Politics should be defamilized !

Yes, I am trying to coin a new term.  Defamilized !

Businesses run for profit.  The motive is known, side-effects understood. You have an entire family of doctors.  Those days, such families used to run good hospitals with the sole objective of learning.  I remember my parents speaking of one such family in Trichy.  The father and sons would sit around a table, treating patients, poor and sick from morning till midnight, with just breaks for breakfast, lunch and tea.  They run it in the same fashion the last time I went there.  Yes, it looked like what you would call a government hospital.  But let me tell you.  Those doctors were what you would call 'close to God' for many, poor and moneyless.

That was an age when doctors, teachers and politicians got into it for the sheer joy of doing something good.  Doctors have changed, so have teachers.  But go to any hospital, and you would still find quite a few who follow those principles, who take time to smile and reassure you (I met one such yesterday - God Bless Him !).  Same with teachers.  But the place where people of this tribe have ceased to exist is politics. 

You find people who live out of a two room house standing for elections - oh ! wait.  Nothing wrong with that.  They have cutouts put up in various parts of the city with each huge cutout costing anywhere between 75K to 1L.  Ask them who gave them money for this and they will tell you well-wishers.  Now tell me, won't these well-wisher knock the door again for a wish when you win elections.  Another two months, and the person moves into a bungalow, and then he starts owning entire buildings and acres of land, moving around in a Mercedes. 

I am not telling that all politicians are like this.  I had a friend of mine whose mom won a local election by talking straight, assuring people of doing good and telling them politely that she did not have money to dole out for free.  And she won !!!!  That is what democracy is all about, isn't it.  Those are the stories that reassure you that yes, humanity and dignity still exist among the political lot.

And then I read in the paper yesterday 'Someone is ready to take the plunge if people want him to'.  People, which people - maybe people means just family.  In India, with political families, the entire family is into politics in some way or other.  When business fails, or becomes not so profitable, maybe politics looks assuring.  Maybe ! [Again, I am not telling all of them are like that].  But then, after looking at father-child-grandchild dynasties across the country and looking at how easily people connected get seats, and those who are new have to climb the steep ladder the hard way, it is time I think politics is 'Defamilized'.  Maybe, skip a generation atleast.  So that it does not become an occupation, for it is not a job, even like that of a doctor or teacher or engineer.  Politicians are those who fix the fate of a nation, who steer a country and given that our country is one billion, maybe a wide enough representation of families will help in diversity of views, of thought and of action.

Demotivating should be classified as a crime

Demotivation !  The mention of that word is demotivating.  So, you can imagine what happens when someone tries that with you repeatedly. 

It is a strong and cruel tool used by many people whom we see in our day to day life.  And those who have a strong tongue, a superiority complex or is a person in power uses it with so much ease.  They do it in so many ways :  try to talk you out of doing something, try to put you off, try to tell you that you are not good enough or that the task at hand is something that you cannot or do not have the capacity to handle.  And if all this does not work, then they start striking using means and ways that make you wonder how ? 

With young people especially, motivation is a strong force - which when used can bring wonders.  A little bit of the magic potion, and it makes people whom you could have initially thought inept, do amazing things.  They fly, soar and take paths others would have thought twice. 

So then, one can only imagine the destructive power of the opposite.  Just like the power of love to give and take, motivation has the power to build and destroy, looking at it from different sides.

It takes a person of exceptional courage and willpower to resist that force of demotivation.  Today, you talk to any person working in any field, and they find so many people ready to demotivate and so few to motivate.  Why are we becoming so negative, I wonder ?  Why is it that we (parents, teachers, friends, siblings, employers, employees, ............) try to demotivate people when it is so easy to motivate ?  Why is letting of negative energy so alluring ? 

Sometimes I think demotivating should be classified a crime.  Because it is deadly. It is deadlier than killing the body.   It kills the flame, the eagerness, the happiness, the very soul of a person.  It leaves the person in a state of vacuum.

A Potty Story !

I have not blogged in a long, long time. Not because there weren't topics to blog about - to think out aloud, to thrash. Given the goings on around, there was so much to argue, oppose and find a means to think objectively.

However, a conversation I had yesterday gave me a reason to get back. This was what happened :

I called up my sister, who picked up after a long long time. She had just then given a bath for my four and a half year old niece, which is a task by itself. As she spoke to me, she put on a dress for her. Just then, my niece said she wanted to go potty. I asked my sister if that wasn't unusual - didn't she go before her bath.

Given her vacation, madam has changed her schedule to suit her games and her system has gone wary. My niece was insisting that she was on the verge of going and rushing her mother. Asking her why this last moment hurry, she came out with these :

Conversation - 1:

(Family going out, and daughter asked to go potty so that there is no exceptional event inbetween the outing)

Mother : Deeksha, aren't you finished ?

Daughter : Mama, no !!

Mother : Finish up fast - time to go !

Daughter : Mama, potty is not coming !

Mother : Only if you finish can we go !

Daughter : Mama, potty is sleeping. Let it sleep for some more time. We shall go.

Mother : No ! Only if you finish can you come. Else, mama and papa will have to go alone.

Daughter(heard from the other side of the door) : Potty, come out. Mama is calling. If you don't come out now, mama and papa will go out, leaving us alone at home. So, please come out fast !

I burst out laughing, at the same time wondering how a four year old could make up a conversation so effortlessly. Potty sleeping, so let it sleep for some more time !!!! And look at the articulation - not that

she was trying or not trying. It was the potty not making an effort.

Conversation - 2:

For Madam(my niece), nothing can disturb her games. Everything else, comes second. So, susu and potty can be postponed to the very last minute and is always done in such a hurry - in order to not waste a second of playtime.

So once, before she could remove her dress, susu started off and she couldn't do much. As my sister was mopping the floor with dettol, she offered this explanation. 

Daughter : Mama, I came as fast as I could. I told susu to wait a little but susu just didn't listen. I kept telling susu to wait but susu just didn't. What can I do mama. It is not my fault.

As if, she and her susu are part of two separate systems.......... I was amazed and at the same time laughed at her ingenuity and the workings of a little childs mind. It is amazing the stories they make up(even about susu and potty). And at that time, all I wanted to do, was hug her and kiss her for being just her...........

Rs.25 a day

The Planning Commission has submitted before the supreme court that an individual income of just Rs. 25 a day constitutes adequate “private expenditure on food, education and health.” This amount includes a monthly expenditure of Rs. 31 on rent and conveyance, Rs.18 on education, Rs. 25 on medicines and Rs. 36.50 on vegetables. 

Read:  http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/article2471104.ece

What does this mean ?  That if I earn 25/- a day (assuming 6 days per week for 4 weeks sums to Rs.600) then, I can lead a basic life that will provide me nutritional food, quality education and health.  Who is saying this ?  Have the people who say this tried it out for a day -  a week, forget a month.  Let's assume that basic things like rice, dhal, wheat, sugar... has been procured through the public distribution system.  Even then, if a human being needs to lead a healthy life, he needs to buy vegetables.  Given the cost of vegetables, maybe he will get one piece each - is that enough for a family.  Health - even if I go to a government hospital, I need to travel, but supplements to enable my health.  Education - assume I go to a government school.  So, even considering the above, will it suffice ?  

Looking at it another way, by what is said, a person in that level, can never aspire to something more, because he is not given a chance.  Given the condition of government schools, his/her children cannot aspire to an education that pulls them out of the situation.  The amount and quality of food does not enable a child or an adult to a decent health situation in normal times, forget the times when they are unwell.  

And the worst part is that it comes from the planning commission - which world are these people living in ?  Last week, I was listening to Prof. Kirti Trivedi's comment on MGNREGA.  Many people have the opinion that the NREGA is making people lazy by providing easy access to things.  100 days of work in a year for wages ranging from 100 to 120 a day comes to 10000 - 12000 a year.  All this for only one person in a family.  With this he/she has to provide for a family of 3,4,5,... That is not taken into consideration.  So, 10000 divided by an average of take father, mother, son, daughter-in-law and two children makes it 10000/6 = 1667 per person in a year.  He was right in saying that it is CRUEL to say that MGNREGA is making people lazy and giving them something easily or that it is enough. 

For someone living in poverty or on the fringes of poverty, how much is enough ? Who decides that and how ?

The planning commission today is thinking on the same lines.  Where do we turn to ?  How do they say that a person earning above Rs.25/- a day cannot be categorized under BPL especially given prices of things today.  Then, doesn't a human being need more for just basic existence ?  What about money to pay rent, buy clothes, for entertainment, to eat something different, for travel ?  Or do we think that they do not have the right for that ?

Why don't we have policy makers with a brain and a heart ?  Or is that too much to ask for ?

I am not disabled, I am just a double amputee

 "I am not disabled, I am just a double amputee".  This line by New Zealander Mark Inglis,  shows the mettle he is made of.  Another story of beating the odds - of being an inspiration.

http://www.samachar.com/ldquoI-am-not-disabled-just-a-double-amputeerdquo-lhscK1gigbd.html

Publish Post

Believe you can

There is need to believe you can do it - whatever it maybe.  Mike Powell shows how. 

http://www.rediff.com/sports/slide-show/slide-show-1-long-jump-world-record-holder-mike-powell-interview-bikash-mohapatra/20110705.htm

Teaching ka Side Effects

For any activity we do, there are side effects.  Some that we like and are happy to have.  Others we are not happy with and wish they don't appear.  Teaching has its side effects too.

One of the bad side effects is that you sometimes expect students to be something.  Something more.  Is that right or wrong ?  Good or bad ?  Every time I walk into a class I go with expectations.  Expectations of meeting a bunch of people who are motivated, who are fun and who show what it is to be 20.  Of course you know that continuous lecture sessions can be monotonous.  Still, at the early side of twenty, one should be trying to learn.  Besides, the energy level is high and the capacity to grasp more than when you are on the other side of the curve.      That is one way of looking at it.  However, another way of looking at the same thing is this:  how can I expect something mediocre of my students.  That would be self defeating in the first place.  For, as a teacher, I believe that my students are capable of more.  So, it is my duty to expect more, get them to push themselves and realize that they can do more than what they imagined however within limits of their capacity. Also, in a way that they enjoy and makes the whole thing fun. So, what do you do to get them moving ?

There is however a good side-effect.  The energy, the enthusiasm that you find in the 18-23 year olds.  I may not be twenty but then it rubs off on any teacher.  So, in the mind, as a teacher, it is easier to remain young.  And that is a good thing, given that you need to do just half the amount of exercises and all the other things that people do to remain young.

So, we as teachers get so much more in the bargain.  That's the perks of the job.

(This post was written the day before 'Remembrance'.  Here, I speak about pushing them to do better - is that good or bad ?)

Remembrance

Day before yesterday, that is Wednesday brought some bad news.  Having been away for four years, I was out of touch totally with my students.  Reason being obvious - all I could think of for the four years was research, finishing it up.  Besides, nothing else interested me except the occasional visits to see some handicrafts exhibitions and eat something outside(to escape the messy mess).  During my second year, I heard about Srikanth passing away -  that bright, enthusiastic, I can do it guy.  Not once in all those years of teaching did I think I would hear, that I would come across that moment where you have to think of a student in the past.

It happened again.  Chatting with a colleague about how stress affects our life(I had a migrane that day), we shifted to how students of today have to face the harsh IT world outside.  The news of Alphonse Manoj's death came as a shock. My colleague asked me if I remembered him. How can I forget him.  He did his MCA here.  A soft spoken, naughty guy(in small ways) with that smile always on his face.  I don't remember seeing him any other way.  He was an above average student with reference to studies and was always willing to go that extra step to do things.  The cause for his death was said to be stress.

What are we teaching our students, I wondered ?  Instead of teaching them technical stuff, which they will learn anyway, we need to teach them life skills.  To prioritize, to understand what is important.  At 1:30 that day, when my class approached me to have an extra half an hour in the lab during lunch hour(I had given them a deadline to submit work the next day), I went very reluctantly.  In the lab, looking at their faces, I wondered if it was worth it.  Was it worth taking away 1/2 hr from their lunch break(they had only an hour's class in the afternoon after which they were free).  Still, was it worth it ?  It made me postpone their submission date.  The same thought carried me to class.  It was the same classroom where I had last taken class for Alphonse last(I left afterwards for my PhD) and I remembered the place where he usually used to sit.

Forget taking class, I couldn't put my thoughts together.  The question that came back again and again is - what am I teaching them ?  Am I a teacher in the real sense of the term - a teacher also has the responsibility to prepare you for the world outside.  Where is the time after all the stuff that is cramped into a day.  The IT world - a world where everyone speaks about the money made but there is no statistic to show the side effects - suicides, broken marriages, stress related issues, loneliness, health problems during and afterwards and the outdated date that comes when you are in your late forties.  It is worse than the film world in some sense.  Do the 20 somethings know it - do they know where to say stop and take a breath.

Lot of questions, very few answers.

Are we random or connected ?

One question that many of us ask time and again is whether we, human beings are random or connected in some way.  This news got me wondering.

http://in.news.yahoo.com/barber-murders-customer-over-haircut-173142511.html

Bizzare, but makes us wonder how one thing leads to another.  One word, one action leads to a reaction that cannot be controlled.

Reality strikes

Yesterday, June 15th was the reopening day for all schools in Tamil Nadu.  Coimbatore too was no different. For two months now, the roads especially in the mornings between 8:00 and 9:00 have been traffic free. And then, overnight everything changed. The entire stretch on Avanashi Road starting from near the Anna flyover all the way to the airport was screaming with children and their parents in all forms and shapes of vehicles. It is nice to see kids on the road, cheerful and going to school. Usually, on a normal school day, this road has heavy traffic but nothing like yesterday. So, caught in the jam and knowing that there was no way I was going to reach college on time, I decided to enjoy the jam. I started looking around, analysing how many people were travelling in each vehicle. I was alone in mine(we, my husband and I travelled together till our work places were diagonally opposite). Most cars had a parent and kid, or a driver, parent and kid. And there was tension, on the drivers and parents face. Most of the kids were unfazed by the turmoil around. Kids were dressed all in new - new uniforms, new bags and there was a certain calm in their faces maybe after the long period of vacation.

Back to the point, the whole cause of so much traffic was parents being sentimental and wanting to drop their kids personally on day one. So, instead of going by a school bus, or an autorickshaw, here they were closeted in a car and taken safely to school. In the midst of all this, there were people who were vomitting on the road - no not children, but parents. They are not used to this chaos and I guess it was too much for them.

So reality strikes me then. After two months of luxury on the roads, it is time to get back to normalcy. This is how it is going to be till the next vacation. There's no chance of seeing a vacant stretch on the roads for sometime now.

For the people, by the people and of the people

Democracy is something that countries like ours hold sacrosant.  The Congress was once a party that threw the British out through satyagraha.  But the congress of today shuns satyagraha.  No wonder Gandhi asked for the dismantling of the Congress immediately after independence.  Any citizen of this country has the right to hold peaceful demonstrations over matters he thinks is plausible.  Here, the issue was one that has put the country in turmoil.  The amounts quoted as lost in scams(ill-gained by many) are astronomical and have been done with the knowledge of the government of the day. Hence, the support for the cause by the people. 

However, instead of cleaning up, they seem to be doing the opposite.  True, how can they clean up.  Where should they start.  Every person, bottom to top is hand in hand in this fiasco.  I can't for a moment think that other people in the government have not got a percentage.  It can't be just these few people who benefited.  So, the question is how are we going to get to the bottom of this ? 

Instead of giving a political colour and calling each other names, it is time we cleant up our system. 

Learn to fight

Every time I write something a little sad, I find one that counters it all.  Gives me answers and shows the bright side.  Here is one:

http://in.education.yahoo.com/news/yeducareers360/obstacles-helped-these-men-earn-mega-success-20110507

Women and Equality - a long way to go

The U.S., a country that has been in the forefront of many a revolution, including women's voting and equality rights faces the same issue even today.


Find the difference between the two pictures :

Answer: Both the women in the picture are missing !!!!

http://www.samachar.com/This-paper-made-Hillary-disappear-from-Osama-op-pic-lfkkKBfcihi.html

Will there even be an equal world for women ?