When I was born
I was filthy,
I needed to be clean,
But people smiled and welcomed home
When I was dead,
I was clean and tidy,
I smelled like flowers
But people had their eyes stoned
I had a life too short
Scores of years countably, so
I grew on set of bones,
A pile of meat with tight skins,
Got love, got hatred,
Got lose with time.
Just when it was time to look back,
When it was time for salvation
The death came as a blow
I led my life in mystery;
A lot of things untold,
A lot of things undone,
A lot of places unseen,
I cremated myself into air,
Not to be born again
To set it free to roam
To see what I wanted to see
To say what I wanted to say
To do what I wanted to do
Monday, 22 December 2008
Monday, 20 October 2008
Useful Article by Dr. Bimal K. Bose on 'How to get a Paper Accepted in Transactions'
HOW TO GET A PAPER ACCEPTED IN TRANSACTIONS?
Dr. Bimal K. Bose, Life Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Tel: (865) 974-8398
Fax: (865) 974-5483
====================
E-mail: bbose@utk.edu
I. INTRODUCTION
Have you ever published any paper in IEEE Transactions? Or else, if you are already a Transactions author, how many papers have you published in Transactions? There is no doubt that Transactions publication (with your photo and CV appended) is very prestigious and brings you a lot of status in the professional community. It is often said that one Transactions paper is worth of four conference papers. This, of course, may or may not be true. A renowned professor in a good university always demands one or more Transactions publications from his doctoral student. If you are a young professor, Transactions publications will help your promotion and tenure. If you are an established professor, more Transactions publications will promote your fame that will help you to be an IEEE Fellow, and may subsequently bring other IEEE and non-IEEE Awards and Honors. Gradually, the door of your life may open for new avenues of success. Needless to say that publications are extremely important in the academic community for survival following the axiom “publish or perish”, particularly, if you are a young and untenured faculty. For an engineer in industry, Transactions publications truly reflect success in career. If you are a researcher in industry and are aspiring for a university career in future date, you must establish your publications base. Above all, publications bring tremendous amount of satisfaction in career accomplishment.
II. WHAT IS PUBLISHABLE IN TRANSACTION?
The results of research which have archival value are normally accepted for Transactions. It is important that the material is of current interest or has potential importance in future. If you have made an invention and/or made investigations on a technical topic that are important for applications, or further technology advancement in future are worthy of archival literature. Some Transactions permit Letters to the Editor describing the results of research briefly. Of course, often state-of-the-art survey papers by experienced professionals are also published in Transactions. It may be of interest to note that the Proceedings of the IEEE publish mostly survey type papers which are more prestigious, and almost every year Proc. paper wins the best paper prize (Donald G. Fink Award) among all the IEEE publications. The research results in archival literature may be important for immediate applications, or after a prolonged period of time. Nobel Prize or top awards are often given to the scientists in old age long years after the contribution was made when it establishes importance in the society.
For a technology topic, the results of research may include description, mathematical analysis, simulation study and experimental results. For a new and emerging type technology, description with analysis, or adding simulation results may suffice as the content for a Transactions paper. Simulation or “virtual experiment” software has recently been very sophisticated and user-friendly. Validation of concept or analytical results by simulation study is important, but simulation is only “as good as the model”. This means that if the model is not accurate enough, the simulation only gives approximate results. For a general technology topic, experimental results are often demanded for validation of theoretical and simulation results for acceptance as a Transactions paper. When a contribution has been made, you need to judge carefully whether the material is important enough for Transactions paper, or should be published as a conference paper. Note that some IEEE Societies (such as Industry Applications Society) require mandatory pre-publication as a conference paper before considering Transactions publication. In that way, the basic quality of the submitted paper is assured before peer review.
III. ORGANIZING THE PAPER
Once you have decided that the material is Transactions paper worthy, the first step is to organize the content very carefully. A typical flowchart for writing the paper is given in Fig.1.
Writing a good paper tests your expertise in writing skill of communication. It is like telling a story to somebody which should be clear, concise and well-organized with logical flow of expressions. It is always a good idea to review some good papers published by well-established and reputed authors. The title of the paper should clearly reflect your contribution in the paper. For every paper, there is a primary contributor who should be the first author. Then, co-authors should be selected in the order of their magnitude of contribution. It is unethical to be a co-author of a paper without making any contribution in the paper. In the same way, it is not ethical to add the name of the project manager, financial supporter or department head as co-author unless Fig.1 Flowchart for writing a Transactions paper
they have made contributions. Note that plagiarism is an offence, and multiple publication of the same material is highly unethical. The next easy step is the collection of the references for the paper in IEEE format. The references are important for writing the Introduction of the paper. A reviewer of the paper who judges the paper’s acceptance may be angry if he sees that his relevant contribution has not been cited in the paper. It is wise to cite one or two books in the beginning which describe the background material of the paper and add a few extra references on the relevant subject. The planning of figures with appropriate labels and titles is very crucial step for preparation of the paper. The figures should be fully explanatory and convey clearly contribution in the paper. A figure is worth of thousand words. Simplified schematic diagrams, functional block diagrams, or simply blocks may be used as appropriate. For graphs, the grid should be light with clear description of the variables and their scales. However, the figures can only be finalized after preparation of the full draft paper. Then, plan the different sections and subsections with appropriate title, and assign the figures in the sections. Organize the main equations with appropriate symbols and definition of the symbols at this stage. Equations are often defined as ornament of the paper, and if possible, at least a few equations are always desirable. Use commonly used symbols used in the text books, and they should be always be defined locally (instead of using list of symbols in the beginning or end of the paper). The derivation of the equations, if necessary, should be included briefly in the Appendix in order to prevent diversion of the reader’s attention of the main contribution. Organize all the points in detail and in proper sequence for each section and subsection before starting the paper writing.
IV. WRITING IN CORRECT ENGLISH
Once the material of the paper has been organized properly, the next step is preparation of the draft paper with full concentration. Correct English composition, grammar and spelling are extremely important in paper writing. This may be a challenge for authors from non-English countries like China, Korea, Japan etc. Often, a paper with excellent contribution gets rejected because of poor English. Any fuzziness or ambiguity of expressions should be avoided.Occasional English error annoys the reviewer of the paper and may be a ground for rejection. Because of the language problem, publication in Transactions becomes extremely difficult for non-English speaking countries. Even knowing good English is not enough. Excellent technical writing for Transactions remains a difficult art. Needless to say that in spite of excellent contribution, majority of papers gets rejected because of poor organization of the paper and poor English. Again, it is not surprising to see that a paper with mediocre contribution gets accepted because it is well-written. If a university professor assigns the responsibility of writing to his graduate student, it is almost certain that the paper will be rejected. Again, even if the paper is written by an experienced professor himself, the likelihood of rejection is not uncommon.
After writing the Abstract, the most difficult part of the paper is writing the Introduction. Here, in the beginning, you must highlight broadly the general importance of your work and why it is important in a convincing way. The next step is description of the past contributions with references on which your contribution is based, and then emphasizing why your contribution is novel and superior to others. Any suspicion that the contribution is not of your own and stealing from others should be dispelled clearly. It is better to cite the past contributions indirectly avoiding the name of the contributors. After writing the Introduction, the remaining steps consist of simple and clear description of the content in logical sequence. Finally, the results and significance of the contribution are discussed in Conclusion. Some amount of overlapping of Conclusion with the Abstract is not uncommon. An Acknowledgement should be included after Conclusion if you got help from others (like managers, financial supporters, head of the department, colleagues, etc.). After writing the full draft paper, iterate it several times for improvement and polishing of English. It is always a good idea to prepare an extended manuscript first and then cutting down during iteration to satisfy the length constraint. After completing the paper, satisfy all the questions given in Fig.2. If necessary, iterate it again.
V. THE REVIEW PROCESS
Every Transactions paper is peer-reviewed by multiple reviewers and their judgment determines acceptance or rejection of the paper. Normally, if two reviewers recommend acceptance or rejection to the Editor (or Associate Editor), the authors will be notified accordingly. Otherwise, third review becomes essential. Unfortunately, finding appropriate reviewers and proper review process of the paper remain far from ideal. To some extent, these determine the luck of the author. Often, a reviewer’s expertise does not exactly match with the subject and he may not understand the paper well, although he agreed to review the paper. The reviewers often procrastinate the review process and require several reminders. The reviewers are normally very busy professionals, and hardly can afford half–a-day for review of a paper. First, he will try to get preliminary impression of the paper by glancing at the title, name of author(s), Abstract, figures and the Conclusion. Some amount of personal biasing is not unusual. He will be angry if his relevant work has not been cited. As mentioned before, Fig.2 Questions to satisfy after completion of the paper
occasional English error will annoy the reviewer. Unfamiliar symbols in equations, fuzzy and ambiguous expressions will irritate him. If the reviewer does not understand well the paper, it is likely to be rejected. Clumsy figures will be the ground for rejection. Also, if the topic is simple and description of the paper is easy, the contribution will be considered trivial. Since the reviewer always remains in the background, he does not have to prove his technical competence
and he does not fear to recommend rejection of the paper with cruel comments . Of course, for rejection, he has to give justifiable reasons. Recommendation for major revision may be a reason for rejection. Often, the reviewer’s justification for rejection may be simply “The contribution in the paper is not significant enough to justify the Transactions publication”. It is not uncommon for some reviewers to be negligent in the review process. Whatever is the reviewer recommendation, it is normally accepted almost blindly by the Editor. It is not a surprise that typically one in three submitted papers is accepted in Transactions.
Finally, after all these ordeals and waiting for a prolonged period, you will be lucky if you get an acceptance letter from the Editor. You can now celebrate for winning a difficult battle in life. Note that majority of the accepted papers come with the recommendation for minor revision. In submitting the revised paper, mention clearly and highlight exactly what revisions were made in the paper. Accepted papers with revision are rarely rejected. Once the paper has been published, you can now proudly look into www. ieeexplore.ieee.org, and count how many people are referring it and where it is referred in www.scholar.google.com. The latter website indicates the importance of your contribution.
Good luck to you.
Dr. Bimal K. Bose, Life Fellow, IEEE
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering
The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, USA
Tel: (865) 974-8398
Fax: (865) 974-5483
====================
E-mail: bbose@utk.edu
I. INTRODUCTION
Have you ever published any paper in IEEE Transactions? Or else, if you are already a Transactions author, how many papers have you published in Transactions? There is no doubt that Transactions publication (with your photo and CV appended) is very prestigious and brings you a lot of status in the professional community. It is often said that one Transactions paper is worth of four conference papers. This, of course, may or may not be true. A renowned professor in a good university always demands one or more Transactions publications from his doctoral student. If you are a young professor, Transactions publications will help your promotion and tenure. If you are an established professor, more Transactions publications will promote your fame that will help you to be an IEEE Fellow, and may subsequently bring other IEEE and non-IEEE Awards and Honors. Gradually, the door of your life may open for new avenues of success. Needless to say that publications are extremely important in the academic community for survival following the axiom “publish or perish”, particularly, if you are a young and untenured faculty. For an engineer in industry, Transactions publications truly reflect success in career. If you are a researcher in industry and are aspiring for a university career in future date, you must establish your publications base. Above all, publications bring tremendous amount of satisfaction in career accomplishment.
II. WHAT IS PUBLISHABLE IN TRANSACTION?
The results of research which have archival value are normally accepted for Transactions. It is important that the material is of current interest or has potential importance in future. If you have made an invention and/or made investigations on a technical topic that are important for applications, or further technology advancement in future are worthy of archival literature. Some Transactions permit Letters to the Editor describing the results of research briefly. Of course, often state-of-the-art survey papers by experienced professionals are also published in Transactions. It may be of interest to note that the Proceedings of the IEEE publish mostly survey type papers which are more prestigious, and almost every year Proc. paper wins the best paper prize (Donald G. Fink Award) among all the IEEE publications. The research results in archival literature may be important for immediate applications, or after a prolonged period of time. Nobel Prize or top awards are often given to the scientists in old age long years after the contribution was made when it establishes importance in the society.
For a technology topic, the results of research may include description, mathematical analysis, simulation study and experimental results. For a new and emerging type technology, description with analysis, or adding simulation results may suffice as the content for a Transactions paper. Simulation or “virtual experiment” software has recently been very sophisticated and user-friendly. Validation of concept or analytical results by simulation study is important, but simulation is only “as good as the model”. This means that if the model is not accurate enough, the simulation only gives approximate results. For a general technology topic, experimental results are often demanded for validation of theoretical and simulation results for acceptance as a Transactions paper. When a contribution has been made, you need to judge carefully whether the material is important enough for Transactions paper, or should be published as a conference paper. Note that some IEEE Societies (such as Industry Applications Society) require mandatory pre-publication as a conference paper before considering Transactions publication. In that way, the basic quality of the submitted paper is assured before peer review.
III. ORGANIZING THE PAPER
Once you have decided that the material is Transactions paper worthy, the first step is to organize the content very carefully. A typical flowchart for writing the paper is given in Fig.1.
Writing a good paper tests your expertise in writing skill of communication. It is like telling a story to somebody which should be clear, concise and well-organized with logical flow of expressions. It is always a good idea to review some good papers published by well-established and reputed authors. The title of the paper should clearly reflect your contribution in the paper. For every paper, there is a primary contributor who should be the first author. Then, co-authors should be selected in the order of their magnitude of contribution. It is unethical to be a co-author of a paper without making any contribution in the paper. In the same way, it is not ethical to add the name of the project manager, financial supporter or department head as co-author unless Fig.1 Flowchart for writing a Transactions paper
they have made contributions. Note that plagiarism is an offence, and multiple publication of the same material is highly unethical. The next easy step is the collection of the references for the paper in IEEE format. The references are important for writing the Introduction of the paper. A reviewer of the paper who judges the paper’s acceptance may be angry if he sees that his relevant contribution has not been cited in the paper. It is wise to cite one or two books in the beginning which describe the background material of the paper and add a few extra references on the relevant subject. The planning of figures with appropriate labels and titles is very crucial step for preparation of the paper. The figures should be fully explanatory and convey clearly contribution in the paper. A figure is worth of thousand words. Simplified schematic diagrams, functional block diagrams, or simply blocks may be used as appropriate. For graphs, the grid should be light with clear description of the variables and their scales. However, the figures can only be finalized after preparation of the full draft paper. Then, plan the different sections and subsections with appropriate title, and assign the figures in the sections. Organize the main equations with appropriate symbols and definition of the symbols at this stage. Equations are often defined as ornament of the paper, and if possible, at least a few equations are always desirable. Use commonly used symbols used in the text books, and they should be always be defined locally (instead of using list of symbols in the beginning or end of the paper). The derivation of the equations, if necessary, should be included briefly in the Appendix in order to prevent diversion of the reader’s attention of the main contribution. Organize all the points in detail and in proper sequence for each section and subsection before starting the paper writing.
IV. WRITING IN CORRECT ENGLISH
Once the material of the paper has been organized properly, the next step is preparation of the draft paper with full concentration. Correct English composition, grammar and spelling are extremely important in paper writing. This may be a challenge for authors from non-English countries like China, Korea, Japan etc. Often, a paper with excellent contribution gets rejected because of poor English. Any fuzziness or ambiguity of expressions should be avoided.Occasional English error annoys the reviewer of the paper and may be a ground for rejection. Because of the language problem, publication in Transactions becomes extremely difficult for non-English speaking countries. Even knowing good English is not enough. Excellent technical writing for Transactions remains a difficult art. Needless to say that in spite of excellent contribution, majority of papers gets rejected because of poor organization of the paper and poor English. Again, it is not surprising to see that a paper with mediocre contribution gets accepted because it is well-written. If a university professor assigns the responsibility of writing to his graduate student, it is almost certain that the paper will be rejected. Again, even if the paper is written by an experienced professor himself, the likelihood of rejection is not uncommon.
After writing the Abstract, the most difficult part of the paper is writing the Introduction. Here, in the beginning, you must highlight broadly the general importance of your work and why it is important in a convincing way. The next step is description of the past contributions with references on which your contribution is based, and then emphasizing why your contribution is novel and superior to others. Any suspicion that the contribution is not of your own and stealing from others should be dispelled clearly. It is better to cite the past contributions indirectly avoiding the name of the contributors. After writing the Introduction, the remaining steps consist of simple and clear description of the content in logical sequence. Finally, the results and significance of the contribution are discussed in Conclusion. Some amount of overlapping of Conclusion with the Abstract is not uncommon. An Acknowledgement should be included after Conclusion if you got help from others (like managers, financial supporters, head of the department, colleagues, etc.). After writing the full draft paper, iterate it several times for improvement and polishing of English. It is always a good idea to prepare an extended manuscript first and then cutting down during iteration to satisfy the length constraint. After completing the paper, satisfy all the questions given in Fig.2. If necessary, iterate it again.
V. THE REVIEW PROCESS
Every Transactions paper is peer-reviewed by multiple reviewers and their judgment determines acceptance or rejection of the paper. Normally, if two reviewers recommend acceptance or rejection to the Editor (or Associate Editor), the authors will be notified accordingly. Otherwise, third review becomes essential. Unfortunately, finding appropriate reviewers and proper review process of the paper remain far from ideal. To some extent, these determine the luck of the author. Often, a reviewer’s expertise does not exactly match with the subject and he may not understand the paper well, although he agreed to review the paper. The reviewers often procrastinate the review process and require several reminders. The reviewers are normally very busy professionals, and hardly can afford half–a-day for review of a paper. First, he will try to get preliminary impression of the paper by glancing at the title, name of author(s), Abstract, figures and the Conclusion. Some amount of personal biasing is not unusual. He will be angry if his relevant work has not been cited. As mentioned before, Fig.2 Questions to satisfy after completion of the paper
occasional English error will annoy the reviewer. Unfamiliar symbols in equations, fuzzy and ambiguous expressions will irritate him. If the reviewer does not understand well the paper, it is likely to be rejected. Clumsy figures will be the ground for rejection. Also, if the topic is simple and description of the paper is easy, the contribution will be considered trivial. Since the reviewer always remains in the background, he does not have to prove his technical competence
and he does not fear to recommend rejection of the paper with cruel comments . Of course, for rejection, he has to give justifiable reasons. Recommendation for major revision may be a reason for rejection. Often, the reviewer’s justification for rejection may be simply “The contribution in the paper is not significant enough to justify the Transactions publication”. It is not uncommon for some reviewers to be negligent in the review process. Whatever is the reviewer recommendation, it is normally accepted almost blindly by the Editor. It is not a surprise that typically one in three submitted papers is accepted in Transactions.
Finally, after all these ordeals and waiting for a prolonged period, you will be lucky if you get an acceptance letter from the Editor. You can now celebrate for winning a difficult battle in life. Note that majority of the accepted papers come with the recommendation for minor revision. In submitting the revised paper, mention clearly and highlight exactly what revisions were made in the paper. Accepted papers with revision are rarely rejected. Once the paper has been published, you can now proudly look into www. ieeexplore.ieee.org, and count how many people are referring it and where it is referred in www.scholar.google.com. The latter website indicates the importance of your contribution.
Good luck to you.
Wednesday, 15 October 2008
Where the mind is without fear - Gitanjali (Rabindranath Tagore)
Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
From Rabindranath Tagore's Geetanjali
Where knowledge is free
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments
By narrow domestic walls
Where words come out from the depth of truth
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way
Into the dreary desert sand of dead habit
Where the mind is led forward by thee
Into ever-widening thought and action
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake
From Rabindranath Tagore's Geetanjali
Monday, 1 September 2008
Bengali Online Qur'an Shareef
Thanks to efforts from scholars, the bengali version of Quran Shareef is now online, too. So, no more excuse of not getting time, no translation, lablabla....
Sunday, 3 August 2008
Tribute to Alamgir Haq, an ex-cadet of MCC
Alamgir Haq: father of Pakistani Pop Song?
Source: http://www.crazefm.com/singers.php?profile=926
Alamgir is a famous Pakistani pop singer of the 1970s, who is in fact one of the pioneers of the Urdu pop music in Pakistan. Alamgir was born in 1954 to Bengali parents in East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. He studied in Mirzapur Cadet College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. He left home at the age of 16, in search of his destiny. He brought with him his guitar and an extra shirt and a small tape recorder. He did not know anyone in Karachi and desperately was in search of a job. He worked in Karachi, playing guitar, at a small cafe in Tariq Road area called the "Cafe D Khan". The cafe was famous for its intellectual gatherings and that is where he was spotted. His remuneration was a free meal at the hotel. Someone from the audience in the hotel liked his Guitar playing and told him about the programme at the TV station called Ferozan where Khushbakht Aliya was conducting a show for the youth. He gave his audition, Khushbakht liked his Guitar playing but she had already selected someone else. It just so happened that Sohail Rana, the music director was in the next studio and asked someone to call Alamgir to his car outside the TV station. He said, he liked his (Alamgir's) playing and asked if he would like to perform for children. This is how he entered in the formal world of Music.
He started singing on the Pakistani Television at the beginning of the 1970’s when the people in Pakistan were not familiar with the modern Urdu music and when western music was generally considered as modern music in Pakistan. Alamgir’s first song Albela Rahi, was an Urdu translation of a foreign language song. It proved a hit in 1973 among the youth of the 70’s. There was a time during the 70’s when the music loving boys and girls gathered regularly on the streets near the Karachi Jheel Park to get a glimpse of this pop singer as he used to travel along in his red sedan in evening. Alamgir’s second pop song Pyar hai zindagi ka gehna was also an Urdu translation of a foreign song.
He soon became popular among the younger generation in the country. Alamgir is also known for his many renditions of Bengali music. The most notable Bengali song he is known to sing is Aamay Bhashaili Rey. Alamgir made a dash on the Pakistani music scene. He sang for the Pakistani television in the very beginning of his career but later as the time passed he started singing for the Pakistani music industry. He also performs abroad. Alamgir always keeps physically fit and is currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He is respected by the music lovers everywhere and still performs in live concerts in America.
Source: http://www.crazefm.com/singers.php?profile=926
Alamgir is a famous Pakistani pop singer of the 1970s, who is in fact one of the pioneers of the Urdu pop music in Pakistan. Alamgir was born in 1954 to Bengali parents in East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh. He studied in Mirzapur Cadet College, Mymensingh, Bangladesh. He left home at the age of 16, in search of his destiny. He brought with him his guitar and an extra shirt and a small tape recorder. He did not know anyone in Karachi and desperately was in search of a job. He worked in Karachi, playing guitar, at a small cafe in Tariq Road area called the "Cafe D Khan". The cafe was famous for its intellectual gatherings and that is where he was spotted. His remuneration was a free meal at the hotel. Someone from the audience in the hotel liked his Guitar playing and told him about the programme at the TV station called Ferozan where Khushbakht Aliya was conducting a show for the youth. He gave his audition, Khushbakht liked his Guitar playing but she had already selected someone else. It just so happened that Sohail Rana, the music director was in the next studio and asked someone to call Alamgir to his car outside the TV station. He said, he liked his (Alamgir's) playing and asked if he would like to perform for children. This is how he entered in the formal world of Music.
He started singing on the Pakistani Television at the beginning of the 1970’s when the people in Pakistan were not familiar with the modern Urdu music and when western music was generally considered as modern music in Pakistan. Alamgir’s first song Albela Rahi, was an Urdu translation of a foreign language song. It proved a hit in 1973 among the youth of the 70’s. There was a time during the 70’s when the music loving boys and girls gathered regularly on the streets near the Karachi Jheel Park to get a glimpse of this pop singer as he used to travel along in his red sedan in evening. Alamgir’s second pop song Pyar hai zindagi ka gehna was also an Urdu translation of a foreign song.
He soon became popular among the younger generation in the country. Alamgir is also known for his many renditions of Bengali music. The most notable Bengali song he is known to sing is Aamay Bhashaili Rey. Alamgir made a dash on the Pakistani music scene. He sang for the Pakistani television in the very beginning of his career but later as the time passed he started singing for the Pakistani music industry. He also performs abroad. Alamgir always keeps physically fit and is currently residing in Atlanta, Georgia, USA. He is respected by the music lovers everywhere and still performs in live concerts in America.
Wednesday, 28 May 2008
The Situation Room: Current State of PhD Work
I have had couple of papers and a poster accepted/published in conferences. Initially, I had problems with problem-ridden simulator that I was to fix. But thanks God, the confidence is coming back slowly but surely. I am now working on a very challenging work, which I think has a very high potential in the research community. I will have to make a perfect balance of work and plan to make things happen in due course of times. The only worry is that the tool that I am developing has gone to a level of difficulty, which is increasingly becoming hard to manage and slower to execute even with a fast machine. We would have to see the developments in the forthcoming days. PhD is ... sometimes too much hard work, hard play.... and sometimes dillydallying since nothing comes up in voidness of thoughts.
Monday, 19 May 2008
So, That's How Poorly Ms Fox Behaved at Somerset Road Preschool, Southampton?
Dear Sir/Madam,
I am writing as a parent of Raisa Salwa Ahmed, who had been attending the Somerset Road Preschool (Southampton, SO17 3AA, Ofsted unique reference no: 131558) at Southampton for the last eight/nine months (since Sept/2007). I would like to put forward my following experiences that relates to misconduct and misexplanation from the preschool supervisor Ms Sheila Fox. I find her behaviour different and felt unsafe and unsure about the standard of care as she is also the supervisor of the preschool and decided to withdraw my child from the school.
Raisa attended three to four sessions per week at the Somerset Road Preschool (which sum up about 12 hours per week including lunch club hours). For the last five weeks, she also has been attending childminding and day nursing to make it more than 40 hours per week out-of-home care. I am sure you would appreciate that change of hours in out-of-home care has put obvious pressure on her. As a result, although she was previously learning to use toilet, she has slowed her toilet training recently. Ms Fox had sent me a letter with her concern that Raisa was almost 3.5 years old and it was time that she was potty trained. But the way she handed the letter to me seemed to me to be very rude. I have replied her with a letter saying, it was okay for her to be trained but we would like to make it happen without imposing extra pressure on her. According to her advice, I have also tried to prepare Raisa for the pre-school without giving her any nappies on two previous occasions. But Raisa had fever and cold on both occasions on her return and could not attend the preschool for following few days. I find Ms Sheila Fox’s imposition inappropriate as I would have expected her to make sure proper care of Raisa was taken while Raisa was without her nappies.
On 16th May 2008 morning I took Raisa to pre-school after she almost recovered from fever. I honestly mentioned to Ms Sheila Fox that Raisa is a 'little feverish' but playful and as such had to come in with her nappies. Ms Fox asked me (rudely) to take Raisa back without allowing me to do any further explanations. As I was trying to explain that Raisa was only feverish (my measure of 99 F, 98.4 F being normal) and she was playful and enthusiastic about preschool, Ms Sheila Fox extended no further explanation and insisted that I should leave with Raisa back home. I could see she was angry and rude, the reason of which was completely unknown to me. Her different behaviour to me and my child is increasingly becoming a point of concern and insecurity of my child. On my return I had been able to check with the health and hygiene policies of the preschool with the help of school register. The policies say ‘a child can should not be brought to school, if she has infectious or contagious disease or uncomfortable illness’. Ms Sheila has not allowed me to explain if she was that sick or if she had any kind of contagious illness (Raisa did not have any sign of infectious diseases neither she had any uncomfortable feeling, at all). I find Ms Fox’s behaviour different, appalling and not expected from someone who had been working so closely with children and their parents. I felt unsafe and insecure leaving my child with her (and the preschool) as I could see she has unexplainable anger/anguish she may have grown in and felt the necessity of taking my child off from the preschool. This is obviously a very hard decision for me to take as it is difficult to arrange another but with the given circumstances it was the grave essence.
I would really appreciate if you kindly take appropriate measures in making sure such staffs are responsible, do not make it uncomfortable for parents to talk to, are unsafe to leave child with due to their unexplainable anger and do not impose any rules on their own explanations that they cannot serve accordingly. I understand your organization does the best to make sure every child care provider conforms to your minimum standards and I solicit your highest co-operation regarding this.
I am writing as a parent of Raisa Salwa Ahmed, who had been attending the Somerset Road Preschool (Southampton, SO17 3AA, Ofsted unique reference no: 131558) at Southampton for the last eight/nine months (since Sept/2007). I would like to put forward my following experiences that relates to misconduct and misexplanation from the preschool supervisor Ms Sheila Fox. I find her behaviour different and felt unsafe and unsure about the standard of care as she is also the supervisor of the preschool and decided to withdraw my child from the school.
Raisa attended three to four sessions per week at the Somerset Road Preschool (which sum up about 12 hours per week including lunch club hours). For the last five weeks, she also has been attending childminding and day nursing to make it more than 40 hours per week out-of-home care. I am sure you would appreciate that change of hours in out-of-home care has put obvious pressure on her. As a result, although she was previously learning to use toilet, she has slowed her toilet training recently. Ms Fox had sent me a letter with her concern that Raisa was almost 3.5 years old and it was time that she was potty trained. But the way she handed the letter to me seemed to me to be very rude. I have replied her with a letter saying, it was okay for her to be trained but we would like to make it happen without imposing extra pressure on her. According to her advice, I have also tried to prepare Raisa for the pre-school without giving her any nappies on two previous occasions. But Raisa had fever and cold on both occasions on her return and could not attend the preschool for following few days. I find Ms Sheila Fox’s imposition inappropriate as I would have expected her to make sure proper care of Raisa was taken while Raisa was without her nappies.
On 16th May 2008 morning I took Raisa to pre-school after she almost recovered from fever. I honestly mentioned to Ms Sheila Fox that Raisa is a 'little feverish' but playful and as such had to come in with her nappies. Ms Fox asked me (rudely) to take Raisa back without allowing me to do any further explanations. As I was trying to explain that Raisa was only feverish (my measure of 99 F, 98.4 F being normal) and she was playful and enthusiastic about preschool, Ms Sheila Fox extended no further explanation and insisted that I should leave with Raisa back home. I could see she was angry and rude, the reason of which was completely unknown to me. Her different behaviour to me and my child is increasingly becoming a point of concern and insecurity of my child. On my return I had been able to check with the health and hygiene policies of the preschool with the help of school register. The policies say ‘a child can should not be brought to school, if she has infectious or contagious disease or uncomfortable illness’. Ms Sheila has not allowed me to explain if she was that sick or if she had any kind of contagious illness (Raisa did not have any sign of infectious diseases neither she had any uncomfortable feeling, at all). I find Ms Fox’s behaviour different, appalling and not expected from someone who had been working so closely with children and their parents. I felt unsafe and insecure leaving my child with her (and the preschool) as I could see she has unexplainable anger/anguish she may have grown in and felt the necessity of taking my child off from the preschool. This is obviously a very hard decision for me to take as it is difficult to arrange another but with the given circumstances it was the grave essence.
I would really appreciate if you kindly take appropriate measures in making sure such staffs are responsible, do not make it uncomfortable for parents to talk to, are unsafe to leave child with due to their unexplainable anger and do not impose any rules on their own explanations that they cannot serve accordingly. I understand your organization does the best to make sure every child care provider conforms to your minimum standards and I solicit your highest co-operation regarding this.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)