Saturday, December 28, 2019

Book Review: The Captive

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This was my first attempt to read a book from Romantic thriller genre! It was a great experience and I would love to read more from the Author. There are many twist and turns in the story which keeps your interest intact and you can't stop yourself for reading more of it. As per title it is the story about captivity but it also has a romantic angle between the captor and captive. What? Why? How? these are some of the questions which always comes to your mind while reading the story. I highly recommend it to all who interested reading romance, suspense and thriller stories. Here are some glimpse of the story:
  • We are survivors. As long as we can, we fight. Because being alive is much better.
  • They say that when survival mode kicks in, then the logical part of the brain stops functioning, and everything points to three different options—fight, flight, or freeze.
  • I know we are supposed to love our mother because she is the first person we are connected to, and she is the one who gives us blood and nourishment and protects us while we are inside her stomach. And when we are born, even though the physical cord that joined us is severed, another more important cord is formed. An emotional cord. That’s what matters.
  • Hurting women or innocents is not being powerful, it’s just showing weakness!
  • If I’m going to be a victim of a senseless crime, I will not go down easily
  • The best way to tackle a bully is to show that his taunts and jeers isn’t working on you.












Saturday, December 21, 2019

Book Review: Kuch Rang Zindagi Ke

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It is the first Hindi novel I read; I should say a short story instead of novel. I may be biased because author is my brother. Although I am being as honest as possible. It is worth reading and as it is short story it wont take long time to read. It is about a girl and her innocent feelings towards his friends (specially male friends). Language used in the book may look quite offensive but it is usually used in our regular conversations, however, it is not used in writing. Author attempted to be frank with writing and I hope you will like it.












Saturday, December 14, 2019

How to start PhD?

PhD (Doctor of Philosophy)!

I recently completed my PhD and some of my friends have the question, 'How to start PhD?' I believe many of you may also have the same question and that's why I decided to publish an article to answer the question.

Before going into the details I have some small answers for FAQs or lets say background check! First and foremost thing is why? In all the scenarios first question should be 'what' then 'why' and then we can find the answer for 'how'. Here in our scenario, I have already answered the what part in first line. If you are not satisfied with it, you may search it on Google or Quora (sometimes it is better than Google). So lets try to answer 'why?' Major reason which I observe is government policy (you may argue that I have started my anti-modi / anti-government / anti-nation agenda again). But most of the top tier institute allows only PhD holder to appear in the interview process. Only Bachelors or Masters has no value if you are planning to get job in academia or you already are in academics. It is necessary for all academician to have PhD! Second reason may be your research interest. Someone may genuinely interested in doing research to help mankind. Third reason may be you have lot of money and you can buy whatever degree you want. In India, anything can be bought, if you have sufficient money to pay (for further discussion contact Mukesh Ambani)! So, If you are from third category, you need not to worry about anything we are going to discuss here but for category one and two this discussion may be useful.



PhD in a long-term process, it may take four to seven years to earn the degree (I am not considering fake degrees). The only person who is most important in your life during you PhD is your supervisor. Therefore, in my view, selection of supervisor is the most important part of your PhD journey; research area, publications, etc. comes later.

Most of the people approach their supervisor based on their research profile and regret later. Because the person who has good research contribution not necessary be a good human being as well. It is better to have good amount of conversation with your future supervisor before actually joining him/her. Your supervisor should able to understand your personal issues as well because in this long journey, you may have many personal issues and if your supervisor don't understand it, you may end up struggling between your personal and research life!

Next important thing is your area of research. Mostly people ask their supervisor or other seniors about the area of research and problem statement. This may be a good strategy for short term research but here it wont work. You have to identify the area in which you are interested to work. It is something that you can work on 24x7 for four to seven years. In starting, everything seems interesting but after sometimes your research becomes monotonous and you don't like to work any more and you realize that you have chosen the wrong area but now you are a half way mark and no wayout. Sometimes it also happen that you can't find any more problems to solve. There is no research without finding and solving problems. Therefore, it is advisable to choose your area of research wisely.



Now the discussion about the difference between category one and category two aspirants. Major focus of category one people is on degree whereas category two people worried more about their contribution. Therefore, category one aspirants should go for the university or institution which don't have very high publication and contribution criteria so that they can earn their degree easily. Category two should target top tier universities and institutions so that they get better facilities, faculties and work environment.

I hope this article will help PhD aspirants to start their journey.
Please post any of your questions in comments, I will try my best to answer.

“If you can't fly then run, if you can't run then walk, if you can't walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.












Saturday, December 7, 2019

Is death penalty enough for rapists?

Recently I read many stories on social media about rape cases and people demanding death penalty to the rapist. I completely agree with the concept and we need to set such examples to avoid any such incidents in future. But the question is, who will decide whether a suspect is genuinely guilty or not? It may possible that someone frame an innocent person with rape charges and he get death punishment. After his death, we may find that he wasn't the one who did the crime but someone had framed him. Can we get his life back? Death penalty is an extreme punishment and it should be avoided. However, I am not supporting rapist in anyway. They deserve the hardest of punishment but first they need to be proved guilty.

What I personally observed over social media is that when something like these happens, majority of people start publishing the stories and status related to the incidents without verifying the source. They just keep forwarding things and believe that we have done our duty. We Indians, are the most civilized people on social media until and unless the topic of discussion is related to politics. We all try to show that we are very law abiding citizen and there has to be a punishment for everyone who does not follow me. My way is the only right way, hence, everyone have to follow me. I also written an article at the time of 'Anna movement against corruption' and I clearly mentioned that if you negotiate with traffic police when you caught breaking a simple traffic rule to avoid high (currently it's very high) penalty, you don't have any right to speak against corruption. You are also the member of the corrupt system and you need to get out of it first and then advise others to do so. As Mahatma Gandhi once said, "Be the change you want to see in the world". Even most of us had listened a story of Mahatma Gandhi advising a boy not to eat so much of sugar. If you don't remember it, you may read it from here or you may search it on Google.




You may think after reading hundreds of words that what is the relevance? Why are we discussing all this non-sense under such a title? The answer is simple. Before, blaming the system (police, rapist, politicians, rich people, etc.) we need to think about ourselves and people around us. All the people working in the system are from the system only. We haven't imported police or rapist or politicians from space (they are not aliens)! They are from our own system, one of us. Then why they are doing such things? why can't we all live with peace? To be honest many of us have friends who make comments on female friends of the group and instead of stopping them we also join them in conversation. Majority of people who talks about women empowerment on social media don't even allow women in their house to live a life according to their wish!

The conclusion is, instead of protesting on social media about such incidents, be the change. Follow the rules and inspire people around you to do the same. If everyone try to be the law abiding citizen, our country will become one of the most disciplined country in the world. Simple rule we need to follow is "Jiyo aur jine do!".

Jai Hind...




Some references:



Some movie references ;):