First Week

First week of class is over! I have been waiting for this week to come so that I can test myself in the modern standards of teaching. I must say that I have got some of the brightest minds sitting in my class room. The week was over with a pinch of salt because of some technical issues, sometimes it feel like that we have became the true servants of technology. As far as class is concern, I am trying to keep their interest alive and trying to put the subject in more interesting and interactive way. I am not totally successful with that but ready to take this as challenge and try to do better and better everyday. Really there is a lot to learn from my students and I am a good student of my students ;)

Most interesting part of last week was when I have collected an informal feedback from my students. I am glad that they have participated actively and gave be great suggestions! And thankfully most of the suggestions were related to some of the non-technical part of the teaching... hand writing, audibility, pronunciation, and make class more interesting and interactive. Well, what can I say I am on it and ready to put on some good efforts! 

ciao

Auroville

I spent my last weekend in Pondicherry, the trip was very successful as I got some quality time to spend with family. Pondicherry as a place is just an average spot to visit, I would say nothing outstanding that I have never seen, but it has some typical beauty that is mesmerizing. We didn't want to rush the trip, so we have visited very few places. Some of the things to do in Pondy are-

1. Take a downtown walk around Aurobindho Samadhi, the nearby French consulate and some of the buildings are really beautiful. 

2. Spend an evening a Rock Beach. 

3. Spend a morning at Auroville Beach or Paradise Beach. 

4. Visit Auroville and spend some time to learn about that place. 

5. Make sure to eat a any local pizza outlet, a lot of them are there you will like the test there. 

I wrote this blog to share information about Auroville, it is a world village conceived by Shri Aurobhidho and The Mother. The place where there is no religion, no money, no color. It is a world town where people from different part of world stay and work in collaboration and harmony. A true peaceful and beautiful place that has lot to offer. We had some time constraint, so couldn't spent enough time to explore more about the town. Hopefully in next trip will get to know that place more closely... but do visit their website and learn about their unique concept of peaceful leaving.

Time to Gear Up!

Finally after a long time... a family weekend! Mom and sis are coming to Vellore today, and luckily I got this weekend free from all those duties that I hate to do. So, its time to have fun and enjoy the Indian Monsoon. I believe that there could be no better place then Pondicherry in this part of country to go for a weekend and have fun. So, after a long battle with back problems and boring weekends with exam duties, its time to get back on road.

I just noticed that I haven't used my camera for last few months, so it will be a good time to try some hands on photography and bring the best out of the French Architecture of the coastal town of Southern India.

What is going on??

I wanted to write this blog a long back, but work is keeping me busy here and home internet connection is no longer active. So, finally today I got some time to reiterate some of the recent incidents in India.

1. I was born in 1984, for most of you this year means nothing, but for a whole city name Bhopal it was a nightmare to remember the this year. I gas leak in Union Carbide Factory took more then 25,000 lives (Government figure is 16,000). Millions have life long deficiencies or illness and many future generations are carrying those symptoms, it felt like a Nuke attack on Bhopal. After 26 years of court trials, the people who were responsible have got 2 years imprisonment!!! I wonder, if it is possible in any other country in the world. On top of that, the main convict is spending his life in outskirts of New York, everyone knows that except Indian and American governments.

First, those people faced a tragedy and then followed by such a disrespect to those who are dead. Its a shame, on any civilized society and people who takes responsibility to be representatives of the society. The news that I have mentioned was on enough to broke hearts of millions that now a followup is airing that claims that State Government had helped in escape of the main culprit. 

2. Manipur, a north eastern state of India. With population of about 24 lac is suffering from the 'bandh' announced by the Naga people. These so called activists have closed the National Highway for many days. This highway is the lifeline of this small state, and all supplies of food, medicines and other important things has been done through this highway for many years, and now the situation is that the state has no food, no medicines, no gas... in all they have nothing to live on. The local food price in the market has reached up to a level that it is out of reach of common man, most of the hospitals are closed or taking only emergency cases due to lack of medicines. 

And our beloved government is doing.... NOTHING. I wonder, if in place of a north eastern state if it would be Delhi or any other state... the army has been called by now, but people sitting at the higher level never cares about a state which is politically and financially not very beneficial. No wonder they ask for a separate country or getting in closure with China, I don't blame them. Our government has to understand that concept of Republic of India is not only limited to a few state, the a holistic concept that our forefathers conceived and everyone believed in it. They have to understand that organizing CWG or aiming Olympic or boasting about our software industry is worthless if so many people are dying or suffering.

Looking at these two situation, sometimes I ask myself is it the same country that I believed in and confident about? I need answer, and presently I believe that no one is out there with a satisfying answer.

All I Want Is…

Everything! Well, let's be little modest and talk realistically. There are a lot of things that we want to do in our life, and probably my list is little ambitious one. So, here goes the final part of my bucket list that I started couple of week back on this blog-

1. Skydive alone from 15,000 ft
   
2. Own an island at Lakshadweeps
   
3. Do a great job as instructor and bring in the change in the system that I am looking for… (details will be in some other blog)
   
4. Fulfill my business dreams
   
5. Work in the field of micro finance and child education
   
6. Adopt a child
   
7. Getting married (if I will ever) at some very interesting place… may be under the sea, or on top of Mt. Everest ;)
   
8. Able to be in the old physique and able to kick, jump and run again
   
9. Direct a movie
   
10. Write one of the best fantasy-fiction of all time
    

Well that's all about the current dreams… but as the life had been 'dreams unlimited' so far… so this list will grow with time.

PS- This was just on the fly list for fun… so no serious talks and questions please ;)

Please! Let 'em fly...

Now a days, when I see local news paper here, I noticed a lot of focus is given on how Indians are doing in other countries. It is no secret now that many of the top companies in the world are headed by Indians or people of Indian origin. In the list of richest people in world you see two Indians among top five (not referring to any latest list...). But, a common factor in all the stories is that they left the country and then they earned the spot where they are these days. 

India is a amazing country, people here learn to struggle and grow as their life proceeds. So, it makes really easy for them to grow in other countries where the struggle is very less to none and as a result you see LN Mittle, Indira Nui etc. But what are those factors which are keeping same person behind in their own country. Sometimes I think about these factors and in the end everything becomes so complex that I choose to leave this topic. But, now here in VIT I am learning some of these things... and I will share with you as the time permits and relate my experiences with current day problems.

The very first thing that I learned here that we waste a lot of time of some non essential things. I can tell you about many complex processes in India which are comparatively very simple in other countries. Right from any simple work in the municipal corporation of your city to get driving license to just pay your fee in college. Everywhere things are so complex that most of the time we give up. This things lead to corruption, as we are so frustrated with the whole system that we like to pay some extra bucks to get over things done in easy way. With time this dependency becomes habit... and result is what we see around us. Other thing that I have seen is that we spend so much of energy in paper work, for a very small and insignificant work we use a lot of applications, which lead to nothing but wastage of time, energy and paper. I am not opposing the use of papers for important stuff, but using so much paper for nothing never makes sense to me... 

So, in this frustrating atmosphere if someone wants to do something better for himself, for his society and country... probably he/she will spend his young energy is most useless work and but the time that person is ready to explore the world... probably half of his age will be gone! 

Kya Kare Kya Na Kare

It has been more then a month since I joined VIT University. I was one of the interesting decision I made, as those who know me for sometime can't imagine me in the academic field. I joined on March 25th, and it was most weird time to join any education institute in India. The reason being that it as almost term end as exams are there in late April and May. So, there I was... 

After joining here, soon I realized that there was nothing much to do till Summer Semester starts in mid of May, so whole day you are sitting in your office (which is (un)-fortunately in front of Director's office and just above Chancellor's office). I came to know that at least 20 more faculty members are suppose to join in coming months... and then it all started. Suddenly, you became the most senior faculty member among new joinees (although your age and experience clearly shows as you are the youngest one)... many new faculties come to meet me and seek some guidance about finishing some formalities and all those kind of things... they face my face first with a feel of nonacceptance that they are talking to a student (who has faculty ID card and wears tight T-Shirts and designer jeans with Nike shoes). Then they all start speaking some alien language (which indeed called Tamil) and after explaining to them that I don't understand, they move to some other room or talk in English (in last month I spoke the amount of English that I haven't spoke in my first 3 months in US). 

So that was the beginning, after a few days I started to feel alien in my own office as all the new faculties have been assigned room in some other building which is at last 2 Km from here so a whole group decided to stay in my office as I was sharing the office space with two more faculty members (temporarily). Now you feel to realize that you are a product of globalized market... people around you are speaking the languages which sounds very similar and very difficult to understand (Tamil, Telugu, Kannada, Malayam.... all in a single room). Also, sometimes you hear some interesting versions of English (Tamil, Chinese etc.) I must add that after Made in China products, and next globally available phenomenon is Made in China Students... 

Finally, you have been assigned some exam duties where you just have to stand for three hours in the hot afternoon and you feel like crashing down to sleep... (I HATE EXAM DUTIES). Somehow, you finished the exam duties and you have been assigned a subject for summer... you start to prepare lecture notes, quizzes etc. When all preparations are in full swing, one night at nine you get an SMS from your colleague that all new faculties will take classes from next Fall semester and your summer class has been canceled :(( The ABET accreditation committee will be visiting your campus this December and you have been assigned responsibilities to develop an Embedded Systems Lab and they also requested (?) to offer a course in Embedded Systems coming fall... and so your life goes on and you SUCCESSFULLY finished your one month in academic field :D