Sunday, December 21, 2014

Devil's Tree

Narendra was brave and courageous even at the age of 8. He would love to hang upside down on his favourite champa tree. He would love to visit his friend house where this champa tree was also present. They use to play together and hang around the branches of tree for fun.

One day an elderly friend of narendra's friend's father visited the place. He saw the kids playing around the tree and hanging around the branches. Worried that they would injure themselves if the branch breaks, he went to them and told them to get down. Obviously curious narendra asked ,"what is the matter sir? Is something wrong? ".
To stop them going up again, the elderly tried to scare them," you should never climb a champ tree, it is a devil's tree."

"Devil's tree!", narendra's friend exclaimed.
"Yes, Devil's tree, those who climb on them are cursed by the devil."

"Really!!", said the friend now scared.
"Yes, really. He would come at night and take away their heads."said the elderly feeling satisfied.

Narendra was just listening and at the end he went back and the climbed the tree again.
Seeing this his friend said, "hey, what are you doing? Didn't you hear what he said."

A short animated video regarding the same story

Narendra clamly replied, "I have been climbing this tree for last few months, I have neither met the devil nor my head has been taken away. Just because he is older than us doesn't mean he always right."

The boy was right, there was no such thing as devil on that tree and unlike his friend he didn't get scared away by that fake story, he later grew up to be the man who introduced Indian philosophy to the Western world, widely regarded as greatest Indian Hindu monk - 'Swami Vivekananda'.

Also Read: Half Knowledge is dangerous

Wednesday, November 5, 2014

My Take-Goodbye 'NOKIA'




There was a time when most of the Indian mobile market was covered with only one brand 'NOKIA'. The phones had everything from common calling options to various applications supports. Samsung, Sony and Motorolo were just a bystanders in front of the Nokia traffic. The only competitions Nokia had would have been I phones and that to as a status symbol.
Then came the Android platform and Nokia all of a sudden had, not one but many competitors in Samsung, Sony along with new companies like Micromax, Karbonn. The mere fact that Nokia was not willing to embrace Android may have been the reason for the decline of its market.


Nokia has always managed to make a low-cost handset with its Symbian platform for its low-end markets and when google's Android came they shifted to windows platform. Together they came up with Lumia series, but it was not made for low-end markets that was once ruled by Nokia itself. With the world shifting from feature phones to smartphone and with Micromax, Samsung, Karbonn and Moto E bringing out low-cost Android phones, Windows Phone growth was very slow for Nokia.

Before being completely taken over by Microsoft, Nokia launched the X handset with Android platform for low-end markets. putting Microsoft into a tricky situation of whether keeping it or abandoning it. And that would be the last of the Nokia's many models of phones made for the low-end markets.Like a goodbye gifts for us.

Sunday, September 7, 2014

INSPIRING SPORTS PART-2


After the debacle of 2007 cricket World cup, the game took a certain roadblocks with fans turning against their own heroes. It was at this time, ICL- Indian cricket league was born with its concept of 20-over games with foreign players and club systems. Being an event opposing the cricket board it couldn't get the required star players and the league fizzled out in coming years.


         Then came the T20 world cup victory followed by the Grand opening of IPL which some argue as the brainchild of now suspended lalit modi. The league was a hit, not just because of the Quick entertaining format and the quality of matches, but also because there was a mixture of Bollywood in it, which according to me is one of the topmost discussed topics among common people along with cricket. Well sounds like a good idea, yes but not for every sports. What people forget is Cricket was not exactly the most liked game of India, it was after the world cup victory of 1983 and emergence of player like kapil dev, sunil gavaskar, sachin tendulkar who put the country's name in the world cricketing map that people started to love this game.

          Now that's what other sports organization has to do. Create interest, nurture Talents, spread the game and most importantly work for the game and not for the boards, after this look for leagues. That's why PROkabbadi worked, because it is played in almost every school in almost every corner of the country and already has the advantage of being a short, quick paced game. What I feel about Indian football's new venture 'ISL' and its success is similar to that of Hockey India league and would very much depend on how it is presented to the audience. Let's hope it would be enjoyable.


Friday, September 5, 2014

INSPIRING SPORTS PART-1

As this week's 'MARY KOM' released it made me wonder how a country of 1.5 billion still struggles to be a sporting superpower unlike Australia, Russia, USA or china for that matter. And by sporting superpower I mean, a heck lot other sport than cricket, although we are not no.1 in that either. Sports like boxing, wrestling, shooting and to some extent badminton are catching fire among youngsters nowadays due to the recent Olympic and CWG success but there are still lot other games yet to find its name in the limelight. while team games like hockey are not doing much , for the occasional crowds it gathers, individuals games like athletics, just do not get sponsors .

Following the footsteps of cricket is the first step it seems for all sports organisation in India. After the launch of IPL, there has been enormous money and fans getting involved to the already popular games ultimately profiting the game and the people behind it. Looking at it many other sports organisation have started to get their own leagues. But will it succeed? That's the question that needs to be answered? There has been contrasting opinions and results to this question. Sports like Hockey, Badminton and Kabbadi have been launched into their respective leagues. While the recently concluded PROKabbadi seems to have succeeded in creating interest, It has not been the same sweet story for badminton despite creating a buzz,

On the other side, Our national game 'Hockey' may not have succeeded the way IPL has been, but it at least got noticed and the players seem to have benefited from the experience of international players as shown in their recent CWG games performances. So whats been the differences between the cricket and other leagues? Well that's in PART-2. While football's ISL is being launched next month let just hope it goes up 'IPL style'.

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

The situation of our Education system

"Life is race, if you don't run fast, someone will trample you and run ahead."

When this was said in the 3 Idiots movie, it immediately became a quote, not because of the way it was said or the person who said it but because there was a huge amount of truth in it. We are made to study right from the schools even when we don't understand why? A question that gets answered by the race we are in this life.

A race which starts right from our Pre-schools
             
The central and most state boards uniformly follow the "10+2+3/4" pattern of education. In this pattern, 10 years of primary and secondary education is followed by 2 years of higher secondary (usually in schools having the higher secondary facility, or in colleges), and then 3/4 years of college education for a bachelor's degree. This pattern originated from the recommendation the Education Commission of 1964–66.  Isn’t it time to modify it?


How much of this means in real life is quite questionable. This system of education may increase our country’s literacy rate but would that solve the various other problem of our country. The basic problem that our country faces is a lack of knowledge in what we do. There is a difference between an educated guy and a literate guy. An educated guy knows what he is doing, unlike the literate guy who is just trained to follow. The dictionary defines literate as ‘ability to read and write’ while to be educated means to have complete knowledge mentally and morally. We already have literate people all over our country. In India, there is no deficiency of such people. From politicians to government offices to schools we can find these people everywhere.

What this means is they take their job carelessly as they seldom know the importance of their work. Education has been a problem in our country and lack of it has been blamed for all sorts of evil for hundreds of years. From depriving girls of education to backward caste there have always been unwanted elements. Creating a few more schools or allowing hundreds of colleges and private universities to grow hastily is not going to solve the problem of education in India

We have IITs, IIMs, medical schools, and other institutions of excellence; students now score 80-90% marks easily but has it changed the ideology of people. The new education system has made some people competitive such that even students with 90+ percentage find it difficult to get into the colleges of their choice. In this nation, millions of students are prey to an unlikely, pointless, monotonous survival race. In a country where education is looked at as the climbing ladder for socially and economically backward people it isn’t helping them most of the time. While it is true that education can take you up, it is the quality of it that matters. Most of the institutes are geared to teach book written knowledge; the reality is we need people who have the skills and the attitude to be successful.
                  
Creativity shouldn't be curbed off for better grades.
           
Education system in India is failing because of more basic reasons like corruption in the system, lack of technology infrastructure, terrible teachers, etc. If only our report cards would include marks for creativity, social intelligence, behaviors, etc. right from childhood, the race would have been much easier.

How does India educate itself?

The basic form of education under the direction of a guru was a privileged form of education for the upper class in early India. The knowledge was often connected to the responsibilities; a section of the public had to carry out like for royal families were thought about leaderships and weapons, the working class was thought about trade while the lower class was deprived of education. This was followed by Buddhist institutions with their practical education, e.g. medicine, literature, logic; etc

With the arrival of the British in India came the modern European education. The colonial learning plan was on purpose of reducing home-grown cultures and beliefs. This system resulted in number of primary and secondary centers of education cropping up during the colonial time.

Indian Education - filling necessities, But Not material


Indian education situation has today gained global acknowledgment. A lot of overseas students are considering India for higher education. But this system has also failed in itself. There is a vast difference in the quality of education for kids from villages to that of kids from metros. The basic difference that can be shown is the language barrier or the communication problems that a student from rural part has when he comes to the metro. Also there is a lack of opportunity for such people in their homeland which drives them to city.
Although this system has undergone remarkable changes, it needs more improvements mainly in the quality. After independence ‘Education for all’ was the aim of the government. The 86th Constitutional Amendment has made education compulsory for the age group 6 to 14, thus removing discriminations.
Most of the people in rural parts of India haven’t yet understood the value of educations, while there have been awareness programs for such people to try and motivate them to send their children to schools it has taken a long time. Such is the situation of Indian education that despite efforts, the standard of Indian education being improved has met with little success. The hurdles to such efforts have been lack of accessibility, poverty, corruption and many other factors. The quality of education is therefore being compromised.

The present situation has been talking point for many pundits and experts and there has been suggestions from all corners about to improve them let’s hope it doesn’t fell in deaf ears. Reply me about your views on this system.

Saturday, January 25, 2014

Never give up & Inspire yourself


             There have been instances in every one of our lives where we may have felt sad, disappointed or neglected by the world. We would question our importance to the world. But we should never give up believing in our self. Every one of us can make a big difference if we only choose to believe in ourselves follow the examples of many such inspirational stories



"Colonel Sanders had the construction of a new road put him out of business in 1967. He went to over 1,000 places trying to sell his chicken recipe before he found a buyer interested in his 11 herbs and spices. Seven years later, at the age of 75, Colonel Sanders sold his fried chicken company for a finger-licking $15 million!"



“Beethoven handled the violin awkwardly and preferred playing his own compositions instead of improving his technique. His teacher called him hopeless as a composer.”



“The movie Star Wars was rejected by every movie studio in Hollywood before 20th-Century Fox finally produced it. It went on to be one of the largest grossing movies in film history.”



“Walt Disney was fired by a newspaper editor for lack of ideas. Disney also went bankrupt several times before he built Disneyland.”



“Henry Ford failed and went broke five times before he finally succeeded.”



      Imagine the world without the music of Beethoven, without the exciting stories of star wars, without Henry ford’s idea of assembly line or without the fun of Disneyland had they given up on themselves.



"If you really put a small value upon yourself, rest assured that the world will not raise your price. " -anon.

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