Sumi has set up a small stall near a grocery store in IC Colony.
Sumi with her Marzipan packets at Cassandra's residence. Aparna ShuklaTeam iamin
Borivali’s IC Colony resident Cassandra Nazareth, as part of her Christmascelebration, has helped her maid Sumi Hemrom, become an independent woman.
Nazareth helped her set up a cookingbusiness during Christmas. Sumi sells Marzipans, Potato Chops, barbequed chicken and much more. A relation that is 16-years-old, is close to Cassandra’s heart. She can't hold back tears, as she speaks of Sumi. As a working professional herself, Cassandra has helped Sumi bring out the cook in her. "She had just come back from West Bengal when I got her home. She was very shy in the beginning but was very honest. Somebody I could trust my children with. They were very young and I had to work. She was a great support then," says Cassandra, who taught Sumi the art that business is.
From structuring the business idea to packaging, taking orders and cooking, Cassandra has been Sumi’s role model. "I cannot begin to describe how grateful I am to ma’am. I didn't have anything when I came here. Zero! But she took me in like a sister, trusted me. Who does that these days? She not just provided for me financially whenever I needed but was always there for me emotionally. I owe her everything that I have today," says a teary-eyed Sumi, who with Cassandra's help has been able to have some land for her own, back in her village, where she initially had nothing.
Sumi has set up a small stall near a grocery store in IC Colony and with word of mouth and through people who see her on the road, she has been able to have a good business. "Madam’s mother is a great cook. She and I go along very well. I never want to leave these people. They are my world now," Sumi says.
After Cassandra suggested that Sumi alone be interviewed for this piece, it was a heart-warming sight that both the women couldn’t hold back their tears.
"One day my children came home and I, for fun told them that Sumi has gone back to West Bengal as we had an argument. My children first searched the entire house, then had a discussion among them and said, 'she will never go without saying bye to us’. That just melted my heart. That's the kind of relationship we share. I'm not going to be there forever. I'm doing this so she can stand on her own feet," says Cassandra.
The article was originally published on www.iamin.in
This all started when my teenage son reported that Adam Sandler has Ebola. He saw it trending on Facebook. I sighed inwardly and asked if he had looked at the source of the information. Being the son of a librarian he quickly said: “Yes! CNN.com.”
Of course, Adam Sandler did not really have Ebola, and CNN wasn’t reporting that he did. The site had been hacked. But a lot of people fell for it.
The Adam Sandler Ebola scare threw me for a loop. I decided to take a deep dive into the research on how we should be thinking about evaluating and searching for information at a time when people get most of their information from Google, Facebook, and Twitter.
I devised some interesting everyday-life research questions, then set about trying to answer them: I investigated whether red wine has health advantages, whether dogs exhibit some rudimentary form of empathy, and the veracity of user review sites for restaurants, travel, books, and other products. (Byinvestigated, I don’t mean I spent a few hours: I spent months getting the backstory on the information I was turning up.)
There were many surprises. After 20 years of teaching information literacy I found I didn’t know that much about finding reliable everyday-life information. My teaching focus had been on discipline-specific research skills, but many undergraduates could benefit as much from, and relate better to, learning more sophisticated search and evaluation strategies for work, for health, even for buying a car.
In research done in 2012 by Project Information Literacy on the information competencies of recent college graduates in the workplace, employers indicated that their newly hired students were adept at quickly finding an answer, but lacked the skills needed to find the best answers to solve problems in the workplace. They lacked persistence and patience and relied on information found on initial search screens rather than using more sophisticated strategies.
As I traversed the information landscape I was glad to be supported by ACRL’s new Framework for Information Literacy. Research can be creative, reflective, iterative, and most of all, messy! One of the messiest places I explored was the notion of expertise and how it could vary in different contexts. I also looked into why user-generated data is wonderful in some cases and unreliable in others.
SEARCH PSYCHOLOGY
As I devised strategies to answer my research questions I uncovered a new (to me) area that I call the “psychology of search,” which encompasses information heuristics and other phenomena that can greatly impact our ability to locate reliable information.
Information heuristics are shortcuts we all use when we search for information. For example, there is the Bandwagon Heuristic that involves people assuming that if many others think something is correct, then it must be correct. Other common information heuristics are the Reputation Heuristic, the Consistency Heuristic, the Persuasive Intent Heuristic, Motivated Cognition, and “Satisficing.” Research by media studies professor Miriam Metzger and her colleagues reported on in the Journal of Communicationfound that these heuristics are a double-edged sword because, on the one hand, they can reduce the amount of cognitive effort used in information seeking. On the other hand, using heuristics can also lead to systematic biases or errors in judgment.
Daniel Kahneman’s research on fast and slow thinking is a useful antidote to relying on shortcuts that can shortchange our ability to locate reliable information. Slow thinking includes the ability “to doubt, to hesitate, to qualify” and can also help us question our tendency to suffer from source amnesia, a common occurrence involving remembering the information we find, and thinking of it as “true,” but forgetting the source of the information. Slow thinking can also keep us from our penchant for “false certainty,” drawing instant conclusions based on the first piece of information we find and not even recognizing the possibility of uncertainty.
I also made new connections between evaluating information and Dominique Brossard and Dietram Scheufele’s research (reported on in Science in 2013) on self-reinforcing information spirals. This spiraling takes place when how people search for a topic then influences how a search engine like Google weighs and retrieves content. Brossard focuses on how science findings are communicated to the public. She questions whether we are headed into a world in which the information we view is heavily influenced by what links search engines pull up, in effect narrowing our options. Moving forward, as many people are fed news through social media sites, this phenomenon will likely accelerate. It may be that your friend who keeps “liking” cat videos is also choosing the science news you read.
Eli Pariser’s ideas about echo chambers also have an impact on the information we view. An echo chamber occurs when information is amplified by repetition inside an enclosed system, such as our Facebook or Twitter Feed, and where different or competing views are not provided. In related work, Andrew Revkin criticizes the journalistic tendency toward “single study syndrome,” which refers to the habit journalists have of seizing on the latest scientific finding and representing it as “the truth,” greatly oversimplifying the way science is communicated by implying it is an isolated event rather than a scholarly conversation that needs to be presented in context.
A MAJOR MESS
What really struck me hard, as I carried out my investigations, is what a mess we are in! As we do our Google searches we are too often hit with clever marketing drivel masquerading as information. For certain kinds of searches, such as brief factual information, Google is often terrific. But Google is not able to keep on top of the search engine optimizers, and Google itself manipulates search results for commercial gain. Many factors contribute to what comes up when we search, including white hat (legal) and black hat (illegal) search engine optimizing tactics. As a result, appearing in the top five in the search list sometimes has little correlation with being a trustworthy source, though research by Eszter Hargittai and colleagues in the International Journal of Communication in 2010 found that many people equate link order with reliability.
I came up for air three years later with a new book of information stories that illustrate best (and worst!) practices for finding and evaluating information online. Hint: librarians play a humongous role. These practices include helping our users “start at the source” when searching for information rather than just throwing a few words into Google. In other words, helping people articulate and locate trustworthysources of information as part of the search process. By helping people better understand their options, for example knowing that Amazon is not the best place to go for honest book reviews, we also help boost the visibility of more valuable information sources improving their odds of survival.
We also need to educate people about when the “wisdom of the crowd” effect is valid. For example, sites like the Weather Underground, that crowdsource verified objective data can be relied on, whereas aggregated review sites like Yelp and TripAdvisor need to be used with caution because they contain many fake reviews, suffer from positive data skew, and do not meet the various criteria required for a “wisdom of the crowd effect” to function. We need to point people toward experts when expertise is called for, such as investigating health treatment options, and we need to help people understand motivation and context in a disintermediated information environment.
MARKING NEW TERRITORY
But developing strategies to find reliable information is only one small step in the much larger challenge of how we decide to structure the web in the years to come. We need to have better markers of quality and reliability. We need to know when we are on a pharmaceutical company–funded site that is giving us biased health advice (such as WebMD) and when we are on an independent health information site. We need many new tools to help filter and curate the web. Crowdsourcing “likes” is not a sufficient strategy.
If we think of the web as the Wild West, where brothels and outhouses were a little too front and center and more reputable businesses took time to establish themselves, we can start trying to create some zoning and street signs online to help people find their way. Librarians have a long history of curating and filtering information, and we need to continue to transition this important work onto the web.
There is a tremendous need in our profession to communicate and develop new strategies for locating reliable information, such as the ones mentioned above. I see the road ahead as drawing on what librarians are great at: providing filters, curating information, designing markers of quality, and helping people figure out when they are in a shoe store and when they are in a library.
Leslie Stebbins is a consultant and the author of the new book: Finding Reliable Information Online: Adventures of an Information Sleuth, Rowman & Littlefield, 2015. For more on the author, her book, or a free ALA Booklist Webinar on the book see: LeslieStebbins.com.
CARE FREE An ordinary man from Borivli’s IC Colony, Maark D’Souza has turned dabbawala, feeding the area’s elderly free of charge
My favourite tiffins are Saturdays’ and Sundays’, because there is meat or fish in them. And I love it when they serve biryani. PERDITA D’SOUZA, 85, a widow who lives alone in IC Colony, Borivli, and has her meals delivered to her by Maark D’Souza daily Maark has been doing a wonderful job. It is rare to find people like him. His tiffins are a life-saver for senior citizens who can’t cook their own meals. JIMMY DORDI, 76, in charge of Borivli centre of NGO Dignity Foundation Maark’s tiffins make me feel like someone cares about my well-being. He is like a son to me. RAJKUMAR CHADDHA, 74, widower
MUMBAI: Every after noon, Perdita D’Souza, 85, waits for her doorbell to ring. She is never disappointed.
PRATHAM GOKHALE/HTMaark D’Souza (left) with 85-year-old widow Perdita D’Souza who lives in IC Colony, Borivli alone. Maark delivers a tiffin to her house every day.
At 12.30 pm, punctual and smiling, Maark D’Souza arrives carrying a tiffin box of still-steaming rotis, sabzi, dal and rice.
He smiles, chats a bit, picks up yesterday’s empty lunchbox and leaves. It’s been a daily ritual for two years. But Maark, 57, is no caterer. He delivers free meals to seniors who are too old or frail to cook for themselves.
It’s an idea he came up with three years ago, on Diwali.
“My wife and I thought Diwali would be an auspicious time to start, and a good time to spread a little festive cheer,” says Maark, smiling. He adds that losing his parents at a young age — his mother when he was 5 and his father at 26 — taught him their value. At a time when his mother would have been 75 and his father 85, he now cares for others in the same age groups.
“Food is a basic need. We couldn’t afford to buy them their medicines, but at least we can ensure that our seniors go sleep with a home-cooked meal in their stomachs.”
Maark started with six seniors in his neighbourhood of IC Colony, Borivli. Today, he delivers his fresh hot meals to 35 seniors daily, seven days a week.
He funds his initiative entirely himself, with the earnings from his real-estate agency and the tuition classes his wife Yvonne offers at their home. “Yvonne is my constant support,” Maark says, of his wife of 32 years.
“When Maark spoke about wanting to do something for senior citizens, we knew free tiffins was the best thing we could do,” adds Yvonne, 54. “We already had a cook. It was just the matter of telling her to make more food.”
Many of his seniors say they find it hard to imagine what they would do without him.
“I can’t go out much because my knees and ankles ache, so I can’t shop for groceries or even cook for myself,” says Perdita, a widow who lives alone. “During my search for a tiffin service in IC Colony, someone referred me to Maark. I went to his shop and spoke to him. I told him I could pay, but he said, ‘Use the money on your medicines instead’. Finding Maark has been such a relief.”
Maark’s tiffin service isn’t just about free food either. He makes sure he talks to each recipient — inquiring about their health, asking after their families, helping them fill out forms, pay bills and get to doctor’s appointments, even driving them about in his car.
“It gives me a sense of happiness to be able to help. They seniors are my family now,” he says.
Besides his wife, Maark has built up a small network of volunteers who help him out.
There’s Renuka Vishwas, the live-in help who wakes up at 6 am to cook the meals; and Zarina Sayyed, who accompanies Maark on his rounds and takes over when he’s out of town. “I like the feeling that I am helping people through Maark. It’s an added bonus that they love my cooking,” says Vishwas.
The D’Souzas typically rely on family and friends to suggest beneficiaries. “Anyone who approaches us is also added to the list. We don’t get involved in family disputes or why their children cannot feed them,” says Maark.
There have been times, however, when he has faced hostility from relatives. “It is shocking the way some people abuse and threaten their parents over money or property,” he says. “But we don’t let that deter us. We drop off the tiffin anyway.”
A month ago, Maark appeared on Aaj Ki Raat Hai Zindagi, a TV show hosted by Amitabh Bachchan that celebrates everyday heroes. Ever since, the phone hasn’t stopped ringing, with requests for tiffins and offers of help. “We also got calls from people who wanted to help start something similar in their own neighbourhoods,” Maark says.
While the couple doesn’t accept money, they say well-wishers are welcome to send vegetables, fish or sweets as special treats.
Ice-cream, idlis and biryani are favourites with my seniors, Maark says, smiling. It’s 2 pm, and he’s still on his rounds. Next up is Rajkumar Chaddha, 74. Maark has been bringing food to his door ever since Chaddha’s wife passed away six months ago. “I have a maid but she only makes rotis,” Chaddha says. “Having Maark’s tiffin means I don’t have to worry about the rest of my meals. The effort he takes makes me feel that at least someone cares about my well-being. He is like a son to me.”
DIGESTER Machine converts kitchen waste into biogas which will meet home cooking needs
MUMBAI: It was during a walk in the evening, two years ago, when 37-year-old mechanical engineer Kabir Udeshi, a resident of Shivaji Park, came upon an open dump. The sight was not new to him but it was the stench emanating from the dump that provoked Udeshi to come up with an easy-to-use waste management system for households.
PRATHAM GOKHALE/HTKabir Udeshi with his organic waste management kit at a house in Santacruz.
In one year, Udeshi and his team took the idea forward and built a machine the size of a standard washing machine, called the ‘Dedko Digester’. The machine converts kitchen waste into biogas and organic fertiliser.
According to Kabir Udeshi, organic waste consists of 70-80% of any household waste and the biogas generated through the machine can provide 40-50% of an average household’s cooking needs. “Once the kitchen waste is collected, it has to be churned and fed into the machine which contains a bacterial culture, mainly methanogens. These bacteria, in the absence of oxygen, break down the waste into biogas and fertiliser,” said Udeshi.
The machine is connected to a multi-layered polymer bag where the biogas is stored. The bag in turn has an outlet that connects it to the stove in the kitchen.
Nikhil Jain, 37, one of the users of this machine and a resident of Santacruz, said, “I have been using this machine for the past year. It’s so easy to use that even my maid knows how to use it now.”
“This machine uses about halfa-unit of electricity a day, which could cost around Rs3, which is hardly anything. Another aspect of it is that there is no smell or stench though it’s processed waste.”
The machine is available for Rs25,000. A sophisticated version of the machine called ‘The Rhino digester’ has the capacity for daily waste from 30 households. This machine available for Rs1,30,000 was designed for residents of housing societies who can pool in money to purchase a machine common for all the residents.
Language laboratories hone soft skills of college students
RISE IN POPULARITY The labs employ audio-visual tools, no structured courses
MUMBAI: When Rahul Pandey got admission to Jai Hind College a few years ago, he couldn’t adjust to the new environment. Pandey, who studied at the Mohan Bhagat Hindi School, Vasai was having a hard time communicating with his teachers and his class mates, who preferred English.
“I could understand them, but wasn’t able to speak their language,” he recalls.
Today, the Science graduate has been placed at Infosys and speaks English effortlessly. He gives credit, in part, to the college’s ‘language lab’.
The language labs, which teach the basics of languages and help students develop their soft skills are fast gaining popularity in city colleges. Presently, around 30 students are learning at Jai Hind College’s language lab, compared to 15 when the facility began its operations a couple of years ago. KC College, which started its ‘Bhashas Lab’ in June, has already catered to 200 students. The first such lab was established in Xavier’s College in 2006.
“Many students come to the lab to brush up their presentation and communication skills, before appearing for interviews,” said Jyoti More, who heads the language lab at Xavier’s. “When I saw a notice about a presentation workshop being held by the lab during the vacation, I readily enrolled myself. It turned out to be very helpful,” said Sharon Lobo, a BA student at the college.
The lab also offers training programmes in French, Hindi and Marathi. On the other hand, KC College’s Bhashas Lab offers modules in seven languages.
The colleges employ audio visual tools and computer software. The labs, usually don’t have structured courses. “The students simply walk in, and we mentor them in an informal way,” said Jyothi, a professor at Jai Hind College. The services are provided free of cost.
The colleges, too, take efforts to identify and enrol students who seem to be struggling with English. In fact, such students have to attend mandatory sessions at the language lab in Xavier’s college.
“We select some first year students based on a diagnostic test, conducted at the beginning of the academic year. Then we try to improve their reading, writing, listening and speaking skills,” said More.
MUMBAI: No longer do graduates only f rom t he I ndian Institutes of Technology (IITs) and the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) get hired with annual pay packages of Rs10 lakh and above. The ongoing placement season in city’s colleges is witnessing an increasing number of undergraduate students bagging job offers comparable to those that IIT-Bombay students have received in the current placement season.
The average annual packages being offered at the undergraduate colleges are in the range of Rs4 lakh to Rs6.5 lakh, while a few students have also managed to get offers between Rs12 lakh and Rs13 lakh.
“This year, more than 70 companies have already registered with us and at least three companies will be on campus every day till mid-January,” said Navin Punjabi, assistant professor and placement in-charge at HR College, Churchgate.
Of the 300-odd students who registered for placements this year, more than 70 have already got jobs in the first four days itself. “While the average package is around Rs5 lakh to Rs6 lakh per annum, the highest so far is more than Rs10 lakh,” said Punjabi, adding that last year, the highest package offered was Rs24 lakh per annum by a Japanese company.
Similarly, at St Xavier’s College, Dhobi Talao, more than 30 companies have already visited the campus and 60 students have been offered jobs. “Each company has offered different pay packages and the average is between Rs4.5 and Rs7.5 lakh per annum. The highest package to have been offered so far, to a TYBA student, is Rs13 lakh per annum,” said Dominic Fernandes, the placement officer at St Xavier’s College. Companies visiting the college are mainly from professional services, banking and finance, hospitality, information technology, media and education sectors, Roy Thomas, another placement official, told HT.
Along with job offers, there has also been a rise in the number of students interested in taking up jobs straight after graduating. At RA Podar College, Matunga, almost 50% more students have registered with the placement cell as compared to last. “Apart from finance, marketing and IT jobs, HR firms and banks have also shown interest in hiring fresh graduates this year,” said Ishani Chattopadhyay, secretary of the placement cell at Podar College. With the average package of Rs4.5 lakh, the highest offer made to a student has been Rs8.9 lakh per annum. “This year, the pay packages offered have been 20% to 50% higher than last,” she said.
Placement cells at almost all colleges ensure that students are made aware of the job description, pay scale, profile of the company, etc, in advance so as to avoid students from backing out of jobs at the last minute. Students, too, seem to be clear on what they can add to the job and their expectations in return. “On field experience is an advantage when we apply for further studies. My aim is to work in the investment and financial sector and once I gain enough experience, I will start applying to institutes abroad,” said Anirudh Poddar, 21, a TYBCom student at HR College.
With every passing year, colleges are witnessing an increase in the number of start-ups offering jobs to students. “Every day, we have at least one start-up offering jobs to our students. Most of them are into designing mobile applications. Students, too, are more inclined towards these jobs because of their tech-savvy nature,” said Hassena Sayed, assistant professor and placement in-charge at Jai Hind College, Churchgate. Many startups have also offered paid internships to first-year and second-year undergraduate students.
Source: The Hindustan Times dated 18 December 2015
Include module on firecrackers in eco studies: UGC to varsities
AFTER PARIS PACT
Body issues circular asking universities to explain ill-effects as part of compulsory subject
MUMBAI: After the Climate Change Convention in Paris, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the body that regulates the working of universities, has asked universities across the country to include a module on the ill-effects of fireworks in the Environment Studies, which is a compulsory subject for all students.
A circular from the UGC said their decision was influenced by the discussions in Paris. “Environmentalists and scientists have affirmed in no uncertain terms that a host of factors have done tremendous damage to the ecology and environment…It is as part of this effort that world leaders came together at COP21 in Paris recently and underscored preservation of the environment as a collective responsibility,” said Jaspal Sandhu, secretary of UGC, via the circular. Dated December 11, the circular further states in this context the youth of the country be made aware of the ill-effects of bursting fire crackers.
“At a time when issues of climate change and global warming have captured international attention, we need to do all it takes to educate students about the severity of toxicity of fireworks so as to discourage their usage,” states the circular. It also mentions the toxic outcome of bursting firecrackers, including the toxic concoction of “carcinogenic and hormonedisrupting substances” that make their way into the environment as well as the effect the hazardous gases have on people suffering from asthma and other respiratory issues. “On festive occasions, the levels of particulate matter in the air increases beyond the permissible limits,” states the circular.
Apart from a module on the ill-effects of fireworks under Environment Studies, UGC has also requested colleges to organise forums, discussions and presentations related to the hazards of fireworks and ways of reducing them as well as depute student/ teacher groups to conduct similar workshops in schools and colleges around their own institute. Institutes as well as universities have also been requested to share with UGC the steps that they undertake on campus, so as to be able to share the same with other institutes across the country.
Following a petition against bursting firecrackers during Diwali, the SC earlier this year had expressed concerns over environmental health hazards and the toxic fallout that fireworks pose.
Sumi with her Marzipan packets at Cassandra's residence. Aparna Shukla Team iamin
This all started when my teenage son reported that Adam Sandler has Ebola. He saw it trending on Facebook. I sighed inwardly and asked if he had looked at the source of the information. Being the son of a librarian he quickly said: “Yes! CNN.com.”
