Education.

What was once Education is now termed Wisdom. Rather than being an experience enriching an individual’s intellect and making sure they’d ease into the society, Education today has become a means to an end. The Ends being getting into XYZ University, Getting an ABC Degree, so that you can be a PQR at an MNC. Has the system corroded or has the one most powerful weapon of civilization taken the necessary evolution to keep humanity on track for the years to come? Read on to find out.

In so far as the rest of the article is to continue, It is my own take on how education might have come into being and institutionalised specifically in my own capacities as a writer.

While many regard Ramayana, Mahabharata, Quran, Bible, Guru Granth Sahib and several other religious texts to be the docets of their religions, I believe they were mere reflections of people trying to bring out an ideal world, an ideal man, and all possessed a core set of beliefs which would appeal to the masses to make them believe truly that this path was a nice one to take. Irrespective of beliefs, faiths, Religion and Religious works are and will continue to be a human’s first experience with the process of Education. They educate you about their own versions of Good and Bad, God and Devil, and so on.

Moving further on, Education has gone through a lot of changes from time to time, adapting itself to the needs of the day. Education at one point of time meant creating fire out of rubbing flints, and in another age meant bending wood into circular shapes and making wheels, and at another meant learning the arts of their trade, war tactics and the like. It has gone from being elitist to being a beacon of hope for the poor to get to the same level playing field of the rich, to being the only distinction between being cultured and non-cultured, and becoming the process any human around the world would look at as the critical requisite and way for better things to come.

During the ages of colonization and world wars, many viewed education as a foreign evil, and denounced it in retaliation. Well, that is history now isn’t it? The very fabric on which many modern countries are built on today are based on the same newer more liberal thoughts brought about because of the varied forms of education at the foray. Education has indeed changed the course of human history more than we credit it for. It’s indeed gone places from sketched on the wall to having its oldest manuscripts protected within the comforts of the four walls of a museum. It has indeed ushered us to greater heights and given us a common platform, setting up all the minds around the world to brainstorm and put their collective efforts to keep humanity on track; But hey! It has also given us destruction, annihilation, deep rooted racism, and much more.

What do we do when we go heads up against a problem with the very same system that is supposed to solve all problems? Education today is nothing more than the prep up for a rat race that is ridiculed with problems of elitism and institutionalisation. India, today has more people going to school than it ever did in it’s past, but is it educating its masses the right way? Or is there a blink and miss somewhere? When youngsters aren’t allowed to drive on roads if they’re younger than 18 because you can’t trust them with a vehicle, What good is the system doing by letting them make potentially life altering choices from as young as 16 years old? 
Education needs to be hands on, leave alone rote learn everything! I do indeed understand the need for having a strong base in all the possible subjects we are mandated to learn till our high schooling, but it is the profiling done soon after that leaves me both spellbound and awestruck. The amount of stress put on children is abnormally high and leaves a very strong imprint on them. Not pointing fingers here! If this system gave us the smartest minds yet, think of all the possibilities it’ll hold when we better and perfect this system! It’s just about time we stop treating education as a cash cow and keep milking it by offering ridiculously high cost education which is worthless and start changing the way we educate and make it approachable for everyone, rich and poor alike.

I do realise these topics have been brought forward many many times over, but then the reason for them popping back up so often signals at how the problem was never tackled efficiently. Schools these days try so hard to sell the idea of holistic development, but trust me when I say this, no kid will ever grow holistically if you keep burdening him with the orthodox ways of teaching. Fortunately or unfortunately this generation’s attention span is the same as the memory capacity of a goldfish, minute. We can’t reverse their evolution, but we can definitely change our methods to better cater to the needs of today. Before we teach them the complex intricacies of Differentiation and Integration, lets teach them why they pay the taxes that they do over the food they eat, the clothes they buy, and how do they know their money is well spent.

Years from now, we’ll see a revolution anyway. People like me are merely the starting drizzles creating ripples on the surface of education. Well, what do they say? When it rains, it pours! Change will come our way, it’s only about how prepared are we to tackle it. We need our youth smarter now than before. We’ve seen the world go at loggerheads with itself and start a world war, let’s hope we educate our youth well enough to make sure humanity is never threatened by itself again. Should there comes a day when Education leads to the downfall of humanity, it’ll be another brick in the wall, and Pink Floyd will be humming away, ‘We Don’t Need No Education…’

Death, And Yada Yada Yada.

Right from when I was a kid, I always had a strange perspective to look at ‘Death’. All I knew was that Death meant the end of life and that, that person will cease to exist after that. What started off as a fear, and some sort of a horrible feeling that made me cry every time I lost someone to it, Death turned out to be an ally I never set out to forge, but came together anyway. While the whole of humanity definitely agrees on the fact that Death means the end of this life, there’s more to it than what meets the eye. While Death is the biggest source of Inspiration for me, it means a whole lot of different things for different people! Over the years, the concept of Death has taken a beating, but yes! Like several other archaic concepts, this one’s magically survived the test of time. While on one side of the spectrum, people are trying sick stunts to defy death, on the other end, people are spilling big bucks to defeat it. So, I thought, Like Always, Let’s shake things up a bit! And see what exactly death means now.

In an effort to better understand the various commentaries and views about death, I set out by asking people what their first thought was, once they heard the word ‘Death’. And as far as they understood the word, Death, they termed it to be- Silence, Oblivion, Freedom, A reminder of Mortality, The end of a cycle and the birth of another, First Step on the path to heaven, a balance, An Unfair and Unjust thing and so on. Well it doesn’t stop there. Many writers and poets, in the past, have personified Death to be a humanoid figure, and go on to express their versions of Death as a person.  While I am neither that qualified or acclaimed, I’ll try to turn it over and try and make as much sense of it as possible while casually preaching what I feel about it. So at this point of time, the real question is, why is everyone fascinated by Death? Why is it that more often than not, there is always a God of Death, A toll reader who decides where you “after” death, A Hell and A Heaven? While most of these questions have their answers rooted in the same mould out of which we crafted our religions out of, some extra sense can be made out of them.

Death. My most painful meeting with it was when I lost my kitten, some 8 weeks old to street dogs and saw its corpse. I lost every sense of feeling, went numb, tears rolled down my cheek involuntarily and my knees lost every single ounce of energy in them. I was weak, vulnerable, and in pain. All of this, because my kitten has died. Death has embraced him as one of his own. When I think of it now, I only realise I stopped crying because there was nothing more left for me to do. What could I do? I’m no god to miraculously resurrect my dear kitten. But it brings me more than just that feeling of helplessness, it brings me the idea that the same death, that takes our strength away, can motivate us to work harder. It reminds me that we are all temporary. It gives me that so called ‘Reality Check’! While billions of us are walking the earth every day, and millions suffering from a death every day, it only makes more sense if we tap into it. Yes. You heard me right. Death, brings about a hell lot of changes in a lot of lives. It can shake you, It can rattle your lives up, it can leave you stranded, and in those times remember. If there’s something you’ll never ever lose even if you lose your all, It is death. Everyday I wake up, I realise that is another day I have snatched out of the clutches of Death. As it was aptly put in one of my favourite movies, I shall work my heart out, put in every effort humanly possible, move every rock and stone, to make sure I’m on my path to where I want to be, and If Death comes at me with its greedy claws and hungry jaws, I’ll fight it with my hearts rage and every desire that I’ve worked so hard to satisfy.

While that’s me being optimistic, there are many who don’t quite take it so adventurously. Death is the ultimate unfortunate event. It the end of this life and the beginning of another. While one life’s passing affects the lives of many, they all look at death as something that pushes them into the depths of oblivion. Well that’s how we humans are, aren’t we? We spend all our life chasing material comforts and our hearts deepest desires and yet in the end we come back to believe we’re nothing but mere mortals. Death, or near death experiences have always proven to be an excellent but dangerous way of realising that you are indeed alive. Your heart is actually pumping that blood. The adrenaline junkies are an excellent example of the same. They’ll go to just about any extent to feel alive, even if the risk is Death. Some even model a lot of things along the word – Death. Death Star (STAR WARS!) Death Note (YEAH!) and it still hasn’t gotten any prettier than before.

People often speak of how before dying their whole life flashes before them, they realise that they have so many responsibilities, so many desires, so many of many things that will no longer come true because Death, my friend doesn’t quite give you second chances. It is somewhat like that one video game you paid an exorbitantly high amount for and spent ages solving it all and you realise that the game just won’t save and if you die, there is no restart. Pissing off isn’t it? Aggravating too? Well that is exactly what it is. A Constant reminder than we are Human. The moments we have are temporary, These history books people are trying so hard to get into by living the large life, they’ll wash away with time too. People will always be after the big pie, trying to get a bite at it, but life isn’t just that. It is in fact the one ticket to a wonderland called earth, and yes, It comes with an expiry date, Death.

DEATH. The one real fear everyone has. The only real inspiration I have. It is indeed the last frontier. The next great adventure. And If there is indeed life after death, It is respawn, but with none of the cool upgrades you bought with all that hard work. It is transformative. It is necessary. It brings balance. Where there is life, there is death. No one loves playing the bad guy, but it is indeed true, the Grim Reaper is more so the keeper of the equation than the harbinger of sadness. So they tell me that a New Year is the modern day favourite for a new start, so let’s start with this. Death, is definitive. It is definite too. And while we are at it, let’s give it the wild goose chase and, I might as well express my disgust and apathy towards those who believe they can inflict death on others.

While a very dear friend of mine terms death as the last page of the novel you absolutely fell in love with, knowing that it’s over, you still rare for more. I can’t actually compete against that. Everything in this world is temporary. So is the fear of death.

We’ve laughed, we’ve cried, We’ve Bled,

We’ve sung, we’ve danced, and we’ve read,

But no matter what we’ve heard and what we’ve said,

There’s life, and after it, there’s only death ahead.

Passive Activism

The World as we know it has been subject to change over years. It’s either adapt or die. We as humans, have built civilizations, burnt them to the ground, made kingdoms, felled the king, and now ultimately nations with boundaries. All these changes only occur out of our actions, to bring about the best, and our response to revive efficiency of the best when they are failing. Today we call the people who stand up for change and work towards it as Activists. Such as Human Rights Activists, Freedom Activists, Environmental Activists and so on and so forth.

However, A new trend, a new wave of Activist have come to the fore, and they are changing the way we look at activism.  With the rise in the span and reach of the internet almost 2.92 billion people around the world can access and utilise the large data pool. But as we say, the more we know, the more we question, and the more we question, a change  occurs. Internet Activists, or E-Activists are the new wave of Activists, not just activists, they are Passive Activists. Oh! By questioning what we know, I’m reminded of one such activist! How many of you have read the Ramayana? Or well atleast know the story? Yeaaah. So In one of his letters to his daughter, This man once asked, The Ramayana states that Ram was helped by vanaras of whom the strongest was Hanuman, on the way to lanka, What if it was the story of the war between the Aryans and the Dravidians? The fairskinned Northerners walking down to the south where the darker and hairier Dravidians resided? Get’s you thinking doesn’t it? Well that was Jawaharlal Nehru in one of his letters to his daughter.

Yes, we’re all human beings, and by our genes, we’re social beings. We feel the need to communicate, judge, debate, choose etc. Similar to our other social responses, we feel the need to stand up against the seemingly wrong occurrences in the world. And we are slowly but steadily shifting our real world battles against such unfortunate events to the virtual world. We’re getting more views on our YouTube channels, we’re getting more likes and shares on our Facebook posts, and re-tweets on our twitter, and most importantly we’re getting an exposure of the whole world at our fingertips. But are we really ushering ourselves into a better world or are we taking a turn for the worse?

So what exactly is the Connection between these Passive Activists and how do they affect our lives? Well, Let me get there. Let me name a few people. Gandhi? Jinnah? Abraham Lincoln? What connects them all? Well, apart from the fact that they built their respective countries from the scratch, they share something very special, their ability to influence people by a mere presence of their name. People are able to relate to their thoughts and reflect them upon themselves. They were able to do so by actually walking with the public,talking with them, and initiating change from ground zero. They were the real ACTIVE-ists. Makes sense?

Well yes. We associate certain feelings and assumptions towards certain people. And that isn’t always a good thing. When was the last time most of you logged on to facebook? Or Twitter for that matter? Did you read what was on your newsfeed? It’s been psychologically proven that our subconscious mind remembers all that we ever read and reminds us about it even when we think we aren’t paying attention. Here’s exactly where Internet Activism comes in.

Passive Activists bring about problems to the fore, they are able to grab eyeballs, and hit everyone’s newsfeeds. But is it as beneficial as it sounds? Yes, I understand the fact that recognizing the fact that a problem exists is the first step towards solving the problem. But the real flaw is the fact that it stops right there. Unlike the real activists, passive activists are just happy with only acknowledging their support but not really doing anything about it. What exactly does this lead to? We become weak as a society in the long run. We fail to understand that virtual reality is seldom akin to physical reality.

But like any other scenario, there’s a flipside to it. Everyone around the world is coming together to solve the problems of a few,  and the boundaries that once existed are no longer a hurdle in the path to a greater unity of all of humanity. We are able to donate to a noble cause somewhere in Africa sitting in our offices. We are able to tear down the false facade of corrupt governments with the click of a button. But we all must stop and think too. How much is too much? We’ve all heard the age old story of technology taking over our lives, but trust me, we should be warned when it starts messing with our basic freedom, freedom to stand up for what we feel is right.

Don’t be fooled into thinking that technology won’t affect you if you don’t use it. Don’t be fooled into thinking that taking some action is better than inaction. Don’t be fooled into thinking that simply raising your voice is the start of change. Even dogs can bark when they are hungry or when their teeth itch. We aren’t any different. We post half a dozen statuses, and a couple of hastags and go to sleep with a feeling of content-ness. Well, don’t fool yourself. Call me brash, brute, pragmatic even? Change isn’t change when it starts with a tap of your keypad and ends with a repost. Change is when we plan, try, fail, plan, try, fail, plan, try, fail, plan, try, fail, plan, try and keep trying till change happens. Funny how we can calm our stomach’s hunger with a plate full of food, but we can’t calm the hunger for justice with a day full of work.

I believe we can bring about change, by either being an Activist, or a Passive Activist. All that we really need is a push. A strong reminder, for we all tend to forget when it isn’t up close and personal. Well, here I am. Making this up close and personal for all of you, take up a challenge, get behind it with all your soul and energy, and trust me; That’s all you need to bring about a change so huge, the world will stand on toes and watch. Plan in advance but, pace out your aims, and mix it up with social responsibility. Do anything but let the plan fail. The main reason any plan fails is that isn’t executed properly. Today our plans are becoming digital, their execution digital, and our sympathies? Sadly. Yes. Our support to these causes virtually has been limited to a couple of Hash tags and fancy talks. People are losing their sense of connection to their communities and each other, and the exponential growth of social media is the canary in the coalmine, not the culprit. People are desperate to feel connected to other people, which is why Facebook added 100 million new users in 9 months, and if it were a country it would be the world’s 4th largest. If that doesn’t speak to people needing other people I don’t know what does. Social media is good for many things—maintaining connections and communicating information to a wider audience—in its current state it is not transformative.

We are disconnected from each other, but plugged into our iPods and cell phones. We are less trusting of our neighbours, colleagues, and acquaintances—and don’t even think about talking to strangers. Before I leave, a little food for thought, Let’s imagine a problem at hand. Someone person among you is being subjected to harassment at home, or maybe someone is victim to biased accusations, or maybe, you’re all being bullied online, What will y’all do? Do you really think just putting it out to your 100-200 odd friends on facebook or 300-400 followers on Twitter will solve your problem? You really think posting a status on how dirty your streets will magically clean it up for you? I guess that says it all. Passive Activism is, in my belief an imperfection of the society, maybe one day the only passive activism we’ll all follow would be Idolizing those real Active-ists.  It’s never too late to mend.

We’re our own gods; we’re our own devils;

The day we get this; would be the end of all our perils.

Women! Listen Up! Men! Gear Up! World. Don't Fuck Up.

'Feminism', 'Feminazi', and so many variations of the same concept bring into the limelight, the age old battles of the sexes. While many create a furore over how, if feminism is all about equating women to the status of men, why specifically call in Feminism? But then women, Do you think they are right in saying so? Well, even if they are, I don't see why you should be worried. You're talking about the same men who say that Feminism should be called something more like Equalism, but go back to calling all of our history as Mankind. Hypocrite much?


In a world where women are subject to objectification, and men to unnecessary stereotyping, I believe the world is in a state of Hasty Generalisation. Where not just our genders, sexual orientations, but also our Religions, Faiths, and Wars are being generalised; We better gear up and set ourselves up to see the bigger picture. I don't know if the world is headed to an actual armageddon, but our mindsets are surely headed towards an apocalypse. When we can't see each other as equals and work towards the same, there is no point in trying to make ourselves look pious and generous. While many die of starvation in some parts of the world, many struggle from obesity induced by over eating. While many stretch the limits of religion as a fundamental foundation and search for tools to serve the world, many narrow the words of religious texts and use filthy tools to reduce the life on earth. While we open our arms out and accept stray dogs and puppies for looking cute, being adorable, nations around the world sometimes falter in even accepting some in need of a new home. While a strike of terror makes everyone shiver to the bones and gets the world's sympathies and support, a strike of disaster goes unseen in their own nation! The cases of a paradox are many. While many like me try to sit and juxtapose the two sides, or rather, the two extremes of these problems, there are some who are actually doing something to solve the same, and even many more who are creating even more problems for the world at large.

While many videos get innumerable amounts of views and upvotes where one soldier returns home to see his child, no one ever made a video of the same soldier depriving some other child of his/her father. Every action might not have an equal and opposite reaction, but it will definitely have an impact. Even the smallest of changes we make today will go miles ahead as time passes by. Planting that one tree in your backyard might make all the difference in the world one day. What we need to do now, is to sit back and think. The world is plagued by problems, Yes. No one is going to deny that. However, something no one will tell you is how the solutions to these problems too, are equally heart wrenching.

Agreed indeed that problems are necessary for the world to go on, they are the natural consequences that add the necessary friction for the society's evolution, But how much is too much? Starting a change today, and caring for it forever after is the only way we can reduce this friction to the bare minimum. We are so proud of ourselves when we think of how the internet has reduced the distance between two people, and we are equally aggravated when the same internet is used as a tool to propagate hate and lure innocent people into traps like terrorism, BUT, yet again, what have we done? Many polls, surveys, researches, show that food wastage is a major problem in many developing and developed countries around the world. Do you think it is justice that food goes waste in a place where it wasn't even required? All in the same time while people affected by droughts, poverty, floods, are dying to have some.

While I am proud of my existence as a human being, I am not quite so proud of my being a part of Humanity. At this point of time in human history, I believe its time. Its time that we all ditch our cloaks of ignorance, intolerance, and greed. No one human life is less valuable than the other. Violence begets violence. Problems at times require harsh reactions, but don't make it so harsh that generations on, innocent victims are still paying the price. Men and Women are all but the same. If you ask me, the importance of being a male or a female should end at what kind of underwear you'd like to wear. Like it or not, we're all stuck in the same cage called Earth, and no matter what, voices like mine will always rise against those plaster saints who believe the world is perfect, because they are the only ones in control of it.

We're all separated by the food we eat, the god we pray to, the land we live, the clothes we wear, the bodies we're born into, and the languages we speak. Let's not separate each other so much, that one day we forget the reason that we're all in this cage together.

Think.

Wings

Every great journey starts with a single step they say, But in a world where people are making millions of steps as I write this, is it really justified to make humble beginnings? Don't do things because they make life easier for you, Do them so they take your breath away, make you feel alive, yet again someone says, But in a world where a billion people are taking their breaths, is it really justified to simply exult yourself?

Many great men and women have walked this earth, and have quite rightly left behind impressions for us to mimic, challenges for us to overcome, shadows that inspire us to soar higher and a trail we can choose whether or not to follow. But with so much inspiration around us, such radiating personalities amongst us, why isn't everyone truly Inspired?  Why did only so few succeed from the hordes of so many? Is it inherent within us that we stay so inspired for only so long a time? If so, isn't the future of our generation bleak? If not, Where are the Heros of our generation?

Wherever the greats are hiding, there is something all of them will have in common. They'll all have wings. Well not literally, but they'll all possess the ability to soar high, not just in their respective fields, but to see the bigger picture from uptop. And why is this important? Simply because our world has grown so much in all directions, it's almost impossible to do anything without directly running into something else because of the complex maze we've all created for ourselves as a part of this process we all fondly have called, 'Evolution'.

Is our future bleak without these leaders? Sadly, Yes. Leaders aren't only those leading Businessmen, Politicians, Artists, and other sector 'Leaders' it also includes the Innovators and Pathbreakers and Stereotyping rebels. In a still lake, this different type of leaders are the ripples. The ripples that break, or rather, shatter the glass of ignorance, ill will, and tyranny. Odd one out isn't always that bad, Maybe.

When these leaders, heros, spread their wings and fly, it is upto us yet again. It will then be upon us to follow them, or down them. Either way, we'll all learn and inspire ourselves. Because the wings they spread, will protect us, shield us, and also blow us away with the gust they create as they flap them away. Time will pass and their footprints will last, their wings will perish, newer people will grow feathers, wings, and they'll soar again. It sends a chill down the spine sometimes, how we humans are so dependant. But then again, if we don't depend on each other and live in solidarity, and good faith, our pretty little bubble of Humanity and Brotherhood will burst open, and the wind that comes rushing in will tatter even our mightiest. The heroes with the wings won't be able to brave this wind and when they fall, will we be able to grow wings so soon to replace them?

We could give wings to our dreams, but will we able to make them fly?

Wordplay.

Where actions have no effect, words and verses dominate those terrains. Expression is an essential part of communication. There exists a lacuna, an imminent dearth of talented expression to comment, describe, critique, and analyse the problems we face as One, a world split by boundaries but united by spirit. Actions haven't removed these boundaries, but expression in form of words and verses has blurred this gap. A lifetime of a human being is both transient and fleeting. To live all of their share of life and to die subsequently after, that's essentially what all of humanity is doing. So this blog serves as sanctuary to those souls, or rather this one soul to try and live beyond this one life. To live out this finite life, but leave behind a boundless journey. A journey that will resound through ages, through history's pages. 

One story at a time. One topic at a time. One problem at a time. As slow as we go, the louder we get. This container of life propagates unnecessary pandemonium. In our effort to try and soothe the pain of ignorance and unintelligence, We'll spread Silence. In two simple words, 'Loud Silence'. An oxymoron to beat every moronic problem. An effort to throw light at the two sides of the coin, and the odds of which beats the other. Join in. It's going to get heated up. Everyone is going to have their opinions, their sides of the story, their own demons and our sweet old silver bullet, Words. 

In the days to come, Issues from all around the world will come under scrutiny, stories both imaginary and true will come out to the fore to tickle your grey matters into delightful imagination, and indulge yourself into splendid reading, for poetry, reviews of the most trivial forms of entertainment, narrative stories with art, amongst everything else will come to life. Ironic it is, only life paves way to life. 

To start afresh, To start anew, We start again. Ride along. Make Memories. Not all journeys last forever. Not all puzzles are meant to be solved. Not all riddles meant to be fiddled with, But hey, Who Doesn't like an Adventure? 

Join In.