Suffocating The Pavagadh

i have always loved climbing hills. the Pavagadh hills are one of the many beautiful places in Gujarat. i enjoy climbing so much that i have visited it almost every year since last three years. it is with my friends mittal and kalpesh that we plan one day in the middle of the year. our plans are in fact the most short living and abrupt, the quality of making such fragile plans has come to us during our college days when every day was almost unplanned for us .a very distinguished thing about hills in India is that; none is left virgin.

Every hill top in india has a very common structure, a place of worship, that is visited by more that tens of thousands of people. i bet on one thing that Pavagadh was definitely more beautiful before 25 years form now. i havent see any picture of it. but the picture i see today is far from being beautiful.

every religious place in india literally stinks with all those pooja materials thrown into waters (that earlier were flowing but are now stagnant), or with the ghee spilled over places or with coconut water inviting flies and sweet prasad fallen on ground while feeding monkeys or rats or elephants.

here at pavagadh, i saw garbage dumped behind the market, full of plastics. polythene bags or water bottles. just anything you name. people come here with the expectation that god will solve their problems and in that process they unknowingly pollute mother earth that would furthur increase problems.

being from a tribal community, i always had this attachment towards woods and plants and nature. i know its not possible to completely stop anything wrong. but atleast dont throw plastics in national parks, jungles and hills with gods and godesses on top of them.

i guess if you are reading this, then you are educated enough not to do such things, but to prevent those who cannot read this blog is what remains to be done.

when i saw the plastic dumped atop the hills, a cartoon movie started runnnig though my mind wherein the whole pavagadh was getting covered with a giant plastic bag, slowly covering over it like a cloud, and finally the hill stops breathing inside that bag.

as if the pavagadh died of suffocation.

Engineering and the engineers of future

I have studied in a government engineering college and I am a lecturer in one now. So, I can at least say that I have seen a government organization good enough to have developed an opinion about it, both as a student and an employee of it.
Nothing much is left to say about technical education in Gujarat after an official report at national level has concluded that Gujarat’s teacher: student ratio in technical education is only better than UP in India. x
It doesn’t just stop at the ratio being sick, but even the very little amount of teaching staff that is left for engineering students here is also not “up to the mark”. Let’s leave out the “enthusiasm” part out of teaching presently, but even without enthusiasm for teaching, the teachers first have to develop enthusiasm for developing and sharpening oneself.
The picture is not very bad. There are examples of faculties who pursue higher studies and go on even to earn PhD from reputed institutions. There are always good stories to tell and inspiring examples around in every government organization.
The problem lies in the rest of the mass who is blind to such inspirational individuals. There are people who are worst at even managing people under them, but who still hold key position (mostly they demand it) so as to bully around. There are lecturers in government institution who are governments son in laws, (I hope u understand what I mean here, they are permanent employees) who don’t give a damn about what or how much knowledge have they imparted to future generation, or how much they themselves are ready to change with changing scenario of industry.
The labs for engineers are up to date with the equipments, the computer with the software. That is only because; all these things can be bought by paying for it, with warranty. But the odd thing is; how can you buy people with such “warranty”?
How can the government buy a lecturer who has the ability to transform a 12th pass student to an engineer?
My qualifications are not acceptable enough to make any reader believe that what I am talking here can be a solution to the problems. Some may find even difficult to see the problem itself. So if no one sees the problem, how can they accept a solution for one?
A student enrolled in Government College today expects a free life. I mean it, both literally and figuratively, they are freedom to attend/bunk class and freedom to attend/bunk labs. That’s it. I tired to figure out other kinds of freedom but nothing came to my mind. The fact is, students exercise one more freedom that has very bad impact on their future, even worst than bunking classes, and it’s the unguided and misinformed freedom of thoughts. Being a student, I never found all the lectures useful, most lectures were so useless that the Directorate of Technical Education here should give the subjects for self-study to students. (it is the subject named computer networks, the book is so well written, a lecture kills the joy of studying that subject).
So it is the thoughts; the minds of students have to be captured and guided. They need to find a way pretty early. Students today don’t want a theory to be taught in class, the same theory topic would pop up hundred pages on Google search. They are hungry for something that they are not always aware. So first they should be made curious and hungry so much that they should eat up and digest every though fed to them.
This requires skill; skill to make the students scuba dive into ocean of knowledge; to make him learn the art of inhaling the answers and exhaling the questions; It is never taught to anyone, it has to be developed. It needs the teacher to be constantly learning, improving and they very much – enthusiastic. The future engineers hence would be the result of enthusiasm of engineers of future – we the teachers.