Sweet February

February has been quite eventful for me till now!! It started off with me picking up “Such A Long Journey” by Rohinton Mistry (a book I wanted to read for so long) on the very first date and later on realising that it would really be a long journey for me to read it. ;-) Well, I completed that long journey somehow and now feel really happy about it!!

The second good thing was that I got a job at Surya Roshni Ltd. just before the valentine day!! So, this year at least, the agony of not finding a girl didn’t bother me much as I was too happy to even remember that 14^th of February is something called Valentine day!! It has been quite a lot of fun thinking about what my schedule would be like in the company while on training. Well, what’s funny in thinking about the schedule?? What is there to thing even??!! Well, keep reading and you would come to know. So, I, Ashish Agrawal, in my full senses present to my blog readers (who are actually very few, in fact nobody for sure except my brother), my expected schedule at Surya Roshni....ya you got it right, it’s the same Surya!! Jab Suraj Dhale, Surya Uge!! Surya Bulbs, Surya Tubes, Surya!! Surya!!

6 am: Get up!! No, actually start doing Yoga with the CMD of Surya Roshni. So, getting up is before 6. The correct time would be 5 hr: 32 min: 47 sec, I guess!!

8 am: Woo!! It’s breakfast time but after Yoga, I can only be allowed to eat sprouts, milk, salad and that stuff!! Remember, nothing fried or nothing called as creepy as ‘Fast Food’ my boy!!

8:30 am: I hope the training session starts at that time!! But what the training would be about is still suspicious. :-)

12:30 pm: Eat the simple lunch!! Remember ‘Fast Food’ is still bad for health!!

1:30 pm: Go to bed!! Don’t you know that an afternoon nap is too good for health?

4:00 pm: You ate food for your stomach. Now, it’s time to feed your mind baby!! Read some good books!! Won’t you?

6:00 pm: This time sounds interesting!! Ride a horse’s back, jump into the swimming pool or play football!! I am gonna like it!!

8:30 pm: The dinner is ready! But...but but but but but .....the ‘Fast Food’ rule still holds true. :-)

9:30 pm: You must sleep now!! Have to get up and do Yoga tomorrow, isn’t it?

Well, I could find and thought only this much!! Hope there are no more surprises, and if there are any, those are interesting!! And wow, I am behaving like a perfect professional, criticising my job even before joining it!! I really like it, yes I am.

Well, moving ahead, I had the second last mid-sems of my life, or say IIT Roorkee life!! And I kind of enjoyed it, rather than fearing it!! Am I talking like a ghissu? Don’t know but don’t care either!! :P

And I finally went to Rishikesh this!! Ya, laugh at me but what can I do if I didn’t get any chance to go there for the past three and half years?? Well, more on Rishikesh later.

And I am on a Fast Food eating operation these days as I seriously think that I should make up for the time in future when I won’t be allowed to even see it!!

The Adapted Screenplay

Adapted Screenplays seem to be such beautiful things to me. They represent the perfect example of symbiosis in the world of art, literature, theatre and films. A motion picture adaptation of a well known and acclaimed novel or drama is hyped and people wait for its release once the news about the movie adaptation breaks out. And thus, the movie sells like hot cakes and people throng the multiplexes without finding out whether the movie is really good or not. The recent movie 3 Idiots based of Chetan Bhagat’s novel ‘Five Point Someone’ is the most suitable example for this. I and many of my friends awaited its release well before the movie was relaesed.

On the other hand if the movie based on a less known novel becomes a blockbuster, people crowd the bookstores looking for the original script or the novel. The last year’s Academy Award winner Slumdog Millionaire holds a testimony to this fact. Few knew about Vikas Swarup’s novel ‘Q & A’ before it was made into a movie which won the Oscar Award. This was despite the fact that the novel had already won the Republic of South Africa’s Boeke Prize in 2006.

I watched 3 Idiots because I knew about ‘Five Point Someone’ and read ‘Q & A’ because I had seen Slumdog Millionaire. Either way, one benefits from the other and vice versa and the different genres of art continue to flourish. But the problem arises when one is not given the due credits for the success of the others, as happened in the case of ‘Five Point Someone’. Everyone who had read the novel before could easily relate to the novel, with obvious differences of course. And it looked very absurd and astonishing when the makers of the movie discarded the similarities saying that the movie resembled the novel only by 2-5%.

On the other hand, one can find relatively fewer similarities between Slumdog Millionaire and ‘Q & A’ and still the movie makers sitting in England didn’t forget to give due credits and acknowledgement to the Indian writer. Quite contrary to what the Indian moviemakers did to the Indian writer!! Sometimes I wonder whether it is in the nature of us Indians to take all the credits on ourselves and leave the blame for others. We always like to have our pie in someone else’s success and quite comfortably shift the blame on others when something wrong happens. Well, that is another story. What bothers me now is irrespective of it is the fault of moviemakers of 3 Idiots or that of Chetan Bhagat to gain more popularity and be the centre of media (as alleged by the moviemakers), this trend is not good for the movie industry or the novelists and writers. The symbiosis between the various genres of art should continue as it has in the past. And if it is disturbed in any manner, both the genres are going to suffer. And apart from the moviemakers and the novelist, going to suffer a lot are the movie-goers and the book lovers, who would loose interest in the ‘Adapted Screenplay’ Symbiosis.

And What a Loss that would be!!

Why do We Celebrate 26 January??

We celebrated 60 years of being a republic yesterday. But did we? I mean did it mean anything more than just a holiday to most of the people of the nation? I guess not. At least it didn’t mean anything to mean and my friends. Munching the boondi ladoos and fried peanuts in the mess, given on the auspicious occasion, I asked my friend whether it was essential to distribute these or whether we needed to celebrate republic day even. And the answer was a flat ‘No’. Quite true and justified!!

The question is why do we need to celebrate a day when we can’t relate to it? How have the people of this ‘great’ nation benefitted from the Right to Vote and other rights granted by our Constitution? The rich are enjoying life as they did during the colonial era and it actually doesn’t bother them who is sitting at the Centre and making policies. The poor are getting poorer and hardly get any time from their struggle to survival to think about the governance. It is only the middle class which is concerned about the government. But that interest is also fading as it is broken by the false promises of the government. Right to Equality is there but those who have money in their pockets want and actually are treated with special care and attention. Celebrities are treated as Gods and netas (political leaders) as the makers or our ‘destiny’. We have the Right to Speak but no one is there to listen to our grievances. We have the Right to Move Anywhere within the country but MNS is there to beat the north Indians out of ‘their’ state, and ironically no government can act against it. We have the Right to Education but there are no schools and if schools are there, tutors are not!!

The government says that the country is growing at a rate as never before but is this development really reaching the lowest strata of the society?  Are those located in the remote countryside actually able to enjoy the benefits of freedom and democracy? The poverty has risen to 37 percent and about 400 million people live below the poverty line. And by no means is the number small. So, instead of creating a hoopla about the day and wasting the precious money of the taxpayers, wont it be better to do something meaningful for the aam aadmi (the common people)? Something to which the junta relate to? Something for which we wait for this day every year? Something which can make the day cheerful and enjoyable, instead of making it boring and sluggish?

The Less Earning IITians

According to an article published in The Times of India (http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/IIT-graduates-annual-salary-drops-by-5-to-Rs-588-lakh/articleshow/5487687.cms), the average annual salary of the IIT graduates has decreased by 5% in 2009. While this may bring a wave of sadness for many students studying in the prestigious IITs (and even more terror for their parents), I see a lot of positives from this news (WHAT!! Do I even remember that I am still unplaced?).

Lately, these institutes have become a mere brand-name provider for the students and those lucky enough to study here have forgotten the importance of learning the subject matter and are too satisfied with the fact that they would get a certificate from the IITs after the completion of their degree with which they can swiftly and easily sail through the world. They perhaps don’t remember that while a name can open so many doors of opportunities, the same is closing a lot more doors of learning and skill enhancement. I don’t remember how many times I have discussed this with friends that students in other private colleges have a lot more technical knowledge than us. All we (the ‘revered’ IITians) bother about is cramming one day before the exams and ‘vomiting’ in the papers. So, when we don’t excel the graduates from other colleges in terms of our technical knowledge, why should we get better salaries than then? Just because we cracked a difficult exam called IIT-JEE? Seems quite indigestible!!

According to the report, the reason for the dip in the salaries is the global economic recession. Maybe, but doesn’t seem cent percent true because while the salaries at IITs decreased, the average at the NITs increased by 6%. Another reason which the report cites is the fact that a large number of ‘bright’ students from the IITs opted for higher studies. Well, this seems a little reasonable but the fact here is that even those (so called) ‘bright’ students want to take up a high paying job when the campus placements start despite knowing that they are not going to join it. Aakhir kuchh security to chahiye hi aur phir izzat ki bhi to baat hai!! (It is a matter security and prestige, isn’t it??)

Looking at the broader picture, it is nice to know that other colleges are doing well in terms of placements as this would reduce the stress which students face during their 10+2. And even better news is that maybe it will open the eyes of the dreaming IITians and strive harder to be better engineers, which actually is needed of them!! J

Ode to 2009

As the seconds pass by while I am typing, 2009 is coming to an end. It might have ended somewhere in the globe......Japan, Pacific........... well, I don’t know where else. But I still have a couple of hours to enjoy this fading year. People have different plans to welcome 2010 and when you ask me, I will say..............hmm......., I will say that I have none. So, I think it’s better to sit with myself (and my laptop, of course) and recount some of the sweet memories of 2009. I have written sweet because a few years down the line when I will look back, I don’t think I would be able to remember any memory as bitter. And for that matter, who in this world has got the time to think about the bitter memories when the world is busy being happy waiting for the new year to arrive?  :-)

I will start with EDC because it is something with which I identify myself in the campus. Without EDC, half of my college life would have been blank. And I feel happy when I say that during the past year, I was part of the team which made new strides in moving towards its goal. I learnt a lot from everyone in the team and am very thankful to all of my EDC teammates for teaching me a lot and bearing with me a lot of times, especially those angry moments of mine.

This year also made me realise how cool and tension-free the life is till we are under the cover which it provides us and how difficult it really becomes when we go out and face the real world. I still remember the desperation with which I wanted my summer internship to get over so that I could go back to college and live a ‘cool’ life. We actually don’t realise the beauty of the life at IITR till we are here.

I started my blog this summer. And it gives me immense pleasure every time I write a new post. Though the idea was always in the back of my mind, the blog was born majorly out of the boredom of my internship. Thus looking back I can say that sometimes, the most boring of the things can pass the most interesting of the gifts. And when I look back, I find that I actually needed that spell of boredom to realise the importance of doing what one actually wants to do in life. 

I also started reading a lot more (relatively) this year and I think I can count that as an achievement. And I think this shaped me as a more composed and better person at the core.

I was pick-pocketed this March for the first time in my life and the best and funniest part was that the wallet didn’t contain a single rupee even. So, I didn’t really loose much. :-) And sorry for the ill-fated guy who didn’t get anything robbing me!! That’s the way I am. :-)

I had the coolest of winter vacation this December. Though I didn’t get placed but that gave me chance to enjoy tension-free days with nothing to do. And I really loved it.

There are many more things which I got from 2009 but I think the list would become endless then. So, I guess it’s time to stop. So, stop I must but not before thanking 2009 for the new bonds of friendship which I forged during this year and those old bonds which got strengthened. That I think is the most beautiful gift which you gave me 2009!!

Adiós!!

Where is My Teacher?

According to an HRD audit report, there are 7.72 lakh untrained teachers and there is a vacancy for 12.06 lakh across the country (published in a TOI article on December 27, 2009). This is a major setback government in the way of implementation of the ‘Right to Education’ successfully. No wonder that many government schools in the country are actually running without any teacher.

We hear every day that millions of educated young Indians are unemployed. So, what prevents these unemployed young people to head towards the education sector and take teaching as a career? What makes one of the most respectful professions so repelling for the young population?

For a while let us forget about schools, the college education in the country also suffers from the lack of professors and even the reputed IITs are no exception.

The major reason for the lack of interest of Indian youth in the education sector is the lack of money. The salaries and perks given to teachers in most of the Indian schools and colleges, government or private, are far less than what teachers can get in any other profession. I still remember how this belief was prevalent among the students in my school that the worst of graduates take teaching as profession. And it is very evident in what one of my classmates quoted about the teachers in our school:

“All the teachers here are failures. They came to teach us as they couldn’t do anything.”

Of course, I didn’t completely agree with him but is this statement 100% false? Teaching, being a low-paying job is seen as a rescue profession. And there is a lot of frustration built up in teachers because of this (low salaries) leading to low self-esteem and decreased love for students and concern about their future. As a result, instead of inspiring and stimulating the young mind with love and affection and understanding them, they decide to show them “Who is the BOSS?”. And this leads to very serious consequences as far as the future of students is concerned. The creativity is lost and studies merely become a routine affair with a lot of rote learning.

Some days ago, I read that the schooling system in Norway is among the best in the world. And what was surprising to know was that teaching is the most attractive profession for the young people in the country. And when an industry draws the best of the minds, it has to become the best in the world. But as I think, no industry can lure the best of mind until it provides with the best to those best minds.

Hope those sitting at the top of our education system understand this soon!!

 

Of Placement, Success & Happiness

Two days have passed since the placements started at IIT Roorkee. Many of my friends made it through the biggies and there were many more heart breaks (including me). But well, who told that the placement season is smooth and painless for everyone? And being rejected from the list of most probable candidates for any company is not so easy to digest.

And when I think of someone like Nipun Jain (one of my friends), who got rejected after the interview round on both the days, I really have to ponder about the cruelty of life and cruelty of placement process. It takes a lot of courage and self motivation when one faces rejection after rejection. My best wishes to you Nipun and I hope you come with flying colours at the end of all this drama. At the same time, I wish good luck to all my friends.

We all want a high paying job or the one in a high profile company with great growth opportunities. But is that it? Once a person gets such a dream job, can he/she be satisfied and can be labelled completely contended? Well, for someone who has just faced a big selection or a big rejection, the answer can be yes. But will this answer really be yes some months down the line?

When I was in school, I was told that getting a good score in the tenth board is something which would be the perfect start to a happy and successful life. After tenth, it was getting into a good engineering college (say IITs) was what defined as the milestone for success. In IIT, starting off with a decent CGPA and being involved in extra curriculars defined success. Getting a good intern was the next step in chasing success. And now getting a good job is success and the key to ultimate happiness.

When our parameters for defining success change so rapidly, and we keep on running one thing after another to get happiness, I am forced to think whether the next milestone would really give me a satisfaction for being successful and make me contended as far as being happy is concerned. And how long will I keep running after something or the other in the pursuit of success and happiness??

Some people would say that constant growth in life where one adds on skills and learns new things gradually is success and that success, when achieved, keeps us happy and contented. Quite true!! But can that gradual growth, by any means, measured with parameters set by us like board exams or competitive exams or interviews or anything else?

The bigger question which teases me sometimes is how can we change the outlook of the people and the society at large which measures success and happiness in terms of tangible benefits only? And leaves little scope for real growth!!