India – young and old

Few days back i was participating in a TV talk show – the topic was ‘ whether youngsters in India respect elder’s advice or not?’

here are some of my views …

who is an elder and who is younger?

can we just judge by age ? is it right?

if so  are we then contradicting Indian history and philosophies which have always been focusing on the point that age doesn’t makes one younger or elder. On the other hand experience makes a person  mature.

Our nation never hesitated in accepting youngsters views – we had leaders like Shivaji and Bhagath Singh,Viveknanda  on one hand and  mahathma gandhi, Patel,Netaji on the other.

Generation gap was not happening in India then, why now?

I feel  the best aspect of our Indian culture is the repeated idea that’s been emphasized on one single point and that is … ” Don’t judge ”

who are we to judge others? let’s live and try to understand ourselves first.

and the other important issue ‘ letting go of ego’

but today our society especially crowded with people who boast themselves as ” culture protectors of India”  are too judgmental on  everything …

we are so worried about women’s dress code  and youngsters not touching the feet of elders as a mark of respect … but we are totally not concerned about really bigger issues  that’s not only affecting the next generation but the elders as well .

What are we providing for the gen next? a polluted,corrupted,valueless society?  and in turn  demanding respect from younger people ?

how is this logically correct?

politicians watch pornographic clips in parliament

and

youngsters are beaten up when they go to pubs !

Respect doesn’t comes by demand it comes from your acts – that’s how i feel.

many parents feel that  in today’s world kids don’t listen to elder’s views,

point is listening doesn’t matters doing matters and following matters

the problem lies on both side  elders fail to  understand  youngsters and like wise kids too are indifferent towards elders.

for any relationship to thrive there must be love,trust and maturity, this applies to parents and kids too.

The recent incident that shocked Chennai – a school boy brutally murdering a teacher  is an alarming result of a big problem that’s growing in our society.

Thought this incident is a specific one and it cannot be generalized and we cannot draw any generalized conclusion from this brutal act.

Yet few question does arises

few blame the teacher’s strictness and today’s stress full education system

few blame the kids -they are violent and inhuman

few blame the parents

but what can we achieve by blame game?

nothing

this act is a crime no doubt about it

but the killer being a school kid and the victim a school teacher is what all that matters

the simplest straight forward  reason is ‘lack of values’ – not only among kids is a fact that must be understood here, for crime rate in India is alarmingly high

there is no blaming here, the kid has lost his values – responsibility for this act is on society – we can’t pinpoint one single person for this.

this is just an example ,

our education teaches getting 100% marks

kids learn the value of money

kids learn how important quotas are

so amid all these humanity and self respect often gets missed

today the kids IQ levels have risen so high, molding it positively or otherwise depends on one’s own survival skills and personal values 

kids are young people with their own mind and individuality we must realize this , so forcing our views on them won’t help much.

What happens when we forcefully change a new generation’s thought?

Hitler when he gained administrative powers in Germany, closed all the youth clubs and turned them into his brainwash camps for young people.. the result was the Nazi army!

While in India we had real leaders like Gandhi ji, Bhagath Singh and Vivekananda who turned youths to positive human power. So it all depends on what we believe and do

sharing our experiences would be of much help to the next generation rather than boring them with advice.

you change … the world will change, this applies to elders and youngsters too.

history is actually not so boring :)

At school i always had better things to do in my histrory class ,like

gossiping with friends,

fighting with not so friendly class mates,

sketching in my note book,

seriously watching all the interesting things happening around our school from the window ( i always had a window seat ! lucky me )

for history lessons were so boring, i used to seriously wonder why did the schools taught so many unwanted things? like physics, maths, history ( all most all the subjects, seemed so useless … language was at least tolerable , for you get to read stories.)

especially History i despised most, all credit goes to the dates , that one had to remember,

and the names of the dynasty’s and kings , ( some kings shared the same name ,  making a student’s life miserable)

i felt like murdering some kings , for they had done nothing other than planting trees and digging wells,

i wondered how a king with all his majestic attire and a sword would have dug a well? seemed pretty awkward to me then,

our history teacher at school was not helpful either, she was so particular about the years and places had taken place, that i almost had a tough time before all my history exams,

some of my friends had this capacity to write pages and pages of answers the talent i never grasped, that would have helped , for i think the teacher tends to fall asleep halfway through  your papers and you end up getting more grades.

so in my school days i decided once for all that i would never ever turn to the subject of history.

but that all changed once i joined high school, during my annual holidays  i joined the USIS and BC libraries, i was introduced to a new world of books that were so different from my text books!

these books were quiet simple, yet had real good information on manifold subjects such as,  science,literature,technology,humanity,history,philosophy and so on…

i also had all the time to ponder over our publication works and my grand dad helped me select some good books on various subjects in Tamil .

so i was all set for a holiday with lots of good stuff to read.

i was over whelmed by the new things i learnt through those wonderful books,

i comprehended  with out chemistry we couldn’t use tooth paste, medicines… and physics helps you understand nature better,

maths helped you manage money, and to calculate stuffs that would make life easier

while language was a door to literature and art , that were nothing but life

though literature was my favorite subject, with out even knowing i was involved with history, Darwin’s theory on evolution, ice age, Indus valley civilization ,  Aryan -Dravidian issues, human communication, empires of India, foreign invasions, freedom movement,revolutions, world history…mesmerized me.

i understood the splendor of our past that i failed to grasp before, and then it dawned on me that all the subjects were interlinked and it was essential to understand these subjects

history was no more boring, it turned out to be rather an interesting subject, that was like time travelling backwards

at times some heroes of the past were more inspiring than a famous

fictional super hero – i  realized that emperors did more than planting trees and digging well,

while some battles of the history, were more interesting than an action movie.

so after all history isn’t so boring 🙂

why can’t i enjoy eBook like a hard copy?

Okay, its kinda weird, i don’t know how many of you feel like me,

reading ebook, tried but seems that’s not my cuppa ‘chai’

for a person like me who is crazy about books, and always love to read anytime, any where,

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

i really don’t feel comfortable reading a whole book from laptop, iPad, eBook reader,cellphone etc

its an odd feeling, i enjoy reading in the old fashioned way, rather than hooked to an electronic device,

main issue is, the smell, any true book worm would agree with me, the smell of a book (new or old) can never be missed,

next comes the pleasure of page flipping, how can anyone miss the satisfaction of turning the pages?

nothing can match the rustle and the  paper’s texture brushing our fingers while flipping pages 🙂 not even the virtual page flipping effects helps me.

most important thing i can’t compromise is choosing,browsing and buying books from book shops – love to shop books. I love the experince of choosing a book by its cover, (often by its back cover 🙂

and convincing myself whether to buy a paper back or a library edition,

to me when i hold a book and read it , i completely surrender myself to it, its like a rhythmic act,

there is nothing else apart from me and the book while i read it.

Nothing makes me happier than a good book on a rainy day with a cup of coffee 🙂

anyways i don’t have anything against e books 🙂 its just my personal choice.

i don’t think i can ever enjoy a complete book in any other form other than a real book.

 

 

 

my hand painted tennis shoes :)

ok.. this is a lighter blog , i bought a pair of canvas shoes and i painted them this weekend,

it was easy and fun 🙂

all u need is acrylic paints, brushes, a pallet , cd markers , thats it,

you can easily create designs on your canvas shoes ! takes around 2 hrs to do this .

 

What is time?

A scientist met Khalil Gibran  and asked  ‘What is time?’

Gibran immediately responded by saying ‘take me to a river bank’

Scientist took Gibran to a river . Gibran pointed the river , said ‘here the river that flows is time…

we can only see it from the bank.

It is absurd  to measure time as measuring the flowing river’ said Gibran.

As a person who wishes to travell on the river would have to swim along with the speed and force of the river, similarly the person who wishes to act per time must adapt his or her act and change it as per time.

Time is a predominant tool among the things man has used to improvise his life…

From Ariyabattah, Aristotle to Albert Einstein… how many scientists have brought up- how many questions about time?!

Some questions has answers, some are still unreciprocated …

We too may have asked these questions and searched for answeres.

‘ The concept of Time ‘ is a myth says a group.

While ‘ no time exists’ claims another.

These arguments goes on… on.. for ever.

Questions have been asked upon the begining /origin of time.

For this some say, ‘time has begun long time back’.

Others disagree by  asking ‘everything begins at some time, so how can time has a origin?’

Everything do have two types of views, based on a real /practical explanation and a theoretical/philosophical explanation.

How ever, Time is essential for each one of us.

time calculation has become a main part of our day to day life. Time is essential for each and every act of ours. Time is unsubstituted.

Calculating time is an age old act, that has been in practice among us for a long time.

The greeks invented clocks in B.C. 250 similarly, Egyptians invented calendar and based on human life pattern, year,month,day,hours were formed, long long ago by Babylonian civilization.

2200 years ago Hipparchus a Greek scientist impeccably calculated the days in a year.Latter a day was divided into 24 hours.

Today’s time calculation is the result of such many age old efforts. The purpose of the invention of todays most accurate watches is to make our life and time more useful.

To whom are these effeorts are for?

Youth must use these facilities to the maximum.

All these efforts and inventions are aimed towards the growth and sucess of younger generation.

Through this not only the student’s life gets enriched, the human community gets enhanced too.

To get such  an enriched future we must spend our time completely for productive work.

We must utilise time…

How do we do that?

—   A small part from my book ‘time management for students’