Do not be judgemental

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It was quite a while back that I saw the Hindi movie English Vinglish but I still clearly recall being moved by the speech that Shashi (Sridevi) makes at the wedding in the end. She tells in her sweet demeanour the newly married couple to not be judgemental of each other. I feel this piece of advice is to be followed by every one of us, not only in our relationships but also in the way we simply see the people in our vicinity when we travel, drive to the market or go for a jog.

John chapter 7, verse 24 says that we should "not judge by appearances, but judge with right judgement." Unfortunately this rarely happens. We are prone to jump to conclusions based on our predetermined mindsets formulated through the news we hear or on beliefs passed down generations. Imtiaz Ali's Hindi film Cocktail for instance is most clichéd in its characterization. The girl who parties, drinks, is in and out of relationships and has uncaring parents is named Veronica. While the girl who is shy, prays, and cooks and cleans is named Meera.

A sad case in point is of Brown University's student Sunil Tripathi who went missing about a month back. When the yet to be identified hazy photos of the recent Boston Marathon bombers were released by the authorities, somebody's comment on how Sunil bore a likeness to one of the pictures led to a chain of posts on a website discussing whether he could be one of them. Many others got on to the bandwagon and some believing him to be guilty even went on to hurl abuses on the facebook page that Sunil's parents had created in a bid to reach out to him. Eventually the truth came out but in that short span much pain and anguish was caused to the family. Worse was to come when some days later Sunil's body was recovered and he was found dead. I wonder what made it so easy for these accusers to pronounce their verdict and what are their thoughts now.

In the New Testament there is a story of how once a crowd had gathered around a sinful woman to throw stones at her as a punishment. When Jesus saw this He asked that the person who has never committed a sin should be the first one to throw the stone. But as there was nobody sinless, soon the woman was left alone. Even today it is no different. We might be "not bad" but that does not mean we are without a single blemish.

The Bible tells very clearly what happens when we judge others and how we really have no right to do so. The following words in Mathew, chapter 7 guide us in this regard:

1 Judge not, that you be not judged. 
2 For with the judgement you pronounce you will be judged, and with the measure you use it will be measured to you. 
3 Why do you see the speck that is in your brother's eye, but do not notice the log that is in your own eye? 
4 Or how can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when there is the log in your own eye? 
5 You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother's eye.

My first teaching experience

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I decided a long time back I wanted to be in research. But a big question has been that given a choice where would I like to pursue it - in industry or academics? Though the second option has always seemed more attractive in many respects, it has also appeared daunting primarily due to my inexperience at teaching and the high expectations that I hold from those who teach.

Having carried out my Ph.D. at a national research laboratory in India,  as opposed to a university, I was not required to do any teaching assistantship. During my postdoctoral research at Uppsala University, Sweden too it was a similar situation. However, before my tenure ended I managed to take a month long Teacher's Training Course (TTC) which turned out to be particularly useful for a newbie like me.

Quite early on we had a practical session in which every participant was video recorded for a couple of minutes while giving a talk designed for teaching a class. At the end the videos were shown to us and constructive criticisms were meted out by the group and our instructor. Mostly the comments were positive and everybody thought that I engaged the audience and communicated well which surprised them as I am not the most talkative person. I too noticed this comfort level through the video which to a small extent dispelled my fears.

As a final assignment each participant got to be mentored by a professor in their department. One of the suggestions I was given was to somehow get myself involved in teaching by for instance, self-designing and giving a short course. So after I joined Brown University I proposed to give a series of Electronic Structure Theory lectures in our group. With my supervisor's approval a special time and day was reserved for these classes.

I remember reading on FemaleScienceProfessor that the initial years of teaching are not easy. It takes a while to get the flow, guess what questions students might ask, identify your strengths and weaknesses, and hone yourself. Indeed moments before I was to teach the first time I was a bit jittery. But as days progressed I felt relaxed. I gave seven lectures in total. A couple of them didn't go as distinctly well as I had wanted to. When that would happen I would try to make up for it in the next lecture and go over the points that I felt I hadn't conveyed properly enough. As our group is a mix of undergrads, grads and postdocs with differing backgrounds in engineering and chemistry there was never a lecture when I wasn't asked a question. I took this positively as a sign that they were being attentive and taking the lecture series seriously.

To be honest, I did put in a lot of effort. The classes that were given using the blackboard were backed up by providing lecture notes. On other occasions I gave presentations and sent them out only after the lecture was over. Being Electronic Structure Theory this needed typing numerous equations and checking that all notations were consistent. I am sure that this will hold me in good stead in the future. It could definitely be a decent starting point for a longer course.

This entire process gave me an idea of what it would really be like to teach. It has instilled in me a certain confidence that I lacked earlier. I also realised how rewarding it could be when one of the undergrads said that he felt inspired to take a quantum mechanics course in the next semester at the university. :)

Who's bad?

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Has there ever been a time we have read the news and not come out shaking our heads wondering at all the terrible things happening around us? It doesn't need much to feel rage against corrupt ministers, terrorists, rapists, murderers, and cheats and for us to ask loudly "how could they?". In comparison we believe ourselves to be not that bad and deserving of a clean chit. The sermon I heard on Sunday, however, set the record straight.

I had written in my last post that in God's eyes our sins have more weight than our good acts. Adding to that, based on what I understood, what we might not give credence to could actually be of grave importance in His book.

For instance,

Stinginess. Not having a heart big enough to share or help. 
Anger. Venting out in frustration, calling someone names and saying hurtful things.
Lying. Not being courageous enough to accept your mistakes.
Unforgiving. Keeping grudges and being unwilling to make peace.
Gluttony. Acquiring more and more.
Lusting. Looking where your eyes shouldn't venture.
Pride. Believing that you can achieve everything on your own and not through God.
Grumbling. Complaining about the deficiencies in your life: food, money, house, riches...

The way the world has become we have begun believing that it is alright to look out for your own self alone, to shout at your juniors or be rude to them to get work done, to throw people under the bus (figuratively) to get ahead at work, to take revenge on anyone who has been mean to you, to flaunt it if you've got it, to watch porn, to be flowing with self-confidence, and to point out if something is lacking. These acts are so commonplace that we sometimes don't even think twice before doing them. As long as we are not committing a heinous crime we feel worthy of a place in heaven. We forget that the decision regarding our suitableness is not in our hands. It is written in the Bible that on the day of judgement,


36 "every idle word that men shall speak, they shall give account thereof..." (Matthew, chapter 12)

and that

17 "there is nothing hidden that will not be disclosed, and nothing concealed that will not be known or brought out into the open." (Luke, chapter 8)


The above words do not leave much room for us to even wriggle ourselves in through the gate. Surely we need to contemplate over the way we go about carrying out our daily duties and question our goodness quotient. It is time we searched ourselves and identified the bad therein.