politics at college

Speech written for an aspiring politician invited for a motivational speech for college passouts.


I am honoured to be with you on this august occasion.

You stand at the cusp of time when patterns will give away to uncertainty, don’t worry throw open

the window and see the world as it unfolds. There will be no syllabus to limit you, in-fact a

lot of people get paid for thinking (some call them ideators).  The Barometer that you got used to as

yardstick to measure your performance in class will change. Performance will be measured by

effectiveness and not efficiency. It will be measured by your ability to out-think your competition,

yes it will be true “survival of the fittest”.

You cannot connect the dots going forward you can only do it looking backwards....... So trust your

instincts......out of chaos emerges order. When you decide to do something, the world conspires to

make it happen; yes the roads may be uncharted but then if you follow the beaten part you will

reach where others have reached before...... so don’t fear to take the plunge...... dream because if you

can’t then how will your dreams come true.

Steve jobs used to walk 7 miles to the Hare Krishna Temple to get a free meal, and he preferred to

stay hungry (pun intended) till the last day of his life. Bill Gates was negotiating with a giant like IBM for PC when he didn’t even have the blueprint of the PC he would like to sell them. When our own Infosys was going through difficult times the founders wanted to sell Infosys for a Million Dollars......NRN put his feet down saying that if that has to happen then he would buy it. Seeing NRN’s confidence in the company nobody ever talked of walking out any more, and we have Infosys where it stands today.

Don’t try to be sure of everything that you do or intent to do. This is real life not your college; all or

most of creativity and innovation comes out of restlessness to find something. So, stay hungry.

Don’t do what you like rather like what you do. Yes you may end up with a hard landing sometimes,

but don’t lose faith. Please remember your work is going to be a large part of your life, and so if you

don’t enjoy doing whatever you are doing the journey will be painful, boring and tiresome.

I wish you all the best in this new journey. Look good, stay bright and keeping asking yourself every

day, have I learnt something new. The insatiable desire to learn will lead you to explore new horizons and go where no Mangalorian has ever gone before.

Bon Voyage

food for thought

hello everyone, if you are from India then I wish you happy Ganesh Chaturthi.

I was toying with the idea of handpicking video tutorials that qualify under the following heading:

1. content 
2. clarity of concept
3. presentation
4. throw and accent of the speaker
5. the pace at which the subject unfolds
6. examples to elucidate the point.

Although it might sound very innocuous, but it turns out to be very time taking given the vast mine of data available on the internet.

I feel it will help the parents by fulfilling manifold purposes, namely;

• know that the content is reliable
• children don't have to mine through the youtube endlessly, so that would save a lot of time.
• it will increase the effectiveness of learning and at the same time reduce the load (because most videos are for 7 to 10 mins duration)

kindly share your thought in this matter.

happy reading

shubhro

Thank you

I want to thank all those parents and students who have sent me the question papers of IPM mega finals and IMO. Thanks a ton for finding some time out of your busy schedule to send these question papers. They are immensely helpful to me and as you will find, they will be immensely helpful to all those who are looking for it.

I look forward to similar help in the future. Happy blogging.

shubhro and Nanu

my observation on choose the correct answer method

 







In most of the competitive exams on math, one has to choose the correct answer.

i think this whole idea of choosing the correct answer is counterproductive. It sets the student's mind on "work backwards" mode. 

I have taken an example from the MAT 2014 question paper to elucidate my point.

Look at question 45. A nice question, which most students will find slightly difficult. But then the smarter ones will simply add the results given and check for the one that satisfy the data given. (answer is D: 117 + 143 = 260, satisfies the condition).
The entire question thereby gets reduced to whether you can add.
This defeats the purpose of the exam which is to check the understanding of the concepts in math. whereas what has been achieved is the measure of "survival instinct". 
This is not an exam for a job.

In the Question 45, the examiner wanted to know:
a) whether the child has developed a good understanding of HCF and LCM
b) whether the child is able to mine the data given and translate the data into relevant information
c) to translate the data to information, does the child have the mental alertness and understanding to juggle and manipulate the data suitably, which is an absolute requirement for students who want to excel in higher maths.


The " choose the correct answer" misses all of this by a mile.

Rather then learning the trade the child is exposed to the tricks of the trade.

If you feel as strongly as I do about this issue do send in your comments. This will help us to 

collectively pursue with the authorities. 

shubhro

Happy Independence day

point to ponder

look at the irony

the other India

Good morning life
It’s 6:30 in the morning at Sealdah Railway Station. Kanchanjanga Express is about to leave in another 5
minutes and I am stretching out on the foot-board of my compartment trying to get a glimpse of Swamiji.
Already a North Westerly disturbance has sent cold waves in this part of the world, but today at this
moment, anxiety seems to get the better of me and I am sweating profusely.
I try to reach swamiji on his mobile but he is not picking…a flurry of questions pass my mind….have
swamijis’ become more human….did he take me for a jolly good hog wash when he said he was
coming….I hope everything is ok….. and then suddenly lo and behold….out of the hum and melee on the
platform I see a saffron attire moving briskly through the maze of generous sprinkling of lesser mortals.
Yes there he is limping and running with his oversized luggage, stopping occasionally to catch a
breath…poor swamiji…in the days of glory old …so I am told ...the world would come to a stop if the
revered swamiji from Ramakrishna mission was running to catch a train, but then those were different
times, I said to myself.
Swamiji comes and drops his luggage near me, his huge body has given up finally but not at an
inappropriate time I must say, he can go no further, his throat is perched and his breathing is heavy, I
immediately step down to touch his feet, I know it is not the right time for blessings… pick up his luggage
and help him to his seat. Kanchanjanga express gently meanders its way out of the platform…God
Almighty has heard my prayers….Swamiji is home.

POINT TO PONDER

There is a storm brewing in your tea cup and don't postpone it until tomorrow...for this time the saying, "it’s never too late" may not be true.
Winds of change are sweeping across the global landscape...and all that is heating up the place (no pun intended) a little faster than you and I can fathom even with our dreams riding on the horses back.
The situation has become so alarming, that physicist Stefen Hawkings feels instead of fighting global terror we should be fighting global warming, because the consequence of global warming will be far more devastating. It will be cataclysmic in dimension.
Would you even hazard to think about your child rowing back home from school...well it sounds very exciting to think that one day Mumbai will be like Venice...but take a break..lets come out of the world of Pantomime Fairies playing with bees, birds and butterflies...something really ominous is waiting to happen.....'to be or not to be is the question' ...and the poor, the helpless and our little children will bear the brunt of our arrogance.

Wake up ladies and gentlemen, how can you sleep?

A spurt in industrialization in the third world countries have led to a huge spike in the green house gases... global warming has stepped on the gas...already scientists opine that the rate of melting of polar ice caps is on the rise. By 2030 the ocean levels may rise up to 0.60 metres, imagine the havoc it will play on our dilapidated drainage system during the high tide in the monsoon season....well please prepare yourselves for 26th of July...this time with predictable repeatability..and yes you and I like couched potatoes will switch on the TV and use the choicest of adjectives for the BMC for having put us through this...God, ignorance is such a bliss.

Scientists expect a serious drop in the crop produce due to climate change...so what next...maybe we will get our men in uniform out of the garrisons oiling their barrels to fight the mother of all battles...'kill all those you cannot feed'..and yes the heat will be promethean, for the poor and the underprivileged will have nothing to lose but a dignified death.

The plains which are fed by the perennial rivers will flood the catchment areas...so what, we might end up catching fish in our backyard..and oh! yes I almost forgot something...if the crops are destroyed then people can have fish and poultry..the fruits of arrogance is so bountiful.

Extinction is on a roller coaster...ten and thousands of species are on the verge of getting extinct...and all this is going to create an ecological imbalance of unprecedented scale...yes, but this was to happen someday or the other..for have we not accepted the concept of 'survival of the fittest'.

Oh! give me a break ...haven't you guys heard our grandparents say, 'we haven't got this world as a legacy from our forefathers but as a loan from our grandchildren, we have to pay them back with interest'.
Please, if not for anybody..do it for your child..she demands it from you.

So, is there a light at the end of the tunnel..yes..world over people are trying to get 'carbon neutral' by devising ways and means to mitigate carbon dioxide emissions.
So why don't you Don the mantle of a messiah, and save the world from slipping into this endless abyss.

till next time

good bye