Thursday, October 07, 2004
Life, the United States and Nothing Much More
(Inspired by Douglas Adams' Life, the Universe and Everything)
I know that a pretty good number of people who read my blog (at least those that I know do read the blog) do know that the title was inspired by Adams' book. But one of the first things that I learned here in the States is that plagiarism is a sin. Plagiarism is defined (at least at OSU) as the unacknowledged use of someone else's ideas, work, etc; it can lead to some pretty undesirable consequences. Hence I am taking no chances. Better safe than sorry... (now, don't tell me some One Person has the intellectual property rights on that phrase)...
Anyway, why plagiarism? Well, this past week saw Sai getting his first sets of homework at OSU and plagiarism is something that is a big issue here at US univs. I know that the cry goes round (phrase courtesy P.G. Wodehouse), "Sai, and Homework?!"I know... I understand... Sai is known to be one of the last ones to be doing a homework, and that, on his own! Sai doesn't remember doing a homework in the past 4-5 years. Even the "assignments" (as opposed to homeworks) that Sai was required to do were mainly the result of collective effort, with Sai's contribution being low to nil. And yet, and yet, Sai sits down to do his homework and surprisingly (not surprising if you do know Sai), he does it well, and on time. I hear rejoicing and cheers all over (Thanks again, PGW).
Who am I kidding? This past week was one of the most painful weeks in the recent past for me. I mean, doing homework!!! And I have them piled over on a day-to-day basis. Yes, I have been submitting in a homework a day over the last week. I know that those in the US already will tell me that's pretty usual, especially in grad school. Well, hearing about it was totally different from actually having to do it. But then, I am taking this positively. Good for the character, good for the soul... and so on and so forth...
The US has been interesting so far... and they've got elections this year (who doesn't know that?). There were debates between the candidates, which could have been very interesting - just that Bush and Kerry didn't (or more likely couldn't) make for interesting debatists (now is it a real word or did I just make up one new word?) The Cheney-Edwards debate was better with at least one guy going on the total all-out offensive. But these debates just got me thinking how it would be to have such debates in India, say between the Prime-Ministerial candidates. Here was what I thought -
Rational Me (RM) - Wouldn't it be interesting if we had such debates between PM-candidates back home in India?
Usual Me (UM) - Don't be stupid! We don't have any candidate for PM. They just happen to become PMs when someone else does a tyaag. No one knows who the next f***ing PM will be.
RM - Yeah, that's right. OK, let us assume that there are candidates from the beginning of the campaigns. Then wouldn't it be interesting to have debate?
UM - Could be interesting... but our leaders don't have anything interesting to say, least of all in the run-up to elections
RM - Yeah. But they do keep making some real interesting comments and sometimes insulting statements from time to time, don't they?
UM - Yeah, they do.
RM - Then how would it be if they saved all those comments for the debate and said them then?
UM - I wouldn't want to watch that debate except on TV. People could die at such debates or anywhere near such debates...
RM - But... er...
Roomie of mine - Hey, coming for dinner or not?
UM - F*$# politicians. I'm hungry...
RM - Me too...
Me to Roomie - What's for dinner?
Anyway, its a pretty long post already... gotta run now... yeah, you guessed it right (if you guessed it at all) - got a homework to turn in tomorrow...
I know that a pretty good number of people who read my blog (at least those that I know do read the blog) do know that the title was inspired by Adams' book. But one of the first things that I learned here in the States is that plagiarism is a sin. Plagiarism is defined (at least at OSU) as the unacknowledged use of someone else's ideas, work, etc; it can lead to some pretty undesirable consequences. Hence I am taking no chances. Better safe than sorry... (now, don't tell me some One Person has the intellectual property rights on that phrase)...
Anyway, why plagiarism? Well, this past week saw Sai getting his first sets of homework at OSU and plagiarism is something that is a big issue here at US univs. I know that the cry goes round (phrase courtesy P.G. Wodehouse), "Sai, and Homework?!"I know... I understand... Sai is known to be one of the last ones to be doing a homework, and that, on his own! Sai doesn't remember doing a homework in the past 4-5 years. Even the "assignments" (as opposed to homeworks) that Sai was required to do were mainly the result of collective effort, with Sai's contribution being low to nil. And yet, and yet, Sai sits down to do his homework and surprisingly (not surprising if you do know Sai), he does it well, and on time. I hear rejoicing and cheers all over (Thanks again, PGW).
Who am I kidding? This past week was one of the most painful weeks in the recent past for me. I mean, doing homework!!! And I have them piled over on a day-to-day basis. Yes, I have been submitting in a homework a day over the last week. I know that those in the US already will tell me that's pretty usual, especially in grad school. Well, hearing about it was totally different from actually having to do it. But then, I am taking this positively. Good for the character, good for the soul... and so on and so forth...
The US has been interesting so far... and they've got elections this year (who doesn't know that?). There were debates between the candidates, which could have been very interesting - just that Bush and Kerry didn't (or more likely couldn't) make for interesting debatists (now is it a real word or did I just make up one new word?) The Cheney-Edwards debate was better with at least one guy going on the total all-out offensive. But these debates just got me thinking how it would be to have such debates in India, say between the Prime-Ministerial candidates. Here was what I thought -
Rational Me (RM) - Wouldn't it be interesting if we had such debates between PM-candidates back home in India?
Usual Me (UM) - Don't be stupid! We don't have any candidate for PM. They just happen to become PMs when someone else does a tyaag. No one knows who the next f***ing PM will be.
RM - Yeah, that's right. OK, let us assume that there are candidates from the beginning of the campaigns. Then wouldn't it be interesting to have debate?
UM - Could be interesting... but our leaders don't have anything interesting to say, least of all in the run-up to elections
RM - Yeah. But they do keep making some real interesting comments and sometimes insulting statements from time to time, don't they?
UM - Yeah, they do.
RM - Then how would it be if they saved all those comments for the debate and said them then?
UM - I wouldn't want to watch that debate except on TV. People could die at such debates or anywhere near such debates...
RM - But... er...
Roomie of mine - Hey, coming for dinner or not?
UM - F*$# politicians. I'm hungry...
RM - Me too...
Me to Roomie - What's for dinner?
Anyway, its a pretty long post already... gotta run now... yeah, you guessed it right (if you guessed it at all) - got a homework to turn in tomorrow...
