Thatched House

What I’m about to say will make some people unhappy. But it is something which needs to be said. It is nothing new but those who are aware are not very vocal about it. If I say that what I am about to say is nothing personal, I’d be partially lying. I speak from the view point of highlighting a general pattern, but specific encounters influence the viewpoint I hold.  I speak about the people who had it relatively easy to put a ‘Dr.’ before their name; while some would struggle through hades to achieve it. We hear of cases when such title can be bought with money. Ph.D thesis which can escape plagiarism detection software can be bought from a photocopy shop outside the university gate, as per a news rep ort . Honorary doctorate can be sold by bogus and even non-existent universities, in the guise of payment towards attending a super conference in a hotel somewhere away from the 'alleged' university. Accreditation bodies can also be 'manufactured' by nexus of ‘univ...

When we say that the public is also to be blamed for messy situation we are in, does that mean that the baby girl who was born last night in a remote village in Myanmar border is also to be blamed?  Let's be specific. 'Public' is a heterogeneous group with angels and demons and every type in between. Generalizing the blame is not just for those who are not corrupt yet suffer for someone else's faults. Blaming the public is a favorite prop politicians use to legitimise their ac tions.  But let's face this truth: Politicians are homogeneous in so far as corruption is concerned. By virtue of their power and position, the magnitude of one's corruption is larger than that of a hundred corrupt public. Therefore, let us be specific as to who is at the root of the problem. If what they say is true that what they accumulate goes back to the people during election, what about the mansions they build? Do those palaces ever go back into circulation? Do th...

Ok, so you are a regular government employee and your job is so secure. You have been working in the same job for over a decade and you know your job well.  A visitor comes for some work and he is confused which room to go to, or how to process his request. He asks you questions. You meet such people everyday in the workplace. Sure, some people won't get you at first and will ask the same question again. Some questions will sound silly.  It feels nervous for anyone to go to a new place. Some people are worse in sense of direction and may need extra help. Some will have problem understanding the words, terms and abbreviations used in the office, which would be easy to employees.  Some would have travelled from far-off places to meet you. Some wouldn't be that educated and are already nervous before stepping into the office.  My sincere request is: please let us be polite to people who come for help in our workplace. Of course, this do...

The future will look back at our time as the era of ‘copy-pasters’ and ‘forwarders’. There is a possibility that through research, we will be found as the generation when the average human brain size reduced –which is unprecedented in history - due to reduce in usage. It is possible that we are living at a time when the average human creativity (or can be any brain activity) level is at its lowest. There is no lack of creativity for some. But the creativity of one is copy-pasted and forwarded a million times. And artists are ‘inspired’ mostly by the works of other artists. Opinions in discussion forums are actually opinions/echoes of others in some other forums. Wild speculations are dispersed in countless social media groups and swallowed as news. The bulk of our knowledge and opinion formation comes from status updates and rants, quotes in jpeg formats, and short videos. We live in a time of countless distractions. We do not have the earlier luxury of focused engagement. W...