Search your Stars

I am blessed, truly blessed with the wonderful people in my life. You are not what you are born as, but you are defined by the kind of choices you make. These choices shape your life and choices do go wrong. Sometimes they has a unwavering impact and nobody, but you have to survive the brunt of it. Amidst such turbulent times these wonderful charismatic people inspire you, they make us realize the simplicity and opulence of life.

There is this one very special resplendent, youthful and full of herself menacing star who always infuses me with her simple and I am the best philosophy. I have witnessed her growth from a girl believing I am the best to a poised lady and firmly believing my family is the best. We believe man proposes, God disposes, but believe me she never proposed and God never got the opportunity to dispose of. She simply amassed every bit of God’s grace giving it a Midas touch, contriving it to make desirable. She never fretted, regretted or compared and believed that nobody was like her and all she has is uniquely designed for her.

I am a very opinionated person and she inspired me with her indifferent attitude. People agree or disagree with advices, but she would give you a thoughtful ear, agree with you and that’s it. She would very neatly fold the piece of advice and present it you, but with a smile. It startles me how can one be so patient and assured of herself. However, one could never take advantage of her, she would make one of our friend pay for her samosa in turn for the lift that she offered her. At an unknown place, she would never take a sip of anything offered owing to her dubiosity. She would never visit a common place on public holidays as there could be a terrorist activity. But, I always relished her classic Bollywood mimics adorned with famous stereotypical filmy dialogues, grooves, soulful voice and innate impromptu comic sense.

Of all, it is a pleasure to have a person who is contented, believes in the goodness of life, never in a hurry and always happy to see others prosper. Thanks for being there and making me believe, all that we have is sufficient to enjoy and relish life. Everyone has these stars in their lives who illuminate the nights of our lives.

Secular, I am not

Being an Indian, I have a habit of reciting a stereotypical opinion that ‘we are a country with unity in diversity’ irrespective of the fact that this diversity costs exorbitantly. Another clichéd term that I am supposed to believe ‘sorry’ display is that I am ‘secular.’ The oxford describes the term ‘secular’ as the one who is not connected with religious or spiritual matters. However, in Indian context secularity means to recognise all the religions. A practise to detest your religion and embrace all the others is being politically ‘secular’. The diversity is so dear to us that for the past 67 years our governments have sidelined the pertinent issues to protect this diversity and the rights of the people who contribute to the diversity.

The idea of God and religion evades me! The more I introspect the easier it gets but diverse to what I have witnessed all my life. I have always been mesmerised by The Ramayan and The Mahabharat, because of the goodness, sacrifice and love exuding from the characters. Even the treachery, fallacy, lust and war epitomise the bare human desires and emotions. I love the magic (science whose logic is yet to be proven), the celestial beings and the delicate intricacies of relationships complimented with the dharma-gyana. I find them very contemporary, universal and timeless. But I fail to recognise the Gods or their nemesis, so I should be recognised as a theist or atheist.

I idealise the characters, their dharma, their dilemma, their strengths and weaknesses. But refute the idea of escalating them to the podium of Gods, brandishing them as mere effigies who crave for our offerings and barter to grant our wishes for their worship. I remember meeting one of my acquaintances who was anxious to categorise me as per the form of God I believe in. In the quest of deciphering my inclination to the form of God I believe in, the revelation upon me is that there is no one God. Each one of us has our own Gods, who are an embodiment of our beliefs and we put a part of our soul to immortalise them. Then begins the eternal journey of getting approval of our beliefs, convincing others to believe our Gods. It fuels the desire to make our God supersede the others. Believe me, my God is different to that of my mother and my husband. Their’s are ideal, enjoy rituals and bless, but mine is lazy who loves nature, music, follies and confused with rituals.

We fight in the name of Gods because we all have different Gods. The only saving grace is the Gods are clustered together by lowest common factors, therefore the riots are limited between the big clusters. This helps us to prevail the domestic differences (like the ones between me and my mother) and focus on our differences with Gods of other clusters. Secondly, I am also not secular because if God is what is described in the religious scriptures, then I have read none. I don’t believe in interpreters who push their interpretations down our throats. Owing to all the religious cleansing and proselytism, I don’t think that all the religions preach same and lead to only one God. However, for me I prefer not to be secular, than to unfurl the superfluous thoughts of diversity metastasizing the undercurrent of religious animosity. Our vulnerability on religious issues empowers the oppurtunists to plague the milieu with viciousness. It is time when we should stop displaying our allegiance to various religions and boldly deem them as our personal choices.

Stipend hike, I would prefer a job!

Research Scholars of India (RSI) are protesting and requesting Government of India for the following demands-

1.  In line with their previous hikes, the recent hike be made from April 1, 2014 for all the scholars.

2.  Streamline a system to have annual increment in fellowship based on some formula (linked to inflation index) such that the process happens automatically. This should also be cooperation among all the funding agencies.

3.  The government must implement regular disbursal of fellowship for all the scholars in various institutions in India.

4.  There must be a slab implementation of JRF to SRF (1.3 fold of JRF) and SRF to RA (1.3 fold of SRF).

5.  Fellowship hike must be for all the scholars including Non-NET, Non-GATE, RA, Masters and all other professional courses. This should also be parity in the same.

6.  Contingency, medical and other rightful entitlements should be ensured for all the scholars in various institutions and must be same across funding agencies.

However, I am disturbed with the myopic vision of these demands. A pay hike may be required but research scholars have numerous more pertinent issues. The obliviousness to those is puzzling as I can confidently emphasize on the fact that in several institutions scholars receive a meager amount but work willingly. To me the issues that need an urgent attention are-

1.  The unexplained reason for limiting the Junior Research Fellowship (JRF) to the candidates below age of 28 years. If the idea is that young minds are more dynamic and brimming with ideas then how can extension of a retired scientist to an emeritus one is justified?

2.  The tenure of fellowship is fixed but the submission of thesis is not. If government awards fellowship to be translated into a thesis then why it shies away with responsibility of the completion of work? In other parts of the world there is a due date for the thesis submission, but in India the journey is endless.

3.  It is essential for Indian students to have a post-doctoral experience from abroad, as postdoctoral training in India is percieved as a potentially fatal career “dead end.” Therefore, India itself believes that students trained in India are less competent than their peers trained abroad.

4.  The PhD supervisor has the full authority over the scholar’s career, what to do if  diffrences occur? Quintessentially the supervisor-scholar relationship should be an equal one but in practise it is lopsided where supervisor has an upper hand. In the event of a disagreement the scholar suffers professionally.

5.  Government should think about the non-functional or unproductive laboratories that occupy space, consume resources and take students whose future gets doomed. Every institute has such labs where the scholar survives the brunt of being in such a lab. Why government allows such labs is uncomprehensible?

6.  No assurance of career options after attaining a PhD or a PDF.

There are many other issues but these are few that I believe to be of utmost importance. I am suspicious about the demands made by the students not because they are irrelevant, but because who allows them to jeopardize their lab work and go for the demonstrations. It is bizarre to find such supervisors who would allow their scholars to organize such events that too for the revision of scholar fellowship that they care about the least. 

I am simply trying to believe the intentions of the protests that it has no hidden motive or have benefactors who are catapulting the students on their behalf for their own reasons. As scholars should better prod the government for their recruitments than to appeal for a hike in fellowship. Because after 5 years your PhD can continue but your stipend will not.

A heart-wrenching fact is, the lack of jobs in India often prevents the post-doctoral scholars to relocate back to their home country.

Equality is unreal

Inequality is the stark reality that we always try to evade. We strive for the equality amongst men and women, rich and poor, mighty and the weak. We perceive it as a calibrator of a perfect culture, a Shangri-la. In spite of all the efforts, equality is elusive and inequality prevails as it is naturally woven into the very fabric of creation. Equilibrium exists when the concerned entities are impugned and try to gain an edge over the other. It can never exist between the equals and nature favours no equals. Mother nature bestows us with the potential complemented with the vulnerability.

Mankind has always struggled to impede the eternal cycle of inequality and equality. The opposition is sometimes against the natural inequality and sometimes against a human doing. Men and women are radically unequal or rather different but complimentary to each other, but we often try to extrapolate them on the same scale. We relocate the point of reference from a practiced inequality to the ingrained one. It might sound audacious, but nature knits a bond between a mother and a child, nurtures it with blood, flesh and protects it with impenetrable cohesive force. Whereas, fatherhood is a recognized ritual that is now construed as natural. So, nature preserves matriarchy and humans practice patriarchy.

History has witnessed its share of insurgencies against the inequalities plaguing the societies. India after achieving freedom in 1947 assured equality to its citizens under the Article 14-18 of the constitution where it states ‘the Stale shall not deny to any person equality before the law or the equal protection of the laws within the territory of India.’ The objective was to eradicate the differences on the basis of sex, caste, religion or race. However, inter alia unintentionally it does injustice in a bid to communicate equality. It says ‘in service, there could be only one norm for confirmation or promotion of persons belonging to the same cadre. No junior shall be confirmed or promoted without considering the case of his senior. Any deviation from this principle will have demoralizing effect in service.’ This law attributes benefits based on age or the tenure of experience than the caliber.

The law discourages the preferment of efficient individuals over the incompetent ones on the grounds of seniority, which often results from the age difference. This practice has taken a toll on the efficiency of Indian Government. The law has purported inefficacy over efficiency in a drive to impart equality. We need to understand our inequalities, respect them and respond accordingly. Nature devised it as a way to increase the competency and make each one of us different and special.