The Race to nowhere !

The world has changed over the years. Many good things happened and there are so many technological advancements which help us daily. However, the speed of change is so rapid that we will soon feel exhausted and drained-out. This note may sound negative – but the intent and purpose is to help find positive for each of us by understanding the realities and then acting on it – rather than delaying the acceptance of realities! Whats happening to each of the stakeholders:

Individual – more and more of me and myself is taking over the feelings and care for others. Either there is sense of fear or greed or dissatisfaction – leading to lack of contentment and higher levels of stress and poor health (both physical and mental). Lots of emphasis is on highlighting self and I. The time for self is taken over by social media. Right from child-hood the focus is to chase something and follow a Race (the race of everyone but not for an individual). Inspite of so much social media - loneliness is the biggest problem for people in the world.

Family – the connect in the families are weakening and increasingly moving towards sharing of meaningless Whatsapp messages and glorifying self and missing the connections with others. The warmth of simple life pleasures is taken over by parties where liquor flows and there are hardly any true feelings shared. Even on kids birthday parties- focus is on liquor. The true love is slowing fading away. The simple games of Ludo, Cards played among family members are a gone history. The materialistic society is defining the social values. So many children we meet have fear of education, fear of missing the race and this is all starting from homes; where this fear is compounded regularly by parents and “so called well-wishers”

Community – The community of “development” is more concerned with comparing materialistic items than a desire to build a community where each one will help others and is happy with success of other. Jealousy has taken over the camaraderie. The celebrations as a community are taken over by Diwali melas and Holi melas  - where the focus is to buy and sell and again liquor flows meaninglessly. There are 1000s of friends (and people boast about that on Facebook or even Linkedin) – whereas the “True friends” have become a rare commodity. People who understand you and whom you understand well. The greed and fear is so much prevalent that it is dividing the people and their acceptability. The celebrations and moments of grief are like a formality to complete and move ahead. Everyone seems to be running and hardly anyone knows, where to! I met so many people who have done great and I ask them how did you celebrate and in real sense celebrations are also hurried. The connection with self and with others is getting lost.

Our feelings and appreciations are taken over by emoticons than true feeling expressed in person. The power of hug and expressions are largely through messages and forwarded messages. The height of this is seen when people will send "forwarded messages" on your birthday or new year or festivals.

Regional Societies – The societies are becoming congregation of these communities where there is no mutual trust, respect or love. The disconnect is based on languages, caste, religion and affiliations. We are not able to appreciate that diversity can teach us so much. The key stakeholders of the societies are not driving positive connections but trying to create a divide among people.

National – as a nation; we do not work on building love and trust and respect among people. There is a desire to prove that I am better than you – rather than “we can be better together”. The biggest skill lacking being Empathy. Being together we can make a huge difference to the nation and everyone. The basic survival is the key challenge currently. The ever increasing population, pollution and problems of basic needs are future challenges.

Global – surprisingly the world is becoming much more diverse with more discussion about spirituality and Gandhi and meditation in western world. There are nations who will always create divide among others as they wish to fulfill their greed or power needs.

So can you avoid this change?? – NO you can not. But you can make a change starting with self and then your families and then to communities and nation. Identify your own realities; your own journey; your strengths as a family; your desire to make a positive environment where there is no fear.  Nothing is going to fall if you take-out one hour every day for self and few hours for family (probably some sacrifices in social media may help). Celebrate small moments and cherish them for a longer duration. Make a difference to someone (no one ever becomes poor by sharing). Happiness is in your hands.

If you don’t believe in Power of Magic – Just try it fully (without doubting) for 1-2 months and see the magic happening !

You can take your own sail and navigate your own ships – rather than being navigated !!

Why India is Mahaan (great) BUT still……..

I had a chance to meet many people in India and had discussions from many walks of life and everyone seems to be concerned about something or other (under stress). Some friends shared that India slipped to a very low rank in Happiness Index for the country in 2019.

I also had a chance to meet people from different walks of life in the top happy countries in the world. Some insights I learnt from these countries are:

•        People in general are doing their duties well and have very healthy life and work focus.
•      They spend adequate productive hours at work and then totally detach themselves from work for self or for their families and friends
•      There is lot of community work towards nation building – taking care of nature and surroundings
•      There is no discussion about anyone’s religion or caste or creed
•      People do not have to bother about basics of life (clean air, water, healthy food, infrastructure, safety & security)
•     Children are nurtured to be self & socially confident and are mentored to select their passion as their careers
•     There is no (or much lesser) differentiation between men and women
•     No one is trying to compare with others in terms of material gains
•     People do not want to grow by pulling others down
•      There is no fear of marks in schools, getting jobs, trouble by others, even police is supportive and trusting and there is belief in the families, society and nation
•     Hardly any negativity is seen in media
•     There is lots of appreciation of good and respect for others
•     No one is respected for their wealth or designations
•     There are not too rich or too poor people.
•     There are enough resources for the population

Now I discussed with many intellectuals and looked back at our most lovable country (just by saying that We Are Great – we will not become by shouting loud! There is lot to do and we all are responsible for that; however it will call for a complete revolution to change (hundreds of surgical strikes) and small changes will not impact). We are changing and progress is there; but probably it needs much faster and surgeries than slow medicines.

Population – No discussion to control population; resources are limited and soon there will be fights for resources.

Pollution – Worst in the world. Hardly any actions

Food - Very rarely hygienic food is available. People compromise on anything for their greed

Fear – deeply engrained in all ages (children to elderly). Fear of something or other. Even greed is an outcome of fear – to get as much for self.

Trust – very rare

Ideologies – still we discuss and waste time on caste, creed and religion. So much that 80% of the news are around that

Infrastructure -  no clean water/air, still roads are the promises for winning elections

Education – still obsessed with marks; more than half of the educated are not worth any jobs

Curriculum in so called top colleges – Not changed for decades and we are teaching outdated stuff and then glorifying the mediocrity

Empathy, Belief – is rare and we waste time following babas; wherever all of us very well know what is right

Discussion on social media – obsessed with negativity and whats happening to others. Many fake news and information which just creates stress. The educated are worst to blame; who just forward these. Happy nations are not build with so much negativity being spread!

As a nation we are always worried and stressed and our politicians and media make sure that no one ever is relaxed and happy. In these circumstances we are still living in 1960s.

By writing and sharing this – its does not mean that I love my country lesser than those who just tom-tom about it or I am not doing anything regarding this. I do all my defined Karma and have never compromised on that as a citizen. I have never harmed anyone and try to build positivity around.

There are so many others around us who are trying to make a change. We have to just identify them around us and help them. Community work is the most powerful way to bring any change. I know of a woman in Gurgaon, who is trying to help build sustainable environment and making small steps in addition to her all responsibilities for home; I know of someone who is helping building community connects. There are many of the youngsters who are trying to make a change. These are HEROES who just need attention and may be few hours of handy support in a month. I wanted to share many names – but all of them do not wish to be named. They are doing as their Karma and making a change. People like Azim Premji are also in this country who have donated so much of personal wealth for others.

In real sense – situation is alarming and needs immediate attention. I wish all the best for my nation and everyone of us! Lets do it for our sake and our next generation, if not others!

PS: This note is not to favour or reject any political ideology.

Educated vs fearful kids - What are we creating!

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As per Wikipedia - Education is the process of facilitating learning, or the acquisition of knowledge, Skills, Values, Beliefs and habits. Educational methods include storytelling, discussion, teaching, training and research.

However, the sole purpose of education shifted (at-least in India) to examinations and getting marks. The over-obsessed society built this as the foundation of education – so much so the children in formative years and further are pressured to focus on examinations and passing them.

This goes in the genetic system of the whole education processes and systems – by the time students are in high school they have minimum 5-6 times examinations over a time of 180 study days in a year. There is no focus on learning and enjoying the learning and assimilating it to bring meaning to application of learning in real life. There are pre-boards (2-3 times) and final exams and many tests before the “monstrous board exams”. The phobia of this gets ingrained in each child, parents, family, teachers, schools and society and everyone is just obsessed by ensuring the kids get “good marks” in these examinations.

There are instances where kids start hating subjects like Math, history and many other, just because the way they are taught and tested. The whole focus is on remembering and answering the questions in a set-pattern; rather than actually enjoying the knowledge and learning for life.

Most of the assessments are focused on rote-answers and any individual creativity in answers is not appreciated or encouraged. Neither the teachers, parents and the education community is groomed to identify and build focus on originality and innovation.

In real sense if the sole purpose in India is to pass exams – then there is no need of schools as you can easily pass examinations by studying through google, Khan Academy etc. If the purpose is to get knowledge, then there is so much available online that one can not learn that in whole life.

The real role of schools, to build future youth, who is not only remembering but also capable,  is getting lost – due to this obsession with exams. There is hardly any initiative on building life skills and making them capable and self-confident. More to blame are the parents who pressurize the schools to focus on getting good marks. The whole system creates "robotic kids" - who can just write in the exams of whatever they rote.

The countries and societies where Education is considered as number one (like Finland) look at education in a totally different way of building higher order skills in kids, so that they not only get the knowledge but also build their focus on their own identified passion – where failure is not bad and is a way of improving self.

In real sense – what we need is a “transformation” – in form of Surgical action on education by totally revamping the way we teach; the way we assess and the way we identify potential of each child and help him & her to build that potential than army of engineers and doctors (more than 50% are not even worth employing).

It will take at-least a generation to actually see the results once the surgery is completed. For that we have to move out Education out of Political system and build education through future-minded educators and innovators.

Otherwise it will remain same – as it has remained for last 40-50 years; where we still teach things which hardly has any relevance in real life.

Even the top rated colleges in India are teaching without revamping their curriculum for last 30 years.

It looks that no one “really cares” about real changes in education – because if the people are more self-esteemed then they will not follow ideologies of the political systems and leaders. So they really need scared and fearful people who will always be worried about assessments.

This is so much evident in most of the organizations in the country – where you find feared and scared individuals working and following orders – just to get higher rating (marks) in the annual assessments (where more than 80% of the people conducting assessments do not even have capabilities to conduct proper assessments and understand the real meaning of feedback is for improving oneself).

Lets hope for the best ! Else we have the chalta-hai attitude in any case :-) 

You can read more at  http://hackeducation.com/2015/04/25/factory-model