Because just one Malala and just one Kailash aren’t enough

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Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi receiving the Nobel Prize for Peace in Oslo, Norway

“You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us. And the world will live as one.”

Malala Yousafzai and Kailash Satyarthi received the Nobel Peace prize this year in a grand ceremony attended by several dignitaries, held at City Call in Oslo, the capital of Norway. Mr. Satyarthi gave up his job as an electrical engineer to rescue the children from the violence and repression they have to go in their formative years and is recognized for his NGO Bachpan Bachao Andolan that has liberated over 80,000 children from virtual slavery till date. On the other hand, Ms. Malala became a global icon when she was shot and nearly killed by Taliban in October, 2012 for going to school. She however refused to pay heed to their farmaan and stands today as the symbol of child education promoter.

However, it wasn’t a usual day. The day when finely cut Western suits blended with Indian saris and Pakistani salwaar, when the best of Music traditions from East to West filled the Oslo City Hall, witnessed the resonating voices of two Nobel laureates.

One person is the youngest to win Nobel Prize and the other who has carried his selfless mission for over the twice the age of the previous; one person explains to the world the importance of education and the other the symbolism of child protector. The irony being that one from Pakistan and the other from India, the countries which may symbolize the most stringent relation two neighbouring countries could ever have, stand together on probably the most prestigious stage sharing the peace prize calling for the way we must move in future.

When just one week of global military expenditure is enough to bring all children to the classrooms, when children’s requirement are infinitely more modest than an iPad, it indeed calls for an introspection on why is to so easy to command a war and extremely difficult to bring in peace. If building sophisticated tanks are so easy, why is it that building proper schools are so difficult? In the scenario of so many peace summits and terror countering laws, why can’t we achieve a frame when handing over guns to young blood be made so difficult that the only other way could be handing over the books, to fight indeed, over the progress in science and instead to counting the progress in terms of nuclear weapons, the progress be measured in imparting the language of science to the children. Given that violence and oppression is not justified in any religion, the shackles of slavery should never be stronger than the quest for freedom.

The words of Thorbjoern Jagland, chairman of Norwegian Nobel committee, “A young girl and a somewhat older man, one from Pakistan and one from India, one Muslim, the other Hindu; both symbols of what world needs: more unity, fraternity between nations.”, demands that just one Malala and just one Kailash aren’t enough.

Rising to the Horizon

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How many times have you noticed that it’s the little quiet moments in the midst of life that seem to give the rest extra-special meaning?
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Down into a cool evening someday, under the yellowish-red sunset, beside a serene beach, lyrical water touching my feet, I would be at complete peace, proud of my work and my life.

Maybe that one day, I would think of all my regrets only to smile back and say, ‘Only these mistakes made me reach here.’ Maybe that one day, I would feel proud of being honest even though I could have been at the winning side by escaping the truth. Maybe that one day, I would be happiest of sacrificing my only 100 rupees note to an old lady sitting beside a road under the open sky in the thick fog. Maybe that one day, I would be most contented with whatever I have. Maybe that one day, I would not think of losing out so many friends and maybe that one day I would have been through my personal experience of RK in YJHD.

That day, that cool breeze, that warm sand, that orange sky, that untimely moon, that perfect moment, with all satisfaction and contention in me, would be my horizon. What’s yours?

दिवाली के मायने

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दुर्गा पूजा  की छुट्टियाँ खत्म होने क बाद बड़ी ही उत्सुकता से दिवाली का इंतज़ार हुआ करता था. यही कुछ 12-15 दिन होते हैं दोनो के बीच में. पर दिवाली का इंतज़ार साल भार में कुछ ज्यादा हुआ करता था. इसलिए नई कि दिवाली मेरा सबसे पसंदीदा त्योहार था बल्कि इसलिए कि दिवाली की   छुट्टियों के साथ ही मेरे गाँव जाने कि तैयारी शुरु हो जाती थी. कुछ ऐसा ही इंतज़ार जैसा सबको शायद गर्मी छुट्टियों का हुआ करता है और कुछ ऐसी ही उत्सुकता जैसी सबको गर्मी कि छुट्टियों में आपने दादी या नानी घर जाने की होती है. शायद इसलिए की पूरे साल भर में यही ऐसा वक्त होता था जिसमें मै अपने भाइयों और छोटी बेह्नो, चाचा- चाची, दादी और कै और लोगों को मिला करता हूँ. मेरे लिए दिवाली कभी पठाकों वाली दिवाली नई हुआ करती थी और ना आज है. कुछ इस वजह से कि घर में बाबूजी को पठाकें जलाने का कोई शौक नई हुआ करता था और किसी बड़े के ना जलाने से मुझे भी जलाने का  कभी  कोई जोश नई चढ़ा और कुछ इस वजह से की मैं थोड़ा डरता भी हूँ उनकी रस्सियों को मोमबत्ती से जलाने के वक्त कहीं रस्सी झट से ना जाल जाएँ और पठाकें मेरे भागने के पहले वहीं फट जाए. खैर वजह जो भी हो, दिवाली कि उत्सुकता मुझे दूसरों की बाल्कनियों पर लगे हुए चाइनीज बल्ब देखने कि होती थी और ये देखने कि कौन आज भी दीयों से ही घर सजता है. किसके दीए इतनी हवा में भी रोशन कर रहें हैं. फिर हम भी लग जाते थे अपनी कलाकारी दिखाने में. ऐसे की जैसे दीवाली बस इतनी ही भर हैं. खाने पीने से तो उस वक़्त मतलब ही नई होता था. बस धुन सवार होती थी दियों को जलाने की और उन्हें ना बुझने देने की. खुशी मिलती थी दियों की दीपावली से.

 

बातों-बातों में ये बताना ही भूल गया की हम दीवाली पर घर कभी-कभी ही जाया करते थे. घर जाने का कार्यक्रम तो छठ में बनता था. यह एक कार्यक्रम ऐसा होता था जिसे कोई टाल नई सकता था. छठ हमारे घर का सबसे इंपॉर्टेंट त्योहार है. गाँव का वातावरण ही अलग सा होता था. पूरा टोला एक सा लगता था. और एक सी होती थी पूजा की तैयारी. घाट बनाना, राशन के सामान लाना, सूप सजाना, खेत दौर-दौर कर ज़रूरी सामान इकहट्टा करना और बाक़ायदा घाट को रंग बिरंगी काग़ज़ों से घेरना ताकि अगल-बगल वालों में से कोई ये ना कह सके की उनकी घाट सबसे अच्छी दिखती है. कुछ अलग सा महसूस होता है उन दिनों. बातें तो बहुत सी है करने को पर शायद ही किसी को इंटेरेस्ट हो मेरी बातें सुन ने में.

 

सो पते की बात सिर्फ़ इतनी सी है कि आज और कल में हम सिर्फ़ बड़े हो गयें हैं, पर मायने आज भी हम वही ढूँढते हैं. और अगर किसी ने गौर किया होगा तो महसूस किया होगा की हम कभी भी त्योहार मनाने की वजह की वजह से उतने प्रभावित नई होते हैं जितना उन्हें किसी और वजह से ज़ोरकर. मसलन मेरा गाँव जाना और वहाँ की दुनियाँ में कुछ खो सा जाना.

Blog’s First Milestone

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“Not a wasted word. This has been a main point to my literary thinking all my life.”

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It has been just over two months since this blog came into existence. Staying by the belief that it’s the story that defines you more than anything else ever written, the blog has been receiving a heart warming response from the reader’s community. Thank You all for stopping by the articles and pictures.

Keep visiting the blog for further posts.

Here are some of the most viewed posts:

Facebook Secret Experiment : A Different Take on The Outcry

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facebookWe wanted to see if we could make you feel happy without you noticing. We succeeded. We wanted to see if we could make you feel sad without you noticing. We succeeded again. Hypothesis proved !

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For one week in January 2012, the data scientists working for the social network customized the mysterious algorithm to meddle with the news feed that appears on user’s screen as soon he/she hits the website. All this was done quite secretly as a part of an experiment providing evidence of massive-scale emotional contagion through social networks.

The experiment was conducted by a team of three people, Adam D. Kramer from Core Data Science Team, Facebook and Janie Guillory and Jaffrey Handcock from Cornell University over a half a million, 689,003 to be more precise, subjects (users). The experiment manipulated the extent to which people were exposed to emotional expressions in their news feed without making them aware about the changes and the researchers came out with a conclusion that emotional states can be transferred to others via emotional contagion, leading people to experience the same emotions without their awareness.

Now, a great deal has been said about this psychology experiment in past one week over news journals, interviews and emails – what was the experiment, how did they do it, what were the conclusions, was the experiment ethical, couldn’t the experiment been done other way etcetera etcetera. But I am taking a different turn over the matter, take a little step back when the experiment might have in the stage of final approval and would like to dig into the motive behind the experiment – the why question instead of what, how, who and when inquiries over the matter.

Having been a student of psychology for a semester (yeah, it was an elective course), this outcry made me look into the mayhem behind it as it involved few terms like ‘emotion’, ‘psychology experiment’, ‘state of mind’ and instead of coming up to either of the side, because neither am I a data scientist nor am I legal advisor, I choose a different way to look at the things.

The very first thing that pinched me that Facebook isn’t a psychology department in a university, thenGE  why ‘Emotional Contagion’? The  networking giant wanted to know whether a  picture of your friend posing with a  beautiful actress makes you jealous or  happier (humanity still exists!) or the album  of birthday jubilation triggers the fear of  missing out (famous as F.O.M.O.)! And  they wanted to know which of these actually happens and when and how often. However the bottom-line must have been the research to check whether the emotions spread and study the parameters associated with the expansion of emotions. But why? After all, Facebook is a business and whatever it does, it does it benefit Facebook. I am reminded of a line which a read somewhere on the internet in this context, When GE or Boeing does research, we learn more about flight. When Facebook does research, they learn more about Facebook.  They just don’t do these experiments out of academic interest, but they do it for money (make a product better for its customers, doesn’t it mean the same?).

A huge outcry have happened not on the experiment idea but the way it was conducted, without the consent of people. Really? I, and all of you have agreed to the terms of service to Facebook’s Data Use Policy, isn’t it? Yes, it is a pure fiction that a person rarely agrees with a policy such as this, yet we use this fiction all the time.  However, the experiments is rationally legal as what have been said in the paper, published in the prestigious Proceedings of National Academy of Science, is based on competent approval. There has been several studies on Facebook data, but this was different, this one set out to manipulate the data. This story has put two conceptions of consent into stark contrast, the informed consent that is required in academic research and the weak consent that is implied whenever user agrees to the Terms of Service.

Question mark facebookIn the world of business, the FB method was very common one but given that they used academic forum for publishing their research, shouldn’t have they adopted a stringent consent measures?

The experiment if looked at with a business purpose (so what do you think the reason FB might have for the research?), opens up a new dimension of possible advertising opportunities. If a company can make people associate with their happiness, people will line up to buy the happiness. Perhaps it could design a new News Feed that shows us positive posts from our friends in order to makes us happy and encourage us to spend more time on the site!

But the bottom level remains that the moves like these keep on pushing boundaries, and this is one of the reasons people are upset. People will complain for this a while but this mayhem will gradually fade out, and Facebook will still have a billion users and certainly it have a new way to make more money after the experiment.

References and further readings:

IIT Patna’s Winning Edge

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Indian Institute of Technology, Patna, the modern IIT, is one of the very few institutes in the country to offer a course on Entrepreneurship and Innovation. The course is taught by the visiting faculties from renowned universities covering the topics on Accounting and Finance, Sales and Marketing, Business Plan Project, Consumer Behaviour and much more. This is the course of its kind among the IITs which saw unprecedented popularity among the students.

The institute has an Entrepreneurship Club and Innovation Centre with the vision of creating a gelling point for aspiring entrepreneurs at the institute. The club coordinates activities at IIT Patna that prepare its students to undertake the journey from the genesis of an idea to its successful business implementation. The range of activities includes organizing lectures and workshops on business topics, inviting successful entrepreneurs and industry leaders for talks and organizing intra-college activities to promote the spirit of

entrepreneurship amongst the IITP community. Some of the famous speakers who illumined the student community of IIT Patna are Mr.Ajai Chowdhry,Co-founder HCL ; Mr. Arjun Malhotra, Co-Founder HCL; Ms. Padmaja Ruparel, Founder President, Indian Angel Network; Dr.Harish Hande,Co-founder SELCO and Ramon Magsaysay Awardee and Mr. Manish Kumar, Co-founder, Farms n Farmers.

Moreover, trending IIMs in learning through “late night sessions” and inspired by its rationale, the

IIT Patna Late Night Lecture Series

IIT Patna Late Night Lecture Series

club organizes “bring your own coffee late night lectures” which witness huge participation from the student fraternity.

The club also introduced management events this year in Anwesha, the annual techno-cultural extravaganza of IIT Patna which reached out to over 150 colleges all over India through the competitions like Stock Mart, virtual stock exchange ; Vendre (Marketing challenge) and Six thinking Hats(Case study challenge).

The students of IIT Patna also enjoy the benefits of the course – Entrepreneurship and Innovation as an elective in their academic curriculum. The course , currently being offered to students of third year (for all Engineering branches) holds much importance in the coming years. IIT Patna is one of the very few institutes in the country to incorporate the course in the academic curriculum. Students believe they are a step ahead of others as the course is cementing the confidence in their dreams to transform a potential idea into a start-up and eventually into a company.

Owing to the modern state-of-art infrastructure, labs, technological equipment, new trends coming up since the inception of the institute, the students love to call themselves studying in a modern IIT. IIT Patna has provided students with opportunities to be a part of new trends and events that 10-15 years down the time lane will be on the forefront of every person’s mind. From first year itself, the institute provides a plenty of opportunities to develop the personal skills and promotes to take up the challenges to better the institution that we live by. And these all when consolidated together with the zeal and zest to progress incessantly creates an environment which is the best part of IIT Patna.

The Cursed Blessing of Being Good at Writing

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It can take the same amount of struggle to reach your goals, regardless of whether you start as a “good” writer or not. I hear the teachers at my children’s schools talk to kids about the importance of revision, and realize how much more sophisticated they are about the writing process than some of the teachers I had as a child.

Nerdy Book Club

Stories thrive on reversals. You get your heart’s desire, only it turns out to be the worst thing that could happen to you. Or, it looks like all is lost, but then somehow you save the day.

One of my favorite examples of the narrative power of reversal is found in a very simple story from China called “The Lost Horse.” I encountered it through storyteller Joel ben Izzy, who wrote a fantastic book called The Beggar King and the Secret of Happiness. In “The Lost Horse,” a wise man goes through a series of reversals of fortune. Whether the change is favorable or not, his response is always the same: What seems like a blessing could be a curse. What seems like a curse could be a blessing.

I remember this story so well because—after a great deal of misery and self-flagellation—I recognize it as the story of my…

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