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There was a front page advertisement in the newspaper yesterday. It had 'Let's fight corruption' written in big bold letters alongside a picture of Narendra Modi, prime ministerial candidate of BJP for the General Elections 2014. It also had three other sentences which went like this, Let's minimise government and maximise governance. Let's use technology for greater public scrutiny. Let's be transparent and accountable. Modi's election campaign started last year with this headline phrase that was in the paper yesterday. Fighting corruption, boosting progress and reducing inflation were some of the apparent primary goals of BJP. The situation though, I must say, is a bit different now. We'll get to it (and the three points up there) in a bit.

Today is the day which most of the people welcome as that one more day to save them from the chilly winter and give them a respite from braving the cold outside, well at least those north of the equator do. A day when you indulge in a little more sleep, maybe wake up towards the end of the parade, in time to catch the balloons being set off on TV, then go on to have a late brunch, followed by spreading on the couch to see that sudden and improbable air of deshbhakti  dawn on each and every one of the telly actors on every entertainment channel. Though nobody cares to see the parade these days, there are some who go one step ahead. People have started questioning the monotony that surrounds the republic day parade itself including the chaos of the days that lead up to it. And let me say this at the outset, I am not one of those people. I have no problem whatsoever with any traffic horrors that may arise due to the rehearsals, neither do I care about the surprising nu...

Suppose I tell you that if you cook an egg under direct sunlight, the yolk will turn violet, or suppose I tell you that when you type Turn Off in a text file and save it, the computer turns off. Or that some trees actually walk at night between 2 and 3. What would be your reaction? Somewhere between laughing and walking away with contempt, I guess. Now tell me, what would be a reaction of a 5 year old to this, or 6, or even 7 let's say. Chances are that the kid would believe at least two out of these three, if I act serious enough and tell him/her that it's a fact. And chances are that (s)he will go and tell these amazing facts to his/her friends too. There you have it, flesh and bone of Indian education system. I say Indian because the topic itself is so enormous even by assumption of talking about only the Indian education methodologies that it is almost impossible to cover the rest of them here and in so limited time. In India, and I am sure in many other plac...