Unlike Mr. Jaswant Singh, our top-brass hides its ignorance by spreading canards in unintelligible gobbledegook.  The article clearly argues that agriculture and the multi-layered retail market activity can offer a community-centric solution to Indian economy.  We may borrow technology from US, but it is foolish to ape the West even in planning our economy. An economic model that does not care for our kirana shops, owner-run-general stores, paan-beedi shops, convenience stores, and hand-cart and pavement vending is of no use to us—even if that model worked wonders in a different country. Provisional shops opened by Reliance, More… on the lines of Walmart are neither cost-effective, convenient, nor reliable—and do not mean much to common people.  Every rupee that we place in our economy has to enrich our land, benefit our people, and cut down our subsidized policies. That is how we weed out parasites and help self-made people to climb up the ladder of their lives and enrich our economy!

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 29, 2012 at 14:10 IST
 

Please click on the link below to read the originial article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Money does grow on trees, Prime Minister

Universities, ours and theirs

Prof. Krishna Kumar has offered the readers an excellent article. Is this article another cry in wilderness? We cannot deny the grim truth that most of our classroom teaching is certainly”like the needle boring into an old gramophone record”! Our selection process is merely a “labyrinth of eligibility norms stipulated by the UGC” and does not identify “how passionate the candidate is in the pursuit of knowledge and teaching”. We have long forgotten the fact that the library “induces ethos in the young to learn the meaning of belonging to a community of scholars.” It is true that there are many who take the number of periods required, but their classes have no soul or spark. Can anyone change the Indian mindset?

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Aug 9, 2012 at 14:58 IST  

Please click on the link below to read the originial article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Universities, ours and theirs

Engineering education or only degree?

It is really painful to find most of the opinions in this write-up to be true. Engineering has lost its earlier charm, and very few engineering students exhibit a passion for their studies.  Curiously enough, some of the present-day engineering colleges have excellent infrastructure—and only a few colleges can boast of good faculty. The impact of modern technology—mobile phones, high-speed motor bikes, personal computers with Internet connection to access social networking services—have been keeping the students away from studying serious textbooks.  The ubiquitous All-in-One offers shortcut methods, and comes to their rescue just to secure good marks in the examination.  The classroom, teacher, textbook, and library have become old fashioned approaches— our movies reinforce these false notions ad nauseum. This change seems to be irreversible. Fortunately there are still a small number of students who take their studies on the campus in right earnest and excel in their career and life!

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 27, 2012 at 20:10 IST
 

Please click on the link below to read the originial article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Engineering education or only degree?

Pilgrims’ distress

It is rightly pointed out that old age, poor physical fitness, and lack of acclimatization are the primary causes for large number of people dying on their pilgrimage to Amaranth every year. Many devout Hindus wish to visit the holy shrines on the Himalayan terrain at least once in their lifetime. It is understood that a significant chunk of pilgrims who succumb to the adverse climate on their passage is the elderly. While we respect their religious sentiments, it is our responsibility to see that they are safe. It must be mandatory to subject the pilgrims to a multi-stage health screening before they embark on their yatra, and creation of means to shift the sick to the base camp in an emergency is quite welcome. An acclimatization training may be made mandatory to all prospective pilgrims. Pilgrims who do not measure up to these screening tests may be counseled to drop from their journey. The elderly, who cannot make it to Amaranth, may visit other renowned temples near Himalayas.

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 24, 2012 at 13:03 IST

Please click on the link below to read the originial article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Pilgrims’distress

‘Viswanatha Satyanarayana deserved a Nobel’

It has to be emphasised that Viswanatha Satyanarayana belonged to a highly traditional and orthodox school of writing.  His voice would have been heard by more people if his works were available in English translation.   He was the most prolific of writers that the Telugu people can ever dream off—experimenting with several genres of literature.  He authored his AU Award winning novel—a voluminous tome “Veyi Padagalu”— at a rapid pace in a week or two, dictating it to his brother-in-law extemporaneously.  In this magnum opus, he made his views explicit in the character of Dharma Rao through four women characters representing the four castes of our Hindu sanaathana dharma. I read most of his novels and in his “Cheliyalikatta” he embarked on a theme that is totally unorthodox. 

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 22, 2012 at 11:15 IST

Please click on the link below to read the originial article in The Hindu along with other comments.

‘Viswanatha Satyanarayana deserved a Nobel’

Kudos to ‘The Hindu’! The readers are offered a well-reasoned analysis that probes into the psyche of our celebrity culture. I do not know that 87-year-old Mr. Tiwari does not have biological children until I read this editorial. Doesn’t he have any legal heirs? Is there any serious property implication in this case? What prompts Mr. Tiwari to disown the paternity claim at such a mature age is really perplexing—even when he is confronted with clinching evidence of a DNA test. It is difficult to fathom the motives of this octogenarian politician to keep Rohit Shekhar and his mother in a stigmatized state for more than three decades.
The grim battle waged by Rohit Shekhar and his mother shall go down our history as a landmark.

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Aug 2, 2012 at 13:58 IST
    

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Tiwari& Son

In pre-1960s most of the brilliant students opted for humanities, law, medicine and English literature—this generation had exhibited an exceptional mastery of English.  Reading was an indispensible habit for this age. Later sciences and engineering became the most sought-after disciplines of education—the reading habit slowly taken a back seat. We have to accept that the English learning among engineering graduates is very poor in India. This can partially explained in this way: They use mathematics as a means to understand intricate concepts and rest satisfied with that knowledge, and do not bother to read the interpretations that appear in the form of text.  On the other hand, students of medicine are usually proficient in English since they read plenty of text. The solution to this problem is quite simple.  Let the problem students spend one hour with an English newspaper like The Hindu—and let them read it aloud! They will develop an intimacy with English in a very short time!

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 30, 2012 at 21:59 IST
   

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Winning with English

This is one more heart-wrenching personal account of the predicament of the Kashmiri Pandits uprooted from their native lands.  The media reports in the past few decades have been flowing into the outside world incessantly, and there seems to be no respite for the outrageous acts committed on these innocent men and women—children and the old people. There seems to be virtually no law-enforcing agencies in Kashmir, and the State is in the grip of both religious zealots and other unruly militant offshoots. It is the law of the jungle that forces them to choose between bullets and their homeland, their sweet homes, their temples, their birthplace, their beautiful memories of a lifetime. How can such events happen to people of this land? Is there an unseen hand that is working against these people? It is time the Centre and State governments work in unison to bring lasting peace to this beautiful land and its faultless inhabitants. The charm is gone that Kashmir ever wore.

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 29, 2012 at 19:43 IST
   

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Ourparadise is lost... forever

An eye-opening article! If India had succeeded in containing its population and poverty in the first ten years, our children would have received free and compulsory education as envisaged in our Constitution. Children working in mines, kilns, agricultural fields, factories and homes are literally treated as outcastes. Even if they get an opportunity to enter into a school they find it impossible to keep pace with other children, since their living conditions leave them physically, emotionally and mentally drained. In addition, there are children without a home and without adult guardians, and from strife-torn areas—who cannot have an access to education.  These children condemned by violence, neglect, oppression and poverty—if nurtured properly—would form a hidden treasure of our country. It is high time we found ways and means to ignite these unidentified minds. We have to emulate the shining example of our former President Dr. A. P. J. Abdul Kalam to root out child illiteracy from our country. 

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 29, 2012 at 15:47 IST
  

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

When dreams die young

The DNA report in the fraternity case of Rohit Shekhar against 87-year-old veteran Congress leader N.D. Tiwari is really a clinching piece of evidence. It augurs well with our judicial system. We still have to wait for the final verdict of the Apex Court.

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 27, 2012 at 20:10 IST
 

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Tiwari is Rohit Shekhar’s father, rules court

Ignorance is not bliss

About two years after our marriage, my wife showed me a few minor white patches on her arms and wrist, and this lead to great distress to both of us for a couple of weeks.  When we met our family doctor, she told us that is known as ‘vitiligo’ in medical parlance, and is called ‘bolli’ in Telugu, and told us to see a dermatologist. The dermatologist prescribed a few medicines and after one month the white patches completely disappeared and they never returned in the last thirty years.  My wife and I went through a sort of trauma merely due to ignorance.  One of my beloved professors was afflicted with a similar ailment, and small white patches appeared on his face. I was taken aback when I saw him for the first time after his persona went through this transformation. Some of his well-wishers suggested that he go through plastic surgery to look normal.  My professor is made of sterner stuff and is a wise well-informed man. He remained cool and laughed it off.  Knowledge is real power!

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 20, 2012 at 20:03 IST

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Ignorance is not bliss

Coaching classes — boon or bane?

As Dr. Umanath Nayak rightly points out, education has to foster and reinforce knowledge and intellectual growth during the crucial years of the student’s life. Obviously, there is an escalating growth of coaching institutions that train students to secure good scores rather than to imbibe meaningful knowledge and education that is holistic in real terms.  These coaching centres offer tips to students and force them to adopt methods that ultimately rob them of their inherent creativity.

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 16, 2012 at 21:46 IST

Please click on the link below to read the original article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Coaching classes — boon or bane?

Our IITs have a lot to catch up

The creation of our IITs—the institutions of premier technological education of India—mostly in 1950s and1960s—became a reality due to the proactive vision of the founding fathers of our country.  The quality of general education during 1950s and1960s even in other less-reputed instructions was of very high standard. The quality of education has come down due to the mushrooming of substandard private engineering colleges.  Only a very small fraction of these colleges cares for quality of education.  The rampant commercialization of education has been eating into the vitals of our academic institutions.  There was a time we had academic celebrities among the IIT faculty.  There are umpteen coaching centres to guide students to secure top scores in any examination—without proper understanding of the subject!  How can academicians—mere products of such institutions—undertake original research?  How can they spot talent in students and nourish it and bring out world-class innovative work?

from:  Suryaprakash Rao Mothiki

Posted on: Jul 16, 2012 at 19:32 IST

Please click on the link below to read the originial article in The Hindu along with other comments.

Our IITs have a lot to catch up