Kota Chronicles: The leaky piston

It was a usual chemistry class. Amay Pandey Sir was in his usual intellect and charm. I was in my usual meditative focus I had cultivated in those IIT days. Class was usual, filled with many friends and a few competitors. I was sitting in the second row, the optimum for Amay Sir's style of presentation: not getting too overwhelmed by his aura, nor being out of his sight. Then came the challenge. It was a piston-cylinder system which was leaking. It was being heated as well. The piston would go up or down? He framed the question twice. That was it. It seemed to be a normal trivia. But, it was not. I realized it when the answer eluded me and carried me deeper into my thoughts. I would not let it go either. I took up the challenge and put the problem in the category of 'constant contemplation' problem. These problems would be very tough only my subconscious mind in partnership with some higher intelligence could solve it. I went everywhere with my new friend: the leaky piston.
It was there with me on the cycle. My maximum attention on the problem, I only cared about not being hit by the vehicles. In the room, in the washroom, the mess, everywhere I went I argued with, coaxed and threatened the leaky piston. It was not yielding. Then, voila! in a flash it was there, it would go up. I rechecked my logic. I played it in my mind. It would go up! Was is it a special problem, sir did not suggest it to be so. But, it took all my thoughts to arrive at the solution. It must be special.
The next Amay Sir's class was here. I took my seat, felt a turn in my stomach and a bit of temperature. Did he remember the problem he asked in the previous class? Will he ask for the answer. Yes he did: "Soocha kisine?". There was a silence. There were all these geniuses in the class, they had not got the answer? I took a deep breath. Should I divulge my answer or will it be too outrageous, out of norm. I think it is best to keep quite. "Kisine nahi soocha?" he repeated. I thought he expects to hear the answer from someone. I had to tell: "It would go up". There was silence. He looked in my direction. "It would go up," I repeated. He winced and then grinned. "Senior se puch liya kya?" he questioned quiet surprised. I said I thought it out and explained it in short. "Badhiya yaar pehle kabhi koi nahi bataya iska answer", he said and gave that charming smile with dimples. I was pleasantly relieved but behaved as if everything was normal. But, I was excited to my bones and shivered a bit. He winced and smiled again, turned around and continued with his usual intellect and charm. 

Kota Chronicles: Failure is the stepping stone to success

Well we have heard this so many times: take lessons from your failures and make them a stepping stone to success. And this happens in the lives of most people who have achieved something worthwhile in their lives. This is what happened to me as well while in Kota. Not remaining with crowd had many advantages and disadvantages in my life. At one time what seems as a disadvantage turns into advantage at other point in life. So, the 10th boards were over, me and bhaiya were going to Kota. I had already filled up the form of Bansal classes. I had not filled up the form of any other coaching institute. I heard that my other classmates were already there in Kota finding materials to prepare for the entrance exams of the coaching institutes. I was not really inclined to join them. I always remained sort of independent bird. The exams came and I thought I had done fine but Bansals thought otherwise. I was not selected but all my other friends were, I think 7 of them. It was a set back. But, something incredible happened after that setback. After that failure I would enter into a regimen that would cruise me through to IIT-JEE. I took stock of myself and started preparing for te second phase of entrance with full decisiveness.

I did a few things that mark the method for success in any field in this world.
1. I found a mentor: I would call it a divine arrangement that I met Shivam in the same flat that I was living in, Few things had influenced me as much before than he did. He was ranked 3 in the Bansal entrance test and a formidable candidate for top 100 rank at IIT-JEE two years later. His way of thinking for solutions to problems astonished and educated me. Problems that I would fret with for 2 hours, he would solve in just two minutes. My brain grew trying to grapple with Shivam's intellectual level. He was intelligent, helpful and humble. The very combination that I wanted to be myself.

2. I found the right materials: It was also incidental. I already had a NTSE book of TMH. But when I went to the book shop I found a NTSE book of MacMillan. I flipped through it and found some questions similar to those of Bansal entrance exam. Although I am always very cautious at spending money, I ventured and purchased that book. And well, it was the exact material that I need for the entrance tests. For the next one month I poured over the book and solved every part of it cold.

3. I worked hard: If that failure had not happened to me, I would have never taken the decision to work that hard. I studied almost the whole day at the same time maintaining my mental sharpness by light exercises. I could get a sensation that I was making mighty intellectual leaps.

As it happened I cleared Bansal, Resonance with Scholarship and Delhi with Scholarship. It was all happiness and I chose Resonance as it provided scholarship.

Can hurt people's feelings but not people

The intolerance debate is boiling hot and there is a subtle thing we are all missing. There is a group of people who hurt the sentiments of others and when others protest they are labelled intolerant. They are labelled intolerant because the form of the protest is different from the harm caused. Harm is caused to the sentiments while the protest is physical. Yes it is the fault of those who protest physically for they do not have the education to reply in terse logic. Yes it their fault to not have the popularity to garner public supports. They are afterall unwanted barbarians uninitiated to educated criticism. If they can't reply with words they should better tolerate and live humiliated. When their beliefs are questioned and disgraced they should tolerate for they are not articulate enough. 

Passionate Childhood days

From the childhood days,
Machines were my plays,

Cities of high rise and helicopters,
Guns, missiles and robots, I played with them all.

I never compromised on thinking deep,
Even when my score cards would weep.

I remember I failed in Math before the boards,
But never gave up understanding the matter deeply.
I fretted and fumed to make sense of things,
In two months I improved mighty steeply.

I was never attracted to marks or fame,
But the sheer joy of knowing would give me a gush I couldn't tame.

Yes, what fun it was to teach,
Concepts they never would understand how deep.

And fun it was to play,
Before school, in recess and at the end of the school day.

Hey, that was a magnetic typewriter that I designed,
And the multiple tube experiment that I designed.

Zeroing on the definition of gravity in class 9,
And threadbare understanding of buoyancy was mighty fine.

Teachers were god for me,
But disagreement was my norm.

I asked CP sir about the area of a rectangle,
And yes I stumbled upon integrals.

Oh what fun was poetry and prose,
With Brutus' dialogues, my hairs rose.

'Miles to go before I sleep'
'And toiling upwards in the night',
Great lines were always in my sight.

It was all music fin and play,
There was no pressure to perform.
I am a normal guy after-all,
Never one of the upper crest,
I can thus follow my heart,
Without becoming another rat.

Oh what satisfaction integrity, sincerity, dedication and hard-work would bring,
Who cares if success comes my way,
But success did come b'coz that is its mechanism.

Remember the debates with Renu M'am,
And the quote I wrote in my class that time
"I never let my school interfere with my education"

Following the mainstream, I never did,
No matter what was my career speed.

I was ready to fail in subjects,
But not let them go without having understood them.
Acting, dancing, sports, music, debates, I loved to try it all.

Oh and all those good friends of mine,
Arpit, Sumit, Umashankar and Mayank.

To chase or not to chase

To chase or not to chase my cherished goal madly is the question that I am faced with right now. I know very well that if I chase my goal with full deliberation, I am sure to achieve it. I have done it before and I can do it again. But the big questions that I face is was that chase worth it? Well herein I want to say to myself that the chase was indeed worth it and I need to chase a goal once again. I am cognizant of the fact that I achieved the goal last time but something went wrong after that. I feel it was not because the goal chasing was wrong, nor the goal itself was wrong, indeed it was a cherish-able goal, what was wrong was that it was not enduring. Once I achieved that goal there was a sense of vacuum that I felt. And I did not fill it with an equally appealing goal. I took to spirituality but I forgot the achievement gene in me. I recall the instructions given by Sri Krishna to Arjuna in Bhagavad Gita that Arjuna should not hesitate to fight the war and be a beggar because when people will despise him, he will not be able to tolerate. Sri Krishna asked Arjuna to fight so that it gives him a sense of material satisfaction but to also spiritualize his fighting so that he is not bound by the karmic reactions and achieves peace of mind.
I too have to follow the strategy of Arjuna. Well, I want success in technology, research and I want huge sums of money for me. I AM GOING TO CHASE IT WITH FULL DELIBERATION. I am only going to do a few things that will ensure that I will not be frustrated at the end of all this and do indeed enjoy my life all throughout. These things are:
1. Keep in touch with a good number of people both online and offline.
2. Have a deeper friendship with atleast one of them.
3. Take time off to visit family
4. See how you can benefit more and more people with your technical and business knowledge.

A unifying spiritual identity

Separatism created by religious identities is going to become a big crisis in years to come. I was quiet taken aback by hearing allegations and charges made by people of different religions on each other a few days back. I really feel that some disaster is really in the making. For some an obvious solution is to abolish religion and to live for humanity. Well that is a good idea, I feel. But, that is not the end of it all because there will always be people who feel that we are more human than you based on historical origins, economic status, political status etc. There is already enough evidence that there are powers who perpetrate those not in power by exploiting their lack of education or access to information. So, the basic paradigm is how do you foster in the minds of all people an allegiance to the value of humanity? Can it be done by the materialistic civilization which only believes in being merry. Today I may think to not becoming merry at the cost of others, tomorrow I may cast aside this status. What is the experience in life that people should have in order to be able stick to the principle of fairness and justice despite opportunities to exploit and rule? I feel only spirituality is the answer to it. Not just the spirituality in letter or practices, but those letter and practices should become an experience.
For example the spiritual teachings of Gita tell us that all living entities are souls and parts of the Supreme Being. When this knowledge turns into a reality then one sees every life as a sacred manifestation of God. Then it does not matter which faith people are following. It is justified to seek for happiness in the way that one finds appropriate. Education may be given but ultimately the choice is individual.
Therefore, it is important that different religions co-exist in harmony by realizing that every being is the part of God.

What is the Plagiarism Check resource at IIT Kharagpur?

It can be done from the Central Library website:

Making India a Technological Superpower 2

One way, I think, this goal of indigenous technological development can be achieved is by fostering a spirit of innovation and native problem solving in the minds of already brilliant Indian students. Innovation has to be made glamorous so has contributing back to the nation.
The most important thing in this direction I feel is the presence of role models that the young minda can emulate. There are already many Indian innovators who have done great globally. We need to inspire a breed of patriotic innovators who want to innovate here and sell abroad, instead of the other way round. Educational institutions can play a pivotal role in this direction. We need to make our educators innovators too. As they are the first role models for the students. The basic instinct of enquiry and self problem solving should be encouraged in students. 

Making India a Technological Super Power

Just today I was pondering over the foreign companies that provide India products and services. Everything India is using is gotten from these foreign countries. For example Google, Microsoft, Philips, Hundai, Crompton Greaves and so on. Now 'Make In India' is an important step towards making India economically more stronger and creating jobs for the Indian youth, but it would help us so much if we had Indian companies providing services to Indians. This would keep India's money within India and would certainly make us a richer country.
Many regret that the best Indian talents have been migrating to US for all these years. Thus, we as a nation have not been able to reap the full benefit of our home grown talent, although even from abroad they have contributed significantly. I feel instead of just regretting we should find out the reason behind the exodus of such talent from our country and do something to keep them back.
Once we have done that we can start focussing on the products and services that we can generate indigenously and provide to the Indian populace in a cheap way and in a way that respects India's demography. 

Just don't waist time

After observing my own life and life lessons from my genius people around the world, I have zeroed in on one mantra for a definite personal improvement: "Don't waist time". Yes it is that easy. Whenever I am doing something that is taking me away from the wholesome personality that I want to be I recognize that and quit that activity. It is that simple. Just recognize that and quit that activity. And how do I know if I am wasting my time? For that I should be in full cognizance of what I want to achieve in life. In a nutshell the person I want to become is someone who exudes incredible love. The the details follow and will probably take up another post. But keeping in mind the person that I want to evolve into at every instant of time and doing activities that take me towards that goal in and out every single day will take me a far distance. I am confident about that.

If there is a God it has to be Krishna

The above statement makes so much of a universal meaning, specially when we consider the literal meaning of Krishna in Sanskrit which is all attractive. If there is God, any believer will attest, He has to be all attractive. This is the kind of secular beauty in which Vedas describe God. No doubt the Vedas are the cradle of all the religions of the world and all the conceptions of God thereof. 

IIT Alumni who made it big

1. Narayan Murthy - Infosys
2. Radhakrishnan- ISRO chief credited with the success of Managalyaan
3. S Christopher DRDO chief
4. Sachin and Binny Bansal- Flipkart.com
5. Subbarao- Governor of RBI
6. Bedabrata Pain- IIT Kharagpur, ECE 1986, MS and PhD Columbia University, NASA JPL
    Later started making films and made films like Amu and Chittagong that won many National               awards
7. Sundar Pichoi- Android head at Google and right hand of Larry Page
8.