How Educated are you?? Don't tell the degree .....

So apparently today is the birth anniversary of "Maria Montessori", the creator of montessori system of 

education which is so very popular even today. Curious by the various hoardings and schools boasting of following it. Finally I followed the link of the google doddle  to check a few details of the program. Only thing which crowds my mind after reading that is- how strange that centuries have passed but still education system fails to evolve to the needs of time !! Interests of trade and maybe some system dominate the need and requirement of the era...

Well few days back I was watching firefly, a TV series based on the fact that the world is now into some future governed by machines and high tech gadgets.. the war, the warriors, the bad and good all characters 

are there...Just that now they don't fight for kingdoms or Gold..but the highest rated commodities are bare necessities of life..as in Food, medicines, water and protein....

Though I was supposed to enjoy it, as suggested by a friend that U'll like the series..yet it somehow frightened me...Every morning when I see stupid girls wasting away water..while they are brushing their teeth..unaware that while they need just two mugs of water...here they are wasting a consistent stream of water for two minutes..just because its easily available to you now???

Here a very good work is being done by atleast one center's student on the state of existence of rural people and they actually spent a fair amount of time researching and living , identifying and modelling that ..But its of concern that at the end of the day they don't have resources to transform the situation ..by helping in settingup water recharging pits all around the village....educating them on proper waste management...or create ample awareness to the need of it...
What is it that binds education to the walls of paper and thesis..why can't  it be practiced as it is learnt?

I am sure almost each of these super educated tech kids around must have written atleast fifteen times on the importance of conserving natural resources...yet here it is restricted, written and locked away in those papers ..and the resources are wasted as if it was all too theoretical to be real........

Having witnessed the water scarcity myself, I can imagine when they say " third world war will be for water" they are not kidding!! Then the question remains..why is nobody helping it out? Each year we still wait for the mercy of monsoon which soon passes and dread of summer days hangs on the heads of crores of people..wish I had a proper statistical figure for it ... 

When Montessori devised ways to read and learn using creative ways which included getting in touch with the immediate surroundings as in gardens, plants, pets, exercise and flower arrangement -- she must have thought how the learning is related to the environment. 

But here we are with years of education, still unaware of most of the names of the trees  around, unaware of birds that chirp or used to chirp all around, unaware of how to take care and use the resources judicially, unaware 

how to conserve resources, help construct water recharging pit, plant trees as per environment..best way to do it most efficiently...and yes we are the most educated of the lot...

Ofcourse we can code to give the virtual water reservoir..we can make flowers bloom on the virtual screen..we can produce the sound of somewhat chirp of birds by speech processing..atleast those in that field can..we can direct the useful tons of data messages across oceans...

But wait a minute..did I told you we are supposedly educated?? Educated !!!Does it even has some dictionary meaning ...of what exactly it refers to??

I have no idea...ofcourse I can google..and that's what we do..Google.. n I am sure there must be answers lying all across to these questions...but ofcourse I am lazy. oops our education demands me to code and debug something else..and thats all my job role is..isn't it?

Food? water? air? pollution free environment? greenery? - ofcourse somebody must be assigned these fields to study and correct for rest all...isn't it? otherwise how could a system so old...created by some unknown natural phenomenon - still survive in fairly good shape..despite the senseless conduct of ultra educated people. Poor uneducated people, do they still know how to sow the seeds  and produce food for the other educated beings?

 Well this has been on my mind from quite sometime -the wide gap between education and reality in society. So here am I jotting down tid-bits of it...but its too naive to be of any help..wish there was a person to devise and change the facet of education to make it closer to reality and to serve the purpose it is supposed to be serving, which is ofcourse not just providing job securities...but making people aware and better equipped to manage and live their life...

We will still manage to have food and water for most part of our life before we die..but what will happen next?? if education remains this way, I am not so sure...

life at IITB

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Well before coming here I used to constantly search for a blog where I could get the details of life at IITB, well not exactly so generalized- but life of MTechs at IITB. I remember being disappointed at google somehow failing in listing what I was looking for. I wondered if the life at IITB is so great as my friends narrate so often and they seem short of words  always, then why the hell nobody wrote any details about it till date?

But as they say - "you learn in the process..." I learnt it now, after one year of living here.
Well somehow today I met someone who made me recollect this. And here I am writing of why and what are the details of the subject.

Well lemme start with my current scenario. I wake up late - bunking all 8:30 classes, as I can't wake up early.(ofcourse I used to ridicule such people- who can afford to sleep when such wonderful faculties are teaching such brilliant courses, but excuse me - I understand the students who do so - more than ever now n I second their perspective!!!) Post breakfast I go to my lab - sit there till 1:30Pm and then I come back for lunch to hostel. After all the drama I don't wanna go for this meeting or that class or this ...to my harmless roommate. I suddenly rise at around 2:15Pm and unceremoniously proceed to the meeting/class/lab.Then time runs away and suddenly I find myself looking at the clock - thinking if I can manage to get the evening tea..before the next class, somehow I manage to get that daily and by the time I am done with its already 8Pm, time for dinner and I am too tired. But yes there are two assignments pending, one paper to read and one presentation to make which is already delayed by ten days almost.
Somehow I go to lab again, try to do something of the pending list and come back to hostel at around 2am, ..with the list intact ofcourse :D

Well so what went wrong- four hours of absolute time for one assignment??Somehow my last moment BTech habit is prolonged here. With every assignment I take loud resolution - next time the day assignment is given I'll do it.. this is beginning of semester - when load is less. Ideally post mid-sem is the most hectic span. Yet somehow its like this. We look forward to weekends like anything - ofcourse thinking we will
finish all the work...n friday its masti mode(TGIF!!) saturday - all to sleep and sunday we struggle to
do some work..yet the gloomy evening of monday foreshadows and life goes on the same next week..
Wait then when is the work actually done?? Well if submission deadline is 12 then from 9 to 12..
if mid-sem is in afternoon then entire  morning and ofcourse the day before endsem...

I remember thinking I'll go to lakeside daily for evening stroll and would love walking on the sidewalks on the way to department. Well I go to lakeside only if some guest comes to see me or if I have to chat on the way. n regarding sidewalks - well what was the last time I remember doing that ?? Probably when it rained initially...who cares..!!Yet I love sitting in my lab- as my own space - doing whatever I want..
The inside story - I watch all TV Series regularly, I have not read newspapers in years, I watch TV only when I am at home(frequency of which is at max thrice a year). Then where does the time runs away?
At 3.am when I enter my room, I find my roommate in the same position, reading intently on her laptop...... ofcourse as usual I don't  utter a word and let her do her lot of work uninterrupted. n wonder some day I'll be that sincere.

Sometimes I sit at my place, don't go to lab in morning just to see - the existence of time ..and its then when all kinds of farzi articles are read, ideas originated ,blog written and life moves ahead..
Else between labs and four food breaks - life runs with the fuel of your own self and your priorities.
There are people who are God, of many fields - I believe they too run the same way. I see BTech girls often sitting in big groups discussing something or doing some assignment. Or narrating how they solved some quiz question- I laugh to myself thinking when was the last time I discussed a quiz?? well maybe before end sem.... ya I am not an ideal student by any standard..not that I don't want to. Just that the to do list is so long and time well don't know where it is ..so the things happen this way till now.. eventually everything gets done.
I even see few girls talking on phone and engrossed in the conversation. Wait what was the last time any call( except home) lasted for more than 20 minutes?? Probably some friend calling after aeons...otherwise - hey I'll call u back . End of story .period.

n ofcourse my mailbox floods with new activities/events/talks/workshop being organised almost
every single day --Yet I have attended only one talk till date. Rest I forget about, get involved in some class or simply don't go as nobody else is going in my friend circle.  I have seen some best moments in MoodI,
Techfest, Surbahar, PAF, PG Cult......infi musti and days of practice...I even enjoy going to Hindustani classical class, wish I could go to tabla class and sitar class, aim to purchase guitar asap.. and be active in drama group of college. Yet somehow it seems waste of time..which is anyway gone somehow...yet hope remains someday I'll be managed and do everything I wish well at time.....

Many of my friends who graduated this year-were nostalgic, missing the college already, when its just a month..while to me it seems I have been here for what seems like decades....yet the thought that a year from now - all my friends will be gone, makes me scared...I too want to go with them...
Yet I think somehow even that one year will pass and maybe then I too will be sad in leaving this beautiful
campus where we spent some of the best moments ever.....

PS-Hopefully will add to this first draft in coming days, the finer details - as of now let it be one more task in the to do list...

Its very difficult to categorize and devise a view to contain  the numerous aspects associated with the college life itself , forget about some specific institution. Yet we need to know every aspect of what we are stepping into, right!! So if I vaguely depict the categories here- its exam, non-exam, post-exam, mood-i/techfest/big event day versus others. As expected exam days are not so good or looked forward to , few days when IIT reads - n reads day and night, 2 or 3 or 4 or 5 am anytime you step out of your lab and there is a huge number of students spread across libraries/labs/corridors/stairs - reading/mugging/solving/discussing the concepts and questions for the exam next day.. soon when it passes its lukkha time. All the junta - getting ready and going for movies/restaurents and bakars till 3 or 4 am . Again no one really sleeps. Day of some big event - well if the students from across the country are there , and if you are not the organising team , you would prefer to stay at your room and watch movies/ play LAN games or do lukkha tp. till the time it can not be avoided and then you struggle to get in with your gang and hope that it should be worth the effort. About others well its chill the way you like day.

One single instance of number of things you can get involved in stands out for me to write. Well before being here - One single event used to define my day and then it was nothing else. Like what you did today - oh we went for shopping. we played or we went trekking etc etc. Here you can catch up with multitude of things within a  span of 12 hours. Like you can go for trekking on hilltop, enjoy the stroll across lakeside, come back catch up with friends on phone and chat with your roomie and then go back and finish your assignment/experiment and then listen to songs as the simulation in test bed goes on. And then you go play badminton/tt/LT and again work on some idea for research paper as you hym along the latest song being played. I just love this aspect of having so much on your platter a lot.

Though people come up with mix of things that they can balance at a time. Its always nice to dabble around and check on what all goes on in which area ...

time in flight....

time in my hands
as it flies by
i jump along n catch it awhile
n it runs away again
 to its mystique land
where it  came from
n go all the way

will u ever stop..
wait just a while
n let some people catch up
make up for the lost time?

oh dear time
keeping us in ur trap
n flying all over
as moments bygone

memory restore the glory
of time long gone
in part, in tones
yet something amiss
the essence n presence
of the very own "time"
time -- the restless soul