Tears welled up in my eyes

Tears welled up in my eyes, was it love, was it resentment, was it a silent sense of a long deserved achievement? Or was it a sense of gratitude? Yes, I am thankful Oo teacher, you have recreated the same frenzy of feelings of thankfulness which makes one feel, what did I do, to be blessed with such good things... Eleven years ago, I used to go for Maths-Science tuitions during my 9th Grade under a famous teacher in my locality called Mrs. Gokhale. It is very normal for students to go for extra tuitions in the city of Mumbai such that we used to feel obviously surprised that not everyone goes to tuitions in any other part of India. We have re-defined tuitions to a strategy to compete for the merit list in class rather than actually being a helping hand in understanding difficult subjects. I was among the group which is shy in class & generally tries to wrap up the classwork & homework rather than trying to find out 'what was what & why was that like that'. It was a 2:00 to 3:30pm class everyday after school on weekdays when we would finish our school in the morning, rush home, have a quick lunch, try to squeeze in a game of NFS Hot pursuit for leftover 5-8 minutes after lunch & rush to the tuition class by 1:45pm. Mrs. Gokhale was teaching Algebra - Polynomial equations. She had given some equations and a small part of which was to factorize a polynomial. I loved mathematics & absent-mindedly written in one part: x*x -7*x + 12 = 0 as x=3,4 as it was too simple. Mrs. Gokhale teacher was a task master & wanted students to express the steps in the right prescribed & universally accepted methods only. She would not like short cuts as even careless mistakes often lead to the common outcome of overlooking portent arguments. Mrs. Gokhale called me when she was checking that day's class work of the study group for the day. I was afraid as she seldom used to call anybody next to her for explaining things at the end of the class that day itself. It usually meant that there was some critical mistake for which there was going to be some serious remonstration. I went & sat next to her. She showed me the expression that I had written & patiently started explaining to me. I have written the monologue as much as my memory supports but I am pretty sure it remains embedded in my mind for life as a special event. Karthik, come sit. What you have written here is not the right way of showing sequence of steps in algebra. See, x*x-7*x+12=0 => x*x-4*x-3*x+12=0 => x(x-4)-3(x-3)=0 => (x-4)(x-3)=0 => x-4=0 OR x-3 =0 => x=4 OR x=3 I had been doing this kind of Math from 4th grade onwards and I was generally confident of not losing any marks in the mathematics examinations. This was nothing new to me. But what she had taught that day remains hardwired in my mind till now for the following reasons. She earnestness believed that I didn't know the steps involved and hence in all these years, I was simply solving algebra in a closed outlook fashion with less regard for knowing why I was doing what I was doing. I was absent-mindedly printing out answers for the prose of algebra alright without enjoying the verses hidden which had much to tell. She didnt shun me simply as most other teachers do by saying, "you should know these things by the time you enter 9th Grade. I am not going to tell you all this..." Instead, she taught me once & for all how to respect Algebra & write poems in Algebra. Though I may not have become a great poet of Mathematics more than an admirer of poems in Mathematics, I learnt it for life with her deliberate effort to reform me. I did reform for life with her little effort. Thank you Gokhale teacher. The tears of joy welling up my eyes is a silent sign of gratitude to you. Eleven years later, this feelings are revoked today. Sir, I am a young guy who had given innumerable public presentations in front of innumerable types of audiences in a variety of situations and pertaining to different topics.The mistakes I may be doing may have been camouflaged over the veil of experience. What is done for a really long time may not always be the right thing to do. Even though, you could have overlooked mistakes I made in the presentation & grade the personal errors like all my past teachers have been doing based on the mindset - 'Imbibing presentation skill is not my job, I simply teach the subject. Till he learns that, it is fine with me.' You instead sat with me for hours together, taught me why some things were wrong. Taught me, how what we express in written in presentation slides should be closest to how we frame the problem & attach with a solution. How to eliminate what is not needed, kill the residency & keep focussed on the goal set like a sure shot arrow. Your persona reflects the ideology that one's conviction is best if it is reflected in one's actions & expressions. Not only have I listened carefully to whatevery you say, your deeds also have an impact on me. I have been worshipping the virtue of earnestness in humankind for a long time now. Tears well up my eyes when I meet an earnest teacher. I am forever indebted to you for teaching me all those things which you have nowhere obligations to. Going out of the way may not be the sensible sustainable way for few others to be a senior teacher. But for me, it plants a seed of indebtedness in the students.Seeds from which 'the plants of gratefulness' will bloom which makes people feel: "Good things have happened to me, now it is my turn to return it to the society, now it is my turn to go out of the way." Tears of joy well up my eyes to see the greatest reformers of humankind at work - the Teachers.

Bane of Impatience

"Men by nature long to get on to the ultimate truths, and will often be impatient with elementary studies or fight shy of them. If it were possible to reach the ultimate truths without the elementary studies usually prefixed to them, these would not be preparatory studies but superfluous diversions." -- Maimonides (1135-1204)

Are we better off than yesterday?

Life has certainly become easier and more comfortable for the current generation as compared to that of people who belonged two generation ago. Technology and establishment of individual rights in a rational society are the sole reason for easing out the various difficulties an average human faced during the past. The primary purpose of technological and scientific development is to provide solutions to the various problems prevailing at a given time in history, be it under the medical field or the entertainment industry. The troubles have been enervated and what were fatal problems of yester years look implausible to cause harm in today's world. The eradication of major diseases and advancement of medicines for most of the common ailments has reflected in the increase in life-expectancy of a human being. not only has technology and science assured mitigation of life risks, it also strives to ensures that quality of life improves through various factors like better communication and transportation facilities. The entertainment industry improves not only the audio-visual treatises in every movie or music composition that releases with better technological support, but also strives to relinquish the wide imaginations and desires of the customers of the entertainment industry. There is a tendency across the globe to move towards a society that acknowledges the individual sentiment and establish a rational social equilibrium. This assertion may seem far-fetched when seeing the disturbances in the media and the various communal fights that are prevalent, but these have surfaced to the sight of the common man only due to the rise in media awareness. We have moved away from the World war era where the life of common man was sacrificed and even during peace times, harmony was to be enforced with random curfew and related social stabilization policies. Grandparents would often cite times when they couldn’t step out their place for days and when daily utilities were scarce to get were rationed frugally. The visualization of increase in the standard of living can be seen in the increase in usage of mobile phones, vehicles and gadgets that make things easier. But all these come with a price of more perseverance and increased risk of defaulting on credit. In today's world, anything can be procured on credit and life can be lived on a day on day basis. But the expectations of performances have increased along with the rising complexities of social life. Hence the comfort that the current generation is living in can be sustain in the long run only if the people of the current generation exercise a sense of restraint while enjoying and purchase on credit keeping in mind the increase liability towards repaying their debts.

Common curriculum across the nation

A nation should not impose a rule of a single national curriculum in school till college. At the outset, this suggestion may look attractive since it seeks more equanimous society in the future by providing the same educational opportunities to everybody in school. But, there may be serious consequences due to elimination of choice for the individual participants during the course of accessing the fundamental need of education in the early stages of life. Every individual has a different aspiration, different aptitude sets towards different various & range of social as well as biological capabilities.It may be argued that the diverse educational requirements may be fulfilled after they enter college & till then, a generalized curriculum can be perceivably better for an equity in the society. Superimposing a fixed educational setup for the first 12 years of student life can be acheived in two ways: (a) Select all topics across the major disciplines & cover the basic knowledge required to enter college with specialities. (b) Select a curriculum structure which trains the pre-college teens towards the commercial world, tuning the course work with the socio-economic requirements of manpower planning & social harmony. Developing either of these strategies is not deterministic & assumes a smoothe transition from pre-college to college mindset in a very short time. Hence, there should be two to three standards of education based upon overall difficulty & academic rigour. The range should suffice the needs of parents who want to prepare their children for international standards and who are well-endowed as well as those who want their children to get a modest learning with minimal stress. The second problem is presence of barriers in setting such a common framework. The cultural topography, geography as well as socio-economy of nations hardly remain uniform across the states. There are regional languages which people prefer to learn, regional authors/peots whose contribution is essential for the basic education to that region. The elimination of choice of state-wise curriculum will erode opportunities to learn these regional factors. The nation can impose a common language of instruction for pre-college students but enforcing a common curriculum is not justified enough.

To write a book on doing nothing Productive

I decided to write a book on : How to do be effective in doing nothing (productive)... But the there were so many expert practioners in the field, that I could not work out a summarizing scenario which could atleast meekly traverse the plethoral empirical evidences.