A little about love

In the void of love, why to live, for what to die.
In the void of love, what to smile for, for what to cry.

Love is honey sweet, love is chilly spice.
Love is killing pain, love is eternal wine.
Love is life, love is to die.

Love is sunny day, love is coldest night.
Love is roses red, love is thorny bite.
Love is life, love is to die.

Up above there you are, down below, love only lies.
God is great, greater is love.
God is great, greater is love.
God is great, greater is love.
Only love...

The silly THES world rankings

So I grabbed QS Top Universities Guide and scrutinized their 2008 rankings and I concluded that the rankers were silly specially when it comes to comparing regions, America, Europe and Asia. Here are some very major flaws in the ranking methodology. Just take a simple example... UC Berkley is ranked 36th while in subject rankings it is in the top 5 in all areas and in peer review it tops the list.

Peer Review- When you look at the peer reviewed rankings on a regional basis the ranking for Americas and Europe seem fine. But come Asia, it becomes a little silly. All the Australian universities grab the top spots! It may be true that in Asia, Australian and Japanese universities rule the roost, but the world peer review becomes insanely silly specially when Australian universities are ranked at par to the American(Harvard, Stanford, UC- Berkley etc) and European(Oxford, Cambridge etc) counterparts. I cannot agree that Melbourne University is in the same league as Columbia. :p The problem is, the reviewers are asked to rate a specific region and then the compilers of the rankings with the use of some weightages (that they don't specify) compile the regional rankings into global ones. It is here that all the problem exists. So the first cue is... Australian universities are over ranked as peer reviews have the highest(40%) weightage in the over all score.

Recruiters review- The second metric is so British biased that the entire review seems naive. Even though the British universities are not at the top when it comes to peer reviews, they are at the top when comes to review of the recruiters(Cambridge, Oxford, LSE, Imperial, Manchester, Warwick score full 100 points). Add to that the bias favoring English speaking universities(Australia, USA, Canada, Britain). But thankfully this "recruiter review" metric is not highly weighed(10%) so it cannot be conclusively said that British universities have an unfair advantage, specially because in some other metrics they are uncomprehendingly low.

Citations per faculty- This is one place where American universities rule. Moreover it has a huge weightage of 20% in the overall score. Though I find this list the most sensible but British universities perform way too poorly. UCL and Cambridge are the only two universities that come close to 90 points(89), while Oxford(85) and Imperial(83) lag behind. Comparatively every known American university has a large score(95-100), but again U. Chicago has a surprisingly low score of 91. This is beyond question whether Cambridge, Oxford or Chicago University are one of the top notch universities in the world or not and thus this metric seems flawed too. Many a times it depends on the kind of academic culture that exists in the university regarding getting the work published. For example many unknown universities(from Korea, Israel) have very high scores in this section.

Faculty to Student ratio- This is definitely a good metric for measuring teaching quality but the fact that universities like Stanford and Cornell perform poorly raises doubts. This ratio is not biased towards any region but some unknown universities do very well. Thus it is not very highly correlated to the peer review and other scores, though top universities do score much higher. UC Berkley coming 36th is largely attributed a lower ratio. Similarly UCL's 7th position is largely because it is at the top of faculty to student ratio. Other universities scoring 100 points are Yale, Oxford, Imperial, Duke, John Hopkins, Ecole Polytechnique, Copenhagen, Washington St. Louis, Vanderbilt, Rochester and Normale Superieure de Lyon.

International Faculty and Students- This is a nice measure to gauge the global reach of the university but this metric seems to be biased against American universities, largely because America itself is too big and multicultural and would certainly have lesser international students and faculty when compared to other smaller sized hot spots like Britain and Switzerland.

As an overall assessment I would comment that Australian universities are way too over rated. In between USA and UK, some metrics are biased towards the British and some towards Americans and thus a clear cut distinction between the two cannot be given. I also played with data on an excel sheet and used my own weightages. My focus was to find how well does UCL fare and I eventually concluded that UCL still has some distance to go to get placed in top 10(the list is still dominated by American heavyweights and the British royal), but it definitely is round the corner in the top 10-20. Outside America the elite international universities giving Americans a tough time according to me are Oxford, Cambridge, UCL, Imperial and Tokyo. LSE and ETH Zurich are other two names but they are mainly specialist institution(even Imperial to an extent). They consistently are top ranked. I find the ARWU rankings more consistent.

Statistics is blind and thus rankings are useless. But yes they do provide a band of colleges that are comparable. My logic goes like this...Oxford, Cambridge stand together with the American elite. Now once you have chosen Britain as a study destination and you want the experience of a global city, UCL or Imperial become an equally good option as Oxbridge. The choice is the same as choosing Columbia over Harvard, Yale or Stanford for the NY experience. But if I compare between Columbia and UCL, I would have to say, UCL still has few miles to cross to reach where Columbia is(look at the number of Nobels)!!! It will reach there in some time(in some rankings(though flawed) it already has!!!). London 2012 is just round the corner! :D

Prateek
PS- If you take University of London as a whole then with top notch elite institutions like UCL, LBS, LSE... U. London is undoubtedly at the top with the cream of the elite!

As I wish so I know

So everybody is going to Goa! I am not! :( I was wondering that I am having a really great time these days... and I am still complaining! So this is a poem about that. And I love it! :)

This heart has a greedy soul,

and it wants more and more and more and more.

I got into that college right in Dicken's town,

where they made Coldplay, Gandhi was born.

Add to that, like a piece of cake, i got a job.

they pay me nice, my undergrad does seem worth that shot.

Plus I am going home in this winter time.

Christmas is near, I'll have a whole big book to write.

Even some songs in the studio, if I have the time.

What about that brilliant physics piece I have in mind?

But still I am sad, you may call me a filthy lad.

As after the cheers and all the chimes,

I wanted to lay in sands, in Goan waves and friends for a while.

I am jealous, they all are going, what fun will it be like,

I won't be in the pictures, so many stories could have been mine.

It tempts, as last time when I went to that hillock, it was a numbing climb.

I made friends, saw a vision, and that's more than the souvenirs and "we had an awesome time".

It's gracious, grateful indeed that I can still complain.

If there could be a little more, why not wish, why not make a dare.

Be it home, be it the sunny waves,

As I wish so I know, my life is brilliant, my life is great.

Prateek

Self Review

This is a nice time to contemplate a little about myself. I have loads of free time and more importantly the last few months have been very eventful and even more importantly, the horizon of what lies ahead is becoming a little more clearer.

First of all I have received an offer from University College London for an MSc in Technology Entrepreneurship. The idea of going to a university ranked currently 4th in the world and located in the very heart of London excites me greatly. Moreover the programme is just the kind of Masters that I was looking for! Moreover the hosting department of Management Science and Innovation works in close association with LBS, that is in all metrics the best business school in Europe and one of the elitest in the world. Being frank I am more than overwhelmed with all that has happened. Though the course is quiet expensive(a total of around 28000 Pounds), but I believe it will be a nice investment. Plus, I am really betting on external scholarships and grants.

Some doubts have been casted though on the international prestige of the university(even though it ranks 3rd in Europe(21st overall) in Shaghai Ranking, and 13th in world in Russian ones) and its eliteness because some of its off-beat courses do have lower entry standards and that it is not really popular when compared to Oxbridge, Ivy League, Stanford etc. I won't like to contend whether UCL is in the same league as these universities or not, in some metrics really it is not(it is just 26th when it comes to number of affiliated nobels), but in some others it defintely is(it has one of the largest number of citations). Some of its schools definitely are one of the best in the world(Law, Fine Arts, Architecture, Medicine), some others are not, but then that is true for all unversities. The crux is, UCL is an elite university. The reason for its eliteness may be predominantly the location in a Global City like London, but that is also true for the huge popularity of IIT Delhi. IIT Kanpur definitely is much better academically when compared to IIT Delhi, but I will still say IIT Delhi is the best! :D In the end it is all about personal choices. I wanted to go to a global cultural hub(New York, London, Chicago, LA...), I wanted to study in a world class university(Columbia, UCL, U.Chicago, UCLA), I wanted to study something I had been woking on and also found interesting(Management Science, Technology, Creativity, Entrepreneurship), and all these make UCL the ideal choice. And it is definitely more than good enough for a Grad from IIT Delhi.

I have also received offers from U.Glasgow and U.Strathclyde, the Strathclyde MBM being really a very reputed and lucrative pogramme(it promises nice pay and total cost will be around 20000 pounds at max), but I have my heart on UCL. :) I have applied for Erasmus Mundus GIM and MSPME programmes and for King's. I have overdone my applications by also applying to Manchester! :p All courses are rather similar and once I have already been offered a place at UCL, I believe I will get offers from rest of the colleges too. I was also looking forward to applying to Cambidge, but then once I got an offer from UCL, I skipped it as I found the entire process of applying too cumbersome. Moreover the Cambridge ISME programme was way too academic to suit my intersts, moreover it was not located in London(though only 80km far!). I will though definitely visit Cambridge once as I am quiet fascinated by the Newton's bridge!

Second big news is that I got a job. It's in Jaypee Capital as a derivatives trader. My job will be to trade in international stock exchanges. It is having a pretty nice pay package of 8 lacks Rupees, plus performance incentive bonus is extra, wherein I can earn way more money(some say even in Crores if I am really good at my job! :D). I have always found trading to be pretty interesting and I would give it a try for a few months before leaving for London. If things work really fine and the career seems promising, who knows, I may have my change of plans! (I have now begun to realize, what does it mean to be cautious!)

Though I was thinking of something else to write... but now its getting late. So I'll write later. btw I had a great opportunity to visit Goa with my wingmates. But my plans got blown away, thanks to Indian Railways. I hope they have a real nice time at Goan beaches. I'll enjoy the Bengali sun and home food! :) Now all the future fun in LONDON! :D

O Divine!

When I begin to shiver, if the ground below is fine,
If I am alone, no one is mine.

If those whom I love, aren't fine,
What if its worse, I'm the one who steals their smile.

Then low, dejected I escape the crowd,
For a moment, liberated, I fall in your arms.

I pray, I pray, I pray all day,
I beg, I cry and I pray all day.

And in the end I see a shine.
You come to me, say all is fine.

And if something's wrong, you say it's still fine,
That you gave me fire and water and heat and ice.

That you made me strong, you made me alive,
That I can move the sun, I can tear the sky.

That you made me good, but I'm a lightning strike,
That like a soldier, I can fight any strife.

That like a priest, I can spread some light.
And that I'm blessed, that I'm divine.

That all the love and glory will be mine,
Till the time I love love, and I love you O divine!

Tamed

My aunt likes his dog a lot.

Obviously, he is all as her want.

And Johnny too wags all the time.

Afterall, she's the kind master, all benign.

And ask lucky Johnny how free he is,

Obviously a lot, he does all he ever wished.

Add to this the fact that he is so pampered,

plus all the best bitches, high society, he has a standard!

Now this is what you call a life,

but let me crash the party, there's something I don't like.

so here is a wicked label i give, you are "tamed".

may me be satan here but you are "bred" to never cross the fence.

You jump as they want,

and you bark as they want,

and you think that's your want,

but you wish as they want.

and they call the stray, the wild, a rotten lot.

love makes "tamed' wild, definitely not as they want.

so they mix and match, to find the breeds so fine.

as is one's need, one gets dogs of every kind.

I wonder if Johnny ever knew what he really missed,

he has it all, but still nothing, he never was what he really is.

if just that he was stopped being handled, rather mishandled,

left in the sun, the rain, in rags, thrown from the mansion.

well sure it will be a lot of unwanted, unwelcomed strife,

but what's there to live like a dog, one day you have to cry.

there is pleasure a lot, but also agonising pain,

the pain of being chained, of not being beyond the fence.

You jump as they want,

and you bark as they want,

and you think that's your want,

but you wish as they want.

People come and go... friends stay

A recent paper that I co-authored on Ludwig Wittgenstein concluded in some very profound conclusions. It talked about that which is eternal and that which has a change. On an analytical level, we may say that redness of red is that which is eternal. Without redness red is not red. And as red is not red, thus we are not referring to red. Though Syadvada has place for contradictions where it says that an object can be both red as well as not red both at the same time, but even in this case the object possesses two contradicting properties that are eternal the redness and the non redness. Thus if there is an object A, the Aness is the eternal property of the object.

But when it comes to the question what is Aness we tend to find no words to describe. What is redness? If we try to describe it using some words like Redness lies is the color of blood, then recursively to describe blood we will say blood is red. Thus language as Wittgenstein too has very correctly pointed is flawed as words are like pointers that point to each other and thus have a flaw of recursion. There is no absolute way of describing what redness is.

In our paper we have tried to question what is it to know a person. How to know the Prateekness of me, and if it can be known who can know it?

Interestingly in the course of writing the paper, the focus of our study shifted to love, as somewhere we found that this word is intrinsically linked with what knowing the beingness of a being is.

And to sum it all up, though to know a person is not possible, but one who loves has a glimpse of the essence. And as essence is an integral property of a person, thus one who truly loves, his/her love will never change. And thus as love never changes, love too is an eternal property defining our own beingness.

Our mind dazzles at the sight of the changing world, but to be enchanted with that which will change will only bring sorrow after a brief interlude of pleasure.

Thus comes this phrase “people come and go, friends stay…”

Human

I sometimes wonder, if all were flawed like me.
Full of silly dreams and wanting eyes, they see the world with glee.
If drops of tears, a curl of smile, touched all sometimes,
If everyone was not always right, they did mistakes at times.

Little fear of the foggy way, a hesitation if the way was right.
In this crowded place, in the lonely way, all needed someone to cling by.
If a bracing smile, a warming embrace, made everyone feel light.
If it was true that men too were gentle like little girls, and girls too had strong men inside.

Whenever I have met a human, I have fallen in love, it is good to meet someone like me.
But an irony of this crowded lonely world, all's shown perfect, still no one is happy here.
People I love may have flaws, needy souls, but they are perfect for me.
If all were flawed, not perfect, strong, what a happy world will it be.

For a change

I thought it has been quiet a while since I had posted something on this blog. But hey, I had never left it. I keep referring it from time to time.

Quiet a lot has changed. To begin with, I no longer like making silly typing errors. When you go back visiting your old posts, these typing errors really spoil the pleasure. Then, I have been writing a novel. It's going quiet cool. Thirdly as I was not blogging, I was spamming instead, a group of people, who tolerated my crap.

Well, I have become quiet spontaneous when it comes to writing poetry(I was not at all into that stuff when I had left writing this blog). About the quality, I don't bother much. I write with passion, so I hope "आग में जल के सोना और खरा ही होगा".

Well, in the meanwhile, I have been enjoying great friendships, but on the other hand one of my best online buddies(choice of words can be deceptive!) suddenly disappeared. I was heartbreaking. It IS heartbreaking actually!

I am listening here "Hey there Delilah"! I have begun to admire Alicia Keys. Taylor Swift has the thing. Craze for Britney is still on. Gaga, Katy Perry, good music! Miley is looking promising. Coldplay were awesome in their new album. Rihanna, she's doing really good. She's on a hit machine. I think I must explore a little of Hip-Hop. Kany West and Jay Z and Lil Wayne. I have begun to admire Bob Dylan much more. The Beatles, I have been awed by them time to time. Their career spanned for 6-7 years and they created master-pieces. They were certainly like Gods. Perfect! Original, popular, admired, and super-creative.

I loved Dark Knight. HP6 was cool. But some how I haven't been able to call it awesome. Maybe no matter how good the movie be, a HP fan can never call it awesome. I explored Scrubs, but it remains unfinished. How I Met Your mother, I am anxiously waiting for its next season! That 70's Show is cool. These days I am watching "Boston Legal" and its quiet a superb piece of drama comedy. I am yet to find a boring episode.

What else? My political interests are on a hibernation, as currently I am using my creative faculties. Visit some of it at MySpace. I am quiet fond of Twitter too.

Keep seeing ya.
:)