"Fine, Thank You"

At times, I keep reflecting on our education system and the kind of skills/ideals it has imbibed in me. I am positive that this education system is a failure.

• - It does not teach us how to lead our lives
• - It does not teach us how to handle failure
• - It does not teach us how to handle conflicts in principles
• - It does not teach us how to face complex and mind-boggling situations
• - It does not teach us that we need to be aware of the city/state/country and its problems
• - ....
• - It does not teach us that we need to stand up and contribute...

The list can go on and on... The only thing that this education system has perhaps given me is a way to earn by bread and butter. Of course, this is no mean achievement in today's times. But, at times I do feel that I am not fully prepared to face this world. The only thing I find solace in is the fact that learning is lifelong... The biggest fear, however, is that my learning on these issues will now be through experience, through making mistakes in this stage of life... which may prove to be too costly at times, and will be a very slow process...

The most startling example of the way rote learning is imbibed to us comes to me in the form of something I was taught in primary school. We were being taught different possible English constructs/questions that can be asked and were being given answers to all of them. One of them I remember... we were taught that the answer to "How are you?" should be "Fine, Thank You"... as if I should never answer anything else... For a very long time, I used to wonder whether this "Fine, Thank You" was a construct which was supposed to be an answer to this questions always. It was only as I grew up that I understood the fallacy...

"I never let schooling interfere with my education" -- Mark Twain

-Mohit

Remembering Netaji...

Jan 23rd, 2006 was was Netaji's 109th birthday. This is an extract from what Varun sent me on that day...

A page from a letter to the Bengal Government from 'My Political Testament', written while at Presidency Jail, November, 1940. (Subhash Chandra Bose)

In this mortal world, everything perishes and will perish – but ideas, ideals and dreams do not. One individual may die for an idea. But that idea will, after his death, incarnate itself a thousand lives. That is how the wheel of evolution moves on and the ideas, ideals and dreams of one generation are bequeathed to the next. An idea has ever been fulfilled itself in this world through an ordeal of suffering and sacrifice.

What greater solace can there be than the feeling that one has lived and died for a principle? What higher satisfaction can a man posses than the knowledge that his spirit will beget kindred spirits to carry on his unfinished task, What better reward can a soul desire than the certainty that his message will be wafted over time and dates and over the broad plains to every corner of his land and across the seas to distant lands? What higher consummation can life attract than peaceful self-immolation at the altar of one's cause?

Hence it is evident that nobody can lose through suffering and sacrifice. If he does lose anything of the earth earthy, he will gain much more in return by becoming the heir.

---

For what Netaji couldnt do while living, he has created thousand more Bose through his inspiring ideals after his death.... SALUTATIONS....

-Mohit

"Subscribe To Common Sense"

From an advertisement for Down To Earth by CSE India

"The US, responsible for a quarter of the world's CO2 emissions rejected the Kyoto Protocol in 2001 as it was perceived to be harmful to the US economy.

- The US suffered losses of over $4 billion in May 2003, due to Tornadoes.
- The US suffered losses of over $5 billion in May 2003, due to Hurricanes.
- The costliest wildfires on record in the US happened in California in 2003.
- Hurricanes Jeanne, Ivan, Frances and Charley costed the US over $45 billion in 2004.
- Hurricane Katrina hits US in 2005. Damages over $125 billion. And counting

Subscribe to Common Sense"

I don't have anything else to say...