Victor Simonel St, White Town Puducherry

Victor Simonel Street, White Town, Puducherry: This is a beautiful as well as important street which has major structures and institutions. The Pondicherry Assembly building, General Hospital, the St.John's Church, the Lycee Francais, the old MLA Hostel, the Office of the Chief Engineer, PWD all are located on this street. It starts from the Bussy Street on the South and extends and joins the Rangapillai Street with the Bharathi Park on the eastern side.

Google Map of Vicor Simonel Street

St John's Church, Puducherry

I was at the CSI Hall of the St.John's Church located near the General Hospital, Puducherry today evening as part of a science communication programme debunking the so called Mid Brain Activation Training Programmes. The programme had the illustrious science communicator, Prof.Narendra Nayak attending.  As I was attending the programme I noticed the beautiful architecture of this church which resulted in a few photographs. Of course, it was getting dark, but still could manage a few clips. 

Cassia Fistula.. .. Golden shower tree

In Nazarethpet, Poonamalee, Chennai..(on 7th June 2015).
Leaves, flowers, seeds - all are a feast to the eyes..
These flowers are also identified with the Kerala New Year Vishu..

On a hot noon at Chennai..

It was pretty hot and even the shade of Cassia Fistula trees didn't give any relief to the heat... And absolutely no breeze at all.. And suddenly this little squirrel drew my attention..

On entrance exams...

On the 7th of June 2015, thousands of students wrote the entrance exam for the prestigious JIPMER Medical College's MBBS admissions. Reportedly about 1.4 lakh students had applied amounting to Rs.14 crores (each applicant pays Rs.1000).. Out of this, Rs.10 crore goes to the consultancy firm which conducts the online examination and another may be Rs.2 crore as TA/DA to those who conduct the examination. The rest of the amount is a surplus for JIPMER. Likewise, thousands of students write entrance examinations every year and huge amounts are spent on the entrance examinations across India.. Different universities conduct their own entrance examinations and so also different institutions like the IITs, IISc, ISERs, AIPMT, AIIMS, apart from States conducting their own entrance examinations ...

If we had a uniform syllabus across the country, may be these different examinations are not required. We have every state formulating their own syllabus and even within the state, you have multiple standards. Till recently, Tamilnadu had Matriculation syllabus, State Board system, Anglo Indian System apart from CBSE, ICSE and what not? May be it is high time, we start thinking on this issue whee students across the country have different varying syllabus and for entering into any All India course like Engineering or Medical studies, the institutions have no other option to conduct their own qualifying entrance examinations.. But there is a huge industry thriving on the entrance examination business and like Education itself as a big industry, the entrance coaching also has become even a larger industry and we hear stories every day that there are definite linkage between question paper leaks and leading entrance coaching institutions..

Supposing we had a common educational framework with some scope for regional variations, then this could have solved the problems to a great extent. After all, science, mathematics, social sciences etc. are going to be same for all the states and if there was a common agreement on a common syllabus, then these varying systems would not create citizens of different standards and levels. May be then there is no need for having varying entrance examinations provided the teaching and the quality of conducting the examinations are kept at the highest levels possible. This reminds the mass copying being practiced in states like Bihar and other states.. In fact most of the private institutions also encourage malpractices in the examinations and the invigilators are bribed and cajoled and students are passed. This was all the more true in key professions like Education (B.Ed, M.Ed, D.T.Ed etc.) where the students once gets through the degrees goes on to become teachers who in turn will create substandard students damaging a whole new generation..  I know many teaches working in government as well as private colleges who can not handle English or even Tamil properly and their own levels of knowledge in these subjects highly questionable.. The interesting fact was that when the Government of Tamilnadu introduced the Teacher Eligibility Test (TET), majority of the so called Diploma and Degree holders in Education (Diploma in Teacher Education - D.T.Ed and the B.Ed ) failed to pass the tests. Now there are entrance coaching centres who will prepare the already qualified D.T.Ed and B.Ed degree holders to pass through the Teacher Eligibility Test .. Look at the irony of weird things and it seems we all accept these things with out questioning the basis problem of quality of education, quality of assessment at any point of time...

It is high time, that we start thinking about these things..
Signing off...

The Maggi issue and the questions it raises...

All of a sudden there is a big issue in India. The Maggi is in a soup.. A soup of troubles..There has been reports that it contains 17 times the permissible limits of Lead or it contains too much MSG or Ajinomoto as is commonly called. Various states have already banned the product, but interestingly for 15 days, 30 days etc. One fails to understand why only these many days ?

I was watching NDTV night show where Ms.Sunita Narain was pointing to certain deeper insights into the whole issue of food safety ..  She was pointing out that a packet of Maggi gives you almost 80% of your day's salt requirement.. And for any normal healthy child, at least three packets would be required to satisfy their "thirst" for maggi.. So we need to look deeper into the issue and it becomes clear that it is not the MSG or Lead alone which are the hidden dangers in junk food items like Maggi..

Maggi would be just one example of such innumerable brands which are sold in India through super markets and just one noodles brand. There are pastas, pizzas, ketchups, sauces of different colours and flavours, and a whole lost of processed foods charged with excess of preservatives and salts and acids etc. Are we also going to address all these items as well... Or is it just one storm in a tea cup which will subside when all the test results will become "normal" all of a sudden and those who tested the product initially will say, their testing equipment was faulty ?

We also need to ask ourselves another question. All those noodels which we buy from the road side - are they safe too?  Not at all... When you get time, please try to watch how they make the noodles, how they chop the vegetables and what all ingredients are added to the noodles .. One thing very common that I have noticed is that most of these road side shops, they buy the cabbage or onion and  other vegetables and slice them with out any washing at all.. The amount of ajinomoto they add to the noodles is too high even to beat the branded noodles like Maggi... If this is the case of noodles, the other stuff like the Chicken 65 or other gravy /curry is even more dangerous. They add too much red pigment to these to get a bright red colour and from the very packing of the colour one can be 100% assured that these are not safe, food grade colours (if there was anything called food grade colour at all in the first place)..

Unfortunately our food safety standards are so poor, the Food Inspectors are so corrupt, and the public are equally ignorant and unaware of what they eat and whether it is safe to eat etc...

So, in my opinion, such issues are good for the public and even though nothing much may turn out from this current controversy, public would be a bit more hesitant to buy the noodles from shops but they may still buy an egg noodles or a chicken noodles from fast food outlets which are springing up in every small towns and streets ...Hopefully, at least some parents will learn how to make their own pasta or noodles at home from whole grain wheat powder or at least try out our own Rice Noodles  or Ragi noodles ... to turn to better alternatives to the instant food culture..

Let us hope for the best...

Signing off...

June 1st and Schools ...!! In Puducherry things are a bit different!!

Today is 1st of June. First day of the sixth month of the year...Monday. ...Actually a good day for starting of schools .. and yes, schools reopened today in the neighbouring state of Tamilnadu. But for students of Puducherry, it has not! Why? Nobody knows what makes Puducherry so special so that schools can not reopen today.. Even the part of Puducherry embedded in Kerala - Mahe, the schools have started. Yet, nobody knows for sure what keeps the administration from opening the schools in Puducherry.  While reading the news papers, I even saw that schools will open today even in Nepal which was recently devastated by the earthquake - even the heavily damaging earthquake and almost completely ruined infrastructure have not stopped the Nepal from preventing the schools to be reopened today..

Way back in my childhood in Kerala, we always cherished for that day to rush to the schools on the 1st of June. Unfailingly the monsoon in Kerala would start on June 1st, or rather on Edavapathi (half of the month of Edvam - Edavam 15th). Those days, we did not have computers, nor cricket, nor high tech class rooms or smart boards .. But we still enjoyed the school.  Still the memories of our school days are fresh in our minds. The journey to the school on foot amidst the pouring rains, through water filled narrow pathways, across the narrow coconut wood bridges or even bridges made of arecanut trees which would soon become slippery due to the continuous rains, all those were challenges we liked and cherished so much.. some times using the big yam leaves as umbrellas, when your umbrellas fly away in strong winds, making paper boats and seeing them float away .. so many memories are associated with the school days..

In Puducherry, if there is a strong wind and few hours of rains, you can be sure that the administration will announce holidays.. I dont understand who is afraid of the rains.. The students ? definitely cant be.. Children always like rains, whether poor or rich or middle class.. they all like the rains. It seems the teachers are afraid of the rains, or may be administrative babus .. no one knows for sure.. and no one is bothered to find out too.. extended vacation .. shopping etc etc. for the richer class. But for the poor, schools also mean a different story. They get a good meal at school. Whether there is teaching or not, that is one thing they are sure of .. And by the extension of the reopening of the school, that is being denied to the children.

As per the official - or unofficial version, it is very hot in Puducherry and that is why schools are not reopening today. But the neighbouring Villupuram, Cuddalore or even Kottakkuppam which is hardly two kilometers from the Puducherry city, the schools are functional and open... Will we ever change ?

Footnote: It seems the Puducherry adminstration has no money to buy books and uniform to the children of government schools and they are buying some time to get some funds for the same. But to those in power and position - the children can come in what ever dress they wear at home to schools and it does not matter much, but what matters much more is that the adminstration should have known that June 1st is the day for school reopening and should have kept some money for all these.. and should have prioritized education over unwanted expenditures for buying of high end vehicles for departments, or spending money on other things..