Foreign Travel Grant Application Forms

In my home page i have added a web page for travel grants with some more information added, which you may find helpful to u. the web page can be found here at

http://sekarannk.googlepages.com/travelgrants

Black bucks, deer in IIT campus fall prey to killer dogs

Stray dogs moving with ferocious instincts of a wild pack, have struck terror in the salubrious IIT Madras campus, attacking and killing endangered black bucks and spotted deer. The IIT campus is carved out of a natural forest area that forms part of the Guindy National Park in the heart of the city and is rich in biodiversity.

Continue reading here
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/22895.html

Yesterday..... A day of Surprises !!! (shocks too)

Day before yesterday... ie., Friday (02.06.06) my friend vivek fled back to India from singapore to attend his father, who met with an accident in an industry where he is working. I received him in the Chennai International airport and he left for Trichy the same day evening in another flight.

yesterday (03.06.06) his sister from singapore and a relative from bombay are supposed to come to chennai. So i again have to go to Airport to receive them. To transport them from chennai to trichy, i have booked a taxi and it was waiting at the airport parking lot.

::2100 hrs IST: :

I started from home, thinking of taking dinner enroute to airport in my Hero Honda Passion plus. I took the helmet, for safety and to avoid the chennai's traffic pollution. You know something, chennai traffic becomes worst in the peak hours. I took my dinner in the Saravana tiffin center, near our IIT's velachey gate. Suddenly it started drizzling and the speed of rain increases, when i was taking dinner. I thought, "okay... let me wait for some time till the rain stops".

::2145 IST::

Powersupply becomes powerless atleast once a day in the velachery area. Now also power has gone. It is full dark in the road outside and i heard a "ddhhhaaat..." sound. One poor fellow slipped off from his TVS victor, because of rain and had lot of bruises in his face and arm, legs etc. Hearing the sound i turned that side to see the person skidding in the road with his vehicle, he just goes as if he is going in a ice skating. Horrible to see. Fortunately, the bus driver coming in the opposite side applied his brakes in time to avoid this person to get into his wheels. I and some people rushed to him to get to his feet and the bruises are not that worse luckily, and we moved him and his vehicle off road. He said he can manage himself to meet a doctor. This is the first shock.

::2155 IST::

Since its time for me to go, and since the rain has calmed a bit, i started towards airport. If i start now, i can reach airport at least by 2230. I drove slowly, at average of 35-40 kmph. A small fear of slippery roads in mind cautioned me. Otherwise i used to kick off at 50-60 kmph within 10 secs of ignition.

I took the road to guindy bridge, near the Aadambakkam bus terminal, via Guindy Race course, as this route will take me to guindy 10 minutes earlier than the main route, which reaches a traffic signal near St. Thomas mount and then comes to guindy. Traffice will also be medium in this route. I climbed the bridge and headed towards guindy Kathipara junction. It is steadily drizzling since i started and i was almost wet. I replaced my mobile and the pocket diary from my shirt pocket to the petrol tank cover. Removed my wrist watch and secured it to my white jeans front pocket. Traffic was heavy and due to rain everyone was in a rush to reach home as early as possible. lots of blow horns and frequent brake shoe 'screeches'.

::2210 IST::

I crossed guindy circle and heading towards airport, as i took the highway. now the rain started more heavily and the blowing air worsened the situation. The rain drops were impinging on my bare hands with such velocity that i feel the spots of pain(i was wearing a half slack cotton shirt) . I thought i must stop for some time and then proceed. I was nearing a bus stop and already lot of people were standing there for shelter parking their two wheelers nearby. I joined them for a while and as the rain seems to continue for another one hour or so, and as i cannot afford that much time, the flights from singapore and bombay are expected to land my 2230, i again decided 'i must go'.

::2225 IST::

Kicking off from that shelter, i drove further and i was nearing nanganallur. now the rain was too much and i was fully drenched except my helmet covered head. I stopped again in a petrol bunk.. thanks for the modern petrol bunks, which has a huge roof at a good height. here also lot of two wheelers were already parked inside and people waiting for the rain to stop. After some time rain seems to lose its speed. by that time , the bunk person asked us to go towards the end of the bunk where some stalls were operating as we are blocking the way for his customers. some of us moved. I parked my vehicle in the corner and turned to see the shops. there was an array of shops, a juice stall, a Pizza hut, a shopping stall and few others. I saw a person standing with his wife near the pizza stall and suddenly thought i knew this person already. slowly i walked to him and after talking to him, i found he is Mr. Srikanth, my senior in my undergraduation at IRTT, Erode. I dint even thought of this person for quite a long period. It was a pleasant surprise to both of us and we had a crispy chat. then again i started heading to airport. Meenambakkam airport is just 5 minutes drive from here. mean while i checked with vivek and came to knw that both the flights are late by an hour. Thank god.. i can be in time when they arrive. I got a call from the Cab driver that he has reached airport and waiting in the inernational terminal parking lot as instructed by me. Good .. everything is going well, i thought.

::2242 IST::

I parked the vehicle in the parkign lot in front of the international terminal and cheked with the driver and one Mr. Jayakumar who has also came to receive vivek's sister. Iam meeting him for the first time and we waited for the flights to land. the ETA for the singapore flight was 2320 and bombay flight is 2240. so we have quite a time.

We took a tea. Cab driver joined us to wait for the guests to come.

::2336 IST::

the Indian Airlines flight from singapore landed in the ETA (after a 1 hr delay of the shceduled time of landing). We started looking for vivek's sister. I have seen her for few times, and iam not sure whether i can recon her at first sight. now i was seeing people coming out of the exit door as ants coming out of its place. One person, a heavy set, tall person was coming out of the exit door pulling his travel mate. Hey man.... this is KRP as we call. (K R Prabhu, my colleague at Trichy). I knew from vivek that he is also in singapore with him and he is expected to come back to india the week end. Actually i forgot that and dint have a hint that he will be coming in this flight. It was a real surprise and i waved him.

:: 2348 IST ::

Prabhu also was happy that i was there to receive him, even though it is accidental. We talked for a while and vivek's sister came to us. I asked Jayakumar to accompany them to escort them to the cab. Aksing KRP to wait, i went in search of the person Mr. Ramesh, coming from Bombay. I rushed to the domestic terminal. Lot of renovation work is going on in the airport and heavy dumps of construction material is spred across the walkways... of course with a 1' X 1.5' boards displaying "Inconvineance Regretted".

I was crossing the battery of domestic flight operators offices. Nowadays, flight operators are more in numeber. we have Air Sahara, Spicejet, Kingfisher, Go Air, Air deccan, Air india, Jet airways and what not. with lot of operators instead of having a passenger convineance, we are facing a problem in the delayed flight timings (even the delay goes to hours together.. pathetic). In the Spicejet office there are around 5-6 persons, ofcourse a girl too. Among them i can again recognize one familiar face. Hurray... This s Suresh anna, from my native place trichy. Immediately i remembered that his father once told when i was in trichy that suress is in SpiceJet. I went straight to his cabin and asked "can i have some 10 Tickets?" . He blinked, looked blankly at my face for few moments and recollects me. He greeted me and i talked to hime for 5 minutes. As i have to go to receive Ramesh from bombay, i took a bye from suresh and went to the domestic terminal. After a long search, as i dont knw who is ramesh, and i dint had a placard to display, i found Ramesh and took him to the cab.

::0015 IST, 04.06.06::

The cab started towards trichy and KRP is going to erode. We dispersed to our destinations. At the end of the day, i was happy that i saw few people entirely unexpected. I thought for a while when i was driving back to IIT in the deserted NH and velachery road. see how it works. If i dint had a wish to park in the petrol bunk, or if the bunk person dint asked me to go the corner of the bunk, i must have missed Mr. Srikanth. If i missed few minutes when i was going towards the domestic terminal, Mr. Suresh could have left for a tea which he told that he was about to go.

Real surprise, indeed.

I remember a sentence from the Kamal Hassan's movie "Anbe Sivam" in the end of the movie.
I would like to put it in my mother tongue Tamil as it will be more rhyming, than a translated English version. ("Inconvineance Regretted" :) )

Vision 2020 — Dr Kalam's six-point plan

Dr. P. V. Indiresan, former director, IIT Madras.

Dr Kalam's vision is to make India a developed country in another 15-20 years. That raises the question, "What makes a nation a developed one?" There is a fable of a pious person who prayed to God for long years until finally God agreed to grant him a boon, but one boon only. The old man thought about it shrewdly, and then asked of God: I want to feed milk to my grandson's grandson in a golden cup while standing on top of the seven story family mansion enjoying the beauty of its garden. The boon he asked was one only, but it had many dimensions including long life, good health, progeny for several generations, wealth, good environment and the like.

We could drum up a similar situation for our own vision of development. For instance, consider: In fifteen years, all our mothers will enjoy browsing the Internet in modern, well-appointed, bungalows searching for new places to go on holiday. This definition centered on the mother ensures gender justice. The short time frame of 15 years implies rapid development. The ability to browse on the Internet pre-supposes high-quality literacy. The bungalow guarantees high quality environment. All these and the proposition about holidays are proof enough for large surplus income and substantial wealth. Such a Vision need not be a dream; it is feasible. The TIFAC Vision 2020 report on `Driving Forces and Impedances' describes its Vision in a different way. It says: "In the past 35 years, South Korea has made greater economic progress than any other country in the world. So, we can take the progress of South Korea as one possible model. Then, we may aim to attain by 2020 the levels South Korea has already reached at the present time in year 1995. Then, we would not only have emulated the South Korean miracle but would have closed the gap by ten years. Instead of being 35 years behind as we are now, we would then be only 25 years behind."

Read the full article here

Igniting India's mind

The nation can use its core competence in IT, natural resources and human resources to become a knowledge superpower by 2020

By A.P.J. ABDUL KALAM

Words like 'vision' and 'dream' are back in currency. For long, they were inhabiting the manifestoes of political parties and the lexicon of the student who wanted to make a name in elocution. The common man did not believe in these words.

Now, suddenly he does. Many factors have contributed to this recharging of meaning. One is a President, who, by virtue of not being a regular politician, has caught the imagination of the nation. His dream of India becoming a superpower by 2020 has become the people's dream.

But between the idea and the reality falls a shadow, as the poet said. In a series of articles beginning with one penned by President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam himself, we do a reality-check on this dream. Experts ranging from Bharat Karnad and M.S. Swaminathan to K. Kasturirangan and Arun Shourie give their concrete proposals on how to turn these ideas into reality. So that dreams do not remain daydreams.

The 21st century belongs to the knowledge age, where acquisition, possession and application of knowledge are the most important resources. To India, knowledge is not new. Ancient India was an advanced knowledge society with a continual process of intellectual renaissance through inspiring contributions by saints of many faiths, philosophers, poets, scientists, astronomers and mathematicians. There existed great universities like Takshasila and Nalanda where students not only from India but also from far-off countries came to study diverse subjects. Many scholars have said that India culturally conquered and dominated China for 20 centuries without sending a single soldier across the border.

However, invasions and colonial rule destroyed these institutions and robbed them of their core competence. People were systematically degraded to lower levels of existence. By the time the British left, India was at its nadir. Now, it has the challenging task of rediscovering itself and become a knowledge superpower by 2020. For this India first needs to transform itself into a knowledge society. Let us see the genesis of such a society, its characteristics and how India can transform itself into a knowledge power.

Read the full article here

Vision 2020...Transforming India into a developed nation

Following is the full text President APJ Abdul Kalam’s address to the joint session of Parliament:

I extend a warm welcome to you at this first session of Parliament in 2003. This is my first Address to Parliament at the start of the Budget Session.

Let me first welcome the newly elected Members of the Rajya Sabha, as also of the Lok Sabha. I congratulate the people of Jammu and Kashmir who, in the October elections to the State Assembly, replied to the threat of the bullet with the power of the ballot. The entire Nation is grateful to our Armed Forces, Paramilitary Forces, and Police Forces for their dedicated service under extremely trying conditions. We pay our homage to those who became martyrs in the call of their duty.

Today I would like all of you to join me in paying tribute to Kalpana Chawla and her six fellow astronauts, who died in the tragic break-up of Space Shuttle Columbia minutes before its touchdown on February 1. The remarkable journey of courage and determination that made this Indian woman, hailing from a small town in Haryana, a Citizen of the Milky Way will remain a source of pride for all Bharatvasis and Bharatvanshis. It will also inspire young Indians, especially women, to dream big and to work hard to realize their dreams. I commend ISRO’s gesture in naming the METSAT series of satellites after Kalpana Chawla.

This is the first session of Parliament after the National Development Council adopted the Tenth Five-Year Plan. The Plan aims at accomplishing faster economic growth with a stronger thrust on employment generation and equity. It has set the target of 8 percent annual average GDP growth rate during the Plan period, with a companion target of 5 crore additional employment and self-employment opportunities. The Plan convincingly explains why these ambitious goals are achievable. It has distinguished itself from the previous Plans by underscoring that it is not merely a Resources Plan, but a Reforms Plan. It has deepened the domain of economic reforms by, especially, providing reforms-linked incentives to State Governments. It has also broadened the agenda of reforms by showing the categorical imperative to remove numerous non-financial barriers to faster development through reforms in civil service, judiciary, education, and above all, in governance at all levels—at the Centre, States, and Panchayati Raj Institutions. I would especially like to draw the attention of the Union and State Governments to the detailed list, contained in the Plan document, of the legislative and administrative initiatives needed to translate the Tenth Plan’s goals and targets into reality.


Read the full article here

At 106, she still cares about India

At 106, she still cares about India

April 05, 2006

Burdened with so many preconceived notions about the elderly, I didn't expect a 106-year old lady to walk briskly towards me, speak in a strong voice (that too in five languages), hear very clearly and remember things that happened a century ago. How wrong and foolish I felt after meeting Saraswathy Ramaswamy, freedom fighter and Gandhian.

As I waited for her in the lobby of Vishranthi, an old age home for women, she came rushing towards me with folded hands. Holding my hands close to her cheeks, she said in English, "Thank you for coming, Sir (she calls everyone Sir). I look forward to speaking with you."

Then, sitting in the front yard, under the shade of all kinds of trees, she began to rewind the clock.


January 1, 1900

A little girl was born to a young couple in Secunderabad. Distraught on seeing a female first born, the young man's sister ordered the baby to be thrown into the Hussain Sagar. She was promptly wrapped in a silk cloth and thrown into the water.

Fate had other plans for the baby though.

The midwife who delivered her happened to see the bundle floating in the river while she was washing clothes. Horrified, she took the baby back to the young mother, who was sobbing uncontrollably.

The child was named Saraswathy, and the astrologer who read her horoscope said she would live long and become famous!

"God didn't want me to die that easily," Saraswathy Amma laughed loudly. "Death came close several times, but I survived. A couple of years ago, a tree fell on my house and me. But here I am!"

Read more here

India Vision 2020

About India 2020

India 2020 is an non profit organization formed by citizens of India for the citizens of India.

"The greatest natural resource that any country can have is its children"- Danny Kaye

Our Mission:

“A developed India by 2020, or even earlier, is not a dream. It need not be a mere vision in the minds of many Indians. It is a mission we can all take up - and succeed.“

- A P J Abdul Kalam.



Let us support the cause, and make the noble vision India 2020 a reality, a true.
Jai Hind

What babies n the WOMB think of RESERVATION?

Water - A Natural resource or Bottled Drink?

"Most universities are seriously considering abandoning coke (I prefer Pepsi too to be banned...) after it created such a massive campaign": Alan Sitow

• Read more here

• Interview with the film maker
  

Nehruji's View on Reservation

Fluent Users forum

In this Fluent forum users can discuss about the poblems they face in CFD. The forum is really good.

Websites of India

1. Welcome to Muzaffarnagar - The Sugar Bowl of India.

2. Personalities of India

3. Info Bank of India - one of the best site i have seen

Question and answer - Interesting

Question:
One night you see your daughter quietly gazing out the window at the stars. You ask, "Is everything OK?" She answers with a question: "I've been thinking. When I want to go from point A to point B, I can divide the journey up into segments. Let's say the first segment is half the distance to B. Then the second segment is half the distance again. If I keep this up, traveling half the remaining distance each time, I end up with an infinite number of segments. But since each segment has to take finite time, this means it takes infinite time to get to point B. It seems to me I've just proved you can't go anywhere! Obviously something's wrong here, right?" How do you respond?

Answer:
This very interesting young lady has hit on the idea behind Zeno's Paradox. This bugged the ancients to no end, and still boggles most peoples' minds to this day. Let's take the paradox at face value for a moment and assume we want to walk a mile, but by segments that are always half the remaining distance. Adding all these segments up, we see that the distance walked is D = 1/2 + 1/4 + 1/8 + 1/16 +… This is an example of an infinite series, and as you learn in early calculus, it is not the case that this sums to infinity.

Instead, it has a finite sum: 1. If you think about it, it's not so crazy: if I cut a finite length up into an infinite number of smaller and smaller pieces, I still have the sum I started with. So, rationalizing the paradox is actually pretty straightforward: let's say it takes 2 seconds to cross halfway from A to B. Then the next half segment will take 1 second. The next will take 0.5, the next will be 0.25, and so on. Add 'em all up and you get a finite 4 seconds! Whew — we actually can get from point A to point B!

PS: This article is taken from the GlobalSpec Newsletter dt. 16, May 2006

Sites about India

I found some good sites today. May be there are even better sites. Will add them in due course

1. Thirukural Browser - Tamil
2. Acharya - Kural
3. Center for Indian Knowledge systems - CIKS
4. Biographies of great Indians

Presidents Address

ADDRESS DURING THE INAUGURATION OF
THE SEMINAR ON
“THE EFFECTS OF CORRUPTION ON GOOD GOVERNANCE AND HUMAN RIGHTS”

09-05-2006 : New Delhi

“Righteousness in the heart leads to order in the nation”

I am delighted to participate in the inauguration of the Seminar on “The Effects of Corruption on Good Governance and Human Rights”. I am happy that the National Human Rights Commission has taken the initiative of arranging this Seminar, which will give very useful suggestions for improving the governance system in the country. This will also enable maximization of value addition for a given expenditure incurred by the Government in providing the services to the citizens and protect their rights. My greetings to Hon’ble Justice Anand and his team, the social reformers, intellectuals and other delegates participating in the Seminar. I have selected “Righteousness in the heart leads to order in the nation” as the topic for discussion.

Want to read more, click here

8 Monkey theory

An Interesting article !!!

Put eight monkeys in a room. In the middle of the room is a ladder, leading to a bunch of bananas hanging from a hook on the ceiling.

Each time a monkey tries to climb the ladder; all the monkeys are sprayed with ice water, which makes them miserable.Soon enough, whenever a monkey attempts to climb the ladder, all of the other monkeys, not wanting to be sprayed, set upon him and beat him up.

Soon, none of the eight monkeys ever attempts to climb the ladder. One of the original monkeys is then removed, and a new monkey is put in the room. Seeing the bananas and the ladder, he wonders why none of the other monkeys are doing the obvious. But undaunted, he immediately begins to climb the ladder.

All the other monkeys fall upon him and beat him silly. He has no idea why. However, he no longer attempts to climb the ladder.

A second original monkey is removed and replaced. The newcomer again
attempts to climb the ladder, but all the other monkeys hammer the crap out of him. This includes the previous new monkey, who, grateful that he's not on the receiving end this time, participates in the beating because all the other monkeys are doing it. However, he has no idea why he's attacking the new monkey.

One by one, all the original monkeys are replaced. Eight new monkeys are now in the room. None of them have ever been sprayed by ice water. None of them attempt to climb the ladder.

All of them will enthusiastically beat up any new monkey who tries, without having any idea why.

This is how any company, social, religious and personal policies get established.

Article courtesy : The article is taken from here

Some thing I found interesting to read

Each scholar in IIT's must be aware of the cost of education. Read Cost of education at an IIT or an engineering college

Quota ... need it or not. Read Recipe for the 'anti-quota' soup

Found some interesting article - "Thirukuaral"

Yesterday i found some intersting article in my friend Venkateswaran's home page

the article is Thirukural with explanations. Go to the Downloads section of his home page and you can download the articles. Article language is Tamil -> English explanation.