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Tribute to Campuses: Shaping lives!

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

MAY 24 ,2025

S.RAMKUMAR

Tribute to Campuses: Shaping lives!

Campuses, the places where we learn and work, visibly influence our outlook and happiness, offering cherished memories for a dynamic life. They are like extended homes for a wishful mind, available to us to refresh at any moment, helping us to think and be happy, no matter where we are.

The three campuses I’ve had the privilege to experience (chosen from many) are the College of Veterinary and Animal Sciences (COVAS), Mannuthy, Kerala (where I completed my undergraduate and postgraduate courses and began my career as an Assistant Professor), The University of Reading, UK (where I pursued my PhD and postdoc, and later visited as a researcher), and the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research (RIVER), Puducherry (as Faculty and Dean)

At COVAS, Mannuthy, 1987

COVAS, Mannuthy

The sunsets viewed from the men’s hostel (the only one at the time), the verdant corridor of trees beside the lovely green stadium, and the small hill behind the campus, accessible by crossing the canal, make COVAS a truly unique life experience. The transformation from teenager to young adult, the newfound freedom with lifelong friends, and the wonderful, connected faculty and staff all contribute to the freshness and richness of being on that campus. These experiences shape us for the future. All our loves—studies, sports, arts, friends, fun, tours, classes, outings—blend seamlessly within the wider canvas of a campus that truly lives.

At Whiteknights Lake, Reading, UK 1991

The University of Reading, UK

The landscape with Whiteknights Lake at its heart offers a stunning view, and daily walks within its grounds open up new perspectives. The changing seasons—spring with its vibrant tulips, summer with lush green grass and trees, autumn with yellowish-brown leaves gracefully falling, and winter with days when the lake freezes over, allowing geese and ducks to walk on the ice—have been odes to this campus. Every season holds sweet sentiments that linger through the years as you live.

Canteen Garden, RIVER, 2020

RIVER, Puducherry

RIVER boasts a sprawling green campus with buildings nestled like small mushrooms within a verdant forest. The trees, predominantly neem, provide much-needed freshness throughout the day as we walk and work. The fruit trees, herbal garden, canteen garden, the pond, and the animal rehabilitation enclosure all embody a philosophy of “growing with the green.”

“Campuses truly remain with us!”

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Book Review by S. Ramkumar

Book Review

April 19 ,2025

S.RAMKUMAR

CARELESS PEOPLE
Sarah Wynn-Williams

Sarah Wynn-Williams’ “Careless People – A story of where I used to work. Power. Greed. Madness.” (MACMILLAN, 2025) isn’t just a tell-all; it’s a stark, first-hand account of the forces that shaped the behemoth we now know as Meta. Through the eyes of a former insider, this book offers a compelling and often unsettling glimpse behind the polished facade of the world’s largest social network.

Wynn-Williams joined Facebook in its pivotal early years, 2011, drawn by the allure of working alongside tech luminaries like Zuckerberg and Sandberg. Her initial experiences, vividly recounted in 42 diary-like chapters brimming with sharp observations and surprising humor, paint a picture of a company driven by audacious ambition and a relentless pursuit of growth in connections. We witness her first-hand contributions to Facebook’s global expansion, a period marked by a seemingly unwavering belief in its mission.

However, “Careless People” takes a sharp turn as Wynn-Williams’ insider perspective deepens. The initial excitement gives way to a growing unease, a sense of “surprise, uncertainties, and shocks” as the true operational ethos and long-term strategies come into focus. The book unflinchingly exposes a culture where the pursuit of growth allegedly outplayed ethical considerations, a sentiment starkly captured by the company’s “move fast break things” mantra. As the review highlights, Wynn-Williams’ narrative reveals a world of “wild schemes” and a potentially reckless disregard for consequences, both personal and political.

There are many instances of  inherent paradoxes within this powerful ecosystem mentioned. The anecdote regarding Silicon Valley executives advocating screen-free childhoods for their own children while presiding over a platform designed to capture attention is particularly chilling. It underscores a potential awareness of the very harms their creation might inflict.

Ultimately, “Careless People” appears to be more than just a memoir; it’s a cautionary tale. Wynn-Williams’ departure, stemming from “alarming situations,” suggests a profound disillusionment with the values driving Facebook’s ascent. This book, through its insider lens, promises to unveil a culture allegedly defined by an insatiable hunger for wealth and a manipulative approach to achieving it. For anyone seeking to understand the human cost behind the digital revolution and the unseen forces shaping our interconnected world, “Careless People” seems like an essential, if potentially disturbing, read.

It unmask the faces!

(To a review of the book in The Guardian, Meta has responded to Wynn-Williams’ book, calling it “a mix of out-of-date and previously reported claims about the company and false accusations about our executives”.)

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CARE , TRUST , BELIEF

Stray and random thoughts

April 2 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

CARE , TRUST , BELIEF

CARE is that inner love, which can be expressed in many ways or even exist quietly within.

TRUST is an inherent sense of the other person’s truthfulness.

BELIEF is the personal understanding and perception of who the other person is.

Each of these seems to build upon the other, inter se . For example, care might inspire you to extend trust, and trust can strengthen your belief in the other person’s character and intentions.

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Relationships

Stray and random thoughts

April 1 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Relationships

Relationships are built and maintained by the varying degrees of CARE, TRUST and BELIEF, we have for others.

Before getting agitated, frustrated, angry, disappointed or upset on a relationship, think how the three factors relate, and mean to you, in that situation, to move forward.

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EDUCATION,Drowning in Examinations!

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

January 29 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

EDUCATION

EDUCATION,
Drowning in Examinations!

Where is the Education,
we have lost in Examination?
Where is the examination,
we have lost in entrance tests?

The heavy backpacks of school education cease to experience the joy of myriad of subjects that paints the Universe! The creativity of children gets dissolved in “conformity” of a class, to have the convenience of uniformity spread among all.

Every young mind is tuned into “examinations” and the “judgment- day” of results , from day one of their Schooling (from LKG). We are evolving ourselves into a society of dominant “examination system” that eclipses primary purpose of curiosity and joy of Education.

Make Education enjoyable, within the incessant examinations!
This is the challenge for good teachers and caring parents!
“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?”
                                                          -T. S. Eliot (1922)

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backpack

BEWARE OF BACKPACKS !

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

February 13 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

BEWARE OF BACKPACKS !

BEWARE OF BACKPACKS !

The backpacks are quite popular in India in the last two decades. Schools, colleges, work, sports entertainment, travel…its omni presence prevails.

The convenience of carrying different things -books, clothes, computers..-, without creating a load-pressure & strain on muscles made it popular.

But a pack on the back need to be cared well so that it doesnt hurt others around!

When (s)he turn sides, stretches back or moves in a crowd they have to be cautious about how the bag behind can hit or hurt a person’s face or body. Especially so in public transport or crowded places.

When carrying a back pack, wear it with care.

Responsible backpack management gives relief to people around you!

Take care!

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tea

It is not tea – it is “teaing”!

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

January 17 ,2025

Prof. S. Ramkumar

TEA

It is not tea – it is “teaing”!

Having tea is “tea”ing : beyond a drink, it is always a medium of connect.

Have you ever thought that our daily life can be divided based on the teas we sip? From the bed we wake, usually the first purposive start of the day is with the tea we relish- alone or together! Tea-connect starts with every dawn in the family, and stretch through work places and societies throughout the globe where we exist.

The wake-up and evening teas are the major life boosters. The 11 am tea is the rejuvenator for the day, where closer faces share closer feelings for a break.

Tea is the Universal Socialistic drink of connect.

There is no day without you drinking a tea, or you not seeing somebody taking tea! Life revolves around tea (many varieties now!).
We take it when we are alone to bounce the boredom and kick start an active mind. Any meetings we attend formally or informally… scientific, professional, party …tea sneaks in to the heated or cold discussions, adding vibes across the table. Tea can start conversation in a sad or tough time and divide sorrows. It can refresh the joys and multiply when shared.
The feel of tea, makes better relaxed minds, preparing them lighter to respond!
Tea shops (from the old street-side tea stalls with benches to sit and read daily newspapers, to the present day tea/coffee shops and Net cafes, where people sit and sink into their cellphones) have been important meeting points – formal or informal- bringing people around.
Interesting point is, even through the different revolution-eras the world have gone through, tea still plays its dominant role on the present technology era. One of the universal human-connect mechanisms before, and after cellphone eras is the tea. Only difference is tea is shared between people who are physically in proximity before the digital era; cellphones connect without proximity and tea!
Happy teaing!
 
 
 
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The Digital entrap

The Digital entrap

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

November 12,2024

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Digital entrap

The Digital entrap

We hear a lot now about how people are hooked to cellphones or iPad and “live a life” of them; how it distracts the normal listening and other harmonies of life on a day to day manner. Many writings and books are being published regarding this : how, we (humans!) are losing identity to the technologies!

Cal Newport in his book “Digital Minimalism” : Choosing a Focused Life In a Noisy World (2019, Penguin Publications) introduces the issue, and offers practical solution of limiting the use of technologies in a step by step manner.

He clarifies that technology means the “new technologies”’, ”which include apps, websites, and related digital tools that are delivered through a computer screen or a mobile phone and are meant to either entertain, inform or connect you.”

Newport effectively highlights the addictive nature of digital technologies, particularly social media. The constant stream of notifications and the fear of missing out (FOMO) can significantly impact our mental well-being and productivity.

Prof. Newport shows us how to reduce digital distractions and live better with less technology and proposes the philosophy of “Digital Minimalism” (p28):
“A philosophy of technology use in which you focus your online time on a small number of carefully selected and optimized activities that strongly support things you value, and then happily miss out on everything else.”

The “digital minimalists” are the calm, happy people who can hold long conversations without frequent glances at their phones or obsessively documenting everything they eat. It reminds us how to live intentionally in the growing tech-saturated world. He suggests a thirty-day “digital declutter” process. The book explains the practical steps in a simple manner. The social media in a big way is “exploiting the human “instinct for approval”. We are drifting away from “conversation-centric communication” to “digital connect communication”.

The challenge of moderation, as I think is, on how far have we already swam across the ocean of digital communication in the present world (in a way we are already a long way on the ocean; whether we will be able to release ourselves?!) ; though a comeback seems impossible, a purposive slow down through declutter,, and exploring the human nature seems practical!

Because we all live through the present world, which I call as the “Techno sapien age”, the discussions are revelations of the present, and relevant to the life of humans on this planet for future.

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Understanding “Trust” in a relation!

Understanding “Trust” in a relation!

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

April 10,2023

Prof. S. Ramkumar

LifeStyle

Understanding “Trust” in a relation!

Have you ever felt sometimes someone (close or distant) has broken the trust you held for him/her?
But then was it your definition of “trust” that was broken?
“Mirror, mirror on the wall, Who is the fairest of them all”! “Beauty” and “Trust” are two important virtues every human being requires to live upto.
Interestingly “trust” too, like beauty, depend on the mirror you hold, and the interpretation you make!
Hold on that mirror to see “you” and interpret.
Check on what can be trust…

Zooms the light of honesty that travels with a life of success.

Trust is the mind to accept others “as they are”, and not as “we want them”.

Trust binds the bountiful beacons of happy relation!

Trust accepts the choice of others around to do what they love to

Trust brings Beauty and goodness

To the beings around!

Trust travels with tolerance.

Trust is being a part of the life of others, to travel with.

Sail through the sacrifices, hard times, temptations and struggles,

to closely hold on the trust and, assure the triumph of trust.

Look at the mirror of trust, to see you, and say –

“Don’t think of trust Just trust your thinking!”

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