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Times of India
Newspaper Review by: Prafulla
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AN ABSTRACT ON AN ARTICLE ON THE FUTILITY OF LABELS BY MUKUL DUBE PUBLISHED BY THE TIMES OF INDIA (MUMBAI EDITION)
DATED 02 SEP 06
The weighted arithmetic mean is analogous to the centre of gravity and I have often wondered at the seeming connection between the sciences of physics and statistics. Although surprising, disciplines however diverse are linked somewhere and a broader sense of perception helps one recognize this fact quite easily.
The earliest members of the homosapien species survived with the help of their hunting skills and their gathering acumen. With the passage of time they devised ways of making their occupational lives more comfortable as they developed crafts like weaving and metal works. The chain of development, industrialization and subsequent urbanization continues till date and has given birth to a generation of I Pods and razor-thin mobile telephones.
This same progress has also delivered an army of specialists and super-specialists as research assumes magnanimous proportions. Knowledge grew and sciences split into an unending network of streams, each unique in itself and yet inexorably linked to its sister stream. The present generation may consider a statistician and an actuarial scientist to have assorted disciplines and a person specializing in medieval history may be blissfully unaware of the events before the birth of Jesus Christ!
The logic that holds this massive maze is indeed intriguing. The beginning of the present century developed a cult in which multi-disciplines ruled academics and scholars decided their electives early enough to be adequately trained in the requisite skills. After all, the jack of all trades has actually mastered none! What is fascinating is the mindset of the educated populace that has allowed such a labyrinth of occupational divisions and yet considers a person (un)qualified in any discipline to be spiritually inclined.
Does this outlook stem from the caste system of the yester years?
Swapna Datta Khan
ICFAI National College Nashik
Published: April 18, 2007
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