The story worth a million

Let me tell you this little story:

the incredible story of a little boy

who was blessed to have lunch with

God to the content of his mind's desire.

An unassuming boy wanted to meet God. He knew it was a long trip to where God lived, so he filled his backpack with a bag of potato chips and a six-pack of root beer before setting out on his journey. When he had walked about three blocks, he reached a park where he met an old woman. She was sitting in the park, just staring at a few pigeons. The boy sat down next to her and opened his backpack. He was about to take a drink from his can of root beer when he noticed that the old lady looked hungry, so he offered her some chips. She gratefully accepted it and smiled at him... Her smile was so pretty that the boy wanted to see it again, so he offered her a can of root beer. Again, she smiled at him. The boy was delighted. They sat there all afternoon eating and smiling, but never said a word. As twilight approached, the boy realized how tired he was and he got up to leave; but before he had gone more than a few steps, he turned around, ran back to the old woman, and gave her a hug. She gave him her biggest smile ever. When the boy opened the door to his own house a short time later, his mother was surprised by the look of joy on his face. His face was emitting rays of joy. She asked him, "What did you do today that made you so happy?" He replied, "I had lunch with God." But before his mother could respond, he added, "You know what? She's got the most beautiful smile I've ever seen!" Meanwhile, the old woman, also radiant with joy, returned to her home. Her son was stunned by the look of peace on her face and he asked, "Mother, what did you do today that made you so happy?" She replied, "I ate potato chips in the park with God." However, before her son responded, she added, "You know, he's much younger than I expected." Too often we underestimate the power of a touch, a smile, a kind word, a listening ear, an honest compliment, or the smallest act of love and care: all of which have the potential to turn a life around. People come into our lives for a reason. Appreciate those God-given moments. Embrace all and everything with equal satiety! My intention here is to tell you that the God of your understanding and imagination may differ from His actual size and shape. May be, He is within you or within your friend or within a total stranger, the reason why your attempts to find Him in Churches, Temples, Mosques and Synagogues do not produce the desired outcome. A new outlook is what is needed which I do demand for the creation of a better world... Enjoy the rest of your week-end! Love, Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil

Lend me your ears...

The anniversary of Martin Luther King's iconic moment of

'I Have A Dream' is today.

His vision of all men being equal is hijacked by time-servers

for various political ends.

It is far beyond a cognizable offence and nothing less than

a heinous crime, unpardonable.

But the more pertinent question is:

Do the self-righteous progressives of today do anything

towards MLK's dream of social justice and economic equality?

Dreamingly yours,

prof. dr. alex abraham odikandathil

You May Not See This In The Wall to Wall News...

The shootout left four people dead, but that was just the beginning.

As dust began to settle on a ranch in north-eastern Mexico, thought to have been owned by one of the world's most powerful drug cartels, the battle-hardened Marines stumbled upon their first decomposing corpse.

Minutes later, they found a second, then a third. By the time troops had finished searching the remote property, roughly 90 miles from the US border, a total of 72 contorted bodies had been laid out in rows beneath the summer sunshine. The 54 men and 18 women had all been recently murdered.

A lone wounded survivor, who was left for dead but later stumbled upon a military checkpoint, told local newspapers yesterday that he and the victims were illegal migrants from Central America trying to make their way to the US. They had been taken hostage by the Zetas, a gang of drug-runners who have recently taken to kidnapping and human trafficking. The Ecuadorian man said his group was taken to a ranch by gunmen and shot after they refused to pay ransoms.

Death toll in four year crack-down passes 28000...

Thanks,

Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil

What a Torn Ligament can do to the Thought Process, Nothing Freudian Though

A teaching job in a college or a University is not preferred by brighter PhDs these days. Likewise, those who return from abroad also have their choices fixed: the top priority being for a position in one of the selective research institutions. Only if there are some compelling reasons, a few of the chosen university departments are considered as the next preference. If none is available, they do'nt want to come back or if they have already come back, would soon find their way back to the West. Only

very rarely does one come across candidates for teaching positions in colleges and universities who know their subject well or who enjoy teaching. Many happen to be teaching in colleges or universities because they could not find any other jobs. Or because after the minimum qualifying education, they happened to know somebody in the interview board.

Most state and even some central universities are not allowed to make any fresh appointments or even when the drill for new appointments is allowed, the long procedure and its unpredictability often results in a situation where the better candidates are no more available for appointment. If a relatively competent person does get selected through this highly stochastic event, the person finds himself

in the company of colleagues in a department who are a rather old and frustrated lot and, therefore, would not encourage the new incumbent to start good teaching and/or research programs. The Dept. or the University neither feels obliged to nor is in most cases endowed with adequate resources to provide at least basic material facilities or ‘seed money’ to let a new entrant start research work. In many developed countries, young faculty members are initially given less teaching responsibilities so that they can devote more time to set up their own research activities during the beginning years. However, in our system, young lecturers are supposed to take more and more classes, while experienced senior teachers are required to teach less. This leaves little time for the new faculty members to plan their research activities. If some enterprising faculty member does succeed in

getting a research project funded, implementation of the work plan and utilization of the approved grant invite more problems.

Recruitment procedures for teaching as well as non-teaching positions in nearly all the universities are cumbersome and not geared to hire the best talent for the job. The earlier practice of identifying a talented young person and offering a job straightaway is no more possible. The present system is riddled with the so-called ‘checks and balances’ to prevent misuse of authority. In recent years only a few universities in the country have adopted an open advertisement system and a wider involvement of departmental teachers in selecting a new faculty member. In most other universities, the excuse for not implementing such positive procedures are the existing rules and regulations, and the imaginary fear that such a freedom would be easily misused or subverted. Political and other kinds of pressures for selecting a candidate or even payment of money in lieu of securing an appointment are not unknown. This obviously is frustrating for the deserving candidates who get sidelined in the absence of ‘recommendations’ in his/her favour. Once a wrong candidate gets appointed through such means, the damaging consequences are faced by the department for life, since no one can in reality be thrown out of the ‘permanent’ job- the reason why many universities, as a matter of policy, have curtailed the number of tenure track positions.***

The ‘backbone’ money for all public universities and colleges comes from the state governments and the University Grants Commission (UGC). While the number of universities (and the so-called ‘deemed’ universities) and colleges in the country continues to increase rapidly, money available for the purpose with the state governments and the UGC has increased only marginally. Consequently, the limited money is spread ‘thin’ and much of this depleted money goes into the salary component. The available ‘revenue’ or ‘laboratory’ grants in most of the university departments and colleges are not sufficient to meet even the routine classroom requirements. Therefore, any money being available for research is a far-fetched desire. Nearly all research activity in universities/ colleges is dependent on individual research projects funded by various governmental agencies. In spite of substantial increase in the quantum of funds being available with funding agencies, the university system has not benefited to the desired level. A major cause is the

relatively poor level of ongoing research activities. Consequently, university academia often fail to compete with those from better-endowed research institutions. This traps the university teachers in a vicious cycle of poor academics, poor recognition and consequently poorer output.

Most of the funding agencies take a painfully long time to decide on the submitted projects and even after the project is approved for funding, getting the sanction letter and finally the money can still be a longer wait. Since most universities do not have the resources to ‘advance’ money to the Principal Investigator (PI) in anticipation of the funds to be released by the concerned agency, the research work suffers silently but significantly. In many cases, the research and other staff appointed on the project are not paid their emoluments for several months because the grant is not released by the agency on time.

Whether the fault is with the university administration (non-submission of the UC and SE in time) or at the door of the funding agency (procedural delays or simple carelessness), research work suffers and often leads to a resigned attitude on the part of the PI. In recent times, a number of schemes have been initiated to improve the infrastructure for research in university departments.

UGC provides support in the form of SAP, COSIST and UPEC, while DST initiated the FIST programs, which are expected to improve the much-needed material facilities for research. These programs have helped many departments to acquire some state-of-the-art facilities. However, in many cases, things may not have changed much beyond the acquisition step. There are several reasons for this unfortunate situation.

In my opinion, a primary reason for the absence of the desired improvement in infrastructure seems to be related to its different interpretations. Very often, more expensive and sophisticated equipment facilities are taken as a synonym for infrastructure and consequently I wonder if in the name of ‘infrastructure’, we have created only ‘superstructures’, which the intended beneficiaries are neither capable of handling nor maintaining.

In summary, the system, rather than being a facilitator of research activity, is by and large, inhibitory. This calls for a more serious oversight into the utilization of the funds provided.

Enjoy the rest of your week-end.

Thanking you,

Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil

*** Under the tenure system adopted as internal policy by many universities and colleges, especially in the United States and Canada, tenure is associated with more senior job titles such as Professor and Associate Professor. A junior professor will not be promoted to such a tenured position without demonstrating a strong record of published research, teaching and administrative service. Typical systems

(such as the Recommended Institutional Regulations on Academic Freedom and Tenure) allow only a limited period to establish such a record, by limiting the number of years that any employee can hold a junior title such as Assistant Professor. An institution may also offer other academic titles that are not time-limited, such as Lecturer, Adjunct Professor, or Research Professor, but these positions do not carry the possibility of tenure and are said to be "off the tenure track".

Your station in life.. be happy...

Here let me try to put things in the right perspective...

I dreamt that I went to Heaven and an angel was showing me around.

We walked side-by-side inside a large work-room filled with cute little angels.

My angel-guide stopped in front of the first section and said,

"This is the Receiving Section. Here, all those petitions to God said in prayer are received."

I looked around the area, and it was terribly busy with so many angels sorting out petitions written on

voluminous papersheets and scraps from people all over the world.

Then we moved on down a long corridor until we reached the second section.

My angel then said to me, 'This is the Packaging and Delivery Section.

Here, the graces and blessings the people asked for are processed and delivered.'

I noticed again how busy it was there. There were many angels working hard in that station too,

since the many blessings requested were being packaged for delivery on Earth.

Finally at the farthest end of the long corridor we stopped at the entrance of a very small station.

To my surprise, only one angel was seated there, doing nothing.

" This is the Acknowledgment Section," my angel friend quietly admitted to me.

He seemed embarrassed.

" Why is it that there is no work going on here? " I asked.

" So sad," the angel sighed. "After people receive the blessings they asked for,

very few send back any acknowledgment.."

" How does one acknowledge God's blessings?" I asked.

" Simple," the angel answered.

Just say, " Thank you, Lord."

" What blessings should they acknowledge?" I asked.

Here facts speak.....

'If you have food in the refrigerator, clothes on your back, a roof overhead and a place to sleep over,

you are richer than 75% of the people in this world. If you have money in the bank, in your wallet,

and spare change stuffed somewhere, you are among the top 8% of the world's wealthy.'

'If you get this mail on your own computer, you are part of the 1% in the world who has that opportunity.'

'If you woke up this morning with more health than illness... you are more blessed than the many who will

not even survive today.'

'If you have never experienced the fear in battle, the loneliness of imprisonment, the agony of torture,

or the pangs of starvation.... you are ahead of 700 million people in the world.'

'If you can attend a church, a mosque, a temple, a synagogue-

without the fear of harassment, arrest, torture or death, you are

envied by, and more blessed than, three billion people in the world. '

'If you can hold your head up and smile, you are not the norm,

you're unique when compared to all those multitudes in doubt and despair.'

'If your parents are still alive and still married...you are the rarest of the rare.'

What now?

'If you can read this message, you are more blessed than

over two billion people in the world who cannot read at all.'

Thank you and enjoy the rest of your week-end!

Love,

Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil

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Please visit my web site: http://alexodikandathil.blogspot.com

Freedom of opinion

Folks

Here's something that arrested my attention while surfing the net.

I need to tell you that I don't have any vested interest here.

I'm just trying to put the scenario in front of you for a judicious review and appreciation..

Let me tell you that the question for me is not creationism or evolution but the treatment of it by the professor in the classroom which makes me ask if the professor has the leverage in a like situation to profess his personal ideas deviating from the curriculum...

Creationist College Prof Will Not Return to Classroom

An adjunct community college professor had a bit of a problem when it came time to teach evolution, according to certain sources:

Student Bryan Jaden Walker wrote on his blog, ... that the professor "glossed over the scientific explanation very quickly (less than 20 seconds), then explained Creationism for about five minutes (5,000-year-old Earth, no evolution, etc)."

"Evolution was not taught at all in his class," it is said. "When he hit that unit, instead of discussing it himself he had a single slide that had both creationism and evolution. When I spoke up and asked him about it, he claimed there was no evidence for either, but they are just different world views."

Walker complained to the Oklahoma City Community College Director of Science, Sonya Williams, and was put off by her (shall we presume that Sonya Williams is a creationist too?).

Apparently, there was an internal investigation with no real outcome.

"We checked it out and admonished the professor to please follow curriculum protocols," OCCC spokesperson, Jordan said. "We give latitude. You're allowed to teach however you want, but you do have to teach what's on the syllabus, and that seems like what happened."

The Professor claims that Walker's claims are inaccurate, even though it appears that other students have complained previously too. In any event, Talkington essentially confesses to being a creationist who is teaching creationism:

"I simply acknowledged that there are other schools of thought. I did not teach creationism. I did not promote one view over another. I did not mention God or Christianity. I stayed within the bounds of what the college allows."

Oops. "I did not promote one view over the other"???

He did not promote Science over Creationism in a science class???

And this was OK with Sonya Williams and the rest of them?

Sorry, but 'NO'.

Talkington claims that he is being repressed.

This particular college have earned an "F" rating in the past from theFordham Foundation and the National Center for Science Education for their lousy treatment of science.

NOTE: Apparently the original newspaper article on which this blog post was based (silly me, relying on a newspaper for information) was very flawed.

But maybe the slack jawed yahoos who live in Oklahoma like this. There is some evidence:

Talkington, who is not teaching anywhere right now and doesn't know if he will return to the classroom, said he thinks the case was blown out of proportions.

He said many students loved his class, pointing to students who rated him positively on websites such as RateMyProfessors.com.

Several on the site commented that Talkington was the best professor they'd had.

Talkington wouldn't comment on his views.

"People are looking to debate this issue anyway," he said. "I want to stay out of that debate."

He enjoyed his tenure at OCCC, he said.

"I enjoyed what I did and enjoyed my interaction with the students. I'm disappointed that one student took it to that level of animosity."

This is what captured my attention...

Any questions or comments on this are welcome...

Enjoy the rest of your week-end.

Love,

Prof. Dr. Alex Abraham Odikandathil