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The Art of Arrogance

by with No Comment LifeLifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

August 16, 2017

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Education

The Art of Arrogance

One of the examples that I use to quote in a lecture of communication is of how a same signal bears different meaning in two countries. For eg. In UK (or elsewhere as applicable) a car or vehicle approaching opposite to your vehicle, if blinks its headlamps, on a highway it would mean courtesy, which may be read as “I am stopping and waiting, you may please go first”. In India the same blinking of headlamps would read “I am advancing (or overtaking), mind you, keep your vehicle to the safe side till I go first”. This is to summarize the attitude of a driver, which is more important than the mechanical skills of driving that defines a “driver” and hence driving.

The “Wheel”, one of the greatest inventions of human history, has developed over civilization timelines to design the diverse vehicles of the present day. Roads are the lifelines of development. However the use of these lifelines depends on “humans”, whose attitude decides how “order” is created in the new social situation ie. “the traffic”.

  1. The smirk of the bicycle rider as he looks back and wanes from a scene, narrowly escaping the scathe of a near-to-hit accident with your vehicle
  2. The awkward posture of the day – phone squeezed between the ear and shoulder, with side-bend neck during the two wheeler drive.
  3. Vehicles that buzz through (overtake) on four sides of your vehicle (not over!)
  4. Parking vehicles on the road, rather than on the sides, and talking to friends.
  5. Parking – be it a two wheeler or four wheeler- with least consideration for the vehicles parked adjacent/near by, making it difficult for another fellow driver to move his/her vehicle form the parked lot.
  6. Honking from behind (or anywhere else) pushing the driver to advance the car or vehicle genuinely waiting for a signal: the horn-shove.
  7. Rushing with that extra speed, desperately to cross the traffic signal, while amber giving way to red.

These are some examples of our daily life, forget the angry looks and enmity faces often we come across on fellow drivers. The story of our traffic on common roads is that of desperateness and quite often, arrogance, as examples listed above.

We have various reasons to justify the type of driving on the roads- but none justifies the danger it can often attribute to the driver, fellow drivers or pedestrians.

Driving on the roads is a social learning, and as like many phenomena depends on the attitude. We have almost all best brands of cars, bikes or bicycles of the world in our roads. Roads too are improving (though one could ideally think of still better). If driving has to be secure, safe and peaceful then attitude needs a change, among anyone who drives.

In places like Europe, US or UK, driving is considered as a pleasure, or a stress-reliever. In addition to the cars and roads it’s the attitude of the drivers that makes driving a pleasure! There is more a mood of competition and unfriendliness in our system of driving compared to the largely cooperative and friendly attitude of drivers in some countries. The relaxed, satisfied, friendly, confident and helpful faces behind the steering is so pleasing compared to the grim, unfriendly, angry, serious, suspicious and threatening faces!

Recently while in IIT Madras, viewing a ”driverless” car project in an innovation experiment, I was amazed to learn that there could be as much as 60 emotions that can flash across a driver’s face depending on the various factors and scenarios one encounters during driving. This was being explored there , to study reactions that could help maneuver the driving in the driverless project. These emotions are attempted to be plotted to decide the reaction of the movement of the car without the driver.

Essentially, it’s the attitude of arrogance that persists and raises rages on roads. Again, driving is not the mechanical art of holding the steering and controlling a vehicle, it’s a big responsible social activity! Respecting fellow drivers, passengers and helping and guiding each other. There is a soft skill art, which is often ignored in driving, on how especially the emotional balance and respect for others can be maintained.

Well this attitude again could be built up as a child in homes and class rooms, but, only if, the child sees the same that is taught in the class is seen on roads. If not (s) he learns the opposite, theory for class rooms and arrogance for practice, which they see around.

The soft skill training in driving especially driving etiquettes and mindset of respecting and considering the fellow drivers has to be an inevitable part of the formal training.

Distracted driving, especially with drivers using cell phones in two-wheeler and other vehicles has to be dealt with caution. Often, this is casually done resulting in loss of innocent lives! An alarming fact that is added new to the list is the death due to the accidents caused by careless crossing of roads (looking at cell phones). Talking and texting are dangerous on roads: talking on the phone distracts us but texting is still more dangerous since the user can’t or doesn’t see the path in front. It’s important that “Cell phone civics” is added in drivers training to ensure the health and life of drivers as well as others.

If only, we could swap the skills of acrobats and arrogance with tolerance, respect and give-way-to-others attitude to fellow drivers, driving will be safe, peaceful and an experience to look forward to. It’s especially so in the present times since people spend more time on roads , travelling and there is an evolving social system called “traffic jams”.

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The Anatomy of Experience

by with No Comment ExperienceLifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

July 16, 2017

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Education

The Anatomy of Experience

Number of years of simple existence doesn’t imply experience (not at least in the sense I connote) Many say they have long years of experience in a job, or profession – but the number of years of existence need not make you “wise” – rather it may make you “unwise” by thinking that the mathematics of countable years is always equal to “wisdom”. My feeling on Experience is transcribed here.

Definitely by sitting in an ascribed space (of a father, mother, son, daughter, friend etc) or achieved chair (profession, job, tas etc) for many years we are assumed to have gained experience. But need not necessarily be so. The key in Experience I believe is the wisdom imbibed in those years. The crux is “accruing and applying learning over years “ is experience. Or “ Wisdom, if gained, over years is experience”- it is not theory , it is Practice!

e.g. Daughter or son( or any one for that matter) wants to do what they wish which they are passionate about. We have our perceptions influenced by family, our own wishes and friends which may turn us around their wish. But if we have the ability to reflect on what is changing around us and elsewhere, relate their wish to reality and practicality, I feel wisdom is prevailing. Some may term it is maturity of thinking (?).

The layers or process of experience: Essentially experience is a congregate of “live”, “ learn” and “ link” which are interdependent and ever changing.

Live: would mean not mere existence, but the efforts of exploring the happiness and understanding of existence, sacrificing for family and society.. and could mean many things. An interesting definition of Life is “ a cumulative effect of a handful of significant shocks” in The Black Swan (Nassim Nicholas). He says to look into your personal life , choice of profession, meeting your spouse, your movement from once place to another, impoverishments and sudden enrichments .

Life can be moved only forward, can never be rewound (As Jiddu Krishnamurthy says “ Never be prisoners of the past”)

Learn: few essentials of learning and what it means are:

  • Facing success and failure.
  • Understanding that there is no “absolute success” or “failure in life”.
  • All are relative (endorsed by Albert Einstein).
  • There is what is called as book learning, then there is this thing called wisdom

The first is about life’s broken parts, the second its glorious sum.

(Thirukkural :373)

  • To enjoy beauty in everything. As humans, we share the patterns of inanimate and animate life that we find to be beautiful. But they differ. (The Promise of beauty and why it matters , Shakti Meira).
  • The knowledge that we know is much, much insignificant than the knowledge that exits out there ( As reminded by Thomas Kempis in The Imitation of Christ: Guard against the temptation to boast of your worldly learning and accomplishment).
  • Accommodating the views of others and positioning yourself in a society (and why not in a family!)

Link: The third element which completes the concept of experience is how you apply – Live-life and learning to move ahead. Its continuous: linking with children, parents, friends, colleagues, your passions and it’s a day-to-day, moment-to-moment affair, Its this linking that makes you eligible for “wise”.

All religions handhold us to wisdom, the mind-blowing path to ultimate reality. (Bagavadh Geetha’s Jnana Yoga: the mind is used to inquire into its own nature and to transcend the mind’s identification with its thoughts and ego is a process of linking). Knowledge in that sense is lower in order and not a great contributor to experience, but in a general sense : Knowledge is an essential prerequisite for the humans to enter into wisdom. But quite often the paradox is that you get entangled and engaged in “Knowledge” and lose the exciting path to wisdom( a larger debatable topic is whether knowledge is essential for wisdom.. like in case of great saints and gurus who attain wisdom.. well, I am talking about common man).

Knowledge is what we are formally tested for (examinations!) and we are conditioned to from our childhood to attain a graduate or post graduate degree. Graduation doesn’t guarantee wisdom , it vouches for the knowledge (as certified by a School or University). In one way if the educational process is not ideal we are weaned away from wisdom!

“Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?

Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” (T S Eliot)

Next time when we say experience please reflect on your Live-life, learning and how much you have linked it all…

Tethered Education

As we move through the timeline, brushing aside the events, to be symbols for the future, called as history, one thing that remains constant among few is the examination system.

The essence of education as a process to help learners – to control life, enjoy life and ultimately to understand life (Will Durrant, Fallen Leaves)– is largely replaced by the changing priority as a means to appear and score in examination and this is denaturing the form of the beautiful concept of education. Education is now somewhat like tied up to the stub of examination. It rotates around that.

Education, especially higher education, is an opportunity that a learner purposefully searches and indulges in. A person chooses higher education for the purpose of learning and exploring. (that is why we have PhD in all subjects Doctor of Philosophy… irrespective of what subject a person is pursuing- (s)he does History, Physics, biotechnology, English or history). However in our University system or other educational systems , education, that is getting a degree or diploma is linked with Jobs. We start to do a degree or diploma that gives us a job. Nothing wrong in the thinking in one perspective. But the objective learning is often hindered with thoughts of job and examination.

We have forgotten what curiosity and originality are. Richard Gerver ( a school headmaster) in his book Change mentions about how curious a child is from the time (s)he starts speaking, asking equations on why… how what when… to parents and relatives. Once the child is admitted in the School, you can observe that after few years the number of questions raised by the child are less or nil. He has learned to be “uniform” with the class sacrificing different “diverse” talents , which examination do not promote. Rousseau says that “education comes to us from nature from men or other things, he is regarding nature as equivalent to endowment – the inherited dispositions and capacities of theh individual. All great educationists from Socrates (The Bhagavat Gita is the typical example of confronting with a problem and the management solutions offered by Lord Krishna, Arjuna though doesn’t get a certificate for that!) Loyola, Freebel to Dewey or great saints like Jesus have only taught to understand ourselves.

Read the above observations with that of Thomas Fried man (Thank you for being late, 2016): “We entered a world (around 2007) where connectivity was fast , free, easy for you and ubiquitous and handling complexity became fast , free and easy for you , and invisible”. This points to the need of synthesizing the Zeitgeisten summaries of education though different ages to the phantasmagorical technology-era we live now. It is important to have a method of evaluation other than examination in this fast changing technological world to liberate the mind of learners to focus on the joy of learning rather the pains and anxiety of examination. The children are so conditioned from LKG or 1st standard to this unpleasant experience of examination which takes away the joy and fun of real education.

(What could be a new pattern of evaluation for a happy learning… to be continued as time permits!)

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Teenagers: Parenting for the best

by with No Comment Lifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

March 29,2020

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Lifestyle

Teenagers: Parenting for the best

The beautiful picture depicts the full blossomed life of an individual. From the centre of the flower where we are born, to the next layers of petals of different colours we go through various stages, expanding in maturity and understanding depicted by the different concentric patterns of petals. In this is the transitional layer of “teenage” which many of the readers above 18 have gone through. This is a brief look at how parents (and teachers) need to help the teenagers especially in the present times.

Teenage is a transformational period of our life- the unique and most important transition in human development. Possibly one could divide the life of an individual, biologically (which has social implications) into childhood, teenage and adulthood.

It is a world of new experiences, fascinations, likings (and disliking), confusion, fan-worships, fun, and infatuations. Every adult has a part of the “teen” in them. But then, they are mature enough to understand the goodness and to realise facts over a period of time.

This stage of transition for children is different nowadays from what it was few decades ago for various reasons. To mention two:

  1. The main stakeholders who had a role 20 or 30 years back were the parents, grandparents, relatives, teachers and friends. The Joint family system (or extended family with more members) helped in hearing the versions of the teenagers and acted as a solace in a family. In addition to hearing by the elders, this also brought in serendipitous learning to all. The nuclear family system has reduced the human interaction to a limited parent-to-child.
  2. The omnipresent technology or media and their access has made it an important stakeholder in shaping the thoughts of child as (s)he moves on in this Google age.

Parents and teachers need to realise that children when going through the phase as “teenager” are often young to understand the first experiences of natural changes in body and thinking. They may challenge, question or react in a manner parents do not expect (not always)! The parents have to learn that its largely natural, and accordingly set their maturity to the tune of “temporary whims and fancies”. Some parents find it hard to relate to their children when they are teenagers. It’s tough if we think so, but it’s a management in parenting and every parent should have an insight about this.

In a nuclear family, with parents having their own busy schedule at work, on net or TV the teenager is dependent more on the media. But any answer from the searches, will be short of the emotional and personal touches and clarifications they get from mother, father or teachers! And that’s key for a teenager of today.

The ages of teen is the first stage of exploring an identity in life. Anxiety, shyness, dilly- dallying, appearance, feelings, timid, challenging, perfection, liking, loving… there are many combinations we go through.

Some parents remark (s)he is acting strange – weird. But in reality the parent is unable to listen and understand to the natural phenomenon of changes in thinking of the child; and to accept it. Instead of considering this as different and unnatural, if parents accept this and then try to explore on why (s)he thinks so, the child feels comfortable.

Teenage is a period of life in which some feel thinking, talking, feeling etc of a different nature is a “mistake” and they brood on these without sharing. If shared (or the parents give the atmosphere of sharing) the family can realise this as often trivial and could ease the worry or heaviness on the child. Marks in class, recognition, achievements, abilities, affiliations, comparisons… all are to be dealt with an open mind. Because it’s a natural transitional period. for positioning the personality for the future. The success of parents/teachers is the ability to give a confident situation in which (s)he can open up anything and get their support. Build that confidence and trust.

An important message at this stage is not to sink into the infatuations of ascribed “love” and sacrifice this transitional period to a life of worries, fights and conflicts. The real love often gets clearer after the “teenage cloudiness” of a loaded mind of feelings, fan-fares, glitter and pomp. This is a period in which the parents have to guide them (walking with their thoughts and sorting it). Teachers have a big role, as they have seen many students growing through these stages and excellent teachers can make a difference. They have the duty to listen, care and guide the children to the unknown wisdoms of children, which the students are yet to achieve. They are touching the future.

Parents care for their children (sometimes over cared ). As children some don’t think and accept how we hold them. As a teenager it becomes important that (s)he also feels we care, since an enquiry mind of thinking would have started. LISTEN to them. Hear and feel their versions. Some may be silly, insignificant, from your perception; but do not ignore the importance with which they put it.

Avoid conflicts. If you shout or get angry at a teenager after years of your maturity what does it say? Even though you know what a teenager is asking for is not genuine , never give a point blank “No” until it’s so serious (which is generally not). There might be an element of thought that you may not have felt from his/her perspective. Be patient and positive in listening. Impatient and sarcastic listening are sometimes worse than not listening to!

Don’t push to fall in line with the “parental aspirations”. In childhood the child may easily get coerced to aspirations of parents, and teachers. But in teenage, (s)he would have started experiencing what they like. If what they like is different from parental aspirations, a conflict can arise. It’s here again the parent /teacher has to be a good mentor on knowing the reasons for the “like”.

Accept teenagers as they are. Let them like, adore, enjoy and be fascinated during this discovery period about them and the world. The parents have to observe, and not to intervene unless they feel the children get tricked, decepted or trapped with these natural feelings. For this the parents (and teachers) need to know what they are at.

Mentor them without their knowing. That’s an art of parenting. “A bundle of advices” at this age may not be quite receptive to children. The best way is to “be with their ideas, and transform them if necessary”. Walk that extra mile alongwith their ideas.

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Stressed with the unexpected? the art of transforming dissonance to consonance!

by with No Comment LifeLifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

February 5, 2022

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Life, Lifestyle

Stressed with the unexpected? the art of transforming dissonance to consonance!

(The image is the cover page of the College Magazine 1981-82 for which I was the Editor. The art work was done by Dr. Chandran K, 1981 batch student, later who worked as a dedicated veterinarian who is an amazing artist - no digital technologies! I thought this will be a message that can tell us "we break, to unite")

We often meet the unexpected “good” and “bad” in life. It’s usually the bad that gives us stress of hurt and sadness – the bad which we never expected! “WE” is a broad term – it’s a prism which refracts beams including kids, children, teen, youth, young, old.., at any point of time. We grow with (or supposedly have to grow with) dealing with stress as we move up the ladder of age, but the ladder has new surprises in store as we climb up (or down!) the age. We have more diverse and new roles in family and society, and hence new challenges and stress.

Stress from the unexpected bad can drive us to pessimism and doubt.

In a general sense how we take up the situations depend on the nature and type of “unexpectedness” (unexpected events and situations, in general not good happenings in life), and varies with the age and the realistic maturity we possess for the age.

Accidents, diseases, death, deceits…all these “bad” when happens unexpected (which often are, as I started this article!), it hurts and upsets us. The relationships if closer, we feel the blind end which can give us shock, confusion, guilt and helplessness and a feeling of let down by Life.

This is the start of dissonance (conflict) within us which is understandably human, for a temporary period for emotional resurgence. It is a learning phase of life -to cope with the unexpected and move ahead. In short this is what education has to mentor us for. We get expertise in knowledge domains in arts science… for what? Jobs, security, relationships…Fine! But then all these have domains beyond the Knowledge of Expertise; in fact success of life or dealing with unexpectedness is usually only by Knowledge beyond domains of expertise.

The emotional balance is built on fabric of relationships, which we need to strengthen to overcome the unexpectedness. It’s the wisdom of connectedness. Sharing and caring helps to ease them out. “Overcoming” the unexpectedness is a reality and a certainty of life which we need to learn and teach. This is the start of Consonance.

Accepting the unexpectedness, and realistically facing the “bad” is the first step to conflict resolution. This relieves us, and help us to see the faint light at the end of the otherwise dark path. Believe we are in this world capable of doing this. Clarity of mind during the turbulent times makes us strong to move ahead to deal with the unexpectedness, rather than succumbing to that!

Offer help to others, wherever you feel you can be of help in holding them to override the unexpectedness. This will help people to recover from the temporary phase of doubt and pessimism. Family, friends, people from work places, spirituality (irrespective of religions) all help us in this.

If the unexpected situation is a persistent one, intentionally created by humans, purposefully to hurt or harm, fight it or come out of the situation and lead your life, for, ultimately we seek the path of happiness in life; existing with dignity in a fearless atmosphere among peaceful relationships, is what ultimately matters. Within these we can always try finding our way opening in the front.

Share “your breaths of life” (words or deeds) for others to breathe back to life.

Life takes us through the path of unexpected falls, but as a principle of life, we fall to rise, from unfulfilled dreams, to full fillable alternates.

Consonance is blessed with every person, to melt the misery of dissonance;

it’s with us, never part with it in times of worry.

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Listening : the lifeline of harmony

by with No Comment LifeLifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

October 18, 2017

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Education

Listening : the lifeline of harmony

Heard Melodies Are Sweet, but Those Unheard Are Sweeter” Therefore, ye soft pipes, play on;…. “Ode on a Grecian Urn” : Keats. The lines reflecting that the power of thought, imagination and anticipation is often greater than the act itself. Are we staking these powers to continuous use of smart phones ?

She doesn’t listen to what I am saying!

My father doesn’t understand why I want to do something!

My mother doesn’t listen to what I am saying!

Any time you see my son, he is on the mobile phone!

He is not listening in the class, but hooked to the phone!

She is playing a lot with phone!

She doesn’t wear what I am telling.

He doesn’t hear what I am talking; he is simply on the phone !

Some examples of comments, which reverberates, often, in unexpected consequences. Some of these comments expressed out are heard, some unheard, some are listened, some are not. Many of these go unexpressed too. But many can create issues of stress if not properly understood!

This article is an attempt to understand “listening” to others (as evidently stray thoughts pulled randomly) so as to understand one perspective of “listening” in the present day. It is an inter generational, technology perspective. This may help in better self-realization, for a learned listening!

History has been a timeline of “events”. Civilizations, trade, wars, explorations, discoveries, inventions etc are used individually or clustered as points of reference to develop, understand and explain events for the periods for which we seek insights into. To quote an example “ science” has been a tool of change in human history (from ancient Plato through the new scientific revolution – attributed to Galileo since 1630s), or later “technology” is an eventful history maker. (they are though intrinsically connected).

The timeline (or era) of history, with the advent of accelerated inventions of technologies in society in the last two decades, has shorter time-spans of eventful happenings that makes ripples of faster change, compared to the slow happenings arranged over a longer period of years in the previous centuries. One of the simple ways to look at it (especially from the thought of the topic of present discussion- listening) is to place people in Generation boxes (Gen Box) by virtue of the year of birth.

“Information” “Instant Connectivity & information”

Newspaper Gen Radio Gen TV Gen Computer Gen Internet Gen Mobile Gen Google Gen Android Gen Whats app Gen

(One can modify this in any manner of logic and history!).

I designed this classification for the vital component of “ Information” that runs through all these generations, and as we start from Computer Gen we find that we are travelling beyond information to “instant connectivity”. One way of understanding “listening” is first to place ourselves in an appropriate gen box. Then look into the Gen Box of the listener.

The Gen box is a representation of the realm of reality on which our behaviours are usually founded upon. It is natural and fair. People are often comfortable with others in the same Gen box, from a perspective of technology-based approach (though issues in communication happen at intra Gen box level too) than with gen boxes farther away from them. It’s important to accept and understand the “realms of realities” in other Gen boxes, for continued “basic commonness” for meaningful communication. Listening is the primary step in this acceptance.

For eg. a TV Gen mother talking to a post-google gen daughter. The behaviors of these two are naturally influenced by the context, values, habit, ethics (and many more) they have evolved through. The main point is that they vary a lot. Listening (the predominant function of successful communication) for one may not be the behaviour expected from the other. The perception that we possess is a product of many factors like the “gene Kit” we are handed over and the environment which nurtures us. To make a complex phenomenon simple, let us call it “Identity” of an individual.

Identity has more to with “becoming” , than with “being”, and it’s a process that starts right from birth. The mirror that our environment holds up to us determines who we become (Paul Verhaeghe, 2014: What about me?).

As we advance, two fundamental tendencies would seem to be typical of every living being: we want to be part of the greater whole, and at the same time we long for independence.

Revisiting the earlier example of the TV-mother and Google-daughter, now, in addition to the Gen Box, it is growing to the interaction of two identities. It is in this situation listening warrants more care from the communicators. The speed of the technological changes (and hence growing diversity in gadgets), identity (in terms of “brands” over a growing market economy), communication (that attempts at connectivity at a physical level across the globe: now its only virtual!) all have created a new “global civilization”. These were changing over a period of time, to the present neo-liberal era, in which consumer is the key. The present positioning of all Gen boxes are embedded within the global civilization – like it or not!

For eg. From “product” to “product-of-class (brand)” – may it be clothes, phones, bikes – the new Gen refers to the “brand” of a product rather than a product. It’s not the material but the brand that is message of people in the present day market- based society, especially the e-marketing with Amazon, Flipkart and so on.

How do two Gen boxes synchronize for a happy living? By Change.

It is not simply a question of making the “other” change; the painful truth is that we, too, will have to change ((Paul Verhaghe, 2014). Thomas Friedman, 2016 (Thank you for being late) also states the significance of changing or adapting to new technologies (in terms of Identity has more to with becoming) so as to be on Board of reality of the present day. Called as the Big Shift, they argue, is that we are moving from a long period of history in which “stocks” were the measure of wealth and the driver of growth – to a world in which the most relevant source of comparative advantage will be how rich and numerous are the “flows” passing through your country or community and how well trained your citizen-workers are to take advantage of them. It calls us to learn faster by working together and to pull out of ourselves more of our true potential, both individually and collectively. New Gen has the advantage of being born into this phenomenon. Others have to reinvent their skills and mindset to adapt for a “common minimum understanding”.

Listening (the key tool in communication) happens across generation boxes. Listening happening within a Gen box is usually uneventful, since the equations of the day generally bear similar meaning for all. While listening to the connected world around, find time to disconnect-to-connect with nearer, or learn to accept a new pattern of listening.

Accept intergenerational box differences and change wherever possible. We can’t exclusively blame the new gen for the “Hi Speed travel in the Information Motorway”, which science and technology offers, and we not coping with them. Ensuring values (listening rather than commanding plays a vital role) could strengthen the order and life, whichever generations we belong to.

“I indulged myself one evening, after a seminar in a dark conference room in a Mumbai hotel, to sit quietly in the roof-top restaurant for dinner, and watch the sunset fading over the Arabian sea. A young man and women sat on the table next to mine. Then another woman joined them. *Thoreau’s three chairs. I thought. Except that they had the Arabian Sea and a warm sunset outside, instead of Walden Pond and snow. The waiter lit a candle on their table, brought champagne in a bucket, and poured three flutes for them. They raised their champagne flutes , looked up from their smart phones for a few seconds at each other, said “cheers”, and quickly returned to their smart phones to find out what was happening in the world elsewhere. They didn’t seem interested in what was happening in each other’s hearts or minds.

Arun Maira, 2017.

Listening for well being: conversations with people not like us. P 103.

*Thoreaus”s three chairs: Henry David Thoreau, the American Philosopher wrote in Walden (1845) “I had three chairs in my house; one for solitude, two for friendship and three for society.” He could sit in one chair and watch the autumn outside, geese on the pond and the flurry of snow. He could listen to his own thoughts detached from others, while seasons changed.

I was pleasantly surprised when one of the Faculty in a college recently wrote interesting verses, stating that the person was in solitude and inventing the fineness of nature during that time: Thoreau’s first chair ! Many of us use the chairs; if not we need to! Search these chairs: find the Wordsworth, Bharatiyaar, Gandhiji, Mother Teresa, Changampuzha, Marie Curie, Nelson Mandela… and so many. Transform to them (to their mindsets). We need to place the chair for sometime so that we can internally listen to self, friends, family and society. Listening is life.

Listening is a purposeful thought process, Settings affect our thoughts. Eg. Silence improves our thoughts. It might be quite difficult to aspire for “thoughts” (and hence listening ) amidst the “noise” of the TV soap opera or sounds of bashing big beat songs (not the sound of music!).

In Reclaiming Conversation: The Power of Talk in a Digital Age, (2015), Prof. Sherry Turkle, at MIT argues that just as Thoreau needed these symbolic chairs in his cabin near Walden Pond, we need a similar social structure to communicate effectively. But cell phones are damaging our capacity for engaged conversation, she suggests, and thus our capacity for friendship and social connection.

For eg., Turkle argues that we avoid solitude, Thoreau’s first chair, by constantly checking our cell phones, despite the fact that we need this solitude to truly know ourselves. With cell phones, “we turn to other people to support our sense of self,” robbing us of the self-knowledge necessary for rich conversations! She claims that in the end, we are sacrificing conversation for connection!

Respect the Gen boxes, do not blame the Gen boxes, Learn to live with different Gen boxes, understand that “Identity” undergoes changes with time and technology, from utility to brand, realize conversations are important in the age of connectivity , disconnect and reconnect, have the three Thoreau’s chairs… Its listening, and an intergenerational technology perspective for a new order of harmony for the present day.

Did you listen today?

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GOD: a SUNDAY SUBLIMATION

by with No Comment LifestyleMythology

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

October 22, 2017

Prof. S. Ramkumar

life, faith

GOD: a SUNDAY SUBLIMATION

We break coconuts, light candles, lamps to fulfil our wishes, or to thank for fulfilled wishes! We offer these to God for blessings and support. We get confidence to move ahead to achieve the wishes by doing so.

The God in us

Belief in its final form is Faith. Faith doesn’t need answers. As humans, we are often worried about the results of faith, and hence we start from belief, but rarely reach Faith in its real meaning. But the attempt itself is great, the travel through belief to Faith. Every religion teaches that Faith is the key to happiness and ultimate peace. Faith in an ideology, based on truth, is also a religion! Ultimately, all these aim at peace, happiness and universal Unity (the ultimate mention of Brahma).

Carlo Rovelli, the famous Physicist, in his book Seven Brief Lessons on Physics (2016) talks about the theory of relativity. To quote “ In short, the theory describes a colourful and amazing world where universes explode, space collapses into bottomless holes, time sags and slows near a planet and the unbound extension of interstellar space ripple and sway like the surface of the sea..” Can we completely comprehend the Universe? Or Brahman or God?

The body is made of Panchabhootaas, (Earth, Water, Fire, Wind and sky) and this body experiences world through the pancheendriyaas (hearing,sight,smell,touch and taste), controlled by “manas” and managed by “ Budhi” (Intellect). Truth is above all these. We are limited in our capacities to perceive what really is out there. Experiences vary.

This is endorsed by again Rovelli (and many scientists):

“Interestingly the images we construct of the Universe lives within us, in the space of our thoughts. Between these images – between what we can reconstruct and understand with our limited means- and the reality of which we are part, there exists countless filters: our ignorance, the limitations of our senses and of our intelligence”. They decide our experience.

Religions teach us the complexity of Universe, simplicity of truth and love and directs to search for God within.

“Isvarah sarva-bhutanam

hrd-dese ‘rjuna tisthati”

(Bhagavad Gita)

The Supreme Lord is situated in everyone’s heart, O Arjuna!

“Thy body is the temple in which God dwelleth” (The Bible)

Your body is the temple where in God resides. A major purpose in this life is to grow in the righteous character of God.

An example of Lord Ganapathy

Ganapathy (the Pathi of Ganaas), popular as Vigneswaran or Vinayak: is the God who is symbolic with obstacle removal.

Ganapathy has a head of an elephant (big sized) and rides on a small rat/mouse. Lot of symbolic meanings can be well derived from this. Again, symbolising that the wisest and largest can move in smaller vehicles. The paradox that has great imagination, giving lessons to the humans to think of unthinkable, which can materialize.

The astute capacity of God is evident when Ved Vyasa was advised by Brahma to pray to Ganapathy ( who is the ideal person who can write down his narration of the great epic Mahabharata.) Often the different appearance of Gods has been a mystery to many.

A foreign disciple of Ramana Maharishi once asked the Saint if there exists such a thing as a Personal God.

Bhagavan: Yes, Ishvara.

Disciple: (with astonishment)- What ? With eyes, nose, ears etc?

Bh- Yes, if you have them why should not God also have them?

Disciple: When I read in the Kabbala and the Puranas that God has these organs, I laugh.

Bh- Why don’t you laugh at yourself for having them?

(Guru Ramana, Cohen, SS 1998)

Many of us initiate auspicious events in life by worshipping Ganapthy in different ways, to bring in peace, harmony and remove obstacles on the way to achieve what we desire. We break coconuts as an offer of prayers. The breaking of coconut, symbolically denotes the breaking of a problem to elicit a solution. It’s an activity that builds inner confidence (in addition to the blessings from the God). This develops self confidence , and improves belief in self.

In fact, it works as a psychological outlet in instilling self confidence, and drives us to go ahead and solve problems, ultimately bringing peace.

This is for a human, the self-manifestation, or an image of confidence within self projected as a symbol of ardent faith.

Kamba Ramayanam, the Tamil epic was written by Kambar during the 12th century. The story says that the Chola King (King Kulotunga Cholan III) had asked Kambar to come to his palace and gave him an ultimatum to complete the final chapters of Ramayana Charita by the next day (probably, there was an undue delay in finishing the epic by the poet! Hence he was given a deadline). It is said that Kambar slept and woke up worried saying

“neeravum vedinchitu ambey”

(Oh, Time is out my mother (Goddess Saraswathi)

And Goddess said

“granthavum mudinchitu kamba” (your book is also over Kambar!)

To his surprise, the scriptures were completed in front of him, ready to be submitted to the King.

One view on this could be that creativity and God, that dwell in us are the same. It’s not me but the power in me that makes me. That power is a boon to me. Kambar himself wrote it. But he seems to have not known it. Probably he was deeply involved in the writing, from which he might have felt like waking from sleep.

It’s the belief. Sustained belief is faith, and faith helps us unravel the mystery of Universe, through the tools of truth and love. The search through founded facts and experiments help us to unravel truth. Religion, Science or both, we need to be on board, balancing the act of life on these two wheels or on any one bigger wheel.

“Life is like riding a bicycle. To keep your balance, you must keep moving.”

Albert Einstein

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Follow the 4 Ds: the future path will follow you

by with No Comment EducationLifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

March 29,2020

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Education

Follow the 4 Ds: the future path will follow you

The theme focuses on what students may have to focus in their graduate studies during college days. This is applicable to any course of formal study, in any subject, in any college. This is a brief based on my talk as the Dean, Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Veterinary Education and Research (RIVER) on 12 September 2018, to the new undergraduate students of Veterinary and Animal Sciences, who are the 25th batch of students since the inception of this College/Institute.

Congratulations.

You are the fortunate few who could make entry into a profession that is one among the best a student can dream of. That too in Puducherry, a landscape with unparallel history and heritage, and, in one of the best Institutes, RIVER: green, serene and beautiful. What more can you ask for a starter!

We may find three categories of students in this lot today.

  1. A few of them who have opted for some other courses; couldn’t get it; and so little worried.
  2. A few of them who have opted for some other courses; couldn’t get it; but OK with any course, and so this too.
  3. Students who passionately dreamt of taking up veterinary science, and happy to make it. (This number is increasing over years , its around 70% of admission nowadays)

With around 40 years of affiliation to this professions and the field of education, and having an opportunity to serve in different positions in and out of our Nation, I am yet to find a profession that gives diversity of opportunities to aspirations of students. It is not the profession, its you who have to decide on how and what you want to do in this noble profession. Sky is the limit.

So, please keep the “bag of worries” outside the Campus. Enter with a determined and clear mind. This is a Campus meant to build great minds.

Over the next five and a half years our Campus (which includes the committed faculty/mentors and other professionals) aims at the following 4 Ds.

  1. Discover: Travelling though the portals of this Institution and the 18 Departments helps you to explore yourself; understand your abilities and aspire for what suits best for you in life and profession.
  2. Develop: Use the years of your stay to study well and improve the competence. Competence, (a) to have the foundation skills and knowledge in the veterinary profession and (b) in the soft skills such as communication, technologies of relevance, getting connected to society, social commitment, confidence building.
  3. Decide: While doing 1 and 2 above, decide during the last year of your education here on what you really want to do and how to do it. See that what you decide matches your personality and aspirations, and also the point of reference. Travel, reading (books and materials other than the subject ones also) and limited research experiences help you to have a wider outlook of the world and to place yourself in that.
  4. Dedicate: The 2nd D focuses on skills and knowledge in the subject. Dedication aims at building of “attitude” during the College days. This attitude helps to dedicate yourself to family, society, Nation and above all to the profession. The first 3 Ds mould the 4th and most important D.

My learning from Life (not explained in detail here) shared with the students.

  1. Don’t think of JOBS on day-one of the course. Think of 4 Ds and become a responsible and great human being. Enjoy the education and focus on jobs during later years when you are competent in discovering yourself. You will find your path as you complete the course or the path will find you!
  2. Be the best wherever you go. Profession is great and noble. What we want to do with the profession is left to us.
  3. Believe in yourself, and the world believes you(the 4Ds in College help you to believe and build confidence).
  4. Success is not a chance – its a passion fuelled by enthusiasm and driven by dedication.
  5. Be disciplined. Discipline doesn’t mean curtailing freedom. Discipline is “responsible freedom”- the freedom that helps you build yourself into the best citizen.
  6. Don’t worry about the proficiency in English. Work on it and improve it. You will succeed.
  7. Eat well. Health is primary. You need energy and health to be exemplary students and to be dedicated veterinarians.
  8. Learn from mistakes. Improve yourself.
  9. Involve in all activities possible: a. they bring the world to the Campus and, b. help you to bring out the talents and abilities in you. Arts, sports, village visits, working with field veterinarians, water and wildlife conservation, swatch bharath, climate change, red-ribbon, farmers issues many to name. A good graduate should know what’s happening in the world around.
  10. Look up at the Alumni – an amazing group of dedicated veterinarians performing brilliantly in Pudcuherry, Nation and the globe in various capacities. They started entering this campus from 1994.

All the best to build the foundations of learning for the life and profession.

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Did you Whats App today?

by with No Comment Lifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

April 29, 2018

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Education

Did you WhatsApp today?

Over civilizations of human existence communication has been a key element of progress. The nature of this from sounds and gestures have moved to language and then to pictures, symbols and letters. Now we are in a Whats App (WA) era, which is growing fast to even replace the word communication, with technologies and techies (the present day humans) facing it. This is a vast area of discussion. Some preliminary thoughts!

Communication is an amazing phenomenon that helps humans to share thoughts, ideas, feelings, facts, emotions…( and what not !)- all which can be scientifically termed “messages”. It’s a matter-energy exchange which involves head and heart, decided by the individuals involved, which itself depends on a myriad of factors. The ultimate aim is to converge on, and share with the messages so as to move ahead in life. Communication which doesn’t involve verbal exchanges (or non verbal communication) are more dominant, and are in fact considered to be more honest and voluntary expressions of messages!

The present day of communication can be classified into a pre and post-Whats App(WA) time line (leave alone the FB and Google). This communication through WA is bringing in a new language of message exchanges based on the 26 English Alphabets (of course other languages are in picture!) and the numbers of emojis..and other different pictures as given by WA. Compared to SMS it gives more life to the exchanges, adds more emotions and links the persons in a clearer fashion as deciphered, from the symbols/letters/pictures provided by WA reminding the Egyptian hieroglyphics. In fact it adds more non verbal elements to exchange, compared to SMS. This tends to make it more effective, connected and lively.

Reading a message and making a meaning of it, is a challenging one, sometimes for a third person, where as it’s not so in an SMS. The context of communication has a greater mileage in WA: like it makes people interact more personal, more intimate, adds on empathy, sharing is more emotional rather than academic, indicative of moods- all these making people to experience WA rather do WA. Care needs to be taken especially when messages are being send to many (which is common) at the same time. This becomes more so for the pre-WA generation, who approaches it with some apprehension and anxiety. Consider two post-WA generation youngsters messaging; they are psychologically tuned to the same wave length of understanding the emotions, accepting it and moving ahead. It need not be so if it’s between a post WA senior person and pre WA junior person. Lots are to be learned on the ethics of usage, especially the intention, content and personality of the communicators of WA, if it needs to be so. Alternatively WA can also help in identifying the personality of individuals too.

As like any technology the use of WA is tremendous, the scope depends on the people who involve, and the output based on the tuning of the sender and receiver (so to say difficult for a third person sometimes to pluck one sentence and interpret! especially the intent of the message). The use of WA is being discussed widely, interestingly sometimes as you find more WA “work stations in home” (father mother and son/daughter.. Whats apping!), getting connected to a wonderful world, but maybe missing a wonderful world of interaction between family members.

But then technology always comes with a cost – social, economic or cultural! WA is replacing communication in a larger sense with its scope of multi-connectedness, fastness, intimacy, creativity, concern and hidden empathy.

Connect with care. Care the connected

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Aladdin’s lamp for the 21st century: the same smartie phones

by with No Comment LifeLifestyle

STRANDOMS: the stray and random thoughts

October 20, 2018

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Lifestyle, life

Aladdin’s lamp for the 21st century: the smartie phones

From 18th century Aladdin’s lamp to 21st century smart phones, the travel is from tale to technology. Interestingly, issues that the mobile phones raise in a society is myriad : with many among the world possessing this magic lamp which needs only ‘a’ touch to deliver wishes.

The advent of technology is rapid, revolutionary and unstoppable. As television made the first phase of entry into homes and institutions in India in the 1980s, it slowly started rewriting the potential of information and entertainment to be delivered at home. But it started as a medium of magnet that made family members huddle together to watch programmes. This binding between members slowly dispersed when programmes and soap operas multiplied and the choices of channels increased, taking to present day of cable TV and dish antennae relaying programmes around the globe TVs. As the remote of the TVs were competed for, many homes had more TVs walking in.

The computers in common educational institutions in India became popular in the mid-1990s. The fast pace of its penetration is evident by its ubiquitous presence in institutions and homes, with various updated models (based on memory and speed) and the laptops entering into the social system. Along with them mobile phones and the present smart phones/androids started entering homes. Compared to the PCs and TVs, smart phones turns to be more a personal possession among the members.

The iphone emerged in 2007, with Steve Job declaring at that time that in one device “we will have the world’s best media player, world’s best telephone and world’s best way to get to the web – all three in one”. This might look simple now, but a decade before it was a daring revolutionary techno advancement of bringing the world onto a palm size device. As Friedman (Thank you for being late, 2016) puts it: a whole group of companies emerged in 2007. Together these new companies and innovations have reshaped how people and machines communicate, create, collaborate and think”.

Technology creates tectonic tides on any social fabric, as it can connect people, events, practices, ideas, feelings, emotions and what not, within a short time. The magic lamp of this century- the smart phone – opens with abracadabra (the pass word) and a touch on the phone. There is no need of a ring which Aladdin had to rub on the lamp for a wish. As it delivers the desires at a personal level, great onus is with the people who use this Technology on Palm (ToP) which connects them to their wishes within a flash of a wink. Eric Beinhocker distinguishes the evolution of technologies as “physical technologies”- stones, tools, bullock-drawn ploughs, microchips and the “social technologies”- the rule of law, regulations etc. Both these co evolve. Cutting the discussion short, he suggests that “our physical technologies can get way ahead of the ability of our social technologies to manage them”.

The smart phone thus a physical technology with all its advantages, often creates social stresses too. The sweeping scenario is making the individuals of society to compete the speed of innovations to position their “identity”. We aren’t born with our identity – far from it- but we are born with a range of abilities and tendencies.

(Verhaghe, 2014: What about me? The struggle for identity in a market-based society). Identity is always a construct that derives from an interaction between the identity holder and the wider environment. Its core is formed by a coherent set of norms and values , the larger narrative of a particular culture. When they change, we too evolve in the direction of the new narrative with the new norms and values :Verhaghe, 2014. The smartphone is one of the latest technology that is making roles to reinvent themselves – as father, mother, teacher, brother, friend, teacher, son, daughter, sister, grandparents, …- to fit in new norms and values. This is what I mentioned earlier as “Technology creates tectonic tides on any social fabric, as it can connect people, events, practices, ideas, feelings, emotions and what not, within a short time.” This is a societal re fabrication exercise that’s on. Adapt to the changes, rather than worry on what we have come through and what is now. None can stop the techno tide ; we need to ride it.

A smartphone brings the world, confidence, entertainment and information to the user at his/her will. Aladdin couldn’t have wished more, since he did not know more than what he knew to ask for in the 18nth century. Today the information highway is loaded with traffic for any user irrespective of the age or education of the user. The options they can ask for through a touch on the phone is innumerable.

The wish, the desire and the need has to be carefully looked into before its touched for in the ‘ToP!’ Indiscriminate and innumerable options exists, the ability to discriminate and limit the wishes can change you to the Aladdin with the phone.

To end with an example:

We used to sit at home on the floor, legs crossed few years back and had home cooked food,

then we sat on a stool and ate on a small table or desk- home cooked food,

then we ate on a dining table – home cooked food,

then we ate on dining table the hotel food brought by parents,

then we all ate hotel food delivered by the hotel to home,

now we eat food delivered by the swiggy from hotels to our home, and

now we sink into a couch, eat the Swiggy food, with eyes shared between the TV and the ‘smartie’ in our hand.

The ‘smartie’ leads us to an inward world of personal, amidst the crowd. All need to manage the wishes and connect with the nearby to arrive at their own “Identity”.

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Can we see the “same moon”?

by with No Comment Lifestyle

LIFESTYLE

JUNE 4, 2022

Prof. S. Ramkumar

Generation gap in the tectonic shift

Can we see a "same moon”?

The pre-Google and post-Google generation seeing the same moon on a same night; but being on different sides on the tectonic-shift, each see, feel and experience a different one, right in their own rights! The colour of a moon is yellow for the elder surrounded by the shady and white stars. The young children connected to a virtual world can see a white moon with white stars in a bright night. Co-learning can help reduce the Generation Gap in tectonic shift.

     We are witnessing an interesting phenomenon, with the new millennial generation born into a technology era of internet, smart phones and social media. They tend to have less of a real-world experience and are versed more with a virtual world (built largely on the virtual connect) compared to the people born pre-millennium (before the 2000), who have experienced more of a real-world and is less into a virtual world. They are on the two sides of the millennial tectonic shift. Co-learning is the key to reduce the Generation Divide.

 
Sociologists use nomenclature to refer to different generational segments. For example, members of Gen Z, born between 1996 and 2012, are called “digital natives” because they have lived with digital technology their entire lives. Older generational members are termed “digital immigrants” and tend to be less comfortable with the personal usage of technologies.
 
I usually call the generations “pre-Google and post-Google. Essentially they are the “digital immigrants” and “digital natives” respectively. The mechanisms of connection to the world are thus stratified with age groups, which are different and hence the same world mean different for the categories. Change shows fundamental and in-depth transformation, profound reordering with a strong and widespread impact in the last two decades. The gap in these worlds, between the groups, are widening since the readiness to learn, expertise to handle and mind-set to accept technologies (ie. the connect-mechanisms) of seeing, experiencing and feeling the world, is different in the different age groups.
 
They may not see the same things. Its fair enough. As already the truth exists as ‘we see things as we are, not as they are’. Added to this comes the technologies leading us yet to another Alice’s wonder world, “the virtual world” which makes things more complicated to feel and experience the similarities of objects, events or people! The millennial tectonic shift is unique in this manner.
 
“Generation gap (Ggap)” was ever-present since humans have started living in this planet. Ggap is a difference of opinions between one generation and another regarding beliefs, politics, or values. In today’s usage, generation gap often refers to a perceived gap between younger people and their parents or grandparents. However few Ggaps in the human history were wider for some periods, which depended on the adoption time of milestones of changes happening during the period (like the domestication period, agricultural revolution period, science evolving era, industrial revolution periods).
 
We now witness an unprecedented fast Ggap in this millennium, I call it as the tectonic shift – abrupt, profound and impactful. The tectonic shift of the present millennium sees a generation gap, probably, the human civilisation has not experienced before. The world today have people with a mix of pre- and post- Google Generation mix – all living in the same internet age – being faster and instantly connected with information, people, events and places. Those born before 1990 are part of a history witnessing, the tremendous shift in the way people approached life thirty years back, and in this millennium. The reason is the technologies-of-connect, which has made us more a techno sapien in the last two decades.
 
Those born after 1990, may not feel that drastic changes, being babies born and easily adapted to the already existing ever-changed technology age. Today we talk, see, feel, share, inspire, care, eat, sleep, bank, buy, treat, learn, teach…all with technology of connect: internet, applied through computers and smart phones. It has given rise to a “virtual world” with which we spend more time, and the real world time getting more disconnected!
 
This tectonic shift should be understood as an opportunity of co-learning by the pre-Google generation. There is a technology-created Generation gap. Considering the fastness of change of innovations and increased dependency on these (like Artificial Intelligence applied in every prospective sector, machine learning) the life styles, culture and values are also changing. Co-learning is the key to move forward.

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