What do you do when you are well past retirement age, have nothing interesting to do and desperately need some whisky? You spend a few years writing a book on some bloke who passed away half a century ago, add some provocative statements that will get you expelled from your 'fundamentalist' party and before you know it, your exorbitantly priced book,which would have sunk without a trace otherwise, is a bestseller!
Although I am no admirer of Jaswant, I must admit that it was brilliant strategy on the old geezer's part. Of course his party colleagues who helped engineer his 'expulsion' must be commended for their fine acting. However there was one crucial flaw that gave them away; they stated that they had gone through the entire book (and subsequently found that it went against 'core party idealogy'), although the book was released only on the 17th evening and Jaswant was expelled on the 19th morning.And we're talking about a 650 pages long book written in english!
Moving on, the recent protests by IIT profs have created quite a stir, at least on the news channels. Their greivances are genuine, unfortunately, and this is indeed one of the biggest problems afflicting our education system(or lack of it). If the IIT's have difficulties recruiting competent faculty wing to lack of adequate compensation, then spare a thought for all the lesser colleges out there.
Most people who do their engineering from the tier 2 and 3 colleges don't really have too many options. They can either join an IT company, go abroad for further studies(if they can afford it) or try clearing exams like GATE,CAT,GRE or even the UPSC exams, failing which they will be forced to join similar tier 2 or 3 colleges for their ME. A substancial proportion of the students end up pursuing the last option and are faced with a very bleak scenario, for save the IIT's and a few other decent instis, graduate engg programs in our country are pathetic and woefully inadequate.The best amongst these grad students(merely a handful) take up research or join core companies. The opportunistic ones join the film industry, while the lowest common denominator enters into politics. The ones stuck somewhere in between join colleges like IIPM.The rest become teachers.
Which reminds me of an adage that is especailly relevant given the present scenario, "Those who can do, those who can't teach".
PS: Kaminey seems to be the most talked about movie these days. So much so, that everytime someone yells 'Kaminey!', the first thing that comes to my mind is Shahid Kapoor!
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SSN experience has taught you that teachers are worse than IIPM grads eh? lmao..
Being an alumni you ought to know better. SSN, being the 'premier' insti it is, has wonly 'geth' staff.Especially IT dept!:P
clap clap clap :)
*this post was read out over the phone to Omkar his view - balls! he hit the nail on the head! *
My view...we need to revamp the education system(reservations et al) etc
Tell Jaswat and others to join the Italian Seri A or Chealsea :)
@vishesh:*bows*
Thank you :).(And Omkar's view, especially his admirable usage of slang is appreciated :P)
Lol. Personally, I feel Jaswant should join ManU :|
I am was amazed by the jinnukku chikkaan Jinnah contorversy
Ur right man teachig is becoming pathetic. I h ave a person who thinks insolvent is a person who has been kidnapped for 6 months ;| now how can you put up with this guy. He is a having vacation at college literally.
Teaching would be the last profession i would want to do because i know how i would cursed and hassled by the brats. I will be off if i stay away
Good one, Govind! Though I have never been on the "professional" side of the planet, the scenario I have understood has always been bleak.
The controversy surrounding Jaswant's book and the controversy have been aptly portrayed too.
Cheers!
The BJP is thoroughly insane, in my eye:) If Jaswant is expelled, so has to be Varun. There is some something fundamentally wrong with the party ideology and everyone seems to have different diffident baggages of views , right from Sushma to Rajnath Singh. No use discussing BJP dude. Let the vampires save them.
As for the pay hike, thats what the some 2nd commission recently revised ila? Teaching has become old fashioned now-a-days. But i tell you, Its will be one of the most sought after jobs few yrs down the down:)
Kaminey. Don't think of him when you hear Kaminey. Its attrocious. I have a huge thing for him:P:P
P.S: At college, with my mam behind. We are supposed to be listening to the lecture. I am tweeting and spamming blogs:P:P
@Venky:'jinnukku chikkaan Jinnah'!Lol!We need people like you to become teachers :P
@Srini:Thanks! And now that you're pursuing a Phd, you are also a professional!:)
@Arc: Free period ah?:P
Even if what you say is true, ur still an ire padips :)
Shahid?You seem to have poor taste. Paavum ur ire paiyyan :P
cha cha...free period na me is jumping from my col rooftops or plotting to purposefully hang some pple in my col (:P) . I don't vettily comment over blogs at free periods:D:P
POOR TASTE? PLS REFER AN OPHTHALMOLOGIST ASAP. My ire paiyan... see,see ... I am gonna make him President or something and sit at rashtrapathi bhavan commanding ice-creams ,bhel puris and truckload of twix bars every two hrs:P. Ah, nice no?:)
@GP
It is unfortunate that teaching is looked or should I put it another way - that teaching has lost its charm in this country for reasons totally irrelevant to the vocation? It is a vicious cycle and one does not know where to begin really... Perhaps, entering teaching with the same monetary view with which one enters other fields (a view which is NOT criminal, a view which is practical but a view which until recent times was a mismatch to the remuneration standards in the vocation until recently!) could be stated as one reason...
I for one have always wanted to teach and I guess I have been fortunate enough to have been taught by the legends of the fall as it were. If the recent pay hikes are anything to go by, one problem seems to be somewhat taken care of... But what about the attitude towards change? Sigh!
It is sad and even if I do not make a revolution, I wish to think I can pitch in - at least in my sphere.
PS: Talking of academics, the new UGC norms on Ph. Ds are mortifying. Instead of seeking to make things stringent at the top, they are - by the looks of it - trying to make it easier. A quintessential case of four steps forward and fourteen back!
some typos and syntactic discontinuities in my comment there. Apologies!
@Srini:It's great that you want to become a teacher. I agree that teaching is a noble profession, but of late the wrong people are taking up teaching for all the wrong reasons.
Don't be apprehensive. Like Gandhi said, "Be the change you want to see in the world". You never know, you just might start the next revolution. :)
There goes blaming the system for something that doesnt go one's way!! I partially agree when they say IT dept teachers are geth staff.. save Thiruvali and i-dunno-whatsitsname, i just love their awesomeness. We miss KKT the dawg who thought Macromedia was the thing of the future..
I personally miss my data mining staff, the one who's very recently failed her Phd exams(from what i heard)
And good to see your blog to have such open discussions!! makes me want to blog again.. Guess i can take this liberty to network with other commentators here..
@venky the "jinukku jikkan jinah" piece was hilarious! you havent seen the other side of teaching i guess. If you hear about Bschools, you'll see ppl swearing by their profs.. Just dont look at SSN/your coll and generalize things. just my humble opinion!
@Hantan:Your views are most welcome!
And yeah, I have no clue bout B school profs, which is why I specifically discussed the case of engg faculty.And from what I've read and experienced, it's a fairly accurate generalization.:)
Typed out a long comment and it vamoosed into thin air. Anyway the crux was this: I agree with Hantan's views to the extent that B-school profs continue to be among the best in the country but then even that is restricted to the cream. (Naturally, prolly others cannot AFFORD the best heads, at least on paper??? I don't quite buy that myself but yeah... that could be the reason). Consequently, the divide between the best and the rest is enlarging to an extent that seems uncontrollable at the moment.
And I agree with you Govind as regards the elsewhere scenario. My profs here for instance are the best in the country in what they do. But the future? Pretty bleak I must say. A cousin of mine is doing M. Math at a premiere insti and she is not "too" impressed with the teaching either. So even the supposedly best arts and science places languish from the same sort of impoverishment of good faculty!
Hmmm...
Coming to IT dept staffs, beleive me.. U will die if u sit for more than 30 min....
@srinivas : I guess u r talking abt MGK or Mohanavalli (The worst ladies)
Politics, controversies, books and people! Phew..... what a nation we've become and what a bunch of stooges we people are!!!
Very well written!
And hey, heres a note of caution! Please don't be swayed by the Kaminey fever or rather fervour.....thats all I'd say!