Tag Archives: life

4th Semester And Then

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It was in June that I appeared for my 4th semester exam (we have 8 in all, 2 each year). That makes me one half of an engineer, as far as the certification thing is concerned. Apart from that, I would not consider myself anywhere near to what standards I have for an Engineer in my mind. Nevertheless, the results were displayed late last month, and I managed to clear all the subjects, proudly entering the 3rd year of the course.

But since the exams, I did a few interesting things that I would like to let you know. Just after the exams, I took to Qt framework in C++ which I did for the next one month or so. Not much, but I did the QWidget class well enough to have coded some simple GUIs. It was quite interesting, and a useful asset that I think I own now. Later the interest turned towards web [again! :]. I started working on a social network written in Python, Django. I will update you once I get the base ready, and since it is the largest of all the projects I have worked on, I am quite proud and happy for it. Lastly, something even more amazing happened. I found my lost interest in Physics and Astronomy back. It is quite interesting, as to how it happened, but I will save that for a separate post.

The past two months have been great, from my personal perspective. I have basically transformed into someone else, hopefully wiser than I was before. Hopefully. There is a strong reasoning I found for making that statement. I started reading a lot, doubting even more and I found that it opened doors to newer dimensions to living my life. Everything, everyone exists just because they do. That’s it. Nobody, nothing, especially the universe, owes you an explanation to things that seem incomprehensible. Learn to accept it. Maybe it is a part of growing up, which I seem to have realized now. For what it’s worth, I will still stay curious, for that is what drives me and most of the people. Good night.

Net Neutrality

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Do you know, here in India, at most of the public places like temples, we have two separate queues. One for the ordinary folks, and the other one for the rich folks. Sometimes the rich folks are charged, sometimes they are just judged from the car they get down from and are treated likewise. On the other hand, the ordinary people are treated like cattles, pulled and pushed by the authority, because we are not really benefiting them much.

This is the reason I would almost always choose Internet over any other public institution, at least in India. I know that whatever my social status be, on the Internet, I am equal. I have just as much right to put forth by thoughts as any rich businessman or a politician. I know that I have got people behind me who would not tolerate anyone who curtails my rights on the Internet. Yes, Internet is my home, and I am Internet’s child.

But like always, there are people who cannot stand that the ordinary are getting this extra power. They want to bring all of this under control. They want to turn the Internet into their own playground where they will control the lines as in our temples, giving early and quick access to the one who pays extra and slow to the one who does not. They want to make sure only the ones who can pay get heard, and all the others are suppressed.

Net Neutrality

You are out with your family, on a nice sunday picnic when on a toll booth, you are told that your Maruti car is no longer allowed on this flyover because Hyundai has paid the construction company to only allow their cars through the shortcut. What would be your reaction?

Tim Berners-Lee (‘Inventor’ or the world wide web, or more technically, original implementer of the HTTP protocol) defines ‘Net Neutrality’ as the principle that each packet of data should be treated equally, and no discrimination should be made based on economic motivations.

The exact opposite is what some telecom companies in India are trying to do. It started with Airtel. All of a sudden, it struck Airtel that if websites and applications can make revenue by creating services like messaging (like Whatsapp and Facebook) and calling (like Skype and Viber) which in turn decrease the usage of Airtel’s own services of SMS and calling, it is their right to start charging these Internet services separately. They even got out with their VOIP pack that a customer had to subscribe in addition to the existing ‘base’ data pack, to use this service. Eventually it was dropped on account of the resistance.

Now this time, telecom companies have convinced TRAI that they must be entitled with the authority to intercept the traffic, to decide what websites to let users access, and what not, and if yes, then at what speed. Ridiculous, right? Charging more for extra speed can be justified, but why on earth are those innocent data packets discriminated. TRAI has even released a consultation paper asking 20 questions here. If you take a look, you would immediately see that the paper is made extra complicated to not make sense to you, yes you, the customer. The C++ standard looks simpler. LOL.

So what does it change for you, for me?

As a customer, it will change almost everything for us that has any connection with the Internet. Firstly, we will have to pay for the usual data plan we currently do. So far so good. Now, you can’t use any messenger services from this pack, so no Whatsapp, Facebook, WeChat and all. Similarly, no Internet calling services would work, like Skype and Viber. Well, they would work if you pay an extra Rs100 or so a month for the ‘Special-messenger-pack’ and the ‘Special-VOIP-pack’. Now who the heck are these telecom companies to tell me how and what sites and services should I use.

Plus, it also gives the companies the power to control the speed of your connection on particular sites. For example, maybe Flipkart.com will load up instantly, but Amazon.in would take forever to load up just because Flipkart is affiliated with your service provider, and you are forced to buy from Flipkart. Disgusting, right?

So, if you don’t want to pay Rs250 for data, Rs50 for Whatsapp, Rs70 for Facebook and Rs80 for Youtube seperately, then you should instantly head to

https://www.savetheinternet.in/

and send an email to TRAI, which can be done with 2 clicks, yes literally.

As a publisher, you might own a startup or maybe a modest blog like the one you are reading this article on. Now, large sites and enterprises with deep pockets can just call up these telecom companies and be like “Make my site free on your network, I’ll pay you the incentive.” This will make all the traffic go on that particular site or use that particular service and not yours, which was equally good, or maybe better.

The Internet is the only place guys, where everyone is still equal. We need to keep it this way, otherwise, we would be helpless. We know exactly how strong our law is, and how well behaved our politicians are. We know exactly how seriously we are taken by the mainstream media and the police. We, Indians, are like puppets for the rich filthy and greedy companies that rule here. And now, they are trying to close the only open source of information for us. Don’t let that happen.

A humble request to all my fellow netizens. Log on to the site and send an email to TRAI. Educate your fellow netizens. Together we can stop this.

https://www.savetheinternet.in/

For further reading, here is a short list.

Engineering

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Engineer.
What comes to your mind when you hear that word? To me, the picture of a hard working individual, who is rational in his way of life, sees every aspect with the touch of technicality, given a job, he will do whatever it takes to get it done, selfless about his own personal pleasures, solving the problems of this world, one by one.

Well, at least that is what comes to my mind. The reality is far from it. We have more engineering colleges here in India than we have good hospitals. Why? Because you cannot charge Rs.400k from each patient that visits your hospital the way you can from the students that study engineering course. In the particular state that I live in, engineering colleges are a part time income source of the politicians here. See the problem in India is, everybody wants to get rich, before the other one. Now there is nothing wrong with it as long as you don’t steal people from their rights.

A student, passed out from junior college, is an empty vase eager to absorb knowledge. He is excited about his life ahead, his life in a professional institute where he will be taught the essentials to work in the industry for most of his life later. He has dreams, just like everyone. He has interests, and he tries very hard to get the stream of his choice. He had been working hard since the very day he got admitted in school for this particular moment.

Finally the moment of truth arrives. He is admitted into a good college. He even gets the stream of his choice. There is no bounds to his happiness. His life is all set to rock, in a sense. Isn’t it? His parents pay their hard earned money to the college, thinking that it will benefit their child to become a better man, an ‘educated’ person, a responsible citizen. Now the student’s joy know no bounds. He is excited as a child is on his first visit to an amusement park. The can’t sleep the day before his first day at college. Its time.

On the first day of college, he wakes up early. Gets ready and dashes his way to the college. He has 4-5 blank books in his bag, to make notes on what the professor teaches. He trips on the way multiple times due to excitement. On reaching the college, he takes the first bench in the class. “I would be able to pay more attention from here”, he whispers. The professor enters the classroom with a set of papers and a fat reference book. He speaks out his name, rather lifelessly, and gives a very brief intro on the topic he would be teaching that semester. The intro was rather too short.”This is it? Why doesn’t he speak more on it.” whispers the student. He was enjoying it. But the professor must hurry, a vast syllabus is waiting to get done.

The rest of the day goes similar. Nothing out of the ordinary. Nobody wants to talk anything out of the textbook. Probably it will waste a lot of time of the professor. Days pass by, and the only thing that changes is the number of books in the student’s bag. From 6 to 3 and then to one common rough book for all subjects. No, not because he was lazy to carry them all, but the pathetic quality of notes his teachers gave, he simply didn’t feel like they are worth of writing in separate books.

After a few boring days with no activity, which he later realizes were the best days of the semester, the professor starts to give them assignments as homework. Not the kind of assignments where you can research and write on your own, but the do-it-by-tomorrow-atleast-30-pages-or-get-a-C-grade kind of assignments. Alas, there isn’t enough time to find the solutions. He gets readymade solutions from a friend who had copied it from another friend who might have got the solutions from previous year’s journal of a senior, and copies all the answers into his assignment.

There is nothing in practicals too. Most of the time he is made to write journals so that he might submit them on time. So basically practicals are library hours where he gets to do nothing ‘practical’ but copy from other’s journals so that at least he can get an A grade, which eventually by the end of the semester gets him 5 additional marks, at the cost of wasting the precious practical hours where he could have maybe learnt how that particular IC works.

Days fly by quickly. Sitting for lectures where you don’t understand a word of what the professor says, but still have to, for attendance. Yes, the university enforces 75% compulsory attendance but fails to enforce benchmarks for the quality of lectures the professors give. Maybe enforcing the later will automatically make the attendance, not only 75% but also 90%, of most students.

Failing to comply with the attendance policy of the college results the student not being able to attend his exams and parents getting called up to meet the professors in college. What happens when a professor comes to teach a topic he has hardly any idea of, gives the worst lecture you can possibly imagine with all bits of information flying around, and then leaves? Nothing happens. Even if you do complain about it, the replacement is as good as the old one, so most of the student don’t even bother to do that.

Technical festivals. Yes, the thing our colleges are famous for. Technical festival, or tech fest as we call them, are something I personally waited for the entire semester. I could imagine all the amazing stuff that would be put to display, the workshops, the seminars and the enthusiasm. When it came, it was nothing as I had in my mind. It was all guys and girls hanging out enjoying their accidental holiday. It was foolish games like laser tag, devil_maze where people were made to run through dark corridors created with black curtains and UV lights. It was nothing technical, only games-which-can-attract-most-participants-and-earn-most-ticket-fees festival.

This concludes with the semester exams, or finals. Here all we learn is the questioning pattern of the university so that we can quite accurately guess what is going to be there on the exam the next day and how am I going to fool the paper checker into believing that I know something about the topic, not much but something to earn me passing marks, after which I will spend 15 days doing nothing but hoping the next semester is better than this one.

Finally, a student has covered 1/8th of his life in the engineering course, spending a fortune as time and money, achieving nothing, and now the only thing differs is that he knows how the rest 7/8ths of this life of his, which he highly anticipated, are going to be like. Welcome to the reality.

Self learning – Is it worth the efforts?

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Self learning implies reading and doing it yourself. Not waiting for being spoon-fed and trying your best to teach yourself. Formally it is called Autodidacticism, which I came to know at the time of writing, honestly. In this age of globalization, where majority of the basic resources are available to a large section of the society, people can go to schools and colleges for little price (at least in some countries), not many give a thought to self learning. So, I thought, lets see what I can bring up on this topic today.

Self learning is something that needs to be taught to every kid when he’s growing up. It is not just beneficial to him during academics, but also changes his attitude towards different stuff he encounters. It fills him with a feeling of ‘if anybody else can, why can’t I?’ attitude whenever he sees something hard ahead of him. It lessens the required resources for him to learn something new. For example, learning a new programming language, while some might need special coaching classes and notes, a self learner would only require a book or an Internet connection to read up all the stuff and practice. That’s the clear benefit of it. He stops being a cry baby and takes life head on.

I have argued with people over this from long. A thing which I have heard in nearly all the arguments is the ‘time’ factor. People think self learning is time consuming. Indeed it is. You require time to grasp something and to master it, don’t you? Now, join a coaching class for the same. Will you learn it in a day? Talking about crash courses, those ‘learn this in one week‘ thingy? Do you seriously believe that the stuff on which people spend their lives to master, can be mastered in a week, just because they are charging ‘way too much‘? No you can’t. After a week, you will have like tiny bits of knowledge, enough to convince others that you know the stuff, and probably even a shiny framed certificate, that proves you know the thing. It is good for the show-off types. But if you were planning to make something out of it, then you would be disappointed, because the moment you start with something on your own, you will realize that just knowing theoretically is not enough. You need to know trouble shooting, maintenance and behavior of that particular thing. Because you won’t appoint someone to drive your brand new AMG who has just got his driving license. Right?

When I say self learned, there are two groups of people that come to my  mind. First are those who are pure self learned. They never went to any formal school and succeeded in life. Yes, success is important. But more important is the scale on which you equate success. Success doesn’t necessarily mean making billions from scratch, although it surely is one of the examples. Success is an abstract term. Success, more generally means being able to do what you always wanted to, and being contented. We have famous people who worked for science and arts and were self learned. Thomas Edison, Wright Brothers, Michael Faraday and Rabindranath Tagore to name a few of my favorites. They never walked on the steps of any school, but we know what they did. Could they do the same after joining a school or college? I think not. Not in the present situation, where a fixed curriculum is followed by teachers, which is to be followed by students, no matter who understands what. An exam at the end, after which you are free to forget what you learned because that was what you learned it for in the first place.

The second group of people, who come to my mind are those who technically went to a school and some college, but what they did was completely because of their own hardships and work, and their education had not much to do with it. Consider the example of Steve Jobs, the ‘Apple Computers‘ guy, who had been to school. He was good with studies and even enrolled into a college, but dropped out six months later as his parents were not able to pay his college fees. He later went on to create a company (actually, more than one) known for its standards and he is often called one of the best marketers of all time. This is a dead solid proof, that you don’t need an MBA to know how to do business and be successful in it. Warren Buffett and Bill Gates are no different. They spent an awful time during their childhood, got the practical experience needed to do things, and they are where we see them now. So, again the question pops up. Should you leave getting formal education and go ahead, learning what you like, all by yourself?

It is a quite risky path. You never know if you will click. There is always a possibility of failing miserably. Even if you are skilled and talented, why would the world believe you? You don’t have a certificate right? How will you convince others you know that thing? Demonstrations? The world is too busy for that. Then there are people who have heavy expectations from you. They depend on you. It becomes real hard to take decisions when you have to think not only about yourself, but also about the people who are calling on you. Now having said that, it is still finally on you. You can’t just live according to others. Because if you fail living the way you want, you don’t feel bad, as you would if you fail living according to the rules of others, right?

Ok, lets see the brighter side. You go to school. You go to college. Suppose you are interested in Astronomy. You have a subject on it in your college. Rest all the subjects are of the none of your business type. Still you have to learn them to clear your examination. If you were self learned, you study what you want to, and you can concentrate entirely on your passion. Honestly, life is short. You never know if you will be there to see the next sun rise. So why spend it on something you aren’t even interested in. I totally agree basic knowledge of the world is essential. Yes, primary schooling is something that should be given to every individual, as it not only builds knowledge but also the child’s logic and understanding of the world around him. But at a stage, everyone needs to be given the choice of continuing life according to his or her way, rather then making him or her follow others and lead to a boring, monotonous life. Feels like a crime to me. Indeed some need schooling, no doubt, but it is bad to make it a standard. To make it a rule to live respectfully on this planet.

That is the way I feel. Learn formally till you get to your senses, and then you can do whatever the hell you feel like. It makes you confident about yourself and you start thinking independently, no handles required. You know when and where to look for help and that means you never stop on a jerk in the road to success. Most importantly, self learning is rewarding. It is such a good feeling when you set goals for yourself and attain them. You keep raising the bar for yourself and get to it. There is no fear of ending up last in the class or below your fellow mates. You are your only competition, and that’s when you will realize, you have left the world far behind. You got no certificates, but you can argue, and defeat anyone in it, who has spend $20,000 a year to get that crappy piece of paper which certifies his level of skills and usefulness. Thats the magic of self learning. No boundaries, no limits.

and in case you were wondering, I am not self learned. I go to college to learn what they have to teach me, and I really regret not being able to be a self learner, although I am trying hard to be one. I take as little help as possible, work my ass off trying to figure out concepts in my books. Because once I get it, the feeling is rewarding; and I love it.

Thank you for reading.