mahendra-verma

Recently I read two fictional biographies of Jhansi Ki Rani (queen), Laxmi Bai.  They are by Vrindavan lal Verma and Mahasweta Devi respectively.   The story is amazing and inspiring.  She was just 22 when she died fighting. A web-based biographical account can be seen in the website http://www.copsey-family.org/~ allenc/lakshmibai/index.html Briefly, she was married to Gangadhar Rao, a king of Jhansi.   Gangadhar Rao died in 1853, when Rani was 18.  The kingdom was annexed by the British (Governer General Dulhausi).  Coincidently, in 1857, the revolt broke out, and the mutineers killed the British  soldiers and civilians.  Rani took civilian control of Jhansi after writing to the British officials.   Ironically, soon Jhansi was attacked by neighbouring kingdom Orchha. The attack was repulsed by the newly formed voluntary army of Jhansi.  This speaks greatly of ...

A symposium on HPC Applications was held in IIT Kanpur on 12-14 March 2012.  It had around 100 participants with speakers from various disciplines.   We had a panel discussion on future of HPC in India. Minutes of the Panel discussion of the Symposium on HPC Applications are given below: Panelists: Rajat Moona (CDAC, Moderator), P. B. Sunil Kumar (IITM), Amalendu Chandra (IITK), Sanjay Mittal (IITK), K. G. Ayappa (IISc), M. K. Verma (IITK) Many important points arose during the meeting by the panelists and participants.  Main points are listed below: 1. Manpower:  We do not have enough number of trained manpower for maintaining systems, writing programs, and HPC research.  The students are not sufficiently exposed to advances in computational tools.   Only formal course in this field in India is M. Tech. in "Computational Science"  offered by  IISc.  More institutes in the country should run such programs. IIT Madras is offering a ...

There is a move by the government and several committees to abolish multiple exams, and replace it by a centralized examination.  A proposal is that the admissions to IIT would be based on this exam + some weightage from the board.  There is quite a bit of hue and cry from the supporters as well as opponents of Joint Entrance Examination.  I have not thought deeply about this issue, but it is true that we as a civilization are too exam centric.  Here are my some general thoughts: 1. Since no exam is perfect, it is not a good idea to base admissions solely on one exam.  Most of the reputed institutions (e.g., top US and UK universities) do not do it.  If the number of applicants are less, one exam may be OK. But it is not likely to work when the number of applicants go beyond 5 lacs,  which is the case for the present JEE. 2. JEE has plusses, but the negatives are too serious to ignore.   (a) At present, there must be more than 500 stud...

Every civilization has its positives and negatives.   I see India as an strange mixture of old and new.  It has not shed its old baggage of blind-beliefs, and it has imbibed the consumerist culture to full. Many may disagree with my above statement.  I will try to elaborate my viewpoint in the following discussion. We see the full glory of traditional celebrations during ceremonies like birth, marriage, and death. A priest recites the hymns for several hours in full volume over the public address system.  No one seems to care or understand the hymn, yet the loud speaker keeps blaring out loud noise through out.   Of course we hear bollywood songs in the intervals. Isn't it a strange mix of old and new.  I encountered a very interesting episode recently.  For Godan (offering of  a cow to the priest) during a death ceremony, a single cow was offered by many people during the same day to the same priest.  Priest was wanting to se...