Gold and Beautiful

A touchy subject, an important topic and very relevant these days! Recently I have known a few people who decided to move back and quite a few who are considering moving back to India. Opportunities are limitless... is what I hear. I also happened to read this interesting blog post . In this specific post he talks about money, but if you scroll down and read the comments you'll see tons of other issues discussed; everything from privacy (or lack of it) from nosy relatives to unreliable help and traffic and corruption and what not. In all these comments, I did not see anyone discuss work culture!!! I believe in "To each his own".... I am definitely not saying that any of the reasons discussed in those comments are less important, but as I read, I realized that people complained about traffic problems and long commutes and long work hours. So, if you are going to spend majority of your time at work (which makes the domestic help issue VERY relevant), then how can you not co...

I created a discussion activity for my students based on Google's recent exit from China. Each team was supposed to play a different role: Google, Microsoft and Chinese Govt and discuss various issues. Surprisingly, not a single student in a class of 20 thought that what Google did was ethically the right thing to do.... Who cares about censorship of information? They all unanimously agreed that losing money was a bad choice!!!

Do you know someone who always lifts your spirits, no matter what??? Suma aunty is one such person that I happen to know... Always cheerful. Also, reminds me so much of my mom!!! Persistent and hard working, "never say no" kind of personality and overall an individual who has lots to offer and lots to teach. I have never seen her tired or stressed, although I know how much she works (I stayed with them for a bit!!!)... She is full of energy and enthusiasm! Some people bring out the best in you, by just being around you....

We were watching Up In The Air last night and the sister's wedding scene got me thinking... Why do men get cold feet at their wedding?? What does that say about the guy?? Some possible answers include: the guy cannot handle responsibility and wants to avoid it the guy is indecisive and flaky the guy proposed for the wrong reasons in the first place the guy is a coward??? (seems a little too strong, but possible!!! maybe scared is more appropriate... just so that we don't insult someone :-)) Any of these reasons just by themselves should be enough to give the brides some jitters.... I mean seriously, if you are marrying a guy who decides to bail out (or thinks about bailing out) on you at the last minute, how can you hand over your life to him??? Shouldn't it be the women who get cold feet???

Friday is my grading day. At the end of the week, when I cannot do anything more productive, I grade. And it takes forever.... The amount of work I give my students is not insignificant. The worst part is if I want them to pay attention to anything, I have to give them points for that... and I hate it!!! Whatever happened to "knowledge for knowledge's sake"??? I mean, yes I wasn't an ideal student ever (maybe sometimes :-)) but there was at least something that interested me about everything. And I remember that in my school, we did assignments, wrote essays in class and did so much of in class work that did not count towards our final grade. Even then scoring highest points on each and every assignment was a must. I don't ever remember thinking "this is not necessary, it doesn't matter", etc... We would compete over whose essay/letter/story would be chosen to be read in front of the class. Even though that meant nothing for what your rank in class w...

For the past few days I have been thinking of Tracy. Tracy and I used to walk to campus together during our first year at GGC. He created a trail for us!!! Then he moved further away and the walks stopped. And then he left GGC and the country (I hope he is having fun!!!). Talking with Tracy was usually fun. Somehow he always managed to listen to some weird Indian stories on BBC. I couldn't believe that BBC wasted time on such stories :-) I also learned from him that only 11% of Indians had a Bachelor's education. I never verified it, but I trust Tracy. Just because I grew up in an overly competitive environment and there never seemed to be enough seats every year for professional degrees, doesn't mean every Indian is highly educated :-). Anyways, the first time I met Tracy was at our new faculty orientation at GGC (15 days of it... can you believe? as an international student nobody bothered to spend 15 days of their time on orienting me to their campus!!! Gotta luv GGC!!!...