Posts

Debaters, are we just making noise?

Quite recently while discussing about Nehruji, one of my close friends starkly remarked, “Debating is silly and is totally pointless as no one ever learns anything new and those with an opnion often never budge and it usually ends up in a messy word fight ” I was a little taken aback at his blunt comment and tried to think about it by myself. Once being an active debater this one kinda hit me in the heart. After a bit of an introspection I realized something. Something which I wish to share. No my friend, debating, unlike you perceive is not a fruitless act which results in an altercation. It is indeed a serious business and it is essential that this ‘art' is well promoted. Debating usually invloves two parties with conflicting opinions discussing on some topic while putting forth rational arguments to support their stand. To ensure a healthy debate the participants must respect their opponent’s views and enter into one with a right and an open mindset. That being said people shoul

What ‘we’ must learn from the West

I’ve spent a little more than a quarter of a year in the West. It’s not a very long time, though I believe, it's still long enough to notice the stark differences that exists between India and the other developed nations. It’s almost impossilbe to discuss all of them, which they are quite a lot in number. Rather I would like to mention the things that are quite striking and that which have created a deep impact on me and up to some extent moulded my present day ideologies. Before I delve into the differences, I would like to confess that I’m a lover of my country and as any other patriotic citizen I have an utmost respect for my nation’s sovereignty and the constituitional framework it’s built upon. To begin with let’s start with India’s higher education. Today, India has more engineers than any other country in the world. While we are still big in numbers, the quality of these engineers are far from satisfactory. Let’s try and analyse the problem. Post independence, the economic

When memorisation hampers learning

Soon after I was finished with my first post I was instantly interested in posting another one. In the beginning I was flooded with enumorous ideas, ideas from across the spectrum, ranging from education to politics to even God and spirituality. To overcome my dilemma I paused for a moment and asked myself, “What's that one thing that bothers me the most in today’s society?”. Well the question didn’t actually help me constrict my options rather it seemed to agrravate my already existing problem. Since I had to write about something I realized I needed to quickly focus my attention and train my thoughts. After hours of thought I decided to write upon something that has been troubling me since the very nascent years of my school life and which is: rote learning. Mugna, ratta marna or rote learning , irrespective of how you call it chances are you’ve experienced it quite early in your life. We’ve all gone through the period when we were forced (yeah I used such a strong word) to reme

So… here it all begins

I’ll be honest with you, I’ve never really taken the art of diary writing seriously; though in my mind I’ve always had an immense respect for those who found solace in meticulously maintaining a daily journal of their lives. I’ve recently made up my mind to maintain a blog of myself, not really a chronological account of my day-to-day activities, rather a memoir of the insights gained through my life experiences. I’ll admit that these introspections of mine may be sometimes biased and may also be influenced by certain external factors though I’ll always make an effort to keep the facts and figures well intact. So why am I doing this? What lead me to this epiphany? I believe over the last few years I’ve realized the immense potential writing has to offer. It exploits the inner self, makes one question one’s notions, moulds our nascent thoughts and let’s you take a step back and look at the bigger picture which is often essential for a healthy and a satisfying lifestyle. Personally I als