The Other Salman Khan

This Salman Khan doesn’t like removing his shirt for no good reason, has 3 degrees from MIT (BS in Mathematics, BS and MS in Electrical and Computer Engineering) and one from Harvard( MBA) and has left his job at a hedge fund to teach school kids.

Salman Khan is a Bangladeshi American born to a Bangladeshi father and an Indian mother. He started of his teaching career when he started helping out his cousins in their school curriculum. He started posting 10 minute video tutorials on YouTube so that his cousins could have a look. Over the time, he started getting a good number of hits on his videos. So much so that it caught Bill Gates' attention. Now he has a $2 million support from Google to create more content and translation of content to other prominent languages of the world.

 He featured in TED in 2011 where he tells how a hedge fund analyst got into teaching kids.

Salman Khan: Let's use video to reinvent education | Video on TED.com

I have been viewing some of his videos on finance and economics and they have been really enlightening. It is kind of eureka feeling when you come across something like this. It was as if you were looking for it all along but didn’t know where you might stumble across this thing.

Check out his webpage for some insane number of videos: http://www.khanacademy.org/

My Father doesn't like Reliance Fresh. Now I know why.

As a kid I would often accompany my father on his weekly trip to dhan-mandi(local market). I would sit in the rear seat of our good old Bajaj Chetak, with my arms wrapped around my father’s belly and my mind wandering in the chaos of narrow streets sprawling with hawkers selling bizarre things, stray cows having lost all sense of direction and poor customers finding their way in this pandemonium.

Today, I went to the market again with my father. This time we were travelling in our bike, the rest of the surrounding however seem to show no difference. My father has been a vocal critic of reliance fresh, big bazaar and other multi brand retail stores. It would often seem counter intuitive to me. Today I was to learn, why it wasn’t.

 The most surprising thing I noticed while travelling through the mandi was that my father was getting greeted by random shopkeepers along the way. Whenever he would stop to buy a thing, he would have the customary round of bargaining and a convergence on selling price (based on na tera na mera principle). While my father was dealing with an onion merchant, selecting the onions from a tokri full of onions, a tiny little girl nudged him from behind. She was three, maybe four and was the cutest little girl. She had coriander leaves (dhania) in her hands and she was pleading my father to buy a bunch of leaves for five rupees. My father looked at that girl and smiled for seconds at length. He and I exchanged looks. I promptly took out 5 Rs from my pocket and placed it on those tiny hands. My father started to ask “School nahi gayi aaj?”, but she had left by then, too busy to be bothered by such banalities.

We moved on to another hawker. She was selling vegetables. My father asked for 1 kg of ladyfingers and the lady said with much authority “Mai do kilo de rahi hun”. He had to beg her to put only 1 kg.  My father motioned towards the spot where that lady was sitting and told me that there was another lady who used to sit here(The lady who was sitting then was the niece of that lady).He always bought vegetables from that lady. She died of heart ailment a few months back. “Bahut dukh hua sunkar” my father said.

We kept on moving through the mesh of hawkers sitting on the floor and selling fruits and vegetables. While I was there I sensed a great loss which my generation and I are moving towards. We are probably going to miss out on a whole set of real friends while we are busy living our virtual lives and considering reliance fresh as our best alternative for shopping. What a shame. 

Books I read this summer

The following is a list of books which I read in that past few months. These books weren’t necessarily read in >30 degree temperature. Some were even read under a rajai ( all in 2011 though). I liked the title to be this way.

·        Tuesday’s with Morrie

Author – Mitch Albom

Genre – nonfiction, memoir

My rating – 4/5

A few months back I was talking with a friend of mine on her birthday and in the middle of the discussion she told that she wanted to call up everyone whom she cared for and tell them how much they mean to her. Further ahead in the discussion I found that it was Tuesdays with Morrie which had brought this desire in her mind.

Tuesdays with Morrie is a real life account of the last few days of Morrie Shwartz, a professor of sociology in Brandeis University, Massachusetts. Morrie is diagnosed by Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS) and is destined to die a slow and painful death. The author, an old student of Morrie, hears about his condition and decides to pay him a visit. The author has penned those conversations which he had with his teacher before his teacher’s death.

The book is written in a much uncomplicated manner and touches one’s heart and one’s beliefs in a profound way.  This made me think a lot about how I want my life to be. And I kept thinking about these things even long after I finished the book. I would highly recommend this book for anyone who wants to venture into nonfiction literature.

·        Long walk to freedom

Author - Nelson Mandela

Genre – Auto Biography

My rating – 3.5/5

I came across this thick book while I was browsing through the politics section of the library hoping to stumble upon something interesting. I was instantly attracted towards this book. I have a bad track record with long books. I still decided to read this book even if it demanded an extra effort.

It is a beautiful read. Nelson Mandela portrays himself as an ordinary man who grew over the years and started doing extraordinary things, one thing at a time. What is most striking about this book is the irony in the manner in which Mandela describes his childhood in a primitive society with linguistic brilliance in an alien language, English.

Sadly, I couldn’t finish this book. Library deadlines to blame.

·        Animal Farm

Author – George Orwell

Genre – Fiction

My rating – 3/5

A satire, this book revolves around the lives of an animal colony aiming to achieve utopia. Initially the animal farm is run and maintained by humans. However, the animals have a strong desire for freedom and self governance. They overthrow the humans running the farm and lay the foundation of self rule. What follows is a pig led tyranny.

The novel is a satire on socialist way of doing things. The book was insightful and the author very skillfully proves the pointlessness of a communist form of governance.

·        Tipping Point

Author – Malcom Gladwell

Genre – Nonfiction, management

My rating –2.5/5

Although this book has remained on top of the charts in nonfiction category, I was not impressed much. The book talks about how a few actions by few people at the right time can lead to massive change. The book tries to bring out the 80/20 rule in essence, which says that roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes. A corollary says 20% of the people are responsible for 80% of the work that happens in this world. This book puts forward good many numbers of examples to drive some point. However they are incoherent and long winded. I didn’t like the book much. Many others like it though.

·      Hitchhiker’s Guide to Galaxy

Author– Douglas Adams

Genre – Fiction, Sci-fi, Humor  

My rating – 4.5/5

This is probably the most amazing book I have read in a long long time. It will be an offence to call it a book. It is the magna carta of modern day humor. If you have spent hours reading abstruse goose or other similar web comics you should definitely lay your hands on this book. Douglas Adams is a genius. Go grab a copy.

·        1984

Author– George Orwell

Genre – Fiction, Politics

My rating – 4/5

Big Brother, Room 101, Thought Police, Thought Crime, Unperson, Memory Hole, Doublethink, Newspeak. If you have ever read any of the above terms before, it is because it was mentioned first in 1984, a dystopian novel written by George Orwell. The most fascinating thing about reading this book was that I was reading a book written in 1948 about a fictional state in 1984, in the year 2011. The author imagines a ‘utopian’ society run by ‘the party’. It is a chilling book and would surely leave you restless and grossed out at times.

A compelling read.

·        The Slap

Author – Christos Tsiolkas

Genre – Fiction, drama

My rating – 2.5/5

I received this book as a gift from the Matrix club, BITS Pilani, for doing a book review. The book is about how a slap from an adult to a kid (who is not his own) leads to complications in various people’s lives. The novel is set in modern day Australia and has a very contemporary setting to the whole story. However the author has gone overboard with profanities and sex which was avoidable and did no value addition to the story.

·        Second Degree

Author – Prashanth John

Genre – Fiction, memoir

My rating – 2/5

This book came into the market during the post five point someone delirium. The author is an alumnus of the first PGPX batch of IIM Ahmadabad. The book starts from his admission into the PGPX batch and goes on till the placements at the end of the course. It has been written on the lines of other campus memoirs like Five Point Someone, Anything for You Ma’m etc however it lacks the much needed masala and humor to make this genre worth a read. The only reason I bothered to read it till the end was because it talked about IIM A and I am ready to read any nonsense about a place where I want to be someday.

·        Audacity of Hope

Author – Barack Obama

Genre – Nonfiction, Politics

My rating – 3/5

When our country was busy getting charmed by anything and everything Obama did during his visit to India, one of the television anchors mentioned  in passing about the book which he wrote about his life before he became the president(Letters to my father) and how good it was. It got registered in the back of my head, but I never remembered the name of the book. While I was browsing through the books on display during Basant book festival at Akshay this year, I came across Audacity of Hope and mistook it for that book. Audacity of Hope turned out to be a serious and OHT commentary about American Politics. Initially it was very difficult to make sense of the book; however, with grit and determination (boosted by the guilt of spending my money without confirming) I read some chapters and liked it to an extent. Obama has knack of summing up his arguments with appealing one liner. Obama is a good writer and I would definitely like to read his other books.

·        Chronicles of Narnia – The lion, the witch & the wardrobe

Author – C.S. Lewis

Genre – fiction, mythology

My rating – 3/5

I always wanted to read this book. But by the time I picked it up, I was definitely over-aged. The clear black and white nature of the story didn’t appeal to me. I am sure a 12 year old me would have loved this book.

·        Love Story

Author – Erich Segal

Genre – fiction, romance

My rating – 3/5

A friend suggested a few days back. A very thin book(76 pages), I finished it in a day. It is a classic love story. Boy meets girl. They have a tussle initially. Eventually boy falls for the girl and vice versa. What I find most appealing about the book was the relationship that the boy shares with his father. Read it if you have a few hours to kill.

Monsoon wish list:

·         Banker to the poor – Muhammad Yunus

·         Geek Nation – Angelica Saini

·         The World is Flat – Thomas L Friedman

·         Thousand Splendid Suns – Khaled Hosseini

·         Diary of Ann Frank – Ann Frank

·         Catch-22 – Joseph Heller

4 Years 42 Things

1. APOGEE rocks.
2. Number of people who do not know bathroom manners are >= 1/12. #blackthunder.
3. How cheap are you on a scale of 0 to D (D referring to a certain person who takes extra interest in your belongings at the end of a semester)?
4. More the number of vocal chords, the better a cricket match.
5. There is a pelican drawn inside glider’s club hangar.
6. Top of the clock tower is the coolest place on campus. Figuratively. Literally.
7. Kramer is the best sitcom character.
8. Switchfoot \m/s
9. Maida is used for making structure by Informalz and for making Bhatura by mess bhaiyas.
10. Back IC in the night is the best place to celebrate birthdays.
11. There exists a club which is responsible for making medals for fests.
12. Khetri is haunted.
13. CSK has the highest win percent.
14. Illads are narcissists.
15. There is a magazine in library which tells you about the latest television hindi sops.
16. Taste of Maggi is dependent on the place where it is served.
17. You are bound to receive the same gift again by then end of four years. #PigeonHolePrinciple
18. There is a secret underground kitchen in cnot . All paneer dishes in cnot are made there.
19. Never let truth come in the middle of a good story.
20. “Dude!” sounds more genuine if pronounced with a heavier base.
21. CGPA matters.
22. C6:A7::Joginder Sharma:Dale Steyn
23. Slap bets is the coolest form of betting.
24. If you are good at something, don’t do it for free.
25. MAMO is rigged since B dude is not allowed to participate.
26.  All conversations end with “Lite ra!”.
27. The guy who fixes electric poles knows more about three phase current than I #ES1.
28. Everyone in last four years has played a prank or has been played with.
29. Cricbuzz updates faster than Cricinfo.
30. At any point of time, the number of BITSians inside Forum Mall, Bangalore >=2.
31. Ego is directly proportional to CGPA. CGPA is directly proportional to Ego. #chickeneggchicken.
32. My biggest enemy on campus – Segmentation Fault.
33. Bitsian Tshirts - Wardrobe Malfunction.
34. Malai Masala at UCO redi is the best snack on campus.
35. EEE CDCs are over hyped.
36. Don't give advice to your students - they may listen! #shanb.
37. Every semester passes faster than the previous one.
38. Every batch seems worse than the previous one.
39. Pappuji wears false teeth.
40. Museum is the Disneyland of Pilani.
41. There exists a mafia which tears off nets from windows at the end of 2^nd semester.
42. is the right answer. Maybe you are asking the wrong question.

Cricket World Cup 2011

Cricket is a unique sport. Cricket is:

·         A game which can be played for five days as well as for a few minutes.

·         A game which can be played with a book (book cricket), leg(leg cricket) or even with a writing pad(used to play with a writing pad after an examination in school days).

·         A game which can be played on a beach, on a roof top, on a narrow ‘gali’ or on a computer.

·         A game whose rule book can be more amount of information than all what is learnt in RepWri.

·         A game which can lead to stone pelting in player’s houses.

·         A game which can make more than a billion people press the pause buttons on their lives. 

Cricket is perhaps the most complex game possible. Try explaining LBW to someone who has no idea about cricket and you will soon realize that an average Indian must be really smart to call an impact ‘plumb’ in a matter of seconds.

Cricket World Cup is big and it being in India makes it ginormous. This world cup started with India as the favorites, for the first time. India always had a good side(atleast since the start of 21^st century). They always had players who could grab victory from the pits of defeat single handedly. However they never seemed to work in cohesion. There was an unknown missing piece. A lacuna. MSD and Kirsten found that missing piece in the past few years and presented before the country, a team, which could replace the legacy of the Australian team of the post 1999 cricketing history.

Thanks to the generous administration at BITS Pilani, we were privileged to watch the match in the auditorium with two thousand fellow students. I have not seen many cricket matches in the stadium. However, I can still say with some amount of confidence, that the atmosphere in the audi can be termed as The next best thing to Wankhede. With face painted people carrying flags, bottles, hooters etc, it was bound to be an exciting show. Mrinal Manuj with his sticks and drums (“DhaTa DhaTad Tad.. Oye ... DhaTad Dhatad Tad ... Oye ”) made it even more special.

 The match started with a toss drama. On retrospection, I am glad that India lost the toss after that, ‘coz this gave the opposition no excuse whatsoever. The first innings was a typical one day innings with runs coming at its own ebb and flow. Zaheer Khan &Co. did a really good job in initial over. A bowling figure of 5-3-6-1 in a cricket final is every bowler’s dream. Till the batting powerplay of SriLanka, my hopes were riding very high on an Indian victory. They batted really well in the last few overs and the game was poised to be memorable, be it a victory for India or a defeat.

The start of the second innings was tragic. It was as if I took a shot of the bitterest drink possible. Sehwag(btw write Sehwag in MS Word and right click to see the spelling suggestions)  got out on the second ball of the match, without scoring a run. If this was not bitter enough, Sachin followed in the 6^th  over and I tasted bile. My instinctive reaction was to stand up and leave. Some people left and my only motivation to stay was that I wanted to occupy the seats these guys left. Next few overs were torture. Have you ever imagined how a person, who is sentenced to death, would feel minutes before his execution? I was staring at an imminent collapse. However, history was to be written in a different manner. Before going to the match, Narula(Dada) told me that he has a hunch that Gambhir would play well today; that this might be Gambhir’s day. And so it was. Gambhir played one of the best one day innings I have seen. I have seen Sachin hit many centuries. I have seen the NatWest final. But to stand in front of a bowling attack having Malinga and Murali in it, requires courage. This is a bowling attack which can be likened to a shark. They usually smell blood and take the 10 wickets in a jiffy. Gambhir stood his ground and along with Kohli he managed some fire fighting. Kohli departed and to the surprise of everyone Dhoni came in to the ground. Blah Blah Blah(I’m sure you would hear this  tale uncountable number of times in the days to come)…4 to win from 11 balls.

Image Courtesy: Siva Subrahmanyam

When Dhoni hit the last six over long on, I got numb. I realized that this was going to be the best world cup final that I would EVER be witnessing. My imagination fails me in giving a picture of a world cup final which can possibly be better than this one. What followed the victory was a constant joyous screaming in the audi which continued for hours at stretch in the streets of our campus, to be paused only by ocassional crackers. One of my friends Rahul pointed out that people wouldn’t have been as happy when they got job offers in campus placement. I nodded my head in affirmative as I didn’t remove my tshirt when I got my job. As it has been pointed out by many through facebook status messages that 2007 batch saw the T20 victory and CWC ’11 victory, I can just feel lucky. I remember that day in 2007 very vividly and I will remember 2^nd April till my memory lasts. 

Lessons from BITS Pilani – First Impression

Hype is perilous. I almost made up my mind to hate BITS Pilani for the first impression it offered. When a starry-eyed teenager successfully clears a competitive exam and reserves a berth in one of the premier institute of the country, he does not expect a dull, almost ghostly, set of morbid concrete structures to stare back at him when he enters the campus.

However fate had it that the first day on BITS Pilani campus was destined to be the worst day of my BITSian life till date. On a sultry morning, early August, I got on to a Rajasthan Roadways bus from Jaipur, having no idea about the time it was going to take for me to reach Pilani (If I were asked how much time it would take, I would have probably said 3 hours). The journey was an ordeal. By the time we reached Pilani, I resembled a marathon runner (the ones who fail to win, not the happy ones). And this was when the authorities felt it was apt to take a photograph for the ID card which would last with me for the next four years (even beyond).

The misery had just begun. The room which we booked at CEERI guest house never got booked and my parents and brother had to stay in the hostels for the next few days. Also, there was no electricity and it was impossible to sleep, less because of heat, more because of the murder of the hype. Hype is perilous.

The first impression had been created, and it was surely not a very positive one. The serious "interactions" with the seniors didn’t help either.

 But things took a turn by the time the first music night arrived. During the music night I felt for the first time that college life had begun. After meeting different seniors and getting a hang of how things worked, there was no looking back. I was awestruck by the sheer magnitude of things undertaken by students. I realized that it is people (The ones who live and the ones who lived) who make BITS Pilani. I understood that it is an imperfect living organism and not an inanimate masterpiece of a sculpture. I fell in love with this place in spite of all its flaws.

I learnt my first lesson. Never let the first impression be the last impression. Be it with people, places or organizations, patience in judgment is a virtue.