Woohoo! Announcement & Changes!

When I started blogging, way back in the previous decade, (2008 to be precise! Yeah, this blog is that old) I just wanted to write short stories in the blog form and maybe become another IITian author (sigh!). Then, life happened. 

I met a lot of people and jumped from one choice to the next choice, each taking me further away from my initial pursuit of writing. The silver lining was that I kept reading a lot of books. Back in 2014(well 6 years back), I read 50+ books/novels/novella. On the whole, I aged with my reading habit and my writing became restrictive and it was more directed to individuals than anonymous readers. 

In the mean time, I started putting weird stuff on my blog, one day I would do a movie review, next day an interview with a founder, then a poem then election result prediction. So, my blog started out like a Cafe and soon became Big Bazaar. 

This ain't cool!

So, here I am finally doing the sane thing or may be not. I have forked my blog. Yeah!

I'll keep this blog for short stories and essays on public issues; a sort of 'my writing space'!

Apart from this blog, I have started 3 more blogs. One catering to my reviews(books,movies,series,...), one for my number crunching stories and one for Career Progression

Find the links below respectively 

1. https://theadmiringcritic.blogspot.com/ (The Admiring Critic)

2. https://statisticaldharma.blogspot.com/ (The Statistical Dharma)

3. https://careersaar.blogspot.com/ (Career Saar)

Most of the content in the new blogs is old. (How oxymoronic!) I have just curated them from this blog and will add future content according to its type & relevance. Thanks for bearing with my inanities.  

In this fickle age of short attention spans, if you still like to read blogs, it'd be a good idea to bookmark these new ones mentioned above, depending upon your interests. Show some love. 

Why protest?

This generation has now transitioned from being 'armchair activists' to 'placard-bearing protestors'. This comes in the wake of the new 'woke-generation'[1][2]

So why do we protest? Rather why protestors protest?
Protestors can be generally categorised in 3 categories
A) They understand the real issue and feel protest is the only or one of the key ways to affect change

These are well meaning people whose only intention from the protests is brewing the steam of change. People of this category are well versed with the issue in concern and don't have vacuous reasons and stay away from propaganda. As you might have realised, this section of protestors form the minority of protestors.

B) They understand that their protest is the last thing the world needs, but they have insidious agenda and they are catalysts for the next category

 Their motivation can be anything. Money, 15 minutes of fame[3], political leanings, propaganda conduit, etc.
This group causes the most chaos. They have expertise in making the environment of society caustic and volatile. Who are these people? You guessed it right, 'The Usual Suspects'

C) The Gullible 'woke-generation' 

Image Source

These are 15-30 year old people who haven't seen much world, are not well read, have been unlucky to get unsuitable nurturing by their immediate surroundings, etc. These people don't have voices of their own. They just depend on the next 'cool' phenomenon to latch on to. It's fashionable to follow/pursue a particular ideology or a school of thought or your political inclination based not on your understanding but because it sounds 'the in thing', and not because it's your idea but based on what a few handful of 'narrative-savvy marketers masquerading as social activists'[read Category B] propagate as wisdom.


Now, when you mix the above categories, it makes a very potent concoction for protests from every nook & corner of the society. The need of the hour is better primary education. An education system which favours cultural sensitivity, originality, ethics and rewards creativity. We need societies which are not another ape-version of a different society. We need to live local and breathe global. The gradual hatred of the new generation towards its roots creates rifts in societies and makes room for vested interest groups to take powerful and unfavourable seats.

My question to these protestors would be
Q. What are the top 3 actionable economic decisions world leaders need to take?
Q. Are there such examples currently?
Q. What are the top 3 social decisions we need to take collectively?
Q. What kind of society would make them leave all protests all-together, basically what is their utopian or not-so utopian idea?

Book Suggestions Below:
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Notes:
1. Woke-Wikipedia
2. Woke-Urban Dictionary
3. 15 minutes of fame

Questions : Measured Approach

Is science just another point of view?

Most of what we say as natural laws or theories of science are based on empirical findings. So, the question implores you to clarify if empirical findings can be taken as absolute truth. You might as well say that science is just good statistical analysis at play. The answer as always is with you.

What is the one thing you would like to change in the world?

Your answer could be anything. Something as basic as end of global hunger or as dramatic as a world with no national boundaries. Take any 'bit of change' you want to see and ask yourself if the cause is your own or is it of a significant value to you.

Are you taking any steps to affect the change as answered above?

Well, we all want a million things in life but those wishes are just that, mere wishful thinking if we don't act or make a systematic plan to bring our dreams to fruition. You can take baby steps, it doesn't matter as long as you are moving at least a bit forward everyday.

[Image : https://medium.com/@chrisgardener/the-1-principle-998b33512100]

Are you measuring your progress?

As the famous saying goes, "what gets measured gets improved". If you are not measuring your steps then perhaps your outcome will also be random. So, ask yourself what tools or methodologies are you employing to track your progress in the mission of your life as answered above.

So, when can we see that change you are about to bring in this world?

Setting an end date to any activity gives it life. Think about humans or any living being, we die because we live. So, if you put an end date or expiry date you have given your vision a life, which will turn into a mission.


Thanks for reading the third and final part of my series on Questions.
Read Part 1 & Part 2 if you have missed them :

Questions : Ab Initio

Questions : The Gender

Essence of MSQE(Indian Statistical Institute) Entrance Exam

First things first, your preparation needs to be pattern independent and you must solely focus on covering the length & breadth of the Syllabus. That being said, Mathematics & Economics are the two subjects you need to study.

For Mathematics:
Get hold of any JEE level objective book (Check in Amazon from here) and cover the full syllabus of MSQE entrance examination's Mathematics portion

For Microeconomics:
Intermediate Microeconomics: A Modern Approach by Varian (Check in Amazon from here)
Intermediate Microeconomics, Test Bank by Varian

For Macroeconomics:
Mankiw's book (Check in Amazon from here)
Dornbusch, Fischer,... (Check in Amazon from here)


Reading the above books is essential but practising the previous year question papers is the most important part of MSQE entrance preparation. You can get it from Indian Statistical Institute's website.

Personal Tip : Go through Amit Goyal Sir's Quora & Youtube Pages

Questions : The Gender

What is Gender?

Mainly the stand you have apropos the gender debate. You could believe in the dichotomous binary definition or buy the 'spectrum of gender' idea. Our own mythology is full of such debates about gender. A good resource on this would be 'Shikhandi: And Other Tales They Don’t Tell You' by Devdutt Pattanaik[Although, I am no way a fan of his works, just a good source to gauge the discussion going around; Read Pattanaik's works with a bagful of salt]. Quoting from it, "...Shikhandi, who became a man to satisfy her wife Mahadeva, who became a woman to deliver a devotee's child Chudala, who became a man to enlighten her husband Samavan, who became the wife of his male friend and many more...."

Do you believe in 'Gender Roles'?

Go to any restaurant, after you finish the meal and ask for the cheque, the waiter invariably would slide that towards the eldest male member of the family. This might come of as patriarchy to a lot of people but it seems practical to that waiter. Whether it's about doing the dishes at home, cooking for the folks, earning money, looking after kids/elders, talking to various kinds of outsiders for insurance/investing/etc..., all these activities  seem to be taken care by one particular type of gender. So, that's the premise. Nowadays, all people in their working age are professionals or want to be if the situation is favourable. Under this new paradigm, the relevance of 'gender roles' definitely stokes few debates. 

Is their pay parity?

A lot of feminist & women rights activists are still fighting for equal pay for all the employees in the same job, regardless of gender. Well the nuanced view here would be to understand the extent to which women and men are employed differently. A precursory look in the roles in which men and women are employed would actually make the debate more fruitful. It is to this end, the question urges you to think on. 

What is Feminism?

Though, it seems obvious to almost everyone, ask any feminist few questions on the topic and they would stutter and beat around the bush or resort to male bashing. Well, this might not be the case, universally. So, that's the question, it's similar to asking someone on their views about 'existence of God'.

Is their a connection between liberalism and feminism? 

Not a yes-no question. Think about it!

Read part 1 & part 3 of this series on Questions:

Questions : Ab Initio

Questions : Measured Approach