Hospices: Are they necessary in India? (13/12/2002)

Hospices: Are they necessary in India?
By Dr. Manjula Krishnaswamy M.S
(Honorary Medical Director-Jeevodaya)

The hospice movement was obviously started by people who saw with their hearts, people, who not only saw, but, who reacted to the plight of these unfortunate people by reaching out to help them, as they limped along slowly and painfully, to finish the last lap of their lives for, finish, it, they must!

The hospice, a home away from home for terminally ill patients, is said to have originated in France several years' back and is a very popular concept in the western world. In England alone, a country which is smaller in area and population to many of our Indian states, there are around 200 hospices. Of late, however, they are steering away from hospice and moving towards home care. This is quite understandable, as these countries have developed an excellent health care system. With a manageable population, better socio-economic standards and higher literary background, a patient can very well be managed at home, if health care is delivered at his doorstep as it is done in these countries. This is as it should be, for there can be no place like home.

In India, on the contrary as in most third world countries, the panorama is entirely different and in no way comparable to the west. The hospice movement, or for that matter palliative care itself is still in its infancy in India. The first hospice "Shanti Avedna" was started in Mumbai in 1988. "Jeevodaya" the second hospice in India and the first of its kind in South India was registered in Chennai in 1990 and started inpatient care in 1995.

It is true that the family structure in India is such that the responsibility of looking after a patient rests with the family, but, to generalise and to assume that every patient has a loving family, caring for him or for that matter to assume that every patient has a family at all is to deceive ourselves.

We have studied the types of patients and the reasons for admission to our hospice and are convinced, more than ever, that there is scope to start many such hospices all over the country.

• DESTITUTE PATIENTS :

Any one familiar with India will not question the existence of destitutes or the life they are forced to lead - their plight gets compounded when they are struck with a disease that cripples them so much that they are unable to fend for themselves.

Mrs. Sakunthala (name changed) was picked up by the police from the platform and admitted in a Govt. hospital, where we found her on the floor, near the toilet with not a yard of clothing on her. She had a massive fungating tumor of her breast, crawling with maggots - no one wanted to go anywhere near her. We had her transferred to the hospice where she was cleaned, clothed and made to look like what she was meant to be - a human being. She died peacefully in the hospice after a couple of days, surrounded by people who cared for her. The last rites were done by the hospice.

She is one of the many destitute cancer patients, whom we picked up on receiving information, some from the roadsides and some from the hospitals. Many others are brought to us by social workers. These patients constitute only a miniscule of the destitute population scattered all over the country and - if we do not care who cares?

• ABANDONED PATIENTS :

Many patients are abandoned by their families, for reasons, that may be convincing in some, perhaps not others but still the fact remains that they have nowhere to go.

1. Poverty

Three hundred million Indians now live below the poverty line. There is an eternal struggle for existence, a scramble for the next meal. When a healthy person has to struggle to survive, a sick person does not stand a chance. The family transfers the patient to a government hospital, give a false address and then do the disappearing act.

Miss Banu (name changed) was a 14-year-old who had Ewing Sarcoma of her leg. She was one of five motherless children who had a drunkard for a father, who used her sickness to make her beg on the streets. When she became very sick, he admitted her in a Govt. Hospital. The child underwent an amputation of her leg, but when the time came for her discharge, the father was nowhere to be found. Efforts to trace her family with the help of local police were of no avail - she was transferred to the hospice, where she spent the rest of her days in as much peace and comfort as on can get under such circumstances.

2. Lack of living spaces

Often large families live in small spaces - huts or single rooms - and to have a patient with foul smelling wounds would be near impossible. The neighbors too start complaining, hence out of compulsion, these patients ate either driven out or abandoned in hospitals.

Mrs. Radha (name changed) belonged to the upper middle class and she had a loving family - husband, son and daughter who doted on her. When she developed cancer of the breast, the family gave her the best care, surgery, RT and CT in the so-called five star hospitals, but inspite of treatment, the disease progressed. When we saw her she was in a grossly advanced stage with frank gangrene of her arm and chest wall with pus pouring from everywhere. At that stage none of the private hospitals or nursing homes were prepared to take her in - and the neighbors (the family was living in an apartment) started objecting to the smell emanating from her room. The family were desperate for help - and that was when Jeevodaya stepped in.

• Abandoned by spouses

Sad is the story of young women developing breast or cervical cancer. This is a good reason for her husband to forget her and turn elsewhere. Not that wives do not desert their husbands - many a time the wife runs away to her parents home, but the usual story is of the wife having to seek employment, often doing menial work to feed and clothe her children, leaving her with little time to look after her husband (if she does come to see him she often gets beaten up by the husband because he suspects her fidelity!)

• Widows and spinsters

Widows and spinsters are a deprived lot - especially the latter as no one feels morally obliged to look after them.

Miss Parvathy (name changed) was a teacher in school. As long as she was earning and contributing to the family, she was a welcome member in her brother's house. However when she became bed ridden with cancer of the breast her brother insisted that his other sister should take turns to look after her and sent her there - where she was politely refused entry. Heart broken she found her way to the hospice.

• PATIENTS SHUNNED BY SOCIETY

1. Large foul smelling wounds: Mrs. Kanthi (name changed) a patient with cancer of the breast complained that she felt nauseated all the time and could not eat - reason? She could not tolerate the smell emanating from her wound "if I myself cannot tolerate the smell how can I expect others to come anywhere near me" she mourned pitiably.
2. Disfiguring lesions of the head and the neck: Malignancies of the head and the neck make the patient look grotesque. With high prevalence of oral cancer - thanks to tobacco - some patients have half their faces missing. Adults and children alike dread to go near them. Unfortunately these patients have to bear the burden for long periods because these are slow growing tumors.

Miss Barthy aged 20 had a maxillary antral growth and her face was so distorted that even the doctors found it difficult to face her. She was a recluse in the house, confined to her room where no one except her parents would go. She felt so depressed that she stopped eating and was starving herself to death. It was at this stage that her parents brought her to the hospice. With all the love, care, and affection, she received there, she overcame her depression and became her normal self. She spent the remaining of her days in the hospice.

3. Ignorance: Ignorance born of illiteracy - it is estimated that India has the highest illiterate population in the world - approximately 500 million. To them cancer is a contagious disease and patients are kept in isolation - the usual story is of the daughter-in-law refusing to let her child go anywhere near a sick grand parent - who yearns for children's company.
4. Superstition: Superstition is in the bone of every Indian, educated or uneducated - only the degree varies. Hence it is not surprising that for some at least, cancer is a curse of the God and the patient must be left alone to serve his karma.

• INABILITY TO BE MANAGED AT HOME

1. Needing Pain Relief: Pain as we know is all pervading problem of cancer. The medical practitioners are largely ignorant of the use of oral morphine or, even if they did know, there is no access to the drug, unless it is in a specialised centre like a hospice. This is the current picture, one, which has to be rapidly changed, if not, thousands of cancer patients will continue to live and die in pain.
2. Wounds Needing Repeated Dressing: Some wounds are large with copious discharge and need to be dressed five or six times a day. This is not feasible in home or even hospital.
3. Bedridden, paraplegic patients and bedsores: Bedridden paraplegic patients with bedsores are always a challenge to the nursing profession. An institution like Jeevodaya alone can provide round the clock facilities like waterbeds, dressing, and individualised nursing care.
4. Patients with VVF & RVF (Vesico-Vaginal & Recto-Vaginal Fistulas): Patients with VVF and RVF are usually due to cancer cervix - the constant dribbling of urine and leaking of motion can be acutely embarrassing to the patient in the home environment and also difficult to manage.
5. Ostomy care: Patients with ostomies generally are too weak to look after themselves and need somebody to help manage their ostomies. It is true that the caretaker can be trained, but for most patients, a caretaker, who cares is hard to come by.
6. Patients needing special nutrition: Some patients are on tube feeds or ostomy feeds. They need a nutritious diet to keep them going. The poor usually feed them with a dilute Kanji (porridge) or half-milk, half-water diet - these patients die of inanition rather than their disease.

• LACK OF MEDICAL INFRATSRUCTURE

India is a country of contradictions. The metropolitan cities boast of state of the art medical care - available to the wealthy few. The majority of the urban poor have to rely on the Government run hospitals, which are overcrowded, and busting at the seams. Palliative care is the least of their priorities. It is natural that they should devote their limited resources to patients who can be cured. There is lopsided concentration of doctors in the cities, but to see them one needs money and in any case the average medical practitioner is not aware of palliative care, for it was not taught to him in his medical school!

In the rural areas the doctors and hospitals are few and far between. The vast distances and poor transportation facilities prevent these patients from getting medical relief and let us not forget - India still lives in her villages.

All said and done, it is true that Hospice alone is not the answer for advanced cancer patients. It is only one of the modes of rendering palliative care, along with home care, hospital based palliative care units or out patients' centers. All these must go hand in hand and compliment each other for - there is a place for everything and everything in its place!

The common accusation against the hospice is - too much is being spent on too few. But we must also remember, quantity by itself cannot be a virtue, and quality often matters. Though India is described as land of poor - there is no dearth of the rich. If the latter's eyes and heart can be opened to the plight of their unfortunate brethren, I am confident and I speak out of experience - they are only too willing to come forward to help such projects in cash and kind. I am also of the firm belief that such projects should be the collective responsibility of the society - not always expecting the government to do it for us.

And speaking of too few - there is this story of the Starfish. One little girl was frantically throwing the starfish that were washed ashore back into the sea. When her mother asked what she was doing she replied that she was saving the life of the starfish by putting them back into the sea. Her mother exclaimed, "look, there are thousands of them. By putting back a few how is it going to matter?"

The little girl held the starfish in her hand and said, "it matters to this one" as she gently threw it back into the sea!"

Waiting for the Mangalore Express- 14th Oct 2002

Waiting for the Mangalore Express
By Ram Krishnaswamy
14th Oct 2002

Waiting for Raj Dhani express brings back this very special memory that I treasure and would like to share with all members of IIT- Global.

It was end of March 2001. Health issues took me from Sydney to Madras and then on to Calicut for Ayurvedic Treatment for four full weeks.

Nothing short of a prison term. Couped up in an a/c room in a house (nursing home) with my younger sister who is a surgeon and insisted on keeping an eye on me.

We were allowed to go downstairs just to the massage room. Otherwise confined and not even allowed for walks. Imagine paying Rs 50000 for this nigtmare. The food was so bad, that I could have cannibalised Raman the cook if only he had been a bit more meaty.

We insisted on them moving their large TV from the reception cable and all to our room. Otherwise we were going to pack up and leave.

Thank God we are cricket mad and the test match at Eden garden,Calcutta was on when Laxman, Dravid and Baji showed the Aussies what Indians are capable of. (Now now when it comes to cricket I am 200% Indian) I even got hooked to all Tamil serials. Any
way the day of discharge came.

As some one who did not rely on local transport and timings of trains I got to Calicut Station nice and early for a 4.00pm Mangalore Express back to Madras.

Little surprise that the train was going to be late. We sat down on the railway benches and started reading the news paper.

4.00 pm came and there was still an hour to go. I got up and walked to the shop on the platform. "Just looking" I told my sister. She knew what I was upto and shook her head in disapproval. Too late.

My gaze switched from magazines to FOOD. I then suddenly yielded to temptation. I asked for two bottles of cold mango juice and two packs of Kerala banana chips. My mouth was watering.

Took out my wallet to pay and I felt a little shrug on my T-shirt from behind. There was this little girl not older than about seven, carrying a little baby on her hips. She looked at me with pleading eyes. I just melted and placed the two drinks and two banana chips in her hands. I will never forget the joy in that childs eyes.

The shop keeper shook his head and took out two more of each. I was just checking the balance in my wallet, when in no time at all I was surrounded by about ten to fifteen kids.

I remembered all the children at our birthday parties for kids in Sydney. Heaps of food and drinks and we also had the clown come home and perform plus take home giftpacks. I was saddened by the plight of these children.

"I am going to give them a party", I decided.

I made them all stand in a line and asked the shop keeper to give a mango juice and a large packet of chips to each child. He protested feebly.

He asked "Saaru Entha Ooru ?? " sort of implying that I was crazy. I just smiled and beckoned him to do as he was told. Everyone of them took their treats and went and sat around my sister. We suddenly realised that every man & woman on the platform was looking at us. They all thought I was crazy too. Some smiled approvingly.

About Rs 1800 I was told. I paid him only to realise that I did not have enough for the two of us. The mango juice was also finished. So I was about to walk away when the shop keeper gave me two cold fantas and chips packets. "Sarru Good man, me give" he said in his broken
English. I said thanks and went back to my seat. It was a real joy to see all those beautiful eyes looking at me thankfully.

As I sat down, my sister said do you have any money left to buy bananas on the way as we have no food for the night ?

We just burst out laughing.

I hope to be back in Madras this Christmas. I am sure I am going to repeat this at some other railway station.

Ramboaus

Perceptions of Today's India in America:

Subject: Perceptions of Today's India in America:

This article got posted on 30th April. I meant to respond lot sooner. Time just flies.
Ramboaus

I just finished watching "A Big Fat Greek Wedding". I am sure most of you would have seen this nice comedy. If you have not I highly recommend it to you. There is a scene where the brother says to his sister, "Don't let your past dictate who you are, let it be part of who you will Become". 

I hope impressionable young Indians in America understand the depth of this statement. This is perhaps the most appropriate quotation I can come up with in response to this article by an American Indian.

I was quite impressed with the beginning of this article which spurred me to read on. By the time I got to the end I was just left saddened by how Indians who have gone to America (not all but definitely the sort of people who endorse articles like this or similar views) have been brain washed by the American ways of doing anything and everything for money.

To feel that there will be no life or future for India unless we become American Lap dogs and hang out for the crumbs definitely gets to me. 

Indians in America should get off this HIGH horse that makes them feel superior. There is lot more to life than money. If money and the Green Back was taken out of the equation, it will be interesting to see how many Indians in American would like to say "Back home in America" and continue living there.

We all know not every Indian who goes to America is successful. A handful make it big and it is their destiny not their doing more often than not. The rest are gainfully employed like people anywhere in the world. 

Majority in USA proudly told their families back home in India that they were doing Body Shopping Business. The first time I heard this from a friend of mine in Hyderabad that his future son in law was doing body shopping I was shocked and appalled. I assumed it was some sort of Brothel business. I now know it is a name for recruiting IT workers at low wages to serve in America, a sort of slave trade like it or not.

Since 9/11 all this body shopping artists have been without jobs them selves.

The one advantage is that every American dollar buys you Rs 55. Take that out of the equation life in America Stinks. Like it or not. There is no life for Indians in America if they have no money. You cannot even get a decent medical treatment if you are ill.

Ours is an age old Indus Valley civilisation and we have a rich culture, which has withstood so many invasions and assaults. Life in India will go on with or without America.

The caucasians ruled the world with gun powder and slight. They have deceived the world for well over a century. Ofcourse the allied forces saved the world from Hitler in the second world war. Now the same allied forces are determined to exercise the same control over the world as Hitler did by disarming the entire world while they arm them selves to their teeth.

To be honest they are not allied forces anymore. The British and the Aussies (the people) want to disassociate themselves from America.

John Howard is getting pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes since America announced that Australia cannot sell wheat to Iraq any more and cancelled all previous contracts in favour of American companies.

From now on it is going to be the
 
"UGLY Americans Vs the Rest of the world."

Bush's administration has destroyed what America stood for in the past. We trust and hope the next election will restore America in its true glory.

Terminology like American Start up's, Venture Capitalists, Fortune 500, Board Rooms, Profitability all reminds me of Michael Douglas's Movie the "Wall Street" . 'It is Greed and all about GREED"

Let us change the equation, says the author by becoming better at being Lap Dogs to America hoping we might get to gnaw at bigger bones, with may be some meat.

I am constantly reading about India becoming the Silicon Valley of the world. Is this really true ?

Consider this, in the 70's one Australian dollar fetched two and a half Singapore dollars. A whole lot of manufacturing was moved from Australia to Singapore. When the Singapore dollar got stronger there was a shift of focus toward Thailand and Malaysia. 

In the 90's the focus was on China when it came to manufacturing. India was out of question those days because of Government controls. Even CocaCola did not survive in India.

Companies like Nike run sweat shops in Vietnam and Thailand to manufacture their shoes for a pittance to sell them with perhaps a 1000% margin to the western world. Sheer exploitation.

Now the IT business is no different. India educates perhaps about 200,000 IT graduates each year and thus creates a huge supply of cheap labour. American companies can employ five Indian Graduates in India as compared to one American graduate. If course it amounts to getting five times productivity for the same cost.

While all the major multinationals are setting up business in a big way in Bangalore and Hyderabad and sure help create employment it will be interesting to see the annual returns to see how much tax these companies pay to the Indian government. 

Australlians only know too well as most of the multinationals pay less that 5% in corporate tax. Funds are juggled around between companies globally and audits are conducted by the likes of Andersons who have access to all tax specialists who know all the loop holes that Local tax offices are scared to take them on.

Companies like Exon, Mobil , BP etc pay very very little as a token gesture to Australia as annual tax. I am sure the same is true in India unless it is a joint venture

Let us Change the Equation: (My way of Thinking)

-IITians have been away in USA for more than 50 years now.

-let us hope fellows in USA have learnt some good tricks (I do not mean dope sniffers and the like) that they can teach our people in India

- sit in your OWN Board rooms in India instead of playing second fiddlein some American firm. I am sure some will turn around and say what are you doing yourself ?. For your information exactly what I am preaching.

I have certainly learnt a few tricks in my time and am doing my little bit to pass it on. Australia is a fine country and the Australiansare lovely people and I have no regrets about that either.

- forget that India is a third world country as this is a Tag given by the west to keep our country down trodden and with Rs 55 to one American dollar we will be a third world country for may be another century

- go and see the real poor in USA and UK and you will find that the poor in India can still smile as they know nothing better, something the poor in the west cannot do as they have seen better times.

- get out of the slave mentality that we have grown up with as our parents and grand parents were used to serving the British Sahibs. Stop being subservient and be a BOSS yourself  

I am proud to say that atleast three of my class mates are doing exactly the same. One classmate of mine in fact is designing Micro Chips in Hyderabad and making them in Taiwan and selling them back to USA. Now this is the equation we are after.

- successful Indians in America and else where in the world would agree that Indians are a much cleverer race than the caucasians. The ones we have to contend with in the future are the Chinese as they are just as clever if not cleverer.

- India was held back the last 50 years by Nehru's stupidity while China's set back was communism. Both countries are free of these shackles to grow at will and become the Forces to Reckon with.

- stop thinking about how sitting in USA you can create a few opportunies for Indian companies. It is time to stop looking up to the western world and become independent and lead the way in research and technology. Let us stop playing the catching game and take the lead. This is where Chinas strength is . They can copy anything overnight (which we in India cannot) and the next day are ahead of the west where they copied something from.

At the moment India has a small edge in IT because of the language advantage. This will not hold out for ever.

- I remember a family migrated to Australia from mainland China and the little girl joined year nine at school without knowing a word of English. In year twelve she scored 100 TER and went on to join the medical school. We Indians may boast of education in English. Majority however cannot compose one grammatically correct letter and lack communication skills.

Most Indians are scared to stand up and make a speech. Why because there is no such thing as show and tell in our schools.

- The Chinese are learning English very very fast like it or not as Australian Universities are behind it all the way. AGSM in Sydney is full of students from mainland China. Australian Universities are setting up facilities in China.

If I remember right China is interested in setting up 100 IIT type institutions and if I remember correct our own Rajat Gupta of Mkinsey is working on this Blue Print for China.

- If Indians were smart we should forget about the west that will for ever use us as slave and cheap labour. Bill Gates is not Interested in India. There is only one thing that Bill Gates or for that matter any American is ever interested in "The Bottom Line"

So Let us Change the equation " Forget the west, it is a spent force and will liquidate itself soon by its own greed. Look up to partnerships with China. For those of you who have not grown out of the incursion in the sixties by a Communist Chinese regime, I mix with a lot of Chinese in Sydney and believe me they are nice people. (Ravi Prasad Take note, Indians future depends on strategic alliances with China ) If India and China stand united then no one will ever dare to call India a THIRD WORLD Country EVER again.

I fully agree it is Time to Change the Equation folks.

It will be interesting to ward off the brick bats for the next couple of days.If you disagree with me it is fine just post your views without calling me names.

I support the Australian farmers who have just as much right to sell wheat and meat to IRAQ as the UGLY Americans. I am sure the French and Germans have no chance at all if UK and Aussies get booted out

Ramboaus

Are IITians Elite & Truly Educated???? By Rambo 8th Dec 2002

Are IITians Elite & Truly Educated???? By Rambo
8th December 2002 ( Message 214 )

Hi IITians

In the last three days I have sent the flyer for the Charity show to about 32 yahoo eGroups for IIT alumni and have had nil response and no one has even bothered to sign the guest book, leave alone making a commitment to send a few bucks. We are supposed to be the "Elite" and the "Best of the Best". If we consider ourselves a true sample of the Indian population (which we are not) you will understand why India will never ever progress or change for the better. The people of the country make a nation, it is the people that are responsible for success or failure of any organisation for that matter

If China is improving the standards of living and business by leaps and bounds it is because of the culture of the people and their commitment to succeed. Most restaurant owners start off as an illegal dish washer's. Give him five years, he has his own house and BMW and owns his own restaurant. Once they have made it big they are the most generous lot.

In Sydney we Indians have struggled for seventeen years to raise funds to build a Venkateswara Temple which is still half finished. Over night there appears a Buddhist temple in Woolongong where millions have been spent. What a beautiful place. It fills your heart with Joy and Peace and above all it is so clean that one could eat off the marble floors.

I cannot say this about my temple of worship. Not only that the committee members come to blows at a general body meeting and police are called in and next day they make head lines. We Indians are so divided with our prejudices of race colour and creed. Yet we arm chair pundits sit there and criticise Bill Gates for donating $100 million to fight AIDS in India. We try to find motives behind his generosiity..all this stuff about Linux and open platform or what ever..........

I am not crticising every one but the general tendency is to spend a life time looking after one self and family. Some may include their friends in the inner circle....

We are happy to just keep our houses clean inside but just as happy to sweep all the dirt on to the street. It is not uncommon to be spat upon from a bus if you are walking on the pavement where you have to step around dead snakes (you know what I mean). Yet the man who spat is educated with a lap top on his lap pretending that he did not do it.....Indians are for ever trying to break rules and bribe any one and every one to get what ever they want from telephones to train tickets.

In the short span of three months I have found a handful of people in the IIT egroups who are committed to improve the lot in India. I did not know them before July this year.

We have members like Ravi Challu, Daljit Dave Singh, Praveer Gupta, Suhas.V, Shyam Raghunandan, Deshpande, Narayanamurthy, Ashok Jhun Jhunwala, Abhay Bhushan, B.K.Syngal, Ram Krishnan, Pradip, Leo Jayaprakash and a few more who are committed to doing something about improving the lot of IITians and Indians in general. The rest just sit and complain..........

These are some of the responses that I have received so far in IIT Global, INTERIIT and IIT-Global-Jobsearch as a moderator, which ares so very heartening that I have saved them under "Quotable Quotes" :

* Hey Unsubscribe me immediately. This is supposed to be a tech group and do not like spam about some charity
* I am not an IITian but am a member of this group. Is this all you elite IITians are capable off....???
* Hey I am going to report you to the right authorities and close you down
* Your group is going to sink under its own weight......
* Your group is illegitimate and does not have approval from authorities
* you are defragmenting other serious efforts to unite IITians
* stop this friday inspiration rubbish. Are you an evangelist ??
* So many IITians are turning off their PC's because of your messages , so please take my advice and close it down
* Ram what are you trying to achieve, just close shop my friend
* hey you are the moderator and should know how to stop SPAM....
* Your Mangalore express story, I am sure you meant Rs 180. You could not have spent Rs 1800.(sad)
* I know you are trying to help us find jobs. But you should realise there are so many useless ads that are not relevent to me. Can you not classify them ???
* I am happy you are sending all these job ads, but they are too many
* and the list goes on.
* I must add out of 1500 members there was just one fellow who took it upon himself to help stop the SPAM to our group. Ravi mate you are a champion too.

Are we not a classy bunch of ELITE IITians ??
I am beginning to detest this word for some reason

I have not had one offer to help the Charity Night, despite it being an all IITIAN effort. There are 1500 hundred members in this Elite group. Do you think these members can donate just $10 each for a worthy cause ??? no no no
Charity is for the white man............

Hey leave alone money, if there was some kindness in your hearts I am sure you could write a few words in the guest book. Is that too much to ask ??

When I go to India, my well to do friends will not hesitate to spend Rs 8000 for drinks and dinner at Taj or Chola or Connemara Hotesl in Madras.....yet the same people when we walk out and I give a poor starved woman with an undernourished baby Rs 100 out of my wallet, I get a sermon " You fellows go abroad and come to India for holidays and throw your money around and really spoil these beggars. Beg your pardon?? Did I hear it correct ??? My own batchmates who are supposed to be hosting this show have not come forward to help as foot soldiers....Love to, but tooooo busy and have dead lines to meet....otherwise I surely will

I did not get educated at IIT.......
I learnt some skills for survival perhaps.

My true education came from my mum and dad who taught me the value of life.
My education came from being a Boy scout at School
My education came from St.Bedes High School where I studied moral science
My education came from associating with the poor and the needy.
My true Inner Happiness also comes from the same sources.
My inspiration came from the mosque across from my house where I visited the mullah every saturday morning as a kid
My inspirations came from my visit to the Gurudwara where I went around singing "Satyanam satyanam satyanam Ji, Vaya guru vaya guru vaya guruji" May be I just did it for the halva at the end who knows ??
My inspiration comes from Sri Rama Krishna & Sai Baba
My strength comes from Lord Hanuman.
I am non descript human being. Telugu chap, born a Kalapani, settled in Madras, married to a Bengali and now above all an Aussie/Indian at heart

Now here is my chat with an American lady Kristy O'Donnell. I have never met ever. She is some one who has survived a Brain stem stroke and is condemned to a wheel chair for life and cannot even speak properly. Have a look at the compassion in her noble heart. This is what life and living is all about. Now I am sure I will get emails suggesting I stop giving sermons and generalising. Just prove me wrong and that will be fine...... I am trying to raise just $100,000 so help me if you can and I will take back everything I have doled out here..

Please note "LOL" is laughing out Loud and not "Lots of Love" as Indians think it is
(I got into trouble with a friends wife once as she misunderstood me)

Ramboaus: I agree, I am strange that way and I do such crazy things.
Ramboaus: hey did you read about my charity night?
Kristi O'Donnell: no
Kristi O'Donnell: what?
Ramboaus: Oh I posted it to your group. I am hosting a charity show in India along with my class mates of 33 years ago to raise funds for terminally ill cancer patients in India
Kristi O'Donnell: oh that's right duh
Ramboaus: have a read of this
Ramboaus: Subject: URL-Lp-Unplugged Charity

Many friends have written saying they have had problems opening the Flyer for the Charity show and those with yahoo and hot mail addresses have got all clip art attachments "detached". Thanks for your feed back. The web site for the Charity show is now pretty much ready and is getting updated every day. We will be including lists of all donors however small to say "Thank You". I agree that majority of us are foot soldiers battling for survival. I am not going to ask anyone to dig deep to find anything . I am hoping a large number of people world wide would drop small insignificant amounts like $10. That is all I ask. If you have a bigger wallet and an even bigger heart, do make a generous contribuiton "Little drops make and ocean."
Ramboaus: URL for Charity show:
http://lpunplugged.homestead.com/Index.html
Please spare a few minutes to sign the Guest book
URL for Jeevodaya-Hospice for Terminally ill
http://www.jeevodaya.com
Please do not forget to pass this on to as many people as you can think off.

Kristi O'Donnell: ok will do
Ramboaus: can you please sign my guest book and ask all your friends if they would
consider just donating $ 10 each ?
Ramboaus: look at my creation LP-Unplugged, did that in seven hours....LOL
Kristi O'Donnell: hey i'm going to send this to the "Today Show" here okKristi O'Donnell: Oprah too
Ramboaus: you are a true champ make that two pent houses one for Amanda too LOL
Kristi O'Donnell: and the american cancer society
Kristi O'Donnell: lol
Kristi O'Donnell: ah this is easy stuff
Ramboaus: you are a God send in my life to further my dreams. God bless
Ramboaus: even if every one sends one dollar it will make a big difference
Kristi O'Donnell: we have many large corporations here you can get much $$ from
Kristi O'Donnell: oh yes i know
Ramboaus: I will be eternally grateful to you for your help
Kristi O'Donnell: no problem
Ramboaus: well only you can help
Ramboaus: do you want me to include your name to the organisation committeee?
Kristi O'Donnell: deb and i are both experienced at writing official business letters and i have a fax machine
Kristi O'Donnell: i don't want any recognition
Kristi O'Donnell: just want to help those who need help
Ramboaus: please I would like to include your name in the web site
Kristi O'Donnell: if you wish but don't have to
Ramboaus: just to let sponsors and donors know you are genuine about the cause
Ramboaus: representative North America ?
Kristi O'Donnell: i dunno
Ramboaus: can I include your web site details ?
Kristi O'Donnell: sure
Ramboaus: this will go to thousands of people
Ramboaus: cool, you will see the changes within the hour
Kristi O'Donnell: young strokers need to know something like this does exist
Ramboaus: cool I will do that
Ramboaus: believe me God has set me a task to give you some additional purpose to life so you will snap out of depression
Kristi O'Donnell: if you must my pics are on my group page and my stroke was locked in brainstem at 30 on 12-24-99
Ramboaus: so what makes us come for a chat on messenger today?? divine intervention??. do not get me wrong I am not an evangelist and not even a christian
Kristi O'Donnell: i don't believe in organised religion
Kristi O'Donnell: too hypocritical for me
Ramboaus: nor do I
Ramboaus: last night I went to a muslim friends house for a Ramadan feast
Kristi O'Donnell: i'll send you my story
Kristi O'Donnell: cool
Ramboaus: see we are birds of the same feather
Ramboaus: sorry you are a dove and I am a crow LOL
Kristi O'Donnell: flock together, lol
Kristi O'Donnell: i'm something
Ramboaus: that felt funny the crow bit
Ramboaus: doves are beautiful
Kristi O'Donnell: lol
Kristi O'Donnell: this one can't be caged though
Ramboaus: hey kristi I am starving it is 2.00pm now and all I have had is a coffee since morning. mithu is in Delaware in the snow Bye
Kristi O'Donnell: Bye Hon.

Now folks Kristi is a Brain Damaged stroke victim, condemned to a wheel chair for life. For those of you who read last weeks Friday inspiration, are you a potato or an egg or Coffee. I definitely wish to be coffee, what kind of a person are you ????

Ramboaus

Plea to Preserve the IIT Brand and Build Complementary Brands to Serve India

To: The Prime Minister & HRD Minister of India

Hon.Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh & Hon.HRD Minister Mr.Arjun Singh,

It took a great visionary like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to create the five IIT's, getting UNESCO, USA, Germany, UK & Russia to fund, furbish, staff them and nurture them for ten years. It took 125000 IITian's 50 long years to establish the IITs as a Global Brand Name, aided by the autonomous structure & funds granted to the IITs by the Government of India.

This valuable Brand name belongs to the Indian Government, the IIT administrators and the real achievers, the alumni of IITs who have done the nation proud. Such excellence and recognition has to be achieved the hard way and is neither transferable nor can it be gained by association of the name.

We understand that, towards enhancing the quality of education in India there are now, moves afoot to name several existing colleges as IITs. While the governments overall goals are laudable, we would like to strongly urge honourable ministers to consider the potential damage to the IIT brand name, by such a move.

Instead, we urge the government to name these colleges as Hindustan Institutes of Technology (HITs) or a more suitable name, give them better funding than IITs and further empower them to succeed under their own brand name by making them all operationally autonomous along the lines of the IITs. Let the Govt create healthy competition between IITs and HITs and even go a step further and make faculty transferable between IITs and HITs so every one benefits through this exchange.

Taking the concept further HITs can benefit even more from official joint ventures with foreign universities of repute in countries like USA, UK, Australia, Canada and Singapore. This will encourage annual exchange of faculty and UG and PG students..besides raising research to international standards. What better way to accelerate this new Brand name and give IITs good healthy competition ?

The GOI should fund not just seven but many more engineering colleges in India, at least one in each state for a start, to raise their standards and to significantly increase the well-trained manpower pool of the nation, which is of national strategic interest especially in the IT/ITES and other emerging economic sectors.

However, we request you to please refrain from calling these colleges IITs or Deemed IITs since a brand name typically only gets diluted when it gets distributed around. After all, there is only one Oxford, one MIT, one Harvard, one Cambridge, one Sydney University in the world.

We strongly feel that the proposal to rename the seven existing colleges Deemed IITs will result in fourteen doomed IITs, a few years down the road. Please do not downgrade the nation's Temples of Technology & Islands of Excellence, the IITs, that visionaries in your party played a key role in building soon after independence.

The Brand Name that IIT's hold today are a result of their intellectual capital, quality infrastructure, selective intake of students through JEE, and most of all, operational autonomy. Above all, the five primary IITs have managed to evolve a unique academic culture over the last fifty years and that culture will be hard to replicate at any other institution. The culture includes components such as faculty who were all recruited for an IIT right from the beginning, inputs from foreign sponsors into the formation and development of each IIT, high quality students from the day of formation etc. which will be difficult to replicate at any other institution that has already been in existence for several years and has developed its own culture.

The Nation will salute the Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and HRD Minister Mr.Arjun Singh for making the right decision that will serve our children of future generations.

Petition Created by:

Ram Krishnaswamy, B.Tech, IITM-1970
Dr.V.N.Sharma, M.Tech, IITK-1978
Sriram Vajpayam, B.Tech, IITM-1985
Bhuvan Prasad, B.Tech, IITK-1982
K.K.Subramanian, B.Tech, IITKgp-1970
Ashish Agarwal, B.Tech, IITM-1997
Atif Hussain, B.Tech, IITK-2003
Barun Kumar, B.Tech, IITK-1992
Ramakrishnan Rajamani, B Tech, IITM 1965
Raj Varadarajan, B.Tech IITM-1966
Sanat Agrawal, BTech, IITK-1988
Ajay Kumar Singh, B.Tech, IIT-R-2003
Varun Arya, M.Sc, IItd-1976

Sincerely,

No More Deemed IITs

30th January 2006

Hon. President Dr Abdul Kalam,

Hon. Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh

Hon. HRD Minister Mr. Arjun Singh,

Hon Minister of State for HRD Mr. Mohd. Ali Ashraf Fatmi

Re: More Deemed IITs that have been proposed by HRD Ministry

A group of concerned alumni from IITs have created a public petition in response to news from media that HRD Ministry proposes to rename seven existing engineering colleges that have been short listed, as IITs so that they can be funded on par with IITs. We do not want to believe that this is factual yet cannot afford not to convey our concerns in case media reports turn out to be correct..

The text of the petition as has been signed by over 3000 concerned IIT alumni & Indian Citizens world wide is copied under for your perusal.

Matching funding alone cannot convert any existing institution into an IIT. Seven IITs as it is are struggling to find suitably qualified and talented faculty members to fill vacancies. This being the case how are we going to find the best faculty for fourteen IITs to maintain standards ?

The colleges short listed have been around for many years and are currently serving the needs of the State where they are located. Once they are renamed as IITs their intake will be from the National JEE Pool. This creates a problem for the students of the concerned state who do not take or pass JEE.. Will we not be affecting these students who will be forced instead of attending an REC for example to look for admission in engineering colleges interstate or overseas, where they will stand very little chance unless they pay huge fortunes ?? This could have serious consequences for the concerned states in the long run as one REC will disappear every time one REC gets converted to an IIT

When PM Rajiv Gandhi created IIT Guahati, the Nation applauded the move.. This was not the same when Roorkee University was renamed IIT Roorkee.

There is also this constant demand from many states clamoring for an IIT. This however does not make sense at all, as IITs are autonomous and state governments have no influence on them. Plus student intake is from a national exam and does not even serve the students of the state.. Most people seem to miss this point as the location of a new IIT is not at all relevant.. We could create an IIT in the deserts of Rajhastan or for that matter on a floating platform at sea and still make it function like all existing IITs, maintaining the discipline and culture

We are not at all against creation of Brand new IITs. In fact more IITs will serve the nation better by meeting the demand. What we are opposed to is the government wanting to rename existing institutions as IITs. The reason is simple, if you begin an institution from scratch with certain vision and mission, it will shape up accordingly. Therefore, we are happy with sixth new IIT at Guwahati. However, we are not comfortable with University of Roorkee being renamed as the seventh IIT. This has resulted in the crisis of identity for UoR - just imagine the senior alumni of UoR before renaming not being clear whether to call themselves as alumni of UoR or IITR.

Also just by renaming we cannot overnight change the culture of an existing institution. You will, therefore, kindly appreciate that renaming will in fact dilute, undermine and create confusion about the brand equity which IITs have achieved over the last fifty years.

As an analogy, every mother would love to give birth to her own babies and when she is not fortunate she would adopt young babies and nurture them.

However adopting & fostering teenagers and adults who are set in their ways and expecting them to change and remould is unimaginable

It has taken a long time for the IITs to establish their brand image and one of the concerns of IIT Alumni is getting this image tarnished by institutions of lower standards lacking in academic rigor being renamed as IITs. There seems to be no doubt about the need for more IITs and IIMs looking at the size of India and the talent pool available.

The real concern seems to be that the institutions renamed as IITs may not have the academic rigor needed to be equated with IITs. It takes a very long time to develop a culture like that of IITs. Overnight renaming of institutions as IITs is not a solution to for India's need for superior technical and management manpower to meet demand. It is very difficult to change

the culture of state run institution under the University System.

Yes, some of the RECs may qualify to be upgraded to the status equal to that of IITs after an incubation period. First they should be upgraded and the necessary changes incorporated in their working, facility, recruitment, administration and most importantly the academic rigor. The existing IITs together with their Alumni must be allowed a say to decide whether another institution qualifies to be renamed as an IIT without any government interference, assuming IITs are truly autonomous .

If the Government of India is really serious about encouraging quality higher education, they should develop New IITs at least one in each state to suit market demand. The core of the whole issue is funding. The Government of India and the state governments do not seem to be willing to invest money in the future of the country's higher education. Otherwise what prevents the government to establish new IITs? It seems that GOI simply wants to please some of the states or their political allies by the renaming exercise without allocating additional resources.

Another important issue is affecting the academic rigor is the shortage of quality faculty. Unless the Government of India is willing to offer much better pay scales and service conditions, it would be very difficult to get quality faculty to run even the existing IITs and maintain current high standards leave alone seven more.

Please keep the nations dream alive and perhaps create a new IIT each year with foreign collaboration following the exact model that became a roaring success called IITs. This would make the new IITs state of the art engineering schools even far more advanced in terms of laboratories and equipment than current seven Its.

Sirs, IITians have been branded in many quarters as selfcentered individuals who got the best education using Indian taxpayers money only to migrate enmass to USA for better careers..causing brain drain..

As we all know charity begins at home and on aircrafts passengers are instructed to adorn the Oxygen mask first before attending to children..

We IITians of yester years had very little scope for employment in India when we graduated. One’s who were fortunate stayed back and the less fortunate or those who wanted to study further went abroad. It was merely a supply and demand equation driven by market forces that caused the so called brain drain.. We are indebted to the Indian govt for not blocking iitians from going abroad as in year 2006 we would not be in a position to give back to the nation..

This petition would not have been created had IITians been self centred as acused. This team is working on a white paper on taking IITs to the next level to be submitted to GoI for consideration

Yours sincerely

Ram Krishnaswamy

On behalf of concerned IIT Alumni and Citizens of India.

........................................................................................

Original Petition as follows:

http://www.petitiononline.com/SaveIITs/petition.html

Extracts of comments in the petition are blogged under http://saveiits.blogspot.com/

...............................................................

Hon. Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh & Hon. HRD Minister Mr.Arjun Singh,

It took a great visionary like Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to create the five IITs, getting UNESCO, USA, Germany, UK & Russia to fund, furbish, staff them and nurture them for ten years. It took 125000 IITians 50 long years to establish the IITs as a Global Brand Name, aided by the autonomous structure & funds granted to the IITs by the Government of India.

This valuable Brand name belongs to the Indian Government, the IIT administrators and the real achievers, the alumni of IITs who have done the nation proud. Such excellence and recognition has to be achieved the hard way and is neither transferable nor can it be gained by association of the name.

We understand that, towards enhancing the quality of education in India there are now, moves afoot to name several existing colleges as IITs. While the governments overall goals are laudable, we would like to strongly urge honourable ministers to consider the potential damage to the IIT brand name, by such a move.

Instead, we urge the government to name these colleges as Hindustan Institutes of Technology (HITs) or a more suitable name, give them better funding than IITs and further empower them to succeed under their own brand name by making them all operationally autonomous along the lines of the IITs. Let the Government t create healthy competition between IITs and HITs and even go a step further and make faculty transferable between IITs and HITs so every one benefits through this exchange.

Taking the concept further HITs can benefit even more from official joint ventures with foreign universities of repute in countries like USA, UK, Australia, Canada and Singapore. This will encourage annual exchange of faculty and UG and PG students, besides raising research to international standards. What better way to accelerate this new Brand name and give IITs good healthy competition ?

The GOI should fund not just seven but many more engineering colleges in India, at least one in each state for a start, to raise their standards and to significantly increase the well-trained manpower pool of the nation, which is of national strategic interest especially in the IT/ITES and other emerging economic sectors.

However, we request you to please refrain from calling these colleges IITs or Deemed IITs since a brand name typically only gets diluted when it gets distributed around. After all, there is only one Oxford, one MIT, one Harvard, one Cambridge and one Sydney University in the world.

We strongly feel that the proposal to rename the seven existing colleges Deemed IITs will result in fourteen doomed IITs, a few years down the road. Please do not downgrade the nation's Temples of Technology & Islands of Excellence, the IITs, that visionaries in your party played a key role in building soon after independence.

The Brand Name that IITs hold today are a result of their intellectual capital, quality infrastructure, selective intake of students through JEE, and most of all, operational autonomy. Above all, the five primary IITs have managed to evolve a unique academic culture over the last fifty years and that culture will be hard to replicate at any other institution. The culture includes components such as faculty who were all recruited for an IIT right from the beginning, inputs from foreign sponsors into the formation and development of each IIT, high quality students from the day of formation etc. which will be difficult to replicate at any other institution that has already been in existence for several years and has developed its own culture.

The Nation will salute the President of India Dr Abdul Kalam, Prime Minister Dr.Manmohan Singh and HRD Minister Mr.Arjun Singh for making the right decision that will serve our children of future generations.

Petition created and submitted on behalf of the following Humble servants of the Nation::

Ram Krishnaswamy, B.Tech, IITM-1970

Dr.V.N.Sharma, M.Tech, IITK-1978

Sriram Vajpayam, B.Tech, IITM-1985

Bhuvan Prasad, B.Tech, IITK-1982

K.K.Subramanian, B.Tech, IITKgp-1970

Ashish Agarwal, B.Tech, IITM-1997

Atif Hussain, B.Tech, IITK-2003

Barun Kumar, B.Tech, IITK-1992

Ramakrishnan Rajamani, B Tech, IITM 1965

Raj Varadarajan, B.Tech IITM-1966

Sanat Agrawal, BTech, IITK-1988

Ajay Kumar Singh, B.Tech, IIT-R-2003

Varun Arya, M.Sc, IITD-1976

Gaurav Vaish B Tech IITK 2000

Yours sincerely

Ram Krishnaswamy

Sydney Australia

www.iitglobal.org

Plea to Preserve the IIT Brand and Build Complementary Brands to Serve India

Plea to Preserve the IIT Brand and Build Complementary Brands to Serve India

The best way to dilute & downgrade the quality of any brand achieved over time through diligent work is to just add other lower brands to it.

As an analogy can we take the Ambassador car manufactured in India, that has served millions since Independence and has been a work horse and an icon. On its own rights.

Say we decide to spend a bit of money give it a new look and a coat of paint and put the BMW Badge on it ?? will it fool the market ?

It may not hurt the BMW brand but definitely will hurt Ambassador Brand. This is sadly what has happened to Rooorkee University that has thousands of alumni who have treasured the Roorkee University Brand status, and are still struggling to figure out if they are IITians.

Yes there is nothing stopping the Govt of India from renaming a dozen more engineering colleges as IITs. The result will be that we would have created a two tier IIT system..We do not have to look too far to find answers. Each Year we have 400000 students in India who take the JEE exam. Guess which IITs they select in their application ? Top five ofcourse.. Market forces cannot be fooled or manipulated

Rather than building many more quality engineering colleges from the ground up, which the Govt cannot truly afford, just changing the names of a few colleges that have been around longer than IITs, just to please political factions, without the rigorous process of recruitment and training, was a bad move even a few years ago. Why continue the process ?

A new public petition to create good quality engineering institutions rather than change name of existing colleges has been created by a team of IIT Alumni who are concerned that there could be seven more IITs announced in a couple of months, by HRD Minister,
Based on media reports.

In less than 48 Hours there have been 1000 endorsements from Indians all over the world.
It is time for public to say " No more IITs" in the interests of the institutions and the nation . The petition url is http://www.petitiononline.com/SaveIITs/petition.html

If you believe that India should have quality engineering colleges for all students, please sign the attached petition . Please endorse whole heartedly and express your views freely.

A Blog has also been created for you to preview comments..
*http://saveiits.blogspot.com/

Yours Sincerely

Ram Krishnaswamy, IITM 1970
Sydney Australia
www.iitglobal.org

MEGA MESS at IIT Madras

Subject: MEGA MESS at IITM

Who ever came up with this name "MEGA MESS" for the proposed eatery for IITM students should be garlanded and nominated for Padma Shree award. Obviously the man had a lot of foresight and is perhaps is even a bit psychic and had a premonition of what lies ahead...

Going down memory lane I yearn for the yummy cutlets or samosas or omlettes with a nice cup of tea that we could hardly afford but still indulged in at Knick Knack..Of course this does not exist anymore on campus. What exists in its place is an awful looking canteen dusty & dirty that you have to think twice about putting your lips to the cup... and have to wipe your cutlery twice before using them

Now, now, do not call me a snob or a sahib. India has come a long long way since the Knick Knack days when you look at the zillion restaurants in various cities. Restaurants with creative and attractive decor serving delicious food.. Good atmosphere is a must for a dining place making the food taste even better. I am thinking of "Thank God it is Friday" in Bangalore where I dined with few friends or even the nice buffet dinner place that alumni president Sundarrajan took me to at Residency Hotel..

This being the case why on earth should IIT have such a lousy canteen that looks like a 1960 Udipi hotel ?? I am sure one will find better places just outside Velacheri or Tharamani gate .. Why does it continue to exist ??? I suppose administrators and decision makers all live on campus and go home for nice clean home cooked meals served by their wives who cannot be bothered...The ones who eat here are mostly students perhaps day scholars..

If this is disturbing to read , there is a "Mega Mess" near the library serving as a common mess (canteen) for Surayu and Sharawathi hostel inmates.. I had the luxury of having lunch here with school children from Alamadhi village. The place is hardly six monts old I am told and is already filthy and the food pretty ordinary to be polite and it takes them for ever to serve the food. Imagine ones plight if he or she had to queue up in this place for breakfast, lunch and evening tea and dinner !!!!

If the wash basins are anything to go by I am sure no one will want to step into the kitchen or worse still the dish washing area....

The administrators are so proud of this effort that they are now constructing an even bigger Mega Mess that is going to dish out food for all the hostels, meaning over 3000 students.. I am told the building is already under construction

Why did the original architects build hostels with just 200 rooms with a common room at one end for entertainment and one eating room at the other ??? Because 200 is an optimum number for cooking meals on a daily basis.

The original hostel messes had the following to offer:
-Each hostel had its own mess secretary who could be creative in producing a menu that satisfied most members of the hostel
-Each mess had a Veg and a non veg section at opposite ends
-one could step out of the room to see if the mess was open to go down for a meal
-one could go down when the crowd had subsided to avoid queuing up.
-if one was sick, food like some toast and a cup of hot milk could be sent to the room
-one could always notify the boys in the mess and ask for meals to be put aside in case one was going to be late
-each hostel was a home away from home and the dining room no different to one at home.
-the staff recogonised students by name and vice versa making it a healthy place...
-the best advantage was that if the menu in your own hostel was not to your taste you could take a walk and be a guest of your mates in another...

Now imagine what happens if this is replaced by one mega mess serving say 3000 students. Serving 3000 breakfasts yet allow all students to reach classes on time ?? I bet half of the students will have to skip breakfast or may be queue up as early as 5.30am !!!
What about one double bulls eye George in the mornings ???

Imagine having to queue up and combat 3000 aliens as no one would know the other person as they converge from all hostels ??
Imagine having to walk each night from your hostel to the mega mess to have your dinner ???

I know it seldom rains in Chennai but what happens during the monsoons ?? Imagine having to go to the mega mess with umbrellas in the rain....

Who ever came up with this MEGA MESS idea I am sure never lived in a hostel ever and am sure has BRICKS in his or her head..

Now what about Hygiene ?? How on earth are we going to keep this mega mess clean ??? any place serving 3000 meals will never have any time left for cleaning ...
Who guarantees quality ?? Who decides the menu ??

Cholera, Jaundice and gasteroenteritis will be unavoidable.. I am sure the administrators have already appointed an MD in gaestroenteritis to live on campus close to the mega mess..

Most Riots in prisons have started over FOOD and IITM is slowly but surely being turned into an Alcatraz...

Unfortunately I believe such decisions are being made by academic men who have never entered a kitchen to make a cup of coffee and would not know how to boil an egg... my strong suggestion would be to ask the lady registrar of IITM to make a proper assessment of this mega mess proposal before everything on campus turns into a night mare.

did some one suggest that mega mess was thought off as a result of labour and union issues ? what happens if there is a strike in the mega mess ??
I am sure I will be told that this cannot happen as it will be contracted out ......
what if 3000 students refuse to eat the food ???

We may have created a mega problem on campus..
All staff members who go home to nice home cooked meals thrice a day, have a heart and consider if you would eat for four years in one mega mess ??
Would you allow your children to be fed there ?? I wouldn't

One question I would like to ask: I am 100% sure that no one is allowed to open a restaurant that will serve 3000 meals in one session. Are there no health regulations that cover the maximum number of people that food can be catered to ??

Bet my bottom dollar that this proposal violates health regulations.........

Ramboaus
IIT Global Moderator
www.IITGlobal.com

ENVIKAL - A Day in 2004 to remember

ENVIKAL- A Social Service Initiative of IIT Madras alumni of 1970

ENVIKAL- Engineering Novel Volunteer Initiatives & Knowledge Alliances - is the banner under which Alumni of 1970 batch from IIT Madras have joined together to empower the less privileged through technology.

An offshoot of e-group interchanges between the alumni members, ENVIKAL was conceived in the year 2001 primarily to support self-sufficiency Initiatives, to promote Education & Literacy, and to supplement Public Health Services among the underprivileged masses.

As its first Project, ENVIKAL chose computer education and literacy support to rural students of Govt High School, Alamadhi with support of Divine Mother society, a NGO offering Health services to the villagers of Alamadhi since early 90’s.

Over the last 3 years, DMS-ENVIKAL computer center at Kamakshi Baba ashram at Alamadhi has trained more than 300 students of class X in Basic operations of computer. The students were also offered free tuition in Maths, Science and English, resulting in their improved performance in the Public examination.

About 25 unemployed or underemployed youth from the village with creative abilities were chosen for training in Graphics design, and many of them have been gainfully employed in DTP, Photo-imaging centers etc. Further, with a core group of good performers, ENVIKAL Web Services has recently been formed as an initiative for self-sustenance. EWS offers web design, development and content maintenance services to NGO and Corporate organizations.

The students are also taken on motivational trips to IIT campus, Planetarium and Children’s park on weekends. Two such trips were organized in the academic year 2003-04.

March 7, 2004 was a memorable day in the short history of ENVIKAL. Ram Krishnasamy from Sydney, a key member of ENVIKAL, organized a visit to Alamadhi for a motley group of 50 consisting of IIT & IIM alumni and their family members. The group also included a few Rotarians. They interacted with the Panchayat President of Alamadhi, and the Head Master, teachers and students of the school and had a first hand account from the beneficiaries of the ENVIKAL project. Ram distributed gifts to schoolchildren, exhorted them all to aspire for high goals and announced a scholarship for anyone from the village joining IIT. NT Nathan, Project coordinator, Raju from Colorado, Muthanna, General Manager ECC, and George Verghese were the other ENVIKAL members present.

It was generally felt that participation of global IITians augurs well for the bright future of ENVIKAL and signals a move towards broad-basing the movement so that its success may be replicated in many other places.

Letter to the Prime Minister of India Hon. Atal Vajpayee:

Letter to the Prime Minister of India Hon. Atal Vajpayee:

Dear Sir,

Whether India is shining or not and whether this is despite the Coalition Government
that has not lived up to its election promises last time round to stem corruption there seems to be some agreement on the fact that you Sir are perhaps the PM India had to have.

The first PM to stand up and say No to USA when it came to sending troops to Iraq. The first PM to make a genuine effort to improve relationship with Pakistan. Sir it is indeed a dream come true to see our Cricketers on Pakistani soil. The fact that
Pakistani women want Hindi movies and Indian Sarees suggest that we are still people from the same stock divided by artificial man made barriers created by fundamentalists & military rulers and lack of true political will in the last fifty years.

India and Pakistan have been prey to the divide and rule policy of the west where they advocate against war and in the same breath sell us expensive Black Hawk helicopters or Tomahawk Missiles as well as guarantee us protection with an American missile defence system or Star wars. The day India and Pakistan wake up to this conspiracy and unite we can become a very strong economic power house further strengthened by an alliance with China….Who will then call us a developing nation ever ???

From this point of view Sir we as a nation wish you well and good health to be our PM for a few more terms…to continue fulfilling your dreams

What is disappointing though is that your party has a coalition Minister for HRD Mr. Murali Manohar Joshy who must be quite an embarrassment for both you and Deputy PM Mr.Advani.. While the country has over 500 million people who are illiterate and need to be cared for the HRD Minister seems to have an indecent obsession with the premier Institutes of Technology and Management, the IIT’s and IIM’s in India. Agreed these are institutions created by the Govt of India supported with Tax Payers money for many decades. However in the last 50 years not one Central Govt.Minister has interfered or challenged the autonomous institutions until Mr Joshy arrived on the scene as HRD Minister…

There was an unnecessary decision to try and collect all funds for Research from Alumni into one big common pot which he was going to control as Minister. This was so short sighted as not one coin dropped into this BIG pot of his…Then came the suggestion that he would rename all NIITs into IITs from which he backed off again.
Then there were suggestions that he would create ten more IITs as India had many many more talented students….Sir Excellence has to be achieved and cannot be duplicated can it ??? Yes we can have ten more IITs but how is the Govt going to fund these considering the fact that the Minister complains that the existing five have not paid dividends commensurate with investment from the GOI.

We also heard that the HRD Minister considers astrology a Science and had made suggestions that all IITs should have faculties for astrology…quite laughable we should say.

All the HRD minister’s wrath seemed to be focussed at the IIT’s, perhaps even justified in response to a few egoistic neo rich NRI IITians’s who were arrogant enough to even suggest that they would like to run the IITs. As always happens there are always a few rotten apples. In any group of people we can expect the good, the bad and the ugly.. The truth Sir is that not all IITians and IIM alumni are successful and the truth remains that not even one has made it into the Billionaires lists…Some did make a fortune during the dotcom boom and seem to have lost the paper fortunes as fast as they made it. These few are not Technocrats but just opportunists who exploited cheap skilled labour in IT from India and made a fortune hiring their services to the American Institiutions with 400% profit…in the name of Body shopping which sounds pretty obscene to say the least. One does not require a BTech from IIT or an MBA from Ahemadabad to be successful in this game. A clever fellow selling paan and beedi in any Indian city would rise to the occasion.given the opportunity. Sir, Please accept our apologies on behalf of the few neo rich who might have over stepped the line

Sir, these so called elite and neo rich form a minute minority and could be limited may be a 100 members of the alumni. The remaining 125000 IITians as well as 50000 IIM alumni are just sincere and hard working people but undoubtedly the best and the cream of the Nation. We fellows are good enough to bail out sinking corporations like the American Airlines, we form the back bone to most successful multinationals. You take your pick and we will prove that there is an IITians or an IIM fellow second in command behind every successful business in USA. We are even clever enough to be given the assignment to produce a blue print for China to create 100 IIT equivalent Institutions…I suppose a prophet is seldom recognised in his own country………and it is indeed a pity that GOI does not see the strength in its own most talented professionals be they citizens or NRI’s

The question remains as to WHY ??? On one hand the Minister makes speeches that IITs and IIMs do not do enough research and generate income and that these institutions have been a burden on the treasury and urges these academics to pull their socks up…A few days later the Minister slashes the fees at IIMs from Rs 1.5 lakhs per annum to Rs 30000 per annum…He claims that this has been done to facilitate admissions to the poorer section..This sir is laughable when second rate private institutions collect as much as Rs 4 Lakhs as annual fees.

Sir CAT exams ensures that all clever students get picked and the really poor students are paid handsome scholarships to study..When challenged the blame is shifted to Rao’s report which never included IIT’s & IIM’s in the first place. Later it is all bamed on the Kurien’s report followed by Prof Inderesan’s report which he has admitted his guilty himself for making wrong recommendations. Now what is the guarantee that poorer students from smaller towns and villages will still get into the IITs & IIM’s due to reduced fees ??? None what so ever

The truth lies in the fact that none of the kids from the poorer section can succeed as primarily they cannot afford the CAT or JEE exam fees and even if they could they cannot afford the expensive tutoring for JEE and CAT Examinations that is being conducted for a two to four year period.. That is the truth and this coaching for JEE and CAT exams seems to have become a National obsession.

These exams have to be radically modified to allow selection of truly clever and creative students as opposed to kids who undergo two years of torturous coaching depriving them of their adolocense as well as the time and opportunity to play sports.
In other word majority of students getting into IITs are what we generally call nerds who memorise text books and regurgitate. Not only are these students less creative they are also burnt out as well as have very high expectations in life having made it into the IITs..The ones who never made it are scarred for life having spent several years to prepare for these examinations. Some training schools we understand even get their students exemptions from attending regular schools which should be condemned…Some very successful training schools even have a selection exam to study in these coaching schools.which is shocking indeed.. If all the above are true where does a truly poor students stand ? what are his chances of making it into the IITs and IIMs ??? While the feel good factor is high amongst the ones who succeed the majority of the Indian population hate IITians for no good reason just sour grapes
or tall poppy syndrome shall we say

It is apparent that by slashing the fees to these institutions the Minister is forcing the institutions to spend their reserves so that they will be totally dependent in future on GOI for funds giving the Minister an upper hand in dealing with them. We are also aware that with time the Minister will gain control by influencing the appointments to these so called autonomous governing bodies by installing “ Haan Jee’s or Yes Sir” men who will endorse his every whim and fancy..

Dear PM it has taken India 50 odd years to shine and it has also taken the alumni of IITs and IIMs 50 years of hard dedicated work to gain Global recognition. I am sure you will agree that excellence has to be achieved and cannot be duplicated as the Minister Joshy wishes…

It must be remembered that we are 125000 strong IItians and 50000 strong IIM alumni We are like a sleeping giant and a formidable force. So Mr Narayanamurthy and the Board of Governors of IITs and IIMs are not alone in their battle to defend the autonomous institutions from GOI interference…

The BJP is recruiting every other film star and cricketer to create a strong image to win elections . The BJP Govt will do well and benefit from keeping us alumni onside instead of antogonising the top 1% Brains of this country.

Sir Please promise us that you will not reappoint Mr.Murali Manohar Joshi as the HRD Minister the next time round and you can rest assured that we will assist the GOI in formulating a blue print for these institutions based on thorough research on the existing health of IITs and IIMs . It is no secret that these institutions have become Public Service institutions with lack lustre performances and if alumni succeed these days it is perhaps despite the people running these institutions.

JAGO India or the Joint Action Group of India made up of alumni from IITs and IIMs
is on stand by and willing to work with the government in formulating plans for the future. On the other hand if our hands are forced then the GOI will have to face for the first time in history a conflict with the Best Brains of the Nation.

Let us hope that common sense prevails.

Yours sincerely,

Ram Krishnaswamy
IIT Global owner Moderator
JAGO India Owner Moderator.