Is PhD the new masters?

With the evolution of technology, the field of education has simultaneously undergone a remarkable change. The meaning of each degree has also changed. Back home in the 80's and the 90's, there was a popular saying by the older generation to the subsequent generation. " The SSLC (high school equivalent) of my time is equivalent to the current BA". Of course, to suggest that people who had a high school degree to be more educated than a college graduate is ridiculous. But, if one were to compare the worth of a degree with respect to the level of education of the society, we might be able to observe different things and gain a clear perspective.

Usually, any degree is evaluated by the society in terms of its ability to obtain a job. In the 1950's and 1960's, predominantly the educated class had a high school education. Few people went to college and fewer people pursued higher studies (MS or PhD). The trend has changed drastically. Annually, India  produces around 500000 engineering graduates of which an estimated 3-4% are job ready.  A simple engineering degree is now no longer considered adequate unless graduated form a good university.

When this sort of diluting in education occurs in the engineering fields, one can't help but wonder what the status of higher education might be.In the 1980's, a masters degree specifically in the US was a feat which was performed only by a handful of people. They were,in majority, people who were interested in pursuing a higher degree and their education was usually funded by the universities in USA. These people ended up leading successful lives which triggered a mass import of engineers interested in pursing a masters degree from India and China. USA saw this as what it was. A gold mine. In 2008 alone, a whopping 480000 masters has been awarded by the USA. These masters degrees are typically not financially supported. With each degree costing about 30-40 lacs, the education sector in US has made a tremendous profit. The US government and universities see this as an opportunity to make a fortune, which is why the number of masters programmes offered has gone up exponentially. Students see masters degree as an opportunity to end up in the USA. However, the job sector has not grown exponentially to keep up with the growing number of graduates. In the simple case of supply and demand, the solution is simple. Survival of the fittest.Or in this case, survival of the most qualified person.

A PhD degree in contrast is funded by the university and takes a couple of years more than a masters degree. This gradually led to an increase in the number of PhD graduates. A PhD, which was previously seen as a journey earmarked to reach professorship, is now seen as a mandatory degree to reach jobs which were designed previously for masters. In 2008, 56000 PhD degrees were awarded in the US, prompting nature to do an article on the unhealthy growth of academia. 

With the outburst of PhD graduates, an increasing number of PhD students are now opting for jobs which were designed to cater to masters students. Surveys indicate that around 60  to 70 % of the PhD graduates preferred industry positions. A criterion for a faculty position , which was previously a PhD degree alone, now demands a post-doc qualification. This gradual shift indicates that academia feels that a PhD is no longer a terminal degree and the focus is now shifting towards postdocs. This raises a fundamental question. In the 21st century, is PhD the new masters?




 

Surpassing the sar pass - part 2

http://karthik112490.blogspot.in/2013/06/surpassing-sar-pass-part-1.html

I had concluded my previous post in the Khora tatch camp ( the link for which is put up above). On the morning of the third day, we started our ascent to the third camp. Zirmi tatch. The trek today was extremely short but steep. We started quite late today at around 10.00 Am in the morning. We would have hardly traveled about an hour before we came to lunch point. We had to stay here for a couple of hours and then trek upwards.. The slope was a bit steep but it was a peaceful trek today.  Our group usually split into 3 during every trek. The first one was of guys who were the fastest, the second medium and the third consisted of people who were slow or deliberately stayed back to have a peaceful trek. Surya always used to come only in the end for the sake of photography. He spotted a viper on the way. ( The only wild animal to be spotted in our entire course of 7 days). We reached Zirmi tatch in the afternoon. Zirmi tatch was the most beautiful of the camps we had so far come across. Set on meadows, and a view of the pristine mountains nearby, Zirmi tatch was indeed a very beautiful place.

 

As usual, we were invited with a welcome drink, tea and snacks. We had discovered a hill nearby and we played a game of frisbee there. Well..At least we stood in a circle and threw the disc at each other. We had in our group a couple of national frisbee players and they were teaching us the basics of the frisbee game.

A view of the snow glaciers from meadows

After a heavy session of frisbee throwing, we had our dinner and another round of campfire. Our tent, had been decorated with a plethora of plants  and we slept in the constant fear of leaches. In the middle of the night, there was a big noise and dogs howling. The howling subsided a few minutes later. I was convinced this time that it was a bear which was making the dogs howl. The next day, I asked the kitchen staff about the bear. They said there was none. Disappointed, i asked about the dogs howling to which they replied " These dogs howl even if the see a mouse". So that was my last hope of seeing a wild bear and it vanished into nothingness.

 We prepared to leave to our fourth camp ( Tila lotni). The trek to Tila lotni was both difficult and exquisite. During the course of this day, we walked through clouds. It was such an ebullient feeling to see clouds envelop you as you walked on. The visibility was quite poor for the initial part of the day and it improved as we went over the clouds.As we trekked further, the grass became lush green and flowers of all colors were cropping out of nowhere. Imagine walking through the clouds with snow capped mountains in the back drop, lush green grass and a rainbow of flowers. That would be a miniature version of what I experienced. Snow tracks started becoming very frequent. Gradually, we took our own time to enrich our eyes with nature. The trek though very beautiful was a bit arduous. It was probably the most arduous of treks.

Walking through the clouds

On the way to Tila lotni

 We had read in previous blogs that the snow level was much lower and that it was snow covered from the lunch point. However, as we had travelled in June, all the snow had melted away. But it was an exquisite sight nonetheless.

Once we reached the camp, we were given instructions. We could see the Sar pass directly in front of us. It was a beautiful site. We embarked on another frisbee game.

At Tila lotni

 After the game and usual dinner, we retired to our tents. This camp was not like the usual camps. The other camps were built on flat areas on hills. Here on the other hand, the camps were on the sloping hills. As a result, our tent was extremely lopsided. The construction of the tent is such that, there is are 3 poles in the mid line.  Two at the ends and one in the center. The slope was so bad that all the 6 of us adjusted in one half of the tent. The guys at the end had their legs blocked by the middle pole in order to not fall.

The night became extremely cold. In spite of having thermals, a jerkin, gloves, monkey cap and being in a sleeping bag, I could feel the cold.The temperature must have touched zero that night. I slept uneasily. The big day was the next day.

Myself with Gautham, Rajesh and Surya in our tent at Tila lotni

The next day finally arrived. We were woken up at 3.00 Am and we were to leave at 5 AM. We had upma for breakfast at 4 AM. The sun was slowly climbing out as we were about to leave. My.. what a sight it was.. simple words could not describe it. The entire sky was a dull shade of orange. Only the whites of the snow stood out in the light. The snow with its streaks on the mountains, gave it a very serene look.

Near dawn at Tila lotni

A view of the Sar pass mountain

That day our trek had to create the pattern  of inverted "L". We had to climb up the nearest hill ( Non- snow) and walk straight across. Walking in the snow is hard enough and ascending is much worse. Today would be our longest day in terms of the number of hours. We were given solid food ( Biscuits, maa and not the usual Chapathi & dal). After a steep ascent, it started to rain. It was the first time we encountered rain during the entire ascent. Trekking in snow is difficult. Trekking when its raining even more. We immediately took out our rainsheets/ rain coats and our cameras went in.  We had to reach the sar pass mountain by walking towards it. We had reached the altitude on this hill and we had to walk straight. Walking on the snow is very tricky. If one slips and falls, we would fall by around 300 ft and trekking up in the snow is very painful. We had to tread carefully and step only where the previous person had stepped. The snow on many occasions was very deceiving and would just sink when we stepped on it.

Trekking on the snow.

A while later, we reached the lunch point. A plate of maggi cost Rs. 50 here and a glass of tea was 20!.But the experience of maggi and tea at such an altitude in that weather was awesome.. It was raining quite heavily now and my gloves had already been infiltrated with water. My hands were starting to feel numb and the shoes were also starting to get moist. So we decided to move on before the rain became more intense. Luckily, the rain stopped after some time and the sun came out. It was a beautiful sight to see the sun rays on the clean white snow. A long walk later, we came to our final destination. We could see the YHAI flag from the distance. A sigh of relief and satisfaction overcame me. I had finally achieved what we had come for. However we stayed for a very short time there . We had to descend immediately due to lack of time. I dint have enough time to relish  the success of the trek or enjoy the pristine beauty of the snow laden peaks from the top. Quite unfortunate really.

However, the part next that was totally awesome. The slide..memories of my childhood where i used to slide in the playground flashed in my mind. From the sar pass top, we slid around 500 m  which included a lot of ups and downs.. The altitude which took me ages to climb, seemed to disappear in seconds.. that too in a blur. Seconds later, as the slide ended, everyone was sitting on the snow and pushing themselves to slide further.. :D... On the downside, all our tracks were completely drenched and our legs were becoming numb.

A couple of our own slides later, we were out of the snow covered area and we had reached the tea point. We were quite tired at this point after having played in the snow and bcoz of the numb legs. The break here was quite long and i used it to take a good nap. A day and a half trek remained after this.

( continued)

Surpassing the sar pass - Part 1

It's not everyday that one gets to play frisbee over the clouds with a national frisbee player at 12000 ft, walk amidst the clouds alongside a band, travel with a US police officer, sleep lazily on lush green meadows or gaze, with a cup of tea in your hand, at eagles flying below you or not bathing for 2 consecutive weeks. The Sar pass trek in the Himalayas gave me all this and even more. 

 This summer, a group of friends ( Surya, Gautham, Rajesh and Giridhari) and myself decided to go for a nice trek in the Himalayas and a friend suggested this trek. At first I was quite apprehensive if I would be able to this trek. Situated at 14000 ft, the Sar pass was easily the toughest trek I had ever done. I had done a couple of treks down south but never an overnight trek, leave alone a 7 day trek. I had struggled to complete the Thadiyandamol trek, which Surya pointed out with utmost glee, and thus I was quite apprehensive. However, we gathered courage ( mind over matter - I kept saying to myself) and the group of us traveled to the base camp of YHAI, at Kasol, after close to a 60 hr travel. I was very surprised to see the number of Israelis in Kasol.  Kasol, a very small town, is famous for its joints and parties - probably explaining the number of Isralies .

The base camp from the top

We found the base camp near two huge mounds of sand. The base camp, situated on the banks of the river Parvathi was a beautiful sight. In its back drop were snow capped mountains (Pin parvathi) and the Parvathi was flowing in full gusto, in a very unruly manner. We reached the base camp in the evening just to see the last golden rays illuminate the mountains. There was the serene Pin Parvathi on one hand and the unruly Parvathi on the other. It was as if nature was mocking me with its extremities .

The pin parvathi from the base camp

Dhaari and surya in the acclimatization trek

The first day of the 11 day long program was the acclimatization trek where we trekked in a nearby hill. That was when we got introduced ourselves to our fellow batch mates. Incidentally, our group was high on the number of South Indians and had no girls. We were the second "bajrang dal" in all the 36 batches. Curse of an IITian i guess. The acclimatization trek, true to its name was just a preview of what was to come. It wasn't exactly easy. It was a bit on the difficult side and I was left in despair of how I would manage the trek. I would later come up with a method to cope up with that. On the first night, as is mandatory, our group had to come up with some performances. I was involved in a couple of skits. One of the skits was a bit too technical using IP addresses and hackers. It never reached the audience :D.

The second day of the trek was about  rock climbing and the rappelling,  techniques not exactly required in the course of the trek. On the evening of the second day, we had to deposit our luggage and remain with our rucksacks alone. The excitement was in the air. Everyone was calling up their homes to say they would be leaving the next day and would not be contactable for the next one week. That night, I had a very uncomfortable sleep thinking about the coming days.

Myself with Shanky ( center) and Anirudh ( right end)

On the third morning, we woke up to the shouts of bed tea. ( actually means that you need to get up and go to the place where they give you tea. Its just that they give it at a time when the entire world is in the bed - thus bed tea.). The D day had arrived. We assembled at the the center of the camp and we prepared to leave. Shouting our war slogans, we walked to the entrance amidst cheers from the next batch. ( Its a wonderful tradition followed by YHAI. The subsequent batch cheers for the batch that starts the trek). High on excitement and confidence, we caught a bus to a nearby place (Unchdhar village) from where we would start our trek. The bus journey was so enjoyable. The 37 of us started singing songs and soon enough the rest of the passengers joined along. Finally we arrived at Unchdhar a couple of hours later and started the decent. The decent was a bit steep and after some time, we had to ascent again. The ascent was quite steep. It was a bit difficult and left me wondering how I would be able to manage the remaining days. That was when I decided to have short term goals which I would follow throughout the trek. My goal then was to reach the first tea point. About 2.5 to 3 hrs later, we reached Sheila village. That would be our first tea point of the trek. I had decided not to take Coffee as instructed ( Coffee is a dehydrant) and had only tea. As i was having tea, I was wondering about the kind of lifestyle the villagers led. Six months of the year, the place was covered in snow and the villagers kinda hibernated. The rest of the six months was when the locals went to the forests and collected herbs or did agriculture locally. A very risky life I thought.  Surya, as usual, went berserk over food. He had ordered couple of maggis, tea and soft drinks. I often wonder what his digestive system comprises of. Anyway,  a couple of our group trekkers found porters to carry our bags and the group left after the tea break.

A view of the campsite at Galgi tatch

Post the tea break, it was just flat land. It was a very simple trek post tea break and we all took our own time enjoying the trek. There were damaged machinery on the way and a couple of abandoned offices. Human habitation was getting over in this leg of the trek and I was quite happy. ( I have very serious issues with crowds and over population.).  As we trudged on, we came across a few streams and waterfalls, the first of the many to come. An hour of a peaceful trek later, we came to our first camp site. Galgi tatch where we were received with a welcome drink. Day one had been a success.
 

Our camp site at Galgi tatch was located on the banks of Parvathi again. There was also an extremely beautiful waterfall nearby. YHAI had taken utmost effort to set up campsites at the most scenic places. After our welcome drink, we were still high on success on finishing the first day and went around to explore the nearby waterfall.

Waterfall at Galgi tatch

 After our return from the waterfall, we had some quick words from the camp leader ( a YHAI official who was responsible for the camp site). He gave instructions on when we would leave the next day and then finally he said. " There is the danger of bears in this area. Be careful.". I was oddly excited on hearing this. I wanted to see a bear for real. Not face to face ofc. But somewhere nearby in the jungles. That night, we spotted quite a few shooting stars in the sky and naturally the UFO stories came out and the bear stories followed suit. Surya came up with a convoluted logic on how to fight a bear if it came face to face ( He had a knife with him for this purpose. Surya is crazy. period). After those conversations, we went to sleep in the dark. ( We no longer had electricity). In the middle of the night, I heard some growls. I was excited and scared. Had a bear really come this far. It was pitch dark. I debated on turning my torch on. What if the bear sees the light and enters our camp? so I decided to wake my tent mates. I turned over to wake up Rajesh and to my horror i found that growls were actually coming from him. I had mistaken his heavy snoring for a bear growl. Even in the dead of the night, I found that so hilarious.

The next morning, we left for Khora tatch, the second campsite. The climb was steeper than usual. But, I guess I had been work-hardened. I found the steep to be like the usual ones. The second day of the trek was quite uneventful and we reached the second camp successfully. Day two had been a success. Khora tatch is named locally after the huge apricot trees found in that locality.

 

As usual we arrived for the welcome drink and the camp leader gave us the instructions. The bear alert was given here as well. In addition to that a snake alert was also given. People were not supposed to go alone in the nights to take a leak. We were supposed to travel only in groups. That night we had our first camp fire using wooden sticks. An anthakshari followed by a joke session and it was time for us to retire. As usual, we had our share of horror stories and how to tackle snakes and scorpions if they entered. We went to our tent and was just about to sleep when a rat came scurrying across inside our tent. After a tense few seconds, we drove the rat away from the tent. Or we thought so. The rat would return to nibble away a few of the mango bites we carried.  We slept that night in fear of bears and snakes and how the next day would turn out to be.

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Am i patriotic? or is it an illusion?

In the recent past, I have had many arguments regarding this that I decided to pen my thoughts about it. I  believe that many people in this country live under a false impression that they are patriotic. That does not mean that they are traitors or that they betray their country. There is a third class in which people actually are neither. This issue is not pertinent to our country alone but to all the countries in the world. Confusion primarily arises with how each person relates to patriotism. Uncertainty prevails when people get confused between patriotism and a sense of attachment to one's region. The feeling which arises because of an attachment to a particular region is based on familiarity and comfort.If India is involved in a war tomorrow, I will pray that India wins the war with least amount of damage possible to its own country. If there is a cricket match between India and Pakistan, I will definitely want India to win with all my heart. But, if there is a cricket match between CSK and MI, the notion of the country breaks down and I will want Hussey to smash Harbajan singh all over the park. This is a feeling I get due to the attachment I have for my region        ( India and chennai). Now does this mean that I am patriotic? In my opinion, no.

Of course, patriotism is an abstract feeling which can mean different things to different people. But I think that patriotism is something which is a step ahead than the rest. Your action must be beneficial to the country in some way. It might or might not be a sacrifice on your part. But in most cases, it might end up being a sacrifice on your part. The most obvious people are the army people who put their life at stake for the sake of the country. There are others who fight to make the country a better place. It can be those who volunteer to go to villages to teach and make them educated. But there are also people who do the same things for the sake of a community service on their resume. There are many sincere police officers who join the force the make the country a better place and there are also people who join the force for the bribe money and also people who join without both positive and negative intentions. We have so many researchers who come back to India leaving lucrative jobs abroad to make the research culture flourish here. There are also people who come back home because they want to live with their familes and relatives. Almost all of the people who are working in the governmental jobs do it for the safety and perks and almost no one wants to work for the benefit for the country.

So, we can conclude that its not the profession or the destination but it is the intention of the individual which determines patriotism.Most of the people assume  that people abroad are less patriotic than the Indians here. So i ask a fundamental question. What is the difference between a person here and an Indian abroad in terms of patriotism? or rather, what have you done or what are you planning to do extra for the country? The answer I get from most of the people is " I pay taxes to my country. Thus i am benefiting the country". Now taxes , if i can crudely put it, is the rent you pay to use the country's resources. This is analogous to saying " I am a patriotic tenant because i pay my house rent every month". If we assume a  hypothetical situation where people are not expected to pay taxes (like the UAE), will you still pay taxes and contribute to the country? No. I am not denying however, that if one lives here and succeeds, there are other indians who are going to benefit out of it. If I successfully start an industry, there are going to be ancillary industries nearby, employment opportunists and the area might develop. But was it my intention to develop the area in the first place? no. I started an industry for my profits and development was a byproduct. Similar to how an airport will develop the nearby areas. One more small instance would be as follows. I want a flight ticket to travel abroad. If Air india and emirates offer similar prices, almost everyone would choose emirates because it offers better comfort. But if everyone chose Air india, wouldnt the state of the airline be much better?

 The above examples need not necessarily mean that one is not patriotic. But it certainly does reflect the thinking of most people regarding patriotism. The most important duty one needs to do if he cares about the country is to stop producing children. If our country's population were about half the population now, we would have been in such a better shape. If uttar pradesh was to be a separate country, it would be the fifth most populous country in the world!!... yet, we remain hypocritical about that and we assume that patriotism mean we need to support our country whenever someone criticizes it. I personally think that patriotism is where your country benefits and you do not. If i start an industry here and earn a profit of Rs 8 when i could have been getting Rs 10 elsewhere, i am patriotic.

Now that we have  to a certain extent defined what patriotism means according to me, I will say that I am not a patriot. Aspiring to be a researcher, i truly and sincerely wish that India flourishes in all fields and research especially. I also intend to live most of my life in India. But if for India to succeed, i should put my head on the anvil, i am not willing to do so!.... But are you patriotic? only you can decide for yourself...

The thandiyandamol trek --- died and reborn !!

This trek happened in our fourth year of college ( 2012) while we were pondering places to visit during Saarang.  We had initially decided to visit the Himalayas but ended up voting against it which left surya in a fit of anger... ( We had to go and convince him later to come by putting a lot of senti :P)... After a barrage of mails, where usually nothing productive happens,  a group of 8 of us left for Coorg. To those unknown, coorg is a famous trekking place located in Karnataka and is also well known for its coffee ( which Surya bought for 4 kgs.!!).. So we left on  the 21st of January in the night...

We played wolf throughout the entire journey which resulted in passengers and the TTR threatening to push us out of the compartment.. Having reached mysore on 22nd, we took a bus to Madikeri, the capital of Coorg district and booked a room in Hotel Hilltop, where we just slept and played a game of cards that day...

Day 2 : The Thala cauvery and Abbey falls trip

Thala cauvery near madikeri is the place where the river cauvery takes birth... Thala cauvery is situated on a hilltop where one side of it is the kerala side of the hill and the other is the Karnataka side of the hill. 

After a brief stint of scenery and photoshoot we ventured for a short trek in a the hills around thalacauvery.

Surya with his antics :P

Our way to the trek as captured by Manda (AKA Aravind)

After a short trek, which resulted in many of us being very tired, we fell asleep in the car. In the evening we visited the Abbey falls.. It is supposed to be very ferocious in the monsoon times.. but was a good visiting place nevertheless.. 

Day 3 : The thadiyandamol trek

This was the day we had gone to coorg for.. Tadiyandamol mens the highest peak in the local Kodave language. At a ht of 1740 m, Thadiyandamol is the second highest peak in Karnataka. It took us half the day to reach the top and the remaining half to scale it down. At the end of the end of the day we did indeed manage to scale the mountain top albeit with a lot of curses... Once we reached the top, the temperature was nowhere as close to that on the ground... It was extremely breezy and cool and we were relishing the succes of having scaled such a hilltop. After reaching the hotel, we eat as if there was no tomorrow and slept the enitre next day..... Its a  trip i would remember forever. ...

A game of wolf at 1740 m..