Dear Students,

You are now nearly through with your first semester at IIIT-H and are about to get
into the Endsem mode. As a part of the HV-1 course, we have tried to draw your
attention to the importance of introspection as a tool for developing your
understanding about yourself, and your relationships. This understanding is
necessary for you to make your own decisions about your goals.

A general feedback about the course is that whatever we do in the class tend to
remain restricted to 'during the class', and that because of other priorities, you get
no time for introspection during the semester. We have therefore put together a set
of 15 questions as your endsem assignment, which you are supposed to work on
during your vacations. Answering these questions will help you introspect, and will
also make you recall much of what was done during the semester. For most of the
questions, actual time to answer will not be too much. In fact for most of these, you
will only have to put on paper what is in your mind.

NB. 1. Your HV Grades (Pass/Fail) will be based on your participation. Apart from
attendance, your performance in this assignment and in the HV Shivir due after the
endsem exams of the next semester will be considered.
2. Those with insufficient participation will have to repeat this course in the next
year. This assignment is therefore crucially important for those who have a poor
attendance record. A well written assignment will count towards participation.
3. You will be required to upload the assignments, as pdf files, on or before
December 30, 2016. Upload instructions will soon be intimated to you.

Best of luck for your endsems!

Have a nice vacation!

HV-1 Faculty

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 HV-1 End Semester Assignments
Monsoon 2k16
(Deadline for Submission of Soft Copy: December 30, 2016)

Your first semester experiences

1. You have been in this campus for a semester now.

a. Did you miss something which is there in your family?
b. Many look at the institute as a large family. What do you think makes it work as a
family? You could elaborate on this by taking examples based on your observations.
c. Tell us something about efforts of various people to make you feel comfortable here.
d. What role can you play to become a responsible member of this family?

2. How have you related to the following people around you? You may focus on what role
they are playing in your life and what role you are playing in their life. Would be great if
you could explain with real examples.
a. Room-mate
b. Friends
c. Teachers
d. Mess workers and staff
e. Housekeeping staff
f. Administration staff

3. Think about your average weekly routine and answer following questions:
a. How much time do you spend on following:
Facebook
DC++ /YouTube/etc.
Internet Browsing
General Social Interactions
Reading Non-Academic Literature
Visiting places outside campus.
b. What are you trying to achieve when you spend time on above activities? Answer for
each item separately.
c. Are you able to achieve, what you intended to achieve?

4. During the last semester, how have you understood and discharged your responsibilities
towards the following:
a. Health of your body
b. Hostel wing
c. Studies
d. Facilities you use (water, electricity, computers)
e. Nature around you

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At home for vacations
5. Keep the following questions in your mind when you leave for your vacation. Answer
them a couple of days before you are back for the next semester:
a. How did you feel when you were leaving IIIT-H after the 1st semester got over?
b. How did you feel when you reached home?
c. How did everyone at home react when you reached home?
d. Whom did you meet in your holidays?
e. Did you spend time with your parents at home? What did you do with them?
f. What did you talk to your siblings etc.
g. Did you take any responsibilities at home? Like helping in kitchen or any other
household work?

6. Introspect while on vacation, keep observing your thoughts in your daily life and identify
a. How many of those thoughts are coming in you with your approval.
b. How many of those thoughts are are those which you like and you want to think on them.
c. How many of those thoughts are those which are coming in you but you do not want to
think on those things.
d. When those thoughts come in you which you do not want then how do you feel? and how
difficult is for you to get rid of those thoughts?
e. How much time are you aware of your thoughts in your daily life?
f. Write down answers of all these questions and keep them with you. You need not submit
this with the rest of the assignment, but will be expected to bring them with you when
you attend the Shivir.

7. Observe yourself throughout the day for about a week, and find out how much portion of
an average day you felt good and how much portion of the day you did not.
a. What would be the percentage of your state of happiness?
b. Are the causes of these states dependent on the outside factors or the internal state?
Evaluate five instances in detail.
c. What can you do to remain unaffected by the outside situations?

[Question 8 is optional]
8. Visit a nearby slum, near to your house and then talk to people there. Answer following
questions:
a. What are all the problems they are facing?
b. What is the reason in your opinion for their poverty?
c. What are your views on following statement and why? Problem of poverty is not the
lack of natural resources but problem is somewhere else

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Your thoughts and views
9. Identify five important desires/aspirations that you have. For each of them do the following:
a. Describe the desire/aspiration.
b. Does it relate to needs of the self or needs of the body? Explain.
c. Is it naturally acceptable to you? Explain in the context of your relations, as you understand them,
with other entities (other humans, animals, nature...) coexisting in the world around you.

10. Choose five advertisements (randomly). For each ad, do the following:
a. Give a short description of the ad. Enclose its picture, if any.
b. Is the ad describing the qualities of the product, or trying to take advantage of your temptations
and insecurities? How?
c. What underlying beliefs does it end up planting in its viewers? Analyze and discuss in depth.

11. Our Natural Expectation is to have Good Relationships with people.

a. How far is your expectation of good relationship (Quality/Quantity) being currently fulfilled?
b. Do you think there are Notions/Factors/Conditions which may be coming in way of fulfilling your
expectations? Some of them may be in terms of triggering mistrust or fear, or otherwise prompting
you to increase your distance from others. Please enumerate them if any.
c. Verify all those notions on the basis of your Natural Acceptance, if they are really true, or we have
assumed them without much of verification.

12. It will be good to take up this question after attempting Question 11. After writing the
answers to the 3 questions below, try to see what conclusions you can draw out of them
and write down your reflections over them.
a. What is the others impression/opinion of you?
b. What is your own impression/opinion of yourself?
c. What impression/opinion you would expect others to have of you?

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Your understanding
13. In Ramayana, on Kaikayis insistence Ram left for the Vanavasa along with Lakshamana
and Sita, thus vacating the throne for Bharat. Bharat refused to sit on throne and instead
kept Rams Khadau (footwear) on the throne.
a. What explanation do you give to above event in the context of Ramayana?
b. What all explanations are possible if the context of Ramayana is not known? How many
explanations are possible explaining above event? (Not knowing the context of Ramayana
includes not knowing the characteristics of characters also.)
c. What more information would you need in order to understand the context of the incident event
better?
d. What limitations do you face while giving explanations to any set of events?
e. How can you circumvent such difficulties?
f. Do you see any relation between your perception and the explanation you give to any set of
events? If yes, then explain how your perception and your explanation are related.

14. The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who
think alike than those who think differently. - Friedrich Nietzsche, The Dawn, Sec. 297
German philosopher (1844 1900). What do you understand by above statement?
Explain your understanding with examples in not less than 500 words.

15. Compassion, Care and Creativity are the three Cs which we at IIIT-H refer to as
important components of our core institutional values. Write a brief essay in about, but
not necessarily limited to, 1500 words, elaborating on the following aspects:
a. Your understanding of these attributes
b. How far are these values being manifest within the IIIT-H family, and in your own thoughts,
behavior and actions
c. What specific proactive efforts you would like to put in, in order to promote these values
NB. While writing, be honest to yourself and dont hesitate to use specific real life examples