Ph.D. = Phoolish Doctor?

It's still a 'may' headline but am positive. A lot of places don't consider me suitable in a 'teacher' role simply coz of the Ph.D. requirement.

In the same breath, when I talk with Ph.D.s I am astonished at the (lack of) quality with which a good number of these places make do.

And I can only imagine what's the state of affairs at not-so-known B-schools, and they simply take 2 mighty years away. The folks are reeling under shortages of faculty, and of the grey matter in the heads of their faculty, and then release an ad saying they want 'Ph.D.'. Meanwhile students, when they go out looking for well-paying jobs, brandish an MBA on their CVs, with obnoxious grammar and spelling mistakes haloing that MBA.

-18

That's the score at which, I was informed at an institute I recently visited, a student was (or had to be) admitted to the MBA program.

1. MBA is no longer a serious program.
2. Supply of MBA institutes far exceed the demand.
3. Students are getting dumber.
4. Institute is under pressure for monetary reasons to admit such students.
5. MBA, the tag, has become more important than actual merit.
6. MBA has become a short-cut to everything.

I still haven't gotten down to listing the more serious inferences. Make your inferences.

Elevating to the gym and driving to the divine

Right opposite our society-complex, there's a walled piece of land. In one corner near the entrance to this land there's a family residing with a few cows.

When I go for my run, every time I see quite a few people come to this place. They buy green shoots and feed these cows. I reckon most of these guys have astrological or religious reasons to do this. May be, doing so leads to some or the other believed benefit.

As with all situations and occasions, peculiar folks do turn up. Some come driving in their cars but don't bother to step out. As soon as the green-shoots-seller sees them he picks up a bunch and walks up to these cars. The car-dwellers touch the bunch and this guy feeds the shoots to the cows.

My shop is in a complex which houses a physiotherapy center on the 3rd floor and a gym on the 4th floor. I open my shop when it's typically women's time (that is, latter part of the morning) at these places. And I see all women take the elevator to the gym.

Does it require education to make the carzy folks see that walking down to the cow-shed might benefit them immensely? Or climbing up the stairs might be a good warm-up exercise instead of an inconvenience?

Funny Ellipsis-using Boy

Pic taken from Indian National Congress' FB page

This isn't just about one politician. In fact, politics is only about such ramblings. Sometimes the ramblings come to be believed and politicians chance upon a windfall, on others they find critics like me.

Look at those words:

We want to give power to the people.

Since 'you' want to 'give power', of course who is going to hold the power. Because if you don't 'hold' power, how will you 'give'? In the case of your giving power to the people, can you specify how much power? Surely not enough to make them rise against you, right?

Your politics is our politics.

Whose politics? Poor people's? Is their hut your hut?

Your fight is our fight.

'Fight' implies an opponent. Who is that opponent? My proposal is that when we use the word 'fight', it should always be accompanied by the word 'against' and another word that is placed after 'against'.

So assuming it's FIGHT AGAINST ________. What fills the blank? Inflation? Wow! Assuming we can indulge in a 'fight against inflation', how exactly is the fight seen and measured?

What we have done so far is ensured the dumbness of most people in this country. Education hasn't been good enough to make most of us understand the dynamics of 'inflation'. If we can't completely fathom the dynamics of inflation then how do we fathom 'fight against inflation'.

Vote for him because he speaks the stuff that most of us don't understand.

Which camera do you possess?

Take a good pic, and someone asks you about camera.

Run long, and someone asks you about shoes.

Look good, and someone asks you about the brand or the shop.

Design good earrings, and someone asks you about metal and diamonds.

It's incredible how often we end up attributing goodness to objects, instead of attributing it to our ability/perseverance/insight/practice in using those objects.

What is Mobile Technology? Moronica has an answer!

I come across this term so often. The absurdity of it becomes really profound when I have to stop and take a call on my mobile (handset) while enjoying a leisurely bike ride.

And when I think of this term, I also come to think a bit about the term preceding this ubiquitous term. Information Technology.

Mobile Technology.

Mobile is an adjective saying something about the word Technology. In another era, it could just as well have meant technology that moves (technology that is mobile. This seems like a facile elaboration but hold on a second).

Technology that moves?

Really?! I mean we are carrying that handset with us. It isn't carrying us. Neither does it move on its own. At best, it only leads us to stop in the tracks, whichever track we are on.

Think of it. It's at best a receiver of information. Or rather, receiver of information in different forms. Ok, add a bit more. Wireless receiver of information in different forms. Ok, yet more. Wireless Receiver of information in different forms and 'reminder' of the same. I will pander to the nerds. They'll insist, it's also about gaming. I rest my case.

Again. Mobile Technology.

Without the fancy baggage of what technology companies have made us believe, think about it. Couldn't it just as well mean that technology that 'spurs us to move' or 'enables us to move', or 'inspires us to move'... You get it. That's MOBILE TECHNOLOGY. Technology that moves (the user of the technology).

Yes, one might ask further. 'Moves the user'? How? What is the meaning of 'user'? Is it a car? Shouldn't it be driver?

Good questions! Figure out the answer. I'll share when I have more. Until then, it would suffice to say that Mobile Technology is at best simply a Wireless Technology. The same old 'wireless' that we understand, but in a much more advanced/efficient form. And Wireless is a better descriptor.

Now for the next term. Information Technology.

This term, I sense, has killed the understanding of information itself. It seems now, information that's passed using digital transmission technology is our only conscious understanding of information. Which is text (that can be read), images (that can be seen), sounds (that can be heard). Mark that phrase 'conscious understanding' in the previous sentence.

It's a weird thing to be reminded of the fact that the sense to smell, to touch et al are brilliant means to gather and transmit information. Perhaps richer and more reliable. That pat on your back from behind by a friend meaning to surprise you... So now that Information Technology clouds our understanding of 'information' itself, should we call these forms of information as Sensorial Information. And our senses as Sensorial Information Technology?

As I come to a close here, people have been meaning to distinguish data and information. Perhaps rightly so. In which case, Information Technology is a misnomer. It should ideally be called Digital Data Transmission Technology. DDTT. Sounds better than IT, huh?

And revising my earlier declaration. It should be Wireless Digital Data Transmission Technology. And the gadget that receives such data, Wireless Digital Data Receiver. Or someone more puritanical might call it Wireless Digital Data Transmitter/Receiver. Chemisty/Physics nerds would like to impose their version: Wireless Digital Data Conductor.

And we've got a penchant for short-forms. So Moronica would respond by saying that our body is SDR! And we are in possession of SDTT!

Automobile is a convenient lie and traffic is exactly what it was meant to be

From wikipedia:

The word automobile comes, via the French automobile from the Ancient Greek word αὐτός (autós, "self") and the Latin mobilis ("movable"); meaning a vehicle that moves itself.

We are still struggling with artificial intelligence. Do you really believe a vehicle moves itself? Then what exactly do you do sitting in that vehicle?

Let's say you don't move the vehicle. Do you still believe that the vehicle is moving itself?

Read more from wikipedia:

The loanword was first adopted in English by The New York Times in 1899.

If the belief of/in the word 'automobile' has resulted in losses to you (I can't think of a loss that's well-articulated and measured though), time to sue the NYT :).

Wikipedia has more on the origins of the word 'car':

The alternative name car is believed to originate from the Latin word carrus or carrum ("wheeled vehicle"), or the Middle English word carre ("cart") (from Old North French), in turn these are said to have originated from the Gaulish word karros (a Gallic Chariot).

Now the concept of wheeled vehicle sounds like the true description, isn't it?

And we are also unnecessarily bothered by 'traffic'. It's meant to be just what it is. Flow but slow. Again from wikipedia:

Traffic in English is taken from the Arabic word taraffaqa, which means to walk along slowly together.

And yet we keep cursing. May be they never told us about company in traffic. We've got some nasty teachers :).