Central Universities Entrance Test- the death knell for school education

The Central Universities Entrance Test (CUET) is a much discussed topic among parents whose kids are in the final year of school.  My niece is very anxious. She wants to do law after school which means she has to give Common Law Admission Test (CLAT).  The syllabus is frightful.  Not only does she need to know law and political science but also general knowledge and logical reasoning.  I purchased couple of books for her to study and took a peek into it. I was horrified. If I was to give this exam, I would surely not pass.  Anyway, there are coaching centers for CLAT and my niece has joined couple of them.  But every now and then she has a panic attack.  Her main worry is that how much she needs to focus on the board exams.  We discussed the matter over lunch one day and came to the conclusion that since Delhi University is going to follow CUET, there is not much point getting flustered over the board exams.  She will have to qualify CUET to get admission into Delhi University.   That is only if she does not get through CLAT.  CLAT is plan A and CUET is plan B.

The glitch?  Oh well, there are coaching for CUET too.  There is no structured syllabus for CUET because each University offers different courses and their requirements are different. As a colleague put, the exam is like Civil service exams for undergrads.  As all entrance exams, this one too is an eliminating exam.  So the sylllabus for CUET has no relevance to what is taught in the school.

The UGC chairperson has declared that there is no need to take any coaching for CUET.  I do not know which world he is living in. In the real world, CUET coaching centers have started brisk business.  

The real problem was of course was the way the students were graded in the board exams. Over a period of time, the marks got inflated so much so that even in subjects like History or English, students were awarded 100%. All they had to do was to write the key words as described in the text book.  Instead of fixing the pedagogy and overhauling the board exams, the UGC in its great wisdom decided to introduce CUET.

Meantime, my job this year is to ensure that my niece and I retain our sanity as we navigate the college admission process.

Getting a FIR registered- How I spent my Sunday

 Two days back a colleague of ours was involved in a horrific incident. Coming back home late at night, his car was hit and then he was surrounded by a bunch of goons who kidnapped him, beat him up,  and extorted money.  Two hours later he was let go.  Yesterday and today he spent trying to get a First Information Report (FIR) registered with the police.  Today I along with three other colleagues went with him as he is in no condition to deal with the Delhi Police all by himself.  

I just hope I never have to go through this ever again and I do not know how the victim took all the nonsense meted out to him without losing his temper.  

Yesterday he (with few other colleagues) spent time with the police trying to fix the jurisdiction.  The place from where he has kidnapped has two red lights.  Depending upon where he stopped his car, the jurisdiction changes.  Finally at 1.00 am today morning, the jurisdication was finalized and he was told that the FIR would be lodged later in the morning.

Later today morning instead of FIR, he was questioned again and again: Where did the accident (the car being hit) happen?  Which area was it?  How did it happen?  Did he feel anything? 

Again and again he repeated that he felt the car being hit but he did not stop because he was scared. He had to finally stop at the red light when the goons caught him. 

But the SHO and another police personnel were not satisfied. He was hiding something.  Finally, we asked them: How does the accident matter?  Is the kidnapping and the extortion justified if my colleague had caused the accident?

They said that they are police officers and that they have to get to the truth. Anyway, we finally got them to register the FIR after five hours.  It still needs to be signed but that is the story for another day.

Dos Amigos- Korean Restaurant in Munirka

Korea is the flavor of the season where India is concerned.

A class 9 examination paper had a comprehension passage on BTS, the K-pop sensation.  The ARMY (as the BTS fans call themselves) does exist in India and are looking forward to BTS concert this year.

The stores are now carrying Kimchi Ramyeon as well as Red chilli paste, a specialty of Korea.  To serve the Indian palate, there are vegetarian versions available.

And my brother tells me that there are Korean restaurants.

So it should not have come as a surprise when I saw Dos Amigos- The Korean Restaurant.  Only it was in Munirka, a village just next to JNU. Part of it was acquired by Delhi Development Authority for building residential flats.  Part of it remains as Village and a more dingy place would be hard to find. There are galis (narrow street) that never see the sunlight.

Of course, there are many students from Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, and Mizoram living in Munirka and there are restaurants specializing in the cuisine of these places.  But Korea?

Dos Amigos advertises itself as a restaurant serving Korean Food but all I saw was Indo Chinese items including Singaporean Hakka Noodles, which I am sure will not be recognized in Singapore.  On the other hand, if we can successfully Indianize Chinese and Italian food, why leave Korea out?  So I am sure we will soon have Indian versions of Bibimbap, ramyeon, and Tteokbokki.

P.S.  I continue to be enamored with Korean Dramas. My current favorite is A Business Proposal which is as tropey as it can be.  But when it features a Grandfather (Harabeoji in Korean) who loves kdramas, how can I miss it?  A Business Proposal is being aired on Netflix.

Hanuman Janmabhoomi: A new controversy

 One thing is absolutely sure: We do not lack materials for controversies.  If it is not mosque versus temple, it is birth place versus birthplace.  

This time it is about Hanuman's birthplace.  Is it in Andhra Pradesh or is it in Karnataka?  Was it Anjanadri, now known as Tirupati, in Andhra or is it Anjanahalli in Karnataka.  Both sides are armed with compelling evidence- Puranic sources, copperplate inscriptions, and other religious textbooks. 

Long time ago, when I visited Hampi, I crossed the Tungabhadra River and went up the Anjanahalli Mountain.  The climb was marred by a bunch of monkeys.  There is a cave on the way to the top. I was told that Hanuman was born there. Up on the summit is a temple and a saffron clad baba was present.  I politely listened to his diatribe and returned back.  He gave me the creeps but all religious people send a shiver down my spine.

I did not know there was a rival claim to Hanuman's birthplace.  Thinking over, I realize, of course I am stupid.  In our country there are multiple claims to the same thing.  Other than to Rama and Krishna's birthplace, there are multiple claimants to the all events described in Mahabharata and Ramayana.

The matter has now reached the Supreme Court who will decide on this very important issue. Now Andhra and Karnataka have one more issue to fight over. What fun!

Return of Air India- back to the Tatas

Once upon a time Air India was one of the best airlines in the world.  It was established by JRD Tata and as long he was around maintained it.

The Government of India acquired it and then...

As long as I remember, Government officials could travel only by Air India/Indian Airlines.  Before the two wings merged, Air India was for International trips and Indian Airlines was for travel within the country.  Of course, being the government managed meant that neither of the two airlines were, well, quite reliable.  Appa was once stuck in Amsterdam because the Air India flight was diverted for Rajiv Gandhi who was at that time Prime Minister of India.  Government officials went out of their way to avoid traveling by Air India.  They would organize their trips/conferences in such a way that Air India was not available on that day.  It meant seeking approval but I do like to think there was a lot of nudge-nudge, wink-wink involved on the part of officials in charge of giving approvals.

Indian Airlines was the de facto airline to travel within the country.  Before the liberalization, there was no choice.  After liberalization, well, government officials had to travel by Indian Airlines.  

It applied to us also for we are employees of Government of India.  I remember we had a meeting in Kolkata.  There was only one flight to Kolkata from Delhi.  So all of us who were attending the meeting from Delhi booked that flight.  I need to point out that we could book tickets only from government approved travel agents or from Air India directly.  If we used Make my Trip or any such website, then we would not be reimbursed.  Government rules are really lovely.

So we all gathered at Delhi Airport for the flight.  Only to realize that it was late.  It was late.  And late.  The airlines did not think it deem to inform us why it was late.  Finally we boarded the flight at 8 pm in the night and landed in Kolkata at 10 pm.  Fortunately, I had so many colleagues with me so traveling to the hotel late at night in a city I had never been to.

Four years back, before the pandemic, I attended a meeting in Mumbai.  Coming back to Delhi, I was stuck in the Mumbai Airport for 6 hours because the flight was late.  One again the airlines did not think it appropriate to tell us what the problem was.  As a sop, they arranged for a meal.  That was it.

As the years went by and debts mounted, Air India simply stopped upgrading its flights. The interiors were in a mess, seats were torn, and the service personnel stopped caring (not that they cared before but it just went up to another level of not caring).  The only good thing about the flight was that there was more leg room even in economy section and they provided good meal in all their flights.

The Airlines has now been sold back to Tatas.

Once the sale became finalized, we had few anxious moments.  How will the government officials travel?  Will we be free to choose what we wanted?

We got the notification few days back.  Yes, we are free to choose but the tickets must be L1 (lowest cost).  It must be purchased only through Government approved travel agent.  But as a friend of mine who travels to meetings from Bubneshwar put it: At least now she is sure of reaching to her destination at a reasonable hour without delays. 

 

Rebel Sultans by Manu S Pillai

There is only one silver lining in the otherwise dismal Chennai Airport- Higginbothams book store.

Whenever I am in Chennai Airport (after dodging the falling ceiling and window panes) I make a beeline to the book store.  It is a tiny store and does not have a very wide collection.  Occasionally I am lucky.  This is where I picked up Tales of Old and New Madras by S. Muthiah and The Courtesan, The Mahatama and the Italian Brahmin by Manu S. Pillai.  I enjoyed both the books tremendously.  One for the rich history of Madras and the other for the quirky tales from the past.

This time when I saw that Higginbothams had Rebel Sultans by Manu S. Pillai I just had to purchase it.

The book paints a very vivid picture of the  Deccan Sultans- the time between Malik Kafur and Malik Ambar.  This was when Bijapur, Golconda, Vijayanagara flourished.  Hyderabad was built. The fanciful might think Vijayanagara was a Hindu kingdom surrounded by Muslim regimes but the truth, as Manu Pillai, points out was far from it.  It was all about politics.  Religion just happened to be there.  So there were Muslim soldiers in the Vijayanagara army and there were Hindus in the administration of the Sultans.  Everything was mixed up and the only thing that mattered was the kingdom. 

Many of the sultans were "characters".  Ibrahim Adil Shah thought of himself as Saraswati's son and tried to rename Bijapur as Vidyapur (distinctly Sanskrit name "City of Learning).  I chuckled my way through the book reading about the idiosyncrasies of many of the Sultans.

At a time when powers to be are trying to polarize India along the lines of religious identities, the book was a balm.  To read about a time when all religions flourished without the menace of long arching hatred. It is not to say that it was wonderful time but it is to say that the present times leave a bitter taste.