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| small town Indian guy (now in Washington DC) , Harvard grad from School of Education, class of 2005. Experiences in the field |
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Hi, There are many eyeopeners when one is in a new region. Different customs and norms but none so hilarious as the dogs' behavior in different nations. Most Indians would feel offended if told that their dogs are ill-behaved. Sherlock Holmes - the famous detective - even had a theory - that happy families had happy dogs and cruel families had frightend, submissive or even cruel dogs. Having seen only Indian dogs on the street (and in houses) I was quite surprised to see such mild-mannered dogs when at Harvard. I imagined that its is perhaps in the grooming. In India if any two dogs interact on the street - the common norm would be either they growl at each other (if of same sex) or sniff at each other all over (if of opposite sex) . If a group of dogs interacts with another - then regardless of sex (assuming the group has members of both sexes) there would be a fight. Having been through many such free-for-all dogfights (while trying to save my dog from being mauled - which was sometimes brutally so - we never chained our dogs - they roam/ed all over the city) it has been quite natural for me to be armed (with stick and stones) to protetct my dog/s when going for a walk. Today a student said that it seemed cruel to him. How could anyone hit a dog - even to save his own??!!! Stretching my perception I tried to see from his point of view, and realized that he had never seen dogs on the street - not the wild ones on Indian roads. He had perhaps never been bitten by dogs (unlike me) nor had is dogs mauled by others. Perhaps dogs in India behave differently than those in America. I know most Indians will not like it at all. We Indians also feel that dog is our best friend - but ofcourse noone likes to BE the dog (or "slumdog" - a title which has made so many go to court as slander). This student was reading a passage about Dog festival in the Himalayas and how the phrase "Every Dog Has Its Day" originated there. Its a Nepali festival - very interesting: http://beacononline.wordpress.com/2008/10/28/gorkha-custom-dogs-festival/ http://yesugarden.blogspot.com/2008/11/every-dog-has-his-day.html http://www.phrases.org.uk/bulletin_board/39/messages/1037.html proverb origin in Greek - guy killed by dogs on the street I mentioned to the student that I had not heard of the phrase in Indian language but heard of another that "When death comes to the jackal, it runs to the city" (Jab (when) Geedad (jackal) Ki Maut (Death) Ati (comes), Woh (he) Shahar (city) Ki Aur (towwards) Bhagta (runs) Hai (is) ) - and ofcourse is killed in the city. His passage read that after the day of the dog worship fest - it is back to dog's life of kicks and blows. I said a dog on the street can expect no better - it attacks other dogs too (inlcuding mine- so my stick and stones). ( I did mention that in 2004 how I managed to defend my dog (Rambo) against leopards in the reserve forest by banging the tin dog bowl and making a noise - learned from Jim Corbett's book "Maneating Leopard of Rudraprayag" -book reading can save your life!!) Any comments? Umesh Sharma | ||
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| Hi, Today I was quite struck by the matter-of-fact winning approach of a ten-yearold student of mine which I then shared with 3 others sitting at the table. On of them said what can a ten-yearold know better than all of us but the other two concurred with me that as in the hit TV series Are you better than a fifth grader (this student is in fifth grade too) it is possible that fifth graders know more about many things than the vast majority of adults. I had commented about his "A" in science and social studies and Bs and Ds in some other subjects. He said that he disliked science and social studies and liked the other subjects. And since he disliked science and social studies he did better in them and because he liked math and English he did poorly - in the report card. Somehow that struck a nerve within me - how I had loved what I studied or learnt at colllege (infact I would call my college experience as a born-again one making me a college student for llife) but my report showed otherwise. I was perhaps the top rankin student (as per high school grades in CBSE exams - in my college batch) but barely passed with a low second class - from college despite having learn many many life-lessons which are useful even now. In college I was seeking knowledge thru fun-learning alone -disregarding college grading system. It disregarded me. Newton's Law. Then, having faced reality after college I was determined to focus on grades and rose to be heralded by batchmates as "the student who improved the most" while in the MBA program. I had to give them a treat later - maybe they just wanted a treat - but then it reflected in my grades -came 7th in a class of 44 (many of whom had been college rankers) -having entered it as perhaps the lowest grade guy. The minimum requirement was 50% and I had 50.25% The MBA director exclaimed in front of all - you just made it!!! I never forgot that. Never in my life I had felt so humiliated - had always been known for brain stuff. Here I was being treated as a hippy grad of hep Delhi Univ. -- not as one who had been treated as an equal by schoolmates who went to IITs. The learning during the MBA program was not fun - it was exciting sometimes and a gruel mot of the time - life in rural Sonipat (30 miles from Delhi) was no picnic - but there were no distractions and even the professors were committed - world class - inlcuding Stanford Bus School grad - who came there daily over bumpy roads to teach us. Many had taken leave of absence from renowned MBA programs to teach us - some were guest faculties. Like the world economy right now India was in turmoil when I was about to graduate - 1996 was the year that India so its first ever economic recession in recorded history (of indpendent India). Life was in a chaos. Noone knew what to do - even ManMohan the architect of Indian reforms. We sitting in rural Sonipat was losing heart - studies and grades seemed immaterial - we were going to get no jobs anyway. However, our professor/director was quixotic - finance whiz - a board member of Delhi Stock Exchange with ties in Singapre and US finance bodies. He was born on April 1 - ha ha. In 2003 while seeking his recommendation letter for US univs - I saw a medal given to him on his birthday by his former students - lying at his home. If we did not put in due diligence he would fail us - despite being a new, unknown institute in the middle of nowhere. Studies seemed useless , grades seemed immaterial - but was a challenge. Sometimes problems lead to possibilities. We had nothing better to do. We had already gone to all the major cities in India. I had been to Bangalore and Chennai for the first time in my life - to promote the MBA program. Even got affirmation from Colgate Palmolive's HR in Mumbai chief to visit our institute when he went on campus recruitment to well known programs in Delhi. We were cooperating wth each other - some finance major was selflessly contacting tech firms for marketing positions for fellow students and vice versa. Becos life was tough, no hunky-dory sing-song time to gain knowledge for knowledge's sake I did well - as far as grades were concerned. I gained the respect of my professors - just like I had lost it in college. I maintained links with MBA profs well after I graduated , whose recommendations (and my grades) landed me at Harvard. Thus, when one is not very happy with a subject one might do well academically -- learning is never a very pleasant experience when it is going - only in hindsight it appears so. Learning can be an exciting, excrutiating experience without being a sunny-side up, beach-air, blissfull one. Getting high grades never came through achieving bliss - attaining high grades in not equal to achieving Nirwana. It requires a different set of skills and attitude and different goals. Achieving Nirvana or Mokhsa might make you all knowing but wont get you material benefits - like a higher GPA or school grades or a better job - for that matter. Ten yearold wisdom is sage advice. You can love something to death - one has to draw line between personal affection and professionalism. Any comments. | ||
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| http://hir.harvard.edu/index.php?page=article&id=1803 A Disciple Becomes the Guru
Should the United States Learn from India? by Vivek Wadhwa Global Education, Vol. 30 (3) - Fall 2008 Issue Vivek
Wadhwa is a fellow with the Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law
School and executive in residence/adjunct professor at the Pratt School
of Engineering at Duke University. This piece has been produced in
collaboration with the Kauffman Foundation.
American businesses are increasingly moving their research and development operations to India and China. Debates rage in the United States about whether this will lead to greater prosperity or threaten the country’s global economic leadership. There are few facts in the debate, yet business and political leaders appear to be reaching consensus on how to respond to the rise of India and China: have more American children study math and science, and graduate more engineers and scientists. This remedy’s most common justification is the supposed statistic that China and India between them graduate twelve times the numbers of engineers the United States does. Business executives such as Microsoft chairman Bill Gates say that they have no choice but to move their research and development operations abroad because a deficient US education system has resulted in a severe shortfall of engineers. The Global Engineering and Entrepreneurship project team at Duke University has been researching this topic. We found that the graduation statistics in common use were misleading, as they were based on faulty comparisons. Our interviews with the executives of technology and engineering companies engaged in outsourcing research and development (R&D) to India and China revealed that their primary motivation in moving operations abroad was not a shortage of engineers but rather lower cost and the proximity of growth markets. Furthermore, we found that there were serious issues with the quality of engineering education in China and India. Yet India is racing ahead to become a global hub for advanced R&D in several industries. In trying to understand how India is achieving this feat, we learned that the Indian private sector has found a way to overcome deficiencies in its education system through innovative programs of workforce training and development. These have transformed workers with a weak educational foundation into R&D specialists. In response, then, the United States needs learn from India and upgrade its workforce. Engineering educationVarious articles in the popular media, speeches by policy makers, and reports to Congress have stated that the US graduates roughly 70,000 engineers annually, while China graduates 600,000 and India 350,000. Even the National Academies and the US Department of Education have cited these numbers. But no one has compared apples with apples. In China, the word “engineer” does not translate well into different dialects and has no standard definition. An “engineer” could be a motor mechanic or a technician. Chinese graduation numbers included all degrees related to information technology and to specialized fields such as shipbuilding. They also included two- and three-year degrees, making them equivalent to US associate degrees. Nearly half of China’s reported engineering degrees fell into this category. The Indian definition of “engineer” was equivalent to the US one, but included information-technology and computer-science degrees. When we counted on a more consistent basis, we found that in 2004, the United States and India each graduated approximately 140,000 engineers, and China graduated 360,000. Chinese graduation rates have, however, been increasing dramatically since 1999. We found a similar trend in Masters and PhD degrees. In 2005, China graduated 63,514 Masters and 9427 PhDs in engineering, exceeding corresponding US numbers: 53,549 and 7,720, respectively. India’s graduation numbers were unimpressive: 18,439 Masters and fewer than 1,000 PhDs in engineering. In fact, India wasn’t graduating enough PhDs to meet the growing staff requirements of its universities. However, China’s increasing numbers came at the cost of quality: enrollments are increasing at all but the top universities without corresponding increases in faculty and infrastructure. The growth in India’s graduation rates was coming largely from private educational institutions, the quality of which varied significantly: some provided good-quality education while the majority, did not. Sending R&D abroadOur interviews with 78 senior executives of US corporations involved in outsourcing engineering work revealed that India and China were their top destinations for R&D work, with Mexico in third place. The data these companies provided—on time to fill open positions, signup bonuses, and acceptance rates of job offers for engineering—showed no indication of a tightening job market. In other words, they were not experiencing shortages of engineers in the United States. The reasons they named for going offshore concerned salary and personnel savings, overhead-cost savings, 24x7 continuous-development cycles, access to new markets, and proximity to growing markets. These companies reported that American engineers produced work of better or equal quality and were at least as productive as their Indian and Chinese counterparts. Moreover, American engineers had advantages in education, cultural understanding, communications, and their understanding of markets. But Indian and Chinese engineers worked harder and cost significantly less. When asked about current work being assigned overseas, nearly half of the companies we interviewed said they would hire engineers regardless of education level and would train them. Bachelor’s degrees in engineering weren’t mandatory prerequisites. The vast majority of companies stated their intent to continue to outsource—and their expectation to outsource higher-level research and development to these countries. They indicated that for these advanced R&D jobs, they preferred Masters and PhD degree holders. It is evident that though India may have enjoyed advantages in lower-end IT outsourcing, it was ill-equipped to benefit from the next wave of globalization, in which higher-end R&D and innovation would increasingly go offshore. It appeared that the country best positioned to become a global hub for R&D was China. Next Wave of GlobalizationRecent interviews with executives of multinational companies in China and India as well as Indian native firms reveal that despite its low rates of postgraduate science and engineering graduation, India is rapidly becoming a global hub for R&D, with a momentum and scale similar to those it accomplished in IT services. In the aerospace industry, Indian companies are designing the interiors of luxury jets, in-flight entertainment systems, collision-control and navigation-control systems, fuel-inverting controls, and other key components of jetliners for American and European corporations. In pharmaceuticals, Indian scientists are discovering drugs and performing clinical research for nearly all of the largest multinational drug companies. In the automotive industry, Indian engineers are helping to design bodies, dashboards, and power trains for Detroit vehicle manufacturers—and soon may develop entirely outsourced passenger cars. In telecom and computer networking, Indians are developing next-generation solutions for intelligent cities. They are also developing innovative solutions for the Indian marketplace, such as the $2,500 car produced by Tata. China is already the world’s biggest exporter of computers, telecom equipment, and other high-tech electronics. Multinationals and government-backed companies are pouring hundreds of billions of dollars into next-generation plants to turn China into an export power in semiconductors, passenger cars, and specialty chemicals. China is lavishly subsidizing state-of-the-art labs in biochemistry, nanotech materials, computing, and aerospace technologies. Despite its advantages in engineering-graduation rates, massive investments in infrastructure, and massive economic subsidies, China does not in fact appear to be moving at the same pace as India in R&D outsourcing. Foreign multinationals were driving an overwhelming proportion of R&D and innovation in China and that most of this R&D is targeted at developing products for the local Chinese market. There are some exceptions, but Chinese industry appears to be excelling in imitation rather than in innovation. The 64 Million Dollar QuestionIf engineering education is so critical to global competitiveness, how is India succeeding? To answer this, we met with the CEOs, human-resource directors, R&D leaders, managers, and employees, and visited the R&D and training facilities of 24 leading companies in India. These were in rapidly growing emerging sectors, including IT services, business-process outsourcing, semiconductors, pharmaceuticals, financial services, retail, hospitality, and education—all of which have managed to grow and innovate despite skills gaps and talent shortages. How the Disciple Became the GuruDuring the 1970s and 1980s, the Japanese achieved major advances in manufacturing management, which led to their rise as an economic power. The Japanese economic miracle and the country’s new manufacturing skills and methods surprised western firms; but the Japanese had done this by studying, adopting, and eventually perfecting the best practices of western companies. The Duke team believes that India is achieving similar feats in workforce development: India has learned and perfected the best practices of leading companies that have been outsourcing their computer systems and call centers. Faced with severe talent shortages, escalating salaries, and a lagging education system, Indian industry has had to adapt and has built innovative and comprehensive approaches to workforce training and management. The initial focus was on training new recruits and filling entry-level skill gaps. Now, these companies are investing in constantly improving the skills and management abilities of their workers and in providing incentives for them to stay and grow with the company. There is also widespread collaboration between industry players and academic institutions to accelerate the growth of needed talent pools. We identified seven key areas in which Indian companies have developed innovative practices: employee recruitment, new employee training, continuing employee development, managerial training and development, performance management and appraisal, workforce retention, and education upgrades. Though US and European corporations have excelled in many of these functions for decades, the Indians have developed a few innovative practices, including the way these programs are integrated into day-to-day operations and into systems of career advancement and reward; the application of technology to managing and integrating each of these processes; and the executive-level decision making that is performed based on these processes. Just as enterprise resource-planning systems are used to manage manufacturing and distribution operations in leading firms, the Indian systems help oversee the workforce management and development process. Searching Far and Wide for TalentIndia’s top five IT companies alone hired nearly 120,000 new employees in 2007. IBM India and Accenture India hired nearly 14,000 each in the same period. This doesn’t include the rest of India’s sizeable technology industry. Considering that the country now graduates only about 200,000 in engineering, computer science, and information technology and NASSCOM, Indian technology industry trade group estimates that only half of these graduates receive education of sufficient quality to be employable. It is clear that the ostensible shortage of skilled workers is being filled by other sources. The Indian companies we studied have become innovative not only in how they recruit but also in whom they recruit and where they look for talent. Most of them have developed a recruitment philosophy to hire for overall skill and aptitude rather than specialized domain and technical skills. They rely on training and development to bridge skill gaps. Instead of hiring only from top engineering universities, technology companies recruit from second- and third-tier colleges all across the country and also in arts and science schools. Similarly, companies in the banking and hospitality industries hire from call-centers and the information technology sector. Diversity programs are also being implemented, both out of necessity and social purpose. Women and older workers in particular are being targeted by technology companies and call centers, which are also reaching out to rural and disadvantaged communities. New Recruit Boot CampsCompanies in India have no choice but to assume that new recruits will have to be trained practically from scratch. They invest substantial time, money, and effort in the training function. Most large companies have built dedicated learning centers that house various training and development programs. The larger companies employ hundreds of training staff. In the technology sector, new-recruit training programs typically span two to four months. In other industries programs range from two to four weeks. The training curricula are generally highly sophisticated and teach not only the required technical skills but also the basics of topics like industry operations, customer management, communications, and team building. Formal induction training is typically followed by on-the-job training programs in which employees are assigned specific tasks under the supervision of trainers and managers. Investing in Their EmployeesFaced with fierce competition for talent, rising wages, and pressure from a currency gaining significant value, Indian companies have had to invest in making their employees more productive and rapidly moving them up the skill and management ladder. This has the effect of increasing billing rates and productivity of employees, and lessening attrition because of the rapid career advancement that employees can achieve. Employees
are typically required to participate in a wide range of training and
certification programs, some developed in house and some delivered by
external domestic and foreign training vendors. Training programs
include not only technical and domain training but also a wide range of
soft skills and management skills, including training in
six-sigma/quality processes; communication; and cultural, behavioral,
foreign-language, and personal-effectiveness skills. In addition to
online courses, many companies have instituted programs of mentorship
by senior executives; peer learning and knowledge sharing; and
job-rotation programs. Career advancement and salary increases are
usually tied to the completion of such training. Employers have also invested significantly to train and mentor future leaders from within the firm. The average age of first-line managers in the Indian companies we studied is below thirty. Managers are typically grown through fast-track programs that provide management training and mentorship to high-performing employees. Preference is usually given to internal staff to fill a management opening before outside recruitment is considered. Performance-management systems usually play an important role in identifying high performers, creating an inventory of existing skills and strengths, and identifying skill gaps. They are used as a basis for career development through training, on-the-job experience, and coaching and mentoring. All of the Indian companies we studied have implemented sophisticated performance-management and appraisal systems to create greater transparency and fairness in evaluation and rewards. Mechanisms such as 360-degree reviews and balanced-scorecard reviews are widely used. Managers are evaluated on a variety of non-financial measures, including employee satisfaction, attrition rates, and mentoring. Performance management has been fully integrated with training and development at most companies, using periodic reviews to identify training needs, provide feedback and coaching, and facilitate employees’ goal setting and career planning. Feedback sessions typically follow performance evaluations, and goal-setting processes are used widely as opportunities to communicate with employees; assess their interests, needs, and aspirations; plan their careers; and match their skills and aspirations with company and project needs. Most companies have been able to achieve dramatic reductions in employee turnover by carefully analyzing recruitment, performance, and attrition data to identify patterns and predictors of attrition. Along those lines, corporate communications and employee engagement in the company and its programs are always a priority, and company executives are usually measured on their retention rates. All of this has led to constant refinements in all facets of human-resource practices. Furthermore, Indian companies appear to have a high level of interaction with the private colleges and universities that supply them with talent. This involves working with these institutions to develop customized degree programs, train the educators, create new curricula, and negotiate deals to hire graduates in bulk—without job interviews. ConclusionGlobalization poses many new challenges to US competitiveness and the current remedies do not cure the right disease. We are not going to be able to compete with India and China by matching their numbers in engineering graduation or by erecting trade or immigration barriers. Education is amongst the most important investments a nation can make in its future, with math and science as particularly important subjects. But if we focus only on teaching more math and science to children who are presently in grades K–12, we will have lost the global race by the time they graduate from college, 10 to 15 years from now. Moreover, we need to compete on our strengths, which include innovation, entrepreneurship, and the ability to learn and adapt. The Indian experience highlights what can be achieved by investing in upgrading the skills of the workforce. If workforce training can take the output of an education system as weak as India’s and turn its graduates into world-class engineers and scientists, imagine what could be done with a worker base that has received among the best education in the world, as is the case in the United States. US companies have long played the guru, developing and disseminating many widely adopted management and workforce practices. The time has come for the guru to learn from one of its disciples: India. | ||
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| Hi, I had been debating whether to go to National Mall where Obama would take the oath of office - just 30 minutes train ride from where I live. It was a trade-off. If I did not go I would lose the sense of being one with the moment-perhaps - but on the other hand thru tv coverage I would be able to see it in more detail. Perhaps I was right, perhaps I was wrong. I wish I was in StarShip Enterprise of Star Trek - one moment at National Mall - being part of history and the other at my home - looking at details on TV and internet. From my bathtub I watched as as Rick Warren invoked God's blessings. I felt warm as he said the prayer - so familiar - as my school prayer. The bathtub was already quite warm though :-) I had carried the laptop into the bathroom so that I do not miss the Inauguration of Obama (It was already beyond 11:30pm - the latest I start getting ready for work). Meanwhile my Harvard sponsor and friend at Los Angeles called - congratulating me to be in the city at the time when history was being created for America. I called back while Joe Biden held his right hand up to take oath of office as Vice President. While I was buttoning my shirt Barack came forward to take his oath - Yo Yo Ma , Aretha Franklin etc sang and played music and I was worrying that I might miss it (or miss my bus) since I leave at 12:15pm (noon) to catch the bus to work. Lo!! at 12:07pm he raised his right hand too! --in minutes it was all done. Then a short speech - I couldn't hear it completely as I had to rush to work. At 1pm a friend called from India - I had to take his call - a great friend. I imagine he was watching the Inauguration on TV too. Suddenly, it felt I was part of history. I was at a place where history was being created. Always a cynic about history - Indians are always gloating about the glorious past - I look forward to the future. Never seen any oath ceremonies in my life - not even friends' marriage vows stuff. But today it seemed different. A colleague , I found later, had taken leave to go to the Inauguration. Another came wearing a tie which had 43 past president's pics on it - now outdated he said. Barack is the 44th one. I have only seen pictures when Nehru became India's first prime minister, but today in Washington DC Obama looked like Nehru - to an extent. I hope he does not disband the army - as Nehru talked of doing so in the name of world peace. However, the similarity was that Nehru was taking over the charge from a white CEO, Obama was doing the same today. Nehru was more like Bill Clinton though (Monica Lewinsky angle)-allegedly not only taking over the charge from the Lord Mountebatten but also his wife (Lady Edwina Mountebatten). Obama seems much more religious and and less starry eyed about things than Nehru was . A Washington DC Student: Today , I asked a student in the first session if he saw the inauguartion today. He said yes, since morning. Then, I asked if he would like to write about his views on the topic - anything. I suggested - whether he thought Obama's Inauguration was in any way different than previous inaugurations. He is in 11th grade 17 year's old I think --grew in this area - so had seen 4 such inaugurations atleast. Mr Lee agreed - he said it was quite different and proceeded to write his opinion. It took him one hour (in SAT only 25 minutes are allowed). I gave him 4.5 out of 6 - marks cut only for grammar and word usage. I learnt many arguments too - he started from biblical times - how Bible mentioned slavery and onto Romans and what not. Great! Thats realizing the potential. Thats creating interest!! In his diagnostic test (last month) he had scored only 2 out of 6 in the esaay section of SAT. I don't think I was too liberal. He wrote with passion. He started with Barack Obama's Inauguration and weaved all these historical incidents into a magnificent tale. I put a copy of his essay in his office folder. Even the buses (and trains??) were all free today. Temperature was cold 25F/-3C but sunny. Any comments? | ||
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Happy New Year to everyone !! Last night I was at the world famous New Year Eve Ball party - at Times Square New York City!! The crystal ball comes down. Some observations. First, I was planning to mention all the fun and then the trouble. However, I will start with the trouble becos I just read on one huge screen there (jan 1st morning) that "Dow Jones News: North East India separate blasts 5 dead , 50 injured." Now, what impressed with was that even with all the freezing temperature there were thousands crazy enough or brave enough (including me ofcourse) to stand for 12 hours-- yes 12 hours -- not in warm weather -- but in a blizzard. Yes, the moment I reached the Times Square building from the train station it started to snow!! It didn't stop but became worse and then it was all dark at noon time (afternoon!!) and for 3 hours it raged on. At 3pm I decided that I better get into the line or the queue or whatever they do at Times Square (after standing under a ledge for 3 hours to avoid the snow and biting winds). I found that the seats had already been taken. The whole area was barricaded. A policeman told me to get in soon and I clambered over the barricade and still snowing I tried to find a place to relax away from the snow. There was none. All were right under the snow. It was so cold that many had wrapped their shoes (even snow shoes) with plastic bags. I had 3 sweaters and a jacket with me, I bought a woolen scarf there only ( I never expected such cold weather) - I had to throw away my bag (had bought in Vancouver Canada) since the police said they won't allow me in --had lots of plastic bags myself - no gloves though. However, I had not slept the night before (in the bus from DC) and even the previous night was too excited to sleep properly. Soon the snowing stopped otherwise I don't know how we would have survived in slush and mud and snow. No snow remained on ground, no rain -- only biting cold winds. Soon I fell asleep - back to the barriade- even had some vague dream!! Rudely I was awakened by the policeman's voice - he was shifting the barricades back - later he brought it to its original place. The police rules made it extremely hard to survive there. Either you remain in your place the whole 12 hours till midnight (Happy New Year 2009 time!) or if you want to go to bathroom/toilet you cannot come back!! Thankfullly, I did not have a chance to eat much earlier and only had a cup of coffee in the morning while visiting Coney Island beach - the eastern most part of America. In my last visit in June 2007( I had then just seen the name Coney Island in the train and had decided to investigate and was then rewarded with the most hedonistic parade I had ever seen - the Mermaid Parade - who wore only stars - like mermaids. I had even taken a dip then in the Atlantic Ocean). www.coneyisland.com/mermaid.shtml However, at Times Square New Year Eve Ball Party there were no mermaids. All were covered from head to toe and shalls and blankets and even bits of plastic and anything one could find lying on the road - paper, cardboard - to sit. Americans are resourcefull. Ofcourse, there were many Spanish speaking, Chinese/Japanese/Korean etc . Someone from Canada, Australia etc . Later I met a few from India -who are living here. I was still sitting and shivering when it was announced that Lionel Richie is going to sing -- live!!. I like his song "Hello" and All Night Long is also good - which he sang - live -- all free -- as long as you can survive the freeze and enjoy. My God, right now it is 17F but feels like 7F (-20C) and it is quite sunny now. Yesterday when we were sitting it must have been colder ( The National Weather Service said the midnight temperature at Central Park, just blocks from Times Square, was 18 degrees and the 16 mph wind blowing through the urban canyons made the wind chill just 3 degrees. http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/nation/6189994.html ) That means it was 3F at midnight - my coldest so far in the US!! It is nearly -30degree celcius- 30 below freezing point. And the last time I was having more clothes on and was out only for two hours when it was 7F (or -25C) walking thru a blizzard at 1am home from Harvard. Himalayan trips were cold and dangerous but I don't think they were this cold. Well, Lionel sang for 5 minutes then he got cold too! I sat down again and so it went. Later someone came and distributed thick cotton hats - many girls were in fashionable tight fitting thin clothes - they rushed to get hats and all the stuff. Guys were trying to look brave. I didn't give two hoots what others thought -- face wrapped with scarf, two wollen and plastic caps, 2 sweaters etc. shoes were my weakpoint. Some girls next to me had stuffed plastic bags around their ankles to keep out the cold -- later they couldn't take it and left altogether. However, most guys and gals stuck out till the end Some participated in kissing contests later on-screen. To keep warm some were jumping and skipping or just kicking the ground -- it was a test of endurance and persistance. Unlike me , some took risks and went out and somehow squeezed back in. I didn't take that risk - already the police seemed suspicious of this 6 feet tall guy whose face you cannot see , my bag was discarded but others still had their bags. I didn't take the chance and anyway I was able to control my bladder (which as everyone knows becomes worse in cold weather) - no water drink - no bladder problem! Had some dry fruits with me - saved my life! It really looked like Himalayas - the cold weather, the tall buildings looming around - but for the shiny blinking screens and the crowds. Then again I got up after 9 hours were spent at Times Square - Tayolr Smith and her team started singing their famous song " We are family!!" They were hardly wearing anything -- and smiling too! How they can act! It was so cold but then after their song they could go and sit in the warmth and go to the toilet too! We couldn't. Lionel came back sang again. He was dressed like us - black wollen cap, black gloves , black jacket. He looked part of the crowd. I had once purchased a picture biography of a pop singer from Delhi's Chor Bazaar (Thieves' market) -- it was of Lionel - though I had never heard his songs then. TIMES SQUARE -my past links: Similarly, till about 5 years ago I had never heard of Times Square in New York. Then, suddenly, there was a new building near our school -- called Times Square. It was a multiplex. Another multiplex came up much closer to the school - 200 yards away. As I slept in the school - sometimes I would go and watch the 9-12 show. One India movie was called Love at Times Square ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0345594/ relased Feb 2003 - just while I was musing about coming to the US) . The hero and the heroine are supposed to meet at the Times Square New year Eve Ball party. Since then I got into watching it on tv news every year. But you are not supposed to use images from the party for commercial use -as per a notice on the screen last night- how did the Indian movie guys do it.
Later on Jonas Brothers - teen sensations - many of my students are great fans of these guys - came onstage. All free show - as long as you don't die or leave to go to use the toilet. The restroom thing reminds me of the old joke - someone wants to go for number 2. The guy in charge says - either you do number 1 or number 2 -- not both. Similarly here either you be at the party or at the toilet. Just about one hour from midnight 9after 11 hours of standing/sitting) lots of people started poaring in -- I guess related to the police guys looking after us - sharing cameras with some policeman . Policemen had it tough too -- they could not even cover their faces or wear gloves etc. I liked their dogs in the train stations later. All purebred German Shepherds/Alsations whose tails hang straight down. We got to see Anderson cooper of CNN too for five minutes, he left to run his own show AC 360 about hard times and the economy. Thats what drew me to this party. How does America celebrate even in its hard times. Thats resilience for you. Thats how America overcame Great Depression when investment bankers were committing suicides by jumping from the top of these skyscrapers. ---------------------- I think every country needs to have people full of resilience - people with guts and enthusiasm. Sep 11, 2001 must have been tough for New York City but after going through this New Year Eve Ball Party at Times Square - I feel if they can survive this party then they must have overcome the pain of 9-11 long ago. ---------------------- Info gathering and research - proactiveness: Similarly, after reading the news about NE India bombings - I feel we should not lament but be proactive. Agitations and new new goups do not spring from thin air -- there must be forces, organizations - maybe even seemingly respectbale ones - who are instigating them and also supplying them with weapons etc. That needs investigation and research. This was another thing I was wondering while at Times Square - how all the western TV shows shown in India seem modern, dreamlike - but here they reflect the reality - there is a new show "Homeland Security" showing how active people are here. But they are supported by professors and researchers who find out loopholes in the society which can damage the social fabric of the society. I wonder how many professors in NE India are busy with such research about Bodos, Khasis, Mijos, etc etc and even low-caste Hindus.
---------- coming back : Bill and Hillary Clinton just arrived in time to set the ball in motion one minute before midnight. The ball is a marvel to see with naked eyes. Our TV technology seems imperfect -- doesn't show even 10% of the magic the crystal ball's kaleidoscopic, ever-changing colors. Happy New Year 2009 - once again.
Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] | ||
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| Hi, Some may be interested to learn about the guy who made this documentary - videos of why he made over a 2 year period in India, US China. http://www.youtube.com/user/2MillionMinutes BIO (He has daughters in middle school in the US - getting straight As - meaning getting above 93% in all their subjects - no they don't have any final exams in middle or elementary school in the US -- only in high school they have final exams at the end of each quarter/semester). http://robertacompton.com/biography.html Bob Compton is a Harvard MBA after BA from some college - and has done well for himself in business - worked as computer engineer himself (after BA? - was that an engineering degree?) Maybe not - but shows that he can adapt himself to the situation at hand - and thats what he wants America to do. Rise to the "Third World Challenge" http://www.2mminutes.com/ --------------------------------------------- Threat perception? -------------------------- 10 yearolds in the US read about 10 threats to the US/challenges for OBAMA (I think in TIME magazine edition for kids TIME for Kids) -- one of them is the threat of India and China - other threats are terrorism etc. What threat from India - they can take away your jobs. I think that is too much education for 10 yearolds. It is good to create a situation of crisis to energize the troops to action but fearmongering (like in 1983/84 Sputnik report on education - A Nation at Risk -- after Soviet Union launched Sputnik space craft) Is India causing a similar risk? Will that lead to arms race -- or just jobs race. It reminds me of the tensions within various regions of India -- esp for railway central/federal govt jobs -- each state's (some) residents want that noone from any other state be allowed to participate in the recruitment process -- leading to fights in Maharasthra and also nearer home. Some people see it as an opportunity to create fear and exploit the situation to suit their ends. ---------------------------- US kids bright? ---------------------- In that light the documentary -- which does not purport to be based on rigorous research but claims to be an authority on Indian/US education (we all do - to an extent , though). It is an effort by a concerned parent who perhaps did not pay enough attention to other kids who graduated from a US school and went to MIT or Harvard or UPenn or Carnegie Mellon etc or to some magnet school-- if he had studied them - he would have found that there are three tracks for US kids. ------------------ Indians ahead? ----------------- 1. Regular 2. Honors 3. GT (Gifted and Talented) --this is some good govt run schools. Maybe it is not so in the private schools his kids go to. In 8th grade/class some kids study pre-alegbra incl signed numbers, percents etc(regular track ) Honors track study (algebra 1), GT track study geometry. Maybe his own kids are at the lower track (though getting above 93% in that track) - so look bad when compared with Indian curriculum. In India all have to study the same stuff -- passing percent in India is 33% --and in the US it is 66%. grading system is quite different - which is better ? thats another issue. -------------------------------------- School comparisons: ------------------------------ If he had really wanted to compare US and Indian students -- he should have come to me -- I would have introduced him to some students of http://www.tjhsst.edu/ . They don't goof off -- none of the 1600 students in the school - the top ranked school in the US. To create sensation - it is easy to compare apples with oranges -- take some top students in India and China and compare them with some "average" students in the US from some elite boarding school students from Groton or hilps Academy Andover etc who are not focused on science/math. Groton students should be compared to India's elite DOON School school or Mayo College kids - who believe in overall development -- and they are considered the top Indian schools - by Indians!! --------------------- 3 years US chemistry better than 5 years Indian chemistry? ---------------------------- In India as I read somewhere and have experienced personally - like most Indian students - that there is lot of repetition of what you study. I studied algebra from 6th to 12 grade -- 6 years -- in the US the students study only 2-3 years algebra. But nearly 30% of Indian curriculum is repeated in the next grade. Some repetition is good - like geometry rules are easy to forget (by US students too). But overall US students can study AP chemistry (college level) [in their 3rd or 4th year of chemistry-incl middel school science] much more advanced than what Indian students study in 6 years chemistry (grades 6-12). Same for other subjects. I think I gave more detail here about curriculum comparison than Mr Compton did in his entire 2 million minutes documentary. ---------------- Compton's school and college experience : ---------------------- He attended a rare private college (and school) based on Christian values . It starts from kindergarten and goes on to undergrad college - he studied till he completed college -- thats my guess. http://www.prin.edu/ It doesn't seem like a top magnet school focused on science math. I gather his kids go to a similar school. hmmmm -------------------------- Has anyone seen the documentary? -- I saw the youtube clips on Mr Compton's page. It was screened at Harvard Grad School of Edu - and my professor later asked for my comments. I had just seen a few clips. Any comments? Umesh | ||
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Hi,
I was thinking of what to highlight - the jail time experience in the US - of one of my current roommate - the other is a IT whiz -ex Microsoft (in Seattle) amd IBM and BITS Pilani grad.
This guy grew up in Washington, his mom is also on welfare (govt paid money) - he gets disability benefits (some mental snags it seems). Sometimes he is very talktative - and yesterday while I was gunning for electromagentism and Kepler's laws and some calculus on the side (with some Sherlock Holmes thrown in) he ventured in and out of my room - his closet is in my room. It was my day off.
He is generally to be found at home and I am generally out - yesterday was cold and I was down with cold and sore throat. He is out of job atleast since June 2008 - he was just kicked out when I was about to start renting here.
It seems ever since I have ventured over the seven seas I am in touch with crime (just before I was about to leave for Harvard - in June-Aug 2004 - my Nepali cousin was poisoned on train enroute to Nepal and died in my hometown - despite my 12 hour a day care for 45 days (and other cousins at other times). The cultprit is doing life in prison. I left on Sep 4, 2004. In Nov 2005 I was robbed at gunpoint in DC - with 3 guys carrying two guns/pistols on Thanksgiving eve - my first snow in DC. Now I found I have a roommate who was in jail/prison for 5 months - did two "beds."
Last night he told me - his father went in 1 and a half montsh back - for his tenth "bed" - for violating parole - busy chasing women - he says. So some interesting facts from him. I told he that with his free time he could write a book - he can hardly read though he is 27 years old with a 8 month old daughter (and her mom).
The food is good is the jail (which is only a transit facility) -prison is the main long term thing. They even have totally underground prisons - so the inmates see no daylight atall!!
But the three meals you get are just about equal to one meal - so less - and doesn't matter you are fat or thin - everyone gets the same amount. You get turkey on Thanksgiving and menu changes daily. Worst part is that dinner is at 5:30 pm and breakfast is 12 hours away - at 5:30 am. You go to sleep at 10pm still hungry.
You don't wanna be there !! He told me. Being in a DC prison is worse than being in some otther region - becos Washington DC has only federal prisons. You can be shipped anywhere in the US - Texas or California or Alaska. Cali is the worst he says - too much gang stuff (he went in for lifting a beer crate from a 7-11) and bloodshed. He complimented me that though he has never seen any Indian in a prison I was likely to survive the dog-eat-dog life there. But its no place for anyone - you don't wanna be there. (Ofcourse noone wants to go there - unless it is the spoilt brats like Britney Spears or Paris Hilton etc).
Life has been tough with him - I mean staying with him - music at odd hours - crowding in the kitchen when I am cooking my weekly beans and rice. He generally eats good slices of chicken and fish (on govt welfare money) until he runs out of it - and takes some helpings from us other two roommates. Has a fetish for warmth - even in the summer wants heater - I have to keep my window open (now in the US I find 80F/30C too warm - earlier it felt chilly). Shouting matches have finally stopped - my other roommate is as patient with him as a cow - unflappable. I got to sleep early on Saturdays.
After the shouting matches he invaribly would mention some vague idle threat about shootings and violence. Have heard that before a lot - but never from a jailbird. After I beat him twice at chess-very quickly - he has cooled down. In his mellowed mood he shared some of his personal stuff - besides his life in jail. In his 27 years he has scored with nearly 90 women - only 15 of them were Hindi cinema types - only kissing etc. But he does not cheat - his child's mother is the only woman in his life. He considers that he has PhD in how to hookup with women. Unfortunately (as I have seen with atleast one of my highschool -mates) , this PhD doesn't get you jobs or respect (except perhaps in stag parties). And no , he cannot write his book. He cannot write - he forgot. Period.
He says he used to be great at physics and math, but he forgot!
Any comments?
Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 | ||
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| Hi, On the issue of minority bashing - whether religious, racial or linguistic or any other (sexual orientation, political ideology, economic class, caste etc etc) --I feel the phrase "minority" is misleading. The phrase should be underdog -- like they have in the US movies. Supporting the underdog. Thats what liberals, leftists etc should be doing -- not just bandying phrases like minority support. To illustrate let me narrate a story. There was a guy who believed that the minority in his country of origin and also of his stay were just , peace-loving, thinking of the good of others etc. However, they were not the underdogs. He was. Though he was racial majority, religious majority and economic majority (from among the poor/middle). So he started a movement against that minority group - non-violent. A movement which captured world attention ( I think most can now realize who I am talking about). He started the movement far from his birthplace - in another continent - his efforts did not bear much fruit there (the minority continued to dominate for another hundred years- till 1990). However, thousands of miles away in his native land where he and his commuity were overwhelmingly in the majority in all respects except political and economic power - people began to appreciate his work . He started a movement - Request For Truth . The ruling elite - the minority which was considered so benevolent , merciful and helpful was being denounced by him and was asked by him to leave the land where they had lived for 200 years- where their children had been born and the old and brave soldiers had been buried. The world praised this minority basher -- why -- because that minority was not the underdog -- they were the world's greatest empire -despite being racial, religious and cultural minority. The man was Mahatma Gandhi - the minority were the white British - first in South Africa and then in India he spoke against them. The question is : Is the minority in question the underdog? If Yes - then wholeheartedly one must support that minority - within reasonable limits. If not, then one must support the majority underdog - like Mahatma Gandhi did. It may be interesting to note that in most US and UK and other western school textbooks it is taught that the minority was overall beneficial to India. If that minority had not ruled India - then India would still be in the dark ages. Is that the truth - or does that need another Satyagraha (Request for Truth - Mahatma Gandhi style). Umesh PS: some might like this http://www.binayaksen.net/ A Bengali who is in Indian prison for supporting the rights of the majority and fighting against the ruling minority in Chhatisgarh. More than 20 Nobel Laureates signed petitions in favor of his release. He was fighting for (non-violently I am told) the cultural, social and economic rights of the majority-underdog-tribals. So support the underdog -- whether majority or minority | ||
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My article in : http://www.posoowa.org/2008/09/30/will-%c2%a0outsourcing-harm-india-and-also-the-usa/
In the current US presidential debates, one of the agenda items is to stop outsourcing and how outsourcing is harming the US workers. I wonder if any of us have some answers. Of course, much has been written about how it would help the global corporations and also make the US competitive while helping developing countries’ workers earn a decent salary (though about one-tenth [or maybe more] of the corresponding US worker.) A US teacher gets about $20,000-$30,000 annual starting pay (even in the remotest regions- actually Alaska teachers get paid a much higher rate) , while Parijat Academy and many other educational organizations in India cannot afford to pay more than $500 (Five Hundred only) or Rs 24,000 per year to their teachers. I recently got a proposal approved for a salary of Rs.24,000 ($500) per year (Rs 2,000 per month) for Parijat Academy teachers- the senior ones – from Asha for Education, Washington DC chapter. The salary structure was normal. It would cost $5,000 per year to educate 400 school children for free in tribal Assam – 30 miles from state capital Guwahati. In the US it costs at least $5,000 per year to educate ONE child.
OUTSCOURCING BAD FOR INDIAN POOR? My new roommate , a graduate of BITS Pilani (a veteran of IBM and Microsoft in the US) , stressed that not only the US but even India is losing due to outsourcing. He argued that the poor are feeling left out and taking up arms against the new rich. Now taking up the case about the outsourcing’s effect in India teachers – for one thing – as Asha for Education’s project coordinator for Washington DC – I have witnessed that a large number of IT and other highly skilled professionals in India and the US etc., have great interest in promoting education among the underprivileged in India.
This is in contrast to those who never had an opportunity to experience the benefit of education in economic development (as in the US ) and are content with status quo in rural areas in India (and even in government schools in city-based/urban India ). When for thousands of years India did not change much for the worse in spite of the landed aristocracy in rural India, one should not expect any worse even if education level and education system remained the same – one village teacher teaching 250 kids (it is still a reality in many projects we support with Asha for Education as we were discussing in the last meeting).
Being part of a global economy has widened the horizons of the techies involved with outsourcing etc., – thus they are more concerned with the education system or lack thereof. It can be argued (by likes of Nobel Laureate Amartya Sen) that better education will lead to economic and social betterment/freedom of the poor. Any comments?
Umesh Sharma | ||
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| Hi, My younger brother called me at 7:30 pm , while I was eating cream-cheese and bagel near the Washington Monument after a 2 mile walk - my bicycle got punctured while I was sleeping near the (no-so peaceful - roar of boats and planes) Potomac River. Now a father, he was giving me advice and asking me questions :-) Strange, shouldn't it be the other way round? However, advice from any source is useful as long as it is relevant. My brother's advice was about long term plans. Why not make more money - so that back home everyone can feel proud. It is true that a teacher of Jaipur School makes more money (in Delhi ) than I do in much more costly USA. Even Jaipur School is planning to hire a star teacher at a salary more that I get. That teacher 's pay would be more than the recently revised (upwards) Indian Army Chief's pay (ofcourse not the perks). Thats a physics teacher's pay at school level . Right now I get more money than Indian Army Chief gets :-) But thats beside the point. As I was telling a Jaipur School student (now in the USA) aim high and work towards it. I gave the example of MIT/Harvard students (atleast most of them) who have a different world view - they have different targets, levels of satisfaction. A BMW and a house facing the river may not be enough for them (maybe it would). Or maybe they realize that this is not the pinnacle of success. I narrated to him my experience when I read the new book by Peale (the famous author of Power of Positive Thinking) . I bought it on the platform of New Delhi Railway station while waiting for the train to Allahabad where I had to take the GRE exam (in my endevor to get to Harvard - though I applied to Columbia, Stanford and Berkeley too) . One thing which struck me in the book ( I think it was http://www.amazon.com/Six-Attitudes-Winners-Pocket-Guides/dp/0842359060 ) that the poeple who consistently kept succeeding were the ones who always maintained that the best is yet to come. They maintained that if you think you have "arrived" thats when you start going downhill. Its true that the young man (alum of Jaipur School) was perhaps the highest paid Jaipur School alum - ever - at age 20 (he got his first paycheck recently) but short term can remain short term. Thats what I told him on Friday. Two days later my younger brother gave me the same advice. Let knowledge come in from all sources. May wisdom develop anyhow (by God's grace). Besides willing spirit flesh should be strong - to take action. Any comments? Umesh Sharma PS: As I read in a Business World article someyears back " Success is a journey, not a destination" and " Quality is a moving target" | ||
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| Hi, At the cost of sounding rustic and out of times with the jetsetting age I must admit I am pleased as punch after driving car for the first time. As they say how you do it is atleast as important as what you do. So its significance has attracted some interest among who have known me for some time. So I thought maybe some on AssamNet will find some comic relief in this narrative. Glocal= Global+Local NOTE: Those just interested in quick read of the trip - scroll down to the dotted line --- and read from "The Route" onwards) The Man-1/Trainer: My ex-roommate , an ABCD - America Brought-Up Confident Desi - has more car driving and lobe trotting experience than anyone else I know. In the brief period he became my roommate (for the 2nd time in 3 years) since Dec 2007 , he has travelled to Swtizerland, Canada, Amsterdam, Mexico, and again and again to Canada and ofcourse across the USA - all by plane - he worked for United Airlines till they laid him off (and asked him to resign so that he cannot apply there again). Since then he has lived at Niagara Falls (10 minutes drive from there) for 3 weeks with 4 Indian girl students - went each moon-lit night to see the falls with some roommate. Then he felt cold (it is too close to Canada) and decided to drive all the way down 2,000 miles to meet his old friends and ex-roommates in tropical Miami (close to Cuba and Mexico broder). He didn't even stop on the way - to meet his parents and us friends . Finally, he is back 4 days back to DC - for good ----perhaps. His last educational degree is from Fairfax High School, Virginia . I stay 500 yards from there. The Man2/student Thats me. I have never driven a car. Never sat in the driver's seat and drove even 2 yards. I have plenty of experience of driving motorbikes/bicycles/scooters on a variety of fast roads/lumpy highways/crowded city roads/off-roads/across streams etc. Driven and chased huge trucks. Even scratched myself all over -even eyebrow to ankles( in 2003) -while taking a tumble while thinking of something else except driving. Once drove over a piglet - it just squeeled and ran off (my father once told me that he say a huge 8 wheeler truck run over a grown pig - and the same thing happened - the pig squealed and ran-off) and once scruffed up a street dog (Ambika Shukla would be upset-oh oh) who was trying of chase me and bark me of the road (it was an accident that he came to close. Once I scratched my spanking new Machismo Enfield bike ($1500 then, now $5,000 in the US export model http://www.royalenfield.com/app/IN/Products/Machismo.asp ) to save a calf which scampered across the at top speed thru the road divider's bushes. The longest I have driven is for 22 hours straight -6am to 3am in hot June month 1999 (temp 105-114F or 42-45C). We had slept for 2 hours under a bush by the national highway-partly in shade. Later raced with truck trains to get ahead despite their blinding top headlights-driving in both lanes - those coming our way and that going the other way - as is the Indian practice . Recently I have learned of two American Indian families which lost their lives trying to drive on their own on Indian highways (perhaps like the good ole days the then young man raced around on Indian roads) Last year I got a driver learner permit here in Virginia after taking the computer test on traffic rules. I wasn't carrying it when I drove yesterday on US highways, my friend said that police have records on computer laptops in their police cars - you just tell them your name and they would look it up. The Machine 1/The Matador - Bull Fighter: That was the only 4 wheeler I had driven till 47 hours back. The 21 seater school van was a Rs 1lakh ($2500) brand new1988 model (it still runs). It has a desiel (I cannot get the spelling) Mercedes engine - licensed to Bajaj Tempo India. I have driven it about 10 hours total (between year 2000-2002)- without any sort of license ofcourse - I have only got only one dirving license so far - for driving a geared two wheeler . Car owning is for upper middle class in India (in the US ofcourse an average American family has 2 cars - now moving towards 3.) Our family had none - for regular travel in city areas scooters are so convenient and mobikes much faster. TATA's Nano etc may change that soon! with the $2500 car (Rupees 1 lakh). The only time I drove it outside the naighborhood was while going with my father, it fully loaded with Valmiki (sweeper community) leaders, to a an all night devotional gathering 100 miles (150kms) at the marble mining town of Makrana. The vehicle broke at midnight and we were rescued by burly truck driver who called in the local village mechanic. We did make it to the devotional and on the morning I drove for about 50 miles (on two lane rural connecting roads and 4 lane Delhi-Mumbai national highway no1 -at max 30mph (45kph) http://www.flickr.com/photos/pritheworld/1215167603/ Makrana Marble statues of Jain faith The Machine 2/The Toyota Car: This is my ex-roommate's new $900 sedan two-door car (1993 model)-grew old in Florida. He sold his $8,000 car 3 weeks back to get back to college to enroll and get his degree finally. After a $400 repair the vehicle he was able to drive it 1,200 miles (1,800 kms) just 4 days back -from Miami to Washington DC. There was a puncture and oil top-up. Thankfully I never had a puncture on my highway trips (mobikes do not have stepnies/extra wheels and a front tire puncture could be fatal!! at 60mph(90kph)). Since it cost only $1300 (incl repairs) and was still fit as a fiddle (never mind the torn seats). Its heater worked but not the AC. Its stick shift gears were just like the matador's. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ The Route: We went from Fairfax Virginia (20 miles from White House) to Elizabeth City , North Carolina state 270 miles (450kms) away-were back within 24 hours. We spent about 5 hours - morning to 12:30 noon at Virginia Beach. Since I had just left workplace and was in coat and tie and the graphing calculator and leather shoes - I bought a Wranler jeans at Walmart - actually only after buying it I was sold on the idea of a wild ride. I had rejected the idea of going East (Atlantic City, New Jersey state), West (Charleston, West Virginia state), North (New York City) and decided to head South - where I had never been before. I bought a swimming trunks pair at the beach. Ofcourse, in Vancouver's Wreck Beach clothing was optional ( I stayed at the adjacent www.ubc.ca campus for entire Sep 2006). The semicircle ocean view reminded me of teh Dwarka beach where I learned a few tips from Italian marathon swimmers (10 miles ocean swimming) . From Dwarka's lonely, lovely beaches you could see almost 3/4 of the circular horizon as Arabian Sea. Driving 18 miles thru the Atlantic ocean: http://www.virginiabeach.com/attractions/2008/03/10/the-chesapeake-bay-bridge-tunnel/ Though I even drove 4 miles in tunnels to reach Virginia Beach city I dared not drive the 18 miles bridge tunnel combo which took us 18 miles into the ocean with Atlantic Ocean on both sides. Wonderful, worth the $17 we paid in toll tax. The Swim: http://www.vbfun.com/visitors/default.asp I tried to understand wave motion from physics and about buoyancy (I taught AP Physics today - regular mechanics) and was successful in bobbing up and down with the waves instead of crashing into them - after 2 hours of practice. Swam a bit but not the 200 yards each way I did at Vancouver Canada's Wreck beach. As a child I remember my father quoting my grandfather that since I had a whirl in my hair - I had danger from water. Good I grew up in a desert but never to take chances I made use of the school swimming pool to learn swimming after 10th grade - nearly made it to the school team - they were district champions - one of the few schools to have swimming pools. We had an American priest Fr Hagee , as a Swim Team coach - hardly came for us beginner though. My father knew swimming from childhood at India's elite army school (all free education www.rimc.org ) . An LA school friend and my Harvard sponsor has decided to train for triathlon which starts with .9 miles (1.2 kms) of swimming in the open ocean, then 20 miles of cycling and 10kms of running. Ocean Swimming is risky as a New York Times Artcile said recently when a first timer couldn't swim any longer and drowned - it is not a swimming pool where you can hed for the side bar (as the Italian marathon swimmers had told me in Dwarka, India's Western most extremity -as per a govt plaque there). After Moby Dick and Jaws movie I used to be afraid of sharks and whales - but gettin g tired beats it all. Italians said that it is all about breathing skills (when to breathe in and when to spit out the water - if u need to) and to swim slowly , not to get tired. I tried a little bit of that for 3 hours at Virginia beach. My friend sat/slept on the boardwalk bench watching couples play volleyball in the sand. Like a cowboy he hates walking and like a cat he hates water - drinks only bottled water. He had not slept properly for 2 days. Before that he had slept for 20 minutes in the car (at 5am) along the Dismal Swamp NC ( http://www.fws.gov/northeast/greatdismalswamp/ ) highway where signs warned driver to avoid Black Bears. Deadly looking place - quite dismal. He again slept for 1 hour near the place (yes, we went back to North Carolina in the afternoon - he had lost something personal there -figuratively) in hot afternoon under the sun in a gas (petrol) station. I got no sleep so I did not drive on the way back. MY FIRST CAR DRIVE - EVER I was surprised when JT ( my friend's initials) encouraged me to drive - while we were at a Rest Area along InterState I-95. He found a way around my problem - that even though I was not carrying my learner's permit I could still drive and the police would not catch me - they could look up my name on their car computers. However, I was not very sure if it had not expired - I recall it was till the end of my visa period (ending Oct1st, 2008). I drove at 40 mph initially and within 30 minutes was driving at 70mph just once - about 110kph - my fastest ever) More or less I drove between 50-60 mph all the way to North Carolina state. Since it was night time - traffic wasn;t a problem.. I learned this concept of looking at blind spots and how the Indian practice of suddenly changing lanes or turning the corner may attract the cops - who would assume that I was drunk !!! and would make me walk steadily, count to ten etc etc. I drove thru a 4 miles long tunnel under the bay/ocean also!! Speed has never been my problem - mostly bumper to bumper traffic (or dogs, pigs, cows etc on the road) - so I didn't drive during daytime at all. Itis a bad habit (potentially fatal one) when you are driving and totally sleepy ( surviving on caffiene espresso coffee shots) and looking up You Tube for songs on your cellphone/blackberry style AT&T phone - and cursing that Verizon was perhaps better -when the song stops midway - no internet connection. I was busy fighting sleep to make sure JT didn't veer off the road - God is Great!! We made it home. Umesh Sharma PS: HIGH SPEEDS LACKING? My high school friends in India were aghast when they asked if I drove at 300kph (200mph) on the highway (at 2am here it was Sunday afternoon there) and I told them it was a mere 110kph (70mph - the legal speed limit was only 65mph).. With super charged imported cars now Indian car owners hog the highways at speeds above 200kph (130mph) I am told. I have seen people go well above 100 mph (150kph) myself on India roads - but then u see atleast one fatal accident when you travel 200 miles - I saw none on my first car drive of 500 miles. - I mean first time I drove a car. Washington D.C. 1-202-215-4328 [Cell] Ed.M. - International Education Policy Harvard Graduate School of Education, Harvard University, Class of 2005 | ||
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| Hi, When we are talking about various kinds of teachers and tutors - Obama and ndira Gandhi etc here is my info . I teach/tutor the followng subjects: Teach/tutor grades 1-12 students, following Advanced Placement [AP] college course:Calculus, Chemistry,Statistics; some parts of the following courses: Physics, Psychology, World History, following regular/honors level: some biology, environment science; ALL middle school and elementary school courses; SAT: Reading, Writing, Math I also taught Financial Accounting to a college student sometime back. That covers almost everything - and as my roommate (now staying one block from Times Square , NYC, for $260 per night -what I used to pay month when I joined him at our apartment) last month --- "You are like an elementary school teacher - at high school level - teaching all the subjects." He taught Java language to college students (incl a current colleague of mine) at www.gmu.edu. My RoomMate and Neighboring students: A great juggler himself - he completed his MS Computer Engg with A grades, while he worked full time (on H1B work visa which he acquired AFTER he landed in the USA as a student. He had worked with Infosys for 2 years before that.Many students in his classes passed with Cs despite studying only-full time. He hardly slept, juggling with 50-60 hours work week. .In a enviornment with such 500 students , I got motivated too and studied all night sometimes - to fill gaps in my knowledge - anyway all night you could hear Indian languages (many which I do/did not know) outside or students roaming in the corridors (including girls with laptops in stairs and on the corridor floors) Needless, that time was a great learning experience - not only about US education but also about India-students from various metros including a girl who graduated from Assam Engineering College and worked with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) India's bigest IT services company.. Now with 90% of school course done, focusing on legal and financing issues - visa due for renewal after 2 years, maybe buy a house (seeing that some house prices have become one-fourth of previous levels) -rent just a wee bit less than monthly payment-initial funding thanks to friends-maybe later price rise will ay off my $35,000 student loan - all info from friends... Umesh Sharma Washington D.C. | ||
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| This is a conversation between Mary Todd Lincoln (16th US President
Abraham Lincoln’s wife) and Chase (who became US Treasury Secretary
under Lincoln). The shocking aspect is how women slaves were treated -
even those who looked white but had only 98% white blood - I mean were
one-sixty fourth Black (African American). That person with 98% White
ancestry would look totally White. So imagine a situation of a white
slave been sold at auction (page 95, Lincoln by Gore Vidal, 1984, 14th
reprint,1990): “Chase was serene. ‘The Cabinet is as one behind the President, in every way.’ What, he wondered, would the votes be tonight? ‘I was involved in the so-called Fairbank Scandal, which nearly started a civil war in Lexington. That was close to twenty years ago.’ Mary was suddenly alert. ‘Calvin Fairbank, sir? The minister?’ ‘That’s right. A group of us in Ohio would raise money so that we could buy slaves and then free them. Mr Fairbank was a sort of agent of ours.’ ‘Eliza!’ Mary exclaimed. ’I was there that day, at the slave auction, in the courthouse square.’ ‘I am told that no one who was there has ever forgotten what happened .’ ‘So you, sir, were behind Mr Fairbank?’ ‘I was indeed. When I heard of Eliza’s case, I gave him the money to buy her.†‘I never knew that, sir.’ For the first time, Mary looked at Chase with something close to admiration. The girl Eliza had belonged to a well-to-do family; she had been gently treated and well educated. When the family died out, she was put up for sale by their distant heirs. Ordinarily, this would have been a familiar if depressing story, but the case of Eliza was much discussed in the press because she was a lovely white girl of eighteen who happened to be one sixty-fourth Negro. At the auction, the Reverend Fairbank had bid against a Frenchman from New Orleans who, it was rumored , kept a brothel. The courthouse square was crowded. People had come from miles around. Abolitionists had threatened violence. With some horror Mary watched the bidding. . She herself was only a few years older than the girl who stood, shuddering, on the block, the tall auctioneer beside her. When the Frenchman’s bid began to flag---the price had gone to a thousand dollars ---the auctioneer had shouted,’ Come on, you mean hearted gentlemen! Look what I have got!’ With that he pulled down the girl’s blouse. Mary could still remember the horrified gasp from the crowd. Many ladies hurried away. Yet when a black woman was stripped , no one had ever noticed. The bidding resumed; then flagged again. This time the auctioneer pulled up the girl’s skirts to show her naked thighs. There were now shouts of anger from a part of the crowd; and raucous shouts and whistles from the other. Finally, the girl was sold to the Reverend Fairbank for one thousand four hundred eighty-five dollars---Mary could still hear the auctioneer’s voice intone, ‘Fourteen eighty-five, going, going, gone! And sold damned cheap.’ When Fairbank came to take the weeping girl down from the block , a loud voice shouted, ‘ What’re you gonna do with her now?’ ‘I’, going to set her free!’ shouted Fairbank. There was almost, as Chase had noted, a civil war right then and there in Lexington’s courthouse square.†(end page 96, Lincoln by Gore Vidal, 1984, 14th reprint,1990) Not much different than the treatment of Dalit brides not so long ago by village landlords in UP and Bihar - north India - I would say this (slavery in Lincoln's time) was much worse. Any comments? Umesh Sharma | ||
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| http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_minute_education_1835.html Source: http://www.mssu.edu/projectsouthasia/history/primarydocs/education/Macaulay001.htm it seems that in a bid to promote English as the medium of instruction Macauley went a bit too far and was often quoted as such. However, it seems that he was trying to create a modern education system as we see it in NCERT curriculum in India now - with no Ayurveda ( but modern Darwinian biology) , no Vedas but modern history and social science etc etc. I think we are the better for it. However, it still rankles why we have to teach histiry from the Victors point of view. . I just read in a USA Kaplan book of SAT World HIstory that Moses led the Jews out of Egypt in what is called as the "Exodus" - despite the mythical incident of his ripping aprt the sea of create the path for the people to go through. Histriography seems to fail here. Aryans are shown as bloodthirsty invaders who believed in their racial superiority and enslaved and subjugated the dark skinned Harrapan (Indus Valley civilization inhabitants in 1900 BC) to form the caste system. On the face of it it does seem gruesome how come so many people agreed to be untouchables and outcastes - even after 4,000 years - they must be under great pressure - fear of death perhaps. On the other hand it is fantastic that the Aryan Invasion theory was created even before the discovery of the Indus Valley Civilization (Harappa and MohenjoDaro) in 1930s. The truth may be somewhere in between. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rosetta_Stone Perhaps some day a Rosetta Stone would be discovered (like the one in 1700s by a French soldier in Egypt which had same message in Greek, Heiroglyphics and another local language, which led to the interpretation of ancient Egyptian language) for Indus Valley civilization - so that history may be re-written :-) any comments? Umesh Historiographyhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MosesKnown extra-Biblical references to Moses date from many centuries after his supposed lifetime, and contain significant departures from the Biblical account. In addition to the Judeo-Roman or Judeo-Hellenic historians Artapanus, Eupolemus, Josephus, and Philo, a few gentile historians including Polyhistor, Manetho, Apion, Chaeremon of Alexandria, Tacitus and Porphyry make reference to him. The extent to which any of these accounts rely on earlier sources is unknown. Moses also appears in other religious texts such as the Midrash, Mishnah and Qur'an No other surviving written records from Egypt, Assyria, etc., indisputably referring to the stories of the Bible or its main characters before ca. 850s BC have been found,[69][70] and there is no known physical evidence (such as pottery shards or stone tablets) to corroborate Moses' existence.[71][72] However, destruction of unfavorable records by unsympathetic Pharaohs, and even mass obliteration of cartouches from monuments, is known to have occurred at several epochs in Ancient Egyptian history.[73] | ||
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| Hi, I met two of my students from Jaipur School here in Washington DC this Saturday evening, and thanks to my roommate Parag, we also saw White House, Capitol building , Washington Monument, Lincoln Memorial etc etc -after a dinner at our place -- food courtesy our other roommate, who had celebrated at our place, his graduation from www.gmu.edu MS in Software Engg the night before. Parag also gave them guidance about jobs and dos and don'ts. (see pics http://www.flickr.com/photos/jaipurschool/sets/72157605172811671/ ) Suprisingly, Jaipur School's founder director also called in from India, when we were in the car opposite the White House so the alums were able to talk to him and also to the Nigeria born Vice Principal. All were equally surprised. I had talked to the founder director ( a week previously) after a gap of nearly two years ( he happens to be my father). On the way home I learned how they have planned their career and how advanced their info is -- even about MBA programs at Stanford (where some of their seniors are studying and where Reliance group offers upto 50 fully paid schols Dhiru Bhai Ambani schols), etc. Their program is also unique - so much so that I though - earlier- that it was a fly-by-night operation. They spend 2 years in India completing 3 years' coursework in 2 and then flying to the US for one more academic year and then one year on CPT - on-the-job training and then a 4 year US BBA degree -- all costing less than 10,000 US dollars (Rs 400,000) . http://www.aitgurgaon.org/Admissions/BussAdmin.html They got schol for high GPA as well - both in India and here in the US. Ofcourse, my MBA degree from Hindu Institute of Management (HIM) , Sonipat (taught by Delhi Univ professors including a permanent faculty who was Stanford Business School degree holder) cost me only Rs25,000 or $750 only for the two year full time program. My bachelors Economics degree (1994) from the prestigious Delhi Univ cost me only Rs 2500 for tuition ($60) for the three years. However, they told me that at Stanford anyone who is admitted and has a family income of less than $24,000 per year would get free entry - fully paid. Harvard, Wharton etc provide financial support (student loans etc) even for international students - mostly requiring no credit check or security/collateral. Its is not so in other departments at these univs , though. That may be a new thing, since a HIM junior of mine who had got admission to Harvard MBA program did not join becos of the huge financial outlay he could not afford. Now on his HIM, Sonipat MBA degree he is a senior director in a top investment bank in the US - I don;t know how he came here. He funded his brother's education at Wharton MBA program (graduating in 2008) after his MS in electronics engg from Carnegie Mellon. The two alums (also twins) had lots of trouble in getting the visa but were able to come up with logical answers. One of them had also launched a website which had earned thousands of US dollars while in India - that helped convince the Visa Officer (VO) who right during the interview looked up the website - and checked out the owner's name!! That made the VO a fan too. They showed a large check from Google to prove the income. The other one had already secured the visa otherwise it might have been difficult for that sibling. I was surprised to meet their Sikh classmate/housemate whose family is in Iran and he speaks and writes 4 languages - Farsi, Punjabi , Hindi and English. He had trouble getting visa despite his Indian passport due to his Iran birth. He went to India for college. His family had gone to Iran in the in 1970s. He told me there are about 150 Sikh families in Iran. Many of their seniors have secured high paying jobs in DC area hence they are here too. As per reports the number of IITians seeking careers abroad has dropped drastically . It seems now you need perseverance and creativity well beyond the realms of traditional academia . Its a globalizing world!! Any comments? Umesh | ||
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| Hi, These days I have an added role. For many high school students studying for their AP (college level) World History exams I am explaining but eras which I feel I am uniquely suited for. Most US history books do try to present a holistic picture of various religions and how they originated and how they impacted the society over time. Recently I helped outline 3 major religions till 600 AD/CE- Roman civilization and Christianity, Hinduism in India, Confucianism in China. Here my intense efforts to learn more about Middle Eastern faiths in 2005/2006 paid off - from museum visits, thru TV shows, and reading the Bible. Further, following the course of the California book controversy on teaching of Hinduism, Islam, Jewish faith etc in 2006 I got a sense of the problem areas. Thus, when it came to explaining about Hindu faith - I avoided going into Aryan migration controversy (the school books didn't go into it either) but agreed that Aryans came from Central Asia and their religious practices mingled with those of the inhabitants of the Indus Valley civilization (of which little is known since only in 1930s excavations found Indus valley civilization's existence in current Pakistan). It seemed logical to show the connection between Hindusim, Buddhism , Sikhism and Jainism (I always highlight Jainism's peace message of non-violence which influenced Gandhi's struggle for India's independence - which is another topic I teach). Ofcourse, I also teach math/calculus, AP chemistry, Physics etc etc. In Fairfax, one of the richest and the most diverse communities in the US students are quite aware of Sikhs and Buddhists but as the books say Hindus do not believe in any one thing - which is certainly true. I try to draw connections between ALL Indian faiths - like ALL Indian faiths believe in reincarnation, Karma - which that guy was born in a rich family or what might happen to Stalin after he massacred millions - as per ALL Indian faiths -atleast Hindu, Buddhist, Sikhs -I am not sure about Jains. I also highlight that Hindus have separate beliefs just like scientists have separate theories - all trying to find more about the truth. And that Buddhists, Sikhs are more easily recognizable since they follow one founder of their faiths ---- still containing the basic elements of Hindu faith - minus its bad elements esp the caste system. Some students are given handouts that Caste is Varna - based on color : White - Brahmin, Brown - Kshatriya, Red - Vaishya, Black - Shudra . I keep quiet about the other meaning of Varna which means classification - like Varna Maala - Varna = Letters of alphabet, Maala = Garland. I do highlight how caste still plays a dominant role in rural areas and is reponsible for segregation. Low caste members cannot enter houses of upper caste members.. In cities and even in the US Hindus still put out advertisements in major newpapers -easily accessed over the internet - seeking brides/grooms of the same caste -- (just scroll down to the Classified section http://www.expressindia.com/ ). Things are changing - I give example of my roommate marrying a girl from another caste from another region - but things are tough. I do not mention his collegemate had to elope with his Rajput/Kshatriya girlfriend in the US since her orthodox parents did not like inter-caste marriage. I do not talk about caste-based job quotas or reservations for the oppressed castes (Delits -as per the teachers) in India since affirmative action is a controversial issue in the USA. I do seem to know a lot more about Israel and the Middle East - surprisingly my stay with the Iranian and Amreican couple (the American wife is a Harvard classmate of mine) in Canada from Bahai faith helped me a lot there where I met Israel born and bred guys (now my Facebook friend). The Art of War is a favorite book of mine ever since I read about Sun Tzu in a Harvard Business Review Artcile in AmericanCenter library in New Delhi. Ying and Yang is the logo of Jaipur School. Any comments? Umesh | ||
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Elite Korean Schools, Forging Ivy League Skillshttp://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/27/world/asia/27seoul.html SEOUL, South Korea — It is 10:30 p.m. and students at the elite Daewon prep school here are cramming in a study hall that ends a 15-hour school day. A window is propped open so the evening chill can keep them awake. One teenager studies standing upright at his desk to keep from dozing. Kim Hyun-kyung, who has accumulated nearly perfect scores on her SATs, is multitasking to prepare for physics, chemistry and history exams. “I can’t let myself waste even a second,” said Ms. Kim, who dreams of attending Harvard, Yale or another brand-name American college. And she has a good shot. This spring, as in previous years, all but a few of the 133 graduates from Daewon Foreign Language High School who applied to selective American universities won admission. It is a success rate that American parents may well envy, especially now, as many students are swallowing rejection from favorite universities at the close of an insanely selective college application season. “Going to U.S. universities has become like a huge fad in Korean society, and the Ivy League names — Harvard, Yale, Princeton — have really struck a nerve,” said Victoria Kim, who attended Daewon and graduated from Harvard last June. Daewon has one major Korean rival, the Minjok Leadership Academy, three hours’ drive east of Seoul, which also has a spectacular record of admission to Ivy League colleges. How do they do it? Their formula is relatively simple. They take South Korea’s top-scoring middle school students, put those who aspire to an American university in English-language classes, taught by Korean and highly paid American and other foreign teachers, emphasize composition and other skills crucial to success on the SATs and college admissions essays, and — especially this — urge them on to unceasing study. Both schools seem to be rethinking their grueling regimen, at least a bit. Minjok, a boarding school, has turned off dormitory surveillance cameras previously used to ensure that students did not doze in late-night study sessions. Daewon is ending its school day earlier for freshmen. Its founder, Lee Won-hee, worried in an interview that while Daewon was turning out high-scoring students, it might be falling short in educating them as responsible citizens. “American schools may do a better job at that,” Dr. Lee said. Still, the schools are highly rigorous. Both supplement South Korea’s required, lecture-based national curriculum with Western-style discussion classes. Their academic year is more than a month longer than at American high schools. Daewon, which costs about $5,000 per year to attend, requires two foreign languages besides English. Minjok, where tuition, board and other expenses top $15,000, offers Advanced Placement courses and research projects. And, oh yes. Both schools suppress teenage romance as a waste of time. “What are you doing holding hands?” a Daewon administrator scolded an adolescent couple recently, according to his aides. “You should be studying!” Students do not seem to complain. Park Yeshong, one of Kim Hyun-kyung’s classmates, said attractions tended to fade during hundreds of hours of close-quarters study. “We know each other too well to fall in love,” she said. Many American educators would kill to have such disciplined pupils. Both schools reserve admission for highly motivated students; the application process resembles that at many American colleges, where students are judged on their grade-point averages, as well as their performance on special tests and in interviews. “Even my worst students are great,” said Joseph Foster, a Williams College graduate who teaches writing at Daewon. “They’re professionals; if I teach them, they’ll learn it. I get e-mails at 2 a.m. I’ll respond and go to bed. When I get up, I’ll find a follow-up question mailed at 5 a.m.” South Korea is not the only country sending more students to the United States, but it seems to be a special case. Some 103,000 Korean students study at American schools of all levels, more than from any other country, according to American government statistics. In higher education, only India and China, with populations more than 20 times that of South Korea’s, send more students. “Preparing to get to the best American universities has become something of a national obsession in Korea,” said Alexander Vershbow, the American ambassador to South Korea. Korean applications to Harvard alone have tripled, to 213 this spring, up from 66 in 2003, said William R. Fitzsimmons, Harvard’s dean of admissions. Harvard has 37 Korean undergraduates, more than from any foreign country except Canada and Britain. Harvard, Yale and Princeton have a total of 103 Korean undergraduates; 34 graduated from Daewon or Minjok. Skip to next paragraph
Seokyong Lee for The New York Times
Students at the Minjok school do participate in some physical activities, but they rarely take a break from their studies. More Photos > MultimediaThis year, Daewon and Minjok graduates are heading to universities like Stanford, Chicago, Duke and seven of the eight Ivy League universities — but not to Harvard. Instead, Harvard accepted four Korean students from three other prep schools. “That was certainly not any statement” about the Daewon and Minjok schools, Mr. Fitzsimmons said. “We’re alert to getting kids from schools where we haven’t had them before, but we’d never reject an applicant simply because he or she came from a school with a history of sending students to Harvard.” South Korea’s academic year starts in March, so the 2008 class of Daewon’s Global Leadership Program, which prepares students for study at foreign universities, graduated in February. One graduate was Kim Soo-yeon, 19, who was accepted by Princeton this month. Daewon parents tend to be wealthy doctors, lawyers or university professors. Ms. Kim’s father is a top official in the Korean Olympic Committee. Ms. Kim developed fierce study habits early, watching her mother scold her older sister for receiving any score less than 100 on tests. Even a 98 or a 99 brought a tongue-lashing. “Most Korean mothers want their children to get 100 on all the tests in all the subjects,” Ms. Kim’s mother said. Ms. Kim’s highest aspiration was to attend a top Korean university, until she read a book by a Korean student at Harvard about American universities. Immediately she put up a sign in her bedroom: “I’m going to an Ivy League!” Even while at Daewon, Ms. Kim, like thousands of Korean students, took weekend classes in English, physics and other subjects at private academies, raising her SAT scores by hundreds of points. “I just love to do well on the tests,” she said. As bright as she is, she was just one great student among many, said Eric Cho, Daewon’s college counselor. Sitting at his computer terminal at the school, perched on a craggy eastern hilltop overlooking the Seoul skyline, Mr. Cho scrolled through the class of 2008’s academic records. Their average combined SAT score was 2203 out of 2400. By comparison, the average combined score at Phillips Exeter, the New Hampshire boarding school, is 2085. Sixty-seven Daewon graduates had perfect 800 math scores. Kim Hyun-kyung, 17, scored perfect 800s on the SAT verbal and math tests, and 790 in writing. She is scheduled to take nine Advanced Placement tests next month, in calculus, physics, chemistry, European history and five other subjects. One challenge: she has taken none of these courses. Instead, she is teaching herself in between classes at Daewon, buying and devouring textbooks. So she is busy. She rises at 6 a.m. and heads for her school bus at 6:50. Arriving at Daewon, she grabs a broom to help classmates clean her classroom. Between 8 and noon, she hears Korean instructors teach supply and demand in economics, Korean soils in geography and classical poets in Korean literature. At lunch she joins other raucous students, all, like her, wearing blue blazers, in a chow line serving beans and rice, fried dumpling and pickled turnip, which she eats with girlfriends. Boys, who sit elsewhere, wolf their food and race to a dirt lot for a 10-minute pickup soccer game before afternoon classes. Kim Hyun-kyung joins other girls at a hallway sink to brush her teeth before reporting to French literature, French culture and English grammar classes, taught by Korean instructors. At 3:20, her English language classes begin. This day, they include English literature, taught by Mani Tadayon, a polyglot graduate of the University of California at Berkeley who was born in Iran, and government and politics, taught by Hugh Quigley, a former Wall Street lawyer. Evening study hall begins at 7:45. She piles up textbooks on an adjoining desk, where they glare at her like a to-do list. Classmates sling backpacks over seats, prop a window open and start cramming. Three hours later, the floor is littered with empty juice cartons and water bottles. One girl has nodded out, head on desk. At 10:50 a tone sounds, and Ms. Kim heads for a bus that will wend its way through Seoul’s towering high-rise canyons to her home, south of the Han River. “I feel proud that I’ve endured another day,” she said. The schedule at the Minjok academy, on a rural campus of tile-roofed buildings in forested hills, appears even more daunting. Students rise at 6 for martial arts, and thereafter, wearing full-sleeved, gray-and-black robes, plunge into a day of relentless study that ends just before midnight, when they may sleep. But most keep cramming until 2 a.m., when dorm lights are switched off, said Gang Min-ho, a senior. Even then some students turn on lanterns and keep going, Mr. Gang said. “Basically we lead very tired lives,” he said. Students sometimes report for classes so exhausted that Alexander Ganse, a German who teaches European history, said he asked, “Did you go to bed at all last night?” “But we’re not only nerds!” interrupted Choi Jung-yun, who grew up in San Diego. Minjok students play sports, take part in many clubs and even have a rock band, she said. Ambassador Vershbow, who plays the drums, confirmed that with photographs that showed him jamming with Minjok’s rockers during a visit to the school last year. There are other hints of slackening. A banner once hung on a Minjok building. “This school is a paradise for those who want to study and a hell for those who do not,” it read. But it was taken down after faculty members deemed it too harsh, said Son Eun-ju, director of counseling. | ||
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A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma Assam School�s succession worries [This case is based on my experience at the private K-12school in India where I worked for five years. I was also one of the earliest students of the school. Names and dates have been changed to protect identities] On Sunday, 21st June 2003, a closed door meeting of Assam School�s Managing Committee was in progress, when aging Commander Surinder Singh the founder director of the school, disclosed his worries for the school�s future. He quoted Mr. Ram Chander, a local community leader and a parent of an alum of the school, � when Commander Singh is no more, ghosts will be crying out in the school.� He then elaborated on his worst fears. Namely, the launching for more and more private high schools in the neighborhood was making it more and more difficult for the existence of Assam School. Not only were most of the new schools backed by people with much more money and socio-political connections but were staffed with high quality teachers and had physical facilities which were increasingly seen by the public as better than Assam School�s. Moreover, the Assam School students� academic edge over students from neighboring schools had narrowed in the past 5 years , in the compulsory, state wide exit exams in grade 10 and 12. Assam School�s students� performance had always been head and shoulders above its neighboring schools. Parents had started questioning the much higher tuition at Assam School, when the students� performance and the school�s facilities were being increasingly seen as no better than its neighbors. Some parents threatened to take their children away from Assam School, if the quality of school facilities did not become better than the other schools� or if the school again raised the tuition, as was its annual practice. The members of the committee were silent. None could think of a plan smart enough to cover all problems. Some were silently watching, since they believed that the fears were over blown. None had the expertise or the confidence of Commander Singh. On the other hand, Commander Singh considered none of the members of the school team worthy to be his successor, who could meet the challenges head on and succeed. The meeting ended without any conclusion, but Commander Singh�s worries remained unabated. He felt that somehow, he was not able to develop a sense of ownership of the school among its teachers. The good ones left for brighter prospects and he had been waiting a long time for the right person to come along to whom he could hand over the baton. What should he do? Historical background In 1975 Commander Surinder Singh took premature retirement from the Indian army to start a private school in Assam city. He felt that the real cause of militant struggle against the government (in the region of India where he was serving then) was lack of development. He felt that quality education was the first step towards development. Vision: Commander Singh wanted to establish a chain of English medium, co-educational, private schools, which would the best in the city, if not in the country or the world. A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma The schooling market in Assam in 1975 In 1975, Assam city already had many old and well established, nationally reputed, private schools, run by the erstwhile Maharaja of Assam (King) and Catholic church amongst others. However, they were all in the heart of the town, whereas Commander Singh wanted to start a school in the outskirts of the city, in Goalpara county, where he had his own bungalow. In Ambabari and in its neighboring areas there were no good quality schools, neither in terms of teaching nor in terms of schools� physical facilities. Government run schools in Assam were mostly of poorer quality than private ones and none existed in this locality. Thus, all schools in Goalpara area were private schools, charging low tuition, paying low salary and being housed in rented residential bungalows. Most parents in the area had settled there recently, since it was a newly developing residential area and had largely middle income backgrounds. The fathers of the kids typically worked in lower or middle management level government jobs or ran their own trade or manufacturing unit in the neighboring Ahom Industrial area. The mothers of the students were typically high school educated housewives. Most of the parents wanted their children to have a sound English medium schooling, which most of the parents themselves had not received. A vast military cantonment was adjacent to the Goalpara locality and a large number of defense personnel lived with their families in Goalpara also. Commander Singh�s house in Goalpara had been allotted by the army as well, while he had been in its service. A vast, 1000 acre, open space existed on the other side of Goalpara, which used to be an army shooting-practice range, but was ear marked for developing residential areas in the coming future. [Note: For details of professional development programs, curricular rules and school accreditition rules please see Appendix 1] The school�s initial years - 1975 to 1980 Despite a tight financial situation, he started a K-5 private, co-educational school in 1975, in his own single storey house in Gopalpara. He named it �Assam School.� His two children were the first to be enrolled there. The vacant 1000 square yard residential plot behind his house served as the school�s playground. He created a non profit society for running the school, as required by law, with mainly his parents and close relatives on the board. But only he was the sole authority in all school matters. For a start, he put in a lot of hard work to learn the game. Initially, he went to some existing, reputed elementary and pre schools in the main city, to observe their teaching techniques. Further, he made continuous efforts for improvements in his own instructional style by analyzing it during and after school, constantly trying to improve his daily lesson plans and class room practice. His constant efforts paid off as A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma did his remarkable skills in ensuring a constant supply of qualified and skilled teachers, also fluent in English. Most of the teachers in all schools in Assam were women and Goalpara area in particular, did not have well educated women folk. In Assam School the teachers were mainly army officers� wives whose husbands were posted in the military area adjacent to his county. Generally �army wives� as they were called were much better qualified and much more fluent in English than the local ones. They were glad to work in a fellow army officer�s school � rather than in other schools, all else being the same. The constant efforts for improvement paid off. The first year (1975) began the strength of 30 students, with mainly his neighbors children whom he had convinced to try him out. By the beginning of the second year the school strength had increased to about 100 students. In later years, he rented two other houses in the area to accommodate the increasing number of students. Slowly the strength picked up and reached 450 by 1980 and it stabilized then onwards . Moreover, he kept adding a grade every year till he reached grade 12 . The school had in the meanwhile received affiliation with the state board of education and the grade 12 students were permitted to take the mandatory annual exit exams conducted by the state. The school�s strategy for quality image The good command of English and the sophistication and etiquette of the staff as well as strict monitoring of the teaching proved to be the highlights of the school. Teachers who performed badly were fired quickly and most of the times the Commander Surinder Singh was himself teaching or overseeing or training other teachers. The students� performance was constantly monitored and modifications in the teaching plan were made to accommodate any shortfalls. Since the school got only those students who could not get admission to more reputed ones, its strategy was to focus on high level of achievement for all enrolled students. This helped attract more students from other schools who were facing academic problems there. Commander Singh�s mantra , for monitoring teachers� effectiveness, which developed over time, was �90% of the students in the class should get 90% marks� in the routine class tests. The tests were conducted by department heads. The school paid emphasis on sports as well, with a football coach and a gymnastics teacher. Both were rarities in the conservative and traditional middle class neighborhood. Commander Singh�s military background seemed to support sports activities in the school. Most sports coaches were themselves retirees from the army. The annual sports day was thus a star attraction till late 1980s, which was usually held at the large stadium in the neighboring military cantonment. Later other programs such as the annual science A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma exhibition, the annual cultural festival and weekly extra-curricular competitions were started to develop student�s skills. The culture of instructional improvement Comm. Singh learnt his instructional techniques through self improvement and even after 30 years of experience in running the school he still strove to improve them. His emphasis was on making the perfect lesson plan daily, based on the assessment of the students� performance in the previous day�s class-work and by trying to improve instructional techniques through reflection of one�s own work and through feedback from fellow teachers and departmental supervisors. He organized regular workshops and intermittent staff meetings to discuss some new instructional techniques. Generally, he was the only one who did the talking. The older staff was considered competent, but somehow never engaged in discussions for instructional improvements. Perhaps, Commander Singh�s habit of singling out staff members to point out the shortcomings of their instructional styles, during such staff meetings � put off many teachers. Nonetheless, through constant critical thinking and �brain storming� with his close associates, he did evolve and implement certain innovative practices, such as developing weekly student assessment report cards and making them known to parents, energizing the Parent Teacher Association to find out loopholes or shortcomings in the school�s functioning, starting an annual science exhibition for grades 1 -12 and activity based teaching. Such innovations were copied by the rival schools located nearby, generally within the same academic year, when the students and parents were appreciative of such techniques and the local news-media gave positive coverage to them. Thus to be ahead of the competition the school needed to constantly improve its quality. So Commander Singh believed. The problem was that only Commander Singh seemed to have the �fire in the belly� to take the initiative in constantly developing innovative, effective and efficient instructional practices. He worried about the school�s reputation for constant quality improvement, once he retired from active service to the school. What should he do? The school�s Midlife crisis 1988-89 Financial worries The tuition fee was initially kept low , to keep it competitive with other schools in the neighborhood, thus, the salaries of the teachers were also low, though still higher than the ones in the schools around. Low quality of teachers became a roadblock for developing a school of the highest quality �as Comm. Singh had envisioned. A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma However, by 1982, the school�s day to day functioning had been stabilized and he needed to spend less time in supervising or administration, since a talented principal had been appointed for the purpose � an �army wife.� He thought of a way out to improve the school�s finances and started a junk trading business, with technical trade advice from a grateful father of one of the students. He used his inherited money for the same and within a few years was successfully juggling the two occupations. He ploughed back his business earnings into paying higher salaries to the teachers. New Threats �rival schools But it all changed in 1988 when two big private schools opened up in the locality. One was a branch of another famous name in the city and another by a rich foundation. Both could pay much more salary than Assam School and run at a loss even � by price cutting �charging lower tuition fees than Assam School to lure away the students. Moreover, both rival schools had independent school building of their own. Assam School�s current accommodation was a major drawback. The school�s three rented residential houses, which served as school buildings, were spread across the locality and some of the teachers had to walk from one house to the other house during the lunch break to take classes. This was ungainly in everyone�s eyes. Thus the schools were a major threat to Assam School�s existence. But there was hope, since a government new residential area had been recently announced, adjacent to this one, with lots of large plots earmarked for schools. But despite Commander Surinder�s assurances that steps were being taken to get a school plot allotted - the parents� were dissatisfied . Consequently,the school strength dropped from 450 students at the end of the academic year on 15th of May, 1989 to a mere 340 students at the beginning of the next academic year on the 1st of July, 1989. The new campus and financial difficulties - 1990 -1998 With political support from some school parents, Commander Singh managed to secure a large two acre plot of school land in 1990, in the newly developing Gogoi Nagar residential county. It was just two miles from the current location of the school. He sold his family jewels and invested his entire savings and inheritance in purchasing the plot. He had already shut down his junkyard business to focus on schooling alone. In July1991, the first batch of students at the new plot, were housed in make-shift huts. Nonetheless, the school strength increased over the years to touch 575 students in 1994 and stabilized. Financial hiccups and parental protests Feeling that the school parents could be expected to pay much more for the increase in school size and playground, he raised the tuition by 25% in the beginning of the 1992-93 academic year and by 50% in A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma mid-session of the following year (93-94). He used these extra resources to meet the cost of a regular standard size school building and for hiring better teachers. Nonetheless, many of the school parents did not appreciate the increased fee hikes. They constituted a parents� committee which met the school authorities and objected to such tuition fee hikes and warned of legal action if such hikes were repeated in future. In June 1996 the school took a large bank loan for construction of the main building, but during the year, the cost of the project overshot the budget and the school was forced to raise the tuition fee again - at the start of the new academic session in July 1997. The school parents� committee went to the court and got a stay on the fee increase, which was later withdrawn, since as per law, private schools were allowed to charge as they deemed fit. Thus began a tussle over financial matters between the school authorities and a large number of the school parents. The parents felt that the school had high quality teaching and extra-curricular activities but was charging way too much. They vowed to keep their children in the same school but at least cost. New threats 1999 - 2003 In late 1990s, four large, renowned , financially sound, private high schools from the main city opened branches in the area. The area was still sparsely populated and could not provide sufficient number of students to all the schools. Now, the school parents of Assam School, thus had viable alternatives. Moreover, the tuition fee in all these new schools was less than two-thirds of Assam School�s tuition. Their school facilities were comparable to Assam School�s - if not better. Only Assam School�s academic excellence kept majority of its current students loyal to it. Nonetheless, , new students shifting to this new residential area preferred to go to the newer schools. Over the years, due to an inevitable annual attrition �due to grade repetition, parent�s transfers etc � the school�s student body had started decreasing and was at 475 students at the start of 2002 academic year. The School�s succession dilemma -2003 The school�s founder director was getting old but hadn�t found the right person who could not only succeed him in running the current school but who could also fulfill his grand vision of running a national chain of top quality schools in India and abroad. His children sought other career avenues, yet private (non profit) schools were still considered by the general public as akin to the family based traditional business in India. However, he had to find someone outside his family to run the school after him. Currently the school had a Principal, who was reasonably competent in teaching Math up to grade 12 and in handling school�s administrative affairs, but lacked command of English, which was a pre requisite in this English medium school. Moreover, she lacked knowledge of science and humanities. There was a Vice Principal as well, who was competent in English , humanities as well as general school administration up to A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma grade 8 level but lacked skills in science and math subjects and in management of grades 9 to 12. The two were content in the cocoon of their subject and functional areas and did not have the holisitic vision of the entire gamut of school courses and school activities. Moreover, there was a constant battle of egos between the Principal and the Vice Principal for the ultimate control of the school that it seemed unlikely, that in the absence of the founder director, they would be able to manage this one school well enough -let alone, their starting and managing a chain of top quality schools. Community support The school�s governing body now comprised of a much more diverse body of people � rather than just the members of the immediate family of the director. But they were mostly dormant members, mostly chosen for their loyalty to the director, rather than for their active involvement in the school affairs. Moreover, in the socio-religious community to the director belonged, there was very low level of trust concerning ownership and finances of charitable institutions and there was a lack of a social system of running of charity institutions. Thus, it was very difficult to convert the school from its present system of founder-run school into one run by a charitable and active governing body made of community members. Lack of good teachers The school found it difficult to hire talented staff members who were in for a long haul - primarily for two reasons. Firstly, there was low level prestige of the teaching profession in India so intelligent and qualified people avoided this profession and aimed for more prestigious jobs. Thus, they used school teaching as a temporary job before a landing final permanent one in some other field. Secondly, Assam School still had a long way to go before prospective teachers considered it a stable, growing institution, with financially strong backing. Thus, good teachers continuously left to join more prestigious and prosperous ones even if they drew the same salary there. For instance, Mrs Rekha Bora, who left in June 2003, to join Gauhati Public School (GPS) said that she left because GPS had many branches and later she could even hope to take up a position of a Principal or Vice Principal there, (in India, there was no separate certification for Principals). Whereas, in Assam School these slots were already filled for long term and Assam School was nowhere near starting another branch thus such vacancies were not likely to arise here in JS anytime soon. Thus over the years the school had lost a large number of talented teachers, a large number of whom were trained in their teaching skills by this school itself. Thus, most of the long term teachers who have been with the school for a long time are the ones who couldn�t get jobs in better places. Thus, only low quality teaching staff remains with the school long time. How can the school director expect to fulfill his vision of a national chain of top quality schools when only low quality staff seem to stay onboard? How can he ensure not only continued existence of this school but strong growth in the long run? A326 Final Project � Case Study By Umesh Sharma Appendix 1 Professional development programs Unlike USA there were no professional development programs available, other than those as regular degree courses in colleges of education. Curricular rules: All schools had to follow the state board�s mandated subject content standards for each subject, but were free to choose their own books from private or government publishers. Accreditation: All schools had to take accreditation from the state board after satisfying their requirements. It was mandatory. All students had to appear for the grade 10 and grade 12 level state exit exams. Appendix 2 Bios of Assam School�s senior staff members Commander Surinder Singh Commander Singh was a 35 year old father of two who desided to start Assam School in his own house. Though he did not have a college degree, he had had a sound education at various military academies . He had joined the Indian Military Academy meant for training army officers right after graduating from the elite military high school � National Indian Military College. Both are one of their kind in India. Ms Shikha Taneja She was a masters degree holder in Math and had a bachelors degree in education. She had been with the school for the past 15 years. She had been an average student during her own school days. Assam School had been her first and final employer. Ms Heena Sukhani She was a masters degree holder in English and a bachelors degree in education. She had won a national scholarship during her school and college days. She had been working with Assam School for the past 10 years. Before that she worked with an elementary school for 2 years. Mr Rajesh Tripathi He has joined the school only two years back, but he had been running a private coaching school for high school science students himself, which was very successful. His staff continued to run it. He had a master�s degree in science and math and a graduate degree in business management. He was an active debater in English and Hindi during his college days and was the student union president as well. | ||
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I read it when I was just done studiesand used to roam around Harvard and MIT campuses and nearby Boston area in shorts and brightly colored T shirts - getting odd attention. Then I read this while inside a Harvard Library on New York Times in June 2005. It made a lot of sense. There is indeed great difference between Indian and American lifestyles.Be careful in your appearance!! Don't send wrong signals. Umesh Gay or Straight? Hard to Tell | ||
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