Right to Education

The Indian Parliament recently passed a landmark Bill, Right to Education! Yes, now every individual has the Right to Education.

What does this mean for the general public – especially those who are at the bottom of the pyramid? Is this good news for them? Will there be easy access to Education for them? I would like believe so, as long as the intention is to provide education to the masses.

But if this Law is to coerce, the fancier private schools to “accommodate” the masses on the basis of this law, I wonder will the objective ever be achieved? And it should not create more insecurities or bullies inside the classrooms.

I firmly believe that only Education can help us in getting to the Super Power that we yearn for. The basic education and more importantly Civic Sense should be imparted to one and all. It WILL NOT work if the private institutions are forced to include everybody in the same class. The idea is not create disparity here, but to bring in a sense of balance within the society yet raise the bar with Education.

I hope the Government will think of innovative means to reach out to the masses in order to engage them and provide Education. Or we can leave it to the good bunch of NGOs or even for that matter the CSR initiatives of the Capitalist friends to make the best of this wonderful Law.

My appeal - Please start with Civic Sense. No school today talks about basic civic sense, barring a few and some individual teacher initiatives. Especially in a place like India – Civic Sense, Hygiene, Environment care etc needs to be imparted to Children with care and compassion.

I am sure it will be a great place to live in. Looking forward!

The Ornaments of this House are the Friends who frequent it

You ask any teenager as to what is the most important thing in his life is – invariably the answer would be Friendship. The crucial age in one’s life is predominantly moulded and driven by the so called Friends. One would do anything for the Friend at that age.

I was conducting an interview of a fresher sometime back. During the interview process, the candidate politely asked me if I would like to consider the candidature of a friend of his as well. Such was the power and passion of friendship at that age. I wonder will he do the same thing, say after 5 years?

What changes? Is there a change in the Friendship or is it the feeling towards the friend that changes? Or is it the priority that changes? Or is the situation different? Or is it the Marriage?

Whatever be the situation, the Friend was the most important person in the life once upon a time? Why the change? Invariably this is a true phenomenon across different cultures and geographies. Yes, Things do change when a person approaches the thirties and it does take a different turn. But It is quite interesting to note as the person approaches his forties, while grappling with the midlife crises, he looks to connect with the old buddies. You would suddenly see some bursts of action and school reunions happening. It is a challenge to get people together. But it does happen to a reasonable amount of success. And you would find people with all types of emotions – nostalgia, indifference, Joy, Forward looking etc. Mixed reactions.

Once the guy is beyond the midlife crises, some friends do find a place again in their lives. That’s why probably they say Life begins at Forty!

That reminds me, as far as I could remember I was bought up at home with my dad proudly flaunting a nice little placard which said – “The Ornaments of this House are the Friends who frequent it”.

Indeed!

Perhaps – my dad was in his Forties then!

PERSONAL INSECURITIES

This has been a very sensitive topic very close to my chest.

I had been brought up in an environment to value the opinion of others in anything and everything I do. Yes, a noble thought and perhaps good from the point of view that it stemmed from a Joint Family System.

But little did I realise that this would have some kind of a deep impact in my personality and in many of my activities and eventually leading to the bizarre concept of Insecurity. Ok let me get this straight -  the idea is not to blame the ecosystem for anything. This is just a root cause analysis of the 3 decades plus psyche.

So what all did I want to do?

I wanted to be a good singer. But I have never sung a single song so far!

I wanted to be an orator. I had given my names to Elocution Competitions in Schools when I was a kid. When my chance came on stage, I would tremble with fright and not utter a word in front of the audience. Ok – blamed it on stage fear!

I wanted to act in Stage Plays. I love theatre. Do I need to mention, I ended up being a Crew member – Stage Manager as they would call it!

As I grew up, I felt I could write decently if not go for stage talks. So I felt like writing articles. But what prevented me from carrying it on?

Now, in this technologically connected world it is easy to make virtual friends – Thanks to Facebook, 

LinkedIn, Twitter et al. I am reasonably active in the Social Networking sites. Nobody can see you anyway. But when it comes to making a comment - Do I think twice? Is it for being politically correct? Is it because I shouldn’t hurt the feelings of others? Is it because of “what will they think” syndrome? Is it because I do not want to leave digital footprints?

Aren’t these something called Insecurities?

I am still learning to cope with it.

The fact that I have written this note is in itself a giant leap. Don’t you think so?

Yes, Certainly I am improving!