Flight Safety and Cell Phones

To this date, fliers have to be cajoled and reminded into switching off their cell phones in Indian skies. Just a couple of weeks ago I had to snap at a fellow passenger who was on his phone even when the aircraft was already in final position for take-off.

We need a mechanism to detect active cell phones and have them switched off before push back from the boarding gate. Anyone who doesn't comply: de-board them and suspend them from the skies for a few months.

Likewise, a check during the flight for any cell phones that might not be in Aeroplane Mode and a check for all phones switched off before descent starts. Suspend defaulters from the skies for a few months.

Safety first, then cell phones, gizmos and gadgets.

Baseball vs Cricket

Some 20 something years ago when I was a grad student in the US I used to insist in my arguments with my American friends that cricket is a better game than baseball.

I stand corrected.

Baseball is more interesting! And safer! (the penalty for a pitcher trying to hit the batter on the head is immediate ejection from the game - as it should be)

[Although I do still maintain that American Football is a no-good, over aggressive, hyper macho sport that is incorrectly named. Soccer is the real football.]

Information Technology vs Computer Science

For students wondering about the difference between doing a B. Tech. in Information Technology vs B. Tech. in Computer Science:

Information Technology is just one subdiscipline of Computer Science. If you do a B. Tech.. in Computer Science, IT jobs are always available to you.

On the other hand, if you do a B. Tech. in Information Technology, many jobs in Computer Science may be beyond your training level.

B. Tech. in Computer Science is the better option - any day.

This is why even IIITs offer Computer Science programs, not Information Technology.

Don't just go by whatever buzzword is in vogue at any given time. Go for what will train you for a broader range of jobs in your overall area of interest.

Computational Sciences at IIITs

Here's a suggestion that might be helpful for information technology institutes:

Start Masters and PhD programs in Computational Sciences (Physics, Chemistry, Biology). This will (a) open up computer applications in a variety of research topics at your institutes and (b) bring in faculty members who can offer a range of electives for your undergraduate students and make their academic programs more interesting.

Computer programming applications stretch far far beyond developing apps - and its in our best interests to not lose sight of this!

Web Series Review: Maharani

Saw the web series Maharani recently. My comments:

The purpose of cinema and TV/web series isn't just to reflect society's reality as it stands today. It is partly that, but also to set higher benchmarks of aspirations in society.

We need politics based movies and series that show the public demanding, and politicians delivering, on opening schools, colleges and universities, opening hospitals, setting up industries and factories so that people get more employment, cracking down on corrupt policemen and policewomen, setting up more courts and increasing the number of judges so that trials end sooner.

Politics can't be just about religion and caste. Well made movies and series can start bringing about this change. This series not only completely fails on this count but further fuels the caste-religion political mess we've been embroiled in for the last few decades. Two thumbs down 👎 👎.

Note: My views on combatting backwardness are here: A Four Point Algorithm to Combat Backwardness

Gurugram: Unwarranted Hindi-ization of Gurgaon

The name Gurgaon comes from Gurgaanwa in Haryanavi. It is the correct name to keep in Haryana.

Gurugram is a forced Hindi-ization that is both unnecessary and ought to be unwelcome anywhere outside the Hindi belt.

The way forward in a multi-lingual, multi-cultural, country such as ours is being open to learning a bit of each other's languages. For example, we've lived in Bengal and Maharashtra for extended periods of time. And although I can't speak either language fluently, I've picked up a bit that makes it possible for a Bengali or Marathi who doesn't know Hindi or English fluently to still communicate with me. A bit of effort from my side, a bit theirs, and we shake hands - as friends 👍.

5 Day Week: A Different Interpretation

Here's a simple thought that I believe is seriously worth considering:

365 is perfectly divisible by 5: 365/5 = 73.

If we redefine the week to be 5 days long, and have a holiday to rest after every four days of work, then we have a perfect 73 week year with a perfectly fine work-rest balance.

And every leap year, we have one extra day with a different name at the end of the year (say "leap year day") to adjust for the extra day. And then simply continue with 1st day of the week on 1st January as the year changes.

This seems more consistent to me with the natural cycle of Earth competing one trip around the Sun every 365 days.

Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comments fields below.

What are we teaching our children?

Several years ago when I was on the faculty of IIT Delhi I went for an IIT-JEE Exam Invigilation duty to a school in Delhi. As you entered, there was a quotation in large font for all students to read everyday. It went something like: "Power is not given, it has to be snatched."

What you are seeing today in the society at large is nothing but the result of such rubbish put into children's heads early on.

You and I are here only for a few decades. What is our short lifespan in the context of life on Earth?

Forget power! What power? Look around you, resolve to leave this world a bit better, a bit more beautiful, when it's time to leave. And work towards that objective incessantly, relentlessly. That's a life well lived.

Blind Children and Their Parents

A thought that might be worth mulling over by parents of blind children:

Maybe, if it doesn't affect one's profession and livelihood and only with the advice and approval of an eye specialist, one of the parents can donate one eye (and the other step in if there's any complication for the receiver or donor in the years to follow). If there's an issue with matching blood types or something else, have a donor registry that allows parents of different children to cross donate.

I don't think this is a big sacrifice to make if your child can experience vision. And it can open up the child's life and life experience profoundly...

Thoughts?

Adopt a child!

Here's a thought I've held for a long time because I really feel it has merit:

There are many many children in orphanages/foster-homes awaiting adoption by a good family. Some who might have lost their parents, some perhaps abandoned.

Maybe we are too caught up with the notion of "bearing our own children", maybe we can consider adopting a child instead. For what or who is one's own child but someone you love and raise?

For those who wish to have children, this completes your dream as well as gives a child a home and parents and loved ones he/she will call their own.

And those who don't want to have children: See if you can locate a well meaning orphanage/foster-home and help them with improving their facilities and amenities and spend time with the children there.

Think about it.

Fabindia: An Initiative I'm Proud Of!

This is one initiative I'm endlessly proud of 😊: https://www.fabindia.com/

Personal comfort and style preferences aside, to which each of us is obviously entitled, purely on aesthetic merit, I throw an open #fashion challenge:

Come, bring as much global fabric and fashion as you can muster. #Indian, hand drawn, designs on fabric will match whatever you have :).

What this part of the world has done with #fabric is simply nothing short of genius :).

[Food for thought: The Euro-American fashion #industry has impacted the whole world. The East, while no less brilliant with fabric, form & color, hasn't responded in proportion, hasn't invested enough in #advertising what it has to offer. One doesn't see too many Europeans & Americans wearing #Eastern #ethnicwear. Isn't this interesting?]

What Priorities! Expensive Books Cheap Booze!

If a society makes it more affordable to drink alcohol and smoke pot than own books, how does it expect to be an intelligent, well read, well informed, intellectually sharp and aware society?

It doesn't work this way! Use whatever strategy you can - tax breaks, economic incentives, paperbacks, low cost paper and printing, used books - to make it affordable for the average Joe and Jane to build their own book collections at home. And tax liquor hard to make it more expensive than books! A good book must become more affordable than that six pack of budweiser 😅!

And if you enjoy a drink once in a while, get together with your friends once a month or so and enjoy a couple of good quality drinks with smiles and laughter. That's quite enough 😅!

You say you want to unwind at the end of the day? Well, take a shower, have a glass of cool lemonade, spend quality time with your family, have a good meal, and pick up a book or your musical instrument or paint brush! It works better than drinking everyday (and you save your liver too 😅!).

Do you see what I'm saying?