Pallavas, Kalki and me

Perspective of viewing historic place like Mahabalipuram takes a 180 degree turn when one reads Kalki's "Ponnin Selvan" and other works like "Shivakamin Sabadham".

In fact, after reading "Poonin Selvan" the urge to visit Mahabalipuram and to visualize things described by Kalki has grown manifold.

The carvings in Arjuna's penance is my favorite. A similar carving is unfinished at a near by distance.There are explanations/stories on what this big stone canvas convey the viewer. Whatever be the story it's a master piece.



It's awesome to see the shore temple at sun rise.If you are spending 30-45 minutes in the early morning, the change in the shades of light and shadows in the temple tower are so beautiful that it would make you to stay at Mahabalipuram.

The entry to shore temple starts from 6:00am

Listening to music with your whole body

The Kabir Project

I wanted to write about Kabir Project for a long time. This project tries to preserve and bring what Kabir really meant in his mystic songs.

Sufi singers had been singing the songs at festivals and other places. It's interesting to see that some families are doing it for generations (300-400 years) apart from their regular business.

One of the Sufi singer sings the following verse (of course in Hindi).

“O servant , where dost thou seek Me?

Lo! I am beside thee.

I am neither in temple nor in mosque…”

PS: If you have chance to see the documentaries, don't miss.

Business Class Sedans in India

Recently, I had chance to test drive petrol version of Honda city (Rs.9+ lakhs), Fiat Linea (Rs.8+ Lakhs). Comparing Honda city and Linea being in the same class Linea has more value for money (e.g., steering mounted audio and mobile controls, etc).

Fiat Punto >= Tata Indica and
Fiat Linea >>= Indigo CS

in terms of the strength of the body (car) and the plastic used. But the quality of Indigo CS is not comparable to Punto and Linea.

Now, Tata comes up with Indigo Manza (Rs. 6+ Lakhs) with all the features as in Fiat Linea. Both Linea and Manza runs on the same Engine with slight difference in specifications and performance.

Need to see the performance of Manza and have to choose on what to buy!?

It seems like car manufacturers announce their next generation product once they feel their old product is out of stock! :)

"There will always be better cars in the market just after you buy one for you and smart people never buy one for them but recommend it to others!"

New India

Things have changed and would continue to change faster than ever.



"Change is permanent"

Travelling

Travelling is one of my favorite way of wasting time! :)

One can see drastic changes in people's way of life while traveling in train from Chennai to Delhi.

I have also noticed it while traveling from Kanyakumari to Chennai. Though Kanyakumari and Chennai belong to the same state Tamil Nadu, the language Tamil is spoken very differently at all these places. It's really interesting to see the transition from place to place on the way.

History helps in understanding the evolution of lifestyles(words/slang) specific to a group/locality of people in Tamil Nadu. This is a fascinating research area. I would be interested in discussing with people who work in this area either as an amateur or by profession.

Being in Chennai for more than 3 years, I had the opportunity to visit places around.
Chennai has a number of lesser known places whose history is interesting.

May be the concerned authorities would take necessary steps to create awareness among general public about the historic places and preserve them for the next generation.

“The World is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.” - Saint Augustine

Idea

Have been wondering for years how greatest of innovations/discoveries happen.

Text in one of Shaastra's 2008 T-Shirt gives an insight to it.

It all starts with some idea!
One sudden spark of brilliance.
A flash of genius.
But you can never tell where an idea will end up.

Because an idea can spread, change, grow and may end up affecting the way we live. But no matter how the idea may change our lives, we all will always look back and try to understand how it all began.

We admire the humble beginnings of the idea and the fertile minds which gave birth to it.

We celebrate those moments of splendor and we marvel at the fine thought process behind these ideas. We here firmly believe in the infinite capacity of the human mind. We believe that all we need is that one second of inspiration.

Shaastra: Digital Audio Workshop

I wanted to attend the Digital Audio Workshop in Shaastra for the past two years but somehow couldn't.

This year I had the chance to attend. The workshop was organized in a way to bring in academic research and the products available.

Prof. T. V. Sreenivas, ECE, IISc gave a BIG picture on his experience and experiments in audio signal processing. In fact, mathematical models to understand the working of human auditory system is still not complete. The working of the system is still a mystery!

With the Home Theatre Systems penetrating into households, industry is looking for cost-effective systems. Seems like there is huge market in it.

inDSP and Jasmin Infotech presented their work and products.

Venture Capitalists in India

The Entrepreneurship Cell of Department of Management Studies released a report on 'India Venture Capital and Private Equity Report 2009' on Tuesday.

There was a presentation on the outcome of the report. It was a study on the investments from 2006-2008. It had interesting insights on

1. When Venture capitalists invest in a start-up (incubation, 1-3 years, after 5 years).
2. Which sector had highest investment (Finance, Engineering, IT) ?.

and many more..

It's basically a study on the statistics of investors, investments made, profit if any in the investments.

Though I didn't not understand some of the technical terms, I could get a picture of investment scenario in various sectors.

Science Museums: An eye opener for school children

The opportunities for children & school students to understand complex systems has become easier with technology (television, internet, etc).

It's very difficult to give the right answer to some of the simple questions they ask.
In my experience, only very few parents & relatives encourage children to ask questions and atleast try to give answers.

Since, I am a research scholar and I plan for a research/teaching career, I do case studies on the state of education (primary/secondary school/college, etc) & more specifically on Engineering education in India & abroad through discussions and try to understand the thought process among children, students, school teachers, research scholars, and professors.

Having interacted, I find that given the same problem/question, the thought process is different for people from different background (age, social, geographical, etc). I find many people (older) just quitting without giving a try. But, school children in the age group of (5-15) give a try and ask more questions to solve the problem.

In my opinion, if children are encouraged to ask questions and give the right environment to find answers themselves through exhibitions, science centres, books, etc, I think child will chose their career and come with flying colours.

Recently, I had been to Birla Planetarium (near Anna Univ.), Chennai just to know what's out there. They have a dome structure where they artificially create a sky with stars. It's about 30+ mins. of show. It's about cosmos (earth, universe, galaxy). They try to explain how earth is formed, why eclipses occur and so on along with the mythological (Hindu) explanation.

A couple and thier 5 year old son were seated just behind me. During the show, the kid was asking questions after questions which were interesting and difficult to answer. The father was patient enough and answered his questions in whatever way he can.

The Govt. of India has setup science centres (National Council of Science Museums) at various places in India. Birla planetarium is the one in Chennai. 3-4 hrs is sufficient to cover all the items in Birla Planetarium.

It reminds me of my childhood when I had been to Visvesvaraya Industrial & Technological Museum in Bangalore and Nehru Science Centre in Bombay. These are two interesting places which had greatly influenced me in choosing an Engineering career.

These exhibitions help school students to get to know how things work in reality on what they learn from books.

It's worth to spend a full day at both of these places and learn from the exhibitions. In fact, Govt. has spent huge amount of money and time in setting up the right experiment to explain the concept/idea/law.

:)

Teacher's day

It was when I was studying 8th Std my mother was worried about my career. So, I joined for tuition with R. Manoharan who had just retired from being a Head Master at Govt. School.

I was the first student who joined tuition with him. He taught me Maths and English. Since, I was the only student, he would use my note instead of board. When I completed my 10th Std., it's almost 10+ short note books for English Grammer and 3-4 long note books for Maths.

He used to share his college experience, teaching experience in schools, different kind of students and politicians when he was at college.

I don't know if this is true.

When former CM Annadurai was at a foreign country a journalist wanted to test his English proficiency. The journalist question him "Can you write a sentence which has three "because"?

Annadurai replied: "No sentence ends in because because because is conjunction"

R. Manoharan was one of the Aacharya's whom I am most indebted.

There are many words to describe teacher/tutor/lecturer/professor etc. but Aacharya means one who profess what he teaches/preaches.

It was during 8th std annual leave I joined typewriting institute near my house. Initially, I thought, let me do it for 2-3 months. But, it went for 2 years. I did lower and higher in English and learnt fingering in Tamil. Then, Government norms allowed students to write Typewriting exam only when they have passed 10th std. So, I had to wait till I got my 10th Mark Sheet to write the higher exam.

I hear that now Tamil Nadu Government has brought it down to 8th Std. Please verify.
This skill has helped me to document stuff easily while others were still searching for letters in the keyboard.

Prof. Ashok Rao, Head(Network Project), CEDT, IISc used to visit TCE. He is an inspiring teacher and social entrepreneur. When I last met him, he was running a MS course on political science, economics, etc on his own. I got introduced to Linear Algebra through his lectures. During my ME course, I was fortunate enough to spend time with him and the interactions with him has helped me in shaping my career.

I am most indebted to these three people.

Learning Music

It's one of my passions to learn and play a musical instrument since childhood. Infact, I just want to experiment it myself and to play the songs I love and enjoy.

One question which lingered in my mind for long time was "How does Ilayaraja/A R Rehman do it?" As everyone knows Ilayaraja comes from a not wellknown place in Tamil Nadu with no formal training in music! ARR had a different background.

The Experiment:
I learnt to play keyboard through Mr. Jacob who is an architect by profession but has taken teaching music as a hobby. I did learn the ABC's of western music notation from him. I did go for classes for about 6 months. In the mean time, I was also learning carnatic notation and learnt to play songs if I were given carnatic notation.

I was in cloud nine when I played some of my favorite songs. That's a great experience. If one had interest,time,dedication and a good teacher one can learn any art.

It's almost two years since I got my Yamaha PSR 403 keyboard (Rs.15K). In the beginning, it was very difficult to play a song with proper timing. It took me about a year's time to play notes which I found enjoyable :).

With the academic pressure, I didn't have much time to practice and explore further. But, whenever I feel of playing, I just play. Thanks to all of my friends who had patience to listen.

While playing the song sometimes it so happens that your fingers naturally move to the notes of the song which is interesting.

My next experiment is with Violin (the instrument which speaks). Violin is a special instrument (bowed instrument) and this can produce all the frequencies just like a vocal tract.

Got the right person to teach but I just need time to learn & practice which I will do after my PhD thesis. :)

School Education

The sad and funny part of my life. Since my father is a bank officer, I had to change schools. I had to change 7 schools till my +2. I still remember some of the friends from 4th Std. I couldn't recollect anyone before that.

Everytime it's difficult for me to write entrance exam/interview at atleast 2 schools whenever I moved to a different place. My father and mother would have had a hard time. Thinking of the current school scenario, I can't imagine of handling the situation for my kids. I think annual exams are easier, atleast we know we would move to next standard but the suspense/challenge whether you would get an admission or not is ? !!

It was difficult to leave the friends you have at each of the schools, sometimes you don't know whether you would continue to study in the school. Hopefully, someday I will have chances of meeting them.

I did study/learn(?) at small(a house made into a school) and big (as TVS Lakshmi) of schools and varied beliefs (St. Joseph, Pattukottai, SDA, Madurai) Christian/ (TVS)Hindu.

To be frank, I didn't learn anything till my 8th Std. In fact, I felt like a xerox machine. I still remember my mother asking me to do something of this sort in exam.

Question: Which is the longest river in India?
Just cut the last part "the longest river in India" and append 'is' and write the name of the river. Simple !
I still use to kid my mother recollecting this! :)

That's the starting point of my learning curve. Since, then I tried to understand/question myself on each of the subjects/things I was taught/see.

On the whole, it's a great experience to have studied at different schools at different places which gives a notion of the school setting in Tamil Nadu.

Innovation Camp

I had been to WiCamp held at IITM last Saturday. There were quite few interesting talks and meet an old friend TVS Lakshmi School.

I found the freemind tool to capture/mapping ideas useful.

Pavan did a very good job in moderating the session. This camp was funded by Wipro and they provided free lunch :).

Pavan, me, Swaminathan and Arafath are standing in the right corner.

Present condition of Engineering Education: Shortage of Quality Faculty

Since mid 90's there has been an increase in the number of Engineering colleges in Tamil Nadu and since 2000 there iss a rapid increase. The main reason for this was the boom in the Information Technology (IT) Industry and other service based industries which mainly relied upon IT. Irrespective of the area/department a student chose, he wanted to get a job in an Multi National Company (MNC) which provided all perks which one didn't get (& not provided!) in other Government/Private organizations.

The main motive for all this was & is Money! which is not bad but not at the cost of sacrificing one's own interest. This forced parents, students, society to choose a career without thinking about their real interests (be it arts, literature, journalism, even other Engineering Depts. and Government R&D organizations like ISRO, DRDO). IT is all because of prejudice, image, social status, flock mentality which made people to make decision willingly but are not aware that they are falling into a trap!

Since the industry was in boom and all the creamy layer students obviously opted for better career rather than choose teaching/lecturing as a career which would demand the student to atleast do a postgraduate (Master of Engineering - ME) and utmost a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) either in India or abroad to survive and reach greater heights in teaching. People who opted for teaching during mid 90's to till now are the ones who were not able to secure jobs at MNC's or at other places. The percentage of people who opted for teaching with real interest and enthusiasm was very small and were discourged by friends and society.

And very importantly, teachers/lecturers/Professors can't be created (as it is an evolution process) in a very short span of time. It would take years for a person to gain confidence in a subject, think independently and teach, but this is also a chain reaction and it has great benefits in expanding ones horizons.

Having stated all this, we know why there is a dearth of qualified faculty in Engineering Colleges. So, this has led to the chain reaction where we don't have qualified faculty which inturn has led to demotivation among students in learning core (Ex: Electronics, Civil etc) areas properly. If teaching as a profession has reached this condition, how can one think about research and world class research in India?

This is how we reached the place where we are now! Can we get away from this trap and reach greater heights?

Possible solutions we can try:

Courses have to be taught by experts or atleast by the one who is keen to learn the subject. Everyone (students) cannot afford to be physically present (or get admimission) into the world class institutes like Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Stanford, IITs, etc. MIT has a fantastic project MIT- Open Course Ware (OCW) which gives student at any corner of the world to have feel of thought process involved in teaching at MIT.

Every student should see Prof. Walter Lewin's () video courses on Physics . He invests about 20 hours in preparation for an hour's lecture (with demonstration). He risks his life to explain physics and makes fun out of him in every lecture. With the broadband internet penetrating to each of home in India, a student can very easily download the lecture (an hour of video lecture is file about 70MB (varies with video quality)). Prof. Gilbert Strang's () on the Linear Algebra (Mathematics course) is simple and lucid. For sure, +1 and +2 students would understand and appreciate the concepts in the subject and they would fall in love with Professors! (Since the author has seen this, he is commenting on these two Profs. and there may be other good video lectures covering wide range of other subjects which the author is ignorant). One problem which many of the Indian students may initially face is the English language pronunciation (US slang). But, MIT-OCW is kind enough to have transcripts of the lecture in their website. WOW!

Now, on the similar line IIT's have also taken steps to share the video lectures of professors online which is now available here or about which an article came in Education Plus on 9th March 2009 titled "NPTEL - streaming knowledge to all". So, with the help of video lectures of NPTEL, a student doesn't have the problem in language pronunciation as it is typical Indian. NPTEL has uploaded all the video lectures in youtube format which requires little bit of IT skill to download the video file. In fact, Prof. Mangal Sundar Krishnan, NPTEL, IITM has been working on this project for atleast 5 years and NPTEL is on the way to install an independent and dedicated server containing the video lectures to be downloaded in MP4 (MPEG4) file format which is very similar to MIT-OCW.

With this video lectures from MIT-OCW, NPTEL and others given for free students no longer are ignorant of teaching process at world class institutions. Now, it's upto the students and parents to decide what they want to do?

One now hears from IT/service sector people that companies have stopped venturing into new projects, freezed the recruitment process and are concentrating more on cost cutting strategies. Some employees find it difficult to even retain their job which would result in high stress, in worst case has led to sucide and many other social problems. Companies are interested in people who can handle multiple jobs and there will always be demand for people who have intra and multi-discilinary experience.

With the 6th Pay Commission lining up Government sector jobs sounds to be lucrative when the IT/service industry is dull and students interested in research/challenging jobs can enter into DRDO/ISRO. And, if the students feel that they need to do higher studies it's better to do in India. The reason is that with US, Europe and UK facing recession, Universities find it difficult to get Financial Grants / new projects whose funding flows as scholarship to Masters/PhD students. The other reason is Ministry of Human Resource Development, India (MHRD) has increased the scholarship amount from Rs.5000 to Rs.8000 in the case of (M.Tech/ME/MS) and from (Rs. 9000-10000) to Rs. (14000 - 15000) for PhD in Engineeirng Disciplines. And, the moral of the story is that one should always invest in the stock market whose sensex will always rise.

No doubt that education/knowledge/wisdom is such a stock market and one who has carefully invested need not worry about sensex falling down!