Songs for Burundi

My first three musical contributions are now online (links below). These are dedicated to the people of Burundi, presently the poorest country in the world by Gross National Income (GNI) per capita, an appeal to those of us who might be in a position to help such countries. I am convinced that the only way, the only way, in which poverty and suffering can be alleviated is through love.

All three are simple home recordings with just a cell phone propped against the wall - but the intent is sound and the music heartfelt. In time, hopefully there will be opportunities to collaborate with other musicians who want to make a similar impact. I'll gladly upload studio and stage recordings when that happens.

Many of you have supported my writing efforts at my blog over the years. It'll give me great pleasure if you also take some time to listen to these pieces and see if you would like to support my musical efforts by following me on YouTube/Instagram and liking and sharing the music.

Links:

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@beshpuniyani

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/brijesheshpuniyani/

Thanks!

Peace & Love

Brijesh

Where's the pride in calling oneself backward?

As you read this post, bear in mind that: 1) I hail from a family that has seen its share of struggles; sleeping on railway platforms, traveling in unreserved compartments, four people staying in one room; and 2) I've been known to be anything but a casteist/classist at work or elsewhere.

This was in 2011. I was chairing the Senate Under Graduate Committee (SUGC) at IIT Kanpur, a body that essentially oversaw the academic administration of all UG students. One unfortunate, yet essential, task was to make decisions on which students to put on warning or probation. And for some students who kept performing below par despite all nudges, assistance, warnings and probation, it would come down to making a decision on whether it was best to ask them to leave IITK and join some other college, or in case of severely extenuating circumstances like health concerns or family emergencies, give them more time to recover to acceptable academic standards.

In one such meeting we were explaining to a student and his father that there was no way we could keep the student on. He had some 15-20 backlogs with no extenuating circumstances, had been through the warning-probation period (which lasts at least one full year and is usually extended), and just had to go.

Eventually when all discussions and arguments led nowhere, the father stood up and spoke belligerently: "Ham backward hain, backward! Aap hamein nahi nikaal sakte!"

Now this is certainly not true. Students under affirmative action get extra leeway at the time of admission, but once they are in the college, they are expected to clear courses like everyone else. And if someone's academic performance falls too low, he or she has to go regardless of forward/backward/caste/class. And eventually, the student and his father had to, very correctly, accept this.

But what left me stunned was the sheer arrogance with which the father said "ham backward hain!".

Truth be told, the sentiment should exactly be the opposite! Extreme poverty aside (which is the real backwardness in society), if anyone calls you backward for reasons of birth or community, every fiber in your being should rebel with a "kaun kehta hai ham backward hain aur aap forward? ham bhi utne hee forward hain jitne aap! koi kami nahi hai ham mein!"

This shift needs to come in our society. Thinking of oneself, calling oneself, or allowing anyone else to call one backward is psychologically denting! Your whole approach to life becomes negative. You have decided stay on the backfoot unnecessarily.

No! Step forward! Make your presence felt! Work hard, do the best you can, and then let the chips fall where they may!

[Extreme poverty of course is a different matter! We must go the extra mile to help students coming from severely poor families regardless of their caste, class, religion or gender.

Note: My views on combatting backwardness effectively are here: https://strike-a-pause.blogspot.com/2022/10/a-four-point-algorithm-to-combat.html ]

IIITs and IISERs: Why?

Here's something I don't get:

We have 25 IIITs (institutes of information technology). Most of them offer programs in only two disciplines: Computer Science and Electrical Engineering. Just two.

A few of them are IIITDMs (design and manufacturing added) and these additionally offer programs in mechanical engineering. That's three disciplines.

And all these IIITs and IIITDMs have needed substantial real estate and infrastructure investments! 

Now, we already had so many IITs and NITs that are full blown institutes with pretty much all science and technology departments. Why were seats simply not increased as needed in CS, EE and ME in these institutes, more faculty hired and classrooms and labs expanded? We would have achieved the same results with much much much lesser investment. And the crores and crores of rupees saved could have been utilised to address other needs.

Likewise for IISERs: Science departments in IITs and NITs could have been expanded - and the institutes renamed to IISTs and NISTs to lay an equal emphasis on Science and Technology - instead of bringing up entire institutes that only offer science programs. 

We would have saved thousands of crores of rupees.

Plus students would have had a wider range of electives to choose from and a broader exposure to research labs cutting across disciplines.

Where's the thought process behind decision making?

Raising IIT Standards Collectively

I'll need to hold your attention for a bit to make a point that I think is worth considering. Please stick with me:

These are the NIRF 2024 ranks of the 23 IITs (Link: https://www.nirfindia.org/Rankings/2024/EngineeringRanking.html)

1-5: Madras, Delhi, Bombay, Kanpur, Kharagpur, 

6-8: Roorkee, Guwahati, Hyderabad.

10, 15: Varanasi, Dhanbad.

16, 18, 22, 28, 31, 34, 54: Indore, Gandhinagar, Ropar, Jodhpur, Mandi, Patna, Bhubaneswar, 

61, 62, 64, 73: Tirupati, Jammu, Palakkad, Bhilai.

Not yet in first hundred: Goa and Dharwad.

If you look carefully, Hyderabad aside, there is still a stratification of 1st Generation IITs - 2nd Generation IITs - 3rd Generation IITs.

We need to break this so that (a) students as well as faculty applicants stop worrying about this hierarchy and make decisions on where to go depending on what interests them and feedback on systemic efficiencies and teaching & research culture and (b) the overall standard of all IITs goes up rapidly.

I think this can happen relatively quickly if we do the following two things:

1. Take the best practices from the 5 first generation IITs (these have been refined over decades and are time tested) and implement them in all others.

2. Incentivise a migration of faculty members from the 5 first generation IITs to the newer IITs (promotions, increments, research money, lab space, positions of responsibility). The only hitch is enabling a complete relocation of labs - and this is easily doable if the directors and funding agencies enable it. If this is done, I believe it will significantly impact not just the immediate academic standards, research collaborations, etc. of the newer IITs but also the quality of faculty applications these IITs receive.

I think my thoughts above have merit and invite you to think about them. Your opinions are always welcome!

Similarly:

I see a lot of senior academics hankering after Director-ships of "1st Generation IITs", while either refusing opportunities to lead the newer IITs or treating them as 2nd and 3rd options.

Doesn't make sense to me :) ...

You are already established academics and have already earned and enjoyed the social respectability that comes with being associated with high ranking institutes. Leading a newer institute is your opportunity to build something up, to create, why hold back? The older IITs already have a momentum, the newer ones need a generating of the same, the challenge is greater! Take it up :)!

I think folks invest too much, for too long, in being associated with brand names. Isn't there a stronger "kick" about taking up bigger challenges? I certainly would feel more fulfilled looking myself in the eyes that way:)!

Sensible Centrists vs Extreme Right and Left Leaners

For those of us who believe that the right and left ought to be listening to each other and finding common ground instead of continuously fighting and not getting anywhere:

We centrists are very relevant people! It's our lot to understand folks who are a bit to the right, folks who are a bit to the left, and put thoughts and possibilities out there that build a bridge where folks from both sides can meet and talk.

But it's important to keep the "a bit" in mind in "a bit to the right" and "a bit to the left"!

There is great awareness today in the pitfalls involved in going too far right: out go minimum wages, public healthcare, public transport, temporary homeless shelters, and it can get quickly even as bad as the poor not even being able to access clean water!

But the far left is just as dangerous! Industry and development itself can collapse (so what minimum wages?)! The Indian city of Kanpur is a case in point: Once a thriving industrial hub, it became a struggling second tier city once "leftists" descended with their endless strikes that caused industrialists to shut shop and leave.

(Not to mention the insane obsession of the left with stomping on any and every sign of intelligence and effort. Starting with the madness of "merit is a mere construct" they have now, and I kid you not, arrived at "hard work is a mere construct"! The only allowable paradigm now is dishing out freebies in exchange for votes. And the results are already knocking on our doors! Bridges and buildings are collapsing sooner, classrooms are emptying because an increasing number of teachers and professors are unable to answer queries, one is increasingly tentative about going into surgery because one really doesn't know how well the doctor about to open you up fared in college! If we don't address this nonsense urgently, we may never be able to at all!)

Movie Review: Chhichhore (2019)

There was a personal reason to give this movie a watch:

Nitesh Tiwari and myself were hostelmates (H4, IIT Bombay) and I was told that he's drawn on real people from those days. It's good to see him addressing the issue of suicide and making the point that true success is about the effort and not the final result. This holds true throughout life and not just for exams.

But as for everything else in the movie, I'm deeply deeply disappointed! Here's why:

I was at IIT Bombay from 1991-1995 and what has been depicted as the "norm" then is simply not true. There were an ample number of students who did not stay immersed in vulgarity and maintained a good balance between academics and extra curricular activities. They went to classes, studied, tried to do the best they could in academics as well as extra curricular activities, and have gone on to have healthy relationships, marriages, and live good personal and social lives. Many continue to challenge themselves in pursuits that interest them and continue to refine themselves towards higher levels of maturity. (Some have chosen to pursue spirituality full time and that is cool too!)

None of this, absolutely none of this, has even been glanced at in the movie. Instead, what I would call the absolute dregs of behavior and conduct, has been glorified. This is perverse! The same mistake was made by the movie Three Idiots. And movies influence the masses. Student culture in colleges and universities has sharply declined over the last 10-15 years because young, impressionable and raw minds are being given the impression that vulgarity and idiocy is somehow "cool". It isn't! It's simply vulgarity and idiocy!

And where is our censor board? How can a movie that depicts something as vulgar as abusive language involving Mothers as "being cool" be given a green signal? How did we get to this?

And this movie won awards? Is that all we are left with? Rajkumar Hirani and Abhijat Joshi are our Shakespeare and Hemingway and Nitesh Tiwari our Akira Kurosawa?

A Mistake Many School Boards In India Are Making

A mistake that many school boards in India are making is allowing students to choose between Science/Arts/Commerce (and within science: Mathematics/Biology) after 10th grade. The underlying logic is that by then students (which, in India, unfortunately, often means parents) are perfectly clear about their life goals and can start "specializing" from 11th grade itself.

This is wrong on two counts:

1. Students complete their 12th grade when they are 18 years old. That's also the age when we deem them to be adults. This is when they should start making career choices (they, not their parents!). And to enable this, it is best if all subjects are retained in the curriculum till 12th grade.

2. If we want an educated, sensible, society, it is important that people, regardless of their profession, know all science, mathematics, literature and arts subjects till the 12th grade level. Within science, we want a society where folks know both Mathematics and Biology till the 12th grade level. This way they can follow and appreciate developments in engineering, technology as well as medicine with some depth and maturity. Folks will also have a more mature understanding of literature, poetry and the arts - which is a very very important factor in ensuring a psychologically and emotionally healthy society.

I think the above is an important agenda item for our Ministry of Education and the various Central and State School Boards to take up and make the necessary changes.