Impressions

Institutions

Institutions are like people. They have character and they speak to you. Each one is different from all others. Each one has many aspects that change over time.

IIIT Delhi

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Nadwatul Ulema, Lucknow

Azim Premji University, Bengaluru

IIT Roorkee, Uttarakhand

IIT Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

IGIDR, Mumbai

Jamia Millia Islamia, New Delhi

Mahad darul uloom Nadwatul ulama, Sikrauri, Dubagga

IIT Kanpur, Uttar Pradesh

Arizona State University, Tempe AZ

London School of Economics and Political Science, London, UK

Institute of Economic Growth, New Delhi

Dream Project

Visions for a new institution that takes us back to the meeting of the two seas.

Source: Image generated with Gemini.

Moses, peace be on him, undertakes a magnificent journey to seek out the majma'al-bahrain or the "meeting of the two seas." It is the place where the well spring of life and knowledge is to be found. He sets out on a boat with his companion and keeps with him a cooked fish for food. When they arrive at the meting of seas, the fish miraculously comes to life and jumps back into the sea and makes its way in a wondrous way across the water. The devil afflicts the companion with forgetfulness and they miss the entire event. As a result they become exhausted on their journey. When Moses, peace be on him, realizes what happened, he retraces his steps back to the place of the meeting of the two seas.

Today, educational institutions are experiencing a similar exhaustion. It is like they have missed some momentous event in history and have gotten lost on a journey that is becoming increasingly arduous. It appears that we too have been afflicted with forgetfulness. We no longer seem to fully know why we teach what we teach and learn what we learn. We long to return to a place where the wellspring of life, knowledge, purpose and meaning is found.

The interpretive landscape of the verse of the meeting of the two seas is vast. The verses is a sea in itself. Some commentators have remarked that the two seas represent empirical knowledge and spiritual knowledge. Or one might say, acquired knowledge and revealed knowledge. To put it in a more familiar form, scientific knowledge and sacred knowledge.

Real Life Conversations about Economics (NSFW)

Questioner: Why am I obsessed in wanting to win the lottery?
Responder: It's a great way to resolve a lot of one's financial issues with a minimal investment of time or resources!

Snippet from a real online conversation.

Interviewer: What does social science have to do with computer science?

Snippet from a real interview.

Student: I don't believe in utility maximization.
Adviser: Main graduate nahin hone doonga (I won't let you graduate).

Snippet from a reportedly real conversation.

"I have a friend who says he can prove anything with statistics."

Conference attendee to me after I presented my statistical results.

"We have a dark horse (referring to a tenure-track assistant professor). Now we need mules (referring to graduate students)."

A tenured professor.

"Yeh students nahin hain, yeh customers hain. (These are not students, these are customers)"

Associate professor at a private university (describing the student population).

"You chose to be here. You chose this."

Silicon Valley native to immigrant worker (on the distress caused by poor immigration laws).

And he said, "I don't believe in co-operative game theory."

A colleague on what a professor of economics said to him.

"If you can get all the tests to pass, you get a free toaster."
- Software test engineer to software developer.

"Anything that I understand interests me."
- Workshop participant during their introduction.

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