For want of ideas, or flashes of imagination, I haven't put in any of my own writing today. Instead, I'm displaying here two posts by an interesting blogger. Here's something on -
nanopolitan: Geeky blog names
12 April 2009
nanopolitan: Mistakes in JEE question papers
The mistakes in last year's IIT JEE question paper are by now public. To know about the magnitude of the mistake and how mant could be affected read this link:
nanopolitan: Mistakes in JEE question papers
nanopolitan: Mistakes in JEE question papers
06 April 2009
Social reform in Students' hostels needed
Co-ed hostels must be brought into use within institutions of higher learning. A small part of the existing hostels must be converted into co-ed hostels and the option of staying in such places must be offered to those who would benefit
Pro-active approaches are needed in all aspects of our democracy. The fact that it has been working to satisfaction is not necessarily a reasonto relax. Let me write about two events that bear witness to the need for social reform within the student community. One happened eight years ago when I was a research assoc. in an IIT and the other was narrated by a friend and took place just a few months ago.
There was a transgender student, I think a BTech, in this IIT where I was enrolled as a researcher, who wished to be accomodated in one of the the women's (girls') hostels because she self-identified as a woman, However, following lack of co-operation from various people involved/or owing to unwillingness to face a new situation, this student had to stay in a separate single room apartment, which is usually given to Research Associates and Junior faculty.
The other happening is when one friend of mine, a muslim girl, wished to go to Bangalore to take up a job at the end of her PhD, in physics. She was accomodated in a guest house, as a paying guest. She had to share a room with four/five other women. These would never talk to her in a friendly or courteous way, mostly tell her how to arrange her stuff and pass veiled comments about her presence and so on. One day one of the room-mates lost her gold chain and while no one openly accused this girl, they brought the warden in and made her check everyone's baggage and later, continued to cold shoulder thsi one, acting as if she were alien, and made further pointed veiled remarks.
My friend holds strong suspicions that the culprit was the other occupant who projected an image of being a close friend of the one who lost the chain.
I think in both these situations, the problem is because one group felt an ownership of the territory, due to their being the majority in that instance. There is a suggestion I have for hostel reform. Institutions likethe IITs that offer professional and higher educations should have, in addition to the present hostels, a co-ed hostel where accomodation can be taken up voluntarily by students who understand India's diversity. Letters of acceptance can be sent to parents/guardians/former teachers for approval/endorsement. Further, initially, if the institutions think they need to test out the concept, it can be offered for final and pre-final year students only. Those students who have established trust with the institute. Rules governing this hostel must be framed so that they will work towards nurturing a bias-free environment within the educational system.
Pro-active approaches are needed in all aspects of our democracy. The fact that it has been working to satisfaction is not necessarily a reasonto relax. Let me write about two events that bear witness to the need for social reform within the student community. One happened eight years ago when I was a research assoc. in an IIT and the other was narrated by a friend and took place just a few months ago.
There was a transgender student, I think a BTech, in this IIT where I was enrolled as a researcher, who wished to be accomodated in one of the the women's (girls') hostels because she self-identified as a woman, However, following lack of co-operation from various people involved/or owing to unwillingness to face a new situation, this student had to stay in a separate single room apartment, which is usually given to Research Associates and Junior faculty.
The other happening is when one friend of mine, a muslim girl, wished to go to Bangalore to take up a job at the end of her PhD, in physics. She was accomodated in a guest house, as a paying guest. She had to share a room with four/five other women. These would never talk to her in a friendly or courteous way, mostly tell her how to arrange her stuff and pass veiled comments about her presence and so on. One day one of the room-mates lost her gold chain and while no one openly accused this girl, they brought the warden in and made her check everyone's baggage and later, continued to cold shoulder thsi one, acting as if she were alien, and made further pointed veiled remarks.
My friend holds strong suspicions that the culprit was the other occupant who projected an image of being a close friend of the one who lost the chain.
I think in both these situations, the problem is because one group felt an ownership of the territory, due to their being the majority in that instance. There is a suggestion I have for hostel reform. Institutions likethe IITs that offer professional and higher educations should have, in addition to the present hostels, a co-ed hostel where accomodation can be taken up voluntarily by students who understand India's diversity. Letters of acceptance can be sent to parents/guardians/former teachers for approval/endorsement. Further, initially, if the institutions think they need to test out the concept, it can be offered for final and pre-final year students only. Those students who have established trust with the institute. Rules governing this hostel must be framed so that they will work towards nurturing a bias-free environment within the educational system.
Debate in Vijay TV
Following the success of NDTV's "Big Fight," Vijay TV has tried to get people together and organise debates. Vijay TV has the reputation of being a channel that innovates and invests in imaginative and entertaintaining short half-hour to one-hour long programmes, rather than the usual soaps and Cinema-related fare and News offered by most other TV channels.
In doing this they have suffered many challenges, in fact, whole teams have been hijacked by other, rival channels, when the ratings of certain programmes shot up. However, though the concepts have been innovative and bold in the lines of the entertainment forms being projected -- these range from reality shows on dance to debates, to soaps centering around school and college-going youth rather than sob stories and dynastic clashes -- the content has almost always, except in dance shows - been very status-quo and supportive of the lethargy in society.
Take the debate show I happened to see today. It was a debate between two sets of women. One that was "progressive" voting that woen should take care of their appearance and dress, should be ready to remarry if a marriage breaks down etc etc. The other set opposed all this.
Of course the thoughtful part, characteristic of Vijay TV was that all participants including the judge were women.
But the inevitable downside is that all this again rivets to the point of view that women's freedom is arrived at by consensus of some kind - albeit among women.
The whole notion of freedom and spontaenity and pleasure as deriving from one's personal philosophy and taste, without having to obtain the support and aggrement of one's neighbours, has not been considered at all. The content is always chosen from topics that are personal and can only suffer from being made into common public choices!
Debates on the things that really involve a consensus - policies, political attitudes, what is violence and how to prevent it etc are totally absent.
Young India! Switch off that Television and show off that you have intelligence, kiddos!
In doing this they have suffered many challenges, in fact, whole teams have been hijacked by other, rival channels, when the ratings of certain programmes shot up. However, though the concepts have been innovative and bold in the lines of the entertainment forms being projected -- these range from reality shows on dance to debates, to soaps centering around school and college-going youth rather than sob stories and dynastic clashes -- the content has almost always, except in dance shows - been very status-quo and supportive of the lethargy in society.
Take the debate show I happened to see today. It was a debate between two sets of women. One that was "progressive" voting that woen should take care of their appearance and dress, should be ready to remarry if a marriage breaks down etc etc. The other set opposed all this.
Of course the thoughtful part, characteristic of Vijay TV was that all participants including the judge were women.
But the inevitable downside is that all this again rivets to the point of view that women's freedom is arrived at by consensus of some kind - albeit among women.
The whole notion of freedom and spontaenity and pleasure as deriving from one's personal philosophy and taste, without having to obtain the support and aggrement of one's neighbours, has not been considered at all. The content is always chosen from topics that are personal and can only suffer from being made into common public choices!
Debates on the things that really involve a consensus - policies, political attitudes, what is violence and how to prevent it etc are totally absent.
Young India! Switch off that Television and show off that you have intelligence, kiddos!
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