Poverty - Undefined scale

What do BPL families in India really need? Not millions of bucks. Not even thousands. They just need decently good diet to eat twice a day, some place to live and some clothes to cover them. Changing the scales of poverty line and claiming that poverty has been decreased doesn’t really change the lifestyle of the real poor. But unfortunately this is what happening in India. On contrary this will lead unprecedented injustice to the BoP.

Our policy makers have been struggling to identify genuine scale to define the poor since long time. But even today their attempts are in vain. Every committee comes up with new definition of poor. But nothing is standardised yet.

In the recent times there was huge debate going on the scale which determines the actual poor in country. According to the Suresh Tendulakar report, the affidavit submitted by planning commission of India, to Supreme Court, persons who spend less then Rs 26 in villages and Rs 32 in cities are considered to be the poor in country. This raised huge debates and chaos across the nation. Many openly criticized that Suresh Tendulkar report if full of blunders. Having understood the chaos it created, planning commission’s deputy chairman Montek Singh and rural development minister Jai Ram Rameh openly said that the affidavit contains the views of Mr Tendulkar only but not of planning commission. But more importantly, planning commission did not withdrew the affidavit from the supreme court, which indicates that planning commission still standing by the affidavit and it’s stupid scale which defines the poor.

The Hallabaloo

What is BPL? Taking two meals a day doesn’t make anyone to jump above BPL. What about health, education, and social wellbeing. In 2002, there was a new scale which considers 13 different aspects apart from family income, on which poverty was defined. But again there were chaos saying that number of BPL families getting benefited was low. Later Saxena committee suggested that the number of aspects should be decreased from 13. But again GoI feared that this may lead to more than half the population of India may go to BPL and consequently the suggestions of Saxena were put aside. As a result Tendulkar committee has takes income into consideration for defining BPL.

Having understood the hallabaloo it created, Montek Singh said that they would consider social, economic, caste basis to determine the poor. Meanwhile another committee would be working on defining the new scale to identify the BPL.

According to Abhijit Sen, member, planning commission, the numbers in the affidavit were sensible. Central has limited resources and so the BPL has been defined on the low income basis which could bring very less percentage of Indian population under BPL.

Next five year plan

Central and state governments should have strong determination to eradicate the poverty in their upcoming 12th five year plan. More than half the budget which spent on the BPL is not reaching the target sector itself. Even today there are many areas which are miles away from basic needs such as health and education, after spending billions of rupees in past 11 five year plans. With the corruption, ration goods are smuggled into black markets. Migration to towns has been drastically increasing which will lead to explosion of BPL families in the urban areas.

To stop all these things, our policy makers should plan strongly and should implement wisely. According to Chinese proverb, policies should not aim to feed the poor; it should help the poor to catch the food. Policy makers should understand the fact that changing the poverty scales on paper doesn’t change the lives of BPL. Every day we see many people on roads that don’t have proper diet or nutrition. But they are earning more than Rs 26 a day, it doesn’t mean that they are not poor or they are leading livelihood. State and central governments should work hand in hand to reach the millennium development goals and food security.

IIT or ITI or IIIT

When I got through JEE, I told my relatives that I got seat in IIT. But apparently most of them never heard of that. Many confused it with ITI. (ITIs were Industrial Training Institutes which were a highly popular during ‘80s and ‘90s, and not in use presently).

C’mon man.. you are playing anagrams with my college name..!!

One day one of our family friends who was a teacher, asked me what I was doing. I told that I was studying in IIT. That guy suddenly got up and shockingly asked me “how could you join in IIT after your +2..? Isn’t that after tenth class..??”. I was completely clueless after hearing that. It took me couple of minutes to understand what he was talking about. He was referring to IIIT which was Govt of AP initiative which takes students after their tenth class.

After many such incidents I started telling them that I’m just doing engineering in Chennai.
Later, many shockingly asked me “what is the need of going such far distances for pursuing engineering, despite of having many engineering colleges locally”. I could not answer them, for all these questions, my smile gave them answers.

Chemical Engineering or Chemistry Engineering..??

 This is the typical doubt one asks me when they know that I am doing chemical engineering. Most of them directly lands at the conclusion that chemical engineering is all about chemistry and chemicals and tells me precautions on how to be careful with chemicals.

Understand guys, chemical engineering is no where related to chemistry or chemicals. Well, it has more in common with physics and mechanical engg than with chemistry or chemicals.

Prof M S Ananth always says that it is the worst insult to any chemical engineer if someone asks if it is all related to chemistry.?? :P

Lokpal and Jan Lokpal - A Comparison

courtesy : MSN news

Interestingly Lokpal Bills were introduced in the Parliament several times (1969, 1971, 1977, 1985, 1989, 1996, 1998, 2001, 2005 and in 2008) but failed to be passed each time. Here's a comparison of the Lokpal Bill and the Jan Lokpal Bill. 

AFTER READING THIS, YOU DECIDE WHICH LOKPAL DO WE NEED PRESENTLY

Point 1 -- Power
Jan Lokpal: Investigations can be initiated by the Lokpal suo moto in any case and or based on a direct complaint from the public. A reference or permission from anyone for investigation into any case is not required.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal does not have the authority to either initiate action suo motu in any case or even receive complaints of corruption from general public. The general public can make complaints to the speaker of Lok Sabha or chairperson of Rajya Sabha and the complaints forwarded by Speaker/ Chairperson to Lokpal would be investigated by Lokpal.
Issue to debate: The government version on this point not only severely restricts the functioning of Lokpal, it also provides a tool in the hands of the ruling party to have only those cases referred to Lokpal which pertain to political opponents (since speaker is always from the ruling party). Moreover such a clause would also allow the ruling party to protect its own politicians.

Point 2 -- Nature of authority
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have the powers to initiate prosecution against any one after completion of investigations in any case. It will also have powers to order disciplinary proceedings against any government servant. It has been envisaged to be more than just an advisory body.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal will be an advisory body and all its reports will be forwarded to a 'competent' authority post enquiry. The competent authority will decide on the further course of action and have final powers to decide whether to take action on Lokpal's report or not. In the case of cabinet ministers, the competent authority is Prime Minister. In the case of PM and MPs the competent authority is Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha, as the case may be.
Issue to debate: A Prime Minister may not act against any of his cabinet ministers based on the Lokpal's report, especially so in a coalition government where support of political partners is critical to government's survival. This has been proved in the case of A Raja, where the PM claimed to be 'helpless' to take any action against him.

Point 3 - Prosecutory powers
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have the power to register FIR, proceed with criminal investigations and launch prosecution.
Govt's Lokpal: No such powers given to the Lokpal and hence all the enquiries conducted by Lokpal will tantamount to "preliminary enquiries".
Issue to debate: Even if the report of Lokpal is accepted, who will file the chargesheet in the court? Who will initiate prosecution? Who will appoint the prosecution lawyer? The government's Lokpal bill is silent on that.

Point 4 -- Role of CBI
Jan Lokpal: The division of CBI that investigates cases of corruption will be merged into Lokpal to create a unified effective and independent body.
Govt's Lokpal: The bill does not say what will be the role of CBI after this bill.
Issue to debate: Are CBI and Lokpal expected to investigate the same case or CBI will lose its powers to investigate politicians? If the latter is true, then this bill is meant to completely insulate politicians from any investigations whatsoever which are possible today through CBI.

 Point 5 -- False & true complaints
Jan Lokpal: False complaints will face financial penalties. But if guilty, Lokayukta is empowered to prosecute and take disciplinary action against the corrupt.
Govt's Lokpal: There is a strong punishment for "frivolous" complaints. If any complaint is found to be false and frivolous, Lokpal will have the power to send the complainant to jail through summary trial but if the complaint were found to be true, the Lokpal will not have the power to send the corrupt politicians to jail.
Issue of debate: The government's version of the bill appears to threaten and discourage those fighting against corruption.

Point 6 -- Jurisdiction
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have jurisdiction over politicians, officials and judges with bodies like CVC and the entire vigilance machinery of government being merged into the Lokpal.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal will have jurisdiction only on MPs, ministers and PM. It will not have jurisdiction over officers.
Issue of debate: In most cases of corruption, bureaucrats and politicians are found to be equally involved and working in partnership. Going by the government's proposal, every case would need to be investigated by both CVC and Lokpal. This could create chaos and stifling of case records by one agency. There is also the possibility of the Lokpal and CVC reaching entirely different results. This clause is a sure way of killing any case.

Point 7 -- Appointment
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal would have ten members and one Chairperson of which four must to have a legal background while others could be from any background.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal will consist of three members, all of them being retired judges.
Issue of debate: By creating post retirement posts for judges, the government will make retiring judges vulnerable to government influences. In the hope of getting plush post retirement employment, judges may be biased towards the end of their term.

Point 8 -- Selection of members
Jan Lokpal: Selection committee will comprise of members from judicial background, Chief Election Commissioner, Comptroller and Auditor General of India and eminent people who have been recipients of international recognition like the Nobel and Magsaysay awards. A detailed, transparent and participatory selection process has been prescribed.
Govt's Lokpal: The selection committee will consist of Vice President, PM, Leaders of both houses, Leaders of opposition in both houses, Law Minister and Home minister.
Issue of debate: Barring the Vice President, all others are politicians whose corruption Lokpal is supposed to investigate. So there is a direct conflict of interest. Moreover the selection committee is heavily loaded in favour of the ruling party.

Point 9 -- Investigating the PM
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will be able to investigate any and all charges of corruption against the PM.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal will not have powers to investigate any case against PM, which deals with foreign affairs, security and defence.
Issue of debate: Have we forgotten Bofors already? Such a clause means that corruption in defence deals will be out of any scrutiny whatsoever.

Point 10 -- Timelines
Jan Lokpal: Investigations should be completed within one year. Trial should get over within the next one year.
Govt's Lokpal: Whereas a time limit of six months to one year has been prescribed for Lokpal to enquire, there is no time limit for completion of trial.
Issue of debate: A trail could go on for years, defeating its purpose.

Point 11 -- Taking action
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have power to direct disciplinary action, including dismissal of a corrupt officer from job.
Govt's Lokpal: It does not deal with corruption of Bureaucrats.
Issue of debate: Does the government version of the bill imply that corrupt bureaucrats continue in their job without any actions against them?

Point 12 -- Judges under jurisdiction
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have powers to investigate complaints of corruption against judges.
Govt's Lokpal: No mention of investigation of complaints against judges.
Issue of debate: Why? Do we not have corrupt judges?

Point 13 -- Dismissal of complaint
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have to hear every complaint from the public before dismissing it.
Govt's Lokpal: Only the Speaker would decide which complaints shall be enquired into by Lokpal.
Issue of debate: Selective enquiry of complaints would make it easy to escape prosecution. As the speaker is from the ruling party, why would he give a go-ahead to complaints against his party/ government members?

Point 14 -- Redressal system
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have the powers to orders redressal in a time bound manner. It will have powers to impose financial penalties on guilty officers, which would be paid to complainant as compensation.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal bill does not address this issue.
Issue of debate: Our entire governance system suffers from inadequate public grievance redressal systems, which force people to pay bribes.

Point 15 -- Victim/ Witness protection program
Jan Lokpal: Lokpal will have powers to provide protection against physical and professional victimization of whistle-blowers.
Govt's Lokpal: Lokpal does not have any powers to provide protection to complainants.
Issue of debate: Have we forgotten Satyendra Dubey already? Large number of people raising their voice against political corruption are being murdered. Will this continue?

Point 16 -- Recovery of losses
Jan Lokpal: Loss caused to the government due to corruption will be recovered from all accused.
Govt's Lokpal: Nothing has been provided in law to recover ill-gotten wealth.
Issue of debate: A corrupt person can come out of jail and enjoy that money?

Point 17 -- Enhanced punishment
Jan Lokpal: The punishment would be minimum 5 years and maximum of life imprisonment.
Govt's Lokpal: Under the present law, there is Small punishment for corruption- minimum 6 months and maximum 7 years.
Issue of debate: Having an enhanced punishment in place can act as a deterrent to corruption. People will not stop if they feel they can 'get away with it' in six months!

After a short gap

Hello guys (with a 0.0000001 probability of girls)

Finally I'm back to IIT M. Over the last 20 days or so I've been traveling like hell.

I some how escaped from my shitty intern two weeks earlier than the schedule, Thanks to Anand of SELCO. Then I spent some time busy roaming all over Hyderabad and Adilabad and of course some pilgrim spots, Thanks to my dearest mother.

Then one week ago, I was at my home. Don't know how, but I somehow forget everything except eating and sleeping, whenever I go home. May be because of the uncontrollable delicacies prepared by mom or may be I'd become more lazier then I was at IIT. 

One fine day at home, I tried something to post on  my blog. After narrating some real events between me and one of my classmate, I just felt bored. So  I wanted to try something new this time. Frankly speaking, I didn't know what to be new and how to be new, I'm still wondering what is new in new. 

Recently I've come to know that my friend VINOD started blogging. Guess what, He mentioned in his first post that he was inspired by me to blog. Oh my god.!! It was quite shocking to me.

Anyway, the wait is over. I'll be back with some new posts worth reading.

Follow up of my preveious article in today's Eenadu daily

Here is the follow up of my previous article on the engineering education in AP in today's Eenadu daily.

The Eenadu article mentions the similar statistical data as I mentioned in my previous post.

2 lakh qualified students and 3.5 lakh total available seats = 1.5 lakh empty seats..!!

click here to view the Eenadu article dated July 10, 2011.

The curious case of engineering education in AP

You know the interesting fact about the engineering colleges in Andhra Pradesh?

Well, let me say it. It is the only state where the number of engg seats are far more than the number of students qualified for the engg entrance exam (EAMCET). It’s been the common trend over the past few years.

Conservative estimation shows that the number of vacant engineering seats this year will be around 1.2 to 1.5 Lakhs. Let me explain how is it possible?

If you see the statistics of this year, when the EAMCET results were announced last month there were 2.2 lakhs of students qualified. But after announcing the IPE results, the people who qualified EAMCET and didn’t get through IPE were nearly 14K. And some 3K students didn’t meet the minimum groups score which is necessary for EAMCET qualification. So finally the number of students who actually cleared EAMCET is around 2 lakhs. But everyone who qualified EAMCET won’t be joining engg.

According to recent data released our dearest deputy CM, who is also a minister of technical education Damodara Rajanarasimha, there will be nearly 25K to 30K seats will be increased this year due to some new colleges and etc reasons. So the final count of number of seats for year 2011 will be more than 3 lakhs.

So do the math, 3 lakhs are number of available seats and 2 lakhs are number of students qualified. Even if every qualified students opt for engg which is a absurd fact, there will be still 1 lakh seats will be vacant.

Now let me tell you some history behind this “interesting” fact.

7 years ago (till 2003), when Chandrababu was in power, the numbers of engg colleges were 225 which could accommodate 66K students per year. Change is inevitable and so as politics. Finally in 2004 Late YSR took over as CM. During the first three years tenure (2004 - 2007) of YSR there were 57 more new colleges with added 33K seats extra. If you think this is amazing, there is still most amazing fact yet to come. And it is here. During the next four years (2007 - 2011) the number of new colleges established was a staggering 425.

You may argue that YSR is not alive after 2009, so what makes him responsible for it?

Ok, I agree. But see this fact. Of the 425 colleges established from 2007 to 2011, 319 were established in only two years of his tenure as CM (2008 - 2009). More like getting permission for one college every two days. Are they chocolates or engg colleges..??

The one and only reason behind this exponential (or rather hockey stick curve) increment of the number of colleges (number of seats) is, reimbursement of fees for almost every students who enrols for engg. Again thanks to YSR who introduced this scheme with keeping the needy in view. But the entire programme went into whole new path after its commission.

During all these years, the job of so called politicians’/leaders’/whatever is to open an ENGINEERING college in single room/rented house/(chicken forms in some case) and register it with the help of some minister, finally do some admission stuff (fake in some cases) and sit silent. The govt used to do the rest. Govt used to refund them the amount of fee paid by the student who enrolled into their ENGINEERING College. 

No need of telling you the pathetic study in those kinds of colleges.

Since 2008 till last year, the amount of budget spent on reimbursement of fees is mind blowing 8000 crores. Lion share of this chunk went into the fake/stupid/pathetic colleges.

Well, it’s not about money after all. It’s about the career of the student who comes out of those pathetic colleges. See, the person with some bigger (in number) rank can’t get a seat in so called good college. So he/she might get himself/herself enrolled into one of that pathetic institute which took birth due to the peak level greediness of some stupid politician. Those students’ life will be ruined after those 4 years of study. Meanwhile their parents must have been thinking that their kids will achieve some good positions.

Who is responsible..? No need to explain.

The number of engg students graduate every year in USA is 65K. But AP alone produces nearly 4 times (in number) to that of USA. This is not something we should be proud of. This is something to be ashamed of. The National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM)’s survey declares that only one in four engg graduate is capable of doing job after his/her graduation. AICTE also neglected the report of U R Rao which stated that the number of engg seats per year in entire India should not be more than 75K. AP alone hosts 4 times the maximum prescribed number of seats for entire country.

Wish AICTE and government (state and central) open their eyes at least now and cancel the permission for those colleges without proper resources and save the future of the students who were getting trapped by those shitty people.       

Pics taken by me

 

sunset at Vidyasagar Setu (Calcutta). Pic taken from moving boat - Hugli river

Is it Intern or Bonded labor..??

Well it’s been more than one month since I joined Selco Labs as an intern. Now let me tell you what all the things I am doing here.

My project is on dryer. Well it’s not hair dryer of course. Its fruit and/or vegetable dryer. Don’t ask me if it’s really necessary to have a dryer to dry those silly veggies of fruits. I don’t know. I never asked that question to myself. Don’t confuse me now; I am supposed to finish my intern in next few weeks.  I am just going with the flow like a conventional IITian.

The designing part was really simple. Sitting peacefully in front of lap with free wireless net connection (with decent speed) and of course wasting time in every possible way. Whenever my guide was coming near to me, I used to open up new “Google Sketch Up” window and started drawing some stupid lines. But my guide never bothered about those stupid lines. Even he knew that I was pretending to be workaholic. But he didn’t say me a thing, because even he is an IIT(M)ian. IITian really rocks. :P

Unfortunately I have finished designing and somehow fabricated it. I felt as if I conquered the entire world. But my guide didn’t think the same though he was an IITian. He asked me to “test and analyse” the dryer which really pissed me off.

C’mon man...Don’t expect interns to do work..They hardly stay for 6 weeks, then how could you expect them to solve a problem of your company?? Get practical man. Now don’t force much work on them..I felt like shouting. “Fuck..What did you do when you were doing intern..?? Interns need a certi..not knowledge”. But as usually I could not yell on his face. So I decided to test it for time being.

So I started working physically this time, unlike the designing part.

Fuck, I just hate this work.

This is the point where my life changed drastically.

This is the point where I’ve become engineer to daily labour.

Exactly, I have become a daily labour. I started (rather asked) doing every stupid work which wasn’t supposed to be done by an Intern (especially those who are from IIT). Now the only difference between daily labour and me is, I wear shaastra/saarang T shirt to work and the daily labour wear some other shirt.

Here is the list of few things I’ve done so far in order to finish my intern.

Cleaned the lab for experiment. Fuck, I never cleaned my room. But I’d to do that here. I just hated it.   

Bought and cut the 10Kg jack fruit to test with my dryer. C’mon, don’t think cutting jack fruit is simple task. Once you start cutting, you will know how tough it is. You will shit in your pants.

Cleaned the dishes to preserve the sample product.

Chopped the wood to fuel the dryer. God I just hated it. Understood how painful the life of a wood cutter.

Drilled nails into 2 inch aluminum plate and dryer for proper design.

Cut n pieces of metal with hack saw. Remembered the days of fitting workshop.

Charged the combustion chamber with wood 6 hours a day and for 10 days. After this work, my lungs has become like that of a chain smoker, fuck the smoke coming out of combustion chamber.

If I had done all these works outside, I would have earned nearly 20k per month. But here I am doing all these shit just to get one fucking certi to get intern credited.

P.S. Anand sir, please don't mind if this looks uncomfortable for you. This post is just mix of few facts and some illusion followed by delusion combined with hallucination. :)  

Performance of Members of Parliament

It’s been 2 years since the UPA II came into power. Today PRS India released the performance of our MPs over the past two years. Some grave facts are as follows.

9 of 42 MPs of AP did not open their mouths in the past two years in parliament. They did not ask a single question over these years. Are they really DUMB??

The famous dumb personalities are as follows. TRS chief KCR, Vijaya Shanti, YSR congress chief YS Jagan. They just know how to swallow thousands of crores of money on the fake names, but they don’t know how/what to speak in parliament.

Now comes the statistics of attendance.

KCR stood first. Don’t be shock. He got first position for the end. This guy just attended 11 days of parliament session over the past two years.

Girl friend of KCR, Ms Vijaya Shanti stood the second position from last. Ready to beat her BF very soon.

I wish they too have minimum attendance criteria like us. The punishment should be disqualifying from contesting the next elections. :D

Source: Eenadu Daily, June 24 2011

Just Think

10 months ago Somali pirates hijacked Egyptian-owned ship MV Suez in which 22 crew members comprising six Indians, four Pakistanis, 11 Egyptians and one Sri Lankan. Later they demanded the ransom of $2 million.

Over the past 10 months the family members of the victims (Indian) suffered the most pain. They met the dearest prime minister and external minister of our great country few times. But either of them did not promise the safety of the sailors.

In other words, our Indian govt could not pay the ransom of $2 millions. Is our govt is money less? Is our govt is poor?

Lakhs of crores of rupees were consumed by every corrupt politician in UPA II.

Can’t they (GoI) afford just $2 millions for release of 6 Indians?  

And today finally all the crew members got released after paying the ransom by a Pakistani human rights activist Ansar Burney. Yes, he was a Pakistani.

He quoted as follow, “"The Ansar Burney Trust had promised the nation that it would save humanity. There were 4 Pakistanis, 6 Indians, 11 Egyptians and one Sri Lankan. If we had secured the release of only the Pakistanis, it would have been unfair to the others. So we secured the release of all hostages."

Just think..!!

No opposition raised this issue in parliament. No party/politician came forward to save our own people. Finally it was a Pakistani who saved our friends.

Click here to verify the news

My close encounter with death

My intern guide Dr Anand took us (me and Vinay) to his farmhouse located in the deep forests of Western Ghats.

I could hear a sound of water splashing gently on rocks, from somewhere near the house. Then Anand told that there is a waterfall right next to the fence of his form. He asked us to go there and have fun.

The very next moment I changed into shorts and took a towel for going to waterfall. Now I'm realising that it was first bloody mistake I made.

Then I took my mobile for taking pics. Thus I committed the second biggest mistake of the day. Anyway I and Viany went to see and enjoy the view of waterfall. In some 10 minutes we have reached the stream of water.

The water was chilly and very clear. The stream is flowing on the large, slippery rocks. After walking some distance in the downstream we found one small waterfall. I was very excited on seeing that. Without having the second thought I just went under the waterfall.

After bathing under that stream I decided to walk through the downstream though there were millions of slippery rocks. This was the third and the biggest ever mistake of the day. Watching carefully I walked down through the stream on the slippery rocks. The stream was flowing straight without any slope, but with n slippery rocks. Though I was careful while walking, I slipped few times. But somehow I managed to regain my balance.

After walkng through the downstream I spotted the stream plunging down. It was really wonderful to see the waterfall of 35 Ft high.

I was standing in the narrow stream which is plunging down on the sharp - edged, huge slippery rocks 35 ft down. I could not resist myself by watching the beauty of the waterfall. Finally I decided to go down alone and bath under the 35ft waterfall.

It seemed to be very tough to go down as there were slippery rocks. But I found some thin branches of trees right above the rocks. I thought I could go down safely by using the branches as support and stepping on those slippery rocks which were aligned at 75 degrees angle.

Finally it was the time to go down. I was sitting on the rock. Left of me there is tempting stream of water going down. In front of me there was huge rock going 35ft down. Above me there were branches of tree which can hold my 43kg weight.

I took that branch of tree in my left hand, and holding my mobile in my right hand so that it won't get wet. I held the branch firmly and kept my first step on one small rock down. I successfully stepped on it. But the very next moment I lost my balance due to slippery nature of rock and was about to fell down on huge rock. But god was by my side. That tree branch helped me gaining my balance back.

The same way I kept another few steps down carefully and finally settled on a big rock. Still there was 30 Ft to go down. But there were no more tree branches. I had to go down on my own steps and strength. I took a long breath. Held the mobile in my right hand firmly. Cleaned my spectacles for a clear vision. Then I decided, It was time to put another big step to reach tempting waterfall.

Again took long breath and kept my step two feet down.

But the rock was too slippery.

I lost my balance.

No tree branch to hold my weight.

After couple of nano seconds, I was not feeling any weight. I realised that I was going down in the air.

After couple of micro seconds..
Ttttttaaannnnnnnnnnn

dddduuuuummmmmmmmm

ddduuuummmmmmmmmmm

I fell on a big rock with my total weight on my head and shoulder and left palm.

I tried to hold onto any surface nearby. I didn’t succeed.

I was rolling down on the big rocks.

I closed my eyes and prayed the god to keep me safe and remembered my dearest mom. I thought I was going to die.

After one more second.
I toppled from one rock to another rock. This time my weight is on my left ribs. I felt no pain. I could not see anything. It was completely blank in my head.

After one more second.
I toppled again like a ball rolling down on steps and at last I went into a pool of water of 5ft depth. Thanks to Archimedis. I didn't get hurt much this time.

It took 20 seconds for me to stand up from that tiny pool.
I couldn't see anything.
I could see only blinking stars somehow.
I felt weight less. I thought I was dead and my soul is going through sky.

After 10 more seconds... I took support of one nearby rock and sat on it.
The stars are gone from my sight. But still I couldn't see anything.
I realised that I lost my frameless glasses during my flight time.
There was nothing but full blood in my right hand. I realised that my right palm got hurt and I lost my mobile which I kept in it before I slipped.
I felt complete energy less. My body is shivering due to shock.
I felt some burning sensation in my left palm. Though my vision is blurred I could see some red spot in my palm.
Two square inches of my left palm peeled off.

After one more minute. I got stabilised and could see surroundings.
This time I felt some more burning sensation at my left ribs. I could see some red colour over the five patches on my ribs. I realised some 10square inches of my skin got peeled off and blood started coming out.
I felt something was wrong with my head. I thought there could be puncture to my head. But thank god, there was no such thing except it got swollen and paining like hell.
My ribs, shoulders, both palms, knees are burning so much.
Somehow I spotted my mobile beside one rock. But I could not spot my frameless glasses.

Now I need to go back to farm house in spite of my injuries.
I need to climb back the same slippery rocks from which I fell down.
I couldn't find any other alternate path to go back.
I had only two options.
To sit there bleeding till I die or to climb back to save my life.
I decided. I don’t want to die.
I remembered my mom and her love for me.
I decided to climb back.

In spite of slipping again for couple of times, I climbed back the 35ft tall freakishly large, slippery rocks. I lost my every pinch of energy by then. But somehow I managed to reach the farm house.
Later Anand took me to doc. The doc told nothing to worry. I smiled.

Two days after the incident
I could not close my left hand fingers.
I could not hold pen with my right hand fingers.
I could not walk straight.
I could not bend my back to pick up something from ground.
I could sleep only one side, I can not put weight on left part of ribs.
I could not wear or take off my T shirt.

Bottom line: Don’t think yourself to be Tom Cruise and do some stupid stunts.

Motivate yourself

courtesy: ITCSA Blog 

The key points of motivate yourself : -

1.      Think positive – Whenever you are doing some work, don't  think negative, just think positive in all circumstances.

2.      Enthusiasm – Every work you do, do with enthusiasm. It will increase your output and it will save your time also. Just try.

3.      Commit with yourself - Starting today commit to giving your supreme  best to every task which comes your way. Rather than seeing things as a burden or menial tasks remind yourself that each is preparing you for the eventual larger opportunities which lay in store for you.

4.      Think that world is yours if- Prove you can work through the smaller things that are asked of you and before you know it, you'll attract greater opportunity, along with the greater life rewards that come with being able to work through them.

5.      Opportunity – Never miss an opportunity like don't think "aaj ka kaam kal kar lenge". In this way, other will catch your goal.

6.      Live in today – Don't think about future. "Kal kabhi nahi aata". So hai wo aaj hai. "Aaj nahi tho kabhi nahi".

7.      Success – Don't be afraid from difficulties just fight with it and definitely you will success one day.

8.      Never be late – Manage yourself. Respect for time. If late time will defeat you.

People wearing various T shirts at IITM

Assignments at IIT

Everyone is aware of the fact that the number of assignments/lab reports/presentations are too much.
But the open fact is only handful of guys do the assign and the rest will take a hand made xerox of their own.
But the people are very lazy that the hand made xeroxing will be done till last minute of submission.

Here is the graph depicting the percentage of assignment finished with respect to time.

Till the day before submission, the progress is below zero. It shows we don't even know that there is an assignment to submit.

Till few hours before submission: some how you managed to do 2% with the help of google or wiki.

By this time one stud fellow must have finished the assignment but they will RG. If you ask them their copy for reference they will give some
silly excuses. "I left it in room da..!" , "I stapled it da, I can't remove it again" (as if stapling is the difficult job on earth)

One hour before submission: The number of finished assignments will be far less than the number of un finished assignments.
So there exists the standard Demand - Supply problem. Thanks to Adam Smith. Supply of assignments are less than demand.
Nearly 10 people will be copying from single sheet.

The real progress in doing assign will start just 5 min before the deadline. In this duration one will be faster than the photocopy machine.

 

10 reasons to answer, "Why do I blog?"

1. I don’t have much work now. Neither assignments nor lab reports. And the most relieving fact is I am done with my minor course – Social entrepreneurship, for which I’d put more fight than all the other courses work put together.

2.  Very less work at my intern, thanks to my colleague who is also doing my part of work. :)

3.  Suddenly very creative, innovative writer woke up inside me.

4.  Recently one magazine rejected my article to publish. So I wanted to publish my own articles rather depending on any stupid magazine.

5.  Fed up with the 18 hour a day rainfall here at my workplace.

6.  Need some break from watching the same error every time I tried to solve one CFD problem

7.  I’ve read n blogs till now and want others to read my blog, though the number of followers of my blog   didn’t cross the single digit. :P

8.  Need to kill time. I thought this is the only way I can kill time and kill the readers at the same time.

9.  Realised that it is better to spend time on writing blog than watching girls here.

10. This 10th reason is left for your imagination. :P

Why Chemical Engineering..?

 It’s been 1001 days since I joined Chemical Engineering at IIT Madras. I have become 3/5 of Masters in Chemical Engg. But it feels like as it was only couple of months since I cleared JEE and got into this prestigious institute with lot of dreams. 

Ever since I was in my 9th standard, I thought of getting into IIT. Finally when I got into this jungle, I realised after spending 3 full years, “why did I get into here?” (Famous question asked by most of the IITians themselves).

Anyway let me stick to the current post “Why Chemical Engg?”
 
Let me tell you one thing. I never knew there is a branch called chemical engg exists till I enrol into this department. Seriously, I don’t even know how I landed up here like others do. Having been spent 3 years here finally I decided it’s not me who choose chemical engg, but it’s the chem dept who chose me.
I asked the same questions to my friends at here. All of them gave the similar answers. “I didn’t choose this branch. Somehow I got it”.
 
Here is the self explanatory pie chart which gives the other famous reasons why one got into chemical engg. 

My first post

Hello Everyone  

 I personally feel life is like a long journey. In fact very very long journey (hopefully 60+ yrs), except that there will be no 'U' turns. Which means one can not go back of time in life unless you are in Source code. :P. I will be sharing my experiences of my life here. So that is the reason I named my blog as On a long journey.

This is my first post of my second blog. Yes, I also had another blog. I started the other blog even before Blogger was acquired by Google. But I never managed to post a single post in the past 8 years 5 months.

 Even Blogger search was unable to search my missing blog. It was more like one of the old case in list of pending cases in Indian judicial system.

In this blog I am gonna share my life at IIT and my thoughts on current issues, my experiences, my friends and of course gen fart. :P