India vs Europe vs USA

My personal views on research in 3 countries/continents –

DISCLAIMER: the list is by no means a comprehensive one

India

Pros:

1) Open source learning, good interaction among students

2) Urge to perform, understand and good awareness

3) People with good theoretical understanding

4) Low cost methods to do high-end research – enriches creativity

Cons:

1) Time consuming, not highly focused

2) Lack of good education in experiments

3) Not many get opportunity to do research

4) Not many are interested in research – ‘software company: big buck’ attitude

Europe

Pros:

1) Desire to understand a problem in depth, significant time spent on a problem

2) Research in groups, sharing of knowledge and resources, big projects

3) Technically superior than US and India, especially in high end instrumentation

4) Emphasis on conferences and proceeding

Cons:

1) Sometimes lack of drive and urgency - 9 to 5 attitude

2) Multiple languages

3) Pro-European preferences in positions

4) Hierarchy, high taxes

USA

Pros:

1) Magnificent drive among students and Profs

2) Group meetings – task driven meeting, deadlines etc.

3) Result oriented – ‘come what may we need to do’ attitude, thrust on applications

4) Competition – ‘do it before someone does’ attitude, if you are good, you thrive…

Cons:

1) Money, money, money – it’s a rat race for funding

2) anti open source – capitalistic view point

3) Indian and Chinese students used as cheap labor

4) ‘Black box’ attitude towards instruments

Book

He opens a leaf in the book of his mind

to read the words with a new insight;

soothing colours strike and unbind

creating a thought of new delight.

Chapters begin in a new page

to enriches the content of thought,

it opens the doors of a minding sage

inviting knowledge to be sought.

Every word is poetry in itself

making the reader spellbound;

phone of harmony crawls to engulf

in the music of creative sound.

Lines begin in words,

words begin in letters;

flowing as water towards

the ocean of thoughtful jitters.

Every word has a meaning,

meaning which dives deep;

it rejuvenates in the morning

after a breathless mystic sleep.

Oh ! ‘light’

I seem to breathe a fresh breath of air,

as the ‘light’ enlightens my thought;

my thoughts are devoid of any despair,

as the ‘light’ rejuvenates my heart.

I feel the ‘light’ with glowing warmth,

the warmth brightening my candle mind;

it slowly melts my feeling froth,

to bring a thought of different kind.

Oh ! ‘light’ I see you even in darkness,

in the abyss of my neural sea;

I see you in the caring kindness,

unveiling my pigeon-mind free.

I am flying, flying high

to reach the ever-glowing ‘light’;

I see the invisible in your eye,

making every look a worthy sight.

Lady Gandhi

During my M.Sc., I had the pleasure of meeting a Burmese researcher in the Physics department of Bangalore University who was then working towards her Ph.D. Her name was Dr. Yee Yee Oo. Apart from being a fun loving person who researched with great dedication, she was also deeply worried about the current affairs of her country. When ever we used to have an informal discussion about non-scientific issues, she always talked about the struggle of people against military rule. She described how women had to take extra effort to pursue their careers, and how the support they obtained were minimal. But always she showed a positive attitude towards life, and she was deeply influenced and inspired by her country woman Aung San Suu Kyi. She loved India very much, and always told me that we are one of the most fortunate people on earth. I always thought this as an exaggeration, but now I realize that it is not.

Freedom is one of the most important aspects of human life. With freedom comes responsibility, and hence a way of thoughtful expression. If this expression of mind is subdued, then basic human instincts are perturbed, and may lead to ‘man made’ catastrophes. There are few countries around the world where common freedom, which is oblivious in most of the democratic countries, is under severe threat. One such country is Burma, which shares its border with India, and one person in that country who is leading a non-violent struggle against the military rule is Madam Aung San Suu Kyi. Her story of struggle is truly astonishing, and she continues to fight for democratic freedom against an all pervasive Burmese military. She remains separated from her children who presently stay in UK, and it was sad that the Burmese military did not even allow her to meet Michael Aris, her husband who died due to cancer in 1999. She remains under house arrest in Burma, and lately has been charged by the Burmese military which has extended her confinement. It is rare in history to come across a person like Aung San Suu Kyi, as she has sacrificed her personal life to uplift her people. Though she was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1991 for her non-violent democratic movement in Burma, she has not received the complete support of the world, which is unfortunate. Her struggle continues even today, and it is indeed amazing how this lady is taking mammoth efforts to fight for peace and freedom. I salute her courage.

According to me, she is the Lady Gandhi of the present world, and has inspired many people including me to cherish and respect the freedom we enjoy. Now I quietly sit back and think how important it was for Dr. Yee Yee Oo, when she said freedom is priceless, but to obtain it we have to pay a large price….I hope Burma will attain peace and freedom.

Flowing pearl

Gleaming innocence whispers a call

to brighten its future on a benighted path;

those eyes speak with a furtive haul

unveiling the grief at the aftermath.

Sorrow turns into a flowing pearl

undulating towards the abstruse sea;

it seeks affection with a motherly curl

to reach the depth of lasting glee.

This journey is lonely in its nascence,

but shall not continue all the way;

it may outlast moments and perseverance,

but shall always yield to a creative play.

A thought on ‘the thought’

Albert Einstein mentioned somewhere that ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge’. I think communicating ones imagination effectively is as much important as the imagination itself. The job is only half done if either of the aforementioned is neglected. One of the most important thing which give rise to the birth of an idea is the ability to wonder. Wonder, according to some philosophers, is a logical outcome of ignorance, and it is purely up to an individual to construct a thought through ‘a wonder’ and further venture into it at various depths. This venturing again depends on interests, and interest further depends on how your thoughts have been influenced before. As you may observe, the process of wonder and thought is cyclic in nature. But thinking, according to me, is a non-linear process. Most of the times, thinking is like constructing a building with in your mind, where its bricks are piled from different sources within the mind itself. So if you are trying to understand something, it is never that you grasp a point without taking a round about path; and many a times, you realize the shortest path to an idea only after you have seen the complete evolution of an idea itself. Another important aspect is that the birth of a thought need not always arise from silent pondering, but also can emerge from an argument over an issue with an external source; here I presume the source to be a human being, a book, an image, or any of the information which can be detected via the five senses. Surprisingly, new ideas do evolve as and when we communicate a thought. When I say ‘communicate’, I mean, not only I put forth a thought to the outer world, but also I should be grasping an idea into my mind from an external resource, and this communication can be duplex, i.e., it can occur simultaneously. My personal experience is that every time when I communicate a thought, my understanding of it improves, no matter whether I have done this before or not. This also provides me an opportunity to get a feedback from the source with which I argue up on the same thought. So this brings me to the concept of ‘argument’. Now, imagine a world where every human being agreed with each other on everything. That would be a dull one, isn’t it? The essence of communication is to effectively exchange thoughts between two minds. When this exchange occurs, the thought might interfere either constructively or otherwise. The highest level of attainment in thinking is to agree to disagree. This is a mechanism where you grasp an idea, and when you realize that it destructively interferes with your pre-conceived notion on the same concept, then you create a different space in your mind, where you store the though of the external source. This, in a sense, is like enlarging your memory space on the computer hard disk, where you still maintain your old data, but you create new space for the new data, no matter whether you use the new data or not. Why should a mind agree to disagree ? This is like asking why a coin should have two faces. In most of the arguments which a mind involves itself, it comes across a new concept. At that moment, it immediately compares it with its own database, and if the new concept is in phase with the old one, it constructively interferes and ‘yields’ to make a belief stronger, where as, if it is out of phase, instead of destructively interfering, it takes in the thought and stores it. This storage is what we see as tolerance, control, resistance of mind etc., and is a more complicated process than yielding to a thought.

     In this blog, I have just tried to highlight the complications in understanding the process of thought. Countless philosophers are pondering about it, so it is worthwhile for us to give a thought on ‘the thought’….after all everybody is a philosopher in their own sense….

Satyameva Jayathe ?

Come 16^th May09, world’s largest democracy, hopefully, will have a new government. Although, the 5^th phase of the polling is due on Wednesday, the result of 15^th Lok Sabha election in India looks to be a chaotic mix of numbers. I regret that I lost a chance to vote this time, and I wish people away from India could vote remotely, which would have been a very satisfying thing. However, having keenly followed the campaigns and manifesto of all the parties via internet, it seems to me that no crook is better than the other. The social, political and economical issues of the nation are the fundamental basis on which the elections should have been fought, but seeing the way each party is pitted against the other, I feel that the rubber has never met the road. One of the really disgusting stances I came across while studying these parties’ manifestoes was that none of them have revealed their post-poll coalition strategies or alliances. I beg to ask the following question – are they taking Indian public for a toss? With what confidence do these parties seek trust and vote of the people whom they are willing to represent? Most debates or interviews I came across during this time never gave me a clear picture about the parties’ agenda to solve the current problems. None of them seems to be interested in discussing major issues which hampers the condition of laymen.

                One of the interesting comparisons I like to make is the hype around the prime ministerial candidate just like the American presidential candidature. If at all the Indian media is trying to play the capitalist game of their American counterpart, they don’t realize that there's many a slip twixt cup and lip. India is vast and has humongous variety, which makes it a special democracy; it’s better that media does not give too much emphasis to a single candidature, as coalition government is what seems to be a foreseeable, albeit undesirable result. Another interesting comparison between election campaign in India and USA is the emphasis thrust upon universities. Most of the US presidential debates were held in universities, where as in India we hardly saw any of the candidates visiting colleges, leave aside universities. It is high time that our Indian politicians realize that catering to the needs of youth will fetch them more votes, than providing liquor and notes to the already bribed artificial audience.

In retrospect, it is important to remember that it’s not the size of the dog in fight, but the size of the fight in dog which fetches the glory; and lets hope that the fight is for the right cause…let SATYAMEVA  JAYATHE !

humbled

Thrive, thrive and thrive;

humans vociferously resonate,

enslaved to conquer and survive,

their thoughts ignite to detonate.

They herald a belligerent tone

to unveil the encrypted nature;

operoseness fractures any stone

to construct a magnanimous future.

Their freedom is in flight,

a flight to reach infinity;

but they fail to reach despite

their enthralled capability.

They thrive again and fail,

but never give up the pursuit,

they wipe their tears and hail

to rejuvenate the dispute;

If only sapiens could fly,

their covetousness ceases to be bounded,

so nature humbles their supply,

to keep the humans grounded !

On the concept of god

It is easy to go wrong. Just like a system which always seeks greater entropy, human mind settles to chaos than order. One of the brilliant ideas in the history of mankind is the concept of god, which induces morality in society, and keeps a psychological boundary,and hence a degree of orderliness. There are two ways to inculcate morality in human beings: either through FEAR or through KNOWLEDGE. The former caters to the mass for whom philosophical thinking is on a premium, and the later appeals to an individual who wants to take her mind out of equilibrium and venture the ‘out of comfort’ zone. The later are usually labeled as atheists, and the way society looks at them is bit different from the conventional, which is unfortunate. To question the very essence of existence of god has been discouraged in our society, and this stance has to be changed. One should remember that atheists are as much responsible and belonging to a society as are the so-called theist. If anybody has doubts over this, I strongly recommend to read the works of Richard Dawkins. You shall realize that there is a beauty in reason and logic, even more compared to the perception of mystic thoughts.

The concept god has indeed done good to inculcate morality in humans, but it is important to ask whether inculcating morality by a non-existent entity is anyway better than inducing a just and righteous living by logical and evolutionary thinking ? I agree that there is a strange, soothing feeling to have a thought at the back of your mind which tells you that there is an omnipresent entity whose abilities transcend everything in the universe. But how long can we live with this euphoria? Is it not right to question this perspective towards life? Are we not deceiving ourselves by integrating our minds to an illusionary concept, and accepting the same without testing or differentiation? These are open-ended questions whose answers will never converge to a single line of thought, but at least it is worth questioning. In a sense, that leads to variety in thinking, which is always good to have in demographic distribution. Ultimately, what really matters is the individual’s freedom to define their own philosophy, and for that a thinking mind is always necessary. After all, your controllable life is a function of your mind, and the uncontrollable part is just a game of probability.

 

 

Blind man and the Sun

I see a blind man gazing at the sun,

he thinks it’s alright to perceive the latent burn;

Crowded corpuscles enter his eye,

to blister the retina which was already in fry.

His vision is impaired, he sees nothing,

so he feels no difference in the new offering;

Alas! he closes his eye at the sunset,

to reflect on the heat and interpret;

he feels euphoric, he feels numb,

he feels the warmth at the tip of his  thumb.

Albeit, he takes a deep breath and falls asleep,

he dreams through the night on an exuberant grief;

he wakes up in the morning to realize the past,

to feel the bloody cheek with a maroon cast.

He ponders again and again to know the real cause,

but his cerebra has gone to a comfortable pause.

Memory at loss and blood on his hand,

he feels the death, and can’t withstand.

Neither can he think nor can he blink,

he feels as a vessel destined to sink;

One last time he steps out of the door,

to gaze at the sun, with a strange furore.

One tiny ray hits his burnt eye,

his dangling soul is all set to fly…

END

can't remember the date........written on B.Sc. valedictory function day.....

dedicated to late Prof. Jayaram...

End is a beginning,

to begin a never ending thing;

end is a second homecoming,

indeed, an everlasting thing.

End has neither a foe nor a specific friend,

it’s neither marooned nor mixed with rich blend;

end is neither a grief nor a thought of glee,

neither is it a confinement nor a delighted flee.

End is a conquest to conquere the ‘I’,

end is a light to brighten the inner eye;

end is a means to a benignant thought,

end is a diffusion to an unexplored part.

End is the flow as function of time,

end is the freshness to reach the sublime.

To begin the end there is a new ending,

to end the end there is always a new beginning.

.

OCULI

I see the world in other’s convex eye,

its’ subtle curvature weaves a pleasant decoy;

 the view hunts for those ‘pretty’ letters,

as transparent air evolves to pleasant jitters.

The pupils engrave a story by themselves,

creates a creator to create overselves;

 Iris is the curtain to that beautiful window,

permitting to enlighten the colorless shadow.

Angel of grace is born in wink of that eye,

it grows to the pinnacle as an unconquered spy;

eye ‘hopes’ to read through the mystic signs,

neither as an aberration nor with myopic decline.

The oculi is open for the rays to surpass,

waiting for the retina's impeccable pause.

Quest of the sight remains a puzzling art,

despite the darkness, eyes never depart !

COFFEE FROM MY LAND

Little pleasure of a delicacy,

reminds me of the past tense;

the mere thought of its efficacy,

fills glee in abundance.

Every sip is an oceanic fun,

freshness refreshed, mind expand;

It is my drink, my possessive one,

it is the coffee from my land.

I get bemused, lost sometime,

in questions of unanswered science;

I sip a coffee in its prime,

to see the words of missing lines.

Aroma is the master,

controls the sense as a slave;

drives the thought faster,

breaking the mystic enclave.

Come what may, snow or sun,

it is difficult temptation to stand;

It is my drink, my possessive one,

it is the coffee from my land.

NONE OF THE ABOVE

Three players begin the pivotal game,

begging to differ, but hollowness the same;

hand is paralyzed, lotus looks dry,

third front toothless with hue and cry.

People divided on caste and creed,

blood of aspiration sucked in greed;

adding salt to the wound is IPL loss,

blisters boil for personal cause;

A billon dreams taken for a toss,

hate spoken without a thoughtful pause.

 

The silent spectator looks sad and puzzled,

her griefs are many, and safety is troubled;

whom should she chose, and who should be out?

her mind being pricked with an intellectual bout;

she thinks twice to vote for a crook,

choices are a few, with negative outlook.

On the ballot day she looks at the list,

her mind goes rolling with tumbles and twist;

she reaches the booth with a thought in her mind

decides to register, but her vote will turn blind.

'NONE OF THE ABOVE' is her mindful choice,

this is her power, her incredible voice !

e-xperiment : visualizing the audio

 Ever since the emergence of u-tube, and its subsequent convergence with google, sharing of visual and audio information has undergone a revolution. Adding constructive rotations to this revolution are organizations like TED, which are doing wonderful job of sharing knowledge via online videos. As an offshoot of this technology, exposure to foreign culture has increased, and this familiarity with the ‘other world’ may be the first step towards ‘global integrity and tolerance’ which is today’s doctor order. After I came across the work of Pattie Maes & Pranav Mistry on technological sixth sense, and when I heard to Stefan Sagmeister’s talk Yes, design can make you  happy, I realized that experiments with technology can be great fun and concomitantly philosophical. This has inspired me to experiment with internet, and here is my first experiment. I choose an easy path – music on internet because it is now easy to search for a specific kind of music. One common thread which runs parallel around the world is music, and internet does cater to the musical taste of people by providing the required audio-visuals. As a first step, I tried to correlate different images one imagines in mind to different kinds of music on the internet. I should disclaim at the onset, that my knowledge on technicalities of music is poor, so this experiment was purely on personal front. Probably, people with a better knowledge of music can come up with a better correlation. Anyway, this was for fun ! Ok, the nitty-gritty of this experiment was to match the music to a particular scene I can visualize in my mind when I hear to it. I made a note of the vision I could imagine all along the music. To enhance the effect, this experiment was performed in dark with out looking at the video of the song (if present). All are instrumental music, just to keep things simple. I have given links to all the music so that you can hear it…so here I go…

(it is better to open the links in new tab..)

 The Corrs Silver Strand – journey on a boat, cruising slowing on water, twilight, not very sunny, can’t see land very far off, Kerla

Origen Dance of the clounds  – lost in ones thought, body in present – mind either in past or future, sitting numb, calculating, something unveiling, Calcutta

Ian Bouras’s Latte – suspense, surprise, evening, laser (for a specific sound), suddenness, waiting, speeding, haste, sports

Trio Caliente – lots of bright light, lot of people, horse ride, chain reaction, nothing to hide, flash of water on the sea, decisive, Barcelona.

Tender of passion – feeling humble, seeing stars, something coming to end, big hall, helplessness, children, delhi, talking to a true scholar  

Neon Quinlan – morning, out doors, rising sun, vast, walking, bit of cold, green, getting warmer, seeing water from a far off place, slowing down, canopy, bandipur forest

Una fortiva lagrima – of course windy day at the sea, lots of water, pace, running, searching, change, mangalore, Mumbai, goa, bus travel, wine

Quest of Orpheus – slow, snake, karate, monk, wood, gold and sliver, convergence, growth, dilemma, emergence, steps, roads in small city, ornaments, window, Jaipur.

Dreams of Iliad - hard day’s work, slowly walking, good dinner, Bangalore in the evening, internet, soup, realize, forgetting, brushing teeth, small child, IISc

Corrs – Toss of feather – climbing, mountain, edkal caves, good food, coconut tree, wooden barell, control, fish, aquarium, houses in Europe

 The list is by no means complete,and also please remember that this experiment need not be confined to internet, but in this case I would have never come across any of them but for the specific internet search I made with particular words...hence the relevance to technology