Predation of researchers and their research potential

Before you continue, please read themotivation for writing this post: the article  written by Sambit Dash. As usual, nothing i say is against the author per se. Again, this is a topic i am not usually vocal about, but i thought i will share a few thoughts. I may be more wrong than right.
That's it for the disclaimer part.
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What is observed

It seems that there is now literature(Seethaathy,SG; Santhosh Kumar,JU;Hareesha,AS, 2016) to prove that Indians ace in publishing in predatory journals(a.k.a paid journals). We now have numbers as well. Over 51% of papers published in such journals of poor quality is by Indians. The short conclusion by the authors: publication pressure and lack of monitoring are the main culprits for this fall in quality. If numbers is all you want, there is one more older article(Gupta, BM; Dhawan,SM, 2008) that talks about publishing count and all. Here is a pdf presentation about status of science and technology research in India, presumably from 2013. This post is to break this myth that numbers matter much when it comes to quality.

Let me state up front that I am not going to bring data from publisher's sites. I am only going to use all information I have gathered from personal communication over the last 15 years with various people to present the ideas. So, sorry. No reference for data.

Whipping a tortoise won't make it run fast

In the good old days, researchers--the people who actually grind it out in the labs/field, collecting all the data with sheer hard work, and publishing it--never had to worry about where they published. Most people used to publish their research work according to their budget in places where they deemed fit according to their understanding. During those times, doing PhD under a good place under a a great guide/supervisor/mentor is all that mattered. This was also the time when teachers(lecturers, readers, professors) taught in class. Research scholars were self-motivated by default to do Ph D. There was no necessity to do research, and hence whatever research used to happen used to be of good quality. This was the era when the word of the guide was enough to award a Ph D degree, teaching professions didn't demand publication count, and people with M.Sc could work in pharma labs and still make a decent living.

Then, the Government of India(GoI), started having ideas. GoI suddenly thought that research in India is not that great. There were only a handful of universities that were having good research work. Naturally, someone wanted to know how good our researchers are doing.  Here enters the bureaucracy.

The easiest to way to say how good something is is by picking something quantitative and comparing based on that. So, the babus asked the question: how much research is happening in India. No one had any real clue about what is happening where. In fact, the way our universities worked was really simple: somehow get some money allocated, spend the money allocated, ask for more money. If you lived in any university environment in any part of India, chances are that you have absolutely no idea what work is happening in the rest of the university. If you knew some good work, it's because that work came in the news somewhere. In fact for some interdisciplinary research, it was not uncommon to have two scholars working in different departments publishing papers in the same field but not knowing about it till they bump into each other later outside the university. So, when people wanted to quantify, they just asked the question: how many papers have you published in international journals.

GoI suddenly gave people a magical formula: publish in an International journal and you get branded as good researchers. The more you publish, the better researcher you become. Probably, that wasn't enough of a motivation, but the babus fixed what to measure. This PIB Note(Reply to Rajya Sabha by Minister of Science and Technology, Shri S Jaipal Reddy) basically explains what they have been doing and what's wrong with the whole exercise.

Another enlightened mind thought that Indians are not publishing because they are not suitably motivated. So, they just made PhD mandatory for getting an professor post. You know the way things work in India. There were some loopholes left for some extremely important people without PhD to get a promotion because, as you guessed it, they have worked too much for the university and obviously we cant expect a veteran to register for a PhD degree now. Looking at the way things stood, they just made it mandatory for even Assistant Professor posts to be filled by only people with PhD. (I am consciously omitting the currently-doing-PhD-part for brevity).

Now, what does PhD and teaching posts have got to do with quality publications? If you thought that this question is weird, it's OK. You will be among the 99.9999% of the people who naturally map research publication with professors in some university lab(wearing a white coat surrounded by test tubes). No one, especially in India, knows that most people don't teach in some university after getting a PhD. Even rarer people have heard about companies where they do research. Yes, I am talking about commercial entities who actually recruit people to solve real problems given to them by industry. And, NO, most of their recruits are usually smart graduates or post-graduates or graduates with years of experience.Do they publish research papers? Yes. But companies are more interested in patents than in papers. Patents have commercial value, peer-reviewed technical articles/papers don't have (unless it's a market-research company which can sell white papers to make money.) Of course, the babus in the ministry didn't know that research happened in lots of places.

So, the accountants in the ministry rightly argued that to manufacture more papers, we need more factories. Obviously, as making new factories(aka universities) is tough, we will just stack more machinery(aka professors) in existing factories. Then it dawned on them that most machinery are just outdated and not making papers as they first thought. Obviously, replacing them with machinery that can mass produce papers will be anti-labour. So, it's enough to mandate that all new machinery will enter job after they produce a few papers, and they will get career progression only if they continue to produce papers. (My apologies, if I unknowingly hurt anyone by using the analogy of machines.)

Another event happened in the meantime. The sudden demand for Indian engineers in software industry flooded the education market. IT/ITeS industry was happy about recruiting any engineering graduate. When they still had shortage, they started recruiting any graduate. This naturally resulted in the huge demand for teaching faculty. Private colleges started to crop up every where. When a college crops up, it has to be staffed by qualified teachers. That means, the overall demand for qualified teachers started rising. Basically, the government realized that if all the staff in all the colleges were mandated to come up with papers if they had to get a job, obviously the number of publications will increase.

Their logic was undeniable. And, like the VIKI of Asimov's 'I, Robot', the babus started giving more and more focus to numbers.

Apples from Peach tree

The rules were changed to give researchers in universities more incentives to publish papers. OK, let me be a bit more frank and open here. All existing and aspiring teachers were given the ultimaum: get a PhD degree by publishing journal papers or you won't get a job or promotions. They might as well have said: publish or kill yourselves. Leaving the dramatizations aside, the babus started truly believing that a change of rule will change the results. The final table with numbers will magically change by this "smart" rule they introduced. (How I wish they were taught about "process for the sake of process" in their training years.)

To quote from the script of Kung Fu Panda(2008)

 Oogway[points at peach tree]: Look at this tree, Shifu. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, nor make it bear fruit before its time. 

Shifu: But there are things we *can* control. [kicks the tree so that peaches fall] Shifu: I can control when the fruit will fall! [he slices a peach and throws the pit to the ground] Shifu: I can control where to plant the seed! That is no illusion, Master! Oogway: Ah, yes. But no matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach. 

The Shifu in the decision-making bodies think that quantity and quality of publications will magically improve because they are in control. But the truth is: you can't get apple from a peach tree. The good publications aren't going to come because the new rules demand publications.

Predators, please eat us

Publication count became important. The babus wanted an accounting entry. So, naturally, people started asking ways to mark the check box in this new laundry list. So, people started asking: how do we publish research papers.

It so happens that to publish a research paper, you need to have data. And, making authentic data takes time. But, unfortunately, in the mad rush to complete the course, meet family commitments, check answer scripts, do office politics to get the next increment, and umpteen other issues, the only thing that a typical researcher doesn't have is time.

Obviously, can't these teachers call some students and get some experimental work done by the students.

No. The students that we have in our classes are practically good for nothing. We never teach them creative thinking or problem evaluation in our written exam focused education system. Unless, you are going to spend time monitoring them, they can't think themselves to do the research work. And, time is what the researcher doesn't have.

The people who genuinely wanted to do research and get publications suddenly encountered a practical difficulty. Necessity is the mother of inventions. Indians invented International Journals. Not exactly invented, but they figured out that the system can be gamed.

"Babus, you want numbers. We will give you numbers," screamed the forced researcher. The enterprising among them spread the word that they know a journal in which publication is easy. No one will reject their paper because of grammar, or of technical rigor.    

More than predatory journals coming to India, the Indian forced researcher tried to get "International" journal started to cater to their needs. The cash-strapped private universities were not far behind. They suddenly found a new income source. Of course, if the Cambridges and MITs can have their own press, why not a poor Indian university.

Straw and the Camel's back

The job of a teaching faculty is to teach student. On top of that, they do the administrative work that the organization will naturally expect from them. And, there is going to be the hundreds of audits that they have to answer to. Probably, they have to spend more time doing paper work than interacting with students. And they have to spend more time monitoring the paper work than they would have spend making those papers in the first place. And, of course, they have to come up with quality publication; nothing less than a SCI-indexed journal.

All this has to be done with no time, no money and absolutely no motivation other than the sharp animal instinct of survival.

The problem with quality research is that it takes a lot of money. To do an experiment, you need quality equipment. If someone tells that there are free tools available, all i can retort is: just because they don't charge fees, would you send your own child to a government school. On top of the resources, we need an environment conducive of research. And, then there is the requirement of free time and a quality support team.

Without these, no amount of rules is going to change anything.

If the higher powers think that they would accept only publications meeting certain metrics, our compelled researchers are smart enough to get a journal meeting those metrics but with relaxed entry criteria.

All that has happened so far is adding one straw at a time atop the camel.

Is there a cure?   

I am among those who strongly believe that no one has the right to complain unless they can also suggest one plausible solution.

Let me first start with the toughest one. We need desperate reforms in our school education. There is already a shift towards outcome based education. Now, we need to change our school system to allow students to learn one skill at a time and move one. Ideally, we should have a set of exams where individual skills are tested, like can student add any two numbers, can a student interpret a graph, can a student identify the correct spelling of words, does the student have a vocabulary of N number of words, etc. The new test system must have provisions to check creativity, problem solving skills, ethics. Most importantly, respect the bell curve. India is a large country. Not all students are going to be good in all the subjects/skills. Some are going to be way above average, some shall be below average. 100% pass is as good as 100% failure. If a student got 100/100 marks, the test is broken.

Stop gobble up and vomit type questions in examinations. None of us are going to know everything when we go to work. There are many things we learn as we work, there are many things that even a person with 30-35 years experience doesn't know. Not all students can memorize tonnes of literature, and most of them are doing well when the have grown up. Once we stop this type of question, we can evaluate students based on their ability to respond to situations.

Start having separate research and teaching posts. Those in research posts can concentrate on guiding project students, students doing MS by Research(we desperately need this degree in every university department). Let those in teaching post be only judged by their teaching, and not by their research.

Change the funding method. The acceptance ratios in good conferences and journals is pretty low. Researchers must be motivated to take risks if they have to perform high quality research work. I am seriously for cheap loans for research and publication-based funding. Basically, let the researcher submit a proposal. If it sounds good(only to eliminate the obviously fake research proposals), give them an  interest concession coupon they can show to a bank. Let the people take loan and do research. Depending on where the work is published, the whole or a part of the loan can be paid by GoI. More than a large grant, most real researchers want working capital, and an assurance that they will at least get back the money they spend. Even those working with government funding roll most of the project money. Money for first project usually comes only when second project is about to get over. The fear of some bill that might get rejected will most likely be ruining their sleep. Even a separate Non banking finance company for the sole purpose of granting research loans is going to be great. Alternatively, GoI could mandate all companies to put some money from their Corporate Social Responsibility(CSR) for underwriting such research. Trust me, many such loans will be defaulted. Researchers don't talk about the hundreds of times they failed. All they can write in their resume is the few times they succeeded.

Predation of researchers and their research potential

To conclude, let's not talk about the quantity or quality of research in India. The average researcher lacks basic resources, adequate funding and time, due to the way we have chosen to measure research. The predatory journals exist because our government policy had created a large market(an estimated Rs. 600 crore market according to some). The skewed policy has resulted in good research never happening. The large number of such papers getting published by mediocre researchers leads to a huge pressure on good researchers to publish in mediocre journals, which in turn promotes more people to publish in mediocre journals. "Publish or perish" is the norm in the world of research. Actually, not only are good researchers expected to publish but their work is also expected to get lots of citations. On top of such an international pressure, the normal researcher doesn't want the pressure of tonnes of junk publications by people forced to do research due to the GoI policy compulsions. Then there is the problem of huge skill deficit. We do not teach students to think because our question papers are meant to improve pass percentage, not testing creativity or problem solving skills. We publish less because our students are not taught to evaluate or create solutions. If we don't create the right kind of environment for research, predatory publications become the last resort to make ends meet. In War and Peace, it's said that the best general just allows the good captains to make the right decisions while making them believe that it was on order passed from above. The publish-or-perish culture is enough of a motivation for those on the top. For those who are not that good in research, it's better to use peer pressure to make them publish than to compel them to publish.


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The author is currently working as an Associate Professor in a reputed college. All opinions expressed are personal and in relation to the article published by Sambit Dash. None of the content expressed reflects the opinions of the author's current or previous employers.

Some tips on Income tax

Some tips on Income tax
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(Disclaimer: these are only observations. Please consult a certified financial planner for professional advice.)
(This was posted by me on whatsapp as an instantaneous reaction to someone talking about ULIP to save taxes)

One of the common mistakes many of us (ppl in 10% and 20%) brackets do is to rush and invest over a few "tax saving" instruments without much thought. I am just listing a few things you should seriously consider.

Please note the two most important advices i have received:

Paying tax is better than wasting money on a bad financial instrument.
(For 10% bracket, you pay atmost 25000 rs. For 20% brakect, that is atmost 75k rs)

You should not put money anywhere unless you know all risks(even bank FD has risk), and you have a need for putting money there.

Real option for ppl like us:
1. Best option: get a home loan.
Principal part of home loan comes under section (u/s) 80. Upto 1.5 lakhs limit as of now.
Interest comes u/s 24. For home loans that we can afford, all interest is deductible.

You must get bank certificate in which they will clearly say the principal and loan part.

A decent home loan should cover most of your tax related needs.

Do not forget to insure the loan. The banks will add a small premium, but its worth spending.
(Personal exp: my home loan was in name of me and my father. When my father passed away, i could have got insurance co to pay rest of 6 lakh premium if i had insured by paying 300rs more a year)

2.
LIC term loans:
These are low ticket. If you dont have it, you must get this.
While picking a term plan:
Sum Assured should be at least 30-50 lakhs based on your needs.
Eg: if total monthly family expenditure is 32,000, SA should be atleast for
50 lakhs.
(For a 40 yr old, taking 25 yr term for 50L, premium is about 3500 rs)
 i name only LIC bcoz they are the biggest term insurer. In insurance business, the best one has most customers.

3.
Health Insurance:
A must.
Atleast get the health insurance from Vijaya Bank.
This is one investment where you can put money on one or more insurer.
For the second insurer, go for a health insurance player like Max Bupa, etc. All the good ones are private. Ask your nearby hospital about the insurers that provide cashless facility there. Then only buy. Always prefer family floater(only bachelors need to fall back on individual plan)
IMPORTANT: there is something called "top-up" plan in health insurance. The way this works: we pay money for all expenses beyond a limit, send the bill to insurer and get money refunded.
Ex:
If you have a base plan of 3L and you then go for a topup of 5L with a base of 2L; and god forbid something happened to you requiring a 6L surgery; your base plan can initially cover the 1st 3L. The remaining 3L has to be paid by you to hospital. The bill of this amount should be sent for processing claim in the topup plan. Money will be refunded by them. You can actually show the 6L bill, and ask for topup ppl to pay you 4L rs. You can then give 1L back to base plan.
Point to note: topup plan pays only those bills that cross the base limit.

And, due to this condition(only pay if a base is crossed and no cashless facility), they are going to be much cheaper.

4. PPF
If you dont have, please get one. This is the extra pension that you are saving up. Make sure you put at least 1000 rs in this.

Optionals based on need:
Rest of money should be put based on your age.
I am just listing some of the ones that make sense for ppl earning less than 10L.

Please note: asset allocation is crucial.
(Even though it wont save tax, do your usual gold purchase, bank FDs, etc)

(Important point: when i say risk, it only means that the earnings may not be best. You are going to lose money only when you do emergency sale. In emergency, there will be slight loss in everything.)


A) 5yr Bank FD: prefer putting this in 50,000 or 1L.
Lock in period is 5 yrs. If there is an emergency, you might end up breaking this.
Ideally, start a basic 5yr FD every year.
Risk: interest rate risk.

B) NSS, KVP etc.
Interest rate risk. Policy risk. Put money only if family compulsion is there.

Dont put money in the rest if you dont have atleast 1L in bank FDs(regular and 5yr ones)

C)
ULIP: generally discouraged by people.
Use this with full money on equity. If you are joining, go for atleast 20yrs.
Market risk.
Important: do not put debt component in ULIP if you already have liquid cash of 3L(spread in banks, including short FDs, gold)

D) ELSS:
General rule of thumb:
You can put upto 100-Age% of your free money on equity.
Ex: for a 35 yo, upto 65% of investment can be in equity.
Illustration
If you are 25 yo and earn 40k per month, and you spend 20,000 for household expenditure, 10,000 for personal spend+emergency kitty; you only have 10,000 to play with. At 25yrs, you can put upto 100-25=75% of this 10,000, ie, upto 7500 in equity. If you have a ULIP of 1000 per month, NPS with equity of 3k per year(equiv of 250/month), you can only put upto about 6000 on equity. For this person, i wont recommend anything more than 5k per month as SIP.

ELSS must be invested only as SIP. You may topup when you get unexpected money.

Important point with ELSS or any equity: benefits accrue only on very long term. You are holding for 15-20years or even upto your death.
ELSS makes money bcoz money is invested in top 500 cos in market. On an average, they will aim to make at least 10% operating margin over long term(10 yr time horizon). No matter how market reacts, these companies have to maintain a steady course bcoz owners get to eat kanji only if co make profit. Over any 15 yr period, equity will give returns of 10%.
Someone who started putting money from 1999 in ELSS would have made 17-24% over the 17 yr period(ELSS started in 99)

There are lots more. Its better to pay tax than invest on them(i would not have said KVP and NSS as well if i hadnt seen an attachment for it among baniyas)

For realistic advice on tax investments, read Monika Halan, editor of money section livemint.

http://www.livemint.com/money

Its wiser to lose a few thousand on tax than a few lakhs later on.

sitemeter and my impression on page visits

I was just in the process of wasting some time while preparing my bath, and i came across this interesting observation.

People dont usually read the pages that are my hrd core musings.

People stumble upon my page, when they want to get some information. I feel google has given me more page visits, than any one else.

Things I want to actually put in my blog, because of utility factor, is more appreciated by people visiting the pages.

So lesson to learn:

1. i can happily put in all my musings, because nobody is going to bother on reading it.
2. if i need to actually improve the number of visits, i must actually put material that is useful to others

Simplest things are the most profound.

Netaholic? Guilty as charged

Well, at last, I have it found out . I am a compulsive netaholic.

How did I find out? I was out of net because of cable fault. For 5 days, I was roaming around not able to know where the problem was. In all these 5 days, I was getting completely out of tune. I slept for 12+ hours for 2 days. Nothing was working for me. I was getting highly irritated at my net condition. I think all these add up to only one thing. The feeling being said by ppl regarding high addiction.

So how do I feel now? I have my net connection at last. I can do my stuff with network. Happy. No... Happy is not the right word. Elated? may be... Exalted.... I dont know. Satiated... Definitely.

What do I do about it, now that I know I am suffering from the disease? This is what I read a couple of days ago. Remember the saying "There is a thin line between genius and insane". Scientists found out that there is in fact a gene which is responsible for higher intelligence, and which is also responsible for schizophrenia. So should the people having this particular gene be called sick (with schizophrenia)? Or should they be simply called great geniuses? I think my disease is not something I have to worry about. Who knows, someday we may find some gene responsible for compulsive addicts? But, who cares?

Hakuna Mataata.

At last made the shift to the new blogger

I seriously was not in the mood of shifting to the new blogger. But it seems, at last that has just happened.

How to destroy USA?

Well, this is from one of my converstaions with a friend of mine.
We were just talking about indian politics and naturally the talk came around to some of ppl in power.

"Consider what will happen if amma went to USA? She will become the US President in a matter of months."

"Yes and also make sure that her coffers get filled with US Treasury."

" Think about it, americans will cheer 'anna namam vazhga!!'. All poor people will get 15 kg rice free. ALl students will get 2 chocolates free daily. All teenagers get condom free. Washington, DCs face will change. it will be filled with statues of Anna, MGR (cooling glass inclusive and umbrella as well). Free laptop for all homeless."

"SAddam hussein must only need to pull jayalalitha to US politics to doom that country"

A sample of How The way Amma moves People.


Amma is incredible!!!

Nothing in special - usual time pass

Feeling bad that i had not contributed anything to the blog recently. Been a bit busy recently. When sh.......it happens, it happens all of a sudden.

To stimulate my cranium, Vimal's company has been great. He explained to me some of the tiruvalluvar sayings. What I was thinking all the while was how could the guy who lived so many years ago come up with easy correct and eternal quotes. There were some simple quotes that simply said a doctor must find the disease, find the cause for the disease and then find the cure and after considering all the sides of the cure give it to the patient. Simple effective facts of life. But then valluvar simply turned it to give deeper philosophical insights into many many things in common day-to-day activities.

I am still forced to believe that sight is completely dependent on the beholder. The deeper the beholder wants to see, the more enhanced his sight will be. Pretty hard to chew even for me. But as someone said, truth is always bitter.

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I met the chowky yesterday night. I still dont remember his name. But then spending some time with him was good. We talked about many things, but nothing in specific. Just the usual time pass talks. I told him about the article on Nostre Damus on India & BJP in astrojyoti.com. We just talked about the greatness of a man who lived a couple of centuries before us and still he was able to say what happens now. The power of astrology is great. Both of us agreed that it will be BJP this time.

During the conversation he told me that his insincts say that another bomb explosion is on the way. I did not agree with him totally, but the times are quite turbulent. Now-a-days you dont really need Pakistanis to plant bomb here. There are enough bad elements in our own nation to do the damage.

Lesson I learned:

The best way to motivate yourself is to be in good company. It doesnt matter who the other person is and what the exact topic you talk on. All it matters is the vibrant positive energy that must be shared among one another. AS the great man said, "Until you start talking, you will never know how big the world really is and how well knit all of us really are". Motivation doesnt need words. All it needs is the vibrant energy. Words only act like a strip of gold that is used to keep the diamond in place.

From RAZA's blog Excerpts from FROM THE PRISON WRITINGS OF ABUL KALAM AZAD

"People are always searching for ways to achieve great things in their life, but they do not know that the biggest task in life is life itself, ie. how to live happily. There is no task more difficult than that you live, after all, dying is the easiest thing. One who has solved the problem of living joyfully has acquired the greatest achievement of life.

Perhaps the ancient Chinese had understood the problem of life better than other nations. In an old Chinese proverb a question is asked ‘Who is the wisest person?’ and it is answered ‘One who lives happier than everybody else’. From this we can learn the Chinese philosophy of life and there is no doubt that it is true. If you have learnt the art of living happily in all kinds of circumstances, then believe you me, you have learnt the biggest thing in life. Now, after this the question does not arise about what else you have learnt. Be happy and keep telling other people not to make their faces sorrowful.

I liked a saying of one contemporary French writer, Andre Gide, written in his autobiography – to be happy is not only a physical need but a moral responsibility. The effect of the quality of our individual life is not restricted only to ourselves. It is contagious, it also affects the people around us. Therefore it is our moral duty not to make others sad by being sad ourselves. Our life is a room of mirrors. Every face is simultaneously reflected in hundreds of mirrors. If one face is downcast then hundreds of others will become the same. Our lives are not individual events, they are collective events. On the surface of a river one wave rises, but with one wave countless others form. There is nothing that is solely our own. Whatever we do for ourselves, others also share in it. No happiness would be able to make us happy if we are surrounded on all four sides by sorrowful faces. By being happy ourselves we make other people happy and when we make other people happy we become happy ourselves.

It is strange that religion, philosophy and morality all tried to solve the problem of life, yet all developed the tendency against life itself. It is commonly thought that the more despondent and long-faced a person looks, the more religious they are, the greater philosopher or greater moralist - as if knowledge and piety makes it a necessity. This insult and humiliation of life was not the trait of the Greek cynics only. The stoics and the peripatetic philosophers shared these elements. Gradually sad and sour looking faces became the predominant trait of the philosophers. Even the followers of eudemonism and hedonism had a tendency to display a similar despondency.

In the world of religion and spiritualism, dry piety and coldness have become so popular that now you cannot even dream of a pious or religious person with a happy face. Religiousness has become synonymous with harshness of character. Even if just one religious bigwig appears in a gathering, then a dark shadow is cast, making everyone uncomfortable.

We have to admit that by putting on the dry mask of a philosopher, pious person or a Saddhu we do not fit into the creation of the universe and the nature around. Nature’s forehead is shiny like the sun, and its face smiling like the moon. The twinkling eyes of stars, the dance of trees, the songs of birds, running water, the colourful play of flowers – dry and long faces have no place. Only life which has a warm heart and a shining forehead would have the effect of moonlight on a starlit night that would be like a flower among flowers."

Azad (1945) ,"Ghubar-e-Khatir" ,pp 96-100.

Drug Addiction in Pakisthan

Today i read an article in India stating that about 3.5 - 4 million people of 150 million in Pakisthan are drug addicts. This is a huge number. It says about 2.5 % of Pakisthanis are addicted to drugs. I think the poliical instability in Pakisthan has taken its toll. How else can one take such a huge number into account.

Of course, in the article the cost of one "wrap" of heroin was out at 58 pak rs. I dont know how much alcohol costs in pakisthan. but then, the fact that many people are turning towards drugs despite the social taboo associated with it shows the level of degradation in the society. It seems as if the people are not getting enough ways to release their tensoin.

Anyways, I think the topic must be discussed in detail with a Pakistani. There is no point in speculation.

Just on hindsight, i wonder how many cigarete addicts and alcohol addicts are there. I have always thought that a minor fraction of smokers and drinkers only go for drugs.

Name problem with softwares

I hope Google AdSense will be coming up in this blog shortly. Anyways, I suffered again in the hands of wrong naming procedures. This time courtsey Google.

I am not anti-Google. I just disagree with their way of handling some things.

The reason for this post is to simply point out how nameing is a difficult task.

My Name as on Records is "Murali P". I had no choice in that. The Teacher in first standard (i dont blame her for that), just wrote my name as "Murali P" in the attendance register. Neither me nor my parents bothered about this. It is common in our school have a first name followed by an initial (first letter of father's name) written as name of student. There have been instances where people have a first name and a last name, as with my sister. There were people with three names as well. Now how is a common man about to think that every name must have a first name, middle name/initial and a last name. Asking for such a thing is preposterous.

If needed to insert, I should have written my name as Murali Paramaswaran Iyer. Murali is my first name. Parameswaran is my father's name. and iyer would be my "surname". Iyers are basically Tamil Brahmins. and I am a tamil brahmin. But, from my grandfather's (father's father) time, we never used to add Iyer to our name in our family. My Grandfather's official name is P B Rajan. My father's is just B Parameswaran.

Now, when we go to North India, everyone is assosciated with a surname. The is indicative of the caste of the person. In mumbai especially, you will hear a lot of Kulkarnis, Malhotras, Iyers etc. In fact, when my cousin went to Mumbai for job, he had to forcibly use Iyer along with his name, because that is how people address there. Its part of the culture their. Unfortunately for India, there has always been too much North India in the government procedures. So, you can find the column "Surname" in most of the application forms. WE dont NEED a surname. But then, you cant change a culture of a section of the nation, just because your part dont agree with it.

I am not quite an authority in Naming schemes followed elsewhere. But my observations have been like this. In general, many places have three parts in their name. A lucky few are bestowed with even seven or eight. I have heard of a chat friend mentioning name containing a first name, a church name , a latin name, a fathers name, a family name. Sorry fellow, the names seem quite confusing to me.

Anyways, coming back to the topic, When softwares started to pop up, they drew their line on the Name criteria. They started following their own "general" rules for names. SOme places, they dont really mind if the name is entered as "zzzzzzzzz". some places they are quite certain that a name must be of the form "XXX YYYY ZZZ". Some places insist on "XXX Y ZZZ". Some others leave the middle one optional. Poor VVS Laxman. COnsider him applying in a online form, which has porvision for just 3 parts. But then again, take the example of my friend Vaibhav, whose official name is just that.

Should the sites ensure some rule for the names? Well, just because I happened to learn to write an "int main()" in C, I would say that some rules are needed. It is easy for a person to give a simple name as "zxcv" because that is easy to type. I dont know whether in any culture, a person can have such a name. [If any reader knows such a line, please send comment]. The question is where do the rule makers have to draw the line.

I myself am quite confused about this problem. A better question for the designers will be, "Can i trust the user to enter his/her ACTUAL name?" Difficult Question. But then, a person inclined to write a bogus name will do that, no matter what rule you apply. Even if a form accepts a list of names as legal entries, still some tom, dick or harry will come in and pick up a name randomly from the list. I am of the strong opinion that users must be given the freedom to use their names.

My Google AdSense application was first rejected, because I had gven the name as "Murali P". When I responded to the AdSense team stating the reasons for the name change, (and I changed the last name feild -- i knew the fault is with the code script only and not on the person per se) a Mr. Andrsej responded to me promptly with a reply. I am thankful for the team members response. It at least shows that Google is run by real people and not by some bot. Still, there is nothing that the poor man could have done. Even Google is not at fault, because their design team must have thought of following this rule of first name-last name out of convention. Nothing wrong in that. But then to a user like me, it still is a jolt to hear that my name, the name in which I am known in my official records, is not acceptable in some place.

I hope, some day people will start using the proper names in all forms, and the programmers can start easily assuming that whatever their user enters in the field is going to be correct. But till ten, this will continue.

[I will enter my usual thoughts in true significance of name in some other post.]

an about me

To me, I am not.
But to be I certainly am.
Truely there is certainty,
that to me is to be.

I have absolutely no idea wht tht means. but then to rationally explain all things around me; that is the only trait i dont want to master anyway.

It actualy took me one neural cycle to understands the vastness of the statement. The feeling at that instant was sort of engulping the entire globe and yet be out of it. I was hit by Krishnan and i hit him back. But anyway, wht matters is tht it seems nonsensical, and yet it is completely meaningful. Just like me.

I still can think of existential reality only. The non-existential reality is still a puzzle to me.

Collection of many musings written over time

Converting Heaven to Hell : THe Reservation Issue


Once upon a time there was a village by the name of Utham. People there were good, living a harmonious life. Each man chose his profession and was good at it. Slowly over generations, just because son always wanted to follow the foot steps of father, families became dedicated to one profession or other. Thus castes came into being. This is the story that I have always heard.

So if all were one once, then why should we differentiate one from another.

I think we should go a few years back in the pre-WW2 era. This was a time when eugenics was gaining popularity. People suddenly started to think, the genes had something to it. What they really want to say is "My family is better than yours". Or "I am better than you because I come fron so-and-so family". For ages the human ego had always wanted to say just that. "I am better than you". So what does that have to do with whatever I was talking about. Well, before the idea of eugenics even evolved in the Western mind, we Indians had already given a nice heirarchial mechanism for that by name of casteism. Utham was before our subtle attraction towards eugenics surfaced.

As far as the
--------------------

[will continue when i get time]

The truth in the eyes

Today i saw a gorgeous babe in an ad. I recollected that the same babe was in another ad last week. There was something special about the girl.

So i took the two ads and I checked what is so special about the girl.

She was innocent looking. Neither old to be called a woman, nor young to be called adolescent.
There was something serene about her. A relaxed look. An easy way of staying as the individual.
There was no yearning to show that "I exist". There was no expression that says "Look at me".

(The look-at-me expression is usually assosciated with people who are not in peace with their self.)

Her expression seemed to say " Ok. I am here. So whats the big deal about it? Why are looking at me like this?"

But then there was something else in her. She didnot evoke any sexual feeling. That is out of question. Then I thought; may be, its the serene look of hers. I looked at her and well, she didnot appear to be serene. Then what?

I looked at her eyes. It is said that eyes is the window to the self. What does those eyes say to me?
I looked at her eyes, till I could feel nothing but her eyes looking at me. She was looking at me on that instant. Whatever is in her was for me to see and understand. And shejust looked nervous. It was more of a feeling of, "Look Mr. I am posing for this snap for I-dont-know-how-long. So, just go ahead with it."
Her breath was shallow. "Am I doing this correclty." And then another part says, "This is not the first time I am posing for a photo. SO what's the big deal in it?" "This cushion is soft. I should get something like this for my home too." "Is it what the cameraman wanted me to express?"

---

Every person is a mixture of emotions.
Its a boiling cauldron in which cognitons are dumped; some from one jar, some from another, and others still from yet another.
These cognitons just buzz around from here to there. Some pop up, others just play around in the depths. Just because none have poped up doesnt mean that they dont exist and one is completely peaceful. And just because many are there coming up, doesnt also imply that one is confused.
Its all about seeing through things that are beneath: and shutting eyes from seeing things.
The superficial is so peaceful that it hides the inherent mirage of cognitive particles. The abundance is simplified by our inherent inability to iron out the crusts and troughs. Its our inability to percieve that leads to the ironed out view of simplicity.
As Richard Bach said in Illusions

The Simplest Things are the Most Profound.

---

I am as innocent of all these raptures as a young duckling following its siblings. No thought is wasted on this and that side. Life justs flows its way through me, leaving me unspoken, unseen, unheard, and utterly non-existant.

back in action

At last i have given my qualifying exams. Now i can add tit bits to the blog.

I have to start working on my piece of work soon now.

More importantly i will have to carefully choose my topic so that it forms a part of the big picture.

I, Me, Myself (Its really me.) 

today's quota

The following is the actual text from a message forwarded to me titled

A Letter to the British People from a daughter of Iraq

I'm sending this letter to the British people and in particular to the residents of London. For a period of hours, you have lived through moments of desperate anxiety and horror. In those hours you lost a member of your family or a friend, and we wish to tell you in total honesty that we too grieve when human lives pass away. I cannot tell you how much we hurt when we see desperation and pain on the face of another person. For we have lived through this situation – and continue to live through it every day – since your country and the United States formed an alliance and laid plans to attack Iraq.

The Prime Minister of your country, Tony Blair, said that those who carried out the explosions did so in the name of Islam. The Secretary of State of the United States, Condaleezza Rice, described the bombings as an act of barbarism. The United Nations Security Council met and unanimously condemned the event.

I would like to ask you, the free British people, to allow me to inquire: in whose name was our country blockaded for 12 years? In whose name were our cities bombed using internationally prohibited weapons? In whose name did the British army kill Iraqis and torture them? Was that in your name? Or in the name of religion? Or humanity? Or freedom? Or democracy?

What do you call the killing of more than two million children? What do you call the pollution of the soil and the water with depleted uranium and other lethal substances?

What do you call what happened in the prisons in Iraq – in Abu Ghraib, Camp Bucca and the many other prison camps? What do you call the torture of men, women, and children? What do you call tying bombs to the bodies of prisoners and blowing them apart? What do you call the refinement of methods of torture for use on Iraqi prisoners – such as pulling off limbs, gouging out eyes, putting out cigarettes on their skin, and using cigarette lighters to set fire to the hair on their heads? Does the word "barbaric" adequately describe the behavior of your troops in Iraq?

May we ask why the Security Council did not condemn the massacre in al-Amiriyah and what happened in al-Fallujah, Tal'afar, Sadr City, and an-Najaf? Why does the world watch as our people are killed and tortured and not condemn the crimes being committed against us? Are you human beings and we something less? Do you think that only you can feel pain and we can't? In fact it is we who are most aware of how intense is the pain of the mother who has lost her child, or the father who has lost his family. We know very well how painful it is to lose those you love.

You don't know our martyrs, but we know them. You don't remember them, but we remember them. You don't cry over them, but we cry over them.

Have you heard the name of the little girl Hannan Salih Matrud? Or of the boy Ahmad Jabir Karim? Or Sa'id Shabram?

Yes, our dead have names too. They have faces and stories and memories. There was a time when they were among us, laughing and playing. They had dreams, just as you have. They had a tomorrow awaiting them. But today they sleep among us with no tomorrow on which to wake.

We don't hate the British people or the peoples of the world. This war was imposed upon us, but we are now fighting it in defense of our selves. Because we want to live in our homeland – the free land of Iraq – and to live as we want to live, not as your government or the American government wish.

Let the families of those killed know that responsibility for the Thursday morning London bombings lies with Tony Blair and his policies. Stop your war against our people! Stop the daily killing that your troops commit! End your occupation of our homeland!

Iman al-Saadun, Friday, 8 July 2005

I dont know whether it is really genuine; but the message is conveyed in nice words.

Sudoku in reader's digest

I was browsing through the latest rd and found sudoku in it. There is a slight variation intriduced in the game. Additional contraint was placed for the diagonals as well.

I relearned the lesson that

Question must always be read before answering it, even if you inherently know the wordings that will come in it, lest they decided to change the wordings in the last minute.

Israel Has Started its Doom !!!!

Before I write anything, legal clarification. All the thoughts expressed are personal opinion and need not in reality reflect the ground facts. As for all my writings, Reader Descretion is strictly recommended. I dont have any personal grudges against Jews per se. Neither do I have anything against common Israeli citizen.

Israel is again trying to prove why Hitler was correct for all his Anti-Semitic outbursts. I mean, how else can anyone justify what the Israelis are doing against Palestinians. Come on. Everyone have fought. Every one have bought in bitter terms too. But no one drags meaningless things for years. Especially when a generation has passed. Now is the time when Israel must act in a mature manner and tame Hamas to come to lenient terms. Of course, to gain something, you will have to lose something.

Palestinians deserve the 50 million USD that comprise their genuine earnings. If I collect rent for some fellows home, and I happen to have a fight with him, I dont think I will deny him his rightful money. I will be throwing all the money I must be giving to him on his face . Then a simple dialogue like "if you want to collect your rent, do it yourself" will follow. What Israel is doing now is choking Palestinians. If you push someone, they may back off. If somebody backed off and you assume that its because you are strong and continue to bully, they may still be backing off. But a point will come when everything falls apart.

I am reminded of a Japanese anime that I saw in some TV Channel.(I think its Anime World. Not sure about the name.) In it a small orphan child was shown to be forced to work by his relatives. The child was heavily abused. Then in Nana Patekar model, one fellow came and told the child, "World will not help you for your troubles. If you are in trouble, you have to stand up on your own." The guy gave the kid a sword. "Fortune favors the stronger. It’s up to you to decide whether you are going to act strongly to your bullies or not". Just the few words were enough for the kid to slaughter his relatives when they harassed him next time. The point I am trying to drive is not that all Israelis must be butchered. I am just saying that the Palestinians will retaliate strongly. Retaliation wont be a set of "childish-like" suicide bombs. Psychology says, when nobody takes note of a person when he steals, then he will graduate himself to murder. When nobody takes note of a person when he kills, then he will try to find out more ingenious crimes that he can perpetuate. Hamas is that suffering child. Some wise people told it that it has to stand up on its own. The child took the sword. But then nobody cared. They tried to bully the kid with bigger swords. The child will try to find out more inspiring methods to convey the point now.

One thing, I have not yet understood is why Israel is so much upset about its so-called sovereignty. The fact is that Israel is a petty coin thrown to the Jews like some body throws it to beggars. In the current case, some fellow forcefully took money from one person and threw it as alms to the beggar. Perhaps Einstien denied the chance to become Israel's first leader because his conscience didn't allow him to earn the life from somebody else's alms. Israel never was and the very existence of a place called Israel is against the very tenets of the religion. I really want to see an English-speaking nation to be named as Heaven or Paradise. Forget a nation with that name, I would definitely like to see at least a city with that name. But there is no point in talking in those terms because most of the Israeli leaders know nothing about their religion and tradition like many of the fundamentalist clergy belonging to other religions. The formation of the Jewish nation was the biggest mistake of humanity.

The fact of the matter is that the entire Europe despised Jews. A quick glance through the popular newspapers at the time is enough to convince even a small baby that Europeans considered Jews as scum. The reasons for their hatred were varied. The negative image of Jews was popularised under the regime of Hitler. I dont think popularised is the correct word. The shrewd politician in Hitler understood that this general contempt is the jugular vein of the European people, something that he can hold to gain support. The entire was playing second fiddle to the whims of these dangerous concepts, till the so-called colonial super powers thought that Germany has grown bigger than them. Its a well known fact that everyone were jealous of Germany's development. Hitler used it to show Germans that he is delivering what he has promised. Europeans saw it as the showing off of German muscle. Most of the critics might try to argue that so many things went wrong. But the real achievements can never be hidden. Because of Hitler's open Anti-sematic talks, the buggers in the power centres of Europe found an easy scape goat in Hitler. They soon found out that they can put all the blame on the Nazi regime and get away with anything that they do. Just as the current Bush Administration has put the blame on others.(Please read Paul Krugman's column in "The Hindu" that came on 21-2-'06 titled "The mensch gap")

Statistics speak for themselves regarding the facts of World War 2. As the great Siddhuji said, "Statistics are like mini-skirts, they reveal more than they can hide." Already I have read enough material to seriously doubt the 6 million figure that is supposed to have been perished under Nazi era. And even if the figure were true, that doesnt give the Israelis all the liberty that they enjoy right now.

The images of the dread atom bombs that fell on the two Japanese cities show the real people who suffered in the second world war. Americans, it seems, had developed the habit of using any gap that they can find to show themselves off. Everyone must thank the American administration at that time to convert a simple European war into a world war. If the power centres at that time were so concerned about all the nice things that they profess, then the American base must have vanished from the Japanese soil. The Americans desecrated a mighty old culture, by forcing the Japanese Emperor to disown himself from his Godhood.

Godhood is the wrong term. People in the Eastern cultures know the truth about God. That’s something that very few in the Christian clergy at that time really knew. (Regarding the good and bad things of the Christian culture I will leave it for another day.) Even today, if any country can have a real say about anything that happened in the second world war, it must be Japan. I am still astonished at the despicable conduct of the American military, who dropped the second bomb after knowing what had happened with the first one. I don’t believe in the bullshit that people didn’t know the consequences of dropping an atom bomb.

The support given to Israel by USA is understandable. Unless the entire bunch of pro-Israelis that have infiltrated the US administration are not purged, I don’t think there is going to be any markable progress in the near future regarding the Israeli crisis.

What the good people in Israel must really be thinking right now is how they can solve the entire issue in a matter of 20-25 years. I think that is the amount of time it will need for USA to nose-dive into a powerless nation. The facts and figures from the administration is proof for that. And due to the good things that the Bush family has done to the world, American fall has accelerated. In a span of 30-40 years, Western domination of international political space will vanish. There will be three groups to content with. viz, Indian front, Chinese Front and Latin American Front. It will be as if three upcoming companies have taken over the market share of two heavy weights, who have forgotten the rules of the game. There will be a recycle of "Social values" in the west, with a string tug of war between the fundamentalists and the liberals. America and Europe will succumb to the disease that they spread to other places. There will be coalition Politics running in USA and ll major European Nations. Already the shift is visible in many of the nations. Israel will have to not only think, but feverishly worry, about the question of its existence at that time.

It is high time Israel decide that it has to let Palestine be its neighbour. And provide a corridor between the two pieces of Palestine. A better suggestion will be to say that they cant accept a single country by the name of Palestine, but two countries, Gaza and West Bank. No nation has lasted long if it is being split into two politically active chunks. (The case with USA is because the two parties fought like iguanas.)

But then from the signals emenating from the nation, it seems Israel Has Started its Doom !!!!

TODO Lists

I have to start organising my briwsing habits. reading too many unrelated things.

Have to get TODO notes for my self.

First post

At last i have finally decided to do blogging on my own.