Bhopal: sparing a thought for the victims.

Here is an article in The Tech, the MIT newspaper, about the Bhopal disaster (deadly Methyl-isocyanate gas leak in December 1984):

http://tech.mit.edu/V129/N59/chindelevitch.html

Fact:
There were about 23000 deaths (8000 of these were within three days of the disaster) and over 500,000 people were affected.

I find it astounding that even 25 years down the line we have not been able to take the culprits to task and the victims are far from justice. Dow Chemical, the company that now owns Union Carbide which was responsible for the disaster, refuses to accept its liability towards the people of Bhopal.
A deeply sad state of affairs !

Ray "Crackpot" Comfort

This blog-post is my take on how to deal with crackpots. The answer is simple: you don't deal with them. You just let them blabber.

On Darwin day, free copies of the Origin Of Species were distributed at MIT. I happened to be one of the people receiving a copy. I was puzzled when I saw them distribute it. What could a scientific work like that be beneficial to the distributor ? Soon I found out. The book had a Special Introduction that tried to override Darwin's thesis and try to belittle him as a person.

Here is a super-awesome hilarious video assault on the gimmickry of Ray Comfort - the author of that introduction - and a fitting example of a Crackpot.

Here are a few more gimmicks by Ray Comfort:
http://www.pulltheplugonatheism.com/
http://www.livingwaters.com/

Here are two more examples of masterpieces (of foolishness):
http://www.answersingenesis.org/
http://www.wayofthemaster.com/

Now the question is: you can spend time debating these issues. But is it something that you should spend your time on ? No. The solution is to simply ignore these idiots and just let them rejoice in their idiotic beliefs. There is only so much you can do to heal a crackpot mind, but there are more exciting things in life to do and more important problems to worry about. It is just amazing: how screwed up can a person be ?

There is a well-designed motive behind doing this: it is an easy route to fame and to catch the public eye. That's all it is. So, the best response to this is: stop listening to them and stop arguing with them.

As far as I am concerned, this is the first and last time I am going to talk about this whole Intelligent Design bullshit.

GR lectures at Stanford

I recently came across a set of 12 video lectures on General Relativity (GR) by Leonard Susskind at Stanford University. This is a typical first GR course, at the advanced undergraduate/beginning graduate level. Susskind is a good lecturer and this is a great resource:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hbmf0bB38h0

Two Days in Delhi

I have been wanting to write this even since I got back to MIT from India in the end of July. But somehow I never got the time. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving - an American festival (or "holiday" if you so prefer) and we have a long weekend. I cannot resist the temptation of making a comment that American festivals are few and far between. In India, you have a festival almost every two weeks ! So you get used to getting days off.

I started from home early. Caught the morning Shatabdi (the name of an express train) to New Delhi. This train, which is the fastest in India, takes about 3 hours to cover the 250 km distance. It was raining. It wasn't a strong rain - and you would probably not be surprised that even minor glitches like this can cause major delays in India. A ~30 year old guy was sitting next to me in the train. I don't know why but he asked me where I was going. New Delhi - IIT. Next obvious question, "Do you study there ?" "No, I used to." "What happened ?" "I left IIT. I was in Computer Science, I did not like it, so I switched to Physics." I did not want to add MIT into the game. "It seems like you don't study - just like me. You'll always stay behind." Weird. Well, that is the stereotypical answer you can expect if you are not doing some sort of engineering - even if that happens to be from a one room college in the middle of a sugar-cane farm in Punjab.

Anyways, I have gotten used to such people and don't care anymore. I arrived at the New Delhi railway station at noon, two hours behind schedule. Next obvious adventure - getting an auto. I was in no mood to bargain, so I went straight to the pre-paid auto-rickshaw/taxi booth run by the Delhi Police. I was in queue - thankfully not too far behind the ticket-window. Now, you must understand that queues in India do not look like a line - they look more like a huddle - near the window. Suddenly, a gigantic blob of skin came up and pushed its way upto the front of the queue. It was the hardcore-fat-desi-ready-to-fight aunty trying to make use of her feminine-ness to barge herself all the way to the front. I double-checked: there was no special line for women. When the lady in front of me finished, this skin-blob tried to get her hand inside the ticket-window and push money in before me. I told her to move away. She did not. I took her hand and shoved it away. She started pushing me. I pushed her out of the line. She started bad mouthing me, "You are the son of a very decent family." Whatever. The person behind me said, "Don't worry Aunty. You can go after him, before me." Stupid idiot. Anyways, I did not stop to see whether the person behind me actually kept his word.

The auto-rickshaw ride to IIT was relatively pain-free except hold-ups in the Green Park market due to intensive construction work of the Delhi Metro - frantic bids to get the city in shape before the 2010 Commonwealth games - which, to me, seem to be heading towards a disaster. I arrived at IIT, stopped the auto right in front of the side entrance to the main building and went straight to the wind-tunnel.

The wind-tunnel, or wind-t for short is a favorite hangout place for IITD students between lectures and during lunch time. It is a passage-way essentially, with a roof being the first floor of the main building - and due to the buildings and God knows what, there is a steady current of air inside there, hence the name.

I met up with random people there - most of my Computer Science class-fellows. Rahul, Anshul, Bharath, Navneet, Shantanu, Varun, almost everyone. Then I went with Kashish and Shantanu for a lunch at Rainbows - a restaurant in the market opposite the IITD main gate.

We came back and I went to visit some professors. Went to VK Tripathi first, then Kurur, and the Ajit Kumar. Can't remember anything special about the conversations I had with them, but the warmth with which everybody greeted me was so touching. They are professors in a prestigious institute - could I imagine an MIT professor doing that. Probably not. Well, part of it also has to do with general culture in the two places, but that topic is for another day. The essence of the experience was that one can form these deep bonds with people - with friends, with faculty - that you feel at home. There was still the sense of belonging, a deep attachment, a feeling that spoke out loud - "We care, We remember".

Ajit Kumar took me for tea downstairs to the coffee shop beneath the library building. (The Nescafe outlets - the one besides "Holistic" (also a food shop), and the one near Vindhyanchal hostel no longer existed due to an expired contract.) As we were going towards the coffee shop from the main building, I ran into Priyanka - who had to return me my plug converter - which she had used over the summer while she was at MIT and forgot to return it before she left. She had been looking for me all day, but I had no cellphone - so she could not contact me.

There were CS professors having coffee at the coffee shop too. There was S. Arun-Kumar and Subhashis Bannerjee - had a brief chat. They asked me to stop by the department. Then I went to Barista with Priyanka - talked about random things - MIT, her upcoming exchange semester in Vancouver, et. al. Then there was the usual squabble over money - who pays? We split it evenly at the end.

Then I went over to Bharati building - which houses the Computer Science department. Chatted with Suban for a while. SSen dropped by and chatted. Kolin Paul, SAK and Naveen Garg were also seen in the corridor. We talked about the IITD CS curriculum, how it differed from MIT and what changes should be made in the IIT system.

Then I went over to Satpura - to Kashish's room. Later went to Jwala - to order pizza with my hostel mates. We ordered Domino's - Mazzy (my room mate when I was there) gobbling up his three loaves of garlic bread with cheese dip. After the pizza came the time for drinks - went over to the new student canteen which came up after KLS stopped operating after my first year. I remember being miserable for food in my second year because of that missing canteen.

Then we went back to Satpura and listened to some music - classical of course, when the legends are together.

Ankur came in the morning and we went to Connaught Place. We had a couple of beverages at the restaurant called Legend of Connaught. Then we went over to the New Book Depot in CP on the Inner Circle, where I bought Mankiw's economics textbooks. I wanted to visit Twinkle - my cousin who is in 12th grade taking tuition for Medical school entrance exams in Delhi. I wanted to take the Metro to her place. I made multiple calls but her host family was away - having locked her in the house (this is by no means a bad thing ). Somehow the scheduling did not work.

Came back to IIT, went to Barista with Ankur. Made multiple calls to AT - he was away somewhere and was coming back to IIT. Finally he said we could meet - Ankur left. Then I went and chatted with AT at his office. In the middle, I had to leave to bug the IITD Director for my scholarships issue - 13000 rupees from NCERT to me, lying in the coffers of IITD due to their stupid, mindless, horrible rules. Went back to AT's office - Kashish was there. There was also a random guy in his office who had apparently failed a lot of classes and was struggling to keep up. AT was giving advice in his usual but unique and mildly humorous way.

Then the three of us sat under the library building, drinking tea and chatting about random things. He dropped us in his car at Jwalamukhi hostel. I went to meet Bharati Puri - her husband was also at home. It was nice to see her. Then Varun, Kashish and I went to Priya (a multiplex with a cinema and food outlets) to have food. When we came back I went to Vindy to see Ashish. I slept in his room for a while. Then went back to Satpura - packed my stuff, and sat in Shantanu's room for a while. I was walking back to Vindy with my stuff when Papa called to day that they were there at IITD. So I called Ashish and went straight to Jwala - where Ravneet had booked us the visitor room for the four odd hours we had. Everybody was in the Jwala visitor room for a while - talking. Then people left. I slept for a while. Woke up in the morning. Bathed. Departed for the airport. ~24 hours later I was in JFK.

It was funny how hectic those two two days were. Yet so enjoyable. Meeting everyone - getting to know that people care for you. They want to spend time with you - taking out time from their schedules. Here in the US, everyone is on his own. People run about, doing their tasks to inordinate perfection, but what is lacking is that spirit of being connected - to one another, to folks, to teachers, to friends. Why did I always have people around me those two days ? Were they not in the middle of a semester and had crazy amount of work ?

I struggle to find the right mix of India and the US, the east and the west. This is a gigantic question, and extremely important. Hope I can find a way to preserve those qualities that I inculcated back home while I live here at MIT.

Diwali

I found this link to be a collection of awesome Diwali photos. Check it out. I got this link from the g-chat status message of Tejasvi Venumadhav on October 26 at about 11:30 pm EST.

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/10/diwali_2009.html

The Ideal of a Universal Religion

During my discussions with friends, I have often been asked, "Are you religious?". I have often tried to figure out what exactly being religious entails. I do not go to a temple every Tuesday, nor do I believe in metaphysics of any religion. I am a student of science after all. The idea of the world being created in seven days, or the river Ganga flowing out of the locks of Shiva do not mean anything to me in their direct sense of meaning. In that sense, I am not religious. I am not a Hindu who chants the Gayatri Mantra hundred times or a day, or a Muslim who reads the Namaaz five times a day, or a Christian who goes to church every Sunday, or a Sikh who chants the Japji Sahib first thing every morning, or a Jew who absolutely refrains from work on Saturdays.

With the passage of time, I came up with the following answer to the question "Are you religious?" "No. I am not religious, but I do believe in God. God, not as a creator, but the ideal human being whom I would like to emulate in every step of my life." I was not satisfied with this answer, it raised more questions than it answered. I have never been able to articulate a satisfactory answer: I had the ideas in my head, but language limitations always prevented me from sharing those ideas with friends in a meaningful way.

Today I rediscovered a saying that encapsulates my ideas about religion and God. I remember Papa told us about this Swami Vivekananda quote when we were in 5th grade or thereabouts. It says:

"Each soul is potentially divine. The goal is to manifest this divinity within by controlling nature, external and internal. Do this either by work or worship or psychic control or philosophy---by one or more or all of these---and be free. This the whole of religion. Doctrines or dogmas or rituals or books or temples or forms are but secondary details."

This is the idea of religion that I believe in.

Two Good Resources for Popular Physics

For all people who want to know more about the beauty and secrets of physics, here are two very good non-technical resources:

1) The Cosmic Variance Blog. A Blog run by several authors including Caltech's Sean Carroll.

2) Blogging Heads. This site is not specifically for physics. It contains several good dialogues between people who know what they are talking about.

Have Fun !

Background to the Kashmir Problem

We all know that Kashmir is the biggest issue between India and Pakistan. But I wonder how many of us know about the history and crucial facts about Kashmir. I was myself largely unaware about this issue.

Here is a document that gives a decent background to the Kashmir problem.

Yashpal Committee Report

I woke up in the morning to find in my inbox an email by Prof. V.K. Tripathi (VKT). The email commented upon the recommendations of the Yashpal Committee report on higher education in India.

Here is the Yashpal Committee report.
Here are VKT's comments.

In his comments VKT addressed the dichotomy that haunts every part of India. There are people who go to expensive "English-medium" high schools (like I did) who have a perspective on their careers and ambitions. But at the same time India abounds with students who do not get access to good schools. Their language abilities are also limited. But many of these not-so-good students come to IITs - the hallmark of technical education in India and a world-brand.

So the professors in these esteemed institutions are faced with a dilemma. Their best students can perform miracles if properly stimulated and challenged. But pursuing such a vision can be almost lethal for the career of the not-so-good students, who will lag behind and even fail classes if the material is too advanced. Contradictory though it might seem, this problem is not insoluble. In this post I will propose a change in the IIT system that can potentially solve this problem. Let me begin.

I have recently come to a conclusion in my discussions with Sumeet about education in India that our major problem lies in the fact that our teachers in school expect everyone to be super-intelligent and extra-smart. Emphasis is always laid on constant perseverance to reach that ultimate level of academic achievement. The person who comes second in class is in some way not as good as the person who comes first.

This means that our system is catered to only the best amongst us. The average student's self respect is compromised so many times in his high-school life that he loses confidence in himself, his talents and his abilities. No doubt, the best of our people are comparable to the best in the entire world, but that leaves out a huge chunk of our population. This is the main reason why India lags behind the developed world in infrastructure, education, health care and almost everything that is a necessary ingredient of a modern life.

This attitude dominates the culture in IITs as well. The average student by this time has taken recourse to unfair means in order to survive in this harsh system and has lost all his academic integrity. The tale just continues. In an attempt to achieve a motley mix of including everyone and yet maintaining a "high" standard, IITs are inviting a catastrophe.

Our freshman physics course in IIT Delhi (that is supposed to be taken by all students) was taught out of the Electrodynamics textbook by D.J. Griffiths. Here at MIT, a course of that level is taught to Physics majors in their 3rd/4th year. Our freshman math courses covered analysis and algebra of the level that makes up a major chunk of the average MIT Math major's undergrad curriculum. The freshman chemistry course in MIT dealt with stuff we had covered in preparation for the JEE. Yes, the smart guys triumph - but majority of the people either fail or start disliking learning itself.

But here is where we start seeing the solution. There are people at MIT who are also superior to the average level. They have already tackled with that physics, that analysis and that algebra. But they have the option of not doing those courses. They have enough freedom in course choice and flexibility in the degree structure that they can pass out of classes that are compulsory. The system caters to the average person but leaves enough space for the smart people to develop their full potential.

If IITs develop enough flexibility in the curriculum and give enough choices to their students, their is no reason why we should be faced with a problem like we do. That of course has to be accompanied by a down-tuning in the level of our courses. The general curriculum should provide a quality education to the average student at a level he can understand.

I think that some professors in IITs would inevitably regret a "loss of pride" in down-tuning the course level, but that is their problem and insignificant for the society.

Math and Science Olympiads in India

In this post, I will give an overview of the process of selection of the Indian team to the International Olympiads in Math, Physics and Chemistry.

Physics

The first round is a written theoretical exam, called the National Standard Examination in Physics (NSEP) conducted every year by the Indian Association of Physics Teachers (IAPT). This exam in held in November (or thereabouts) every year. Here are some old question papers.

The students who get selected in NSEP appear in the Indian National Physics Olympiad (INPhO) in January (or thereabouts). Here is some useful information. This is also a theoretical, written exam. This is however conducted by the Homi Bhabha Center for Science Education (HBCSE, Mumbai).

The students, numbering about 30, who get selected in INPhO are summoned to an Orientation cum Selection camp in HBCSE, Mumbai. There theoretical and experimental examinations are held in order to select the top 5 students who will represent India at the international event, which is in a different country every year !

Chemistry and Biology

The process is very similar to Physics except that the team that represents India consists of 4 students.

Mathematics

This is well summarized here.

The math olympiad program funded by the National Board for Higher Mathematics (NBHM). The program is run from the MO Cell at Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. Logistically, the country is divided into several regions.

The first round is called the Regional Math Olympiad (RMO) and is conducted in every region in December. (Some large regions have a pre-RMO round too.)

People who pass the RMO give the INMO (Indian National Mathematics Olympiad) in February.

Students who clear the INMO are summoned to a month long training cum selection camp (called the IMOTC) in HBCSE, Mumbai. They form what is called the Junior batch in this camp. They are joined by Seniors (students from previous years' camps who are still eligible). From this pool, six people are selected to go to the International Mathematics Olympiad (IMO).

Personally, IMOTC-2004 (the first time I went there) was the single best academic experience in my high school life !

There are also International Olympiads in Astronomy and Informatics.
I know that India does really well in Physics and Astronomy Olympiads.

Please Note:
The syllabus for the Math olympiad is significantly different from what we learn in classes 11 and 12 (Broadly, it includes four topics: Euclidean Geometry in the Plane, Algebra, Number Theory and Combinatorics). This is not the case with Physics and Chemistry where most of the topics are covered by the JEE syllabus.

Math Camp, Aniruddha, Artin

On this blog, it will be my goal to post information and resources for high school students (especially Indian students) who really love math and science, and really want to go beyond the narrow confines of IIT-JEE.

http://www.mathcamp.org/

The Canada/US Math Camp is held every summer. A good number of international participants attend this camp every year: even scholarships are offered. I think this is a really good opportunity for all school students to get exposed to some "real" math. Getting to visit another country is, of course, an added benefit that gives you a perspective on your culture, value system and upbringing.

I got to know about this from Aniruddha Bapat, a student from Pune (now going to class 12) who attended the 2009 camp. He also visited MIT, and talked to professors in the Physics department. Here is a small anecdote:

Me, Aniruddha and his sister, Asilata Bapat, were coming down the stairwell opening near the ATM machines in building 10 on the infinite corridor. Walking past us was an elderly man. Asilata and I nodded to him, and he waved back to Asilata - she had taken a course with him. He went his way - we went ours. After the gentleman was a few paces away, Aniruddha asked, "Who was that guy?". "Michael Artin". And... you should have seen the look on the boy's face: amazement, thrill, joy !! As if he had met one of the greatest people in this world. I saw in him a deep sense of appreciation of "academic culture". I think this emotion, if brought to every student in India, can potentially lead to us being a better nation !

Of course, having a good background in math, Aniruddha knew Artin as the author of the famous Algebra textbook, which is, in fact, given out to all the Junior participants in the Indian IMOTC (Int'l Mathematical Olympiad Training Camp - held in Mumbai every summer).

Reference Material for IIT-JEE

Disclaimer: This post contains information that I think will be useful for candidates preparing for the IIT-JEE exam. Since everyone has a different taste and what type of books they like, I am not responsible if these books do not work for you.

The Biggest General Advice: The NCERT textbooks are very, very important. There is a tendency to ignore these textbooks, but please take them seriously. They have been written by people in the highest echelons of Indian science and not random tuition-wallahs. Please read the text and do all exercises. They should be your primary books, for all the subjects.

The Blacklist of Publishers: If you are reading a book by any one of these publishers, you are probably not on the right track: Dinesh, Pradeep, Krishna, Modern's, Arihant, Gupta and Gupta. These books are literally trash and should not be read by anyone.

Physics:

1. University Physics by Freedman and Young, 11th edition or newer
2. Concepts in Physics by H.C Verma (Two volumes. Do only problems. Do not read the text)
   
3. Schaum's 3000 Solved problems is Physics by Alvin Halpern
4. Problems in General Physics by I.E. Irodov

Video Lectures (MIT freshman physics classes):

1. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-01Physics-IFall1999/VideoLectures/
2. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Physics/8-02Electricity-and-MagnetismSpring2002/CourseHome/

For Advanced Students:

1. Mechanics by Kleppner and Kolenkow
2. Electromagnetism by D.J. Griffiths
3. Heat and Thermodynamics by Zemansky and Dittman
4. 200 Solved problems in Physics by W.G. Rees, Cambridge University Press
   

Chemistry:

1. Chemical Principles: a quest for Insight by Peter Atkins
   
2. Organic Chemistry by Solomons and Frhyle
3. Inorganic Chemistry by J.D. Lee (This is a mammoth book. Do only things that are in syllabus)
4. Qualitative Inorganic Analysis by Vogel (Again, you need to pick what is in the syllabus.)

Video Lectures (MIT Freshman Chemistry):

1. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Chemistry/5-111Fall-2005/CourseHome/
2. http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Materials-Science-and-Engineering/3-091Fall-2004/CourseHome/
   

Mathematics:

1. Higher Algebra by Hall and Knight
2. Trigonometry by S.L Loney
3. Coordinate Geometry by S.L. Loney
4. Calculus by Thomas and Finney
5. Problems in Calculus of One Variable by I.A. Maron
6. A Course in Mathematics for IIT-JEE by Tata Mc-Graw Hill. Older editions that contain subjective type questions preferred.

MIT Freshman course on Single Variable Calculus:
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mathematics/18-01Fall-2005/CourseHome/

Musings of a Quasi-Philosopher

Disclaimer: The cultural things mentioned in this post are my own general observations, and do not in any way reflect the culture of whole of the US or India. Neither do these statements stand for each and every person in the US or India: they are just widespread common characteristics that I have observed. There are several important people (both American and Indian) in my life who are very different from the stereotypical American or the stereotypical Indian that might emerge from this post. On a lighter note and mathematically speaking, I am giving you averages of a probability distribution whose standard deviation is really large.

It may seem odd that those 20 minutes every morning could turn out to be the source of so much nostalgia. Each day started at 8:10 sharp with the old voice of Mr. Wilmur rumbling out "School Att`ae'ntion", and the almost spontaneous outcry by all the students, "Good Morning Sirs Good Morning Teachers". Then a morning hymn with music and choir, that varied from day to day, followed by the two school prayers being recited by the entire school after a leader (who was a student, a different one each day). Then came the time for a teacher to say a short story, anecdote, quote, just about anything that conveyed a moral or behavioral message. Emphasis was laid on inculcating those pure, altruistic values that I am more than proud to be exposed to them at the young age by family, school and neighborhood. Then came the forceful, a statesman like speech by the Principal, Mr. Harold Carver, a British national, but who has nothing British left in him except probably his passport and accent. He was a forceful speaker and I must say that I have never seen a better speaker than him all my life: yes, none of the present world leaders I know, not even Obama, come close to the emotion and power contained in his words and oration. He used to say stories, poems, anecdotes that always followed the theme of inculcating positive values in life and becoming good citizens. Respecting parents, honesty, hard work... and I could go on with the list.

It was an atmosphere of care, and love that we grew up in. We made such strong bonds with the school and the teachers that I made it a point to visit the school, the teachers and the Principal whenever I was in Chandigarh. Now it has been six months in the US and I have lost touch. I remember the last time I was there: August 13, a day before my departure to Delhi to catch the British Airways flight to London, connecting to Boston. I had gone there a day before, but the office was crowded since Abhinav Bindra, an alum, had won a Gold Medal in the Olympics for India in the 10m air-rifle shooting event. It was the first ever individual Gold Medal for India, and the first Gold Medal since the 1980 Moscow hockey Gold. So there were a lot of media-persons and cameras and so I returned after exchanging greetings.

Even most of my close friends are from St. Stephen's. Here, in the US, I feel deprived of that atmosphere, those emotions, that love, those deep connections with friends, institution, teachers and the Principal.

I was an uncomfortable star in the school. I had got 96.8 percent marks in the 2004 National School exams at the 10th grade level. Whenever I visited the Principal's office as an alum, students eyes used to turn on me, giving me uncomfortable glances, and students nudging to each other, half-pointing with their fingers "O wow... do you know, that guy over there is Raghu Mahajan". Then that nudging and whispering increased tenfold after I secured the top spot in the Joint Entrance Exam to the IIT's in 2006, and my degree of discomfort also increased. I never liked students probing me for pointers on how to prepare for that exam and stuff. No one approached me as a friend, everyone was awed by my academic achievements. That is why I felt scared by my reputation among high school students. This is where the US takes the cake. More emphasis is laid more on character building, rather than superlative academic achievements. People explore their likes and dislikes at early ages, doing various activities, taking part in more social events. In India, people look up to the "stars", just wishing to be there, without realizing the joy and exhilaration in the activity itself. This is why I think students in the IIT's lack motivation to do stuff, because they do not know what their passions are. They have been exhausted running the race to the pole position in academics and exams and lured by "better" things in life - the most dominant cause being pornographic content on computer networks.

In 2008, I transferred to MIT from IIT Delhi. Of course, academically it was a sound decision. And I am totally happy to have left the dirt and nonsense that is IIT Delhi academics and student attitude. But that has come with a compromise on my social life. I especially miss the cultural tit-bits that so set apart the east from the west.

For example, here at MIT, suppose you are walking with someone. People will only go with you to the point that your paths are common, even though you have to take a short detour for an important small task, and there is no time crunch. The joy of being together, in a company, is so missing here. Connections are so shallow. People here are so strongly individualistic, have strongly defined likes and dislikes and do not budge from them. They don't have any qualms about being not dependent on anyone. Suppose you are planning a trip with people whom you do not know that well, lets say hostel-mates with whom you have been living for a month. Here people will refuse if they don't like the place suggested, willing to go alone to a place they like, whereas the dominant attitude in India would be to go with the company of friends, even though you may have to sacrifice some pleasure that you get out of visiting the place. I think that is more than compensated by the joy that one gets out of being with friends or family. Relationships of all sorts here are at a shallow level, or if they are deep they take a long time to become deep. That feeling of being immersed in that vast ocean of love, of care, of respect, of that ultimate Ideal is simply missing. Everybody seeks success and pleasure, without stopping to think of the deep emotions in life.

I discussed two factors in this post: professional competence and emotional depths of relationships in life. Are these two factors interconnected? Does being overly professional and desire to be successful make you incapable of experiencing and being sensitive to deep emotion? Does being overly emotional harbor tendencies of favoritism, corruption and make people incapable of making competent decisions?

I do not know the answer. Anyone ?