The River of Consciousness- Oliver Sacks

My M.Sc. student gifted me this book when his project got completed.  I am grateful to him for it is a wonderful read.  Published posthumously, compiled during his final illness, the book comprises of set of essays covering a whole gamut of topics.
He starts with Darwin- not the usual Origin of species but covering Darwin's experiments with plants and making the argument for evolution and natural selection.  So timely given the cacophony emanating from many of the right-wingers. I always used to be proud of the fact that Evolution and natural selection used to be taught in India without interference from religion (unlike America) but of course, I had reckoned without the right wing coming to power.  They, of course, do not believe in Evolution.
Oliver Sacks then talks about speed and couple of other topics.  But my favorites were towards the end.  There was one on mishearing. When he starts to lose hearing, he also starts to mishear. I showed it to my father who is now suffering from lose of hearing.  My father was deeply appreciative of this essay.
Then came the one on The River of Consciousness where he makes the case that what we think of one continuous stream of thought is in fact frames of thoughts stitched together into one continuous frame.  A remarkable power of our brain
The final essay was on Scotoma: Forgetting and Neglect in Science.  Many of the discoveries are neglected during the scientist's life time.  Take for instance Mendel.  He publishes his discoveries in a journal.  No one pays attention and then in 1900s, the laws are rediscovered.  And now Mendel is celebrated as Father of Genetics.  Or Barbara McClintock who discovered the so-called jumping genes.  No one paid attention till it turned out that these genes are important component the genome and contribute a great deal to variation.
All in all it is a book my father says he would like to read.

On the relationship between waterbodies and us

This past week I was in Hyderabad attending a conference.  Our hotel was opposite the Hussain Sagar Lake.  The driver told me that the lake was visible from the hotel rooms and I was lucky enough to get a room that faced the lake.  At the conference, one of the members told us that the government had created a nice walk around the lake.

So on the last day of the conference, I went out at 6.30 am for a walk.  The lake itself is lovely filled with water.  Common Coots were having a swim.  Nice and wonderful.  But...
The thing that hit me most was the stench that reminded me of Cooum river in Chennai.  My uncle used to have an apartment overlooking the river and everyday we were reminded of the river, thanks to the stench.
The lakefront had boards put by Hyderabad Municipal proclaiming the need to keep the lake clean but garbage (plastic bags) was strewn around the edge.

The lake front garden was small and unimaginatively built. Four stray puppies were gamboling.  There were no women.  The entire park had been taken over by men.  I had a quick walk and then turned back to the hotel chased all the way by the smell.
Which brings me to our relationship with water bodies. At this point there are no water bodies in India (maybe excluding Indore and Bhopal?) that is not highly polluted.  Garbage is one menace but the greater threat is untreated sewage and chemical waste that is dumped into the water bodies without a care. So while each of our river is worshiped, each of them too turn into a dumping ground for all waste.  None of the stakeholder is serious about cleaning up the water bodies- panels and measures are regularly announced but...

Standardized online entrance exam and biometric attendance for teachers

Now teacher attendance is mandatory. As usual I do not understand either of the two decisions.  What is this going to accomplish?  Will it force the non-performers to teach and do research? All it will do is that once a day they will make a trip to their center and sign in.  Big deal.  It will waste little bit of petrol but if it satisfies the powers, what can one say?
The other issue is even more mind-boggling.  Apparently, our exam is going to be now conducted in multiple choice questions. How do you evaluate a language or a social science student  or a international relations who is applying for Ph.D in multiple choice format? How do you evaluate their ability to make an argument and defend it in multiple choice format?  In sciences itself, where it is easy to design questions in this format, we struggle with the kind of students we get. Most often they possess absolutely no communication skills, many of them do rote-learning, many of them do guesswork, and when they join the program it becomes an uphill task to make them read, think and ask questions.  But in social sciences or languages...I give up!
As usual there will be no debate on this issue. It has been decided by the administration so we just have to follow it.
Ugh!

Two books by Emily Eden

I knew that Emily Eden had written letters from India and they were highly regarded.  I first encountered her, though, in William Dalrymple's book "Return of the King" which was the account of the first Anglo-Afghan war.  Lord Eden was appointed the Governor General  and his two sisters- Emily and Fanny- accompanied him to India.  The war was a disaster and Lord Eden returned back to England where, fortunately, he soon died.
That Emily Eden also had written novels was something I learnt from the blog Redeeming Qualities.  Her novels are not available at Project Gutenberg though they do have her letters.  Then I discovered Hathi Trust Digital Library and wonders! They do have both her novels.  This past week I read both of them- The semi-detached house and The semi-attached couple.
In the introduction to The semi-attached couple, Emily Eden is compared to Jane Austen and indeed the book follows somewhat the story plot line of Pride and Prejudice, though Mrs. Douglas nowhere is close to Mrs. Bennett.   Mrs. Bennett was obsessed with marrying her daughters off while Mrs. Douglas is obsessed with running every one down.  Marriage of her two daughters is incidental and Mrs. Douglas is actually very clear-sighted about it.  But, Emily Eden does not do romance very well.   The book begins with marriage where the at least the female protagonist is not very sure about her feelings.  The book, of course, ends with everything arranged satisfactorily but it was not very interesting. 
The semi-detached house, on the other hand, is a hoot.  I think Emily Eden had a fun time writing the story.  It has bunch of nice people from two spectrum of society.  But as they are all nice, they get along very well.  There is not much of a plot line but it was an enjoyable read.  It is one of those books that I know I will re-read.

Of banana bread and lemonades

The Real Summer of Delhi where the temperature rises up to 45oC or more and stays like that for weeks has started unusually late this year.  It is only in the past couple of days that the night temperature has shot up to 30oC. The weather promises to be like this at least for couple more days.
The only thing to do is to stay inside the house, keep oneself hydrated and hope that the rains will come soon.
This Summer I explored all kinds of syrups- Rose syrup that I made from rose petals, Nannari syrup made from Nannari roots, Aam panna from Raw mangoes, and lemon syrup.  The Aam panna and Lemon syrup are my Mother's recipes.  Every summer she would make it for us.  We never purchased any syrups from the market and Rasna was banned in the house after one of my maternal uncles told my mother that the chemicals in Rasna are not good for health.  So every summer she would make lemon concentrate and Aam panna for us.  I continue with the tradition.  Sugar syrup is boiled and cooled.  Lemon juice along with ginger paste is added to sugar syrup and the ensuing syrup is stored in the fridge.  Whenever, I want to drink lemonade, all I have to do is to take a tablespoon or so of the concentrate, add water, and ice cubes.
The Aam panna my mother used to make is different from the ones available in the market which contains mint leaves and pepper and other sundry items.  My mother used to boil the raw mango.  My job (not my brother's) was to peel the mangoes and crush the pulp.  Then my mother would add sugar and cardamom powder to the pulp.  I would stir it till the sugar dissolved and store it in the fridge.  When ever we wanted, we would take a tablespoon of it, add water to it and drink it.  More often, instead of drinking it, we would simply eat it with roti/chappati. 
This week I also made Banana Bread.  Banana in this season tends to get spoiled fast.  So I decided to eat my fruit in the form of Banana bread using this recipe.  As usual I tweaked it.  Instead of oil, I added butter (I had it and wanted to finish it).  I used 1 cup maida and 1 cup atta.  Instead of brown sugar I used jaggery.  This was the end result:

I gave two pieces to Sumitra whose wedding anniversary it was and a piece to my friend.  The only thing was that Sumitra's husband told her that since I have given her cake, he does not need to give her anything.  Sumitra, very properly, has stopped talking to him. 

Sexual harassment complaint against Inder Verma

The complaints pertain to a long period- from 1976 to 2016.  The magazine Science did an investigation and the report is accessible.
He has stepped down from his various posts and the Salk Institute is doing an investigation. 
He recently got the Infosys award and has also been elected member of the National Academies of Sciences.
As far as I know there is complete silence from the Indian academics though some people have told me that a letter has been issued from the academics to treat him with dignity as he has contributed greatly to science. If it is so, then it is in keeping with the traditions of Indian academies.

An update on attendance

When the JNU administration decided to implement compulsory attendance at all levels, there was lot of uproar.  I told my students that I do not support the directive but as it is mandatory and one never knows what the penalties might be, it would be judicious of them to sign the register.  The students started signing.  Outwards there was no protest. Truthfully, I was tad disappointed. I had hoped that they would protest.  Little did I know.
For the past one week, the parents/guardians of our students have started receiving letters stating that their ward does not have the mandatory 75% for the months of Jan and Feb. My students too received it.  I was startled. Many of them have taken just one day off.  So where did the administration get this number from?
It turns out that there was a referendum some time back.  7000 students said NO to attendance.  My students too.  Now, they are receiving the letter.
There are number of ways I look at it.
I can laugh at it.  Really! Research scholars. Many of whom are married and have children.  You are sending letters to their parents?
I feel derision.  Honestly?  This is a kindergarten?
I feel sad that the university is being constantly reduced down.  Issues other academics are being stoked up.
I am also elated. My students stood up.
But most of all, I am angry.  It is false data at least as far as the students of our school are concerned. The attendance was put up in public notice board, it is their with our office and almost all our students have more than 75% attendance.  They never protested about signing the attendance register.  When students from other schools were on strike, they went on with their work.  Yes. They exercised their right in ballot.  That is what it is.  Voting is their RIGHT.  They have the right to express what they feel.  Exactly what is the administration up to?  Did they think that the students will cower down?  Did they not stop for one minute and ask what if the students waved the attendance sheet at their face and showed that they had the mandatory attendance.  And will the administration apologize for this travesty?  Many of the girls are upset because their parents got worked up. Will they apologize to the parents for issuing a false letter?

Finally, what will the letter achieve?  What is the punishment? 
There are so many other issues we need to talk about.  Attendance is such a silly thing to make a fuss about.