मातृभाषा और अंग्रेजी

अभी अभी भारतेंदु हरिश्चंद्र जी की कविता "मातृभाषा के प्रति" पढ़ी और फिर ये सोचा की क्यों ना अपनी मातृभाषा में पहला ब्लॉग लिख दिया जाए. कविता काफी अच्छी लगी, ख़ासतौर पे ये पंक्तियाँ -

"अंग्रेज़ी पढ़ि के जदपि, सब गुन होत प्रवीन।
पै निज भाषाज्ञान बिन, रहत हीन के हीन।।"

ये कविता उन लोगो  को जरूर पढनी चाहिए जो अपनी मातृभाषा में बात करने में हीनता का अनुभव करते हैं. साथ ही उन लोगों को भी जो अंग्रेजी भाषा का विरोध बिना कुछ  सोचे समझे करते रहते हैं. खड़ी बोली के जनक भी अपनी उस कविता में, जिसमे उन्होंने मातृभाषा की वकालत की है, ये कहना नहीं भूलते की अंग्रेजी का ज्ञान जरूरी है. हमारे राष्ट्र में कई भाषाएँ बोली जाती हैं और किसी भी  मनुष्य के लिए यह संभव नहीं है की वो इस राष्ट्र की हर भाषा समझ ले. अतः यह  देखते हुए की भारत में अंग्रेजी ही हर राज्य में समझी जा सकती है यह जरूरी है की ज्यादातर लोग इस भाषा को सीखें, भले ही आम जीवन में हम अपनी मातृभाषा का प्रयोग करें. 

एक तरह से यह भाषा समस्या का समाधान भी होगा और भूमंडलीकरण के इस युग में हमारी शिक्षित पीढ़ी को बेहतर अवसर भी प्रदान करेगा. और हाँ, अंग्रेजी सीखने से अपनी संस्कृति का कोई नाश नहीं होगा. स्वतंत्रता आन्दोलन में कई नेता अंग्रेजी भाषा में शिक्षा प्राप्त किये थे परन्तु वो हमारे आजकल के देसी शिक्षित नेताओं से कहीं ज्यादा संस्कारित थें.   

IIT JEE pattern change is a real shame.

Disclosure: My JEE rank would have gone down a bit if Class 12th marks had been taken into account.

It has been a long time since I have written on this space but the foolhardy committed by IIT council is just too much for me. The 'wise' men have decided that Class 12th marks in combination with entrance exam would prove to be a better indicator of quality of students these premier institutes would be getting.

First of all I would like to bring to your notice the farce that is our 12th exam. An example for those of you familiar with Physics: This is a question I found on the interent. It is from Class 12th paper of Physics in 2009 and worth 5 marks out of 100.

"Draw a schematic sketch of a cyclotron. Explain briefly how it works and how it is used to accelerate te charged particles.

(i) show that time period of ions in a cyclotron. Explain briefly how it works and how it is used to accelerate the speed and radius of circular path.

(ii) What is response condition ? How is it used to accelerate the charged particles?"

There are other questions too, very similar to this. This is a perfect example of a question where one-trick-ponies would lick 5 marks clean. Their trick being rote learning. And this is supposed to enhance the quality of IITs.

  

Now one argument is that the emphasis on class 12th marks would lead to demise of coaching institutes. But at what cost? If you look at the results of CBSE toppers for past few years, you would notice the place occupied by DPS chain of schools. They seem to have a stranglehold over results. These behemoths would have the same kind of monopoly as the coaching institutes have presently. Only thing different would be the dilution of quality. So I only know Force= mass * acceleration. This is a question where my eyes filter out 60N 6kg and I promptly answer 10 ms-2 to bag 1-2 marks. Wow! Life moves to the tune of my trick. I love being a one-trick-pony. 

But the problem does not stop here. These behemoths don't have branches in small towns (by small I mean towns with low income) so the populace there has no chance of getting admission there. In case of coaching institutes, at least they could go after 12th and then study there for one year and try and get admission in some good college if not IITs. Now it would be necessary to spend at least 2 years in the school where most of the money would be taken for ridiculous functions and useless cultural events (of course with fancy dresses) which would be of no help to someone interested in a career in science and technology and low on lucre. This also means leaving the hometown after 10th (and yes being lucky enough to get admission). 

Now the sanctity of our boards. Well they seem to be as good as the BCCI in this regard. Unqualified teachers grading answer sheets. Mass copying. Impersonation in exam halls. Rigged lab exams. All sorts of nuisance which is unthinkable in JEE. Open some newspaper of Uttar Pradesh in March-April and you would laugh/sigh at the state of affairs of our largest board. Good grief.

Only Mr. Ignoramus in IIT council would not be knowing about the tie-up of much loathed coaching institutes with the schools. What difference will it make to them apart from increasing the pressure on students in school who could have avoided the pain of preparing for these exams by not joining a coaching institute.

Finally, do we need this change? If we assume that these premier institutes have right way of grading the students then it is very clear the exam in its current format suffices. I don't have exact data but I believe that the average CGPA of first 100 JEE rankers is greater than second 100 rankers and so on. So either the grading system is flawed (Jairam Ramesh was right after all?) or the exam is alright. I hope the latter is true. 

It seems the Council can't see the woods for the trees. This country spends billions of dollars on purchasing weapons/technology from abroad but even the research scholars in the premier institutes are paid peanuts. These men and women as human resource could have changed the face and output of sloths like HAL and DRDO. But may be that's life. As our talent serves developed world, we remain rooted to our fancy notions and keep taxing our people (yes the most poor ones too) needlessly.

Realization

When Barcelona beat Manchester United in Champions League final, I expected media to fill the space with articles of exaltation. But surprisingly I remembered the night when Arsenal beat Barcelona at Emirates this year.

My friend messaged that Arsenal remain the only team to have beaten Barca in this season's CL. I recalled the game and my happiness. I was so ecstatic that I said to myself, "This does the season". Even if Arsenal don't win a trophy I wont be bothered.

Little did I realize the abject capitulation of Gunner grit is around. Now the season in which Arsenal beat Manchester City, Chelsea, Barcelona and Manchester United is being touted as worst of Arsene Wenger's stay at Arsenal. Even I am disgusted with Arsenal's performance this year.

But being more philosophical, I believe we should not get carried away by the momentum of situation (adversity or prosperity). There are local maxima and minima in life. They should not be counted as absolute.

Thank you Chacha Nehru

I am halfway through Ramchandra Guha's India after Gandhi.This book is a very good read. I have read a lot of literature about India but most of them are about pre-1947 India or about partition of India. This book focuses on the decades after independence. It gives a good idea of the difficult times for our nation, the 50s and 60s.

This book has given me new perspective on Jawaharlal Nehru. I think he deserves a lot more respect than he gets by this generation. To uphold the ideals of secularism and egalitarian society in a communally charged atmosphere must have been very difficult. Add to it the issues related to caste, language and secession. Hindu code bill was another progressive reform. He perhaps failed in handling the border situation with China but who is not flawed? If we look at his work in totality, he is perhaps the greatest Prime minister we had. Perhaps he would have been more effective in these times. A mass leader (Golwalkar had 1 lakh crowd in his meetings, Nehru 6 lacs), hard working and extremely honest. His last 4 years in office must have been very torturous for him but what he did in 4 decades preceding it laid the foundation of progressive India. No nation with parochial policies can develop or be a super power for long. Pakistan is a case in point. Obsessed with religion they have dug themselves into a hole where they have stopped seeing reason. No surprise then that their citizens suffer and don't realize the real issue are they themselves. Nehru reined in such parochial elements from the beginning. Thanks to him, India is not Pakistan now.

Good bye BBC Hindi

It was very painful to read this piece of news today. I vividly remember those times when I as a child used to listen to BBC Hindi and Urdu for a different take on world affairs. And a better one too.

The style of reporting the news and the care taken not to sensationalize the news was what I liked the most. The coverage of any event focussed on providing audience with facts rather than opinions. Apart from this they also provided the background of the issue at hand which helped millions in understanding it properly. The online version would still remain but the closure of short wave services would impact those in semi-urban and rural areas a lot. They are the ones who are in real need of these kind of news services. With the power situation we have in our country it is difficult to imagine television can replace it. But it becomes terrible when you look at the state of private news channels esp. in Hindi.

Sensationalist coverage with all opinions (sorry that is a euphemism, actually speculations would be more proper) and no fact leaves viewers with little information. It is really a sad day for journalism because not just Hindi but many other foreign language services will be shut. R.I.P. BBC Hindi. All good things finally come to an end.

Good times. Where are they?

India as a country is surely not enjoying the best of the times. High inflation, plethora of charges of corruption and space research setbacks. All these things have made this first month of year gloomy.

Corruption has always been rampant in India but so many charges on people holding seats of high responsibility are very disappointing. When even CVC and a former Chief Justice of India come under cloud, it surely is one of the most disconcerting time for ethics in Indian public life. Add to it the monster of inflation which has not been reigned in by the government yet. Rise in petrol prices may very well aggravate the problem although it is good to know that diesel prices are not being raised, at least for now.

But India is known for its resilience. We have seen far worse times in 1991 and came out of it to embark on our journey of phenomenal growth. I hope we do enough inquisition to embark another journey of inclusive growth this time.

Chinese rubber stamps

What do you need to do in order to win Pakistan if you are not India? Easy. Just antagonize India and Pakistan government will bend over backwards to lick your boot. That is precisely how Pakistan behaves with China.

So when Pakistan toed the Chinese whip of not attending Liu Xiaobo's Nobel ceremony I was not surprised. This whip or bullying also showed the countries who quake at the prospect of differing with China. Below is my take on some of these countries:

Russia: A lot has been said about their own human rights record in west. It is quite natural for them to side with China. Who knows, a dissident from their country may be next Nobel laureate.

Pakistan: If you remember a highly tragic and unfortunate train accident happened in Pakistan few years ago. Three trains were involved and the loss of lives was immense. There were reports that one reason for high death toll was the quality of coaches which were purchased from China. Pakistan didn't even register a protest let alone ask for compensation. The rulers of Pakistan (read military) are so wretched that to keep themselves in power they don't hesitate to risk their own people's lives. What these leeches ensure is that they not only keep Pakistan poor but also hamper India's growth.

Saudi Arabia: Representative of greater evil pervading the pure land of Arabia. The land which disseminated so much knowledge in medieval times has now got bunch of clowns ruling it. The kings and their families, all short on IQ run their writ on unfortunate populace. If there is one thing on which I support Osama Bin Laden, it is his wish to get Saudi rid of its king. All the vices are committed by ruling families but they are the ones who preach morality most. They openly criticize Israel but have never taken a sensible step in resolving the conflict. The Wikileaks have now exposed their ambivalent policy on Iran. The moral science classes always warn about the demerits of wealth acquired without effort. Saudi is a good example of it.