Other Interests
Home -->Other Interests
- Political Science:
It is quite fascinating how the human civilization has evolved systems of governance over the years. Though most of today's governments are democratic in their outlook there are still huge variety and each nation does have its own peculiarities. I have always been interested in the constitutional setups of various countries ever since my school days. My increased exposure to day-to-day politics, thanks to my Grandfather and The Hindu probably helped. Now that the wretched mark driven school days are behind, I am now enjoying reading literature on this subject!
A related fact is that I believe that everybody(esp the well-educated past of the soceity)should show a minimal interest in the politics of our nation and not use the corrupt politician as an excuse to be completely aloof. We should not forget the fact that India runs due to the few good people who chose to serve the people to the extent possible.But unfortunately, today's average citizen in India lacks even a basic understanding of our polity and is thus exploited by the politicians. Remember..any Democracy is only as good as its people. An ill-informed educated citizen is the last thing that India can afford at this stage.
- Linux,open source etc.. Before coming to IITM, I had never seen a Linux box in action.All that I had seen was a text based UNIX system which had this DOS like interface.But life in IITM runs essentially thro Linux machines... and being here has helped me understand the vicious circle that MS products had taken me into.That the ever crashing Windows had alternative was initially a surprise to me (as is to most MS prisoners). Now I thank the likes of LS,RMS etc. for enabling free, high quality softwares reach large nos. around the world. I hate Windows but still have it on my PC( life needs a bit of comedy..right??)