my thoughts

How can electronic media and print media affect a cause or incident was very much proved by the hype the world cup semi final got on 30th March 2011. Almost all offices were closed before time and people,old or young glued to the TV sets.This has not happened for the first time because in our country most of the times emotions become very powerful and the same is exploited by the market driven forces. It is right that this was a very important match between the two arch rivals but this was just another match for both the teams. It has been reported in newspapers that the tickets were sold in black and the rent of hotels and air fare went up many folds.The whole nation got united for one cause and the cause was that Indian team was playing against the Pakistani team.Would it have been the same hype if it was some other team than Pakistan? Does it not prove how emotional Indian people are and how easily these emotions can be exploited? Many may not agree with this and that is perfectly a...

Our country has progressed well in the last six -seven decades and the citizens have been able to overcome many problems faced by them.It could be possible due to honest efforts of all concerned. Old and young  both have contributed in the progress to the best of their ability.Now a days, everybody is taking of the immense energy and potential possessed by the youth and it is believed that they can change the future of the country for the better. A lot is being talked about it and many schemes and programmes have been launched for the welfare of the youth.It is very true that today`s youth is the future of this country, but the old brigade should also be paid due attention and should be given the place they deserve. It is disgraceful to read in the newspapers that the old couple was not given proper food and other essential things needed by them ,by their children. There have been cases where the young sons and daughters consider their parents and grandparents as a kind interferen...

What happened in Japan on 11th march 2011 was one of the worst natural disaster in the recent past. The people of Japan will take long time to come out the tragedy. Whatever has happened can not be undone but at the same time the brave people of Japan have taught many lessons to the world such as, how to act and react during and after such unfortunate incidents. As per the newspaper reports the citizens of Japan behaved very responsibly and there was not much of panic.It has been reported that though the people were without food and water for days but there was no cry against the system or the government. When food and other essential commodities were distributed the people were standing in queues and waiting for their turn.Even  the items purchased  from the shops were taken in limited  quantity so that enough was left for other citizens also. The employees and other volunteers kept working in the damaged nuclea...

This is rightly said that child is the father of man and it can be seen in many a cases that thinking of the parents change ( for the good) on arrival of a kid in the family.The child as well as the parents affect the life of each other and this is also equally true that the role of the teacher and the society gains importance in the life and upbringing of the children. Thinking and the attitude of parents is the first impact on the mind of child which is carried by him/her life long. Then the role of teachers becomes very important and it is the teacher who can make all the difference in the life of a child. To do that teachers can not work in isolation but hand in hand with parents and the society. It is absolutely true that parents and the teachers consider the child`s welfare and the well being the most important activity of their life. They are ready to do every thing possible for the children and assure them of a good future. The expectations of the society from the parents as w...

In the ancient times the parents and the society considered the place of Guru higher than anybody else. Even the kings and other rulers used to respect the Acharyas and  teachers more than their ministers.In any meeting the guru was the last to enter, and all present in the meeting hall (durbar) will pay respect to him by standing at their places. A Great Poet and thinker compared teacher with God when he wrote his famous lines "Guru Govind --kisko lago panov" and the lines are self explanatory. There are many examples which prove that role of a teacher is the most significant in the life of a child. One inspiring incident that raised the status of a teacher, is that of a boy who sent an invitation to his old teacher on the occasion of his marriage. He wrote that the teacher would be sitting and performing all the rituals what his mother was supposed to do. The teacher tried to recall the person and after some serious deliberations she could recognise him and went back to the...

The education has been defined by the scholars and the philosophers in different ways but all reach to the same conclusion. Some say that it is the manifestation of the potential one possesses and others consider that it is a tool to prepare oneself for the challenges of life. I think in the  life of a child, a very important role is played by the parents and the teachers or you may extend it to the family and the school. The two are expected to provide all space to the child to explore and imagine to the best of his/her ability . You will notice that in the ancient times, the children were sent to Gurukuls, which were almost the same as today`s boarding schools though there are some fundamental differences between the two.The reason was to expose them to different environment in which they are asked to do things on their own and without the support of any helper as they get at home today. It is rightly expected by the parents and the society that the schools will encourage studen...

During the last 10 -15 years, the use of mobiles and the Internet is on rise and most of us feel that this is a great gift of the science to man. Today the life seems to be meaningless without mobiles and the Internet. When we remember the days of black handset of telephone and the way we used to wait for the trunk call to be connected to someone away from us, it appears to be a dream and not the reality. Nowadays you will find as many mobile handsets as the number of the people in the family, rather in some families  more than that. Be it an old person or the teenager, all are using the mobiles. The internet is another media which has made communication fast and easy through mails, twitter, face book, and many more social network sites. We feel great when  talking  to some one in other country or at a distant place, face to face.The communication through internet is much more fast than what  it was 10 years ago. Today a child of age 3-4 years can use mobile so easil...

When we think of a school, many things come in our mind. It is expected once the child goes out to a school he will learn all the lessons of life and get prepared to face the challenges of life.We expect a child to develop not only mental and intellectual faculty, but also the physical faculty.What has been observed  in the recent years is that more emphasis has been on academic development and in the process physical aspect of the child`s growth has been unknowingly ignored.Though we keep reminding  that sound body has sound mind but this remains a statement only and is not  really practiced. In the past children had opportunities to play in the open areas/ground which were in plenty and that they had an easy access to play grounds because these were very close to their houses. Also there was not so much burden of academics on them hence they had time to make use of such grounds.The food habits were proper because not much of junk food...

Dear friends, We have just celebrated the festival of colours, Holi and almost all took a pledge to get rid of old animosity and start the life with new zeal and faith in each other. But many people and organisations kept away from the celebrations due to unfortunate incidents that happened in the last few days/months. What happened in Sawai Madhopur and Jodhpur has disturbed all the citizens and every body is asking a question, could these incidents be avoided? The innocent people who have lost their lives will not come back by anything we do now but, should we ensure that such incidents do not re-occur? The young man  lost his life for the sake of getting justice for another person. What has been reported in  a newspaper if that is true, then we as parents have to answer  many questions to ourselves. The report (as told to the reporter of the news paper by the friend of the deceased man) states that the young man had spoken to his  friend...

Dear friends, Yesterday I had an enriching experience of meeting some people from a very small town, you may call it a village and my interaction with them forced me to ask a question to myself and the question is that, is it the formal education or  lots of  information received and remembered by a person or some thing more and different which makes us a better human being. Let me share it with you that I also hail from a village and during my childhood  I had number of opportunities to be in the village and get exposed to the discussions and talks my grandfather used to have with other villagers.The kind of discipline and the respect for each other was so well and natural that nobody was ever asked or dictated  to be disciplined and respectful towards  elders but they still  learnt it. It has not been possible for me to visit my village that often as I would  have liked due to certain  reasons. ...

Dear friends, We all are aware that the board examination of class XII are going on and these are considered to be very important for the future of the students. The performance of the students in these exams is one of the factors which  help them to choose a career in future, based on the college/university  and the course they study after class XII. Though there are number of options available to the students but it has been observed that we still force or motivate our children for the traditional choices only. This may be medicine, engineering or charted accountancy etc. In metros and bigger cities people are opting for not so popular courses also but the picture in smaller cities remain  almost the same what it was before. For this, I think we as parents,   have to be more open to the new fields in which our children can perform better. If the child`s  interest is in photography or designing or creative writing or pu...

Dear friends, Today I shall focus on understanding the change in behavior of an individual child from childhood to the time he/she is 16-18 years of age. When a child is born, the mother of the child is the whole world for him/her and the life of the child revolves around her, irrespective of the gender.The child tries to look for her for every thing even when he/she is considered not  being able to understand many happenings around him/her. As the child grows up, he starts feeling the presence of other members of the family also, who may be the father or any other person staying close to him most of the times. By the age of 2-3 years  most of the children start liking or disliking certain things because of some reasons ,which I would avoid discussing here. The child becomes friendly to the same age group kids and share things with them (in some case it may be the other way also).When he/ she starts going to play school or pre...

Dear friends, What I am going to discuss with you is very important issue which affect every one of us every moment. Many books have been published on how to behave in a family and in an organisation so that the life of all is stress free and they enjoy being there.Be it Mr. Robin Sharma or Shiv Kheraji in all their writings have advocated of patience,tolerance and respect for others. You might have also noticed that the families where every one is given due respect is more satisfied and progressive. When I mention of progress, it does not include only the material gains but overall environment of the family. The same applies to any organisation also. Now the question arises why it does not happen so across the board? Answers can be many ,but the important is the values and traditions we have been exposed to. Also , at times it is the frustration of individuals which burst out all of a sudden and others bear the brunt . Also, if some body had lived a stressful child...

Yesterday I had the opportunity to interact with large number of parents who got their children admitted in the school. They were the parents of the children of age group 3- 4years and I was trying to understand , why did they choose X school for the their child. Many of them were not very sure of the reason but all of them expect a lot from the teachers of the school and it was obvious that they had trust and faith in the teachers of this school.  Different issues including the important issue of parenting and difficulties of the young parents and problems faced by them ,were deliberated upon. One important issue discussed was - what should be the right of age of sending a child for formal education? There were divergent views but by and large many felt that the children are being exposed to the  formal education too early. The reasons of doing so are many ,but one important reason cited was that it was  easy to get admission in lower classes which becomes ver...

This was very heartening to read that the school teachers , both, those who are teaching or intend to take up teaching as profession specially from classes 1st to 8th will have to appear in TET( Teachers`s eligibility test). It is a much needed step taken by NCTE and promptly enforced by the government.This will definitely improve skills of our teachers and in turn help our children understand things better. I have been sharing it with many people before also that an engineer is trained for four years and a doctor for five to seven years. The proper training of engineers and doctors is  important  but at the same time the teachers who contribute significantly in the personality development of children and make them worth becoming what they do in future life is also equally important. Earlier the duration of B.Ed used to be one year which has now rightly been increased to two years. In my opinion it should be at least a three years course. No...

The pictures and videos of earthquake and tsunami hit Japan shown on TV channels were the most shocking of the recent past. Hundreds of the people have been declared dead and this number is only to rise. It was very difficult to believe what was being shown live on TV and later during the day in repeat telecast. We are  worried about the aftermath which  is going to be more disastrous than what appears to us now. The tragedy is that the country which is considered to be the best prepared for such disasters could not get any clue of the gravity of earthquake and after effects of that. As per the reports ,Tsunami warning could  provide only 12 minutes to the people to react and go to safer places. The cars ,planes and ships appeared to be floating as the paper boats made by the children. The world is shocked and can not do much but to save and provide best possible help to the affected brothers and sisters of Japan and that is what most of...

Dear friends, I read an article based on the blog of Ms. Lavanya Shah who is the daughter of great poet and lyricist late Sh. Bharat Vyas Ji. She writes with a lot of passion and emotion about certain incidents related to film industry and many things about her father which are otherwise not known to other people. She lives in USA and has been writing poems and articles and her experiences of life and she is considered to be a person who is full of emotions and that is so well reflected in her poems. I shall not be able to comment on her writings but one incident mentioned in the above stated article which I read made me to think that are we paying very high cost in the name of development and being called modern? The incident narrated by her  is that one day she had gone to visit a park and there, from  a distance, she saw that a lady was carrying apparently a child and was quite happy doing that. When Ms. Lavanya went close to ...

This is in continuation to my yesterday`s thoughts on mother and the role played by women in making this earth a better place to live. I happened to read , in a newspaper,a letter written by a daughter to her father in which she asked  why was she called "beta" by him. She said why should she not be treated what she is. What she meant was that she is a girl and not the boy so her identity should not be changed. And this made me to think that nowadays in the name of being equal a sort of competition has started.Everybody feels I am no less than the other and in this race many a times we tend to forget our self and our identity.It is true that girls ,in our country have not been treated the way boys have been treated and perhaps that is the reason now people are trying to treat them as sons.What this girl is asking is that treat and respect me what I am. Do not make me somebody else and show your affection towards me that way. As I mentioned earlier also that all ind...

All are aware that 08th march is celebrated as international women`s day every year and so was the occasion yesterday.I also got an opportunity to be the part of such a function organised by some agencies. All the speakers were of the opinion that a woman can make all the difference in a family. And this is also true that family is building block(basic unit) of the society and society`s nature will largely depend upon the kind of the families we have. So, what we conclude is that role of women is of paramount importance and hence it is the responsibility of all that they are given due place and status which allows them to do the best for the family and ultimately for the society.I asked a question- Can we empower someone because of whom we have our existence?Women in our country have suffered due to some traditions followed over a period of time.There must have been some compulsive reasons because of which some customs were started.Now as the times have cha...

Dear Friends, In the last few discussions, I focussed on teachers,parents and children/students particularly school going children.Recently one respected gentleman visited my office to explore  possibility if there was a place  for admission of a child in a particular class.Apart from this topic we discussed on other issues also and were of the opinion that the country is at crossroads and our young generation is deprived of "Good Ideals" that is why, at times they seem to be indifferent and not very clear in their approach.After a long discussion it was almost clear that if the youth is to be shown proper path for the progress of the nation then schools and colleges have to play major roles.The children will learn the lesson of life here only and they should be given teachings of moral values and their duties not only for themselves but also towards the society.If they learn the lesson of honesty now, then this country will be free of all corruption and other ...

Dear friends, A few days ago I discussed about the importance of trust and faith between individuals, groups and the system. I also submitted my views about  how faith can be build or rebuild.Today I shall confine my thoughts to a child`s relationship  with parents and teachers. Many of us proudly say that we used to respect and at times fear our parents and teachers and never argued with them even if things said or attributed to us were not agreed by us.My question is that was it the respect or the fear which made us to behave that way or something else.I think it was combination of both.And this was, perhaps, the result of faith and trust we had in our parents,teachers and the family.This trust and faith was developed because of the close relationship and frequent interaction with parents and other family members.We were fortunate to have got quality time also of our parents and not  only the materialistic things made available to us in lieu of the...

It was a pleasure for me to interact and communicate with large number of parents who came to our school in connection to admission of their child/ward. As it has been in my nature to learn more about the expectations and needs of the children and their parents from a school and hence  I always take advantage of such an opportunity when it comes my way. We discussed on number of issues and as expected I did not have answer of many issues raised by parents but one thing was clear that if we parents and teachers sit together there are bright chances of taking care of many problems, our children are facing today.One of the important issued discussed was how to preserve our basic values in this in age of information available to all from different sources. The second important issue raised was the trust deficit between schools and community which unfortunately is  increasing day by day.If it continues this way then it is gong to be disturbing for everyone of us, particularly our ...