SG OwnBlog

This is a story that goes way back to 2001 or 2002. I was in the sixth standard. Yes, I do remember it quite vividly. It was funny, painful and a bit out of the ordinary – basically it had all the ingredients that allows a memory to stick a great while longer than others. In the process of my recollection, I may miss out a few pieces here and there, but it will be pretty accurate. Of course, the intention of this exercise is in no way to humiliate anyone else or point out the flaws about others’ actions. I now find it hilarious and I think so would you. I studied in the Vivekananda Mission School, a private English medium school in Joka, on the outskirts of Kolkata. If you know the location of the Indian Institute of Management, Kolkata, you know the location of my school. I studied there till the twelfth standard. We had many students in our class (sixth). We were divided into several sections, ranging from A to F (not sure if it was F or G). But anyway, I was in section B, the ...

The Indian formal education system has barely seen any fundamental reforms. Ever since Independence, the only changes that we have seen are the mid-day meal schemes and the Right to Education Act. The method of imparting education has remained pretty much the same (in many if not most countries) for decades. There are classrooms, with teachers for subjects. Students attend classes, take notes, study at home or in school itself, appear for exams, pass and graduate to the next class. This process continues to the twelfth standard till the end of school. This is basically the same thing that our fathers did as students. As did their fathers and probably our future generation will also do the same thing. But the flaws of this system are apparent. The students are given a one size fits all system in the length and breadth of the country (and perhaps even the world). This defies common logic. Localized customization is not only a luxury but should be considered a necessity. Student...

The Partition of India was a terrible catastrophe. There is no doubt about that. Millions were killed, displaced, thousands were raped, orphaned etc. All this was done in a space of a few months. Mobs frantically killed each other for life, religion, property, identity, revenge and any other reason they could then think of. Even since the call for Direct Action, there was no doubt about a serious religious conflict. What followed was an eventual ethnic cleansing of parts of India of non Muslims and Muslims. How it happened, what happened, how trains full of dead bodies piled up on each side of new borders is well known. Hundreds of books have been written, research over decades have been published. We know all that. The basic idea of it all was simple - Jinnah believed Hindus and Muslims are two separate nations and the latter should have a distinct political entity for themselves, based on Islam, their faith. To identify this they had to prove one thing. That the All India Muslim L...

There are things that keep happening to us. It does not matter if we end up liking or disliking them in any way. In any case, now my life has gotten kind of slower. In fact this is the story for the whole nation as well. The de-monetization thing is over and there are no major hartals and bandhs disrupting lives (as usual). In my academic life as well, nothing much is going on, except that my MTP is proceeding at a slow pace. I am trying to write a paper on Big Data including census data and some statistics. I ain't all that good in the latter but there are people here who I think will be able to help me out. Over the past couple of months I have been able to gain a really terrible habit of sleeping really late, almost into the morning. That is very Hitlerish, and that is one reason I hate it much. I must get back to a more sensible timetable. And this post is more of a pledge to myself than anything else. Putting myself, on my own effort, to a constructive lifestyle is easier...

So yeah, this year pretty much flew away. I barely noticed the time the past twelve months. It was really engaging. Even though I can remember that I did not make the best use of the time I had available to me. I need to do some good time management. Anyway, there are a few plans that I have been thinking about. YouTube sounds promising and rather interesting. My voice sounds pretty good online for some reason. And this is not just me speaking but a number of my viewers as well. Apparently it has got a certain bass to it that sounds good on speakers and headphones. That's good I guess. I started a new channel - The Light Indian Gamer where I play these casual games - nothing fancy, just the regular stuff that anybody can play on pretty much any computer. I don't have a dedicated graphics solution. So that makes me limited to a few choices - but that is perfectly okay in this category. Graphics intensive games are in any case out of my league. They are not 'casual' e...

Challenging times are back. And this time I have got a few options. Not sure that this is a good thing or not. I am honestly in a fix and at times fewer options may be better. Not that I am actually complaining much. This was something that I predicted back in the day as well. In fact I worked to have these options open for myself. But now that they are here, I am hoping that I figure out what I want. One option is simple - go for the placements, sit for all the tests. Hopefully I will get through one of the interviews. Then I get a decent job and that's about it. The other option is to look for higher studies. There are opportunities that are there. I have offers from Japan and some really chances in Israel. I can also sit for the tests like GRE and qualify for admission into some of the top US or European Universities. However, I am not entirely sure that I want that. I do like the feeling of being a research scholar abroad, but at the same time, I feel bad to think about...

Life is strange. Always has been. And that is what should be. Life is not supposed to be a bed of roses. It would have been plain boring had it been so. You may whine a lot and say out loud that you wished your life was easier but you know how it feels when you absolutely have nothing going on. I mean, yes, there are times when you shut yourself down, but that is deliberate. When Life imposes quiet on you, you always feel uneasy. You think either this is the calm before the storm or worse, you feel you will never have nothing to do or stuff like that. It is depressing. After leaving my job ( a pretty lucrative one) and going for my Masters, I am rapidly arriving at yet another crossroads. I need to make new decisions again. I like taking decisions. Makes me feel in control. Though I ain't a control freak, but the ability to think for oneself with a certain amount of authority makes one feel pretty good. I am no exception. But it is unsettling. It is true that the Institute is qu...