Why?

"Do not ask why." - a very common phrase that I hear very frequently. And my response usually is "Why shouldn't I ask why?". It is probably one of the reasons many people describe me with terms like stubborn, adamant, unbending. And to all those people, I say, at least I am not being unreasonable.

What is one thing that makes human beings what they are? What makes human beings different from every other animal? Common sense. Logical reasoning. So when I, or anybody else asks "Why?", we try to be a human being. Asking for a reason is the inherent quality of humans. It is natural for any human being to ask why. That is how we evolve. But thwarting the question curbs the imagination, creativity and ultimately the development of the human race.

Ancient humans have made some impressive discoveries. Stone age was marked by use of crude weapons to fill people's stomach. When somebody discovered fire from those crude weapons, it was put to good use to satisfy their hunger in better ways. As time elapsed, the wants of humans increased and they identified ways to satisfy those wants. They imagined. They created. They discovered. They invented. They evolved. 

There probably came a time when they evolved so much that greed clouded their supportive foundation. People wanted themselves to excel. It got contagious and everybody started feeling so. Reason was suppressed. Men failed to see that they were not moving uphill anymore. They were going down and dragging others with them, and they could not see this because their vision became restrained to their path alone. "Why" became a rude term because that meant someone wanted to take credit for their marvelous idea for fame. 

I agree this sounds ludicruous. But this is the feeling people give me when I ask a single word "why?". What is wrong in wanting to know the reason behind what I am doing? It will make me do things better, maybe come out with my own ideas if I knew what I was doing, won't it? Logic is one thing that has an extremely firm base. It can never be shaken. When such a strong base is provided, no questions will arise, maybe except "What can be built on top of this?". There is a reason for everything - from how we are able to walk to how the earth is inhabitable. Unquestionable reasons. The problem with not asking why is that reason dies with the creator and traditions are followed blindly. Traditions which became obscure with the recent technology, instead of being abandoned is continued to be practised with vigour, wasting time which can be productively used to build further strong footholds for others to climb. 

"Wait! No. Trust is important. Trust what your forefathers did and follow them blindly. Stop at the place they stopped. You cannot surpass that point, so do not try. You must stop". "Oh no! Do not move off the track! You never know what you might face there! This is an established safe path. It would be wise to follow it!".

Men or machines? Or does that make any sense?

Well, normally when anyone feels they are overworked they ask "What are we? Men or machines?". I've often wondered if that is even a meaningful comparison. Can we measure men using machines? Just because a person is stressed out, can he be compared to a machine? Don't machines get tired too? True, machines cannot protest. They cannot think for themselves and demand less laborious work. But can we use a computer continuously for 24 hours without turning it off at all? Yes, we can. But what happens then? Won't the performance reduce? Won't we feel "Oh! I need to turn this off or it'll never work as good as before!"? 

Machines wear out. Human beings get tired. Machines don't get lazy. Human beings do. So on what basis can we set men against machines? Human beings get tired easily when they are lazy. It's Parkinson's law all over - "work expands to fill the time available". When the time is more than sufficient, lethargy settles in comfortably. It finds a cozy place inside our heads and tucks in gladly. It's basically the same everywhere. Rabindranath Tagore applies this  to objects - "When material is in profusion, the mind gets lazy". 

This is the exact reason why we let many things slip. Life is a one time opportunity. Once lost, it cannot be regained. It must be enjoyed and must prove to be fruitful. There is only one way to achieve this - do what your mind says, not what others say. As it is mentioned in "The Alchemist" by Paulo Coelho, there is a universal soul, that is linked to every individual by the Gossamer thread. A person who doesn't know the language another person speaks, will be able to understand at least the outlook when the other person is speaking. Some people are real close - their understanding of each other surpasses everything else. Just a look at the other person and their soulmate can say what exactly is going on within them. No words are needed for communication between them. Their souls speak. When a person stops in his track to listen to the views of ten billion people around him, well will he be just confused? Or abashed? What must happen to us can only be decided by us. The moment we stop listening to that small yet sweet voice within ourselves, we stop living at all. We kill that voice inside us. We lose all the material connection to this universe and only a feeble physical link keeps us down here. 

So coming back to our original topic - men or machines, well I'd like to say that we don't compare ourselves with anyone or anything and continue working along our path for our excellence. Whatever happens, that sweet littile voice in your head will stand by you.  

Re-entry into the blogging world

Hello! I'm back after about 2 years of hibernation. The reason for my inactivity is purely- laziness, laziness and laziness. A lot of things have happened in the meantime- the most important is I've begun to see the world- with all kinds of people. For one thing I cannot call myself "A school girl trying to improve my English vocabulary" any longer. In one way there is some connection between the post which follows and the previous sentence- the reason which made me come back to blogger.

Once into college, I see how different everything is. The travel in town bus (mostly fully packed), the attitude of the faculty and peer group have all made me open my eyes. I realize these many years I've been inside a golden cage where I was taken care of by my friends and family. Now as I step into the real world, I see how different it is from the world I've been shown.

Let me first describe my travel experiences. Gaining entry into a bus by negotiating my way from the first step to a comfortable place where I can stand was one of the first things I learned. Mostly, by the time I achieve this I would've reached my destination. Standing on the last step in a private bus with a bulging bag on the shoulder while the bus is turning an S-bend is not exactly my definition of comfort. And to think that kids right from the age of 8 do it everyday to go to and return from school is very saddening. It made me think why no school buses are provided for the government school children. If not separate school buses, at least student special buses can be provided. If those kids get tired just from travel, how can they be expected to learn with their full potential in their homes? Giving free lunch doesn't solve the problem of illiteracy entirely. The only comfortable feeling I have while being squashed in a crowded bus is "Thank God I do not have to worry about pick-pockets". I do not have a smart phone!

Coming to the academic part, among many issues, I find one very annoying- buying education. Sounds absurd, right? When people with great talents find it difficult to get admitted into top colleges, people with money are relaxed. This is one place where the proverb "No pains, no gains" does not hold. I do not see any reason to buy seats in a famous college when the student is not capable of coping with what is done in the college. I'm not implying that everybody who has got top marks in the Higher Secondary exams are highly capable of handling things very efficiently. But they at least know that they should work hard to gain something. Only a single drop of poison is necessary to make a potful of milk poisonous. Apart from possessing venomous qualities by itself, it also contaminates the entire contents of the pot. It does not allow the milk to retain its purity. It tortures and torments every single drop which tries to retain its originality. Unless that drop finds a way of leaving the pot it has no chance of survival. That is exactly the case in real world too. There maybe an argument that not all those who get top marks have the best character. Yes, I agree contamination is possible at all levels. But as long as contamination is there, why not allow people who have talent to be at a place rather than people who have money? There is more in this world than money can buy.

There is also the issue of understanding each and every concept being learnt. First and foremost, we should understand why we are learning a concept. For example, why should an electronics and communication engineer learn engineering graphics? Why should a fashion technologist learn C language? Once we know what we are learning and why we are learning it, half the learning process is over. The remaining part just lies in understanding the concepts and their relevance in our field.

Let me not convey the impression that I have got a pessimistic outlook of the world. No, I only say that there are all kinds of people everywhere. Learning to lead a peaceful life with different kinds of people is a skill; not a very easy skill too. It is a life skill which ought to be developed in each and every human being.


  

Story Of Success

Psychology of the individual- a specialty for which most of Jeeves' success must be attributed; and which has kept me preoccupied for the past two years. It is a really interesting subject of study once we get the essence of it. I first started by identifying myself- my character, which was indistinct even to me then.

I identified my strengths in the first place and then my weaknesses- all thanks to the best ever Moral Science classes given  my class teacher in my final year of schooling. And I understood that once we identify our weakness we've overcome it by 50%. The difficult part is the identification- the places where we are vulnerable. Well, as I kept working on my character, I identified how many people have the same thought pattern as me in my surroundings. I understood why like poles repel (in psychology sense) then. I really get a doubtful feeling when I meet any person who seems to have the same character as me in more and more aspects, because as long as we identify only the likeness between us we'll be able to freely share our thoughts. The moment one small difference arises, there'll probably be a feud, or if not an open confrontation, we'll probably carry the bitterness in our hearts and not confide in each other, which is even worse.

The best way to overcome a difference in opinion between any friends (or any humans for that matter) is to put ourselves in the other person's place and think what we'd do in that situation. This has worked out most of the time for me in the recent months and has helped me relax. But the difficult part is to calm ourselves and think of the situation from the other person's perspective. Most of the time taking deep breaths or counting 1 to 10 or telling some sloka doesn't help me. I feel that I can control myself only by controlling my thought pattern. If we feel that this is not the right time for making decisions, we ought not to make any decision at that time as it may prove to be disastrous in the long run. We should give time to relax ourselves and decide only when our mind clears, let it take weeks or months. When we think of something in a relaxed state, we'll find that our own mind is actually capable of giving the best possible advice. Following it WILL definetly lead us to success even when we do not know the way to success. And understanding people will help in relating with the others in all situations.

For instance I've seen how being honest takes us on the right path even when we ourselves are not aware of the direction to be taken for the right path. In fact, I visualize honesty as a police inspector who barricades every other path other than the correct one and doesn't let us climb over it without his knowledge too, as people usually do in Avinashi Road. Loyalty and Sincerity are probably SIs in the department. Seriously everybody should try this out to feel the truth in this. And many people don't realize that their happiness is attributed to this special department. Another one of the unrecognized steadfast set of people I would say.

Think of all the happy moments in your lives. At least one of these people will have had a role in it.        

Two years - a flash...

Well do I remember that day, June 3rd, 2009, when I entered that IX-A class, without having any interest, scolding in my mind the teacher who had done the promotion, basically because my two best friends were in another class, but still there was a cousin of mine and another friend. The teacher who came to our class added to my already low spirit. How I wished I was in IX-C or at least B. Its easy to say "Make friends", but practically difficult to find a person who matches your wavelength. I was always grumpy in my early ninth. I convinced myself that I was happy with the friends I got.

Gradually the time came when my teacher decided to change my place. I found no obvious difference. After two days or so came Aishu sit near me. That day myself and another friend kept giving her puzzles and riddles to solve. To my utter joy I got a person who shared my view on tuition. Not only her, but now the entire last 3 benches had become close now, thanks to mainly our catcher-killer games. I can never forget those games. Then came the jinx called "Annual exams". After a weekend of summer holidays we were back to school for the special classes. We got places keeping watch not to break the 'last 3 bench group'. We loved special classes more than normal classes, because there was no attendance and no time restrictions. They were the best. Then came the so called vacation. Going to Black Thunder was the only eventful thing that happened then. As soon as school reopened the scramble of tenth started.

I don't know how time passed. I was happy that I got good teachers for all subjects (excepting the language teacher, who often reminds me of Gilderoy Lockhart). I was not afraid of practical classes. But I really can't reason why my hand always shivers when I pour anything into anything in chemistry lab. The consequence was the pouring of concentrated sulphuric acid on my hand on my first chemistry class (still have the mark on my left hand). I learnt not only my subjects in X-A but also lessons life offered me. Those joyful lunch breaks, never ending talks still ring in my ear.

Finally the D-Day came. March 22. I had no seriousness that I was about to write the Board exams. I had been more serious for school exams. Probably because we were given too many holidays in between. And then after it seemed ages, came the day, much looked forward to by most of the students - April 11. We (the famous last 3 bench group) all went to a friend's house to freshen up, went to Arun unlimited, back to school to take some snaps, back home then. Everything went well that day except for Aishu who hadn't joined in the celebrations. Time seemed to run very fast that afternoon.

Finally when I was back home I felt sorry that I was leaving that class. We are now a family. I don't know when I started liking that class, but now I am too sorry to leave it. I never thought I would like this class when I entered it on June 3rd, 2009. But April 11, 2010 is a day which will remain evergreen in my memories. The X-A family rocks forever.