My Rankings...

I read in "The Google Story" that most of us at some point of time have tried a search on our names on the internet. I also tried to search for Shishir Pandey on various search engines. Its good to see this blog ranked second on Google (subject to change without notice, it might have changed as I write this). A few days ago it was on rank one in Google search but I did not take the screen shot of it then. I hope it will get back there some time soon. I also tried the search on Yahoo and this blog is ranked one there (YAHOOOOOOOO0000!!!!!!!!). I also tried other search engines like windows live search and ask.com there results were bad.

I attach the two screen shots of results from google and yahoo..

From today I shall start using Yahoo as my preferred search engine..

Some Unanswered Questions!!

I have started thinking of the basic mathematical operations again. The thought process began when my father asked me - "why does negative number multiplied with a negative number produce a positive number?".

The basic reasoning on which we are taught multiplication does not seem to work here or if it does I just do not understand how? As per how we are taught multiplication if some one says 'a x b' then it would mean what is the value of adding 'a' 'b' number of times or what is the result of adding 'b' 'a' number of times. This scheme works perfectly when both a and b are positive. This is how we are first taught multiplication and once we understand this concept we start overlooking many things.

It works well even for if one of then is positive and the other is negative. For example 'a x -b' would imply -b added a number of times. As adding a, -b number of times seems absurd (the commutative law of multiplication seems questionable).

What if we have both the numbers negative. We all know because our teachers told that negative number multiplied with a negative number will give us a positive result. But, if I reason the way I have done before I can do no further how do I add something negative number of times. After all you can do a thing once, twice, etc.... or not do at all but how do you do it -1 time?

I am still stuck with this question. Answers and suggestions are welcome.

There and Back Again - A Travellers Tale (Part I)

The Journey to Ayodhya

My Journey began at 9:30pm when I left with my Aunt and sister for Ayodhya from Tatanagar (Jamshedpur). The remaining berths around were empty and I thought that they were empty and someone will later occupy in the night as it was departure time already but then immediatly two more people (mother and son) came in and occupied there seat next to ours. Then after some time it was time to sleep.

As I knew that we would reach our destination earliest by 11 O’clock. I tried to sleep as long as I could, because its really hard to pass time in the train. I got up after we had passed the Varanasi (Banaras) station. Although my sleep had been broken when a vendor came it the compartment shouting "Paper - News Paper, Hindi newspaper english newspaper". It was July and the monsoons had arrived, the view of the country side was really amazing; green fields, ponds filled with water and people working in the fields. Here are a few pictures I took with the help of my cellphone from the train.





My sister had given me a copy of "Angels and Deamons" which I haven't read till then. I started reading the book to pass some time. The train was suppose to be at Faizabad (my destination) by 12:00 pm or so. But, it was now running late by at least an hour. Ayodhya (the I had to reach) station comes on the way but the train does not stop there so we had to get down at the next stop i.e. Faizabad. Sometimes the train stops at Ayodhya, due to some signaling issues, so we had planned if it does stop we will get down at Ayodhya itself. To our disappointment the train did not stop in Ayodhya. But, it stopped at 'Acharya Narendra Dev Nagar' the only station between Ayodhya and Faizabad for about 20 minutes. That's when we were really annoyed. After sometime we reached Faizabad and then took an auto to Ayodhya and then a cycle rickshaw to our home in the village. It was about 2:30 pm when we reached home.

India's Education Crisis

In this post I will try to put forward my views on the current crisis Indian Education sector is facing, what is the government trying to do about it and what it is not doing.

First of all the government seems to be too complacent about the quality of higher education. It believes in using the already established names than creating new ones. Its something like selling all the sports shoes in India by the name Nike. This is not a very good idea after all we all know the difference between the Rs.100 tennis shoes I used and the Rs.3000 tennis shoes Nike provides. Of course unless until we want IITians to be omnipresent, like God. But, then one also has to make arrangement (of teachers and facilities) so that all IITians have God like properties.

Why do we need reservations in higher education? Isn't primary education that must be given importance and the higher must be left for the student to work hard and secure admission to. If quota is all about giving opportunity to people who have not got it then primary education is it. Not higher education. There must be scholarships for meritorious students and based on needs, not quota. Imagine how would a student feel if he sees his classmates doing well and he is struggling; either he will work hard or he might have some mental problems. But, if he were to work hard he would have done it earlier. All, you would be doing is spending lot of money on resources then

Arjun Singh wants to open up more and more IITs in the country, the question is, is it really going to help anybody or its just a political stunt to get the votes. I personally believe Arjun Singh wants to give a feeling that he is trying to provide quality education to many people. No matter how noble his intentions may be, the question is will he be able to provide quality education? I think he is mislead by the idea that India is lacking only good institutes of higher education, little does he realize that India does not have qualified teachers (after all good teachers are a must for good institutes). There are only a few places which provide quality education that can be compared to the best in the world. IITs have lost there position in the top 200 universities in the world (in 2007 each IIT was ranked separately). I really do not think that Arjun Singh is doing anything to get or create good quality teachers to India. He has only made things worse by introducing the quota system for the faculty position at IITs, TIFR, IISc and BARC, another Times of India article can be found here. The directors, students and alumni of these institutes have protested the rule but we will have to wait and watch.

These acts remind me of the forward that I had recieved sometime back. If he were the sports minister he would have introduced reservation in the nationals teams too (as it would be really hard that to implement if in the cricket team first. He would have tried other sports). If he becomes the Civil aviation minister he might reserve 40% of the seats in Air India and Indian for the SC, ST and the OBC.

I really hope that the quota is not implemented for the faculty.