He enters the class and murmurs a greeting.  Picking up a piece of chalk, he continues from where he left off yesterday. He knows his material cold. He’s been teaching the same stuff to batch after batch of students, an industrial robot processing parts on an assembly line. After an exam modeled on a quality check, the batch moves on for further processing...

It’s 4 AM on a nippy Saturday morning as this writer ventures into Chedis for a cup of tea. Huddled together in a corner are three Hall Presidents. A polite nod, batchmate to batchmate, is followed by a realization – Election season is here. Just like the three years before this one, I spend a moment seething over how the existence of a ‘pact system’ is...

This is a little rant about junkie behaviour. It is not this author’s intention to preach (too much) about  how to live one’s life, and everybody has the right to make their own lifestyle choices vis. a vis. liquor,  cigarettes or perhaps even substances of a more questionable nature. However, a recent personal  experience involving a friend who...

Let’s start with a tale about two students – A and B. A is currently a student in the education industry of Kota and has reportedly carved a local reputation for himself there. He believes in having a firm grip on ‘concepts’ and can solve the toughest of problems faster than you can say ‘Trigonometry’. B on the other hand is an ordinary student who...

Eyeing the I - an insight into the dynamics and workings of the student body elections of IIT Kharagpur. Editorial from the latest issue [March 23]. CHECK IT OUT AT http://tinyurl.com/march23issue

When I was a kid, we used to have a series of instructional books at home, “Tell me Why”. You have websites that “tell me how to” or tell you “How stuff works”. “Why” and “How” are therefore perceived as addressing fundamental details necessary to either understanding a phenomenon, learning a technique, or solving a problem. And yet, what...