Thursday, October 29, 2009

Sand Art: An Amazing Video

These days I am in mood of art, so I will share an interesting video with you all. I liked it very much and I hope so do you. Its very dynamic and the beauty lies in the pictures as well as its creation from sand and colors of light on it.

Monday, October 26, 2009

Get Crafty

After years of sleeping somewhere, suddenly my creative surge came into existence after a Rangoli project at my daughter's school. I had done some oil paintings long time ago but since then never had chance (or wish) to do anything. I am into sand paintings these days. While I was searching some motivation ( or design) for the canvass I bought for the purpose, I came across this beautiful site which seems to get contribution from many talented artists. I hope you will also enjoy as I enjoyed browsing its pages.

Fall colors

I have been following with interest discussion related to IIT entrance exams at the blog of Nanopolitan. He makes many valid comments about the extreme pressure created by the exam on students as well as about coaching centers. In the country where job security after traditional education is so scarce, the obsession with IITs is hardly any surprise. Maybe we need statistics of from IITs and also from big companies about percentage of non-IITians people they have in their top work force. I am pretty sure that it is not so small. In my experience of living abroad in 8 years at different institutes/universities, I have seen equal number of IITians (add IISc alumini here as well) as well as non-IITians in foreign universities pursuing masters, Ph. D. and post-docs (though not enough statistics to make any claims). These facts once available can be widely publicized, which might help in easing students and their parents from excess obsession with IITs.

The more series issue related to extreme coaching, other than the financial burden it puts on families, is burn-out of young talented students. Even successful students who managed to clear the JEE exam, will have tough time in focusing again after this level of coaching. And those who failed will have tough time in accepting reality and getting on with their life. It is extremely unwise for the country to use the potential of young talent in this way.

Meanwhile, its almost the end of autumn in the cold country I am living, so here is some pictures which I took over the busy weekend.



Friday, October 16, 2009

Happy Diwali



I wish you all a very happy and joyous Diwali.

Friday, October 9, 2009

Everyday Mathematics

I came across this beautiful site created by University of Chicago School Mathematics Project for young children to increase mathematics learning in their daily environment. Its beautifully designed with simple activities for children and parents.

http://everydaymath.uchicago.edu/

Learning can be so much fun if combined with passion and imagination.