Atmanah Pratikulani Paresham na Samacharet: The Ultimate Downfall

Atmanah pratikulani paresham na samacharet (Mahabharata 5.15.17) is a very famous conclusive sentence of the Mahabharata, which is supposed to be the essence of the canon of dharma or virtue: What is not good for me cannot be meted out by me to others. What is not good for me would not be good for others also, because others are like me in every respect.

There is a very important factor that we miss in our attitude towards other people, and it is that subconsciously, or even unconsciously, we are apt to feel that we are superior to other people. Logically and philosophically, we may not be able to argue this because it is an absurd feeling. But not all feelings are logical. Many of them are illogical, and they would not stand reason or ratiocinative investigation. The essence of feeling is illogicality; sometimes it is super-logicality, but it is not logical because it will supersede all logic, and put down all logic by a kick which is more forceful than our understanding. This feeling creeps into us in many ways: “I am, somehow or other, more important than other people.” We cannot openly say this or openly declare this, or even openly justify it in any way; nevertheless, we can feel it privately and put on an attitude which is in consonance with this illogical feeling.

And this is what leads to the downfall; not of just one man but of an entire civilization breeding men who think this way. Our present society is full of such people, which unfortunately include me too, who believe, for some unknown non existent reason, that they are ahead of others in the society or are superior.

This led to the downfall in Mahabharata and will lead to the downfall of the present society as well.

The vacations of 2013

With only one more day to go before my summer vacations come to an end, I thought it would be good if I write down the things that I did in these summer vacations.
Of all the vacations that have taken place till date this was the most productive I believe.
Did quite a few things and yet I am feeling that these vacations were a waste.

• Edited and developed many books for various publishers. 
• Helped create a couple of  functional websites (www.connectingdu.in and www.shop4du.in).
• Still creating one more for myself and my students.
• Learned a lot of Python Programming and tried to (ya let me make it right I TRIED TO but DIDN'T SUCCEED) teach my students the fun of python.
• Performed various experiments which are still underway to develop some new products. (3 in all)
• Developed worksheets and other plans to make my teaching as interesting as possible.
• Studied for my BEd final examinations. etc. etc 

And yet I feel I have not really done anything. I hope to  do much more than what I did.
This strange feeling within needs to calm down. I hope I will be able to calm it down.

The day I became a HOUSE WIFE !!!

For a long time I had maintained that being a house wife is no simple job. It is the most difficult and thankless job in the world. And then I got the chance to experience it first hand.

Last night my mom called me and told me she was not well. She was running fever and had severe body ache. I gave her medicines and then went back to my room.
Today morning when I woke up at 06:00 am I realised that my mom has not come downstairs which meant that she was not well.
So I decided to experience how it feels like doing the house hold chores all by yourself.

I first filled up our over head tank with the supply water. Then went into the kitchen to see that the sink had a lot of utensils waiting to be cleaned. So I decided to clean them myself. This is something I have never done at home. It was actually fun to do so. But I seriously got tired.

Then I swept the floor with a broom and then mopped it. In the mean time my brother woke up and I sent him upstairs to clean the rooms.

Downstairs I filled up the filter with water and the bottles with filtered water and placed them in the fridge. Then found clothes waiting to be washed. So filled water in the washing machine and washed the clothes.

In the mean time my mother came downstairs and went straight to the kitchen as my dad and uncle were to go to office and breakfast was to be made for them.

So I and my brother decided to make it. I cut the potatoes and tomatoes and my brother cooked a simple potato dish. Then came the real challenge. Cooking chapattis. Neither of us had ever done it before. The dough was already prepared so my brother started to make the chapattis and I baked them. Well not a single became circular in nature but we enjoyed making them. 

Then I gave breakfast to all and eventually brother went upstairs.

Now mom asked about the lunch and I decided to make it myself.

So here I was who had never really cooked any food and I was determined to make it this time.
First I made the easiest of them all. DAAL.
Then the next easy stuff, RICE.
Then I baked PAPADs. In fact I burned them. Out of the five I baked four caught fire at various places and some were reduced to ash at places which I had to separate to make the rest edible.
Finally the toughest of them all. FISH CURRY.
Of course I couldn't have made them without my mom's guidance. She told me exactly what to do and I went about doing it. The potatoes were sliced in such shapes that amoeba would be put to shame. The sequence of components that was supposed to go into making the curry went horribly wrong. I was to put the potatoes first and then the spices and I did exactly the opposite which my mom figured out sitting at a distance of over 20 ft and that too without seeing. She just smelt it. Anyways the final outcome was , EATABLE. But now I know if ever I am abandoned by my mom and wife, I would not die eating maggi (that was the only thing I could make till today).

Over all the day was fun filled and exhausting. The dinner is being made by my mom as she says she is better now and doesn't want me to mess up the entire kitchen again.

A few minutes back I went to the kitchen only to hear my mom grumble about the misplaced spices and mustard oil in the jar meant for refined oil. (In the morning I filled up the jar without noticing that it contained some refined oil. Probably thats why the daal had a strange smell which everyone felt but no one complained about).

A few things I know now.
1. I can challenge any god damned MAN to become a house wife for a couple of days before saying that being a house wife is an easy job. Trust me fellas, it is not easy at all.

2. I can cook. Atleast enough to survive.

3. Congratulations to my wife; I can cook atleast  a couple of things. !!!

4. I had a great learning experience.

My Brush with death --- Part 1

Well in this series I will tell you some real life incidents that happened with me when I had a brush with death; and I lived to tell the story.
This thing happened when I was around 10 years old.
My village is situated in south 24 parganas, West Bengal. Its nearest railway station is Champahati at a distance of 16 kms and Sonarpur at around 20 kms. The two mode of transports are Autos and occasional busses.
That day I was going to Kolkata with my dad, mom, uncle, aunty, pishi(bua) and a couple of other people who I have forgotten. We were supposed to catch a local train to Kolkata from Sonarpur station. The Sonarpur railway station has a unique location. The platforms can be accessed from the roads that approach the station and the roads open into two markets on the opposite sides. Sonarpur is one of the busiest local junctions and hence sees dozens of trains crossing every hour.
As we got down from the bus we saw a number of vehicles ahead of us. The railway crossing gates were closed which meant a train was approaching. We decided to cross on foot so as not to get late. As we meandered through the traffic we came across the crossing which was closed by a metallic boom barrier. My uncle went ahead and crossed over on to the rail lines and looked at both sides. There was no train visible, though we knew one was approaching. Then my dad, bua ji  crossed. Then I holding my mom's hands started to cross.
If you ever cross a railway crossing you will find that instead of one pair of track there are actually two with one supporting track within 5-10 cm of the main tracks. These are supporting tracks. As I was crossing somehow my left leg slipped into the gap between the main track and the supporting track. I stopped and tried to pull my leg out but couldn't. I tried to pull it, slip it and even tried to open up my shoe inside but to no avail. It was stuck and so was I.
My relatives came back and frantically tried to pull out my leg. Just then I heard the roar of death. As luck would have it the train was coming on the same track on which I was trapped. It must have been around 200 meters or so when we all spotted it. My dad, uncle and a few other people who were watching us ran towards the train. While my mom and bua and aunty stayed back to try and pull my leg out. The problem was that my body's orientation was such that even if I wanted to sacrifice a leg and save my self, I couldn't. I was stuck bang in the middle of the track.
My dad, uncle and other people who ran towards the train could make the train brake. I could hear the screeching sound of the brakes but I was not sure it would stop before it ran over me. My dad, uncle and other people were standing near the track as the train sped by them and hurtled towards me. My bua ji pulled my mom away and my aunty stood nearby, everyone crying and me, at that age, ice cold due to fear.
That I am telling you the story means that I survived. The train stopped around 3-5 meters from me. And the moment it stopped people converged at me. And strangely I was able to pull out my leg as smoothly as it went inside.
I stood there for sometime before my parents whisked me away.

That was the first time I came so close to death.
Today as I reflect back I feel blessed that I was saved.
 

The Incident that changed my life: Forever

Trust can be a very dangerous word. Specially when your life and career depends on it. This one incident literally altered my life once and for ever. I have always wanted to become an astrophysicist or an astronomer. I still have a Newtonian Telescope but it is lying almost useless. But back in those days I was so enthusiastic that I spent every penny in my pocket (and also took help from Akshay bhaiya) to bu a telescope.
My BSc hons. Physics was nearing the end and I was preparing to get into Delhi University. I have never been a conventionally good student as far as scoring marks is concerned. My BSc marks stood at 59% and I knew that to enter DU I need to clear my entrance exam for MSc.
The entrance exam went ok and I was disappointed at my performance, yet had a bleak possibility. I diverted my attention to Jamia university.
What happened was that my Jamia results were out much before the DU results and I cleared the Jamia entrance. So I was running around to get my admission process done. But I was faced with a strange problem. I had submitted my second year marksheet to DU for revision of marks. And they had not given me my marksheet back. Jamia was insisting on it. So I was kinda stuck. During the same time the results of DU were also declared.
I asked my two friends Vishesh and Ram (both names changed) to go and check my result of DU entrance. Till I die I will rue that one decision. Why I asked them to go???
They came back and told me that my rank was nearly 470 and being a general candidate I had no chance to get into MSc at DU. So I concentrated on my admission to Jamia. My dream to be an astronomer got a severe jolt.
Anyways, I got admission at Jamia and started to attend classes. Nearly a month later another guy started to attend classes at Jamia and that guy happened to be my senior at Deshbandhu college where I studied. The moment he saw me there he asked me, "why are you here? didn't you take admission in DU?" I told him that my rank was so poor that I couldn't have got admission. He amazingly told me, "You got a rank of nearly 24 in DU and you say that you had no chance?"
I was flummoxed. i decided to check. I went to DU Department of Physics and asked them about the process of admission which was over by more than a week. There they showed me, on a lot of insistence, my rank. Shubham Chakraborty S/o Gautam Chakraborty, GEN, Male, 24(Rank).
I couldn't believe my luck, my stupidity and my friend's betrayal.
I went back home and couldn't eat for quite some days. I went into severe depression. I was angry and upset. More on myself than anyone else. Just because Vishesh and Ram couldn't get admission to DU they didn't want my admission too. I simply asked them once about this and they couldn't talk to me ever again.
But my chance of being an astronomer was gone.
It totally changed my life and its course.

Raggging: My First day in College

I can never forget the first day in college .... Deshbandhu College ......
I had heard about ragging and was pretty scared ....
I reached college pretty early, around 08:00 am and found a few guys standing, roaming and chatting. The guard stood at the main gate and I showed him my payment slip (I-cards were not issued till the end of october). As I strolled inside I was expecting to be caught by seniors any moment and was mentally preparing myself. But instead another guy came up to me and asked me, "1st Year" ? I nodded. With a smile of relief on his face he introduced himself, "Hi I am Vivek. 1st year BSc Physics Honors". I was thrilled as I was also enrolled in the same course. Now I was a bit at ease and talked to him about why I enrolled and other stuff. Then we came across another guy who introduced himself as "Vijay" and amazingly from our course only. We caught hold of Vijay near the Physics faculty room. (Me and Vivek are still good friends. I am not sure what is Vijay doing. Hadn't heard of him after 2004).
Now we were three "freshers" who were simply waiting to be ragged. Well that didn't happen though we could see that many "freshers" were holed up with seniors around them and some were dancing and singing while one was converted into a statue. And then there was a kid who was standing slightly bent was with his right palm rounded around an invisible object near his lower abdomen was pushing his hand back and forth and shouting, "Billi mera saara doodh pi gayi .." ("The cat has drank all the my milk .."). The seniors were having a laugh while it took me some time to figure out what exactly was that guy being made to do. We fled the scene. As we moved through the door of the admin block we came out into a small stretch with walls on both sides and it opened into a stretch with garden on both sides. The walls were used to put on marks list and time table etc. We three saw a crowd there and we assumed that they must be noting down the time table. We also went there and started searching for our time table. And in a few minutes we found ours. As I started to dictate Vivek started to note it down. And then we saw a guy emerge out of the main gate and what he said sent chiills down our spines. He said, "Hey guys lets go the freshers have started to pour in. Let us get hold of some and have fun.." All guys around us cheered. We three were standing right inside a huge crowd of seniors who for some reason didn't figure out that we three were freshers. We looked at each other and went out with the seniors. We reached the college gate and went out. With a huge sigh of relief we went straight to the bus stop to catch a bus.
Then something hit me. "This was not god. I mean come on we are freshers and we have not been ragged. This is so unlike the stories we have heard and .... no lets go back", I said.
Vivek gave it a thought and concurred. Vijay too came along and we headed right back into the college. This time though  we were not that lucky. We were immediately caught by a bunch of seniors. They took us to the huge space in front of our library. Many many seniors were there.
I was asked to introduce myself, purely in hindi. Well that was tricky.
"Mere naam Shubham Chakraborty hai. Main Zilla Ghaziabad ka rehne wala hoon aur yahan par ....."
I stopped. I had no idea what "BACHELOR OF SCIENCE " was called in hindi. So I translated word to word. "Main yahan Bhautik Shastra (Physics) me Kunwara (Bachelor) hone aaya hoon"..... Well this Bachelor (Kuwanra) means un-married. All seniors burst out into laughter as I was left embarrassed. 
But this was just the beginning.
Vijay was asked to become a Peacock and fly around the campus and he was doing exactly that. I saw Vivek doing Bharatnatyam in front of the Library.
I was asked to stand on a concrete slab around 3 ft high and I was asked to shout " meri biwi bhaag gayi hai, mujhe Deshbandhu me biwi dilao" (My wife has run away, get me a wife at Deshbandhu). I shouted 10 to 12 times.
Suddenly I felt someone clutching my legs. As I looked down I saw Vivek holding me leg and saying,"Swami mujhe sweekar kijiye " (Dear Lord please accept me as your wife).
Then we two were taken to the open area near the library where one of the seniors became a pandit and rest all family members and married me to Vivek.
That was hilarious.
Then me, Vivek and Vijay (who had by them completed a couple of rounds of college) were lined up and asked to behave like chickens. So we hopped and skipped and said, "kukroo koo" ..... and went till the main college entrance. There the seniors clapped for us and told us that it was over for us. They sent out a diktat that no one else was supposed to rag us again. We were given a copy of syllabus and time table etc.
Thus our introduction to college was really something which atleast I will never forget.

Disillusioned

The other day I was reading somewhere that India's literacy rates has gone up a couple of notches in the last few years. But then is it really so? Is just being able to read and write alphabets and a few sentences makes you literate? Recently i came across a guy from Darbhanga, Bihar who has done his graduation and was pursuing his BEd. This guy has never ever seen a computer let alone use it. He was totally baffled as he was supposed to make a project on Information and Communication Technology.
I was flabbergasted. How is it possible that a guy in this era who has completed his graduation has never really touched a computer let alone use it?
But I believe this is the situation in our country. And somehow for obvious reasons our rotting education system has got stuck or rather become regressive.
CBSE is the best example of this situation. In order to pass every tom dick and harry we are creating an entire generation of degree holders who know nothing and will eventually become useless when it comes to job market.
This years CBSE results have shown that class 10 students are scoring perfect 10s in huge numbers. Have these students suddenly become intelligent or are we faking it all? It is anybody's guess.
And  then we have our professional colleges which are production houses of engineers and MBAs. Again let me emphasize that our country's vast population actually needs more professional colleges but the problem is not the number but the quality.
A BTech passout gets a job of teaching in the same college immediately after his course. Now how much does a BTech passout would know to teach the students? Anybody's guess. And then when he teaches and creates other engineers they are bound to be substandard. So it creates a viscious cycle.
In one of the colleges where I have taught, the college didnot have an Electrical Engineering Lab and another one didnot have a Workshop fo First year students. Now engineering is supposed to be a Practical field where Labs and Workshops are very important and when students don't know anything about workshops and machines what type of engineers will they be.
I happened to be an "external" examiner for the students of my college's third year students and I went to take their electrical engineering lab viva. I was appalled to see that our future engineers could not differentiate between a resistor, diode and pico-farad capacitor.
Now that is engineering for us.

Anyways!!!

There was a time when we were school students and every new knowledge material that was thrown at us we used to grab them with both hands.
Today things have changed. On one hand the boards have decided to make our students handicapped by reducing the syllabus and have removed pressure so that they may become more prone to suicidal tendencies when faced with the real life challenges. An entire generation of students are coming out who are nothing more than paper tigers.
Well that is an entirely different matter altogether.
Here the problem is very different. I have been trying hard to make my students understand the need to do basic computer science but they won't listen. I have supplied them with materials. Taught them personally in a couple of classes. Tried to emphasize with them the need to start early. Spent money, time and energy from my side to be able to teach them a programming language. Unfortunately not many of them seem to be interested. They are more interested in IIT coaching rather than learning a humble programming language. Seems the rat race to entrance exams has killed the curiosity inherent in students.
As I see students moving up the ladder in school they get to focus more on entrance exams rather than their hobbies, and passion and  knowledge. Anything that doesn't help in getting into entrance exams is no good and they are not interested.
When I was a lecturer of Physics at Engineering Colleges I was disillusioned by the approach of going-to-be- Engineers towards the grand daddy of engineering--- Physics. I was so disappointed that finally I left college and came into schools where students, I believed, are more interested and curious to know and understand the world around them. Not that they are not, but only till they reach class 9. As students reach 9th class suddenly there is a transformation and students become less curious and more focussed on IITs.
Not that I am against IIT. but that is definitely not the beginning and end of the world. There is the entire universe beyond that. Unfortunately a combination of Parental pressure, Peer Pressure, School Pressure and Stupidity has made this entire generation into rats. And the problem with a rat race is that even if you win you are still a rat only.
Somehow I am slowly believing that IITs are responsible for the death of curiosity in students regarding innovativeness and curiosity and knowledge.
Anyways it pains to see that my entire energy, money, time and efforts to make my students really computer savvy has met with a stone wall. And this stone wall is my student's will not to learn anything that doesn't serve the purpose on their way to IIT.
Anyways, i will continue...

Projectile Motion

I had been pushing my class 11th students to do something worthwhile with Physics. In this quest I had asked them to learn Python Programming language and apply it to the projectile motion and plot it. To show them that it is possible I decided to make a real time plot myself and upload it for them. So here it is.

I hope my students share the same passion as I have about learning new programming languages.

Problem to my students of Class 11

Well I recently gave a problem to my class 11 students which was interdisciplinary in nature.
They are supposed to plot the projectile's trajectory using Python programming language. Just to show them and myself that it is very easily do able I am uploading here the plot that I have programmed out. The plot they create should be similar though not exactly the same.

For a planet who mass = 6 x 10^24 kg and radius = 6400 km with an initial velocity = 200 m/s and an angle of 30 degrees, the plot should look like this.

 

I hope my students will be able to solve it too.