IITs are kind of Talent Hub!

Recently, while I was on my evening walk near my house a very young guy asked me, “You went to IIT, right? And then you became a Chemical Engineer. How was that?”

I was wondering, “How does this kid living in suburban Kochi know about IIT?”. I would not have been surprised at all in Bangalore or Hyderabad since there are a ton of IITians.

So I asked,  how do you know about IIT?”

“It is pretty well known. They are supposed to produce some really smart guys.”

Needless to say, I was quite flattered and did not want to disabuse him of that notion :)

But I wish one day IITs are known for rolling out technologies that the world can't live without. After all, there is a ‘T’ in IIT. That remains a distant dream. As a student I did not contribute much to that (after my 3-4 yrs of short journey as Process Engineer), and I am no one to preach.

In short, IITs are considered a talent hub rather than an innovation hub.

Should we try to change that? I think the answer is pretty obvious.

How to study efficiently?

Very often students ask the question to their parents / teachers / seniors , etc - how can I study say for 6 hours, 8 hours or 10 hours? Studying for such a long period of time and that too on regular basis is really difficult, without taking a break. So,the next genuine question comes, when to take a break and how long it should be and what to do in those breaks?

There is no direct answer for all the queries....it depends upon person's aptitude, dedication and brute discipline which s/he can enforce on her...having said that despite of various shortcomings , we can improve our study hours' efficiency...which I'm going to explain in the current post.

Now, lets say you have 3 hours and you decided to study for 3 hours and further you made your mind that I wont be taking any break! ( This happens with many students, ask yourself!) ...so after the start, 1st hour will be very effective...but after say 1.5 hours, the absorption capacity of brain goes down and its kind of pulling it further, struggling , without any tangible outcome. It won't be fun!
This is not the correct approach.
The better and recommended technique of studying anything with utmost focus is to study in short bursts (which I too prefer to do). Think of in this way, lets say you have to run 5 kms ...one approach is to run at a constant speed for entire stretch of 5 kms and the other is to run for 400m really fast and then walk for say 100 m and then further repeat the same cycle. In my opinion, when it comes to a brain intensive activity eg studies, later one ( equivalent of that) is more fruitful.

Infact there is a name for this technique and is called Pomodoro Technique. There is no hard and fast rule for the duration of burst and break, but the ideal duration is around 25-30 min session followed by 5 min break...one can stretch it to 40-45 min with a 10 min break....but dont make it 2 hour long in one go, because cognitive science has already proven the fact that normal human beings dont have a mental capacity to concentrate at the same level for a long duration of say 2 hours.

Nowadays, there are many apps and add ons available for crome browser for setting the time duration, especially for those , who prefer to study with the laptop and other devices. ..for offline folks, you can set the alarm in initial phase and very soon you would discover that your biological clock has been synchronized with the pomodoro and you can practice it , even without any alarm clock!

For those 25-30 mins, you are not allowed to do anything else....no multitasking, no distraction (believe me both are killers)...say you are studying subject A and suddenly you realized that you have to finish some assignment of subject B or you have to write an email to your friend...then kill/ halt these thoughts for those 30 min and if its very necessary then jot down on a piece of paper as a "do to list" and do them later.

Now, the last thing in this sequence is....how to utilize the break of 5-10 min...some of you must be tempted to play some mobile game or other such activities...but thats not the great idea...because switching human mind between two different tasks with equal efficiency is difficult...once you start playing a video game, there could be an obsession to halt the studies for some time and focus on the game and believe me on this, its very likely that you end up in playing the game for that entire evening....so what we should ideally do is to take up something which doesn't require similar mental intensiveness...say...sitting quietly, taking deep breaths , talking to friends / family / go to person, short walk or just lying down...after the break again resume the next pomodoro cycle...thus the study duration of say 3 hours , can be fragmented into 6 cycles, where you would be studying for 2.5 hours with 30 min net break.
Trust me on this, once you do it for 3-4 times, you yourself gonna see the change ....in terms of increase in your effectiveness and decrease in fatigue and stress levels.
I got to know about this technique at a very late stage of my "student life" and I still regret!

To sum up - its like a "sprint" and a "walk"....followed by another sprint and walk cycle!

I hope this helps.

All about Kashmir

Kashmir has been a flashpoint and source of conflict between India and Pakistan ever since the partition of two countries, under British supervision, as Independent nations in 1947. J&K acquires strategic importance because it has been a traditional trade route of central and south asia, which connects countries like India, Pakistan, Afganistan and China.

The Kashmir Dispute and its cause: 

Though the entire region is undisputed part of India, it stands divided into three regions, each under control of separate nation- 1) The area acceded to India, or as Pakistan wrongly calls it "Indian administered Kashmir", 2) The one under illegal control of Pakistan, which is Pak occupied Kashmir (POK) for India and Azad Kashmir for Pakistan and 3) The Aksai China area, under the control of China (which China forcibly occupied in 1962).

The birth of Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan coincided with the birth of these two nations as Independent countries in 1947.

On 15th Aug'47, when India got the freedom and Pakistan was born, then like many other princely states , Kashmir was also a princely state, which planned to remain independent, by not joining the unions of above two nations. The state was ruled by a Hindu Raja ( Raja Hari Singh- father of congress stalwart Dr. Karan Singh), though majority of his subjects were muslims, but then it was a classic example of communal harmony and hindu-muslim amity! Pakistan wanted to claim the state on the premise that Kashmir Valley has majority of muslim population, so the area should have been made a part of that country. In this light, just few months after the formation of pakistan, in oct'47, the pashtun tribals from erstwhile north west frontier province , invaded the princely state of Kashmir. Raja Hari Singh, requested India to support his state and rescue them from the Pakistan's invasion. India agreed for the same but with a precondition that first Raja has to sign an "Instrument of accession" and become the part of Indian union. As Raja signed this Instrument, Kashmir became the integral part of India, however Pakistan rejects the legitimacy of the Instrument of accession, since then. Post merger, India sent its troops to purge the invaders out of state, however some part of state captured by them , is still under their control and is known as POK.

The last viceroy of the British crown in India, Lord Mountbatten, accepted the accession with a remark that as soon as law and order has been restored in Kashmir and its soil is cleared of invaders, the question of state's accession should be settled by the reference of people. Mountbatten's this remark or the idea of referendum, led to future dispute between India and Pakistan.

The Pakistani establishment considers the status quo in Kashmir is illegitimate , they consider the border drawn by Redcliffe commission was controversial and accession of Kashmir was fraudulent.

The issue was further complicated when India took the issue to UN, on advice of Mountbatten. By doing so, we inadvertently may have internationalized the issue. Ideally it should not have been done, because India's stand on the issue was that its a bilateral issue and there is no scope of third party intervention. Historical wrong tells that when Indian leadership took the matter to UN and agreed for the referendum, it contradicted its natural stand. However, what Pakistan conveniently chooses to ignore is that UN resolution clearly mentions that Pakistan should completely remove its force from Kashmir Valley before Plebiscite can be held. India has reminded the Pakistan of its failure to respect the UN resolution's precondition and also repeated human right violation in the areas which are under Pakistan's control (POK).

Rise of Kashmir Insurgency   

In 1980s, the islamiztion of Kashmir began into full force. The madarsas having covert support from Pakistan's intelligence agency (ISI) planted the seeds of Islamic fundamentalism , hatred and radicalization among the youth, to throw out their Kashmiri Pandit's counterparts from the state. This was totally against the ideals of Kashmiriyat- which in principle means the idea of plurality. Insurgency in Kahmir was also the fall out of Farookh Abdulla ( after the death of his father Sheikh Abdulla, who was a mass leader of Kashmir) forging an alliance with ruling congress party for the elections of 1987. The elections were allegedly rigged in favour of Farookh Abdulla, which led to rise of an armed insurgency partly by those who lost. Another twist to Kashmir's story comes in March 1993, when all party Hurriyat Confrence - an alliance of 26 political, social, religious organizations was formed. The prime agenda of Hurriyat has been to project a negative image of Indian security forces , in their counter terrorism operations in J&K and to moblize the public opinion against them and Indian state. It has an active support of Pakistan in terms of logistics, finances, arms and recruits, training etc. The alliance later split into 2 factions- The moderate faction , led by Mirwaiz Umar Farookh and the hardliner faction by Syyed Ali Shah Gilani.- which is also called as Tareekh-e-huriyaat Jammu and Kashmir.

Of late the Indian leadership seems to have shifted its defensive stance on the issue to an offensive stance by repealing Art-370 and 35A of Indian constitution and by dissolving the state and converting into two UTs, to direct administer the state. The Art-370 was an impediment for seamless integration of state with Indian Union and this led to menace in the state to a great extent.

To reach an all acceptable solution to the long standing problem , it would need a proper and clear understanding of the complexities of the issue on the both sides of borders, a strong political will, resolve, confidence and support of the people and above all the belief in the essence of these three words " Jamburiyat- Insaaniyat -Kashmiriyat" !

Decline of Reading habit among youth.

When you talk to any young person,you realize that the one habit that has taken the maximum hit due to other temptations of the modern world is "reading".

It seems that the youngsters have simply either given up reading, or have restricted themselves to the narrow niches of their professional needs. Broad, generalist readers are a diminishing community. If things go the way they are, it's just a matter of time before a fitting RIP is written for this tribe!

Some of the reasons, why it's happening: 
 Since a lot of youngsters spend a lot of time doing social media networking, there is a false sense of having done a lot of "reading" directly or indirectly through social media itself! Nothing could be far from the truth. The superficial, cursory and utterly peremptory scanning of the written content on Facebook or Twitter can hardly qualify as genuine reading. Still, many feel so! 

The lifestyles of many do not allow clear reading time slots. There's just so much noise. The mobile ,fast speed net, the iPods, the earplugs, the incessant chatter online, whatsapp ,etc... it kills the very concept of locking oneself in a corner of your home/room and dedicating some time to pure reading pleasure. This gradually develops into a pattern - people just give up reading. And when it is indeed available, the depth of silence feels too heavy. 
Reading is like tilling a land.. you stop and it degrades. 

College and schools do not inspire youngsters much when it comes to reading. Neither do seniors who can drive young people through sheer example. So a kind of societal stamp is acquired unknowingly and the bad habit of poor reading proliferates!

The impact or damage that this does to youngster is immense. Some pointers:

Today's youngsters just do not understand issues as deeply as they should,scratch below the surface of claims being made, and you realise there's little gravamen below. It's positively scary. 
More we know about the world around us, the better we can connect the dots and move ahead in a more concrete fashion, thus decision making process becomes a "function" of your awareness and knowledge. Think of yourself in a complicated decision making situation. And imagine that you knew a lot more about the world, its working components, human behaviour, the economy, the nations in turmoil, and so on. There's a fair chance that you will react much better to the challenges facing you.

All these are rather demoralising facts! But no damage is permanent. And you can do a lot to rebuild the edifice. Some simple suggestions:

 

Start small ! Fix a slot of 20 minutes religiously, per day, that you'll devote only to yourself, sitting in a corner/on your study table, with serious reading stuff. Let this time slot grow slowly, gradually. There's no hurry. 

Try reducing your social media time! While it is wrong to ask of anyone to eliminate TV from their schedules (given the amazingly high quality content that appears frequently on TV nowadays), there's a lot of sick and ordinary stuff that cuts into precious time you could devote to your self-development.

Read what you like, first. Don't get into reading things that do not instinctively interest you. As you grow in stature as a reader, your interests will grow too. 

Last but not the least, get into debates and discussion. Nothing stimulates your desire to read more than a pleasant experience of "showing-off" your knowledge in a discussion -:)  I mean that in a positive and healthy way. So get into debates with intelligent people often. Talk about what's happening in the world - the US-Sino trade war, the resurgence of oil and coal, Karnataka Fiasco, the problems facing developing nations, gender equality, financial planning, etc. It'll stimulate and grow your existence manifold.

 

In my opinion,reading was, and remains, the best self-development tool. Do not underestimate its importance. Start now - it's not too late. Invest slowly, steadily and let it work for you. All the best!

Most common mistakes while learning Mathematics for the exams like IIT JEE

Disclaimer: The observations made in the following article are my own personal observations as a student of Mathematics, however they are not exhaustive. The intended readers of this article could be Aspirants / Math's Lovers or Students.
I draw the experience  mostly from my own endeavor , where I qualified IIT twice ( AIR 1252 (JEE'05) & AIR 3462 (JEE'04) ) primarily due to mathematics; Olympiad; Secured a single digit All India Rank in Ramanujan Memorial Mathematical Contest (Conducted by Ramanujan Society) . I believe , in my humble capacity, I can make some contribution for the students fraternity , in the subject. [ Disclaimer Ends].

The nature of subject is bit different from other two subjects that is Physics and Chemistry. Mathematics at times is bit abstract. Situation becomes more complex when a student tries to extend his/ her , rote method of learning, nurtured by the Indian Schooling system in last 10 years to IIT JEE kind of paper. Following are four common mistakes made by aspirants , with their possible wayouts:

Mistake1: Whenever you see a problem , you approach it by "which formulae can I apply"? This whole notion of  "which formulae can I apply?", is the biggest barrier in understanding Mathematics. The possible wayout from this menace is to understand the derivations involved in the process, by going to its core. By doing so, a student not only gets a better insight on the subject , but would be in more comfortable situation in IIT paper, where examiners come up with new problem by tweaking here and there in derivation stage itself.

Mistake2: Suppose you open a book of mathematics (say Hall & Knight , Loney or Maron) and you read it like a novel. During this, you feel that-"yes this makes sense, this is obvious" , etc, and you find that you have understood the concepts, which is exactly not the case!

In Maths & Physics, problem solving is the key and only when you start solving the problems based on the concept which you just read, then only you will be forced to think about the concept and its application. In this process , you are bound to make mistakes and then you have to read the theory again or consult your teacher (if you have one). For those aspirants , who undergo the organized training or caching for these exam, the theory part is mostly done by the instructor. Still ,if you have time, I would suggest , to read theory from the text books.

Mistake 3: Say you solve a problem and somehow you reached to its answer ( this phenomenon is more pronounced , in case of objective exams), but you are not very sure about each and every step involved in it, eg- why am I opening the modulus? Why am I keeping these limits on integration?, etc. There could be many such ambiguous steps in the solution but once you get the answer, you feel very happy and you move on! This is the biggest trap. Answer is just a means to an end, not an end in itself...the end is the proper understanding of the topic.

 Ask yourself, Did you understand every step involved and the logic behind it? If no, then take 15 minutes extra to do brainstorming on the problem again and try to understand the steps involved. If required, read the concept / theory again or consult the teacher.

Mistake 4: "Not Reinforcing or Repeating"

What I mean by this, is, lets say you get a really tough problem and you spent say half an hour and finally you managed to solve it, with reasonably good approach. At that juncture, in your mind, its like a thin / half baked brick wall, which would collapse with little gentle push. But you require a strong and sturdy wall. Meaning for a tough problem, even if you get the answer, don't stop there.

Solve the same problem again, I repeat, same problem again, after couple of days and believe me on this, mostly likely , you will make a mistake again, but this time your understanding will be much better and deeper ( like a 2ft thick sturdy wall!) . In a nutshell, you have to reinforce yourself by solving same thing again.

I hope this helps.  

My Kochi Experience so far

I came to this part of  India about five months ago.
On my first day on the job, I was as nervous as little boy on his first day of school. The butterflies in my stomach were not there because I was starting a job in new city but because I was scared of whether people (students) would accept me. My irrational fear was because I looked different, I spoke with an accent and I just felt strange in this new state. But the moment I walked into the classroom, students looked at me. To my relief, they were all smiling.
I know it sounds silly to give so much importance to a smile. Trust me when I say this, we take smiles for granted. A smile is the first step in acceptance. The genuine smiles that I saw on my colleagues’  and students' faces made me feel a little more welcome and a lot less anxious.
The weeks went by and I received amazing assignments and batches to work on. My colleagues were extremely supportive and understanding of my strengths and weaknesses, although I must say it took some of them a while to pronounce my name correctly!
Over time I started to get to know more people in the building and to be honest, it felt wonderful. Yes, there were awkward moments of silence – meeting a person from a different culture can put you in a spot where you are thinking of not saying anything that might offend the other person. It’s like an auto correct function in your brain, only much faster and less reliable.
I love our intellectual discussions from politics to sports to mathematics. I always call one of my colleagues my Kerala History teacher and the other my little ray of sunshine.
I knew I had come to the right place only because I was surrounded by the right people who had accepted me for who I was. These were the people who made me feel at home away from home.
Acceptance is the first step!

Book Review: Revolution 2020- By Chetan Bhagat

Disclaimer : Recently I have read "Revolution 202" by Mr. Bhagat, here is an honest review (according to me). This review is an independent one , views are my personal and has no correlation with any publisher/advt. (disclaimer ends)!

The book revolves around struggles of a protagonist (actually antagonist) Gopal and how he gives in to the condemnable system. The landscape of Revolution 2020 also weaves the lives of Aarti & Raghav into Gopal’s life.

The plot, set against the backdrop of small town Varanasi, paints the aspirations and scrambles of Gopal’s life. Gopal is ambitious about earning money. He wishes to be rich but doesn’t know the right path. Gopal falls in love with Aarti and the only thing he dreams of is becoming her lover. His career goals go for a toss, if his friendship with her is not going well. She however is in love with Raghav. Raghav has a dream for his country and courage to chase his dream. He is passionate about the values that he upholds. Raghav aspires to be a journalist who does meaningful journalism for his city’s welfare.

The central theme suggests that India’s education system is flawed. Year after year, engineers are being churned out of private institutes with meaningless degrees. Bhagat satirizes the directionless youth and also the parents who try to squeeze their unattainable dream out of their children.The book depicts today’s Indian youth. It is a yours and mine story involving all neighborhood characters. Chetan’s writings are so figurative that one can mentally sketch out his descriptions. The sheer grace, with which he defines Varanasi, almost made the book a tourism campaign. Also, Bhagat magnifies human thoughts beautifully.
However, there is rawness in the story. The book is full of unfounded aphorisms about girls (No offence !). The end isn’t impactful. There is predictability in the plot, stuffed with clichés. When you name a book “Revolution 2020”, it is supposed to be ultra-radical, especially in times of Anna Hazare. However, the book doesn’t live up to its title. It delves deeper into the emotions of the protagonist forgetting the bigger picture. Revolution against corruption is only present in bits and pieces throughout the book. The major chunk is a sardonic sarcasm against the education system without any thoughtful solution.
However, we must pat Bhagat’s back for choosing to write on the most significant issue pertaining to education system. The effortless narration and flow of the plot are also commendable. He captures a myriad human shades suggesting that there is no black and white, it is all grey. All in all a light hearted novel which most youngsters would relate to.

My heartfelt opinion about the subject matter :
Youth, today are chasing unwarranted goals without putting much thought. Few of them, who are oriented, are incapacitated owing to the systemic inadequacies. The system is eclipsed by corruption. The despondency lies in the indifference of youth towards the insurmountable task of eradicating corruption. Youth should garner enough courage and initiative to uproot corruption. Their unstinted support is a “must have” for a better India!