India's educational fads: IIT Muddenhalli, IIM Vadapalli

The state of higher education [undergraduate and above] in the country is in shambles. The govt seems to be only obsessed with creating new IITs and IIMs. Agreed that those institutions have indeed raised the quality of education in India and have put Indians on the global map [pun intended]. But obsession with only a few institutions which hardly form about 1-2% of the total student population of India doesn't serve the wider purpose of improving the overall higher education scenario. Opening new IIT's and IIM's or renaming all local colleges to IIT/IIM/AIIMS wont solve the problem. Apart from being populist measures, these only serve to dilute the quality of the student pool in those institutions. Already each state has demanded an IIT. If the govt approves this there will be nearly 28 IIT's across the country. And then each district will start their demands ! The govt's rationale behind opening new IIT's [the ones in Rajasthan and AP] is that an IIT would help imrove the economic scenario of those backward places. We have already seen how this logic has [not] worked out for the North eastern states; it has worked wonders for the Californian economy though. Opening new institutions and naming them IIT's wont solve the problem. There are various other quality instituitions throughout the country: the NIT's, University of Calcutta, Jadavpur university, JNU, DU etc. If these universities are given the same factors that have helped the IITs achieve success: more funding, support, good faculty renumeration and autonomy, then I am pretty sure that they will perform well too and attract good students. China has already opened many world class universities which has drastically hiked its research output. As a result many chinese students are now continuing on with their graduate education in China itself. Contrast this with India where most of it's students go abroad to continue their higher education. If these universities re given a chance to overhaul themselves, then Indian students can continue their education in their own backyard rather than somewhere offshore. Now this would directly impact the local economy, national economy and increase the research output. The national knowledge commision has all these and more in its higher education recommendations to the HRD ministry. One can only hope that the Govt converts these recommendations to fruitful actions with a high priority. Or we might just have to send our kids to IIT Muddenhalli and IIM Vadapalli.

Hindi Cinema - Coming of Age ?

After a laang hiatus from bollywood and upon numerous friends' suggestions I decided to watch Dev D. And I must say I was impressed. Anurag Kashyap truly has delivered a mindblowing work of art. The cinematography [esp the ones where Dev gets high], the phenomenal acting, the psychedelic settings, the colors, the twisted modern age Devdas story line are all absolutely brilliant. The music is really good. This film has about 18 tracks - All original and mostly without the traditional hero-heroine-and-chorus dance bull-shit. Also if you have some time to burn do check out the movie's website. Absolutely awesome website design. Gulaal is next on my list.
The Stone man murders was the next[bollywood] film that I watched. Its a pretty good thriller. Kay Kay Menon delivers a good performance and the story line is based on the late 80's murders of pavement dwellers in Mumbai and Kolkata.

A few other good non-mainstream bollywood flicks:
Khosla Ka Ghosla is a must watch. A short budget movie this is one of the best comedy hindi movies ever. The story line is so simple, middle class and deals with a lot of issues facing urban middle class India.
This is a really good thriller. The novel says it all. Neil Mukesh's and co's acting is really good and the ending climax [though guessable and the crux of the movie] is also very good.

These are only a few. There are obviously a lot out there. I hope there are a lot more non-mainstream bollywood flicks in the coming years. And I also hope they eventually sideline the current Khan and Kumar BS to become mainstream.

The mole

Most kids in school are mocked for their weight, height, behavior. Mikey for his mole. He was a perfectly normal kid otherwise. School bullies would hound him up for no particular fault of his.

"Your mole is so ugly. Yuck !"

"How do you even manage to look into the mirror ?"

"Sucks to be you."

And so everyday he would dread school. And go back home, dying inside. Sometimes crying. His parents saw that their son was very aloof and vacant in his behavior. They knew. They had advised him to ignore it. They're not worth it. They told him that he was beautiful many times.

"Why do you always lie to me ? You know I am not !! ". And Mikey would storm the door behind him and run off. He thought of many things. Of running away to a new place. Of jumping down from the 3rd floor of his school so that all his school mates would see his splattered head, and the dreaded mole that they despised so much. Of coming back and haunting them for all the miseries they caused him.

"Am i Ugly ?". That thought always haunted Mikey. It made him seem that his mole had destroyed his future. No one would ever wanna be friends with him. No one would ever employ him. Worse. No one would ever marry him. Sometimes people just don't understand how lonely it is to be a kid. Like you don't matter.

He begged his parents to have the mole removed surgically. So that things could go well for him. So that he could have a future. But his parents thought otherwise. And Mikey made a decision. The first thing he would do after turn 18 was to make some money and have the surgery.

That was 15 years ago.

Mikey sat in the waiting room nervously. He walked about the room. Read the magazines. There was no one else in the room to talk to. Did everything to keep his mind off his decision. He grew more restless by the minute. The nurse hadn't come to prep him for the surgery. But his mind kept drifting into his past. He could have run away. He could have jumped off the 3rd floor and later haunted all those heartless morons who harassed him. But he didn't do that. He kept his cool. Life was miserable, but he had hope. Initially he rebuked those who insulted him. He tried to fight but realised it was futile. Soon, he learnt to keep his cool. And then his cool eventually led to callousness. So he made no enemies. He was now in University. The president of the college student association. He had a girl friend. In a way, the mole had taught him how to live. How to ignore all the shit people threw at him. Live like a man.

All those years, it was his mole that had defined him. It was how Mikey was known to others. His entire worthless existence in this universe was defined by a big black spot on his right cheek. And now he was about to destroy it. Erase his existence.

"Mr. Michael Krazinski ?" The nurse announced as she entered the room.

There was no one in the waiting room.

Ver 2.0 ?

Random thoughts just seemed mundane [as rightly pointed out by Dha..]. Since the world these days is so obsessed with "change" I thought why not follow that path.

Slumdaaag

Slumdaag took home 4 golden globes. A movie that makes delusions like "India Shining" evanescence into harsh reality. Slums exist; correction: are rampant in the heart of Asia's so called financial hubs and silicon valleys and cities of joy. More than half of the country's population still defecates in open air. Young kids' are gouged to make them more pitiable and hence alms worthy. Secularism is supposed to be one of our core ideals. Terming Government run high schools pathetic would be an understatement. Corruption so entrenched into the Govt machinery that one wonders how this country is managing GDP increments of 7.5 % and greater every year. Many former underworld dons have now become politicians [And we as citizens are stupid enough by either voting for them or by not choosing to vote at all]. Yet, the movie also shows what India can be. Slums giving way to high rise housing complexes for the poor. The country's growth being fuelled by a knowledge based economy. It shows that despite living in shit, there is potential to transform this place and bring prosperity to its people [although with a tinge of bollywood style masala]. Our politicians must be shown this film so that they can learn something from it. The irony of it all being that such an eye opener, could not be conceived by our own bollywood [who on the other hand is eager to make films on 26/11].

Accountability

Recently, there have been many depressing events across the world. The economic recession, the Mumbai terror attacks, etc. Look at what they have in common. Rather look at what their solutions should have had in common- holding those people responsible for the crisis or prevention of such a crisis. No heads have fallen in the US govt. Those who had foreseen the housing bubble, went on gambling dangerously. The 3 major auto companies of the US have been producing inefficient cars since decades. Now, when they are in serious trouble, they promise to reform themselves. Who was responsible for all those decades of slumber when the companies should have engaged in fruitful research ? There is a similar scenario with the Indian officials. India has 2 major Intelligence agencies. the RAW and IB. RAW supposedly has a strength of 35k. Yet, time and again it fails to give actionable inputs [or so the state police always claim] to the state police. There has been nearly 8 major terrorist strikes in India in the last 2 years alone. Yet, a major restructuring of the Intelligence machinery happens only when so called places of importance [aka places where either politicians or the rich live]. And whether that restructuring is effective also remains to be seen. Such major restructuring should have taken place immediately after the Dec 2001 Parliament attacks. Yet no one is held accountable. There should be some way in which those officials who are responsible are well, fired or even better sued for not discharging their duties effectively. Accountability leads to discipline and an undisciplined man is no different from an animal. Discipline instills integrity, ethics and responsibility in an individual. So if those people who are guilty of being kaamchors should be punished accordingly, otherwise this leads to an even dangerous situation where in that particular individual will not hesitate to relegate his responsibilities in the future. Classic analogy can be with a thief who steals once will continue to steal until he is punished or until he has a self realization where he realizes that stealing is a sin. Since the possibilities of the latter are rather grim there should be some one who punishes the guilty. Even psychologists have found that people won't hesitate to commit wrong things if a person in charge or the authority says its ok to do so. The government(s) should wake up to this and hold to account all those people responsible for the wrong doings, otherwise it has itself to blame for any future tragedies.

Indian authors

I recently read the short story novel by Shashi Tharoor called as "The five Dollar smile and other Stories". This post is not a review about them but rather a musing on why many of the world-renowned "Indian" novelists are well as a matter of fact, no longer Indian. ST lives in NY and has married a Canadian, has twins who attend Yale. The only things that are Indian about Salman Rushdie are his works, which are mostly based on and in the Indian sub-continent and his wife who also no longer deserves to be called an Indian. He is now a UK citizen. Then there is the British Jhumpa Lahiri who won the Pulitzer prize for fiction in 2000. Why on earth does the Indian media include her in the list of those other world renowned "Indian" authors ? All her books also deal with Indians or Indian Immigrants. Then there is Vikram chandra whose works also deal with India and who also served as a co-writer for the Bollywood movie "Mission Kashmir". He is a prof at UC Berkeley. The wiki page for Kiran Desai, the booker prize winner, states that she is an "Indian author who is a citizen of India and is also a permanent resident of the US". Now what the heck is that supposed to mean ? Is she an Indian ? or Naaat ? But then her works also deal with her so called motherland. The interesting thing to observe is that why most of these authors who were born in India, who lived in India, who were educated in India, who subsequently moved to other countries, marrying non-Indians, becoming citizens of those countries continue to be called as Indian authors. Is it because of their once upon a time motherland or is it because of their works which are about their once upon a time motherland ? Also interesting is the fact that their works are mostly based on India. The sentiment and emotion with which they write about their ancestral lands and weave powerful moving stories about its people makes me wonder why they left India in the first place. Was it because of the dearth of publishers here ? I think naat. And why is it that they have this overwhelming Indianness feeling in them [which is evident by their works] even after accepting newer places as their homes ? is it because they took India for granted when they were there and now that they are not in India anymore they miss the customs, habits and more family oriented lives compared to isolated nuclear professional lives, the spicy masaledar bhel puri that they used to eat for a fraction of a dollar compared to the bland western fast food, the endless wait in traffic jams or in the rural case endless wait for a bus compared to the freeways, the list can go on and on. This makes their work seem to be more out of regret. A regret for things that they took for granted. A longingness. A longingness for things they no longer can have. And Love. A love for a land so intricately complex, so ancient, so beautiful, so vast yet seemingly unstable. But whatever be the reason they write about India and its people they don't deserve to be called as Indians as they no longer are. They chose not to be. And yet (through their works) it seems as they wish they wanted to be.