Parents-Love them with all Thy might!

I am quite in the sentimental mood right now. I just now watched a movie called Bhoothnath aired on Sahara One. Actually I was reluctant to watch it for a long time thinking it was too childish for my taste. But I was wrong. I don't wish to write a review of the movie now for that is not my purpose. Whatever I try to do, say, experience, I try to make some inner meaning out of it. My friends would make fun of me. They often feel I take everything too seriously. Well, not everything, at least not what they think!

'Rasa' and 'Bhava' are two of my favourite words in Samskritam. Rasa means sentiment and Bhava means feeling. These two words define who we are and how we are seen by others. I liked the rasa part of the movie I watched today and the rasas are love, affection, caring and respect towards elderly especially our parents.

It is very good to have high prospects and be ambitious in life, aiming for extreme comfort, prosperity and joy. How many children just leave their parents here in India neglecting them if not totally at least partially and go abroad? We all expect our parents to listen to us always and the ego we derive especially from being financially independent causes us to have so many arguments and fights with them. We must always try to make our parents happy, thats what we are born here for and it should be done not for duty sake alone but with genuine love, care and affection.

Dealing with people especially the elderly is a real challenge, I know! They will have so many preferences, tastes, habits which they will not be willing to give up whatsoever but we should never lose patience for they had never lost theirs to bring us up to the stage we are now.

I am often so rude to my parents. I shout at them, I misunderstand them, get irritated with them. I should change myself. I should have complete faith and trust in them. They always seem to forgive me for all that I have said and the wounds that I have caused them. That makes me feel even more bad and miserable.

I have not seen the Gods I worship sometimes. With my half baked faith I imagine that The Almighty is present and guides me throughout my lifetime. At present, I am beginning to feel more and more that Love is God and God is Love. God is 100% my parents who pulls me up during my times of trouble.

There is a beautiful poem by Rabindranath  Tagore titled 'Upagupta'. It is easy to be with a person when he or she is very prosperous and is very happy. The person who stays, lends a shoulder in times of trouble, who showers unconditional love upon you is the one whom we call as God. It can be anyone in life, but for me God is in the form of my parents and for me to have true faith in God is to have faith in my parents.

There is no point in going to a religious place and worshiping in a ritualistic manner a thousand Gods if you neglect, disrespect and disregard your loved ones. Hope I keep this etched strongly in me and follow this thumb rule throughout life.

Sri Sathya Sai Baba is still with us.

I have dedicated this post for Puttaparthi Sri Sathya Sai Baba. Baba has left his body and attained samadhi on the 24th April 2011. Though I am not as much an ardent devotee of him but still... just thinking of him fills me with immense peace, tranquility and joy. I used to watch his program every Thursday at 6:00 p.m in Raj TV.

I have always wondered in the midst of so much of science and technology and such cynicism this person has managed to attract billions of people from around the globe. I have heard so many stories of him. Some of which are:

He has setup so many universities and he is providing free education to all. He has even solved the water problem for an entire village, something which politicians only promise and never fulfill. He has setup hospitals which provide free medical treatment to all the deserving people.

He has performed so many miracles like generating lingam from his throat, materializing vibhuti, gold jewellery and even silk sarees. He had done all this not to show off his powers but to make people to follow the path of God and to shed all ignorance. He has said, 'I am God! You are God! Only I am aware of it and you are not aware of it.'

One of my relatives is an ardent Baba devotee. Once while praying in front of his photo, vibhuti started pouring from it. Many such miracles have taken place throughout the world and the most important fact is that Sai Baba has managed to unify people of all kinds together and under one roof. He has made Christians true Christians, Muslims, true Muslims and Hindus, better Hindus.

Initially many people were attracted to him because of his miracles and later more people joined because of his message. The very presence of Sai Baba enthuses, enlightens, energizes, perfects all. Dedicating one's whole life to him and following his simple message is the order of the day.

Though Baba has left his body there is no reason to cry for he has been liberated from the constraints of the human body and he is more powerful now. Before leaving he has said that he will be reborn again as Prem Sai in a place called Mandya in the year 2012. Let us all await and pray till that happens. I sign off hoping for a better future and all to follow Baba's path.

Everyone thinks I am boring!

Everyone thinks I am boring.

Thats the first step to inferiority complex!

Everyone thinks I am stupid.

Acting too smart can be dangerous.

Everyone thinks I am a moron.

Innocence is better than perversion.

Everyone thinks I am ugly.

Blindness is quite a unfortunate condition.

Everyone thinks I am unfit for any job.

Responsibility for one's own action is enough.

Everyone thinks I am selfish.

Poking and interference. Is it welcome?

Everyone thinks...Everyone thinks...

Does it ever matter who thinks what?

Neither being high nor low.

Neither too fast nor slow.

With equanimity I shall glow.

Being stingy...Think about it.

Today's message is to broaden oneself. Very often our middle class mind is so stingy about so many things. We don't mind spending on a fancy phone but will think at least twice before sending a 50p message from it. 'Oh, I don't have that special messaging pack.' Hey you bought this diary and it is just too costly. In Parrys it is very cheap, you could have gone all the way there and bought a dozen such diaries.

One of my uncles actually did an extensive research before buying a Samsung TV. He compared prices of so many TV sets. Sony he said was the best but it is just too costly. He also compared the price of the same TV set in various other shops and he traveled a long distance to go to the shop of his choice and buy the TV set. It took him nearly two months to decide and buy it. Though he could afford to buy the Sony TV, his mind wouldn't let him do it.

His is not the only case. Almost all of us do it in our daily lives. We restrict ourselves. We don't think big. We are just too stingy to spend a little extra money and for saving a bit we end up wasting so many joules of energy. I will tell an example from my case. Having a printer is quite a nuisance. When my cartridge wouldn't work, I had to decide in buying a cheap recycled one or an expensive new one. I also got deceived by the lady's marketing skills and so I bought the recycled one. I had a shock of my life when I learn't that it didn't work properly. How much of my energy got wasted in trying to repair it. My printer just wouldn't accept it. All the ink too got wasted in printing test pages. I really felt angry, bitter and my peace of mind went in order to just save a few hundreds.

I am not saying not to be calculative. It is very good to be careful in spending money. When you invest in a cheap product, 'Ha! I got this in a discount sale.' you must also be strong enough to accept that it might just not work as good as you think.

First things first. No amount of wealth is going to substitute for health- both mental and physical. Nothing ever is cheap or costly in the market. It is all a deception, a mirage and an illusion. It is a perfect business strategy to lure people in buying things. One might think that he/she has achieved something great buying things for a seemingly low price. God only knows what other sacrifice comes with it. Net worth of everything and everyone is the same in the end.

There is always a thin line between spending too much and spending for quality. One must be well aware of the circumstances. I see that many people have written books on this subject and it is quite an old topic. But there is nothing wrong in expressing my viewpoint. After all it is my thought for the day!

An earnest suggestion...My email to one of my teachers

SUGGESTION FOR A STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM

Hello ma'am,

How are you? I take this opportunity to say that you have been a great inspiration to me these 5 years. Your courage, commitment and the hard work you do for the department and for the college has really motivated me throughout. Hats off to you ma'am for I cannot forget the times when you were so determined and in spite of  your sickness came and finished the Measure theory portions for us. You had always the best intention for the students at heart and you knew that we would all suffer if you had absented yourself.

Coming to the subject of this mail. I just recently have been thinking of an idea. You can ask me why I didn't think of this before. Of course thoughts like these don't strike me at the time when most needed. I felt it would be most appropriate if I share this with you. 

Ok here goes... In my 5 years of life at Stella Maris, I have had golden opportunities to listen to eminent lectures organised by our department. Annually, events like Math Zoom and Math 'O' Match stimulated the learning environment. But I have noticed that Paper presentation event which is quite important is always held last and by that time most of us go home or some of us stay and are just too tired to listen. Even if we attempt to listen the subject matter of some of the papers goes way above the head. The participants just bring stuff from the internet copy paste into slides and mechanically read it out. 

So there is reason enough to make the suggestion for a STUDENT EXCHANGE PROGRAM. It is not a competition nor is it a race but it is a congregation for assimilation of knowledge. Here are the general rules for the show.

1. A few highly motivated people should be in charge of the program, it may be the Integra members. The program I feel should be for PG and M.Phil students for they would have studied topics in depth and would be more interested to work on it.

2. Monthly or once in two months a group of our college students should work on topics taught in the syllabus for e.g  'Algebra in the real world', 'Problems in Analysis-tips to solve them," etc

3. An invitation should be sent to other colleges encouraging them to also choose topics for pure, applied and applicable mathematics. Of course the topics should be concept oriented and from authentic sources and not just from the internet. All the participants of the program can be given certificates at the end.

4. The program can be held for one or two days- may be a Friday afternoon or a Saturday morning where all the participants present papers. After every paper there should be a interactive questioning and discussion session. 

5. Only interested people should form the audience. The program should not be a force upon the non interested students. They will only be a distraction to the proceedings.Only students from a few institutions like IMSc, IIT, CMI, Anna University, Ramanujam which are involved in Mathematical research should be invited.  

The basic aim of the program is to spread awareness and also motivate students to pursue research in various fields of Mathematics. It broadens the horizon and also the student gets to meet like minded peers from various institutions. 

The other question is that 'Why it should be held monthly?'  The more the better. Of course those details can be worked as per the convenience of the department. 

Thanking you, 

Yours truly

Mirambicka. R

P.S. I will try to improve my signature and be a better person in future. I sign off with your blessings and good wishes.

--
Mira

"Modern technology
Owes ecology
An apology."
~Alan M. Eddison

Exam tension

After years and years of experience and just minutes of thought, I have finally come to a consensus on how an exam should be conducted. In Tamil we have the saying "Parichai naale vepanga". It means attending exams is like eating neem fruit which is bitter tasting. Nobody likes exams. Only a few people who come in the extremes of the normal distribution curve say that "Exam is a test of skill and knowledge" ,"I love writing exams", "Exams are challenging" etc. Whatever it is exams cause us to always break away from our comfort zone. I would rather catch up with a match or go for a movie than write exams.

Have you noticed that every sentence in the above paragraph has the word 'exam'? Thats what it has done to my system. I just get so over frustrated, over excited with the very mention of that word. It gives me seriousness and an extreme passion to perform (look who is abnormal?). I bet every successful human being owes his progress because of taking up some test or the other seriously.

No! I don't wanna ban examinations. They are very much needed. My contention is that they should be well planned and well structured. They should test our real analytical skills, a test of understanding and they should fuel my growth. I am not in for exams which is a test of memory and mugging up. Such exams should be done way with especially in the field of sciences.

After watching "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button" recently I have suddenly decided to apply it in the field of exams.

1. There should be only one exam per year per course and it should be in the beginning of the year itself. For e.g. If you want to study 8th grade this year then take up the exam in the beginning of the year itself.

2. That exam should be rechristened as "Qualifying levels or QUILLS".

3. There should be no specific pattern for the quill and it should test the general know how and thinking and conceptual skill of the candidate. For e.g. for a quill to the 8th grade it should have every subject e.g. English, Computer, Maths and the syllabus is everything from 1st to 7th.

4. A candidate should be prepared to answer all types of questions. There should be an element of unpredictability in the paper. The unpredictability should increase with the increasing years. For e.g. Quill of 9th should be more unpredictable than quill of 8th.

5. Of course there should be only class tests and assignments till 5th grade. Quills should start only from 6th grade.

6. The candidate should be allowed to take any no of quill attempts. Mock quills can be conducted throughout the year and it should be only OPTIONAL and not a force upon the student.

7. The result for the quills should be in terms of grades and not marks. For e.g. A, B, C, D, E and F. The candidate can improve the grades any time of the year provided he/she gets C and above in the first attempt. Suppose if she gets D or E or F, she can still take improvements but she qualifies only for the next academic year.

8. There should be no reservation in terms caste, money, creed, sex etc.

9. Quills must be conducted at a nominal cost based on income and there should be ample scholarships.

10. Quill system should be uniform throughout India. A student can take the exam in any authorized place in India.

11. Classes should NOT be conducted in the motive of passing quill. On the other hand it should arouse the curiosity of the student and encourage him/her to do research in the subjects taught.

Finally, there should be a sea change in the educational system and outlook in India. It is not quantity that matters but only quality. No point in literacy rate if one does not know to read and write anything except one's own signature.

The same pattern of quills should be followed in Higher studies- Qualifying level for engineering. medicine, mathematics, literature, journalism etc.