Welcome to the ITBHU Chronicle, November 2008 Edition Reports Section.
Careers
Opinion
Religion and Happiness-by Alumna from Ceramic Engineering
Praharsh Sharma ECE2010 @ Nov 30, 2008
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(Chronicle note: This opinion article is written by our alumna from Ceramic Engineering. She wants to remain anonymous, and we respect the wish of our writer. The article states that the religion plays a major role in the happiness of the mankind.)
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Below is one of the paragraphs from Amartya Sen biography on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amartya_Sen
In 1981, Amartya Sen published Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981), a book in which he demonstrated that famine occurs not only from a lack of food, but from inequalities built into mechanisms for distributing food. Sen's interest in famine stemmed from personal experience. As a nine-year-old boy, he witnessed the Bengal famine of 1943, in which three million people perished. This staggering loss of life was unnecessary, Sen later concluded. He presents data that there was an adequate food supply in Bengal at the time, but particular groups of people including rural landless laborers and urban service providers like haircutters did not have the monetary means to acquire food as its price rose rapidly due to factors that include British military acquisition, panic buying, hoarding, and price gouging, all connected to the war in the region. In Poverty and Famines, Sen revealed that in many cases of famine, food supplies were not significantly reduced.
In Bengal, for example, food production, while down on the previous year, was higher than in previous non-famine years. Thus, Sen points to a number of social and economic factors such as, declining wages, unemployment, rising food prices and poor food-distribution systems. These issues led to starvation among certain groups in society. His capabilities approach focuses on positive freedom, a person's actual ability to be or do something, rather than on negative freedom approaches, which are common in economics and simply focuses on non-interference. In the Bengal famine, rural laborers' negative freedom to buy food was not affected. However, they still starved because they were not positively free to do anything, they did not have the functioning of nourishment, nor the capability to escape morbidity.
This is very interesting information with lots of thoughts and lots of interesting words. In 26th July 2005 in Mumbai, Because of heavy rainfall, most of city was under water, thousands of People had suffered, but there were thousands of other people who were ready to help them. Many people cooked food at their home and delivered them to people who were suffering. Many shopkeeper donated food to school where kids were left with teacher as they can’t go back to home. Many young people helped old people and ladies to go the safe places. Many neighbors helped to people who were injured in the neighborhood. Many People helped/ donated whatever they had to needy people. Rather people becoming opportunistic, taking the advantage of this situation and maximizing their profit, people in the city of Ganesh decided, have truly prayed Ganesh by helping needy people. During recent natural calamities, like Tsunami, floods, earthquakes, many religious institution like BAPS and many other religious or NGO (Non-Government organization), NPO (No-Profit Organization) have done lot of relief work during those times.
Many Universities people have done research that religious people are happier. But why???? Here is an equation for that:
A=B, B=C, C=D, then A= D, typical mathematical equation
Let Religion be A, which talks about good Karma B, Which bring good luck C, which in turn bring good life and happiness in life D. As A=D,
So religious people are more happy.
Religion talks about helping other. Whether in Satyanarayan Puja, you call people or Haldi Kumkum which I call religious ladies get-together or creating temple/Gurudwara/church for current generation and coming generation of people. Glide Church (Chris Gardener of “In Pursuit of Happiness” movie, have also stayed in this church with his son when he has no place sleep) in San Francisco City, has place to stay overnight to the people who have nowhere to go. Chris Gardener has donated lot of money to Glide Church.
Bay Area in California is full many marvelous Gurudwara like San Jose or Fremont Gurudwara.
In Mughal Era, Many marvelous religious or cultural monuments were created. These monument not only provided jobs to thousands of people and but they were the gift from those generation to us which we still cherish.
During dot com bubble or subprime loan problem, money has gone to different hand, from greedy people to Geeks, who just know what they wanted. Basically, money is still around us but we don’t know how to utilize it. If we can convince, people like Warren Buffet to create some monument or Church to his first wife Susan and/or Great Larry Ellison for his warm and loving adoptive Mother, it will create thousands of jobs for people in east coast and west coast.
When I see in SFO city increasing number of beggars and old people losing their job, we need to convince people create more church/Temple/Gurdwara/Masque with low cost accommodations for poor people. So that, these cultural or religious monument can create thousands of jobs everywhere in the world whether it is in US, China or Europe or India and coming generation which cherish them. In and around New Delhi, Lotus temple, Akshar Dham and Star Temple, etc. are examples of modern architecture and/or religious monument for coming generation.
There is another advantage of having these religious places; people avoid drinking in, around and close to it. If we have to fix the problem of drunk driving, we have to create more such religious places apart from creating more hospitals. Hospitals have their own advantages, but religion has just its own charm.
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Additional Links:
1) Amartya Sen’s Book excerpts in Google Book search: “Poverty and Famines: An Essay on Entitlement and Deprivation (1981)”
Oxford University Press publication
2) An article in The Times, London by Joanna Sugden “Religious people more likely to be happy”
3) Religion and Happiness-article by Michael E. Nielsen, PhD
(Michael E. Nielsen is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Georgia Southern University, Statesboro, Georgia, USA)
4) Life Itself as a Modern Religion Complete-Book by Scientist-Philosopher Charles Blaise
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Eight Point Someone (by Praharsh Sharma, B.Tech. Part-III Electronics Engineering student)
@ Nov 27, 2008
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(Chronicle note: This story is written by Praharsh Sharma based on his experience about the grades received in 2nd year. He describes the events and emotions prevalent at the time of announcement of Grade Point Average during each semester with a sense of humour. All views expressed are his own. He can be contacted at praharshsharmaster@gmail.com)
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With the good morning of the new semester, starts a series of resolutions in a few minds. Quite a number of the ‘7 pointers’ take immense pleasure to state and disclose that their ‘new-semester-resolution’ is to crack an 8 point SGPA in that very semester. A majority of them are laughed at. The quiet ones amongst those though, often make it to the esteemed class of the ‘8 pointers’. At the end of my second semester, I was carrying J an YGPA of ‘7.26’ but at that point of time, the point of being a ‘7 pointer’ seemed pointless. On the other hand, I was told by my seniors that the third semester was the easiest one among all those eight, which I would have to manage to clear to attain the long awaited Bachelor of Technology from IT-BHU.
The spirit of ‘Jugaad Technology’ has always flourished in me, ever since I began my journey here in IT-BHU, about 27 months ago. It perhaps is the most consistent tool that never malfunctions but performs just enough not to be reported failed, and one always ends up on the other side of the crossbar, may be touching it, though not hard enough to make it fall. My mind felt, rather thought and very soon decided that the third semester was perhaps the best time to creep into the esteemed class of ‘8 pointers’, though at ‘7.26’ I was quite far behind. I never had an intention of intruding into the community of ‘consistent 8 pointers’, but just to experience the delight of being one among the ‘8 pointers’, seemed a lot more than exciting. Resolving the goal finally, I decided not to take the risk of disclosing the resolution, though it never meant that I was not confident of scoring it. My version of ‘Jugaad Technology’ has never let me down in any of my endeavours and this gift of God has always helped me clinch anything and everything I have dreamed of and desired during my life at IT – by hook or by crook 
. This perhaps, is the unique thing which I have always fondly cherished about my happening life here in the ‘now-storm-prone’ IT campus.
. This perhaps, is the unique thing which I have always fondly cherished about my happening life here in the ‘now-storm-prone’ IT campus.The journey of an odd semester is though less eventful than the one of an even semester, but my personality has never allowed me to stay inside my room amongst books even in the odd one. The huge amount of extra-curricular activities (which I consider as a little inappropriate) in IT (though it seems to be no longer the case 
) has always discouraged those enthusiastic identities, whose minds dream of being a big part of events at IT and being an ‘8 pointer’ at the same time. Firmly, I decided that the odd semester therefore, was the best time to commit this weird task of jumping from something like a ‘7.12’ (Second Semester SGPA) grade point to ‘8.00’ or better. The first thing which I did towards my efforts for this task was taking a look up of the grading system and the credits involved in the semester. Here, I emphasize that, the Batch of 2011 and the Batch of 2012 may not be able to appreciate very well, the ecstasy involved in attaining an ‘8.00’ or better grade point, because of their luckily modified grading system. Nevertheless, I preserve full faith in the Batch of 2009 and the Batch of 2010 and believe that the majority of them understands the delight of being an ‘8 pointer’ and the ones like me (who could never actually take up studies at IT seriously 
), feel pleased to realise that we all are the ones responsible, creditable and the souls behind all the respect and ‘bhaav’, these ‘8 pointer and above (good for nothing but studies) guys’ get at IT, especially during the end-semester for their (to be Xeroxed) notes and their pseudo-tuition-lectures in the hostel rooms.
) has always discouraged those enthusiastic identities, whose minds dream of being a big part of events at IT and being an ‘8 pointer’ at the same time. Firmly, I decided that the odd semester therefore, was the best time to commit this weird task of jumping from something like a ‘7.12’ (Second Semester SGPA) grade point to ‘8.00’ or better. The first thing which I did towards my efforts for this task was taking a look up of the grading system and the credits involved in the semester. Here, I emphasize that, the Batch of 2011 and the Batch of 2012 may not be able to appreciate very well, the ecstasy involved in attaining an ‘8.00’ or better grade point, because of their luckily modified grading system. Nevertheless, I preserve full faith in the Batch of 2009 and the Batch of 2010 and believe that the majority of them understands the delight of being an ‘8 pointer’ and the ones like me (who could never actually take up studies at IT seriously ), feel pleased to realise that we all are the ones responsible, creditable and the souls behind all the respect and ‘bhaav’, these ‘8 pointer and above (good for nothing but studies) guys’ get at IT, especially during the end-semester for their (to be Xeroxed) notes and their pseudo-tuition-lectures in the hostel rooms.The evaluation of the grading system for the third semester revealed that the semester carried 26 credits (incidentally the maximum among those carried by the eight semesters) and calculations proved that the minimum grade point required to be an ‘8 pointer’ in the third semester was a bit above the exact '8.00’ mark. I felt guilty that this urged me to step further inside into the ‘8 pointers’ arena’ but at the same time, I was sure that my ‘Jugaad Technology’ would never push me too much deep inside into it, though I desperately wanted it to succeed in order to let me manage something just above the ‘8.00’ mark.
A single year of experience at IT is sufficient to realize and understand that the ‘8 pointers’ are no heavenly creature and almost all the entrants into this world of IT possess the intellect and ability required to manage the ‘8.00’ point mark. Hence, the different classes of ‘6 pointers’, ‘7 pointers’ and ‘8 pointers’ are all a matter of choice and not a matter of chance. As one goes up higher into the class of grade points, he/she does not gain everything, rather ends up losing some. The ‘8 pointer commoners’ are personally dull, introvert and reserved. The decision of being an extrovert and to get largely into every extra-curricular activity going around in the campus seems to be wise at the first glance, but many a less appreciate that it costs most of the people a sizeable chunk of their grade points. I was ready to give up this loaf of my grade points, in the very first place since I could not bear to think of spending my four years inside my hostel room in a way, even the least alike to the one, in which an introvert bookworm does. The thought simply killed me. So, I decided to let time and fate decide my grade points for the first year. The results proved out to be more or less as expected and the resultant grade points further cemented my chances of being a throughout ‘7 pointer’.
The dawn of third semester came up with a diverging and diverting thought – a thought of getting serious about grade points. But, I had to make sure that the thought did not scale good heights, since even a decent height attained, could urge the intellect to proliferate the reasons in favour of studies/grade points and this entire introspection could prove out to be fatal to any and all of my extra-curricular endeavours. In the third semester, I decided to give everything, a shot simultaneously and had absolutely no idea of what the next 5 months had in store for me. The mind understood that the semester and the time then needed to be taken as it came. To an excitement and a good degree of contentment, the months proved out to be the best times I had spent at IT till then and the semester gifted a good deal of elation apart from some memories which I cannot ever shake. On the consideration at that moment, were most importantly the two spells of Class Tests and the end-semester.
At this juncture, you might be probably thinking of what actually, happened to the resolution. It seems to be left way behind and it is justified on your part to be curious about what occurred to that exercise of the so called ‘trustable technology’. To service your curiosities, I must confess that that the two CTs did not make up to any promising results. As always happens with me in life, they neither instilled confidence into my resolution, nor they managed to shatter my dreams of creeping into the esteemed class of ‘8 pointers’. They did not lead to any promising forecast, rather left the decision to the end-semester examinations. The only thing I was chilling out about, at that moment was that, though the semester had not by then shaped up any probable outcomes of the ‘grade-points-thing’, but it had passed off extremely eventful and showcased some of life’s most beautiful times. And to add to the joy, I did not feel guilty about the entire thing as a whole, as my lust for being always into everything going on around (the degree of stupidity of any event being immaterial) had not perished. It was rather growing ‘technically cultural’ sporting an opulent rate .
.The zeal and enthusiasm for everything was intact but a bigger excitement then, was the last thing that needed satisfaction...The excitement of the results for the ever (during the four semester months) forgotten resolution...To a hell of tradition at our own institute, the administration takes respectable degree of pleasure in disclosing the results of a semester, some ages after the end-semester examinations. And we are now habitual of not getting surprised, when we are, at occasions asked to write the first spell of CTs of the subsequent semester without being declared successful in the previous one. May be, the authorities want us to further realise that grades do not matter! Although my lust for something big has always paid off, but thinking about the resolution’s probable outcome was never a pleasant experience.
Although my lust for something big has always paid off, but thinking about the resolution’s probable outcome was never a pleasant experience.As the date closed by, my adrenal gland usually found itself in a state of overwork and adding to the workload of my already overworked adrenal, the ‘heavenly’ decided to pass the control of the situation to ‘hell’…And there looked no chances of the ‘heaven’ being asked to bear the office again...The declaration of results was finally decided to a date and the department authorities had pretty innocently put up a notice on the board reading,
“Attn: All B. Tech. Part-II students are required to assemble in the Seminar Hall on 21-01-2008 at 15:30 hours for the declaration of results of the third semester . . .” I was almost shocked, while the adrenal probably went unconscious, secreting out everything it had in bank, altogether, once and for all. When I could manage to recollect myself, I found that I had gathered the courage to think something and what came to my mind at first, was the thought of reasoning - whether there actually existed any point of doing something, as trivial and as personal as declaration of results, ceremonially in a seminar hall? I personally have never advocated the importance of grades, and to hold the declaration of results ceremonially, seemed quite unnecessary and weird than uninteresting. I wondered what was it that, the administration wanted to celebrate ceremonially. The notice also read further,
“The Head of Department would address the students prior to declaration of results” Here was thus, the answer. I was astonished thinking of the kind of an opportunity, the HOD had bagged for himself that time. Probably, he was confident of himself, that he would be unable to successfully gather all the students for some announcement, solely for his cause. Perhaps, for the better, he understood the students well May be, he had guessed that, the declaration of results and the issue of grade-cards could be a suitable bait for the trap. He wanted us together and until we could not survive without it, we were never in the least mood to listen to him. The whole thing seemed to be quite a fair deal of blackmailing. And, was the HOD’s address going to affect/change/improve/manipulate the grade points in any way? I doubted.
May be, he had guessed that, the declaration of results and the issue of grade-cards could be a suitable bait for the trap. He wanted us together and until we could not survive without it, we were never in the least mood to listen to him. The whole thing seemed to be quite a fair deal of blackmailing. And, was the HOD’s address going to affect/change/improve/manipulate the grade points in any way? I doubted.‘We did not need this favour from them’...A seminar hall was far more inferior a celebration venue, than our two evergreen perpendicular hostel lobbies for the cause. We were quite content with our place and were in no mood to change, but it seemed like the administration had different plan(s). Although, this aroused in me, no spark of excitement but a sense of possible public insult/disrespect was an obvious fear among all of the ‘not-very-sure-of-good-grade-point’ type students. Majority never knew, what was going to be unpacked and stamped on their character as their third semester grades, in that seminar hall on the stipulated date. I had no option but to get mentally prepared for the day...
Finally, the day arrived…In the morning hours, while the employees at the department office were just about to finish packing of grade-cards in sealed envelopes, some of the B. Tech. Part-II students (all IT students are more or less such or for that matter, all engineering undergraduates are the same ) managed to have a glance at some of the ‘in-process-to-be-packed’ grade-cards…Half a dozen of them ended up more than elated, since they had, on this another occasion of life, successfully managed something still more weird than what the ‘heavenly’ (in this case, the administration) had in plan for them, where as the administration could take down no notice of the same. Fortunately, I was not among those half a dozen identities, whose fate had by then, already trickled down from the leaking (till then unpacked and open) seal of some of the envelopes. I consider it fortunate because, when the adrenal gets overloaded and adrenaline starts constantly leaking, one desperately needs to be relaxed and at such moments, it mostly proves best if the ‘being-expected-stormy-climax’ gets delayed by a few more hours. I found myself in a similar situation then and felt happy to realise that, the storm had not yet, finally arrived.
) managed to have a glance at some of the ‘in-process-to-be-packed’ grade-cards…Half a dozen of them ended up more than elated, since they had, on this another occasion of life, successfully managed something still more weird than what the ‘heavenly’ (in this case, the administration) had in plan for them, where as the administration could take down no notice of the same. Fortunately, I was not among those half a dozen identities, whose fate had by then, already trickled down from the leaking (till then unpacked and open) seal of some of the envelopes. I consider it fortunate because, when the adrenal gets overloaded and adrenaline starts constantly leaking, one desperately needs to be relaxed and at such moments, it mostly proves best if the ‘being-expected-stormy-climax’ gets delayed by a few more hours. I found myself in a similar situation then and felt happy to realise that, the storm had not yet, finally arrived.(In the course of our four years at IT, we engineering undergraduates should be proud of one thing to which I am sure, all of us agree unanimously. The ability that gets perhaps, best incorporated in us during these quadruple of years, is to manage anything (that is desperately needed) out of nothing, as and when required. We all manage to learn and exercise this well in due course of our time and efforts here. In the sort of situation we are made to live, the most beautiful part is undoubtedly that, this life teaches us how to keep our cool on, when we are right about to fall into the middle of nowhere but hell. This is only because, just when we are living on the last edge and are about to be busted, life subjects us to an experience where in, a pseudo helping hand just saves us from falling into the hell. Thus, when we are in any situation of almost death, we always assume that there would be a way out and this illogical confidence is the best thing, which engineering undergraduates learn to have during their four years. We here call it the engineering preamble, truly stated by someone – “We, the unwilling, lead by the unknowing, are doing the impossible for the ungrateful. We have done so much for so long, with so little knowledge that we will one day qualify to do anything with knowing nothing”…)
Some similar sort of thing had been done by those half a dozen undergraduates. Where else could students imagine and dream of such a weird way to get to know the results? On the other hand, this whole thing did not bring me the slightest bit of relief, and what I was concentrating on at the moment was a completely different thing. I needed to draw some conclusions or statistical probability about my soon to be known grades from the six sets of data (results) and their respective the then past statistics. I had in actual a sample space then with six elements, though I have always been pretty lazy with statistics and probability. But the matter at stake was worth the trouble to employ these couple of mathematical tools. To another workload of the adrenal, the evaluation proved out to be discouraging, triggering the gland hard, yet again. But this time the bang was hard and the gland could have crashed any moment. Actually, a couple of the six had been ‘above-me-7-pointers’ in the then past, but they had secured something only slightly above the initial ‘7.00’ point mark. The other four were equally discouraging on the whole. This perhaps could have been the worst way, for my dream to get almost shattered without even knowing the actual results...
Still then, I kept the cool to enter the seminar hall with all others at the stipulated time as I had no option/reason to arrive late at something this important, where no risks could be undertaken. It was finally revealed that the department administration wanted a feedback about the faculty from its students (and that was the prime reason for this not very comfortable gathering to have taken place). The sequence of day’s surprises was perhaps going to grow endless. The feedback had to be given by the students keeping their identity confidential, as ordered. A sequence of weird occurrences was the cake of the day and I imagined the climax of the ‘months-long-journey’ to be still weirder . It was explained that each member of the faculty had to be judged/marked under different abilities by the students on a scale of 10 and when a student sealed his/her feedback form with his/her identity kept undisclosed, he/she would be allowed his grade-card. Two obvious questions to intrude my clever mind were, one - who the hell in the administration was going to pay the least heed to these feedbacks and two - who the hell among the students cared if anyone did or did not look into these feedbacks? At that moment, I was not sure of any answers to both the questions, but I for sure knew that I was not among the students who (if any) were the answers to my second question. I smartly decided to fill the form up with a random array of ‘7’, ‘8’ and ‘9’ in the table that had intersecting rows (for qualities) and columns (for faculty members’ name) to get away with the job as soon as possible. In probably 60 seconds, I was the first one ready and done with my ‘sealed-feedback-envelope’, all set to grab my grades .
. It was explained that each member of the faculty had to be judged/marked under different abilities by the students on a scale of 10 and when a student sealed his/her feedback form with his/her identity kept undisclosed, he/she would be allowed his grade-card. Two obvious questions to intrude my clever mind were, one - who the hell in the administration was going to pay the least heed to these feedbacks and two - who the hell among the students cared if anyone did or did not look into these feedbacks? At that moment, I was not sure of any answers to both the questions, but I for sure knew that I was not among the students who (if any) were the answers to my second question. I smartly decided to fill the form up with a random array of ‘7’, ‘8’ and ‘9’ in the table that had intersecting rows (for qualities) and columns (for faculty members’ name) to get away with the job as soon as possible. In probably 60 seconds, I was the first one ready and done with my ‘sealed-feedback-envelope’, all set to grab my grades .As the grade-card emerged from the envelope, I had only one thing impounding my clever mind. I had no intention to bear any interest in, or to try to know the individual course wise performance. My eyes just simply wanted to get up to that magic figure groping up all those numbers on the grade-card that seemed to be grade points. I just wanted to see which side had I landed? Had I successfully broken into the esteemed ‘8 pointer villa’? Or was I seen getting in and kicked back without even stepping in? The grade-card was quite dense and finally my pair of eyes finished hunting the magic figure. It read…
*.** I had no courage to read the three digits and the desperation to get inside that ‘8 pointers arena’ was digging deep into the heart and mind. This probably kept a ray of hope alive in me even after realising the fact that those half a dozen grade-card data were not at all encouraging and promising. To end everything in a go (and more importantly keeping in mind the risk of impending adrenal attack and eventually adrenal failure), I decided to give it a shot. It read…
8.** 
And then, who cared after the decimal? The first integer carried my life . To the hell of an excitement, I was later reported to have gone eventually hysterical at the moment there and then. I had been berserk for long and the feeling of conquering the world and getting over it had started blooming inside. The ‘Jugaad Technology’ had once again laid another milestone, in its glorious history of success and performance. Concentrating on the two after-decimal-digits later, I realized that the first one read 0 and this was exactly in accordance and agreement with the expected. The last digit read 8. When all the other grade-cards were taken and a statistical compilation was completed by me in the evening, another interesting and agreeing fact came up. ‘8.08’ was soon found to be the lowest score obtained by any ‘8 pointer’ and this was what triggered a still bigger celebration . The new born fact brought in a sense of familiarity and security, while the delight of becoming a new member of the ‘8 pointer’ community was certainly visible and obvious...
The first integer carried my life . To the hell of an excitement, I was later reported to have gone eventually hysterical at the moment there and then. I had been berserk for long and the feeling of conquering the world and getting over it had started blooming inside. The ‘Jugaad Technology’ had once again laid another milestone, in its glorious history of success and performance. Concentrating on the two after-decimal-digits later, I realized that the first one read 0 and this was exactly in accordance and agreement with the expected. The last digit read 8. When all the other grade-cards were taken and a statistical compilation was completed by me in the evening, another interesting and agreeing fact came up. ‘8.08’ was soon found to be the lowest score obtained by any ‘8 pointer’ and this was what triggered a still bigger celebration . The new born fact brought in a sense of familiarity and security, while the delight of becoming a new member of the ‘8 pointer’ community was certainly visible and obvious... ___________________________________
Epilogue:
To an excitement, I could never sustain to be a permanent member of the ‘8 pointer’ group. It was never a permanent residence for me. The fourth semester somehow almost dragged me back to where I had jumped/leaped a ‘0.96’ chunk of grade from. The fourth semester ended it up all forever perhaps, with a grade point of ‘7.29’ and the subsequent ones may have other surprises in store. But I would not mind much, missing a few surprises if they bring with them, grades like six-point something . I would though definitely mind missing them, if they bring with them, grades like nine-point something ...
. I would though definitely mind missing them, if they bring with them, grades like nine-point something ...An ‘8 pointer’ may seem to be a very happy species instead, and at a great advantage as compared to those with low-profile grade points, but many a less realise there is a good deal of plight involved and hidden inside in being an ‘8 pointer’. In the backdrop of his/her grades promising him a good career, he/she also has to carry forward and accelerate a good deal of labour and hard luck at times. He/she has to refrain from indulging much into the ever attracting extra-curricular activities and leisure timeouts…
Though, it’s a trade off among priorities that slide on a ruler, life at IT is just a collection of different students setting their sliders at different points on the ruler (where they think is just appropriate for them). The position of the slider is what makes all the difference…
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Statutory Warning:
In the common interest of the Batch of 2012, it is hereby stated that, no confusion regarding the importance of grades should be sheltered in mind. During your four years of stay at IT, you will get to listen from different people, that studies are quite unimportant at an institute like IT-BHU and this can most probably lead to your insincerity in studies and grade points, but in the due course of time (somewhere in your fourth or fifth semester) you will eventually realise the true fact. It is highly recommended that you may involve yourself into all extra-curricular activities you desire, but never at the cost of your studies. At the same time, you are advised to retain your very obvious prime objective and motive intact. There have been registered, cases of parallel expertise and excellence in curricular and extra–curricular activities. Though rare and tough to crack, they are definitely inspiring and encouraging. All the very best!
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Reports
Malaviya Smriti Bhavan is getting ready at New Delhi.
@ Nov 30, 2008
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Inauguration of Smriti Bhavan by Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam planned on December 25.
Dr. APJ Abdul Kalam, the Former President of India, will inaugurate the Memorial Complex "Malaviya Smriti Bhawan" on Thursday, 25th December 2008, Malaviyaji’s 147th birth day. Hectic preparations are on for the function. All alumni, friends and well-wishers are invited to attend the inauguration function.
Website for Mahamana Malaviya Mission: http://www.malaviyamission.in/
MALAVIYA SMRITI BHWAN
(National Memorial of Madan Mohan Malaviya) at
52-53, Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Marg, New Delhi-110002
More info about Smriti Bhavan at: http://www.malaviyamission.in/smritiBhawanMore.htm
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(Chronicle note: Below please find last appeal for financial help received from Shri P. L. Jaiswal, Working President of Mahamana Malaviya Mission. Please mark all your queries and correspondence to the Mission.)
LAST APPEAL
You are already aware that the National Memorial of Mahamana Madan Mohan Malaviya, the Founder of Banaras Hindu University, is coming up in the national capital. It would have been completed and made functional long back but for the acute financial crisis we are facing at the final stage. We badly need Rs. 50 lakhs to pay the Contractors’ bills for work done and that in progress (Total cost Rs.4 crores). The Inauguration of the Memorial has been delayed on this account.
In the last meeting of the General Body of the Mission held on 21st September 2008 in New Delhi, the general mood of the House was that we should not go for bank loan at 13% interest and instead a Final Appeal should be issued to all BHU Alumni and those who cherish the ideals of Mahamana Malaviya ji to donate or give soft loan to be returned within a year from the income generated from the Memorial Building. Three members namely, Dr. K. G. Bhatia, Shri K. K. Vohra, Smt. Usha Mathur announced to give Rs. 1 lakh each as interest free soft loan to the Mission to avert the crisis. The debt can be cleared if even 50 Alumni holding good positions and who are well off give Rs. 1 lakh each as soft loan.
This is my last appeal to you to visit the Malaviya Smriti Bhawan in New Delhi and see for yourself this historic monument which has come up and which pledges to lighten the whole world with Malaviyan ideals and thoughts and help in its early completion.
Should you decide to help, your contribution may be in favour of Mahamana Malaviya Mission and sent at its Central Office, C-3, Gulmohar Park, New Delhi – 110049. Your draft / cheque in favour of "Mahamana Malaviya Mission" may be either as donation or as soft loan, preferably interest free for a year. An early receipt of your valued contribution will be highly appreciated.
With my deep personal regards
Yours sincerely,
(P. L. Jaiswal)
Working President
Email: bhumahamana@bol.net.in
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(Malaviya Smriti Bhavan, New Delhi)
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Seminar on "Natural Technologies" by Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao at LNMIIT, Jaipur
Praharsh Sharma ECE2010 @ Nov 30, 2008
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(Chronicle Note: Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao is a well known authority in material sciences. We are presenting his lecture on “Natural Technologies” during a seminar on September 29-30, 2008 at LNMIIT, Jaipur. Prof. Rao states that mankind has learned a lot from the nature about science and engineering concepts. Prof. Rao has a unique distinction of being student, faculty of our institute and Vice-Chancellor our BHU. Prof. Rao can be contacted at: pramachandra_rao@yahoo.com.
The following report was forwarded by Dr. Dheeraj Sanghi, Director of LNMIIT.)
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Report on seminar of Professor P Ramachandra Rao at LNMIIT, Jaipur on Sept 29th and 30th, 2008.
(Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao-file photo)
Professor B Ramachandra Rao is a well known material scientist of India. He has been the Director of National Metallurgical Laboratory and Vice Chancellor of Benares Hindu University. Along with these he has also held various other senior positions. Presently, he is engaged in advanced research and guidance at ARCI, Hyderabad.
Department of Science and Technology has set up a Fast Track Scheme for Young Scientists (Engineering Sciences) for award of research grants. Professor Ramachandra Rao is the Chairman of this committee for the period 2007 to 2010. He has encouraged regular group interactions with the awardees at periodic intervals across various places in the country. The last meeting was held at LNM Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur on September 29th and 30th, 2008.
At this occasion, Professor Rao kindly gave a seminar for the students and faculty at LNMIIT. The topic was “Technologies inspired by Nature.” He gave several examples of technologies which were developed after watching how nature solves those problems. It was interesting to know that swimming techniques and swim suits for high performance have been designed by looking at aquatic animals. The Eiffel Tower was designed by studying the structure of the head of the femur bone in the thigh. The Velcro was designed by looking at how burrs from a certain plant stuck strongly to a dog when it ran through the field. There were several other examples including development of night vision goggles, strong materials, better civil engineering designs, and several defense technologies. He informed the audience that there is an active field of studies called “Biomimetics” which attempts to develop technologies by mimicking life. (Mimetics means copying or imitation, and Bio stands for life or as an extension, nature.)
It was a fascinating seminar that kindled the imagination of young students. A lively question answer session followed the seminar. Subsequently, many students promised to work in this area. The seminar was attended by over 200 students, and many students had to be turned away since there was no space to even stand in the hall.
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The presentation by Prof. Rao is provided in the below link of PDF file (converted from 92 slides of PowerPoint). To view, please click here
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Additional links:
1) Biomimetics-Article published by Prof. Rao in 2003 in Indian Science Journal:
2) Chronicle interview with Prof. P. Ramachandra Rao
3) International Advanced Research Centre for Powder Metallurgy and New Materials, Hyderabad.
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About Laxmi N. Mittal Institute of Information Technology, Jaipur
(Website: http://www.lnmiit.ac.in/)
(Chronicle note: As requested by Chronicle, Director of LNMIIT, Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi has presented an introduction about the institute. The institute is established as per the govt. plan to establish IIIT (Indian Institute of Information Technology) or equivalent in each state. This institute is established in partnership of Rajasthan State Government with the well-known Laxmi N. Mittal industrial house. We hope the info provided here will be useful to our readers.
Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi was a professor of Computer Science & Engineering at IIT-Kanpur. He joined LNMIIT as Director from September 1, 2008. He has great plans for the future of the institute. He can be reached at dheeraj@lnmiit.ac.in.
Prof. Sanghi is also known for his collection of his articles about IIT-JEE exam, comparison of different admission exams for leading engineering colleges in India, analysis of admission statistics, etc. His collection can be viewed at his home page at: http://www.cse.iitk.ac.in/users/dheeraj/)
A note about LNM Institute of Information Technology (LNMIIT)
(By Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi, Director, LNMIIT)
(Prof. Dheeraj Sanghi, Director-LNMIIT)
LNMIIT is a unique example of public-private partnership (PPP) in higher education. It has been setup jointly by Government of Rajasthan and Lakshmi and Usha Mittal Foundation. Around 2000, a lot of states were interested in setting up colleges focusing on IT education, and Rajasthan was no exception. The concept was strongly marketed by Late Mr. Dewang Mehta, who was Executive Director of NASSCOM. While some states got an IIIT from the central government, some states went for a state-owned model. Yet others did a model where state gave initial grants, but later on it was to be self-financed. At that time, Rajasthan approached Mr. Mittal to set up an IIIT through PPP (Public-Private Partnership) model in Jaipur, which was to be named after him
The first batch was admitted in 2003, when it started functioning from a rented space in Jaipur city. The campus was built within one year, and the institute moved to its new location in 2004. We have a beautiful 100-acre campus in the middle of Aravali hills, with hardly any human inhabitation for a few miles. It is difficult to believe that we are just 12 KM away from Jaipur, one of the best planned cities in the country. And the architect has come up with a wonderful campus design, with all buildings having a pinkish color, the one that you find on all the buildings of old Jaipur. It has an absolutely green campus, something that most people won't associate Rajasthan with. Staying on campus is very relaxing. One feels like being in a resort all the time.
It is a small college with just 500 students, focusing on undergraduate teaching in IT areas. It has a very strong faculty profile, with most people either having taught at an IIT, or are an alumnus of an IIT. Even the non-teaching staff has worked in an IIT in the past. So the whole atmosphere is that of an IIT. Most of the faculty holds a doctorate. In fact, if we consider the PhD faculty to student ratio in LNMIIT, it is amongst the top 10 in the country. (Top 10 includes 7 IITs and IT-BHU.)
We started with an undergraduate program, which is a unique combination of Computer Science on one hand and Electronics and Communication on the other. We call it, “Computer and Communication Engineering.” Our graduates are best suited to work in the era of convergence. Lately, we have also started offering an option to do a program in pure Computer Science, or a program in traditional Electronics and Communication.
We intend to offer several PG programs starting next academic year. These will include M. Tech. programs in all the three variants described above. In addition, we intend to start M.Sc programs in Applied Mathematics, and Applied Physics. We want to expand beyond IT areas now. Our model of expansion is that if we find a couple of leaders in any discipline who can work with us to create a top class program, attract good faculty and students, then we are willing to let them have our platform and realize their dreams.
Research is increasingly the focus of the Institute. We have very modern labs. The faculty is encouraged to submit proposals to funding agencies. Each faculty gets a small research grant from the Institute (besides all the regular infrastructure/labs/PG students, and so on). There is also an incentive scheme for faculty based on their research output.
A lot of innovation in education is planned at LNMIIT. A student should get admission to a university and not to a program. One should be able to choose what discipline to study at any time in the university. There should be multiple different programs in each discipline, which cater to different career goals of the students. The program should consist of a large number of electives so that students can do what they want to do. Being a deemed university allows us all the freedom to achieve excellence with a difference.
The admission process is strictly merit-based. Admissions are done through AIEEE. We are seriously considering other channels of admissions like admitting students who have got a good rank in other national level tests. But merit and transparency will never be compromised. The total expenditure of an undergraduate student in LNMIIT is about Rs. 1.25 lakhs per year. This includes tuition, hostel rent, mess bill, and every other charge that the Institute levies.
Unfortunately, LNMIIT, despite its top class faculty, good students, and excellent infrastructure, isn't quite known outside academic circles. This is because we have graduated only two batches, the first one had 27 students, and the second one had 86. So our alumni haven't yet made their mark. But still we have had 100% placement in both batches. A large number of our students have been going abroad for internships. We have a strong industry relationship program. We have been encouraging our students to go for higher education, and every year several students have been doing just that.
We have several interesting programs for interacting with industry. These include the ability to offer a 1-credit course (10 lectures) whereby someone from industry just visits us for a week, teaches 10 lectures, and combines this with touristy activities in and around Jaipur. We also invite people from industry to teach over the weekends. We strongly believe that interaction with industry is important to keep the students abreast with the latest in technology.
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(LNMIIT campus, Jaipur)
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Travelogue
Copyright © 2008-2013 by ITBHU Global Alumni Association
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP
Institute of Technology, Banaras Hindu University
Varanasi 221005, UP