Think. Think Independently.

Have you heard of Raghoji Bhosle, the Maratha king who attacked Bengal six times in the period 1741 - 1751 and looted, plundered and killed Bengalis in a manner that defies all humanity: 400,000 Dead Bodies!

If anyone tries to tell you that this was simply a Marathas vs Mughals affair, pay attention to the following excerpts from this article: Forgotten Indian history: The brutal Maratha invasions of Bengal (scroll.in)

" ... most of the time, the Maratha cavalry would simply skirt the Khan’s slow-moving infantry, being interested only in looting."

"This time none escaped,
Brahmanas, and Vaisnavas, Sannyasis, and householders,
all had the same fate, and cows were massacred along with men."

"...even sack the house of one of the richest Indians at the time, the Marwari banker, Jagat Seth."

"...pillaging bands of Marathas attacking a predominantly "Hindu" West Bengal even as a "Muslim" Nawab struggles to push them out."

Think. Think independently. We are being fed rubbish history through every propaganda channel that you can conceive of. And the aim is only one: That we the common citizens stay divided and become a set of vote banks for politicians to milk every time an election comes. Some of us will get milked in the name of religion, some in the name of language, some caste, some gender. Meanwhile, the real deal, the progress of our country in things that really matter - Education, Healthcare, Employment, Law & Order - takes a back stage. That, in 2024 when the entire world is marching forward rapidly, is damage that will be almost impossible to fix beyond a certain point.

Teaching Below Research? Really?

Before I come to what triggered this post, here's something that I think needs to be said out aloud: The recent trend of hiring separate people for teaching, research and administration in universities is fundamentally incorrect. We increasingly have people who call themselves professors but want to escape teaching (why be at a university if you don't enjoy professing your subject?) - and at least 80% of the folks I have met in this set are busy drilling holes in such thin parts of the plate that it's embarrassing to call their "research" research; others who are either intellectually so damn lazy or "uncurious" that they neither wish to engage with open problems in their field nor invent or build something new but just content themselves with lecturing (that Dr. in front of your name ought to mean something!) or have been so dismayed by this "publish or perish" madness that they've resigned themselves to a teaching heavy career instead of living the healthy teaching-research-balanced academic dream that inspired them in the first place; and then there is of course a plethora of administrators today (at least in India) who have neither been good teachers nor researchers but their assumed enlightenment results in policy after policy that's setting fire to the temple with such rapidity that it will all burn down if something doesn't shift soon. It is beyond me, and beyond every sound academic I know, that we have forsaken the right thing to do: which is to simply expect excellence in all three - teaching, research and service - from all university professors.

But even with the above said, one still assumes that universities will keep some balance, some reasonableness. Thus this trigger:

I found out to my utter shock some months ago that Educator Track or Teaching Track faculty members in US universities are considered a notch below (and are paid lesser) than "normal" faculty members.

This is a completely incorrect movement of things! Universities are established first and foremost to educate, to enlighten, then anything else. That's the very raison d'etre of their existence.

We cannot allow such hierarchies to set in in our universities. Educator Track / Teaching Track faculty, who handle a higher teaching load in lieu of bringing grants, have to be considered exactly at the same level as "research faculty". That's the right value system to adhere to in educational institutions!

To all my colleagues out there who still believe in the academic ideal, who are still inspired by the possibilities a vibrant classroom offers: Teach your hearts out! You're doing great! Love those students! They know it when a professor is for real! And there are still enough of us who are challenging the present downward spiral academia is on for hope to be lost.

PhD Programs In Indian Private Universities: I'm Concerned!

Questions for colleagues and students across Indian academia:

1. Is it healthier to assure incoming PhD students that they will get their PhDs in 3 years? Or is it better to be honest that PhD is usually a 4-5 years affair, but can be sometimes completed a bit early or a bit later depending on the problem undertaken and circumstances one encounters while pursuing one's doctoral research?

2. Is it healthy to use tools such as ChatGPT for thesis writing to save time? How else does one develop the assimilate-question-research-analyze-write-conclude skill set that thesis writing imparts?

3. Should PhD students use their time to grow intellectually, deepen their scholarship and solve challenging research problems or should they start chasing grants during their doctoral program itself?

The way I have seen some "private university leaders" in our country answer these questions in the recent past has me very very worried. Very very worried.

The Spread Of Idiocy

Just read this article: Sri Sri Ravi Shankar Quotes: Secularism fostering slave mentality in country (deccanherald.com)!

This is how idiocy spreads and the national IQ starts dropping! Not one word of common sense in the whole of it!

Who says devotion to God has ever been under-emphasized in this country? Hindus, Christians, Sikhs, Muslims all have their own way of expressing their devotion and they have all freedom to do so! This is called "Freedom and Equality of Religion". And the government's mandate is to work for everyone's welfare without any discrimination based on religion. That's called "Secular Governance" - separation of church and state.

This guy (and his organization) is a multi multi billionaire. Better if he does something substantial to alleviate poverty instead of such mindless mumblings!

Emperor Akbar's Pilgrimage To Vaishno Devi

To this day, there is a Bhajan (worship song) sung by many Punjabis that contains the following couplet:

Naange naange pair Akbar Aayo

Mata ko sone ki chhatri Chadhaayo

The reference is to Emperor Akbar who undertook the pilgrimage to Mata Vaishnodevi's shrine barefoot and offered a golden umbrella.

Remember that Akbar was a Mughal Emperor. He walked barefoot to a Hindu shrine and made an offering. Internalize this.

Now, read Pre-Mughal history and clearly understand the following: Even Hindu kings were busy fighting with each other and invading kingdoms. This land has seen the Gupta Dynasty, the Maurya Dynasty - how do dynasties form but with large scale wars and invasions? There were also religious angles to Hindu kings fighting with each other: Shaivite kings (worshippers of Shiva) often went to war with Vaishnavite kings (worshippers of Vishnu) - and yes, the deity in the temple of the vanquished was replaced with the deity of the victor. How is this any different from Muslim kings coming to fight with Hindu kings? It's exactly the same thing!

The plain truth is this: Earth has seen a lust for power and conquest for thousands of years - and it has never given anyone anything. The intelligent way forward is for all of this to simply stop and people live together peacefully with each in a spirit of equality and freedom of religion. That is the only intelligent way forward.

2024 general elections are around the corner. Stay alert! Very alert! Do not let politicians create nuisance and trouble between different religious faiths! No politician ever suffered for a day in religious violence - its always the common man, you and me, who suffers. Always.

Insist on politicians talking about Education, Healthcare, Job Creation and Law & Order. Make them commit to well thought out plans to make progress in these sectors. Else, don't give them your vote. That's it.

10,000 Steps!

There are some medical situations in which walking for a certain amount of time every day is recommended by the doctor. For example: Hypertension. And sometimes age and/or physical conditions make walking the only pragmatic form of exercise one can engage in.

Then there is the "odds and ends" walking one ought to do through the day as one goes about daily tasks and chores in one's office, neighborhood, market. Far better to just walk short distances that takes 5-10 minutes than using a vehicle for every thing!

Then there is the walking one does for the sheer pleasure of it! In beautiful gardens, parks, by silent and gurgling streams. Bliss!

Then there are the "problem solving" walks - hold a problem in your mind that you've been trying to solve and just go for a walk as you think through it. Or sometimes there's an audio lecture I need to listen to and I'll do this as I'm walking (somewhere where it's safe to do so - not on roads!).

But then there's a kind of walking I just don't understand: I see people who are perfectly capable of putting on their running shoes and going for a jog, or playing a sport like badminton, football, kho kho, basketball, table tennis, that gives the body a good workout, make one sweat, stretch - but instead of doing this, being alive, enthusiastic, sporty, having fun - they'll tell you: Oh now it's my time to exercise so now I'll go walk so many rounds of a ground. And then they'll often even wear an expensive watch that counts how many steps they walk - and start going round and round around a ground like a robot! I don't get it! Why would you be so uncreative?

PS: The 10,000 steps of walking per day advice is to encourage you to take Paragraph 2 above seriously - not to make a "circular walking robot" out of you! I'm sure someone jogging or playing a sport is deriving as much benefit from it, if not more, as someone walking round and round around!

And Pre-Historic Caveman Politics Is Back!

I invite you to read this article: Rahul Gandhi says 'INDIA bloc will remove 50% cap on reservations if voted to power' - India Today 

And there we go, while one side is fighting elections with a Hindu-Muslim Divide and Rule strategy, while having given us nothing better than a Chai Pakoda and Gau Mootra Dibhlopment Moddel, the other has decided to fall back on the Caste Agenda.

The 2014 promise of a Development Centric Governance with emphasis on Education, Healthcare, Job Creation and Law and Order is already history. It took just five years to start erasing the agenda, and then just five more for the age old shit politics to take centre stage again.

I despise the British for the havoc they created all over the world as much as any educated person, but remember, always remember, that they reserved the epithet "Bloody" only for Indians in their whole empire. They never used the phrase "Bloody Caribbeans", "Bloody Africans", etc. Only "Bloody Indians". And for good reason, as we prove repeatedly!