Journey

Babuji

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Sat, 14 Nov 2015 17:00:00 +0000

Baburao Lakshmanrao Pathak worked in a bank in an era when there were not many industries in India. Banking in those days was considered a highly valued and respectable profession. And as was the norm in those days he was transferred quite often and used to move around with his wife and 5 children, the youngest of whom was my mother. He was affectionately and respectfully addressed as 'Babuji' by everyone in our family.

I have some vague and some very clear memories of my childhood with Babuji. Annual summer vacations in school used to be the time to visit the home of our maternal uncle and maternal grand parents. I used to really look forward to those visits, mostly because of the excitement of being with my cousins and playing with them all day long. It was during these visits that I have my earliest memories of seeing Babuji.

On these visits I vividly remember hearing these words from Babuji, always. In fact every child that ever visited that house would have heard those words. They were, 'बेटा पढाई खूब मन लगाके करना', 'खूब मेहनत करना', 'कोई भी काम हो, पुरी ईमानदारी से करना' and finally 'हमेशा जूते पोलिश करके स्कूल जाना' which loosely translate into 'My child, always study with utmost dedication', 'Work hard always', 'Do any task assigned to you with complete honesty', and 'Always wear polished shoes to school'. I can still listen to him speaking those words in my head. When I grew up and started working those things changed to 'ऑफिस में पूरी मेहनत और ईमानदारी से काम करना। तुम्हारे बॉस को कभी तुम्हारे काम की वजह से शिकायत नहीं होनी चाहिए।' which again loosely translates to 'Work hard and with complete honesty in office. Your boss should never get a chance to complain about your work'. He always stressed on honest hard work and on being in a neat and clean attire. He used to stress on the same things whenever we talked on phone. In fact, such had become the norm after some time that every time I see him or talk to him on phone I used to repeat those words of his. I don't know if that used to make him happy or content, but deep down I feel it was not about him or his happiness. He just wanted to ensure that we inculcate those values of honesty, integrity and hard work that he had lived by all his life.

One other aspect that I learned from Babuji was gardening. Every time he visited us he used to work in our small garden. He was old and could not sit or crouch easily but he'll still work in the garden in the heat for hours. He was one of the people who made me appreciate gardening and develop a love for nature. He also had a very deep knowledge about plants and their uses. I remember there was a vine in our backyard. It was a wild plant that I had allowed to grow for decorative purposes because of its beautiful red and green leaves. On one of his visits he spotted it and asked mother to make bhajiya with its leaves. So from being just a decorative wild plant it turned into a delicacy. And that is how I discovered पोइ ना भजिया. He was also very fond of भट्टे की सब्जी among other things. He was a diabetic and was not allowed to eat all the dishes he loved. But whenever he visited us he used to get a chance to eat some of those prohibited dishes because he was able to convince my mother, who as it turns out cannot be strict with anyone. Least of all her father who she used to see only once in a while.

There are many other fond memories of Babuji, but every time I think of him the first thing that comes to my mind is his unwavering focus on honesty, integrity and hard work. Those words that I have heard since childhood. I don't think of them as his expectations but as the values that he lived by all his life and I hope that we all can live by the same.

Down The Memory Lane

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Wed, 14 Sep 2011 15:29:00 +0000

What do you do when you have a troubled mind with too many questions running inside it? You go and take a ride down the memory lane. Literally.

One evening I was in such a confused state of mind with too many questions troubling me. I was on a two wheeler but I had nowhere to go. I decided to take a ride down the memory lane (Old Padra Road, in my home town). I went from Gajanan Complex to Chakli Circle and back. Although that trip did not answer any of my questions but it removed all the troubles from my mind. Really, it worked wonders.

There are so many wonderful things around us that we fail to notice. It is these things that bring little joys of life. I feel that if we can keep them with us always we'll never feel troubled by troubles.

I came across these wonderful lines recently. I don't know who the author is, but for me the source was Mrugen.

Live your Joy

It's not the troubles that trouble you.

It's the way you react to them.

What if you could choose not to let the troubles get to you?

What if you could work your way through them while remaining positive and joyful?

Life's difficulties do not need your help.

They are plenty difficult on their own, without you adding to them.

So make the choice not to add to them.

Acknowledge their reality, deal effectively with them, but don't allow them to pull you down.

The way you feel is the way you choose to feel.

Choose to feel powerful, choose to feel in control, choose to feel purposeful, abundant and joyful because at the heart of you, you are.

The living spirit in you is stronger than any trouble you'll encounter.

Remember that, feel its truth, and live your joy no matter what.

Application procedure for Insti Funding to attend Conferences [iitm]

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Sat, 12 Mar 2011 04:36:00 +0000

Documents Required :

Covering letter requesting for Institute funds.
Application for Institute Financial Assistance to Research Scholars for attending International Conferences/Workshops/Seminars abroad (Download latest copy from from academic.iitm.ac.in).
Copy of your grade sheet.
Abstract of the paper.
Paper acceptance letter/mail or invitation letter.
Copy of conference registration web page (which has registration fees clearly mentioned).
Quotation for to and fro travel to the conference location. Quotation should be only for Air India and obtained from Air India office.

Write an application requesting for quotation of air fare for return journey to the conference location.
Go to Air India office and get the quotation by giving the application (Air India office closes at 5 PM and the lunch break is from 1PM to 1:45 PM).

Copy of an official web page indicating VISA fees of the country you are visiting for the conference.

Procedure :

Clearly mention the expected expenditure in the application form.
Get signatures at appropriate places in the covering letter and the application form.
Attach all the other documents and submit it to the academic section.
Pray to GOD that you get the required amount by the time you need it.

Technical Education in Gujarat : present and what can be done for the future

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 21:54:00 +0000

Since last one year or so I have had a lot of discussions with my friends regarding the state of technical education in India. And I decided that it was high time that I documented it all. So, here I have tried to summarize the discussions I had. The below mentioned points are related to tier 2 and tier 3 institutes and are more specific to Gujarat, but I think that they are applicable at the national level as well.

State of Technical Education

Current scenario:

A large number of engineering colleges have sprung up in last 10 years.
We have sufficient colleges now.
But the quality is lacking significantly.
The next focus should be on improving quality rather than increasing seats.

Why is quality lacking:

Highly non-motivated faculties.
Very few sufficiently qualified faculty.
No recognition in society for faculty.
Industry more lucrative than academia.
Not good work in institutes for faculties (unnecessary burden of a lot of administrative duties).
Many administrations more interested in making money rather than improving quality of education.
Lack of knowledge about opportunities beyond Bachelors or during Bachelors among students and faculty.
Non motivated students.
Getting a job only goal for majority of students.

How to motivate faculty:

By taking help of faculty from good local (eg. IIT Gandhinagar, DAIICT, PDPU, BISAG, ISRO SAC etc.) and other national and international institutes. Through regular interaction sessions.
Recognition for their work, in society, and it has to be initiated by government, through some awards.
Informing them about the long term contribution to the society, that they are doing.
Training sessions to improve their skill sets.
To put some sort of assessment mechanism (other than publications), on which promotion is based. This mechanism should measure their teaching through student feedback and technical skills, through some exam like GATE.
Last but by no means the least, 'Money' is the biggest motivation to attract good faculty, so pay well.

How to motivate students:

Give them the knowledge of what lies beyond a job.
Show them the beauty of technology and they are sure to be fascinated by it and delve deep into it.
Give them the freedom to find out their passion,and show them how interesting things are.
For all above points best way is to have highly motivated faculty.
Also organizing regular lectures and seminars by eminent people, and alumni.
Building a strong alumni network to help and guide current students.

I have tried to put as many points as I can remember. I request you all to contribute to this and give your suggestions and feedback.

What it takes to be 'Virender Sehwag' aka 'Viru'?

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Sat, 24 Apr 2010 09:11:00 +0000

Source : cricinfo

Virender Sehwag, recently won ESPNCricinfo Award for 'Best ODI Batsman' and 'Best Test Batting Performance', for his 293 against Sri Lanka in Mumbai. The article on cricinfo about his innings of 293 tells you what can Viru do to a team. In that innings the longest he went without a boundary was 12 balls. To quote one more stat from cricinfo, 'of the 593 balls he faced in ODIs in 2009, he scored 810 runs'.

Now anybody who knows something about cricket, can tell that he seems to be super natural. No mortal can do this. But how does Viru (definitely a mortal) achieve this feat? What is it that enables him to defy logic and give such spectacular performances? I think the secret lies in his uncluttered mind.

He has a very clear cut approach. I'll just quote a few of his statements that show his mindset :
“I don’t have a game plan when I walk into bat. I like to keep my mind blank.”

"When I take guard I like to clear all the negative thoughts out of the mind first. That I do by singing a song or a bhajan [hymn]."

I think that this is a very important trait of fearless achievers. He is able to give such spectacular performances because he is not afraid of failing. He can hit a six to reach his century (or double or triple century for that matter), because he is not afraid of missing out on a century. He does not care about records. Even the GOD of cricket, Sachin, gets a bit tentative on approaching a century, even after scoring 93 centuries, but Viru is always unfazed. This is not to discredit Sachin in any manner. It is just that, Viru has a different mindset. And I think that makes him so special.

Once again as Viru aptly puts it:
"Half empty or half full. A cover-drive for four or disaster. Praise will come when you do well. So, be prepared for brickbats when you fail. You are learning from both. Success prepares me well for the failures."

If you want to describe him in one word, it will definitely be 'Viru', which aptly justifies his character, brave and fearless.

PS: This article has been in my drafts for long, so it starts in a 1 or 2 month old context.

Dr. JP Narayan's Talk @ IITM

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:08:00 +0000

Today I attended a talk by Dr. Jayaprakash Narayan, president of Loksatta party and a former IAS officer. To say the least, it was a great learning experience for me. His insights on our problems, solutions to those problems and the road blocks in implementing those solutions were really well thought out.

He made a very important point while answering a question on uplifting the poor. He said that policies like food subsidies were needed in the short run, but they are not a long term solution. To make India a developed country, in true sense, the areas we need to focus on are education, health care and developing skill sets (vocational training). I think this point is a practical implementation of the very famous quote, "Give a Man a Fish, Feed Him For a Day, Teach a Man to Fish, Feed Him For a Lifetime". But for this to happen these areas need to be viewed more than just as money making machines.

Another point that I really liked was regarding politics. True politics is not a profession or a career. It is not a source of income. You come to politics because you have a vision of solving a problem, of doing something good. It is a means to help improve the system, the governance, the organizational structure. And once you are done, you leave it quietly. This is politics in true sense. You come in only when you see that you can improve something, make something better. You come in with a sense of belonging which motivates you to do your bit to improve the system. This feeling of belonging should be the foremost inspiration in any field, not just politics. If this feeling of belongingness is cultivated in each and every citizen then many problems will be solved. Say, for example the problem of cleanliness in public places. If people have a sense of belonging, they wont spit, they wont throw garbage anywhere. It will make a huge difference.

He also talked about the decentralization of power. Giving more power to the local authorities, because they really understand the ground situation very well and usually have a better understanding of what needs to be done. You need to increase the number of decision makers. Of course, those decision makers have to be competent enough and should have vision and leadership qualities. But local issues should be handled locally.

These were a few key points that I could remember from the talk.

Characteristics of Speakers giving talks on "Unlock the Infinite Power" | "Power of Subconscious Mind" | "Success : At your finger tips" | ...

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 15:12:00 +0000

I happened to attend a few seminars on some topics that I have listed above. While attending those seminars I noticed that these speakers follow a set of principles, some very peculiar principles. I thought it would be fun sharing what I think those principles are. So I am listing those here:

First and the foremost thing 'Never define success'.
Be very confident, speak loudly with a lot of enthusiasm and energy.
Be over-polite.
Ask a lot of questions, and for each answer you get, heave praises (like excellent, wonderful, very good etc.) upon the person who gave the answer.
Crack jokes (even though they are ages old).
Keep on doing some experiments on audience, and give the results you want to give. Because the audience does not know what everyone's reaction was as they all were looking at the speaker, so what ever the speaker says will be accepted.
Ask people their names and use them in examples. Also, remember those names for future use.
Give a set of rules.
If you use somebody's name in a negative example, clarify after the example that he/she is good, intelligent and it was just an example and so on.
Favorite phrases : "I have two news for you. Good news and bad news. Which one you want to hear first?" & "This reminds me of a quotation..."
Use some standard textbook examples for self confidence.
Keep on telling the audience that whatever you are sharing with them is of great value, is awesome , is superb, is amazing and so on.
Keep on telling the audience that they have been so attentive, enthusiastic, brilliant and grasping whatever you are saying, so that everyone feels that everyone else is doing what the speaker is saying.
Glamorize success, but never say what it really is.

Hard Work vs Smart Work

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 15:26:00 +0000

I always used to have this debate with myself. Well, actually it was never a debate, rather a one sided argument that smart work is superior than hard work, and if you do smart work, you need not go for the hard part. It was not until fairly recently that I changed my stand.

There were many reasons for my earlier stand. One of the main reasons was that without much of hard work I got grades that satisfied me. And since it was the easier way out I cherished it. I was a sleep hog all throughout my under-graduation (all my school and college friends would testify to that). But somewhere in the corner of my heart there was a feeling that I was not doing justice to my potential. And I think it was one of the major reasons for my lack of happeeness(about which I have already described in my previous post).

But during last one year I have realized that its not enough to do smart work. Hard work is equally necessary. Actually both of them go hand in hand. You can achieve success with smart work, but only smart work is wastage of your potential.

But how did I realize that hard work is important? Well, honestly speaking I do not know. But I had done some sort of "soul searching". During this period I realized a very important thing. Some how I have managed not to study for grades, and I am very thankful to GOD for that. But during my undergrad since I used to get decent grades with very less effort, I got addicted to it in a way. This was one of the main reasons why I did not work hard. But then somehow after graduation I realized that this is not enough.

One of the reasons for my changing stand is a friend of mine. He is a really intelligent guy. Especially his understanding of mathematics. Awesome for a person of his age. It is not that he is very fast at calculations, but the fundamental understanding of various concepts he has is simply amazing. It took me years to grasp this much understanding of math. In spite of all his abilities, he still works hard, in anything he likes. Its not just studies. He does not study all day, which is not even desirable, but when needed he does really work hard. Say for example during the exams, this 15 year old kid keeps an alarm to wake up early and study (whereas for me, I needed my friends to wake me up even during B.Tech). He also has played a very big role in helping me to shift my stand.

So, Hard Work vs Smart Work is still not a debate for me. It has become a balanced argument. I have come to believe that both are necessary, for a happee life. I think I found a diplomatic (or should I say, a non-violent) solution. :)

Source Ben Tremblay

How to get Swimming Pool membership at IITM?

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:59:00 +0000

The procedure of acquiring swimming pool membership in IITM is very simple. All you need to do is the following steps:

Go to Gymkhana office between 2:30 pm to 4:30 pm.
Get the application form from the desk by swearing that you have got money, a passport size photograph and ID card*.
Fill the form and give it at the desk.
Wait until your name is called out (Warning : This might take arbitrarily long time).
When your name is called go to the desk and, give all the things that you swore for when you took the form.
In case anything is missing go and get it. Goto step 4.
Get your membership card and receipt. You are ready to swim.

Looking at all the above steps you might think that it is a painstakingly long process, but that is not the case. For me to get all these steps completed when there was a big crowd of 10 people in queue, only took slightly more than an hour.

Two very efficient people were at the desk. A gentleman, who helped people take oath before giving them the form, and also stapled their photographs on the membership card(going around in between to attend phone or nature's call with all the prospective members waiting). And a lady, who took membership fees, entered half the details in membership card and gave the receipt.

* ID Card strictly means the institute ID card that you had collected from library basement when you had joined the institute. No other cards like mess card, film club card, old swimming pool card, or any other such card from among the few you have got will do.

Nagala Trek

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:56:00 +0000

Getting up early in the morning at 3:30 happens only when you are going for an outing. I too was going for one such outing, a trek in Eastern Ghats. We were going to Nagala which is about 90 kms from Chennai. There were seven of us. All excited and charged up for the first trek of their lives.

We reached the starting point of out trek after some effort. We started at about 9 am. We had to reach a dam beyond which were the lush green forests in Eastern Ghats, where we were to trek. Those lush green hills made a beautiful site. We started our way into the jungles on those hills, and our destination was a pool. On the way we were going up and down the hilly terrain. It was lush green, completely under tree cover. I had seen such places before only on Discovery and Nat Geo. It was a wonderful place to be in. Swarms of butterflies moving around you, birds chirping, water flowing down in small streams, and the view of brilliant jungles and hills all around.

When we reached the pool we were somewhat tired. There we had our lunch and after that just plunged into the pool. The cool water of the pool was really soothing. Two little streams coming from uphill were feeding into the pool. It was a wonderful site. We enjoyed in the cool waters of the pool for a few hours and then got ready for our return trip to base camp. Well, return trip was fun till we were walking in the jungle under the tree shade. But once we got under the open sky at 3:30 in the afternoon we could really feel the heat. We were emptying packets of Glucon D in water bottles and having it to get some instant energy. Finally after a long tiring walk we made it to our car. And ya since our water bottles were empty we got a chance to have water from hand pump, in the village where we had parked our car. And also, we had used some fresh water, from the streams flowing down the hills. Fresh naturally purified water :).

This was my first experince of a jungle and also a trek. And it was a wonderful one. I will cherish these memories for a long time to come.

Ability... A misplaced premise?

noreply@blogger.com (arpit) — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 22:34:00 +0000

Hector on wikipedia

I just finished watching Troy. Yes, for the first time and let me tell you it is an awesome movie, worth every second of it. The two main characters in this movie are, the great warrior Achilles, who fought for glory, and the Trojan, Hector, who fought for Troy.

Achilles was the greatest of all the warriors. He was made for the kill. His abilities were unparalleled. But all he fought was for glory. No other motive, no other purpose, but just to get his name remembered for a 'thousand years'. Although Achilles might have been a noble man, but all he sought was glory.

On the other hand there is Hector, who was also a great warrior. The greatest warrior in Troy, 'the tamer of forces'. He was also the noblest of men. He fought the great war, for his people, for Troy.

Apparently very few people knew about Hector, before this movie was released. I wonder why is it so. Is glory, the only thing that matters? Why is the story of Hector not told as passionately as that of Achilles? Is it because Hector did not fight for glory, or because Achilles was a slightly better warrior? Does that ε (epsilon) difference in ability to fight matter so much? It is ultimately the motive behind every action that matters. Isn't it?

"Take away the motive, and you take away the sin."
- Cervantes

PS : All my views about Achilles and Hector are based on what I understood about them from the movie, Troy.