Wednesday, May 31, 2006

Unconfirmed Story by HT Ludhiana Live

Kindly read this post along with the remark give below under the heading Forceful follow up by HT Ludhiana Live also the story in the next post titled Peril of Being a Whistle Blower.

In May 17, 2006 edition of HT Ludhiana Live, a report by HT Live Correspondent Ludhiana, dated May 16, 2006, A “PAU Student” was reported to have cleared the Civil Services Examination 2005. The said candidate was highly praised by a faculty member of Department of Food Science and Technology and also by the Dean, Postgraduate Studies. It is reported that the candidate had stood at 372 rank in the list of the declared selected candidates. (Note: Hindustan Times does not have online editions of its Live editions.)

As per the result declared by UPSC, which is also available at the site www.upsc.gov.in and on the web site of Ministry of Personnel at http://persmin.nic.in/csresult1.html, the name as reported by Hindustan Times Live Ludhiana does not appear in the list. Further, the person who stands at 372 in ranking is MYINTHUNGO TUNGOE Roll no: 033202. In addition to that, the reported name does not appear in the list of the successful candidates who had passed the written CS 2005. It is reported on Ministry of Personnel Affairs that 1174 candidates had cleared the written test and asked to attend the medical examination and the list along with their home addresses as well their roll nos. is available at http://persmin.nic.in/csresult1.html. The name does not appear even in that list.

I have sent an email to the HT through its site and also an email at ludhreportersdesk@hindustantimes.com. As I know one of the HT reporters, I have brought this information to their knowledge also. They had sought the information about the web sites from where I have gathered the information. I had provided all the links. I have also placed a copy of the result collected from the site of UPSC at my blog www.civilservices-prelims.blogspot.com at Final Result of IAS 2005 Declared in May 2006.


Such reports damages the reputation of all such organizations whose names appear in the list. Last year, an imposter had projected himself as a selected IAS in the list of CS 2004. He fooled the administration as well as many other reputed people. He even played with the emotions of a family when he managed to establish a marriage alliance.

However, there is no clarification by the Hindustan Times groups till this day. They should counter check and verify the veracity of the report. If my judgement is wrong, or if my collection of information is faulty, I must also learn. But they should respond.
Edited Remark Placed ON JUNE 2, 2006

On June 1, 2006, I received a phone from HT Ludhiana office.


They felt concerned about the contents of my posting as given above.


They informed me that they had already published a news item titled "PAU Student’s civil services success mere eyewash" on page 2 of HT Ludhiana Live edition dated May 25, 2006. In the report they had already contended against the claim of the said student.


They also showed their annoyance and displeasure at my act of putting up this post.


I am great admirer of this publication. I feel concerned that they have not liked my act. It was me who had pointed out the incongruity and invalidity of the content of the report. I had provided them the details when they asked for it all in good faith. I was expecting a return reply from them about their investigation on this report as I had provided them the data from where they could verify the authenticity of the claim. In my above reporting, I have mentioned all the emails which I have sent to them. The content of the reporting of May 25, 2006 contains verbatim repeat of the argument which I had placed before them in my emails. It was only when I did not receive any answer from their side that I placed the above mentioned remark. I have pure intentions. I am not against the newspaper group. I repeat, I am a great admirer of the reporting skills of this newspaper and a regular subscriber since 2000. I had read that edition in which their investigative reporting appeared. It just happened that I did not read the above report.


I just want to add that the courtesy demands that they should have replied back to me and informed me when they completed their investigation and published it. The tone of the posting would have been different in that case.

Sunday, May 21, 2006

Dr. Subhash Srivastva Will Your Sacrifice be of Any Worth???

I have received a sms which reads: " Date 20-05-2006, 6.30 pm: Dr Subhash Srivastav (AIIMS) has died because of hunger strike and media is not covering it."

Is it TRUE!!!

Shivani Bhatnagar was not killed by R. K. Sharma IPS. It is true. But Media covered it so well.

Is Media vulnerable?


The State is mightier than Pen. Is it True?

Ravi Sidhu said that journalism was a lucrative career. Is it True?

I think I must watch Range De Basanti Once Again.

Is it a war of hegemony? Is Antonio Gramsci true?

Was there need of writing Poona Pact 1932?

Why is not Communal Award written in Golden Words?

Why do we not praise the 1909 ACT?

Will there be a Civil War in Bharat in which Slavery be one of the main cause along with reasons rooted in bad history and worst custodians ideology and heritage!!?

Why is not logic considered a right virtue in Indian philosophy?

Why is logic always used to justify the irrational acts?



However, there is other side of the story.

I have talked to a press reporter of a leading national daily. According to her, the report about Dr. Shubhash Srivastva is not true. She further told that this is a stunt of some companies which have some vested interest in encouraging the gullible public to exchange sms on such a sensitive issue.


She emphatically said that if such a tragedy had taken place it would have by flashed throughout the country. She stressed that in such an event both print and electronic media would have splashed it as a breaking news.

We must try to see another side of the story. We must try to listen what the pro-reservation people are saying. Dr. Bruno has something to say on in defense of reservation and strike strike strike .

Friday, May 19, 2006

How is a Hard Work Executed?

There is a report in The Tribune dated May 19, 2006 about the topper in commerce stream in Board Examination (probably in ICSE, the reporter has not specified that in which board the candidate has topped.) titled "Being Regular in Studies is her Success Mantra" by Geetanjali Gayatri.

I have hi-lighted some lines and reproduce them below.


"It was all about being attentive in class, making notes, slogging hard without being a book worm and just keeping your eyes and ears open.
"I concentrated on being thorough with my books and went over my lessons again and again. Then, of course, for quick recall, I made my own memory maps which helped me revise an entire lesson in a single glance,".
"I don't advocate tuitions at all. Besides being regular, devoting time for self-study is very essential. …"

I am more attracted to the phrase that “for quick recall, I made my own memory maps which helped me revise and entire lesson in a single glance.”


These are highly portent lines. They are the keywords telling the material things of a hard work. They have really surprised me. It is really amazing if these lines are spoken by student of +2 level. If these lines are written by Geetanjali, after listening to the topper, even then, they are very important guidelines for all the students to understand, digest and practice.

I myself, have tried to question that what actually does it mean when we say that one should do hard work in studies. I have been shifting from one explanation to other but have never reached a perfect answer.

In the above mentioned lines, the topper has remarked that for quick recall, she made her own memory maps which helped her revise an entire lesson in a single glance. This part of the quoted lines is telling about a functional and in-practice activity which is required to achieve the success. I have learned it at a very latter stage of my academic career.

What actually is this memory map? It is not an easy thing to explain. Every brain and person have his own model and explanation to give. But before that, you have to undergo an exercise to reach that memory map level. In my case, the exercise involves "Reading Writing Reading Writing Remembering Reading Writing and finally writing and writing again writing till you reach a stage wherein you can create a diagram on the contents of the piece which you are reading". The above mentioned exercise requires time and consistency. It is really a grueling regime but the final result is in form of a mental product which only you can recreate or convert into some type of a pen diagram or tag or small snippet type notes. Those notes or pen diagrams are such that they act as a summary to a whole chapter or even a whole book. The total space which such diagrams or snippets take is hardly a small percentage of the total space on pages that a book contains. All this activity takes lot of efforts and exertion which defines the Hard Work. These mental diagrams actually act as a symbol to the whole content of a book or concept on which you can elaborate to any extend. If you are asked to write it in twenty words on a concept, you can then produce amazing combination of such words which give the gist with in the word limits. If on the other hand, you are asked to explain in detail, then also, you come out with a satisfying answer.

There are some more important points which should also be taken care of. You can only develop a good mental map if you read text books. If you read refreshers like MBD, or Evergreen, or JPH or something like that, then only way is to memorize that. You can not make a mental map. The mental map you can make in case of refreshers is only of a question which such books have tried to answer. If question is there, you can answer. If the wording of the question is changed then you may not be able to articulate at all.

The next thing, which the topper is mentioned is that she studied the whole year and did not suffer from last stage anxiety. That is another good feature about which she has talked. The anxiety is such a thing that it kills your interest in studies. I may like to say that it kills the possibility of the success.

In order to develop this ability of making mental maps, one has to devote time and undergo an exercise regularly. It requires years of practice. However, it is not that you have to do it for a decade. The feel of this idea of mental map can be acquired with in month or two but in order to develop an effective product in form of mental map, you have to practice it for a long time.

In my case, I have been shifting from one type of model of mental map to other. I starting with putting some tags on each paragraph on the book itself. On reading a paragraph, I used to write some phrases or title to each paragraph giving the gist of the content of the paragraph. Then I developed the habbit of underlining it. However, it was not useful, because gradually learned that I am slow to comprehend the contents of a paragraph and I underlined a wrong line. There is some other line, which is more useful. Secondly, the underlining practice destroyed the shape of the book and made the book untidy. I also adopted the practice of hi-lighting but it also makes your book messy. The next habbit which I developed was of writing the gist in my own words. It worked well but gradually what I learned that it took too much of time and somewhere I used to just copy the book verbatim. However, with passing of years, I matured and now I write effective summaries of what I have read. Simultaneously, I have developed the ability to close my eyes, and recollect that under which title what actually is written in the book. It helps me to recollect and write about a given topic in an effective manner. In between, I have developed other different models. I keep on shifting between such models and all of them can be called mental maps.

Tuesday, May 09, 2006

Real Time Communication – An Imaginary Situation or NOT


I imagine a scenario in which a Real Time Communication takes place.

Presently, when we communicate we can see video and text and listen to audio only. However, we are not able to smell, taste and feel. When we will be able to see, listen, smell, taste and feel a communication through all our five senses then the communication will be real and true.

The computer assemblers, research laboratories and computer engineers may kindly consider this idea seriously as it holds promise for a future business possibility.

Imagine that a doctor wants to check his patient online. Through teleconferencing the doctor can talk to his patient, see some of his vital inputs but even then there remains a big gap of vital input that is required by a doctor to diagnose his patient.

Now imagine, that a doctor has a peculiar type of a plate lying on his table along with his mike, camera, monitor and keyboard. On the other side of the computer somewhere on the other side of the continent, his patient is sitting before his computer. The patient has attached some devices on different part of his body. The devices are passing a data about the skin texture of the patient through his computer to the computer of the doctor. That data is transmitted to that peculiar type of plate of the doctor. The doctor places his finger tips on the plate and gets the simulation which tells him about the real texture of the skin. It also gives data on the temperature of the skin, the dryness of the skin and feel of the skin similar to what if he has actually touched the skin of his patient.

Further, the doctor is placing a device similar to a gas mask on his nose. On the side of the patient, there are sensors which are recording the odors around the patient. The gas mask device has cartridges similar to inkjet cartridges in the inkjet printer. The doctor receives the data from the side of the patient and the nose mask device releases controlled fumes in the gas mask giving the doctor the real odours spread around the patient. They are so real to the actual odours as if he is just sitting opposite to his patient.

Now the doctor has a complete picture of his patient. On his monitor, he is looking at his patient. He is able to listen to his voice. He can also smell the atmosphere around his patient. He can place his hand on the peculiar type of plate and get the idea how it is like touching his skin or pulse. He can have another device also which may be placed on his tongue. He wants to taste something and he can ask the patient to place the corresponding device in the required medium which the doctor want to taste.

Or for example, you want to taste the dish. The other person put the corresponding device in the dish and on your side you have place the required gadget on your tongue. That device tries to reproduce the same tingling on your tongue, which help to learn how the dish tastes through processing of the data.

If such types of devices are developed, then one can have real type of communication.

It raises many possibilities of new type of computer products.

There can be REAL COMPUTER CABIN or RCC.

In the Real Computer Cabin, when a user sits and contact to some computer where in the other user is sitting in similar computer cabin, the first user can even smell the atmosphere around the other user. They may help to taste different things through attachment in the cabin. They can also feel the touch through the attachments which are programmed to transmit the specified type of simulations.

Similarly there can be REAL COMPUTER ATTACHMENTS or RCA.

There can be products wherein one can have a device similar to gas mask. On the other side, the person who want to transmit the smell perception, has a device which can transmit such a data which is converted to such simulations that helps the person on the other side to smell things. Similarly, there can be devices which can help to touch and taste things.

Dangers and Crimes:

Such type of a possibility can counter productive also. A user may produce such type of simulation which can harm the recipient. However, threshold level can be devised in such gadgets.

Utility:

As suggested above, a doctor can diagnose his patient while sitting miles away from his patient. They are doing it even now but there are limitations. However, if such devices are developed then they may have better inputs to decide the diagnose.

Just imagine, Mcdowells helping you to get the taste and smell of their burgers. Or a whine manufacturer introducing his product by first giving the smell and taste simulation. Think, how a perfume maker can approach you. Imagine the type of advertisements on your monitors.

Everybody is invited to expand this imaginary situation.
Is there anyone, who is interested in joining this imaginary situation?
Is H. G. Wells envious of me?
Are the programmers getting some ideas?