The Encounter

CHIRAYU GOEL
ENGLISH HONS | IInd Year.

The first encounter between the naked, brown

skinned, alien natives of the New World and
Christopher Columbus has come to be called
the Encounter. The upper-case E in the
epithet aptly reveals the importance of this
event in human history. The voyages of
Columbus and subsequent events directly
related to it have been given many meanings:
the discovery of a new world, the first step in
the direction of world conquest and
domination, but the theme that is embedded
into astonishing depth in the Encounter, is
that of religion.

To my understanding, the voyages of Columbus marked the

inception of a new worldview. The people, or at least the ones
who could understand, did not see the world simply in terms of
earth, water and sky anymore; what they saw now was a
labyrinth of astonishing and unsolvable mystery. The world was
incessantly keeping secrets from them, and was challenging
them to unravel these secrets. There had suddenly dropped
into common sense the idea of the undiscovered. But the
rush of adventurers venturing to remote and fantastical parts of
earth was not restricted to the great ambition of world
discovery; who can say that the motive of expanding territory
and conquering an unowned world was not implicit. But also
was implicit the universal motif of religion.

Columbus set sail on 9 September, 1492, from Canary Islands in the south of Spain. I
dare not question the immense inspiration Columbus had drawn from the accounts of
Marco Polo of his travels to the East. It is only fair to consider that he had truly been
haunted by the desire to discover and explore. But there is a chain of events that must also
be considered in context of his first voyage. Queen Isabelle II of Castile and King Ferdinand
of Aragon had completed in January of the same year their Reconquest. This was a
mission to convert the entire Iberian Peninsula to Christianity, which came to a closure with

their reconquest of Granada. On 31 March 1492, the couple issued the Edict of Expulsion,
an ultimatum for all Jews in their domain to convert to Christianity by 31 July, 1492, or be
expelled. Whether or not Columbus motive behind the voyage was purely in the spirit of
discovery, his patrons, Isabelle and Ferdinand, were loyal agents and protectors of the
Roman Catholic Church, and it doesnt take much thinking before you realise that the
voyage might just have been an extension to the mission of the Reconquest.

How and why Columbus reached the

New World instead of the East he had
originally ventured toward is not a concern
of this article. What does concern us is
what Columbus saw when he finally set
foot on Watling Islands of the Bahamas on
12 October, 1492, the place which, to his
estimation, should have been the coast of
China.
Columbus encountered beings whose
skin was neither white nor black, the
colour of Canary Islands. From the outset,
he had tried to fit the new people into
categories and definitions already existing
in Western European common knowledge.

Through the lens he brought from home,

Columbus saw not people that could have
an independent culture and existence, but
beings that were not European, and
essentially, not Christian. Conversion to
Christianity was a major objective, but a
case can certainly be made not against the
religious, but the religion itself. The conquest
of the world to bring faith to the ignorant,
other than an elitist justification of a
tyrannical venture, to some extent, might
have been simple adherence to religion.
Then, the message of conquest comes not
from a monarch or conquistador, but from
the Book of Genesis.

It is hard to believe the extent to which the Book of Genesis has shaped our existence.
As a direct result of the conquest and hegemony of the European, Christian nations on
almost the entire world, today we have a universal, roughly similar, Christian pattern of
living. Ever wonder why a week ends on Sunday, why we follow the Gregorian calendar,
notwithstanding if we belong to a Christian culture or not. The way society around the world
works is a result of the European Empire owning half the world for a few centuries, and the
European conceptualisation of society is drawn directly from the Book of Genesis. The
relationship between man and woman, the relationship between brothers, how society is
supposed to function in general, is taught, and ingrained in the psyche of the European
people by the stories in the Book of Genesis. Since Christians set a paradigm value to the
word of Genesis, it being a religious text, a society that does not function like the society
they know, is not a society at all. It is chaos.

On his subsequent voyages to this new world, Columbus brought along Christian priests,
to find out if the beings had a religion or not. Due to the same conceptualisation derived
from a religious text, the Europeans could not imagine a people without religion.

Even the pagans had had religion. To the explorers, religion was irremovable from man. It
is with this assumption that they approached the new beings. After learning their language,

the stories and myths they heard of the past of these beings were incestuous, barbaric, and
completely alien to their concept of society. Not having their version of society and the
concept of worship was likened to living in disorder. These beings were living in chaos and
obviously needed to be taught. Their concept of society was the only one they imagined
could exist, and it was given to them by Genesis. The one who did not know it was clearly
ignorant.

The new world that Columbus encountered

There was virtually no reason for conflict.
was apparently prelapsarian. The new
To the Europeans, this should have been
beings were naked, and didnt think it was
Eden on Earth. But the prelapsarian were
odd. They were Eve, ignorant of the flaw
neither white, nor blonde, nor blue-eyed.
in being naked, before eating the Apple of
They did not look like angels or God. It was
Wisdom. These beings, if a parallel be
concluded that these were an obvious
drawn, were still waiting for wisdom. The
pseudo-prelapsarian anomaly in the
answer is clear. The beings must be
postlapsarian world. Since man came to
taught and brought to wisdom, as is the
be on Earth after the Original Sin in the first
lot of man. To the Europeans, these
place, these beings were sinful humans,
beings preceded Original Sin. They had
only they hadnt yet been initiated in the
n o c o n c e p t o f p r i v a t e p ro p e r t y,
Cycle of Penance. Initiation into this Cycle
possession, I and Mine. Everybody
was coterminous with conversion.
used everything, nobody owned anything.

The purpose of this article is not to defend the

conquests and conversions as a truly devout Christian
mission, that the Europeans were actually sincere when
they said they were bringing faith to the ignorant; this
article is meant to mourn. We must mourn the passing
of an encounter with religion, where we could have
studied it, understood it as something marvellous that
could procreate the very fabric of society, and convert
the cognition of man; something which truly ran skin
deep and into the subconscious, and not just a force of
division, and the easiest provocation for genocide.

Mans association with religion has deprived us of discovering what religion truly was.

REPORT
WHISTLEBLOWER CASE STUDY |

Akshita Sharma | Chemistry

Whistleblowers
Protection Act
In 2004, the Supreme Court
pressed the government after
noticing the murder of
whistleblower like Satyendra
Dubey who disclosed the
corruption in the Golden
Quadrilateral Project in 2003.
It was actually introduced in
August 2010 and took years to
get passed. After various
amendments, the Whistle
blower protection Act was
passed in Lok Sabha in 2011
and in Rajya Sabha on
February 21, 2014. The Rajya
Sabha passed the bill after
some amendments but the
amendments were not moved
as the discussion took place on
the last day of the 15th Lok
Sabha. The Whistleblowers
Protection (Amendment) Bill,
2015 was introduced in Lok
Sabha on May 11, 2015 and
passed in that House on May
13, 2015. The Bill amends the
Whistleblowers Protection Act,
2014.
The Act provides a mechanism
for receiving and inquiring into
public interest disclosures
against acts of corruption,
wilful misuse of power or
discretion, or criminal offences
by public servants. The Bill
prohibits the reporting of a
corruption related disclosure if
it falls under any 10 categories
of information.

Last week, Eric Scott Hunsader ofWinnetka ,U.S.A was

awarded a whooping $750,000 sum of money. Before any
speculations, he didnt win Who wants to be Millionaire? but
actually disclosed the violations of security laws in the New
York Stock Exchange in 2010. The authenticity of the reports
he presented was confirmed this month. NYSE was fined as
they used to price data to customers who paid for proprietary
feeds a few seconds before it shared them on the feeds used
by the public.
In India, Danish Kumar in 2013 exposed that the Ranbaxys
medicines are not going through proper safety and quality
tests and risking peoples lives. Ranbaxy, then the largest drug
maker, also presented false information to Food and Drug
Administration (FDA). Ranbaxy was held guilty and was
heavily fined.
Dr. Anand Rai, who uncovered the Vyapam Scam, the
infamous scandal which has claimed 36 lives in which
undeserving candidates were selected for recruitment in
government jobs and colleges in the Madhya Pradesh.

Earlier, the CVC was the designated

agency to receive complaints from
whistleblowers under the Public
Interest Disclosure and Protection of
Informer resolution (PIDPI).
The Department of Personnel and
Training (DoPT) had directed all
central government departments to
designate a nodal officer in each
ministry to look into complaints
o f c o r r u p t i o n r e c e i v e d f r o m
whistleblowers under PIDPI.
This is handled by the ministry of
Personnel, Public Grievances and
Pensions.
Loopholes in the Whistleblower
Protection Act 2015:
The bill puts number of conditions
and limitation regarding the
complaints filed by a whistleblower.
The person will be sentenced of two
year imprisonment and also penalty
upto Rs.20,000 will put up if the
complaint is found to be false and
dubious.
Also, there is a certain time limit to
bring complaint. The person has
seven years to bring complaints,
dating from the time the alleged
corrupt practices occurred. Various
people had the opinion that the bill
balanced two conflicting interests. On
one hand, it provided for filing of
complaints and on the other hand, it
put penalties to prevent unnecessary
defamation and harassment of public
servants.
Apart from this, the act doesnt give
protection to the whistleblowers as it
lacks criminal charges and penalties
on physical attacks on whistleblowers.
In the bill, the word victimisation is
left for interpretation. There are no
provisions for corporate
whistleblowing.
The bill does not deal in providing
financial incentives to the
whistleblowers.
Whistle blower in India is in a
miserable condition. As per records,
whistle blowers
face innumerous
problems including mistreatment
from other employees, suspension
from the organization and in some
cases even sacrifice of life.
It is high time the government
considers the bill again and reviews it
to make it stronger so that
whistleblowers work fearlessly to
uncover corrupt, illegal activities.

If we pay attention to the above cases, there is a similarity

between them. All these people above mentioned have
revealed the unlawful activities going on inside a private or
public organisation. Not to beat around the bush, they are
whistleblowers. The term was coined by Ralph Nader in order
to have positive connotation to the word for informers gossipmongers.The term has existed for years but now it has
got figurative use. In other words, whistle blowing could be
defined as raising a concern over any wrong doing or misdeed
in any organisation, but the concern must be a genuine one
about crime, criminal oence, miscarriage of justice, dangers
to health and safety and of the environment and the cover up
of any of these.

Recognition of Whistleblowers
Through the two corporate scandals - Enron and Worldcom, Sheron
Watkins and Cynthia Coopers drew attention at an international level.
Afterwards whistle blowing gained a lot of recognition as fraud and
embezzlement of the two big corporate giants came into full light. The
whistle was blown by two gutsy ladies. In the wake of the collapse of Enron,
WorldComthe telecommunications giantcollapsed and succumbed to
$41 billion of debt. On July 19, 2002 the Company was forced to file for
Chapter 11 bankruptcy and seek protection from its creditors. Amidst the
string of SEC investigation into telecommunication companies emerged a
hero, Cynthia Cooper, whose careful detective work as an internal auditor
at WorldCom exposed some of the accounting irregularities behind the
greatest accounting fraud in U.S. history.
In India, Y.M. Kale was the first Chartered Accountant who blew the
whistle against the leading business group Tata Finance Limited. He
presented 904 pages of report which questioned the financial irregularities
going in the firm in august 2002. However he could not get the glamour
that Sharon Watkins gained in USA. Rather he was forced to resign from
the job.

THE

RIGHT

SIDE

OF
THINGS

Has the prime minister failed hindus?

Harsh Jaitak | Maths | IIIrd Year

We have been recently subject to a spate of hilarious harangues accusing Prime

Minister Narendra Modi of being disconnected from the people and that
loonies are representing it on social media and fringe members are dishing
out absurd and offensive statements.
One is left wondering whether the elimination of the idea of corruption which had
become synonymous with governance under the UPA, the time bound
electrification of all of Indias villages, financial inclusion through Jan Dhan,
unprecedented focus on agriculture through crop insurance, Direct Benefit
Transfer (DBT) preventing subsidy leakages and the planned massive
infrastructure and development from road to rail occurred in some other
continent.
Reading or viewing exclusively that form of old media which elevates (often
spurious) news of Hindutva) intolerance as front page headlines, while often
almost censoring the tectonic developmental initiatives, does provide such an
impression though.
A few economic liberals who are condescending, and non-ideologically if not
opportunistically sided with the BJP, waste their limited influence by reinforcing
such dominant media stereotypes. They perceive their support wasted as the
Modi government refuses to sufficiently engage and compromise with certain
corrupt opposition in passing their desired economic legislation (like GST) and
neither does the government carry out disinvestment initiatives unlike
Vajpayees time.
Yet, I do admit PM Modi has been a profound failure. Under his powerful watch,
BJP and Sangh Parivar leaders have been killed with impunity across the
country by political and ideological rivals.
Hindu animal right activists like Prashant Poojari have been murdered for
protesting against illegal cattle smuggling. A Hindu teenager Sawan Dharma
Rathod was murdered allegedly by members of another religious community
only for being Hindu. A 27-year-old RSS worker Sujith was brutally hacked to
death in front of his aged parents in Kannur district in Kerala. Even as I write this
piece, it is being reported that a Biju, a BJP worker in Kerala was hacked by
deadly CPM goons and is fighting for his life in the hospital.
The PM, to the disappointment of the millions of Hindutva adherents who
constitute the core vote of the party, has not offered any solace, any personal
words of comfort or security to the Hindus in many parts of India who face everyday, existential threats of religious violence. But the secular cabal expects the
PM to apologise on behalf of all Hindus for the rare and isolated instance of
Hindu intolerance.
Those who are expecting the PM to forcefully silence the fears and
apprehensions of subaltern Hindus, who are unable to articulate their anguish
against the betrayal of their idea of India with anything other than
unsophisticated, rustic and provocative vocabulary, have double standards. That
the sub-alters will have to remain mute to seditious and anti-Hindu slogans at
university campuses by students funded at the taxpayers expense is unjust and
unacceptable.
While there should be no place for violent intimidations in civilised public
discourse, the Indian PM is no more responsible for random outbursts from
individuals whether remotely connected to the party with a 10 crore membership
with each licensed with their own sense of freedom of expression. Is the US
president held morally accountable for hate crimes or gun shootings in the US?
Or the UK PM for the creation of ISIS Jihadists among British citizenry due to
politics of appeasement in the garb of fighting Islamophobia.

THE

RIGHT

SIDE

OF
THINGS

Modi, BJP and Hindu bashing on the internet, especially social media, has
reached epidemic proportions. Pro-Hindu ideologues often face legal wrath and
threats from their secular ideological adversaries, often resorting to venomous
intimidation secured by their sense of privileged proximity to the power elite in
media and politics. The ironical helplessness of a so called authoritarian
government tolerating sadistic media elements who have resorted to an
unprecedented wave of calumny and falsehood presumably emboldened by
absence of any punitive repercussions has not saved it from the occasional
charge of fascism.
Islamists and the secular fundamentalists have used and misused colonial era,
section 153-A and 295-C of the IPC construed against hate speech for
effectively throttling criticism of Islamism and Muslim personal law from the
public discourse.
Under Modi Raj, in the Congress ruled state of Karnataka, Hindus have been
arrested for mocking Islamist tyrants like Tipu Sultan who destroyed hundreds, if
not thousands of Hindu temples or even merely questioning the fundamental
tenets of Christianity. In contrast, the abuse directed against Hindu religion and
its dharmic universe through appeals to unfettered freedom of expression has
continued unabated under this so called Hindu nationalist government.
The perverse attack on Goddess Durga by the leftists in academia and media
through appeals to alternative readings and the deafening silence of the PM for
whom the goddess represents a patron deity for whom he fasts by abstinence
from all but water on the nine days of the auspicious nine nights of Navratri
remains an enduring paradox.
Similarly, last year, on the occasion of the Hindu festival of Mahashivratri, the
Prime Minister was busy attending Christian sainthood functions instead of
ensuring Hindus a gazetted holiday on the day. Instead of admonishing those
who defamed Hindus for organising church attacks and rape of nuns the PM
submitted to such pernicious narratives despite being aware of their inherent
mendacity. Investigations have shown that they were mostly non-communal
incidents often carried out by non-Hindus.
Instead of expressing concern at the police documented report of the sacrilege
of hundreds of Hindu temples and religious sites annually and expressing his
gratitude for Hindu tolerance despite the enormous provocation, the PM
preferred the secular political correctness which he found so loathsome
during his tenure as the Gujarat PM and the campaign trail.
Exclusive minority scholarships and schemes which Modi as Gujarat CM
detested were found acceptable in his avatar as PM. Discriminatory laws like the
Right to Education remain untouched so as to avoid confrontation against the
liberals and prevent derailing of his ambitious developmental agenda. The
problem is that the PM seems to have rather internalised the dictum that India is
not Gujarat rather than what has been alleged as the dogmatic perusal of the
Gujarat model for India.
The idea that the government has floundered on the economic front is largely
misplaced and a matter of erroneous perception from textbook libertarians. So,
is the sense of Hindutva and development being perceived as antithetical by the
PM. The paramountcy of development for Modi stems from his belief that
ensuring development for all is not only a dharmic commitment for ensuring
universal justice by banishing the unnaturally high poverty sustained by
corruption and pathetic economics. But it is also perhaps the best antidote to
counter the anti-Hindu bigots for once and for all who have persistently argued
that Hindutva is the BJPs political refuge in explaining away its (supposed) lack
of delivery on the economic front.
The non-primacy to cultural Hindutva is in essence Modis great gamble.

I have a nag.

VEDANT KAUSHIK | ENGLISH

I have a nag for writing, but i lack words.

Is it words i lack? Or is it some lack of substance?

A lack of emotion? Maybe i need a potion.

Theres no darkness, maybe i am so good i can see in the darkness.

Do i need light? Do i have a fight?
Should i run? Or should i stay?
Maybe i need a new way.

But where do i go? What do i know?

Who do i have that i can trust to show?

Do i even have anyone?
Maybe i am the one.

The one that is supreme, or the one that is weak?

The one that will shine, or the one dark as the time?
At night i wonder, what is my purpose?

In the day i am fine. Because in the day i have the sun

It shows me that i can still be anyone.


The night is dark and in the dark it is sweet

But I have a nag for love, but i lack feelings concrete.

Is it emotion i lack? Or is it some commotion?
The quench for laughter is one ill die for.

But i circle around the feeling that im the one.

But what good is it, if i don't know if i can be the one.

The one that just sees and smiles? Or the one who is just beguile?
The one with the laughter? Or the one whos the master?

I have a nag for controlling people, but i lack the distance.

Is it the determination i lack? Or is it the desire to be discreet?

Whatever and wherever it is, I am the one to be.

But the one doesn't matter. He has no substance.

I have no vision, he has no grace.
I am no leader, he is no master.
I am not dark, he is not great.

I am a laughter, searching for embrace.

I am supreme, but he is a waste.

I have a purpose, he needs a light.

He needs a reason, to stop running, stay and fight.

Are you the reason? Are you the one?

The one for the master, who is a slave.

The one who forever quenches that empty space?

You can be, for there will all ways be the sun.

And for as long as you want, you can be anyone.

All it needs is to have a nag for something, but I lack words.

THE WAR OF
SOLDIERS

Anurag Mishra | Economics | Ist Year

The bloodlust of the sun rays formed the heat,
The dense copper desert had jammed his feet.
It is war and they go real far.
The massive bombs and bullet covers other sound,
He noticed Jokes, giggles and easiness was something
nowhere to be found.
It is war and they go real far.
One kills and the other dies,
Be loyal to your duty, the only method a soldier applies.
It is war and they go real far.
I may come back,
I may survive,
The soldier promised to his beautiful wife.
Daddy loves you angel
The soldier was also a father
Leaving his daughter for the nation was harder.
It is war and they go real far.
The night time of the desert was cold,
Yet it was only the bullet vest the soldier holds.
It is war and they go real far.
No lambs or lanterns nothing for light beams,
The dusky route reveals only when the fired bullets gleam.
It is war and they go real far.
His colleague got injured and brutally shot,
But he was fighting with the purpose they all fought.
It is war and they go real far.
And on that night even the baby girl lost the father,
She will cry a lot because to her nothing else bothered.
Her mother also lost the husband,
She prayed nothing as she knew these wars will never end.
It was war and they HAD gone real far...

SIDDHANT
SHEKHAR
ON
HUMANS
AND
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Artificial Intelligence has always been a staple of Science Fiction and

in the recent years, much of the research in Computer Science and
Semantics. The true measure of the credibility of an Artificial
Intelligence is given by something known as the Turing Test.
"TheTuring testis atestof a machine's ability to exhibit intelligent
behaviour equivalent to, or indistinguishable from, that of a
human" (Wikipedia). Basically what is means that if I open up a
random chat window on a computer and make you have a
conversation with the person or entity on the other end and you can
not tell if it is a human or a machine, we have achieved a perfect
replica of Human Intelligence.
However, I have a few contentions against this idea. The first being
the imbalance between rationality and emotions as components of
intelligence. Usually, when we talk about intelligence, the assumption
is that an intelligent machine would be perfectly rational. But the fact
of the matter is that human intelligence itself is not made up of
rationality alone. Humans, as a consequence of millennia of
evolution, are still driven by emotion andvisceral instinctsafter all.
And these emotions can never be duplicated in a machine. How can
you explain to a machine the urgency of hunger or the discomfort of
pain or the gnawing need for self-actualisation? You can not, simply
because survival is not the prime motivator of a machine's existence.
Even in Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics, Human life is given
preference over the Robot's. Until we make the primary instinct of a
machine to survive, we can not effectively capture the essence of
human intelligence.
This brings me to yet another dilemma. If, in order to duplicate
perfect human intelligence, we do somehow instills self-preservation
into the coding of a machine, the machine would obviously pick its
own survival over ours, as a species. So why would we create
anything that is so selfish? For the love of knowledge? Well, no! We
would not create AI in the first place. Especially if the cost of that
knowledge is our own survival.
The key here, I believe, is to not try to duplicate human intelligence,
instead we should focus on narrow cross sections of intelligence,
something we already have achieved in modern computing.
Programs and codes should be able to decipher language, decipher
images, decipher numbers, but all in exclusivity. This gets us around
the problem of having to incorporate human feelings into their hard
wired language and codes and obviates the chances of any event's
occurrence that might be detrimental to the survival of the human
species.

THE MYSTERY OF EDWIN DROOD

Shikhar Arora | Economics| IInd Year

What do you mean by mystery? Anything that does not yield a definite
conclusion or explanation. Mystery as a genre in books has a preconceived
notion. A book begins with an introvert protagonist, builds around his
depressing lifestyle. One fine day he and his accomplice are accused of a
murder and then the end is an aberrant one.
Solving of a mystery is a quintessential part of the mystery books. However
there is one mystery book which has not been solved even by the greatest of
scholars. The book by Charles Dickens did not reach its definite end because
of the authors demise! Yes, the mystery remains a mystery since last 200
years. This is actually the true essence of mystery; with no concrete end.
The book follows the life of Edwin Drood; a young man who lives with his
uncle named Jasper and hes soon to be married. His uncle covetously loves
Edwins fianc and she is aware of it. One day, a fight erupts between Edwin
and Neville Landless, a black man in pursuit of becoming a nobleman. The
following day, Edwin goes missing. Of course the whole town accuses Mr.
Landless for Edwins disappearance. The readers believe that Jasper could be
the murderer only and only because he confesses his love or rather urges to
possess Edwins fianc post the infamous disappearance. That is the only
prevalent theory.
Died of what, lovey?
Probably death.
This dialogue exchange left me dumbstruck.
Such is the greatness of a writer; even the unfinished work is loved by the
people. I would recommend this book only to those readers who can digest
the unconventional definition of mystery as a genre; that isnt liable to reach
an end, rather should not reach an end.
As they say: While writing a mystery book, if nothing goes your way; make
two people enter the room shooting incessantly with guns in their hands

UNCHARTED TERRAIN OF EMPLOYMENT

The less explored views on unemployment.
Akshata Kar
Biochemistry | Ist Year

We live in India. India is an over populated country; India lacks

infrastructure; India lacks facilities; India is educating more
and more people, but India has less jobs left. Don't be like
India?
No, it cannot be blamed on the country.
India is the country that provides people with the free will to choose
what career they want, encourages education in all fields, encourages
jobs in all fields and is coming out with more and more employment
options to meet the demand of the people. Inspite of all this, there are
individuals who do B. Tech or Mass Communication or Fashion Designing
or M.B.B.S. knowing the fact that these are overpopulated sectors and
then blame the government for them applying for 16,000 per month
paying job of a peon or that of a sweeper. Sometimes it is because of
family pressure of doing these well known courses, but mostly it is
owing to the laziness and the choice of the individuals to no explain to
their families what they want. It seems that they want to look helpless,
they want to be spoon fed with jobs that pay lakhs of rupees. I suggest
this hypocrisy be killed. The youth of today should understand that
however much job opportunities be created, they will never be enough
and if they want to succeed in this overcrowded country, they should go
for sectors other than that are already crowded. We are looking at
sectors like travel and tourism, entrepreneurship, agro based technical
fields, graphic designing and animation, writing books, archaeology,
architecture, humanitarian jobs, being a perfumist and a casting director
among various others. All you need is an internet pack to make your
career fly. I think people need to become more open to career options, I
think they need to update their ability to perceive and they should
definitely go for something new. They should not give in to the social
norm of 'If it's a boy then engineer, if it's a girl then doctor'. I'm not
saying that our government and job opportunities sector are ideal but all
I'm saying is not to stop until you are not only satisfied but also happy.
Having said all this, I also believe in the teachings of Acharya Vinoba
Bhave,a politician and a writer, who in his story 'Shram ki Pratistha' says

- no work is menial and we should all start appreciating all of kinds of

labour, thus if an educated person wants to be a sweeper we should
respect the decision. In foreign countries, carpenters, mechanics,
plumbers, newspaper men are not criticised but rather appreciated and
I think we should do the same.

GOVERNMENT
Coming back to the government, I would like to make a point about the
'Make in India' scheme. There are so many different industrial corridors
being built by the government and thus the focus on infrastructure and
facilities is increasing manifolds. A lot of focus is being given on
employment. The job opportunities in the sectors of automobile,
biotechnology, construction, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, railways,
space, hospitality and wellness, mining and oil and gas, etc. are going to
soar. This is a very fruitful step towards growth and the problem of
employment is likely to be solved to a good extent.

Lastly, I would just like to encourage people to go for the jobs they
want; if you want to be a travel guide, why not? If you want to be a
wildlife explorer, why not? If you want to be a businessman, why not?
And if you want to be a doctor or engineer or fashion designer, make
sure that you be a very good one because there are more people and
less seats. But even if you don't succeed at that you shouldn't get
disheartened and stop, you should explore more career options. You
could go to career counsellors and they will chart out the pros and cons
of different careers according to your personality and then you can
choose the career path you want to trod on or they will help you by
telling you the ways by which you can get jobs in various fields related
to your qualification and how to apply for them.
The process of applying for jobs has also become so much more simpler.
You can do it on the internet(there are so many good jobs that just
require graduation as qualification) and even give the face to face
interview over Skype. Thus, you just got to get your lazy asses up and
at them. And as Shiv Khera says, "You can do it.

THATS SO RANDOM
Random. It is a pretty random word. It can be used anywhere randomly. It can randomly mean anything based upon context and its
random placement in a random sentence. Pretty versatile, don't you
think?
But what is it that attracts us to this word? The word meant running fast back in the 13th century and gained its mathematical
connotation in the 18th and 19th centuries. But modern context of
the word arose in the late 1970s with a research paper in MIT using
the word to denote without any pattern and discernible reason.
Ever since, this meaning of the word has crept into our vernacular
pervasively. The question still remains unanswered though. What
attracts us to this word and has made it so prevalent in its use?

To answer this, we need to consider two things. One, what charm

does this word hold and secondly, why has this particular connotation of the word gotten so popular and not any other. Random
does find frequent use in Science, Math and Statistics. Then why
have we, as a society, decided to use this loaded word and not any
other. After all, there are a lot of words with similar meanings that
we can potentially use like unforeseen, unexpected, befuddling.

Well, to answer the first question, the word is short. Random is a

two-syllabled word. Humans have a tendency to use shorter words
instead of a longer one in their daily speech as long as their meaning is intelligible and coherent. If both the parties involved in the
transaction of the information are sure that the content of the message would not be lost because of it, they always choose to use
simpler words. There is a clear pattern and many primitive languages are simply worded. Languages become increasingly complex as new ideas are introduced into it. You would be hard pressed
to find a complicated term or idea expressed in a mono-syllable
word. This is where random scores. The word is short to speak,
easy to spell and encompasses a wide variety of meaning based
upon its context in use. The word can mean a whole lot of dierent
things in a sentence based upon its usage as we saw in the opening paragraph. This is one of the major allures of the word and has
fuelled its popularity over its competition.

However, this does not answer why has the word's present meaning gotten so popular in a short spell of time. To answer this, we will
have to return to the time when the word got so popular and the
look at it in context of the society.

We are living in a world that mutating, rather than evolving. The

world is changing at a blinding pace and the inhabitants are being
bombarded with information from all sides. Living in an information
driven society, our chances of success depend upon the information we possess. Gone are the days where brute force won over
brain every time. In the present society, the betas are are alphas
and the nerds are the jocks. But even the nerds have a hard time
keeping track of all the information they are being showered with.
Even more dicult is trying to sift through the flood and come up
with information that is relevant, or useful or important.

Random becomes an important tool in this maddening labyrinth.

It saves you from rationalising or figuring out the details, reasons
and origins of inconsequential things. So now you can ignore the
transcript of your conversations, forget that information and casually call the contents of the dialogue as random. You can stop
questioning the motivations of a friend for visiting the same location
as you at the same time by claiming you randomly ran into a
friend. You can justify the wastage of your time and forget the details by calling whatever you did as random stu.

Do not underestimate the power of this tool. This is one of the reason why you have been able to maintain your sanity so far in this
world that tells you way more than you need to know. It is the reason why you can sift through information easily in your head, pick
and store what you need and file away everything else that is inconsequential under the large umbrella term of random.

Is it a good thing? Well, that depends on your perspective. If you

wish to record, recall and know every bit of information you ever
happened to chance upon then no. But the practical mind knows
that there is way too much information lying around for you to care
about it all. Even more than you can humanly remember and recall.
For most of us lesser mortals, happy to marinate in the sauce of our
own blissful ignorance, Random is a pretty good folder to file this
article under.
SIDDHANT SHEKHAR
Physics | IIIrd Year

Richa Soni
Chemistry | IInd Year

THE
TEAM
Akshar
The Mightier Pen.
2 March 2016
Issue 6.

Siddhant Shekhar
Vedant Kaushik
Chirayu Goel
Harsh Jaitak
Anurag Mishra
Akshita Sharma
Akshata Kar

www.akshar.blogspot.com

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