Last week, I watched 3 idiots in theatre alongwith my family. It was after a longtime saw audience (including me) engrossed in watching movie. During the show, I could hear some of them clapping intermittently. In no time, 3 idiots has become talk of the nation. Social network websites are flooded with blogs and scraps on the movie. The movie has hit hard on the lacuna in our education system and society but in a humorous manner. I feel all of us must have experienced these loop holes in some way or the other in our life.

It is sad but one of the many lacunas which still prevails in our society is discrimination between a boy child and a girl child. The reason commonly quoted is “Ladka budhape ki laathi hai. Ladki to parayi amanat hai.” I belong to a well educated family and am blessed with two daughters. On several occasion people (both so called educated and uneducated) have consoled me with their sympathetic words after knowing about my bliss. The conversation starts with their display of shock/surprise “Arre dono betiyaan hain?” Followed by their pity towards me, “Arre ek to ladka hona tha” and then showers consoling words “Arre koi nahin ghar mein do laxmi hain”. Usually I just smile and ignore. But at times it gets on my nerves and force me to say “I am happy with my daughters” Still some well wishers are such who don’t give up “ Arre nahin ek to hona chahiye.” Hearing this I give up and leave the place. I am like.. why? Why are they bothered? It is not just me many others also must have experienced the same. 

Again it is sad but still there are pockets in our society where a birth of a child knowingly/unknowingly is like a start of anyother investment. There are many factors which results into this thought. Most importantly is our social structure which is unlike the west. In our society a child when grown up is supposed to take care of its parents. This is a noble value and I too strongly believe and follow it. But if this value leads to certain expectations in ones mind then it is not healthy. One such expectation is parents do things for child so that it can fulfill their dreams and take care of them in old age. Knowingly/ unknowingly expectations results in treating a child like any other fixed term investment. As per social norms a girl after marriage stays with her husband and a boy with his parents. If expectations are baseline then ROI is anyhow more in case of boy child. May be this is the very reason why a birth of boy child is welcome in our society. I know one educated parent who admitted his boy child in a good school and girl child in a mediocre school quoting education is more important for a boy. If there is an investment then ROI becomes an expectation. Also I have heard so many times parents in fit of anger making statements like “We did so much for you. What you gave us in return?” Should expectations be the bottomline while nurturing a child?

Shouldn’t we welcome the birth of a child irrespective of the gender? Shouldn’t we nurture them so that they can see dreams and go ahead fulfilling their own dreams? Instead of taking command of their life in our hands shouldn’t we guide them to attain wisdom? Let them attain wisdom to judge between right and wrong. Let them become wise enough to take decision and own the responsibility of any eventuality. Shouldn’t they stand on their own feet in true sense?

Today I completed nine years of my association with CDAC (formerly NCST). I am so happy that Peeyush, my batchmate and dear friend is here with me on this special day. Today morning on the way to office I was trying to recollect what all happened same day nine years back and felt so happy. My life has changed completely both professionally and personally in these nine years. And when I look back i am reminded of some good people whom I would like to thanks for their generosity towards me.

Sandhya madam my HOD at CDAC Juhu. She gazed my interest in data warehousing and mining and encouraged me to move ahead in the field. She is an extremely caring and protective person. I lost my father just five months after joining NCST. Due to personal constraints I decided to quit NCST and shift back to Nagpur (my native). Without me explaining my constraints, Sandhya Madam was ready with solutions for me. She spoke to admin and got family accomodation for me in Nandina. I was in the last module of PGDST. She requested concerned authorities to allow me to do the project in Juhu centre. I was at CDAC Bangalore centre when I lost my mother. I still have the email which she sent to me then. I never spoke much with her about my personal problems, but in the mail and in past too she connected so well with my pains. Thanks a lot madam for all your help and support.

Satish my reporting officer at CDAC Juhu and dear friend. I worked under him for DSP, CST, Intranet and few of his research ideas. He would give pointers and allowed me to think and work independently. Learnt a lot of guru mantras from him. I still remember when Sandhya Madam asked me to give seminar on Data Warehousing at CSI Mumbai Chapter I immediately refused it due to my stage fear. When Satish came to know of this he asked me to accept the opportunity as a challenge. Thanks to Satish I got aware of one more aspect of my personality that I can talk and can talk really well. Not to fear about it.

Urja my senior  at CDAC Juhu and a dear friend. We didn’t work together but personally we connected very well. Mostly people say that one can understand other‘s pains only if one goes thorough it. I disagree. One can understand it by being sensible and sensitive towards others. Urja was my anchor who helped me sail through the traumatizing times of my life with her optimism and inspiring words. These days I seek lot of her guidance on research front. Infact she pushed me to come up with a project proposal. She also reviewed and gave valuable suggestions for my paper which helped it to get  published in a reputed international conference. 

Subbu my senior at CDAC Bangalore and mentor. I requested him to become my mentor for MS dissertation thesis. He on the contrary suggested me to do my thesis under guidance of Srinath Sir his guide at IIIT. Thanks to Subbu I had six month association with IIIT which helped me to atleast step into the area of research.

This is for the first time I am putting a recipe on my blog. I enjoy cooking and trying out new recipes. For few like minded friends who liked my  jackfruit biryani preparation and wanted to know the recipe, here it goes:
  
Jackfruit Curry

Ingredients
one small jackfruit (1 kg)
potato - 1
onion - 3
tomato - 2
ginger garlic paste - 1 teaspoon
daal chini - 2 small sticks
badi ilaychi - 1
tez patta
coriander powder
haldi powder
red chilli powder
salt
jeera
garam masala
chopped coriander

Preparation
Cut jackfruit and potato into pieces and deep fry them till they become golden brown. Put onion, daal chini,badi elaichi and grind it mixer. Take oil in kadhai. When hot put jeera tez patta, ginger garlic paste and onion paste. Cook it till  the paste turns brown. Then add tomato paste, coriander powder, haldi powder, red chilli powder and salt and cook it till the paste starts leaving the oil. Add fried pieces of jackfruit and potatao to it. Cook it for few minutes. Then add water and let it cook for 5 mins. In the end add garam masala powder and garnish it with chopped coriander leaves.

Jackfruit Biryani

Ingredients
Jackfruit curry
Basmati rice
one chopped onion
Salt

Preparation
Take oil in a thick bottom utensil. When hot add chopped onion and fry till onion turns golden brown. Add rice and salt and fry it for 2 mins. Add the jackfruit curry and sufficient water. cover the utensil with heavy lid and let it cook at low flame till the rice is cooked.

After months of planning and preparation and last seven weeks of
rigorous execution, today i am feeling quite content.
Today is the last day of "Advanced Data Management System' module. I
started working on this module for more than a year. Spent lot
of time on deciding module structure. Referred a lot of
material to build my idea of Advanced Data Management System. Then
cross checked with what it is perceived by world by
visiting various university websites. Got assurance that I was on
right track.

Last july we formed a team of four database enthusiast(Jiji, Lavanya,
Gopinath and myself) for preparingADMS course material. For the course
material we either referred to standards or research papers. Read lots
of paper starting from Charles Bachman's ACM Turing lecture in 1960s on
"Programmer as Navigator" to latest report(2008) on future directions
in database a mandate decided by prominent database researchers after
every 5 years.  We had rounds of discussion, for finalising the stuff.
The team put in sincere efforts and we were ready with complete
material one months prior to the commencement of module. We had a feel
good factor about our end product.

December end was the time for actual execution. I worked in DAKE
division, was module coordinator for DBMS module for several years.
This year while delivering the lecture I could feel the difference in
my approach. Till last year I was teaching DBMS from Elamasari and
Navathe textbook. This year while teaching a topic, I refered to work
of researchers who came up with concepts and techniques in that topic.
The module went smooth. The project demos and presentation/talk were
satisfying.

This module helped me to gain an insight into advanced data management
system which otherwise I wouldn't have got. More than this
students response and their satisfactory performance in the module
makes me feel content. After all the module was meant for them to
learn Advanced Data Management System.

I never saw Anvita fearing anything. May be there was no reason. A child when young lives in a protective environment. Fear starts as they start getting exposed to the real world. So Anvita was fearless until she joined UCMAS, chinese arithmetic/ abacus classes. Last January UCMAS classes started in our apartments. We asked Anvita about it and she was keen in joining the classes.

Soon after the classes commenced, parents began complaining about the teacher. As per them she was very strict and their kids were scared to attend classes. Anvita never complained so we didn't pay attention on this issue.

Nearly after two months we observed that Anvita started giving excuses for not attending classes. Classes are conducted on Wedenesday. Every wednesday she would complain of stomach ache etc: . After repeated query she accepted to be scared of teacher and didn't want to attend the classes.

In meantime many parents fought with teacher and stopped sending their kids. Some took control in their hand and started teaching their kids at home, so that their kids complete atleast one level before they discontinue them from classes.

We were in a fix. We knew Anvita was interested in learning abacus but was loosing interest because of her fear for the teacher. After lot of pasturing on phone i would send her to class and she would immediately run back to creche asking for water and would not go back. We decided to let her atleast complete the level before we discontinue the class.

In between the teacher got fracture. So the franchisee owner took some classes. Anvita attended those classes but we could see she was not that much keen. After two weeks again the old teacher came back. I still remember Anvita telling me on phone " Mummy daatne waali teacher a gayee hain. Kya karoon?". I had no other choice left but to talk to teacher. I narrated everything to her and requested her to restrain from being strict atleast for a week or two. I also asked her reasons for which she was scolding Anvita so as to work on them. The teacher promised me she will be soft but asked me to tell Anvita not to run away repeatedly from classes for drinking water, meeting her little sister in creche etc:. I explained the reasons of scolding to Anvita. Asked her to keep water bottle with her in class and not leave room till classes are over. Soon it appeared that things were heading to normalcy. Her level 1 was also nearing completion. We just wanted her to clear level and then stop the classes. Anvita called me from creche the day she cleared her first level. She told me she got a medal and certificate and teacher wants to know whether she wants new books (for next level). I asked Anvita if she was interested in continuing. After seeing medal she was extremely happy  and wanted to continue. 

At present  Anvita is in level 4. After that incidence Anvita never complained. The teacher is happy with her progress. Infact last month she asked us to allow Anvita to participate in state level abacus competition. She was confident that Anvita can win the competition and asked me to give her rigorous practise at home. Somehow we felt that Anvita was very small. I helped her practise but no rigorous practise.

And we were proved right last sunday when we reached the venue forcompetition. Anvita was really small. She couldn't sit on chair to solve paper. Throughout she was standing while solving the paper. :)  Both myself and Mukesh were busy observing and praising other kids who were really solving fast. Our objective was to let Anvita have a feel of the competition. Mukesh said he will be more then happy if she just understand instructions.

We observed that she understood instructions too well. After her batch competition was over she asked us to take her back to venue at 5 pm for prize distribution.(That was also one of the instruction given by organizer) :) To be honest, we didn't expect her to win. We also had someother important work in evening so we couldn't make it for prize distribution.

Yesterday her teacher called up and asked me to inform  Anvita that she has won the runner up prize in the competition.  She said she will get Anvita's cup and certificate on wednesday. 

Winning the competition was pleasant surprise for us. We are happy for it. But more then that we are happy about  her victory over her fear. Had she not won over that fear, today she would not have participated in this competition. Hope she wins over many such fears and goes from strength to strength in life.