Thursday, February 23, 2012

This Education begets Ignorance!

I dedicate my latest blog to all the clueless children who grow up into clueless adults and then rear their children towards becoming the same. I am actually a very positive person with no suicidal tendencies but the last time I really felt like killing myself was when one of my co-workers showed me a shining example of her knowledge of geography.

Another of my co-worker was going on a vacation and we were having a conversation while strolling in office post lunch.We quizzed her on her itinerary and she said that she would be visiting Bhutan.At this, the lady in question(she is a graduate of one of the most reputed colleges in India)  exclaimed "Wow Bhutan, that's in Nepal right!".

I was also tempted to ask her if she knew that Meghalaya and Mizoram are Indian states , but I just couldn't risk a heart attack that her answer could have triggered.

I am sure my parents  never heard about the current buzzwords like raising a "well rounded child" but in our homes history and geography were just as important as Mathematics and Physics.You just could not get a great score in Mathematics and Physics without explaining why I can't name the state where the Sun temple is located.

But now I see a scary trend growing all around me.With children as young as ten being bundled off to IIT preparation schools , I don't imagine their grammar skills going anywhere beyond the basic email communication.With the constant focus on earning great pay checks and the software industry being the easiest way to do that, aren't we stifling the overall development of our children?

Shakespeare? Forget about that gentleman.He will not get you into a reputed engineering college will he? If it has anything to do with Einstein or Newton, my child is all ears.

One of the most reputed (read expensive) schools in Hyderabad has two campuses.One is called, you guessed it, the Newton campus and other one of course the Einstein campus.I don't think that they will be adding a campus called Shakespeare or Milton in a hundred years.I am putting my money on Galileo though.

I can't imagine if it is possible to grow up into a positive , happy and sensitive individual if you did not learn to appreciate poetry and art.

There is so much beauty is languages.The process of putting your thoughts into words, being able to hold an intelligent conversation, being inquisitive should all that not be a part of growing up? If it is not, well what a pity!

Beyond promoting creativity, self-confidence and bringing maturity into your thought process, a good education also teaches you to be non judgmental.It breaks the barriers of a stifled thinking and encourages sensitivity.

So the next time when you see a woman drinking or two men holding hands, before you give them a disapproving look thinking its against the Indian culture, I would advise you to go back to your ABC or bring up your children well.

Wednesday, February 15, 2012

Demystifying Facebook


Now that I am back from my holidays and settled into the monotony of my daily life, the only spark left in my office life is Facebook(I have my young daughter to light up my  life at home)

I log in to it first thing in the morning for my daily dose of humor. I find the posts from friends and friends of friends funnier than the updates from Calvin and Hobbes page that I subscibe too.

The FB users can be classified into 4 broad categories. They being :-

1.I don't care
2.I care about making you care
3.I care but its uncool to show that I do
4.I care , You care (as in you like my pictures and I will like yours)

The first ones are the sullen lot who created an FB account and then forgot all about it. But once in a while when their baby/toddler/child accomplishes a feat that they feel was tougher than conquering mount Everest ,you see updates  from them

So one fine  day you have pictures with titles like “Ayaan tying his shoe laces” and posts like “Yippee Maggie is toilet trained :)”

They are most uninteresting lot and I grade them lowest in the funny quotient. But a spelling mistake from them can make your day. For e.g. "My Kids love going to the zoo. Their excrement is worth watching". 
Well , No thanks I am not interested in watching any more excrement.My daughter shows me enough of it already. But on a positive note let’s just say that they are nice people and nice people don't have interesting lives do they?


The second lot is my favorite. Trust them to pep up your life every single day. So if you post the picture of your brand new car say an Alto the reply that you will most likely get is "Wow Congo.Thats a very reliable car. And great color too. My Honda city is the same color."

So you know that they have made their point and accomplished the purpose of their existence on FB. You see regular updates from them and titles on their pictures range from wifey/hubby and me in lucknow to wifey/hubby and me Las Vegas. You get every details on their lives ranging from where they holiday , party to where they (ahem ahem) pee.

So if you see a picture with title like "My hotel room and bath in Manali" you know which category user it belongs too ;)


The third category  people post smart quotes from some funny quotes site and then disappear for the rest of the day only to emerge the next day with a fresh quote. They like to portray themselves as the intellectual lot who are using FB for something worthwhile. 
Trust these morons to do away with your desire for food by posting a horrific picture of a disfigured child with some dumb comment like "FB will pay $1 for every share for this cancer stricken" child. 
They are naïve , dumb and unintentionally funny.
 

The fourth lot is the most social of them all. They will like your all your pictures even if they hardly liked you back in school. In return you have to like them too.On Facebook I mean.

Phew ! "Variety thy name is Facebook"

Now that I have to rush for daily scrum I will see you around on Facebook ;)

Monday, February 13, 2012

An Ode to the Sea

What could be more beautiful than waking up to the sights and sounds of the sea?I was a hard core Paharan(mountain woman) until few years back, considering I was born and brought up in Dehradun.My first introduction to the Sea was back in 2006 when we stayed in Kovalam for a couple of days for our honeymoon and it wasn't exactly love at first sight.

It was my South Goa experience followed by a recent trip to Kovalam that I realized that the Sea just grows on you.And its not just the Sun, Sand and Fun part.The Sea is an enchantress.

The beauty of mountains is enormous.But its like a beautiful woman you can always pin for but never own.It will make you a poet ,a philosopher but the Sea will connect you to more human aspects of your personality. The view of the snow capped peaks from Landour in Mussorie is awe inspiring and to die for but it is distant and unapproachable.

The Sea on the other hand is like a seductress.Playful ,inviting ,wild and full of life.

After my recent trip to Kovalam I googled for the poem Sea Fever by John Masefield.I read it way back in the 90s as the part of my academic curriculum in eighth grade.Its true meaning I now understood.

It goes like this

I must go down to the seas again, to the lonely sea and the sky,
And all I ask is a tall ship and a star to steer her by,
And the wheel's kick and the wind's song and the white sail's shaking,
And a grey mist on the sea's face, and a grey dawn breaking.

I must go down to the seas again, for the call of the running tide
Is a wild call and a clear call that may not be denied;
And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying,
And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

I must go down to the seas again, to the vagrant gypsy life,
To the gull's way and the whale's way, where the wind's like a whetted knife;
And all I ask is a merry yarn from a laughing fellow-rover,
And quiet sleep and a sweet dream when the long trick's over.

More on the nitty gritties of the trip later.