librarian post! to be or not to be ?

being librarian is good you get lots of information ,various kinds of users ,lots of books also called as information officer,documentation officer depending upon the work you do or the institution you work for especially a school,but in some case working as librarian is as equal as doing a evil . because working means doing lots of office work (clerical) and not getting half payment just go on doing work so the author thinks to be or not to be?

1-yr-old is youngest eye donor

After Nikunj Raychura died last month, grieving family decided to help someone by donating his eyes
SANTOSH ANDHALE
One-year-old Nikunj Raychura became the country’s youngest eye donor, when his corneas were handed over to an eye bank, after he passed away at a city hospital last month. In what is a sad but heartening trend, donors seem to be have gotten younger in the recent past. It was only last week that a Delhi-based couple donated the eyes, kidney and skin tissues of their 16-month-old daughter. NIKUNJ SUCCUMBED TO FITS, FEVER Just two days after he celebrated his first birthday on March 28, Nikunj started suffering from fits and ran a temperature. His parents, Nayan and Geeta, rushed him to a local doctor in Nalasopara, who advised hospitalisation. Nikunj was shifted to Wadia Hospital on March 30 but when he wasn’t respond well to treatment, doctors shifted him to the intensive care unit ( ICU). Though he was put on a ventilator in the morning, by afternoon his heart stopped working and he was declared dead. It was Nikunj’s elder uncle, Chetan Raichura, a senior member of the family, who suggested the family should donate Nikunj’s eyes. Nikunj’s parents held a discussion with the doctors after which the operation was conducted. Nayan, who works as a salesmen in the saree shop at Dadar, has another son Yash, who is seven years old. Speaking about the decision to donate Nikunj’s eyes, his uncle Chetan Raichura said, “I am a member of Lohana Mahahjan community, who do a lot of social work. I had heard about people donating eyes and though Nikunj’s death was a terribly sad incident, we feel he will now live on in someone else. We have kept his soul alive.” NIKUNJ’S EYES TO HELP NEEDY Nikunj’s cornea’s were handed over to Tarun Mitra Mandal at Chinchchpokli, who runs an eye bank that works for the needy. “We run an eye bank coordination and research centre at Bacchu Ali Hospital in Byculla. In the last 13 years, we have received about 8,000 corneas from donors. Nikunj’s eyes will help someone else and we respect the family’s decision. We request more people to participate in such programmes,” said Dheeraj Rambhia, president of Tarun Mitra Mandal. According to the Human Organ Transplantation Act, the recipient’s identity is not disclosed to the donor’s family. YOUNGEST DONOR SO FAR WAS A 18-MONTH-OLD CHILD: EXPERTS Padmashri award winner Dr T P Lahane, head of the ophthalmology dept, JJ Hospital, who has conducted more than 3,000 cornea transplants, said, “The child’s corneas can be used in children as well as adults as age is not an issue.The couple have been brave and made a rare decision.” said Dr Lahane. He added,“The youngest donor that I have seen so far has been an 18-month-old child. Nikunj is probably the youngest donor ever.”

Conquer the MHT-CET

IF YOU ARE A CLASS 12 SCIENCE STUDENT, A PRAGMATIC, SMART AND INTENSIVE APPROACH TOWARDS YOUR PREPARATIONS WILL INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF BAGGING A GOOD RANK IN THIS YEAR’S MHTCET. EXPERTS PRESENT A DETAILED STUDY PLAN
Restrict your exam preparations to the HSC science syllabus only Evaluation of MHTCET is done by the Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) No negative marking; attempt all questions in the MHTCET Perhaps one of the most crucial tests that a student from Maharasthra ever appears in his/ her lifetime is the MHTCET, an examination conducted by the Government of Maharashtra for admission to the first year of professional courses like medicine and engineering. This year the exams are scheduled on the May 12, and students are leaving no stone unturned to give this MHTCET their best shot. Appearing in mock tests, solving past question papers, studying for longer hours, discovering shortcuts to solving problems and revisiting basics is the order of the day for most Class 12 science students. As specialists opine, intelligent and methodical preparation coupled with a broadened perspective and most certainly a positive bend of mind are most essential ingredients for your success. THE FUNDAMENTALS MHTCET is an objective exam for students of Class 12 (science) and issues like good handwriting, nice diagrams et al are inconsequential. Neither is your command over the English language tested. The paper is evaluated using Optical Mark Recognition (OMR) and hence the personal bias of an examiner also does not hold any steam. There is no negative marking in MHTCET exam, and thus there is zero risk if you attempt all questions. Restricting only to the Class 12 science syllabus is prudent. Extra conceptual reading from good foreign textbooks is unnecessary, because no questions will be asked from these. TEST OF ACQUIRED KNOWLEDGE While board exams focus on a test of your memory, the MHTCET probes more on the degree of assimilation of your knowledge. While the former is typically of three hours duration, the latter has an hour and a half slotted each for all the subjects tested. Thus it becomes imperative for you to focus on your speed and accuracy. You will also need to master the art of problem solving and improve your abilities to select the right option within a limited time. In the MHTCET, the accuracy of a student is tested at two levels: selecting the right choice and shading the right place on the answer sheet. Several students are less tuned to the second level, in view of which even if the right answer is in his/ her mind, the wrong bubble is finally shaded. A DIFFICULT HURDLE The absence of negative marking make it very difficult for the exammakers to distinguish meaningfully between the good and the not-so-good student. This results in a great congestion of marks with sometimes close to one hundred students hovering around the same mark interval. The syllabus as compared to the Class 12 (science) CBSE syllabus lacks conceptual depth and horizontal topical spread. This encourages a natural tendency of the exam-makers to field factual questions based on trivia and minutiae tucked in some corner of the standard board certified textbooks. Finally the format of the questions is MCQ (multiple choice questions) which requires the student to be able to commit to one of the four alternatives as the correct answer. The response of the examiner is all or none; there is no model answer as in Class 12 and you cannot score partially such as two marks out of four. NO SELECTIVE STUDY There is no definite topic-wise allotment of marks at MHTCET unlike in Class 12, so keeping topics/ lessons as alternatives is certainly not an option! Thus students should not leave any portion of the subjects tested i.e. physics, chemistry, mathematics and biology untouched because in these exams any portion of the prescribed syllabus can be probed into. Study everything! SPEED AND ACCURACY The real test of a MHTCET is in solving questions correctly within a stipulated time, which means less than one minute per question. Before solving any multiple choice question, reading it and comprehending it quickly and figuring if the given alternatives contain the right answer is a process which needs practice. At times even the best student with all the requisite knowledge may not succeed in answering such questions in the absence of practice. Time management while solving a full test is another aspect of practice. Each question carries one mark, be it a question on a favourite topic or one which you don’t like. It does not make much sense to get emotionally caught up in any question while solving the test. If you cannot solve the question within say a minute, move on (maybe mark the question for a later re-visit) to the next one which you can quickly solve. If you have time to spare you can always come back to the questions you skipped. Physics problems/ numericals are notorious time-guzzlers and solving them correctly can determine who will reach the top bracket. Needless to say, students need to pay proper attention to practicing such type of questions. With factual questions, particularly in biology, you either know the answer or you don’t and a quick look at the alternatives is only a confirmation. The more full fledged tests you solve in an honest exam-like environment, the better equipped you are to crack the exam. Another aspect is the specific subject wise shortcuts which you must have been taught in your schools/ classes by experienced teachers. These need to be revised thoroughly so that you stand in good stead at the time of the actual exam. In any engineering entrance exam, 30 per cent questions on an average are likely to be of simple type. In view of this, you should work towards positively bagging these marks. The questions after these are ‘application oriented’. If you have practiced in a methodical manner i.e. understood the concept and its application rather than description, you stand to do well in these questions. If you find a particular portion of a subject somewhat difficult, you will need to focus more on it. The cycle of testing, feedback and corrective reading based on deficits (as per feedback) will continually upgrade your marks at the MHTCET. Attention should be focused on questions which were incorrectly answered and on very difficult questions, which your teacher or mentor will usually ask you to concentrate on in order to revise these topics and avoid similar mistakes in future attempts. OVERCOME NEGATIVITY The only way to consistently give your best in your exam preparations is by enjoying the entire process. Frantic preparations can sometimes rub off on your health too and you cannot do well if you are constantly feeling low and let down. Remember that one of the biggest value additions of appearing for competitive exams is the fact that it increases your concentration, will power and ability to handle pressure. Exams are only a window of opportunity to a promising life ahead. You should steer clear of past failures and never keep a count of the number of people competing in these exams. Do not get bogged down by the pressures of preparation and other hindrances to your performance, if you want to make it to the league of successful candidates. AND FINALLY…. ‘When the going gets tough, the tough get going’- it’s a cliché, but is aptly surmises the predicament of those of you who are appearing for the MHTCET. Your mental agility and psychological preparation will come to your rescue on the exam day. Being relaxed but not lethargic, being lightly keyed in rather than overly stressed out is recommended. Stay away from heavy meals, rumours and fatigue in the final days leading to the exam. Don’t preferably change your usual location; use your family as your support system. Most importantly, remain positive. Do not stop revising the topics and the questions sets. Remember ‘it isn’t done until it is done’. All the effort and perseverance that you have put in over the last year will bear fruition. In all humility let us accept that this MHTCET will be a stepping stone to a brighter future for so many of you. Good Luck! SUCCESS MANTRAS Too many reference books will add to the chaos; stick to the popular choices, or ask your teachers/ mentors to refer some good ones There is no negative marking in the MHTCET; so attempt all questions Do not spend too much time brooding over one question; move on and re-visit if time permits Don’t resort to memorising; instead clear your concepts Steer clear of all negativity and remain positive A good night’s rest before the D-day is important

US kids take up jobs to share parents’ burden

Washington: Children across the United States are feeling the impact of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In just one example Demetri Wolfe-Maris, a proud young man, in the grimmest economy in three generations, has landed a job. And he’s only 10-years-old. “He’s been working for a neighbour of ours, counting coins. He makes five dollars an hour and feels proud because he doesn’t have to ask me for money,” his mother, Abebi Wolfe, 34 who has been out of work for a year, said. Last month, after Demetri learned that his father, who does not live with the family, had lost his job too, the fifth grader went to see the counsellor at his elementary school in northwest Washington. “The counsellor told me that Demetri came in with a very heavy heart, saying he wanted to get a job to help his family,” Wolfe said. The young boy had everything worked out. He would go to the McDonald’s six blocks from his home where he was certain he was capable of serving burgers and fries with the best of them. But, at 10 going on 11, Demetri is too young to work under US law, the counsellor explained to him. In the largely working class city of Pueblo, Colorado, a school counsellor named Nancy organized a collection to help four siblings, aged five to 10, after she noticed them coming to school hungry and tired. “Their mom had lost her job and the kids were staying up until midnight, helping her to make stuff to sell so that they could buy food,” Nancy said. “I got people to donate money and we bought them a month’s worth of groceries—enough to tide them over until the mother got a new job,” she said. More and more children are taking advantage of the Pueblo public school system’s free breakfasts, she said. “There are so many kids who are affected by this crisis. It’s outrageous... we’re one of the richest nations in the world,” she said. Children notice stress in the family and, in this era of instant information, have easy access to media reports of rising unemployment and hard times. “Demetri watched the news and heard the job loss statistics, not really understanding what it all meant,” said Wolfe. “What he did understand is that two people he cared for had lost their jobs,” she said. Young children can “feel they are somehow responsible” when they notice stress levels rising at home as a parent is laid-off, said Wendy Blome, a professor at the school of social service at Catholic University in Washington. “Older kids’ anxiety may present in different ways, like ‘I’ll get a job or we’ll cut back,’” she said. Other teens are dropping out of school altogether, even though a high school diploma is the bare minimum needed to “ensure future success” in these dire economic times, said a report by the Rennie Center for Education Research and Policy. The report, which looked at the drop-out rate in the northeastern state of Massachusetts where one in five students does not complete high school, said the reason given most often by school leaders for why students quit before getting their diploma was “home issues.” AFP

The disproportionate bias for extremism

The easiest way to become somebody in India is to say something very provocative, very loudly, very often. In no time, you are on television, first being covered and then being assailed by sundry critics. Now is the time to be trenchantly unrepentant and add fuel to the fire by broadening your diatribe. Soon you become a regular member of a television panel, and part of the pantheon of influential voices in India. Rakhi Sawant showed us how a little could a long way by using the most provocative part of her body—her mouth. Raj Thackeray demonstrated the power of homoeopathic violence by shrewdly placing it in front of television cameras. In the case of the Shri Ram Sene, the media was given balcony seats and perhaps fed popcorn so that it could report the staged violence without straining itself too much. And now Varun Gandhi has put his foot in his mouth only to discover that he can run faster this way. Suddenly he is on every screen, and his name pops up in every debate. Had he worked tirelessly for Pilibhit, he would be nothing more than the faintly familiar other Gandhi. Now, even if he is temporarily out of circulation, he is a bona fide leader, with a point of view that needs to be represented. He has built a base for himself, not just in Pilibhit or among diehard right-wingers but has also managed to create a visual constituency for himself on national television. Of course, it is curious how we have managed to invert the meaning of what constitutes offensive speech. Today, private bodies get offended very easily and there is an implicit censorship on many things (we cannot even use the word barber in a film title) while the state is unable to take cognizance of the most flagrant transgressions made by people making deliberately inflammatory statements. People’s sentiments are hurt very easily by relatively inconsequential and accidental perceived slights while frontal attacks of the most provocative kind go by without any real deterrence. Akshay Kumar’s zip can cause more outrage than Raj Thackeray’s lip. The former has to apologize, the latter builds a political fortune. One could also ask whether the laws of the land also end up conspiring with publicity hounds given the symbolic nature of punishment meted out to motormouth offenders most of the time. Far from deterring provocative speech, it actually helps fan it, given that one can end up looking like a martyr without suffering any actual imprisonment. Of course, in Varun Gandhi’s case, Mayawati’s action in slapping the NSA, even if it is a deliberately contrived overreaction, has made the punishment more real. In a larger sense, this search for easy impact pushes the discourse towards the extreme side of any argument. Debates get framed by those who take polarized positions, people in the middle are too wishywashy for our times. Extreme positions seem to have become a surrogate for significance and clarity, and these receive a disproportionate value. Of course, extremism seeks out more extremism; a Varun Gandhi gets a Mayawati in return, and a provocative speech, the NSA. Even on television, it is the extreme cadre that holds our attention. The reason why we are seeing a rise in brutish behaviour on screen—be it in the form of warring judges in a reality show or an expletive-hissing extravaganza in the guise of a youth show—is that television is compelled to create a sense of manufactured spectacle that ensures that we do not take our eyes off the screen. For that is what eventually matters. Given its flickering transience, television keeps our memory cache permanently empty. We do not remember why somebody became famous, only that we have heard of them. Notoriety is the currency of television, and no matter how many earnest anchors attack what they see as unacceptable, the very act of doing so on television defeats the purpose. That is perhaps television’s ultimate paradox—it wields enormous power without being in control of it. Of course, staying in the news is not easy given that more and more people have figured out how easy it is to become famous. Why, even the redoubtable Ms Sawant is not as frequent an inhabitant of our screens as she used to be. But the writing on the wall needs no translation—the visual extremists are here to stay and we will keep watching them. santoshdesai1963@indiatimes.com

Why parents fuss about the cuss

More children are using bad language with abandon. Their blushing parents don’t know what to do
Mansi Choksi TNN
Recently, a British schoolteacher asked the ten-year-olds in her class to list the rudest words they knew. She was so aghast at the outcome that she ordered the children to rip the scat-spattered pages from their exercise books. Here, in Mumbai, things are hardly different. Seven-year-old Rafiq who goes to Podar High School left his parents dumbfounded when he used crude Hindi slang for female genitalia in the middle of a conversation. A first standard teacher at a south Mumbai IB school found herself turning several shades of pink when a student showed her the finger when asked to spell a word. Six-year-old Tanya went around chanting the fourletter F word at a family function until she was spanked by her father. Blame it on casual usage language among parents (swearing at home was almost unheard of a generation ago), exposure to television and cinema and the blurring boundary between what is acceptable and what is not—the fact is that kids are cursing away to glory. Counsellor in child development Chandni Srinivasan says that the boom in video games and television shows is partly responsible for kids picking up foul speech. “Kids don’t get these words from school because they move around in their own age group. They overhear role models like older kids, parents, domestic help or movie stars. Young kids watch Friends, which may seem sober, but does have some content which is not suitable for an impressionable mind,’’ she says. “Words like ‘loser’, ‘idiot’ and ‘damn’ are becoming common and parents seem to be okay with it.’’ ‘Children must draw the lines themselves’ Mumbai: Distracted parents may simply don’t know how to deal with the cuss offensive by their children. Dr Seema Khan, Rafiq’s mother, blames it on bad company. “I have even complained to his class teacher because he is picking up the words from friends,’’ she says. Eventually, the doctor sat her son down and told him that ‘good boys’ don’t use ‘bad words’ and that it embarrassed the family. Maureen Sequeira, principal of playschool Headstart, says that it’s important for parents to show restraint. “That’s why we screen the parents of children before admissions,’’ she says. Counsellor Srinivasan says she gets several cases of anxious parents trying to deal with kids picking up the four-letter word. “Most parents are careful about what they say in front of their children,’’ she says. But kids are equally careful about not using the words in front of their parents first. “It’s usually the parent of the friend who tells on a kid.’’ Arundhati Chavan, president of the Parents Teachers’ Association United Forum, says that until a few years ago kids were hesitant to use foul language in front of elders, but now they don’t seem to feel all that bashful. “I remember using the word ‘saali’ when I was a kid and remember feeling immensely guilty after being scolded by my mother. But I don’t see it with my own kids,’’ she says. Another parent, Dipika Vaz, says that the trick is in making the child draw the line herself. “It’s not possible to shelter your child from everything. My seven-yearold asked me what a bad word meant and I told her that when she grows up, she would find out for herself. You have to be firm, but there’s no point shouting. It’s not such a calamity, you just have to deal with it with a cool head,’’ she says. Child psychologists emphasise that the way the issue is tackled is crucial. “If you shout at them or talk down, it will make them more curious and if you ignore it to deprive them of the attention they are seeking, you’re not dealing with the root of the problem. The ideal thing to do in a situation like this is to treat them like adults and talk to them in a mature way,’’ says Srinivasan. Sequeira says that in her school, when a kid utters a bad word, he or she is asked to ‘go and wash your mouth’. “There should be a negative reinforcement for the bad word by depriving them of something they want and they should be rewarded when they substitute a bad word for another one,’’ she says. But that may have its pitfalls too. Take the example of Goregaon mum Nisha Mehta. Mehta told her daughter that the meaning of ‘bitch’ was ‘bad’. She came running to her the next day saying, “I got a bitch hurt,’’ pointing to a cut on her knee.

INDIA BREAKS SOUND BARRIER ! JAI HO

You know India has arrived when everybody in Hollywood’s Kodak Theatre—from Brad Pitt to Kate Winslet, Steven Spielberg to Meryl Streep—move to the beat of Jai Ho. Believe it or not, that’s exactly what happened at the 81st Academy Awards when double Oscar winner A R Rahman walked on stage to sing his now-famous composition from Slumdog Millionaire. Western dancers in dazzling pink Indian outfits danced to Rahman’s tune, while gora men in traditional dhotis played on drums. And as Hollywood’s hottest swung to the rhythm, one could well have been at an Indian awards ceremony. Kodak Theatre may have glittered with international celebrities on Sunday night but it was India that was shining all along. Sound mixing Oscarwinner Resul Pookuty accepted his award with a speech profound in its simplicity. “I come from a country and a civilization that gave us the universal word. That word is preceded by silence, followed by more silence. That word is Om. I dedicate this award to my country. Thank you, Academy, this is not just a sound award, this is history being handed over to me,’’ said the FTII grad. But that wasn’t all. A R Rahman, in his first acceptance speech (best original soundtrack) said, “Mere paas ma hai.’’ Salim-Javed’s classic line from Deewar travelled across the oceans to resound in Hollywood’s hall of fame. “I have nothing but I have a mother. She’s here, with her blessings. I am grateful for her to have come all the way,’’ he said. In his second acceptance speech (for Jai Ho), Rahman said to a rapt audience, “The essence of the film is about optimism and the power of hope. All my life I had a choice of hate or love. I chose love, and I’m here.’’ In another ‘it’ moment for India, desi girl Freida Pinto was asked to co-present the award for Best Foreign Film. Soon after, the entire theatre smiled along with a little girl from Mirzapur in UP. Pinki’s cleft-lip tale of tears and courage in Megan Mylan’s Smile Pinki won many hearts, and the award for best documentary (short subject). But the most fitting tribute to India—and Mumbai—came direct dil se from Danny Boyle, “My connection with Mumbai is unending and inseparable. All of you who’ve helped us make the film and all of you who didn’t, thank you so much. You dwarf even this guy (gesturing to the statuette).’’ Little wonder, then, that everyone’s greeting of choice has suddenly become Jai Ho! OSCAR WILD Slumdog Millionaire BEST FILM Danny Boyle BEST DIRECTOR A R Rahman BEST ORIGINAL SCORE A R Rahman & Gulzar BEST ORIGINAL SONG Simon Beaufoy BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY Resul Pookutty, Ian Tapp & Richard Pryke BEST SOUND MIXING Anthony Dod Mantle BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY Chris Dickens BEST EDITING MUMBAI BOYLES OVER To Mumbai, unending, inseparable, unborn. All of you who’ve helped us make the film and all of you who didn’t, thank you so much. You dwarf even this guy (gesturing to the statuette). Thank you very much indeed—Director Danny Boyle