Links

1. Mohit Chandra, a partner at KPMG, pens an open letter to India's graduating classes. He talks about "five key attributes employers typically seek," adding immediately that "... these are often lacking in you and your colleagues." Topping his list of key attributes is this: "1.You speak and write English fluently."

2. Mitch Smith on Intellectual Ventures: Patent Protector or Pest? The question is relevant to India since quite a few top Indian academic institutions (including IIT-B, whose former director left that position to join IV) have a tie-up with the company which many see as a patent troll [see this NPR report, for example].

3. Nick Hanauer: Who are the job creators? This was a talk he presented at a TED event; but it "was deemed 'too politically controversial to post on their web site'."

IIT-K goes to America ...

... to set up a recruitment office (or something like that).

At IIT Kanpur, ... where about 350 professors are employed, about one-third of faculty positions are vacant.

Now, officials at IIT Kanpur are planning to open an office in either Washington or New York City by the end of the year to try to recruit new faculty members from the United States. Their target: the droves of IITians and students from other top engineering schools in India who end up pursuing Ph.D.s or postdocs at American universities. “This office will help us coordinate our faculty hiring much better,” [Manindra] Agrawal [Dean of Resource Planning and Generation] said. More than half of IIT Kanpur’s faculty members already have graduate or doctoral degrees from U.S. institutions, he said. In the past, the process has worked more informally -- department heads would seek out promising postdoctoral candidates. [From Call for Indian Expats by Kaustuv Basu in Inside Higher Ed].

Though this may appear to be a major initiative, it is not:

The proposed American office will employ two or three people. “We will see how it goes -- we are going into uncharted territory here. And then maybe we will increase the size of the office,” Agrawal said.

Rosling on Religions and Babies

"Religion has very little to do with the number of babies per woman," says Hans Rosling in this fabulous TED talk: Religions and Babies. [via Swarup and Gwen Sharp].

Now, watch the awesome Hans in action:

Links

1. Charles Simic in NYRB: Why I Still Write Poetry. Simic had me hooked right in the first paragraph:

   When my mother was very old and in a nursing home, she surprised me one day toward the end of her life by asking me if I still wrote poetry. When I blurted out that I still do, she stared at me with incomprehension. I had to repeat what I said, till she sighed and shook her head, probably thinking to herself this son of mine has always been a little nuts. Now that I’m in my seventies, I’m asked that question now and then by people who don’t know me well. Many of them, I suspect, hope to hear me say that I’ve come my senses and given up that foolish passion of my youth and are visibly surprised to hear me confess that I haven’t yet. They seem to think there is something downright unwholesome and even shocking about it, as if I were dating a high school girl, at my age, and going with her roller-skating that night.

2. Yoni Appelbaum in The Atlantic: How the Professor Who Fooled Wikipedia Got Caught by Reddit. Worth reading to get some insights into the online culture at two sites that depend totally on contributions from their users.

3. The Oatmeal (comics): Why Nikola Tesla was the greatest geek who ever lived. Warning: Don't click if you are a fan of Edison. [Update: This post attempts a fact-check (Via this comment; thanks, Anirban!) Update 2: A rebuttal from The Oatmeal (thanks, Priyank!)]

European Universities and the Two Body Problem

Just a quick note to link to the Crooked Timber post and comments thread on how European universities handle the issue of academic spousal accommodation (one version of which is the Two Body Problem that was the topic of a couple of posts in recent months).

Lots of interesting views in the comments thread there. Go take a look!

Explaining Privilege

John Scalzi says:

I’ve been thinking of a way to explain to straight white men how life works for them, without invoking the dreaded word “privilege,” to which they react like vampires being fed a garlic tart at high noon. [...]

The result? A multiplayer video game called "The Real World". Here's the intro:

Dudes. Imagine life here in the US — or indeed, pretty much anywhere in the Western world — is a massive role playing game, like World of Warcraft except appallingly mundane, where most quests involve the acquisition of money, cell phones and donuts, although not always at the same time. Let’s call it The Real World. You have installed The Real World on your computer and are about to start playing, but first you go to the settings tab to bind your keys, fiddle with your defaults, and choose the difficulty setting for the game. Got it?

Okay: In the role playing game known as The Real World, “Straight White Male” is the lowest difficulty setting there is.

This means that the default behaviors for almost all the non-player characters in the game are easier on you than they would be otherwise. The default barriers for completions of quests are lower. Your leveling-up thresholds come more quickly. You automatically gain entry to some parts of the map that others have to work for. The game is easier to play, automatically, and when you need help, by default it’s easier to get.

Mitt Romney, the Time Traveler

From the ever reliable Onion News Network: Romney To Travel Back In Time To Kill Liberal Versions Of Himself. [Make sure you watch the twist at the end!]

* * *

An earlier post on Mitt Romney: Quantum Politics.

Weird Web Fun

Teddy Wayne in New Yorker: I’m an Article About the Internet That You Repost on the Internet:

What will Mark Zuckerberg do next? Who cares! You do, in an involuntary, Pavlovian way, which is why you’re reading me when you should be outdoors, talking with a loved one, listening to live music, knitting, doing nearly anything else! Make a limp statement about your technocratic dictator that masquerades as wit, you enslaved peon, and pass me on!

Atul Gawande: 200 Years of Surgery

In the New England Journal of Medicine: Two Hundred Years of Surgery. A breezy -- but pain-filled! -- survey of the developments in surgical methods.

Before anesthesia, the sounds of patients thrashing and screaming filled operating rooms. So, from the first use of surgical anesthesia, observers were struck by the stillness and silence. In London, Liston called ether anesthesia a “Yankee dodge” — having seen fads such as hypnotism come and go — but he tried it nonetheless, performing the first amputation with the use of anesthesia, in a 36-year-old butler with a septic knee, 2 months after the publication of Bigelow's report.10 As the historian Richard Hollingham recounts, from the case records, a rubber tube was connected to a flask of ether gas, and the patient was told to breathe through it for 2 or 3 minutes.12 He became motionless and quiet. Throughout the procedure, he did not make a sound or even grimace. “When are you going to begin?” asked the patient a few moments later. He had felt nothing. “This Yankee dodge beats mesmerism hollow,” Liston exclaimed.

It would take a little while for surgeons to discover that the use of anesthesia allowed them time to be meticulous. Despite the advantages of anesthesia, Liston, like many other surgeons, proceeded in his usual lightning-quick and bloody way. Spectators in the operating-theater gallery would still get out their pocket watches to time him. The butler's operation, for instance, took an astonishing 25 seconds from incision to wound closure. (Liston operated so fast that he once accidentally amputated an assistant's fingers along with a patient's leg, according to Hollingham. The patient and the assistant both died of sepsis, and a spectator reportedly died of shock, resulting in the only known procedure with a 300% mortality.)

Sounds familiar?

[Update: Edited out the old title and a sentence in the post.]

* * *

In a post about her Stanford education, Lakshmi Saligram has a short segment on her (engineering) undergrad experience that should sound familiar to many of us:

I did my bachelors degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering (ECE), because anyone who “did well” in class 12 usually opted for this track in India. Since I didn’t know what to do with my life at that time, I did what everyone else did. Very quickly I realized that I hated it, but in the messed-up Indian university system that I studied in, once you selected your field of study, there wasn’t any turning back. So what if you made a mistake? So what if you started liking something else? We don’t care. Just sit, and study. And study I did. I hated it, but my grades never showed it. [...] But there was no love, and now in hindsight I realize, if you don’t love it, you will never learn it.

DU's plans for a meta-university: A counterview

A quick follow-up to this post on Delhi University's plans for offering a variety of new programs, including one -- the meta-university -- which will allow its students to earn a degree with course credits from several Delhi-based universities and colleges. In that post, I wondered how these plans are perceived by folks at DU itself.

In the comments section, Vishu points us to this opinion piece by Shobhit Mahajan, a professor of physics and astrophysics at DU.

I am intrigued by Prof. Mahajan's rhetorical choice: he leads off with complaints about implementation details, burying a far more important issue in the article's second half:

It is a truism that in most social systems, whether in business or politics, a buy-in of all stakeholders is an essential prerequisite for any fundamental and lasting change. And the buy-in occurs through a consultative, inclusive process whereby the stakeholders are consulted and persuaded. Unfortunately, none of this has been visible in DU in recent years.

The utter disdain with which the DU administration treats the views of the students and the faculty, and the manner in which it rides over statutory provisions is shocking.

The pattern is by now familiar: the VC announces to the media a new initiative. A coterie of teachers and administrators hurriedly fleshes out the proposals. These proposals are then rammed through the statutory bodies if needed, or implemented using the infamous emergency powers of the VC. The course on 'innovation engineering' is a good example. In its rush to prepare the blueprint, the VC's coterie plagiarised the course and other details from a foreign university website. So much for intellectual honesty and creativity!

Sexists at St. Stephens: The 1980s Edition

Drop everything and read this fabulous personal-political narrative by Saba Dewan at Kafila about women's fight for equality at St. Stephen's in the 1980s. Lots and lots of cringe-worthy stuff -- not only about the brutish behavior of (a section of) male students who formed an overwhelming majority at that time, but also about the feigned helplessness by the principal and other senior faculty.

Dewan's article is fantastic for bringing that era alive with some luminous writing. The #Epic Win at the end is a sweet bonus. Yet another bonus is that it appears at a time when the fraction of women among St.Stephen's students has gone up to such a level that the admin there contemplated a 40 % male quota, a proposal that, I understand, has been defeated.

[Don't forget to check the comments where several others join in to share their experiences]

... One winter’s morning as we entered the college gates we were greeted by spray painted graffiti on the drive way and walls ordering us to –“Fuck off!” Inside, the women’s locker room had been raided, lockers had been broken open. Women students’ clothes and undergarments had been pulled out and strewn all over the locker room that had violent threats spray painted on its walls.

Dr. Hala made guttural, incoherent sounds when we barged into his office. Mr. Dwivedi the college dean wondered why we were so agitated. It was just a stupid prank. Other senior faculty members were upset by the ‘prank’ but added philosophically that ‘boys will be boys’. It was obvious that apart from offering the usual lip service the authorities yet again were in no mood to initiate some action. In the midst of all these developments somehow some journalists got wind of the locker room break in and began contacting for comments those amongst us identified as being more vocal on the chick chart issue. Next morning the break in had made headline news of some English newspapers; not surprising really given Stephen’s hallowed reputation and status.

College authorities that had so far refused to take either our complaints on the chick chart seriously or had found the vandalism of college property by their students a matter of any serious concern, were now jolted into prompt action by the newspaper reports. Except that in line with the sexist philosophy permeating the institution the action was directed against the women students; especially those amongst us who had been consistently speaking out on the issue. Dr. Hala and Mr. Dwivedi had been unanimous in directing their ire at us for daring to speak to ‘outsiders’ about college issues that they described as ‘family matters’. Patriarchy was in full damage control. Section 144 was imposed within the campus forbidding any meetings or even groups of students to assemble. We were ordered to keep our mouths shut to ‘outsiders’. And our fellow male students, in two and threes took it upon themselves to shadow the more ‘troublesome’ elements amongst the women including me to insure that we behaved ourselves, did not speak or meet or conspire to further bring down the ‘reputation’ of ‘their’ esteemed college. And just to make sure that we were truly terrorized into submissive silence they would keep muttering as they followed us around, the words that had been emblazoned upon the driveway of the college they professed to love so much –“Fuck off!”

Our complaints once again to authorities fell on deaf ears. We had provoked the boys by our irresponsible actions, made them justifiably angry. It was as usual our fault. And so began our discovery of our strength as women. Realizing that our own college had now been turned into a repressive, hard space some of us began contacting students of other colleges, especially women’s colleges like Miranda House. I.P and Daulat Ram College. The solidarity we received was overwhelming. Students across north campus began joining in to protest gender discrimination and harassment of women students within St. Stephen’s College. Those were enriching, wonderful times. Some of our teachers within college like Dr. Tanika Sarkar, Dr. Sunil Kumar and Nandita Narain extended much needed support. Several alumni like Dilip Simeon, Mukul Manglik and Saleem Kidwai too joined in. And a huge demonstration, one of the biggest ever in Delhi University till then, comprising of students and teachers from various colleges and departments protested outside St. Stephen’s College.

NIPER's War on Whistleblowers

The institution's leadership went after Dr. Animesh Roy in 2009 for blowing the whistle on scientific misconduct. You have to read The Telegraph report by G. Mudur -- Science's Ugly Underbelly to get a sense of how ugly it really was.

Nearly three years later, its leadership has dismissed Dr. Nilanjan Roy allegedly for blowing the whistle on misconduct in financial matters. Rahul has a post (with links) summarizing this case.

The first case came to an end after Dr. Animesh Roy was reinstated in 2011. It is horrible to even imagine the kind of ordeal he went through during those 2+ years -- just because some higher-ups at NIPER felt that their egos were hurt by his allegations.

From news reports, the second case is also likely to go in favor of the whistleblower. It'll leave a deep, shameful scar on the institution if this eventuality arrives after inflicting personal and professional damage to Dr. Nilanjan Roy.

Those at the helm at NIPER, especially its Board members and their chairman, Dr. V.M. Katoch, have to do the right thing. NIPER's institutional reputation is at stake.

Aamir Khan's "Satyameva Jayate"

The first episode of the show was devoted to selective abortion of female foetuses. Two bloggers I respect recommend it highly. Here is Indian Home Maker:

Amir explains that the father’s Y chromosome decided the gender of the baby. He also simplifies why ignoring the issue is not really an option, because nobody is going to remain unaffected by it. He explained what baby girl killing actually means for the society, how it means more trafficking of women to be sold as ‘wives’, less respect for wives and women since they can be bought and sold and then resold. (Remember, Baby Falak’s mother had been sold to a man in Rajasthan as his ‘wife’). How 914 women for a 1000 men translates to millions of missing women and millions of men who are not able to find partners. He recommended solutions – what works he said would be action against the perpetrators. (The same thing works for all crimes, including for sexual crimes against women)

It was good to see single mothers – women who had walked out of their marriages to save and to raise their daughters, being applauded. Don’t you think this would encourage other women in similar situation to take bolder stands too?

Harini Calamur:

Today’s episodes was on the desire for a male child and the accepted, though illegal, practise of female foeticide. It is one thing knowing the data. It is quite another hearing a woman talk about her in-laws who forced her to abort 6 foetuses because they were female. It is one thing to know about a woman being hit, it is quite another to see the scarred face in extreme close up as well as pictures that showed the face when it was all stitched up. The woman’s crime – giving birth to a girl. The show also took head on the myth that female foeticide is rife in villages. It is not. It is practised just as much amongst my neighbours as yours. Statistics show that the richer localities have fewer daughters than the poorer ones. A clip during the show revealed the prevalence of an organised cartel in Rajasthan that provided end to end service in female foeticide. But it was not just about the doom and gloom – it talked about how one DC of Navashehar in Punjab reversed the trend. Solutions are important. Problems are known but is it all beyond hope? no. and that is what is refreshing about this show.

My broken Hindi doesn't allow me to appreciate the show fully; I'm hoping an English-subtitled version will appear soon [Update (9 May 2012): It's here]. This show has done a couple of smart things to expand its reach to all of India by (a) dubbing it into other Indian languages, and (b) getting it broadcast on DD.

You can watch it on YouTube as well; here's the direct link, just in case the embed doesn't work:

Links

1. Natasha Mhatre at Talking Pictures: Tree crickets break the rules, sort of. On her recent work at the intersection of biology, evolution, physics, and geometry.

2. H.S. Ganesh at Colours has two posts on his engineering college days: Part 1: Those Exams ... starts with this: "Engineering eduction was painful, when we were actually there, however in retrospect it was a joke. At least I see it as a joke that makes me laugh..." And Part 2. The Fire! ends with this: "Though I hated the education system, I could never deny that it was the same system that gave me the chance to do some thing worth while, something meaningful - an experience that I would remember forever."

3. Desi Babu at The Peanut Express: Chappal Kumar and Shoe Sahib.

4. Digbijoy Nath at Playing with Electrons: What India misses, technologically.