National Science Day

Today is the day  Sir C.V. Raman announced  his discovery.  We had decided to celebrate it with a talk by Prof. Balaram and a poster session displaying the research done by the faculty. It got hijacked by the students who decide to protest against the poor pay.  The only problem was that the research fellowships are the domain of CSIR, UGC and ultimately the MHRD.  The DST, which was co-sponsoring the program, has nothing to do with the research fellowships given to students. Minor detail but enough to derail the program. Prof. Balaram left immediately after his talk was over.
The talk was interesting for he is good orator and it is a pity that the students missed it.  Prof. Balaram began by emphasizing that science and higher education is in grave threat. Over the past few years the funding to science has not increased and every agency is now giving the same answer- no funds. Without funds we cannot do much research.  He also pointed out that Indian Political Circle is fond of the word Innovation which has nothing to do with Discovery and Invention.
As the budget speech rolls out, I see Mr. Jaitley has promised more IITs and AIIMS.   That is the easy part. The new IITs and central Universities that the previous government promised are languishing for lack of funds.  As for the existing Universities- they are dying a slow death. 
As the students were protesting, I too wished I could have protested. None of the funding agencies are releasing money and bills have piled up and I am being dunned by the companies. It is in this scenario that we try to do some research. Instead of harping on how we were the first ones to know about Pythogorean theorem and how plastic surgery was known in the ancient times I really wish the Government would pay attention to the dire state of science today in India.
Oh wait! Probably they think all that has to be discovered has already been discovered. After all I am quite sure the ancients knew all about infectious diseases and cancer and....the list is endless. 
Happy Science Day!

Raga 'n Josh by Sheila Dhar- Book Review

Last week I went to the Delhi Book Fair. And yes! my book was there in the NBT stall. It felt good. 
I purchased three books of which I am reviewing the book by Sheila Dhar because I devoured it that day itself.
Sheila Dhar was a musician and a fantastic storyteller. She would have been a good actress too, if she had wanted to be.  But she wanted to be a musician and this book, an autobiography, is her journey to becoming a musician.
Her family was the khandaani, Old Delhi Mathura Kayastha family interested in music.  She learnt music from a musician hired by the family to teach all the girls (boys were exempt but girls had to know music for their marriage prospects).  However, Mohan Babu known only limited repertoire and cannot turn her into a musician. The quest continues after marriage and leads her finally to Ustad Fayyed Khan who moulds her into a musician.
The journey is fascinating. Through her family connections, she knows Ustad Bundu Khan, Begum Akhtar, and Kesar Bai Kerkar. She also gets to know Siddheswari Devi and of course, in the end performs at Harballabh festival.
She also worked in Publication division and one of the stories that amused me was one where the Business Manager discovers that many of the publications had been eaten by rats. So he writes a letter requesting for mouse trap. The letter goes back and forth. Finally in frustration, he gets a cat. Then starts another set of letters where he tries to reimbursed for the amount spent on cat food. The finance head is a South India Brahmin, pedantic and stubborn.  Unfortunately, Sheila Dhar quit her job to concentrate on her music career so we do not know how the story of the cat ended.  She does try to get those files but apparently they had been weeded out in the ritual known as "weeding out" conducted by the government every five years.
The gem of the story, however, was the one set in British Guinea. Her husband, P.N. Dhar, had been posted there and they were invited to attend Janamashtami at the Hindu Church.  The punditji at the temple gives a discourse on Gita. He says (and I am quoting from the book):
"Wat Krishna tellin Arjuna on de battlefield?.....Is Krishna sayin to Arjuna "Doan be drinkin, doan be dancing, doan be makin love, doan be enjoying?.....No, no, no! He not tellin Arjuna dat....He sayin"enjoy all- food drink, dancin, makin love!..
"Yea, be eatin, drinkin, makin love! he thundered. "Only remember, this all belongin to Krishna and he gonna take baack when time kom!"
As she concludes that is the most original interpretation of the Gita.
I laughed and laughed because last week was the Valentine's day. The Right Wing! The moral upholder without whom we will all perish. Well,  I thought they should listen to this punditji to learn about Hinduism and Gita.
 

Craving for muffins- Lemon-Coconut muffin

I have been going to the Monday market Vasant Kunj for vegetables with my upstairs neighbours.  Last week was a disaster as I forgot to take my purse (it has happened many times and I have not figured out how I manage this part. Probably the same way I discovered I had put money in the fridge along with milk and butter I had purchased).  This week I made sure that the purse was in my bag before I left the house.
The fist thing I saw was big fresh lemons and I decided that I would make either lemon cake or lemon something.
Yesterday it crystallized. I wanted lemon muffins.  I looked through sites in the Internet before finalizing on one. The recipe called for one egg. I debated what to replace the egg with. I had bananas but I wanted only the lemon and coconut flavor.  Adding bananas always results in subtle or overt banana flavour depending on how much one has added. The other option was yogurt but the recipe already had 1 cup of yogurt. Finally I decided to wing it. If the batter was too dry, I would add some liquid.
This morning I made them.  I completely omitted the eggs. The 1 and 3/4 cup flour was replaced with mix of maida, oats and atta as I did not have enough flour.  As the yogurt was too thick, I added little milk.  Here they are:

I had one for breakfast along with ragi idly.  It was a satisfying meal.

Common University Act- A tie to bind the central universities together

I have no idea whose brilliant idea it was to introduce orientation and refresher courses for lecturers and Assistant Professors. This is mandatory for promotion through the Career Advancement Scheme. Since open posts are far and few and subjected to many rules and regulations and departments use this to get new faculty, most of the existing faculty seek promotion through the Career Advancement Scheme.
This year I am coordinating the refresher course and I feel pity for the participants.  Most of them have not done Ph.D. and have no idea about research work. The ones who have done Ph.D. take it as just a job.  One of the participants told me that her working hours are from 9 to 1.30 pm.  Then she rectified. It is from 9 to 1.25pm.  You know that she watches the clock and bolts from the college the moment the clock says 1.25 pm.
Most of the teachers teach the way they were taught. They are not interested in innovation or learning more or thinking of ways to get the concept across.  Their own concepts are unclear and unsure but what to do ? The refresher course is just a paperwork to be completed. If it was meant to enhance their knowledge, it does not do it. If it is meant to motivate them it completely fails in that too for they do not really care.
It is in this background I am appalled that the HRD is contemplating a Central Universities Act to bind all the Central Universities together. I am told that this was the brainchild of the previous government and the present one is just going on with it.
There are two core aspects to the Act. One is that there will be faculty mobility across Central Universities a la Kendriya Vidyalaya.  In school it used to be fun. Suddenly a teacher would be transferred and if the teacher happened to be unpopular there would be joyous eruption. We would also get new teachers and that too was fun. We would watch out for transfers. But in Universities it ceases to be fun. What are we supposed to do with our research labs?  And our research students? Do the bureaucrats and the minister have any idea what a science research lab is like?  Just the mention of pension mobility makes no sense. That is not what we science teachers are worried about. Of course if the Minister wants us to close our research activity I have no problem. Given that none of the funding agencies are releasing money and the University does not give us any research fund, we are already in the process of shutting down research. We will just hasten the process.
The other aspect is that of Credit Choice. Ideally, it is a neat concept provided that the student has a wide choice of courses to opt for. The reality is that in most of the colleges, the department is run with handful of people who are already overwhelmed and burdened with courses, corrections, lab practicals. Who is going to go out of the way to offer an optional? And how can they offer if they do not do any research?  What are they going to teach?
I do not think the Minister or the babus have any idea what they are doing to higher education. But why should they? Most of them send their children abroad and Universities and Colleges are for only those who do not have the means to go abroad to get an education.

Trip to Bharatpur

This weekend I went to Bharatpur with my friends. It was a fantastic trip marred by only two things:
One, there were very few migratory birds. The heronary was empty.  That was truly a bummer. I know there were tourists who suitably gasped at the sight of the peacock, tailor bird, spot-billed duck, oriental magpie robin, rose-ringed parakeet and others. But for us from JNU these were old stuff. We have been spoiled. We see them every day. I have been woken many times by the peacock calling out loud at 3 am in the morning, so much so I have often wished the bird would just shut up. Here is one that was on my backyard yesterday:

That is not to say that there were no migratory birds. There were Northern Shoveller, Northern (Common) Coot,.
 and bar-headed goose. My best image is that of the Black-necked Stork which we were able to identify using the guide book.
We had a great guide in Maan Singh (rickshaw number 5) who was both our rickshaw driver and our guide to the birds. He showed us the three owls that are resident to the park.
We also saw jackals, wild boar, spotted deer, and nilgai. So the trip was not a complete washout but complete satisfaction was missing.

Two, I truly moaned the lack of a good camera. All I could take was panoramic shots. None of the birds had any sense to pose for my tiny camera. Never mind. One day I will get a good camera. Meantime, enjoy the panoramic shot.

We stayed at Iora Guest house. The room was good and the food was excellent. This is the guest house many photographers stay in. The guest house owner is also a photographer. And we were lucky that there were photographers staying when we went.  The photographers were being guided by Sagar Gosavi and we watched the video he had shot at Namdapha national park as part of exploration.  Namdapha is the only national park in India where you can find four big cats.  The video was superb and the best part was the night sky he showed us.  The sky was filled with stars from horizon to horizon. There was not a single space available. I have seen the night sky only at Estes park where one could easily see the milky way. But the night sky at Namdapha national park far exceeded that. It was just majestic.
On the way back we stopped at Deeg palace. But that story for another day.