Can a true rational person compartmentalize inquisitiveness and rational thinking?

The basic qualities of a scientist or any truly educated person are rational thinking and inquisitiveness. I think a true scientific mind can never restrict his/her abilities limited only to his/her area of work but will apply to each and every aspect of life. Sometimes it may create problems for the person to live a “normal” life, mainly in a conservative society in countries like India. It can also become a bit painful experience when s/he start applying these qualities to ask questions and re-visit traditions, religion and religious beliefs that we imbibe since our childhood; from our parents, relatives and society. I know it is always a tricky issue to mix science with religion and tradition. I also should make it clear that my intention is not to hurt any religious sentiment here.

Let me give an example. In India majority are Hindus and so are majority of Indian “scientists”. Many of us believe that beef eating is not allowed in Hinduism, which is clearly not true, as per historians and social scientists. Many of Hindu “scientists” religiously follow that so-called religious custom and never eat beef for “religious” reason. There are many such rituals that we follow in the name of tradition and religion. This attitude gave rise to a very conservative and close society even among so-called educated people, as I think. It has a bigger impact on society when an established “scientist” follows such rituals. It strengthens many superstitions in the name of religion/tradition among common Indian people, who are not that much literate or well informed. I think I should make it clear that respect to one’s heritage and acknowledgement of one’s past is a different issue as compared to accepting and encouraging distorted version of religion and negative aspects of tradition. 

We need to keep in mind that single most important reason of killing people is religion since pre-historic time and India has more than fair share in that number. Mass murder, brutal torture of weaker sections of our society (e.g against women) in the name of religion/tradition is still a burning issue in Indian society which mainly originates from ill-informed notion about “religion” and lack of transparent, rational thinking.

I am not advocating that all scientists or truly educated people to start a mass movement to eradicate religious superstitions and social prejudices leaving less time for their main profession. I am wondering how hard it will be for us to set examples to others (mainly to our students and juniors) by our own deeds in personal lives. I do not think it will take any extra time away from our research or teaching. I have seen many Indian “scientists” wearing rings with gem stones to rectify some "rogue" star/planets to change their misfortunes. Whatever such scientist/teachers teach in a class or in his/her lab, is not going to make his/her students more rational and “educated” in real sense.

What we do has more profound impact on our students and juniors than what we actually preach in classes. As a teacher our duty is not only to train some techniques and transfer information in the name of “education” and “professionalism”, but also to train them, to encourage them to become a better human being, to gather the courage and wisdom not only to remain personally honest but to oppose corruption in an effective way. I am not asking my students or juniors or friends to become a martyr by opposing crimes and corruption of powerful people in a country like India but simply asking them to think of a better way to do it without sacrificing too much. The best and most effective way we can do, as I think, is by setting standard for ourselves.

My questions are:

1. Does a truly educated person have the social responsibility to behave a bit more responsibly with more open, logical attitude outside of his/her area of work?

2. If the answer to my previous question is yes; then, can we afford to continue compartmentalizing inquisitiveness and rational thinking?

3. Lastly, is it at all possible to become rational in some issues but not in many others?

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Primary and secondary education reform should be India's top priority

There were only 20 universities and 500 colleges in the Indian subcontinent (including Bangladesh and Pakistan) in 1947, the year of Indian independence. Now there are about 376 universities and 17,700 colleges in India only, many with world class physical infrastructure. Many private research institutes are also coming up on a regular basis. The only Nobel prize for India (Indian citizen at the time of the award) in science for C. V. Raman (1930, University of Calcutta) also came in that era. We also had many world class scientists during that time (e.g Satyen Bose, JC Bose, Homi Bhaba etc). Now India is the second fastest growing in the world and third largest economy in Asia with huge budget in so-called education and research. But we do not have any world class scientist who has the slightest chance to get Nobel Prize in science in India (as per a survey published in a reputed Bengali magazine, “Desh”, sometime ago).

We see huge uproar when previous government wanted to “introduce accountability” in some elite institutes like IIMs & IITs but we never see a fraction of that excitement among educated middle class people or our political masters to reform primary and secondary education although our primary and secondary education system, the backbone of our country, is in a pathetic shape. Our middle class people, who can not afford to send their kids abroad (like our socio-political “elites”) but dream to have a better, more powerful and comfortable life for their kids (and to them through their kids) do not allow any meaningful reform of primary and secondary education since independence.

Our current education system selectively discards talented students with inquisitiveness, ability to ask questions and dream to do something challenging, something better for the society. Now we only produce private tuition and coaching enabled, mugging-up grade technicians who are great to do routine jobs (as in IT or BT) or imitating others (mainly true for Indian R&D sector in any branch of science and in any industry), but not capable of doing original research, despite of having many world class physical infrastructure, huge budget and some so-called “elite” institutes. My recent experience with many graduate students form some high profile Indian institutes/universities indicate that the trend to emphasize on database type knowledge, quiz type information and fascination with techniques (not science as such) are still highly prevalent. No wonder India is among the least innovative nations in the world. Quality of Indian science education and research is going down at an alarming rate since independence, despite of huge increase in funding (1, 2, 3 and Balaram, P (2002): Science in India- Signs of Stagnation. Current Science 82, 193-194.).

We need to invest much more and have an intensive and proper supervision of primary and high school education than wrongly focusing on higher education and research at the top level, at this time. Recently passed Right to education bill is a step towards the right direction. But here again we need to remember that many such great policies hardly achieve anything in reality and only limited within government files and the money ends up in the pockets of few selected people. Whatever money we spend on higher education and research is not going to give us any novel knowledge or technological edge unless we have right candidate behind the costly machines we buy. Now we produce mainly technicians, not scientists or technocrats and feel proud to export such raw materials to manpower-starved developed countries (be it IT or BT, the two main pillars of Indian economy today). This might lead to some degree of prosperity in the short term but we are going to loose in a big way in the long run unless we totally overhaul our basic education system at primary and high school level. It’s useless to cut the roots and then water on the top. Universal and quality primary and high school education will also bring many other positive socio-political changes in our system that can propel India to attain its rightful position in the world.

Some relevant facts:

· "The study of 188 government-run primary schools in central and northern India revealed that 59% of the schools had no drinking water facility and 89% no toilets; and, most alarmingly, a large number of teachers were found to be absent at the time of the survey. With a literacy rate (percentage of adults who can read and write) of 65%, India compares poorly to not just industrialised nations but also several much-poorer economies, such as Vietnam (90% literacy), Zambia (80%), Tanzania (77%), and Cambodia (70%)".

"Only 21% of the teachers in Bihar are class X pass. In one of the most prosperous states in India, Gujarat, over 55% of the teachers have not got beyond the secondary stage of schooling. The only state which comes near Gujarat in terms of the low quality of teachers is Karnataka, another highly prosperous state in India, with about three-fourths of its teachers having studied only up to the higher secondary level". Such data also implied that prosperity of few people (that inflate the macro level data like GDP, par capita income) does not mean prosperity for common people (or the country as a whole). The same “prosperous” states like Gujarat and Karnataka also do worse as compared to “least developed” states like Assam in term of hunger and social well being (the overall hunger index for India is worse than many “least developed” countries” like Cuba, Uganda, Sudan, even our arch rival Pakistan). Such facts imply that “trickle down” effect of “development” or “prosperity” as many seem to justify, can never be translated to the common people of the country unless strict oversight and transparency in governance is present. This is true for any country, be it USA or India.

PS: There is a related topic in “Nature India forum” on “How to improve India's higher education and research quality?”. I also published this blog in the same “Nature India Forum” sometime ago. Readers can read the discussion part there and are welcome to post their comments there too.

How confident we should be about Indian health system and doctors?

India was once regarded as having one of the best medical professionals in the world. Indian doctors are still in high demand in many countries. But what is the actual situation of health system and condition of that lot of professionals in India? Not very encouraging, to say the least.

Since last few decades urban India has seen an unprecedented rise in cesarean delivery of pregnant women. There is hardly any normal delivery, mainly in urban India ( who has access and can afford health care) these days. This menace is fast spreading in rural India. World Health Organization (WHO) states that, "both very low and very high rates of caesarean section can be dangerous, but the optimum rate is unknown. Pending further research, users of this handbook (2009) might want to continue to use a range of 5-15%".

Unnecessary and sometimes downright harmful pathological and others tests are being recommended by doctors is a norm. Unnecessary prescribing vitamin tablets and tonic formulations is a very routine phenomenon. Doctors are increasingly being influenced and bribed by drug and other companies involved in medical practice (drug or equipment or technology/kit business establishments). Illegal and selective girl child abortion by majority of private clinics and nursing homes is routine now. Substandard blood donation camps (a good source of earning for local clubs/youths) and highly profitable illegal business involving that blood is no more restricted to private clinics or nursing homes but has spread its tentacles in govt hospitals. No wonder infected blood, such unhealthy blood donation camps and business involving such tainted blood are a big source for AIDS infection and its spread in India. India is now among the major hubs of illegal human organ trade on a global scale.

Undertaking dubious clinical trials (mainly, but not exclusively, using semi-literate and oppressed section of our society as guinea pigs) of drugs developed by multinational drug companies is a highly flourishing business involving many high profile Indian private companies, nursing homes and hospitals. Doctors and so-called scientists are increasingly entering the domain of crime using their noble profession and lack of effective consumer protection as a shield. Sometimes angry mob beat up suspected doctors and vandalize nursing homes/clinics. But that is neither enough nor desirable for a civilized society. Most of the time doctors involved in such crimes are not punished. Many high profile doctors in cities like Mumbai, Kolkata etc regularly pay “hafta” (protection money) to local mafias and politicians to cover their crimes. Considering the ground realities in India, it’s not surprising that many more decent and reasonably honest colleagues (other doctors, scientists etc.) are just silent spectators  at best, tolerating such corruption by many of their "successful" colleagues. But they hardly think that tolerating and not opposing such crimes and criminals also make them almost equally responsible for the crime they are witnessing on daily basis. 

It raises the following questions:

1. Can we and such 'highly educated' 'professionals' really perceive the extent of damage it does to not only to our present but also to our future?

2. How far we can tolerate such crimes?

3. What should we do?

Some relevant stories and links:

“In India, poor and illiterate patients are being used to test new drugs for the West and some are unaware they are even taking part in clinical trials”.

"By 2010, some estimate there will be two million patients in India on clinical trials....Six years ago, an experimental drug from the US called M4N was injected into cancer patients in India without being properly tested on animals first".

Clinical trials claimed 25 lives in 2010, only 5 paid compensation. Families of five of these victims received "compensation for trial related death" — the amount ranging from Rs 1.5 lakh to Rs 3 lakh.

According to one BBC report, 10 million female foetuses may have been aborted in India over the past 20 years.

"He has discovered through a survey of people in the West Midlands who bought kidneys abroad that one in eight died within a couple of months of their operation and two-thirds returned with serious complications. India is one of a number of countries in the world with a thriving black-market, dealing in the sale of human kidneys". A BBC report on illegal kidney racket in India. A NDTV video and Indian Express report on the same.

A milestone case involving the murder of the wife of a US based Indian doctor in West Bengal, alleged by deliberate negligence by doctors. Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) supported the alleged doctors, as expected (2, 3, 4).

“Thousands of people may have been given contaminated blood that was tested with kits whose expiry dates had either been tampered with or which had passed their use-by dates during the past one year” (1, 2) .

A number of states might have bought faulty blood test kits from the Sarda-owned Monozyme India, chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee revealed today.

A mob ransacked four wards and the superintendent’s office at the famous RG Kar Medical College.

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Is India a better place to bring up kids?

This is a serious dilemma that many parents face while living abroad. Many of them site that as the main reason to go back to India and settle there. They think prevailing situation and surrounding conditions in India will allow their kids to learn “Indian culture”. The dilemma mainly raises two questions. First, what do we mean by “bringing up”. Secondly, what do we mean by “Indian Culture” that many of us are so desperate to teach that to their kids?

To me bringing up implies to help the kid to become a better and total human being. Formal education is only a part of that. But the main aspect is learned from parents, society and surrounding environment.

The pressure to succeed there in India is so high that our own parents want us to prosper in every aspect of life. They forcefully impose almost all of their unfulfilled desires on those kids. In India today, we hardly behave in a honest, rational way. Our present society does not support honesty, as a virtue but consider it as a 'drag' force to become 'successful'. We teach our kids the same in the name of reality.

We see good number of kids going to school with heavy load of books and return home to do huge home-work. After coming back from the school they go to music class, then swimming, then home work and so on… They are too busy to spend time with parents. Very limited free time they get, they prefer to spend with TV and/or video games. Kids in the past used to read comic or other books or listening fairy tales from grandparents. This change in habit reduces their ability to imagine, to think 'unthinkable'.

Parents themselves cannot afford to remain honest and straightforward in present Indian society. They hardly can protect their own dignity, be it in the office or in a housing society or neighborhood, if they try to behave honestly, if they oppose corruptions and so on. Kids grow up with a distorted vision about life and "reality". They learn to accept corruption, not to oppose it in the name of “practical sense”. Money becomes almost the sole purpose of life. Accumulation of money and power start becoming the only yardstick to judge “success”. I agree that it's almost a global problem; but in India, it already has taken the dimension of an epidemic. Globalization is making it worse. We are loosing our good values fast while adopting cheap and easily imitable negative aspects of western culture.

In India, we learn that we can get away with almost any crime, "believers" may say "sin", by bribing even God, leave alone government officials and bureaucrats. Many of us feel that observing some bratas and offering costly items to God is sufficient to continue doing crimes and overcome our own limitations, e.g. failure to become rich, failure to pass exams, inability to find suitable spouse and so on. When we see highly visible but utterly corrupt people (e.g. well known political leaders, film actors, industrialists etc) offer huge money and expensive jewelry in the famous temples like that in Tirupati and media loudly advertise & praise it, then we need to acknowledge there is a serious problem with the society.

Our highly 'educated' and religious parents teach their kids not to help any other kid in the school or neighborhood. 'Little' cheating is acceptable to score higher marks n the exams or credit that s/he does not deserve. Kids start learning that showing off (money, power, degree etc.) is the best policy to hide any form of deficiencies or inabilities. From the beginning of their lives they learn that admitting fault and ignorance is a serious crime. It does not surprise me when most of the Indians always try to shift responsibilities and blame others or the 'system'. It not only deprives them from knowing the right thing but also expose their lack of  education.

Many parents blindly follow some rituals in the name of 'tradition' or 'religion' which they cannot explain to their curious kids. They take help of phrases like “you should not question when elders ask you to do something” or "you will know when you grow old". It not only hurt kid's psychology but also trains him/her to loose his/her ability to think independently and ask questions. It has severe consequences both for the kid and the nation. We see the same trend in homes, societies, schools, universities and offices. As a result India now produces mainly technician grade professionals who can walk only through the roads invented and developed by others. We can not make basic computer software like C++ or JAVA or operating systems like Windows or Linux, despite of being the global “power house” in IT. Our much-hyped biotechnology sector can only boast to produce generic drugs (patent expired drugs) and copying products by stealing/breaking patent laws of other countries, sometimes using the loopholes of Indian patent law. Published articles show that the quality of science and research in India is going down fast, despite of huge increase in fund allocation. India now mainly supplies scientific/technical coolies worldwide and due to lack of interest in science education and research among students in  developed countries, Indian techie/science coolies survive & thrive there.

Many studies showed that kids need to play in natural surroundings with bushes, ponds, forest etc. to have a healthy body and mind. But today Indian kids in cities and smaller towns hardly have anything else to do but to waste time in front of TV or video games. It’s almost impossible for kids to play & explore nature, even if their parents want. Land sharks and unplanned growth reduced that probability to a very worrying level. Running after money and busy schedule of parents prevent them from spending time with their kids. Many of them wrongly think money can buy 'education', 'culture' and even happiness. They can not differentiate between scoring high marks and buying degrees with education. This is a very pervasive disease in Indian society today. 

It’s not surprising at all when kids grow up and kick out their old parents. Such parents must not blame the 'system' or write songs, poems on old-age homes. They are responsible for their own fate and fate of the country. For many people, bringing up means enabling kids to earn money and survive with reasonable personal comfort. India is surely the place where they can get a cheap and effective training (I am avoiding the term “education” here) to do just that. But others, who still believe that bringing up means infusing a positive value and a dream to make this world better place, need to think many times before opting for an option to bring up their beloved children in India.

If the child is a girl, then it becomes more problematic. In India, we hardly allow a girl child to develop properly, with an analytical mind and a strong body. We kill most of her qualities (as a human being) in the very beginning and allow her to grow only as a 'girl', playing with dolls, tolerating sexual harassments and bullying by the society and even by the members in her own family. 'Ladki jaisa' (like girls) is a very insulting slang frequently used by parents, even by moms and, most pathetically, even in front of the girl child.

Here in the western world, there is a higher chance that the kid will do something they enjoy. They will not be forced to study medicine or engineering or science when they love journalism or cooking or singing or studying philosophy. There is a higher chance that s/he will love what s/he does and the probability to excel in that field is higher. The probability of the girl child to blossom into a woman with stronger body and logical mind is much higher in a western society as compared to India.

If the kid cannot read Rabindra Nath Tagore, cannot enjoy Durga Puja, can not eat hilsa fish, but enjoy reading Rohl Dahl, sign Celine Dion, enjoy rib-eye steaks, but is a good, honest, bold, straight talking, educated human being who dream to make this world a better place, I’ll be proud of such kids, despite of being a proud Indian and Bengali myself.

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Urban terrorism in India

These days we are hearing a lot about “urban terrorism” in India. Many Indians now wonder if that will be a part of our daily lives. Such noise became lauder after some recent bomb blasts in many Indian cities like Hyderabad, Mumbai, Ajmer shrine, Ludhiana etc. Modern day terrorism almost always target urban areas to maximize damage and collateral impact. Though the foot soldiers are recruited form the impoverished population in both rural and urban areas. On the other hand rural India always suffers from terrorism, be it by religious fundamentalism/superstition, oppression by landlords, politicians and police/bureaucrats. Rural mass in India accepted terrorism as a way of life since independence. After some sporadic violent movements in the past (e.g Naxal movement in West Bengal in 70's), rural India is now showing some sign of systematic opposition against rural terrorism and neglect by the political masters and ruling class of India. Now we see in almost all the states in India are affected by extremist Mao-ist, communist movements. Proponents of such violent movements think that they can cure cancer by infecting with HIV-AIDS virus. On the other hand, such movements can simply be described as an expression of frustration against existing law and order system and social and economic injustices. Many Indians think that India never got true freedom on 15th August 1947; only the power to rule India and its people simply changed hands. Before it was the British and later a few “brown sahibs” of Indian origin got that power. Situation for common Indians did not change. Quality of lives of majority Indians could not keep pace with that of common people in many other countries in the world and also with India’s own economic prosperity since 90's.

The “hunger index” of India is worse than even Pakistan in recently published report (2007). A recent (2008) BBC article citing International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) report ranks India at 66 out 88 countries, so far hunger is concerned. That report also points out that economic prosperity of a state in India does not always translate to a better, overall situation for common people. Highly prosperous states like Gujarat and Karnataka (that houses Indian silicone-valley, Bangalore) are worse in hunger index as compared to less developed states like Assam. India is slipping down in that key index as compared to its own position in 1990, despite a spectacular growth in GDP. Now India has the second fastest growing economy in the world and third largest in Asia. But, like many other social and environmental issues, the target fixed by India itself to reduce hunger was fallen far behind. The “Corruption index” for India is deteriorating further (1). India now has the highest death due to diarrhoea in the world. Nearly two-third of India has no access to sanitation even today. In terms of malnutrition among children, India today found itself ranked with Ethiopia. India is now home for one third of the world’s 146 million undernourished children according to a recent Unicef report. As expected, India is widely off track of the child mortality target as well. Judiciary is as good as non-functional (1).

What does it all mean? Only a handful of people are being benefited by the economic prosperity so far. Common people are facing the same hardship, all round corruption and environmental pollutions. So it’s not surprising that people in many states are not reporting crimes to police but punishing any suspected criminals by their own. Mass fury is unleashing against alleged corrupt “fair price” shop, popularly known as “ration” dealers in rural areas in West Bengal state. Now there is almost no one to complain to, against any social or economic injustices and expect a speedy redressal. What options people do have but to take laws in their own hands? It was the same for rural India since independence. But now due to wide reach of TV, Internet and other sources of information, they are becoming aware and have started demanding their share. We are generally oblivious about rural India, as that does not affect our daily lives in the cities with sparkling shopping malls, flyovers, 5-star hotels etc. But when a bomb rips apart a bus or a train or a temple, we suddenly wake up and start shouting about “urban terrorism”. We never think that it was inevitable. India is facing and will continue to face this modern form of urban terrorism unless overall change in the system is enforced. Huge unemployment, poverty and lack of impartial law and order implementation (please don’t confuse that to laws and clauses in the constitution) will always add fuel to the religion and caste based hatred and violence. Indian society and politics are too weak and fragmented to stop it. Although we will hear the same song and excuses by our political masters after every instance of terrorism, be it in Ajmer or Ludhiana or Hyderabad or Mumbai or Kashmir or NE states, the list is too long. After every act of terrorism our masters will congratulate us for “showing courage” in ignoring terrorism. They probably are too scared and/or too shrewd to admit that common Indians have no option but to go to their works for their families to survive.

India on its 60th Birthday

I read a nice article in BBC news web site about Pakistani society. The situation in Pakistan, just one day older nation than ours, is not much different than most of the countries in the third world, particularly in Asia, including Indian subcontinent and Middle East. In all these countries "It is the ruling class that routinely breaks the law and considers it a privilege". Indian ruling class is no different than that of its Pakistani counterpart. "The people of this country have learnt to live in a system heavily skewed against them. They look for short cuts, they bribe their way, they use friends' and family's influence, they lie through their teeth, they plead and they threaten because there is no straightforward way to get things done"- is equally true for India.

Situation has not much changed since independence; so far common people of the country are concerned. In fact, according to many reports it has been deteriorated, despite of huge improvement in financial situation of some people of the country. Today when we see flood pictures from Bihar, UP, Assam and many other parts in India, we hardly can differentiate between Bangladesh, Pakistan and some sub-Saharan African states with India. General health index of common Indians are among the worst in the world (according to UN report), so does education; the two main pillars of any civilized society and prosperous nation. Please don’t site 4000 IIT grads or 5 lakhs IT professionals or so in a country of about 120 crores. Quality of education, wide spread corruption even in different joint entrance exams, drop out rate and literacy rate in India is still very worrying.

We are still maintaining a feudal society. Even today, sons and daughters of powerful people go abroad, buy degrees from prestigious universities in Europe or US but hardly get true education. These people comeback and do the same thing as their parents and grand parents did. The cycle goes on. Many of our corrupt politicians, bureaucrats and industry captains do possess heavy-weight degrees.

It’s due to the same reason why many Indians, particularly Non Residential Indians, behave like feudal lords and demand royal treatment particularly when they are in India but sometimes in abroad as well. A truly educated person will be ashamed to its core to behave in such a way. The most unfortunate thing is that many of these people themselves prefer to settle in a western country rather than in a country, which has same type (Indian style) of society and law and order situation. They want the peaceful and prosperous life of a western country but at the same time they desire to have all the extra-constitutional privileges they are so used to in their own countries and societies. It’s not surprising that middle class and upper class Pakistanis and people from such societies/countries are the main driving force to organize and mobilize the jehadi agenda in US and Europe, as they do not get the extra-constitutional privileges here and get upset. These extra-constitutional privileges are also one of the main reasons why many such people prefer to go back to thier home countries.

The most deprived, under-privileged people are taking up arms to protest against such feudal system in India these days. Many times they are highly exploited by religious leaders, rich businessmen/industrialists and shrewd politicians. It’s not very surprising that practically no state in India is free from organized extremist violence these days. Is that the way to solve our problems? May be yes, may be no; but one thing I am sure about, India is maturing. It’s like bringing up an intelligent, healthy child who has loads of curiosity but don't know what and how to prioritize and the consequences. With proper, honest guidance and effort it has the ability and resources to become a prosperous and happy nation. But who will give this honest, able guidance? We can blame the politicians, but the fact remains that this situation will not change until a good number of honest people take up politics as a profession. They may not be able to do so while studying or working, but can think of it after retirement. If “good” people do not come, the positions will not remain vacant but will be occupied by these parasites and the country will continue to suffer.

The least we can do, for the time being, is to speak up in whatever forum we can against hypocrisy, corruption and cruelty we encounter in our daily life.

What is Education?

Last night I watched a couple of movies. First one was “Agantuk” and then “Sakha Prasakha” by Satyajit Ray. Today I watched CNN news that Lewis Libby, a convicted former US vice-presidential aide, has been pardoned by US president. US Supreme Court sentenced Mr. Libby to two-and-a-half years in prison, two years of probation and a fine of $250,000. Sometime ago, I got an offer for a job with a specific US visa that required the prospective employer to give me a certain minimum salary. But the employer asked me to sign a document stating that I get the stated minimum salary while my actual salary would be less than that minimum salary. All the people concerned in the foresaid stories have one common virtue. All are well “educated” people breaking laws but do not find anything wrong in that. Such people include US president; aid of US vice president, a university professor in US and a highly educated entrepreneur in US. In short, all are successful people with some heavy weight degrees from some best universities in the world.

When I was a kid, my parents and many teachers in our village school used to tell us that we need to be a good human being first and then anything else. Marks in exams, monetary success all were non-issue for them. I learned that the main goal of education is to become a "good human being”. But when I see around after earning some heavy weight degrees, I realized that the aim of education is not to become a better human being but to gain knowledge to fool others without being caught. I started thinking if institutional education system teach us only that much to enable us to serve our masters and earn money, as much as we can. If we can do that, we will be considered “successful” and also “highly educated”.

In this world there is almost no place of sympathy, empathy to other less fortunate people around us, leave alone other animals. Educated professionals in present day world do not care much about anything other than his/her career. We do not care much but accept as "reality" about- sky high corruption in most of the third world countries like India, ethnic cleansing in Dafur, civil unrest in Sierra Leon, blood diamond in Congo, cleansing of rain forest, wiping out habitats of many animals, global warming… the list is endless. Many of the “educated” people tell, “why should I need to know all those”? Some consider those as "part of life and we need to accept the reality". Some are scared when they see Islamic terrorism on TV and don’t know “why these people are so angry and violent!”. Some assure themselves that they donate money when organizations ask and he feels like. This reminds me about my days in Calcutta University. I used to (rather, had to) donate money for students’ union, run and managed by SFI (student wing of the communist party). Not because I believe in their ideology but to avoid problem (fear of being out-of- fashion of being “intellectual” and humiliation).

More the world is getting populated more we are loosing faith on sympathy and empathy. One reason is surely competition. Worldwide reach of information explosion is another reason. In not so distant past economic backward people used to avoid effluent people thinking that they are more intelligent, hard working and noble. That’s why they are rich. Due to that awe, they used to keep a distance. But now they know (through wide reach of TV, internet etc) that this “elite” class is no more intelligent, no more hard working and no less corrupt than most other people. So people do not hesitate to grab the collar of a Vice Chancellor of a university or a bureaucrat or a doctor with slightest provocation. Can we blame those students or people when they do such thing? I don’t think so. To me all these behavior is a ramification of loosing our value system in our education. Many of us read great books, watch great movies, listen great songs but we hardly learn anything from those. As a person we remain the same; same corrupt, same dishonest, same hypocrite, follow the same sycophancy.

"Education" no longer grooms people to become a better, civilized human being. It only teaches us the art and knowledge to serve our master (employer), gather degrees (to distinguish ourselves from others) and most importantly, accumulate money by whatever means deemed necessary. It enables us to survive with a degree of personal comfort, but hardly prepares us to dream of a better world.

Nice video presentation on the same topic by Sir Ken Robinson.

Economic prosperity vs social disparity- dictates quality of life

I was born and brought up in a village in India. Before I came out of India, life was just fine there. I had no problem to accept the reality of life. But now after living in some West-European countries and then US for some years, my views about life have changed. My perception about law and order has changed. Which used to be a natural phenomenon during my teens and early adulthood is not so now.

I like to give one example. When I was in Mumbai, I learned that school fee in one of the famous primary cum high schools there is about 5 lakhs (INR) per annum! There is another international school in Navi Mumbai that charges about 7 lakhs (INR) per annum as fees. Then I started gathering information about the quality of education, salaries of teachers, facilities etc which can justify that high tuition fee. I was wondering how many Indians can afford that fee and what social impact it has. Then I realized that such schools only train young Indian (not so proud to be an Indian though) kids to learn western culture like wearing ties, well ironed dresses, polished shoes, using knives and forks while eating, American or British slang etc. Education is not the most important in their agenda. Parents of such kids are mostly businessmen / industrialists / bureaucrats / executives in private companies and so on. They perceive "education" just as another commodity- buy it, use it, and throw it as and when needed.

Of course, you can get your kids admitted to a less expensive schools or free government schools. But you will not like that idea much. Kids from such poor, vernacular schools have less chance of success as these high profile, private schools have great and seemingly mysterious power to influence test scoring ability and success rate in many different competitive exams, as well as in selling themselves in the job market. No, parents do not ask where so many 'successful' young talents get lost in subsequent years. We do not see them in any novel research or technology development or any creative art. We also know such kids do great in earning money as a technician (not technocrat though), by successfully performing routine management or engineering or medical practitioner or 'research' duties. Their main success lies in doing the jobs that require good inter-personal, soft skills more than independent and analytical thinking. This is just the beginning of a mediocre, hierarchical society where the difference between haves and have-nots will increase in subsequent years.

Now changing the gear a bit. How much you need to earn to spend about 5 lakhs per annum for your kid’s schooling (that too only tuition fee), leave alone other educational activities like games and sports, creative art, routine excursions etc? A decent apartment (3 bedroom, hall, kitchen) in a decent locality in Navi Mumbai will cost you around 60 lakhs (with a EMI of ~ 60,000/- per month), a decent car (Honda City) will have an monthly EMI of ~ 20,000/-. So how much monthly take home salary you need to have to afford a 'decent' (in western standard) life there? Now you can easily understand what type of people you, your family and kid will be surrounded with (in your kid's school, in your apartment, neighborhood etc.)? Surely your neighbors will be rich enough but not necessarily the desirable one from whom your kid or you might expect some deeds and lessons of honesty and morality.

One government data, published recently, showed that about 34% of Indians earn less than Rs 450/- per month. About 80% of Indians live below a monthly income of Rs 2000/-. There is no doubt that India is doing great, so far GDP is concerned with about 9% annual increase in GDP. But as one Indian cabinet minister told, “this development is limited to only 0.2% of population”. Just check the data for India's financial capital, Mumbai. Financial activities in that city is not sufficient to sustain itself, leave alone supporting other smaller cities and villages, as happened in more productive egalitarian societies. It's reported that less than 1% people in Mumbai earn more than Rs 10 lakhs per annum. Informed people would acknowledge that Rs 10 lakh/year income is not sufficient to have a decent life in that city. It'll not be unfair to say that wealth from all over the country is accumulating in few isolated islands of prosperity in such big cities, leaving rest of India in worse economic woes. 


This is a very frightening- so far social development and national well-being is concerned. The growth rate in terms of GDP or FDI is helping increasing the social disparity. As a result, people are now chasing a dream of economic prosperity without having supporting infrastructure (law and order, good governance, basic services for all the citizens etc).
In short, economic prosperity will not lead to have a better quality of life due to social disparity. It is not so surprising that young Indians are now too much obsessed with money, only money. That’s the main reason they are the most optimistic people in the world, as per Forbes survey. It says, “But even though Indians are the happiest, the numbers of those satisfied aren't very high. In Europe, most young people seek a good living environment above all and work-related aspects in life are relatively less important. But the priorities of Indian youth and young people in other 'new economies' are different- for them, work, a good career and a position with high status are what matters”.
I am not going into the subject of happiness quotient that western leaders have started appreciating to evaluate the wellbeing of their country and efficacy of their policies.

Nowadays internal terrorism and extremist communist (Naxal) movement is more of an alternative profession than a fight for great ideology or social justice. Such extremism is raising its head almost all over the country. An Indian teen of about 12 years did not hesitate to throw a grenade in a crowded marketplace for only Rs. 120/-. He was not part of any terrorist group though, as published in Indian Express. This, in turn, is bound to affect our day-to-day lives in India. Nandigram/Singur is and will not be any isolated incident in near future. In fact, West Bengal Govt gave more support price for unit land to the concerned farmers than many MNCs and other state Govt, mainly for 'special Economic Zones' (SEZ)  and some big projects, in many places in India.

The development in India is generating more social disparity as a 'drag force' that can not be overcome by economic prosperity of a small section of the population. You surely can buy a great car but will not have a great road to drive that, you can buy a great apartment but you need to keep its windows almost always closed. You can never roam in a forest infested with antisocial/terrorists,  you can never enjoy fishing or a boat ride through the river- fully polluted and smelly. Natural resources are disappearing at a very alarming rate. It will be more frustrating if you try to do something to improve the situation there. Then you/your family will be marginalized and/or even (physically) threatened. 

Despite of all these, I still feel that the smile of a kid, the serene beauty of a few remaining natural masterpieces there, worth taking the risk. Initially I thought that it would be better to try to change the system being a part of the system. But after my recent experiences there, I do feel that it makes more practical sense to do something if I am not part of that corrupt system. At least, I am not accountable to that system and (mostly) beyond the reach of the custodians of the system there, who have their own interests to maintain the status-quo and more interested to build a false image of the country than changing the reality to support such 'shining India' brand name. I can insulate me and my family from the criminals and crimes ruling my country today, while contributing towards betterment of the society there.

1 lakh= 0.1 million; 1 crore= 10 million; 1 USD ($)= ~ 47 Indian rupees (INR )

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God created man or man created God?

During early days of human civilization, we felt very insecure and helpless in front of natural calamities and search for food. We gradually tried to adjust, understand and sometimes overcome such problems. The main stratagy to do that was to organize people and act as a group. That gave rise to group activities like hunting, cultivation etc. It increased their chance of success and survival. During this process men gradually understood its own limitation. So they conceived the existence of supernatural power, which they thought are behind all those forces. They also started believing that such supernatural forces strike when they are not happy. They tried to keep them happy. They developed a set of rituals, “warship”, as the means to keep these “Gods” or “spirits” happy. 

Each group of people tried to conceive the supernatural powers according to their own experience. If they liked particular meat or drink, they used to offer those to their “Gods”. “Gods” also started looking like them, physically. So the same “God” is not exactly the same in southern India as compared to that of northern India. Even definition of “God” varies from region to region. Ravana may be a demon in most of India but many people in Sri Lanka and southern India consider him as “God”. As most of the natural calamities used to be the same e.g. rain, flood, storm-wind, draught-sun, wild beasts etc, many of such supernatural powers had high similarities (though not identical) world over. Gradually all such activities and concepts gave rise to religion. 

Basically religion was evolved mainly to make societies more organized and to involve everybody to participate in different activities or "rituals", for betterment of the society. “Religion” made implementing the rules much easier, as punishment was stipulated to be high. This gave rise to the concept of virtue and vice. Breaking the rules were equated to sin or vice while obeying those were termed as virtues. Here we should keep in mind that all such rules were made by human, most probably the pack leaders of concerned groups. 

During early phase of human evolution and the initial days of “religion”, all were busy to ensure their own survival. So they all were interested to search the reason, in other words, the truth (mainly behind natural calamities, food supply and reproduction). Later life became a bit easier due to many innovations and inventions. Then the main evolution of religion started (as we see it today).

Ancient religions are more inclined to have idol worshipping and have many Gods/Goddesses to take care of natural causes like wind, rain, flood, life threatening animals, birth, death etc. Example of such religion is Hinduism, religions from ancient Egypt, Greece etc. Many tribes in India and abroad practice such type of “religion” with many Gods. More recent religions like Islam, Christianity etc are more like an "ideology". Almost all of such recent religions conceive a single "God" and the person who introduced that “ideology” became a “prophet”; as compared to many "Gods" in ancient religions. Such difference indicates the ultimate motive behind the introduction of such religions. It's like establishing an "ideology" mainly to prove one's supremacy than to motivate survival of a group of people. It’s the same psychology with which a king rules his subject. Evolution of such recent religions was possible as life became easier. Creation and spread of such recent religions also affected ancient religions. Leaders of those who were practicing “ancient” religions tried to invent some new “rituals” (which was not originally there) to strengthen their own grip over wealth and power. “Satidaha” (burning of brides), no beef eating, many marriages by men but not by women etc by Hindus are some of this type of “rituals”. As people and their leaders from different religions came in contact of each other, competition to prove ones’ supremacy became more intense.

To maintian the social order and their own supremacy, group-leaders did not encourage asking question. They started implementing their own version of “truth” in the name of religion. It became the norm. Gradually every religion started demanding un-questionable faith. “Search for truth” soon became the fight to establish one’s own version of “truth”. Now we see the fight among human beings to prove that their version of “truth” is more “true” than that of others! This deformed version of “religion” allegedly is the single most important reason for human sufferings, conflicts and death in the past and remains so even today.

Reservation policy in India: Long term planning needed to serve justice to all

I am from a small town in eastern India. That government primary school, I studied, hardly had any infrastructure, even without any roof and blackboard. My parents were not rich either. Does anyone think that I got  equal opportunity as compared to St. Xaviers, Calcutta or DPS RK Puram, Delhi or Doon Schools? Then should people like me start demanding that students from villages also should get reservation? The fact remains-even without reservation I reached at the top of my profession and attended some best universities in the world. I can successfully compete with any student, educated all through in Harvard or Stanford or Cambridge or Oxford or so. No one gave me any reservation. For that I can keep my head high and dignity.

  

Caste is a real social problem. No one knows that better than a person from a village in India. But still I believe that reservation is not the solution. It will only create more division among people and encourage corruption and crime. Govt should set up good schools, make decent education available to all, campaign aggressively against social discriminations (all sorts of discrimination, including caste system, religion, gender etc). Nepotism and corrupt recruitment practices is very high in India which in term favors upper castes as they traditionally occupy most of the high positions, be it govt or private. But people from lower caste are equally corrupt when they get power. We know many examples for that. After all, we all (lower or upper caste) are coming from the same society, product of the same system. That explains why we don’t get gold medal in Olympics or Nobel Prize even when there is no reservation. Upper caste professionals are not necessarily the better one.

Money and power can buy almost anything, starting from education (read, degree), job, and government positions. IIT professionals are not necessarily more brilliant one as compared to that from many other engineering colleges, but surely IIT students are better trained, familiar with latest techniques (which is very different from technology and science) and mostly from affluent background from cities. A student with higher marks does not mean that s/he is more intelligent. An IAS or IPS officer does not guarantee a better job performance as compared to a non-UPSC qualified officer. We severely lack credibility in most of our institutions, starting from education to policy making. It’s a system failure. We need to make our system better, more accountable and credible. To do that, we need to have “good” people in policy making (i.e. in politics) and law enforcement. We need to remember that intelligence, senses of justice and ethics do not come from socio-economic hierarchy or degree or  power. 

This reservation controversy is a wakeup call for all sane Indians. We are facing this situation and years of under-development, extractive economic and political institutions since centuries. In post-independent India, it's supported by utterly corrupt and least efficient bureaucracy in Asia. These people thrive and can successfully impose their wrong policies on all of us because of widespread lack of any sense of justice, ethics, civility, compounded by ignorance and lack of foresightedness. We the middle class, so called intellectual Indians, may not like politics but are no less corrupt. We hate politics and politicians in public but do not have the ethics and courage to oppose them. In fact, we indulge in similar corruption and crime, according to our ability and courage, as and when we get slightest opportunity. Our education does not build character but teaches us only to survive and,  sometimes, flourish even without a much knowledge (leave alone wisdom), backbone and/or dignity. In this whole process caste is irrelevant.

Our government prefer to adopt expensive and mostly non-functional but populist schemes like “gramin rojgar yojona” to ensure 100 days of jobs for rural poor. In theory, it’s so attractive. But our policy makers hardly think about reality and whether it works or not. As if rural people are more interested to get free meal for 100 days and then get starved for the rest of 265 days! Such schemes inherently fail to reduce poverty, as happened many times in the past, like ‘garibi hatao’ by Indira Gandhi. Our government is very reluctant to build infrastructure, opportunities and, most importantly, implement unbiased law and order system that in turn improves employment opportunities for people, reduce caste and religion based hatred, besides increase the rate of development at the macro level. Once economic prosperity sets in with proper law and order implementation, the menace of caste divide surely will be reduced.

The proponents of the reservation policy, including those for SC-ST, are hardly interested in logical debate. They are more enthusiastic about shouting and continuing the policy whatever may be the outcome and impact on our society. They are not at all interested to set a defined target or a time frame. None of the policy makers know when can they say the policy has fulfilled its target and stop such reservation, as initially intended by people like BR Ambedkar who introduced such policy in Indian constitution and recommended it to be reviewed within ten years. Our policy makers also do not know how long will it take to achieve that target. Such people are reluctant to understand how population growth, mainly among the communities targeted by reservation, and overall progress of the nation are taken into consideration to determine what benefit this policy is making to the target community and the nation. This policy is like a project without any specific, tangible objective and a deadline. Supreme Court asked some of these questions but never got any reply from Indian Govt or proponents of such caste based reservation. But who cares about Supreme Court when these politicians can make any rule and force judiciary to follow those.

Unproductive schemes like “gramin rojgar yojona” (officially known as National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme, (A) and useless subsidies in many other govt departments suck up a huge portion of our national wealth and leave hardly anything for proper developmental projects like building schools in rural areas, improving infrastructure in primary and high school education (2). The relative prosperity of the “backward class” is not due to reservation policy but due to overall growth in India. Govt of India admitted, “the ST population accounts for 8.6% of the total population in the country. The condition of tribal people have no doubt improved over the years but their situation vis-a-vis the rest of the population in the country has worsened on all counts of development” (1).

Politicians do not like the idea to examine the whole reservation policy, particularly, what and how much justice and prosperity does this 60 years old policy brought to the target population. Initially it was suggested to be reviewed after 10 years. Now politicians dare not to touch their 'backward' vote bank, and address questions regarding population growth, availability and sustainability of quality primary and high school education, transparency in all recruitments etc. Policies like reservation doesn’t encourage the backward people to think why majority of them are still backward even after about 60 years of reservation. In the meantime, a race has started among many upper caste communities to become lower caste- only to avail caste based reservation. 

If we addressed caste related violence and hatred mainly as law and order problem, we could have a better grip over it. Cheating, beating and ignoring a lower caste person by any upper caste people can be successfully addressed if we have an impartial and accessible law and order and police. We never tried to reform our colonial police or antique legal system or British raj bureaucracy. In the meantime, some ambitious people from lower caste took this golden opportunity to promote their political agenda. But the irony is, once they achieve the status of a typical powerful person in India, they hate to consider themselves as “backward” and try their best to distance themselves from that community during any time but election time. They try their best to imitate the same upper-caste people they were fighting so hard. In the process they did not work for the real backward people but try their best to ensure special privileges for subsequent generations. It’s same trend in almost every profession. It creates more division, more hatred in the society and the problem continues.

It seems that caste based reservation policy is no more an issue towards establishing social justice or developing deprived people but a way to take revenge and get some extra benefits at the expense of others and the country. It is an attempt to hide the inabilities of our politicians at the expanse of the prosperity of the nation and also real backward people in the country. Any civilized society must not have any divisive system based on caste or religion or any such parameter. This policy is strengthening that caste based hatred rather than solving it. The caste problem took such a huge proportion mainly due to utter failure of law and order machinery and judiciary, since independence. It's time to change all that. 

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Research career in academics and other options: Think after you have leaped

Some people who come to pursue research careers come mainly to satisfy their innovative thinking and love for doing something challenging. This is the motive for young people after finishing their school days and early part of their university lives, when their worldly needs are taken care of by their parents (at least in most of the Asian countries, which supply the majority of scientific workforce worldwide).

At the beginning of our formal education in schools, most of the intelligent students get attracted towards physics and mathematics, simply because they can do the experiments and get the results soon. That time they perform known experiments and become delighted when they observe the expected results that are taught in their classes. If they do not get the expected result, they start thinking and try to solve that. It motivates them and excites them to think novel. This lot of students should matter for research career, for the betterment of the society. At later life, these students find themselves at a disadvantageous position because their curiosity and intelligence. Their thoughtful nature dent to their academic results. A fraction of them become successful to adjust to the system and score higher marks while most of them get lost. Naturally, in higher education and research, mainly the students with mechanical thinking, mostly unable and sometimes scared to question existing knowledge and/or authority, are the overwhelming majority. Our Education system favours the rule of mediocrity by replacing genuine talents with private tuition and coaching enabled students with great mugging up ability.

It’s not very surprising that the quality of Indian research is going down day by day despite of much better monetary support from Government these days (1, 2, 3). Even the highly hyped Indian institutes and research organizations are nothing more than teaching institutes. They enjoy special status mainly due to their ability to send students to manpower starved Western countries, not for their ability to innovate or invent. No wonder India is among the least innovative countries in the world.

The only research organization that went public scrutiny is DRDO, the much hyped organization for its many high profile projects. DRDO failed miserably so far accountability is concerned (1, 1A, 1B, 1C, 1D, 2, 3, 4).

If some of the innovative/novel thinkers still manage to get a PhD, they realized that life, as a “researcher”, is a pathetic journey ahead. The dream they once had, lost since long. Now they are forced to think as “others” think, they are forced to do as “others” do. Most of the time they are simply the extension of hands for their bosses, particularly as postdoc and PhD candidates. Their “independent thinking” is welcome so long it matches with that of the authorities/boss. Then they realize that this was not their dream when they decided to join research. They also realize that they are deviating from their dream day by day! The worldly matter also does not look good for them. Parents are long gone. Now they need to support themselves and their families and also face the consequences to satisfy their curiosity, which drove them to take research as their career in the first place. Research is no more the "search for truth” but only to publish and get grants. Most of the time it’s to generate data for data sake, without having a long-term goal and without asking what the society will get for such an “academic research” (mainly for government funded research institutes).

Salary is at its minimum as compared to other “equivalent” professions. Mentoring good students or, in other words, managerial skills are almost absent in the field of academic research. Quality of life is at its lowest. The demand (responsibilities) of the profession is too high while accountability is at its lowest (this also explains why salary is low). They hardly can devote time and also money for family duties, hobbies etc. Most of such people are forced to work for more than 10-12 hours a day on a regular basis, even without proper weekends, besides the fact that many also cannot go their home (country) for several years (while doing postdoc, PhD abroad). This picture is more or less true for USA and majority of Asian countries that follow the American model or crowded by US trained “scientists”. Picture in west European research labs are a bit different, but still have many of the foresaid problems.

In this backdrop we need to think does it worth to continue the path of “research” and if not, what options do we have. The answer varies from person to person depending on their history, ability and ambition (both research and quality of life wise). If a person got some good publications and good “pedigree” at an early stage of his/her career, then s/he has an advantage to continue to pursue academics or institutional research career. Even then some facts argue against that. To me, it seems that to pursue research career in academics is not worth it, if you are not highly motivated (not in terms of time spent in the lab, as meant by majority of US advertisements for postsocs, but productivity and own satisfaction-wise).

The best and ideal way to change the situation is to join politics to enter in policy making. A couple of good scientists hardly matter for the society or the country or even for the research community. Until or unless we can make a system that reward novel thinking in both education and research, we cannot utilize our able manpower and other resources to the fraction of its potential.

In more practical term, we can shift to other professions that are related to science (at least to have an entry). If we cannot change the system now, we can compromise our dreams for the time being. After all these experiences, we are no more the ideal thinker as we used to be in our teens. We can successfully use our skills in many other professions.

The most evident is to join industrial research. Though you cannot expect groundbreaking research there, but at least you will be better paid to have a decent life. 

Once you have some experience about practical problems in a real world, you are ready to venture out for jobs, e.g consultancy. Academic degrees are mere decorative in almost every field in real sense. There are too many venture capitalists to invest good amount of money if you have a sound plan and product/service to offer. To evaluate your plan and the quality of your intended product/service, you need some experience in market/business, I think.

If you have some alternative skills, like photography, debating ability etc, then there are many more options open. But you need to have a stable flow of money from some other source, at least initially.

Novel thinkers joined research mainly to satisfy their intellectual ego and love for doing something challenging. Policy makers should ensure that. Else many able candidates will leave education and research while whole society will suffer due to reign of mediocrity and dishonesty in the long run. At the personal level, the consequences for not trying are far greater than the risk for trying. “I cannot do much” also must not be the excuse for not trying at all.