Let’s s look at the other face of our 63 years of Independence. Should we use this day to only celebrate our achievements or also to look at the areas where we have failed? Looks like the former is what everyone agrees to. No one cares about the latter. Don’t you learn from your mistakes?

Let me showcase a few areas where we have failed miserably and tend to avoid. I am not against my country, but please don’t turn a blind eye to the problems. If I was not passionate about my country, I would never spend so much time thinking about the problems too

Poverty

Looks like we are better in campaigning than actually acting. All “Garibi Hatao” did was getting a seat secured for Indira Gandhi. It’s  39 years since that campaign and we still have the more poor people in 8 states combined than 26 poorest African nations. Poor are dying, food grains prices are rising and guess what? Food grains are rotting in open.

Illiteracy

The literacy rate in India is only at 66%. No! 66% is not a decent figure! Look from the other angle — One-third of the population is not educated. The people who can actually exploit this 1/3rd is politicians.

It’s easier to sway illiterate people by emotions. I started believing more in this theory when some 10 years back, Lalu used to command a great section of illiterates in Bihar. Any rally used to pull a huge amount of crowd and people from my city used to  fill trains heading to Patna. At stations I have heard them saying(in local dialect) that “Lalu is our saviour. I am feeling excited since he might announce something for us to end my family’s poverty“. Poor brainwashed people! Probably they never knew that Lalu wants to keep them poor and illiterate so that they can keep on believing in him. Bonus points for guessing why Literacy rate in Bihar took a dip when Lalu took over the CM post.

Caste

I don’t get the much difference between Religion politics and Caste politics. At the lower level, they must be different, but from upper view, it does the same thing - Divide people. Only India can have hypocrites like Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mayawati who call themselves secular and play caste politics. It’s like one hand doesn’t know about the other.

Now forget the politicians. Lets look amongst ourselves. Do you ask other’s caste? Why? Is that necessary? I am not looking at the Internet savvy crowd, but everyone in general. Goto towns, villages, many places caste-spirit runs in the blood of people. Have a look at some

• Caste violence in Punjab
• Caste violence in Maharasthtra

Probably the list wont end and I can jot down one incidence of violence in every state.

Do you know that Hindu temples are dominated by priests who think that by worshiping god they are bringing peace all over the society. Ironically, the word “all” should be changed to “a restricted section”. It is a known fact that temples are pretty much conservative when it comes to let people enter. I always find Gurudwaras to be more open and tolerant. My experience says that people from all castes are allowed to enter and you will be treated same everywhere.

Do you know about these events?

• Dalits can’t enter MP CM’s village temple
• Puja stopped in Orissa temple after Dalits’ entry (Very disgusting)
• Dalit Killed For Attempting Puja

I have given temple examples, since it represents a classic case of how a small section of people have hijacked religion and faith.

Reservations

Finally we are onto the most controversial topic and so called magical-solution to the downtrodden sections of the society. Proponents think that reservation is the only way to bring up the oppressed people. Let’s now look at the outcome of reservations

• Colleges lower OBC cut-offs to fill seats
• IITs may relax cutoffs to fill up quota seats (IIT is also not immune)

There are a few families who are taking advantage of quota for their generation and people in genuine need for it are getting starved. There should be a rule that only a person and their next generation can take the advantage of reservation. If they need the help of reservation for generations and generation then either “The quota system in broken” or “They are incompetent”. In both cases they should be starved of the benefit.

It has been half a century years since reservation was introduced and the society still needs it. Either we are useless or the Quota system is broken.

Another thing which irks me is that the quota system in caste based instead of financial status based. Quota system are meant for oppressed section of the society. Even forward caste people can be poor and lower caste people can be pretty rich. Still, the current system fails to address this problem. Politicians are more interested in caste based politics.

Conclusion

I have stopped only on 4 topics. This doesn’t mean we have only four problems in India. Look around and you will get a more like rising crime rate, corruption etc.

Disclaimer

I don’t care if something in this article hurts you. Getting offended is the easiest thing to do and requires no thinking. If you get offended by this article, I will get offended that you got offended by my article.

Please post polite comments. Any rude/harsh or personally insulting comments will be deleted ASAP.  Please don’t bring emotions in the picture, but counter the claims by facts and proof. Emotions is a sure-shot way to kill logic.

Joining day and Training
I joined Schneider Electric on 1st of July (Wednesday). I was part of 24 people who joined with me from all over the country. We had 3 days of induction ceremony on Wed-Thurs-Fri (WTF). This included all the bigshot people introducing themselves and giving an insight into what they do.
Out training started next week on Monday which was supposed to last for a month. We were divided into IT and EMech(Electrical-Mechanical) people. As expected, the training was a walk-through of the technology needed to work in a technical workplace. This included C, C++, Networking, .NET, version control, testing/validation, Quality standards and team introduction. One day when our trainer was unavailable, we were put in a team which was going for an outing in Savandurga.

Real work
Finally after a month of training, we were put in real work. The initial work was mostly learning about the technologies in which I was supposed to work upon. I was even asked to find the best technology for the given problem statement(project) which was exactly what I wanted.

Confirmation
We all got confirmed from trainees to Software/Design Engineer on 1st of April, 3 months before the scheduled date. We all(most) had a small outing/dinner at Amoeba/3 Quarter Chinese to celebrate this landmark.

One year
On 1st of July, we all had one more important milestone - One year at Schneider. Though, this time we couldn’t go out(till time of writing this) as a few people amongst us(batch-mates) are not in Bangalore, I am hopeful some plan sooner or later.

Learning
One thing I learnt the most I how to interact with people. I made tons of friends from all teams, business units and people whom you might consider are hardly related to me and my work. I came to know a lot about the company and what it works on. All this cannot be achieved without the cooperation and the trust of the managers(worked under 2 manager) I have worked under. This is to the sharp contrast to talks talks that happen on every table during lunch in every company.

Looking at the capabilities of both the managers, all I can say is that “A leader should lead by an example”. They have helped me personally to solve my technical problems which come up now and then, which is again a sharp contrast to the magistrate kinda roles which I keep on hearing from my friends in other companies. Oh even you must have heard it.

Even before working in Schneider, I have an experience working under other people too in other organizations as interns. A few of them were good or average in managing people. A few of them didn’t even have an idea of “A leader should lead by an example”. This is my first positive experience which will always be fresh in my mind

Cya.

Fine, you can say I sensationalized the whole scenario, but I bet every other kid out in the town must have heard some part or the other of the above statement. The catch is that if you don’t study in an elite institute your career is dark. No one ever cared to realize that success depends mostly on the person itself and the institution just provides a common meeting point for like-minded people.

Now after finishing my education, I do look back. I do look back some 10 years when I entered class 8. My initial reaction is “What rubbish were we taught about career those days?”. I never studies in any super elite institutional. I never got any salute from my fellow countrymen for studying in an elite school/college. I don’t the salute for my status, but for my capabilities (if any).

IIT Coaching

Love it or hate it, IIT Coaching is an industry. An industry whose Input is vastly high than it’s output. Keep walking down a lane anywhere in N. India and you would be overwhelmed by the *spam* of IIT Coaching Classes Hoardings. Every pole, wall, tree  or entity under the sun is covered by these “foo coaching classes students set a record. 8/10 top students studies at our center”. No wonder, the first rank is claimed by coaching institutes all over the country even though the student never took any coaching in the first place.

IIT Coaching Centers are nothing less of organized loot. Those who burnt their money in this gamble would surely understand that no coaching center can guarantee you a seat in IIT (unless some scams). It is the student who clears the exam and not the coaching institute. You go there to learn some new concepts, solve doubts. The real study has to be done by *you*.

Mania

IIT has become such a sensitive topic that if a child fails to qualify, it is the parents who feel millions of times more offended than the student. The student is scared, not sad. He fears what will he say to his parents who set their expectations so high that is looks unrealistic for him throughout his preparation. I have seen people dropping years and years in a hope that one fine day they will crack the elite exam. Some are even ready to take any course for the sake of IIT tag even though they have no clue of what course they are taking.

When I took the admission of the college of my choice, the branch of my choice and looked back 2 years, the whole setup looked like a mess. Parents and students have unrealistic high expectations. Unrealistic for the capabilities a student has. Who is the winner in this whole game? The parents? The student? NO - it is the coaching institutes who have their ever expanding bank balance.

Class 12

Now look at class 12 exams. It is the third-grade citizen. Since it does not carry any weight in most exams, it is neglected. In short it increases the load of the students even more since they need to pass with 60% marks to be eligible for IITs. Apart from that it is hardly of any use. The whole setup is so stressful.

Sacrifice

I have even seen parents asking their students to disconnect their TV sets, give up playing XBOX etc since the sacrifice is a good thing.

One logic I hear getting proposed is that “You need to sacrifice something to achieve your goal”. If you can achieve your goal without sacrifice, but you still do sacrifice, are you still a hero? Not for me, I’ll call you  a fool. Humans should always try to be more comfortable as possible and turn to sacrifice when there is no options left. I never respect sacrifice. If you do it intentionally, then you are a fool, if you do because you had no option, then you have to do it, nothing break-through.

Recommendation by Damodar Acharya

When I read this recommendation by Damodar Acharya IIT  KGP Director, my eyes lit up.

Firstly it might reduce the importance of IIT Coaching centers. That open loot can be controlled. Now head down to read the knee-jerk reactions. All you will hear is that “This undermines the prestige of our institutions”. Now one cares to explain how? Some say “IIT will be destroyed”. Again now proof. Some say that “Increasing the value of class 12 exams will destroy the prestige of the institutes”. Again how? how? how?

Looks like there is more importance on keeping the brand value and status of the institution intact rather than improving the pathetic situation of millions of students appearing for IIT. It’s like a Monarch where people are dying of hunger, but the king is more worried about maintaining of the Palace because the quality of the Palace is a  status symbol.  Again you can bring in the logic of sacrifice for candidate students, but as I explained above, sacrifice is nothing short of stupidity. It’s like “What’s the problem is being harassed? Weren’t you harassed for last 10 years?”

If you really want to oppose this recommendation, sit back and think deeply and come up with real opposition points rather than “IT WILL SPOIL THE IITS. THIS IS BAD. NO THEY ARE ALL STUPID”. Sigh.

Firefox

Do I need to explain this? I think unless you are using Internet for Orkut and Gmail, you must have surely heard about it. Do get some awesome addons like Adblock Plus, Sxipper, XMarks, DownThemAll, Firebug etc

Google Chrome

If you want even more speed, then get Google’s browser. Googlers are crazy when it comes to speed. I recommend keeping a second browser as IE doesn’t qualify as  a browser.

Console

You ever tried opening cmd.exe only to say “How stupid ugly it looks”. Even tried looking at terminal emulators of Linux? You’ll start abusing MS. Get Console.

Launchy

Don’t move your hand away from the keyboard. You can launch any application using this Launcher

Notepad++

The TextMate for windows. We hardly need it for Linux. We have Vim/Emacs

Paint.NET / Pinta

Even wanted to do any image manipulation and you were forced to open Photoshop/GIMP?  These two come to rescue.

Pidgin

The multi-account instant messenger. Works like a charm on majority of the OSs available

pidgin-facebook

Add facebook buddies on Pidgin. No need to chat from inside the browser window

Thunderbird

The mail client which I really admire (after Outlook 2007). It’s cross-platform

Inkscape

Vector drawing tool. Cross-platform. Works great. It’s not an Illustrator replacement.

7Zip

Stop there. Don’t install Winzip or Winrar and then get annoying messages to register to continue using it. 7zip gives you peace of mind.

PdfCreator

Even want to convert any document to PDF? Use Pdfcreator which adds a virtual printer to your system.

Foxit Reader

Please! For God’s sake, don’t install Adobe Reader and save the mankind. You’ll never use 95% of the features provided in that bloatware.

Process Explorer

The Process Tab of Task Manager isn’t so great. Try this application and have more control over what applications are running.

uTorrent

The first and last torrent client you will ever need for windows

You know, 12/15 applications I suggested are open-source ones. (Including Paint.NET)

Just imagine a story. You went to Regional Transport Office (RTO) to apply for your driving license. You are an honest citizen who wants to abide by law. You even took a leave from your work so that you can get a license and drive a two-wheeler daily from home to office. It is 10 in the morning and RTO hasn’t opened. You wait till 11 when all the employees of RTO enter the building. They are shocked to see you waiting outside the office (you know why). You are asked to wait in a small waiting room in a hot summer day which doesn’t have provision for water and then ceiling fan is nearly dead.

You wait for an hour before someone calls you. It’s your turn to apply for license. You produce the documents as proof only to hear “This won’t work”. Before you can say anything, even your photo is rejected the reason which is not known to anyone. After arguing for 10 minutes you leave.

You come next day with all the proper documents, this time with more proofs in hand. To your utter surprise, they again made some weird reasons and rejected your application. You are broken and leave for your office from RTO. During lunch you tell one of your colleague what you faced for last two days and even add “How did you get your license in 1 working day?”.  The answer you get shocks you badly - “Dude! You don’t know the corruption in RTO? Looks like you never dealt with this office? Unless you get your application filed from the agent, it won’t get accepted through ever. This is because a part of agent commission even goes to the person who is dealing with your license. Since, you went directly, the person rejected your application using weird reasons since he wanted you to apply via agent”

Scene: Deogarh

When I was in class 9, my parents took me to Deogarh which is known for it’s world famous temple Baba Baidyanath Temple. Our relatives used to live in Deograh, so it was a dual purpose visit. It was ages since my parents gave to visit to the temple. We reached the place in afternoon and headed to our relative’s house to take rest for the day.

Next day morning, me, my younger brother, father and mother headed to the temple in a 2 rickshaws ( the most famous means of transport in Deograh). As we reached near the temple, the experience was something different from what I experienced in Puri or any other famous temple. All of a sudden priests (pandas) came flying out of nowhere running behind the rickshaws asking us if we need their help for visiting the temple. My father kept on saying “No” time and again. Just imagine how you feel when you are attacked by a colony of honeybees? As we neared towards the temple, the pandas standing near the temple were even more surprised. How on earth  did we manage to break their strong fort and come so close inside all alone?

When I saw the honeybee attack, my first reaction was “Is it situation in some dense forest area or a cave that we need a guide/priest to go all the way upto the shrine?“. When the rickshaw stopped all I could see was a temple in midst of a big market. We paid the rickshaw driver, took off our shoes and headed inside the temple. As we entered there was another attack of honeybees, this time with all rates and slabs. It sounded like “Bribe the God with Rs x and you will get salvation from your sins” or “All you send to spend is some xK and leave the rest to us, God will forgive your sins“. The offers and donation plans were more exhaustive and elaborate than even a Nokia product showcase with various models of all shapes, sizes and price. It sounded like, if you take this donation scheme your sins would be washed away in n days and if you take even a costlier scheme your sins would be washed away in just n/2 days.

Pushing away all pressures, we somehow managed to get near the shrine and suddenly one of the priest lost his temper and started shouting at us. Why? Since we came on our own and didn’t take any agent to pay a visit to God. My father, who knows how to deal with the world told us “Leave him, ignore him”. It sounded like “Look front or you’ll be trolled hard“. We went inside the shrine, came out unharmed.

Implications

Noticed something? The similarity between the two scenes? In the first case, we crib against the corruption and have to take the services of the agents. In the second case it isn’t considered even a corruption. The priests who are considered to be pure and supposed to be away from materialistic world are in a mad rush for money. That too, to such an extent that they start shouting at you if you don’t take their services. Atleast in the first case, they didn’t openly say so. Any lesson learnt? Everything is fair when it comes to religion.  God is hostage, even though we say “God is everywhere”

Even though am more of an agnostic, my parents do believe in God. The have no issues since everyone has a right to lead their life the way they want. One thing I admire is that they still didn’t paid the pandas the bribe to get the Almighty’s blessing.

The plea of Pawar, who while admitting that his client was “blinded by religion” sought leniency for the terrorist given his young age, failed to convince the judge.

This statement should have made the case against Kasab even more stronger. Religion is always misused for personal gains. If he was “blinded by religion”, then also it is his mistake.

What next? As I said in a reply to Mehul, I am just waiting for Human Rights activists to  stage a protest that Kasab has a right to live and law doesn’t have power to take away his life. Ironically, such people only appear from hiding when justice is announced. When policemen die,  they open their mouth. They would go to attend funerals of terrorists but not of martyrs. It’s their old hypocritical practice to oppose death penalty ignoring the current situation of law and order.

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Finally right from the horse’s mouth

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1. God loves you. He loves the world. Even if you do a thousand sins, he won’t demolish the earth. Any speculation of doomsday and apocalypse due to his anger is pure bullshit. No one wants to destroy what they built. If any disaster happens on this planet, it is because such a disaster can happen. Murphy rules them all.
2. God loves you. You don’t need to fear him. Remember the religious books? — God forgives. Now stop fearing God and live your life peacefully.
3. You think that you committed some grave sin and God will forgive you. Now since you know God will forgive you, so you go on committing more sins. See what you have done? Created a chicken-egg problem. You idiot!
4. If you goto God only when in times of need, you better need to introspect yourself. You love God just because you need something from him. Is this what religion is meant for?
5. When God sent you on this planet, he expected some minimum output from you. This output actually includes living you life, crying like a baby to make others say “choo chweet”, becoming a good human being, making love, raising your children, doing humanitarian services and all those good things taught in Moral Science books. No where did he say to give up the normal life and worship him day and night. Get up and serve the society. God would be more pleased.
6. Going to place of worship won’t make God as happy as much as you think. He would be more happy if you spread peace and humanity all around. Hey! Leave God for a while. Doing these would even make you happy.
7. Who on this planet can ever think that offering sacrifice to Gods makes them happy? I mean sacrifices like Animal Sacrifice or even Human Sacrifice. Urgghh! You are committing a ghastly crime right front of his eyes. You really need to rot in hell. He never likes to see his creations butchered by narrow-minded people like you.

I had been to Manipal for three days for my University Convocation which was on 2nd of November. This day being a weekday instead of Saturday can be held responsible for a bit poor turnout of this great event. I reached Manipal on Sunday morning and left on Tuesday night.

Sunday

Reached Manipal at 10:30AM in the morning. The bus was unusually late and I was dead tired. When I stepped out of the bus, I could feel the real heat which we had been bitching for the last four years. It was really too hot especially after spending 4 months in Bangalore where the weather is excellent, or say PERFECT!

Getting down the bus, I went to the college hostel which one of my friend had booked for us. The hostel was 14C(MIT Hostels) which is probably situation in the valley.  Going up in the heart of the campus needs some serious exercise as the 15th floor of this block is at the same height as the ground floor of the hostels in the heart of the campus.

After getting fresh, we(Gaurav, me and Atul) left for lunch at Dollops. We were in no mood to miss the finger-licking chicken lollipop. After finished the lunch, we went to college to get ourselves registered for the convocation.

The real fun was at night. Nearly 95% of the crowd who came to Manipal for convo headed for DT. The place was full and for those few hours, it looked like this place was the most happening place in the world. People were enjoying at their max, all beautiful chicks the place was filled with smoke. We all reached back Hostel by 2 in the night

Monday

I got up quite early in the morning, went to the college to get the convocation gown. I was shocked to know that the college had so-so many gowns which can be given to most of the students who came for this event. After getting all the required, we all 3 headed to China Valley, which is another restaurant which I had never missed whenever I got a chance in my engineering. After having delicious food, we all returned back to hostel. The big event needs big preparations.

Everyone I could see was running here and there, getting formals, shoes polished, ties and what not? Everyone wanted to look as smart as possible. It looked like a formal fashion show. We took our gowns in our hands to wear it at the event itself. At evening, reached KMC Greens on time. The venue was well lit up and looked more like a traditional Indian marriage. All of us who had registered had been allocated a seat for the time other’s were receiving degrees.

The Convocation started with Kasturba Medical College and ended with MIT. I was really thrilled when I got a chance to come on the stage and was handed  over the degree. It is a prized possession. After the distribution of degrees, we headed over to Manipal University campus where dinner was arranged for all of us. After dinner, the only place I could think was again -DT. The Mecca of Manipal. Even though it was jam packed as usual, I along with some of my friends managed to find a place with other friends who were already camping for an hour. The experience that day is difficult to explain. All I can say is that we somehow managed to return back to hostel by 2:30AM.

Tuesday

Tuesday morning I got up early. I have a younger cousin studying at Manipal in 2nd year Mechanical. Called him up and asked him to come for lunch. We both went to Saiba, the place which I was not able to visit for last 2 days. We had a normal lunch as opposed to my heavy one. By that time I came to know that all the photos were being transferred by Aavik. I missed no second and went to this room to collect all the snaps from different sources.

Around 4PM, I called up Akshay and asked all the LUG guys to assemble in CCD for a get-together. The people who finally turned up were - Ankur, Djays, Anomit, Sameer, Akshay, Ujjwal, Tushar, Shashank. We had discussions ranging from latest breakthroughs to technology to where Manipal is heading to. This exhaustive session lasted 2 hours.

The day was drawing to a close. I had to catch a bus back to Bangalore. All I could take back to Bangalore were memories. This place gave me so many things. So many good friends. Miss you all! Miss you Manipal

Flickr set

Cubicle Decoration

Admin Department

The Admin Department came up with their own decoration

Fancy Dress Competition

This is a group pic of all the participants

You want to know who is the winner and why? Watch the video below. Have no hard feelings, the performance was awesome and mind blowing. Lower the volume of your speaker before hitting Play.