Author: Pradeep

Report after report talks about the SC order to stay reservations in this academic year. Oh, by the way the reservation is an increase of 27% to nearly 49%.

This report in the morning newspaper freaked me:

“It will come as a major relief to students of the backward and reserved categories, if Mumbai University’s plan to reduce the admission fees to the management and computer degree courses ranging between Rs. 50,000 and Rs. 1.5 lakhs to only Rs. 75 (Seventy five only, if you can’t believe it) is okayed. Once in place, it will allow ppor and backward class students to take admission in the best management institutes which have very high admission fees.”

Report from the Mumbai Mirror.

I’m all for educating the poor. But, what promise can you offer that these people will continue to work in this country once they’ve finished. Why does that matter? Well, it is the Government’s (which it gets through people paying taxes) money that will have to fill in the rest. Shouldn’t they be bound since they’re getting a benefit from us to stay in India for a period of 5 years? That’s the least you can do to ensure that student’s whose education the Government pays for pays back some money to the Government in taxes? Or, you can also offer students special funding as loans which they can repay later on. That makes sense.

But investing in something with the hope that the students will stay on and work in India is like a VC’s job that the Government is doing.

Hell, what would the Government do, if the richer people pay their way through to becoming OBCs and get their education done in Rs. 75? And what about ordinary people’s kids who won’t get a chance to enter these institutions?

Also, do you think students will value their education if they don’t have to work hard for getting that degree. And with standards of education allegedly falling, what will they gain?

Another interesting point is about how the opinion of the people and the politicians on the ground vary so much.

If you do not teach these communities to be self-reliant and be independent what you will face in the future is just unimaginable. That is the reason for my not backing these or any reservations. However, I don’t really mind, because after working for five or six years to ensure that I give back to India the debt that I owe her, I plan to leave this country. I will be greatful for being born in such a diverse land whose diversity was its strength in the past but just might become its weakness in the future.

One thing I noticed about writing this notebook is that I never find errors only when I type it in. But, I never change it then because this writing is a spontaneous outpouring of ideas (I mean thoughts).

So, I keep that as close to me as possible.

Spent today morning to collect my prize. It was 2 CDs given to me by someone with a wonderful simle. The 2 CDs – one Norah Jones’ latest album ‘Not too Late’ and another a collection of lounge songs inspired by India.

I then went on down to the State Central Library (earlier called the Asiatic Library).

Spent the afternoon and evening by myself. I am now putting everything in order. This is something I like to do sometimes. Some cleaning up.

Listening to the CDs on the discman.

I want to write something, I do not know what to write. I want to do something, but I do not know what to do.

Some clarifications can be read by reading Doc Searls’ weblog on the Kathy Siera event. Just hope that there’s someone like this anywhere where such a mess happens.

Sigh!

My brother’s first exam is done. My cousin’s last exam in SSC is tomorrow.

Well, now back to me.

The day started off with me calling JLT to claim my prize for some local contest. Spent the morning on that.

Watched ‘House’ in the afternnon. It’s a story of an eccentric MD who solves medical cases using seemingly crazy methods. Statement from the series: Men have wives, kids and girlfriends just because they don’t have any passions to follow. In that sens, we’re same, you and I.  Not an exact quote.

The brain then began hitting strange ideas – scaffoldings inside satellites and sending a wooden stool into space. Titled and filed under “odd structural thoughts” in the left centre of the brain.

Had my first meeting today. There was no one from Systems I could get hold of. And I found out that someone was a girl. That makes it two girls and a guy in structures. Another general pointer: names ending with an a in Italian are girls.

I finish the day exhausted. Returning home my feet gets down on Earth and get some studies packed away.

Have asked my advisor for some help with some of the crazy iedas that I’m having. This is what ensures that hot metal becomes a sharp, cold sword.

Going to HBCSE and JLT tomorrow and take a peep at Asiatic.

It’s 1 AM in the morning on March 26, 2007.

My morning started with a much needed hair cut and shave. I was beginning to look like a savage, which was fun upto a point. Cycled both ways and enjoyed it.

Finished ‘The Google Story’ yesterday. The second part is about more recent events (circa 2005) in Google.

Read an article by Sunil Mukhi on the lighter side of Physics. That is a difficult job.

Finally loaded the “Meet the Team” page on the SEDSAT 2 blog. Have sent an email asking people to submit their personal bios written in third persons. Will add them as they come in.

Have to begin work on the structure sub-system. Parshati and Giuditta are the two people on my team. Will ask them to go through a design book – mechanical design of course. Getting things done will be much simpler with a smaller team.

I have been thinking about whether I should load my notes with more stuff that I read evveryday. But I decided against it.

As time ticks, I am coming closer and closer to examinations.

I would want more stuff like Burning Man, Glastonbury Festival etc. happening in India. I also wish that we had Universities rather than colleges. And I go on wishing. I observed more examples of how we take more negatives than positives from the ‘West’.

My web design/Indian satellites project will also come up soon. Will link to it. Google is the company that made links hot and Technorati did it for blogs. I wonder what will be the next big thing.

My friend, Shirin was recently in an accident. Hope you get well soon! She says she was passionate about driving her own car.

Now, come to my point, my passion for cars increases only when I put a dummy in it and crash it against a wall. Have been doing it, since I was a kid.  Hopefully, there is no ‘Prevention of Cruelty against Dummies’ yet. I also like it when you take a plunger and just destroy the car. After all, destruction is the apex of creation.

What really drives me are airplane. My way of taking interest in them is to not learn about them at all. It’s all strange. After all, I am from a strange land – India. A land where a group of snake charmers managed to take over industry and give a 9.2% GDP growth p.a. Cool no?