One thing that I still don't understand is why, out of the 10 years of school, only 10th is important.
Because only 10th is important, a lot of students don't study at all the 9 years before. You can say that what they teach in 10th is more important than what they teach in 2nd. But, no, it's not.
You can know any formula of AP or how to solve any quadratic equation but if you're going to use your fingers to add or subtract because you never paid attention when the teacher showed you tricks for doing it, you're going to look dumb.
Whatever they teach in the 10 years is important.
Uh, let me rephrase that. It SHOULD be important. It's not. Over 50% of the syllabus makes no sense but, still, if you want to design the syllabus like that, make every part of it important. Let the parrots work for 10 years straight, not just one year.
I've said it before, when I asked one of my friends (who gets over 85% in the exams) what 2 raised to 0 is, she said 0. If 5th grade's marks counted, she would've made sure to remember that.
A lot of times I'm asked why my mental math is good,
IT'S BECAUSE I PAID ATTENTION IN 1ST, 2ND AND 3RD WHEN WE LEARNED HOW TO ADD AND SUBTRACT!
not because the marks counted anywhere but because it's a skill I'm going to need for the rest of my life.
AND IF YOU DON'T THINK BASIC ADDITION AND SUBTRACTION IS IMPORTANT FOR A 15 YEAR OLD, THEN ARITHMETIC PROGRESSION, TRIGONOMETRY, RESISTANCE, METALS AND NON-METALS, WORLD WARS, LETTER WRITING, अव्यय, समास, AND THE FUCKING GANGA PLAIN ARE NOWHERE NEAR IMPORTANT.
Either make all 10 years count, or make none of it count and just have 12th as the main like every other country. (Yeah yeah, this makes India unique, all the patriotism. It doesn't make us unique, it makes us stupid because we know all about Hitler and yet we get confused while writing "occasionally")
When I pitched this idea to a person I know who is in the education sector, he asked me "If this change was made, would you be willing to go through all these 10 years again?"
"Well, if I agree to go through all 10 years again, would the person who decided our syllabus show me just how much he himself knows by telling me every answer I have ever learned in my life?"
"If I agree to waste another 10 years in this stupid system, will every teacher who ever corrected my exams and said "He needs to take academics seriously." write the exams I will have to write again?"
"If I agree to waste another 10 years, will the system agree to change the way I want it to or at least in a way it makes sense?"
If at least two of those conditions are met, I would go through 10 years of schooling again. But, I'll never have to, because the idiot who decided the syllabus doesn't know what a 15 year old today does. And I'm sure the teachers don't learn the answers that we have to, why should they?
In Science, we have a lesson that covers basic inheritance. We studied about Mendel's experiments on peas. And, we have the monohybrid cross and dihybrid cross. And for the preliminary exams, we were asked to explain dihybrid cross for 5 marks.
But, I didn't remember it that well, so I couldn't do it. However, it bugged me a lot, so, I tried it out when I came home.
Dihybrid was a piece of cake, nothing too difficult. My curiosity wasn't satisfied with dihybrid. And just for the heck of it, I decided to try the same with 3 traits. It took a while to put it together and the result was fulfilling.
I could even work out a pattern for the number of gametes, the number of distinct phenotypic results and the number of distinct genotypic results.
Of course, you can't be too sure with the pattern until you check it thoroughly. To do that, I tried doing the same with 4 traits. And sure enough, the pattern applied to it as well.
If anyone's curious,
Number of gametes for the F2 generation = 2 raised to n.
Number of 'observations' you get from the Punnett Square = 2 raised to 2n. (Doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure that out.)
Number of distinct phenotypic results = 2 raised to n.
Number of distinct genotypic results = 3 raised to n.
where n = number of traits.
And after finding and verifying the pattern, I was curious as to what it would be if the number of traits was 10.
Well,
Number of gametes for the F2 generation = 1,024.
Number of 'observations' = 1,048,576.
Number of distinct phenotypic results = 1,024.
Number of distinct genotypic results = 177,147.
Sadly, I can't do that on paper. And, my concentration isn't good enough to do that. So, I've been working on a program which would be able to generate a Punnett Square, and count the number of distinct phenotypic as well as genotypic results. There have been a lot of bugs in the first step itself, that is, inputting the number of traits and selecting a keyword for each.
I don't know how long it would take to finish the entire program. Or if I can even do it, but, it's certainly fun to try and come up with a way to make this possible.
For now though, here's trihybrid cross.
Just in case you want to zoom in, click here.
It's messy. Pencil is not my friend, the lead kept breaking.
Sadly, I couldn't capture the quadhybrid cross, it's even messier than this table and it's 4 times bigger.
I recently heard on the radio that NRIs can now vote in Indian elections without being here. Actually, they won't be able to do in the coming Delhi assembly polls but it's going to start soon.
Source
But, during the radio podcast, the RJ asked listeners to call him and tell him about their views, and one of the replies is really sad.
She says NRIs should not be able to vote from out of India because they left the country. She even went so far as to say "Mahatma Gandhi worked so hard for the freedom of our country, and he did it not so we could run off to different countries to earn more money. The NRIs obviously think India is not good and left the country to earn more money and so, they should not be given rights to vote for the country. They can just vote for the country they're living in."
Well, here's the thing. I don't think she understands what NRI actually is. NRI stands for Non-resident Indian. NRIs are basically Indian citizens who are TEMPORARILY living in a different country for reasons like education, work etc.
She's mixed NRIs and PIOs (Person of Indian Origin, read NRI and PIO for more information)
NRIs haven't left the country because they think it's bad, they've just left the country for education (makes sense, our education system is highly depressing) or work (they could have been transferred by their company, it's not all money based) or whatever reason, it's temporary.
And if you check the requirements for voting, they are:
1) The person must be of 18 years of age at least.
2) The person must be a citizen of India.
And so, NRIs do qualify for voting. The only reason they can't vote is because they can't show up in India for voting.
I don't think it's a good idea either but not because of that stupid reason. It's just that the voting will be done through the internet (using proxies) and that's a little insecure in my opinion.
However, there are rumours and suspicions that the ballot elections are tampered so, there really won't be much of a difference.
Also, in my opinion, NRIs are a bit more logical than the average Indian citizen and their votes might actually improve the country. Besides, like I said, NRIs should technically be able to vote already.
Whoever said this on radio should really do their research before saying something as heavy as this.
And one really funny fact about this woman is that she just moved to Pune from the North. So technically, she's also moving to different locations for money (according to her logic) so, she really has no right to judge NRIs.
Hyouka is a pretty non-mainstream but it has become popular because of the "kinninarimasu". So, a lot of people have seen it now.
If you remember the series, you'll distinctly remember the last part, because, to me at least, it was the one of the worst endings ever. It begins with Chitanda talking about her career options and how she can't take care of the business so, she's going to try and research new ways to increase the harvest etc.
Then, Oreki says to her to let him take care of the business side for her. And for that brief moment, I felt happy for him because grom the first episode, he had been slowly captivated by her and it would've been a good ending to show that he fell for her and did something about it.
Yes, he doesn't do anything that takes too much energy, that's his nature. But, throughout the Anime, his character is developed and he does, willingly, do some thing (like going to a library to research out of curiosity) So, it wouldn't have been that wrong to show that he ended up doing something about his attracion towards her.
But, then, we see that it was just Oreki's imagination and he leaves, without saying it. Again, this does fit his initial nature, but, like I said, it wouldn't have been against his nature if he had said it.
And, this leaves a very open ending to the Anime (which I hate) since they just finished high school and even if Oreki managed to resist this time, he might not be able to in the future (because his character does change). Of course, it could also be that Chitanda has to leave the city for education. Frankly speaking, there are a lot of scenarios that could happen.
But, I, like Sheldon, need closure. I can't stand not knowing the end to something. I can formulate theories, but, I need to know which one of them was right.
Then, I read somewhere that the Anime has actually planned a season 2 but it's been over two years now, and nothing.
However, the Anime was based on a light novel, which has 5 volumes. And Hyouka only covered 4 volumes. So now, I'm reading the novel and look for a better ending.
All in all though, it was a really good Anime. One of my favourites. Mostly because it wasn't hyped too much and the mystery content was amazingly explained. A must watch for mystery fans.
Religion-wise, people can be classified into 4 categories. The first is the rapidly growing atheist category. These people have no faith in any religion. They often debate with the theists about anomalies in myths and such.
The second category is where most of today's teenagers reside. They don't actually believe in any of the stories or theories, but, they don't want to admit that they are atheists and ruin their 'image', ironically, if all these people just admitted that they were atheists, I'm pretty sure the number of atheists would be larger than the number of theists.
The third category is the smallest of all. It consists of the theists. These people, despite the fact that they believe in the existence of an almighty power, have my respect, because, they don't blindly believe. These people are mostly priests, with only a few exceptions. And, most priests (in India) don't even come under this category because, well, they just know being a 'baba' means quick money from gullible citizens. Anyway, these theists have actually studied the myths related to their religion very carefully. The don't just know the "popular" stories, they know most, if not all, of them. And, they actually follow the "amendments" strictly.
The fourth category is, as far as I know, the largest. And, in my opinion, the stupidest. Not because they believe in the existence of God. It's your life, believe in whatever you want. But, it's because they are concrete examples of ”blind-believers". It's what atheists call the theists and these people just make it worse for the real believers.
When I say blind believers, I mean, they don't know about the myths. I don't know much about Christianity, but Hinduism has a LOT of myths and different Gods and Goddesses. These people only know the very mainstream ones. But, that by itself is still fine. You believe in just one God, fine by me.
The reason they are, in my opinion, the stupidest is because they have the nerve to go around calling themselves saints. These are the same people who pick fights with atheists. Of course, a lot of atheists know myths and deities better than these people so, the argument is pretty one sided.
I mean, if you believe in one God, just do it, don't go around picking fights with people who don't. I'm not saying atheists are right either. Being one of them, I know how it is, it starts with a simple atheist post on Facebook and ends with all the fake theists on your friend list against all the atheists on your friend list. I don't know why we can't just believe/not believe without feeling the need to prove it.
And these are the people who have statuses like, "Atheists, why do you need Christmas holidays?" Well, I don't know about other atheists but, I don't mind going to school in December, but the question is, will my teachers show up? The answer to that question is because it's been declared a holiday. It's not like the theists take a leave on that day. Everyone has been given that holiday because the majority of the population took leaves anyway.
Of course, atheists make it even worse by saying, "If we can't enjoy holidays, why do you get to benefit from modern medicine? Next time you have a cold, don't go to a doctor, go to church,"
Though what pisses me off the most is the fact that these theists don't really follow their religion. As in, they go drinking, and commit all those other sins, and then when they're in trouble, they pray to God. They justify it by saying "I just drink occasionally, it's fine." It's not. If you want to be a theist, you have to follow the "rules" 24/7 till you die. I mean, by that logic, I am also allowed to kill people as long as I do it once a year or so. (It'd take a few years but, if that logic was accepted, the atheists might just be able to take over.)
To be honest, right now, I don't really want to call myself an atheist either. Not because of all the hate I get from my relatives or basically any grown up in this country (aka fake theists) but because that term is starting to become like "otaku". Everyone is just fighting amongst themselves based on their religious views.
The Hindus fight with the Muslims, the Christians and what not, while the atheists fight with all of them. If they could just stop fighting and quietly follow their religions, the world would be such a better place.
This has been a very active debate ever since atheists started openly debating about the existence of Gods. Does our life just end after we die? After all the years we spent, does our mind just stop thinking?
We're told that afterlife does exist, by a lot of people. But, the concept of afterlife is pretty mainstream in most popular religions. It states that after death, we are taken to a place where we are first judged based on all our past actions. If God thinks you were a good human, he sends you to heaven.
Heaven, a place that has increased all our expectations. We've come up with such theories about it, I doubt, even if it does exist, it's going to be as good as we expect it to be. I mean, think about it. Who made heaven? God. Who made the Earth? God. Do we like life on Earth? When you add computers, movies, food, drinks, women, yes, we do. But, heaven is like God's own place. So, obviously, there won't be any meat (unless you're christian) Drinking is considered a sin in most religions so, there won't be any kind of alcohol. God never created computers or cameras, so there won't be any kind of media to keep you entertained. And women, well, everyone thinks Heaven is a place where the residents are beautiful and they serve you as you want.
But, if you ever actually read the "rules" of most religions, you'll know that lust is also one of the deadly sins. So, it's not like you're gonna have a lot of fun with the ladies on God's turf.
And if God thinks you've sinned too much, he will send you to hell. We've all imagined hell as a place underground, where there is no food, drink, and is probably full of demons that God has damned to eternal captivity.
Some even believe in rebirth. And if I was to believe in one of these theories, I would pick this one. But, then, I found out that the theory of rebirth revolves around karma. Which means, basically, God judges your entire life and based on that, he decides which creature you'll be reborn as.
For some reason, I don't like being judged by someone who did such a bad job making certain people, so I started thinking about different methods of afterlife.
One theory that I came up with, and that I liked, was well, rebirth. But not as an animal, based on my life performance. Maybe, after we die, we are just born again, in a different dimension. Of course, if we're being reborn, we'll have memory of our life on earth.
But then, if we're living in a different dimension and if the way to get here is by dying on Earth, that means everyone in this dimension was a resident of Earth before. Then comes the question, will my body be the same? Well, no, there's no reason for it to be the same. So, you'd have a new body, maybe even a new gender, but the same mind. In this world, man trapped in a woman's body would actually make sense.
So, what happens after you die in this world? Simple, you are reborn in the next dimension. It is said that there innumerable dimensions, so, what if we just kept traveling from dimension to dimension after death. Maybe there aren't innumerable dimensions. Maybe there are only a few hundred.
But that's still a 100 hundred lives. Maybe, after we're done with all the dimensions, we are reborn on Earth again.
Next time you meet someone who claims to have reborn, you might want to think about this theory.
Another theory that I'd personally like to believe in is, we are reborn, in a different year. For example, if I die in 2015, there's a chance I'll be reborn in 2100s or even 1900s. Of course, if you're reborn in the past, you'll be in someone else's body, maybe even a popular historic figure like Hitler.
Through various movies and series, you have learned that we shouldn't change the past, but if this was true, you might be able to. And your future, the present, would completely change.
I'll conclude before this gets anymore complicated. All these are theories, there's no explanation yet, the only way to find out, is to, well, die.
I'm not a huge fan of powers like invisibility, invincibility, immortality etc. and least of all, telepathy. Telepathy is the power of sensing or reading a minds and communicating mentally. For now, let's just talk about telepathic perception that is, mind reading.
As I said, I'm not a huge fan of such powers and so, I haven't seen any movies or read any books that featured such powers, but I do remember one Marathi movie about it. It seemed like a typical movie for supernatural powers.
A guy wishes he had some power, he gets the power due to weird reasons, he realizes how much work it is, he goes through a lot of hardships, and in the end wishes to lose the power.
The movie which I remember showed one guy who wished to be able to read the mind's of women. When he got the power, he realizes how much women think about and so on. And it always bugged me how they only showed one problem behind mind reading, when there're so many.
Let's assume a kid was born with this power. First of all, he would have to grow up knowing everything his parents didn't tell him. That means, while his parents told him stories of Santa Claus, he would be hearing "Santa isn't real", when his mother tells him about the Mahabharata and Ramayana, he would her his dad think "I don't know why I ever married this girl, she believes in this story (#ArrangedMarriages)" Basically, his childhood would be screwed up.
And that's still assuming he was given some orientation, as in, not to tell his parents that he can hear their thoughts. If he was never told this, and, being naive like any other kid, he would've just told his parents. His parents, after finding out that he wasn't lying would probably be too scared to be around him, and he'd be all alone.
Now, let's assume he makes it to school. In an Indian school, there are at least 40 students in one class. So, he'd have to spend around 6 hours hearing 40 people's thoughts. And these are all kids, so they would be thinking about the most random things. Besides, because of all the "voices" in. His head, he wouldn't be able to hear what the teacher is saying. So, it's useless to go to school.
As he grows up and enters high school, it'll get even worse. High school is when every kid in class has a crush and are thinking of their crushes during boring classes. And I, personally, wouldn't even want to hear anyone's thoughts about their crush. He would know a lot of secrets. But, he can't tell them to anyone because his source is well....you know.
Worse would be him going to a movie. Even worse would be him going for Jism 2. Listening to a theater full of guys think about Sunny Leone, that can't be fun.
Of course, there are a lot of perks. He won't ever have to study. He can just copy by listening to someone. He would easily find out if a girl likes him. He can meet anyone and know their deepest secrets, a great way of helping your country, being a telepathic spy.
But then, it kinda makes you think. Maybe this power has an off-switch. As in, you can just stop reading minds for some time. But, that's exactly like logging off when a group chat is lively. You know it's just spamming you, yet, you don't want to miss if, in case, something does happen.
So, would you still like to have this power?
