Disruptive Technologies, Education and Some Social Issues

Reservation…

johnsonjos16 — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:06:31 +0000

“WE, THE PEOPLE OF INDIA, having solemnly resolved to constitute India into a SOVEREIGN SOCIALIST SECULAR DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC”

This is a statement from the preamble of our constitution.By this our country is secularist which means there is no preference to any religion.

Todays newspapers came out with a news that Justice.Rajendrababu commission advised the govt. to raise the creamylayer limit of backward communities to 4.5lakhs.I’m asking a simple question if a person had an income of Rs.4 lakhs how can we say that his family is backward?If the govt. consider a person in backward community having an income below 4.5 lakhs as a person eligible for reservation then why dont they give the same right to every citizen of India having an income below 4.5 lakhs?

India is a secularist nation so what is the need of considering cast&religion while giving reservation???

Reservation was started in India at the time of independence for a tenure of 10 years.Now more than 55 years had passed but now also reservation couldn’t achieve it’s goal.It proves that reservation is not a medicine to the problems of backward communities.It simply acts as a poison that is trying keep people from other communities from govt. jobs.

Reservation is not raising the backward communities but it is simply making forward communities also to backward.

Next about new creamy layer limit…When the creamylayer was 2.5 lakhs most of the people crossing the creamy layer got reservation by showing wrong income certificates.If a person is not a govt. employee its easier for him to get an income certificate showing an amount what he says.If the creamy layer limit is 2.5 lakhs it means a person with an income of Rs20000/- is backward…Now when the creamy layer limit is 4.5lakhs a person having an income of Rs.37500/- also is a poor man that requires the mercy of govt. to live.

I’m asking you friends:Is this kind of reservation justifiable??

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Manorama; Insane or Pathetic? – Maybe both

Aravind Jose T. — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 03:05:29 +0000

It’s nothing new that Manorama coming up with some totally insensible stories, which they claim to be of ‘immense-relevance in the present day society’. Sensationalism personified – MM (you- know-what), does it A.G.A.I.N., this time suing email as the newest method of attacking Malayalees!

They have started a series named “Mohavalayil Emailaattam” (മോഹവലയില്‍ ഈമയിലാട്ടം). The core of the series is “doing what they can to help people to stay aware of the various high risk threats that could be coming against them via email’ – Awesome tagline it is, isnt ? You’ll see how pathetic the whole thing is once you finish reading this.

What the series say

All emails are not safe and there are a lot of vicios attacks against people that’s happening via email
You have to be ultra careful when using email and internet
And the idiotic of all, “a large number of famous public figures like ‘Umman Chandi, Pinarayi Vijayan (etc) have been the victims of such attacks”

Why it’s Pathetic

Because, instead of promoting the most powerful and easiest form of communication -Email- they are suing it based on some acts of inexperienced users. Simply because as usual, they aren’t pointing out something of quality and are creating a writing marvel after a one-month research on ‘most sensationalist topic in Kerala’.
ALL THEY POINT TO IS SPAM – This is what they call VICIOUS AND TARGETED ATTACKS. How pathetic ? Instead of educating people about spamming and it’s nature and giving guidelines to safe emailing and internet using, they are (again, as usual) building a big mansion for the threats and the negative aspects of it.

The Thing about so called Big Shots

The lead sentence of the unfortunate series is – “പ്രമുഖര്‍ക്ക് പോലും രക്ഷയില്ല, പിന്നല്ലേ സാധാരണക്കാര്‍ക്ക്.” (meaning, ‘Even big shots have been affected, what about general public then’).

What’s the point in this? See,

We ‘know’ the big-shots here. How many of them uses internet as it should be used? How many of them uses email by themselves (better would be to ask, how many of them uses email anyway!)
The political hierarchy CANNOT BE applied to web. The point is, the probable fact of high-ranked political leaders being attacked DOESN’T MEAN that the general public will face more ‘attacks’ (as they call it).
It’s simple logic that big-shots and famous public figures will be the more probable targets(hypothetically) than general public.

What should’ve been done

If their aim was to help people to have a safer internet experience, SERIOUSLY, THIS IS NOT THE WAY TO DO IT. They could’ve

explained what’s spamming, faking and forged mails
asked people not to dig into the SPAM folder and ruin yourselves as the big-shots listed above, possibly did
explained how to distinguish between real mails and forged mails
given practical advises towards a safe internet experience

And this is not the first time

Let me share with you a real hilarious event regarding MM, when computers were used for first time in University results tallying. There were about 2 lakh entries (2 lakh students) to be tallied and printed out as official mark list for press release. Since it was all computerised, the ranks were announced before the rank lists were printed out. And MM made a fuzz out of it asking “How can you announce ranks before the rank list is printed” and said “the results are flawed”. This is a classic example for the fact that ‘they bend facts and common sense the way they want’. Also, we’ve seen MM coming up with Kinky bluetooth stories and bashing mobile phones.

What made me write this

Clear understanding of the internet and the knowledge that it isn’t a battle-field or gang wars.
Knowing that the internet is safe. As it is for everything, it’s your actions that makes the difference.
Terrible feeling that aroused when I thought about non-web-savvy people reading this series with great interest and being brainwashed.
Sadness from the fact that a ‘reputed and influential’ newspaper in the highly-literate Kerala is actually publishing this kind of unfortunate stuff
and to UNDERLINE THE POINT – The future is in us, the sensible ones. There is something that’s asked from us, the sensible ones. Act for the good. Make the world a better place to live in.

(Thanks to @ArunGeoJohn for the support)
This post is not a hate-post towards Malayala Manorama and is never intended to insult or abuse the institution. Sorry if it offended anybody, it’s unintentional.Similar Posts:

Tata Tele Services Resolves My Walky Issue.

Kenney Jacob — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 12:13:35 +0000

I had previously blogged about the legal notice send to me by Tata Tele Services. Someone from their company saw the blog and called me. I explained the whole story to them and Yesterday I got this letter from them.

Must appreciate them for their alertness and their swift action. Maybe they are a model for customer care for other companies operating in the same sphere.Similar Posts:

Rithu – The Movie

Kenney Jacob — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 13:38:35 +0000

Rithu tells a buddy tale that blooms in the changing social and emotional landscape of a small south Indian town.
Three childhood friends, who grew up in the same neighborhood and went to same school and college, weave up their dreams about life together. Sarat, Varsha, and Sunny were inseparable in their love, bonding, and innocence. Sarat and Varsha grew fond of each other, in a more internal and less physical manner. And Sunny, was more like a brother to Sarat. To raise money to achieve their dreams Sarat leaves for northern California to live and work. The other two take up a job at Bangalore.

Three years later, they return to the throes of their changing hometown. After an emotional reunion and a sweet build-up of hopes, each finds that beneath their camaraderie, they had actually outgrown their old selves.

Their lives now transformed with the times, come to unexpected collisions of interests and Sarat finds himself caught between his idea of their past and the strangeness of the changed persona of his bosom friends. In the final loss of innocence, Sarat is betrayed by both friends in different ways.

The movie is directed by Shayamaprasad

The script is written by Joshua Newtonn

A Scene from the movie

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American Tech Grads Unemployable??

The Nomad — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 09:00:36 +0000

There’s an old adage that goes something like “It’s better to keep your mouth shut and be thought a fool rather than open it and remove all doubt.” By Mark Twain. That reminds me of an article I read in Rediff the other day (read it here), which had a CEO of an Indian IT firm, HCL Technologies saying that American Tech grads are pretty much unemployable! Yup…He said that when he was in the US, in the vicinity of 50 journalists (how come he didn’t have any shoes thrown at him??). Now, I’m really not sure how many of us would indeed support his claim but I for one, DO NOT! For me, it’s a plain matter of biting the hand that feeds you and an inferiority complex.

He claimed that the American Engineering graduates were way inferior to their Indian counterparts insofar that they wouldn’t work for a pittance, are in a hurry to get rich and above all wouldn’t take up boring and often laborious process oriented aspects of IT that Indian IT engineers spend their every waking hour doing. He went on to say that the Americans are way too expensive to train (to do this boring stuff, I assume) and in his own words ‘whereas Indian graduates are generally well-versed and highly trained in real-life applications, thanks to vocational training programmes and other opportunities for hands-on experience’. Coming to think of the last part, I wonder what he means by all that high tech wordings. Does he mean our abilities to reach offices negotiating the cut throat traffic which would now be worsened by Nano?

I remember that we had multiple articles on the Indian education system, in which we discussed ways to improve the education system that creates engineers who are anything but ‘highly trained in real-life applications, thanks to vocational training programmes and other opportunities for hands-on experience’. Indian engineers, as discussed earlier, are grossly incapable of doing anything more than repeated mundane non critical tasks, thanks to the ‘process orientation’ of our education system. Again, we have plenty of exceptions here- the pass outs from the Ivy League institutions forming the majority in this category.

Most Indian IT outsourcing firm have no takers from institutes like IITs or IIMs or US tech grads for the same reason that the job is plain boring! If his definition of unemployable has to be considered, we find that most of the grads from IITs and IIMs fit the bill as they don’t want to spend the rest of their lives doing a copy paste job that is completely devoid of any intellectual involvement. Another thing this highly educated XLRI Jamshedpur pass out discounted was the fact that IT outsourcing companies SERVE American high tech companies like CISCO or Microsoft that thrive primarily on creativity and inventing the ‘next big thing’. Beyond reasonable doubt, such companies recruit American grads and other students including those from American universities and IIT/IIM grads, who are highly capable of such job functions. Or simply put, they hire who are capable of THINKING!

This also shows the inferiority complex of Indian IT firms which fail to attract any plum talent. Just because they fail to attract the finest talent doesn’t mean that the whole lot is unemployable! But what really continues to amaze me is the fact that Indians still pride themselves over a system where they’re treated like daily wage labourers (they’re billed on the number of hours of effort they put!) and end up doing tasks that Americans despise. I don’t speak for the Americans or defend them but was this really a wise comment to make? Take another hard look guys, where are our guidance systems?

P.S: Do go through the comments in the Rediff article, if you can find some time to spare! A friend of mine wonders if he had ever seen an iPhone, a classic product of the very creativity, innovation and the search for ‘the next big thing’ he despises!

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Jet2Kerala – Fly To Kerala At the Cheapest Rates

Kenney Jacob — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:28:28 +0000

Tourism is a major source of revenue in Kerala and it seems the Tourism Department of Kerala wants to go leaps and bounds with their new partnership with Jet Airways to offer affordable packages to those looking to visit and experience Kerala.

The Jet2Kerala initiative is a package offer wherein you get to pay only once for all the facilities from Air Tickets on Jet Airways to taxi from/to airport, stay in hotels and of course sightseeing. As I was going through a few operators providing these packages, it was obvious that the prices were pretty much rock bottom and to be more honest, affordable to many.

Do feel free to checkout Jet2Kerala on the official page here and if you are a Kerala lover and still want to grab a peice of action, checkout the Twitter contest by Kerala Tourism here.Similar Posts:

Class notes, Assignments and Stupidity

Kenney Jacob — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 02:30:07 +0000

“Students please take down the notes…. blah blah blah blah…… never ending blah….”

This is how classes are conducted in a very very famous and reputed private engineering college in Kerala. Students are forced to take down notes, as if it were a primary school. Notes have to be submitted on a monthly basis to be verified by the teacher.

There are weekly assignments for students. Students are not allowed to write the assignments from home, instead they have to come to the college on Saturdays and write assignments as if it were an exam.

Now a few questions.

From where do the teachers get assignment questions ? Do they come up with their own questions ? What is there in an assignment that makes it so special ? What’s the point in giving the same question to everyone and asking them to come up with different answers, considering the fact that the question itself is copied from the text book ?

Just think, how many productive hours does an engineering student waste in his 4 years of professional education writing stupid, nonsense assignments. We used to call assignment writing, “Xeroxing”, either from a text book or from another written copy of the assignment.

Why do we force our students to go through all sorts of such nonsense. We are so system oriented that we forget the essence of the activity itself. Its time that we asked to ourselves – “Is the system for us, or are we for the system”.Similar Posts:

Neelathaamara Music Composing – Video

Kenney Jacob — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 19:08:40 +0000

Neelathamara is a Malayalam movie which brings together legendary script writer M.T. Vasudevan Nair and hit maker Lal Jose. Neelathaamara is produced by Suresh Kumar under the banner of Revathy Kalamandir which produced successful films like ‘Vettam’, ‘Pachamarathanalil’ etc. Music director Vidyasagar will provide tunes to the lines of Vayalar Sarath Chandra Varma.

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Professional Education in Kerala

johnsonjos16 — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 18:02:45 +0000

Kerala holding the credit of 100% literacy is famous for its number of engineers & professionals. Engineering education has become a matter of business now a days.We are going to see the admission procedure of another batch.So let us review the present situation of our state in the same.

Admissions to private self-financing colleges has been always a severe problem to the government. Especially this government has been always crucified for its wrong ideas on the same.This government introduced a bill that claimed 50% seats in private self financing colleges in government fees. It was later canceled by the hon. high court.This bill was really a good one as it ensured social justice but failed to obtain enough legal support.

After that the government tried to sign a treaty to the consortium of private managements.By this half of the total seats in private colleges can be allotted by the government with a fees of Rs.30750/- which is about 5 times that in a government engineering college.

But there is something positive that in the previous years on all the seats in the private colleges the fees was Rs.38000.This gives us a hope that the fees will reduce in the coming years.The government should try to sign a treaty to the managements that will be valid for at least 5 years which can reduce the tension of students who are seeking admission to engineering courses.

The managements also should get ready for viewing education as a service not as a business.

I’m writing this article as a person who suffered a lot of trouble while passing through last years admission procedure & now enjoying my engineering life in University College of Engineering Thodupuzha.I wish all my younger brothers&sisters seeking admission to engineering courses to have wonderful college life.

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Tata Tele Services Threatens to Sue Me

Kenney Jacob — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 15:36:19 +0000

I took a land line connection from Tata a few months back. The plan was to use it as a home phone. But I did not even make a single call from that phone, just because I was soo used to my mobile. After paying the rent for a few months I decided to terminate the connection.

I called up customer care and told them that I want to terminate the connection. It was a sweet girl on the line and she told me that she will send someone to my place to collect the remaining payment and the phone. After some time a someone came and collected the phone as well as the payment.

After one month I got another bill. I thought it must have been a mistake. I took the bill to the nearest tata office. The fellow there checked and told me that the money collected by agent has be remitted, but no termination request was given by the agent. So the bill got generated.

He asked me to pay that bill also to terminate the connection. I said I wont pay the latest bill since its not my fault. After bit of argument he said its okay, and also said he will terminate the connection immediately.

After that I didn’t get any bills for a few months. But today I got a legal notice from them, which you can see below. Click on the image for a larger version.

I did a little bit of enquiry and found out that the collection agent is not a Tata employee. He belongs some other agency to which Tata has outsourced that work. That idiot did not raise a termination request.

The next idiot is the one who sat behind that flat screen monitor and negotiated with me. Even he didnt raise a termination request, even after hearing the whole story. Did he do that on purpose because I refused to make the payment ?

This is the first time I am getting a legal notice. I dont know what to do about it. I dont know what I did wrong. Does this means that I will be sued and send to jail ? Should I go and attend the settlement camp ? Or should I sue them back for cheating me ?Similar Posts: