The Good Side of the Bad

 Well, I would not know whether you, too, are a diehard optimist  like me. Well, as for me, I always try my level best to find the good, the proverbial silver lining, in the worst situation. 

Let me give you a concrete example. Most all people love to hate the social media. I look at it as a helpful friend. No, I am not talking about the "seven best quotes by Shakespeare" types of info bits, though I do flip through these. 

Actually, not only on the YouTube, but on very many internet sites, there is a huge pile-up of information, basic to advanced, on very many topics. I do browse through such pages, of course, for a given limited time. Yet indeed it is time well spent. 

Similarly, in the worst kind of scenario, I always try and see something positive, a minute little thing one learns from it. An example could be the following. i know how one feels when the so-called busy people would not answer your message. As a result, till this day, I have never ever left a message unanswered. I might just use at least an emoji even though my knowledge of emoji's is not very thorough.

Even when it comes to people, even if they are not closely located in my lifescape, I try to learn from others' negative traits. A hypocrite may show me the snake in the garden, while a frenemy would teach me how not to be too very credulous. 

In brief, in this life of ours, every moment is a teacher, every situation adds to experiences, every person, even when distant, is a trainer! Life, in brief, is a school which allows you to be a life long learner, and every day is an exam where you may seemingly fail to soon pass it with flying colours.

Pratima@ We may fall/fail again and again. In the process, we rise/raise ourselves time and again, right? 

Relevant any longer?

 Recently, on October 24 to be precise, was celebrated the United Nations day. A truly decisive body in the post World War II period of the suspicions filled Cold War era, it started losing its valency and value in the post perestroika period which preceded the full scale LPG blast. Till the seventies, so powerful it was that there was  a fiat to the effect that all the allied nation states must declare It a public holiday. 

With the LPG, it was the IMF and WB that gained currency, and literally! With the consumerist mentality ruling the roost, any ism that mattered was capitalism. The fall-out of all these ideological upheaval is the multi-focal world today.

The American bossing, rooted in the dollar power, is unmistakably being questioned. The binaries such as South/North, colonising/colonised, developed/developing, rich/poor no longer matter much in the post Covid era. Covid indeed was a leveller.

It raised questions about China being the only production hub of the world. In this questioning lie the possibilities of India emerging as the world's economical, vibrant production center. 

In other words, such is the soft-ly backed hard power of India that India can begin a parallel U.N. with the help of the countries it helped during the Covid.

To remain relevant, the U.N. must understand this subtle but sure shift of power patterns, and the U.N. should follow the inevitable process of democratic decentralisation. Long live the U.N.

Often it is said now that in the multi-polar world, if the U.N. does not fall in line, India can create a parallel U.N. with the help of the  countries it helped during the Covid.

Well, such democratic opening and decentralisation of the American-European power bodes well, as all would indeed be well in such a world. For the Indian youth, it is necessary to constantly upskill themselves so that in the AI era, they can thus develop a safe country, a h(e)aven for all.

Pratima@ The brave new world demands brave new policies, too! 

Professional Ethics

 Is there a difference between a job  and a profession? Undoubtedly, yes, there indeed is! A job would always give you a salary, but not often satisfaction. May be, it need not be your vocation. Definitely not your avocation. A job is for the pay cheque, right?

When it comes to your vocation, and certainly when it comes to your avocation, you are not much concerned with contacts, promotions, power, power positions, pay packages. These are absolutely irrelevant.   An avocation is the call of your soul. You follow that path, however much untraversed, because both the final destination, and this narrow lane which leads you thither are your dream.

Does that mean that whatever could be your job is a mere compromise? Does that grant you the permission to care for it the least? No way because that is where professional ethics walks in.

 One may not like the job. One is there because one has good contacts in the field, and so one lands the job easily.  In fact, much much better candidates with far far superior abilities do not get it because of your connections.

Let us look at a concrete example. Most often, most people are in to teaching because they would get a permanent position with the seventh commission pay, thanks to their wonderful contacts, and often deep pockets. Often  Daddy or Mummy or Guide Sir or Hubby would have reserved, even created, the position for such people.

Do such people care about the student clientele (for them!), the discipline or the branch, the subject or the 'paper' they teach? Most often, not! Teaching for them is a routine rut. 

Most often, they would not conduct lectures under some pretext or the other. If they actually teach, they would pontificate most indifferently with the help of the same notes (at times, 'guides') made almost once and for all. Their own hold over the subject would be nothing to write home, or anywhere for that matter, about.

During staff meetings, they would repeatedly discuss in detail the syllabus design, but never ever the actual content because 'friends' are to be 'maintained', contacts cannot be offended, no? Who cares, how does it matter if the perfectly structured syllabus has no depth, or the actual texts chosen are centuries old, are not relevant to the current contexts, to students' needs and/or their futures?

 So long as a typical format gets followed (which even a set computer programme can do), and your 'friends' are 'satisfied', why worry about the contents? Who cares about the objectives of education? THAT is the total lack of professional ethics which murders great institutions, and education, and the society in the final analysis! 

Pratima@Lack of professional ethics kills you (and completely) to begin with, and then you murder the very spirit of everything. No waters of all oceans can clean that stain on your conscience, if any at all!

A real special day!

 October 28 is indeed special. Wanna know why? Well, it is dedicated to Mahrishi Valmiki. It is supposed to be his birth anniversary. Not to worry. I am not going to get in to the debate regarding his birth. Well, I have not read enough about this issue. Unless I have myself looked up all the references, I never get in to the identity politics kinda debates. 

My focus, moreover, is absolutely different. In my opinion, Mahrishi Valmiki is the foremost author who establishes beyond doubt both the vibrancy and primacy of literature, however much most people may snigger at it as irrelevant in the torrid times today.

Literature, as the epic Ramayana proves, blooms out of a deeply moving episode. Remember the first shloka of the Ramayana? "Ma nishad: tvam..." proves how literature has empathy as its very base. Hence the relevance of literature in the heartless, soul-lacking era now.

This first ever shloka of Sanskrit literature, moreover, has at least two meanings which proves essentially the open, democratic nature of literature. No epic, no novel, no play, no poem, however realistic, would ever have one and one and only one meaning. There would always be layers after layers of meaning which would open up as per the reader's capacity. Indeed "as many readers, as many interpretations" is the versatile depth of literature. In other words, literature makes a reader a creator as well. Once again, such creativity is seminally needed in the ChatGPT kinda of times today. 

Literature, moreover, creates for us paradigms of ethics,  the ideals we can follow, as in the "Ramayana", and  literature attempts it in the most indirect, non-didactic way. Literature thus enriches the reader deeply, but most subtly.

The real value of literature is that such enhancement reaches us most artistically. Once the metre of the epic was set with "ma nishad: ", faultlessly followed it was! Such sound design, the figures of speech, the rhetorical weave of literature are truly subtle, and yet very effective.

Ever youthful, literature, moreover, is an individual oriented art. Unlike music, drama or films, it is not a group activity in the making. A book, a reader and a cup of coffee with a pet silently snoozing at your feet can create a brilliant universe which vicariously exposes all the villainies of the real world, and yet empowers the innocent vision that makes life worth living.

Well, i can go on and on and on about how words create worlds. Given this fecundity of literature, this tribute to the "epic" author!

Pratima@ "Literature irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become," says C.S. Lewis

Gratitude enriches us!

 In my opinion, gratitude is the greatest virtue. What say? Well, the biggest debt of gratitude, of course, goes to our parents.  The mother who gives us birth, rears us literally giving up her selfhood sure needs all our gratefulness. But so does the father. His silent love, care, concern which give wings to our dreams often get overlooked, a serious emotional crime in my opinion. 

Next, our siblings deserve our deep appreciation. They 'know' us, and hence support us the best when it comes to tough times. The very feel that in this huge wide universe, there is somebody in whose veins courses the same blood as yours is a very calming feel, right?

I do sincerely and seriously think that our profession as well as the institute where we work deserve our gratefulness. Most all people look at the job as a boring routine to be "finished" off, as a rut outside which lies life! Well, forget all high funda ideals, the two time meals proceed thence!

Sure, Mother Nature, Motherland, Society, our pets, too, need our eternal thankfulness, right? Unfortunately, however, most of us ignore them, ill-treat them, vitiate them the worst way, right?

Friends, too, deserve our thanks if they are the right ones. If the friends are distractions in human forms and/or frenemies in trendy clothes/gadgets, lives get ruined. Friends, like jealous, vicious relatives, are a double edged weapon, to be carefully, cautiously handled.

I do think, however, that at least some part of our gratitude should be reserved for our own "self", ready to grow, committed to constant self-analysis, standing up to any negativity, however quixotic it may appear to others, the  balanced "i-deal" that makes life worth living, i believe! 

In brief, one should be like the Datt Avatar who found a "guru" in everything he encountered and in everyone he met, live, inanimate, small or big, human or animal, and so on! Thus takes roots gratitude in our being, and thus flowers a life that becomes a gorgeous garden worth a visit day n night!

Pratima@ Gratitude for today, for the tomorrow, while thanking every experience past makes us truly beautiful, right?

Attention, please!

 The low attention span, that is the grouse that defines the current context. Believe me, it is not just the classroom that suffers this deadly dis-ease. Why, the much beloved channels (not any longer, what with the mobile and the OTT) cannot boast of holding the spectators' attention. Flipping through countless channels is the fav (see, never any attention gets paid to the full form when quickie pronunciations and vivid emojis do the job fast!) hobby of many viewers whose remote runs faster than the score board when Kohli is batting.

Why is the attention span so low? Ideally, as per the human physiology and the brain chemistry, forty-five minutes form the upper limit. Now, however, being bored boils down to five minutes tops. 

One of the reasons could be the  information overload and easy accessibility of shallow information. Let me give you an example. Till almost 2010, apps were not so very easily available. When a kid learnt a foreign language hence, he had to pay attention. Now, ladle de pappaji aur mummiji believe that hundreds of app's and thousands of YouTube videos can turn their silly, over- pampered brat in to an expert overnight. So who needs attention!?!

With the advent of the AI, the malaise may grow, and worse. Till now, one had to stay put and browse through the very many sites. Now a minimal feed in to the ChatGPT finishes off in a jiffy what would take tedious hours earlier. Why and who would need attention span? When being 'creative' is so easy, who needs riyaz or why the eye-(and brains, if any)straining read, right?

Look at the celebrities now. They are here today, and gone tomorrow. Everything appears to be fast now, inclusive of all the meanings of the term 'fast', mind you. Attention, which comes from a Latin root which means give heed to, be alert, obviously needs time and systematic consideration, and is hence scarce.

Unfortunately, low attention span does not merely affect pedagogic or professional abilities. Slowly but surely, human relationships, including close bonds, are turning in to kaleidoscopic images that shift and re-arrange with every tilt and each twist! That is the real tragedy with no possible happy ending lining any near or distant horizon!

Pratima @ We still have time, a lot of time, to make ourselves what we truly are, if only we pay attention!

Celebrations: Mere Traditional rituals?

 "Dasara San motha/nahi Ananda tota" was the childhood rhyme that glorified Diwali the same way. Roughly it can be translated as "Dasara is a festival great/joy aplenty, and the best!" Yes, festivals create that happy, joyous, contented mood. Sure, it is a lot of hard work for the home maker. That is okay though. Tough, punishing schedules anyways are the norm, right?

When we were young, Aai-Papa celebrated every festival with lot of fervour. There was not any religiosity, but basic customs and traditions were followed to the t. Every Dasara, in the evening, Papa and us used to go to the Ganesh temple. Without fail, Aai used to perform the "औक्षण" when we returned. I remember very well the "himru" shawl, the "pat", the unique rangoli she used to draw with the wheat pearls.

 We used to look forward to these rituals as much as the sweets and the new clothes. Not only were we told the traditional tales about the festivals, the reasons behind all the rituals were explained as well. Why,  at home, the national festivals used to be celebrated as well!

We could never give a miss to the August 15 or January 26 parades, even when the school was some solid ten kilometers away. Moreover, back at home, we had to write essays, make speeches on all such occasions, including Tilak and Gandhi Jayanti. No wonder, I got the state level first prize for my essay on Tilak even when I was just a sixteen year old, and the other competitors were much, much older.

These days, however, festivals are mere buying sprees. Often, people choose to eat the festival special lunches in hotels, or buy these meals online. Most rituals are dismissed as mere superstitions. The dry "apta" leaves in the market these days are no patch on the beautiful handcrafted paper leaves, heart-shaped and golden-painted, that we made every Dasara.

No, I am not being nostalgic. My problem is with the consumerist mentality. I feel in the empty chase of false modernity dictated by the market forces, children today are missing on the lovely memories made during the childhood, and lasting a lifetime.

 In such practices, moreover, lay a subtle concern for the environment, and for the basic agriculture oriented Indian lifestyle. Undue wastage was a no-no, too. Even today, I cannot thoughtlessly  waste food, nor do i like electricity stupidly wasted. I cannot sleep with full a/c on, and two blankets!

No, I am absolutely not stingy. Quietly, i would spend quite a lot on social causes, though i might not wear tight jeans and tees with plunging necklines that leave nothing to imagination. The bindi on my forehead may make silly shallow fools believe that I am traditional, but most humbly I can state that my deep awareness and thorough knowlege of not only my discipline, but very many other subjects is most up to date! 

In a way, traditions and customs craft such a holistic personality for us as indirectly values get instilled. I am eternally thankful and grateful to my parents who created for us a happy childhood filled with love and care.

Pratima@ Modernity is a complex phenomenon with a unique relationship with the tradition.