And then... - Page 17 of 19

Tragic loss

On Sunday, 25 September, five days after his 27th birthday, our student in the first year MA (Communications) in the Sarojini Naidu School, Ratan Kumar, drowned in one of the lakes on campus.

Ratan came to the University after having done an Engineering degree in Mumbai. We are all shaken by his tragic and very untimely demise, and while offering our condolences to his family, we share their grief.

There was a meeting at 11 this morning in the SN School where teachers and students remembered Ratan and mourned his demise. We are the poorer…
TOI link

Greed

No, this is not about the Von Stroheim classic, though it could be…
A couple of weeks ago, the Department of Political Science had an afternoon discussion on the Lokpal bill where, among others, Jaiprakash Narayan was present. One of the M Phil students, had made a presentation on what UoH students understood by ‘corruption’, and how it came about. One respondent traced it to just this: Greed.
There is this amazing scene in the Von Stroheim film. I saw it years ago (in the days when I was catching up on early cinema and sitting through Potemkin and other such silent greats, and when I should of course have been more gainfully employed). There is nothing really left for the protagonists to fight over- they are in Death Valley, with desolation stretching for miles in all directions and there is no possibility of survival. So no benefit to the man who takes, nothing really to lose for the man who loses. And yet, greed, more the pity of it.
The person at the Pol. Sci. seminar was quite right- so much of corruption that we see around us is due just to greed plain and simple, though not always as pointless as in the movie.

Single Girl Child PG students

The University Grants Commission has invited online applications for the award of Post-Graduate Indira Gandhi Scholarship for Single Girl Child for the academic session 2011-13 with the purpose of supporting post-graduate education through scholarships to such girls who happen to be the only child in the family.
Candidates (under 30 years of age) admitted in post-graduate first year regular non-professional degree course in any recognized university or a post-graduate college during the current year i. e. 2011-12 are eligible.
The value of Scholarship is Rs. 2,000/- pm for a period of two years only namely for the full duration of a PG course. Applications should be submitted only through ONLINE mode latest by 25th September, 2011: See this site.
Please make sure that all eligible persons you know apply in time!

Anonymity vs Invisibility

A comment that was submitted by anonymous@gmail.com to an earlier post that talked about corruption reads “Want to make some good money? Try to get a contract job with HCU. Be prepared to bribe everyone from the gatekeeper to the top guy. HCU is a filthy corrupt place.”
Other than adding a ? I have done no editing, but I thought that rather than simply approve the anonymous comment, I would highlight it to request that if you are going to be a whistleblower, then (a) please be specific and (b) share your name, even if privately- I can assure you that I will respect confidentiality.
Specificity is useful if you want some action. In the above, the implication is that the guards (who, for the most part are Group 4 employees) all the way to the VC are taking bribes. Since I do have some knowledge of at least some part of this chain, I know that this is not true, even though I have been told that there are some areas in the University where there is serious cause for concern… Unless by “top guy” the writer means someone else, in which case it would be useful to know who.
About sharing your name. Anonymous letters are difficult to take seriously. I have got my first one, a typewritten page that is filled with half truths, untruths, and improper allegations (not just about me, about any number of people) and plain inaccuracies. What does one do with this other than discard it totally? I know that the person who wrote it must be aware of this- and may well read this post, so here is an offer I hope you cannot refuse: If you are serious about it, engage in a dialogue and I will guarantee both privacy and confidentiality. Write to me here.

Young Engineer

Our colleague in the SEST, Koteswara Rao V. Rajulapati has been selected for the Indian National Academy of Engineering [INAE] Young Engineer Award this year. The award which will be given to him in December consists of a citation and Rs. 1 lakh.
Dr. Rajulapati has many original contributions in understanding the microstructure and mechanical behavior of several important metals and alloys. His contributions to the metallurgy of nanostructured materials are significant. His doctoral work was the first systematic attempt to understand the role of nano sized second phases on the deformation behavior of nanocrystalline face centered cubic (FCC) metals. He developed unique approaches for fabricating bulk nano grained aluminum and its composites.
Koteswara Rao joined the School of Engineering Sciences and Technology in January 2009 and has taken an active role in building the laboratories to cater both research and teaching needs. He has been instrumental in setting up various laboratories and contributed significantly for the initiation of various research programmes in Materials Engineering and Nano Science and Technology.
Warmest congratulations to him from the UoH community! And thanks to the Dean, SEST, for much of the write-up above.

On Democracy

A couple of weeks ago, my erstwhile colleague Professor Prabhat Patnaik, who recently retired from the Sukhamoy Chakravarty Chair at the Centre for Economic Studies and Planning, JNU, wrote a thoughtful piece in The Hindu. One chord that the essay struck in my mind was on the nature of democratic functioning…
There is something in what he says for us to think about, especially since we (at UoH), are members of a publicly funded enterprise that is patently engaged in a social activity which, arguably, is for the greater common good. Much of Prof. Patnaik’s essay is the contrast between democratic functioning and messianism which may not be entirely germane outside the context in which it was written, but there is a basic issue that needs consideration.
Democracy essentially means a subject role for the people in shaping the affairs of the society. They not only elect representatives periodically to the legislature, but intervene actively through protests, strikes, meetings, and demonstrations to convey their mood to the elected representatives. There being no single mood, freedom of expression ensures that different moods have a chance to be expressed, provided, the manner of doing so takes the debate forward instead of foreclosing it.
For all this to happen, people have to be properly informed. The role of public meetings where leaders explain issues, and of media reports, articles, and discussions, is to ensure that they are well aware. The whole exercise is meant to promote the subject role of the people, instead of being merely ‘masses’ and the leaders as true facilitators. Even charismatic leaders do not substitute themselves for the people, they are charismatic because the people, in acquiring information to play their subject role, trust what they say.
Alter legislature to Academic Council or Executive Council, substitute faculty meetings for public meetings, substitute leaders by Dean, Chair, Head or even Student Union president… the parallels are there. And I believe we need to reflect on the democratic versus the non-democratic at the UoH.
Democratic functioning is crucial to our growth. We need to have informed debates on all issues that concern us, devoid of acrimony. And with passion, but also with respect for contrasting points of view. One of the most important adjectives in the above paragraph, in my opinion, is informed. We have enthusiastically celebrated the Right to Information Act, but withholding information is still, regrettably, all too common at all levels. This makes it all the more difficult to have an informed debate, when so much information is simply not there in the public domain. It also does not help that the RTI is used by some as a weapon and as an instrument of mischief. They do not help the cause.
In any case, where and how is this information to be shared? Where is it to be discussed and debated? Given our commitment to scholarship, this is a question that should not need to be asked. This blog is, of course patently meant for the sharing of ideas and concerns and also for sharing information. But this can only be very limited- in part because it would get tiresome otherwise, and in part because there are more issues that need our concern than can be covered in a blog.
I believe that everyone who is in a position of some authority can take a number of steps to bring about the democratic process, by inviting discussion and encouraging debate, and by helping to form positions and evolve opinions.This needs to be done proactively. And in a manner that encourages participation, is inclusive, and allows for dissent. Not that this is entirely missing in our campus- it just needs to become more common…

Jean-Michel, Marcel… Arnold

I thought I would share the results of a misspent Sunday morning when ewandering brought me to the site of Jean-Michel Folon, an artist who I have greatly admired ever since I bought (now sadly lost…) some posters of his in New York about 35 years ago (thank you, DeFrietas!). The watercolour to the right, a card he made for Amnesty International, and the World Cup Football poster to the left give you some idea of his charm and wit.
Folon, who died in 2005 had set up the Fondation Folon (and museum) in the 1990’s. Exploring that site, I came across the Proust Questionnaire – something I had not come across before (the results of a sheltered life, I guess). To learn more about the PQ, I went, naturally to Wikipedia… and found that there is an online version (with a different set of questions). This had, unfortunately, dangerous consequences… I tried this “Turbo Proust” to discover that based on my answers, I was most similar to Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Anyhow, I thought that for the UoH community, an updated PQ might be of interest, so here are 14 questions, down from the original 25 or so (you can see them in the Wikipedia article, along with Proust’s original answers in 1890). Some of these are about you, and some of these are for what you see about the University and your interaction with it. The UPQ is for these times, when life is lived on Facebook (for the most part), so feel free to add questions! .

Your preferred virtue
Your main character trait
UoH’s biggest shortcoming
Your biggest quality
What you like the most about the UoH
Your favourite occupation
Your dream of happiness
What would be your biggest misfortune?
Apart from the UoH, where would you like to be?
Your heroes in real life
Your heroes in history
The historical events you despise most
The reform at the UoH you would most value
The natural gift you would love to possess.

As we all know, these questionnaires don’t really mean much and are poor indicators of personality. But they are harmless enough and can be fun.
I’ll be back…

Starting afresh

Public life, it is widely considered, mirrors private realities. The events of the past few weeks around the Anna Hazare movement suggest that perhaps finally we- as a nation- are ready to begin to tackle the menace of corruption that so plagues our public life, including our private life, if truth be told.
Its best to be direct. If we are, as a nation, willing to tackle corruption at the highest levels, then as individuals, we need to be able to tackle corruption at the lowest level: the personal.
And since this blog primarily addresses things concerning UoH, introspection is best begun at home. There are many individuals within the University’s system that indulge in petty corruption… the kind that vitiates the workplace, the work ethic, and the sense of commitment that most of the others have. Some of this is financial corruption- construction, procurement, allotment. This is clearly the worst since the amount of money we are granted is finite, and anyone who steals directly or indirectly, steals from us. This can hurt only others among us, others within the system. Some of it is a corruption of values. An earlier post has asked serious questions regarding Academic Quality. Indeed, where does one begin? We know how to count the ways, but all too often, we desist from confronting such matters directly.
There is no need for us to be so bashful, or so fearful. If we do not wish to accept public corruption, we should not accept private corruption either.
We have the examples. Now we need to live the life and raise the bar of accountability at UoH as well…

Different Inabilities

The conference on Mathematics Education on the 19th of August was instructive in more ways than initially imagined. One of the invitees was the distinguished mathematician, V S Sunder from the Institute of Mathematical Sciences (Matscience) in Chennai. In recent years, Sunder has increasingly needed support in walking, and now requires wheelchair assistance essentially on a full time basis. The conference to which he was invited, and which he kindly agreed to come to, was scheduled to be held in the Raman Auditorium in our Science Complex.
We were very poorly prepared. In the event, we made a ramp that made it possible for Prof. Sunder to make it to the front of the auditorium, but not onto the stage… The building was made at a time when our sensibilities were less developed and we simply had not thought of such things.
Coincidentally, Sunder wrote a piece that appeared in his column on the 20th of August in the Chennai Times of India entitled DIFFERENT STROKES for DIFFERENT FOLKS which ran something like this:
How many times have you:

Seen an elevator with no braille signs marked next to the door buttons?
Even noticed that the elevator you use in your office or apartment complex every day has or does not have Braille markings?
Noticed whether the edges of steps are made of a different texture than the rest of the step (so that a blind person will know the step is coming to an end there)?
Wondered how hearing impaired students cope with our system of education?
Heard people tell somebody with mobility problems that a distance of hundred metres “is very close by” or that “there are only a few steps” when there is no ramp for easy wheelchair access?
Seen a lecturer in a classroom draw something on the board to explain something, and wondered how a blind student would follow?
Been to a party on a roof-top which necessitates that anyone coming there should climb some twenty steps even after having taken an elevator to the ‘top floor’, and wondered if the plight of the mobility-impaired are even considered before either the party or the elevator was planned?
Seen doors that are not wide enough for a wheelchair to pass through?

The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind…
It was not just that the conference venue was not fully prepared for Prof. Sunder, there was no way he could come into the Administration Block or drop in at the VC’s office if he wanted to. Which means that there are several others in the UoH family who are similarly denied access… And that also includes the elderly- pensioners, or parents of staff, students and faculty.
Many of our buildings are now equipped with ramps, but we are a very far way from being what is euphemistically called “friendly” to the disabled. And the lack of sensitivity to a range of disabilities is endemic. Not that the attitude of most of us is crude in any way, it has more to do with what we think about- or more to the point, what we do not think about…
Our neighbour in the Council for Social Development, Kalpana Kannabiran is someone who has long been concerned about such issues, and from a legal point of view. In an article entitled Looking at disability through the constitutional lens, she writes: The most important right guaranteed to all persons by the constitution is the right to life and personal liberty. The right to life may be enjoyed fully only when we also enjoy personal liberty. There can be no disagreement that a life in custody or confinement, a life without freedom is not a fulfilling life by any standards. What does the right to personal liberty mean for a physically challenged person? Very simply it means that all physical spaces – private and public — must be barrier free and must facilitate equally the mobility of a challenged person and a non disabled person.
The constitution of India in Article 15(2) says: No citizen shall be subject to any disability, liability, restriction or condition with regard to –

Access to shops, public restaurants, hotels and places of public entertainment or
The use of wells, tanks, bathing ghats, roads and places of public resort maintained wholly or in part out of state funds or dedicated to the use of the general public.

This provision provides protection on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex and place of birth. But today we find persons with disabilities are routinely denied access on all of these grounds by the state and private actors alike, through the absence of barrier free access. Looked at in the context of Article 15(2), therefore, it constitutes a very serious form of discrimination. What then are the meanings of personal liberty for persons with disabilities in perpetual unlawful custody resulting from the denial of routine everyday access to every part of the public domain and critical fields in the “private” domain as well?
Clearly we need to be sensitive to these issues, and without merely paying lip service to the cause. Our campus needs a “disability audit”, and while we are doing a fair amount already, there is much more that needs to be done. And we require to be informed as to what some of these needs are, formally and, especially, informally.
As the saying goes, there are none so deaf as those who will not hear.

Ithaka, AP

When I was to speak at the Orientation for new students a few weeks ago, I was looking for something that would best describe what I wanted to convey… I feel that all of us here at the University, are on voyages of our own. UoH is as much a port of call as it is a destination for many of us, and Constantine Cavafy’s poem ‘Ithaka’, struck me as the most appropriate.
The poem talks about a journey. It talks about striving for the destination, but also making the most of the journey – something all of us at the University should do.
And as it happens, I came across the poem only quite recently, so I decided to share it for those not familiar with it. There are many translations available, and this is one by Keeley and Sherrard that you can find on the Cavafy Archive website.

Ithaka

As you set out for Ithaka
hope the voyage is a long one,
full of adventure, full of discovery.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
angry Poseidon-don’t be afraid of them:
you’ll never find things like that on your way
as long as you keep your thoughts raised high,
as long as a rare excitement
stirs your spirit and your body.
Laistrygonians and Cyclops,
wild Poseidon-you won’t encounter them
unless you bring them along inside your soul,
unless your soul sets them up in front of you.
Hope the voyage is a long one.
May there be many a summer morning when,
with what pleasure, what joy,
you come into harbors seen for the first time;
may you stop at Phoenician trading stations
to buy fine things,
mother of pearl and coral, amber and ebony,
sensual perfume of every kind-
as many sensual perfumes as you can;
and may you visit many Egyptian cities
to gather stores of knowledge from their scholars.
Keep Ithaka always in your mind.
Arriving there is what you are destined for.
But do not hurry the journey at all.
Better if it lasts for years,
so you are old by the time you reach the island,
wealthy with all you have gained on the way,
not expecting Ithaka to make you rich.
Ithaka gave you the marvelous journey.
Without her you would not have set out.
She has nothing left to give you now.
And if you find her poor, Ithaka won’t have fooled you.
Wise as you will have become, so full of experience,
you will have understood by then what these Ithakas mean.
Translated by Edmund Keeley/Philip Sherrard (C.P. Cavafy, Collected Poems. Translated by Edmund Keeley and Philip Sherrard. Edited by George Savidis. Revised Edition. Princeton University Press, 1992)