Lecture

Masses of Hundreds in a hall,
Minds to be Ignited, Not one but all,
Masses no matter which tribe or creed,
Minds to be, a scientific breed.

Still masses may gleam,
Or minds ignited seem,
Only few burn bright to the past,
Some in reality they never last...

Just wondering which one I might be?

- Javits

At a loss for....

Originally on my blog, copy pasted here for more readers :P
~Shreyasee

Delhi-6 promises to be a good movie, inspiring as well. Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra after all. You start with one video, and proceed to another one; you know that vicious chain of videos you get sucked into on Youtube. So my next video "happened" to be the trailer for Rang de Basanti- that movie that was thought provoking, that was off-beat, that made you think who you were as part of a country, of any country for that matter.

Of course my immediate reaction was to start blogging from what I saw in the RDB trailer- "A Generation Awakens". Myth I say it is. When 26/11 took place, when India was in shock, it seemed it would be the trigger to do something different, and not sit back. Sure we aren't sitting back, but ask yourself if we have in fact done something. Pakistan has not yet accepted involvement in the massacre. The dossier has had no significant impact on either government, it literally is a dossier. Plans were made in Bangladesh, now in Europe...apparently. In all of this, we have the Satyam scandal. The defining fall of India's IT sector in the world. Merryll Lynch backing out, so many clients insulted.

And in the heart of the country, that of the citizens- nothing has changed. We sit back and analyze; rage against those responsible, rage against the government has known no bounds for a while, but all in the coziness of the chair at home, in front of the TV. A two year old is raped in Bombay. Common, what can we do. Mangalore assaults. Horrendous. Let's send Pink Chaddis to the guy, Hindu Talibanization. Conduct certificates for single girls if they want to rent an apartment in Bangalore. Brilliant. Dawood trying to kill Qasab. We have all the news, we do zilch. It will all die out. I am waiting for it.

Half of us are sitting here in the US hoping things are better back home. In the mean time, we can take advantage of the exchange rate while it lasts and make fun of the falling capitalism. Job search isn't going the right way....well there's always India to go back to. And the other half in India too scared to change the status-quo. True you can't blame them because anti-social elements have taken the best of their thinking abilities. For that matter, non anti-social elements as well. Barkha Dutt pulled a brilliant stunt on a blogger, since she didn't like what was said. And she calls herself a journalist. A journalist who prides herself in the quality of work she has put forth over the years. Tell me this Barkha, wouldn't it have been easier for you to write something about that instead of pulling all the legal logistics, asking the blogger to apologise. So much for the freedom of speech you so dearly cherish and you so dearly derive your living out of.

Why has this gotten easier for us to accept? Thomas Friedman had written that our generation is Generation Q- Q for Quiet. We shout, we write, we debate, we blog, but in the end we are quiet, its better that way, we are in that infinite loop of leisure and ease that gets us nowhere.

Yours truly takes full responsibility of being in Gen Q. What will it take to change us in reality?

Editor's Note: A Sneak Peek

Never in a million years would I have thought that being editor of a graduate students’ newsletter would be this hard. Why? Simply put, it’s beyond hard to come up with an issue; the main conundrum - what to put in it. We wanted to introduce ourselves with Parichay but Ike spoiled our plans. Ike came and went, and we thought about releasing the issue focusing on that dreadful hurricane (a welcome break though), but minimal responses to articles about Ike got me paranoid if the newsletter could get started in any way or fashion. But Parichay did happen, and we did take that leap to get out Dautya to you.

And so we bring to you our first edition of Dautya for this academic year. Late, but here it is. We’ve got all Parichay in this issue. The popular Vikram Shete puts in his dilemma about judging, the president goes through his schedule packed experience with the presidency, Vishnu tells you what the freshers’ thought, Hemantha brings to you something you all are going to love, and Aritra takes a stab at giving you ideas for your Thanksgiving break (you should ask him his). But most of all, you will find a few photos and links to the entire list, thanks to Javits for going all the way when it came to pictures.


Dautya is trying hard this year to be a regular with you guys, and so we are going to need all the help we can get. A team is a team, but we’d love for anyone and everyone to send in your inputs. We’d love to see you a part of Dautya as well. We need all the writers we can get- humor, satire, political- in short- ANYTHING. We are going to expand this newsletter, bring out all the important news a grad student needs, a student away from home wants to read. You are going to be our thought process. So help us out! Also, please do subscribe to the Dautya channel on Youtube. We need all the fan following we can get.

Here is a slideshow of the photos


Also feel free to look at the playlist for the Parichay videos



Sit back and enjoy. Have a laugh, and have a blast

-Shreyasee Das

Cook's Corner: Gaajar Halwa

Ingredients

1. Carrots 2 lb
   
2. Butter Sticks 2
3. Milk
4. Sugar 1 lb
5. Dry Fruits (Cashew, Almonds, Raisins)
6. Cardamom Powder 1 tbs

Method

1. Wash and peel the carrots.
2. Grate the carrots.
3. Add 1 ½ Butter stick in a non-stick frying pan. Add grated carrot.
4. Fry it for 3 mins. Add Milk such that the carrot soaks completely. Keep cooking the carrot in milk.
5. Add sugar and cardamom powder and stir the mixture. Fry dry fruits with ½ butter stick.
6. Add the dry fruits and cook for 10-15 mins. Serve hot.

- Hemantha Mangalampalli (Image Courtesy : Mstephens7 )