Nostalgia

Or something else? I have debated time and time again to no particular success. Maybe it’s the historic and beautiful campus; or maybe it’s my repressed psychological longing to get back to my inter-school rivalry days by cheering for the football team at Scott Stadium again, singing the good ol’ song to the tunes of Auld Lang Syne every time the Cavaliers score points in a perfect Fall afternoon.  Maybe it’s the brand name that comes with the Politics department and the university.Well, for sure I’m happy as a smug bug where I am and academically in terms of South Asian Politics UVA does not have any comparative advantage to GSU that I need to try for a transfer back to UVA. As they, the grass is greener on the other side or so it seems to the observer.

Or maybe, just maybe, it’s just that I want to spend time with a certain someone. Silly, I know. Irrational, more so. The matters of the heart are a mystery even to the Wise.

Pullout

This blog ain’t meant to be for politics (that was meant to be in the other blog) but when i say politics i mean political analysis and such. But this is different.

Apparently, the TATAs pulled out. It was inevitable. If i were Ratan Tata i would’ve pulled out earlier, much earlier. The people of Bengal have an uncanny ability to shoot themselves in the foot while blasting neoconservatives on Bush administration and making all-knowing comments on existentialism and Derrida. Give me a break! Seriously. But we, the people of this state deserve what happened. We do. Every bit of it.

The political opposition is a train-wreck; the so-called ‘intellectuals’ and civil society are mostly opportunistic liberal elite who’ve now turned against their patrons in the government, only after they have made a successful career footlicking the same establishment and bagged a nice big house in posh Salt Lake at dirt-cheap discount through government/Red Party power players; and then there’s the activist young people in Bengal (even their newer and better avatars) who takes their ‘activism’ as just another scoring point in their job market CV makes me wonder, do they know what they’re even doing? Do they have any idea of the effects their actions might have? God have mercy on their souls.

Yes, that means you two too Arundhati Roy and Medha Patkar. Don’t you think we didn’t notice what you did back in Singur. You two make me sick. These plastic cheerleaders of social activism should throw a big public kegger for successfully selling themselves as the face of pseudo social activism of India. They are the Lindsay Lohan and Paris Hilton of India’s social activism and human rights circuit. Boy I’m proud.

Isn’t it ironic that TATAs are moving to Gujarat, a state everyone loves to hate in Bengal? Now why would a socially sensitive conglomerate like the TATAs move to a state whose Chief Minister is virtually reviled by most non-Gujarati Indians? Why indeed.

Let me give a snippet of a conversation i had with Don, a 1st generation Irish Texan (yes, he can drink like an Irish) and a professor at the University of North Texas at Dallas. He was the co-chair in the “track” i was in. We hung out a lot and struck a great rapport back at the conference in Delhi.

In an afternoon diner conversation Don summed up the mentality of the people and politicians irrespective of party label back in Texas in these simple words: what’s good for business is good for us.

He (being a level-headed liberal Democrat) was speaking of it in a negative context mind you. The above philosophy is ruining the natural resources of Texas leading to an unhealthy and unsustainable economic development whose repercussions would be sudden and severe. The sad thing is most Texans don’t realize it yet. (Texas by and large is about 60% Republican, economically and socially very conservative outside the big metros of Houston, San Antonio and Dallas. Note that economic conservatism means exactly the opposite of what it means here in India.)

Gujarat is in many ways India’s Texas. They started pro-business economic reforms even before 1991. It’s socially very conservative with Hindu population greater than the national average. And when it comes to pro-business policies, industrialization, BJP and Congress, the two main political parties are like blood brothers. They know their business.

So, what now? Rest assured,

1. No more big investments in this state in the short term.

2. The state government will be blamed as much as Mamata Banerjee. Those who think Ms. Banerjee will be blamed solely when elections knock at door i have news for you. You’re wrong.

3. Mamata Banerjee will win re-election from her constituency, the most affluent and anti-left in the state. There will be no “urban backlash” big enough to take her down. As a constituent I won’t be voting for her, however. That doesn’t mean i’m voting for the commies.

4. The Left Front will lose a lot of seats in the coming general election. Last time around, if i remember correctly, they won 35 out of 42 seats. That’s the apex. There’s only one way to go from there. Downhill.

All you young people reading this. Get out of this state at the very first opportunity. You won’t regret it. No, it’s not escapism. If you love yourself you’ll know what’s right for you.

Update: You might want to read this.

Damn!

I don’t like Delhi. I don’t like it at all. The place has all the boorish characteristics a capital city filled with politicians, lobbyists, insiders, minnows and all sorts of wannabe powerful people have. I’m not saying that people are not nice, they are, although my experience is mostly otherwise. But I digress. I’ll blame it on my luck.

I once hoped to get unnoticed at the conference. Now it seems there will be some known faces after all. I really don’t care. Give me a pretty university grad student from Canada/US/India/wherever who headbangs to Barenaked Ladies and U2 on her iPod while reading a peer’s paper, and I’m happy. And by happy I mean I will show her what India is all about (puns intended but I’m not sure what it means. LOL?).

Now if you’ll excuse me. I have a a train to catch.

This post will bore you to death.

It’s big. It’s final. The most important decision of my academic life yet. I will switch from Econ. to Poli. Science in Masters and Ph.D.

I just might stick with econ. for terminal masters if I don’t get in at a goodly ranked Poli. Science Ph.D/terminal MA in the US next year and hence forced to enrol in a terminal masters program In India, but in that case I’ll switch to Poli. Science anyway for the Ph.D. But the way things are going I don’t think the above will come to pass.

I thought long and hard about it. I love both. Yes I know. I could’ve taken Poli. Science in undergrad instead of econ. But I didn’t want to. And I’m glad I studied Econ. for Honors. It sharpened my analytical skills and absolutely changed the way I look at the world. Seriously, when you see a econ. grad student you should know his take on society and life in general is something not murky and clueless. On the top of it, it’s somewhat easier to do graduate studies in Poli. Science with a base in econ. but not the other way round.

The decision had to more to do with my research concentration. I am in love with everything about  Political Economy. Especially stuff like Elections, Democracies, Governance among others. It’s a heavily interdisciplinary field on the crossroads between econ. and poli. science. Man I’m an uber-geek.

The problem is Political Economy is not offered as a field at many econ. Ph.D programs. Naturally, the academic job market for a guy with Political Economy as research field is tough. And God help you if you are from a lower ranked Ph.D program.

On the other hand, Political Economy is offered as a research field at almost all Political Science Ph.D programs and the job market is a lot healthier. C’mon, I don’t want to be unemployed after 6 years in grad school. I want tenure track at a half decent research-extensive university. Even an elite LAC would do just fine.

Besides. the methodology is not something very divergent in both Econ. and Poli. Science departments for Political Economy. Just that core Econ. grad work uses much more mathematics than an average Poli. Science counterpart. That suits me just fine. I am not a big fan of mathematics. Maths is okay but just that. Actually, a lot of econ. masters level work now feels like doing applied maths rather than econ. It’s an astounding methodology shift that has taken place in the last 20 years. It’s one change I’m not particularly fond of.

Incidentally, the difference between econ. undergrad and grad level courses are as wide as the Nebraska Prairies. Each and every one of my seniors confessed that they had to unlearn undergrad econ. first at econ. MSc. courses. The level of gap is mindboggling. Undergrad Econ. majors with career paths in graduate level econ. have no idea what they are getting into.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. The application and admission season starts in a few months. Without a Top 50 ranked admit with fellowship/TA/RA I’m screwed. So where’s the nearest DHL office in SoCal? Anyone?

Almost

all of the old school day buddies are now graduating in the tech sector. My buddy ol’ pal Abhi called me up from Jamshedpur. With much glee and sense of relief in his voice proceeded to inform the the obvious inevitability. That he has been herded into the farm of Tata Consultancy Services, on the very first day of herding/campus interviews.  Oh happy day, happy I am. Sure I condescendingly mock techies and engineering grads, look down on them and take them to be bigger dickheads than they be. Not that our techie friends don’t deserve it all, they do, well, most of ’em anyway. But I’m loving the fact my friends will no longer have to use their daddy’s debit card to pay for dinner with their women.

Abhi and I go a long way back to 2nd Grade. Been an ordinary day, work work work but all these old school day tiffin break dodgeball playing images are swirling on my frontal lobe. It’s carving a constant wistful smile. A few others will be herded as well in the coming few  weeks. Meanwhile stuttering old Sandy has got himself into TCS way back in February. It should be a meat and booze fest in the next months with all the job treats thrown in. Of course there’s the fact that I don’t booze but in times like these I’m more than eager to share the joys of me friends.

Me being on course to the academia (horrorhorror), i got six long years to go at least before i beg, whine and asswipe people in big chairs to a nice comfortable tenure track position in a respectable (now c’mon that’s the least i can hope) research-intensive university. Okay okay, a Tier I LAC would do as well. That I’ve got to get meself a Pee.eich.Dee before is a different story altogether.  Damn I would be nearing 30 and my buddies will go around in mid-sized sedans taking their kids to kindergarten. Jeez.

The next two weeks however will be really exciting. I can’t wait to see Wall-E and The Dark Knight in the cinemas. Then of course there’s the holy grail for all the X Philes. The X Files: I Want To Believe, the sequel to the 1998 movie and ode to the greatest asskicking TV series of all time. Agent Scully, I want to be with you all the time. I don’t even want to leave your vaginal area. You rock! And Agent Mulder is a cool dude I’ll give him that.

God, I’m a purebred geek. Heck yeah!