IIT Madness

IIT Madness
Originally uploaded by The Last Paladin

I hardly read Telugu news paper now a days because news is brought directly in to my email by Yahoo! Mail. Today afternoon, I went to Madhuri restaurant in my locality. I wanted to pick up a Telugu news paper and read the head lines.

I saw some papers there and was searching a for news paper. I thought they were all yellow pages. OMG! They are all regular news papers. The front page was occupied by a full-page advertisement by Chaitanya Coaching Center. Gosh! News paper has turned yellow pages today. And to my surprise, it was not just one news paper, there were more than one. That is the IIT Madness.

For those who don’t know what IIT is, IIT is the premier engineering and technology institute in India. There are only seven IITs in India now. The yearly entrance exam is a real battle and high pressure one for the IIT aspirants.

Coaching students for IIT entrance is a big business in India. Especially in Andhra Pradesh, people are mad about Engineering degrees and IIT. And so are the coaching centers, they make really huge money by coaching students. The advertisement was about the ranks achieved by students of the coaching center. And it occupied the front page of the highest read Telugu dialy news paper.

I like their caption, మా లక్ష్యం స్పష్టం, మా మార్గం సుస్పష్టం. Our goal is clear, our path is even more – Getting your kid an admission in IIT. But there were many incidents of suicides by students because of high pressure they handle. Getting an admission is prestigious and it roughly means getting a nice job with million rupee salary in an MNC after the course, unless one screws up one’s life big time in IIT.

Yes! We are mad about IIT, we are mad about software jobs. Thomas Friedman put it wonderfully in his book – he advised his kids, “Girls, finish your homework, people in China and India are starving for your jobs”.

Merciless Trojans

Heard of the earthquake in China recently? Did you receive an email about the earth quake? If you did, think twice before opening that. The register has reported that the email attachments download malware to your computer.

Malware/virus writers send an email in the name of a Chinese news agency. The email says “open the attachment for more information”. The attachment is an infected word document which would download malware to your computer.

Malware writers seem to exploit natural disasters to spread their Trojans. So, be careful before opening attachments.

Child Labor

Child Labor
Originally uploaded by The Last Paladin

It’s still out there.

When I went to US for the first time, I noticed one thing: they reduce manual labor as far as possible. Even in a super market, you can bill yourself and put cash or swipe credit card in the machine and walk away. But, in India, manual labor is abundant. Still, child labor prevails.

Why does a child come to work? The reason I could see is either the family is financially not well to do or the child is not interested in studies.

If the child is not interested in studies, what most parents do is force them to study. Basic education is necessary in this fast moving world, but should children be forced to study?

If the family is not well to do, why not send the child to a government school? Is it a problem of awareness or the we-cant-do-well attitude of those families? When I asked some parents of such children, the answer that comes is “How long can I sponsor his education? How can he compete with other children studying in private schools? Instead, let him learn a work and earn a living.” But is basic education not necessary?

What if the child is interested in studies, family is well to do; but the child is forced to work? Ever heard of child artists? Does money win over education in this case?

Madurai Idli shop

Ghee roast
Originally uploaded by The Last Paladin

It was Saturday evening. My roommates and me were bored eating at the same set of restaurants. Mokan is so bored of Andhra meals. May be, I should teach him how to best enjoy Andhra food. So, we decided to drive to Koramangala and find some restaurant there. We are all south Indians, so our default choice is south Indian cuisine.

We tried to find if Murugan Idli shop has a branch in Bangalore. But, we could not find it. So, we drove to Koramangala and Arun advised us to go to this shop. Yeah, It’s a shop, not a fine dine restaurant. You would get delicious Dosas, Parota, Paniyaram and Idli there. It’s not a wow restaurant but you can try it. Soft on your wallet, you can stop by when you are going on that road and have some food. It’s in Koramangala 17thB Main, 6th Block.

Windows can mess with anything

Windows
Originally uploaded by The Last Paladin

It’s not new in the windows world, but in a public place like an airport it looks bizarre. Who would understand the message “The information could not be placed at memory location xxxx due to an I/O error”? WTH is this eror message?

Enthusiastic passers by tried to press the OK button there, but windows would not listen. It just does nothing.

Still I would use windows along with linux/unix. After all, I started in the computer world with Windows. I would never forget the Windows 3.1 which was a wow at that time.

Time trouble

What would you think if a day disappears from your life suddenly? Simple, you are crossing the data line. I came back from US on last Sunday. I din’t feel jet lag on Monday morning, but it started from Monday evening. I badly needed sleep, I slept by 9 pm which I would never imagine! Finally after three days, I’m ok now.

Mr. Bush, we wont give your pizza back!

I’m little surprised to hear comments from the US big shots that India is responsible for rising food prices globally. I don’t think it was in a rough tone, but there is something Mr. Bush needs to know.

Well, when people have money, they demand for the best. What’s wrong in that? That’s what consumerism is. Come on, it’s the USA who brought consumerism to this level and you come back and say “Hey, you Indians, don’t eat pizzas, food prices are going up”. WT*! You wanted us to open up our economy for Pizza Hut and Dominos to enter our market.

I appreciate your logic, but choose your words carefully. We know English too.

Just an example: Why are oil prices going up globally? How many cars are there in the US? And how many in India? What’s the ratio of people having cars in the two countries? You can hardly do anything in California with out a car. May I ask all the San Francisco people to use bicycles to climb the steep roads?

Food can be produced, oil can’t be. Why the hell did you go to Iraq and kill innocent people? Do you have an answer? What goes around comes around. You should have realized it on Sep 11 2001.

Consumerism can be started, hardly can be stopped.

Mr. Bush, we know what we are doing. The world is small and every thing you talk has so many implications. Just get out of office and give way to the next President.

Stanford, The Great

Fountain
Originally uploaded by The Last Paladin

The place where Yahoo!, Google, Cisco and other big names have begun their journey. I happened to go there to a fair with a colleague. I saw lot of creative items there from t-shirts to oil paintings, from bamboo baskets to metal toys. I bought a t-shirt from one of the shops in the fair. I will upload the photo some day.

I wanted to shoot some pictures, but my damn N73’s battery drained just because of groping for a network. I was able to capture only this fountain.

I’ve a great feel when I was in the campus. I miss those coffee time with friends, those boring lectures, etc. I miss my campus life!