Rebuttal to Pakistani scholar's biased article

Recently, two of Pakistani scholars published an article in the Fulbright group on Facebook (Fulbright group on Facebook is an international group where Fulbrighters across the globe are part of). No point guessing, how biased and dispirited article that was. It was merely a medium to propagate the false propaganda that they are crying to the world to pay heed. But, no luck. First, I thought, let's ignore it, but then I happen to share this with a long-time friend of mine, Prabhat and he came up with an idea to write a rebuttal. I jumped into it. However, due to a busy schedule, I could not really contribute much but a little. Thus, I want to give credits to Prabhat for articulating such a nicely written article. We shared it on the Fulbright group and it welcomed a chain of comments, thoughts and of course criticism. But I am happy that we could convey our point of views. Now it's up to people to make any opinion, for now, we have given them another side of the coin. Here's the link:

http://theindiaeternal.blogspot.com/

How to treat interns?

Disclaimer: This post is for the non-intern junta. One who has never done any internship under a mentor. Cuz I am the mentor and I am badass!

So, I was talking to a friend. He is a 2^nd year Ph.D. student. He got an intern from one of the IIT's in India. I met both of them and we naturally bonded over coffee. I was telling them how I have mentored four B. Tech's, 3 M. Tech's, and even two PhD's (when I was still a Ph.D. student). I shared my experience with them. Later, when the intern left and only both of us (mentors) were left, we talked the real shit. My friend, let's give him a name, Joey, was like, "I have asked him to write a paper and that it would be good for both of them since he is here only for 3-4 months and then he could write a paper and then I will, of course, guide him and we could have a paper in 6 months’ time, blah blah blah". When I chatted with “The intern”, let's call him Chandler, he sounded so serious and told me that he will do everything he's been asked to.

I was like, hmm, that is ambitious. I know the tricks of the game pretty well. I told him, he would not do it. Because a) He wanted to do an MBA (lol, isn’t that enough?), and b) He is a 3^rd year B. Tech. Both these reasons are enough to let me not give further explanations. I have had so many friends all this while and I know for sure, I have not seen a serious B. Tech student in a long time. They are there but one in say 30. So getting that one is really difficult and fortunate. In addition, with the above two reasons, I know he is not the one. I am no way demeaning Chandler, but you know it is that thing; you are not serious in your bachelors. I was not even, rather I should say, forward-looking individual.

So, today when I had a chat with Joey, he told me that Chandler is not writing the paper. And I was like, Really? (Sounding surprised yet I was not).

 

                                                                    

Collecting wastewater/sludge from inside IIT Kharagpur campus
with my favorite intern

P.S: With my experience in the field, the best way to get work done with the interns is to work with them. Show them how it is done, like actually doing experiments and analyses. I think it would be unfair to expect them to write a whole paper on their own, you have to do that. You should motivate them by giving some perks. I have taken them out for treats or given them due authorship in papers. Even though they have walked away now to do different things in their lives, we still connect through social networking sites and laugh on all good things that happened. I really want to thank them, for if they were not there, my 5 years of Ph.D. would not have been this much fun. Thanks, peeps J

In the name of God!

         From the last couple of years, the practice of mob lynching in India has come into the limelight. Every month, we read the newspaper or watch in the TV news channels that a mob of people attacked some individual for his/her act of crime, beating him mercilessly so much that it killed him. I am sure we all remember how a man in Guwahati was tied to a pole, ripping off his clothes and beaten up in full public view so much that he died. Then, there was news about a woman, who was beaten up naked by a group of men. In 2015, a mob of (Hindu) villagers attacked an old Muslim man for suspicion of slaughtering a cow! Holy cow! He died. Just yesterday, there was news about a young man from Jharkhand, who was forced by a mob of people to chant religious slogans. He was beaten up so much that he died due to cardiac arrest. This is not normal; can I call it murder? Mob lynching is a crime. It is illegal and wrong to take the law in your hand. 

What have we come to become now? What is with all this frustration and anger? Who gives these men the authority to beat the shit out of a person ultimately killing them? Isn’t that too much?

        I have a few questions in my mind that just bothers me. These will help me put things in a perspective.

1. Who are these men?
2. Why does not anyone stop them before it gets worse?
3. What the police in the region is doing when these acts take place?
4. Don’t these men have any fear of the outcome? Do they have any pillars of support?
5. Why is the government not taking any action to prevent such acts?

          The lynching is always followed by some political reactions where one party blames the other and this vicious circle keeps on growing. The sad part is when the political parties start gaining political mileage from the incident. If I were the person in power, I would call up a meeting and try to find some foolproof solution to this problem so that next time if anyone tries something like this, think 100 times before. Well, I really do not believe that the government in power is supporting all this. However, if they do not take any action or prefer to stay away, they are in some way definitely encouraging it. I mean, if such news can agitate a normal person like me, why not the government (who has power) does nothing. Is there something that I am missing and do not understand? Is it all a part of some big political agenda?

The Long Night

Many of us waited for this long night to unfold. Naturally, all fans went berserk seeing this episode. I am sure none of us predicted it to go down like that, beat for beat.

If anyone ever imagined how the end would look like, it would be either the Dragon queen or Jon or someone else but Arya. But, it was her! All her training with the many-faced god makes sense now. Also, the words of the Melisandre (Red woman) were to the point. The epic third episode of Game of Thrones ‘eighth season saw Jon Snow, Daenerys Targaryen and the rest of our still-living heroes face off with the Night King and his army of dead in the Battle of Winterfell. It was one hell of a fight in the cold night.

But the end, The end, um, I am kind of still trying to come to terms of it. His army of the dead was guarding him, right? I am sure they are really good at whatever they do. How the hell Arya emerged in the thick of the night right before the Night King got a chance to kill Bran? You know, Arya just jumped in with a Valyrian dagger in her hand to defend her brother, Bran, who was apparently waiting for this moment to come. Duh! For a moment, it felt to me that, this is it. Arya will kill him, but on the very next moment, before she could realize anything, the blue-eyed monster caught Arya by the throat in midair. All hope seems to be lost at that very moment. But, next, badass Arya just dropped the dagger from her hand and caught it from the other hand, plunged the pointy end forward into the Night King's gut. No points in guessing, what it would have done to the monster!! We all know that by now.

Is the night king really dead now? I mean I know she killed him with a Valyrian steel but if Jon can come back to life again, can he too? And someone please explain to me what and how Arya did what she did?


Valar Morghulis! All men must die. Also, what is dead may never die, but as it turned out in the climactic final moments of the episode, what is undead may very much die. But wait, wasn’t it something like dead's thing to...rise from the undead??