Ceiling fan

 I read somewhere that as a solution for student suicides, IISc has decided to remove fans from hostel rooms. No fan, no suicide. This should be taught in the training classes for psychotherapists. IITD has a main building that has 7 floors. Long ago, there were a few suicides by students jumping off the top floor. Luckily the authorities did not remove lift, stairs and ramp access to the top floor as a solution for this problem.

Suicides among  young people is a heart breaking, serious and complex problem. Who comes up with frivolous solutions for such a serious issue?

Women in STEM

 I had for long kept off any alumni groups from the institute where I got my PhD from. But now I joined a few very accomplished women who were my contemporaries at IITD to try and do something to shine light on the gender ratio in science and technology. It is not something new, but my hope is if enough of us get together, specially powerful alumni, maybe we can make some difference. 

What I would like to see as a start is that IITs, IISERs and such institutions would set up good quality child care. Secondly that they would NOT treat it as a women’s issue, implying that fathers do not care if their children are left to fend for themselves. It would be great if such facilities can be available in every institution and organisation, but that’s still a long way to go.

As a start, we are planning an event where two scientists describe their path to a successful career in science and a social scientist describes her findings on how women in science fare in their journeys.

I will post a link later. 

Anti women?

Sometimes what people think is pro-women actually works against them.

Movies that depict women in STEM are good, but if you project the woman as someone who gets up at 4am in order to cook a five course meal, wake kids, get them ready...all with no help from her husband, it puts pressure on all of us to do the same and that is unfair. Such a hard-working wife implies a useless husband who doesn't share responsibilities. The movie Mission Mangal should not have projected this “Superwoman” trope

Another bad idea is the proposal to pay women for housework. As it is men will not lift a teaspoon in case it constitutes household work. If women get paid, the attitude will be "you are being paid, so get up at 3am and do more work". More of "why isn't the dinner better", why isn't the house cleaner....

The concept to be taught is housework is the responsibility of whoever lives in the house. But I do see a change in this direction amongst the younger men and women.

Megaliths

 I have been watching  YouTube videos and documentaries, some of which were about archeology.

Stone circles seem to be ubiquitous. There are 5000 year old stone circles in the islands off Scotland, in UK, in the middle East, in India, maybe in the Americas- all dating from maybe 10000 to 3000 years ago. How did that architectural concept become so widespread? How did this idea get communicated all through the world? It's not a natural or easy job to lift stones weighing tons and make them stand upright. Or above standing stones in a dolmen. And how did they transport and position these huge megaliths?

And they built the huge temple at Gobekli tepe 12000 years ago. 

Smallpox

It is a long time since I wrote in this blog.
In Tamil nadu as perhaps all over India, small pox was considered a visitation by the goddess. It was forbidden for any outsider to enter the house in which a person suffered from small pox or even chicken pox or measles. A bunch of Neem leaves was hung on the door which meant even beggars were not to ask for alms. Noone entered the house.  It was believed that the patient would get worse and die if any outsider came near or even set eyes on the patient. Also the family members could not visit any house, temple or Pooja or wedding until the infection cleared. When the scabs start to fall, the patient is given a bath. The next bath is the day after next and another one two days later. It is only after 3 baths that is, six days after the infection starts clearing that restrictions are lifted.
This superstition kept the disease from spreading too much, protected the community. If a simple advisory was given, noone would follow, but bringing in the goddess and her wrath ensured compliance.

BB services

This is the first time I have come across this one
BSNL has not paid its electricity bill. So they have cut power. Hence past 4 days we have no BB services in our area.
This is a new one for me. We are progressing!!

Sewer cleaning

There was a report that ₹10 lakhs were paid as compensation  to 210 people who died in sewers during manual cleaning. Here is a report that for  ₹5 lakhs we can get a robotic sewer cleaning machine. Even if we have no empathy for lost lives, at least to save money can we not buy these machines?