Time Management?

Stuck with my thoughts, a little bit of work …could not get the time to write…uhhh…I guess I will have to revisit my time management lessons…

Ohhh…this reminds me of few unpleasant happenings –probably owing to either sheer lack of time management or absolute disregard towards it. What happened to Mewad Express near Mathura, where it was halted by manual intervention and was standing on the tracks on outer line near Mathura Station and within minutes another train is allowed a green signal on the same track-BANG ON- casualties on rise and routine investigations to follow up this unfortunate incident. This is not funny at all! Newspaper archives hold numerable stories of such unfortunate incidents that have occurred in the past-off hand I clearly remember the Kalindi Express’ head on collision with a high speed moving train- same track-same story but different lives getting altered forever….nobody pays for their mistake and I guess no one is bothered-this isn’t my pessimistic attitude-this is reality check!!!

We haven’t learnt from our past mistakes/experiences at all, had it been the case at least similar tragedies wouldn’t be repeated…and it’s really shameful that the degree of human element/intervention involved in all these incidents seemingly rising with each new incident happening. I feel like screaming a loud and am afraid that won’t help me vent out even half of my pent up frustration!!! So, what do we do? Do we wait of more such instances and keep feeling sorry…I guess that’s what we have been doing, that’s what I am doing right now….

What happened last Saturday when a over bridge collapsed on the local train in one of the sub-urban stations in Mumbai? Nah…not just a one off incident, not a mere accident-it smells of red-tapism and acute politicization of this city’s administration- wow… ‘Politicizing Administration’, intriguing, isn’t it ?

One of my random chats with friends, we were discussing life as we live here and those who have moved to US and such other countries. It was a very casual chat. One of my friends had returned back from US for settling down in life-yeah getting married and starting a new life here. Of course for that friend of mine-it was a great great ‘welcome-back-to-home’ feeling and there were absolutely no regrets…our discussion went a little further and all of us agreed that WE DO NOT SEE ANY VALUE TO HUMAN LIFE HERE, whereas my friend says on personal experience asserts that in US- the way the government offices function, they police, the medical system, everything shows a great values to lives of its citizens.

I have my choices clear, probably I am one of those who get extremely emotional and may be a little aggressive when it is about India versus any other country, but I cannot ignore this and I cannot deny the truth-and yes this is my personal experience…Am sure most of you would agree with me on this.

I feel the test of a good & efficient administration/governance is to see what is the quality of life of the common people/ the aam-junta. The moment you ask this to yourself you know the answer-for us here, miserable is an understatement!

The BEST place in the WORLD

Its so wonderful to be with your family…Hmmm…and probably those who stay away from their folks would appreciate this even more…that there is no place in the whole wide world like your HOME SWEET HOME….

Hmmm.. don’t know why I am writing all this…I mean my folks are around and am so very thankful that I don’t have to stay away from them…but I have a lot of friends who stay away from their home…either for work or studies and the hard fact is they don’t have options to choose-it is surely a compulsion…I guess I am writing all this because a lot of my friends have gone to their respective home towns for Diwali their happiness of being home is reflecting in a lot many ways-

In fact I have stayed away from my folks and I know it is not easy at all-but at times you really cannot help and that’s when you got be strong to accept these obvious choices and more importantly be strong so that your folks back home get their share of strength from you…uhhh,,,damn sentimental stuff…I don’t usually express this but I guess today I can’t help it either….

Personally speaking, I am not very comfortable with this but my friends have shown me that how one has to learn to live with these hard choices and create a second home a little away from their HOME, with wonderful friends around…in whatever circumstances, keep fighting and be happy and this will surely make your folks nack home, very happy and probably that is what ultimately matters…

Uhhh…I don’t want to make this Diwali mood any sombre- I am really happy for all my friends who are at HOME, I can empathise with them,,,,and I know all of them must have had a greatttt Diwali, just by being with their families…

Probably I can’t express my feelings any further…I am thankful that this Diwali was peaceful-all that we all must ask for is PEACE FOR ONE AND ALL…peace at home, at work, a basic minimum level of mental peace that is so very essential-for us to enjoy festivals, for us to celebrate LIFE….

SHUBH DIWALI!

RANDOM THOUGHTS: SERIOUS CONCERNS!!

It’s October, Diwali approaching in less than a week now and instead of witnessing the scenes of white washing in the households everywhere, it was a complete devastating wash by rainwater….October witnessing floods; instead of preparing for the beautiful autumn, it seems the ‘seasons’ are in a state of utter confusion or rather they are absolutely helpless…I mean what we studied in school, April-May- for summer, June to September rains, October-November mild autumn, December to February chilling cold, March sultry dry all set to welcome April….all this is rather ‘bookish’ in today’s context…and it’s a matter of grave concern. You know what, this is the result our selfishness, our not agreeing with the proponents of the theory of sustainable development and even if we did agree and understood what it means-I guess it was too much of asking to sacrifice for future-which in anyways is uncertain-so why bother!!! Well, so here we are, in the midst of global warming spreading its wings in more than ways we could imagine…The climatic change, which is for worse, is a result of our recklessly abusing and exploiting the environment!!! Is it a catch-22 situation…whatever it is…too late to mend and make good the damage…the fact is WE ARE STUCK and STUCK BADLY…Can we now at least think about stopping this abuse and exploitation, can we adopt sustainable development as the core principle for development, can we pause and re-assess our needs v. greed…imagine what kind of damage have we caused to the environment that it has ultimately led to a dangerous imbalance in the climatic cycle…what will happen to agriculture and everything that is associated with it-OUR LIVES for sure….meanwhile at least if we all could pray with honesty and sincerity….

This 2^nd October 2009, one of the movie channels showed GANDHI (that’s quite ceremonious) and I watched the entire movie…that surely forces one to think and re-think…firstly a terrible disgrace that we have taken our freedom for granted, that freedom for which millions laid down their lives-that freedom which was the only ‘romance’ for Shaheed Bhagat Singh and likes…and then there is one lean, thin, absolute ‘common man’ figure with his dream and vision for independent INDIA that he wanted to achieve through the toughest route ever-NON VIOLENCE…Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Whether one agrees or not and irrespective of our views on M.K Gandhi being responsible for the partition, we cannot ignore the determination that M.K. Gandhi had for our country freedom and that his was a charisma beyond explanation-for once you see that a person who enjoys blind following by an entire nation-did not abuse his power-imagine the same in today’s context-scary and suicidal-God forbid but if Behenji of U.P gets such a following-she would auction our country and disappear….I don’t know why, but we all somehow love criticism- ofcourse as long as we get to criticize others! That’s what we do with M.K.Gandhi…I guess some people do it to pretend being intellectuals-that criticizing M.K Gandhi is quite a fashion-blame the partition on him- I am not saying he wouldn’t have been responsible-of course being a human he too was fallible-but what I don’t agree is that why do we only see what he could not do or the wrongs that he allegedly committed-I guess it’s easier and more convenient for us because if we discuss and debate the negative aspects, no body would ask us to follow or inculcate such acts/commissions and on the other hand if we attempt to understand what his contribution is, the goodness in him, the determination, we might be expected to follow all of that-that’s not convenient-so the easy option is the blame game-after all we are the champions…

I am not saying that you don’t have a right to your own views/opinion, of course you do but before all of that just try and find out if you could inculcate or even appreciate what values and principles shaped M.K.Gandhi’s life and ultimately shaped the pace and picture of our freedom struggle…M.K Gandhi had said that India lives in it’s villages and India’s development and growth of its economy can happen only if the villages are made autonomous, self-dependent and when the local crafts are revived-you know what-it is now that I truly understand what he actually meant-I understand the gravity and importance-because now I see MADE IN CHINA labels on virtually everything that was and that is essentially INDIAN-in its origin and culture---its surely double jeopardy---I call for a SWADESI MOVEMENT all over again!

AAO SCHOOL CHALEIN HUM….

AAO SCHOOL CHALEIN HUM….

The HRD minister, Mr. Kapil Sibal on Monday, Aug 24 2009 emphasized on:-

1) The importance of teaching Hindi in schools;

2) A uniform core curriculum for Mathematics and Science for all school boards;

3) Need for independent accreditation body for school education;

4) Enactment of Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Bill;

5) Encouraging private investments in education, reviewing the functioning of existing deemed universities and the need for a regulatory authority in higher education.

Along with revealing the plan to scrap class tenth board exams. Addressing the Council of Boards of Secondary Education, Mr. Kapil Sibal said:

"Our education system should change from MOTS (More of the Same) to HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills). We should create knowledge which will be used by other people. Now we are a recipient of knowledge and in the future we should produce the knowledge."

Finally somebody talks about ‘reforming’ our education system, how sustainable, how appropriate and how feasible are these proposed reforms is a question that we will have to answer in order that we hit the bull’s eye!

Quite often my friends and I engage in random chats comparing our ‘school days’ with today’s school life and every time that comparison leaves all of us with a feeling of sincere gratitude and we cannot but thank our luck/stars that we were better off than kids today!

I am quite sure that most of you reading this will agree with me on this at least! And I guess this feeling of gratitude extends to the generation of our parents and grandparents and with each preceding generation it only gets more sincere & deeper.

But why?!?!? Has it got something to do with the so-called ‘tough’ & ‘monstrous’ school syllabus of today or is to with the onset of ‘globalization’ & ‘commercialization’ of our classrooms today. Whereas I agree with the latter part of the statement, I do not think that school syllabus of today is ‘tough’ rather at it is quite meaningless, irrelevant, misleading (wherever politicized), not updated, infact I am given to understand that there have been cases where the syllabus books were full of grammatical errors and erroneous facts. I will refer to a few examples to corroborate the aforesaid:-

1. Referring to the latest new article in the Times of India of April 2, 2009, Bangalore Edition which carried a story titled, “Physics textbooks ridden with errors”. This article gives tells us shocking instances of errors relating to concepts, definitions or even diagrams in class 8 and class 9 textbooks.

ü For example, the class 8 textbook explains the twinkling of stars thus -- for the observer on earth, the light appears to come from a point, say B, although it originated from another point, say A. Because of the variation in density, the extent of bending (light) changes continuously. So the observer on Earth sees the star at B at one instant, C at another and so on. This causes the star to twinkle.
Wrong theory, say teachers.
"This is completely wrong. Just because of the point shift, the effect of sparkle cannot be felt. In fact, all points are bright," said a retired physics teacher, who wants to remain anonymous. "The angular size of the star is an angle made by the star at the pupil of the eye and is nearly zero. Therefore, a thin pencil of light from the star passes the earth's atmosphere and reaches the eye. Due to atmospheric turbulence, the ray of light passes through the eye on and off, giving the twinkling effect."

ü Unclear diagrams.

Even the diagrams are unclear. "In one diagram, emerging light, after passing through the prism, is parallel. But emerging light from the prism is always dispersed. The issue here is that the book is unclear in showing the dispersed portion," the teacher explained. Strangely, in the class 10 textbook, the diagram correctly shows that light is dispersed after passing through a single prism.

If you would recollect, there was a big political drama on ‘re-writing’ history for the school textbooks when Mr. Murali Manohar Joshi was the Union HRD Minister. I do not want to dissect all that because whatever it was, the basic issue got sidelined and what we saw was a dirty game of politicizing education at the hands of opportunist politicians! This is what happens, this hype that gets created or rather is deliberately created to divert/diffuse attention from the core agenda/issue and ultimately we are lost, either in frustration or enjoyment in witnessing the myriad political gimmicks that are played to score political mileage!

Can you imagine ‘factual’ errors, ‘distorted’ information, ‘erroneous’ data that the school textbooks are subjected to and all of this coupled with absolute lack of will to identify and address the problems/issues. Each political party wants to manipulate the school curriculum-surely to appease its vote banks! I see a sudden onset of ‘commercialization’ of education, politicization of course!

I am saddened by the fact that in all of this we have disregarded the importance of ‘teaching the basics’ in school, to begin with that includes a sense of discipline to be inculcated. But how do I expect this, to teach and inculcate discipline-we need disciplined, upright and honest people-and this class of people is an alarming minority today! Most of those who come to school to teach are rather ‘SALESMAN/SALESWOMAN as the case may be!

Teaching Computers, we must, that is the need of the hour, but who is tell the kids the mathematical tables to compute/calculate basic math sums. Oh… I forgot, for that we have ‘coaching’ classes….

Scrapping exams in once again trying to divert from the core issue-this is no solution to anything that is plaguing our education system today. I read and also heard a lot of people talk that this is indeed a step in positive direction which will help reduce the stress levels amongst children! STRESS IN SCHOOL?!? It establishes that we are failed miserably to even identify the core issues/problems. How do you accept this premise of exams and schools now being labeled as STRESS CENTRES? All this is because of our approach towards studies, towards exams that has lead to extreme degree of unhealthy competition, and that too, not amongst the kids but amongst their parents!

As I write this today, I am yet to gather my thoughts on a lot of issues that I feel must be addressed before we engage in the mindless exercise of turning the school education system completely UPSIDE DOWN!

I hope to hear from most of you, who occasionally spare some time to read my posts, on your reaction to this-scrapping of exams-is is the step in right direction?

And I am quite sure that unless we realize where the problem actually lies (definitely not with having board exams), we will continue this act of injustice towards the kids-taking away from them their golden period –the SCHOOL DAYS…..

(Photograph: flickr.com)