AN ENRICHING VOYAGE

As you set out for Ithaka hope the journey is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon – don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon – you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.

Hope the voyage is a long one,
may there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbours seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind –
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.

Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey,
without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean. 

PS: One of the best poem I came across on Career Launcher website.

A COMPLETELY NEW LESSON

Hey friends…!!

How are you all doing..??

Today wat I m gonna tell you is not any interesting experience of mine or any of my incidence(in which u will find me fucked up most of the times). But what I am gonna write about here is the wonderful words spoken by proff. Vipul Prakash sir. Well he is taking our lectures of solid mechanics.

Today after teaching something(I dnt remember what exactly.. [:P].. but must be something related to his subject, I guess) he completed started a different new topic. Well I would like to tell u in his language.

Scientists and engineers(technocrats) are completely two different terms. Scientists are only interested in the things which are not known to us yet. They are merely interested in the things which are known to the world. They never like the application part. They believe in becoming the first person to know something. On the other hand engineers are strong believers of learning application part which are still in use. They want to know how this stuff works no matter this thing was discovered in 90’s or before. Whatever is used nowadays is the object of keen interest to them. So in this manner these two kind are of completely different species.

What nowadays Indian and American government is supporting in colleges and universities is the shallow knowledge of every field than in-depth knowledge abt a single core.( if you are a engineer, ask yourself how many courses are there which are related to your core… merely 5-8 courses out of total of abt 40 courses.). In future where you will find the person who has in-depth knowledge of the core?? The bosses themselves are working as a clerk in their own companies, asking every other second person what is his job, what he is supposed to do now, and how should he do it. Searching Google and wikipedia for every answer, these are the things they are taking help of. But do u know who are their on the internet?? Do u knw who are the people with whom u r taking help of on these sites. They are none other than fucked up people like you who dnt have complete knowledge of anything. Government is talking of starting online lectures and tutorials for the easy resources. Infact all English developed countries had recently signed such a agreement. But are resources ever been a problem?? You want to read online tutorials and attend online classes. But have u ever tried to surf books through your library which are far easy and comfortable to find. If resources have ever be a problem, have u ever tried to purchase a book from the market and tried to go thru it. Have you ever tried to solve a tute of your own? But there’s no fault of yours in this. It’s the iit system, it’s what the government wants you all to learn and there is no wonder if in the future cheating in exams will be called mere sharing of information...lol..!! Who knows?? You have forgot to practice things, developing your hands, developing your brain. If all the work would be done by machines then you will just become like robots on the earth who does mere transfer of things and not applying their own brains and this time is not so far.

But no fault of your’s my friend. Nowadays there is so much difference in economy that no one allows a skilled person to stick to a job. Inflation in the economy in a night and you are out the next day. Happily working till yesterday and today when came to office, instead of coffee on your table found a pink slip telling you that you are fired..!! Then what can you do?? You will only run after jobs other than core and that’s all government is focusing nowadays in today’s education system. That’s all education is all about nowadays. Shallow knowledge of everything is better than in-depth knowledge of any one thing. There was a time when excellency in one field was required. But now you go for a core job interview and no one will ask you questions related to your field, as If you are given the degree then you must have known that. But who knows they don’t want those qualities in you. They want you as a person who can do become clerk at one time, manager at other time and who knows their driver at some times. And that’s all you will find today’s professionals doing different different jobs at different different times.

If all the people will became like this(which government wants all of us to become) then you will have the in-depth knowledge of the core?? Who will help the world solving basics problems?? Will wikipedia help us which is written by all of us?? Will in future Google be able to find our father’s name(so that we need not to remember that even...!!). If yes then no doubt we will become machines and computers, and machines and robots will rule us.

Solitude is the price for the greatness. The people who really wants to learn, who really wants to gain some knowledge works alone. Walk by the real professors(there are only few real professors.. Baaki sab farzi hai) house late in the night and early in the morning you will found them working alone in their office in a room. Yes, they work alone i.e in complete solitude. You should have habit of passing time in solitude(but this doesn’t mean in any way that you remain alone all the time). You spend 4-5 hours(I amazed on listening this much amount.. lol..!!.. becoz I hardly pass that much time in a week :P) on your studies daily. Work in solitude and then only you will learn to do things of your own. If you dnt have any work, or u wanna do something else like roaming with ur frnds.. Then fine… dnt do that work but sit idle for that much time and you will find your work. You will be forced to do and learn things and that (working in solitude) is the price you are giving to become great in future.

Suddenly ended the lecture… and he started teaching us about solid mechanics... again..!!

Ahh.. I know most of you are jumping from the first para to here leaving reading middle para’s becoz you must be in hurry to chat with your grlfrnds… or the other reason may be this thing doesn’t interest you. But what.. I remember proff. Vipul Prakash saying the things which are educative doesn’t interest public and which are publicly accepted can never be educative. So I doesn’t feel like hesitating publishing this.

Hope you liked it…!!

A WORD OF RESPECT FOR G.N.PILLAI SIR

This post is dedicated to one of my iit professor who has influenced my life in many ways.

First of all I would like to tell you about him. Dr. G.N.Pillai sir is a lecturer in electrical department of iit roorkee. He is a well built gentleman, fair complexion and has a good physique(though this is not the reason y I like him so much :P). He was not at all humorous but sometimes what he said in seriousness was good humor for us. :D. This picture is his which I took in a hidden manner during his lecture classes(which clearly shows how sincerely I used to attend his classes [:P])

He is the only person in iitr whom I have seen working sincerely and with full dedication in mah first year. He was very good at heart and besides academics he also helped us in any matter. Well I was lucky to get him as my electrical lecturer. Other lecturers are such that I even hate to call them “lecturer” as I think this term lost its meaning if it is used for them.

Lemme tell you his first appearance in mah life. On very first day - 4 aug,08 we had a electrical lecture class and he got to introduce himself to us. Well he told all of us to make a common electrical google group (which we are using nowadays for much better purpose I think :P) which he will use to teach us. I thought “what the fuck”. Cant he use the blackboard(sorry green board) to teach us. Y the hell he has to do such bullshit. Well I thought him as another shirker professor of iitr who hates to work on board(which I later realized that I was horribly wrong)

Well with time I realized that he is the most hard working man in mah eyes in iitr.

Well he was the only lecturer who daily evaluates each student and his daily performance.

He was the only one who oftenly take quizzes in the class(most of which were surprised quizzes).

He was the only one who comes in time in his class(sometimes even much before most of the population of students :P)

He was the only one who remembers each his student by his name. Most of the teacher don’t even bother to ask us our names and some who did never dare to remember them.

He was the only one who checks the test papers before time.

What I like most in him was that he was also against “bloody iit system” - the pointers system-which demands nothing but cramming. He also wanted to change dis damn system which demands nothing but cramming. No concepts, no understanding nothing. Just cram all what you have learnt the whole semester a night before and you will be a nine pointer. But we all say that sea is made up of drops but reality is that no one understands the value of a drop. So that’s the reason y this system is still there.

Well my journey with him was only for a semester. In mah first semester electrical science was the only subject which I understand without scratching my head and it was the only subject whose tutes I solved myself. I was punctual in his class as I loved to be taught my him. He teaches so well. But as you all know no student will ever like a lecturer who makes them study or work hard. So he was the only person who was hated and cursed by all. No one liked him and you can guess it pretty well and even I never had good feelings at that time. But despite of knowing all this he never back off and made his students work. And his efforts produced results too. Our D batch was leading other all other batches far behind and I got a nine(A) grade in electrical which is highest among all other subjects.

Well sir, the time has passed and I cant be with you anymore. But I just want to show you that how much I appreciate and respect you for all what you have done and I also want to be sorry for not being the one what you always want your ideal student to be. It is mah bad luck that I will never get you as mah lecturer again in my 4 yrs journey thru iit. But you have influenced my life to that extent where I have the capability to take it to produce some fruitful results. You have taught me to work harder even in the extreme conditions. You have make me strong enough to withstand to my principles which constantly were diminishing and were lost in this fake world. You have taught me how to be your own self. I will respect and love you always.

Written with full regards

Sahil

Vote for me now! Blogomania 2010 sponsored by Odyssey360 | The 24 hour online book store with 5 milion books to choose from.