Skip to main content

Second Chance for Manmohan Singh

People of India have decided to go with the status quo by opting for another five years of Congress rule — not that they had any alternatives that are much better.
As noted in the last blog post, India is a conundrum ...
People in the United States whose jobs have been Bangalored certainly love to hate India ...
People in India meanwhile love to admire America ...
I am confused about Indians admiring America though ...
I am confused about this whole business of India being a 'young' country ...
From what I have observed about young Indians, they seem a strange blend of tradition and modernity ...
Youngsters don't see any dichotomy in aspiring to all the trappings of material success and yet at the same time they don't mind keeping alive their moribund traditions and rituals ...
When it's time for some critical decisions in life — such as marriage — young Indians demonstrate a remarkable resemblance in their mindsets with their ancestors.
I find it odd that educated Indians should emulate the cultural motifs and laws laid down by their illiterate forefathers ...
For if young people are to just silently emulate those who have gone before them and not challenge them, then what have they learnt from whatever education they have had?
It's not uncommon for IT professionals and others to migrate to the U.S. and yet marry someone from their own community ...
I think this has something to do with the way children are brought up in India — parents teach them, indeed drill it into their heads, to 'respect' elders ... and that stays with Indians forever ...
In contrast, one of the core values that kids in America learn growing up is to challenge 'conventional wisdom' ...
This attitude of conformity continues through the years of education for an Indian ... it's never the case that a school teacher would ask the students to challenge him or her — they would be happy if the student simply memorizes what is in the text or what he has explained on the blackboard ... God help the kid who proclaims the wise teacher to be WRONG!!!

On a different note, the Atlantis Hubble Servicing Mission — STS 125 — is over after a spectacular dozen days.
It's sobering to talk about the reality of India and the cosmic heights of Hubble in the same blog ...
While it's frustrating to see the frog-in-the-well attitude of Indians to many of the challenges facing them, it's exhilerating to keep up with the exploits of NASA at the same time ...
I think it has something to do with the ancestry of Americans — why they are such good explorers — after all, their forefathers crossed an ocean to come to America!

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Longforms and 'Best of 2017' Lists and Favorite Books by Ashutosh Joglekar and Scott Aaronson

Ashutosh Joglekar's books list. http://wavefunction.fieldofscience.com/2018/03/30-favorite-books.html Scott Aaronson' list https://www.scottaaronson.com/blog/?p=3679 https://www.wired.com/story/most-read-wired-magazine-stories-2017/ https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/12/the-best-books-we-read-in-2017/548912/ https://longreads.com/2017/12/21/longreads-best-of-2017-essays/ https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/12/21/world/asia/how-the-rohingya-escaped.html https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-journalists-covered-rise-mussolini-hitler-180961407/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/artificial-intelligence-future-scenarios-180968403/ https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1997/01/20/citizen-kay https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/where-we-are-hunt-cancer-vaccine-180968391/ https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/dna-based-attack-against-cancer-may-work-180968407/ https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2017/12/22/dona...

Articles Collection August

Hope to get around to reading or finishing these articles. Some day. When David Remnick writes about Russia, you gotta read. All of David Remnick's articles in the New Yorker. All of Ken Auletta's articles in the New Yorker. Profile of cricket boss N. Srinivasan in The Caravan. Excerpt from Lena Dunham's book. Yes, I for one think it's wrong to teach children to believe in God. It's child abuse. Plain and simple. Philip Seymour Hoffman's last days . Where do children's earliest memories go? Does humanity's future lie among the stars or is our fate extinction ? Chapter 1 of Sam Harris' Waking Up . Finding the words , an elegy. Eight days, the battle to save the American financial system . Love stories from the New Yorker. Profiles from the New Yorker. 25 articles from the New Yorker chosen by Longreads . The Biden agenda from the New Yorker. Kim Philby by Malcolm Gladwell in the New Yorker. Miles O'Brien's PBS story about the ...

Ayn Rand Was Right

Do we exalt the John Galts and Howard Roarks among us or despise them? Do we admire the ultimate, self-centered and selfish capitalists or the selfless, self-sacrificing altruists? Oh sure there are the Martin Luther King, Jr.s and Mahatma Gandhis and Nelson Mandelas and Aung Sun Suu Kyis we like to point to as icons and worthy role models for our children. But look deeply and we find that we are obsessed with the wealthy. And who are the wealthy? Why do we let the Robert Rubins, Sandy Weills, Jakc Welchs, Jamie Dimons and their Wall St. brethren keep their millions? Because we consider that right and their right. Let alone the hedge fund people whose entire purpose is to become billionaires. How many people explicitly make life choices that will lead to a life of service -> not be a charlatan like Mother Teresa but just helping the underprivileged without trying to 'achieve' greatness by so doing. So Lance Armstrong and Greg Mortensen and the Evangelical Christ...