Dissertation, Hypothesis and PO

With whatever little I know about the method of doing dissertation, what I am able to make out from this exercise is that students must be exposed to the processes of research, which includes data collection and analysis. To be able to do this students must select one topic to be studied in depth and start with a ‘hypothesis’.

Hypothesis, is an essence of any dissertation. It lets you start the process in some direction. Hypothesis is based on certain assumptions and all the evidence that one may already have. Unfortunately, in many cases, students are already convinced about the hypothesis and its conclusion. So their research is more focussed on proving the hypothesis right than wrong. They consciously ignore, eliminate and avoid the path that disagrees with their hypothesis.

Hypothesis may not only end with YES or NO. There could be something neutral, mean or beyond that. PO. PO was coined by Edward De Bono, which looks beyond YES and NO. PO, lets you explore more possibilities than just YES and NO, sometimes resulting into something unimaginable.

Teachers, guides and students must explore the possibilities of PO. Not having an answer at the end, or having a mean, or having a very different answer than Hypothesis is alright.

We only have 24 hours a day

“Trafficjamdelhi” by NOMAD – http://www.flickr.com/photos/lingaraj/2415084235/sizes/l/. Licensed under CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons.

This morning  I was supposed to meet an important person who holds a very high position in the Indian Government office. The discussion would have only lasted about 15-20 minutes, I am sure. Considering the traffic in Delhi in morning hours,  the time spent commuting would have been about three hours. Three hours of commuting for fifteen minutes of meeting. Waste of 150 minutes. But, the matter was important and the appointment was set.

I decided to call up the person in morning to confirm the meeting before starting from home, as many times I have experienced the last-minute cancellations specially with people from Government offices. The person on other end asked my location and the time it will take for me to reach his place. After hearing my answers, he asked me promptly “Can’t we then just discuss it over phone?” I was surprised. I never saw that coming. Seriously. Matter was equally important for him. He surely wasn’t trying to avoid meeting me. In fact the matter was more important for him than me.

He continued, “You can later send me an email on whatever we have discussed. I will look into the matter.”

I agreed happily. We talked for about 10 minutes on the matter, and the meeting was over.

Now, if only we could do justice to the technology around us, we will save many man hours every day that can be put to better use. Surely, we will also be helping environment a lot.We have phones, Skype, emails and more where meetings could happen. We will be causing lesser traffic jams, and frustration thus health problems.

The fault in my stars

I am not a voracious reader as many friends of mine proudly write in their bios and many of them are. Though, I would like to be one. Slowly I am picking up on reading and so far I have read couple of stories by Carl Hiaasen and Roald Dahl. Roald Dahl is my favourite.

Now, onto the fault with my stars.

I didn’t give it a second thought after watching the trailer of the movie ‘The fault in my stars”, story adapted from the book with same title by John Green, I went ahead and ordered the book from Amazon. I was in Deolali on vacation, my home town which is more than 1000 km away from Delhi, more like my work place.

Amazon is my favourite among all shopping portals, for its reputation, pricing and customer support. The portal delights you at every step.

I was promised the delivery within 2-4 days and to my surprise, it didn’t happen. Just after two days of placing the order, I started receiving messages that the delivery could be delayed due to ‘Network Issues’. I didn’t understand it at all. FedEx is an internationally reputed courier service, through which I was to receive the book. I contacted the customer support at Amazon on the scheduled day of delivery and enquired about the status. I was promised the delivery at the earliest, and the promise was fulfilled. The book was in my hands very next day.

Like I said earlier, I am not a voracious reader, I didn’t start reading the book immediately. I read introduction and blurb and kept it like that for few days. I recently started reading the book and again to my shock it appeared to me that the book could be a pirated copy. May be. There was misprint on inner page and paragraphs ended abruptly. Almost immediately, I decided to get the replacement. But alas, refund was possible, but no replacement. I decided to go for a refund.

Amazon has a very User Friendly Interface that takes you through the process of refund / replacement in a swish. But then, there was another trouble waiting for me and that was Amazon’s stupid policy. The Policy says that the order for refund can only be picked up from the address where it was delivered. But, I had come back to Delhi. I contacted Customer Support and they advised me to ship the book to Amazon and the refund will be made within 10 days after the book has been received. Also, the cost of shipment will be refunded. fair enough, I was happy with that.

I understand that it is getting too long, but one last paragraph.

I received an email describing the process of packaging and shipping the book back to Amazon. It isn’t easy as it may sound. The link provided in the email detailed out every step and it was a major put off. But then, I have no other choice. I will have to follow the steps and get the refund. All said and done, I would still highly recommend Amazon for its service quality and customer support.

Doctors’ Day – My Message

Happy Mother’s Day

I haven’t talked to my mother today. And I do not need occasions like today to talk to her. Every day is her day. Today, in fact is Archies and Hallmark day, like many other days.

I will share a true story about her. Below:

At Deolali, which is my home town, one thing I hate most is TV. And I hate it more when it is ON. My mother cannot live without it. She can watch the same “Saas-Bahu” thing multiple times. In morning, in afternoon, evening and night, and next day still complain that she missed some parts as she was in the kitchen, and watch it again 

One day, I completely lost my cool and stood up from sofa to leave the house. Angrily, I took big steps towards the door, stood in between the TV and my mother, and shouted:

“Enough, I cannot tolerate this. I am leaving this house…All day what I see is you watching TV and I am completely fed up of it..You have to put it off or I am leaving. NOW..”

She looked at me for a second and quickly shifted a bit on sofa to ensure that I was no more blocking her view. And said..

“Ok..don’t forget to get 2 packs of milk when you return…and some samosas..” With her eyes still fixed on TV.

🙂

Facebook isn’t bad. Really.

Facebook isn’t really bad, if you know how to do it right. I know many people are sick of seeing, frequent profile picture updates, selfies with irrelevant deep and copied quotes, yummy sandwiches, useless check ins, How am I feeling today updates. Facebook let’s you control most of this, if not everything.

Unfollow friends:
In last month I have “unfollowed” about 50 friends. Yes, you can remain friends with people and still do not get bugged up with their useless posts. Facebook allows unfollowing without unfriending. Thumb up to this feature.

Unfollow Posts or Stop Notifications:

Another very useful feature to stop those bugging notifications you see every time somebody comments on the post you have “Liked” or “commented upon”. Unless it is a really engaging or intriguing discussions, I do not follow posts.

Lists:
I am using this efficiently. I have more than 10 lists and I do not prefer showing everything to everyone. There are only few posts that are worth sharing with everyone. Understand the interests of your friends and put them in the lists accordingly.

There could be many more undiscovered features which let you and your friends live in peace. I will add them as and when I discover them.

Lotus Temple

My recent visit to Lotus Temple in Delhi wasn’t very exciting for some reasons. One, the premises have very odd timings, 9:00 Hrs. to 19:00 Hrs. In Morning by the time it opens, the natural light isn’t any more suitable for photography, and in evening it is too early to get good silhouettes. Another reason is high turnout of tourists on weekends, you need to be too patient with each one of them. Someone or other keeps coming into the frame.

Nevertheless, Out of about 100 odd clicks, I managed to get few silhouettes, worth sharing here. The other temple that you see in pictures below is ISKON Temple, as viewed from Lotus Temple.

  

Why study Architecture

Studying Architecture has saved my life in many ways. Now look at this example:

When last time I was caught by HER staring at some girl in market, I quickly adjusted my focus and pointed at a building behind that girl, and said “That building has an interesting form and colour..don’t you think? I must take a picture.. “

Sunshine

It happens everyday, almost
We get into this fierce competition.. me and Sun..
I look at it straight..
Straight into its face..
And it stares back..directly into my face..
I see it turning from pink to orange, from orange to red..
I don’t give up..I smile and keep staring at it..
And then it turns into a fierce yellow ball..
I give up, I close my eyes..
We both smile..

Like a stone

Can exist without you?
I thought I’ll give it a try.
Well, I did succeed. I did exist.
But there was no life.
Like a stone!