Vajra Volvos ROCK!!

Had been in two BMTC Volvos today...from BSK III Stage to Jayanagar 9th Block. I've made it a point that if I have to travel more than 20 minutes in a bus, it'll be a Volvo, reason being they're much more comfortable and much faster than the usual Ashok Leyland/Tata/Eicher buses.

Got a KA01FA1679 Volvo running on route 500K, the fare was just Rs.13, compared to a normal fare of Rs.9. And it was worth it. The driver was maybe a race driver who got fired or something, I don't know, but his driving was just awesome. Ok I know city bus drivers aren't supposed to drive like that, but still..the way he drove it like a bike and managed to squeeze into almost-impossible spots at traffic lights was just superb; this was the first time I saw a Volvo driver using all the 6 mirrors and the rearview camera. He even beat all two wheelers at a couple of traffic signal-to-traffic signal drag races :D. And even though the driving was very spirited, it was never rash or risky. He even let people board the bus wherever they wanted. You're on the other side of the road, desperate to cross it and board the Volvo coming (very) quickly? No problem. Wave wildly at the bus and this driver will stop by the side of the road, open the appropriate doors and wait for you! :) He drove so mind-blowingly(scaringly, for some) fast that I reached my destination in a mere 20 minutes, during which time a normal BMTC would have covered only half the distance.

On the return journey, however, it was a slightly different story. I boarded a KA01FA1538 Volvo running on route 600K and the first thing that drew my attention was the driver himself. 'Ferrari' jacket, bald head + cap, driving glasses and a smile on his face! He kind of looked like a rapper or hip-hop singer :D To prove the point, there was 91.9FM Radio Indigo playing BEP's Boom Boom Pow. This was the first time, in my 38 Volvo rides( Yes. I've counted) that I found a driver playing English songs. Anyway..another thing that I noticed that this bus was cool, literally. All Volvos here are invariably cool, but this one was really very very cool. In fact, the Volvo's dashboard indicated the outside temperature as 27 degrees C, and the inside temperature, wait for it, 19 degrees C! Now THAT's what I call cool. And the air-con blower was running on full tilt, which made it very 'windy' :) Even though some passengers told the driver to increase the temperature setting, he flatly refused. And though this one was no slouch, it still took 35 minutes to reach my stop. Not bad, considering normal buses take about 45 minutes.

So there you have it. Same type of bus, totally different experiences. The longest distance in the two routes I travelled, i.e., 500K and 600K, both going from Vijayanagar to ITPL and back is Rs.55-60, which is way cheaper than going in a car, or a bike even(think of the traffic, the pollution, the noise etc., etc.). So if you need a fast and efficient mode of public transport, this is it. And it doesn't eat into your purse, either. In short, these Volvo B7RLEs are one the best things that BMTC has done for the commuters of Bangalore.〄

Where's the Practical Knowledge?

I just finished my third year exams, and I can't help but wonder, what use are these exams to us when the emphasis is on marks and not on what knowledge has gone into our heads?

I mean, what use are our marks and percentages and what not, going to be when we finish our degree and step into the real world? Yeah we'll get a job based on what we have 'studied' for four years; but, does anyone wonder why, unlike other countries, Indian education emphasises theoretical education (most of the time) and not practical? Yes, we do have practicals and laboratory things and stuff. My question is, how many students get to know the actual reason for these experiments that we do in our labs? Very very few. Most of us would go, conduct the experiment according to instructions given by the lab in-charge/attender, note down some values and put them in some formulae, get the answer and leave - all this being done in the shortest possible while. So, did we learn anything there? No. Why is he experiment conducted? Dunno. What is its significance? Ho-hum..who cares? This is the attitude of many students (sometimes me too), and the teachers don't bother either. Their opinion is 'If the students want, they'll ask. Why should we put the effort?'. I'm sure most teachers are like this. There are some, of course, who'll take the time to explain everything(while some or most students will be yawning).

Foreign universities, on the other hand, put more emphasis on practical aspects, and the method of teaching employed by them forces the student to study on his/her own, rather than rely on the lecturer to provide the notes and other things. Here it's the opposite. Even though some colleges' teaching method forces the students to do some serious self-study, most colleges don't. So is there a solution?

I think there is. What we need is a system where practical knowledge is given at least as much

importance as theoretical knowledge, if not more; this will mean that students, when they finally come out from their colleges with a degree certificate in their hand, should have an idea of what awaits them when they get a job. They should not be like a pen-drive filled with a lot of data but not able to do anything else other than reproduce that data somewhere else. Most importantly though, we need a single authority on higher education, that controls all the colleges in the country very strictly, and maybe some tie-ups with foreign universities to enable knowledge exchange and an idea on what is going on in other colleges around the world.

I just hope that my juniors will get a better practical knowledge than I have got, instead of having their brains filled up with lots of theory, with no idea on how to implement it practically.〄