Lost in Translation

I have heard of Andhra Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh, but this one really left me wondering. Yet another awesome board @IITM

How I keep myself updated with my mail, twitter, and the blogs I follow when I am not able to access the Internet

I shall be joining IIT Madras in some time now. Rules there don’t allow LAN and Internet access for the first four months(No idea why; they say you need to experience IIT life, as once you get your computers, you get hooked to LAN/Internet gaming, and you will hardly enjoy the campus; This is true for a lot of people, from what I have seen from my last year at NITK). So I felt the necessity to keep myself updated. So, with a little help from Google, and a bit of tweaking, I figured out how to get regular updates by SMS(this works only in India, though you could use some alternate services to work it elsewhere; this does not cost anything, and is way better than using GPRS/3G).

So here is how it works. Gmail and Twitter have authenticated RSS feeds. This means that feed readers trying to read these will prompt the user for Username and Password. Hence authenticated feeds are not supported by most readers. Moreover, to view these feeds, there needs to be an interaction between the user and the reader, and hence an internet connection is needed.

So we use something called a Feed-Proxy. These are sites, that automatically supply the login details when asked, and export the feeds to thier own RSS feed. In simpler words, they convert authenticated feeds to unauthenticated fields.

Google Labs India has a feature called SMS channels, from which one can subscribe to Channels created by other users. You can create your own channel, and RSS feed updates can be sent. So we use these SMS channels to send the updates to your mobile as the unauthenticated feed supplied by the Feed Proxy(Most blogs have their unauthenticated feeds, and can be accessed in a similar way).

I shall post some useful links here:

Gmail Feed(Authenticated):

Twitter Feed(Authenticated): http://twitter.com/<username>/with_friends

Feed-Proxy: FreeMyFeed-Enter the authenticated feed address, username and password. The RSS feed link is to be used later;Copy it somewhere.

Google SMS Channels: You need to login using your Google account.If you have not already done so before, you need to verify your phone number. Click on the create channel link, select RSS feed, and paste the feed address appropriately. Fill the rest of the details and you are done.

Edit: Use tinyurl to convert your feed proxy feeds from relative URLs to absolute URLs as relative URLs may fail on SMS Channels.

SMS Channels takes some time to activate, so be patient

Traffic rules in India

• There are three traffic signals: Red-Stop only if the person ahead of you has stopped. Amber- What is that? Green- Go!
• It is a crime to have less than three people on a two wheeler.
• The last lane of the road is always meant for parking ( rule applies for single lane roads also).
• One must normally drive on the left of the road. Driving on the right side is allowed as long as you use the horn.
• The first lane is reserved for fat people on low powered scooters. They are not expected to leave the lane, no matter how much you honk.
• You are expected to know of the “No Parking” zones, even if there are no signs to show them. Any two wheeler parked in a No Parking zone is expected to be picked up by the traffic cops in less than 5 minutes( Mine got taken away 3 times already). Four wheelers are normally spared as it is difficult to haul them into the Vehicle pound.
• Local Buses stop in the middle of the road only. Also, speed limit restrictions are not applicable to these buses.
• 1 stud on a fast bike+ 1 moderately good looking chick on a slow scooty=Recipe for a traffic disaster!
• Auto drivers reserve the right to cut across at 90degrees on a busy road if they see a pedestrian sticking their hand out
• What is the easiest way to make 10,000 rupees in one day?? Become a traffic policeman and set up shop outside a college
• Provision 12842817452 of the constitution states that cows have the liberty to sit, sleep or crap on roads, and you cannot do anything about it.
  
• There are many more rules left for me to be discovered. Watch this space for more :)

Where are we heading?

One of my cousins finished his 12th standard exams recently. This is an excerpt from our conversation:

Him: I hardly attended college. I don’t even know where my classroom was

Me: Why did you not do so?

Him: Because no one else attended college.

Me: Then what did they do?

Him: Everyone goes to coaching classes.

Me: Didn’t the college say anything?

Him: No. There are only a few colleges that strongly adhere to the attendance regulations.

Me: Why did you not join such a college?

Him: No one joins such colleges.

This is only one particular case. But this is prevalent all over the state. You never know whom to blame. The colleges say that they cannot do anything as the coaching classes urge students to not attend college. The coaching classes say that they merely teach because nothing is taught at colleges. The system is like a snake biting its own tail off. And ultimately, the snake is itself harmed!

When I was at school, only those students who were weak at a particular subject would take tuitions. Nowadays, there are not too many people, who do not enrol themselves for these coaching classes, in their 12th standards. We were visiting a few colleges where my cousin would have liked to take admission into. So one of the Principals asked me where I was studying. I told him that I had secured my admission into IIT Madras. The first question he asked was-“Which coaching class did you attend?”. It seems taken for granted that everyone who gets into IITs does it through coaching classes. The other day during my IIT counselling, when I had to get some papers signed by the chairman of the JEE, he asked me whether coaching classes had influenced the order of choices for the various branches. I told him that I had not attended any this year. At this, he seemed pleasantly surprised.

Most of these coaching classes are heavily exam oriented, and do not focus on teaching the subjects, instead focussing on examination techniques. They take in students in hordes. They sing success stories about how many people did well because of them. They never talk about the number of people who do not do well. They totally refuse to own up to a student’s failure, saying that if someone else could do it, why not him/her.

I find this system really unfair for those, who come from financially weaker sections of the society. The coaching classes charge high fees. Usually around Rs. 50,000 for a two years classroom program, which is by no means a small amount. I have heard of some such “classes” that charge even more. If the colleges do not teach, what can such people do?

This does not end here. Coaching classes continue for engineering courses. I was surprised of hearing of this at first, but find it very common nowadays. The other day, I made some rather sarcastic comments about people going to such classes for engineering to a friend. It turned out that she was attending such classes too. I was in an uneasy situation, but then, I merely said what I felt. Who know, at this rate, they might even have classes on how to do a job, how to date, how to spend one’s first night… LOL. The possibilities are endless. All I can say is God save the system!

One Nation, one system!

With a debate raging in Maharashtra on the 90-10 quota for admission to junior colleges, the Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal came out with a series of proposals, to reform the aging education system in the country. India is a big country, with a number of states, and most of them have their own education boards. Each board has their own rules, and often, the rules are arbitrarily set, and is the source of controversies in many situations. Among some of the recent cases, the Maharashtra government has proposed a 90% reservation in junior colleges for students from state board schools, and the remaining for students from CBSE and ICSE boards. This percentage has been based on the percentile stats across the states, but has caused a stir in the Urban areas, where a greater percentage of students go to schools from these other boards. In a number of states, the local language is forced upon the students, and this can be a big problem for students, who move to that state at a stage, where it would be difficult to pick up the new language.

Sibal has called for the unification of all these boards, so as to have a uniform system throughout the country. Sibal has also proposed to do away with the 10th board exams, which he considers unnecessary. Quoting Sibal, “Education is not meant to traumatise the parents and students. This is unacceptable”. He also proposes to have grades for these examinations, instead of a numerical score.

I feel that this is a wonderful move, and will be very helpful for students as well as parents, who are often more concerned than the students themselves( ask me about that aspect :) ). Another area where this will help would be in the admissions for institutes of higher education, which has become a rat race of tremendous proportions. I have just come out of this rat race, and hopefully, I am one of the last few, who have to go through this stage. The situation may be bad until 10th standard, it worsens after that, because this is the stage where it really matters. All states have their own entrance examinations, with different rules for each. I know of many people who found it difficult to get admission in higher colleges, solely because they had not stayed in that state for a certain number of years( a lot of states have rules, that allow a student to take up such exams only if he/she has lived in that state for a certain period of time, usually 6-8 years minimum ). I find this very unfair and hope that it gets sorted out with the reforms.

Another thing that I have observed is that in many states, the board exams in 12th don’t really matter. It is the various other entrance examinations that count. I have seen many cases where colleges have tie-ups with coaching institutes, wherein the colleges give complete attendance for the student, without him/her having to attend college, leaving him/her free to devote all of his time towards these competitive exams. I know of many people who have gone through their 11th-12th years attending college only for their practicals. The system is prevalent in Kota, Hyderabad and a few other places, from what I hear. What is more alarming is that many of these coaching classes follow a heavily examination oriented approach, which turns out bad for a number of students in the years to come.

I sincerely hope that this is only the beginning, and the reforms actually get carried out, which would certainly help students, as well as parents, and lead to the overall development of the country.

Is this a good move

• 
  
  It is a brilliant move. It should have happenned a long time ago


• 
  
  It is a good move. Board Exams should remain though


• 
  
  It is a bad move


• 
  
  No Opinion

view results
Free vote poll

Of Pulao and Puliyogere

When you walk in to an Indian restaurant, the first thing the waiter would ask you is “Sir, would you like to have North Indian food or South Indian food?”. On a broader perspective, most Indians, if asked to classify Indians by geography, they would say North and South. I come from Maharashtra, which is neither too north, nor too south. So most South Indians think of me as from North and most of them from North consider me a South Indian. But then, from North or South, we are all Indians, and as Nehru said, “India is my country, and all Indians are my brothers and sisters”. National integration has been on the government's agenda for a number of years, and looking at the ignorance of people about their fellow country-people, I begin to ponder on the its success.

I have myself spent half my life in Maharashtra, and the other half down south, and I know half a dozen Indian languages, and I am very interested in knowing about the lives of people over the country. Just by looking at a person, and his/her name and accent, I can normally very accurately place the person by the state he/she is from. But looking at the sheer ignorance amongst the people, I feel rather surprised. I shall cite some instances which I can recollect, that portrays the same.

The other day, when Bangalore Royal Challengers beat the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL semi-finals, one of my cousins remarked :”The Tamil people will be very happy”. I would expect most people to know that Chennai is the capital of Tamil Nadu (though Bangalore has a significant Tamilian population too, it ranks nowhere compared to Chennai). I told him the same, and he was like Bangalore and Chennai are close to each other anyway. Some professor from IIT Kanpur had written a guide on how to choose the various courses in IITs. In the guide he mentions this kind of ignorance among the people and says that “According to most of the people up North, anyone who lives below the Vindhyas is a Madrasi”. Perhaps an exaggeration, but it captures the big picture.

I had been to IIT Madras for my counselling a few days back and there, I met this guy from Hyderabad, who asked me where I was from. I said Pune, and he was like that is where IIT Bombay is right? I somehow managed not to laugh, but if a person can clear the IIT-JEE, he must surely be knowing that Mumbai and Pune are different cities!

Ignorance is one part of the story but segregation is another. Often, one finds segregation on basis of regions, not just to north-south, but also by states. Back at my college, the trend is reflected very strongly, and people from a particular state/ region often congregate. There are the Bangies (from Bangalore), the Bongos(Bengal), Matthas(Maharashtra), NK(North of Karnataka), Gults(from Andhra) and many more. The names are kinda funny. Among the North Indian lot, the South Indians are called Sandoos..dunno y. And amongst the people from south, the North Indians are called NIDs( the name was originally devised by the north people for “North Indian Dudes”, but is more popularly expanded to “North Indian Duds :) ”).

Despite all this, the Unity in Diversity is what makes India the country it is, and must continue to exist, so that we can develop to a super-power. Up north, the south Indian scripts may look like rangoli, and down south, Hindi might sound alien, but everyone must take an effort in learning and appreciating each other's cultures. This should be the way forward for the colourful spectacle that is India.

P.S. Watch Chak de India..It is a great movie