Business to the Buddha

Search results for: “education”

  • Identity crisis

    A person wrote on his matrimony profile on defining a suitable match – “Preferably a doctor or an engineer…” Sounds funny isn’t it?

    I was talking about this topic with my wife and she had contention on the subject not on the content. I gave it another try – I told her, remember Golmaal old movie? In that movie Utpal Dutt has a perception – people with mustache are good in character. That is a way of creating a perception, an identity. Let me put more types of identities – say I identify myself as an Indian. You identify yourself as a CA or a Marwari or a born Bengali. These are all identities. What if one fine day morning we remove these identities of each individual? Would world be a better place? Perhaps yes. Let me give you an example –

    Say two people waking up in Gaza strip and Jerusalem on Monday morning – both of them identifying themselves as

    A – Muslim, inhabitant of Palestine, suppressed etcjust-be-597091_640

    B – Jew, Original inhabitants of Jerusalem etc

    If on a Monday morning A and B both only know that he/she is supposed to do xyz activity. Remember this activity is not killing the other. The activity is for survival and comfortable life perhaps peaceful and progressive life. Would there be a solution to Middle Eastern problem?

    Take another example – if followers of ISIS forget they are following the commandments written in Kuran! They get into the crisis of identifying themselves as someone who is fighting a holy war. Would we have a solution in Syria?

    In the context of religion, if every human being forgets that he / she is associated with a religion – though keeps on following the suggested practices – wouldn’t we have far lesser organized, religion based crimes in the world?

    In political sense the identification can be – he is a democrat and she is a republican. Should we define ourselves or others in these lines? Why should one be identified by such labels?

    Let me go a step further, what if we stop identifying ourselves from Nation A or Nation B, we just remain a nobody.

    The crisis are mostly created by the identities we have created around ourselves, isnt it? If we get rid of our identities wouldn’t that crisis be a good solution?

    At a very basic level, the identity could be – I am an engineer or you are from Vernacular medium of education. Yes these small things become identity and at times do or die reasons; recent example is Rohith Vemula. In India we identify people with their castes too. The other definitions are – I own a BMW, he has a Maruti 800 1998 model and that guy doesnt even have a car. I am rich, he is poor. On me this could be – com’on I write blogs! I have an identity on the internet. Isn’t it too shallow?

    We need to get rid of all these labels.

    Well, I had written the sentence “Preferably a doctor or an engineer…” on my matrimony profile. I had most serious discussions with an Arts graduate, I got married to a commerce graduate. That sentence I wrote because some or the other site made it mandatory to write partner preference, my full sentence was – “… There has to be understanding and matching of thoughts…” I wrote those two criteria because I after stretching enough I was not able to complete some word limit, I think 200 words!

  • Chicken in the “poultry farm of economy”

    It was October and winters were just starting in Canada, for a change it was nice weather for me. I had not seen < 10 degrees in Mumbai for almost a decade now. In this beginning of winter we – Anil, Abhijit, Prasad and I – were talking about eggs being Veg or non-veg food. I was the only Veg person amongst all and do not eat egg (by choice). So the point went on to whether egg has life & how does fertilization of egg happen?

    poultry

    That discussion became an argument and point of contention. I said I do not eat egg because of my choice, I do not want to question whether an unfertilized egg should be considered as veg & I (and many more Veg) should consume egg.

    It was an interesting question, I never had thought of this. So I searched on net and of course others too did it. The argument was won by Abhijit in the process of egg fertilization. My mind was running in different direction when I read the production process or making of an egg! If you want the drift read how egg production happens (inside a chicken!) here.

    Hens are like gumball machine (as the author of the blog calls it), popping eggs every 25 hours. Hen keeps on producing eggs through its process of ovulation, where Ovum is released to infundibulum, to magnum, to isthmus and to shell glands. The most surprising and disappointing part comes here at shell gland. The white shell which we see in egg is made by not either the diet (ok that is good) or by procuring enough calcium from the hen’s body. Yes, calcium is taken from hen’s body e.g. bones if enough calcium is not consumed by it. Just imagine daily this hen is producing egg and if enough calcium is not in its diet it is decomposing its body to produce the egg.

    Now let us think about hens as human, poultry farm as world economy (well I want to say this but still want to mince the words) and owners of poultry farm are the few who are heading World Bank, IMF, Banks and politicians. They perhaps do not care about what happens to the hen what they want is their egg next day. Oh yes, the owner of poultry farm does health check-up, takes care of sanitation & cheks quality of feed (equivalent of running education and development programs), but its as good a guess of yours as mine – for what?

    Making of shell of an egg and effectively the whole DAILY process of production of egg made me think of humans as the chicken. We are burning our lives (ask chicken uses its bones); why to make the economy work! An economy which is judged by GDP, share market growth and value of money et al. and who is at the core of it all? The Pseudo-owners or the proprietor of the economy of the world!

    Abhijit helped me learn that Veg people can eat eggs which isn’t fertile as that does not have life in it & it could be called similar to any dairy produce.

    Image source http://blogs.economictimes.indiatimes.com/AgroCommodities/54197/

  • Blindness

    My mother teaches in a school where there are few blind students also. She talks about them passionately and praises their intelligence beyond the other students. By chance I have not been closely associated with the blind people, however I have filled my eye donation form when I was 18 years. Yes, I would want any and every body part to be utilized after my death, the value of each organ will increase if it remains and be useful to someone after me. This “AFTER ME” puts me on another tangent of thoughts – we are not the body – but here I am not writing on those thoughts anyways.

    So coming to the topic – Blindness. How do you define blindness? Inability to see, is that the only definition? According to me, the definition of blindness goes beyond just the inability to see. Or if I think more, in some sense of the word “see” may includes many things which we generally overlook.

    [Tweet “‘Our’ perceptions create ‘our reality’ – than whatever is the truth.”]

    ‘See’ should not be only associated with eyes. After your eyes see, what happens next? The mind creates a picture and mind infers the picture. The inference also has a sense of blindness too. Inability to infer, inability to understand and misconception of actions; these are few other things that need to be included in defining “blindness”. “Our” perceptions create “our” reality – than whatever is the truth.

    quote-Helen-Keller-the-highest-result-of-education-is-tolerance-103858An example that came to my mind is related to a recent incident in the US. A young man unleashed gunfire in Tennessee military facilities. Initial reports were stating that it could be an act of terror. This man had stayed somewhere in Middle East for more than 1/2 year in 2014. His high school friends of this man say he was a good guy and it was shocking and unbelievable that he did it (paraphrase a CNN news report heard earlier). So point is what happened that this young man did what he did?

    If I cannot see Blue color, I am color blind for that color, if I cannot see peace and only fed with what wrong is happening with “my community” by “other commutes” I am blinded by what good the other community is doing. Many a times, the bad is more of perception than a reality. This is how people are blinded to see only what they are told to see.

    This Tennessee shooter was blinded in the same manner. That is also a kind of blindness too. The intolerance we see in many people is because they can only see what is right for them and they are blind for opinion of the other. Perhaps the young man got brainwashed by some education which was rather reverse of Education – “The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller. [assuming it was a terror attack, as it was speculated initially]

    [Tweet “”The highest result of education is tolerance” Helen Keller.”]

    In a similar manner, I am blinded to see only peace, growth, happiness. On a lighter note – I see many vehicles with their number plate as 23XY, reason is – my vehicle is numbered 2315, its not that these vehicles were not visible earlier, now I notice them intentionally and ignore vehicle with some other numbers.

    I am late to write on this LBC post. This topic was suggested by Lin, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order – Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji, Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. This time I was the one who posted very late, do visit blogs of others they must have posted their opinions too.

  • Dreaming big

    cliparti1_dream-clip-art_04.jpgI was just turning a teen, back in 1993. I was studying in class 8 in a Govt school [Govt School Number 9]. This school was (still is) run in a temple – Anandeshwar – at the heart of a town Dhar in MP. A new student had enrolled in our class – Ramesh. We did not know much about him. One day one of my friends and classmate – Varun – told me more about Ramesh.

    Varun said – “You know what, Ramesh is an orphan, he lives in Pipalkheda orphanage”.

    I knew that Pipalkheda village, the orphanage was about 8 KM from our school that too on a state highway. Those days riding a cycle on those roads was not an entertaining affair because roads were only two-lane without divider and not as good as a highway we see now a day.

    Varun continued – “Ramesh could continue after class 7 because he scored the maximum among the kids in his orphanage, he scored 56%. The orphanage does not have a lot of funds to fund education of every kid when education becomes expensive.”

    I am sure you know, education does not mean only school fee. Education included uniform, books, notebooks and for Ramesh a bicycle for commuting 8 KM. School fee for our school was about 5/- (INR 5) per annum. Yes that is it; I had a receipt of my class 5 – year 1990 – with me for long time wherein the fee paid was 1/- (INR1).  Perhaps that orphanage could not afford all those things for every kid and therefore the decision to continue education of only one after 7th might have been taken.

    Though Ramesh could have studied in other School [Govt School Number 10] saving his one way travel of 2 KM daily, he decided to join Anandeshwar. Pipalkheda had no school after 7th.

    Ramesh’s story moved me. I still remember a lot of the incident because that time I decided to adopt an orphan when I grow up. The dream also grew when I grew up, the idea shaped into adopting an orphan (specially a girl child). In later stage that dream grew into starting an orphanage with a school in it. I questioned orphans do not have a family, how can they have a family like growing up? When I came in Mumbai I saw old age homes. For a town guy this was something strange. The dream further evolved into having an orphanage, school and old age home. The elders who can teach can become teachers and others can become family for the orphans. This dream is just a dream currently.

    It remained my dream because I never wanted to take money from anyone (investor, philanthroper) for realizing it. I said to myself – It is “my dream”, and I have to work towards realizing it. The dream evolved on the lines of how to make the cause a self-sustained cause. This evolved into adding plans of having a community hall with the orphanage, school and the front of the place facing main road as commercially rented shops et al. This can help generate some funds for the dream to become self-sufficient, even if only partially. The ideas have been evolving. There was a time and occasionally comes a time when I start running behind money, so much that I can do what I dreamt (and evolved that dream) as a teenager.

    Mine is an arrange marriage. I met about 24 girls for finding an alliance. Well we can make an Indian version of “How I met your Mother” on that [It was massive 9 season series 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9]. But that is not the point right now. When I met girls these girls and discussions became somewhat serious, I shared this dream with couple of them. Perhaps few rejected me because of that. Well, my wife knew this dream before our decision of marriage, in fact she also was planning to adopt a child in coming time J

    I am still growing and learning. One of the lessons from the two decade old dream is – remove “I” and “My” from it. Would it hurt me if someone else (who has funds) executes it? I would be happy that someone did it or doing it. If someone executes and I come to know, I can help share my skills for the same, right?

    Note – Names changed (obvious reasons – Varun didn’t understand what I am writing. Generally it seems difficult for people to think the other person is thinking on what lines. I’ve no contact with Ramesh. Varun told me Ramesh’s whereabouts, which I didn’t disclose here.)

    Image source – http://clipartzebraz.com/files/1/24044_dream-clip-art.html

  • Right And Wrong

    Recently, one of my friends Piyush ‘Jayant’ Arora published his poetry’s book. The title of the book is Rang Leela.

    When I received his email stating from these places I can buy the book –

    I told him that I rarely read poetry out of my educational requirements. The title seems interesting I would like to read it. I got a copy this week. So, I started reading it from cover.

    This was the first time I was reading a poet whom I can imagine as an individual. When I read Dharamvir Bharati (Andha yug) or Ramdhari Singh Dinkar (Kurukshetra), I always felt poets are super humans from a different world. Piyush is like me – he has done his engineering and an MBA. So I can think of a a human [not a super human writing].

    The first thing I read in his book was back page cover.

    [Hindi] ना खुशियों की बहार … आ गामो का दरिया है…
    ज़िंदगी और कुछ नही… बस अपना अपना नज़रिया है…

    [Translation] Life is all about our perspective and we all see it with our own lens. Our experiences and interactions fill in the color of the canvas of our lives.

    When I was reading the good small poems I wrote to him about referring to some in my blogs. He readily agreed.

    This week’s LBC (Loose Bloggers Consortium) title perfectly matches with Piyush’s perspective.

    There is nothing right and nothing wrong. These are all our perspectives. Piyush’s poetry’s are also on the same. Another Poem I am referring here from his same book –

    [Hindi] अगर सत्य से हमेश असत्य है हारा…
    और सब कुछ होता सिर्फ़ गोरा या काला..
    तो क्या अब तक बह रही होती यह धारा?
    यह तुम्हारी हमारी विचारधारा.

    [English – my words] If truth has always been triumphant over false… and everything is completely black and white… had there been a flow of different perspectives?

    Everything is our mind game, a perspective. There is nothing right and wrong. Everything is just “IS”

    This topic was suggested by Maria, for the weekly Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium where currently nine of us write on the same topic every Friday.  I hope that you enjoyed my contribution to that effort.  The seven other bloggers who write regularly are, in alphabetical order,  Ashok, gaelikaa, Lin, Maxi, Padmum, Ramana Uncleji,  Shackman and The Old Fossil. Do drop in on their blogs and see what their take is on this week’s topic. Since some of them may post late, or not at all this week, do give some allowance for that too!

  • Economics concepts and equality

    I was thinking about this strange experiment. What is we conclude end of day today that, everyone is given a new currency DMV (Digital Monetary Value) 2000. Any currency anyone has in his /her account is NULL except DMV 2000 after end of day today. Any other assets whatsoever are also NULL.

    maxresdefaultThis will bring everyone on the same economic level.Socialists want that, right? Next day onwards everyone has to work in DMV equivalents only. What would happen? Would we see equal socio-economic status of the world in say 20 years? Because everyone started off afresh with same amount of currency? Would the world be same as it is today (without DMV), after 20 years? The inequality will creep-in. Socialism seems to miss something in that sense of the world? The inequality in the world is not only because of the madness human-beings are involved with, but also because of the way soft things are build. The lobbying would continue, even after the DMV, and citizen’s representatives will make laws to favor few. Education will also make an impact the inequality generated. Relationships will play another role in creating the difference. Result? We would end up with the same The Price of Inequality.

    Capitalists will disagree to the starting point of the experiment itself. However, if capitalists understand the basic flaw of socialists approach they can understand last three sentences of the previous paragraph.

    I noticed on the net that If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddhism. [Tweet “Albert Einstein said – If there is any religion that could cope with modern scientific needs it would be #Buddhism”] Though my opinion is – one must not even accept everything in Buddhism also as  panacea. I would suggest two point if not anything else of Buddhism – 1. compassion & knowing interdependent co-arising and 2. meditation.

    The problem is the way we think, we need to change the way we think (what we think we become) [Tweet “what we think we become”]. Here is an example – Asian shares climb after dismal U.S. jobs report. This is the situation when one side of the world is in trouble the other half enjoys and makes profit. Are we going to understand the true meaning of equality? Forget meditation for some time, are we going to learn – interdependent co-arising?

    Image source – http://i.ytimg.com/vi/hdr6vSYZXGo/maxresdefault.jpg

  • Reservations! No, it’s about Inequality

    One of my friends commented on Facebook as priority #1 for New Govt of India – Abolish Reservation! Here are my 2 cents on reservation (e.g. reservation in Govt jobs, education et al) and how it should change.

    Indian reservations system is grossly misused, people assume it to be “entitlement”. An entitlement for even those whose parents have become somebody e.g. IAS from nobody.

    Reservation system was brought in to reduce inequality. This inequality at olden days was among caste based divided Indian citizen. In last so many years division is somewhat reduced however now the divide is evident among those oppressed communities as well for whom primarily the system was created.  The system needs to be rationalized. Just to give you an example – Devyani Khobragade is from reserved category. She became an IFS with the same reservation system – why was she given reservation when her father was also an IAS officer? The purpose of reservation was to uplift lives of the oppressed, now few of the oppressed have become oppressors as well! Any class 1 officers son or daughter shouldn’t be considered for reservation.

    Two different stories where I dont deny reservation –

    Budia Damor was my classmate in 11th – of course he was from reserved category – he did not have books. He was from a village named “Gram Aali” on Mandav road near Dhar. A village with population of about 300 (in 1995), yes in India there are villages as small as that. He was committed and he needed help. Besides Govt scholarship and reservation – I thought what best I could do was to give him some of my books, I did it. There are many such people. They need helping hand.
    I also remember Shaku Bai – our maid. Very committed, hardworking and responsible person. She had 5 kids, 2 or 3 of her kids were studying in a govt school in some tribal area, living in Govt hostel. The biggest asset for her in that hostel was – at least the kids are not starving! Yes this is the situation in many parts of India.

    building bridgesShe lived in a hut (what you just can imagine in photos, drawing only). She was expecting her 6th child- my mother helped her a lot. After delivery 2nd day she was at home to do work, baby with her with only few cloths my mom gave her. My Mom, didnt allow her to do anything, gave cloths for the baby and gave her gyan on family planning et al. I must say she was very committed, hardworking and responsible, may be I don’t have more words for her appreciation. We need to help them. Not Devyani Khobragade for becoming an IFS on the entitlement of Shaku Bai or Budia Damor.

    I see reservation for bridging gap of inequality – so if a Brahmin boy is very poor a chance for his upliftment should also be considered. Keywords are – upliftment and bridging the gap of inequality – Not scoring political brownie point.

    Though when I’m writing Brahmin I personally have serious objections with Indian caste system.

  • Why not define smaller things?

    Last month I met Prof Mankad. I always think whenever I meet him I should record our conversation. He is indeed a library of knowledge in himself. We discussed about our education system besides many other things (blogs written last weeks) Purpose of education and Showjumping. Dr Mankad told me – “one of the real problems with our daily life is our weird definitions e.g. success. We define success as owning that BMW. Until we get that BMW we don’t feel content. Thus, we avoid being satisfied, we do not live a fulfilling life. Though as an individual we can, but the weird definition makes us estranged from many small things.”

    Vada Pav
    Vada Pav

    He further shared an experience. One of his friends landed in India from the US (at about 12:00 AM or 2:00 AM). Next day 6:00 AM he was at Prof Mankad’s home, and asked to just accompany him. They drew to Karjat had some special Vadapav of that place and drove back to Mumbai.

    Well, all this made me question few very basic things we generally overlook. We do not think much about basics of life, but still have some preconceived notion about those things. As Dr Mankad shared example of success, another example is beauty. I watched this video in my MBA Marketing class. Our definition of beauty is weird watch this <2 min ad of Dove, to understand how our perceptions are defined; at times created. Many girls want to be fair, those who have curly hair want straight and vice versa!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iYhCn0jf46U

    How often have we thought on these seemingly simple, stupid, strange yet serious questions. What is the meaning of Success (for me or you)? Does our definition of success change over time? what is the purpose of life? Why are we studying (at least when in college)? How will I/you know when I/you reach the target (a 100,000 INR or 10,00,00,000 INR), the goal is always a moving one! What is the benchmark? I think we need to just pause at times, and think how we want to shape our life, what is important for ourselves at least that instance, isn’t it? I think that is what enlightened masters call “living in present”

    Related – 1. Why are you doing what are you doing? 2. What more you need? 3. Entanglement of a langot 4. Race – never ending

    Race – never ending
    Why are you doing what are you doing?
    Why are you doing what are you doing?

  • Why do we educate our kids?

    Rat raceWhen I visited my sister last time, I asked her this question – What is the purpose of education? She is a teacher, she was the best person to ask this question.

    I felt pity on my nieces, so I asked this question. My nieces (one just 4.5 years other 10 years) go to school even in April! I went there to spend some time with them and they went to schools! This is their age to try new things – painting, playing different sports, learning some music. Let them find what they enjoy doing rather than forcing them to sit in the classroom in the summers.

    My sister’s answer reminded me of Prof Mankad’s Macroeconomics class of my MBA. His exams used to be unique (not disclosing it though). His reasoning for such unique exam was- Information is accessible now a days; I want you to think, I want you to cultivate abilities to connect the dots of various subject matters you come across and develop ability to make decisions, opinion and inferences. These theories should not be crammed. You can make these graphs / search them any day / any time while you work. Practice of using these theories in making your opinions etc is what I want you to develop.

    Surprisingly, many Google search terms “Exam paper of Professor Mankad” and “Exam paper of Prof Boman Moradian” have ended up on my blog post. Here I never wrote about what they ask in their exams. I feel strange some students search such things also!

    So my sister – who teaches Science – answered – “I want students to see things for themselves, to experimeReady to Racent; science is something which will help them develop analytical skills”. My sister and Prof Mankas’s answers were not what I see the approach of marketing any school – B-School to Medical School to the Public school for K-12 levels. Our B-Schools & Tech-Schools talk about post education Salaries as benchmark for success! In fact, IVY league guys went to jails because of bigger crimes e.g. insider trading; and if not in jails they caused more troubles to an average human being than a pickpocket who also goes to jail for small crimes for troubling one average human being at a time.

    Why should we educate kids? Don’t you think that the purpose of education be set first. At least we have been doing this for executing businesses well. At least ask the kid what he/she wants to do – after a certain age – instead of making everyone an Engineers or Doctor?

    Related blogs – Showjumping, Race – never ending, Entanglement of an undergarment, Neeraj in Kabir’s style

    Image source – Alka Arya’s article http://hillpost.in/2012/04/revised-rate-race/44257/

    Here is what I found on LinkedIn – Engineers in India

  • Showjumping

    It was a Monday morning I woke up at 6:00 AM, got ready for office. Call it Monday blues for others but for me Monday’s are s different type of race. Race to get to the main road, catch a cab (cabbies dont want to go short distance ~6 KM <60 INR), board a local train to Andheri station run from there too to catch an Auto or Bus; where there is already a big line! Seriously, at times I feel “life is a race” (reminds me of a dialog in movie 3 idiots), no one knows race for what and where! The story does not end here. Whenever I cross NALCO (a stop for buses in Andheri East area), I see kids walking to school. One thought comes to my mind – these kids too have their office! That office is called school.

    At least till 8th standard, I don’t remember if I had gone to school, after exams for 1 full month of April month. My niece, she is not even 5 years finished her LKG in March; goes to her office (e.g. school) at 8:00 AM in April Month – yes she is in UKG now – she has got promoted! In our offices too we have a system of promotion (at least examination in March-April) isn’t it?

    This does not seem to me as education – we are making machines. My sister teaches in a school – I asked her what is the purpose of education? Why are you a teacher? Her response was unconventional. She said I want to make the kids expand their horizons. I added do you think schooling is doing it right? She had a mixed response.

    I feel forcing kids to school is not education, it can at best be schooling. Here please think of “Schooling” – as a verb! Such as training a horse for Showjumping!

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L_gLLKVhJd0

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