Day 12-I, Me,Myself

I was having lunch with my 10 year old nephew and my 63 year old mother. We had ordered for a traditional South Indian meal which comes with so many varieties of food in little bowls on a gigantic plate. My mother didn’t want to eat some of those items and immediately tried passing it on to the others in the table , just because she wanted to get rid of them and keep her plate filled only with good things (those that she would enjoy). I see the same dangerous habit with my nephew. He would like to get rid of things in his plate that he wouldn’t eat. I have noticed an uneasiness in him until that point in time that he gets rid of them.
I was wondering…. is this is a national habit. We are known to take the garbage from our house and dump them on the roads. We are famous for keeping ourselves clean and leave public toilets unflushed and dirty.
What may sometimes seem like a personality trait can actually be an illness, so much as to infect an entire nation with it.Dont you think?
How do we address this? How do we imbibe tolerance? How do we drive home the message that service to community as important as service to your family or yourself? That to treat anything one uses with respect, should be part of the character building  exercise.

Dear Universe, where do we start ?

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Day 65-What we need to tell our girls

Our generation has a peculiar problem of swinging between extremes . One group of the society considers girl children as a shame and engage in female infanticide and another group-the educated, cultured, modern group is the exact opposite. They tell their girls to be aggressive and treat the males in the society BADLY. I am not in agreement with both and hope for a balance where the men and the women in the society get their due credit. So, what is it that we need to teach our girls? 1.  Education is prime-beauty, money and fame come next only 2. A woman is strong   and has high potential –there is no such thing as a “Job meant for a man” and “a job meant for a woman”. 3.Tears are not weapons. To use them like that is cheap, dangerous and wont work all the time 4. Financial independence is important, but emotional independence is critical 5. Treat a man with respect.PERIOD. 6. Never raise your voice…your look should do it… 7. Size of breasts ..size of hips d...
Read more

Day 17-Mediocrity-is the name of the game

Of the many lessons that I have learnt after a few years of working in the corporate world and a few others in education, I have come to realise something about this nation that disturbs me. I use the word Nation and not the world because I do not know about the other races and so I refrain from giving my opinion on them. In case you have been fortunate enough to have an extremely talented person as a relative or a friend or if that person happens to be you-someone who wouldn't settle for anything less than excellence, you might have noticed that these people are usually what the society would call "unsuccessful" or "unpopular". There is no place for excellence today. Usually, the very well dressed, jargon rattling, fair skinned person gets preference in any meeting/presentation. The child who finishes first and writes what the teacher thinks is "good" gets his A+. The teenager who says "I want to be a doctor" is considered "in the righ...
Read more

Day 34-Why Education?

I come from a country that has proven , time and again that in order to be successful, education may not be necessary. I have seen way too many men who haven't been educated but have made shit loads of money. So why be educated? Is education a tool to having a career/making money/securing a successful partner/making a name in the society? If that is so, why not teach children in schools ONLY about Physics and Maths and Chemistry and may be a bit of money management? Why do we teach Art and craft? Why do we want children to participate in the million activities-drama, dance, music, elocution and all of that importance we lay on extra curricular activities? Why help children acquire good handwriting? Why show them to appreciate music and art? No matter how hard I think, I go back to Montessori's answer-that one theory that is the basis of the Montessori principle-EDUCATION AS AN AID TO LIFE. Certainly this is the aim of education -to help children understand how to LIVE...not...
Read more