A Question of Worthiness

Today is the sixteenth anniversary of 26/11, and I feel restless again. It's not just the memories of that particular day. It's no longer just the anger I felt at the irresponsibility and shamelessness displayed by our media in providing "live coverage" that probably diluted the effectiveness of our military's operation and cost us more innocent lives. It's not just the mix of sadness and pride I felt when I heard of the sacrifices of Police ATS Chief Hemant Karkare, Additional Commissioner Ashok Kamte, Assistant Sub-Inspector Shri Tukaram Gopal Ombale, Major Sandeep Unnikrishnan and others, including the staff at Taj, who made the ultimate sacrifice: they gave up their very lives to save others. So many more brave men and women have made this ultimate sacrifice since then and so many earlier - each an expression of complete selflessness and sacrifice so that all of us can live our lives and fulfill our aspirations. These sacrifices stare unblinkingly at me, they force me to introspect, and several thoughts that probably lurked in the recesses of my mind surface, collide with each other, and eventually crystallize into one single question, a question that continuously haunts...

As the 26/11 drama unfolded publicly, I wondered to myself: what might be the spectrum of personalities that were at the Taj that night? One has to be seriously rich or seriously well connected to afford a stay at that hotel. And though I admit it may be rather unfair, my own middle class upbringing combined with observations of most who qualify as "rich and mighty" makes me view the elite and wealthy with a hint of suspicion - their mode of wealth creation, their priorities, their culture, their humanity... There are exceptions surely: those who have earned their riches with integrity, through a tremendous application of the will and unceasing dedication; those who have not snatched from another's plate or exploited others to fill their coffers; those who have uplifted all around them in their upward journey to the stars. But in my observation and experience such exceptions are few and far between. Compromises, corruption, exploitation, sycophancy and perhaps a large chunk of luck seem to be the stepping stones for most others. Quite probably a sizeable section of the guest list at the Taj that night were from this second category. I wonder...have these people lived a life worthy of someone else's?

But the issue is not just about the rich and their worthiness. The issue is not just about what happened that night at the Taj. 26/11 was a resounding slap on our face that jolted us out of our stupor. One of the reasons it had such a strong effect on us is that we have become insensitive to the sacrifices being made by our armed forces almost on a daily basis. Ever awake, ever alert, unmindful of what it costs them, thousands and thousands of jawans and officers protect our borders while putting their own lives at stake; accepting each challenge without a murmur of complaint, braving the elements: from the Himalayas to the Thar desert, out on the rocky seas and up high above in the skies.

These heroes have made their choice: the choice to sacrifice themselves for one and all without any bias or judgment. The cost they bear does not distinguish between upright citizens and thieves and robbers, a few noble political leaders who work selflessly for their country's progress and development and the innumerable corrupt politicians who are unapologetically and callously squeezing the very blood from this country's veins to serve their own self-interests, teachers who educate and enlighten and the increasingly misled youth who are going astray and putting immediate indulgence and short term pleasures above their commitment to evolving into worthy members of a society that is civilized in the true sense of the word.

But this does pose a dilemma for our conscience, does it not? And I don't mean to use the word "our" in an abstract sense. I mean very specifically each and every one of us - including me and you. Are we living a life that is worthy of someone else willing to sacrifice his or hers? Sacrifices are meant to be made for things that are great and noble. Are we living great lives? Noble lives? Perhaps not.

Forget greatness and nobility actually. Let's talk of simple things first. Do we even practice a bare minimum set of human values that would qualify us as a civilized society? Are we honest? Do we do our jobs sincerely and without any element of corruption? Are we courteous and polite with the people we interact with everyday? Do we treat each other with a sincere sense of respect? Do we respect and honor our women? Do we take care of our elders in their old age? Do we appreciate the efforts of those who provide services to us - the rickshaw-wallah, the maid servant, janitorial staff, the post man, the staff at our banks, the railway ticket window staff, ticket checkers - and thank them for the same? Do we treat those who are less fortunate than us with compassion and do what we can to help alleviate their misery? These are some of the basic behavioral patterns anyone would expect to see in a civilized society. To be frank, I don't see enough of this happening.

Then comes the issue of self respect and respect for our country. It is all very well to sing the National Anthem twice a year. But what do we really mean when we thump our chests and pronounce ourselves "Indians"? Do we simply mean we hold an Indian passport? Or is there really an Indian-ness that is unique to us, a cultural identity that we express with pride? Globalization and personal tastes aside, are we proud of our culture, our heritage, our art, our music, our languages, our philosophy, our values? Do we treat our fellow country men and women with as much respect as we treat foreigners? Are we ambassadors of our identity as a country to the rest of the world? Or are we desperate for acknowledgment and appreciation from the outside?

Please understand one thing clearly: If all that arises in your mind when I use the terms culture and heritage are negatives such as casteism, untouchability, the way widows were treated, etc. then you just don't know our culture and heritage well enough. Every part of the world has had negative aspects in its history. So did we and we are continuously correcting ourselves. But we have tremendous beauty and positivity in our culture and heritage as well. And we have every right to feel proud of who we are and express ourselves confidently on the world stage.

Unless we treat each other as our own, behave accordingly and live lives of the highest integrity and dignity, unless we are comfortable with who we are and take pride in our identity, unless we truly believe that we, as an independent country, will collectively shape our destiny in our own unique way, based on ideals that we believe in and aspirations that will make us truly happy, do we really deserve that we be protected at the cost of so many lives?

Yet, those who have sworn to protect us continue their vigil unceasingly without asking us any of these questions, without placing any demands on us. That's quite something, isn't it?

You see...its a question of worthiness.

Are we worthy? Worthy of someone sacrificing his or her life so that we may live ours? This is an important question in my opinion and calls for honest introspection. And if the answer is in the negative, maybe its time to start changing for the better.

The Myth of the American/European Dream

When I went to the USA in 1995 for graduate studies, it was for three reasons: (1) an opportunity to study at some of the world's best universities, (2) I got a scholarship (I hail from a normal middle class family and wouldn't have gone otherwise) and (3) for the  adventure of it all - new country, new people from across the world, new experiences.

In my eleven years there (MS, PhD, Postdoc), I met many awesome people (and a few jerks - which is perfectly normal, they are everywhere) and still have active friendships in the US and other parts of the world. I respected people around me and carried myself with an equal measure of self respect. At no point I felt "overly eager" or "desperate" to stay on in the US. It's important to have a dream, a goal, in life - but there's no reason for it to be an "American Dream" or "European Dream" or whatever - the world's a big place with tremendous charm and variety all around!

I see a lot of people continuously affected/perturbed by policy shifts in the US (or elsewhere) as if our lives and happiness depend fundamentally on any one region of the world. This is a display of a very low level of self respect and not cool. The whole world is certainly open and I encourage the concept of a global citizenship by all means, but go anywhere only if you are received with respect - not otherwise.

Chill out! Keep your self respect intact, your skills and knowledge super sharp, and make positive contributions only and only where and with those you feel respected.

Spines straight and chins up!

Consolidate. Unite. Express.

As you read this post, bear in mind that I have already spoken against making Hindi compulsory in schools or/and offices around the country. I'm educated enough to know that we are a nation of tremendous variety - languages, philosophical systems, religions - and every freedom must be maintained to allow all variety to express itself and thrive.

Yet, I understand the need for symbolism. And I believe what I'm saying is important:

Below is a picture of our capital, Nai Dilli (New Delhi), Railway Station. On the top, the name of the station is displayed in three languages: Hindi, English and Urdu. I think we ought to make the following two changes:

1. Add the name in two more languages: Gurmukhi (the primary language of the Sikhs) and Pali (the primary language of Buddhists).

2. Order them in such a way that the Hindi script (Nai Dilli) is in the center and the English script (New Dilli - not Delhi (anglicized)) is on the extreme right. (Using English as the medium of instruction in schools and colleges is a practical necessity as it helps our students engage with the world at large easily - but giving it any "central importance" anywhere is just an immature lack of self respect.)

We consolidate, we unite, we express our identity on the world stage with confidence. This is important. Very important.

What Is Kumbh Mela Really About?

If you live a life of character, integrity, honesty and steadily work on bringing your senses and mind under your control, the Ganga, the spiritual river, will flow outwards from within you (that's the significance of Ganga flowing out from Lord Shiva's head) and will purify you and uplift those around you spiritually.

The Kumbh mela historically has been a spiritual conference that brought together people making a spiritual effort once every twelve years to discuss and share their realisations, discoveries, efforts and practices. And during the conference everyone took a dip in the Ganges every morning to affirm their commitment and start the day. Our immense spiritual literature, the Vedas, the Upanishads, the Six Darshanas, is a testament to this culture and effort.

It has never been about just going to take a dip in the river to wash away your sins vagairah vagairah. If you're living a sinful life and believe that just taking a dip in the Ganges and paying some pandas and pujaris will save you, then you are not just sinful, you are also stupid.

The only way, absolutely the only way, to save yourself and progress spiritually is to change yourself.

There is no other way.

Righteousness Above All Else

Always remember: Your first and foremost commitment is towards what is righteous.

This commitment supersedes every other commitment: your country's political and administrative leadership, society, superiors at work, and if they are being unethical, then even your family, your parents, your relatives, your teachers or your Guru. Even when it comes to religious scriptures, if your conscience, your inner sense of right and wrong, makes you feel that something is wrong with what the scripture says, you have to respect your conscience and do what you feel is the right thing to do 

Read the Bhagawad Gita. Understand Arjuna's predicament.

He enters the battlefield to fight a righteous war and finds himself facing his elders, his teachers, his relatives, his fellow countrymen. He wants to quit.

Krishna says: Nothing doing! A just war has to be fought, no matter who is in the opposition.

You and I don't have to fight wars. But we must have the courage to call a spade a spade. If someone is being unethical, unrighteous, no matter who it is, we have to be able to speak our minds and oppose them.

If we can do this, we become the backbone of an ethically just and sound family, society and country.

If not, we only make things worse. We live what I call woogly woogly weak spirited lives ourselves and allow others to do the same.

Ultimately righteousness has to win. Whichever individual, family, society, country, aligns itself with righteousness, it enjoys the support of the divine. There is no "mine" and "others'" leeway allowed in this :).

In fact, righteousness is the correct translation of the word Dharma. The usage of the word Dharma for religion is completely flawed.

Living a Dharmic life means being ethically correct and righteous moment to moment, day to day. And this is our highest commitment. To live Dharmic lives ourselves, to support those who live Dharmic lives, and oppose those who don't.

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:)!