Blogging AND Studying? Surely that's a first.

I was so happy that there was something interesting in what I was reading that I had to stop at page 387 of chapter 11 of this book when it illustrated “Silence as Communication“ in this way to blog about it.

“Sherlock Holmes once solved a murder mystery based not on what happened but on what didn’t happen. Holmes remarked to his assistant, Dr. Watson, about “the curious incident of the dog in the nighttime.” Watson, surprised responds, “But the dog did nothing in the nighttime.” To which Holmes replied, “That was the curious incident.” Holmes concluded that the crime had to be committed by someone with whom the dog was familiar because the watchdog didn’t bark.”

This shall go in the “CIOTDITN” cupboard in my brain. As they say, you never know from where interesting things will pop up!

July 29th, 2008 / 1 Comment / Trackback

Mid-Term Blues!

It’s been 5 weeks already. The way it works here is that, each term is 10 weeks and hence there are exams at the halfway mark and at the end. As I write this, I have taken my first real exam at IIMC this morning. (apart from the class quizzes, qualifying mathematics and presentation that I had to do)

Subject was statistics. No previous exposure to the subject (pathetic! I know) meant I had to work a little harder. The Stats dept. here is very well stocked in terms of profs – all being excellent imports from the ISI. That means that you’re basically in their hands as far as paper difficulty goes. We’ve seen unsolvable papers based on just pure probability!

But they chose to be kind this time. Thankfully. Grading is still relative, so I expect to be somewhere in the middle of the class – given my (lack of) previous exposure and relative ineptitude in quant-subjects. I should be relatively happy with that. Just for the curious (and for my record!) the syllabus included Discrete and Continuous probability distributions, a few results (Central Limit Theorem, DeMoivre Laplace, Chebyshev Inequality) and Bivariate distributions.

Tomorrow is the paper on Indian Economic and Political History. Two professors taught the course.(This being a semi-course, it ends after 5 weeks). The first prof concentrated on pre-colonisation India, conditions for the establishment of the East India Company monopsony, Peasant-Landlord-Zamindar power balances etc. You get the drift. The prof’s overall objective was to prove to us that “the planning model was chosen by the Indian political hierarchy in the insistence of the capitalist section of the Indian society”. I for one was not left convinced.

The second, more interesting part was the study of post-independence economic history. We’ve never studied this – even from a normal “historical” point of view, let alone economic. We did Mahalanobis, the Five Year plans, the events of July ’69, Indira Gandhi and the Young Turks, the “mini liberalization” of the 1980s. The end was of course with the Forex crisis of 1991. The course sort of seemed to make the point that our (major) problems ended when we decided to do what we did in ’91. Though this was not stated explicitly, the bent of this part of the course was to generally disparage the planning period, the License Raj and (once) even make fun of it. I thought we could’ve been presented with different, though controversial points of view, just to make us think.

There is also the probability that now, in hindsight those oppositions to liberalization must seem so ludicrous that the prof prefers not to state them. But IMHO its important that we realise that even seemingly “intelligent” people got carried away by prevalent thought, and now even as I speak – we might be absolutely wrong about what we treat as gospel. I’d like to understand through a study of history how, if at all, we could buck this trend.

Those were my comments about the course. Of course, nothing matters but the grade with which I end up. And that of course, does not matter to me. Not that much anyway. So I shall fondle my latest obsession (this!) and then go to sleep.

Wish me luck!

July 29th, 2008 / 3 Comments / Trackback

Inspiration time!

You meet a lot of people here off whom you can bounce off ideas, and feed off inspiration. There is this awesome dude here, who told me about the latest catchphrase of his. “An eternity flows by in a blink of an eye”.

That inspired this little poem.

an eternity flows by,
in a blink of an eye.
there is but one last chance to see¹
the wonders of time,
can never be thine,
standing ashore the sea.

like slipping sand,
nay – like speeding light
she runs away from me
and before I can see
her beautiful face
I’ve met my destiny.

tell us if you,
meet her one day,
and live to tell the tale
tell us – where is she?
and where will she be
and then we shall prevail!

¹ This of course comes from here

July 17th, 2008 / 0 Comments / Tags: writings, poem / Trackback

Regular life at IIMC?

As I write this, I have just started my fourth week in college. Of course much has happened – which is the reason why this clog did not get the deserved attention!

Anyway, we have settled into some sort of a routine I guess. There is a certain degree of “relaxation time” that all of us get, and those periods are usefully employed gulping down Kamal-da’s Maggi, while discussing something arbit. that came to someone’s mind.

Discussions I feel have been the highlight of my stay here so far. We have discussed psychological motivations and other factors that include placement, the oedipal and the electra complex, why Queen as a band is gay(with vehement protestations) and more importantly scene-by-scene recounts of famous dialogues and scenes from movies.

Apart from that the class timings are usually from 8:30 to 4 with one or two gaps in between. Early morning starts usually means groggy students, and the coffee outside the classroom complex is the standard solution for most people here. I for one, always miss my breakfast – and the “patty” and the canteen there has become a staple.

Which brings me to the food. There are 3 messes here, one for each hostel. I can only talk about my mess – but I hope to experience the others soon. Firstly, there is always a lot of food, with enough variety with both vegetarian and non-vegetarian options. Breakfast has eggs, bread, jam, toast apart from the dish of the day. Meals may include everything from Chole Bhature to Manchurian Chicken. There is nowhere this sense of getting “bengali food”. However, one minor complaint I have with it is that its just too rich! I would prefer plain daal-chawal some day. But as they say, what to do?

The BC Roy Library, named after the legendary doctor and politician is truly a place of solace and comfort. It is sad that the place is not frequented as often and as frequently by students as it should, but those who go there will find a sense of calm that only libraries can bring. There is this periodical section which subscribes to every magazine of note and interest – and is well equipped with wi-fi and working tables. The books are arranged in really really long sections, and finding them without the OPAC is a challenge! I so far have read Lyne Truss’ “Eats(,) Shoots and Leaves” (finally!) and Ben Gurion and the Birth of Israel. The latter I found to be a bit biased and hero-worshippy while Lyne Truss is a delight to read and follow! Absolutely splendid. Currently sitting in my bag is Erik Eriksson Gandhi’s Truth.

Another delight has been the exposure to Psychology and Behavioural Sciences. One of the oldest profs on campus, Mrs. Leena Chaterjee is brilliant at the subject. Muchos Gracias and all that is flowing already.

Apart from that, there is nothing much to say.(have I not said enough already?). Its been raining like crazy here, and one thing we need to get right is to prevent water-logging in and around the hostels. Its not just the inconvenience, but the pests and mosquitoes and the disease are penalties no one should have to pay.

Cheers, and till next time!

July 15th, 2008 / 2 Comments / Tags: long, iimc, mess, library / Trackback

Weekend One!

Just finished my first week at college. There is a LOT to tell – and I am at a loss of words wondering how to tell it. So I shall take the simpler route. Choose the things I want to talk about and skip the rest.

So I’ve decided to talk about the academic schedule. We have a bunch of subjects, of which we have had about a couple of lectures so far. Enough for me to guage what its going to be like in each of them. So here goes.

Finance : This apparently is one of the two so-called ‘tough’ subjects. It’s basic accounting really, with stuff like balance sheets and P&L accounts. I’ve had in total about 5 hours exposure to this, counting classroom time – and so far it has seemed fine. But when people say it is tough, you usually take heed. So I do.

Statistics: This is the other so-called “tough” subject. I can see why this will be tough, and I think it is a subject that I will have to work at. Basically its a lot of math, and there is a certain basic level they expect you to be at, and that itself can be quite tough for people who do not hit the ground running.

Indian Politic and Economic History: I expected this subject to be the most interesting of all. But am quite confused as to how it will unfold. For now it has been mostly “story telling” on part of the prof, and though quite a few perspectives have been thrown in, it still seems a bit confusing and “globe”.(that is the term here for anything that is in some measure nebulous)

Marketing Management : This also has been pretty globe till now. Mainly seems to deal with the professor’s personal inputs. I’m guessing I’ll get more “concrete” theories once I open the textbook. Incidentally, one of the authors of the textbook is Kotler and I’ve always been really wary of these “3P” and “5C” types gyaan. It all seemed like anecdotal knowledge to me and it pains me to think that I might have to “study” this. But then again, I have to start studying.

Behavioural Sciences : This also has been quite globe so far. It seems to bring in inputs from psychology and I have read the textbook for this one. Nothing exceptional, expect that its not that bad. Again, I believe such things are learnt more from experience and self-theorizing.

Economics : This has been disappointing so far. Arijit Sen, the faculty for this one is supposed to be a really awesome prof, but I have not the got the feel for this so far. Kunal who took an introductory course in college, to his credit, was a lot more engaging. But then again, its been only two lectures and I’m being unfair to our prof because in one lecture I accept that I was really sleepy.

All the other profs here are awesome though. I have met the ones who engage our courses of course, but have also listened to a few others on other occasions. Even though it is true that an inordinately large number of them are from this region and are bengalis, they are not bengali by “characteristics”, if you know what I mean. All of them have an awesome outlook towards things – and bring interesting insights, and are like most people say here – “god level”.

That is all I can think of for now, now I need more sleep!

June 29th, 2008 / 1 Comment / Tags: iimc, academics / Trackback