Graduation...!

"What I'm saying is, when we treat grades and scores and accolades and awards as the purpose of childhood, all in furtherance of some hoped-for admission to a tiny number of colleges or entrance to a small number of careers, that that's too narrow a definition of success for our kids. And even though we might help them achieve some short-term wins by overhelping -- like they get a better grade if we help them do their homework, they might end up with a longer childhood résumé when we help -- what I'm saying is that ALL OF THIS COMES AT A LONG-TERM COST TO THEIR SENSE OF SELF. What I'm saying is, we should be less concerned with the specific set of colleges they might be able to apply to or might get into and far more concerned that they have the habits, the mindset, the skill set, the wellness, to be successful wherever they go. What I'm saying is, our kids need us to be a little less obsessed with grades and scores and a whole lot more interested in childhood providing a foundation for their success built on things like love and chores..."

No matter how philosophical Kahlil Gibran sounds when he says 'Your children are not your children' or how profound 'Abraham Lincoln’s Letter to his Son’s Headmaster' seems or how sentimental Alice E. Chase gets when she writes her heart down in a poem, 'To My Grown-Up Son', Juile Lythocott-Haims has nailed it with her absolutely stunning spontaneous style of delivery with a little humor to spice it up. I am wholeheartedly with Julie when she says, '...and it's my job to provide a nourishing environment, to strengthen them through chores and to love them so they can love others and receive love and the college, the major, the career, that's up to them. My job is not to make them become what I would have them become, but to support them in becoming their glorious selves...' Indeed!

And the metaphor of Bonsai is the one that I love like anything... I mean there cannot be any better analogy or explanation, for that matter, for how the over-parenting can harm the potential of any kid. Just imagine planting a seed with a potential of becoming a Banyan Tree with a dense foliage that can provide shelter to handful of animals in its shade is being truncated and reduced to a Bonsai just to make a show-piece of it for decorating the drawing room of one house; it's not only conveniently bourgeois and orthodox but strategically criminal and cold-blooded, I believe! No offspring is a possession or property of its biological parents, it is just a carrier of the DNA for succession planning by the nature with completely new, independent and self-responsible identity that develops in due course.

Secondly, being a CSR Consultant and an ardent follower of the 'Trusteeship' theory, I hold it that an Individual and the Society are inseparable and have a integrated course of existence explained by UBUNTU, and thus an Individual in its forming (or 'developing', as the 'politicians' love to put it!) stages receives a lot from the society and it owes everything to the society and should always feel indebted for whatever it has 'achieved' and apart from being grateful, 'paying back' is the great way of showing reverence for what's been received. The purest and most profound form of payback is to gift it Individuals that might have borne from us biologically but have developed into free-thinking and socially responsible active elements of the society who can lift it up towards peace and prosperity.

We are glad, and proud, that we have been successful to that end, at least till this point. And there cannot be any greater or better measure of meaningful life than being successful parents; parents who can bring up such children! Although we might have come halfway, we are still learning and practicing the Art of Parenting to become sensible and responsible parents, as there is no Convocation in the course of Parenting, only Graduation...!

Way to go...

Fantasy...?

It is the ability to communicate eloquently that has brought us this far making us a Super-Species sitting on the top of the food-chain, now it’s high time we put it to good use for promoting Sustainability by controlling the irreversible damages that we are causing to the ecosystem before we push the nature to expedite Sixth Mass Extinction from imminent to immediate; if it means anything to you, that is…

(The Other) Way to go...

The Quest...!

While taking a Bird's Eye Review (literally!) of the Only Livable Planet known to us, as we humans changed its Natural Geography, Topography and Terrains to suit our 'needs' and continue to do so every passing minute, Jonathan Foley tries to put it in a perspective in his quest to find the answer to the one and only question of survival on this planet -

How do we feed the world without destroying it?

"As the world grows by several billion more people, We'll need to double, maybe even triple, global food production. So where do we go from here? We need a bigger conversation, an international dialogue. We need to invest in real solutions: incentives for farmers, precision agriculture, new crop varieties, drip irrigation, gray water recycling, better tillage practices, smarter diets. We need everyone at the table. Advocates of commercial agriculture, environmental conservation, and organic farming... must work together. There is no single solution.

We need collaboration, imagination, determination, because failure is not an option. Yeah, so we face one of the greatest grand challenges in all of human history today: the need to feed nine billion people and do so Sustainably and, Equitably and, Justly at the same time protecting our planet for this and future generations. This is going to be one of the hardest things we ever have done in human history, and we absolutely have to get it right, and we have to get it right on our first and only try..."

If we fail Mother Earth, She will fail us in reciprocation; Let us face it together...!

Way to go...

Treatment...!

We are products of logic driven by emotion. Had it not been for emotions, EQ would have not mattered more than IQ when it comes to leading a successful, content and enriched life. Incivility indeed is a red flag that obstructs the holistic development of human mind and reach its potential. As the say, 'It's all in mind...', small acts of disrespect or demeaning and belittling anyone for any petty or even sizable reason will leave a scar on the hurt mind and nobody would be able to foresee what that scar can turn out to be over a period. Most of the crimes including terrorism have their roots in the 'treatment' to an individual in its self-concept forming period.

Ultimately it becomes very important to understand and act on the wise words of a learned soul like Maya Angelou when she says,

"I've learned that 

 people will forget what you said, 

people will forget what you did, 

but people will never forget 

 HOW YOU MADE THEM FEEL..."

Control...!

"Our democracy is broken, our laws don't work anymore, and it's not me saying this, it's our parliament published a report saying this. This technology that you have invented has been amazing. But now, it's a crime scene. And you have the evidence. And it is not enough to say that you will do better in the future. Because to have any hope of stopping this from happening again, we have to know the truth..."

"And what you don't seem to understand is that this is bigger than you. And it's bigger than any of us. And it is not about left or right or "Leave" or "Remain" or Trump or not. It's about whether it's actually possible to have a free and fair election ever again. Because as it stands, I don't think it is..."

"And this is not a drill -- it's a point of inflection. Democracy is not guaranteed, and it is not inevitable, and we have to fight and we have to win and we cannot let these tech companies have this unchecked power. It's up to us -- you, me and all of us. We are the ones who have to take back control..."

This is not only about Britain or Br-Exit, this has become a global phenomenon, thanks to Social Media, particularly to Facebook, and the only thing that we can do to bring it back on track of the Democracy as it was intended when it was first introduced to counter the Autocracy and Feudalism and decentralize the power to distribute it among the People, is to be absolutely aware of the facts and figures of everything around us and not get sold to the ideas and propaganda that has been fabricated, circulated and bombarded on us by shrewdly identifying targets for each piece of it to form a big picture that is scary.

Remember, when you are not paying the price for something that you get for free, you are the product!

Election is the only tool of Democracy that empowers You to be mightier than your Elected Representative, use it wisely with open eyes, open mind and by thinking laterally...

Way to go!

Magnum Opus...!

"Cultivation of mind should be the ultimate aim of human existence..."

"An ideal society should be mobile, should be full of channels for conveying a change taking place in one part to other parts. In an ideal society, there should be many interests consciously communicated and shared..."

"So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you..."

"A great man is different from an eminent one in that he is ready to be the servant of the society..."

"So long as you do not achieve social liberty, whatever freedom is provided by the law is of no avail to you..."

"Political tyranny is nothing compared to the social tyranny and a reformer who defies society is a more courageous man than a politician who defies Government..."

"Political democracy cannot last unless there lies at the base of it social democracy. What does social democracy mean? It means a way of life which recognizes liberty, equality and fraternity as the principles of life..."

"Democracy is not merely a form of government. It is primarily a mode of associated living, of conjoint communicated experience. It is essentially an attitude of respect and reverence towards fellow men..."

"What are we having this liberty for? We are having this liberty in order to reform our social system, which is full of inequality, discrimination and other things, which conflict with our fundamental rights..."

"Unlike a drop of water which loses its identity when it joins the ocean, man does not lose his being in the society in which he lives. Man's life is independent. He is born not for the development of the society alone, but for the development of his self..."

"I like the religion that teaches liberty, equality and fraternity..."

Yes, you guessed it right! These are the pearls of wisdom by one of the greatest minds from the past who was an ardent Educationist, a strategic Economist, an Independent thinker, a steadfast Social Reformist and an evolved and enlightened human being who has reached the top of Maslow’s Pyramid in his Self-Actualization state… also one of the most misunderstood historical character, in many ways, confined only to his rebellious works of caste annihilation or incredible contribution to designing the Constitution of Independent India to make it a Modern one.

Dr. B. R. Ambedkar was a multi-talented and ever-evolving generous soul that committed its life for liberty, equality and fraternity. Mahatma Gandhi used to advocate the theory of empowering villages by inhabiting there and making them independent as the smallest self-sufficient unit of a large nation. While Dr. Ambedkar required the village youth to move out and migrate to cities for a better and decent living.

Many historians, political analysts and people who claim to be followers of these Stalwarts of Humanity but seem to have completely failed to understand their teaching, somehow find it interesting to juxtapose these seemingly contradictory stands of these two great souls whose contribution in Social Reforms as well as Independent India is enormous.

However if looked at it from a subtle perspective, Dr. Ambedkar was not against villages but he loathed the caste-system that was the central force of organizing community at villages and to him cities, being economically-driven rather than social-systems-oriented, seemed to be more open, liberal and inclusive in comparison. At the core both these noble souls wanted their people to be free, learned, equal and serve the society in the best of their capacities.

In the scenario of Democratic System of Governance for Independent India, politics took the driving seat and trusteeship along with socialism flied out of the window sooner than these visionary masters envisaged it to go out of practice. Caste-systems remained the forte of politics and the new evolved and smart crop of politicians born in Independent India was too shrewd to take the path of their predecessors and chose to reinforce the caste-systems for socio-economic political purposes by resolving to make their 'valued' forefathers immortal by hanging them in decorative frames on the walls of Government offices and making them standstill in those sky-high statues enthusing tourist and adding the tourist revenue to the GDP for development of the nation, selectively!

Today, on 128^th Birth Anniversary of Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, it would be most prudent of the gesture if we try and learn what he meant by all those quotes that are not only quotable but notable! When Dr. Ambedkar said, ‘Get out of villages and move to the cities…’ by village he meant the poor mentality of confined social structure and the city he imagined is one that is like Auroville – Magnum Opus of Humanity – described in the video above.

Let us hope to have more 'Auroville's and less 'Delhi's in the Independent Nation as our forefathers envisaged it and pay them real tribute by living the way they believed it to be the real path, growth and independence of humanity…!

Having a rational view of everything and casting your vote in the democratic system of governance is the epitome of being progressive human according to Dr. Ambedkar... Don't forget to vote and pay him tribute by being a citizen of his dreams...

Way to go…!

Matrix...?

"What was more pertinent, and continues to be so about ancient Athenian democracy, was the inclusion of the working poor, who not only acquired the right to free speech, but more importantly, crucially, they acquired the rights to political judgments that were afforded equal weight in the decision-making concerning matters of state..."

"So we need to reconfigure, we need to reunite the economic and the political spheres, but we'd better do it by democratizing the reunified sphere, lest we end up with a surveillance-mad hyperautocracy that makes The Matrix, the movie, look like a documentary..."

"The world that I am describing to you is simultaneously libertarian, in that it prioritizes empowered individuals, Marxist, since it will have confined to the dustbin of history the division between capital and labor, and Keynesian, global Keynesian. But above all else, it is a world in which we will be able to imagine an authentic democracy..."

"Will such a world dawn? Or shall we descend into a Matrix-like dystopia? The answer lies in the political choice that we shall be making collectively. It is our choice, and we'd better make it democratically..."

With this concluding remark, Yanis has made it very clear that the World with an Authentic Democratic System Integrated in its Economic System is neither a daydream nor a political propaganda, unless it is strategised and implemented in fullest of the democratic values of the governing system... An extremely optimistic vision of the World that can be...! 

Way to go...