Musings During a Thunderstorm
We want the best education, but only because we see it as an insurance. Few people go into school or college with the belief it will make them better. At something. Or just as human beings.
Doctors rarely treat the cause. They’re happy treating only the immediate symptom. Few doctors will sit you down and give you a roadmap to better health. Are they even capable of doing that?
People who have inherited a lot of money are usually quite shallow in terms of interests and hobbies. One would think the extra time they get from not having to work would enable them to pursue their interests.
I see foreigners in India chasing the same life they had where ever they came from. What a waste. So they can tell their children they went clubbing, ate out and hung out at malls during the six months they spent in India! There are travellers, and then there are people looking to recreate their comfort zones where ever they go.
Despite being ‘highly educated’, most parents don’t know how to distinguish between a good school and a not so good school. Again, comes back to the ‘education as an insurance’ mindset.
People would rather complain about fee hikes in private schools (where their children get educated), than the thieves in government who have been stealing from them since independence.
As adults, we expect children to be like us, just smaller versions of us. Let them play. Even when they learn, they’re playing. May be we adults should learn to play more.
We use our minds AND bodies for everyday living. How come the school system has such a disproportionate focus on developing certain aspects of the mind, and nothing else?
People who are fanatical about the IPL will probably buy anything. How can you possibly support a team when the players change so often that a team two years down the line will not have any of the current players? Who or what are you supporting? And also, 4 followed by 6 followed by 4 for twenty overs over 50 games sounds like monotony to me.
In a country where only two per cent of people pay taxes, it is ludacris to believe any statistics about the Indian economy. 7% growth? Somebody just pulled that straight outta Modi’s ass.
It is good fun to watch the pandemonium that ensues when the family cook, driver or household help leaves. The house is left in utter chaos, and family members are unable to think straight for the first few days after the departure.
Some people I know spend so much of their time in jobs they don’t enjoy just because they’re earning well. You’d think they’d want to spend some of that money and get at least a little bit of joy from life. But no, that money goes into savings,which is then used to buy ‘assets’. That is the Indian dream.
Flexibility of work timings and work patterns is a good proxy for innovation from companies.
The amount of paper work used in Indian banking is staggering. Software is definitely not eating India. Senseless work processes are.
People retire, and then spend what could be the most creative time of their lives in a state of perpetual boredom. The amount of creativity that the world doesn’t get to see because most people don’t pursue an art or learn a skill in their 60s is something to ponder over. This is the result of working a crap job for so long that you forget what the human mind and body is capable of.
We will soon run out of water in most Indian cities. That smells like a huge ‘startup’ opportunity. May be the next wave of Indian VC investments should be in ‘water delivery’. Smirk smirk
I have noticed that in Western culture, when a child cries, she is left alone until she stops crying. In India, when a child cries, every person in the room makes it their goal to make the child stop.
We are all born creative. Education’s biggest gift to us all is to reduce that creativity to a tiny spark, and replace the resulting void with a whole lot of fears.
I’m no philosopher, but I now know that the world I was led to believe I would face as an adult is the result of the doubts and fears of people around me. The rest of my life will be dedicated to breaking free from these.
