My interview

I m humbled my the fact that a very popular indian blogger Joseph Samuel Jayanth interviewed me.
Herez a link to the blog

http://www.potofthots.com/2009/10/interview-with-tedindia-fellow-neha.html

My new comic character Mr.MBA

I m Mr.MBA.I was born on this earth to make money.I m mean to everyone because my school was mean to me.They took 100 grand and taught me nothing.
U take my money and promise to multiply it, i ll worship you.I love quick profits.
WALL STREET PLUMMETED so what, I can make another one fall down.
ONLY MONEY MOTIVATES ME!!
Social Ventures and non-profits- i have my sympathies with you :)
Talk to me baby, i talk MONEY :D

EachOneTeachOne -We Mix Maths with FUN

The primary and secondary education offered in many parts of the world is of poor quality because of limited resources and lack of good teachers, among other things. As a consequence, many students need additional assistance to keep up with their schoolwork. The only option available to most of the students is to seek private or home tutoring and the traditional way of getting those is to look for resources locally.

With the easy availability of internet, the limitation of looking for these tutoring resources is no longer defined by ones geographic location. The technology required for the remote tutoring can be as easy as a simple chat session.

There are very large number of internet users who are well qualified to provide tutoring. A large number of them spend significant amount of time on social networking sites like facebook, myspcae and orkut. Many of them maybe willing to provide free tutoring as a philanthropic contribution to the society, provided some simple, easy-to-use and secure mechanism is available. Our idea is to make a web-application ‘EachOneTeachOne’ attached to a social networking site (like Facebook, Myspace, Orkut) through which interested volunteers can offer free education to the students in need in an adhoc manner without spending additional time and money. It will not be limited to students only but will be extended for all the people who need guidance or knowledge in their field and for all those who are willing to share their expertise with others. All, who need guidance, will be logging to the application as “Students” and those who will guide others will login as “Tutors”.

The area of education we will be focussing at the first launch will be Mathematics.Mathematics has become a very important part of the educational curriculum in this information age. We are focussing on middle and high school level mathematics and want to change the traditional way Mathematics is learnt and taught.

According to an article in Washington Post, the US teens were ranked 24th in the PISA Mathematics assessment. (Program for International Student Assessment), (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/04/AR2007120400730.html).There has also been a huge outcry on the state of American public schools. (http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=1500338). We want to build a system adjunct to the current education system and help the students learn Mathematics with some extra help of our volunteers which will be available online on Facebook.

We want to invite you to join hands in this mission and work with us.If you think you can mentor some student with us, we welcome you.If you think, you can help us in spreading the word or in the development of the web application you are most welcome to do that too.
Please email at : neha@cs.umd.edu



b. Vision and Mission Statement
EachOneTeachOne is a free, voluntary tutoring application aimed at providing online education in Maths by the people and to the people over the Facebook Platform. Through EachOneTeachOne our goal is to break the geographic and financial barriers and provide quality education to all as well as to utilize the time people spend on Social Networking Sites.


c. Product and Value Proposition

In this system, the students as well as the tutors can register themselves indicating their needs and their capabilities. For now we are focussing just on Math Education. Every user (student or tutor) will be given a screen name to keep his identity anonymous. When a student needs a tutor he connects to “EachOneTeachOne” indicating his request, identified by the subject and level. ” EachOneTeachOne” then looks at the set of online tutors, selects a small group- based on the request and makes them available to the student. The student may select one of those and make a request for teaching, at which time; the anonymised identity of the student is presented to the tutor. Once the tutor accepts the request, “EachOneTeachOne” establishes and manages the chat session between the two.

Let’s take an example to illustrate more; Annie is a busy graduate student and uses Social Networking Sites (SNSs) to connect to her friends. She also wants to do some volunteer and community work but doesn’t have the time to do so. There is another girl Asha who wants to learn eighth grade mathematics. She tries to use the Internet to get answers but it takes her a long time to get the correct information. Annie and Asha have added our “EachOneTeachOne” application to their profiles on facebook and “EachOneTeachOne” has given them anonymous names “An1” and “As1” respectively.

An1 comes online on “EachOneTeachOne” and indicates the time she will be online. When As1 comes online and requests for learning eighth grade mathematics, “EachOneTeachOne” selects a bunch of tutors capable of teaching As1 and displays them on the online tutor list. Online tutor list consists of the tutors’ screen-names, educational information and also the time for which each tutor will be available.

As1 (actually Asha) sees An1 (actually Annie) in the list and also sees that An1 has a bachelor’s degree in applied mathematics. As1 sends a request to An1 that she is interested in learning from her. An1 accepts the request and their one-to-one chat conversation starts through which An1 teaches As1.After the session is complete; As1 and An1 both rate each other as a student and teacher to provide feedback for future users. At the end of the session, As1 gets to learn mathematics and An1 gets virtual points for helping As1.

Religion, Caste and Indian Politics

The recent elections in India took everyone by surprise. Did Rahul Gandhi's magic work or was it the awakening of the people who no longer wanted to be divided by the politics of divide and rule which indians have been a party to since the rule of the Britishers?Every person has their own opinion in this regard as we are one big democracy and everyone has the freedom to speech. Dr.Manmohan Singh has given his due diligence to the country but his hands have been tied by other leaders.

We need to rise above all our differences of skin, caste and religion & unite together for a better India.Will that happen or not -that future will only tell but I m optimistic :)

Nirmal's Birthday 2009

Make a Smilebox postcard

Nirmal ,my dearest husband, has his birthday on 17th March 2009.
Although he is not so happy about his birthday and says that it reminds him of growing old,I still think that he should enjoy every bit of the day.
So to make him feel special on this day ,i would like to invite you guys for a small dinner party at our apartment.Its a SURPRISE for him,so please dont discuss with him.
The event details are :

Date and Timings: 17th March 2009, 6:00 pm
Location: 319 West Side Dr. #303 Gaithersburg, 20878
Contact no: 3019066136

PS: To view each tiny picture in the card in the big frame with captions,please click on the picture :)

Our First Anniversary

Nirmal and I tied our nuptial knot on 31st January 2008.This 31st Jan 2009 ,we will be  completing  our first marital  year together.It is said that first year is the toughest year of your married life.Setting up new house,living together under the same roof ,sharing everything together is surely full of new surprises and joys.Everyday you discover more of each other.

Nirmal is a very mischevious kind of person who likes to live life as it comes while I m the planner and organizer of the house. :)Apart from all the differences in our human nature,its been 8 years(of friendship and love) and we are still madly in love :)

We plan to celebrate our first anniversary by throwing a theme party for our very close friends and the theme  is "Apno Rajasthan" meaning "Our Rajasthan".

AAO SA ,PADHARO SA

Wear the best ethnic rajasthani dresses u have and we will serve your favorite food

  DAl ,BAATI AND MOONG KA HALWA

Venue: 245 Rollins Av,102 Rockville 20852

Time : 5:00 pm ,31st Jan 2009 

NEHA AND NIRMAL

 

What a school cannot teach?

As soon as we grow old our parents start telling us ,"Son/Daughter,I think Ivy League will be the best for you" or if you are from India then  "Son,You should go to an IIT".Being from an IIT,i do understand how good these schools are and realize the importance of going to Ivy League also but I think instead of just focussing on being a IITian /Ivy League graduate ,parents should also strive to make their kids compassionate and honest .

I came across lot of people in life who went to Ivy Leagues. They were really smart people but i think some of them had the basic qualities of a good human being lagging like compassion ,love for mankind ,respect for women and honesty.

So for parents of tomorrow my humble request will be- to bring up kids who can not only think about and for themselves but also the larger good of the community and make the world a better place to live in.

All i want to say is there are other things also  which are as important as being successful in life.Its "YOU" who matter at the end not your degrees.