Education

"I was born intelligent, but education ruined me"..... I don't know who had told this but i can't agree more. More and more i studied, less confident i became.
What is the aim of education? We believe, that there is something which our ancestors have found which must be retained and there are many things which are undiscovered which can make our life easier and we(human beings) can experience more happiness. We don't want to "reinvent the wheel". So we try to transfer the knowledge/experience we have gathered in thosands or millions of years of evolution. And then we say, this is what we have found..and now it's up to you to find something better, which will help human being and others. The whole aim is to prepare the coming generation for their journey. As long as it happens, i don't have any issue. The problem arises when we don't say to them that NOW "You are free" and you MUST choose your own path. It is said that when "Buddha" was dying, "Anand" asked him that now what will happen to them? Buddha smiled and told "ATTA-DIPO BHAV" means "Be your own light". (This was also the motto of my school).
And i believe that this is where most of the education system fails. They teach us all the knowledge but slowly kill the ability to become a free person, to become our own light. One of the reason might be that it takes such a long time to learn, that we forget that most important ability we need to develop is "able to take decisions". While teaching we almost forget that this is what we are preparing our students for. We want to make them "self-reliable" but what we end up with is totally "dependable". Student's "decision taking ability" is lost. And we always look to someone, wait for someone, to guide us.
Most of the child are so quick in taking decisions. They exactly "know" that this is what he "needs", this is what he "likes" .... then they get educated and loose their ability to decide and they start doing what others are doing, which is more acceptable in the society. And that's why we find so many varities in children's clothes than ours :) .
But, how can we make a person/child able to take his own decisions? What should be changed in the upbringing of the child so that he can be a free person who decides for himself. Yes, he will always need the input, the data on which his decisions will be based but the decision should be his with proper reason and faith. I don't know "How to do it" but would like to find it out.

Power Corrupts???

"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutly" ... I don't agree with the statement. The reason is simple: "Power" is what we all , human or non-human beings craves for. Our whole existence is based on being powerful."Survival of the fittest" is the most accepted universal truth. Our survival itself depends upon how powerful we are.
And this is not true or valid only for human beings. Even nature itself doesnot like powerless people/animal/ plant or anything else.
If you believe in God, most probably you also believe that "God is the most powerful entity". Does that mean "He/She" is also the most Corrupt entity?

Corruption is not the product of power but powerlessness. An inspector cannot behave like a corrupt person in front of SP.... He will become corrupt when someone who is less powerful than him or his authority approaches him. It's the powerlessness of others who make people/society corrupt.

Similarly, i am a true beliver of "Selfishness" . I have born alone and will die alone. The only person in this world i am responsible for is myself. But becoming a "true selfish" person is not possible for normal human being. Generally, we are NOT Selfish enough, otherwise this world would have been a much better place. Just think over it, do we really care only for ourself? I have not found a single person who does so. Most of the "Corrupt" police officers/lawyers/ politicians lead a very normal life. They don't/can't spend all the money they have accumulated through corruption but even then they go on looting/cheating people. Because they are not "SELF"ish enough, they are doing it to help their family and Next seven generations. "Your Family" is not you. Hence most of the corrupt people are involved in corruption for "OTHERS" and not for themselves.
Once you become a true selfish person, there are chances that you will become "Buddha" or "Mahavira".
"Power" and "Selfishness" are our most natural instinct. Whether we like it or not, we have to follow it. We Must be powerful and we Must be selfish. Otherwise not only our individual entity but whole human "PRAJATI" will be doomed and will be replaced by some other more powerful and more selfish one.

Manoj

To choose or not to choose

How much faith a person should have in his own thoughts? I know the theoratical answers: 100%. Now give me some practical answers.
If i think that i can perform much better and hence get better returns both in terms of money and satisfaction in some other field, should i leave my job and start pursuing my carrier in that "other field"? When i was living with my friends in Chenaai, so many times we had discussed that a person can earn more by opening any normal North Indian Dhaaba than working in most of the indian comapny. But as usual we all are still working in same or different companies. We never opened any Dhaaba.
What was the problem? We all, were 100% confident of this business, But we had never done anything related to that. So, we were not aware of the challenges the business could have thrown on us.Also, whatever bad you speak about your company, one thing is sure, that if you are there in their payroll on 30th/31st of the month, ur bank account will become fatter on that day. Even if, what u have done for the whole month is chatting, forwarding mails and discussing about the bad performance of Indain team in WC.Now why would you want to leave this "pay without work" job and do something in which you will get what u have done (And you don't have the excuse of partial managment also).
But then, how will you feel when u will be 50 or 60 year old? Won't you feel that your life would have been better if you had opted for what you had thought was correct? This can go other way also. If u opted for "ur thoughts" and became a failure .....leave the age of 50 or 60 , u will start cursing urself at 35 only...and this time ur whole family and friends will be with you. All of them will say "bada hero banne chala tha.... pata nahi kya khujaal tha ...achha khaasa kama raha tha"....
so what will be ur choice?
when i was in college, once some of my friend was weighing if he should stand for an election. Because it was 100% sure that he could not win. I had told that "not participating does not mean that you have not lost, rather it gives ur opponent more easiness and comfortable life." So why not fight and loose? We will be more happier or atleast our oppenent will be more upset. So we fought and lost. But that was college and the stake were low.
I have to choose for myself.

It's not about the bike

Yesterday i finished reading the autobiography of Lance Armstrong- "It's not about the bike". It's a nice book and for the first time i found that how much hard work a man puts for becoming a successful person. It's always easy to say that "He/She is a genius" and then go back to our daily routine life. But every genius has to put several hours of severe hard work, he has to give his more than 100%, not during the final match but also during practice. He has to accept failures much more than we can imagine. He also goes through same fear, expectation, anxiety like any other "normal" human being. But it's the persistence, desire and hard work which makes all the difference.
But this book is basically not about a "Tour-de-France" winner bike racer. It's about a person who knows nothing about life other than cycling. It's about a person who is on the verge of becoming a world champion and suddenly finds himself in a Hospital fighting for his survival. It's about love of mother and son. It's about the value of friends and family. It's about hope. It's about life when one encounters death on a daily basis. It's about the RETURN journey from life to death. It's about pain,which is universal in nature and most probably the strongest bond among human beings.It tells us that "having a life" is a great thing to be happy about.
When i read the book, i find that LA is somewhat "algophilist " - one who enjoys pain more than pleasure. It's pain which drives him more than pleasure. But at the same time, he really knows and enjoys "True Love".
"Cancer" is just a 6 letter word for most of us. We never know what it is and how meserable it can make our whole life. It's a fight against our own body. The cure is to kill your own body to the limit. And as LA tells it kills your soul more than your body. To fight and win against this disease is a great achivement(not only for the patient but also for doctors, nurses, science and your friends) in itself but as someone in the book says "We(Cancer patients) are the lucky one", teaches much more than anyone can teach you. It makes you feel how valuable our life is and then one also realises that you have only one life to fulfill your dream, to follow your heart, to find your purpose in life.