Wednesday, August 28, 2013

The Bombay rape : An appeal to women



Once again a heinous rape….

The wailing of the past rape victims has stopped. But what of the inner agony that inflicts in silence every passing moment? The soundless suffering of the innocent is for life and even beyond. And for what? No plausible purpose at all. It continues to happen simply because the system, which was created and fed and nurtured with hard earned money of the masses to protect and support the masses, has been made blind by hunger for wealth and power. Try to realize that if this state of inefficient governance continues, time is not far when no one will be safe, no matter how highly placed or tightly secured he or she is. History has ample evidences of this.

Once again a heinous rape….

Try to understand that the survival and health of human society depends on the survival and health of its women. Man has miserably failed on this count; as such it is time women of the country took over the responsibility. Rise and unite for the cause of the family, society, country and humanity. Forget all differences of colours, shades and hues, political or otherwise, and put this issue of survival and health of human society on the front burner. The existing trend of divide and rule will do all it can to divide you and keep you divided on one pretext or the other. It is you who have to remain firm and unwavering.

Once again a heinous rape….

Remember you have the strength to punish man. You have the power to reform the society. If you stop your son or brother or father or husband when he commits first mistake, reprimand when he repeats and punish if he still does not change, you are sure to rejuvenate the society. Look around and you will find yourself occupying seats of power and decision making in every field but are still under some unseen yoke of attachment. You have an overpowering influence over man. What is needed is the will to exert and the dedication to persevere. You are wise and sharp enough to devise the right methodology and you are also patient enough to implement effectively. Shed the prolonged slumber and step ahead with the awareness that the dastardly crime is not against that single innocent victim but against your collective dignity.

Once again a heinous rape….

Once again statements and counter statements. Once again, maximum noise with minimum results. Even the recently promulgated stringent laws have failed to curb rape incidents. The number of such incidents remains same if not increased. Giving statements acts like a safety valve for release of pent up anger. Those responsible and those who turn a blind eye love such statements and speeches of anger and protest. They at once jump into the fray and effectively shift the anger of masses from action to hollow diatribe. Those in power have enough experience to extinguish the fire of vocal threat to their power.

Once again a heinous rape….

Enough is enough. It is time some new and radical ideas were tried. Instead of high decibel sound why not try silence. Those who genuinely want to protest against rape may stitch their lips and join protesters with a resolve not to reply to any question or give any statement. The bang and echo of silence is impossible to dissipate. Let all women, specially those in power and those related to and associated with men in power, any where and in any walk of life, take a vow that they will protest with threatening silence. Why not resort to this silence? Why not all women of the country unite and hit the system with silence, a complete and resounding silence? Why not hit with chilling silence even their own men, particularly those responsible for running the system efficiently?

Yes, the bang and reverberation of silence is impossible to dissipate. 
*******

Thursday, August 8, 2013

Are we producing noble and able citizens?

No matter what the system of education is, the measure of its success should be just one and that is — ‘is that system producing noble and able citizens’. If a system fails to produce good citizens, irrespective of all its other achievements, it is inappropriate to call it a good education system.

In order for a human to be humane the two essential qualities are intellect and vivek (sagacity; discerning attitude; reason; rationality). These two are beyond sentiments; beyond, not in context of importance but in context of field or realm. Sentiment belongs to the inner realm and wisdom to the outer realm. Vivek plays the role of a guide in both the realms. It also plays an important role in coordination and assimilation of these two.

Education comes within the scope of wisdom or intellect whereas creativity falls within the scope of sentiments. Thus in growth of a child an assimilation of both is required. As sentiment is the controlling power of humanity and human beings it is very important to pay attention to its direction and development. This microscopic division is not being done for the purpose of developing or controlling these faculties. It is just a part of the effort to properly understand these. First we will have to understand the pieces than the whole and then think of control and development.

Sentiment is the primordial power. Its direction is vitally important. We will have to first understand the expectations from a human being in context of society and then the direction of sentiment will have to be evolved accordingly. This is the field of samskar (intrinsic attitude). The combination of samskar and education helps create a humane human being.

Education facilities have three basic components -- primary or basic infrastructure, teachers, and curriculum. Once these three facilities are available the institute comes into existence. After this the popular yardstick of the performance of the school is the examination results. The primary requirement for a healthy change is that this yardstick has to be changed. There is no dispute about the importance of passing the examination. But the popular or prevailing form of examination is the written examination. We have to understand that education is not limited to the written mode. Education is the endeavor towards all round development of the student or the receptor.

Our educational institutions will have to change the yardstick of measuring their success. It should be the number of able and upright citizens produced by the system. The conventional examination results should form only a component of this scale.

It is the responsibility of the managing organization of the school to ensure that disciplines that have no direct bearing on the examination results but are certainly useful for all round development of the student should be taught with the same zeal and sincerity. And at the time of evaluation equal importance should be given to them.


*****