A solution
10:32 AM | Author: whateveryoulike

The following post was born out of a conversation i had today with Ameya, in reply to his two newest posts, which can be found here  and there.

I'm publishing it as a heavily edited version of  the chat i had with him. For a concise, succint summary, go to MY OTHER BLOG -



ME:  we should write a post on things that can be done to reduce the mess during 12th to degree college transition coz we have gone through it

AMEYA: yes, its sad really. u feel bad but then u cant do anything
ME : of course we can do SOMEthing
dont say you cant do anything.

ME: the interesting thing is, more than 80% of the guys who pass JEE are still not satisfied ! Because they will mostly not get the course they want. Then, there are people like me with a poor rank who wont get anything

ME: there are only 1000-2000 seats in sought after courses in IITs.  Say we have a guy who is really interested in comp science but ends up getting a 2000+ rank in JEE and has to settle for a so-called "lower branch" like chem in IITM. He will not be happy ! Of course, he will be happy for the next few years, coz he's in an IIT
but what then, once he passes out ? He would have spent countless hours studying chem engg, something he doesnt even enjoy/excel at and in a few years time, perhaps an "ordinary" comp engineer from ramaiah/rv will overtake him.

Therefore, a majority of people who got thru JEE are also not happy. 99.9 percent of people who have written the JEE are disappointed.
THAT, is unfair.

AMEYA: nice line of thought. Alright, so how do we fix this

ME: how about something radical
like.. in 9th and 10th grade, roughly. Students have to undergo a wide variety of courses and mark out the courses they are interested in.See its like harry potter.
AMEYA: ah
ME: after your OWLS
AMEYA: yes

ME: then in 11th and 12, they narrow down the field even more.. something like the current system itself.
the idea is that wat courses we do in first year of engineering, must be done much earlier

AMEYA: hey, engineering is not everything !
ME: i know, i know. Theres medicine/law
and all that.

ME: Im just giving an example
in 9th/10th/11th .. one of these years
our courses shud be like EME, comp, EC, phy, chem, what we actually do in the first year of engineering. So we get a taste of everything
AMEYA: yes

ME: you may say that this is too much for a "child" to learn but        1- its just a teaser trailer of the actual subject, just enough to arouse interest and       2- like you just said, a lot of our learning is repetitive.. we learn the same thing in college and again in coaching classes.. why dont we learn it correctly once and for all !
AMEYA: true

ME: so first we must identify the major fields one can contribute to
AMEYA: with due importance 2 every field
ME: all of this sounds very similar to the system in existence right now
with minor improvements

AMEYA: every other person wants 2 be an engineer or a doctor.

ME: exactly
society tells us wat to do, but instead, society shud ask us wat we want to do.

say in 9th we have -

history, geography, civics, math, life-science, physics, chemistry, technology, current affairs and language.

let us say these are our 9-10 subjects spread out over 2 semesters
ok ?

AMEYA: yes

ME: now ... the grading for these subjects must be continuous and must include things like attentive-ness of the student during these classes and enthusiasm of the student while doing projects in a particular subjet and stuff
it sounds very, very idealistic
and im sure it has its flaws, but education HAS TO be student centric

AMEYA: in a smaller system it wud be wonderful, but india is a big nation

ME: yeah, i know

This can be implemented in the urban areas first and then, rural places can have subjects that are important to them their syllabus will be different.. like Law for us city kids will be something like corporate law/consumerism... Rural people will learn bout child marriage/dowry/other problems THEY face.
Ultimately .. if a child from a village chooses LAW as his specialisation, post 12th .. his syllabus and the urban kids syllabus will be the same(integrated).

AMEYA: sounds good
ME: hmmm ...

Going back to the importance given to students' attentiveness/enthusiasm
im not saying thats all thats required
but some percentage of evaluation has to be set aside for that
like if a student scores 70% in the exam for comp science but is 100% interested in it
as a teacher i would rather teach him than some guy who hates comp science but mugs all night to score a 100%

AMEYA: k, seems good

ME: so this is wat happens

lets assume i'm a student of this system. i will work on the 1st to 7th/8th details in a while but right now, im entering 9th and i want you to understand my mentality and knowledge level. so far my education is such that i know as much as, lets say in our system today, an ICSE kid knows in 8th grade. So i have more than a rudimentary understanding of social science, science, math, technology, current affairs.  enough to get me through the rest of life alright.

[like enough math to not get cheated in shops, even enough math to calculate basic optimisation and stuff, enough history/geography to understand wats written in newspapers and stuff]

now in 9th.. i do 10 courses in 2 semesters

at the end of 9th.. i show most interest and perform best at .. lets say 6-8 courses
history
nature/life sciences
geography
technology
current affairs
physics
and language

now ,in 10th grade i'll be studying a higher level of these courses
so when i write my 10th grade exams i can eliminate 2-3 more

[there can be arguments like you cant do higher physics without higher math, etc. etc., but each of these coursesis completely exclusive of the other, i.e. higher physics will teach you enough math as part of its syllabus to handle the physics you're learning]

lets say im left with history, technology, current affairs, language for my 11th/12th

now wat happens is ...

there is an exams committee for every one of the original 10 subjects i listed each exam committee consists of experts from that field so at the end of my 12th .. i will take 4 exams and based on my ranking in each of those exams and my interest and other factors i can take up a degree course in any of these subjects.

so that will result in fewer students writing every exam... and the odds of being happy with your result, andstudying what you enjoy will increase EXPONENTIALLY (obviously, it can ONLY increase, can't get any worse now, can it ?!).
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A problem
10:31 AM | Author: whateveryoulike
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"bored" exams ?

After watching Barkha Dutt and her panel of "experts" debate on  the issue of scrapping 10th standard board exams for an hour, i don't think anyone is closer to arriving at a solution. Kapil Sibal thinks he's doing a favor to us all, but a bunch of kids on the sets of "We the people" refuse his help -  which makes us question the kind of  demographic that the students sitting in the NDTV studios represent. Where are the voices of the village kids ?

Time and again, the issue of 10th boards being a mock exam in preparation for the 12th finals appears; but nowhere do we raise the question of whether we're justified in taking away (atleast!) two long years worth of learning from these children. I'm sure we learn more in the long run from our events and extracurricular activities than from textbooks.

The teachers present on the talk show seemed to alternate between turning a blind eye, or being downright rude. When a student complained of having to give up her extra-curriculars during the years of her board exams, the teachers responded by making irresponsible statements, blaming the student, her parents, that particular school and all and sundry. Instead, they should recognise that it is our society that has given birth to this myth of having to drop everything during exam years, because of the competition in academics during these times. They must find a way to encourage the student to perform well at the activities he/she excels at, and help them maintain a healthy balance between this and academics, instead of being absolute kill-joys.

Another reason for scrapping the current education system (YES, the entire system needs to be reviewed!) is that during the years of the board exams, even if one is prepared to give up on all extra-curricular activities and concentrate solely on studies, one is restricted to thinking only within the "syllabus" prescribed  by the all-knowing education boards. Any doubts/questions one has will not be entertained by the teacher because it is deemed unnecesary by a bunch of doddering old men who wrote the text books.

Since state boards are even worse than central ones, sometimes one is forced to write an answer that is factually INCORRECT, just because it says so in the text book. I clearly remember our teachers asking us to refrain from using long and complicated words in our answer paper to avoid confusing the examiners, who were from a rural background, as we ran the risk of losing marks. We are forced to reduce our level of answering  to live "up" to the standards of the board exams.

What we need is a major overhauling of the education system in India. The time is NOW and the place is HERE. I really hope that the education ministry knows what its doing and manages to change the system for the better.

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Wild Africa ! - A documentary
11:18 AM | Author: whateveryoulike

A sincere request before you commence reading this post. Do not rush through the following paragraphs. Take it slow; let the images wash over you, so you can experience a small fraction of the beauty of the documentary, without even having watched it. I hope it inspires you to actually get your hands on the "Wild Africa" series and watch it. For those of you who HAVE watched it (or think you have!), I'm sure it will bring back some wonderful memories...


Co-produced by the BBC Natural History Unit and the Discovery Channel, the series called "Wild Africa" is narrated wonderfully well in that hint of an endearing Irish accent by Fergal Keane. Breathtakingly beautiful, the documentary is divided into 6 wonderfully crafted episodes, each one dedicated to a specific ecosystem- there's Mountains, Savannah, Deserts, Coast, Jungles, Lakes and rivers, which gives a satisfactorily concise, balanced feel to the series.


The episodes begin with wonderful moving music, and some stunning high-definition images. A blood-red sunrise, a herd of migrating elephants, beautiful cloud formations, geladas nuzzling each other, sprinting gazelle, waves breaking on the coast with foam spraying all around, ibex locked in a head to head combat, an underwater shot of seals gliding upwards through pristine,blue water, a mountain gorilla rushing towards the camera, a lion lazing around majestically on the savanna, hippopotamuses tussling and baring their teeth, and then that wonderful design - Wild Africa. Everything about the introduction screams "WATCH THIS ! We need you to learn about us, so you can do your bit to help !" (No kidding !)



Episode 1 starts off with - "Africa, the heart of the world"...How true ! "Stand on its southern shores and picture the lands rolling north.." and as the camera pans across the country, offering some breathtaking views, its hard to tear your eyes away from the screen. Within the first couple of minutes, we are presented with such a staggering variety of wildlife, that its no wonder that the producers had to split this into a 6 part series, just to attempt to do justice to the vast continent and its myriad biomes !





On a spiritual/religious note : As you watch in amazement, you cannot help but wonder at the fundamental beauty of nature. I may lapse into cliched astonishment here, but i think its absolutely justified to take a moment to reflect on the beauty of everything around us. Kinda convinces you that there must be a Creator, or a supreme power of some sort to justify
the creation of such a variety of species, each beautiful in their own way. But watching the ruthless efficiency with which predators hunt, makes you wonder whether God, as portrayed by Religion(yes, with 'R' in caps) is really such a nice-guy, forgiving type.

As the renowned naturalist/presenter David Attenborough says - " My response is that when Creationists talk about God creating every individual species as a separate act, they always instance hummingbirds, or orchids, sunflowers and beautiful things. But I tend to think instead of a parasitic worm that is boring through the eye of a boy sitting on the bank of a river in West Africa, [a worm] that's going to make him blind. And [I ask them], 'Are you telling me that the God you believe in, who you also say is an all-merciful God, who cares for each one of us individually, are you saying that God created this worm that can live in no other way than in an innocent child's eyeball? Because that doesn't seem to me to coincide with a God who's full of mercy'" .



But no matter how much i wax eloquent about "Wild Africa", a picture is definitely worth a thousand words; and a moving picture, worth many more ! So all i can say in conclusion, is WATCH IT ! It will definitely be an amazingly enriching 5 hours of your life, and will leave your mind spinning with some hauntingly beautiful images which will help you better understand the spirit, and zest for life of the inhabitants of the magnificent continent called Africa.

Happy viewing !




P.S.- I hope i don't sound like im kissin BBC/Discovery Channel ass here, but I'm sure this post is not enough to answer your queries on the documentary. For more information, please visit - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wild_Africa
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A beginning
6:58 AM | Author: whateveryoulike
Hi !
This is my second (serious) attempt at blogging. Before starting off, i think i should set myself a few ground rules.

i have decided not to post unless i have something significant to say.

i have decided not to cover up a flawed post with flowery language.

i have decided that no post will be unnecessarily long.

hopefully this blog will serve a purpose, without reading too much as a journal/log of activities.

Here goes nothing !
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