Walls

We supposedly live in a global world without boundaries- Where we treat people equally- Where we have no preconceived notions of people and what they represent. But do we really? Even the ones among us who say we do. And that includes me.

How many times have we judged a person even before we get to know them- How many times have we judged a person based on where they are from, how they look, what religion they follow, what color they are- We all do this in one form or the other. When is it that we can live in a world where we can work towards a common goal without worrying about all this.

Because until then we have failed as a race.

We are one. The only way to make things happen is to realize that. Make the world a better place for us all. Break down the walls. Erase those boundaries. Make an effort, start today. Have a simple philosophy- Don't do to others what you cant tolerate being done to you.

The indian education hullabaloo

One of my lunch mates these days is an American and the inspiration to pen my thoughts on this topic is a direct result of a conversation I had with him a few days ago.

The Indian guys in the group were explaining how the Indian education system works and it struck me as appalling as to how draconian a system we have. Every time we explained how something works in Indian schools he burst out laughing. And this is a bunch of us coming from the best schools in the country. The idea of learning by rote and the manner of punishments meted out to the so called 'failures' makes the whole concept of schooling irrelevant.

This got me thinking on whats the primary goal of education- UNESCO defines the role of education as follows:

Education should be a means to empower children and adults alike to become active participants in the transformation of their societies. Learning should also focus on the values, attitudes and behaviors which enable individuals to learn to live together in a world characterized by diversity and pluralism.

Does our education system do any of this? We are just hell bent on making stencilled out students confirming to industrial standards with no scope for creative or cultural or social expression. The fact that some have found means to not confirm to these so called rules is a testament to their stubbornness rather than the system through which they have been put through. But what is it that's so really wrong with our system? It lacks one crucial quality - freedom.

Freedom of expression, freedom of choice, freedom to just do what you want to do. We claim to be a free country and in principle we are but in essence we are curbing the freedom of kids. How many kids get to do what they are good at? Especially if what they are good at is not something which is socially or economically acceptable. How many kids have had to abandon their obvious talent on something and join the rat race to compete at something they are not even interested in. The problem is however more deep rooted than we think and is not limited to the education system. Its society at large. The way we look down upon on someone who does not do well within the established set of rules and goals of the system is despicable. He/she is labelled a failure. Who knows of how many extraordinary talents we lost to this kind of attitude. Its about time this came to an end.

There has to be a change. Every single person is different - allow that expression of difference. That will bring the much needed diversity in our world. All we now have are meaningless copies sput out by the system. The change has to first come in terms of attitude of the society at large - we have to accept that not everyone wants to be an engineer or a doctor or whatever it is that's in fashion now. Parents have to realize that their children are not a means to achieve their dreams or the societies dreams . Give them that freedom. Cultivate and nourish their interests. You ll make truly better people out of them. And yes - they will be able to fend for themselves in this so called dog-eat-dog world.

The way I see it these people will not be the also-rans we are, they will be the head of the curve.

This felt more like a rant than my previous post. :)

ps: An organization which has similar views on education and is doing something about it:

http://pudiyador.org/pudiyador/index.shtml

A rant

Why can't we just do what we want to do,

say what we want to say,

and just be what we want to be.

Why do we always have to live someone else's life,

doing things the way they are 'meant' to be done,

leading a life of conformance and acceptance.

Is it really that hard?

Why cant we all just Live.

The truth about lies

girl: Am I getting fat?

guy: (Without a moment's hesitation) Of course not, In fact I think you have lost a bit of weight recently.

girl: Wow that girl sure is pretty.

guy: Oh no.. Not as pretty as you. (While secretly thinking woo hoo What a girl!)

teacher: Where is your homework?

student: My cow ate it.

Now unless you are a Gandhian I am sure your responses to the above situations might have been just as dishonest(Probably a bit more imaginative). Why do people lie? Is lying really such a bad thing as most people around me keep telling me?

Before I penned this down I thought of all the lies I cooked up over this week. Almost all of them had the same effect. They just made people happy or more comfortable about you or themselves. Take the teacher example: Now find me one person who thinks that's a worse response than telling the teacher I was too lazy to do it or that I was too busy having fun to be worried by mundane things like my homework. The thing about lies is as long as they dont hurt anybody they are perfectly acceptable.

So...Keep lying. It makes the world a better place.

Disclaimer: Dont refresh your memory to see when I was lying and when I was not. If what I said was something nice I probably was lying ;)

Abyss

Its happening all over again,
All I can see is light all around and a speck of darkness in the end.

I feel light.. I am laughing....
The inevitability of the darkness fails to cloud my euphoria,
But its there, present and threatening to take over and plunge me into the depths of despair.

Suddenly its dark and I can see light at the end of the tunnel
I am falling.. Into an abyss.

Love....

"I go to office daily, come home, eat and sleep and wait for the weekends." Sounds familiar? Well that's the only response I get from the mid 20's crowd when asked the generic and loaded question "How's life?". At this point I can bet a few of you are thinking this fella has got the title of the blog as Love and is rambling about something totally different, has he truly lost it?

Well No, I haven't quite lost it, at least not yet. Here's love in a whole new perspective and the most important kind of love we all need to pursue but don't.
Whats the one thing around which your life revolves? Whats the one thing you spend most of your time and effort on?
Its what you do.
So why do you whatever it is that you do? Do you enjoy it? Do you truly deeply and madly love it? I can't think of one person I know who ll answer in the affirmative to this including yours truly. So what do we do about it?

Follow your heart. Just do what you love. Some may say this is wistful, impractical even downright crazy but there is sense to all this madness. If you do something which you love doing you ll inevitably be good at it. Its a rare gift to know what you love to do. Many people(me included) are not that gifted and that's what stops them from taking the step into the unknown. Don't throw away that gift, Its your key to 'true happiness'.

PS: I was inspired to write this after reading this:
http://www.paulgraham.com/love.html

Its all about money honey! Or is it?

Calvin:True friends are hard to come by ... I need more money.

Happiness is a tricky concept. You cant quantify it neither can you be really sure of it. Whats that got to do with the title? Well inexorably the biggest link to happiness is through yet another tricky concept. That of money.

Lets not kid ourselves here. I am not going to be one of those guys with their ludicrous views that money aint essential at all. You need it unless you intend to live like an animal. You need money to survive and live in a civilized and respectable way but once that is taken care of do you really need it? My view on this is you do but how much is anyone's guess, that's a rather personal choice. Somehow all my introspection and the posts which result from that wind up on the concept of "True Happiness". I think I mentioned it in my last post to be truly happy live life like a kid. I again have to return to that holy grail: True happiness. Give yourself a minute and think about the last thing in the recent past which made you 'Truly' happy and I can bet that it did not involve money.

So whats this true happiness thing I keep harping about. So when are you truly happy? Say people earn a million bucks a year but just absolutely hate their job and wish they would rather be doing something other than earning all this money. The same people once in a while get to spend that money and 'believe' that makes them happy. For me the bottom line is if happiness is tied to money you can never be truly happy and live life the way it is to be lived.
You ll never be rich enough and consequently never be happy enough. Money is just the means to reach the 'truly happy' state but not a end and be all in itself.

The most important things which I feel are needed to be truly happy(In no particular order)
Love...
Wait hang on. That's all you need.

That's another post for another day and don't worry its not going to be a corny one involving flowers and heart shaped thingies.