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Game of Educating!

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Have you ever wondered, why education has just become a means for attaining good marks, which in turn gets you a so called good job thereafter? And the education providers a business for churning out mechanical robots day-in-day-out.

After all education was never meant to be a business and a factory for generating the above, it was meant to lead to creation of responsible and sensible individuals who could, after growing up, make rational and sensible decisions, guiding the world towards a sustainable and joyful place to live in.

The question that arises is whether that’s happening? And if not, what needs to be done to ensure that it happens? Very valid questions indeed and we do have an answer, though it might not go down well with the herd mentality of trying to make millions of dollars, yet can have an immense impact on the way people perceive education in a holistic manner.

Before we get into the dynamics of how it can be achieved, let us take a pause to understand what it means for a kid. Kids are born with inherent curiosity, which they express in so called constructive or destructive ways, yet one thing that should not be taken away from them is a zeal to ask questions.

Shouldn’t our education system be encouraging questions and enabling the curiosity to flourish among kids?

Once the curiosity take its own course, kids are bound to find answers to the same, be it asking their elders (parents, siblings, teachers) or seeking it for themselves, be it internet, any chat bot or other means of digital access.

Coming to our role as adults is to provide kids an environment and assets through which they can explore this wonderful world, ask us questions when they feel like and get the answers to the same or a guidance as to where they would be able to find the answers to the same, the latter being the preferred modus operandi, as it leads to self-exploration and building a confidence to explore.

Having said the above, there are many aspects to providing this environment, especially in the current scheme of things (assuming the kids are able to come to a school, though there are other aspects of how to bring underprivileged kids to the same which encompasses mid-day meal programs etc.):

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  • Physical Infrastructure

 

      1. Classrooms (black/white boards, chalk/marker, chairs, tables, lights etc.)
      2. Toilets
      3. Playground (garden, trees)
      4. Projector
      5. Computer
      6. Science Labs (chemicals etc.)
      7. Staff room

 

  • Learning Material

 

      1. Text Books/E-Books (in every language)
      2. Videos (in-person/animation) (in every language)
      3. Experiment kits (aligned to concepts and real life examples) which kids can play with, relate to and learn from the same
      4. Tools equipped with AR/VR

 

  • Teachers

 

      1. Friendly, learned enablers having teaching aides (digital and physical) who promote the culture of openness and asking questions

 

  • Parents

 

    1. Acting as enablers off the school campus, giving children an opportunity to explore

The very idea to create an exploration environment equipped with technology and other fundamental assets to make the learning process a joyful experience is what one would want to aspire for when it comes to developing that all important vision of educating the next generation.

The learning process needs to be made joyful and easily understandable which means presenting concepts etc. in a manner in which the kid would want to receive it as, which in turn means that we need to have a fair understanding of what would be received well by different kids of different levels of understanding and the matter or the material being designed in accordance to the same.

Does that mean that the grades need to be rethought and regrouped into a fundamental parameter, such as level of understanding?

If that’s the case, can the concepts be organized per se according to the levels of understanding and not grades?

Does it also translate into different explanations/pedagogy for the same concept for different levels of understanding that kids might have?

After all, a concept is grade agnostic and the very assumption that the kids of a certain grade wouldn’t comprehend a particular aspect of life is derogatory in itself.

It’s like putting the kids into unwanted boundations and making them believe of the very limitations which don’t really exist.

Strong need to rethink upon how education can be made:

Relatable (to what one sees around oneself),

Realistic (based upon pure observation),

Simplistic (easy to understand),

Unbounded & limitless (making a conscious effort of not creating superficial boundaries in the minds of the kids)

and

most importantly Enjoyable.

Source of the image: https://www.education.com/game/number-demolition-11-20/

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Artificially Intelligent (AI) Human!

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It’s kind of scary to think about the very tasks and jobs being taken away from humans by the AI world that seem to have found world-wide acceptance among the visionary thinkers.

But, if you have the time and patience to delve into the aspects a little in depth, you will realize that it’s after all not that scary.

For the world, that is being created around us, is on the basis of human limitations and not human potential.

And when we talk about human potential, we better respect the boundlessness of what it is, especially going by the ability of a human mind to find itself in use and the very limitation of the artificially intelligent human being able to do so.

Sometime back, I had written about this concept of kundalis (horoscopes) being used for determining the job-person fit for recruiting people in organizations.

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Now, certain machines are doing the same, which work on this algorithm, where in the skill sets are matched to the key words in job descriptions (JD) and there you get the perfect looking AI man all set to rock your organization and take it to the next level of sorts.

But the very assumption, that success=skill sets or is derived in some way from the same, is far from reality, as many of the HR professionals might have already encountered, their biggest worry being the attrition rate in their respective organizations.

For, if the human was as simple as a+b=c, then the world would look too predictive and robotic in that sense.

Good or bad, to express human capabilities in the form of an equation, no matter how complicated looking, it might be, as it turns out, the predictions made are far from what ends up being the truth.

Need to wonder upon the very foundations of the assumptions made in this regard? Rather than blindly following those assessments and perspectives given by a bunch of western philosophers or psychologists and treating it as the ultimate truth?

High time, one discards the deterministic attitude of knowing how a person might behave and high time to start treating human as a potential and not just a resource.

So, all organizations out there, if you do just the way you are doing, what you might end up getting is an AI man, who might not fulfill your vision, instead result in the creation of a dissatisfied and disheartened AI workforce.

Am sure, you wouldn’t want that. Time for change in perspective?

Source for the Image: https://philosophyofmetrics.com/the-artificial-man/

Fearing the If?

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How many times have we woken up to a thought what if what we are expecting today to happen doesn’t go the way we want it to?

Be it a cricketer, who wants to score and contribute in the next IPL game to see his team through to victory,

Be it an investment banker, who wants to make that life changing deal, hoping to retire at age 40,

Be it an advertising professional, who wants to get out the most creative idea, that he has to offer to the world today,

Be it an actor, who thinks of making it big in the Bollywood industry, with his first big hit this very Friday,

Be it a doctor, who wants to successfully conduct the most complicated surgery he has ever done,

Be it a scientist, who wants to make that all important discovery, which would benefit the mankind in times to come,

Be it a student, who dreams of becoming an IAS officer and whose civil services results are supposed to be out the very day,

Be it a labourer, who is hoping to get that meal for the day, which he aspires for everyday in his life,

But no matter, how much one aspires to make this day, the most significant day of his life, there is that fear of seeing it not happening.

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Some might have lost hope, seeing the fear coming true everyday of their lives,

Some might want to maintain a so called positive demeanor, hoping the day will come sooner or later,

There are only few, who manage to come out of this fear, and start to live life, as it is supposed to be experienced and cherished.

Have you ever wondered why most of us find ourselves incapable of relieving us from this fear?

Is it because of the assets that we have accumulated over a period of time and for which we are liable to repay a huge debt?

Is it because we have this concept of a wonderful materialistic life towards which we keep putting in the hard work?

Is it because we feel we are burdened with loads of responsibilities and expectations from the near and dear ones?

Whatever might be the reason, for which we see ourselves doing what we do, day-in-day-out, have you ever wondered, whether this was how life was meant to be?

Getting up, rushing into the daily chores, running off to work, coming back late, barely having time for dinner and family, pushing off to bed, and then repeating the same everyday.

Was such the very concept of life, we were born to?

Probably not!

Life is much more than what most of us have made it into.

Isn’t it about getting up each morning from the bed of death to witness another beautiful day?

Isn’t it about getting another chance to spread the joy and make others happy around you?

Isn’t it about working towards a cause that really gets you going, aimed at making this world a wonderful place to live in?

And much more…

If you think, it is, then why not just get that fear out of your life forever and ever.

After all, one day, each one of us know, where we would end up, having realized this, don’t you think, it’s high time we say goodbye to our fears and start living!

Source for the Image: http://randalldsmith.com/fear-and-heart-health-the-letter-to-smyrna-revelation-28-11/

Ironical Success!

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A sage once asked a man, “Do you want to be successful or secure?”

The man replied, “But how are they different?”

The sage replied, “Well, for most of the people, the success happens by chance, which makes them more fearful of what if and what if not!”

What the man chose thereafter, let us leave that to history, but what’s more important is to mull over the above a tad bit.

To see whether it’s really happening around us. Are we really becoming that insecure, as we tend to accumulate more and more assets in our lives.

Are we scared of losing things to so called destiny?

Are we looking for some kind of insurance, leave alone the other ones which, in any case, we are choosing to have day-in-day-out, instead of focusing on what to do and what not to do, especially when it comes to our health?

To a certain extent, yes!

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Be it any time of our day, tend to haunt us with questions,

What if the maid doesn’t come today?

What if I were late for a so called important meeting?

What if the investments that I have made are hit by a financial crisis?

What if the real state scenario doesn’t become better?

What if I am not able to travel in business class?

Our minds and thoughts putting us in an unstable mode, where in consequences of situations which hasn’t even happened start to trouble us the very moment we are awake.

No wonder, so much importance is being given to sleeping 8-9 hours a day ;).

What if, the very act of waking up came along with the pleasant thoughts, which instead of making you fearful and insecure brought in fresh air and fragrance of life!

Wouldn’t that be a fantastic way to lead life?

And would it even matter bothering about answering the question which the sage asked, once upon a time 🙂

Source of the Image: http://www.pragyata.com/mag/ashtavakra-the-great-indian-sage-110

 

Info Mind!

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With the explosion of access to information that has taken place in the recent past, and we being exposed to tiniest bit of the same every now and then via different sources,

Be it the news app that we have installed in our smart phones or

The WhatsApp groups in which people tend to share anything and everything, considering their responsibility of keeping the groups active at all times,

The fact of the matter is that there is too much of it. And the need to know more, at times, just because, you have to keep up with the group dynamics and the conversations happening there in, has become an overload of sorts.

Which at times lead to unnecessary burn out, for most of the information that we tend to be consuming is of no consequence to us, and the more the garbage you tend to take in and accumulate, the more the chances of pouring it out (garbage in garbage out (GIGO)). 

mind-filter

At the same time, the mind, instead of being an enabler for a balanced approach to life, tends to soil it with insecurities and the fear of the unknown.

Feel the need to have a filter which could somehow do the job of curing the content before it reaches your sound imagination and visualization?

Well, it might not come from planet Mars, has to be figured out within the realms of planet Earth. 

And who is going to do that? Any guesses?

None other than you, yourself!

It comes down to disciplining and conditioning your mind out of the social conditioning that it has got used to.

The only question that arises is,

Are you willing enough to pay attention to what really matters and ignore the unwanted?

Source for the Image: http://terrificdata.com/2016/09/29/you-are-uninformed-sharif-youssef/mind-filter/

 

 

Scaling the Irony!

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In the past decade or so, I have seen the start up ecosystem mature big time. The reasons might be different, ranging from jumping on the band wagon to cash in at the right time to really being concerned about something that one might find amiss in the society that they live in, and few for the sheer want of making it big some day.

What has facilitated the above is a transition from a capitalist to a market economy, where instead of few people holding all resources, the money is there to be got from the market if they consider you worthy enough of the same, which more often than not, comes down to the kind of network one has and the profiles of the founders.

Among this buzz, what has remained a constant theme to look for is the numbers, be it the investors who talk nothing but numbers to founders who try to achieve the same as they would want to raise money, which fortunately or unfortunately becomes the goal of many startups.

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In this rush for numbers, at times, the very purpose of establishing a business takes a beating. Any business or organization, both from a fundamental ethical point of view as well as practical sustainable point of view, is supposed to cater to the well being of it’s clientele.

For those who are trying to make bucks and move out in the short term, the above might not be so relevant, but for those who have put their skin in the game, it might make great sense to focus on the well being of their customers, if they want to be in it for a long term and see their venture evolve into what the world today refers to as unicorns. 

So far so good, but as a society, if you notice, all the so called unicorns and other multinationals, the foundations on which they prosper, tend to be human misery, what most seem to encourage is a consumerist mindset, which, in a way, goes against the very fundamentals of well being.

Many would argue that the circumstances are such and that they are only cashing in on the reality, and scaling on the basis of the irony that projects well being but goes against the very nature of the same.

Fair enough as it might sound, just wonder, whether the very parameters of success can be bent to cater to the real well being of the ecosystem that we live in and the kind we belong to.

Source for the Image: http://digestafrica.com/ugandan-startups-know-scaling/

Conscious Rockstar!

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Moving on the circumference of the circle of life, here I take this opportunity to wish everyone a fantastic time ahead :), where years for social use is just a means of making sense out of the rising and setting of the sun and the moon.

As you move on in this short journey referred to as life, from popping on this planet to diffusing in the unknown, from making these short term goals to long term, which by the way is also short in the entire scheme of things, what is it that you would want to leave behind.

Would it be plenty of wealth for your loved ones?

Would it be some family name which will remain prominent in years to come?

Would it be some service that you will be remembered for, by the people who gained out of it?

Or

Would it be something more, something very different, something which people will talk about, and if I were to borrow from the marketing terminologies of our times, for the USP of the thing you achieved?

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To each their own, they say, but

To each there is only one destination, though the paths might be different.

To each the craving is same,

To each the possibilities are same,

To each the opportunities are same or can be made the same.

Another wonderful day in our lives, gives us all that opportunity to make it count,

To make the most out of it,

To utilize each bit of it to the utmost,

To respect and appreciate the fact that we have been provided one,

And

To create a difference in the lives of the people whom we get a chance to interact with.

The burning question though is,

“Are we conscious enough to start doing the above?

Are we prepared to come out of the mindless ways of living life to a conscious way of accepting and celebrating the very foundations of life?

Are we set to become a Conscious Rockstar?” Well, as they say, to each their own ;).

Source for the Image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/rockstar

From Use Me to Need Me?

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My first memory of the phrase “Use Me!” is, when as a kid, I saw this cute little dustbin in the corridors of my school, asking me not to throw the wrapper of the chocolate that I had just eaten, on the ground, instead inside the one and only place it should be thrown into.

Indeed the idea of Utilitarianism caught my imagination, which in itself is a fantastic idea to have around oneself, the only catch being, if the very idea is being utilized in a smart way.

Unfortunately, as it has turned out, lot of things from:

Doing Networking to making friends, 

Exploiting resources to minting money, 

Consumerism to Materialism, 

Has led to a state of affairs, where the first thought that comes in all our minds is,

How can we make use of something?

Will I benefit from using it in this way, or I need to find an alternate which can make the utilization more efficient, in turn leading to more profits?

What is that key differentiator/ USP when I go about exploiting the resources?

What this has led to is a complete neglect of the destruction and harm that we are causing to not only this planet but also to the minds of individuals.

Especially the next generation kids, whom we are breeding into robots who would want to run after success the moment they gain some control over their mind and body, the very basis of which is to accumulate as many possessions as possible at any cost.

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And then we happily have those table-top conversations about how bad the world is becoming, how difficult it would be for our children to survive and debating about accumulating more and more for the security that we would want to pass on to our next generation.

As it turns out, neither of the table-top conversations nor the accumulation would slow down the tide of destruction,

The only thing which might work, since we still have sometime, is a realization that the very basis of success need not be money; after all:

A mother’s effort and time which she devotes towards bringing up her child, cannot be weighed in terms of money,

So, how about going from a use based thought process towards a need based thought process?

How about slowing down the pace of exploits, giving us time to look at it from a sustainable perspective?

How about giving up a share of profits for a better ecosystem?

How about incorporating other values and parameters as the basis of success with possessions making a very small percentage, as a consequence of what one does and not what one aims to do?

The ball is very much in our court, if we fail to hit the right shot now, doomsday ahead,

But I have full faith in the power of utilitarianism that homo sapiens have got so accustomed to using in their day-to-day life, which would slowly but surely enable all of us to think about the very fundamentals of existence.

Source for the Image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/dustbin

Be a Rebel!

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One of the most famous songs of our generation, “be a rebel!” from Rang de Basanti! has very deep connotations if you look at it.

Be it the kid in you who only studied subjects because you liked it and not for the love of few marks in some silly exam,

Be it the professional in you that did something because you were doing what Nike was asking you to do, what you love! and not for the want of a hefty pay check,

or

Be it the parent in you, who ignored a boss’ s call just to have those wonderful moments with your kid letting go of the brownie points that you could have gained over someone else, in front of your boss at an odd hour,

If you haven’t done anything which comes under the category of being a rebel, be it big or small, you haven’t really created that much important difference which, courtesy you being born a human, were gifted with the power to do so.

One thing that continues to haunt most of us is looking forward to that day, when we make it big.

The definition of being big might vary from person to person.

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From some, it could mean appearing on air while being covered for establishing a successful start-up,

For few, it could mean getting selected in the civil services exam,

For few, it might mean, leading one of the bigger companies, be it Microsoft or Apple, 

For few, it could mean excelling in the political arena,

and

For few, it could mean becoming an army officer or a pilot.

Whatever it might be, one thing that remains common among all is the will to be something more than what you already are, which gets represented in the form of want, aspiration or the ambition.

And the higher the degree of rebellion and the subsequent path you choose, the higher the chances you would have made it big considering all standards of society and by all stretch of imagination.

So, be a rebel, be fearless not just for the want of it but because you want to do something, which you tend to relate to, the most in your life and witness the difference and subsequent happiness explode right in front of your eyes.

Source for the Image: https://www.shutterstock.com/search/rebel

Let Go You-Bama!

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The moment I hear the phrase, “let go“, I am taken back in time and am reminded of the movie Zindagi na Milegi Dobara where just before the sky dive, Hrithik Roshan tells Farhan Akhtar, “let go, Imran, just let it go!”

When I think about it, there it was letting go of the fear, yet it has very deep connotations and implications for all of us in our day-to-day lives,

no matter which part of the World we reside in,

no matter what religion we practice and

no matter what field or sector we are working in.

Day-in-day-out, we try to do best for ourselves and our loved ones whom we refer to as family or friends,

we try to be successful in whatever we do, be it personal or professional,

we try to have fun, which by the way was supposed to be a natural way of living, though we have found a way to make it hard enough to explore and practice,

we try to use our time to the best of our skills and capabilities, intending to get a better house, a better car, at times even the best breed of dog to be bred at home;

yet we see the life drifting away at a mindless pace, where we don’t even get the time to contemplate and realize that we are not gonna take everything that we are accumulating at this point in time, with us.

So, difficult it is to let go, be it our identities (religious, caste, creed etc.),

be it our set of possessions (a pair of trousers, gadgets etc.),

be it our so called loved ones, to the extent, that at times we tend to suffocate them supposedly for their own good, not realizing that we are in fact doing more harm than good, by imposing all the societal stuff,

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Not realizing that not letting go, on the contrary, is

making us fret more,

get frustrated more,

get angry on a frequent basis,

become comparative and in turn jealous more often than not,

making us go through the consequences of bad health;

Yet we continue to do so, without stopping for a moment to give it a thought, whether it’s all worth it.

After all, the beautiful time that we have been bestowed with, in the form of human, do you think, it was supposed to do all the above?

Well even if you were to argue really hard in its favour, few might say, to some extent,

Yet you know, deep down in your hearts and minds, that it’s all a game that you have been taught to play by the society, which giving up right now is more of a challenge and fear, arising out of the conditioned insecurities.

The only question that you need to ask yourself is, do you consider yourself important enough (to the likes of Obama, Bill Gates etc.)  to not let go?

For if it was not that, you would have by now, actually decided to let go. I guess, even they have, to some extent, that is! 😉

Source for the Image: http://www.lovethispic.com/image/20870/let-go