Umm today my ramblings are going to be very less.....
What I wanted to do though......http://www.youtube.com/EmergencyCheese
The website has videos of my mentor from Georgetown analyzing the presidential campaigns. Its a nice little political geeky analysis. He was recently on CNN and the Post! So check it out and have fun! And yes I am very proud I was his mentee! He's a lot of fun...and here's his own website www.jameskotecki.com
Have Fun!
Shreya
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Sunday, March 25, 2007
God or no God? The worst that will happen is that I will die, but oh wait- I will be dying some day no matter what?
The reason I am talking about God today (yes surprising since I don't bring this topic up too
much), is because a friend of mine up at UTD made me read A Modest Proposal for anonymous reasons. One of the articles talked about how America would be a godless nation once the Democrats came to power in 2008. Since when did Liberalism become non-godism? Not that I am preaching that all of us should get down to our knees and acknowledging the existence of god(I am better off not doing it), but what gives one the right to say that deny his/her/its existence will be the doom of our existence? Here's another of my REALITY CHECKS- believing in god questions your inherent capabilities and also acquired skills. "Believe in yourself", its really not that hard! God exists or not is a whole different scenario! Go ahead and believe in him but don't shove it in my face or for that matter that of the others if we don't believe that. If it really were true that God was responsible for the happenings on earth, oh boy would we have actually had a different landscape! People would be EQUAL, opportunities would be EQUAL, hell life would be better. And if you(ardent believer in God) are denying this and saying that we create our own lives, then hell yes you are already contradicting yourself--> you make your own decisions, you are responsible for your sins, you are responsible for your good deeds. I am not asking you not be a God-believer, just stop hating me for questioning God's existence or rather not believing in God.
Shreya
The reason I am talking about God today (yes surprising since I don't bring this topic up too
much), is because a friend of mine up at UTD made me read A Modest Proposal for anonymous reasons. One of the articles talked about how America would be a godless nation once the Democrats came to power in 2008. Since when did Liberalism become non-godism? Not that I am preaching that all of us should get down to our knees and acknowledging the existence of god(I am better off not doing it), but what gives one the right to say that deny his/her/its existence will be the doom of our existence? Here's another of my REALITY CHECKS- believing in god questions your inherent capabilities and also acquired skills. "Believe in yourself", its really not that hard! God exists or not is a whole different scenario! Go ahead and believe in him but don't shove it in my face or for that matter that of the others if we don't believe that. If it really were true that God was responsible for the happenings on earth, oh boy would we have actually had a different landscape! People would be EQUAL, opportunities would be EQUAL, hell life would be better. And if you(ardent believer in God) are denying this and saying that we create our own lives, then hell yes you are already contradicting yourself--> you make your own decisions, you are responsible for your sins, you are responsible for your good deeds. I am not asking you not be a God-believer, just stop hating me for questioning God's existence or rather not believing in God.
Shreya
Saturday, March 24, 2007
The recent much-awaited exit of the Indian cricket team from World Cup 2007 (no sarcasm intended) brings me to be creative again. I love how failure gives us things to talk about. So yes a country with 1. whatever billion people and not to mention the rest who are stationed outside, all geared up to watch a disappointing finale (again). WASTE OF TIME and MONEY, and this is not coming from an economics major this is coming from anyone with a tad bit of common sense. All the hype for no good reason. Why do we even compete anymore? Just for some vicarious pleasure?
This brings me to my new definition of Indian democracy- CRICKETOCRACY. We are not a democracy anymore, we just vote for the hec of it. Had it been cricketers running for government, we would have 100% voter turnout. Don't smile at this, it doesnt seem too far when this is going to be true. Saurav Ganguly kicked out of the team! Result--> PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED!!! What the hell....Politicians are discussing why he should be on the team and not how to eradicate that ever lasting poverty rural India has found itself for god knows how many years. Power play never has and never will get us anywhere...Cricket my friend has become a power play. And whats this all about killing yourself over their loss? You weren't part of it! If someone should feel guilty it should be the team and not you, so save your life and live it. Don't give it away for no good reason, especially if its something called SPORTS! And what's this new thing about two teams? One seniors and one for the newbees! We seriously need some other distraction in India. Find one, or induce one! Its pathetically ridiculous. Why cannot we flow this sort of unwanted attention to the greater part of the economy? Crores of money spent towards nothingness! And little attention towards the shaking foundation of a nation's mixed economy.
Shreya
This brings me to my new definition of Indian democracy- CRICKETOCRACY. We are not a democracy anymore, we just vote for the hec of it. Had it been cricketers running for government, we would have 100% voter turnout. Don't smile at this, it doesnt seem too far when this is going to be true. Saurav Ganguly kicked out of the team! Result--> PARLIAMENT ADJOURNED!!! What the hell....Politicians are discussing why he should be on the team and not how to eradicate that ever lasting poverty rural India has found itself for god knows how many years. Power play never has and never will get us anywhere...Cricket my friend has become a power play. And whats this all about killing yourself over their loss? You weren't part of it! If someone should feel guilty it should be the team and not you, so save your life and live it. Don't give it away for no good reason, especially if its something called SPORTS! And what's this new thing about two teams? One seniors and one for the newbees! We seriously need some other distraction in India. Find one, or induce one! Its pathetically ridiculous. Why cannot we flow this sort of unwanted attention to the greater part of the economy? Crores of money spent towards nothingness! And little attention towards the shaking foundation of a nation's mixed economy.
Shreya
Monday, March 19, 2007
So the day after break as usual half the college is TRYING to get back on track. But thats a whole different ball game. As I picked up my dose of The Daily Cougar, my saving grace during boring classes since it has Sudoku and the Crossword, something very regular during this time of the year caught my eye. "SFAC report: increase fees" This is an oft repeated headline during spring semester since the University works on the budget. SFAC, for those of you who are wondering what it is, is the Student Fees Advisory Committee. They have proposed a 5.11% increase in the fees. While this might seem not too much to a few of you, imagine a University with more than 30,000 students and wonder how much revenue that would increase. Still guessing- its going to be a whopping $687,516. The first time I read it, I went oh my gosh, these undergrads next year are going to be oblivious to what hit them, and was delighted about the fact that I wouldn't be in that situation anymore since I was graduating. But then it hit me that I was still going to be a student in some University and was going to have to bear that brunt wouldn't I?
Here's my question. Why is it that all of the revenue making policies are guided towards students? It's not like we are making money like the faculty and staff. Almost all of us are on some loans of sorts. The more the tuition and fees increase the more we have to bear the brunt. The chair of SFAC expressed his regret towards not being able to curb the rise, but that is not going to help. We hear the same whine every single time, and we have always seen atleast 5% rise in the fees, to do what? Increase the number of buildings, give faculty and staff the pay raise they get every year? Yes faculty and staff get some sort of a rise, some bonus sort of situation! Ask them to donate to fund raising groups on campus, and a few handful will be glad to do it.
EDUCATION HAS BECOME A BUSINESS (those of you are denying this fact, you need some SERIOUS reality check) and it is irrespective of where the educational institution, which is one of thre reasons I have begun to hate the whole institution of learning, atleast the way we are used to it these days. If you can pretty much base a school/college and charge the students, you are on your way to having a decent amount of moolah. You cannot get a degree if you learn by yourself, since you weren't part of a reputed school. What the hell does a college/university have to do with your degree- all they do is basically guide you. If you really had the will and urge to learn, you would do it by yourself. Yes I am being cynical about the situation, but can you blame me? We go to school/college since its the thing to do. A typical question-" What would you be doing otherwise?"- my answer to that- Living life the way it should be lived. I can learn when I want to, when I dont want to. And more over why does learning have to be only through books? Explore the world and you will learn more, I promise. Which is one of the reasons I loved D.C. All those conversations I had with people, helped me "find" myself.
They say that life is a vicious cycle- what goes around comes around? But this present system of education defies all norms. If saying that one fine day, us sucking out the marrow of money from the students is our payback, then I have to say that it is sick! Us kids today are scared of education- we just hate to admit it since we are all part of it. Will save it for later!
Shreya
Here's my question. Why is it that all of the revenue making policies are guided towards students? It's not like we are making money like the faculty and staff. Almost all of us are on some loans of sorts. The more the tuition and fees increase the more we have to bear the brunt. The chair of SFAC expressed his regret towards not being able to curb the rise, but that is not going to help. We hear the same whine every single time, and we have always seen atleast 5% rise in the fees, to do what? Increase the number of buildings, give faculty and staff the pay raise they get every year? Yes faculty and staff get some sort of a rise, some bonus sort of situation! Ask them to donate to fund raising groups on campus, and a few handful will be glad to do it.
EDUCATION HAS BECOME A BUSINESS (those of you are denying this fact, you need some SERIOUS reality check) and it is irrespective of where the educational institution, which is one of thre reasons I have begun to hate the whole institution of learning, atleast the way we are used to it these days. If you can pretty much base a school/college and charge the students, you are on your way to having a decent amount of moolah. You cannot get a degree if you learn by yourself, since you weren't part of a reputed school. What the hell does a college/university have to do with your degree- all they do is basically guide you. If you really had the will and urge to learn, you would do it by yourself. Yes I am being cynical about the situation, but can you blame me? We go to school/college since its the thing to do. A typical question-" What would you be doing otherwise?"- my answer to that- Living life the way it should be lived. I can learn when I want to, when I dont want to. And more over why does learning have to be only through books? Explore the world and you will learn more, I promise. Which is one of the reasons I loved D.C. All those conversations I had with people, helped me "find" myself.
They say that life is a vicious cycle- what goes around comes around? But this present system of education defies all norms. If saying that one fine day, us sucking out the marrow of money from the students is our payback, then I have to say that it is sick! Us kids today are scared of education- we just hate to admit it since we are all part of it. Will save it for later!
Shreya
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
(Having lived in India for 13 years, I have seen India "progress" through the years, and visiting India last December after a mere span of three and a half years, it definitely shocked these pair of eyes)
I was reading Atanu Dey's blog on India's Development, and this one particular post about Employment vs. Production got me thinking- so what is India essentially doing wrong? We've been hearing that the country is a developing country, but for how long? I know this is not an easy task with a population of 1.04 billion and still counting, but we should be doing something right to show hope to these people, or is it too much to ask(and here's where my free traders hate me, since I am trying to be fair)? To sum up what Dey was saying (and I could have misconstrued it) was that India needs to start focusing more on production rather than employing people for a while since only with increased production will we have increased output to distribute to the people to help the country in general develop more. Agreed! Sounds like a good plan (and no sarcasm intended whatsoever), but in a country with such a huge population with an ever increasing work force, how do we solve the problem of employment? We talk about enhancing the IT sector to push the economy towards being more organized, but then what are we going to do with the unemployed? (I know this is a circular problem where a clear cut solution is not possible, lets consider for a while that we are all in a Devil's Advocate situation, or atleast I am).
As banal as this might sound, why is creation of jobs a forgotten concept? Didn't FDR do it when the US was spiraling downwards during the Great Depression? FDR's motto- "Find some job". If not the sole reason, it did help bring the nation back on track. And how much of this employment drain is due to outsourcing of jobs into India? Is specialization just another trait that needs to be forgotten, or is it needed even more so that we can screen the all rounders and make monotonic workers? Is finding something to do and getting paid minimum wage that hard to do in such a big country? Like I said, I am all for advancing tech and R&D, but what about those people who get replaced by hi-fi computers, by machines that INCREASE production in a matter of minutes? We definitely have to find them some decent replacement, or maybe we could start giving them unemployment insurance? Well then again, we are going to have some serious drain on the funds, because a work force this large, with so many unemployed is going to chew away those funds in no time!
So yes, what is India doing wrong? India Shining went down the hills like a setting sun, never to shine again! It doesn't seem like we have an economic policy that is going to help the poor rise from the ashes! We talk about Africa being under a poverty trap, I think we need to look in our own yard first. We have a huge population that is living under the poverty trap. But no matter what we do, the middle class has been and will be paying the price for a while. Every bit of their hardwork, either goes to helping the downtrodden or surviving themselves or making up for the mistakes that the rich have committed? Do we stop insourcing or augment it? Multinationals have been gaining increased access into the country, but other than increasing consumerism, aka, materialism, I don't see any util of their investment. (Again, please correct me if I am wrong in this analysis!) We are all about the cliche ideas, but implementing them is way out of the league. We are always competing but never stepping back and looking back if any of our policies are working or not. A couple of people the other day were mentioning how India had grown 9% in GDP, but completely forgot to mention the 5.6% inflation that India faced in the last quarter! An alarming fact but completely forgotten, since we are trying to mask the flaws~ the number of chain mails I receive saying India is going to be a super power by 2015 or something (the year keeps changing everyday), it drives me nuts. Poverty is not going to run away in the next 8 years, its a near impossible task~ be it allowing the markets to work on their own or have government intervention. You cannot be a super power if over 30% of your population is under shackles. You need to bring the people be at a comparable range of standard of living. 2015 or 202o is nuts for that matter. Its like the Millennium Development Goals wishing that by 2015 all of the poverty is going to be washed away like it were some dirt that was stubborn and thats it. No! Thats not how it works! But that is a different story all together!
I am actually running out of things to say, and am sorry if this all seems incoherent, but like I mentioned before these are ramblings but with due thought in them. So bear with it please.
Later
Shreya
I was reading Atanu Dey's blog on India's Development, and this one particular post about Employment vs. Production got me thinking- so what is India essentially doing wrong? We've been hearing that the country is a developing country, but for how long? I know this is not an easy task with a population of 1.04 billion and still counting, but we should be doing something right to show hope to these people, or is it too much to ask(and here's where my free traders hate me, since I am trying to be fair)? To sum up what Dey was saying (and I could have misconstrued it) was that India needs to start focusing more on production rather than employing people for a while since only with increased production will we have increased output to distribute to the people to help the country in general develop more. Agreed! Sounds like a good plan (and no sarcasm intended whatsoever), but in a country with such a huge population with an ever increasing work force, how do we solve the problem of employment? We talk about enhancing the IT sector to push the economy towards being more organized, but then what are we going to do with the unemployed? (I know this is a circular problem where a clear cut solution is not possible, lets consider for a while that we are all in a Devil's Advocate situation, or atleast I am).
As banal as this might sound, why is creation of jobs a forgotten concept? Didn't FDR do it when the US was spiraling downwards during the Great Depression? FDR's motto- "Find some job". If not the sole reason, it did help bring the nation back on track. And how much of this employment drain is due to outsourcing of jobs into India? Is specialization just another trait that needs to be forgotten, or is it needed even more so that we can screen the all rounders and make monotonic workers? Is finding something to do and getting paid minimum wage that hard to do in such a big country? Like I said, I am all for advancing tech and R&D, but what about those people who get replaced by hi-fi computers, by machines that INCREASE production in a matter of minutes? We definitely have to find them some decent replacement, or maybe we could start giving them unemployment insurance? Well then again, we are going to have some serious drain on the funds, because a work force this large, with so many unemployed is going to chew away those funds in no time!
So yes, what is India doing wrong? India Shining went down the hills like a setting sun, never to shine again! It doesn't seem like we have an economic policy that is going to help the poor rise from the ashes! We talk about Africa being under a poverty trap, I think we need to look in our own yard first. We have a huge population that is living under the poverty trap. But no matter what we do, the middle class has been and will be paying the price for a while. Every bit of their hardwork, either goes to helping the downtrodden or surviving themselves or making up for the mistakes that the rich have committed? Do we stop insourcing or augment it? Multinationals have been gaining increased access into the country, but other than increasing consumerism, aka, materialism, I don't see any util of their investment. (Again, please correct me if I am wrong in this analysis!) We are all about the cliche ideas, but implementing them is way out of the league. We are always competing but never stepping back and looking back if any of our policies are working or not. A couple of people the other day were mentioning how India had grown 9% in GDP, but completely forgot to mention the 5.6% inflation that India faced in the last quarter! An alarming fact but completely forgotten, since we are trying to mask the flaws~ the number of chain mails I receive saying India is going to be a super power by 2015 or something (the year keeps changing everyday), it drives me nuts. Poverty is not going to run away in the next 8 years, its a near impossible task~ be it allowing the markets to work on their own or have government intervention. You cannot be a super power if over 30% of your population is under shackles. You need to bring the people be at a comparable range of standard of living. 2015 or 202o is nuts for that matter. Its like the Millennium Development Goals wishing that by 2015 all of the poverty is going to be washed away like it were some dirt that was stubborn and thats it. No! Thats not how it works! But that is a different story all together!
I am actually running out of things to say, and am sorry if this all seems incoherent, but like I mentioned before these are ramblings but with due thought in them. So bear with it please.
Later
Shreya
Monday, March 12, 2007
If someone said travelling was tiring, waste of time and money, that person is completely out of their mind. Yes it is tiring, I mean how can it not be, but it is definitely worth it. No matter where you go, you need to embrace its existence. Be it a small town, a big town. Everytime I go somewhere, I learn something, well that would be an exaggeration but it definitely gives me a different outlook to life.
I was at San Antonio and Austin this past Sunday. I know two cities in one day but it was awesome! My friend from back home, now a Sun Devils (hehehe Krak had to put it in there), was down in Houston and it was fun! We were reminiscing old school days back home and boy o boy, was it something. We go through these stories every time we talk, but it never seems to grow old. It was definitely a good weekend.
Was in Longhorn Land for about an hour! And boy was I thinking about what would have happened if I were there. Krak, his dad and I were walking through UT land on a day of spring break, and both of us in unison go "Where are the geeks?"- to which Krak came out with a great but very strong answer- " Go back home and look into the mirror, you will find them"... So it got me to thinking, we are geeks on campus arent we? The more I deny it, the more someone or the other points it at me. I have to thank Annie for de-geeking me since I met her....That girl is crazy....Oh yea Annie used to be part of Longhorn Land, before she moved to Cougar Land. So yea before that all I had was school-work-home-school-work-home..and the same routine over and over again. Until Fall 2005, when I met these wonderful crazy people in Linear Algebra, aka, misery. We got to be such great friends, it was perfect. I am so glad we've been friends for a long time now. I might be the youngest among them, but they definitely de-geek me like I said.
So yea I think I have de-geeked myself now too, since I am procrastinating during this spring break...even though I wake up every morning going...I need to do something and then some friend either from India or wherever the time difference is more than 6 hrs, pops up online and talks to me and I forget my misery of being a workaholic. And yes I have been sleeping more than 5 hrs, isnt that awesome?
Oh well I have run out of things to ramble about...
Later!
Shreya
I was at San Antonio and Austin this past Sunday. I know two cities in one day but it was awesome! My friend from back home, now a Sun Devils (hehehe Krak had to put it in there), was down in Houston and it was fun! We were reminiscing old school days back home and boy o boy, was it something. We go through these stories every time we talk, but it never seems to grow old. It was definitely a good weekend.
Was in Longhorn Land for about an hour! And boy was I thinking about what would have happened if I were there. Krak, his dad and I were walking through UT land on a day of spring break, and both of us in unison go "Where are the geeks?"- to which Krak came out with a great but very strong answer- " Go back home and look into the mirror, you will find them"... So it got me to thinking, we are geeks on campus arent we? The more I deny it, the more someone or the other points it at me. I have to thank Annie for de-geeking me since I met her....That girl is crazy....Oh yea Annie used to be part of Longhorn Land, before she moved to Cougar Land. So yea before that all I had was school-work-home-school-work-home..and the same routine over and over again. Until Fall 2005, when I met these wonderful crazy people in Linear Algebra, aka, misery. We got to be such great friends, it was perfect. I am so glad we've been friends for a long time now. I might be the youngest among them, but they definitely de-geek me like I said.
So yea I think I have de-geeked myself now too, since I am procrastinating during this spring break...even though I wake up every morning going...I need to do something and then some friend either from India or wherever the time difference is more than 6 hrs, pops up online and talks to me and I forget my misery of being a workaholic. And yes I have been sleeping more than 5 hrs, isnt that awesome?
Oh well I have run out of things to ramble about...
Later!
Shreya
Saturday, March 10, 2007
So I wake up on this bright and beautiful Saturday morning hoping, and I mean really hoping that I would not have to do anything that fits in the definition of productive work. But most definitely that could never be true for moi. I had to do so much cleaning, it wasn't even close to being funny anymore. Fungus in the food- yes explain to me that one. How/ when it happened, I have no idea at all. So I am sitting there thinking how to tackle the situation, as if there is some CIA stuff involved in it. But I think I have been successful enough to leave the kitchen smiling....and what's the dealio with laundry....Does it have to be that much....seriously!!!!! Well enough said about my chore choke
I am trying to find something to talk about today and I think I am going to boast/whine about graduation a little more today. I got a letter yesterday in the mail, saying that I have been nominated to be a student commencement speaker , so I have to enter this competition and might actually end up speaking in front of a lot of people. Am not counting on it, but the thought of it kinda sounds nice. So if the university has recognized me after all these years, I mean come on, can no good school recognize me either? Yes I am a 20 year old graduating in three years, but that doesnt mean you can reject me because I am that young. So if I stayed in school another 4 years, meaning a total of 7 years, graduated with a GPA of 3.5 or above, changed majors n number of times, and then finally decided to do something, accumulated all the loans I could have, then maybe I would have had a better chance at getting into a good school? Irony of life....and I hate to put that cliche there, but apparently it is true. You cannot be good enough until you have seen failure. Wow! I am impressed with the double standards!
Spring break has officially started, which means I am mastering the art of SLEEP!!!!!!! So good luck to me on that
Shreya
I am trying to find something to talk about today and I think I am going to boast/whine about graduation a little more today. I got a letter yesterday in the mail, saying that I have been nominated to be a student commencement speaker , so I have to enter this competition and might actually end up speaking in front of a lot of people. Am not counting on it, but the thought of it kinda sounds nice. So if the university has recognized me after all these years, I mean come on, can no good school recognize me either? Yes I am a 20 year old graduating in three years, but that doesnt mean you can reject me because I am that young. So if I stayed in school another 4 years, meaning a total of 7 years, graduated with a GPA of 3.5 or above, changed majors n number of times, and then finally decided to do something, accumulated all the loans I could have, then maybe I would have had a better chance at getting into a good school? Irony of life....and I hate to put that cliche there, but apparently it is true. You cannot be good enough until you have seen failure. Wow! I am impressed with the double standards!
Spring break has officially started, which means I am mastering the art of SLEEP!!!!!!! So good luck to me on that
Shreya
Friday, March 09, 2007
Oh my gosh! So I finally recovered my account details and everything and am back to blogging.
So a lot has gone down since the last time I on wrote here (as is expected). The big news is I am graduating this semester!!! Yes finally, even though that seems like an irony since I am finishing a year early and should not be using the word finally. It's so nice to realize that you are actually finishing one part of your life. But the other side to this coin- trying to figure out what to do next, is definitely a brain hutter. I am currently in this spot where I don't know if I want to go to graduate school and be a 24 year old with a PhD and no work experience or go into the work field and go back to school after a while. Oh well! These kinds of things are most definitely frustrating but I guess you have to live out of it.
I did apply to graduate schools. Got a conditional acceptance from Oxford- yes the one in England, and not the one in Tennessee, USA. The condition being that I have to have a certain GPA by the time I graduate, and guess how off I am ......done guessing? I am off by 27/1000 of a point. I hate them for it, but I guess it gives me added incentive to study during this last semester! Brown University (up in Rhode Island) and Columbia University (New York :) ) have skillfully rejected me. So this week has been going worse than usual. Surviving it though....atleast I have convinced myself about it.
But I have to go now since I am at work (and hardly working).
I promise I will be updating this place like crazy from now on!!!
Take care!
Adios
Shreya
So a lot has gone down since the last time I on wrote here (as is expected). The big news is I am graduating this semester!!! Yes finally, even though that seems like an irony since I am finishing a year early and should not be using the word finally. It's so nice to realize that you are actually finishing one part of your life. But the other side to this coin- trying to figure out what to do next, is definitely a brain hutter. I am currently in this spot where I don't know if I want to go to graduate school and be a 24 year old with a PhD and no work experience or go into the work field and go back to school after a while. Oh well! These kinds of things are most definitely frustrating but I guess you have to live out of it.
I did apply to graduate schools. Got a conditional acceptance from Oxford- yes the one in England, and not the one in Tennessee, USA. The condition being that I have to have a certain GPA by the time I graduate, and guess how off I am ......done guessing? I am off by 27/1000 of a point. I hate them for it, but I guess it gives me added incentive to study during this last semester! Brown University (up in Rhode Island) and Columbia University (New York :) ) have skillfully rejected me. So this week has been going worse than usual. Surviving it though....atleast I have convinced myself about it.
But I have to go now since I am at work (and hardly working).
I promise I will be updating this place like crazy from now on!!!
Take care!
Adios
Shreya
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