The prime reason, in my opinion, for a sport to be followed by masses is that your team (you regional or national team, doesn’t matter) excel at it. Even if your team is not among the best, you are most inclined to follow the sport you team plays the best. Hockey used to be popular in India when we were the world champions. When India became world champions in cricket, the popularity of hockey faded. Given the dismal condition of Indian Hockey today, it has only a few followers. I watch American College Football for the same reason. Penn State is among the top 10 football playing colleges in the country.

This is the also reason why I do NOT follow Baseball in US. State College’s team do not play well.  Had they been good at it, I am sure everyone in town would have followed the team.

From my experience, I find that Indians dismiss American Football as mere scramble for the ball. The problem is that most of them do that without any understanding of the game. Calling American Football as only Quarterback’s game is equivalent to saying Soccer is mid-fielder’s game. I may not understand the nuances of American Football as well as I understand Cricket, but still I do understand the game enough to enjoy it.

Also, when you are cheering for your own team, there is emotion involved. During the Soccer world cup finals, almost everyone in India had chosen their favorite team for the final. There was an equal division between those who had chosen France and those who had chosen Italy. Most of the people were in fact disinterested in the result of the game. I had then read that nothing comes close to cheering for your own country. And I agree! Nothing comes close to cheering for your own team. I cheered for Steelers during the superbowl game because there were from my state. Still, the emotional roller coaster (if i may use the clichéd phrase) I go through when I watch penn state play is way more pronounced than that i went though during the superbowl.

In India, regional cricket is hardly followed by anyone other than the national team selectors. It is natural that we find the popularity of college football, as opposed to professional football,  surprising in America. English Premier League (EPL) is popular all over the world, including India. To me, it is as bizarre as popularity of  College Football in  the US. I think, this is because as a Soccer fan, thats the only thing you get to see. International Soccer is limited to World Cup, Euro Cup and few more.  I have seen arguments that Indians are not really passionate about cricket. So they watch only international matches. But soccer  fans, on the other hand, follow club football too. So they are more passionate about the game. I think that is nonsense.  The sparse schedule of International Tournaments leaves fans with no choice but to follow EPL. American sports have similar fate. The games they play is not played by any other country. Thus they have to resort to watching to what they get, their college teams or city teams.

I was also asked if I watch Professional American Football. My answer was no. My friends reasoned that I am not all that passionate about the game. That may be true. But how many Indians, who claim to be passionate about cricket, follow a series between, say, Sri Lanka and New Zealand? As long as you are disinterested in the outsome of a match, you will not follow it. In world cup, every match matters. It’s a little wonder that every cricket fan tries to watch as many matches as they can during the worldcup.

Profit is a dirty word

I had read an article (link) by Amit Varma where he talks about Profit being a dirty word during Nehru’s socialistic governance and later on until economic liberalisations. The thought of profit, and consequently money, being dirty have always been taught to us since primary education. I remember reason couplets that talk about working hard without really worrying about the result of money that you can get out of it. Also, I remember how angry parents used to get when, as a child, we prayed to god for anything materialistic. The idea that money is last thing to worry about is etched in our minds. Its hard to let go of such ideas in quick time. Asking for raise is not something Indians are comfortable with.

Even e-mailing profs for funding when going for an Internship is hard thing to do. Clearly, expecting money for you work is not wrong. But the idea of money being ‘dirty’ is playing its role here. On the other hand, American students are pretty frank about it. Unlike Indians, they do not go to grad school if they are not funded. Understanding local culture and adopting them and letting go of our conservative mindset is what we need to learn.

Tipping

Indians in US are infamous for being bad tippers (it could just be a stereotype, but i have seen a few people in my university who refuse to tip). Despite arguing that waiters are not paid as much they are suppose to paid because it’s a ‘tipped-job’, some people refuse to accept what I say. We ought not to be so insensitive to any practice here. I believe that while in Rome, we should do as Romans do. There is a reason why romans do the things they do. We ought to respect that.

Japanese Shopkeepers Handling Currency Notes

I have guilty of being culturally insensitive too. In India, you are always taught to offer and receive anything (including money) with your right hand. Money is offered directly to hand. Also, both the giver and the receiver should either be inside the house or outside. I think it’s just a way of saying, ‘I respect you’. There were two instances when I was in Tokyo when the shopkeepers asked me to place the currency notes on a tray. Forgetting that I was in completely different country, I gave it to their hand in dominating way. This happened twice. It was only later that I realised that I may have offended them. That was when I made a mental note of being sensitive to local customs.

I still don’t know if I have offended them. Anyone who knows, please let me know.

Language

Recently, I read about a case (lost the link … sorry) in Canada about an Indian shop keeper who had used the words, “I will kill her if he doesn’t give the sweets to you” to a regular Canadian customer. We Indians know that “I will kill you” is used in jest by everyone. But in a different place, the implications are completely different. The shop keeper was arrested by the police on a complaint by the customer about the “death-threat”. I think the mis-understanding as later resolved. Such thing do happen by accident but it is in our best interest to adapt quickly.

A lot of things are lost in translation. I have heard this statement, supposedly from Koran: “If people do not convert to Islam, kill them (infidels) by swords”. I do not think it is true but even if it is, I am interested to know the context in which it was said. For all we know, “kill them” can mean “ignore them”. Who know what it meant 1300 years ago?

Student in India use “jobless” to say they are free to do stuff. I once said, “I will be jobless tomorrow, you can call me” and they appeared really concerned. Two seconds later I released my mistake and explained the meaning of “jobless” much to their amusement.

Any such funny or serious stuff you guys have experienced? Comment it.

One of the jobs of the Govt. is to protect its citizens. The govt. is elected by the people, and consequently it is the job of the society to elect the right government. In other words it is the society which takes care of itself. Now, a plane is hijacked. Obviously, the govt. failed in its duty to protect its citizens. What is wrong with demanding the govt to secure the release of the passengers? It is the govt. which has failed and has to set things right. The society is very much entitled to demand this. It is very disappointing to see that a part of a society thinks otherwise. As if it is duty of the hijacked passengers to die for the country.

It is very easy to judge the relatives facing the trauma as “anti-national” when others have no experience dealing with such uncertainties. Everyone loves their country, most of us love ourselves more. That’s the fact. I am really appalled by the ease with which the author of the post judged the poor woman anti-national. I bet the author has never been in situation that has gambled with his life.

Many say that if we ‘give-in’ to the terrorists, wont it send the wrong signal to the terrorists that every time a plane is hijacked, they can pull another of their heroes back from prison. If you are scared that that signal we sent that day somehow made them think that hijacking a plane is solution to their problems, haven’t you
already conceded that they will hijack again and there is nothing India can do to prevent that? Are you convinced that we can protect ourselves any more? This to me is the real felling of “giving in” to the terrorists.

In some sense, many think that govt. “gave up” to the terrorists. Here’s how I look at it. Had we remained stone hearted and let the passengers be killed, we are sending a signal that if we release a terrorist we cannot catch him again, that we were very lucky to have caught him.

Lets assume that India has a reputation of storming the planes every time they are hijacked. Think for a moment,as a terrorist, what would you do? Would you attempt negotiation with the govt. from the hijacked plane? Or would you blow it up mid-air or against a tall building out of spite? I have a feeling this has been done before.

For once, before calling anyone anti-national, society ought to step into their shoes and look and the options before them. It is the fault of the government/society that the plane was hijacked. After the harm is done, society should try and rectify it. Not treat the victims like guinea pigs in a failed experiment and let them be killed by hijackers. The society has to take the responsibility of bringing them back alive.

Talking about social responsibilities, let me express my views on capital punishment as well. I am myself not sure about capital punishment, but there is one case where I am against it. I was in favour of capital punishment before watching the movie ‘monster’ which portrays a like of a prostitute who becomes a serial killer out of circumstance. I am against capital punishment given out to psychopathic serial killers.

People don’t just become psychopathic serial killers. It is the society which makes them. It is the society which gives them tough choices and it is the society which treats them badly. When the results aren’t favourable, society wants to treat the person like a guinea pig and kill him. It is bad enough that we treat labs rats and well, guinea pigs that way. I dont like the ‘tax payer’s burden’ argument about keeping them in jail when there is no hope for them to recover. It is the society which made them that way. From a moral stand point of view, society should pay for its failed experiment.

Another argument I have heard is that we all have lived in the same society, and we did not turn out to be serial killers. My simple answer is that every individual is unique, and if you cant respect that, you are the one who doesn’t deserve a place in society. Some favour death penalty for the ’sentiments’ of victims’ families. I dont buy that because the decision which the family takes is an emotional one and not necessarily the rational one.

Moving a little away from the topic, people love to call those who have left the country for education or job as anti-national. IITians, and in last ten years, NITs, BITS etc, are the main targets. Let’s examine that claim as well.

Firstly, ‘the lakhs of rupees spent on an IITian’ argument. As an IITian, I can say that we were not put in luxury. We had to pay for everything from electricity bill to Rs 600 for renting a gown for the convocation to ’security’ for the hostels. They subsidized the mess (which was horrible) up to Rs 8 per day per student which, I agree, is quite significant. But then who isn’t subsidized in India? Petrol is subsidized. Diesel is subsidized more for the farmers which makes people buy diesel cars (they are real anti-nationals if you ask me ). Gas is subsidized to every household. Taking all of that into account, I am sure subsidy for us is remarkable more then rest of the country. Profs are paid for research and teaching us. Its their job and cannot be counted towards the “burden” of the tax payers. The only place where, I think, the lakhs of rupees figure makes sense is the licensing of the softwares for research. Sophisticated Labs and Labs Equipments are something which undergraduates seldom use. But, I am sure any research that is done in IITs and IISc comes back to nation as inputs for ISRO, DRDO etc. for India’s development. Most of research is done by PhD students who stay in country. I am damn sure the lakhs of rupees figures is not the true figure. The realistic figure, I believe, is a much reasonable amount. I do realize that rest of the colleges do not even get the minimal facilities that we “enjoy”. That only talks about govt. apathy.

Secondly, lets look at the reason why the “brain-drain” occurs. A student expected to pay back to country though research or through entrepreneurship. As far as research is concerned, it is known that hardly any importance is given to it in India. Expenditure towards research takes a back seat. Infrastructure in India is lacking. Who is responsible for that? Government/Society. How about entrepreneurship? India was a socialist country 20 years back. Little wonder that brain-drain was rampant back then. Today it’s, thanks to economic reforms, much less. Again its the government/society responsible for that. Calling people anti-national is doing society no good. There are very few who put their country ahead of their personal ambitions, they are truly amazing. Other are human, not anti-national.

Also, why is the responsibility of the chosen few to bring the country out of the mess it is in. What is the role of the people who judge others as anti-national? Isn’t that an indication of resigned society putting burden on a some of its members to bring them back on their feet.

Before calling anyone “anti-national” the society should learn its responsibility.

Just note few of the things which make the situation tricky. The wealthy businessman are few in number. So the competition is that much less. Even if there are a little too many for comfort, it makes economic sense for all of them not to compete against one another. There are better off looking at different villages as market or selling different product. As the govt is obligated to protect the interest of all its citizens, what laws should be implemented to prevent rich business from growing richer at expense of village folks?

All the controversy and wal-mart-bashing that you see is because of their tactics. In US, which is run on the ultimate form of capitalism, if you observe, huge chains like sears, circuit city, walmart, target, academy sports are present everywhere. But single shop owners are not present in that large a number.

During our fortnightly lab meetings, another issue came up. It was possible that any of there stores, sometime in future, record the stuff a person purchases, and charge people accordingly. More frequently you buy a product, more you are willing to pay for the it, and hence by a capitalist principle, more they are gonna charge you for it. As scary as it sounds, it not something to be scared about (From my limited knowledge of economics, correct me if i am wrong). Price rises for everyone. And hence the inflation. And so you currency will lose its value. Consequently, your employer will raise your salary. No harm done!

If you are wondering how is the previous case different from this one, remember that the in the previous case, only a part of the population is affected. So raise in inflation is not significant. And so only the village folks get poorer. We need a solution in capitalist domain. If we venture into socialist/communist form of governance we do have some solution. But, get you creativity going in solving this problem in capitalist domain.

I had put this on discussion at the famed bangalore gang (”bang-gang” for short). Here are some of the points that came up.

A study has shown that  “kiranas” can  coexist with big time retailers. But I ma not sure if it talks about India alone or  all over the world

Few solutions:

One of the  plausible solutions is moving towards socialist form of governance specifically for food grains, cereals, oil and basic amenities is a govt controlled efficient Public Distribution System. India had a decent network of Fair Price Shops (nyaya bele anagadi in Kannada) or Ration Depots all over the country. As the Govt gave up it’s exclusive procurement rights, the system died out. Govt no longer has access to sufficient food grains. The private companies are quick to approach the farmers and get the produce at a lesser cost and once they have it, they can import/export or process it depending on the market needs. This can lead to hoarding. But of course, govt interferenace has its drawbacks of corruption among others.

Another solution that was tried (targeted at walmart) was to restrict the area of shopping area to a certain value. In India too such a law was tried aimed at stopping tata-birlas from running more business. But it was circumvented by opening business under proxy names.

Charge large taxes on goods sold at higher rates elsewhere. This again is some kind of regulation which might not work too well owing to transportation cost etc.

Capitalism on Waitresses and Waiters:

Tipping culture exists in US because they are paid less than minimum wage. They are paid less than minimum wage because it is a tipped job! When waitress or waiters earn less then minimum wage even after tips they dont report it because it becomes an excuse for the employer to call them incompetent and fire them. More on that here (via desipundit).

I am a capitalist too and love the idea of free market but it is quite cruel at its fullest level. Do comment on possible solutions to the problem I described above.

Happy new years to all my readers!

One such tradition in followed in Karnataka is preparation of Vada during death Ceremony. Vada is prepared in many families only during the annual death ceremony. If prepared during other times, it is not donut shaped but saucer shaped. This issue came up when my room mate, from Andra Pradesh, wanted to prepare Vada for Diwali or Dasara. It was apparently a tradition at his place. The plan was later ditched as my other room-mate from Karnataka told him about this. Around same time, abcd room-mate was talking his mom getting mad when he had shaved his head once. It is a common knowledge that head is shaved usually in case of death in the family (Thirupathi Apart). If such tradition are broken, it is seen as a utmost contempt and blasphemy.

It should be hard to see that such tradition mostly serve as a form of mass communication to inform the community about whats happening at your place. There are certain kind of dishes that are prepared during a Birthday, and others during the death ceremony. You really don’t want people to come into your place and ask, “is it a birthday or did someone die?” To avoid any such conflict, certain tradition do make sense. It is for this reason that I am a believer in saying, “While in Rome, do as Romans do” Suppose a family moves from their own place to a new one, they shouldn’t refrain from changing their tradition. It is nice to stand up to what you think is right, but at the same time you should be bothered about inviting wrong questions such as the one above, when you are adamant about following the tradition you have always followed.

Many of the card games usually depends on the hand that you get. Bridge is an exception. Played in teams of two, even with the worst possible hand, a game can be won. The game is all about establishing a protocol with your teammate about the hand you have and making right judgment about how many tricks you are going to win. An informed judgment about winning only three tricks and eventually doing so can get bring your team up. I don’t play Bridge, from what I know, there are several tried and tested methods to communicate to the partner over the table. Needless to say that a sound knowledge of them is necessary to win a game.

Salsa in competitions and bigger occasions are rehearsed and performed several times before presenting them on the stage. However, many are dance are performed impromptu when there are experienced dancers. Built on certain basic steps, all the swirls and the turns are established on the spot through dance gesture by the leader and the follower should be responsive enough to reciprocate the moves. Though it takes a lot of practice to look elegant in front of an audience the crux of the whole matter lies in interpreting the leaders’ moves. There are several such standards in salsa too based on the place where they are practiced.

I dont know how many of you would played this wonderful game called Mafia (aka Ware wolf) (not the video game, check the wiki link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mafia_(game) ). It is a game with the good guys (villages) and the bad guys (wolfs). The wolfs know who else is wolf. Villages are uninformed. Villages, fortunately, have policeman and doctor amongst them. Policeman can find an identity (villager, doctor or wolf) during the game. Doctor can choose to heal a person whom he think the wolf are going to kill. The game proceeds with night time (after all the players are assigned their roles secretly). A moderator asks wolves to open their eyes and point to thei possible victim. After the wolves have come to an agreement they convey it to the moderator (not aloud … no one is suppose to know anything). Then doctor can choose to save a person whom he thinks is going to get killed. And then policeman can get to know the identity of one person from the set of players.

Based on who was chosen to kill, based on policeman’s knowledge, the good guys have to kill all the wolves. Wolves, on the other hand, should try to defend themselves or be sly enough to blame an another person and make the majority vote him out of the game. Remember that policeman simple cannot reveal himself initially as wolves will go for the policeman next night. Same argument goes for the doctor. The game in uninteresting during the begining when there is nothing to go by. As the game moves on based on knowledge of policeman(if he is not killed) game get really interesting and at times emotions and rage runs high.

Having played this game many time in our hostels and also in the Himalayas :), it is a game where communication is the key. Its all about policeman trying to convince others about who the wolves are and wolves trying to implicate others though good arguments. Certain signs of being a wolf is being too attentive or under attentive in the game, or to fumble an argument. Wolf, sometimes, kill deceptively to implicate someone else and thus communicate wrong idea while the opposite works for the good guys.

If you are still wondering what common to Tradition, Salsa, Bridge and Mafia, it the idea of effective communication that makes them a great, for lack of a better word, entity. Nature too has quite an effective communication skill. There is a lull before the strom, tremors before an earth quake, low tide before tsunami and, of course, melting of ice caps before ….

PS: Freakonomics … well i know the article is not about ecomomics .. but couldn’t find a better title

PPS: Pics will come later when I get my own laptop in 2-3-4 weeks.

Roads

“There are some people out there in our nation who don’t have maps” (link)… that’s so not true. They may not have world map, but many here do have road maps. Finding ways is much easier in India. To get from point A to B, you may have to know about 2-3 three villages or town you should cross and the direction on milestones will take you where you want to go. But here, there are hardly a few boards on Interstates which show the direction. You have to use sites like google maps or mapquest to get direction before you head to a place. The other alternative is road maps. Every highway has several exit roads which interconnect two highways. You will have to hop from one to another about 2-3 times in those many hours (link). Exits from highways may be on the left or the right side of the road, being on the correct lane is very important. If you happen to get lost, you need maps to get back on track. You wont find people on the street on a highway like in India to guide you and neither are there any directions on the boards (only the exit numbers are marked).

I was at Pink Floyd tribute band concert and during the break an old man (American) was talking about way Indians stop in the middle of the highway to check for directions and causing accidents because of fast trucks behind them. He said that about Indian Women driver in particular. he has seen it happen several times.

Road signs:

They are abundant. “Side walk closed, cross here”,”men at work, lower speed limit, 35 mph”, “men at work, turn head lights on”, “yield” etc. My favorite one is seen in Pennsylvania (not in Delaware or New Jersey for some reason): “Bridge may be Icy”. The reason eluded me for a month (thats why it my favorite) until my room mate told me why. In winter, there is sub zero air both over and under the bridge, while roads have cold air just over them, so bridge may indeed be icy in winter but not roads.

Resource consumption

All you read in news paper about USA being the biggest consumer of resource is true. Every two weeks, we go to super market to buy groceries. For every couple of items, we are given a polythene cover. There are loads of them lying in my home right now. Its hard to avoid it as we have to buy stuff all together for two weeks. The concept of commercial shops close to residence area and buying stuff for 2-3 days is non existent here. It is tough to avoid the use of plastic here. I remember the time (nearly 15 years ago) when most of the stuff were handed out wrapped in news papers.

The effort to reduces the consumption is also silly. I found a pamphlet on a hand dryer replacing paper tower claiming hand dryers are environmentally more friendly as trees are not cut. How they forget about the coal for the electricity used by the hand dryer? In my department, the printer gives out a page printing just one line with user name, date and time of the document it is printing out next. Everyday there are at least a pile 200-300 empty (but for that one line in the header) papers next to the printer. I do take some home to work out my assignments, but there is only so much i can do. The fact that upto 2000 pages can be printed every semester doesn’t help.

MRP:

There is no mrp on the food products and other consumer products which are bought regularly. I am not sure if this is a feature of capitalism or if its is in USA alone. We have to go by the price written in on the rack. They are consistent with price encoded in the bar codes. Because there is no MRP, prices vary from supermarket to supermarket with walmart being the cheapest.

Academics:

At least in my university, every course has a prescribed text book which is followed. I prefer this system rather having to write notes manage material from several sources. There are tonnes of assigments, quizes with midterm and end term to keep you on your toes all the time. During the orientation, there were couple of lectures on plagiarism in research and cheating etc. Kind if image that is projected in India about USA is that people obey rules student rarely cheat. Well, its not all that rosy. I do find copied work when I grade assignments and the average in assignments is usually high. Bottom line is that there are all kinds of students here.

Weekends:

Though my place is a small town. Many activities happen during the week end apart from foot ball. There are concerts, plays etc happening all the time. The one big advantage of being in a big university is that there are loads of workshops, activity clubs etc in place for students to engage in. Be it adventure club that has a hike, trek or rafting trip organized every week or community dace workshop that meets every week, there are stuff to do that can rejuvenate you from the academic work load.

Big fat Greek fraternities

There are number of fraternities here which are all named with three random Greek letter. “Phi Beta Kappa” “Alpha Pi Epsilon” etc etc (i am making them up, for all that i know, they may actually exist). From the wiki link (link), I find that they are so named to abbreviate they motto in Greek. There is one named “Delta Phi Theta”, and when written in capitals, it reminds me of the deathly hollows
Ads:

There is standard protocol for Ads here

A: I have this problem
B: Ok, have you heard of this product?
A: No, what is it?
B: It is <blah blah>
A: What are its advantages
B: <blah blah>

Thats it! and if its an ad for a medicine, it usually end with, “side effects may include headache, nausea, vomiting, fever and liver damage”. Thee are some good ads, but only a handful.

There are couple of new ad style that are common here. Any event that has to be publicized, balloons with the event ‘logo’ are strung around the bus stop area for people to notice. Neat Idea I think. Also, there is this airplane which carries a huge poster around the city all day with Gaico (insurance company) ad on it. I wonder if it is efficient at all. No one looks at it and on foot ball days, when it is most common, people watch foot ball, not some plane flying around the town.

Archtechture

Most of the universities are very old. This is very much evident in the architecture here. It does add to the beauty of the place. There are new buildings in place, but the campus is dominated by the old and red buildings. Purdue is also similar in this aspect. I am not sure about other universities but given that many universities came into existence in 19th century, I wont be surprised if all of them look similar.

Coins:

The cost of any product is not a multiple of a quarter (25 cents). It can be $2.37 or $4.56. After every transaction, you are left with load on 1 cent, 5 cent, 10 cent and 25 cent coins. I have about 80 (all put together) of them in my room. I have no clue how to dispose them. The bright side is you wallet gets heavier every time you spend :).

Cleanliness:

Toilet papers are not clean. I have seen people throw cigarette butts carelessly on the roads. Other than that, yeah, the country is very clean. There are dustbins everywhere. With a lower population, it is very easy to keep it clean. Take New York, with so many people, it is as chaotic as India. The traffic is disorderly and the place is not all that clean esp china town area.

Cultural and Religion:

Hmmm … the only thing that you will notice is some people don’t dress according to, lets just say, “Indian Culture” (don’t ask me what it means). When everyone around you is similar, you hardly notice it, and it not at all a distraction. People do wear shorts toclass and no one complains and no one takes an offense.

Many students works here. Libraries, labs etc are all managed by students who earn from part time positions. I think such a system must be developed in India as well. We have them in IITs where a few things are manageed by students, but they are not paid for it. This is very option when scholarship for financially challenged students is limited.

Religion and caste make headlines all the time in India. With most of the country being Christian, it occasionally makes headlines here. In a local daily, it was published that about 14% of Americans were found to be atheist. Thats a pretty big number I thought. There is this person who preaches about Christianity everyday in the afternoon near a building where some people usually gather around. On one occasssion, a few non-believers started arguing with him. As expected, it went on and on. At one point one of them raised a point of being narrow minded when anyone considers Christianity being the real truth. The preacher replied, “To me, calling some one narrow minded is a high school taunt. When you don’t know is murder and rape is good or bad, you are open minded. After all the arguments, when you know that its bad, you are automatically closed minded! It just a high school taunt.” The argument carried on (obviously). I left the place thinking about a similar experience I had when I was called narrow minded for not accepting violence as a solution.

Update:

Coffee

Americans love their coffee as much as South Indians love their filter coffee. Junta get their spill proof glass to buses and classes and having during the course of the day.

Friendliness:

About a year ago, there was survey conducted about politeness and Indians turned out to be the most rude people. After traveling to Japan and being here for nearly two months, I must say with a heavy heart that it is true. You are always greeted with a smile every place you visit. Millions of ‘thank you’s and ’sorry’s may sound artificial initially but its surely better than frowns you receive back home in a government offices.

Why brain-drain?

I missed my bus and reached ten minutes late on a quiz day. We were told that quiz would be conduced at the end of the class. However, prof failed to notice me absent and conducted the quiz first. When she realized I was late, though it was entirely my fault, I was allowed write it after the class. Back in IITM, in my last year, there was circular sent saying student have to be in exam hall at 8:50 for 9:00 am exam. It was more of a guideline everyone thought. When 3rd year mech. students (I was in 4th year then) made it at 8:55, they were not allowed to write the test for 30 minutes. Thats the difference in attitude in two counties. HOD of Mech, IITM has no right to complain of brain drain. You can’t expect students to be obedient enough to stay back in iitm after being treated indifferently.

Paper Work:

When is comes to paper work, this place is no better than India. We still need to carry paper from one department to another to get things done. But at each place, work get done in quick time as all the tasks are computer based. My friend lost his passport after coming here. The assistance he received from Indian Embassy was pathetic. He complained that no one spoke to him in English in Washington embassy. Any English he spoke was not responded to. He had to run around DC and NYC and several hundred bucks later, got his duplicate passport. Now, his I94 will take 2 more months. I guess its typical of Govt. offices to take such a long time.

Punctuality and road discipline:

Except on the days on foot ball (American foot ball), buses are always on time. To the last  minute. You can always expect trains to be fast as they are computer handled, but these guys manage to run buses on time. Lane discipline is amazing too. Hardly anyone ever jumps a red light. When I drive in India, I always slow down even on a green signal because I “know” someone will jump the signal. It is scary initially when every vehicle zooms past an intersection on green light.

Earlier, about 6-7 years ago, buses in Bangalore used to be punctual despite the unpredictable traffic. I now don’t think it true after  the population explosion of sorts in Bangalore.

Foot ball and Base ball:

They as big as cricket in India. A person who claims that base ball is a boring game and 2020 cricket is good is a hypocrite. I am sure most of Indian don’t follow base ball and simply pass a judgment. And American foot ball is a big craze here. I have seen people holding huge banner begging for tickets on weekends in this place. I wish to understand the game too. Thats one more thing to do on week ends.

A lot of people say that love for soccer is more than that for cricket because people who follow soccer also madly follow club soccer. But in India, the regional cricket is hardly followed by masses. One should realize that given the frequency of International Tournaments in Foot Ball, naturally other forms of soccer gain popularity.

International PresenceMy university does boast of international presence but 60-70% of international presence is made by Chinese and Indians. And talking about China, pub culture is looked doen upon just like in India. And also, there are a few Chinese  who would love to have a sibling but cannot as it is illegal for couple to have more than one child. Coming back from CD trip as part of international orientation, a chinese girl was saying about many people deciding to stay in US because of one-child policy back home. My opinion: China’s dictatorship/ communism is just a ticking time bomb, Tienanmen’s square massacre was just a beginning. Also,  I hope Burma get its independence soon. Walk On!

Fall :

Trees change colour and shed their leaves. Until now these were true only in text books But yeah … this place is damn green. I some how fail to understand the garden city title to Bangalore. Even 10 years back, it was never this green.

Food:

Dear god .. its so bland! Thankfully, we have all the spices at home to cook. Americans don’t have trouble understanding my accent, but every i say vegetarian, they ask me to repeat it.  Indian food is expensive …. the restraunts call it “exotic” here.

Coming soon: Pics from NYC and DC and few other things i may have missed here

Firstly, IIT Madras is a deemed institution and can take any decision it wants. I am not here to contest that. On the outside, this rules does make sense. We are given a degree in a specific branch of engineering, and are expected to meet certain standards set by the institute in order to get one. Exposure to Industry is one of them. And since it is “mechanical” engieering, “electrical” or “aerospace” engineering, we need exposure to the respective “core” industry. Dig a little deeper and the reasoning is flawed in academic interest.

“Core”

Few months back, I remember reading an article my Richard Dawkins on thinking in groups or categories and drawing lines between them. He talks about evolution saying there is little difference between humans and non humans but we have different set of “moral” rules for human and non-humans. This imaginary line that we draw, between humans and non-humans or different branches in engineering, is quite unhealthy. We ought to learn to see them as a range rather than categorize them into different branches. Entire stream of engineering is held together by mathematics. What we learn in a given field is applicable in the whole spectrum of branches. What we learn in Atmospheric modelling can very well be used by a business analyst in stock market prediction or in signal processing by an electrical engineer. If the institution is trying to confine the knowledge of its students to their “core” branches alone, growt beyond boundaries is impossible. As such, we have a *lot* of core courses to deal with, lot more than any reputed school in USA. Core Industry restriction isn’t gonna be of a good help when it comes to all round development. I am unable to find that article by Dawkins. Please send me the link if you have it.

It is an open secret that it is the parents who choose the stream of education for their children, be it engineering, medical or law. Sometimes wrong choices are made. I know students who have not been happy with engineering and have shifted over to pure science, management or even changed branches within engineering. I myself migrated from Mechanical Engineering to Computer Science. In almost every case, internships is the “new” area has helped the students. In IIT Madras itself, I have attended talks by profs who refer to other eminent prof who have explored a number of fields during their career. Their justification has simply been, “its not on my forehead that I have to be a physicist just because i have a BSc in physics”. Why is it that the same profs are trying to discourage student from venturing into new area with the core industry restriction?

“Industry”

Best research happens in universities or research labs, not in industries. India needs researchers. More the merrier. Research and development needs a push. It is these professors who often complain that student are not interested in research, and are attracted by fat pay packages by industries. I know a lot of students who would have done great in an industry but have chosen a research career out of sheer interest. Isn’t the new rule shunning students , who are interested in research, away from it???

“Indian”

What is our obsession with being totally Indian? Shashi Tharoor had asked in TOI column about the apparent insecurity in Indians to change city name from Bombay to Mumbai etc. Is the same insecurity at play here for restriction internships to Indian Industries alone? Sharing knowledge helps, even if it’s beyond political borders. There are a number of students who have had accepted journal/conf papers from interships abroad. I am sure some students whould have carried on their work from internships to final year projects. Going abroad also means brining in ideas and knowledge. It’s not a one-way traffic. I remember out professor lamenting about not having projects by B. tech. students worthy of being recognised internationally. Well, this new rule isn’t going to help that either.

The purpose of an educational institute, roughly speaking, like IITs is to make a contribution in technology to the society. This ’society’ is not restricted to Indian society alone. Who is the best judge on how a student can make this contribution? Obviously the student himself. It must be upto the student to decide what best for him, and consequently to the society.

On day 0 we went water rafting on the Beas River. Cold water (5-7 degree C) being spalashed every now and then when we enter tubulent rapids was chilling to say the least. the 14 km rafting costed us abput Rs. 700 including taxi.

First day was relatively easy, we trekked for nearly 5 hours and reached the base site. There were horses that carries most of our luggage, glossaries etc. They were extremely agile, almost twice as fast as us.

There were three dogs named Maggie (the mom), Bikki and Scrawny (the puppies) which belonged to our guide. Here’s a video of them.

Day 1 and 5 camp site

Day 1’s campfire was awesome as well. It rained on day 2 just as we were 15 minutes into the trek. We saught shelter under a huge rock. That was the day when we had our first encounter with snow. None of the newbies were spared, we all slipped and fell.

This day was also the most hectic day and the 4-5 hour trek became 10 hours because we got lost in the clouds and this shepherd found us our way.

day 2 and 4 camp site

In terms of scenery, day 3 was the best. These pics will testify that.

Green carpet of grass sprinkled with purple and white flowers and studded with rocks

This is the best pic I have ever taken so far

day 3 camp site

We also had our share of fun with the snow
Day 4 was when we reached 14000 ft. The changes in temperatures was quite apparent during the trek. Also that was noticeable was the lack of oxygen at higher altitude. For ever 10-20 steps I took, I had to breath for 30 seconds to pull myself together for next 10-20 steps.

Day 4 onwards, we retaced out steps back to manai. We, unfortunately, couldn’t trek upto kalihani pass owing to hostile weather. But we had our share of fun.

The trek: 7.9k
Tickets to delhi, then to manali, and back: 5k
camera: 10k
Memory card: 1k
Pic of this intimidating rock: Priceless

(Slogan courtesy: Aziz)

Best pics from my cam are available at here. More pics are available here, here, here and here. Some videos here and here.

Here the entire group of trekkers sans the horses and the dogs

1) Before U2 was my fav band, it was bee gees. What many don’t know us that before that, it was Madonna
2) I speak to my dad in Kannada, mom in Telegu (Kannada mixed) and bro in English

3) I call myself a coolgeek and believe thats there is such a thing

4) I think “surely you are joking Mr Feynman” is a very pretentious book. i hate it when junta rave about it.

5) Though i have a blog and am a status message freak, i am an awfully private person

6) I love showing finger to those excessive honk behind me when i drive and then look their reaction in the rear-view mirror

7) I am extremely possessive about my stuff.
I believe  that everyone is a pervert; just that some of us are well mannered.
I wish to tag … whoever wants to be tagged