SHIVRAJ RATH

Your Social Account Could Be Hacked This Way

2011-09-10T18:46:00.000+05:30

This is how your id will be hacked:

STEP 1

You get a mail from your social friend about some funny happening. In this case I get a request from my one of my twitter friend. It asks me to visit twitter and log in. In disguise it takes me to http://itwitier.com/login/sessions/ [the fake URL: Opens in mobile browsers. Most modern desktop browsers block it]

Fake Twitter Login Mail

STEP 2

You login to your account from the link given in the mail. The site you land up is visually no different from the actual thing.

Fake Twitter: Visible similar to main site

Actual Twitter

And now this is how you can avoid this:

STEP 1

If the URL is linking to anything different to the main URL, don't visit.
Ex:

twitter.123.com
xyz.twitter.com
facebook@login.com

Check the site name from the hyperlink and not from the printed label, ex: this link https://www.facebook.com does not redirect to facebook.

Check here for more tips.

STEP 2

Most site which ask for user name and password have a secure https version. So in the URL change http to https. This is especially needed when you are doing some banking transaction. Check here on how https is helpful.

Check for https

STEP 3

Keep your browser updated. IE 6 users are more prone to falling in trap than IE9 user. So, regularly update your browser. If you get an phishing Detected message, don't proceed.

Phishing Detection in IE

For Google Chrome users, don't use beta versions for banking transactions, they have open loopholes for hackers to dig in.

Adding to it Chrome does not show "http" and "https" unlike IE.

IE URL

Chrome URL

So, next time you are in doubt, apply bit of caution and knowledge. Happy Browsing.

Trip To Wayanad, Kerala

2011-09-01T22:07:00.000+05:30

Wayanad district, in the beautiful state of Kerala was the chosen place to relieve us from the hurry-burry life of Bengaluru.

A simple city in the abode of nature, gives you great eye refreshing and awe inspiring beauty. Lust green forest, huge spread of tea farming and clouds engulfing the mountains, lakes and waterfalls are just worth watching.

Our short stay plan and rainy weather did not prove deterrent. We explored the best of district in Gods own country.

Here are some of the photographs which I could click through.

Edakkal Caves

Pookot Lake

Karapuzha Dam

Kanthanpara Waterfalls

Some handy information for the travelers:

October to May is considered as the best months to visit Wayanad.
Wayanad provides decent lodging facilities.
Food is good, both north and south Indian foods are available.
Get a skilled driver, because the roads though good are still challenging
The best places to visit in a short trip

Edakkal Caves
Muthanga Wild Life Sanctuary
Pookot Lake
Meenmutty Falls
Banasura Dam

A Bajaj Pulsar 220 Giving 77KMPL Milege

2011-06-21T21:12:00.002+05:30

For a 220cc bike what would be the on road mileage? I’ve less knowledge on the mechanics of bikes, so sought for the help from Google. A cursory search helped me in concluding that it would be around 35 to 45kmpl.

Now this picture below [shared by Rajeev] blemishes all my Googling effort.

Pulsar 220 DTSi giving 77KMPL Milege

The ad is put in front of a garage. Perhaps a Pulsar 220 is not getting sold off from here. Big ads and they think to make fool of everyone.

Facebook Vs Indian Railway

2011-06-20T23:52:00.001+05:30

With ever growing online population and multifarious means to access internet, facebook has seen unprecedented rise in their people world, the data they present is unmatched.

I was pondering from where they could get a competition from. Suddenly my eyes fell on to population statistics for India in wolfram. And in India if there is anything that could match the scale of facebook it has to be Indian Railway.

I did some data search and came out with some very interesting comparisons between the giants.

1. Active Users

Facebook received around 500million active users last year, in comparison Indian railway gets around 25million plus passengers every day, which is close to 750million passengers per month or 8000million per year. No match for the railways.

2. Revenue

Wikipedia gives FB’s revenue to be around 2bn US$. In contrast Indian Railways gross earning for year 2009-2010 was approx 19.1bn$. Unbeatable, isn’t it?

3. Hardware

According to facebook has more than 53,000 servers [Extrapolating the searched data]. Now this is impressive, Indian Railway has around 64,215Km of track laid, 2,30,000 wagons, 9,0000 locomotives.

4. Employees

Not a great point for comparison, but felt interesting. While facebook gives direct employment to about 2000 people, the railways provide it to 1.6million people. That is for 1Fb employee there are 800 railway employees. Humongous ratio.

5. Engaged population

Here I may be biased. But this was an interesting figure I came upon. Around 41.6% of US population is on facebook, which counts to nearly 127million people. Now the same data I didn’t had for Indian Railway. So, I devised this simple formula

No. of people above poverty line in India/2=31.5% of Indian population=363million people, 1.18 times US population.

Although it is completely inappropriate to compare Facebook with Indian Railways, but the data seems to be an eye opener. Both give service to people. So, if someone wants’ to have direct access to large number of people, nothing better than starting with the Railways. Laloo Ji what say?

Coconut Wala's Disclaimer

2011-06-20T08:08:00.002+05:30

So, I go to this Nariyal pani wala (Coconut water fellow) and ask him, "Bhaiya ek jyada pani wala nariyal dena (Brother give me coconut rich in liquid)" and I also add this disclaimer that if I'm not satisfied with the amount I'll pay Rs2 less.

Coconut Man from India [Creative Commons Reuse Licence]

So, this guy chops off a Coconut’s top, makes a small cavity and inserts a pink color straw into it and offers it to me. The liquid was tasty and the content also satisfactory. And before I finished I made up my mind that it was worth Rs.15.

Two Rupee [Creative Commons Reuse Licence]

Out of my satisfaction, I tell him that it was more than enough. To which he replies that he will charge extra Rs. 2 for the extra liquid the coconut contained. I was taken aback by his wit. I’d missed his disclaimer.

HCL Out or No 1

2011-06-19T18:15:00.004+05:30

Recently I came across this billboard ad from HCL (They just keep tweaking the same ad every fortnight.)

The ad tells that "HCL is the most trusted Indian IT brand". God knows how do you measure trust and who on this world has time to do this trust calculation.

Now to embellish the meaning of this theme they put an umpire signalling "OUT". Now how does this convey their theme? Did they mean to say they are no 1 (which they are not!) or they wanted to tell they have out shined others (which they can't) or it could mean I'm a dumbo, who failed to understand (which I'm not).

Hope their glory reaches out to those whom they meant. Certainly not to me.

Horrible Spellings

2011-06-17T23:11:00.003+05:30

Coming from office I noticed some horrible spelling mistakes in English. The below one is from a English medium school itself.

And the below one I found it in a nearby hotel. Hindi to English and the food has lost its meaning.

Hope you don’t start finding spelling mistakes from my blog. I bet there could be many here too.

More horrible spellings

I Promise Myself

2011-05-10T07:29:00.000+05:30

“I Promise Myself” by Christian D. Larson was written 100 years ago. But its relevance has been ever rising. Larson is touted as the father of new thought in USA. He is the emblem for the optimist club. You read the lines below to know why so.

To be so strong that nothing can disturb my peace of mind.
To talk health, happiness, and prosperity to every person I meet.
To make all my friends feel that there is something worthwhile in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make my optimism come true.
To think only of the best, to work only for the best and to expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others as I am about my own.
To forget the mistakes of the past and press on to the greater achievements of the future.
To wear a cheerful expression at all times and give a smile to every living creature I meet.
To give so much time to improving myself that I have no time to criticize others.
To be too large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear, and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
To think well of myself and to proclaim this fact to the world, not in loud words, but in great deeds.
To live in the faith that the whole world is on my side, so long as I am true to the best that is in me.

Google's Ad Goes Wrong

2011-01-27T14:45:00.001+05:30

I ran a Google search with search term “googledocs”. I was surprised with this adsense ad for Google Docs.

Did you find anything wrong? See the ad’s title, it reads Gogole instead of Google. How come Google spell its own name improperly or was it a Google trick to get eye balls to the plain ad for docs? Whatever be the reason, one thing is clear that a company like Google is not always perfect.

Must See MS PowerPoint Tricks

2010-06-12T10:35:00.001+05:30

I have collected some useful powerpoint tricks from Digital Inspiration's Video Gallery. They really make powerpoint a great tool to make your presentation. If you have any powerpoint tips to share then do comment on the post. Here are the tricks:

View the videos in full screen mode:

1. Creating Photo Cube Effect in Powerpoint:

2. Creating hand drawn circle in powerpoint:

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3. Removing Background from the images:

4. Timeline Effect with powerpoint:

5. Line Animation in Powerpoint

6. Photo Editing in Powerpoint:

7. Animating Object Movement in Power Point

Leaving ITER

2010-06-11T14:22:00.000+05:30

I created this video on my final day at ITER. I used Picasa to create the video.

Prof. B K Sarap’s Final Message to Us

2010-06-11T14:09:00.001+05:30

Prof. (Dr.) B K Sarap

The ever glowing, smoldering smile, humongous personality was there for the final time. I went to the conference hall just to listen to his precious words. Prof (Dr.) B K Sarap stood as confident as ever, ready to bid adieu to his beloved students. These were his messages eloquently delivered:

Make Friends: Make friends and more friends. They are the parents and they are the teachers for you throughout your life. World is not a place to survive alone. Socialize, live the life for others. Real investment in life comes from giving.

Know your limits: Never ever borrow in your life, be in your limits. Living in your boundaries is much happier experience than begging to be rich.
Secondly never boast yourself out of proportion, you will be immediately exposed. Better not to get false praise than facing the brunt of ignominy.

Never forget your alma mater: Where ever you go, where ever you live, you should remember your alma mater. Your identity is because of your alma mater.

His last words to us were: “you live in my heart, go kiss the world”. Below is his autograph to us:

Sarap Sir's Final Message

How To Stop Being Lazy

2010-05-16T07:18:00.000+05:30

Rumours and the Honour

2010-04-13T08:17:00.000+05:30

Once upon a time an old man spread rumors that his neighbor was a thief. As a result, the young man was arrested. Days later the young man was proven innocent. After been released he sued the old man for wrongly accusing him.

In court the old man told the Judge: ‘They were just comments, didn’t harm anyone.’

The judge, before passing sentence on the case, told the old man: ‘Write all the things you said about him on a piece of paper. Cut them up and on the way home; throw the pieces of paper out. Tomorrow, come back to hear the sentence.’

The next day, the judge told the old man: ‘Before receiving the sentence, you will have to go out and gather all the pieces of paper that you threw out yesterday.’

The old man said: ‘I can’t do that! The wind spread them and I won’t know where to find them.’

The judge then replied: ‘The same way, simple comments may destroy the honour of a man to such an extent that one is not able to fix it.

If you can’t speak well of someone, rather don’t say anything.

‘Let’s all be masters of our mouths, so that we won’t be slaves of our words.’

Courtesy: Citizen Journal

Less than hundred

2010-04-08T19:39:00.002+05:30

A boy and a girl were playing to together. The boy had a collection of marbles. The girl had some sweets with her. The boy told the girl that he will give her all his marbles in exchange for her sweets. The girl agreed.

The boy kept the biggest and the most beautiful marble aside and gave the rest to the girl. The girl gave him all her sweets as she had promised. That night, the girl slept peacefully. But the boy couldn’t sleep as he kept wondering if the girl had hidden some sweets from him the way he had hidden his best marble.

Moral of the Story: If you don’t give your hundred percent in a relationship, you’ll always keep doubting if the other person has given his/her hundred percent. This is applicable for any relationship live love, friend, employer-employees relationship etc. Give your hundred percent to everything you do and live peacefully.

Courtesy: Secular Citizen

Internet Abbreviations- How Many do You Know?

2010-02-18T21:29:00.003+05:30

Nowadays Emails and SMS' have a lot of incomprehensible Abbreviations. I get confused at most of them. This is a list of such cut downs that I have faced (some inputs from my sister).

ASAP- As Soon As Possible

IOW- I Owe You
CBN- Come Back Now
BTW- By The Way
LOL- Laugh Out Loud
IDKWTD- I Don't Know What to Do
CHRTM- Come Home Right This Moment
OMG- Oh! My God
FYI- For Your Information
AWL-Absent With Leave
GTG-Got To Go
TTYL-Talk To You Later
Some Acronym have become so general that the original longer version have been forgotten. I feel that these short cuts give a greater variety and flair to the language but its overuse can be frustrating (Especially for Uncles and Aunts).

In case you wished to expand your list of such weird acronyms visit: http://www.abbreviations.com/acronyms/CHAT , they have 3531 such entries. Language is expanding like never before.

A Hilarious Mail From a Frustrated Victim of Chain Mails

2010-02-06T18:20:00.014+05:30

I wanted to thank all my friends and family who have forwarded chain letters to me in 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008 and continuing it in 2009 also.......

Because of your kindness:

* I stopped drinking Coca Cola after I found out that it's good for removing toilet stains.

* I stopped going to the movies out of fear

* Forwarded hundreds of mails but still waiting for FREE DESKTOP, LAPTOP, CAMERA, CELLPHONE etc..

* I smell like a wet dog since I stopped using deodorants because they cause cancer...

* I don't leave my car in the parking lot or any other place and sometimes I even have to walk about 7 blocks for fear that someone will drug me with a perfume sample and try to rob me.

* I also stopped answering the phone for fear that they may ask me to dial a stupid number and then I get a phone bill with calls to Uganda, Pakistan, Singapore and Tokyo...

* I also stopped drinking anything out of a Can for fear that I will get sick from the rat faeces and urine.

* I also donated all my savings to the Amy Bruce account. A sick girl that was about to die in the hospital about 7,000 times.... (Poor girl! she's been 7 since 1993...)

* Still open to help somebody from Nigeria who wants to use my account to transfer his uncle's property of $ 100 million. So much trustworthy.

* I have forwarded 35 emails to 400 people hoping that Ericsson or Nokia will send me latest mobile phones but those models are also obsolete now.

* Made some Hundred wishes before forwarding those Ganesh , Tirupathi Balaji pics etc. Now most of those 'Wishes' are already married (to someone else)

NOW IMPORTANT NOTE :

If you do not send this e-mail to at least 11,246 people in the next 10 seconds, a bird will Pee on your head today at 6:30pm.

Nothing has happened till now....................... but who knows. So please forward.

Hat tip: Swagatika

Best Way To Create Your Wordlist

2010-01-30T12:42:00.002+05:30

With the entrance of chrome extensions I finally got the best way to create my word list. Follow these steps to avail this prospect:

Screenshot of Google Dictionary Extension

Download the latest Google Chrome: Download Google Chrome
Create a Google account in case you don't have one. Create here
Download Google Dictionary Extension. Download from here
Now double click any word, you will see its meaning popping up.
Click More and then click the star beside the word to add it to the word list

This simple task really reduces lot of burden. It's easy and swanky.

Finding Joy Simple Secrets to Happy Life

2009-11-12T07:06:00.001+05:30

One of my friend sent me this beautiful composition. You may feel watching it more than once.

Animated Electronic Circuit Demos

2009-10-25T07:06:00.005+05:30

Here are some animated electronic simulations. To see & learn this animation you need to download this JAVA Plugin. Get to learn hands about various Analog & Digital electronic circuits & components through live simulations of the following easy-to-use user friendly online Java Applets absolutely free.No other software required.

Basics
- Ohm's Law
- Resistors
- Capacitor
- Inductor
- RLC Circuit
- Voltage Divider
- Series/Parallel
- Thevenin's Theorem
- Norton's Theorem
A/C Circuits
Passive Filters
Other Passive Circuits
Diodes
- Diode
- Diode I/V Curve
- Half-Wave Rectifier
- Full-Wave Rectifier
- Full-Wave Rectifier w/ Filter
- Diode Limiter
- Zener Diodes
- DC Restoration
- Blocking Inductive Kickback
- Spike Generator
- Voltage Multipliers
- AM Detector
- Waveform Clipper
- Triangle-to-Sine Converter
Op-Amps
MOSFETs
Transistors (Bipolar)
- NPN Transistor (Bipolar)
- PNP Transistor (Bipolar)
- Switch
- Emitter Follower
- Common-Emitter Amplifier
- Unity-Gain Phase Splitter
- Schmitt Trigger
- Current Source
- Current Source Ramp
- Current Mirror
- Differential Amplifiers
- Push-Pull Follower
  - Simple Push-Pull Follower, with Distortion
  - Improved Push-Pull Follower
- Multivibrators
- Oscillators
- Logic
  - RTL Inverter
  - RTL NAND
  - DTL NAND
  - TTL NAND
  - TTL NOR
  - ECL NOR/OR
Combinational Logic
Sequential Logic
- Flip-Flops
- Counters
- Divide-by-2
- Divide-by-3
- Traffic Light
- Dynamic RAM
555 Timer Chip
Transmission Lines
Memristors
Tunnel Diodes
- Tunnel Diode I/V Curve
- Tunnel Diode Relaxation Oscillator

The Legacy of Solar Eclipse

2009-07-22T08:47:00.006+05:30

Sun has always been the source of positive energy, “the light”, the confiscator of darkness. From the inception of life on planet Earth, the creatures have seen sun as their savior from the macabre nights. A sudden evasion of sunlight on a solar eclipse is bound to have created panic in the lives in those days. This blindness, the dread of predators would have aggravated their fears. And the legacy of the fear continues to haunt us till date.

Sun at all the times had a big impact on individual’s life. It was such a significant thing and has such a great impact on daily life that it had to be given a status of God (Ra in ancient Egypt, Amaterasu in Japan, Surya for Hindus, etc). Almost every civilization prayed the sun god and most of them continue to do this till date.

For any kind of fear there is somebody to take advantage out of it. Ancient times were no different. The kings as advised by their cunning scholars used to propose some set of rules for the day of solar eclipse. This was, as told by the “so called holy men”, done to pacify the Sun god. Sun temples were made for the people to worship and the minions at king’s office corrupted heavily. Not only this, many theories were created to explain the eclipse, out of which most them would have occurred to the scholar as a night dream. Those stories (including that of Rahu-Ketu) were told in ashrams as if there was factual evidence behind it. The explanation and proposed rules passed on from generation to generation with nobody desiring to get into the logic. The scientific explanation used to be snubbed by the esteemed scholars as atheistic.

As logic and evidence gained weight, the aversion to science of eclipses diminished by the passage of centuries. Nonetheless the fear, the superstition retained some space in our mind. This fear is the motivation for the avaricious fake astrologers to propose various methods to escape the plight of solar eclipse. Even news channels welcome them as scientists, and these Babas announce the remedies much the same way they did centuries before.

Science works on evidence and reason not on stories. Thanks to science, we are able to predict the dates of solar eclipse much before time, by this logic it is the biggest savior of humanity. If we truly are more developed than our ancestors, then why should we hold on to these medieval rules which have no point to argue in its favour? The best we can do is to enjoy the marvels that nature presents to us, to understand the logic behind them and to pass on the legacy of science to the next generation.

The Truth of “Sach ka Samna”

2009-07-19T07:22:00.006+05:30

A game show called “Sach Ka Samna” is gaining immense popularity in India. This show is the Hindi adaptation of popular English game show, “The Moment of Truth”. The bedrock of the game is polygraph test, popularly known as lie-detector. The logic is simple: give true answer to a question and win up to 1crore. But the catch is that the questions are very personal, for example, “Did you ever wish to kill you husband” or related to sexual relationship. You are required to reveal your secrets on screen. But I really doubt whether the Sach or truth revealed is actually the truth or the obverse the false revealed is actually the jhooth or false?

Because no machine can unerringly recognize when a person is lying, the polygraph results are used in conjunction with other evidence, observations, and information. Emotional stress reflected by this test, for instance, need not be due to lying. On the other hand, a subject may be a pathological liar and therefore show no measurable bodily responses when giving false answers. Ordinary nervousness, individual physical or mental abnormalities, discomfort, excessive pretest interrogation, or indifference to a question also affect test accuracy-Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.

If you ask a person a question related to extreme privacy in front of million people, he/she is bound to be nervous. Nervousness shows that your truth is distasteful. Even if you had never thought of killing your husband, your mind makes a scene of you strangling your partner. Now if you show nerves, the machine (after all made by a man) expects you to tell bitter. You can only escape if you accept the bad. And in case you deny, the machine man will pronounce, that this answer is not true. The moral being extreme anxiety expects cruel truth. That’s what happened with Kambli the other day.

According to polygraph testing conditions, a perfect test occurs when proper conditions and procedures are met. The room used should be plain, quiet, comfortable, and private. The dark room is definitely quite, but not plain and seriously not at all private. The polygraph test is witnessed by nearest relatives on the stage and millions of people outside the screen, which makes the test entirely public. How would you justify this?

Wikipedia says, “a polygraph is an instrument that measures and records several physiological responses such as blood pressure, pulse, respiration, breathing rhythms, body temperature and skin conductivity while the subject is asked and answers a series of questions”. I do not think all these test are performed on the subject. If all these test were done the TRP show would more or less look like a medical ward. The absence of proper test also leaves me to judge the results as inconclusive.

Polygraph results are generally considered inadmissible as legal evidence in American courts, except where mutual agreement is given by the opposing parties in a case, and the use of the device in private employment procedures was severely restricted by federal law in 1988-Microsoft Encarta Encyclopedia.

We have seen machines making gross errors. We have seen it in cricket, Wimbledon and other sports. Machines are not always correct and certainly it cannot tell the truth accurately here too. We can only enjoy yet another battle of machine with man, where machine overpowers man. Enjoy the show as any other soap because it’s our choice to reveal the secrets and not the machine’s pick.

Whimsical Seasons

2009-07-15T16:28:00.008+05:30

I live in suburbs of Bhubaneswar (the capital city of Orissa), India. It is developing very rapidly. You can see engineering colleges, malls, apartments, big hospitals (incidentally AIIMS), and highways under construction. Your aspiration from the city rises and you peg a hope of seeing the very best.

But the reality becomes evident once the capricious nature plays its part.

About a week ago the sun was blazing hot, a harsh summer never witnessed before. The metrological department kept delaying the date for the arrival of monsoon (the rainy season). It was havoc for the farmers; they had to sow the seeds for kharif crops (autumn crops) over again, thus incurring heavy loss. Not that the situation here was any better. There was daily power cut for around four hours, low voltage sapped the peace of mind. The time was so terrible that schools had to be shut down and office hours were reduced. All fads behind the developing city seemed delusive.

Finally after a delay of about two weeks the much awaited monsoon arrived. It seemed that finally the Earth had been rescued from the scathing summer. But little did we know that a new torture was ambushing. Rain, rain and more rain as if it has no mood to stop. We are witnessing a never seen before flood in this part. Rivers are overflowing; Kharif crops got more than the required water. The condition is worsening day in and day out. If this grim situation prolongs then it has to be a disaster in waiting. I have taken some photographs of the horror.

Just when we were thinking that time has changed, fortune has paved this part, nature showed the utter reality. We could not see the dense forest of this part being sacrificed for the highways, the verdure (greenery) of Khandagiri being demolished for the malls, rivulets being blocked for construction of apartments. The repercussion of a disproportionate growth has been clearly evident.

The solution is simple. It has to be a win-win situation. If man acquires from nature, he has to give something back. If highways are being made, then trees must be planted in its outskirts. If apartments are being made, then trees have to be replaced in the garden. If creeks are blocked then an alternate path for its flow has to be given. No doubt the pace of development cannot be commensurate with the replenishment process, but the pace should not be so hasty that we can never revert to the solution.

1948: Bradman's Final Innings Duck

2009-07-14T10:01:00.001+05:30

In the final Test at The Oval, Bradman walked out to bat in Australia's first innings. He received a standing ovation from the crowd and three cheers from the opposition. His Test batting average stood at 101.39. Facing the wrist-spin of Eric Hollies, Bradman pushed forward to the second ball that he faced, was deceived by a googly, and bowled between bat and pad for a duck. An England batting collapse resulted in an innings defeat, denying Bradman the opportunity to bat again and so his career average finished at 99.94; if he had scored just four runs in his last innings, it would have been 100. A story developed over the years that claimed Bradman missed the ball because of tears in his eyes, a claim Bradman denied for the rest of his life. (Courtesy: Wikipedia).

Here is the official BBC commentary of his final innings at the oval:
BBC-1948 - Bradman's final innings duck

The Fewer The Competitors, The Harder They Try

2009-07-13T21:02:00.003+05:30

Reacting to the proposal of scrapping the board examinations, a principal of a school from Delhi said, “This would decrease the competition between the students, and students will deteriorate academically and they would not brave the future competitions”. So, do competitions really help the students or reduce their capabilities?

Competition to a certain level is productive. Let say in a class of 30, the teacher asks the students to draw something beautiful. Most of the children, out of pure interest only will draw their best possible work. Instead, consider a situation where the teacher announces, that there would be a painting competition where students all over the India will be participating, and for so called motivation announces a laptop or a foreign tour as the prize. Half of those 30 will give up then and there. 12 among the rest will be pressurized by their parents to draw, redraw and come up with nothing less than a Van Gough. Only a 10% of students will survive the pressure and try to give it a serious try (most of their parents might themselves be from the artist background). Parents will buy them every possible colour, every kind of brush and even engage some art teacher for their fry. And when the child gets frustrated they will say, “You get so much comfort and advantage, where is the result (same as like their boss scolds them in their office)”. With a huge pressure on his shoulders the kid goes to the huge auditorium to find all other children accompanied by their families, armed with best possible colours, crayons and brushes. Finally he settles down and his shaking hands, throbbing heart manages to draw the do or die art.

The physical result without anybodies shock will be the same. Only 10 out of the thousands will get their names published on the newspaper, everyone (who has nothing to do with that competition) would be appreciating, that finally 10 talents have been found. But who caresses the rest thousands who have so called ‘lost the battle’, whose talents have been murdered at the first go. To the child he has nobody but to scold him, “I have broken the hearts of my parents who gave me all they could”. The gloomy face of father and mother would be imprinted in his mind. And how could you think he would ever get ready to go to the battle again (what he does then- take drugs or commit suicide or become the part of leg puller society who grows tall only when other bends)?

Not to forget about the rest 10. They are the heroes; they become the role models for their peers, expectation from them soar. And once they fail, the entire society leaves no stone unturned to prove that this was a genius by fluke. Not only this, entire society kills his esteem and makes him to doubt himself. And this group constitutes the half of the student suicide cases (IIT, IIM and suicide??).

To investigate the matter two behavioural researchers, Stephen Garcia at the University of Michigan and Avishalom Tor at the University of Haifa in Israel did an experiment. They asked 74 university students to take a timed, easy general-knowledge quiz which they were asked to finish as quickly as possible without compromising accuracy. Each student completed the test alone, but half were told they were competing against ten other people and the other half that they were competing against 100. All were informed that those whose completion times were in the top 20% would receive $5. The results backed up the psychological hypothesis. Students who believed they were competing against only ten people finished in an average of 28.95 seconds. Those who believed they were competing against 100 averaged 33.15 seconds.

Curious as to why mere belief that he was facing more competitors would alter an individual’s performance, the two researchers ran a second experiment. They asked students to imagine they were running a five kilometer race against 50 people and then against 500 (or, in half of the cases, the other way round). In both notional races the top 10% of competitors would get a $1,000 prize. The researchers told the students to rate, on a seven-point scale, how much faster than normal they would run in each notional race, with a one being slightly faster than normal and a seven being the fastest of their lives. The average value in the competition against 50 others was 5.43; in the competition against 500 it was 4.89—a result consistent with the other two parts of the study.

Everyone has a limit of productive stress, beyond which it becomes counterproductive. To say that scrapping some exam will decrease the feeling of competitiveness is nonsense, because the sense of competition has been inherently within the Animal Kingdom (Competition for food, for place, for mates). Above all we want our kids to grow as a good human being, to develop his innate potential to the fullest. After all no one has become a great man out of compulsion, pressure or lambast. Everyone has his own interest and life gives every possible support to grow it the best, so why should we be the leg pullers. Ultimately everyone wants an obituary, “He was the happiest man to have lived”.

P.S: What’s the remedy? Read an article like this or watch Taare Zameen Par and blame yourself to have wasted precious time from your competitive schedule.

Shivraj Rath