These are recent pictures (Feb 2003) and should buttress my claim I look a decade younger, that my problems are mental, that great care during bad mood swings to extreme weltsmertz and depression help, and I otherwise feel young too. My secret is unflagging devotion to exercise – I believe strongly in taste longtivety tradeoff and keep away from sweets, oils, ghee, excessive carbohydrate, and coconut. High protein and high vitamin foods are ok. I think that even better age match today will age poorly relative to me, and medical problems due to lack of exercise will be passed on to the female and offsprings.
January and
February in Roorkee
The University of Roorkee has become
in IIT. Just after the Parvasi Bhartiya Divas in India, took place the 50th
anniversary celebration in the first IIT in Silicon Valley of the United States.
I attended the PBD which was total disaster and could only read with the envy
the accounts of the happenings at the celebration at IIT festival in
California. Some times the grass is in fact greener on the other side. It
coincided with the investigation of the IIT phenomenon by 60 minutes, which did
two interesting interviews. One was with the Murthy of India whose son wanted
to do Computer Science in one of the IITs, could not, and hence had to go to
Cornell!. The second was one of the founders of Sun who found Carnegie Mellon
to be a breeze after the work he had to do at IIT Delhi. The remarkable
strength of IIT, 60 minutes concluded, could be captured as the equation that
IIT equals the sum of MIT, Princeton and Stanford. Central to the growth phenomenon
of IIT is nothing more, according to me, but the application of the Cantfake
principle in its full form. The people who run IIT are no longer imports any
other foreign nations, but in fact very normal Indian workers with all the
realities of their existence. The secure remarkable achievements of IIT free
from interference by politicians are the consequence of the fact that it is not
physically possible, regardless of the techniques employed, to be corrupt in
the selection process, and the fund distributions are decentralized.
The fog of moronity, which descended
on the Indian civilization 2000 years ago, has still not lifted despite the
departure of the British and 50 years of independence. What we have managed to
achieve is expertise in corruption far exceeds the ingenuity of the western
individuals and this has let to the remarkable situation that Indians do well
in every country of the world outside India. I have proposed the Institute of
Innovation on the Planet Earth and have send that proposal to the chief
Minister of the State of Uttaranchal along with some of my ideas on how
hyperencryption can be employed to Indian Civilization to restore it to its
former glory. However I expect nothing after what I have seen at PBD, and the
sweetest possibility for me is as described in this essay.
The director of IIT Roorkee when I was
here last was late Dr. N.C. Nigam. He happened to know me because in his
previous incarnation, he was Professor of Aeronautics at IIT Kanpur and I was
one of the strange Civil Engineering/Computer Science students who studied in
his class, enjoyed it, and excelled. Of course my interest in that subject was
to understand the phenomenon of random vibrations, which is also applicable to
buildings subjected to earthquake loading, wind loading, and even the behavior
of stocks in the stock market. When Dr. Nigam came to this University, it was
abused by an administrator in the main administrative complex who had over many
years built a network of clerks who worked for him, as per his direction, and
the entire network was so powerful that it was impossible for any academic, no
matter how strong, to deal with them. Several directors at Dr. Nigam level
previous to him had tussled with this guy unsuccessfully and had retired
unsuccessfully. But Dr. Nigam was different; he not only destroyed
administrator legalities valiantly but also intelligently and at the end of one
year was able to remove this administrator from the leadership position that he
enjoyed. Rest of the organization built was a wolkencuckoosheim and was
destroyed very rapid. The University administration improved dramatically there
after that.
One day this Dr. Nigam came to our
house and was talking with my father about the problems that he had with Sir
Colonel who directed the Military cantt. Apparently he was in the habit of
taking a morning walk during which he penetrated the area of the University. In
order to prevent access to local hooligans and miscreants within the campus,
Dr. Nigam has established gates on all the roads into the campus. They were
manned and kept closed early in morning. This interfered with the habit of the
Colonel, who had some choice words to say to the staff manning the gate, who
opened the gate pronto for him. Dr. Nigam came to know of this and security
staff of the University was thereafter ordered not to respond to any body from
out side the campus. What follow thereafter can be guessed. I leave the
aftermath of the matter here. I believe there is a fundamental difference
between this instance and the dispute mentioned in the previous paragraph,
regardless of what the current legal profession thinks or can handle. The
latter should be resolved by mediation, while the former is a call to action
and in my judgment Dr. Nigam was not hard enough for just firing the
administrator. That goon should have been jailed as well as possible, even at
cost to the University.
My father has donated a school in
Roorkee to the BJP who have converted it into nice school for kindergarten all
the way to High School. When the program for the republic day on the 26 January
was planned, the principal of the school dropped by to tell my parents about
the programs that he has constructed. In the process of that conversation my
mother proudly mention that I had donated some money that made a nice science
laboratory possible. On hearing this, Sir principal insisted that I had to be
present at the Republic Day Program. He ignored my protests and resolutions not
to go.
On the Republic Day, I was at
breakfast when the principal phoned to tell me that he was sending a teacher to
transport me back and forth from the school and I was be ready within 45
minutes. After that the phone hung up and I had no opportunity to protest any
more It gave me 45 minutes to don my suit, finish my breakfast and get ready
for the event. On the dot, Sir teacher arrive and the process of shipping
myself to the School began. There is a national Highway between our residence
and school and on it is a stretch with a bus stand on one side and the local
judicial complex on the other side. So busy is the street at that point that
traffic is always jammed, moves forward at a glacial case even slow by Indian
standards, and I was sure that I could not make that program on time. However
the teacher was familiar with the problem, and sidestepped it by taking a
parallel side street, which was residential at one point but was now being used
by all manners of traffic to avoid the congested section. With this trick I was
delivered to the program on time. The program was a bunch of kids starting with
4 – 5 years old and ending with 15 to 16 years old, all seated on a spread on
the ground. Behind them sat the parents on chairs. Teachers and employees of
the school said on chairs on one side of the congregation. The front of the
gathering was a dias on which was mounted a speaker. I was delivered to the
back of the employee/teacher row but was soon noticed by Sir principal and
escorted through to its end to the dias.
The Principal had used student marks
and to provide incentives to the student to be excellent, he had decreased that
all students who jumped ranks by at least four, improved their percentage of
marks in subject by at least 15 marks, or stopped failing in a subject, would
be given a special prize. These prizes turned out to be inexpensive silver
painted trophies on which had been embossed the term “special prize 2003” and
were presented through the prize distributed on silver plates which were
refilled many times from a virtually endless supply that constituted the
prizes. Students were interested in getting the prize and having their mugs hot
taken while the prize was given and they received the prize. The parents were
interested in the exact moment they got the prize; the only thing missing in
give ness was a supply of prize givers. The principal solved this problem by
calling everybody who sat on the dias periodically to hand out the prizes. This
had the unfortunate effect of making your truly also a prize giver at various
times. The kids who accepted the shields from me had no problem in touching my
feet as is the custom in India, never mind my discomfort, and when they were
photographed I showed my face in the proper way. The problem came when I was
asked to give prizes to female of the 11th and 12th
standard. Fortunately, not even one of them touched my feet, which let me to
conclude one of two possibilities: first that they had emerged from the age
when touching feet made sense, or to I was not considered old enough to be paid
the respect. I still do not know what the real reason was but I choose to
believe in my mind that perhaps I am not so old at deserving that kind of
respect.
Speech
There were many speeches that day.
Even though the principal had not mentioned it, while on the way to the gathering,
I was sure I was going to the called to say a few words. That I knew was going
to be a very difficult task for the listeners consisted of young fellows out of
the kindergarten, all the way to advanced students, their parents, and even the
local MLA apart from all the teacher and the Principal. To add to my
difficulties that I had done noting but spew poison about the length of
speeches ever since I have come to India. This led me to give the shortest and
most interesting speech of my life. I took out a dollar bill from my pocket,
and mind you I spoke entirely in Hindi, and I am reporting the translation.
“This is a dollar bill”, I said “it is a legal banknote acceptable in America.
When I went to the states, it was worth 10 bucks, now a days it is worth 50
bucks. Before I die, it shall be worth 10 bucks again. Before you die, even
though it will happen in a long long time from now, it will happen. I know that
it will be worth exactly one buck” and that was end of my speech.
Utilization
and chatting:
I am lucky that the new Principal of
the School is excellent person, which a rarity in the Indian context. My
father, who has also constructed a trust, which owns a temple attached to the
School, has donated the entire school. The school is known now as the school
with the temple. My contribution is limited to the funding of the Science
Laboratory in that school, which grows by leaps and bounds by donation from a
large number of contributions. This is a world of charity that brings a joy to
the heart of the giver if it is established that the funds were properly
utilized for their intended purposes. That this has been achieved in my case
bring me enormous joy and satisfaction so important in the reporting of
utilization. In my opinion, all charities should earmark at least 5% of
whatever funds are donated to them to the construction of extensive. With my
software, it will be possible to do it at very low cost in a secure manner.
If there is a seriously a lack in the School
at this time, in my judgment, it is the lack of stress on the arts components
of education. Following the existing tradition, extensive importance is
attached to education in science and technology, without attaching the required
stress on music, painting, dance, drawing and other performing and non
performing arts. It is my view that the next major contribution by Indian
civilization in the World will be in the field of arts, specialization
performing arts and not in science relating subject like software or medicine.
We must create an extensive body of students capable of being the advanced
workers of the century and contributing to the goods that will become
fashionable. The extensive worldwide
viewer ship of lagaan was non_Indian, despite its length (3.5 hours), songs,
and stress on cricket. Out of over a trillion dollars of entertainment dollars
worldwide, the largest movie industry on earth in Bollywood rakes in under 4
billion dollars. Truly staggering opportunities are out there. I can utilize them. I have begun.
Motivation of students is much more
important for a Professor than even important good quality education to them.
The reason is that once properly motivated, the students are capable of passing
the limitation of the Professor by reading the subject on their own from books
in the Library. The principal in this school instituted a number of motivation
strategies, which can be used in many settings. These include prize
distribution acknowledging the growth of the students in the presence of their
parents to make both of them proud, setting the bar for obtaining the prize as
either improving in rank or score or removal of failing in a subject. The
empirically measurable effects in motivation of student have been extensive and
remarkable. The effects on the parents have also been salutary, Sir principal
held a function in the next few days, had prepared a list of item that he
wanted the school to have for the benefit of its visitors including things like
shelves bedding needs for items towels and possession in cases for guests, put
out an appeal for same, and the appeal was met with total meeting of needed
resources by donation from the parents.
The actors of the entire education
given in the school are the management, teacher, the students, and the parents,
each with their interests. The situation is more complicated to learn in the
case that fonder is the Government but that should really be the case.
Non-business of state is incorrect and should not be stressed even by die-hard
free-marketers, in fact can be replaced by long term pay back loans for the
management of students. A total privatization of the education system with no
physical aspects in the hand of the teachers and employees should exist. If
these views are more republican, so be it, but at least in my judgment and
experience they are widely applicable to essential civilization like that in
India.