An academic conversation

This post is the first one its kind that you would find in my blog- a discussion. Though most of you who know me personally would know how fond I am of these debates/discussions/arguments and I've found it very difficult to keep track of or document these just due to the sheer numbers. But this one, I was compelled to post- more due to guilt and the enormity of the opinions. I am one of the culprits, who has been educated with the common man's money, and have run off to another country for my academic pursuits. This, perhaps, is one of the ways that I can thank all those unseen hands who had worked/paid for my education. I hope this also reminds me about the debt I owe to my countrymen.

I have put up the entire conversation as such, for it is more than fair that I present them without distortion when I had copied other's thoughts. With due respect to the owners of these thoughts, of which I am one of the fellow conspirators..

"In TamilNadu Govt will sponsor for de BE MBBS edu for 1st person who goes 2 college in a family - take a look here."

"Of all the great policy by tamilnadu govt in distributing the tax income. like giving free TV, 2 rs rice (which eventually goes to fast food resturants), this is the only acceptable one."

"There are chances that even this move gets misused. Hope its used in the right spirit."

"Poverty and education needn always be related. And why only BE/MBBS ? Anyways, let's see how it works out."

"Shouldn't the economic status be a factor for the grant?"

"color tv didnt reach poor people, I know a poor carpenter near my area didnt get a free color tv, and the owner of that house sold that govt TV to carpenter for 500rs. All these free are bullshits.. the only ppl who might benefit from this offer would be politicians relations.."

"agreed totally.. which is precisely why we should see the reason in the earlier argument... Now that we are actually discussing this, where do you think is the missing link here..? Most BE/MBBS colleges are private institutions and this would attract more govt funds (clean money as white as snow) to those institutions which would again end up in the coffers of Mr.Rich Guys.. Strikes a thought..? Now to the aspect of it being actually useful to students., yes I do agree it might actually be helpful to few students - but does a guy who is inherently rich say Mr. Pollachi-with-20-acres deserve this award..? Yes, he does if he is meritorious - to promote ppl to study further, in which case this should be a scholarship and not a freebie. Whereas most middle income folks whose parents are not graduates would still have to take up loans to pay up the huge fee the private institutions demand. In fact, by plain economics, I wouldn't be surprised if the BE/MBBS fees get hiked just due to the liquidity boost in the education market due to this grant..."

 "I would assume that they wouldn be sponsoring for BE / MBBS in private instis that too with seats selling at 30+L for MBBS now !! Freebies/subsidies will always be a stop gap solution, but the trouble is with time it becomes a way of life (the subsidised petrol, gas cylinder, etc). The govt should more be looking at adding more coll with good facilities which will reduce the depedency on private colleges and also reduce fees gradually."

"Stats say that more than 95% of the institutions are private in TN (and more are under construction), and if they don't sponsor students into those insti's then about 95% of the folks don't get the so-called benefit. And if they sponsor just the govt colleges, its all the more unfair as these students are already being subjected to a ridiculously low priced premier quality education. To be honest, most of us who come from Govt. colleges are the most eligible looters since we have been literally educated with tax payer's money aka subsidy. The only justification we can perhaps offer is the fact that it's based on merit - a rough analogy for scholarships ( of course with reservation et al.). But with the entrance exams being doffed, TN education system is nothing but an alternative for lottery (which TN govt banned a few years ago)."

 

Wondering..

Wondering what goes through my mind when important decisions are taken, a whole lot of change is expected in your routine, a mad rush of adrenaline, disillusionment, retrospection and insomnia is what I am facing when I pen this post in the wee hours of the morning, sitting on my bed with the continuous drone of the ceiling fan ringing in my head. All because tomorrow would be the last day at work, insignificant in the whole scheme of things happening in the universe, but one which alters what I had gotten used to for the past three years. No, I am neither being sentimental nor agnostic, but being a mere spectator of the events happening around me, created by me.

The last two days have also thrown in a lot of surprises on me - I have seen people getting sentimental, utilitarian and pragmatic all the same. I have been a witness to the "Little bird effect", events causing a multitude of thought process in the minds of many. I am appalled at the expectations that various people have of me, expectations that I might have unwittingly set, most of them too stupendous and distant for me to imagine. I have seen a large variety of emotions around me, emotions like concern, joy, sympathy, benediction, misery, jealousy, quizzical (am stuck for the right noun here), nonchalance, surprise, delight and a few other abstract noun forms that the languages are yet to quantify.

It has been days of hellos and byes bundled together in a unique fashion. No, this was not what we would have faced during our last days at high school or at college where you find alarming unity of thought and emotions. A unity that is achieved by the certainty and unbridled rectitude. If you thought emails have lost their ability to communicate emotions, believe me, it is not the case - I have had two worders to two liners which have been loaded abundantly with the intention of the writer. It makes me respect the concept of writing as a means of communication.

As I step into unemployment for the first time and into a new venture, it feels like it was ordained to be so. It would be interesting to see what happens tomorrow, it would be interesting still if nothing at all happens. I am not going to guess or predict or even offer my suggestions, for I am not a prognosticator.

If, at the end of all this, you were to ask me what sort of a state of mind that you are in - the reply would probably be "wonder".

Say.. An intuition.....

A lazy mind is Devil's workshop..A weekend resonant with sleep is the most susceptible for contemplating odd topics. Very recently I chanced to ponder upon the word 'intuition' which was raised by one of my kin. It seemed such a mystique thing that I wanted to document it for clarity of thought, and thus this post came into existence. Pardon me if this post seems to be a broken array as I am literally penning down my thoughts in no particular sequence whatsoever. It would be better to start off with the definition of intuition which I would put it this way(because I simply failed to contrive anything better!).. Intuition is something that cannot be defined by its occurrence. It is defined by the absence of something else (I would replace 'something' with 'Logic').Ideally intuition is a thought which has absolutely no logic/analysis involved in it. It is easier to say this than personify this, because the word 'thought' is again very hard to be defined. These are abstract concepts that we are talking about and one should visualize his own version.
It is a know fact that there are various levels at which the human mind involves in each activity/inactivity performed. Most of the things that we seem to have forgotten are quite clearly recorded by our sub-conscious mind. A possible reasoning for this fact could be that our logical mind 'shelved' these items to be not worth remembering. That is how we sometimes blurt out certain thoughts, which make sense once we try to trace its origin. Such is the indexing power of brain. But this is not what we are talking about now, the only reason why I gave this particular example is to prove that intuition could be easily be confused with such shelved thoughts/analysis. These would easily pass to be intuitions whereas it could be a shelved thought in reality. Intuitions could also be simple reflexive or natural actions like ducking when a stone is hurled at you. Since most of us don't have the ability to read the differences between these, it is very difficult to say if intuition is a true concept or not. Due the absence of proof we say for now that there is no such thing called intuition.

Having said that doesn't mean that we don't have to trust our 'intuitions' as they very well could be one of our shelved out logical thought. There could be so many concepts that we have just seen working but have not bothered to analyse.. these could very well come out as intuition. Please note that here i use the word intuition as there is no logical analysis done by the mind, it is just an observation. In most of the cases these 'intuitions' would work perfectly as they are the results of a working concept that we might have just observed. It could also be the result of a very quick logical analysis of our mind. Something like calculation of the distance we jump. Now a disclaimer, intuition could also be a half-baked thought or a wrong perception of a fact. Moreover the moment you find that your intuition works awesome for you, the more you try to 'intuition'alise your thoughts. This could be disastrous as we would end up doing something that has absolutely no possible hidden rationale. So what would be a probable solution ..? I would say 'don't fabricate an intuition, analyse your intuition if time permits, if not go by what your intuition says'... it could after all be one your pre-analysed thought !