Hope!

 
Hi there!

It's been a year already since we are hit by the most scary pandemic ever. Yes, it's been all masks, sanitizers and the lockdown (though the lockdown had cleared the air last year 😉). Most of us loved the fact working from home, and now it seems we have also lost the interest in working from home as well. For some it has been a reason for relationships stranded and maybe some even grew stronger in their relationships. 

In different phases we have all seen the life, death and distress. Covid has taken many lives so far and the hope is invisible like a boat in the middle of a sea, and no sign of land anywhere. Well, imagine a sailor in this context. Imagine you were that sailor and you don't see any end to the seamless, turbulent waters! What you think or do? You'll be depressed, sure. But you don't kill yourself. Even if a thought of getting drowned flashes through mind, you still try to escape an attacking shark, don't you? You have hope my friend, that you can still survive, and that you love life!

Well, if you're reading it, you're still alive, with a hope that it may pass one day as a nightmare. This feeling, this hope, is a pivotal point of the energy that drives you day by day. 

That's it. Have hope, Give hope! This also will pass. 

***

I get reminded of a few lines of a song from Michael David Rosenberg (Passenger)

Song: Life's for the living

...

And I stumbled down to the stomach of the townWhere the widow takes memories to slowly drown
With a hand to the sky and a mist in her eye she said
Don't you cry for the lost
Smile for the living
Get what you need and give what you're given
Life's for the living so live it
Or you're better off dead

Earth Day (2021)

 The earth has been there almost always, supporting life, sustaining itself and helping life multiply, flourish. It was not like this before, as it is today. In the name of development, we seem to have made some uninformed (and now, mostly informed) choices that have lead the life to where it is today. Pollution (of all kind we know today), wars, division, chronic diseases (talk about Covid!). 

Think, are you going leave the earth just like that, consuming it's resources and not contributing to sustain it for the future generations to come? We have so engrossed in a "production mentality" that we have reproduced like mindless creatures and as a result we're too many people in this world and resources are very oddly divided among ourselves. Have you been in a traffic jam? what are your thoughts at that time? Do you see the concrete jungle instead o the trees in your city? 

Delhi is already the most polluted city in the world. 

Think!

A much needed Paradigm Shift in Education today!

 

As a child I have always wondered if I really belonged in the school! (Is the feeling mutual my friend?)

I was mostly scared in the classes because I want very good at studies. I have got beatings from my teachers, especially from the Math and English teachers. I believed I was no good for studies and nothing worthwhile that I will be. 

Well, it turns out there many who thought that way and figured out what they were really good at and contributed. 

It looks like, every country on earth at the moment is reforming public education. There are two reasons for this. The first of them is economic. People are trying to work out how do we educate our children to take their place in the economies of the 21st century? How do we do that given that we can't anticipate what the economy will look like at the end of next week, as the recent turmoil is demonstrated. How do we do that? The second is cultural. Every country on earth is trying to figure out how do we educate our children so they have a sense of cultural identity so that we can pass on the cultural genes of our communities while being part of the process of globalisation? How do we square that circle?

There's a third reason which is created by the Covid-19 pandemic recently and that is related to the emotional aspect of a person. Children are frustrated, parents have no clue and the schools are still puzzled as to what should be the best way out for education to continue. In a bargain like this, the tension has built up. People have less options for entertainment and exposure. As a result, the emotional balloon of people is at a breakpoint and it needs an immediate and assured release of tension. But the irony of our education system is that it doesn't really educate people to give an 'empathic listening ear' to those in need. Our parents, educators are at a loss in situations like these. 

We also try to educate every child in a standard way. The structure as we follow at schools, the curricula etc is of a "production mentality". Not everyone fits in the same mould and if we try, as we do, the children loose the interest in education. Then we try to use different strategies to get them focused to "our way" of education. 

The arts especially address the idea of aesthetic experience. And aesthetic experience is one in which your senses are operating at their peak, when you're present in the current moment, when you're resonating with the excitement of this thing that you're experiencing, when you're fully alive. An anaesthetic is when you shut your senses off and deaden yourself to what's happening. We're getting our children through education by anaesthetising them. And I think we should be doing the exact opposite. We shouldn't be putting them asleep we should be waking them up to what they have inside of themselves. 

Schools are still pretty much organised on factory lines; ringing bells, separate facilities, specialised into separate subjects. We still educate children by batches; we put them through the system by age group - why do we do that? Why is there this assumption that the most important thing kids have in common is how old they are. It's like the most important thing about them is their date of manufacture. Well I know kids who are much better than other kids at the same age in different disciplines, or at different times of the day, or better in smaller groups than in large groups, or sometimes they want to be on their own. If you're interested in the model of learning you don't start from this production line mentality.  

Well, we need to prepare our children to solve bigger problems (like climate change, population, Individual responsibility and the social sickness of exclusion etc.) than just producing things. We need better humans of us than just Engineers, Managers, Doctors etc. 

Educators have the most critical role to play, the role of "making a Difference". 

~Inspired by a talk at RSA, by Sir Ken Robinson

15 August 2019

देश में बदलाव की एक लहर सी चल पड़ी है,
बदलाव अच्छा है समय समय पर मगर सबके लिए अच्छा बदलाव हो, इसकी किसको पड़ी है?

सबको चाहिए भी सबकुछ और ये के अभी मिल जाए, मुझे कल से क्या, कल की किसे पड़ी है

है मेरे मोहल्ले में भी मेरे जानने वाले, मगर जब उनका कुछ भला हो, वो कभी कभी मेरे लिए भी मुश्किल घड़ी है

फिर 15 अगस्त आया और सबको देखकर मैंने भी देशभक्ति के सागर में छलांग लगा दी
देश विकास के हित में मैं भी योगदान दूंगा
- भ्रष्टाचार, व्यभिचार, और साफ - सफाई पर ध्यान दूंगा

ये सब विचार थे ध्यान में और दो दो सिग्नल तोड़ डाले, तीसरे वाले पर पुलिस वाले ने कहा, चल अब गाड़ी इधर लगा ले,


साफ सफाई सिर्फ दिमाग की हुई उन विचारों से, क्योंकि इस घटना के बाद विचार तो दूर भाग खड़े हुए,
भ्रष्टाचार की बाद में सोचेंगे क्योंकि हम क्या हमारे नेता भी इस बीमारी से बचने में सफल नहीं हुए

और आज दफ्तर पहुंचने की जल्दबाजी में फिर से मैंने वो कूड़े की थैली उस बिजली के खंभे के नीचे ही चुपचाप से सरका दी,
ये सरकार बकवास और वो वाली अच्छी थी कुछ इस तरह की बातों का पकवान दोस्तों के साथ खाया, फेसबुक और ट्विटर पर कुछ बातों के खिलाफ कुछ शोर मचाया,

कल रात को कुछ ऐसे ही विचार लेकर मैं सो गया और आज जब घर से निकला तो . . .

दफ्तरों, सड़कों और वाहनों पर सजे तिरंगे और देशभक्ति के गीत मेरे मन में फिर से एक उम्मीद जगा गए, और वो ही देश हित के विचार फिर से मेरे मन में आ गए।

हालांकि अभी भी, किसी को पानी व्यर्थ बहाते देख गुस्सा होता है मुझमें,
लेकिन फिर भी टॉयलेट की बेहती टोंटी को मैं बन्द क्यूं करूं, वाली बात अभी भी है मुझमें

पूरे साल देशहित में कुछ ना कुछ करते रहने का इरादा है मेरा, मगर पता नहीं क्यूं राष्ट्रीय दिवस पर ही क्यूं देशप्रेम जागता है मेरा

अनेकता में एकता, वसुधैव कुटुंबकम् और अहिंसा ये कुछ बुनियाद हैं हमारे देश की

एक मैं हूं जो ये सिर्फ सोचता हूं और हैं कुछ ऐसे भी लोग जो इन ही विचारों और कर्तव्यों के साथ इस देश का उद्धार कर जाते हैं
मैं और आप... हम इनमें से किस कैटेगरी में आते हैं?

मैं देशभक्त हूं

...odds of religion...

y, but in a fairly short time I had
also begun to notice other oddities. Why, if god was the
creator of all things, were we supposed to "praise" him so
incessantly for doing what came to him naturally? This
seemed servile, apart from anything else. If Jesus could
heal a blind person he happened to meet, then why not heal
blindness ? What was so wonderful about his casting out
devils, so that the devils would enter a herd of pigs instead?
That seemed sinister: more like black magic. With all this
continual prayer, why no result? Why did I have to keep
saying, in public, that I was a miserable sinner? Why was
the subject of sex considered so toxic? These faltering and
childish objections are, I have since discovered, extremely
commonplace, partly because no religion can meet them
with any satisfactory answer. But another, larger one also
presented itself. (I say "presented itself" rather than
"occurred to me" because these objections are, as well as
insuperable, inescapable.) The headmaster, who led the
daily services and prayers and held the Book, and was a bit
of a sadist and a closeted homosexual (and whom I have
long since forgiven because he ignited my interest in
history and lent me my first copy of P. G. Wodehouse),
was giving a no-nonsense talk to some of us one evening.
"You may not see the point of all this faith now," he said.
"But you will one day, when you start to lose loved ones."
Again, I experienced a stab of sheer indignation as well as

... don't know what to call it...

So that's how it goes...
I am with her and happy...Having courage and strength to do do anything that it takes. We're both happy. We make new promises and strengthen old ones. The whole world seems like everything is wonderful...
Then, there comes a moment when I loose it all... my moment of loosing is when I'm driven by an energy that demands from me of pleasure and be physically engaged intimately. My partner isn't willing and I simply don't stop doing anything I'm engaged with...
I thought one should have it if it becomes a need that can't be avoided without a harm... But it is also causing me my love if I simply force...
I settle down thinking I never understand her point of view. This is a bad feeling. Can't I just listen to, and do as expected in the best interest of both of us... maybe I'm reaching there...

That man on a bicycle

... when i come out of my house everyday I notice people on the road...
My mind goes back to the old and traditional way of "analyzing" (actually it might be judgement) their situation and what might be going on in their minds.
I normally do so...

Today when I was waiting at the signal for my friend to come and pick me up for a drop to my office, I saw this rather older man on a bicycle. He had (may be his best clothes) a shirt tugged into his pants. He was trying to go faster maybe but at the same time he was alert if vehicle approaches. May be he was happy also this morning. (May be a little happiness with the little that he may have...) He was on a bicycle though...
Then a car (new baleno with urban blue colour) honks nearby...It was my friend. I sunk into the front seat, with my glasses on, a nice song from passenger... and we went away... but I was thinking. Now my day gets over... n I thought of putting it here...