IIT Roorkee

 Pronounced Roodkey in Hindi, this is an ancient town with a 177 year old engineering college turned IIT. We went there to meet some graduating doctoral students, to try and interest them in joining Prestige University. A beautiful heritage building is now being worked on to restore it. Some homegrown mangoes also were available, and we were shown around by a Prof. from IIT. A very nice colonial-style guest house was pleasant to stay in.

Heritage building and person

..people.

the host of our wanderings, Prof. Mohanty

I was an electrical engineer once..

The seminar we held for doctoral students- above and below.

TV Jargon- Debatable?

TV and newspaper jargon is a constant source of mirth (Think I have been watching too many TV debates, thanks to Uttarakhand floods and some new juicy scam). I expect management jargon must be having a similar effect on the non-managers.

Any TV debate has a confused and/or aggressive anchor (think anyone of them, not just Arnab), and six participants, each with a 2-inch square window of opportunity-to-speak. The anchor lights a fire, it snowballs into flames, sometimes roaring flames.

Some guy: This is anti-national, anti- individual freedom, anti- aam admi, blah, blah...

Anchor: Absolutely (he never says relatively)

Another guy: This will negate the impact of what our govt. did in so-and-so year, blah, blah, blah..

Anchor: You have hit the nail on the head (whose head?)

Yet Another gal: You were always anti-poor, pro-America, FDI in Retail was a conspiracy, blah, blah,..

Anchor (turning to Guy 4 whom this barb is aimed at): Can you explain your stand on this important issue, vis-a-vis this charge made by YAG (see above)?

And so, at the end of a fire-and brimstone, noisy half hour, all the world's problems solved, vocal cords massaged, everyone goes home. And the viewer is none-the-wiser about whether his vegetables will cost more or less, due to the Monetary policy, Egypt uprising, or the Uttarakhand floods. And he is vaguely wondering who Snowden is, and if he saw him (snow..) on the weather channel.

All the new applicants for banks...what are they banking on?

Labels- Uttarakhand and Other Tragedies

Is it a man-made disaster, or a Natural one? Was it the Congress or the BJP that was responsible for letting construction happen? Did we ignore heavy rain warnings and delay the evacuation of people?

The act of trying to label things and pin the blame quickly on anyone or anything is not an adequately thought-out response, in my own view. And I could be in a minority. There are several things that contribute to a tragedy of this proportion. Primary among them are a sudden natural occurrence (such as a tornado, a tsunami fuelled by an earthquake) or an industrial accident (Bhopal, Chernobyl and so on). Other reasons are the population there, including the transient variety (floating population). Blind belief in worshipping specific idols rather than praying anywhere is another major cause, in this case. Building broader highways in hilly regions is not going to keep the fragile hills made of soft rock stable for too long.

Prevention is not easy, but sensibly thinking about it can help. Singapore manages to restrict the number of cars in the country. If we also tried to do so, some of these (and many others) disasters could be minimised. But two things are needed. Public transport-reliable, efficient and affordable, to replace private transport -not just in the Himalayas, but to commute to work or elsewhere, everyday. The car lobby and the oil lobby will not be happy, but we might just lower our oil import bill by a few thousand crores in the bargain.

Second, limits on development of every kind in any region, based on what it can sensibly take. Beyond a point, any piece of earth will give way, and lead to some disaster. Buildings crashing in many cities, not due to floods, but disregard for simple norms, are an example.

Development is necessary, but there are so many underdeveloped regions that we could develop, for industry, tourism and for living. Can we have a sensible action plan, rather than empty noises blaming someone or something? We are all in it together. At least, until we destroy it all.