Wish You a Happy Independence Day.

Yes, we Indians are celebrating 62nd Independence Day today (15th August). It is a big day for all of us. It is a day to celebrate. British colonialism is in history books now. We are independent! Let us salute the freedom fighters; the great leaders and the aamjunta of that time. We are the citizens of their Dream India, but we hardly know whether their dream India and the present India are matching at least to some extent. Anyway, it is better to be practical and to march ahead.

Independence never comes alone, it comes with responsibility and a sense of fellow feeling. Every body wants to be independent; in studies, in job, in life.. every where .. like the free birds of the sky. No one wants to be ruled by some one else. But, in practice that does not happen always. Democracy is still a myth. It is still far from the ideal. Today’s politicians are neither the ideal leaders nor self-less individuals. In the name of democracy and independence they rule the country; by dividing the society into caste, religion, region, language and ethnicity. A narrow sense of Desivad is there everywhere — in business, in industries, in education and in political speeches. The so called leaders/politicians/… are the only independent souls in this country, who are there in order to do all kinds of corruptions, to loot the country, to say anything against any one for the shake of vote — not the aamjunta - who is still in bondage.

Even then, I would say “we are independent, but with dependence“. The dependence comes from the fact that we love to be cared and required to be disciplined by some rules and regulations. We have to deliver some thing to the society where we are living. One has to remember that nothing comes free, everything is to be paid in return of some thing or the other. So, even independence is not free. It comes with a bondage, the bondage of responsibilities, duties towards the society, hard and honest work in our day-to-day life, fighting against corruption and non-governance and above all for humanity at large.

“Who wants to be free?
Freedom is the choice of one’s own bondage”.
- From A Lecture of Dr. Dilip Naik

Instead of blaming for everything, we the aamjunta of this country can participate in nation building. To clean the system and to bring the system into its right path, some times the aamjunta has to be a part of the system. So, be a part of nation building and change the system which you feel needs to be corrected. Let’s tighten the independence with free bondage

Jai Hind

Should I ask him? No… What will people think of me, if I ask this? Stupid? No, I think it is a silly question? I should not ask him.

Most of us must have experienced this some day or the other of our day-to-day life. This is a common fear for most of the students in a class; be it in school, or in college. In general people don’t ask questions thinking that the question that comes in their mind might be a silly one or it might not have the worth to be asked. Some times we think that the teacher might scold or shout at us if we ask. But, by not asking the question and clearing the doubt at the right moment don’t we think we harm ourselves? increase our doubt level? And the result is, we struggle to find out the answer and spend more time and resources. We loose our self confidence or struggle to excel in our day to day life. We should remember that questioning is a process of learning, one has to ask, either to himself or to the other in that process.

The exact opposite is seen in case of a child. If he/she does not understand, he/she will ask more than a thousand questions, “why, how, when, whom, blah blah blah…”, till you either get irritated or he/she gets satisfied with your answer. He/she will get his/her doubts cleared at any cost. But, the same kid starts feeling shy, looses self confidence once he/she grows in time. The fear of should I or should not I, the fear of loosing (be it self confidence or something similar) starts resulting in the development of a fear or shyness to ask in day-to-day life.

For an example, one can very well experience/observe this in a typical class (lecture) where students from MTech, BTech, PhD etc. are there. The BTech students usually ask many questions, irrespective of the type and quality of the question. Most of the times they do not fear and simply ask the teacher and do not let the teacher go unless their query is answered. This is a very good sign. Whereas in the same class, one can hardly find any question from the MTechs or the PhDs. Not that they understand every thing in the lecture, they have doubts like any other student, but the self confidence is low, the feeling of inferiority complex is very high, and the sensitivity towards “what others will think about me” is so high that they cannot ask any thing. They just can’t come out from the should I or shouldn’t I barrier. This is quite common in the case of new entrants, 1st yearites, be in 10+2, BTech, MTech or PhD, which usually disappears over time.

Some times language creates a barrier in questioning. Those who have studied in Hindi or in any regional medium usually feel shy to ask, because they feel, that their English is not that good. In some cases the social or cultural background of the student also creates the barrier in asking. If they are in minority in the class, they do not feel comfortable and do not ask much. A good example can be in cases of female students who sometimes do not ask any question if they are out numbered.

This kind of shyness and lack of confidence can be observed in many fields and in many different places, be it in class room or in office or at home. Now the question arises how should we take this problem? In lecture/class the teacher must realize the problem of 1st year students and encourage the students to ask. May be by making the lecture more interactive and involving more students, might help to some extent. Remember that by asking even silly questions you are not going to harm any one, but if you do not ask, you will not be able to clear your doubts in the class room premises, resulting in no clear understanding of the topic and also spend more time doing the same thing. By doing this, the barrier between should I or should not I increases. The more you fear, the more you loose. But, do we want to loose? No. Then? …

aamjunta, what do you think? Better ask and clear your doubts in the class next time . It is better late than never.

“Even God also can’t help this country. God is also silent spectator in the country,“ the Supreme Court said this in the wake of a lack of governance in the country on 5th Aug, 2008.

Supreme court is right in its place and made the statement out of frustration at the state of governance. Not only governance, day-to-day life, the educational system, vote-bank/cash politics, the rise in corruption, caste-based politics etc, have brought the country to the verge of ruin. Common man has suffered the most and will suffer more in future too, unless otherwise it realizes the state of affairs and takes a remedial measure.

Though the rules are made for the benefit of the people, they are being exploited for the benefit of the party in power; not for the people in general. The ulterior motive of the so called leaders of the country is how to win vote, not to serve people. The party in power can do any thing and can go to any extent to remain in power; neither to save nor to serve the country. The opposition is no better either. They oppose only for the sake of opposing in most of the cases. Responsible opposition is just confined as a word in the dictionary only. They (both the ruling party and the opposition) just change their tune and voice the moment they go to the other side of the table. Hardly any one is concerned for the aamjunta .

On 26th July, 2008, Vijay Divas, almost every one (including the government, the opposition and the media too) of this country forgot to pay their homage to the amar Jawans’ / martyrs of our country. The reason being, terror and the bomb blasts in Bangalore. Yes, that was a big security flaw and is a matter of concern for all of us, but, don’t we think that we should also remember and pay our homage at least to the amar jawans who saved the country from intrusion and from war by sacrificing their lives? We simply forgot and were busy in our life. How selfish we are! Similarly, when Field Marshal Manekshaw died last month, hardly any one from the Union Ministry attended the funeral. The reason — un-officially the high profile ministers were busy in poaching and buying MPs for the trust vote.

It is not the defense sector only which is facing this kind of ignorance and non-governance. The non-governance and irresponsibility is there in every sector. For an example, the setting up of the new IITs and the Reservation policy of the Govt. Six IITs came up in months time this year without a single building and a faculty of its own. Opening of new IITs is required, but the manner in which these are opened is a matter of concern. All old IITs are supposed to mentor the new IITs. Yes, we should do this. But, when the old IITs are themselves facing a major faculty crunch, it is difficult to understand how can they help the new IITs? Even then, the old IITs are helping and mentoring. That is commendable. But at what cost and time? - when they are struggling with the increase in seats due to the new reservation policy in their own institutes!, when the student-teacher ratio is very high and uncontrollable? Difficult to understand the vision of our leaders.

Great… that you want more students in higher studies and need more institutions of higher learning. But what about their accommodation and their basic amenities? Create the basic amenities first and then go for this. Instead, hardly any one bothers about the present problem, the living conditions of the students in Hostels. Some of them are doubled up even in their PhD careers, forget about MTechs and BTechs and that too in very small rooms, where you can hardly stand when you put together two beds , forget about keeping chairs and tables. Accommodation is not there, faculties are not there, building is not there — where and how will they study? In open space? in Gurukul style ?? May be the government is thinking in that direction.

Still…. most of us wonder, what was the need of taking such kind of decision in a hurry? Just to show some thing to the aamjunta before election? Tough guess!

Speeding up in implementation is a rare phenomena. Some times out of the many schemes announced at Lal Qila Maidan or on the Floor of the House on various occasions, hardly 60% of them get implemented and that too in many-many years time. Most of the times, declaring new schemes and/or implementing new schemes are aimed at the forth coming elections. Some schemes get implemented without realizing the consequences. Only one thing these people understand: divide and rule policy and vote bank politics; garibiki aagme apna roti sekna. Welfare of the people is not that important for them, rather getting a Rajya Sabha/Lok Sabha/Vidan Sabha Ticket for themselves and for their family members and winning the election at any cost is their aim.

The bureaucratic hurdle, the red tapisim, the corrupt politicians, the nexus between contractors and underworld, etc. are just the means of obstruction for the development of a country. We need many researchers, engineers, doctors, scientists, farmers, jawans — not corrupt politicians, inefficient bureaucrats, criminal police officers. The youth requires to be guided in the proper direction. Research and Development should be encouraged, high class research and educational institutes should set up and higher eduction must be encouraged for this. But, that needs a lot of planning and implementation.

Most of the graduates leave this country for higher studies in a foreign university not because for the good facilities only, but mostly because of the monetary incentive they get. Higher education is quite attractive and lucrative there. Here it is just the opposite (of course the scene is changing now). Here a simple implementation on fellowship hike for the PhD scholars took more than a year and that too because of huge pressure through RTIs and meetings. But, alas… the fellowship hike is yet to be implemented for MTechs and MPhils. The funny thing is that it is not yet clear who will decide and when will the decision come into existence. Even though a group of ministers have cleared this some one year back it is still not clear what will happen to that?. Both MHRD and AICTE are acting un-professionally on this. Though both offices are situated hardly two buildings apart, they are yet to decide the matter jointly. They are just delaying this… “Just ignore and delay, people will forget very soon” - is the mantra of many offices here; but we hardly forget

When we tried from our end and put pressure on them to implement the scheme through RTIs and letters etc., we got some interesting and contradictory replies from them, even from the same officer on different occasions. First time on the reply AICTE said, “it will be implemented w.e.f, 1st April, 2007“. Second time, AICTE did not answer and third time it replied with a tag - “decision is yet to be taken”. Out of the five RTIs filed to AICTE, two RTIS were returned as no one was ready to receive our applications at AICTE. MHRD is also keeping mum on this issue and have not replied properly to our RTIs. Seems they are only busy in implementing populist schemes like reservation in Higher Education and setting up new IITs; the election is around the corner. Pathetic! No clear time frame to implement the small fellowship scheme for the MTech and MPhills of this country? What can be worse than this?

It is not fair to blame the government alone. We the people are also responsible for this kind of debacle. The media, the unions, the political parties, the intellectuals, the farmers, the jawans, the police force… all are responsible directly or indirectly for this. The media, especially the electronic media should take up the responsibility in a matured way. They should understand and realize what are they broadcasting? Every word they speak and picture they show is not taken lightly by the aamjunta. To woo the viewers and to increase the TRP, they should not get involved in broadcasting wrong, unethical, inhuman news. Some times, they show 2/3 years back archived footage along with some minor news and make that sensational. For an example, some time back they broadcasted a footage of riots while talking about some minor strike by some hooligans. That footage just created panic among the viewers and added fuel to fire and disturbances got multiplied resulting in law-and-order problem. Some times they show and present a piece of wrong news in such a way that it appears as if that has really happened. Role of media in Arushi Murder case, suicide case in Bihar where the cameraman helped the person in pouring petrol and lighting the match stick — just to show live, prostitution case in a Delhi School where the cameraman instead of the Principal of that school was involved are the eye openers. No one should believe simply on what they see in TV or what they read on news papers.

The print media should also act responsibly. Instead of making copy-paste journalism, they should publish their own articles. Some times, they simply copy and paste many things from the Internet and publish in the name of free press, without citing the sources. The news they copy and paste/edit in such a manner that it gets altered and a totally different meaning comes out of it (a perfect example is Hindustan Times, when they copied the blogs of aamjunta and published a wrong news). These things should be curbed and discouraged by the society. In the name of free speech they should not create panic and law-and-order problem and publish wrong news. If that continues, then definitely we should think of censored news channels.

The Judiciary, the government, the society and the aamjunta should discuss and take up these issues seriously at this juncture of time. If that does not happen, as supreme court rightly said, “Even God also can’t help this country”. The aamjunta must not act like a silent observer, instead should act responsibly.

I believe that the aamjunta will wake up and take up the responsibility to build the nation. I hope positively and say “Only God Can Help!”.

Jai Hind.

“We are very sorry for the problem you are currently facing, we will get in touch with you and solve your problem within the next 12 to 24 hours”, is the usual response of the Customer Care of a leading telephone operator of Mumbai and Delhi. Sounds stereo type?, funny?, monotonous? hmmm…. Yes, but, looks like there is no other option is left with us other than believing and waiting for their responses.

When I recharge my pre-paid mobile with some special plan, it hardly gets activated within the stipulated 24 hours of time. Some time it never gets activated for days; as if we have not paid for the service. One has to literally fight with the customer care to get it activated. The first and foremost answer one will get is “Currently there are some system problem we are facing. We are working on it. We will get in touch with you and solve your problem as soon as possible”, without giving any time frame. But, that (getting touch with me) never happened with me in the last 3/4 years. I have never received any call from them till now In this situation, either one has to call again and again till the problem does not get solved, or forget the problem, rather accept that as it is (which most of us do).

Some time many of us have to fight literally with the customer care officer/manager to get the work done. The most irritating thing happens when they (customer care officers) start teaching us the technology and start bluffing without knowing anything. One can understand that they are hired for these kind of jobs and to speak like this. That is not their fault, they are trained to behave like that and are paid for that, instead the companies/ service providers have to be blamed and charged for their poor service records. In some cases, one will experience arrogant, ignorant and un-professional customer care agents. One has to be very careful while dealing with them and needs to spend his/her patience, energy and time to explain them and get the things done. For an instance, I had spent some 1 hour 34 minutes in one go and many more hours before that for 3 days continuously to explain a typical technical problem which I had faced. In that process I filed 3 complaints, spoke to at least 15 executives and spent some 150 rupees. In a quite similar note, one of my friends had spent 10 days to explain his problem related to call routing for a new mobile number.

Neither my problem nor my friend’s problem got solved. I lost patience and changed my recharge scheme and my friend stopped calling to that number. These are just a few instances, there are many more

Facing customer care problems are neither new nor related to any particular company or organization. It happens with most of the companies and the service providers. Be it a credit card company or a telephone operator, or an insurance company or a mobile phone manufacturer; the same story repeats in some or the other form.

With the recent advancements in technology and with the rise and need of on-line transactions, one has to keep a tag on his/her on-line spendings and/or transactions, else fraud transactions will add woe to the sad stories, as it had happened with me some two years back. I had spent two months completely during Dec 2005 and Jan 2006 to get rid off the frequent threating calls from the credit card company for none of my mistake. Some one bought some thing in Europe using my credit card number, while I was in India. The transaction too was exceeded my credit limit by some Rs 75k. Without warning/informing me about the huge transaction, the bank simply approved that transaction and put heavy fine on me for exceeding the limit. My nightmare started after that; I had to fight and used to call the customer care almost 3 times a day for about 2 months. Even I had filed a police complaint to save my skin from the Hired Gundas of the credit card company. Experience with the customer care was horrible and pathetic.

With the rise in on-line national and international transactions through credit cards, it may happen that you will face the problem and pay not for your mistakes only; a simple mistake of some one else can force you to pay a huge amount. For an instance, if you do a foreign transaction on your card, and if by any mistake the merchant charges you twice or more, and returns the extra amount charged after your complain, you are still going to pay a certain amount for which you not at all responsible. This is because, even if you are successful in convincing the customer care of the merchant regarding the fault at their end, and manage to get that debited to your account, the foreign currency transaction charge that your bank charged and the difference in selling and buying of currency will be credited to your account. And, … I doubt neither you will be able to convince the bank nor the merchant and with no option left…, you will have to pay the difference amount. The customer care is hardly of any use in this situation.

Saying all this, I don’t discount the govt agencies from the customer care related problems. Be it Indian Railway or India Post, the problem is there every where. I had a bad experience with the Post Office for my NSC transfer some time back. Had to ran around many officials and many offices to get that transfered and to get my matured money back. But, the sad thing is… the transfer did not happen for 3 months until I file an RTI application with the local post office. The tone of the customer care officer or the post office officials got changed with 180 degree at the moment I fled the RTI. Till that time they were just ignoring my complaints with their usual answer “ho jayega… hum ne to bhej diya, wahan ki official respond hi nahin karte”

One has to learn the art of speaking and/or writing to the customer care while dealing with the problems. If possible, keep a tab of all conversations/correspondences, like the customer care officers’ name, time of conversation and the complaint number, if any. If you are writing any emails, keep a track of all emails and produce if required. If you are sending by snail mails, then keep photocopies of all letters those you have sent. Always send through the courier or through speed/registered post and keep all receipts for your record. That makes your case stronger.

One has to learn from the mistakes, else will end up spending hours and hours for filing the same complaint again and again with different customer care officer without getting any solution.

Said all that, the question arises, whether we should call them Customer Care or Cost-More Care?

Aamjunta it is your turn now to decide

Every time I get bugged by my friends regarding my marriage, and my would be, I simply smile mischievously and answer, “arreh, ho jayega, koi na koi toh mil hi jayega, abhi toh dhunda nahini, dundhna toh suru karu!”. That simple answer has created many interesting discussions and fun in the last four/five years. With my confident answer, some think, “he has some thing, else how can he say like this?” But the truth is, “no one is there, but, I believe, will get some one” Do you think I only say these things without actually believing? No, it is quite common, many of us say the same thing in some way or the other, for some thing or the other. And then life goes on…

Actually, some thing or some one is there in store for every thing/every one. Nothing is isolated, nothing is alone! Every problem has some solution, only if one tries his/her best. And, even if it is not there, we still live with a hope that some thing will happen miraculously on some or other day of our lives. Some people also call it hope. Every one of us live with some faith and some belief, and the universe is existing on that basis. You can name it God or parents or friends or some one very close to you, but it is (they are) always there to help at the time of your need. But, one has to know whose help and what kind of help he/she requires. For an instance, one should know what key word should be used to search through a search engine like Google.

A friend might be any one or any thing, and some times might happen that you your self are your best friend. If no one is there by you and you are a non-believer, then don’t worry, your self confidence is there. There is a Bengali song making such a statement: “jadi tor daak sune keyo na aashe tohbe aekla chalo re”. One has to help himself first, then the other. Without self confidence, nothing can be done; the kid can’t walk, the pilot can’t fly and even I can’t write and you can’t read :). Self confidence is the most crucial thing which one can experience at every part of his/her life. If you do not have the self confidence, then how can you lead a team?, how can you direct some one?, how can you save some one? and how can you survive?. Once you realize and understand the inherent force within you, you will start achieving your goals. Without self confidence, Alexander could not have conquered the world, Mahatma Gandhi could not have led the nation for independence, Kapildev could not have scored 175 not out against Zimbabwe and won the world cup. It is more important and desired to try for the (n+1)’th time if you fail on the n’th time; success will be bound to come to you if you are honest in your approach, no matter how difficult it is. Mistakes or failures are part and parcel of life. One should not get demoralized by the failures, instead should learn from the failures to try for another success.

For a society to survive and to grow, belief and faith are essential. With faith and belief we live, the patient survives and doctor operates. One has to believe, else can’t live. Without the faith of the public (aamjunta) the govt can’t work, law can’t be enforced, country can’t prosper. Belief is a state of one’s mind and faith is the fire in one’s heart; they are complementary to each other. Once faith and belief are multiplied with hard work, dedication and honesty, the success is bound to come. For an instance, war ridden Japan could not have achieved what it has today after the failures of 2nd world war. Faith has to be there from both sides, and needs to be created to provide some evidence. For an instance, researchers and students should have faith on their work and should send their research papers to the world out side the campus with a firm belief. Without sending how can they publish any thing? Fear of rejection should not hold them back from submitting their work for review.

One has to remember, “Acceptance and Rejection are the two sides of a coin, and if you want that coin, then you should learn to live with both acceptance and rejection“. Likewise money brings money, paper brings papers, power brings powers and success brings success. One has to remember, “nothing succeeds like success” and “success never comes alone, it has its step brother failure is with him always”. —- but one has to act with faith and belief.

Ammjunta — what is your opinion? What are you thinking about? Koi na koi to Hai…. nahini to Main Hoon Naaaaaaaaaa

Yes this is the end of the day…. uploading this article that I promised at the beginning of the day

Couple of days back we had our Valfi (Valedictory Function). The function was great, attended by many dignitaries. But, the response we got from people for whom the function was arranged was pale. Hardly 50% of the number expected turned up for the event, even though repeated reminder emails were sent and some had even confirmed through emails that they will attend. And the time sense … , better not to discuss. Neither I am cribbing here about the attitude of people in general, nor I’m worried about their responses. I’m just reflecting upon a general trend which I have experienced for the past one year or so.

The trend I observed was quite interesting, and some times frustrating though! For instance, some of the feedback we got from people during valfi were quite interesting, “no comments” every where, and in some, “this is bad, that is bad and so on”. In most of the cases, the feedback we got, from people for whom we did so much was frustrating as most of them were ignorant about their own state and environment. The other interesting fact I experienced is people’s attitude about achievements. Many are always crazy about what others’ achieve not about what they themselves achieve or should achieve. They are curious and critical about why some one else got an award, but don’t reflect about why they did or did not get that award. I don’t find the statement, “I envy nobody, nobody envies me” true any more; instead it has changed to “I envy nobody, but somebody envies me”, true most of the times. Should I say this as “Leg pulling”? It is just the de-construction of construction .

The other instance is IITBGeneral. One can witness infinite number of emails on silly things and even out of context discussions, without a single point of implementation or action. I’m not against the discussion in IITBGeneral — what worries me is some thing different. People have enough time to crib through emails, because that is free. They spend hours and hours on discussing and cribbing that happened this didn’t happen or that didn’t happen; but will not spend a moment reflecting what good has been done for them or how things can be actually improved from the point of “non-happening” in the real sense. One will hardly find any one physically if he/she wants some thing to be done. Their concerns are just confined to emails and discussions in news groups, but how does discussions help the “common man”? I still have not been able to figure out in my 6 yrs of IITB life. That reminds me the famous “Armchair Agriculture” of the writer RK Narayan.

There is a wide gap between action and intention. When the fellowship hike came into light we were bombarded with emails – “when will it be hiked?, “what is the amount?”, “when will it get implemented?”, “it has already got implemented in such and such place” and so on. Fortunately or unfortunately, I hardly got any mail after the scheme got implemented. Fortunately, because my mailbox didn’t get spammed , unfortunately, because it shows the selfishness and ignorance in the same aam junta. They want their things to be done but don’t want to contribute a pie to the process. Then why would some one else do for them? - that is the big question!

One more interesting thing one must have experienced during his/her research career is the thesis submission and its duration. It is the most disturbing and irritating moment for a research scholar, when he/she is pellted with the questions like, “when are you completing?” , “how many years left?”, “how long have you taken?”, etc. It is more frustrating when a fellow research scholar quizzes these things, not to know earnestly as to what have you done or how are you placed? Rather to show what he/she is up to. Some are crazy about finishing things quickly and leave. But, that should be personal, not generally expressed. In my opinion, PhD is not a time bound process. It should not be valued in terms of years, rather should be valued in terms of quality and quantity of work. One has to realize that the quality of things one learnt in the process is important. PhD should not be treated as a set point, rather should be treated as a journey; if one spends his/her hard work he will definitely reach at a point, where he/she can philosophize — and a PhD degree of course. Saying that, neither I am undermining and nor am I de-emphasizing the time frame set by an institute to complete a PhD. It should be followed, but with a positive spirit, not to put unnecessary peer pressure to just complete rather than one should aim to complete qualitatively. One of my Professors at IIT Bombay used to ask, Have you done a good literature survey? - if you are a first-yearite, do you have a problem at your hand? - if you are a second yearite, how are you doing? - if you are a third yearite, and how is life? - if you have crossed the 4years limit

Yes, let me ask - how is life my friends? Must be enjoying. Keep doing and complete as soon as possible. Remember, It is your PhD, and at the end of your PhD, it is the quantity and quality of work that matters, the quality of understanding in your respective disciplines that matters, which will sail you through the rest of your life. One should remember, we all are fellow Research Scholars and we will get PhDs from our respective departments, from our respective streams earlier or later and at the end of our tenures. So treat your peers as fellow research scholars, not as any superior or inferior.

And at the End of The Day — we all are fellow human beings who are made of flesh and blood and should have some respect and concern for another human being.

Aamjunta kya khayal hai?

This article is dedicated to all my fellow research scholars of IITs and any other universities.

“Tyre Kharido, Car Free”!

Sounds funny? Might be, but believe me, it is true !!.

Couple of months back I came across with this advertisement in a national daily. Was curious to know the deal, on a close look found an * mark with conditions apply. And you can imagine the “condition”... the usual ones… “On purchase of so many tyres, your chance to win a car doubles up and blah blah…”. Quite usual advertisements in print media or in electronic media. Every where one can find such conditions apply in almost zero font size; quite similar to the statutory warnings on Cigarate Packs. Not only that, the price of the selling items are hiked considerably in general, which go un-noticed by the customers as the attention gets diverted to the free tag. One should be very careful while going for these kind of deals and should understand the Conditions carefully. Else …. But unfortunately the conditions are never explained properly in the advertisements.

In a similar note, I came across with another advertisement “Cooler Kharido, Refrigerator Free”; during the hot summer days of Delhi. Was fascinated by the advertisement at that time. Next morning I went to that shop (spend some 4 hours to locate the shop and Rs 200/- by auto) to get the air cooler and a refrigerator. But, to my surprise the Air cooler which normally costs Rs 3000/- in the market, was labeled with Rs 6500/- and the free refrigerator was of no use for me as it was very small. Came back home on a sad note . I should have understood the conditions applied well before spending my time and money.

On a slightly different note, every one of us have experienced the famous “Buy one and Get one Free” deals in malls, in cinema halls or in eating joints like Pizza-Huts or Mc-cdonalds etc. These tag lines are to lure the customers to and to sell more. Customers buy more and spend more — it does not matter whether the need of the free item as well as the first item is there or not! The tag line “Buy one and Get one Free” is just another marking concept and a sales promotion method for shops, companies and dealers. Companies/dealers usually adopt this method to clear the stock or to quickly reach the market. One should not get lured by the word FREE, instead should realize Nothing is Free, some thing or other has to be paid to get that which appears to be Free.

Selling something and giving something free is becoming a regular marketing concept; either buy one get one free (of the same or different item) or “buy two get one free” or “buy this get that free”, are free flowing tag lines now a days. Be it “buy one and get one free” or “buy this get that free”, these lines are usually profitable to the company and can be profitable to the customers if they buy the items judiciously. It is profitable for the shop/compay in the sense that, shops usually hike the price of the first item to a certain extent (off course not by 100%!!), such that the price of the free item is covered to some extent. They earn profit from the huge amount of sales due to the promotional offer. The customers too can make the deal profitable, only if there is a need to buy the items both first and the free item. Else, the customer will end up paying more not only for the first item, will waste the second item (happens mostly in food items). Being aware of the cost of the individual items definitely help the customers to decide, whether to go for the deal or not.

Saying that, let me narrate some of my experiences on the free purchases….

Recently, I went for a magazine deal and ended up paying Rs 1500/- for 3 years subscription, which was almost 50% of the regular price. Yes, it was profitable to me in one sense that I saved 50% on the price, not only that I also got a pair of shoes FREE . But, when critically analyzed, I realized that, it was not at all profitable to me. Because, neither I’m a fan of that magazine and nor I need a pair of shoes at this point of time. Not only that, the same magazine is also available for reading in my Hostel for free. So, what do you say? Profit or loss for me? But, it is definitely a profitable deal for the publisher. Not only the publisher got some money as investment (by bulk number of 3 years of subscriptions), but also, it got some sure-shot number of readers or customers, which can be priced to the advertising agencies in their future issues as the magazine reaches out for wide circulation.

In another case, one of my friends bought a washing machine for Rs 14000/- using his credit card (as he was short of money at that time). The reason being, he got a free item of Rs 700/- (got a Coffee maker by the scratch card) and a discount of 2%! Yes, by doing that the shop cleared the stock and sold many washing machines in a month’s time; naturally increased its total profit. But, my poor friend, has a habbit of forgetting paying the credit card dues in time — paid a fine of Rs 1500/- (including the interest and late fee) to the bank. Not only that, he never uses his coffee machine (as he does not drink tea/coffee). So for him, the deal was a total loss (which might be a proffit for some one else!). He hardly realizes and repeats his mistakes again and again .

Those are just some of the experiences; which every one of us have experienced in some or other context. So next time when you see “Buy one Get one Free” or “Tyre kharido, Car Free”… do not get fasinated, keep cool, think twice whether you really want to buy this and do you really need that free item or not… Else, you will end up with same stories .

Aamjunta … what do you think?

“Babu, will you please give me two rupees more than your Rickshaw Bhada?”

The poor rickshaw puller innocently asked me on my way to Sheltar Chak from Barabati Bali Yatra (one of the traditional carnivals of Odissa) Maidan.

Before I could say a thing, he added, “I’m just requesting, don’t give if you don’t feel like”.

I retorted back with irritation — “but, you had agreed for Rs 6/- for the bhada, why two rupees more?”

He was mum for some time and then said “I’m falling short of Rs 2/-”.

“From what?” I questioned him again threateningly…

“I’m falling short of Rs 2/- to buy a Milk Dabba for my 6 months old baby. I’ve collected Rs 38/- from my entire day’s rickshaw pulling and it amounts to Rs 40/-”.

I tried to open my mouth to say something. Before I could say anything, he stopped the rickshaw, looked back, saw my face and said, “no problem, I just requested you, if you don’t want.. don’t give, will wait for some more time and by God’s grace I hope will be able to earn two more”.

Then he started paddling towards my home. After a couple of minutes, he just said to himself (addressed to his kid), “By the time I collect two more, shops will be closed, and you (his kid) will have to sleep again in hunger tonight”.

It was 11 pm at night in the month of November, quite late in the night for the eastern part of India. He was pulling me in his cycle rickshaw from the Bali Yatra Maidan to my brother’s place at Cuttack. I was in my 12th standard at that time, studying at Ravenshaw College. I got late watching music and dance numbers in the famous Habib Melody on that evening. No one agreed to go with a fare of Rs 6/-, all the rickshaw-walas were charging Rs 10-12/-. I was bit surprised, when this one agreed for Rs 6/- after a moment’s thought. May be he was a bit calculative at that time and thought of loosing the chance to earn Rs 6/- more, just to get that milk dabba home in time. Even though, he fell short of Rs 2/- he did not loose faith on his profession.

A 10-15 minutes journey by rickshaw from Barabti to Sheltar Chak. In the entire conversation, I was silent for most of the time, thinking about him, his 6 months old baby, me, my friends and the society. I was not that matured at that time to understand everything. During Bali yatra, I found some people throwing money on anything and buying trinkets indiscriminately. But, the same people would have gone to any extent to bargain with a poor rickshaw puller. I too had spent a lot from my pocket money on eating and watching melodies and operas. Whereas the rickshaw puller struggles to save Rs 40/- to feed his small kid (forget about himself and his other family members).

The value of Rs 2/- for him was the value of his kid’s life, where as it had no meaning for some other people. Such is the denomination of money, some thing which has no value for someone might be a whole life for some body else.

Those two rupees ….. aamjunta think about it.

“So, when are you giving the treat”? I asked Bhim. “No Sir, I’m not the lucky man, the girl got married last week to a Software Engineer”, Bhim replied. “What !!” I couldn’t say anything more, had no words to console.

We changed the topic, discussed something else. In the entire conversation, I was uncomfortable. Bhim finally narrated his story…. The girl’s father found some Software Engineer (professional) who had 2/3 foreign visits in his CV, a high CTC and a flat in Mumbai (of course on Loan !) and fixed her wedding with him, without bothering about the commitment he had given to Bhim and his family. Bhim was merely a PhD for the girl’s father and was not a software professional — this was the clarification that he (Bhim) got from the girl’s side. Bhim was heart broken, he was in touch with the girl for almost 8 months and now he had to move ahead in life alone.

This is not the only story, this is a story (fact) among many other such stories. I asked myself, thought for some time, tried to analyze all the success and failures in marriages of some of the people who were doing/completed PhD around me. I could not see the value of a PhD at least in Marriage Bazar. Be it girls doing PhD or boys doing PhD, the issue rounds up to “what/how much are you earning and how many times you have gone abroad”? In Marriage Bazar money and jobs have high bidding value than intellect or degrees. This is a “Pan-India” phenomena cutting across caste and cultures. In a slightly similar case, Nakul, another PhD-ridden fellow could not get a girl to marry even though he visited some 15 would-be brides, registered in all leading matrimonial sites and spent around 2 months keeping his Post Doc on hold. Every girl he met and liked, only to be rejected on the grounds that he does not have a job. No one understood what Post Doc in a leading university in abroad meant.

Even with a good job after PhD, getting a suitable girl or boy is difficult. For instance, Sahadev was forced to marry a girl with an age difference of 15 years even though he was well placed in a University as a Professor. Not only a visible age difference, there was a huge educational difference in his case. The reason… same, Professors do not earn as much as Engineers/Doctors earn.

Marriage during PhD is also a tough bargain. Even if some one finds a girl and gets married, he might find his marriage a costly affair, not only because of commitment towards PhD and work load, but also due to his commitment towards his newly wed. First his guide, then finance and then his domestic affair… every thing demands equal or more attention. If he gets a marital accommodation in the campus, it is somewhat reliving, because one can hardly afford a rented house out side the campus with a meager private or institute fellowship. If you are lucky, your sweet-heart is understanding, and your guide is cooperating you might enjoy your penury.

Work pressure is not the only thing that affects, peer pressure too has a high impact. Suni (also Manu) was constantly dogged by her (his) PhD mates that she (he) did not have a boyfriend/husband (girlfriend). Many of her (his) friends were engaged. In desperation Suni (Manu) made a wrong choice and proposed, only to be rejected:“I don’t see you as my long term companion, we can be friends “. Manu got into some sorts of alternative involvement (like alcohol) and Suni became depressive.

Doing a PhD after marriage is also full of risks. Taking the decision to join PhD when you already have a family is the toughest. The reason being, you have to convince your spouse, family and kids for the 4/5 years commitment. It is a calculated risk to be taken care of. I still remember, Arjun’s wife jokingly but firmly asked Arjun to sign the divorce papers, when he proposed to go for a PhD some 4 years back.

It is not just men who suffer, the girls are no better. A girl doing PhD is both misunderstood as well as over qualified in the Marriage Bazar. Misunderstood, because, she has chosen the untrodden path, which is time consuming and requires more commitment than domestic affairs. Over qualified in the sense, that very few men choose to marry some one having higher qualification than themselves and even qualifications at par. Even if the girls marry during PhD, the balance between domestic and professional pressure becomes so high, that it can disturb the marital bliss.

Said all that, the world still goes on with hope and hit and trials. “Aap bhi free, mein bhi free… so, what do you say”, an opportunity not to be left in many cases; does not matter whether your engagement is broken or you are looking for some fresh start. This gives hope to desperate souls. Search continues for a partner who will fit into one’s long term goals/itemized list of desirable qualities — sometimes we become selfish, sometimes stubborn, sometimes opportunistic, but giving up hope is impossible. Who knows, some or the other trial may click … marriage is a research proposal in life for many. “Ye nahini, to aur sahi…”

So, aamjunta… what do you think? Prepared for two marriages; PhD and Spouse !!

Govt. of India has recently announced the formation of 8 new IITS, 6 of them are starting this year itself. After the announcement of the new IITs, a debate sparked off on the so called dilution of the brand value of the present IITs and losing the elite tag of so called IITians. But, how far is this fear justified?

By the IIT Acts of 1956 and 1961 and the subsequent amendments in late 1980s and early 2000, 8 IITs were setup. Out of these 8 IITs, IIT Roorkee and IIT Delhi were the converted ones whereas the other 6 IITs started from scratch. Even though the IIT act binds upon all the IITs, yet each IIT is an autonomous society/body having its own set of rules and regulations and working conditions. Over the years, the faculties, students, alumni and staff have worked together relentlessly in order to make individual IITs as forerunners of the education scenario of this country. They have created a brand value and feel good factor of the IITs and to some extent have achieved the vision of 1960s - of being institutions of national importance imparting global outreach.

But, we have moved ahead in time from 1960s to the new millennium. The population of India was hardly 443, 000, 000 in 1960, where as the population has reached 1, 147, 677, 000 mark in 2008 (source - “Census of India”) almost three fold increase. With this rise in the population, the pressure and competition on the existing public education system has increased manifold. To cater this growth, the country definitely needs to increase the number of institutes of higher learning bearing national importance. This is required to sustain the growth of the nation, and compete worldwide.

Coming to the brand value, every product has its own brand value, and if we consider IITs as products then each IIT has its own brand. The brand value of IIT Bombay is different from that of IIT Madras or IIT Kanpur for that matter. By increasing the number of IITs from 7 to 15 (8 new), the brand of existing IITs are said to be diluted. But, how far is it true? With the rise in population, competition has reached to its extreme peak, and hence by increasing the total number of seats just by say some thousand, will not make easier the competition level. Also, the requirement of engineers, researchers, scientists has not only increased but also become crucial for the country at this juncture. This is because, the country it self is in a growing stage and needs more of its own engineers and researchers. We cannot afford to buy brains at this stage.

Many of the IITians are accused of leaving the country for a so called better life, better salary and/or better job profile. The current IITs and other institutions are facing acute faculty crunch at this stage. The reason behind this is mainly low salary and perks associated with it. It is very difficult to attract dynamic and dedicated faculties to even the so called leading institutions, forget about the other institutions. Many of the graduating students prefer to join MNCs and software industries instead of their core branch jobs, citing better salary and non-availability of good core jobs. Other than software sector or service sector, we do not have any full proof mechanism to cater the need of all other sectors. The country is very poor in the production sector. We produce workforce, but we don’t direct and mentor them in the right direction. At this moment we don’t produce or manufacture a single IC Chip on our own. What we use, are only the foreign brands. A nation which produces lakhs of engineers in one year does not produce a small IC chip on its own! Don’t we think that this is a complete failure or misguidance of higher education/research?

With the brand value thing, comes the question of benefactors. Who actually benefits from the Brand IIT? The taxpayer?, The alumni? The students? The faculties?, The corporates? or The Govt? Being national properties, IITs are majorly funded by the taxpayer, the common man. But what are the returns? Many of the graduates go away from the country for better opportunities. We enjoy a life of affluence, lime light as IITians, get the best available resources in India and then we forget the debts that we bear. Interestingly, many IITians themselves do not come back to join their alma mater as faculties after completing their education. We are the investment of the country with minimal returns. Then… how will the country grow?

Don’t we need more institutions of higher learning imparting cutting edge research? With the changing demands, research along with basic education has become very crucial. We can’t envision growth without envisioning research excellence. IITs are supposed to be the first institutions in India to realize this requirement. But, the infrastructures and the intake capacity is limited in the existing IITs. If we need to switch the image of IITs from technical excellence to research excellence, we need not only expand the number of such institutions, but also, encourage the upcoming centers of learning to inculcate research values. Such institutions will also allure dynamic individuals to join as faculties because of the healthy research environments.

With so much requirement for the nation, the Govt. too has to rise above narrow partisan vote bank politics. It has to upgrade the infrastructure of the existing IITs first and then provide equal opportunity to the upcoming institutions. The salary and perks of faculties/researchers working in these institutes of national importance should be at par with the best in the industry. Instead of putting bureaucratic hurdles, the new as well as the old institutes should get more freedom and fund to develop faster.

All said and done. When we boast of the Brand IITs or the Elite Tag, we also have to remember that we carry the hefty luggage of an entire nation’s aspirations. The new IITs are the reality and they are of course the nextgen of the nation. However, it is definitely difficult to negotiate the generation gap between the existing and the new IITs. But, it is the reality of life that new things emerge with time and need. The existing IITs are now the incubators for the new IITs, which at some point of time even were incubated by some foreign institutions (USSR for IIT Bombay, Germany of IIT Madras, USA for IIT Kanpur, etc.).

So? Brand IIT — Whose property aamjunta?