tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2301859664092326772024-03-05T11:40:31.646+05:30- expressions-Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.comBlogger63125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-72985396562620311542021-04-19T09:03:00.003+05:302021-04-19T10:33:52.603+05:30Height of Hypocrisy<div>While safety and welfare of every citizen including children is paramount but the logic that it can be ensured ONLY by cancelling exams is beyond the arc of my comprehension.My criticism is about hypocrisy of governments and their blind supporters who feel that those infected in rallies and religious activities will not infect the children in their vicinity . No body said don't postpone exams if needed but also postpone other mass gathering events.</div><div>The problem is there is a lobby working overtime to protect decision of their demigod and his council , they won't ask what is being done by state to prevent as many as 40 percent children getting abused but will justify cancellation of exams and closure of schools by taking a selectively look at a subset of a larger set of pandemic .</div><div> I humbly urge all the knowledgeable people who are taking a selective look to please search their whatsup groups which obviously are stimulus to their thought process and please enlighten me with answers to following questions.</div><div>1.How a person infected in rally and religious activity is immune to transmitting virus to his children who are supposedly protected by cancellation of exams ?</div><div>2.If classes can be online why election rallies can't be online?</div><div>3.If an ordinary person is penalised for not wearing mask under helmet why home minister of the country is exempt from wearing it in every public place?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">4.If primary and secondary teachers of private schools who are not getting their due salaries from past 13 months can't be allowed to gather to protest under COVID protocol how PM of country can gather tens of thousands for his election propaganda?</div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-3625163392022826842020-05-19T21:53:00.002+05:302022-02-02T21:38:29.465+05:30An open Letter to CBSE Chairman<div dir="ltr" trbidi="on">
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Dear Sir,</div>
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<div style="text-align: justify;">I am sure that you are aware of the instructions issued by your Regional office at Ajmer to teachers with a bag containing 200 copies of class XII evaluation work. I have some legitimate questions to ask, though from past experiences, I know your office will not bother to reply.Still, I am writing this because the fundamental question for me is , will any school administration have the courage to ask these to you on behalf of their faithful employees that they euphemistically call teachers.If they do not , then they should hang their heads in shame and tell their own selves that if they can't speak the truth they have no right to preach morals and talk of imparting the values in children.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">1. A total of seven days are given including the days copies are given and will be collected , so that leaves five effective days and on the average around 35 copies a day.If each copy has 48 pages it should take minimum 20 minutes to read, evaluate ,mark, total and recheck that makes it around 11.6 hours of continuous work . In these times when domestic helps are not coming and most of the family is confined to home how is it possible specially for a lady teacher to do this task ?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">2. In normal times a copy goes through three hands and on the average 20 copies are checked per day but in these difficult times 35 to 40 copies are ordered to be checked alone . How is the rationale justified? The problem is authorities passing such irrational orders are neither aware of outside temperature sitting in their ac offices nor have really checked a copy to know the time and effort it takes to honestly evaluate a students work.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">3.The board is conducting remaining exams in July and the result is expected in August. What then is the emergency to so disgustingly press teachers to this level ? This is an obligation that teachers do and they are by no means bonded labor of CBSE or their school .</div><div style="text-align: justify;">4.Irony is the authority talks about imposing a penalty of 50000 rupees when they pay around 5000 Rs for 200 copies. A teacher in such a stressed environment is bound to make mistake and then when subjected to penalty I know the spineless managements of school will deduct it from teachers salary to please the bosses.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">5. The whole language of letter of instructions has sentences that are far from practical implementation like , wear mask while checking copies .I am sure person signing the letter must be wearing mask in his house for all the time he is awake.</div><div style="text-align: justify;">6. In response to the verbal jugulary of last para of instructions where Mr. Sanyam Bhardawaj reminds teachers to be of tough times the world is passing through, all I can say that while teachers are aware, ask yourself, are you ?</div><div style="text-align: justify;">I sincerely hope board will have mercy and give more times to teachers.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Regards</div><div style="text-align: justify;">Your sincerely</div><div style="text-align: justify;">An odd teacher who refuses to be part of your system.</div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div> <div style="text-align: justify;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: justify;">Attached: Copy of instruction that has insensitivity on gross display.</div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-30137993735715236452020-05-01T09:54:00.001+05:302020-05-01T09:56:57.902+05:30<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Being confined to home with family is mostly the best thing that can happen.It generally helps one to come out with better version of self. Evidently, most revolutionary scientific ideas have came from isolation.Sharing with you few of these.</div>
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1.Issac Newton in 1665 was confined to his family estate in Lincolnshire with his mother when Cambridge closed down due to plague epidemic .Newton would sit with prisms in dark room allowing the light to enter through a tiny hole made in shutter , his studies lead to some of the remarkable explanation of optical phenomena at that time . In isolation observing a falling apple in his garden made him understand that it is the same gravitation force that pulls the apple is also responsible for lunar orbit .The mathematical model to solve the problem of distribution of mass led to development of whole calculas.</div>
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2.Werner Heisenberg in June of 1925 had a sever attack of hay fever because of allergies to pollen. For change of climate he decided to go to the Baltic coast. While he was musing on rocks overlooking the Baltic Sea, it led to a revelation that many of the quantities he was struggling to describe within the Bohr-Sommerfeld model were not things any physicist could ever hope to measure directly which led to his famous 'uncertainty principle'.</div>
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3.In December 1925 another great Erwin Schrödinger struggling to find answers to quantum problems within domain of relativity put aside his work, and went off to a remote mountain cabin on a ski holiday with one of his many mistresses , spending the days skiing, and staying up late nights working on physics and by the time he returned to Vienna he had a non-relativistic wave equation, now known as the Schrödinger equation, that allowed him to correctly describe the states of electrons.</div>
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It seems,Our imagination functions much better when we don't have to speak to people.<br />
So let's use the opputunity .</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-10312678229881459562020-04-22T08:37:00.000+05:302020-04-22T09:20:03.000+05:30Is Indiscriminate Lockdown Solving India's problem?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Hope authorities and people who think indiscriminate lockdown is the solution to problem are reading and analysing the international scene of countries not under lockdown and are not tied to unilateral thinking.</div>
I am no medical expert but whatever little I have understood is the basis of my twopence worth.<br />
1.Aged and kids should be in a perfect isolation rather than the whole population indiscriminately put in curfew like scene.When asymptomatic people are being diagnosed as corona positive ,sooner than later we need to identify who truly is susceptible to risk.<br />
2.All social gatherings, school, colleges and coaching should be restricted to operate online, instead of blind approach of arbiatry closure of all shops of every kind. Like fire safety regulations there could be strict hygiene regulations like mandatory provisioning of sanitisers and entry of limited people at a time with proper distance and home delivery of goods so that there are less people moving . Moreover, how do you define what is essential and who should be allowed to sell it ? For example , is mobile repair essential ?A device that one desperately needs for his online teaching essential ?How do you decide ?If online supplies are allowed offline retailers have a problem .The psychology can be understood from this Javed Akhtar urdu couplet<br />
ye tasallī hai ki haiñ nāshād sab<br />
maiñ akelā hī nahīñ barbād sab<br />
Which translated in english means<br />
My satisfaction lies in fact that all are unhappy like me<br />
I am not just one who is getting destroyed<br />
3.To die with corona is not same as to die from corona so proper biopsy should be done to a acertain the facts of cause of death to reach meaningful conclusions.<br />
4.All the major hospitals have stopped OPD from last one month, does that mean apart from corona there isn't any ailment left in world? A lot of people with chronic and transient illness are suffering due to fear of hospital owners who don't want closure for number of days if a posetive case is found to have visited their hospitals.<br />
5.Studies have been done that show that after a week of proper food and vitamin supplements patients became alright. The way drugs like Azithromycin and chloroquine are being used may be adding to the problem as these definitely have adverse effect associated with them specially in alterations of heart rhythm .<br />
6. The logic that is given in favour of extended lock down is based on assumption that had there been no lockdown there would have been expontially more number of cases ,this is just probabilistic and not factual.<br />
All in all, social distance should be maintained and sanitation and hygiene should be a priority at all times virus or no virus, throwing the baby with bath water is certainly not the solution.<br />
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-10184796624016076572020-01-09T13:16:00.001+05:302020-01-09T13:20:46.032+05:30Rigidity on the rampage<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<br />Idea is like a free bird in space and ideology is often like a cage in which this beautiful and powerful bird may flutter it's wings but will ultimately die for the lack of freedom to fly . The dose of ideology is like a tonic that was originally given to promote the growth of thought process but in most people often ends up in immunity to rational thought and individual decision making. Such prisoners to ideologies will never be able to see the difference between right and wrong . Armed goons in the colleges will not disturb them if the colleges is supposed to be portrayed anti their ideology ,Even in killings they will see and propagate religion and caste , gushing blood of innocent will not haunt them as long as it is of their ideological opponents .<br /><br />A blind woman once asked Mother Teresa "mother, can their be anything more unfortunate than loosing once sight. <br /><br />She replied "yes, loosing your vision". <br /><div style="text-align: justify;">
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All of us ought to know the difference .<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: white; color: #1c1e21; display: inline;">
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-53774091510209668912015-10-18T18:55:00.000+05:302015-10-18T18:59:45.250+05:30Never say die<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Every great work demands dedication, commitment and a sense of deep purpose not only from an individual but from the complete team of a project. The story of making of 'East river bridge' also known world wide as "Brooklyn Bridge" is an example of this fact.</div>
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German engineer John Roebling conceived the idea to build a spectacular bridge connecting New York with the Long Island at a time when many bridge building experts throughout the world thought that this was an impossible feat .</div>
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Roebling with vision he had in his mind of this bridge knew deep in his heart that it could be done.He made the design but unfortunately right after begining John suffered an injury and died of tetanus in 1869 .his son Washington , an up and coming engineer, took over the supervision but again as tragedy would have , only a few months later aged 32 Washington was also injured due to paralyzing disease due to decompression sickness, which inhibited his movement to inspect the work on site .</div>
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In spite of his handicap Washington was never discouraged and still had a burning desire to complete the bridge and his mind was still as sharp as ever. It was his wife Emily Warren Roebling who provided the critical written link between her husband and the engineers on site.Under her husband's guidance, Emily studied higher mathematics, the calculations of catenary curves, the strengths of materials, bridge specifications, and the intricacies of cable construction.She spent the next 11 years assisting Washington Roebling, helping to supervise the bridge's construction.The bridge was completed in 1893 and she was deservingly the first lady to walk on it .</div>
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Today 125 years later the spectacular Brooklyn Bridge stands and is undergoing revamping and expansion in all its glory as a tribute to the triumph of indomitable spirit and determination of human spirit.</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-12296960482189364712014-11-30T16:29:00.001+05:302014-11-30T20:27:34.542+05:30Enlivening Juvenile Spirit at cost of Victim’s flesh<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i><i>In this post, I am attempting to raise following two questions One, in Juvenile justice, what is more important, juvenile or justice? Second, who do we feel should be the candidate for our compassion and sympathy, the criminal who committed some heinous inhuman act or the innocent victim who suffered for the whims of this immature haughty mind?</i></i></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Martin Luther king once said “Law and order exists for the purpose of establishing justice and when they fail in this purpose, they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress”.</span><i></i><br />
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Before an elaboration of facts is made it is imperative that we understand that punishment is awarded for crime committed and if that is diluted then we are indeed acting as catalyst in crime. With these preliminaries I would now like to focus my views on following three points.</div>
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<i> 1. What should be the right age for someone to be considered juvenile and should the age or nature of crime decide course of justice?</i></div>
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UNICEF a fraternity dedicated to children considers 13 years as the age for someone to be categorized as a child. The concept of minor is not sharply defined in most jurisdictions. For example in United States drinking and keeping arms is not permitted till age of 21, but criminal responsibilities are fixed after age of 12. In Britain though person below 16 is minor but criminal responsibly is fixed after age of 10. Our very own Indian Penal Court 1865 considers offense committed by a minor under 7 as no crime and between age 7 to 12 the course of action should depend on severity of crime, circumstances and mental maturity of offenders. The amendments made in 2000 have arbitrarily set the age of juvenile as 18 years based on internal recommendations not on any predicament under Beijing convention of UNO. Studies conducted have shown that 65 % of juvenile crimes in last two years were committed by people in age group of 16 to 18 years. The parliament in August 2014 has indeed taken right step in lowering the age to 16 again. I would like to stress here that age set in no way grants impunity to offenders to commit murders, do drug trafficking, commit crimes against women or indulge in terrorist act and later show the birth certificate that one is only 15 yrs 11 month so that grants them a kind of license for these evil acts. This is mockery of law. If the crime is heinous the punishment should be equally severe so that it acts like a deterrent for anyone else from repeating that act.</div>
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<i>2. What should we try to change, an individual criminal or this growing tendency to crime? </i><br />
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It is true that no one is a born criminal and development of psyche has correlation with circumstances and conditions that people grow up with. This argument that a child born in nation has certain fundamental rights and abuse to those is core reason that breeds criminals should not be mixed up and end up showing solidarity and mercy to those who have acted and harmed innocent in cold blood and unbroken conscience. I would like to ask all those who justify criminals on the basis of upbringing and social injustices, don’t victims a have a right? In my opinion instead of trying to reform a proven criminal, we should try to use them by granting exemplary punishments that will inhibit others to follow their path. The attempt should be to curb the tendency to crime rather that to show consideration to heinous crimes on basis of who committed them. A clear distinction is necessary between a child attempting to steal bread or bicycle from one attempting to assault dignity of women.</div>
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<i>3. How to make rehabilitation really effective?</i><br />
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No civilized society can afford to believe in retributive justice .Reform and transformation should indeed be the purpose of imprisonment even in adults. It is unfortunate that jails and rehabilitation centers have become just places in isolation where all rotten eggs are kept together to prevent the stink from getting out. In such environment even a minor offender graduates out to be a mastermind culprit who is a real danger to the society. The rehabilitation centers should have psychologists and psychiatrists and above all a caring environment so that circumstantial offenders can be reformed and brought in main stream. But, here a distinction is to be made that such privilege should be restricted only to those who are not guilty of heinous or anti national crimes because showing mercy on them is injustice to victims of their act. It is important to understand that an injustice done anywhere will lead to injustice everywhere.</div>
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To recapitulate, I would only like to say that to err is human and to forgive divine but if your eraser ends before pencil you certainly are overdoing it. Fredrick Robertson once said “three things in this world deserve no mercy, hypocrisy, tyranny and fraud” .I modify that statement as, three crimes in this world deserve no mercy these are, crimes against humanity, against women and against nation. </div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-1784012686429237552014-10-26T20:10:00.000+05:302014-10-26T20:13:59.855+05:30Colours of nature <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I was in Dhauladhar range of mountains in Himachal last week. The beauty of hills is not at specific tourist attraction points rather, it is spread all around . As Dale Carnegie puts it, "One of the most tragic things I know about human nature is that all of us tend to put off living. We are all dreaming of some magical rose garden over the horizon instead of enjoying the roses that are blooming outside our windows today "<br />
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Truly, all one need is the sight and sense to see and feel that beauty all around. because we really do not see nature with our eyes, but with our understandings and our hearts. Below are some pictures that prove that the nature has its own way kaleidoscopic canvas with ephemeral colors that change with time of day. </div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">Here are two photos of morning that show sun rays finding there way through trees and plants</span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwkKOGBv4uddtrK5VClgCFF9SdstKJMdrWELSltChHtbP_4dUHlPKWTc3CeTZqPrAC_HWA38YUi9KRQYV_c7HixZqAx8OX9szPOfTjBLkRxZgsmoNrPcsDpFX8W2jAjXd4ZIUVCHU_yY__/s1600/sun+throuh+flowers.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgwkKOGBv4uddtrK5VClgCFF9SdstKJMdrWELSltChHtbP_4dUHlPKWTc3CeTZqPrAC_HWA38YUi9KRQYV_c7HixZqAx8OX9szPOfTjBLkRxZgsmoNrPcsDpFX8W2jAjXd4ZIUVCHU_yY__/s1600/sun+throuh+flowers.jpg" height="300" width="400" /></a></div>
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then the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom.</div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">And then ,the day begins to end and the nature begins to spread all its colors in the sunsets ,These photos were taken in span of total ten minutes but notice the changing colors over mountains.</span></div>
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It would not be out of place to quote this beautiful poem by Chelsea Poshini</div>
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Have you seen the Sunset and Sunrise</div>
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And the Horizon that's a prize</div>
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How the colors mix and melt</div>
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And look as soft as felt</div>
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How they float away into black</div>
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As you wish them back</div>
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And that feeling that makes you sad</div>
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How the tears come and just make you mad</div>
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But then you see the stars</div>
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That are so small they could fit in jars</div>
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Now there are so many</div>
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You'd buy each one with a penny</div>
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How they shine so bright</div>
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And don't put up a fight</div>
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So you stand watching them twinkle and shine</div>
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Then you realize you feel fine</div>
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So you sigh</div>
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And say goodbye.</div>
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Take care , observe the surroundings, stay healthy and be happy Always.....</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-39291049854959102502014-10-10T21:44:00.001+05:302014-10-12T16:13:38.531+05:30Wise after Event<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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If the responses on social media are any indicator, whole country seems to be jubilant at the news of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kailash_Satyarthi">Kailash Satyarthi</a> being jointly awarded the Noble prize 2014 for peace in recognition of his work on prevention of child labor . The question that arises in my mind is what really is more important in our society to get appreciation and acceptance? Is it Great work or Great award?</div>
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Where were we, the Indians, since 1990 when he started his work on combating the child labor? Where were all the admirers who post his photo today, when he was struggling to set up and fund his NGO? US has given him at least 7 awards, Spain, Germany, Netherlands all have applauded and awarded combat of his group for freeing the children of tender age from clutches of brutal and inhuman labor. One is forced to think where was our Indian Government all these years? More importantly where was our ubiquitous media, whose priority seems to be reporting affairs of film stars and tantrum of politicians while the positive and inspiring work of such hidden heroes does not come to lime light till it gets recognition from across the borders. </div>
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Isn't it sad, that talent of music maestro like Vishva Mohan Bhatt was recognized in our country only after he got Grammy Award? Isn't it pathetic that we could not offer a respectable job to likes of Har Govind Khurana, who had to migrate to revolutionize the world of bio science with his work on interpretation of the "genetic code and its function in protein synthesis". As a countryman it is justified to feel pride in achievement of an Indian but shouldn't we be ashamed of ourselves that such people exist in our neighborhood but we fail to identify them till they get recognition from across seven seas. Although we have got independence from British decades ago, the cobweb and fungus of colonial mindset still layers our minds. Irony is, inspiring leaders , passionate anthropologists and talented craftsmen exists among us but they are often opposed, ridiculed, scorned, bullied and even beaten till they get appreciation and award from west and then masses, media and so called system of our country share their photos and make them angels. </div>
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The second important thing is we are a ‘person centrist’ and not an ‘issue centrist society’. We don't follow the ideals and thoughts of person .Instead, we make their idol , garland them and sing praise in their name. In this process people are transformed into super heroes in lime light and the cause they stood for becomes gets marginalized on side lines. It will be interesting to see how many of these people who are singing songs of his laurels join hands and come to support his NGO "Bachapan Bachao Aandolan"(Save Childhood Movement)? There are reports that many children he freed were forced to go back to work because of hunger and poverty that prevails in those families. Isn't somewhere , someone responsible and accountable for human resource development and for ensuring that at least children get basic education and two square meals.</div>
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Majority of our output from our premium institutes like IITs and IIMs settles abroad and not all of them go there just for more dollars. In our holy land, they don't want a scientist to remain a scientist, they want to make him an officer. We transform them into an elite head clerk who can sign applications and tenders and write useless committee reports. Whereas, a fertile mind wants to do work on the chosen field of specialization that one has passionately pursued. He or she wants a laboratory , equipment , books, fellow researchers , students to pursue their passion . Their priorities are not a plush office with 9 to 5 mockery with dictation from ministerial authorities who don't know S of science R of research or E of education.</div>
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If we really have to become a progressive society then we have to be rational in our approach, sensitive in our observations and sensible in our actions . We have to develop sense of right and wrong within us because wisdom is in setting correct course before and during event as "even a fool is wise after the event ".</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-35549477811871846622014-09-05T08:22:00.000+05:302014-09-09T13:54:37.933+05:30All the power is within You<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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“Anyone can make a difference and everyone must try”. Though this famous John F. Kennedy axiom is a perfect success formula for any profession but it is especially true for teachers. It is because good teachers fill some lives with hope and give some good reasons at-least to a few, to embrace all aspects of life.</div>
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Those who are privileged to be part of teaching fraternity should never forget that it is a responsibility , a duty and an obligation to groom the future generation not only by imparting skills that are essential to make a success in life but also to inculcate values that will make the young a better person and a better citizen. The difficulty is that the values cannot be taught just by preaching. Ethics and principles are to be integrated through examples; the strength of character of the teacher is the cement that fabricates holds and glues morals in young minds.</div>
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To be good in any field requires hard work and expertise. To be a good teacher besides having good knowledge of one’s subject one should be a good communicator and patient listener. Besides being a professional guide, one has to be essentially a good human with calm and composure because when heart is a sweltering volcano, flower of compassion can never bloom.</div>
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The biggest reward of being a teacher is the affection and respect one gets from the people whose life they touch .A good teacher is fondly remembered by thousands of people for the rest of their lives. The kind words and greetings of students on '<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teachers'_Day">teachers day</a>', instead of creating an overwhelming euphoria or conceit should be a source of motivation and this is indeed an occasion for every teacher to introspect and correct course for how he or she can contribute to society by molding good scholar and rational thinking individual who are sensitive to surroundings and who are not blind followers of any faith , leader or ideology.</div>
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Some good teachers get carried away by success and begin to believe that they are maker and creators of talent. It is not true, talent is an attribute of individual student . A teacher at his best can only try to groom the potential of child by cultivating a right attitude .A teacher can show the path, kindle the spark but the zenith of success is to be climbed by the student only by bearing and walking through the smoldering heat of hard work . <br />
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These beautiful lines of Shel Silverstein have always been my advice to fellow students because to teach is to learn twice. I urge all learners to understand them..</div>
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There is a voice inside of you<br />
That whispers all day long,<br />
"I feel this is right for me,<br />
I know that this is wrong."<br />
No teacher, preacher, parent, friend<br />
Or wise man can decide<br />
What's right for you--just listen to...<br />
The voice that speaks inside.” <br />
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<i>You may also read </i><a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.in/2009/09/teachers-day-time-to-introspect-and.html">Teacher's day :Time to introspect and prospect </a></div>
Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-54284579044453374882014-02-27T21:26:00.004+05:302014-02-28T07:40:19.305+05:30INS Sindhuratna Accident: Deeper Questions <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The <a href="http://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/mishap-on-ins-sindhuratna-off-mumbai-coast-sailors-injured/article1-1188318.aspx">mishap
of INS Sinduratna yesterday and Sindhurakshak</a> in august last year are just two
of the ten accidents that took place in past seven months in Indian
Navy alone . An episode of an army soldier killing his
five colleagues before committing suicide is another tragic incident that made into
headlines of all papers and TV channels yesterday. Court of inquiry has been ordered in
both the cases and reports will tell us the technical reasons of mishaps.These two apparently uncorrelated incidents call for deeper understanding and pacifying increasing level of depression and frustration in men and officer in uniform.<br />
Chief of Naval staff Admiral Joshi resigned yesterday taking moral responsibility
of incident and a lot has already been said and written about how our armed forces have lived to
high standard of morality. There is no doubt that our Armed forces have always
risen to occasion in crisis and have done exemplary work in peace and war, despite <a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.in/2014/01/it-was-great-to-see-so-many-people.html">visible divergence between our politico- bureaucratic set up</a> and men
in uniform.</div>
<span style="text-align: justify;">While it can be argued that aging fleet of submarines in Navy
and aircraft in Air force are the major cause of incidents, Yet, corrective
measures must also be taken within the armed forces regarding morale and training of
men who maintain these machines. Isn't it a matter of concern that no engineer
from top IITs and NITs takes the engineering career with armed forces? A look
at the promotion policy for different branches within defense will tell you the reasons for
that. A comparison between civil counterparts and defense officers adds salt to injury.</span><br />
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The technical staff in ranks who
maintain these sophisticated machines are well trained but the question that needs an honest answer is , are
they and their families well looked after ? A rational unbiased study done will
easily show that functioning in military organizations still has deep shades of
British Raj where lesser mortal sahabs have a different standard of life
compared to subordinate in ranks. Closed autonomous decision making and improper
grievance redress system are not at all compliant to positive flourishing and thinking mind. <span style="text-align: left;">It is high time that an answer is found to why so many
trained technical people in uniform decide to quit their career in middle age
for an uncertain future while in civil fraternity no one ever quits a government
job after 20 years of service.</span></div>
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<span style="text-align: justify;">Hopefully good sense will prevail and we will see better coordination not only between bureaucracy of defense ministry and armed forces but also among people in uniform . It is high time that those in position of power formulate policies and develop work culture that is sensitive towards self esteem of men placed below them.</span></div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-3281937971286566412014-01-14T15:31:00.000+05:302014-01-14T17:24:54.303+05:30Government and Armed Forces<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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It was great to see so many people stand up for boosting moral of Armed Forces which was claimed to be supposedly lowered by remark of an average human right activist on suggestion of plebiscite of Kashmir . People wrote at length about how one suggestion by an individual was an act of utter disrespect for Armed forces. Encouraged by this sudden flow of concern by people I am sharing following two facts for your consideration to decide how Governments sometimes treat veterans of Armed Forces.</div>
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Isn't it ironic that the Government which is proposing to spend 3000 crores for rebuilding Lutyens' Bungalows at Delhi that accommodates 100 odd politicians has filed second reconsideration petition in supreme court for amendment of the effective date of benefits of arrears of pension anomalies for ex - service officers and men from Jan 2006 to Sept 2012 . The sixth pay commission became effective from 01 Jan 2006 so the pension should have been amended for that day .However as some anomalies in Pay commission in case of retired personnel were resolved later Government wants to pay arrears from 24 Sept 2012 .SC had quashed the appeal of Government in Single Bench so they have applied for review.</div>
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Insensitivity that is shown in formulation of policies against disabled
and war disabled soldiers results in number of cases going to court . When Court upholds and justifiably intervenes , soldiers are forced into <a href="http://desw.gov.in/sites/upload_files/desw/files/pdf/Stereotype-court-cases.pdf">ruthless litigation.</a> . Government with its large team of lawyers and Solicitors is busy waging a war against its own disabled soldiers, but can
these soldiers and their families afford to effectively fight this war against
the official establishment at the level of the Supreme Court? </div>
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The question looms large, don't the people who gave their youth and sometimes their whole life without many complaints about injustice, hardships and high handedness of authorities within the forces for the honor of emblem on their caps, deserve peaceful and dignified existence even after they are out of uniform?</div>
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It is time we learn to respect vertical people instead of writing sweet obituaries about them when they become horizontal .</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-10688220397680863132013-12-27T23:46:00.001+05:302014-03-17T10:39:18.721+05:30Challenges before AAP and Arvind Kejriwal<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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The success of Aam Adami Party is not in 28 seats that it won in recent assembly elections. Its real success lies in inception of this belief that ordinary and common people with extraordinary resolve in their mind and uncommon fire in their heart, can get support of public against the swindling mercenary style politics of professional politicians. Their victory has, in many ways, rejuvenated the hope for a democracy, where people we choose to represent us, do not become, our rulers.</div>
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A new Government of these young unknown names will be sworn into power in hours from now. Needless to say, this authority to govern will come with a bagful of responsibilities and expectations that is already bursting at the seams . As an average, unknown, nation loving citizen, following are few things that I suggest that they watch out for</div>
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1. Don’t confuse populism with socialism: Socialism in its true sense is judicious investment of human and material resources to generate growth that raises the standard of living for the masses. Socialism must aim at uniformity rather than equality . Task of good government is to convert population into useful human resource that can substantiate growth for individuals and nation. Job of government is to develop means for dignified existence of citizens rather than distribute freebies for political gains. A thinking and rational citizen does not necessarily need things for free. He wants quality of goods and services in easy and uninterrupted manner for a transparent cost for all. Onus should be on improving the quality rather than just reducing the price. Take for example electricity, focus should be on bringing down transmission and distribution losses to reduce cost , amicable profit cutting of companies through audit, without tempering too much with demand supply equation and disturbing the costing mechanism or we stand a fear of going back to DESU days of anarchy.</div>
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2. Take humanistic capitalism route over pseudo Marxist path: Any social engineering, no matter, how purposeful requires finances that come from direct and indirect taxes. Every welfare scheme costs exchequer an amount . Hence , industry and corporate should be encouraged with conducive policies for growth with minimum of administrative hassles that sadly is lacking from their focus so far. This in my humble opinion is the major reason of popularity of Mr. Narendra Modi. "Amiri hatao " should not take over "Garibi Hatao" in a zest for equality. Growth in industries and infrastructure will also create new jobs that will lead to sustainable development.</div>
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3. Have a diversified model for development: India is a diverse country and has vast socio- economic stratum. Aspirations of different segments of society are very different , diverse and demanding. For example, middle class and youth would like to have boost to entrepreneurship through easy availability of loans and government sponsored ventures. Riches and established industries would look for policies favorable for export for business diversification and alliance with foreign collaborators for technological up-gradation and capital investments. Poor sections of society would justifiably want protection and right to dignified existence by provision of basic amenities at subsidized cost besides essential education facilities , basic health and protection that indeed are responsibilities , obligation and duty of every government in a welfare state. These diverse requirements demand a much wider model for growth than their present Gandhian model of 'Swaraj'.</div>
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4. Be Diplomatic in Public speaking: Media these days is news hungry , more than willing to put words in mouth of leaders to form another story. They need to choose their words carefully. They really need to realize that sending the corrupt to jail is job of court not the political party leaders. Thankfully they have masters like Mr.Yogendra Yadav who are perfect in their measured responses.</div>
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5. Never mind the cynics : This world of full of people who criticize each and everything that is new without understanding the meaning of popular adage that "every great event starts with a hearsay and ends with a dogma". This compulsive habit ,this ardent desire to show that they know the other side and inside of every story is out of psychological complexes in personality. Critics will talk, there will be caricatures in the social media every hour and there will be lot of venom spiting by paid party workers of opponents and some unpaid self proclaimed intellectuals . Unperturbed by these noises ,they should continue to focus on task cut out for them because only work and time will be their reply to such elements</div>
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6.Take required security cover : It is a welcome step to put an end to VIP culture of which every self respecting citizen finds very offending but at the same time Arvind needs to realize that he is taking on mafia in a big way and a certain amount of security is essential for public figures. As the saying goes "Believe in God but lock your car " . There is hardly any need to publicize his route and moves that will only make him a soft target. He should also prepare and bring to lime light a second line of leaders . Democracy and party politics can never be a one man show. </div>
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Young India will be watching them starry eyed for they stand to parent rebirth of morality in Indian polity . The period of gestation may be long and delivery very painful, but I think , no one can dedicate their lives for better cause than this . Destiny and Public have offered them a unique opportunity. Hope they don’t waste it. As a well wisher, supporter and admirer of their believes , I sincerely wish them best of luck.</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-85179285617298155122012-10-14T21:29:00.001+05:302014-09-20T19:08:13.820+05:30An Adverse Divide<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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A British tabloid once called India a poor country of rich people. Our country truly is a kaleidoscope of extremities. The contrast between haves and deprived is too alarming. Walking through the plush suburbs one feels a sense of excitement looking at the development but a few more steps brings us face to face with another dark reality where you see human life vegetating in slums.</div>
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Economic surveys tell us that GDP is growing at 7% plus, yet we have farmers committing suicide and people dying of starvation. We sign pacts for acquiring nuclear fuel for our nuclear power generating stations but a sizable population has to live without electricity. We have Institute that are second to none in the field of engineering and management but millions of children still do not have privilege of primary education.</div>
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Equality can never be ensured but uniformity must be at hand to really have freedom in true sense. Everyone cannot be affluent but in a civilized society every human should have a right to dignified existence that separates human from the animal sleeping on the street.</div>
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The root cause of divide has been this cheap form of socialism that thrives on slogans and promises, it should be understood that Socialism is an ideology which has never managed to distribute power and wealth without some folks at the top getting the bulk of it. The nexus that snatches from achievers under the pretext of disseminating it to have not’s uses it for populist gains and subsequently ends up in achieving nothing for anyone.</div>
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In contrast capitalism and laissez-faire , though are theories based on the moral principle of the protection of the individual's right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness .their principles assert that wealth is not a fixed quantity and one person's success does not come at the expense of others. They sound good but truly demand a moralistic society where citizens are willing to discharge their responsibilities and duties with the same zeal with which they demand their rights. It demands a society where those who have in abundance have the compassion to understand the hunger of those who have nothing and wisdom to know upsetting dangers of such divide.</div>
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To ensure that the gains are fairly disseminated First thing we should essentially do away with is this leitmotif, this misbelieve, that the poor and deprived need charity. In contrast what they need is consistent work near their place of habitation. Instead of finding ways of giving cheap and free and through back doors for political mileage, the prime concern of government must be to ensure an apt conversion of population into human resource. A couple of industrial training Institute and fairly functioning agriculture schools will do lot of help to villagers and make them more aware of latest and prudent techniques of doing the given job. As Robert A. Heinlein said, "Throughout history, poverty is the normal condition of man. Advances which permit this norm to be exceeded -- here and there, now and then -- are the work of an extremely small minority, frequently despised, often condemned, and almost always opposed by all right thinking people. Whenever this tiny minority is kept from creating the people then slip back into abject poverty."</div>
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It is fact that post liberalization poverty has decreased because of the additional opportunity available there should be a constant endeavor to move towards free economy. We are a flourishing democracy for 65 years now and it is time we move vigorously towards free economy rather than having protectionist regime that benefits a select few. It is wisely said by P.J .Rourke"Wealth is based on productivity, and productivity is fabulously expandable."</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com14tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-37682496628702200032012-09-08T22:54:00.002+05:302014-11-19T21:24:05.105+05:30Academic Stress: Myths and Make-believes <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Introduction: In this post, I
am suggesting that reducing quality of academics is not a solution to reducing
academic stress. Lowering the standards of education will only have detrimental
effect on future of students in present day competitive times .</div>
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It is education day today. <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education">Education</a> is a very broad term
which in simplest sense is the ability to differentiate between right
and wrong . As I see it , sole aim of education is to develop rationality.<br />
Before we take
up this issue of academic stress, let me ask you a simple question. With what aim
you send your child to school? What is
your expectation from an academic institute at primary, intermediate and
highest level?I know most of the people in
response to this would say “to make the child literate and a better human”. If that truly is the purpose than why do we
make comparison of his progress report card with the student who scored highest
marks in the class? I think every parent should once read and understand the
spirit of <a href="http://www.citehr.com/48490-values-abraham-lincolns-letter-his-sons-teacher.html">letter
Abraham Lincoln wrote to his son’s teacher</a> . The beauty of letter is, he is
never asking to make his son better than his peers, and his request in the
letter is not for knowledge but for wisdom. I know Charles Darwin's survival of
fittest, is at back of your mind when you make that comparison but believe me, no matter however indestructible the soul seems , the damage happens. The <a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.in/2010/01/why-are-we-way-we-are.html">feeling
of child has recorded an impression</a> , the seed of stress is planted, and surely academics
are no way responsible for it. I read a
unique response of class sixth student to excellent film “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taare_Zameen_Par">Taare Zamin Par</a>”
focusing on child with <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dyslexia">dyslexia</a>
which really is very educating. The child wrote “ Ending of film should have
been different from what it is because in the end everyone showers love on boy
when he proves himself to be an excellent painter. What if he was not a good painter, good writer, good sportsperson, good
anything , what if he is not excellent in anything , what if he is just average
in everything as most people are , shouldn't he be loved
and accepted for what he really is ” ? Doesn't this response tell us something ? The fact is acceptance is what
a child needs most and if parents won’t accept children for whatever they are,
who will?</div>
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There has been a lot of
uproar in the recent past about so called academic stress and some alterations have been done by education ministry . A lobby of thinkers who apparently has a lot of say with our lawyer turned education minister obviously
believes in over simplified solutions.In their modus-operandi If something is complex to comprehend
remove it from syllabus, if exams are causing stress remove exams , If analysis is problem then test for retention . My domain of
teaching is limited to physics so I will give you example from there, take a
look a NCERT book of 1995 and 2012 and you will understand what I mean. The
level is very peripheral. To add salt to injury, many teachers at schools level confine themselves to lines of NCERT and thus do not develop the topics to their inner essence which is tested in most of the competitive exams. .One thing that honorable minister and his brigade of
followers must understand is that how can academic rigor be marginalized when competition
is becoming more and more severe. I think dual standards and hypocrisy is part
and parcel of our life that is why this ‘Bharat’ and ‘India’ picture shines in
education too. “Bharat” of board exams is a cake walk with 53 marks of knowing and
17 marks numerical application problems
in 70 mark theory paper . 30 marks for practical is a free gift that everyone
gets from kind teachers. Why these people don’t take a look a mark sheets of
students who get on the average 27 out of thirty in practical and 23 out of seventy
in theory. The level of questions and concepts asked in competitions demand
application and analysis in numerical and there this mugged up knowledge fails.
What MIT teaches at graduate level we teach the same things in XI and XII? But, they
teach for meaning of words and how that knowledge can be used in making
products and devices. We teach so as to complete the syllabus and pass the
exam.</div>
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In my opinion, the stress truly is not academic but competition and expectation related stress.We are living in a society where 'being seen as good' is more important than actually 'being good'. This sham and pretense of trying to be better than others is leading to stress while we continue to blame academics for it. Every parent wants his ward to be ahead of others and every child wants to get best college that has brand value to guarantee a cushy job . Realizing that everyone cannot get their our think tank of policy makers decided to adopt “bunch the top” strategy, that just aims at making everyone happy . Take a look at boards results of 2011 .The number of high performers in the 90 percent-plus category swelled by 30 percent to 21,665 from 16,563 last year. The number of students scoring 95 percent and above also reached a new high almost doubling to 2,097 from 1,202 in 2010.Schools are happy teachers are happy and students are happy .These disillusioned kids living under the euphoria of their high scores when reach higher classes suffers the perils of provisions line CCE and local board exams . Now instead of curing the root problem of thoughtlessness and non inquisitiveness, they start blaming syllabus for it. schools blame coaching classes and coaching classes blame students for not studying. In this swing of blame game a child is caught up between schools and coaching centers with almost no time for self study. Now, Parents because they are investing at two places want immediate returns and pressurize children. Tell me how can one become wise by listening three times , when one does not apply and practice the concepts own his own even once? A teacher these days is expected to be a magician who could turn a magic wand or a doctor who could give a pill for subject which can be taken every night with milk.</div>
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World is truly a global village and our plus point has been the grill that students go through in 11 and 12 class. It truly used to prepare child for tough future but by slowly lowering standard of education by reducing syllabus and localizing exams we are going to build a nation of underachievers . If policy makers really want to do something they have to give autonomy to schools , free them from truss of bureaucratic boards , rules and paper work . Ensure proper implementation of practicals and projects . Make board exams close to competition exam where aim is to test thought and not retention. They really have to see that child gets more time to do self study and ponder over what is taught to him. How right was Ernest dement who said “Children have to be educated, but they have also to be left to educate themselves” Instead of trying to make roots of plant of education sugary and compact they have to make roots bitter and spread so that it gives sweet fruit .</div>
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Yes, there is performance related stress but not all stresses are bad, sometimes they make you stronger and more determined, coping up with them is necessarily required for survival in this tough life. After all, We have to survive in troubled seas of competition riding in overcrowded locals and not lavishly live on utopian islands from where we can relaxingly gaze and admire Berkeley and Johns Hopkins model of education.</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com17tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-30167271785129381632012-08-14T13:47:00.000+05:302012-08-29T10:57:27.658+05:30Free Mind from shoddy Mindsets<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Tomorrow is </span><a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.in/search/label/Independance%20day" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Independence Day</a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">. It is raining on and off in my city, from past three days. Needless to say, it has left roads in a horrible state. No, my intention is not to write about the improper drainage system, inefficiency of governance and freedom with which obnoxious nexus between contractors and ‘sarkari babus’ , openly and brazenly, misuse the exchequer’s money. A lot has been written about all that by many people.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Well, While inching through these water logged roads last evening, few things worried me deeply about where we were heading as society. At the same time, few memories of earlier read works came flashing to mind that I could relate to with the situation. It was shocking to see that even in this situation people were honking horns and were trying to overtake from any side. Independence had given them this right to do freely whatever they thought was in best of their interest.</span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Balraj_Sahni">Balraj Sahni</a> a famous Hindi
actor, writer and thinker who belonged to rare class of intellectual actors,
once narrated this incident in an <a href="http://www.jnu.ac.in/jnuta/balraj_sahni.htm">excellent convocation address
at JNU in 1972</a> . He recounted “I was going by bus from Rawalpindi to
Kashmir with my family to enjoy the summer vacation. Half-way through we were
halted because a big chunk of the road had been swept away by a landslide
caused by rain the previous night. We joined the long queues of buses and cars
on either side of the landside. Impatiently we waited for the road to clear. It
was a difficult job for the P.W.D. and it took some days before they could cut
a passage through. During all this time the passengers and the drivers of
vehicles made a difficult situation even more difficult by their impatience and
constant demonstration. Even the villagers nearby got fed up with the
high-handed behavior of the city-walas.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">One
morning the supervisor declared the road open. The green- flag was waved to the
drivers. But we saw a strange sight. No driver was willing to be the first to
cross. They just stood and stared at each other from either side. No doubt the
road was a make-shift one and even dangerous. A mountain on one side, and a deep gorge and
the river below, both were forbidding. The engineer in-charge had made a
careful inspection and had opened the road with a full sense of responsibility.
Still, nobody was prepared to trust his judgment, although these same people
till yesterday, had accused him and his department of laziness and
incompetence. Half an hour passed by in dumb silence. Nobody moved. Suddenly we
saw a small green sports car approaching. An Englishman was driving it; sitting
all by himself. He was a bit surprised to see so many parked vehicles and the
crowd there. I was rather conspicuous, wearing my smart jacket and trousers.
"What's happened?" he asked me.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">I
told him the whole story. He laughed loudly, blew the horn and went straight
ahead, crossing the dangerous portion without the least hesitation.<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">And
now the pendulum swung the other way. Everybody was so eager to cross that they
got into each other's way and created a new-confusion. This hurry to crossover
before others from both sides created chaos and road was blocked again for few
hours. The noise of hundreds of engines and hundreds of horns was unbearable. That
day I saw with my own eyes the difference in attitudes between a man brought up
in a free country and a man brought up in an enslaved one. A free man has the
power to think, decide, and act for himself. But the slave loses that power. He
always borrows his thinking from others, wavers in his decisions, and more
often than not only takes the trodden path </span><br />
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";">“</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19.8pt; text-align: left;"><a href="http://allpoetry.com/poem/8516621-Where_The_Mind_Is_Without_Fear-by-Rabindranath_Tagore">Chitto jetha bhayashunyo (Where
the mind is without fear)</a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19.8pt; text-align: left;"> , written by Gurudeb </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19.8pt; text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabindranath_Tagore" title="Rabindranath Tagore"><span style="color: #0b0080; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Rabindranath Tagore</span></a>
</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19.8pt; text-align: left;">is among one of the most
quoted </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19.8pt; text-align: left;"><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poem" title="Poem"><span style="color: #0b0080; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">poems</span></a></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 19.8pt; text-align: left;"> . </span>It was written before India's independence and every line of it represents Tagore's vision of free-thinking, aware, undivided and vibrant India.<br />
"Where the mind is without fear and the head is held high;<br />
Where knowledge is free; <br />
Where the world has not been broken up into fragments by narrow domestic walls;<br />
Where words come out from the depth of truth;<br />
Where tireless striving stretches its arms towards perfection;<br />
Where the clear stream of reason has not lost its way into the dreary desert sand of dead habit;<br />
Where the mind is led forward by thee into ever-widening thought and action --<br />
Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."<br />
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Independence has given us not only freedom of speech but also a power to think and act. While the former has been used quite eloquently the other two have somehow remained dormant beneath pity shallowness and self interest. How horrifying it is to see the madness of educated and financially well off individuals to somehow get ahead of others without realizing that they were blocking the traffic coming from other side and were only adding to miseries of self and others. If there is a vegetable seller pushing his cart hard through the rain water and from comfort of my car I blow horn urging him to speed up then I definitely should not count myself in human category .As Mahatma Gandhi said “It passes my comprehension how human beings, be they ever so experienced and able, can delight in depriving other human beings of that precious right.”<br />
To quote Stephen R. Covey “You have the freedom to choose your actions, you don't have the freedom to choose the consequences of your actions”. Why have we become so passive and so indifferent towards consequences of our actions? Why such insensitivity? Why such nonchalance? Why are we not able to accept or reject thoughts in accordance with our own will ? Why someone has to impose,dictate or tell us about consequences of cutting the branch on which we are sitting? Despite all the peppy doses of education, why has our conscience gone into hibernation mode?<br />
The biggest faculty of human existence is mind and the virtue of free will.Every human has four endowments- self awareness, conscience, independent will and creative imagination. These give us the ultimate human freedom. The power to choose, to respond, to change. There is fire in all of us and our capability constructive and destructive extreme is infinite but it is for each individual on the basis of his reasoning and ethics to decide how he wants to use the fire within him. This independence day should not we pledge to rekindle that spark and tell our leaders that we love our nation and it is high time that they as well……</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-73706666984553046772012-08-04T09:21:00.001+05:302014-09-20T19:05:17.612+05:30Only if Public could ……<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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I firmly believe that Mr. Anna Hazare is an honest man of integrity and character . I also think it is very wise and apt to attempt a political alternative that will provide an avenue to a honest self respecting person to be part of politics. How long in a democracy can we call politics filth and walk away from it ? If it is filth and stinks then people of character have to get in and clean this and fill it with fragrance of their character . However, the agenda of Team-Anna appears too vague for a concrete change. The question is, can everything be left to public? If public were sensible and thoughtful will we be in the state that we are today?</div>
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If you Leave alone exceptions, we can divide public in three categories. One that is just a herd not even capable of thought, this lot does just what is told to them for a stomach full of meal and a bottle of hooch or a 500 Rs note. Second, is the class of privileged and totally nonchalant who drink water only from Aqua-pure bottles. This lot talks and discusses pollution, politics, depreciating value of rupee and stocks over cup of coffee in their air-conditioned living room, However, they do nothing and say nothing in public as they always flow in the direction of wind to gain mileage from situations .</div>
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The third is class that comprises of people unable to decide whether collective benefit of corruption free civic society over individual benefits are more important ? . This lot may shout slogans for change but don’t change their own conduct, they want to remove corruption but bribe for reservation in train and admission in school. The definition of good leader for them is the one who will promise cheaper electricity, free rice and privilege for their cast. The talk of development of infrastructure, an efficient bureaucratic channel, and corruption free safe society is not on their list of priority, cheap journey and not the safe journey is their concern. Why they fail to understand that it is our own money that these dream mongers use for their political gains? </div>
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Over these three , there are exceptions who file civil petitions, write letters, demand explanation from authorities and work as volunteers for improvement of roads , traffic , environment and try to eliminate wrongs around us .Truly, these few carry the burden of rest of us and these few have to act like true alarmed and concerned managers and not like indifferent saints even when they get abused, bullied and questioned about their intentions. We need more of leaders , more of heroes but as Walter M. Schirra once wrote “you don't raise heroes, you raise sons. And if you treat them like sons, they'll turn out to be heroes, even if it's just in your own eyes.”</div>
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Lastly folks, before you question someone’s intentions behind attempting something sensible and good at least appreciate that person is that he or she is trying to do something that you are not even thinking of doing. Why for many , what ‘satyamev jayate’ was conveying is more important than the money that was charged by host Aamir Khan? Folks, there are people fasting for a legitimate demand who are almost on the verge of collapse and you guys continue questioning what they stand to gain politically from it ?</div>
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Look within and ask yourselves what have you done in your life to make a better society then wax eloquence about faults and intentions of others. Cynicism is not intellectualism, virtue lies in attempting to correct mistakes and not in just finding mistakes .So, for a change let us try to focus on issues and not people …</div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-47361169557000047902012-01-17T22:39:00.000+05:302012-01-19T07:59:29.189+05:30Common man: a silent spectator of marching time<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Abraham
Lincoln once said “God must love the </span><b style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">common man</b><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">, he made so many of
them”. All of us hear so much about this “Aam Aadmi” but I wonder who really this
common man is?</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Writers
and film makers have shown us different faces of ‘common man’. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">R. K. Laxman sketched ‘The Common Man’ for over a half of a
century in Times of India, This Dhoti clad old man silently
witnessed all the action and represented the aspirations, fears and conflicts of
the average Indian. Anusha Rizvi wrote and directed </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peepli_Live"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">“Peepli
Live”</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> which showed another version of
common man in form of Budhiya Manikpuri, the hapless farmer, who finds
himself considering suicide as an escape from the debt trap. This film was inspired
from a classic of Frank Capra named </span><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meet_John_Doe"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">meet
John doe</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> where a common unemployed man
portrayed by legendary Gary cooper announces to commit suicide to make story
for the media. In the film ‘The Wednesday’, we saw an heartening transformation
of common man in form of Naseerudin Shah who decides to cleanse the system and
single handedly eliminates four most wanted terrorists in a methodical way. (</span><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWwGqTflC78&list=UUpLiThSOA3u0BQj-cAIKRsw&index=5&feature=plcptch?v=mWwGqTflC78&list=UUpLiThSOA3u0BQj-cAIKRsw&index=5&feature=plcp"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Click here for a clip uploaded by me</span></a><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> ). Now, which face of that is a reality is a mystery that
needs to be resolved?<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This
common man who is deprived of any connection to system and those in power , is used as currency</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> by our politicians who weep crocodile tears for him but
never really bother to alleviate his misery. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Is there anything more to this
faceless entity , that is used as a ladder to climb to the top and when apex is
reached people forget all the steps they trampled under the feet. Emptiness and
hunger of common man has been the route to prosperity for many but sadly the
common man has remained empty and hungry.<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Kaleidoscope of extremities has
all the colors but which one is really prominent is really a puzzle. Isn’t it
surprising that a man who, in premises of his house is a compassionate father,
a caring brother and a sensitive husband becomes part a faceless mob that is prepared
to throw stones and even take life of many who are just like him. That same
person in comfort of his cozy drawing room condemns apartheid in Africa,
talks about global village and ‘one universe’ but when he enters the polling
booth transforms into a fanatic and votes on the basis of cast and religion. Moved
by the misery and state of affairs around him he sometimes shouts slogans and
swears to remove corruption from root but when he attains power he becomes
the part of same corrupt structure and sets himself free by putting all the
blame on social and political system.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Truly amazing that when this axe
enters the forest, one of the trees can always identify that, 'The handle was
one of us'. </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">This double faced hypocrisy is all
around, i</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">sn’t
it surprising that,<o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">How
a minority<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Reaching
majority,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;">Seizing
authority,<o:p></o:p></span></div>
<div class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;">
<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Hates
a minority!</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">In my humble opinion, common man
is nothing more than a term that has no connection with social or financial
status of persons. Everyone who lives his life solely on convenience without
any firm principle and values is ‘just common’ nothing more than part of herd.
</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">Such
persons just punch in the clock; no excitement, no enthusiasm, no creativity.</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> This burn out comes because of lack of individualism and
thought. Such a person treads blindly on path of faith and such</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> Faith is a terribly powerful thing -- to have and to
lose. It has sent men into battle for centuries, it has ripped families’
apart, driven wedges through friendships and has made us to </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">choose run of the mill sort people </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">of
no character as our leaders.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">There is something in each one of us which can set us apart from
common, there is fire in each one of us but its purpose and intensity is
different. Every man who thinks ,experiments and questions</span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"> </span><span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;">rather than just hears, reads and believes
is uncommon .The need of hour is to find a purpose for one’s life and embark
upon it to transform from ordinary to exceptional.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: large;"><br /></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"><span style="font-size: large;">Why
are you here, on this earth? That is one question every individually needs to
answer to one self. But in seeking to
answer this question, keep in mind the words of Sir Lawrence Olivier, who said:
"If you truly want to change your world, my friend, you must change your
thinking.” </span><span style="font-size: small;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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</td>
</tr>
</tbody></table>
</div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com25tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-54230129093038050802011-12-27T20:35:00.002+05:302014-12-23T14:12:48.330+05:30A small tête-à-tête with God<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div style="text-align: justify;">
Ttrrrrringggggg…. Hello…. Did you call me?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Called? No… who is this?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: This is GOD. I heard your prayers. So I thought I will chat with you.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Well, I do pray but honestly I don't think that you exist. Prayers provide me an expansion, and look; I am very busy right now. I am in the middle of something.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Actually, you don't have to be a believer, I made everyone of you like a cross word puzzle. All the answers are hidden within you, but as you are not able to find them, so I thought, let me help you.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I : Hmmmm, okay , but it has to be quick as I really am busy.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: everyone is busy, ants are busy, even rats are busy, what are you busy with? </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Well, Targets, pressures, all the activities ...you may not understand … I really can’t find free time. Life has become hectic.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Look, activity keeps you busy but only productivity gets you results and how can you give your best when you are pressed and tensed.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: I understand. But I still can't figure out. By the way, I was not expecting you on instant chat.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Well, I wanted to give you some clarity. Thought of reaching you through the medium you are most comfortable with.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: OK, Tell me, why has life become so complicated?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Analysis is what makes it complicated. Stop analyzing life. Just live it.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: why are we constantly unhappy?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Because you live your today, analyzing the yesterday worrying about tomorrow all the while. Worrying has become your habit. That's why you are not happy. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: But how can we not worry when there is so much uncertainty?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Uncertainty is inevitable, but worrying is optional.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: But then, there is so much pain due to uncertainty.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Pain is inevitable, but suffering is optional.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: If suffering is optional, why do good people always suffer?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Diamond cannot be polished without rasping. Gold cannot be purified without putting it in fire. Good people go through trials, but actually they don’t suffer. Only the people who pretend to be good suffer their pretence. Really good people gain experience and their life becomes better not bitter. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: You mean to say such experience is useful?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Yes. In every term, Experience is a hard teacher. She gives the test first and the lessons afterwards.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: But still, why should we go through such tests? Why can’t we be free from problems?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Problems are purposeful roadblocks offering beneficial lessons that enhance your mental Strength. Inner strength comes from struggle and endurance, not when you are free from problems. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Frankly in the midst of so many problems, we don't know where we are heading.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: If you look outside you will not know where you are heading. Look inside. Looking outside, you dream. Looking inside, you awaken. Eyes provide sight. Heart and mind provides insight. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Sometimes not getting success and recognition hurts and I have doubts whether I am moving in the right direction. What should I do?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Success is a measure that others decide. Satisfaction is a measure as decided by you. Knowing the road ahead is more satisfying than knowing how bumpy road ahead is. You work with the compass. Let others work with the clock. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Tell me something, how do you stay motivated?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Always look at how far you have come rather than how far you have to go. Always count your blessing, not your misfortunes.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: God, I cannot figure out why people don’t turn out to be what I think them to be.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: It is because you see them through your heart, you see in them your values but people are what their values are. Have faith, but see through eyes. Feel by heart but decide using mind.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: But their casual attitude disturbs me. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Who knows if those people find you fussy, it is all subjective. You cannot control actions of other people so learn to control your reactions. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: What surprises you about ,we the people?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Ok, when they suffer they ask, "why I?" When they prosper, they never ask "Why I". Everyone wishes to have truth on their side, but hardly anyone wants to be on the side of the truth. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Sometimes I ask, who I am, why am I here. Does life has a meaning?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Seek not to find who you are, but determine what you want to be. Stop looking for a purpose as to why you are here. Create it. Everyone has to find their own meaning of life. </div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: How can I get the best out of life?</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Face your past without regret. Handle your present with confidence. Prepare for the future without fear.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: One last question. Sometimes I feel my prayers are not answered.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: There are no unanswered prayers though at times the answer may be ‘NO’. Later in life you may see it was a blessing in disguise.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
I: Thank you for this wonderful chat.</div>
<div style="text-align: justify;">
God: Well. Keep the faith and drop the fear. Don't believe your doubts but you may doubt your beliefs. Life is a mystery to solve not a problem to resolve. Trust me; life is wonderful if you know how to live.</div>
<div style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<br /></div>
<div style="line-height: 12.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">
<span style="font-family: 'Courier New', Courier, monospace;"><u><i>Disclaimer: The format of post is inspired from and contains few portions of what I had read and recorded on my mobile, from a Hindi magazine few months ago. My acknowledgement to unknown author.</i></u><span style="font-size: x-small; font-weight: bold;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<br /></div>
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Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-13458110573100776942011-08-15T10:55:00.002+05:302012-08-11T18:12:45.605+05:30Freedom we got …….independence we have to earn……<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">
<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
I would not want to repeat the cynical rhetoric about how bad things are, how corrupt the government machinery is and how miserably have our leaders failed us, because I don’t believe all this to be the complete Truth. We have stumbled because citizens have sought freedom from responsibility and leaders have confused self governance with independence. Here, I just want to verbalize a few anomalies and misconceptions in our thoughts and goals that in my opinion, have deviated our rudders from our destination.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
1. We are a republic and have chosen democracy to be our mode of governance. The spine of every democracy are representatives that we elect to represent us in governing the nation. Our chief problem is we have not been able to find 600 odd suitable men from the nation of 1200 million people who are committed to make this nation a better place; we have always been short of true leaders who have burning desire to guide the nation on the path of progress. Who should be blamed? naturally, we the people who, at the time of elections do not see the merit and character of candidate but focus on either how useful he can be in getting our jobs done or the cast and religion that he or she belongs to. This approach has reduced the value of citizen to just a ballot paper, who can be used and thrown like a tissue paper. Besides, this approach has created pseudo leaders who truly are mob bosses who are just experts in forming nexus and cartels.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
2. Our governmental decisions have been made with an attempt to create equality where as equality is never attainable without compromising individual freedom. Every human is free to aspire, dream and achieve his purpose of life. The attempt should be to create uniformity and to build a level playing field that ensures dispersion of benefits of prosperity to a wider cross section of the society without creating barriers for individual freedom and entrepreneurship.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
3. We have somehow developed this habit of looking externally for everything that is wrong. Our education system and upbringing is tailored to pamper us into this misbelief, that it is always someone’s fault. Take corruption, it is burning issue, these days. Does corruption rain from sky? No it grows in and around us; this weed is able to survive because we intentionally or unintentionally feed it. Authorities become corrupt because we are willing to grease their palms to get our jobs done in quick and Hassel free way. No one is asking you bribe at the gun point. They take because you are willing to pay under the leitmotif that without it your job will not be done. I can with pride tell you from my personal experience that in my whole life I have not bribed even one rupee to anyone and even with my Non VIP status no one has ever stopped any of my job.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
4. Somehow, looking at the world around us, it seems, the word freedom for an individual has come to mean a permit to do whatever one wants. People have misused their freedom by sitting on the railway tracks and blocking high ways for getting what they think , they should have got. We have forgotten that besides being the executor of our aspirations, we are also responsible for common good of a collective unit that we call nation.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
Ironically, famous assertion of Rousseau that “man is born free, but he is everywhere in chains” seems more appropriate, as another Independence Day dawns. In a civic democratic society an individual is never free because he always carries the crusade of responsibility.</div>
<div class="MsoNormal">
<br />
So, on the whole, you and I, my dear, are problem and you and I are solution…..</div>
</div>
<br /></div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-87660223904164853152011-03-24T22:45:00.000+05:302011-03-24T22:45:45.300+05:303 Myths that an IITJEE aspirant must reject<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal"><u><span style="font-size: 14pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></u></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">IIT JEE is most prestigious and sought after exam that a science student takes in his formative years. It is a different exam because the questions asked are original and unconventional .This in a way contrasts board examination pattern. Unlike boards, the aim of Joint Entrance Exam (JEE) is to test the analytical skills and grasp on subjects. Before I dwell into the details, let us understand how study of science is different from other streams like commerce and humanities. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">As you know the word science is derived from Latin word “scientia” which means “TO KNOW”.<span> </span>In <a href="http://german.about.com/library/blkennen.htm">German language the verb ‘to know</a>’ is associated with two verbs Kennen<i> </i>(to Know a person or thing) and <i>WIssen </i>(to know a fact). <span> </span>This clearly makes a distinction between just knowing for information and knowing with understanding. <span> </span>These two steps are general to every purposeful study. However, in study of science one must be able to analyze and apply this understanding in solving problems of numerical and conceptual nature and at this point most of the people reach a road block. How often you hear people say “I can understand the theory but can’t solve the numerical”. This is because they are able to remember and reproduce but are not developed enough to analyze and apply. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Almost all who manage to get into science stream start off with a dream of IIT- JEE. It is perfectly rightful and legitimate to aspire and dream for the best, but it should be understood that fulfillment of every dream requires endless effort with open eyes. Every JEE aspirants must recognize that it is demanding and tough even if you are a genius.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Myth 1: Basics are for meek:</b> As I have pointed earlier study of science is about four basic steps know, understanding, analyzing and applying. Analysis and application will come only when basic understanding of concepts is in place. It is sad that after passing class XII half of the students do not know what friction is and how to account for it , It is not clear to them how and where to<span> </span>apply the laws of conservation , how to account for constraints . What I want to stress is, first clear your basics about theory and concepts from a good reference book before tackling objective type problems from course material of institutes. NCERT is not something you should pick up in the month of February for boards . Blind problem solving is not going to take you anywhere; you cannot learn science by copying solutions from black board. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Myth 2: Questions asked are very complex and mathematical:</b> Don’t believe me, just pick the papers of last 33 years of IITJEE and see how many problems require mathematical rigor. The paper checks comprehension and application and not the calculation ability. Last year there were 28 Problems in physics paper, if a student has to read, understand and solve these many number of problems naturally calculations cannot be complex. In the process of preparation we become so overwhelmed by the complex problems that we cannot appreciate and accept that a problem can be simple and based on some combination of very simple concepts.<span> </span>Trust me; wise people setting the paper know that they are testing the school pass outs.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><b>Myth 3: Coaching is substitute to hard work: </b>Many people develop this misbelieve that joining some institute has exempted them from requirement of hard work. Coaching to an extent helps because the expert faculties by their experience channelize your energy on training you for desired skills by presenting a variety of problems that broaden your vision. It also saves a lot of time that you would have spent in knowing and understanding, the time saved there can now be utilized in applying the knowledge in solving variety of problems. Until and unless you do variety of problems both conceptual and numerical you are not going to get the grasp on the subjects.<span> </span>Coaching can at the most convert your hard work into smart work, <span> </span>provided in words of Prof. Walter Lewin “it attempts to uncover a lot then just to cover a lot”. No one can make an IITian out of a mediocre who is not putting requisite labor. Don’t be misled by fancy advertisements and misleading half lies projected by most of the institutes. Remember magic, is in you, institute can sharpen your skills but only your work will ensure success at the end of the day. How right was Albert Einstein <a href="http://quotes.dictionary.com/if_my_theory_of_relativity_is_proven_correct">who said</a> “If my theory of relativity is proven correct, Germany will claim me as a German and France will declare that I am a citizen of the world. <span> </span>Should my theory prove untrue, France will say that I am a German and Germany will declare that I am a Jew”. So, if you succeed there will be many mentors who will leap to take the credit for your success brazenly sidelining your labor, and if you don’t succeed, well, nobody will own the responsibility of your failure. Can’t help it after all we live in a land where only rising sun is worshiped. (Sarcasm intended, please do not take it in religious sense).</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Every child is different, some are good in expression, some are brilliant in calculations, and some love everything in detail while some are content with superficial and reckless specifications. It is naïve on parents’ part to take the board percentage into consideration in deciding about stream of study for their wards. The decision should be based on aptitude and orientation of child. </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Lastly remember “Scope lies in the man and not in the degree he holds”. Though it sounds out of place here but I can’t conclude without stressing that <a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.com/2009/12/educate-for-sensitivity-besides.html">role of education</a> is to make a good human and a good citizen. If we can’t make sensitive humans who have compassion for fellow inhabitants and nature then the technology surely will do more harm than good.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"> </div></div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-40515355015307605902011-03-14T22:40:00.012+05:302011-09-07T21:09:58.697+05:30Uncertain : They are as ever<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac><br />
<div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">As the axiom goes “After event even a fool is wise” and at Jodhpur’s Umaid hospital they are proving it right . For those who have missed the haunting </span><span style="font-size: small;"> news in National dailies</span><span style="font-size: small;"> , <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/Deadly-drip-kills-another-woman-in-Jodhpur-toll-now-16/articleshow/7696732.cms">16 women have died so far in Jodhpur</a> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> Government Hospital due to administration <a href="http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-03-11/jaipur/28679576_1_drug-controller-batches-killer-drugs">of allegedly contaminated IV fluid</a>; The issue has lately raised questions about </span><span style="font-size: small;"> <a href="http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/jaipur/High-infection-level-in-hospitals-a-cause-of-concern/articleshow/7605222.cms">state of hygiene and sanitation</a> </span><span style="font-size: small;"> in hospitals . </span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">The all time favorite blame game is in full swing. </span><span style="font-size: small;"> Inspection committee is calling names to doctors at Hospitals, Doctors are blaming the administrative authorities, administration is blaming lack of resources Following lines from a famous Bob Dylan song always ring in my head after such incidents.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">How many ears must one man have</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Before he can hear people cry ?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Yes, how many deaths, will it take till he knows</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">that too many people have died?</span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">The answer is blowing in the wind...... </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">It would not be out of place to share an appeal mailed to me by a senior doctor of the subject hospital .</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-size: small;">.........................................................................</span></div><span style="font-size: small;"><m:smallfrac m:val="off"> <m:dispdef> <m:lmargin m:val="0"> <m:rmargin m:val="0"> <m:defjc m:val="centerGroup"> <m:wrapindent m:val="1440"> <m:intlim m:val="subSup"> <m:narylim m:val="undOvr"> </m:narylim></m:intlim> </m:wrapindent> </m:defjc></m:rmargin></m:lmargin></m:dispdef></m:smallfrac></span><br />
<div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">DEATHS OF DELIVERED WOMEN IN UMAID HOSPITAL, JODHPUR</span></i></div><div align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;"> The treating Doctors’ perspective</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">THE MISHAP- What has happened in the deptt of Obstetrics ,Umaid Hospital,Jodhpur in the month of February has been a terrible accident- a very unfortunate heart rending series of incidences over which no single person or a group of people had control. It was not an act of commission or omission but seemingly the interplay of an out of the world hitherto unknown FACTOR that mercilessly snatched away so many lives.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">THE DEPARTMENT- If the work culture as prevails in our department for so many years were to be responsible then this kind of deaths should have occurred in the past too. But our statistics vouch for us that similar mortalities have never been an integral part of the history of this department.Most of us have been associated with this department for more than 10-15 years and we have not seen or heard of such deaths because of PPH.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">FINDINGS OF COMMITTEES- Our teaching has been faulted, our training has been criticised, our devotion to work and duty has been challenged, our integrity questioned and our department has been cursed. Eyebrows have been raised on each and every act of ours. They came with a purpose and they have been able to achieve it. Our students are ignorant fools, training is faulty and non- existent, work culture is pathetic, sanitation is abysmal and we do not give any TIME to the department. We were held directly responsible for a chocked gutter or a faulty window. It appears that the mountain like figures of upwards of 70 deliveries per day are being handled by inept students and untrained nurses.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">The falling standards of medical teaching and learning in medical colleges is not an ailment confined to our department, the reasons for this are many, the debate is a long one and surely has nothing to do with the present RUN OF MORTALITY in our operation theatres that is being investigated.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">ACTUALITY- Our statistics do not speak this way. Mortality figures from our institution compare well with others. Our OPD attendance is rapidly going up and we are facing an unprecedented rush in our ANC clinic, Labour rooms and our OT’S are panting for breath.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">Private practice- Doing private practices outside hospital hours in our residential chambers is not a nefarious activity, a shoddy doing or a crime. We only render our services to the citizens of this city strictly in accordance with the rules and regulations that govern the state medical college teachers and in a way we work almost double than our Delhi counterparts.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">THE EXPECTATIONS- Instead of experts coming to our rescue trying to help us find the culprit in the environment, that evasive </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 115%;">superbug</span></b></span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">, that puzzling </span><span style="font-size: small;"><b><span lang="EN-IN" style="line-height: 115%;">factor </span></b></span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">we only have a host of higher ups descending upon us making us parade in front of them like hard core criminals only to hear that you are shoddy, faulty in your basics and that everything is wrong with you and your work and you deserve the gallows.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">WE AS WE ARE- This is not helping anybody. Our morale is shaken, our confidence battered, our self esteem lost and our hand tremble when we operate or conduct a procedure.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><i><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; text-align: justify;"><i><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">OUR PRAYER- We collectively mourn these deaths, we are as shaken as the kiths and kins of the deceased. Why the Almighty chose our hands for these unfortunate deaths we fail to understand. But our image has been tarnished and we deserve a little more than mere brickbats for our years of service to the Suncity.</span></i></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: small;">.................................................................................................<br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The question here is not that who is solely responsible for the incident ? The questions are : Doesn't someone get the salary for ensuring the quality of drugs administered, ? Is someone paid </span></span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">from exchequer's money </span></span><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">for ensuring proper sanitation and hygiene ? If not then, how everything comes in order and becomes spic and span on day of some minister's visit ?If everything about the hospital, staff and doctors is shoddy and out of place then what were these inspecting authorities doing, besides waiting for things to go wrong ?</span></span><br />
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</span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><u><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">I am no one to blame anyone with my limited intellect ,but I as a concerned citizen surely want to ask or tell few things to every doctor who is reading this .</span></u><br />
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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">Someday go to the emergency of your hospital and silently watch how nonchalant and easy going residents and doctors at duty are. Please tell them that the causality brought there is someone's father , someone' husband and world of few might be revolving around that person .For you he is just another patient . Please try to understand the condition of people and at least pretend concern and appear sympathetic.</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><div style="text-align: justify;"><span lang="EN-IN" style="font-size: small;">If you know things are lousy and below acceptable standards why don't you refuse to carry on? Time is ripe for us to decide whether hands of few semi educated politicians or your brains runs these hospitals.</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Well, these committees and reports are just </span><span style="font-size: small;">time buying tactics and part of </span><span style="font-size: small;">the procedure to bury the hatchet .Rest assured we the common people will forget about such episodes and get busy with more important world cup of cricket sooner than you realize.</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span> </div><div style="color: black; font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-size: small;">Only if I could , I will give a copy of <a href="http://userpage.chemie.fu-berlin.de/diverse/murphy/murphy_e.html">Murphy's law</a> to every government official and frame and put these lines of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller">Hellen keller </a>on every officer's desk</span></div><div style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></div><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">I am only one,</span></h1><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"> but still I am one.</span></h1><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I cannot do everything, </span></h1><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">but still I can do something; </span></h1><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">and because I cannot do everything,</span></h1><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;"> I will not refuse to do something </span></h1><h1 style="font-family: Georgia,"Times New Roman",serif; margin: 0pt;"><span style="font-size: small;">that .....I can do</span></h1><div class="MsoNormal" style="color: #cc0000; font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-IN"> </span></div></div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-67094053059615818102011-03-02T07:19:00.006+05:302011-03-05T08:38:28.975+05:30Randy Pausch , Anand and Spirit of life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
A few days ago I watched famed "<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Really_Achieving_Your_Childhood_Dreams" title="Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams"><i>The Last Lecture: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams</i></a>" (click for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ji5_MqicxSo">video Link</a>) by Late <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Pausch">Prof Randy Pausch</a> . Anyone who has watched the lecture will testify that his simple words are very inspiring. His intensity, energy, humor and mannerism seem so poignant because all the while we know that this man fighting with pancreatic cancer has only few months of life left. No wonder the video was rated excellent every time it was viewed on net. After seeing the video I read and saw almost everything on Randy Pausch that was available on net. To say the least, he truly was a man with a deep strength of character.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><a href="http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2006/aug/28slide5.htm">‘Anand</a>’ was a film produced by legendary director <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hrishikesh_Mukherjee">Hrishikesh Mukherjee</a> which won film-fare award in 1971. The film is about a cancer patient named Anand ( Rajesh Khanna) who, despite knowing that he has just a few months of life left, believes in living his life to the fullest. He comes to Mumbai to live his last days and comes in contact with Bhaskar Banerjee (Amitabh Bachan) , a honest and serious doctor, who is distressed seeing poverty and vegetation in the slums where he treats poor patients. Bhaskar’s interactions with Anand make him notice the colors behind all the despair and complexity in one’s life, and teach him a lesson. After spreading happiness everywhere around him and changing the lives of many, Anand, as destined, leaves them all, which inspires Dr.Bhaskar to write a book on his life. (Click here for <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=99X94c4KiV8&feature=related">a video Clip</a>) </div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Well, we all know that death is inevitable and grim reaper will surely come one day, but does it perturb us or creates an urgency in us, to focus on set purpose of our life. Fact is most of us live with leitmotif that tomorrow will have more time than today and we presume to have an eternity to achieve our true objectives. Zest of life sets frenzy for attaining more materialistic things and in that passion we begin to take our relationships and friends for granted. When the reality strikes in a form of an ultimatum of some months, we realize that things and people that truly matter were often most neglected. When we die, for most of the world our absence shall mean nothing, however, for a very few, life will never be same again. Sadly, during the course of routine life these very people do not get the time and attention they deserve.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">It concerns me that despite knowing the universal truth of mortality, an average Indian does not prepare for death. By preparedness, I basically mean two things. First, there should be sharing of information about assets, liabilities investments and commitments with someone close in family , so that there are no hassles that add salt to injury. Second, it is duty of every individual to ensure that his aggrieved family is monetarily comfortable. Insurance by many is looked at as expense and some combine investments with insurance, which in my opinion is naive. To exemplify, a 3 lac rupee insurance with LIC costs me RS 19300 per year under assured return plan, if nothing happens to me this amount will be given to me after 20 years with 8% bonus. On the other hand a term plan for insurance of 25 lacs costs me just Rs 13500 per year but here if I remain alive I don’t get anything back. You see, if I remain alive I should thank my stars that I have another year to make and enjoy money with my near and dear ones, If that proves to be otherwise, at least they will be financially little comfortable. Term plans like fire extinguishers are investments for exigency.</div><div style="text-align: justify;"></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
Isn’t it strange that what develops over years disappears in a flash? Even stranger is the fact that death is a great re-conciliator that takes away all the severity leaving behind some impressions and some memories .The essence of life is truly contained , in the famous saying “Live every day as if it were your last and then some day you'll be right”. </div></div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-14885383067635833032010-12-31T18:48:00.004+05:302010-12-31T18:53:21.431+05:30Question mark still looms<a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-new-year.html">Related posts</a><br />
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<div class="Publishwithline"><w:sdtpr></w:sdtpr></div>A year has passed since I posted “<a href="http://balanisunil.blogspot.com/2010/01/happy-new-year.html">Happy new Year?</a>” here on the same blog.<br />
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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Well, I still can’t comprehend the idea about the prominence of the stroke of midnight moment that people celebrate so passionately. As pointed out in comments to my above mentioned post, some knowledgeable readers said it is the celebration of new beginning and farewell to an eventful year .It was said that the greetings we exchange are ways of expression that remind and reassures our friends that they are thought of and we are with them in the journey of life.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Not that I have anything against the celebrations or against those who decide to rejoice and party in grand style with all fervor. The issue is, as the curtains are drawn on a year is it just another reason for bash? Instead shouldn’t the year end be the moment of retrospection and introspection for what we have got or lost and what we have learned through the journey of a year. These moments of introspection truly give meaning and purpose to the life and help us do the suitable adjustments to rudders of our flight to stay on course so that we become the person, we think, we were meant to be.</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;">Another year goes into annals of stupor but the life goes on and the tryst to accomplish unfilled dreams continues.Wishing you everything that brings fulfillment in your life, I leave you with this beautiful verse of kahlil Gibran</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal"></div><div style="text-align: justify;">"Yet the timeless in you, is aware of life's timelessness,</div><div style="text-align: justify;">And knows that yesterday is but today's memory</div>and tomorrow is today's dream.<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">But if in your thought you must, measure time into seasons,</div>let each season encircle all the other seasons,<br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">and let today embrace the past with remembrance</div><div style="text-align: justify;">and the future with longing."</div>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-230185966409232677.post-69103581574578764062010-12-25T13:10:00.008+05:302010-12-26T13:02:43.244+05:30Tips on house construction I : Stone work<span xmlns=""></span><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">Your house is manifestation of your thoughts and your life style. It should be built to suit your needs, requirements and budget and that sometimes may not be in harmony with the way people say it should be built. The first step is to make a chart of the requirements that you have in mind, in terms of number of rooms and the minimum size that you find acceptable for different rooms. <br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">After this, decide whether you would like to have a basement or semi basement in the house. The cost of land, type of soil, vicinity condition and Governmental laws shall be the deciding factor for this decision. For example In Jodhpur the corporation does not allow construction of the basement due to the problem of rising ground water level. So it is always better to check if the authority will approve your house plan for given depth and height parameters. Having a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-basement">semi basement</a> is advisable if the cost of land is high and if one is planning to have an office at home which can save on commutation time. A part of basement can also serve as cargo space if your business necessitates one. If you decide to go for basement pay attention to water proofing and lay- out of sewerage line. In my opinion it is advisable to have the whole semi-basement as a singular entity where walls and partitions can be created later, as per one's requirement. Another advantage of having a semi basement is the plinth level becomes high and thus the elevation of the house looks much better. <br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">Next decision that you have to make is about the<a href="http://www.technoesis.co.in/Article1-RFS.htm"> type of structure</a>. Two common structures in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforced_concrete">RCC</a> are wall load bearing structures and frame structure. The basic difference between the two is in the first type, walls bear the load and pass it on to the soil directly where as in frame structure slabs and beam transfer the weights to columns which in turn bear the load instead of walls. Frame structure is suited for multi storied buildings and if you envisage changing space requirement. Besides, wall thickness will be lesser in case of frame structure. Cost wise frame structure cots roughly 25 % more than the wall structure.<br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">Next step is to get a map prepared from an architect and its approval from the local authority of your town. Make sure that the map is in accordance with the criteria laid out for minimum drop out area that is to be essentially left in front and rear side. Many people will make you believe that getting approval is a very difficult and time consuming task. Almost everyone I know, suggested me to go through some agent and pay him hefty fees for that. Believe me; I got my map approved within 24 hours without paying a single extra penny. If one is determined not to bribe and be party to corruption way is not difficult. Just pay and obtain receipt for whatever are the laid out charges by local governing body and along with the receipt submit your plan to corporation or development authority of your town. You generally get the approval within two days .They will be giving you a copy of approved map and a letter. A Xerox copy of it should be given to your contractor/ supervisor so that it can be shown to the municipal authorities coming for snap check. In case you face any problem go to the officer in charge instead of wasting your times with clerks who will give you all wishy- washy answers.<br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">Along with the map also have a working plan made that has the dimension of doors, walls and columns. This gives you a clear cut idea as to what will is the exact wall to wall space that you are going to get. The masonry is done in accordance with this work plan. In case you decide to get a lay out plan for electrical wirings and sanitary be specific about your requirements. For example you should have provision to switch off water pump from inside the house. The socket of coolers should be outside but the on/ off switch should be in the room. The provisions for split air conditioning should be done before hand so that there is no drilling and plumbing required after finishing. <br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">Next comes the choice of contractor, It is very important to get all the quotes in writing with <a href="http://www.engineeringcivil.com/concrete-mix-design-as-per-indian-standard-code.html">specification of mix</a> for various works. For RCC work insist on M-20 grade that has a ratio of 1:1.5 :3 for cement, sand and coarse aggregate . A simple material calculator is available <a href="http://www.jklakshmi.com/calculator.html">on this link</a> , all you have to do is type in the dimensions of your construction and that gives you requirement of cement bags. Make sure these many bags go into the RCC mix. In most of the constructions mixing is done manually and there they take smaller heaps for cement and larger heaps of aggregates. Though it does not amount to huge savings for the contractors but most of them are deceitful by nature and not by need, as is said 'old habits die hard'. Companies like '<a href="http://www.ambujacement.com/">Gujrat- Ambuja'</a> cement do the RCC testing free of cost. All that you need to do is tell them the place time and date of RCC. Their representatives will come in the van and take the sample and will notify you about the strengths of sample after 7 and 28 days. <br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">It is essential to understand and negotiate about various other expenses. See that the contractor in his quote covers as to who will bear the cost of filling to raise the land , the cost of underground tank ,water browsers and whether the contractor will give you hardened or loose floor after stone work. These areas generally lead to dispute.It is better to make it clear to the contractor that there should not be any hidden cost involved and you are not liable to bear any cost besides what is quoted as per square feet cost for stone masonry. <br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">The next decision that you have to make is about the elevation. I personally went for <a href="http://picasaweb.google.com/suchitrabalani/MyNewHouse02">stone elevation</a> because in this area of India stone is available for reasonable price and we have very good craftsmen who do a wonderful grinding and cutting job. The best thing about stone elevation is does not require and maintenance like paint or weather coat. Stone elevation though are far more costly then cement elevation . Vitrified tiles have good exterior range available and one can go for that also. Exteriors are matter of individual choice and the cost can vary drastically depending on designs you choose.It will be a good idea to get quote for all the grinding and finishing in advance or you will be surprised to see the bill later , I can promise you that it won't be a pleasant surprise.<br />
</span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span xmlns="">Though all the work and supervision is done by others, as most of us do not have the time to be present there all the time . I think it is better to know what is going on so that no one can cheat you easily.<br />
</span></div><br />
<div style="text-align: justify;">"Trust yourself. You know more than you think you do".</div><br />
<span xmlns=""> </span>Contd …….in part II : Finishing<br />
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</span>Sunil Balanihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14806041150956325741noreply@blogger.com4