RESEARCH

A student wants to write a thesis on an untouched subject. He approaches a 'guide', a professor in the know of previously researched topics and also the person who can fetch the student his research degree. The latter exploits the former to the extent of extracting personal, menial jobs from the poor student. If the young chap obliges — which most of PhD aspirants do — he gets a doctorate, irrespective of his knowledge in the subject concerned. If not, he is thrown out of the system. That's the story of research in India ______________ Sandeep Nagar ______________ O ne wonders how many people give a serious thought to the fact that India is a premier country to supply scientific human resources to developing countries and yet we are so backward when it comes to scientific research. We took 23 years (1984-2007) to make a Light Combat Aircraft ( LCA ) when aviation just completed its first century and that too by assembling foreign parts*. We always get second-hand accompli

______________________ An anonymous soldier ______________________ Though this is not a poetry blog, the newsworthiness of the following ballad merits its inclusion here. It has been composed by a fourth generation, 24-year old career officer in the Indian Armed Forces, spurred by the report of the Sixth Pay Commission and an insensitive article written by a 'respectable' denizen of the country in a national daily on the armed forces and the pertinence of the Sixth Pay Commission therein. This free-flowing verse has not been edited; it's to ensure that the originality of the angst is maintained. After all, when you are in pain, the language of expression is the last thing in your mind H ow you play with us, did you ever see? At Seven, I had decided what I wanted to be; I would serve you to the end, All these boundaries I would defend. Now you make me look like a fool, When at Seventeen and just out of school; Went to the place where they made "men out of boys" Liv