I have been arranged to go out of Prof. Navale’s Sinhgad Institutes

I had mentioned in this blog, some time back in late August, that I had joined the Sinhgad Institute of Technology, Lonavala, in August 2008.

Well, my job, as a matter of fact, came to an end right after a couple of weeks, on Sept. 5, 2008—the Teacher’s Day in India.

What happened was at least mismanagement; but the matter, perhaps, goes much deeper than that. Though what I write below is not everything there is to it—not even if one were to stick only to the essential things alone—it still gives you some idea of what happened.

As I mentioned earlier, there was a daily bus commute from Pune to Lonavala. The buses and the estate property is managed by “professional” managers, not academic professors. For instance, at the Lonavala campus, the “CEO” is actually a career bureacrat who had, before joining Sinhgad, retired, on account of age, from the Secretariat of the Maharashtra State Government—one of the most red-tape-entangled places on the planet. Not even a shrewd CM like Vilasrao Deshmukh could possibly untangle it, not even for his own political ends. (If you wonder how, in a mixed economy, jobs in the private sector get landed, there might be something for you to think about.) Similarly, the person looking after the commute buses to Lonavala has estate office at Lonavala; he is a former Lt. Colonel retired from the Indian army.

The good office of the good Lt. Col. (Retd.) declined to issue me a commute bus pass despite (i) sending my application once via the office peon right on the day of the joining, and (ii) since the pass could not be sent via a peon, but would require my own signature in front of the good Lt. Col. (Retd.), my actually visiting the good Lt. Col. (Retd.)’s office not once, not twice, but thrice. (My notes and messages asking him to return my calls went unanswered. Why? I have no ideas.)

Thus, if I had to teach my classes (notes available here), I would have to travel without an official pass. I did. (After all, both the HoD Dr. Barve and Principal Inamdar were concerned about lectures being held.) But too many people traveling without pass meant that planning of the commute buses would be bad, and as a result, sometimes, professors would have to go standing—about 1.5 hours (or more) one way. Everybody (i.e. professors—not peons or the staff) put up with that. I did, too. Then, once, the second bus which would take us from the Highway over to the hill-top also did not arrive at all. So, everybody (i.e. professors—not peons or the staff) walked up the hill, caught the breath, and proceeded to teach classes. I did, too.

Then, one day, since there was some special function on the SIT campus, there was supposed to be a change in the regular timings for the return buses. I enquired around, and the informal information I got to know was that the bus would leave at a certain time, say X PM. (I got to know this from someone who was none less than a Dean—who, himself, also was not kept informed officially—it seems). However, all the buses left the campus 15 minutes before X PM. Thus, I was left stranded. Someone gave me a ride to the highway. Standing at the highway, waving at the vehicles going by, I finally managed a ride back home late in the evening.

Right the next day, something worse happened. I came to know that the buses would leave at Y PM. But the buses left at time Y – 30 minutes. Once again, I had to walk down to the Highway, wave at the random vehicles, and manage a ride back home.

Notice a few things:

This is a patch of the Highway on which armed robberies (including death of the victims) have happened for looting of as small a sum as Rs. 10,000/-. I was carrying a laptop worth Rs. 40,000/-.

Prof. Navale favors retired army (and other defence services) officers because, according to him, they maintain discipline. What kind of discipline does he see here? I fail to understand this now, and I failed then—on Sept. 5, 2008 evening—too.

Naturally, I got angry. I asked around in the administrative office of the SIT, took the telephone number they gave me, and expressed my anger to the person speaking at the other end. (It was a mobile phone.) That person, right in the middle of the conversation, without requesting me to hold the line, directly transferred the phone to the Lonavala Estate CEO (the same career bureacrat off Mantralaya-Secretariat that I spoke about above). I expressed my anger in no uncertain terms with him too. (That day, both the Principal and the aforementioned pampered Lt. Col. (Retd.) were absent from the Campus).

The CEO refused to give me assurance that he could arrange for the commute buses. (This, probably, was the first time that this CEO was talking to someone who was aware of his own proper rights and was refusing to buck…. The Secretariat jobs, after all, do encourage a lot of bad work-habits, whether you like it or not: you are endlessly and causelessly respected, nay, even adored, you are “salaam”ed, you are appeased to, constantly. That is, even if none were to bribe you….

Naturally, this guy (the “CEO”) thought it not necessary to assure his own faculty member the commute as advertised. This was on Teacher’s Day, i.e. Sept. 5, 2008.

(And no, this “CEO”, despite being told that I was an old friend of the Founder Prof. Navale’s, also did not have either the presence of the mind or the courteous frame of mental working to offer me a room in the otherwise empty guest-house of the Lonavala campus, now that there was no vehicle available from the campus to Pune… I don’t want to use the word “arrogance,” but don’t you think any other CEO who respects his professors would have thought of offering the guest-house to anyone like me?)

Over the next few days (and weeks), I wrote emails to: (i) The CEO of Lonavala, (ii) The general email ID of administration at Sinhgad, Pune, (iii) Two Principals—Arvind Deshpande from Pune campus, and Sandip Inamdar from Lonavala (both my past junior colleagues). Needless to add, not a single email was replied.

Principal Arvind Deshpande, in constrast, directly asked me over phone why I do not resign on my own, when the fact of the matter was that it was precisely because I knew him and Prof. Navale personally that once he (Deshpande) had promised me a Professor’s job in June, I had declined to pursue other engineering colleges (and had, in fact, declined an offer in hand). Principal Deshpande would know that I could not get another job in the middle of a semester, right? And, of course, he, too, offered me the same line on phone as others did: He never did receive any email from me, he said. (How people learn such tricks!)

Principal Inamdar (of Lonavala) also said the same thing to me: He never received the email, and so, the question of confirming or denying any assurances of arranging for official rides on commute buses, by email, never would arise!!

Since, in this process of lost emails and all, I could not be assured that commute buses won’t leave the SIT Lonavala Campus without taking me, and since there was no on-campus accomodation on the offer either, in the interest of my own safety, I decided not to continue hopping on the commute buses. I contacted other professors and requested them to complete the portion. I, of course, kept Principal Inamdar informed.

Principal Inamdar then, some time in October, confirmed (not on his own, but after my asking him by phone) that he had been asked to send a report from his side to Prof. Navale, and that I would be contacted about the decision taken soon enough.

I am still awaiting that “soon enough” action on the part of Prof. Navale—the top man in (and the Founder of) the Sinhgad Institutes.

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An Open Remark to Prof. Navale.

Regretable, of course, this is, Navale Sir. Given our past friendship, it took a personal loss of about Rs. 2 lakhs (my lost salary), and also a few months of time, before I could manage to bring myself to say what I wrote above and what I am about to say to you. (And I must say this publicly because I am certain all my emails to you, too, would get lost). And I must say it.

You have lost being a good boss, Navale Sir. Correct yourself in time, otherwise, the downward spiral is far too easy. … And be thankful to me that someone of my own achievements still talks to you this respectfully after losing his own money and his own peace of mind.

You no longer are a morally upright boss, Prof. Navale, and I have no desire left to work with or under you any more.

But if you wish to correct yourself, begin at the beginning. For instance, ask Principal Arvind Deshpande to stop spreading false reports about me to the effect that “he came to work with us and stopped coming after a fortnight, and he might have a temper, and he might do something similar with you if you hire him.” Start with that, Prof. Navale. Start by keeping in check rumours to begin with. … You are intelligent enough to know the rest of the steps you would have to take if you wanted to morally correct yourself, and your colleagues.

I will call Principal Inamdar today or tomorrow to take one ride last time (on the same commute buses) so that I could (i) collect my check for the two weeks of teaching that I did, (ii) collect my own books still left at the Lonavala campus, and (iii) return the SIT library books and the keys to my desk back to the SIT office people.

—–

Notes to the general reader

If you have heard, from Indians (in India and in the USA) that I have a hot temper, the above is a typical kind of background behind it. No systems exist, everything goes so long as you are a crony of the power-wielders, nothing objective is defined, none defends anyone for any rational stance, and everybody is free to call any upright man (or anyone who knows his own worth) as “He get too angry—might create problems in your “organization”.”
Enough said. I am sick of these people. And, do wish me better luck in my next job.

—–

BTW, there was a moment in yesterday’s Barkhaa Dutt Show on NDTV, a publicity stunt for Nilekani’s book, really speaking, where they, both, perhaps were hiding something. It was when Barkha asked the number of interview (or # of books read) before Nandan wrote his, and the answer was “126!” I think there was something shady in it—in that moment.

At any rate, my estimate of Padmashree Barkhaa did go down a couple of notches with that moment. I never did estimate Nandan Nilekani so highly that I would now have to consider anything going up or down with something like that particular moment. In any case, *he* sure knows how he has made his billions—and so do I. And *all* of it all is *not* bad. But then, credibility of a journo like Barkhaa is in a different class from the typical tunnel-visioned “vision” of businessmen like Nandan (who, at least, was honest enough to admit inability to deal with the issue when the discussion turned towards moral aspects).

Bad show! But then, not too unlike Prof. Navale’s Sinhgad either… They all three (Navale, Dutt, Nilekani) are going to grow in terms of both money and reputation no matter what I write here…

But, guess, one can always stay honest, at least for oneself.

(… Just look at the costs I pay to pursue CAE and engineering research, and something even more basic: just to simply stay honest… No, I don’t mean to praise myself—I rather mean to draw your attention to those two lakhs gone down the drain out of someone else’s moral compromises right at a time that one had gone without a job for some seven years… And all that I want to say is, still, that one can stay honest… I don’t know what I am saying, it’s not a “request” or a device for drawing sympathy or praise or whatever, but I thought there was something important about it. So I said it. That’s all… To repeat, one can, *indeed*, stay honest. It’s good to strive for moral richness… Perhaps that’s what I wanted to say, I don’t know… Let me stop… (I might revise this post a bit on second reading…))

Some random thoughts on USA and its 2008 elections…

This evening and tonight, people of USA will go out and vote.

Today, it is safe to state that the long-form of “USA” is: United Stupids of America. … I say it safe, because no matter who wins, today, about half the USA will certainly agree with me

In my opinion, all the recent USA elections have clearly demonstrated that, these days, *anyone* can get to be a president of USA. (Pun intended.)

OK. Jokes apart. Some serious stuff now.

—–

My Election Advice: No matter which side you wish to vote for, do go out and vote.

But why don’t I tell which side I am on?

Simple. I have no side to take. Not because I am “side-less” on principle (or out of stupidity) or so, but because of some other considerations…

(i) Neither candidate is going to change immigration laws significantly (i.e. not along the rational lines, as indicated by, say, the Objectivist philosopher Harry Binswanger: see here).

(ii) Neither party has, as a matter of facct, shown enough of civility to refrain from attacking me personally, including every “legal” means available to them such as the psychic means (see here)… The governments run by both the parties—the Democrats just as well as the Republicans—have done so… Perhaps, it all has been as a part of the pressure tactics following the nuclear tests by India. But the nuclear thing has often seem to be only an excuse though… That simply cannot be the main reason… A power lust arising from wanting to dictate terms to significant Indians could very well also be a motive too, behind such psychic attacks on me… By making an example of sorts out of my case… The psychic attacks (and USA cannot deny their part in it) have included psycho-somatic damage (including induction of extremely pathological bad dreams of the kind I had never had before July 1998, spikes of explosions waking me up, etc.), and their follow-up in day-time (e.g. via door-to-door “vendors” selling certain items, via articles in newspapers written up with preferential selection of words, via photographs selected to reflect peculiarities of the day before, etc.)… Neither American party can wash off the sins against me that they *have* committed… It’s not always the Russians (or others), you know…

—–

Now, if [some] Americans say: “Come on now, we aren’t that bad, are we? Why don’t you just let bygones be bygones and tell us who you would have voted?”

My first comment: Yes, many Americans *are* that stupid, as well as careless of the suffering of others, that they could blithely assume all their general goodness and proceed to ask the question.

Now my answer: If you wish to talk friendly, that’s fine by me. By my philosophy, individuals can be better (or worse) than averages and national policies. More importantly, thinking individuals can be better—even if they are Americans.

But, the point is: bygones cannot be bygones if Americans have willingly cut away a part of your earnings, repeatedly cut short your career goals, helped cut short your life-span, your happiness… In short, your life.

… But still, choosing to look at the better Americans and the better among the things they have done (both for me in particular and otherwise in general), I will say two things:

The decisiveness with which Americans acted with respect to the nuclear deal was a good thing, a positive sign. Even if it came as late in 2005 onwards… If I had to single out just one (or a few) person(s) rather than attribute the success to something as nubulous as “the American administration” or even “the Bush administration,” then that person would have to be, not George Bush, but, Condolizza Rice. Good job, Condy! Well done!! You should have been given much more credit than they have. The Indian side, really speaking, owes you appreciation by way of a special award or so… May be, a prestigious visiting fellowship at JNU or the University of Pune (rather than at one of the IIMs or IITs or so)… May be in the years to come… (If a sufficiently prestigious fellowship does not exist, it’s high time that Indians created it.) This one “girl” has been excelling so consistently (from high-school onwards), without hyping too much about it, and despite being in politics, that it has to be specially acknowledged…

But anyway, returning to the main thread, that—the nuclear deal and the American bi-partisan decisiveness about it—was about the only positive sign coming from the American side in the past so many years, perhaps the whole decade since 1998.

So, we don’t have much good to look at, but we do have something… So, keeping that in mind, I might jot down my random (and not too deeply thought of) thoughts here… So, here we go…

Though I have (and had) no preference at all about presidential candidates, that doesn’t mean I have no comments to make.

When Hillary Clinton lost the nomination, I did feel, dimly and partly, good. Not because I had (or have) something against Hillary herself (or against her party), but because there is a group of “asshole” [TBD insert URL to a Stanford prof as Biswajit Banerjee recently did] Indians, (esp. in the SF Bay Area,) who have perfected the art of getting their hands on a lot of undeserved spoils (and also passing some of it to some Indians here in India), during the 8-year long presidency of her husband. They have even gone so far as to tell us Indians in India, during the mid- and late-1990s, that today’s USA is capitalist, that they themselves are capitalists (say, of the venture capitalist kind), that they have made it big on the basis of their talent alone, and not by way of political pulls and favors, etc. etc. etc.  And, they have been, despite their Indian roots and all, absolutely thick and completely unapproachable by any ordinary engineer like me…. When Hillary lost, presumably, they lost too… And this last part was “enjoyable.”

Now of course I do realize that despite defeat of some people, the principle of pulls as such, will still continue to work in the USA because today’s America is overwhelmingly mixed economy—it’s not capitalist. (Telling us that it is capitalist precisely is a part of the same gameplan to pull it further towards statism.) But my point is, there will at least be a bit of novelty in who makes noises, and who exploits ordinary engineers like me in their dirty games… After all, psychologically, it is sickening to see exactly the same individuals make exactly the same noises again and again for years… And, existentially, there is hope that, one might, after all, escape having to suffer on their behalf if the people “calling the shots” change… With Obama’s nomination, there already is a visible change. This particular group of assholes [TBD insert link] has not been making as much of noise as they would have. I am personally “happy” about that. One has to be if they arrogate so much as to say that “XYZ (an American) is good for India” when, the fact has been, Indians like me have been made to suffer.

And, though I did not (and do not) care for US elections (for both kinds of reasons stated above—the immigration- and personal attacks-related), I, nevertheless, also do think that Obama is going to win.

Further, I think that if this indeed comes to pass (and we will get to know the results right within the next 24 hours), the chief architect of Obama’s victory would have been not he himself or his party but the person of George W. Bush and his party.

That’s right. The chief architect of Obama victory should not be found within the Chicago school of socialists who now will be flooding the Democratic party, but within (i) the religious streaks within the Republican party, and (ii) the socialist streaks within the Republican party—as exemplified by the recent unprincipled decisions concerning those bailouts… (This is a very serious and very prominent example, but it is, unfortunately, not the end of the story… There have been other examples too…)

So, that’s that. I think Obama will win.

I also think that if this financial mess were not to happen, and if Osama bin Laden were to be captured or killed, then today’s Americans would have, despite everything else, still gone ahead and elected the Republican candidate. That is, despite knowing that such action of theirs would give the religious rights (and the Republican socialists as well) a more free rein to dictate they themselves. … Whether you like it or not, today’s Americans *are* like that. They wouldn’t mind being dictated. Not so long it is done in some specific situations and not others… (The definition may change from an American to another, but most Americans of today’s certainly wouldn’t mind being dictated—-almost none is *consistently* against dictatorship in principle in that country: USA.)

And that’s why, I also think that today’s Americans would have even very easily ignored the financial mess (complete with the CEO parachutes and the bureaucrat’s double-game) and brought the victory in the presidential race to the Republicans (or at least brought the race to even odds) if the republicans could have shown a convincing victory abroad (say, via capture of bin Laden or a victorious conclusion of the war in Iraq or so)… That has not happened, and so, the race has gone, as far as I can tell, with the alternative, namely, Obama.

Of course, this is not to say that the Obama campaign or the Democratic party did nothing to ensure their victory or that they have nothing positive by their side at all. That’s not my point here. The point is, despite all their political savvy and support and strengths, once Hillary lost, the Republicans still could have defeated them. After all, Obama is no Bill Clinton or JFK. And, after all, that’s how Americans *are*. They could easily be swayed over to the Republican side despite the latter’s socialist items. (Socialism is not only on the side of the left, and things like principled fight against socialism have ceased to be the main motivators of Americans in their politics.)

Of course, as I said, the fact of my writing this all still does not mean that I care (or have cared) for US elections. Whatever I have written is something that is damn too obvious to anybody, without even thinking for half a minute about it….

And tell me, if I were to care for these elections, what would it change for me? Think honestly. Am I of the sort to be bought if the bread-crumbs like, say, a tenured position are to be thrown at him? LOL! Stock Options in a sure-shot success Start Up? ROTFL… If not, then ask yourself, what is there in it for me? The answer is plain and obvious: Nothing… There indeed is nothing in it for me… Not even a purely verbal talk of high principles… After all, none—neither the candidates (their speech-writers) nor column-writers nor the ordinary party supporters on either side—has been talking about any of the principles that made America what it is… So, there’s not even a purely empty sort of talk, purely a lip service being paid to the high political principles.

I (indeed) wish Americans were less stupid. … (“Dumbed down” if you prefer.)

—–

On second thoughts, there *is* a matter that I can care about. It is this.  Since I take it that Obama is going to be the president, carrying a good majority in the house of representatives, therefore, I think, that if Americans are even half-smart, they should not give the Democrats more than a 55-vote majority in the senate.

After all, though everyone is talking about the presidential elections, there also are a lot of senate (and house) seats being contested for. Not that I am against Obama. Or the Democrats. Not at all. But there *is* something that I am for: limited, rational government. And there is something that I am against—statism, esp., that in the (superpower) USA.

Democrats are expected to take both house and the senate in these elections. One can’t care so much for the house—it is what it is, but the senate—the American senate—even today, is different.

If the balance between the two variants of statism hangs precariously in the senate, and therefore, if it makes it difficult to pass statist bills pass easily, then that is good for America, and for free markets, for limited governments in general (and therefore, good for the rest of the world too).

The statists won’t be able to pass a slew of small bills, precursors to major changes down in future, if the senate remains almost evenly divided. Today, the US senate has the 51D-49R composition. The senate will lose its effectiveness to check the progress of numerous small statist bills if the balance tilts in a major way, say, if it goes over 55D-45R. Or some similar figure, I don’t know—that’s for political experts to know, I don’t care. What I do care is that the march of statism at least got speed-breakers even if it could not be arrested…

Do this much in these elections, Americans, will you? Or is it too much to ask (of your (real) stupidity)?

A small document on the history of the calculus of variations

I have begun preparing a small document on the history of the calculus of variations. The document is still in progress, and likely will remain that way for quite some time to come. The current version (updated without notice) may be downloaded from here. Corrections and thoughtful comments are welcome.