Impractical Knowledge

Earlier this month, the All India Council for Technical Education(AICTE) made the decision to shut down 300 private engineering colleges all over India due to less than 30% seat enrollment for five consecutive years. It is quite possible that many of these colleges may be converted to science colleges or vocational education institutes. The decision will be finalized by AICTE by December end and the colleges would be expected to stop admission processes from the 2018-19 session. There are around 3,000 private engineering colleges in India, but more than 90% of them fail to provide any quality education . They function more like factories producing unemployable engineers each year. Providing the students with practical knowledge and development of skills are given no importance. This is the reason why I feel that this decision could have a positive outcome overall. The Positive Side As an engineering student myself, frustrated with the education system and its im

The following pictures are examples of some playgrounds in the United States and England: Baseball park in America Football field in England And the following picture is an example of a typical playground in India: Now, a question might arise in your mind, "How is this street a playground?" Well if you are an Indian, I guess you already know the answer to that question. For those unaware of the issue, there is huge lack of good, playable playgrounds in India and the ones present are already overcrowded with kids and far from the vicinity of the majority of the kids. So, it is the time that we need more playgrounds in India and here are 7 reasons why we need more playgrounds in India. 1. Streets are not meant for sports : Streets are constructed for vehicles and passengers to travel from one place to another and not for sports. Playing any sport on a street compromises the safety of both the players and the travelers. It can distract or disturb the

Did you know that  a student commits suicide every hour in India ? Not a statistic to be proud of, right!! In the year 2014, around 2403 students committed suicide with ' Failure in Examination ' as the reason. And, this is just a fraction of the number of students who fall into depression , stress , and anxiety due to our fear-based education system. As a full-time student myself for the past 16 years, I get frustrated a lot when I see such headlines of students committing suicides due to academic pressure and failure in exams in the newspaper regularly. So, I decided to write a post on this topic today to highlight the reasons behind this statistic and figure out some solutions to this problem. I remember when I was a student studying in Class IX when one of my friends who had failed in most of the subjects told me that he felt he was a worthless loser and was wasting his parents' money and wished he could jump off the fourth floor of the school. Back

The kid in the photograph above is Kamlesh , a 13-year-old drug addict. But you might probably recognize him as the ' Solution ' or ' Soluchan ' kid as popularized by memes and viral parody videos. Such memes and parody videos are regularly shared on my WhatsApp groups and it bothers me greatly when people post, share and have a laugh while reading these memes and watching these videos without even having the slightest decency or concern to look up the story behind them. Social media and this culture of memifying each and everything are increasingly leading to feelings of insensitivity , hollowness and the loss of empathy where people are ready to post insensitive memes and remix music videos of Kamlesh's interview to get some attention, views, likes, and shares on YouTube and social media.  Kamlesh's Story Kamlesh, now an internet sensation for the wrong reasons, is a 13-year-old drug addicted boy. He ran away from his hometown Bh

' Sex ' the word itself gives a feeling of awkwardness, shame, discomfort and stigma when you talk about it in public or write a post about it while sitting in your room. Now, how does this three lettered word create so much discomfort and awkwardness when in fact it is one of the most important parts of our lives and the reason for our existence. Let's try to figure that out: Parents, Society And The Education System   Parents and the society attach a feeling of stigma and shame with sex. This narrow-minded thinking creates a barrier of discomfort about talking on the topic, as most Indian parents refrain from answering their child's questions on sex and try to avoid the topic. So, naturally their kids turn to their friends , who themselves have limited knowledge on the subject, and pornography to seek their answers which exposes them to the world of adult content, which most of the times provides them with inaccurate knowledge and creates an extremely

Created and written by famous stand-up comedian Biswa Kalyan Rath , ' Laakhon Mein Ek ' (One Among Millions) is a web series about the harsh reality behind the IIT Coaching Industry and the great Indian race to book a seat in an IIT ( Indian Institute of Technology ). Please note that this is not a review of the web series. I'm not a critic but all I can say is that I really loved the series and I would recommend you to watch it. So, I'm writing this post to share some of the issues highlighted in the series with some of my own opinions having myself been a part of that race.  Overview The story revolves around Aakash , a 15-year-old teenager, who is forced to join Genius Infinity , an IIT coaching institute by his dictatorial father. The series begins with Aakash mimicking Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan while shooting a video for YouTube which reflects his interest in acting and mimicking. Aakash is shown as quite an average student who had s