good amount of support from alumni, campus community, institute which made the work easier. The panchayets and the offices of BDO, SDO found a friend in us. It was great to collaborate with RKMVU in implementing VIVEKDISHA program. We got lot of encouragement from higher officials of NSS, be it Regional Head's Office at Kolkata or Program Adviser's Cell at New Delhi.

I started as Program Officer in NSS, taking care of a small unit of about 50 student volunteers. This was the learning phase for me. There again I got a very, very enthusiastic and disciplined team to work with. The students developed a website for the unit. This was given a name 'Team Vivek'. The website still exists and is a testimonial of the effort the then student team put. It can be found here (Link), frozen in time. In fact, this and my first NSS Annual Camp was the starting point of rebuilding the NSS activities here. I must thank the ABVYM (Link) Annual Camp experience that I had in my young days (Link), which helped. Of course, NSS camp has a character of its own (Link, Link).

Then I was entrusted with the responsibility of Program Coordinator of NSS, IIT Kharagpur. I have already stated the amount of support received from all quarters. I would like to reiterate here what I said to the correspondent of campus newspaper of students (Link). "Let me clarify at the outset that if we have achieved anything, the credit goes to the team where our students form the bulk of the members. Everybody associated with NSS, directly or indirectly – the administration, the faculty, the larger campus community-have contributed in their own way. I just got an opportunity to coordinate the strong collective will and energy that was already present and played my role as everybody else played theirs."

Having completed my tenure as Program Coordinator, it is time to pass the flag. NSS, IIT Kharagpur will go from strength to strength given the strong goodwill it enjoys, the focus it has. The fresh idea, the fresh energy will catapult it to next level. Prof. Debasis Roy, the new Program Coordinator has years of experience in NSS as Program Officer. He led the team of students which served the farthest of the villages reached by us, about 10 KM from campus. Also, he had been instrumental in successful conduct of NSS Annual Camp. Prof. Abraham George will assist him in coordination. He too has years of experience in leading students in slum and village school based NSS activities.

As for myself, I'll always be available as NSS resource person. In fact, shall be updating NSS blog (Link) for some more time. And there is another responsibility related to Extra Academic Activities of IIT Kharagpur. It can be found here (Link). More about that experience later.

It is time to say bye and thanks to all, students, faculty, larger IIT Kharagpur community, local administration and village / slum people,  who made this five years of experience in NSS all the more memorable. Thank you, thank you very, very much! I wish I could reach each of you individually to express my gratitude. Thanks again.

PCG, Not ECG

On 11th July, this article came in front page of Kolkata edition of Hindustan Times (HT) as boxed item. The correspondent (who had been very meticulous in getting every details) and me, were conscious and cautious about this possible error. But finally, it could not be prevented. There may be an auto-correct mechanism at final desk where PCG (phonocardiogram) was corrected with more popular medical use ECG. Both of us felt bad on this mix-up and HT is expected to provide a corrigendum. The title chosen by the publisher may be what makes an article connect to reader. It may invite cell phone companies to take interest and the technology penetration can improve, specially for people in remote places and having limited mobility due to old age or otherwise. So far, we have got good result with this on valvular disorders using clinical data in our IIT Kharagpur lab.

I must admit that it is always a pleasure to interact with our friends in media who helps us to connect with larger population with technology developments happening here. This inspires us to deliver more and reinforces our commitment. Besides HT, had interaction earlier with Economic Times, Statesman, Telegraph (Anandabazar group), Headlines Today and other correspondents on technology development, with Times of India correspondent during then President His Excellency Dr.  A P J Abdul Kalam's visit to IIT Kharagpur, with Anandabazar correspondent on NSS team visiting a local tribal village to address an important issue and others on NSS activities. Sincere thanks to all. [I am sorry that I could not respond to Electronics for You on their DSP (Digital Signal Processing) prospect related queries within due date. Was out of country on serious occupation, was on family vacation on not-so-serious or even-more-serious occupation :-) etc. which I informed the correspondent.]

Poorva Express

I type this sitting in Shatabdi Express. This is a return journey from Bhubaneshwar to Kharagpur. There was an invited talk in a workshop at IIIT yesterday afternoon. The train compartment is one-third full. Shatabdi – Rajdhani trains are special. The travel time is less. Trains run on shared tracks. Other express trains are held up to make way for these. Similarly, express trains make passenger trains wait. However, in suburban sections passenger trains rule. The passengers there are organized force.

June 15, 2013. Poorva Express at New Delhi station. We had reservation in 3 Tier AC Sleeper Coach B2. There were only one unreserved compartment in the front. Train information system of Indian Railways showed that there should have been two unreserved coaches after loco. There were more people in our compartment than the no. of berths, right from the start. The coach attendant were very courteous to these extras. One such person was found to raise currency notes from his book-pocket a little when conductor came. Another extra person slept in the passage between two berths at night in our coup. There was announcement in the Delhi station for Rajdhani Express that there must not be any extra person in the compartments.

One hour after we started from Delhi, our train was taken to siding of a small station. Why this unscheduled stop? The ‘extras’ who were regular laughed at our ignorance. While our train was stranded there for more than one hour, five-six Rajdhani Express to different destinations passed. The station master of that small station asked me not to worry. He said that our train would make-up at night. It did not and the late increased to 2 hours. The train information system says that average delay of Poorva Express is 4 hours. One wonders why cannot Poorva start after all these Rajdhani-s.

June 16, 5 PM, Bardhhaman Station, the same Poorva Express. Last stop Howrah is about 100KM, 90 minute away. Our B2 compartment has become half-empty. I boarded the unreserved compartment in the front of the train for the last part of the journey. It was full to the brim. One of the toilet was seen as place holder of 3-4 people. I just managed to get some space to put my two feet. One inch this side or that side, people were sitting on floor or standing.  In the space marked for 8 people in reserved 3 tier compartment (3+3+2), there were  about three times more, 24 people in the unreserved compartment. Bringing it down to 16 (which is luxury in current standard : 5+5 on either side 1+1 on two single window seats and 2+2 on two bunks) with additional compartments makes railway earn twice as much the seat capacity. Even without the sleeper or reservation charge, the earning from these compartments won’t be less compared to others. One wonders how difficult it is to give little comfort to them who also deserve.

I was standing not far from the door. It was not possible to go further inside the compartment which was full. There were 7-8 young people jostling near the door. They are into labour intensive jobs in and around Delhi. One could listen what they were discussing among themselves. They were discussing what they found enjoyable and the attempts they made so far to enjoy them. Little or no education, tough job condition, insecure future, difficult life condition, add to these, plenty of certain stuffs in newspapers, magazines, movie, mobile / internet downloads, MMS (cheap mobile phone is not all boon). The topline movies, the reality shows (even the ones that includes children) promoting “entertainment, entertainment and entertainment” and defining entertainment in certain way, it is but natural to see what we see occupying the mindspace of youth; that of what turns into addiction, what poisons slowly but surely.

The science of life shows the relationship.
  

Thought  ---> Action ---> Habit ---> Propensity (Character)

Thought precedes action. Repeated action becomes habit. Habit when deep becomes a propensity. Collection of propensities is character. The formative stage of a character (and also if a change is attempted) depends a lot on what we are fed as a thought. Later the character initiates thought and action through a feedback loop, that reinforces.

We think about what we come across - what we read, what we see, and the kind of persons we come in contact with. If we offer our young generation inputs which are not positive and inspiring, how do we expect the society to get rid of negativity and the inglorious things that we see around us? We cannot get marigold if what we plant is parthanium.
 

The tighter and tougher law attempts to treat the symptom and not the cause. We are alarmed today by the crimes of most heinous type. If we feed people sex and violence, selfishness and immorality, matter over mind, can we expect that we will be surrounded by people of noble character who do not cheat, who do not abuse? Unless we promote and recognize human values in us, in the society from young age, we are leading ourselves to ‘dog eats dog’ world.

If we treat fellow-being as human, then we can expect human qualities from them. Also, we ourselves are got to learn many human qualities from them. [Video Link] There may be aberrations. Even after being treated as human, some may allow the animal-self to get better of him. Law is there to make such choice costly for them. But we should proactively create and nurture an environment to let the human aspect, the divine aspect of one to blossom in every strata of the society.

Access to education, education of right kind that develops complete personality and not just a leading rank in a competitive exam., is the key. Scoring high percentage in exam. is important, but it is more important to learn what goes into making a good human being who cares, who shares. It is time to focus on who are educating our nation and what are they educating; and what is leading by examples. [Here is a bio of RKMVU teacher: Link :Readers’ comments too are interesting.] Each of us leaves a print in the society. Whether we are conscious about it or not, we like it or not, the society - specially, the young cannot escape having examples like us before them. If they are what we see them as today, we cannot avoid our responsibility on what we presented before them.

 

If we want to address the issues our nation faces, we need to reach out to every section of the society. And this should be more than symbolism, the genuineness in our approach makes the difference. We are in praise of relief operations carried out by young jawans of army in Uttarakhand. Do we ourselves or young members of our family have ever attempted any relief / social service work in our neighbourhood with same sincerity?
 

It is not just money or donation made. How we do what we do are more important. What is our attitude? Is it that of service (i.e. kindness put into action) or do we think that the downtrodden are burdens? Giving money to an NGO will never yield what personal involvement, engagement will. Nation-building responsibility of mine cannot be outsourced.

Few days back, a point came in an informal  discussion, here at IIT Kharagpur. Can we have tea in the houses of village, slum that we visit? We may start with the village / slum of our house maid. If one has reservation over hygiene, tea would be fine because the water is boiled. To this, a very, very senior faculty participating in the discussion, remembered a Baltic saying on Three Cups of Tea. "The first time you share tea with a Balti, you are a stranger. The second time you take tea, you are an honored guest. The third time you share a cup of tea, you become family..."

If we do not learn to live together, we shall perish together. We may be boarder of Rajdhani Express, Poorva Express or a passenger train. We may have reservation or we may be travelling in unreserved compartments. Let us start by a simple thing - let us have occasions to have tea together.  We can seek help of IRCTC if we need that.

I am, because you are

The day to say thanks ... and express gratitude to all ... young and old ... who contributed ... and who keep contributing in the making of me ... I am, because you are.

My daughter lost the race to her mother not being able to wish at 00.00 hrs. (went to sleep) ... my mother giving the grand daughter an idea of putting a card below the pillow ... phone, SMS, email, facebook ... favourite dishes at home ... small function by lab. students (where my daughter could not stop herself and went ahead with cake-cutting before me) ... reminiscences of the past, mostly that of my father ... 

... among all these completed 28 of the 30 pages of annual report preparation of National Service Scheme (NSS), IIT Kharagpur ... this started yesterday evening ... one more hour's job is left ... I assured regional head of NSS when he rang yesterday evening that by today it would be emailed to Program Advisor Cell, New Delhi ... and I'll do it before the clock strikes 00.00 hrs again :-)

[P.S. It is done and emailed ... annual report and a success story .... implementation of VIVEKDISHA overcoming all the hurdles that came in the way ... holds lot of promise in education front and beyond that ...]

Few days back I was watching a Tarun Majumdar movie. He is a master in making us see the virtues, the tranquility that lie in the life of a simpleton. In this movie, a city boy gets job in village school and and discovers that he (and for that matter each of us) can live happily with a little if he has loving folks around. This is what the song tells us.

Bengali edition of 'Big Boss' has started. One participant, a relatively known actress, on being nominated in 2nd week itself felt shocked, pained. Once it got absorbed (it's all part of the game), she made an interesting comment. The very thought of eviction where she returns to her lonely house, none to talk to, starts haunting and saddens her. The social space, the share and care that we enjoy from people near and far, is priceless. We shall remain ever indebted to the society that houses us, and gives an opportunity to blossom.