Discovery of a nation!

Through the time of our primary and secondary school education all of us have by ourselves built an idea of what our country represents. This might be the general notion the society in which you grew up has in their mind. A thing that happens when you start to travel outside your native land is, that you see how different things are; in different parts of the world. And in India, things are wayyy more different from one place to the other.

This has always made me ask myself, what are we, or rather what does this nation stand for, only to find myself perplexed. But it didn’t matter that much, even when once my Professor Dr Reuben Wong asked us, discussing the difference between China and India with Europe, is India a group of small nations, or is it one single big nation.  

But recently, after seeing some rather uncomfortable claims  made by some religious propagandists, and politicians who use their support to their advantage, I started to feel the necessity to define at least to myself, what is our nation, and what does it stand for…

It is high time I did this to myself, before I start believing the false histories and stories that float around on the internet, teaching people very wrong ideas of our “history, and culture”.

More on this in the real article, please do share your thoughts!

By Sharath with 3 comments

So, why are we here?

Yes. Long time since I came this way. Has been so busy with my masters study and exams. Now that coursework is over, that abominable bubble of emptiness has started to fill me again, giving me time to actually sit down and think. A weird feeling it is. One that fills you with tension, curiosity and uncertainty. It keeps bugging you all the time. The uncertainty, about what is in store for you. The curiosity that whether what you are doing is the right thing to be done. Most annoying of  all the tension that keeps you reminded, all through day and night about this, that asks you again and again, if everything will work out in the end. It is crushing, its excruciating, like a heavy load upon your chest that is suffocating you every minute. The root of all this is the fact that, a cause, a purpose for life is lacking or is unclear and undecided upon. Sometimes you think of how small you are in front of this vastness, this whole humanity. How much of all this can you understand and assimilate, if at all see in your lifetime that itself is just a speck.  Can all your lifetimes work make any change to the fabric of society?  If not, then why set out on something that is so tiresome and challenging.  But on the other hand, you don't want to end up repeating the same cycle of living up to the expectations of others, society, parents and friends, and then when you have  almost run out of time, start repeating the same old thing that your parents did. Get married, raise children, grow old, and then one cold morning....

So, what is it that keeps life interesting? What is that one thing in life, that will keep you going? What is that thing which is worth giving your everything for? You know this must have been answered a long time back, but you were swept away by the flow, the flood of advises and opinions and sounds that kept drowning your inside voice. You never heard yourself. But one fine day, which happens to be your birth day, you will remember with a shock that you have turned old by one more long year; and yet there you stand somewhere, lost and disoriented, haplessly trying to be good at everything, but not knowing the very thing you are looking for... As of now, this is what is churning my mind; so much  that you lose all taste and desires. I do not know if this is the beginning of something new, is it for good or bad. But I guess it is something I should and will, go through. I shall keep updating, as I feel I am not alone in this ;)

By Sharath with 2 comments

The Lord of the Rings: an allegory of the PhD?

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Characters in this satire are purely fictional. No infringement of copyrights intended.
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The story starts with Frodo: a young hobbit, quite bright, a bit dissatisfied with 

what he's learnt so far and with his mates back home who just want to get jobs 

and settle down and drink beer. He's also very much in awe of his tutor and 

mentor, the very senior professor Gandalf, so when Gandalf suggests he take on 

a short project for him (carrying the Ring to Rivendell), he agrees. Frodo very 

quickly encounters the shadowy forces of fear and despair which will haunt the 

rest of his journey and leave permanent scars on his psyche, but he also makes 

some useful friends. In particular, he spends an evening down at the pub with 

Aragorn, who has been wandering the world for many years as Gandalf's postdoc 

and becomes Frodo's adviser when Gandalf isn't around. 

After Frodo has completed his first project, Gandalf (along with head of 

department Elrond) proposes that the work should be extended. He assembles a 

large research group, including visiting students Gimli and Legolas, the foreign 

postdoc Boromir,and several of Frodo's own friends from his undergraduate days. 

Frodo agrees to tackle this larger project, though he has mixed feelings about it. 

("'I will take the Ring', he said, 'although I do not know why.'") 

Very rapidly, things go wrong. First, Gandalf disappears and has no more 

interaction with Frodo until everything is over. (Frodo assumes his supervisor is 

dead: in fact, he's simply found a more interesting topic and is working on that 

instead.) At his first international conference in Lorien, Frodo is cross-examined 

terrifyingly by Galadriel and betrayed by Boromir, who is anxious to take the credit 

for the work himself. Frodo cuts himself off from the rest of his team: from now on, 

he will only discuss his work with Sam, an old friend who doesn't really understand 

what it's all about, but in any case is prepared to give Frodo credit for being rather 

cleverer than he is. Then he sets out towards Mordor. 

The last and darkest period of Frodo's journey clearly represents the writing-up 

stage, as he struggles towards Mount Doom (submission), finding his burden 

growing heavier and heavier yet more and more a part of himself; more and more 

terrified of failure; plagued by the figure of Gollum, the student who carried the 

Ring before him but never wrote up and still hangs around as a burnt-out, jealous 

shadow; talking less and less even to Sam. When he submits the Ring to the fire, 

it is in desperate confusion rather than with confidence, and for a while the world 

seems empty. 

Eventually it is over: the Ring is gone, everyone congratulates him, and for a few 

days he can convince himself that his troubles are over. But there is one more 

obstacle to overcome: months later, back in the Shire, he must confront the 

external examiner Saruman, an old enemy of Gandalf, who seeks to humiliate and 

destroy his rival's protege. With the help of his friends and colleagues, Frodo 

passes through this ordeal, but discovers at the end that victory has no value left 

for him. While his friends return to settling down and finding jobs and starting 

families, Frodo remains in limbo; finally, along with Gandalf, Elrond and many 

others, he joins the brain drain across the Western ocean to the new land beyond.

+Jomon John +sujith samuel +Aswin R 

Author: Unknown
Source: Danny Yee’s Humour Collection
http://danny.oz.au/danny/humour/index.html

By Sharath with No comments

Knowledge is to be shared; not horded. Tribute to Aaron Swartz.

After reading the following article by late Aaron Swartz, I had this thought. Lot of us doing our higher ed has access to many peer reviewed journals, and after what the world of which we are a part, did to this wonderful person, his ideas shall only gain strength. I believe sharing knowledge is never a crime, rather its everybody's duty. Hence it would be great if everyone of us could help share the access to those who actually need the information for study and creative purposes.

"Guerilla Open Access Manifesto 

Information is power. But like all power, there are those who want to keep it for
themselves. The world's entire scientific and cultural heritage, published over  centuries in books and journals, is increasingly being digitized and locked up bya handful of private corporations. Want to read the papers featuring the most famous results of the sciences? You'll need to send enormous amounts to publishers like Reed Elsevier. 

There are those struggling to change this. The Open Access Movement has fought 
valiantly to ensure that scientists do not sign their copyrights away but instead ensure their work is published on the Internet, under terms that allow anyone to access it. But even under the best scenarios, their work will only apply to things published in the future. Everything up until now will have been lost. 

That is too high a price to pay. Forcing academics to pay money to read the work of their colleagues? Scanning entire libraries but only allowing the folks at Google to read them? Providing scientific articles to those at elite universities in the First World, but not to children in the Global South? It's outrageous and unacceptable. 

"I agree," many say, "but what can we do? The companies hold the copyrights, they
make enormous amounts of money by charging for access, and it's perfectly legal— 
there's nothing we can do to stop them." But there is something we can, something that's already being done: we can fight back. 

Those with access to these resources — students, librarians, scientists — you have been given a privilege. You get to feed at this banquet of knowledge while the rest of the world is locked out. But you need not — indeed, morally, you cannot —keep this privilege for yourselves. You have a duty to share it with the world. And you have: trading passwords with colleagues, filling download requests for friends. 

Meanwhile, those who have been locked out are not standing idly by. You have been
sneaking through holes and climbing over fences, liberating the information locked up by the publishers and sharing them with your friends. 
But all of this action goes on in the dark, hidden underground. It's called stealing or piracy, as if sharing a wealth of knowledge were the moral equivalent of plundering a ship and murdering its crew. But sharing isn't immoral — it's a moral imperative. Only those blinded by greed would refuse to let a friend make a copy. 
Large corporations, of course, are blinded by greed. The laws under which they operate require it — their shareholders would revolt at anything less. And the politicians they have bought off back them, passing laws giving them the exclusive power to decide who can make copies. 

There is no justice in following unjust laws. It's time to come into the light and, in the grand tradition of civil disobedience, declare our opposition to this private theft of public culture. 

We need to take information, wherever it is stored, make our copies and share them with the world. We need to take stuff that's out of copyright and add it to the archive. We need to buy secret databases and put them on the Web. We need to download scientific journals and upload them to file sharing networks. We need to fight for Guerilla Open Access. 

With enough of us, around the world, we'll not just send a strong message opposing the privatization of knowledge — we'll make it a thing of the past. Will you join us? 

Aaron Swartz 

July 2008, Eremo, Italy"
Rest in Peace Aaron

(November 8, 1986 - January 11, 2013)

By Sharath with No comments

German PhD/ Testing Camscanner.

It has been a long time since my last post. phew.... how time flies!
One frikking semester went just like that!
I found a brochure from the German Academic service center (DAAD) lying around, regarding PhD in Germany. Since I remember many of my friends back home asking me about opportunities, and found lots of info on this thing, and I recently installed camscanner on my phone, but had not got a chance to use it properly, I decided to make the doc digital using camscanner :D So here it is, you can download it from my dropbox public folder. Warning: It comes with a stupid pic of mine at the end! +Jomon John I think the information will be useful for anyone with a bachelors degree.

EARNING A DOCTORATE IN GERMANY

By Sharath with No comments