We are not that bad…

(On the occasion of National Youth Day)

12th January, the birth anniversary of the great philosopher Swami Vivekananda. Our nation celebrates it as a national youth day. One of the major reasons, why the world expects India to be superpower is the “Youth Force” of our country. But the question always posed is – Are today’s youth really capable of shouldering this great responsibility? Intelligence, innovativeness we have, that everyone agrees. But the major concern is about our character, sensitivity towards fellow human beings, (in our terms “EQ”). The general picture portrayed is – We don’t want joint family system, we can’t tolerate others’ success, we can do anything for getting a fast success and so on… But is it always true? Have we really lost our emotions? Just a quick trip down my memory lane yielded some interesting incidents. None of them is really significant, but for me even these tiny things are no less imperative. So, here’s a small attempt to present some of the compassionate minds…

I was staying at a guest house of an educational institute for a summer workshop. We were two people in each room. Everyday a boy used to come to serve tea at 6 am. Our room was next to the stairs. So, we used to hear the footsteps of the boy as he approached. The very instant he started climbing, my roommate would jump out of her cozy bed to reach the door so that the boy wouldn’t have to do the circus of balancing the kettle, glasses to knock our door. The day before she left, she made it a point to inform him that he need not come to our room. In that way, she cared for both – the boy – for his waiting time at our door was saved and me- for my dreamy land tour was not hindered by the sudden “Chai”. So, there she was caring about a nameless chaiwala, doing her best to reduce his efforts.

Second incident is about a group of youngsters. 7-8 of them had embarked on their journey to visit the famous Ganapatis, in Pune during the annual Ganesh festival. After a bit of time, to brush off the weariness, they resorted to the usual energizer – Ice-cream. As usual, there was a lot of brain-storming (at least pretty enough to confuse the shopkeeper) before the final verdict about the flavors was announced. One of them paid the bill and they left. After 2-3 minutes, someone started calculations, to divide the bill, and it was realized that they had ended up paying Rs.40 less than what the actual bill should have been. Now, they had already left past the shop and could have merrily divided the profit among themselves. But, their subconscious mind did not let them proceed. They returned to the shop, handed over the forty rupees to the shopkeeper, who was obviously delighted at their act…

Thus, at the end, to all the elders…Sometimes, we may hurt/ignore you, sometimes we may be the most irresponsible lot in the world, sometimes we may be full of excuses to avoid work…But at the bottom of our heart, we care for everybody who is there for us, we like to be honest in our way towards our goal, we like to discover new ways of doing great things, however rugged the path of discovery may be…After all, we are your offspring, so we can’t be that bad….

Certain about Uncertainty

Last weekend was special in a sense; it was the last weekend of a month, year and a decade…But for us (me and deep), it was special in one more sense… a candlelit dinner with some of the brightest minds from the probabilistic world, the folks who are certain about uncertainty…

This opportunity was provided by LPS-V workshop, in ISI Bangalore. At the beginning itself, we were pretty excited, as some of the names in the list of participants, were eminent statisticians. But as the course progressed, we were simply dumbfounded, by the sharpness of the minds around us…Everyone here was simply a probabilist, other identities had vanished. It was just like a family gathering with people from almost three generations; veterans encouraging neophytes, by listening to their ideas. They were always there for the younger ones to help them convert their lumbering walk into an exciting hike, be it in the classroom or in the Makalidurga trek which was one of the social events in the workshop. And one more thing…Even this Makalidurga was not spared from the statistical lessons. The relaxation breaks were made lively by the interesting statistical puzzles regarding card magic, chessboards and exciting facts like how Diaconis (a magician turned mathematician) constructed a machine giving a desired outcome for a coin toss.

The nonstatistical joys included the special south Indian dinner served on the plantain leaves, which had almost 20 different delicacies. Apart from the two special dinners, there were other delectable treats like fruits and various kinds of cakes, which were made sweeter by the excellent hospitality of the canteen people and the individual attention by the organizers.

Last and the most important delight was the interaction with the students/alumni of many prestigious institutes all over the world including IITs, ISIs and Ivy League institutions. There we were among the gifted minds attaining zenith, but with their feet firmly rooted in the ground; some of them barely 7-8 years older than us. And thus we returned motivated, and at the same time wondering how people can achieve such great heights, in such a short span of life…