Last month I saw children performance of Irish Dance in my daughter's school. It was beautiful. In Irish Dance upper part of the body is kept straight and all dance steps are done using only legs and beauty lies in synchronization of steps with the music. Below is the link of world famous "River-Dance" show.
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Friday, June 26, 2009
Adjusting in New Culture: Going Out of India
It doesn't matter what is your background in India, but when you go out for the first time, the difference of culture from India to any other developed country is so strong that you will need openness and time to adjust in new country. Here are some random thoughts based on my experiences:
- Food is the biggest problem and weakness of all Indians, so learn to cook before you go out of India, specially if you are not married and going out alone. It is easy to get grocery and spices in almost all countries but cooked food is not easy specially on daily basis. I have specially seen boys struggling more because they are used to of services from mother, sisters or other family member. Without this skill it will be very hard to survive unless you find a room partner who loves to cook.
- Be yourself. Most of the other part of the world is non-vegetarian, but you don't have to eat meat if you don't want to. It is always possible to get simple vegetarian food like bread and salad everywhere and most of the restaurants carry at least one or two vegetarian dishes. You will need to learn to eat non-spicy food on occasion though.
- Be open. Many times Indians tend to stick to other Indians and don't try to understand the other culture they are living in. There are good things in all cultures and there are nice people everywhere. It will be much easy for you to adjust if you mix with other nationalities and local people as well. Most of the campuses in the world are multi-national and multi-racial, and it is easy to make friends.
- Be polite. This is specially important. In our culture specially in north India, it is not very common to say thank you all the time, but in developed world it is consider very impolite if you don't thank for every small good gesture of known and unknown person. "Sorry" and "Please" are two words hard to come by for Indians. It takes a while to start using all the pleasantries, but you will need to learn them sooner then later.
- Try to learn something about the country you are visiting. All countries and cultures are very different. They look same if you are looking from an Indian eye, but they are not. Germans are different than French and Russians are different than Americans. It is very common in India to say that any thing which is not Indian is western, but that is not the case. My Russian friend always complains that Russia is in the north of India and not in west and his culture is very different then American culture, but in most cases Indians are insensitive about this difference and bundle him with other nationalities.
- In many culture it is considered completely normal to drink in social setting.
- Many cultures give freedom to individual how and what they want to dress. Be respectful to your colleagues for their right on the choice of their dressing. This one is specially hard for many Indians and I have seen they make comments in their language. Probably your colleague will not understand your language but they will definitely understand your gesture.
- Be ready for the questions related to India's history and other social settings. It is a curiosity for many people and they will ask you many questions about India, its places and history, its cast and social structure, poverty, about slums after success of "slumdog millionaire" and so on. In most cases it is curiosity about your country, so don't feel offended. Try to give honest answer.
- If you are south Indian, please try to learn something about north India and vice verse. I have seen people giving misinformation about their own country because they have never visited or thought about other part of the country. Please remember that for other nationals, you are all Indians irrespective of your differences between north and south India.
- And finally, there are Indians everywhere, so don't worry. You will always find someone to help you to navigate the system.
I will add more things as it will come to mind, but for now I think this could be a simple guide for anyone who is considering going out of India for any purpose, whether for study or for work.
- Food is the biggest problem and weakness of all Indians, so learn to cook before you go out of India, specially if you are not married and going out alone. It is easy to get grocery and spices in almost all countries but cooked food is not easy specially on daily basis. I have specially seen boys struggling more because they are used to of services from mother, sisters or other family member. Without this skill it will be very hard to survive unless you find a room partner who loves to cook.
- Be yourself. Most of the other part of the world is non-vegetarian, but you don't have to eat meat if you don't want to. It is always possible to get simple vegetarian food like bread and salad everywhere and most of the restaurants carry at least one or two vegetarian dishes. You will need to learn to eat non-spicy food on occasion though.
- Be open. Many times Indians tend to stick to other Indians and don't try to understand the other culture they are living in. There are good things in all cultures and there are nice people everywhere. It will be much easy for you to adjust if you mix with other nationalities and local people as well. Most of the campuses in the world are multi-national and multi-racial, and it is easy to make friends.
- Be polite. This is specially important. In our culture specially in north India, it is not very common to say thank you all the time, but in developed world it is consider very impolite if you don't thank for every small good gesture of known and unknown person. "Sorry" and "Please" are two words hard to come by for Indians. It takes a while to start using all the pleasantries, but you will need to learn them sooner then later.
- Try to learn something about the country you are visiting. All countries and cultures are very different. They look same if you are looking from an Indian eye, but they are not. Germans are different than French and Russians are different than Americans. It is very common in India to say that any thing which is not Indian is western, but that is not the case. My Russian friend always complains that Russia is in the north of India and not in west and his culture is very different then American culture, but in most cases Indians are insensitive about this difference and bundle him with other nationalities.
- In many culture it is considered completely normal to drink in social setting.
- Many cultures give freedom to individual how and what they want to dress. Be respectful to your colleagues for their right on the choice of their dressing. This one is specially hard for many Indians and I have seen they make comments in their language. Probably your colleague will not understand your language but they will definitely understand your gesture.
- Be ready for the questions related to India's history and other social settings. It is a curiosity for many people and they will ask you many questions about India, its places and history, its cast and social structure, poverty, about slums after success of "slumdog millionaire" and so on. In most cases it is curiosity about your country, so don't feel offended. Try to give honest answer.
- If you are south Indian, please try to learn something about north India and vice verse. I have seen people giving misinformation about their own country because they have never visited or thought about other part of the country. Please remember that for other nationals, you are all Indians irrespective of your differences between north and south India.
- And finally, there are Indians everywhere, so don't worry. You will always find someone to help you to navigate the system.
I will add more things as it will come to mind, but for now I think this could be a simple guide for anyone who is considering going out of India for any purpose, whether for study or for work.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Attracting Talent: Lets Talk about Money
My post on attracting talent has generated a lot more interest than I expected, the reason is because Prof. Madras show interest in it. His comments on my observation that the salary of Assistant Professor in India is comparable to anywhere in the world, was taken much seriously. I know for many people the salary what IITs or any other faculty position in India offer is not good enough, so I am elaborating it here more what I think about it.
- Academia is not about earning money, nowhere, whether in India or in USA. Faculty salary in USA is much lower than what industry offers or what doctors or lawyers earns. It is one of the main reason American student don't prefer to go for Ph. D. program and all universities rely heavily on foreigners for their research programs. The salary of Assistant professor in R1 university (I am talking about top notch university) is $10-15K more higher then what you will earn as a primary school teacher and lower then what many colleges or smaller universities offer. If someone wants to earn more then that, one should not go to academia in the first place, Industry or IT sector in India is the place to go.
- I think it is not fair to compare salary of Assistant professor in India with salary of Assistant Professor in USA. Salary of Assistant professor in India should be compared with other professional in India, and here I think it is very much comparable, at least what I have seen in north India. Assistant professor salary is equivalent to what civil judge, deputy collector or any other class II officer will earn, what lawyers or doctors will earn in the beginning to middle of their career and I don't see any reason why we should earn more. It is public money and higher education in India serves very small population in India. I believe salary and working condition of primary school teachers should be made better to attract talent there. Neglecting early education could be very costly for future.
Having said that, I am not against faculty earning handsome package in India, but my point is that for many people that is not the main reason for not returning to India. They perfectly know that their salary will be lower. There are other factors also come in play. People want or don't want to return to India for variety of other reasons as well. Let me try to compile these reasons taking examples of people I know;
- Some people loves scientific research and its competitiveness, and USA definitely offers better atmosphere for that. One fellow didn't take offer of IISc and prefer to stay in USA. He thought that he can use his love for science research and talent better in USA than in India. I know for sure his salary for his expensive town is much lower what a school teacher will earn there. But he knows once he is successful, he can earn much more.
- Some people simply convert their dollar earning to Rupees and will never return no matter what.
- For some people it is the bureaucracy everywhere in Indian higher education system which is a major concern and reason for not returning.
- For some people it is local and regional politics in the universities and institutes which is bothering factor.
- For some people growing children is a big concern and they are more comfortable in Indian society and want to return.
- Other people whom I know want to return because they want to be close to their family and relatives.
- For some people it is the life style or culture or food. They are simply more comfortable inside India and will return if provided adequate opportunity.
And many of these people from last 3 category will go back if Indian higher education takes it seriously and pushes it aggressively. India has to take initiative if it wants better academic/scientific future.
- Academia is not about earning money, nowhere, whether in India or in USA. Faculty salary in USA is much lower than what industry offers or what doctors or lawyers earns. It is one of the main reason American student don't prefer to go for Ph. D. program and all universities rely heavily on foreigners for their research programs. The salary of Assistant professor in R1 university (I am talking about top notch university) is $10-15K more higher then what you will earn as a primary school teacher and lower then what many colleges or smaller universities offer. If someone wants to earn more then that, one should not go to academia in the first place, Industry or IT sector in India is the place to go.
- I think it is not fair to compare salary of Assistant professor in India with salary of Assistant Professor in USA. Salary of Assistant professor in India should be compared with other professional in India, and here I think it is very much comparable, at least what I have seen in north India. Assistant professor salary is equivalent to what civil judge, deputy collector or any other class II officer will earn, what lawyers or doctors will earn in the beginning to middle of their career and I don't see any reason why we should earn more. It is public money and higher education in India serves very small population in India. I believe salary and working condition of primary school teachers should be made better to attract talent there. Neglecting early education could be very costly for future.
Having said that, I am not against faculty earning handsome package in India, but my point is that for many people that is not the main reason for not returning to India. They perfectly know that their salary will be lower. There are other factors also come in play. People want or don't want to return to India for variety of other reasons as well. Let me try to compile these reasons taking examples of people I know;
- Some people loves scientific research and its competitiveness, and USA definitely offers better atmosphere for that. One fellow didn't take offer of IISc and prefer to stay in USA. He thought that he can use his love for science research and talent better in USA than in India. I know for sure his salary for his expensive town is much lower what a school teacher will earn there. But he knows once he is successful, he can earn much more.
- Some people simply convert their dollar earning to Rupees and will never return no matter what.
- For some people it is the bureaucracy everywhere in Indian higher education system which is a major concern and reason for not returning.
- For some people it is local and regional politics in the universities and institutes which is bothering factor.
- For some people growing children is a big concern and they are more comfortable in Indian society and want to return.
- Other people whom I know want to return because they want to be close to their family and relatives.
- For some people it is the life style or culture or food. They are simply more comfortable inside India and will return if provided adequate opportunity.
And many of these people from last 3 category will go back if Indian higher education takes it seriously and pushes it aggressively. India has to take initiative if it wants better academic/scientific future.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Jaipur Zoo
It was fascinating to see so many deers in Jaipur zoo. More information on Indian deers can be found here.
Monday, June 22, 2009
Attracting Talent for State Universities in India
Whenever there is a discussion about shortage of faculty or attracting talent back to India, it is always about IITs and IISc. There is hardly any talk about state universities where this shortage and the need for a bright faculty who has international exposure, is even more acute.
Many time people quote that the salaries in India are not comparable to international level, and that is the main reason Indians who are pursuing higher education abroad don't come back to India. In my opinion this is completely not true. I have worked as an Assistant professor in India and can tell that the salary of an assistant professor in any state college or university is very much comparable (sometime even better) with international standard if adjusted against the cost of living.
One of my friend who had to choose between a position in IISc and a position in a second tier US university, chose to stay in US as he felt that he can use his talent better in USA even though the life will be much easier at IISc. On the other hand, many of my Indian friends who are doing Ph. D. or post-doc abroad in different fields express their wish to go back to India and many of them will be quite happy to find position closer to their home town, not only in IIts or IISc. They don't go back because often they lack adequate information on application procedure, and salary and promotion structure of Indian system.
If the overall recruiting system for all universities will be modified keeping this mind, I guess it will be a big boon for Higher education system in India. You can ask that there is already a shortage of people in elite institutes so who will go to state universities, but in my opinion everything should be targeted altogether. When we are talking about Indian higher education system, we should not isolate state and central universities from elite universities. This is short sighted approach which will lead to deterioration of already crippled science education system in India.
If we manage to bring more people from developed countries to our universities, what it will do is quite clear; I am just listing few points here:
- First of all it will bring fresh talent in our universities which are crippled with local people deep into the local politics.
- New generation of science/engineering/medical students needs new generation of high tech courses which can hardly be taught by faculty who never had exposure to these fields and who are not current in their knowledge of even their own field.
- Students from state universities will benefit most if there are more people who can guide them about career aspects beyond that local city.
we can go on and on, but how to do it?
- Right now there is a lack of adequate central system for advertising of the academic positions all over India online and clear mechanism for appointments. There should be central website where all institutes should advertise open position obligatorily. The website structure can be similar to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Also the criteria for selection should be stated clearly.
- We need to have teleconferencing systems in all universities so that the candidates who are living abroad can appear for the interview online. The overall system can be like IISc/IIts where the initial offer is for visiting position if the candidate is not present personally for interview and once the candidate is there, s/he gets permanent faculty position offer.
- Most of our state universities lack decent infrastructure/funding and support system to do any kind of experimental research. This fact is not unknown, but many times students who did not have Ph. D. experience of smaller places have no idea about it, so it should be stated clearly in the advertisement what are the facilities available in the department and what are the expectations from faculty.
If we consider these facts and act, we can hope that our students will get best education which they deserve and our higher education system will flourish.
Many time people quote that the salaries in India are not comparable to international level, and that is the main reason Indians who are pursuing higher education abroad don't come back to India. In my opinion this is completely not true. I have worked as an Assistant professor in India and can tell that the salary of an assistant professor in any state college or university is very much comparable (sometime even better) with international standard if adjusted against the cost of living.
One of my friend who had to choose between a position in IISc and a position in a second tier US university, chose to stay in US as he felt that he can use his talent better in USA even though the life will be much easier at IISc. On the other hand, many of my Indian friends who are doing Ph. D. or post-doc abroad in different fields express their wish to go back to India and many of them will be quite happy to find position closer to their home town, not only in IIts or IISc. They don't go back because often they lack adequate information on application procedure, and salary and promotion structure of Indian system.
If the overall recruiting system for all universities will be modified keeping this mind, I guess it will be a big boon for Higher education system in India. You can ask that there is already a shortage of people in elite institutes so who will go to state universities, but in my opinion everything should be targeted altogether. When we are talking about Indian higher education system, we should not isolate state and central universities from elite universities. This is short sighted approach which will lead to deterioration of already crippled science education system in India.
If we manage to bring more people from developed countries to our universities, what it will do is quite clear; I am just listing few points here:
- First of all it will bring fresh talent in our universities which are crippled with local people deep into the local politics.
- New generation of science/engineering/medical students needs new generation of high tech courses which can hardly be taught by faculty who never had exposure to these fields and who are not current in their knowledge of even their own field.
- Students from state universities will benefit most if there are more people who can guide them about career aspects beyond that local city.
we can go on and on, but how to do it?
- Right now there is a lack of adequate central system for advertising of the academic positions all over India online and clear mechanism for appointments. There should be central website where all institutes should advertise open position obligatorily. The website structure can be similar to The Chronicle of Higher Education. Also the criteria for selection should be stated clearly.
- We need to have teleconferencing systems in all universities so that the candidates who are living abroad can appear for the interview online. The overall system can be like IISc/IIts where the initial offer is for visiting position if the candidate is not present personally for interview and once the candidate is there, s/he gets permanent faculty position offer.
- Most of our state universities lack decent infrastructure/funding and support system to do any kind of experimental research. This fact is not unknown, but many times students who did not have Ph. D. experience of smaller places have no idea about it, so it should be stated clearly in the advertisement what are the facilities available in the department and what are the expectations from faculty.
If we consider these facts and act, we can hope that our students will get best education which they deserve and our higher education system will flourish.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Interesting Read: The Cult of Genius
Its an old article, but I just came across it and found interesting so sharing it here:
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/02/25/the-cult-of-genius/
It talks about immediate connection between the smartness and success of a person in physics. It further quotes an article of New York Magazine based on a study by Carol Dweck on correlation of IQ and immediate success of children in exams.
The article is focused on how to effectively handle praise for smart kids. The upshot (verified by a number of clever experiments), is that when you praise a kid for being smart in general, rather than for specific accomplishments or efforts, you risk paralyzing the kid with a fear of not looking smart, to the point where they will tend to shun challenges.
It further says:
While Dweck is working primarily with preK-12 students, everything covered in the article rings true for what I’ve seen at the higher levels (both for myself, my colleagues, and students). Those of us who are fortunate enough to sail through high school often crumple when the stuff we’re allegedly good at finally becomes hard. Whether you “make it” as a physicist after that has a lot to do with how you respond at that moment. Do you take it as a sign that you’re not cut out for the game? Do you feel like a failure, and stop enjoying physics as a whole? Do you buck up and forge ahead? (Like a neutrino, you’ll probably wind up oscillating among the three mixed states for a while, before collapsing into one of them.)
Yes, you have to be clever, but if you have good taste in problems, an ability to forge intellectual connections, an eye for untapped opportunities, drive, and yes, a willingness to work hard, you can have major impacts on the field.
Although it talks about physics, but I think is generally true for success in any profession. What do you think?
http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/cosmicvariance/2007/02/25/the-cult-of-genius/
It talks about immediate connection between the smartness and success of a person in physics. It further quotes an article of New York Magazine based on a study by Carol Dweck on correlation of IQ and immediate success of children in exams.
The article is focused on how to effectively handle praise for smart kids. The upshot (verified by a number of clever experiments), is that when you praise a kid for being smart in general, rather than for specific accomplishments or efforts, you risk paralyzing the kid with a fear of not looking smart, to the point where they will tend to shun challenges.
It further says:
While Dweck is working primarily with preK-12 students, everything covered in the article rings true for what I’ve seen at the higher levels (both for myself, my colleagues, and students). Those of us who are fortunate enough to sail through high school often crumple when the stuff we’re allegedly good at finally becomes hard. Whether you “make it” as a physicist after that has a lot to do with how you respond at that moment. Do you take it as a sign that you’re not cut out for the game? Do you feel like a failure, and stop enjoying physics as a whole? Do you buck up and forge ahead? (Like a neutrino, you’ll probably wind up oscillating among the three mixed states for a while, before collapsing into one of them.)
Yes, you have to be clever, but if you have good taste in problems, an ability to forge intellectual connections, an eye for untapped opportunities, drive, and yes, a willingness to work hard, you can have major impacts on the field.
Although it talks about physics, but I think is generally true for success in any profession. What do you think?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Science and Religion
Last month I saw this piece in Nature's correspondence section (Nature, vol 459, Pg 321) in response to another Nature article "we can not live by scepticism alone"
My observations as a research scientist of more than 30 years’ standing suggest that most scientists in India conspicuously evoke the mysterious powers of gods and goddesses to help them achieve success in professional matters, such as publishing papers or gaining recognition. This is probably because factors outside their control come into play: religious endeavors offer comfort as well as being seen as a prerequisite for success.
My first reaction was just a surprise, but lets try to analyze this;
If this is the way of one individual, there is nothing to discuss. I am pretty sure everyone who is religious, finds comfort in it, and it is individual's choice how to deal with immediate and future challenges of life and work. But if this is the behavior of scientific society, then there is a problem. That means scientist in India are still not the part of one big enterprise, called science and are not comfortable playing the game. We need to improve! this discussion at the blog of DM explains it better.
My observations as a research scientist of more than 30 years’ standing suggest that most scientists in India conspicuously evoke the mysterious powers of gods and goddesses to help them achieve success in professional matters, such as publishing papers or gaining recognition. This is probably because factors outside their control come into play: religious endeavors offer comfort as well as being seen as a prerequisite for success.
My first reaction was just a surprise, but lets try to analyze this;
If this is the way of one individual, there is nothing to discuss. I am pretty sure everyone who is religious, finds comfort in it, and it is individual's choice how to deal with immediate and future challenges of life and work. But if this is the behavior of scientific society, then there is a problem. That means scientist in India are still not the part of one big enterprise, called science and are not comfortable playing the game. We need to improve! this discussion at the blog of DM explains it better.
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