my thoughts

         The educational institutions and other departments will be opening from today after about a week`s holidays on account of an important festival Diwali. One of the newspapers two column report is about this only. It shows that opening of the schools is good but there are some people who have already started speaking about the holidays which will be falling next week. It is good to be off from the routine work from some time but that should not become a routine in itself.  The problem faced by the schools is that it breaks the continuity of the teaching learning process. It has been suggested by many organizations that the number of holidays should be reduced and the schools should be given freedom of deciding the schedule of their holidays. If we take in account the duration of the schools even on normal days it is not more than five to six hours. More than half day is otherwise also off and as most of the festivals are celebrated in the evening so...

The reports in the newspapers related to the suicides being committed by number of the people which appears to be on rise every year is serious cause of concern to all and something must be done so that this trend is slowed down if not completely stopped. When we see it in context of the school going children there also it seems to have gone up though the government has tries its level best by reducing the stress of the studies whether it is related to examination pattern or the teaching learning pattern. But this seems to have made little difference because the expectations of the people are going up day by day. There is competition everywhere and the parents start worrying about the future of their children right from their birth. We do not have figures related to the proportion of the people of different age groups who resort to extremes steps of taking their life. Whatever information is available does not make us feel happy because suicide cannot be justified for any age group. T...

Diwali was celebrated all over the country with a lot of enthusiasm and fortunately no serious untoward incident took place as was made by the government of few so called developed countries. The people wished each other good luck on the auspicious occasion and prayed to the Almighty peace and prosperity to all on this beautiful planet earth. One important thing noticed by everyone this year was less use of the crackers. It was heartening to see that the children and adults alike expressed concern towards the ill effects of the crackers. Some people say that it was because of the high cost of the fire crackers which kept the people away from them but this does not seem to be the only reason. The awareness which was growing among the people has brought us to this happy situation. The government, schools and NGOs have been working towards this noble cause of educating the people for not burning the fire crackers. It has been reported that the pollution level after Diwali night has been ...

It has been many days when I wrote something and this has been causing a lot of discomfort to me and it appeared as something was missed by me. Today morning when I share my thoughts there are mixed feelings in my mind. I am happy because of the festive season around and Diwali celebrations which is one of the most important occasions for all Indians. This festival has many meaning depending upon the location of the people and their thoughts. For some it may the occasion to get rid of the darkness and for others it may be an opportunity to worship Goddess Lakshmi. There may be many people who take the opportunity to enjoy the holidays available to them. But the most important lesson which can be learnt from this festival is to rededicate self for the happiness of others. As the candle burns itself for letting the path of others and facilitate them to move forward without any problem the human beings can also do the same. Dussehra is the festival to celebrate the victory of good over e...

Indian institutes of technology and Indian institutes of management are the institutions which are known to every Indian and almost all the people of the world who are interested in the field of education. These institutes have been rated among the best in India for many year and we Indians are proud of them. Last few years have seen the increase in demand for educational schools and the government has not been unaware of the same. Due to this demand only a number of IITs and IIMs have been added to the list which has given opportunity to many thousands of the students to have fulfilled their wish of getting admission in such institutes. Human resource development ministry is working on the plan of increasing this number further. Over the decades we have witnessed an upsurge of so many coaching institutes which have made the life of the children seeking admission to IITs miserable. This was known to all concerned but not much could be done due to various reasons. Now the HRD minister ...

One day we were discussing general things and during the conversation we started talking about the problems faced by the parents and the children. This was realized by everyone involved in the discussion that there are so many good things being done by most of the people including the children but these are not talked much in the public and more discussion takes place related to negative happening in the society. This is true that negative radiations in the environment do not do good to anybody. Then the question arises, why do people discuss more about negative things than the positives around them? Why have we become so much obsessed with negatives? Our great leaders were positive thinkers and that made them to achieve which at times was not expected at all. There are many examples which prove that those who think positive can do unexpected things and they make this world a better place to live for everyone. The father of our nation Mahatma Gandhi, the first prime minister of the...

The topic on the subject tolerance has been discussed before but this remains important in all situations. We have been witness to the violence taking place in different parts of the country due to one or the other reasons. The state of Jammu and Kashmir was comparatively peaceful till the end of seventies and the trouble started in the beginning of that decade. The so called advocates of the humanity brought forward many reasons for the upsurge of the violence as violence was the natural consequence of the mishandling of the issue. There might be truth in that but that was taken by the people who indulged in the act of violence as they were given the certificate of being right in their approach. The result of that is that we have lost thousands of brave soldiers and innocent people in and outside the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Later on, the unfortunate innings of violence gulped one of the most prosperous states of our country, Punjab which could be brought to normalcy again after p...

When we were discussing about the criticism and appreciation some of our friends were not comfortable with the concept of the criticism but did not say so openly. Many of them were not really sure about the role played by appreciation and criticism. I advised them to write their views if they found it difficult to express in front of all. When they were at ease the original thoughts were expressed which gave a fair idea about what do they feel about appreciation or criticism and how are they affected by them. I am mentioning here two extreme responses. One teacher writes that criticism is absolutely negative and should never be used while the other says that criticism is much better than appreciation. The first says that criticism will kill the enthusiasm of the person and the other says that appreciation will not let a person grow. They both seem to be right in their approach and the thinking but the third response appears to be balanced where the teacher writes that appreciation is ...

My thoughts on the topic does appreciation increase competition have generated lively debate among the people who read it and are always there to helping polish my ideas on different topics which are very relevant to the life of the children, teachers and the parents. Many of them are of the opinion that without appreciation life will become dry and there will be no motive for the people to perform better. Others feel that appreciation might be all right in some extraordinary situations but not always and there are many who say appreciation does no good in the long run. While discussing all this with my friends I thought of another aspect of human nature. The opposite of the appreciation seems to be criticism and we all get involved in this at one or other point of time.We all get in a situation when we either criticise somebody or other criticise us.If compared then we shall find that people use criticism more than appreciation. Is criticism good or bad? Does criticism help the other...

I shared my views on the topic that too much of the appreciation may not prove to be good for the children. My colleagues gave me the feedback about what they thought and many of them were not quite in agreement with me. But when we discussed the topic further not in context of the children and extended it to the elders also, many more things came to light. It was found that these are not the children only who are affected by it but even the adults . During the discussion we were forced to go an extreme where we felt as appreciation does no good to anyone. I would like to share a few examples here. At home or in school or in any other organization we come across many situations where a person or a group is appreciated for something that deserves appreciation.There seems to be nothing wrong with that. But look at the reaction of the other people in the family or the organization, how do they feel? We all are supposed to do our job sincerely and many do it sincerely, but o...

It appears as the country is passing through a difficult phase and the countrymen are not sure in which direction it is going. Everyday fight of words between two major political parties does not set a good example for other smaller or regional parties. Yesterday`s (03 rd Oct. 2011) incident in the assembly of Jammu and Kashmir is another addition to what our representatives do in the temples of  democracy. The whole country witnessed the assembly and nobody could stop all that. Last few days were equally bad when our honorable prime minister was in the UN conference and two senior colleagues of his cabinet had a tussle regarding some note sent by one of them in regard to some scam which is very much in focus nowadays. It appears that all what is shown and discussed on TV channels is a mere eye-wash.At the same time it is also not beneficial for the country. We celebrated the birthday of the father of nation Mahatma Gandhi and it was good to see that the ...

The word generation gap has been very much used in all the situations whether it is related to academics or thought process of the people. There has always been discussions about the demeanour of the new generation not being as expected or as easily accepted by the old generation. This difference is natural because people are fond of change and experiencing new things often. But as we all have to live in the society and also with society, so it is very important that some basic norms are followed by all of us whether belonging to old generation or the new generation. Last few decades have seen this change taking place at a very fast pace and that is causing some discomfort between the people of two generations. It was all right till father and son or mother and daughter were feeling that way but now even the people of the same generation have started noticing that difference. Two real brothers who have the age difference of one or two years are openly saying that we have differenc...

I was watching a TV serial based on the life of Lord Krishna and the latest episode had information related to the true friendship between Lord Krishna and Sh. Sudamaji. When Sh. Sudama comes to Dwarika to meet his childhood friend they sat together and remembered the days of their childhood and recalled an incident of the time when they were taking education from their Guru (staying with other children in the gurukul). One day the Guru Mata asked them to go to jungle and collect dry woods for her. As it was evening time and she was a little worried about the safety of the two children, so she asked them if they would be able to get the woods she was asking for? Immediately they asked a question that had they done something wrong. The Guru Mata asked them that why they were feeling like that. They told her reply that, she being their Guru Mata, can order them and should not ask whether that work can be done by them or not. I was really impressed by the response of the two children who...