Dumbness of the nth degree

This was an incident that happened In the NUS (National University of Singapore), where a few of my batch-mates have gone on an exchange programme for one semester.

One of our students there had a doubt in one of the courses and had e-mailed his professor regarding his doubt. Since there was no response, he sent the same message after a couple of days. Yet, there was no response. Pained, he sends the same mail for the third time. And now the professor replies,

"I didn't get your first two mails".

ROFL literally!!!

Is Ambiguity nice?

I have gone through quite a few blogs and one thing I notice amongst many of them is that people love to post ideas in an ambiguous and an unclear manner. There have been many occasions when I have totally been unable to comprehend what the post is about and what the person is intending to tell. Is ambiguity so beautiful? Does ambiguity imply maturity and being highly intellectual? Does simplicity mean childishness?

Personally, I feel any idea which you like to convey should be conveyed in a manner such that even a child should be able to understand. This means that you convey your idea in a coherent and in the simplest possible way. Isn't a simple post nice to read and understand?

Dumb IIT Profs

This happened when I was in my second semester. In a quiz, there were some true or false type questions. A student answers one question wrong and when the answer scripts were returned, he realised he had made a trivial mistake and had written false in stead of true (or maybe the other way round). He then goes to the prof and tells, "Ma'm, I was thinking of writing true but by mistake wrote false". The prof asks him not to repeat the mistake and gives him marks. One thing which still amazes me is how the student knew that the prof was dumb enough to give marks for this.

This incident is still more funny. In Quiz II of EM Fields course, there was a question like this.
A fill up the blank question:

_________ velocity is __________ than the speed of light in the medium.

This has two possible answers, either group and lesser or phase and greater.
One student writes phase and lesser and manages to get half the marks. :)

If you are doing any course under Prof. Sarathi in IIT, you need not try to find a place where you could get leaked out papers. Why? Because the prof himself leaks the paper. He discusses most of the questions in the question paper the day before the exam. Mind you, it is not revision. He will clearly discuss only those problems which would come in the exam and whatever he tells is important will surely come in the exam.

A funnier thing about this fellow is that he doesn't know how to allot marks to questions. This was a question he asked in one of our quizzes.

List 10 components of a sub-station. Write their symbols and their uses.

How many marks do you think he allotted for this question? only 2. God only knows how much he would award if i wrote only 8 components.

Never "Try" to be humble

A post after a long time here. Nevertheless, I have been wanting to write about this for a long time.

What is humility? As per the dictionary, humility is a state of being modest where one does not feel that he is better than or worse than the others. But, according to me, humility is a quality got only when the ego or the feeling of "I" is totally reduced. He doesn't feel anything when he is being praised or is being criticised. Both appear similar to him and he is able to accept them with ease.

Many of us consider being humble as a virtue. Hence, we behave in a manner such that others think that we are humble. I think most of us have experienced this "trying to be humble" kind of behaviour amongst our friends. In fact, most of us also belong to this category. Suppose you 'truly' appreciate or praise your friend for something he has achieved, on most occasions, he immediately will reject the praise and say he does not deserve it or will say he hasn't really achieved anything and there is nothing in it to be lauded. Now, do you think he really is telling the truth? Surely not. He knows that he has achieved something good and wants every one to appreciate him, a sure sign of ego. But once some one appreciates, he 'tries' to be humble and hence, he rejects the praise externally but internally, he is very happy about the fact that some one has praised him. Now, one can obviously tell that there is a mismatch between the internal feeling and external behaviour. By 'trying' to be humble, he actually loses one another noble quality called as truthfulness where there is total match between between the internal feeling and the external behaviour. Moreover, we try to be humble also because we want others to tell that we are humble in spite of our achievements or positions. The ego gets a great satisfaction of being called as humble.

Thus, by 'trying' to be humble, our ego is boosted, thus taking us further and further away from true humility and also takes as away from truthfulness by creating a false identity for ourselves. I feel it is better to accept that I am arrogant or egoistic than 'trying' to be humble because here at least the truth is present and the very fact that we are true to ourselves can help us lose our ego and become truly humble. At least to me, this is a great lesson learnt but have found it very difficult to implement. I have been living like this for years now and suddenly realise it is very detrimental. Surely, I need a dramatic change in this regard.

New blog

Amazed by my own capacity to create kaDis (PJs), I have created a new blog exclusively for kaDis. Here is the link to the new blog. Please check it out. I have started creating kaDis in Kannada, Sanskrit and English too. So, non-Tamilians too can enjoy some of my kaDis.

Have a nice time reading my other blog too.

KaDis

Inspired by one professor in our institute whom we call as Mama, and who is known for his "KaDis" (PJs), i have started creating my own KaDis. Here are the ones i created over the last couple of weeks. Meanwhile, I thank my friends here who have helped me create these kaDis.(Note: Most of these KaDis are based on Tamil. I will try my hand at English and Kannada later but for the present it is mainly Tamil although the first two can be understood by others too)

1) Which is the vegetable which can produce music?

Ans: Drumstick

2) Which are animals which are unpleasant to hear?

Ans: Dogs because they are "Naays" (Noise)

3) Why do cows always have mouth ulcers?

Ans: Because they have "PuNNaakku" (for food)

4) There is no necessity for any one to wear a tie in this world. Why?

Ans: Because "ChaTTai"laye "Tai" (Tie) irukkaradunaala tie pOTTuKKavENDiyadillai.

5) If you sweat in your foot, then it will be silver in colour. Why?

Ans: Sweat is nothing but a kind of juice (Rasam). So sweat from your foot (Paadam) is Paadarasam (mercury) which is silver in colour.

6) Ideally vehicles in this world should not have any shape or size. Why?

Ans: Vehicles are "VanDi"(1-d). Hence, no shape or size, but only length.

7) If there are fights in the world, then the world will become dark (not metaphorically but literally i.e. there won't be light anywhere). why?

Ans: Fights are "SaNDais"(Sun dies). If sun dies there won't be any light anywhere.

8) Two friends meet in a restaurant after a long time. Just before parting, the first one asks the other "Do you know my address?". The second one in stead of answering him just looks at his face and examines it keenly. Why?

Ans: Because he wanted to know his "Muga vari" (Line in his face)

9) Which is the vegetable which asks you "when did you get hurt?"?

Ans: "Vengaayam" (When Kaayam?)

10) Which is the vegetable which is never stationary?

Ans: Cabbage - It is "KOs" (Goes). so never is stationary.

(Ennadaa naraiya kaDi vegetable mElaiye kekkaren paakkareLaa, aamam eppOdum saappaaTTa patthidaan thinking)

11) If you use a handkerchief, it means your hand is short. Why?

Ans: Because handkerchief is "KaikuTTai"

12) Every one in this world suffers with a headache. Why?

Ans: Because every one has only one head - Head "Ek"

13) A man with a small ear enjoys rolling on the ground. Why?

Ans: Rolling means "Kutti KarNam" and KarNam in Sanskrit means Ear. kuttikarNam= small ear.

14) Yet again a vegetable kaDi. All vegetables in this world should have been black. Why?

Ans: Because they are "Kari" kaays.

15)A musical PJ. If a person sings the swaras of a Dhaivata Varjya Raga (A ragam which does not have Dha in it), it means he is thirsty. How?

Ans: When he sings the swaras of such a raga, he will sing "Pani Pani". Hence, he is thirsty.

16)A person is travelling in a ship for months. He is so seasick that he desperately wants to see the shore. Since he didn't know when they would reach the shore, he calls out to one attendant in the ship and asks him something to which the attendant immediately goes in and brings him a bowl of sugar. What did he ask?

Ans: He asks "Sir, karai" (Sarkarai) eppo varum?

17)Actually south India should have been in the north. Why?

Ans: YEnnaa south Indiala daan vaDai kaDaikkum. adunaala idu "vaDa" naaDu.

18)Which is the city where you will get red ghee?

Ans: Chennai (Chen nei - red ghee)

19) Once, I was walking on the road and I found a man cutting a tree. It was a horribly hot afternoon and this man was sweating like a pig. I went to him and asked him one question to which he got really wild and slapped me. What did I ask him?

Ans: Nee veTTi daane!

Presently, this is my state. I am totally veTTi writing such kaDis. And surely will continue to be veTTi.

To be continued......

Love content

Two good thoughts I got recently I would like to share here. One is "Do not love people for their good qualities but in spite of their negative ones" and an extension to it is "The more the negative qualities you find in a person, the more you should love him". As i reflected upon these, I got a vague understanding as to why and how one must try to follow this.

According to my understanding, love is the greatest postive force in this world. Every one in this world undoubtedly seeks love and wants to be loved because every one is able to understand love as a soothing force. Hence, in many places we come across sayings like "God is Love" and "Love is God", etc. Although love is something which is undefinable by words, crudely I would define it as the absence of all negative qualities like prejudices, hatred, jealousies, greed, suspicions, desires, and many more. Also, the "love content" (the amount of love) in one can be measured in terms of the amount of positive qualities one has in oneself. (Although love is not measurable, I am trying hereby to make it a measurable quantity so that it becomes easier for our understanding) The greater the positive qualities one possesses, the greater the love he has in himself.

As a human being, every one has positive and negative qualities. There is no person in this world who is totally negative. It is only the percentage of positive and negative qualities that varies between people. Since every one has some amount of positive qualities in oneself, he is still lovable. Most of us love people for their good qualities. But once we come across their negative aspects, we start to develop grudges and prejudices against them forgetting the positive aspects they have. So, the first lesson is, whenever we come across the negative qualities, we must develop the capacity to neglect them and see only the positive ones. Thus, automatically love will develop and we will be able to love one in spite of one's negative attributes.

Now, with more and more interaction with a particular person, we get to know more and more of his negative tendencies. Since, he has more negative tendencies in himself, the love content in him is quite low. He is not able to love himself and others fully, yet, because he is a human being, he seeks love. But the others, unable to put up with his negative qualities, start disliking him. As a result, he is in a state where his love content is low and there are not many people to supply love to him. Thus, his negativities tend to increase. At this juncture, if we are able to understand him and supply enough of love to him, there is a possibility that the love transmitted can slowly develop positive qualities in him because love can create only positive qualities. Once positive qualities start increasing, the love content in him increases and he will able to experience the love from inside.

But there is a difficulty in dealing with such people. If they are prejudiced against us, then how much ever we try to love them, they will never be able to receive it. Why? Because love cannot enter into the area of prejudice. The best way to deal with such people is just to keep away from them because the love we supply might be misunderstood and the prejudices they have against us might increase. But in spite of the prejudices people have against us, we must realise that they are developing prejudices because they don't have enough love content in themselves and hence, we must continue to love them.

How much we are able to put these things into practice depends on the love content we have in ourselves. The greater the love content, easier it is to practice all the above mentioned conditions. But in this world, where the supply of love from outside is temporary and insufficient, how to increase the love content we have in ourselves? This is left to the reader to think about and answer.