Boo reservation

The topic has died down now a bit, eh ?

Again, it’s a lot about generalizing at wrong place ( see Interpretation is everything ) . Hey govt, what you do is in general apply some relaxations to reserved categories candidates, in almost all places where you are directly involved. How do you know that all of them have intelligence below average ( speaking of  lowering qualification / pass  marks in exams, interviews etc. ), or all of them have less income, or, say at large, all of them are less privileged ? Especially, when our country has crossed 60 yrs of independence ? And that also overlooking the constitution, which says to continue with the policy for 50 yrs after it ( the constitution ) comes to effect. So it should have been done away with in 2000 ! then why not ? Okay, the condition of the reserved category people was BAD then, but is it so still ? If not, then why the policy ? And if yes, then what did YOU do in the last 50 yrs ??

And those who are benefiting, they are ashamed to concede their ‘reserved’ status, yet battle to earn the privileges. Even the well-to-do part among them not leaving out their own chances for ethical reasons. Gujjars are now fighting to be ST from SC! Huh.

The govt is not only not abolishing this practice, it is now encouraging it, even, I believe, pressurizing at some places to implement it. No prizes for guessing why. Actually that very reason prompted me for this post. I am is ISI, the only institute in the country outside the HRD or education ministry that can award its own independent degrees. Its entrance tests are one of the country’s toughest, and no fluke can get you through. Until last yr, our ‘reservation policy’ was only limited to paying travel expense of coming to the institute after selection in any course. It was well nigh okay, in an institute of such national importance. But suddenly, this yr it has stopped being an outlier, halving prospectus prices and bold-facing ‘due consideration will be given to SC/ST candidates’ in every ad. Even the institute website now displays an elaborate ‘reservation policy’! Shame. Why such change? Can’t at all eliminate chance that any pressure was not given.

Okay, excellence is the last word here. Even if someone un-deserving gets in, he CAN’T survive in ISI. I have that belief.

 

Actually, I am not against reservation. But that must be case-specific, person-specific, circumstance-specific, … not general. That’s the actual ‘the-govt-cares-for-you’ gesture. Policies must be flexible, if they are implemented for some good of the country.

Upbeat

Ahoy, getting it.

Five among the six mathematica problems cracked, totally and satisfactorily. Do hope to get full or near-full points on these problems. Even one among the toughies, animation based on the three jug problem, …… the process I got, also the animation, but not so hi-fi. Actually, mathematica is not really a graphics-animating software, you’ve got to concede. And, remains the turing machine problem, undone. It defeated me. Not possible for me to anymore concentrate on it. Needs much research and headache and lots of phosphor-burning in front of the screen.

Only two days. Nothing in mind except this one. I think this is showing up in my posts. Okay, it’s nearly over.

Lucky … no time for study !

Everything is hip and happening except the studies.

First priority is of course Mathematica. One problem fully cracked. Only a four line code. That’s the speciality of my brand of programming. Two on the verge of cracking. Well, feeling a bit cheered up now. Yep, I can do it. But the most laborious problems remain. Lots of programming and brainstorming to do. Beside this, playing ( and of course  losing ) in inter-batch badminton tourney, and coming are chess and puzzle tournies. My full aggro king-side avalanche-type style of play and king-pawn opening has won me matches with mid-rated virtual players, let me see what the reals can do.

So, best of luck to myself for the Mathematica contest. Deadline is 25th. I’m not that bad an ISI-an. I’ll fight.

Brain-chewer Mathematica

Only a week into the 2nd sem and already hands full, maybe i’ll say overflowing. Studies aside,- where also, to my utter disappointment, my least favorite linear algebra has very much infiltrated into Stat,- have to copy writings into this year’s taking-shape-wall-mag, “Raman Effect”. And on top of that, this freak Mathematica contest.

Got to know of it from an email, enrolled, downloaded the trial software after much hullabaloo and from today the 14th, the competition starts. They have developed this well-known software’s 6th version, and are organizing a programming contest for Indian students where we have to solve 6 problems using the trial version. Already confused, for here is a software which is literally the ‘baap’ of our day-to-day ‘Matlab’, and is ‘exceedingly simple’, but, as Dennis Ritchie said about Unix, “to understand its simplicity you have to be a genius”. And , needless to say, i am NOT a genius by any stretch of imagination, am an intellectually multitasking semi-genius at most! Know nothing about programming in it, and all of a sudden have 6 problems on hand with hi-fi terms like the AKS primality test, Turing machines, blah blah ……

Have to study about it really fast. Hell, programming is no child’s play. I do have time till 25th, but then, mainstream studies keep thumping on the back.

P.S. Personal Update :

• All confused, dont know what to do first. Got this ‘gola’ ( ISI lingo, meaning damn good ) chess program Chessmaster 9000 and now addicted to it. It adds on to prioritizing worries. Have to utilize my time better.
• Saw ‘Taare Zameen Par’ twice in a week, and …… cried. Very good film, to say the least. Every frame is measured, … hats off to Aamir. I think it’s the only film after Lage raho munnabhai which you can’t hate.
• Am just starting to get a 4-pack, though, expectedly, the second pair is a bit subtle.

Brainstorming

This was the third and last rung of the scholarship exam, JBNSTS, the Scientific Creativity test. A weirdo, of course, of an exam, because it lasted 30 hrs ! There were 32 students in total, each one given 8 questions, 2 each from phy, chem, math, and bio in the morning of 5th. We had to choose any one of them by evening, work on them ( you may not ’solve’ ), and the next day had to appear before a board for a viva about the problem.

The physics and chem problems were pretty tough, and I have forgot many things, so math and bio remain. The first math problem was too easy, and many figured it out within the first hr. And the second one just opposite. In fact of the six who did that problem at last, only one found the full solution. Thus remains bio, my eternal savior in this kind of exams. One problem told to design an experiment, and another involved extraction and purification of a specific protein.

It took me about 15 minutes after getting the paper to get a feel of all the problems. Then about half an hr was spent on the first math problem. And then the second one took about 15 minutes, but of course yielded nothing. Then almost decided on bio, entered the library not knowing where to start.

Problem 1 told to construct an expt to prove CO2 levels in primitive earth was high and later that came down. Randomly got a Voet/Voet bio book, and browsing through it literally unearthed the radiograph of RuBP/PGA levels in a C3 plant under variable CO2 conc. Why not extend it ? Do it for a C4 plant as well, and under 3 conditions, normal/less CO2, normal/more O2, and normal CO2, O2/less CO2, more O2 ( this is only to simulate the atmospheric conditions, and to prove that co-existence of CO2/O2 doesnt produce any extra effect. The difference in the two graphs in each setup explains it all. The presentation next day was quite okay.

This one expt though seemed a bit simple, compared to what others did. A boy who did a chem problem did actually disprove the well-known arrhenius eqn, and the board did approve of it! Commendable, but I’d like to see it first. Tamoghna, a fellow bio-olympian ( see Mumbai … the OCSC experience ! and OCSC Afterthoughts, …. about people ) did the same problem as mine and came up with an impressive solution. He thought of taking an algal strain with a very high mutation rate, and RuBisCO, i.e. C3 cycle, and grow its further generation under gradually decreasing CO2 conditions, and at the end we’d see RuBisCO converted into PEPCase, the key enzyme of C4 cycle. Everything okay, but the time it’d take is 15-16 yrs, according to his own estimate ! That single thing does create some discomfort about this expt-design.

And it wasn’t at all tearing away our hair all day long ! In fact, fed up and sick of problems ( for me it was double bill, as I was finishing on the idea of the bio expt and came up with a beautiful ’solution’ of the math problem 2, which later turned out to be very profoundly wrong ), we started playing football in the evening, and then after dinner, chatted away for nearly 2 hrs.

Dig ‘em up !

The umpires could’ve awarded the match to Australia for Harbhajan’s ‘racist remarks’ on Symonds, … that would be better. Even better, why play matches, we give walkaways, and you win 4-0, you so-called world-beaters, you unsporting gits. Even if Brett Lee declares, “It all ( the controversial umpiring decisions ) evens up at the end”, anyone with little rationale, even the aussie players themselves, that it is NOT so at the end of the SCG test. Australia have virtually been awarded this match that they were going to lose within FOUR DAYS. True, even barring the umpiring ‘dadagiri’-s, Indian batting was spineless in the last innings, but then, they showed more spine than Australia on first 2 sessions of day 1. And how much unfair pressure can you tolerate? This aussie side is one of the weakest ever, yes, and would easily buckle in such a condition. This may sound outrageous and more of an outburst, but the fact is that barring India, the handful of teams in test cricket grossly overestimate them and get overawed, and …… sigh, get chewed. India also does surrender sometimes, but still, we are the only team they fear.

For us, playing is primary, winning is secondary, and for them it’s just the reverse. That’s why they get frustrated by a 50-something 8^th wkt stand of us, and start chirping away. As Harsha Bhogle rightly pointed out, they were no longer sure that they were gonna get a wicket. And, most importantly, their theme of this series is a severe panic, which started in the first test, when our ‘inexperienced’, ‘incapable-of-taking-20-wickets’, grossly underestimated bowling line-up shook them. They forgot that of late on away tours, the contribution of bowlers was more than the ‘best’ batting line-up. And, …… ah yes, umpires, … why they have surely been tapped, because even in MCG, Billy Bowden looked ‘dubious’ (to put it politely), and this Sydney test, well, it has been rigged, just like the CPM does in the polls of Bengal (btw, notice the nice and befitting analogy of ‘have-to-win-at-any-cost’ pack of potheads ) ! None of them except than Gilly is a gentleman, and ‘MoM’ (don’t know if he’s really been declared, but he certainly is the all-round ‘hero’ of this match ! ) Symonds gets a special mention among them.

Now, digs at the England team. England, just like their soccer counterparts, is a team that is much hyped, overrated and least delivering. Gavaskar’s right, their county cricket is of the standard of our plate group ranji matches.

And now, …… the ICC. The epitome of bias, especially against the sub-continental teams. Clearly a desperate offshoot of the dying, cliched colonial superiority complex.