Losing their way or Yearning for Guidance - The Indian Gen Next

The much famed Indian Education system seems to have infected with some unknown disease causing virus as it is not infusing and instilling the future of India with what is most dear to it, the basic human and moral values. We have had great reverence and respect for intellect from time immemorial and our education system was based on the premise of teaching children to be good and effective human beings valuing relationships, morality and civility. But something seems to have gone wrong. There has been rapid degradation in the basic behavior of kids which can be seen in their general demeanor and their behaviour. There is an arrogance, a tendency of getting away with things, a know it all attitude, a general lack of respect and condescension. One, many or all of these attributes can be associated with most of the youngsters today.

In the name of preparing them for a tough world are we giving them the wrong set of values or a gloated sense of the self. Are we showing them the reality before making them believe that you are the best for the sake of making them confident. Do they have the fibre to work hard and then earn it or we are forcing them to take shortcuts?

I do understand that a present day youngster has to face immense pressures. I myself have and am facing them. Be it peer pressure of being the coolest and smartest or the pressure of fulfilling the expectations of your parents and loved ones or even the pressures of measuring upto your own sense of accomplishments. It is a very complex and difficult world and one has to manage himself with utmost composure and self restraint or it won't take long for things in his life to get ugly.

But I also strongly believe that though the pressures are there but we are fully capable and intelligent and reasonable enough to face them. But what if the whole concept of right and wrong in our system is flawed. Our yardstick itself is bent. I see around me lots of people who want to make it big. They are confident and self assured but lack the will to work hard in the right direction. They prefer to take the shortcuts even if it borders around being called 'wrong'.

But is it really their fault?? In today's world the schools are increasingly becoming tolerant to errant behaviour by children. I myself see it in my college and even a school for toddlers. They get away with things and are not punished. This lack of strictness creates a mental attitude in that one can get away with anything and hence the growing unruly behaviour of children. Moreover sycophancy has taken centre stage by being termed as being the lubricant for the smoothening of life. I see it pervading every facet of life. It is a cause of frustration to the real workers but what can be done. The world doesn't care for your work but rather who you are or who your relatives are and how can they help me. This is how and why many children are given 'special' treatment and they grow up with a wrong sense of the self. They have a bloated perception of the self and an equally unreal and minimized respect for the world.

The education system of the old was quite good and children need supervision and discipline. Obviously one does not have to be a Hitler but giving them advice and telling them wrong from the right is also our responsibility. They are children and do not know and in the name of independence should not be left to wander or else there are mazes of paths that go in the wrong direction and very few in the right. We have to guide them and show them the path, just show them and let them decide on their own.

If we become a little more realistic and responsible our next generation would not be a 'bad' one. It is very easy blaming it on the next generation that they have lost the way but we have to ponder about why they have lost the way. It might just be that no one has ever been there to show them the right path. We don't have to repeat our mistakes and have to realise our responsibilities also. We owe it to humanity to make them civilized, moral and ethical beings and if a little stick does the trick then so be it. After all the adage does go, 'Spare the stick, spoil the child'.

Patriarchy or Anarchy

It is a sad period.
Sad for me, you and everyone who does give a damn...

The Noida gangrape case has once again exposed the withering moral fabric of the so called 'Cultured India'. The mere blatancy of the case, as was with the terrorist attacks, leaves one dumbfounded. The parallels are worlds apart but the inherent blatancy drives me to make comparisions.

These people are not humans. At least I cannot presume them to be human as humans are by their very definition social animals, which means animals which have a defined social structure, culture and set of rules. If these guys somehow missed out on the socialisation part, the only part left is - Animals.

So what we are dealing with here is animalistic terrorism within our own boundaries. The threat from outside is not by any means less but how can we survive if we face grave threats from within also. The incident has left its bloody impression on the already lacerated and putrefying stigma ridden patriarchial society of ours and has once again raised questions over the actual state of women empowerment and equality of women in India. Let alone women empowerment, rather the very deeply embedded mindset of inconsiderate affirmation to crimes and hardships given to women by our society exemplifies the sordid tale of a nation slowly losing grip over its very own ethics.

It is not a matter of 'rich vs. the poor', 'the haves vs. the havenots' or of the 'illiterates vs. the modern' but rather it is a stark revelation of the ill health of the minds of young India today in general. Because as far as I know, being an Indian truly, it has never been in our culture or ethics to degrade women or to ill treat them irrespective of the social or economic classes of our origin or existence. Women have always held a great place in our culture and religion and have been worshipped as devis and moreover are considered to be the supreme power, even greater than the Tridev as they have emerged out of the Almighty Maa Shakti.

In such a country when a village head belittles the dreaded and ghettoic crime by saying that it was just another rape case, it becomes all too clear that something is horribly wrong with the mindset of the person. But it is not only the mindset of this person in question but the mindset of people in general, which is not too different, which is the actual cause of concern and grief. In India we have come to a stage when such unfateful incidents have become a part of our daily lives and do not cause much change in the way we live or the way we are. Is it also not a Sorry state? Should these things be so common to us that we merely look at the headline on the 2nd or 3rd page and turn the page without even giving it momentary notice?

Such acts of lawlessness are a part of us and our lives. The root is in the getting away of kids in school over the bullying of fellow classmates, in being caught on cheating during exams and getting away with it, in trying to always bend rules and not feeling sorry for it, in parents coming to school on even the slightest and legitimate rebuke handed out to their child on indulging in hooliganism, and many many more such cases which we see daily in our lives and have accepted them as normal. Normal are they? Thats the big question.

No they are not normal as all of them have to do with people getting away without being suitably treated or rather ill treated to make them aware and moreover afraid of the consequences of breaking a social and institutional code. By telling them that it is just not Okay to beat up people or to tease and harrass fellow mates or to cheat in exams (although 99% in India have resorted to it to pass their exams) or to break traffic laws or to ask for bribes and favours for doing their paid jobs or several other things that we now normally do as individuals which just make our lives just that bit simpler.

We do not make our lives simpler by these acts but rather send the wrong message across to our ever so fearless next generation. We cannot expect them to be following the right path if we ourselves are not following it. We have to show them the importance of doing things right as they should be done or these incidents will continue to happen and the situation will only get worse. Independence is important but lawless independence makes animals and not humans and hence to make humans out of the free moving animalistic bipedal organisms around us a structure of rules has to be there and should be followed with. The independence of individuals should be respected but lawless behaviour should be severely dealt with so as to set an example to all those who think that they are above the law and society so that we can move about in our world and country free of any fear.

Signing off...
SM

Life - Stranger Than Fiction

Hello Friends,
Am posting after a long break....
Well was confused as always about what to write about as sometimes there is so much and sometimes nothing at all....
This time I thought of just doing it....

So, today I was watching a movie named 'Stranger than Fiction'. It was a wonderful movie and was actually quite thought provoking.

How many of us are not satisfied with our present lives and live to do what we wanna do SOME DAY. Well we wait for it and fantasize about it all day long and through years. Our mind recreates what we wish was and would be... We are elated and there is a quite calm about the world... It suddenly seems like 'Perfect'. But nothing is perfect and this imperfections presents itself in its most ironical fashion when we come back to our real selves. No matter how elating or satiating the thought was, we realise that it was quintessentially a thought and nothing more and we live on to realise it...

This living on to realise something, some day is called HOPE...

'Hope' - The ultimate paradox. It is which makes life worth living. The feeling of impending fortunes. The feeling that we will be 'Someone' of substance or power and that the world would finally recognize us. Recognize us for what we have always been or for what we have become. But it is the same hope that is the ultimate emblem of our current discontent. The feeling of better is also a signage of our present deprivation. Deprivation not only in monetary terms but rather holistically.

Some live on to realise what they hoped for and some... Well let's just say don't actually live on...
So, what if today you learn that you are not going to live on to see the next sunrise. What would a person who all his life has dreamt of achieving something, of being something someday going to do? For all his life he has thought of that day and dreamt of that moment and now he knows that the moment he has been waiting for is not going to come. He has done all he could to ensure a secure and wonderful future but unfortunately for him there would be NO future. What now?

Well ponder on the thought for some time...

For me it would be satisfaction enough that I lived to see TODAY. I would be a bit heart broken as I could not do so much that I feel I should have and could have done...

Rather contradictory thoughts but that is what life is - a mix of paradoxes and contradictions. For some the mix might just be right and others are just not destined to be that fortunate...

With those rather unsystematic and random thoughts (as always), I sign off...

Till the next time...
SM

Happy New Year

Hello Friends,
Wish all of you a very happy and prosperous new year 2009.

Enjoy and keep reading....

SM

Politics - No Eligibility required

Padhoge likhoge to banoge nawab,
Kheloge koodoge to banoge kharab...

Or was it the other way round??? Looking at our garlanded Netas I certainly presume it to be the other way round.

Does it make sense that in a country where even the minimalistic jobs require extensive academic accomplishments, the most important of jobs of running the country imposes no such restrictions. I mean just think of it. We are an educated and erudite mass being led by ignorants. The ultimate irony I believe.

We Indians have always had respected and knowledgeable leaders. We have a rich history of leaders who have been stalwarts in knowledge, be it mythological figures like Rama, Ravana (Well he was an extremely knowledgeable person and was certainly a well respected leader of his kind), Yudhishthir, Bhishma or more recently Gandhiji, Rajendra Prasad, Pandit Nehru, etc. all were extremely academically proficient and accomplished.

So what has happened today??? When we are on a path to development and accomplishment suddenly the leaders of our society have changed faces. Are these leaders and their accomplishments and backgrounds a real representation of the masses that they represent??? I am apprehensive to arrive at such conclusions. I mean our common man in India is still reasonable and informed. Are our leaders the same???

Remember 'The Nuclear Deal'? It was a much talked about and debated subject not so long ago and during the discussions in parliament it was a surprise how some of our leaders were absolutely ignorant on the issue. I mean they were literally blank when asked about the Hyde's Act as if some recently discovered chemical composition from mars has been enquired from them. Let alone the Hyde's Act, there were also instances where when one of the Netas could only summon all his intellect to conclude that the deal had something do with some bomb and another claimed it to be somehow related to electricity. Well, atleast they were on the right track. Or so I would have to think to provide solace to my conscience.

I am more commisserate to those extremely capable and gifted minds who spend half their lives preparing for the gruelling Civil Services exams and after qualifying it have to cater to the whims and fancies of our Accomplished Fortunate Ones (implying Netas). I mean what could be more frustrating than that.

I for one would love to see a change in the system. I would rather have a deserving tested candidate over the chosen representative to govern us rather than the other way round. At least there would be more sense in policy making and the whole process of development could be really for a cause and not merely the money printing machine for our leaders.

What do you think??? And Yes Please DO THINK!

Merry Christmas...
SM

*Neta= Leader

26/11-No Blamegame Please

Once again Indian politicians as well as their Pakistani counterparts have found a way to diverge our attention from the real issue at hand. Well the threat from outside is real but we can not sideline the fact that it was the debacle of our internal security system more than anything else.

If a country would have been attacked in the past the main emphasis would have been to secure and strengthen own fortresses and then think of retaliation. In our case we see the Indian government blaming everybody and I certainly think that not enough is being done to solidify our internal security. I certainly believe that we need to rationalize the size of the police force and trim it to be more efficient and capable. We certainly look forward to a day that our police would be a unit of smart, efficient, well trained and well equipped professionals rather than an army of illiterate, out of shape and Lathi bearing sepoys.

My above sarcasm does not mean that I do not respect our current police force. I mean who could be courageous enough to know of their being absolutely ill-matched in terms of training and equipment and still risking their lives each day against the gravest of dangers. Our policemen do it day in and day out. But it is certainly our responsibility to voice of concern against the mismatched ability, quality and technology that our policemen are up against. If money is the problem then I think it can be managed by cutting short the numbers in favour of quality.

The focus should really be on devising strategies and IMPLEMENTING them. As Indians, we have been historically been very good planners but somehow something goes missing when it comes to implementation. We have to realize that we have to take on new ways of saving ourselves. Identifying our from others. More mobility and flexibility of security systems. Better surveillance mechanisms and not only making laws but Following them too.

We should all try to be better citizens. It is we who make the nation and not the nation which makes us. So we must raise our voices and rid of our useless reflections of past idiosyncrasies. We are a modern and rational India and hence should certainly learn to think rationally beyond the petty restrictions of religion, race, caste, creed and other alignments. Those are personal choices and should be respected and accepted and should not be a matter for contention.

Remember the new India would only be if it is a Safer and more efficient India.

Wishing all the readers A MERRY CHRISTMAS

SM

Tough and Rough - Its life

Well friends nothing new, just got rejected once again by a company. Placement season is on in our campus and recession is certainly taking its toll ( well atleast I hope it is as not many companies are coming to campus).

Well I dunno who created this whole concept of GD. For me it is an acronym for 'Grand Disaster'. I mean a group of people fighting over an issue of which none of them have a clue about and trying to score one up on the other by virtually resorting to absolute annihilation and conquest of the others...
And on top of that the HR people judging the whole conundrum actually seem interested but some how or the other end up choosing the wrong people most of the ( or rather every) time.

I certainly don't see how people who have hopelessly lost all sense of basic decency in interaction and socialization can be judged and emerge trumps as the criteria being marked are basically on personality and pleasantness of interaction..

Well what can be done. I guess 'This is life'.

Better luck next time for me and my colleagues...

Till the next time...

Adios.