League of SuperKids...

Treat for those who patiently read my last post.....Here are few of the wonderful kids whom we wish to groom and bloom in our schools....

What an Idea Sirjee !

So its official now...speculations are over,curtains have been drawn and in words of Kapil Sibal "Exam Phobia Psychosis has been cured." Ministry of Education has come up with a new plan for 10th boards.So while relieved students are throwing back books in closet, some sincere one's confused and parents simply confounded , here are some of its salient features-

From now onwards,

-->CBSE Boards would be optional and conducted on-demand (In age of on-demand movies,on-demand food and even on-demand matrimony...how can education be far behind!)

-->Board examination will be graded,thereby making a guy with 91 marks equivalent to the nerd notching 99 marks.(They always said school is a big equaliser!)

-->Weightage of marks would be 60 pcnt academic and 40 pcnt on overall development to be internally evaluated by school.((My punjabi neighbour Mrs Chadda have stopped bragging about her son's academic conquest and is looking for a football and music tutor now ,lest her son lose competitive edge)

Amongst all the steps taken,I feel grading is the most needed one.Grading ,if implemented uniformally would save the child from the quintessential rat-race at the age of 15.Now if I get 'just' 91 pnct marks in 10th I need not give up my dreams of becoming Particle Physicist.On the other hand I wouldn't be forced to study rotation and electomagnetism if all my interests involve brush strokes and pastel colors.I will be evaluated on the subjects I love rather than forced upon.

But the most important accomplishment would be nurturing a generation of multidimensional personalities.It is a proven fact that most of the innovation results in past came from mixing of knowledge of many unrelated fields of study.We will have keen learner of sciences with creative and artistic bent of minds.We will have hundreds of Da-Vincis, Newtons and Franklins in the making(No , I'm not talking about Priory Of Sion!).We will not be creating doctors and engineers simply to serve Big Corps but a breed of enterprising thinkers and doers.I recall words of a dunce school student and one of the greatest minds of all time-

"Logic will take you from A to B...Imagination will take you everywhere"

-Albert Einstien

Those who remember the Vigyaan show broadcasted during solar eclipse somewhere in around 1997(Dont remember the year precisely...but it was my first solar eclipse ever and I watched that show simultaneously participating in a Havan!) will remember Prof. Yashpal Sharma voicing similar concerns.He said children being so engrossed in scoring marks that they have ceased to enjoy art ,literature and creative pursuits that spawn imagination.The steps by education minister...might just be the remedy.

But is this picture too rosy to be true? At this point I am reminded of a center fresh advertisement (hyperlinked)showcasing New Powerful India with its army of dedicated scientists,doctors, policemen and even politician with a patriotic background score.Ad freezes midway and is replayed...but this time without background score and true corrupted face of India is revealed as if its part of our social DNA.Ad ends with punchline..."India...Baatein Kam ...Kaam Zyada"



So is my optimism about future generation simply an illusion due to some background score.Will Indians,true to our DNA depicted in AD, find a shortcuts and bypass this reform too.Here are few of the things which might play a spoilsport--

-->Without a third party evaluation(CBSE)..almost entire evaluation reside in the hands of local teacher.Since favouritism/buttering is rampant in schools...a fair assesment might not be possible.Recollect your school days.Don't you remember ur marks especially in practicals and Viva directly infuenced by ur 'Image'

-->In India,where every pot of money seems to have 'Connection' with someone in ruling class,'Influence' from well to do families will give undue advantage to many.

--> Without clear guidelines of evaluation,a teacher's opinion of overall development varies a lot.Hence it'll be difficult to maintain uniformity.

-->With structure of 12th class board being the same ,one may surely be apprehensive of removing 10th boards which were a great practice for it.One might think...."When I'll ultimately be evaluated only on academic front in 12th...why take a different route in 10th"

-->We might end up creating more Mrs Chaddas(read salient features above) whose sons will be coerced for extra-curricular tuition now

Let us hope that necessary issues are looked into...and future scientists/economists/artists/musicians/actors/soldiers get the launchpad they deserve.Otherwise they all will end up with a screen name pallindrome writing a blog called notrawketscience.....:)

Mark Twain's India

The American humorist Mark Twain (1835-1920) came to India ostensibly to write about it. He did a few articles on what he saw and the people he met but what he had to say about the country, he summed up in the following words:

“This is India! The land of dreams and romance, of fabulous wealth and fabulous poverty, of splendour and rags, of palaces and hovels, of famine and pestilence, of genie and giants and Aladdin lamps, of tigers and elephants, the cobra and the jungle, the country of a hundred nations and a hundred tongues, of a thousand religions and two million gods, cradle of the human race, birth place of human speech, mother of history, grandmother of legend, great grandmother of tradition, whose yesterdays bear date with the mouldering antiquities of the rest of the nations — the one sole country under the sun that is endowed with an imperishable interest for alien persons, four-lettered and ignorant, wise and fool, rich and poor, bond and free, the one land all men desire to see, and having seen once, by even a glimpse, would not give that glimpse for all the shows of all the rest of the globe combined. Even now, after a lapse of a year, the delirium of those days in Bombay has not left me and I hope it will never will.”

Phew......is this a memoir or RawketScience ???

Just another morning in Noida ....

Hi..Like many of the professionals working in and around Noida ,my
biggest challenge of the day starts much before I reach my office

i.e.-Traffic

The 6 km journey from Vasundhara to Sec-62 might take about 40-45
minutes..ie at average speed of about 8 km/hr.
Navigating through choc-a-bloc traffic and serpentine car queues is no
smaller a feat than securing F1 pole.Situation aggravates to such an extent
during peak office hours,that noblest amongst us could be seen landing
expletives as well as fists on the nearby drivers purely out of
frustration.Frayed tempers often results into major friction.

Its a funny to see people using 3.1 Mbps USB broadband while driving at
3.1 km/hr in Chaotic Blunderland.It also symbolises lopsided growth
story of India where infrastructure hasn't kept pace with economic
development....but lets save that story for another day.

Coming back to traffic ,its a lopsided affair too.In morning,the left
side of the road for Ghaziabad to Noida is packed with other side
almost deserted.In evenings,the returning traffic saturates the Noida
to ghaziabad side of Road,other side having scant number of vehicles.

Occasionally, to save time cars move to the wrong side of the road(which
is almost empty).But are intercepted midway by traffic police and
forced to take a U-turn into the correct but congested lane ,thus
worsening the situation due the haphazard moving cars.

But whenever I have managed to bypass the traffic police in wrong
lane,I end up saving 33% of journey time and also fuel consumed.This makes me wonder ...why to follow rules by rote when its worsening the situation.

Hence I suggest to officially allow a extra lane in wrong side of the lane DURING PEAK HOURS ONLY.This one lane will reduce the burden of traffic on the left side by 1/3 rd which means stoppage time and fuel consumed at traffic light also reduces by 1/3rd.Multiply this benefit by
millions of vehicles passing everyday for whole year and we end up
saving a lot! Not to mention lesser frustrated people...
To Illustrate.....following pics are provided....and trust me...All we

need is a simple solution....

NOT RAWKET SCIENCE !!!


Current Scenario AND Proposed Solution(In Peak Hours only)