Pallikkutam February by james paul

Rajagiri Media Publication February 2013

Is the current educational system imparting life skills education? Foreign Universities are not here for charity

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Rebuilding Relations Discussion on family relationship

From Editor’s Desk

MAGAZINE ON EDUCATION VOLUME 1 ISSUE 2 FEBRUARY 2013

Managing Editor Dr. Varghese Panthalookaran CMI Editor James Paul Reports P. M. Maya Jeena James N.M Hussain Columns Mohan Ramamoorthy Dr Subitha G V Augustine Thottakkara Jose Thomas Manavalan Sonia Paul Art V. Jayalal

Printed and published by Rajagiri Media. Contact: Rajagiri Media, Rajagiri Valley P.O, Kakkanad, Kochi-39. Phone :+91 0484 2428249, 39. Extn : 232 Mail : editor@rajagirimedia.com

Catalyzing a Pallikkutam Revolution in Education Pallikkutam system of education is characterized by the integral formation of students to equip them for the perception and realization of his/her mission in the world. It stands in contrast to different modern education systems that aim at making students just employable. Pallikkutam endeavors to nurture leaders who are intellectually competent, spiritually mature, morally upright, psychologically integrated, physically healthy and socially acceptable, who champion just causes of others, and who are open to further growth. The students of Pallikkutams will naturally become employable in the process, and will additionally imbibe entrepreneurial skills nurtured by their “strive towards holistic excellence”. That the conduct of a Pallikkutam necessitates an equally unique ecosystem was foreseen by the early proponents of the system in the Christian context, under the leadership of Bl. Kuriakos Elias Chavara (1805-1871). Bl. Chavara insisted that students’ families equally equipped as their schools in order to create the appropriate context for imparting holistic excellence to the students. Both the text and the context of education need be rewritten according to requirements of holistic excellence of generations of students, he believed. The complete name of Bl. Chavara is “Kuriakos Elias of Holy Family”, the extension “of Holy Family” constantly reminding him of his all-important lifemission: Empowerment of Families. Let us also keep it a priority in developing the modern educational ecosystem. The education magazine “Pallikkutam” aims at catalyzing a Pallikkutam Revolution in Education. The stake-holders of this inspirational magazine are parents and teachers. The magazine aims at empowering parents and teachers so that they may transform the environment of both family and school into the suitable ecosystem for the integral formation of the students. It implements this task by building up a platform for both parents and teachers to “express, enrich and entertain”. The online version of the magazine will be made available in the www.pallikkutam.com at “Pallikkutam-the Cyber School” shortly.

CONTENTS

How to face your exams with confidence

Milky Way Kid

INTERVIEW

Cover story

29 Foreign Universities are not here for charity

Rebuilding relations

Interview with Brig (Dr) RS Grewal

Discussion on family relationships. Tips to improve relations

OPINION

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15 26 The plough or the pen? Dr. Soumyanetra Munshi 2

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CONTENTS

EXPERT TALK

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Number theory can popularise mathematics

43 My wife is great! Jose Thomas Manavalan

Is the current educational system imparting life skills education?

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Management Students, Know How to Get the Best Placements

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INSIGHTS

Why new teachers quit? Principal plays surprising role

hy do so many beginning teachers quit the profession or change schools? Surprising new research finds it’s not a heavy workload or lack of resources that has the most significant effect, but instead the relationship between teachers and their principal. Peter Youngs, associate professor of educational policy at Michigan State University and lead investigator on the study, said the findings reinforce the need for principals to serve as strong, supportive leaders in their schools. “The principal isn’t there just to help the novice teacher handle discipline and classroom management,” Youngs said. “What really makes a strong administrative climate is when the principal also knows the academic content well and can work with the beginning teacher on curriculum and instruction.”

Youngs and Ben Pogodzinski of Wayne State University surveyed 184 beginning teachers of grades 1-8 in 11 large school districts in Michigan and Indiana. Their study, published in Elementary School Journal, was prompted by the fact that nearly a third of teachers in their first two years either change schools or quit

The Aftermath of Calculator Use in College Classrooms

ath instructors promoting calculator usage in college classrooms may want to rethink their teaching strategies, says Samuel King, postdoctoral student in the University of Pittsburgh’s Learning Research & Development Center. King has proposed the need for further research regarding calculators’ role in the classroom after conducting a limited study with undergraduate engineering students published in the British Journal of Educational Technology. “We really can’t assume that calculators are helping students,” said King. “The goal is to understand the core concepts during the lecture. What we found is that use of calculators isn’t necessarily helping in that regard.” Together with Carol Robinson, coauthor and director of the Mathematics Education Centre at Loughborough University in England, King examined whether the inherent characteristics of the mathematics questions presented to students facilitated a deep or surface approach to learning. Using a limited sample size, they interviewed 10 second-year undergraduate students enrolled in a competitive engineering program. The students were given a number of mathematical questions related to sine waves— a mathematical function that describes a smooth repetitive oscillation—and were allowed to use calculators to answer them. More than half of the students adopted the option of using the calculators to solve the problem.

altogether. This can be particularly harmful to low-income urban schools that have trouble recruiting and retaining teachers, Youngs said. The study gauged novice teachers’ intent to remain teaching and the factors that might influence that decision. Youngs said he was surprised to learn the frequency with which novices met with their school-assigned mentor teachers did not make them more or less likely to continue teaching. In fact, the most important factor that influe nc e d c ommitme nt w a s t he beginning teacher’s perception of how well the school principal worked with the teaching staff as a whole. This was a stronger predictor of intent to remain teaching than having adequate resources, the amount of administrative duties the teacher had or the size of their workload.

UCSF discovery shows evolution at work in the laboratory

mother’s willingness to sacrifice her own health and safety for the sake of her children is a common narrative across cultures – and by no means unique to humans alone. Female polar bears starve, dolphin mothers stop sleeping and some spider moms give themselves as lunch for their crawly babies’ first meal. Now an unexpected discovery at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) shows that even yeast “mothers” do it, giving all to their offspring – even at the cost of their own lives. As described this week in the journal Science, the UCSF scientists found that the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae ensures the health of its budding offspring by pushing essential internal structures known as mitochondria into them.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

INSIGHTS

Church-going teens go further with school

or many American teens, the road to college goes through the chapel. Sociologists from Brigham Young University and Rice University found religiously-affiliated youth are 40 percent more likely to graduate high school than their unaffiliated peers and 70 percent more likely to enroll in college. The researchers note that teens’ fellow church-goers are an important factor, serving as mentors who help teens set their sights high. “Youth have a unique chance to form relationships with peers and mentors outside of their classroom at school or their neighborhood at home,” said Lance Erickson, the lead study author and a sociologist at BYU. “Mentors especially care for, counsel with and encourage youth throughout their growing years in a way that teachers and parents might not be able to.” Erickson and co-author James Phillips of Rice University studied data from more than 8,379 teens across the country. Some of their findings zeroed in on educational attainment by religious affiliations.Catholic teens, mainline Protestants and black Protestant congregations are twice as likely as unaffiliated teens to finish high school and about 80 percent more likely to enroll in college. Jewish and Mormon youths have the highest odds of graduating high school and college enrollment. Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints have long emphasized to youth the importance of higher education as a means of seeking truth and becoming self-reliant. And according to data gathered by the Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life, that message gets through to Latter-day Saint youth. The recent Pew data shows about one-third of LDS adults reared in the faith have graduated from college and another third have completed at least some college. By comparison, national data shows that 28 percent of Americans age 25 and above hold college degrees and 21 percent have completed some college.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Basketball teams offer insights into building strategic networks

hat started out as a project to teach undergraduate students about network analysis, turned into an in-depth study of whether it was possible to analyze a National Basketball Association (NBA) basketball team’s strategic interactions as a network. Arizona State University researchers discovered it is possible to quantify both a team’s cohesion and communication structure. The researchers’ findings appear in an online November issue of PLOS ONE. Jennifer Fewell, a professor in ASU’s School of Life Sciences in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and lead investigator on the project, explains that because teams are an integral part of both human and animal societies — understanding how a team’s interactions as a whole affect its success or failure is important. “We were able to come up with a hypothesis about strategy and then apply network analysis to that,” says Fewell. “Often, people simply create networks and then conduct descriptive analysis of them, but they don’t actually explain why they would expect an individual in a group to communicate the way they do. We take a different approach by suggesting that there are potentially successful ways to organize your team if you use this strategy then we should expect this network metric to show up as an indicator – sort of a proof of concept.”

CITYSCAPE

Clean City Suchithwa Bodhana Yajnam (SBY) 2010 -2025: A Clean Ernakulam District in 15 years movement for the people, by the people

The Yajnam is conceived by Renewable Energy Centre, Mithradham (www.mithradham.org ) the first fully solar educational institution in India, coordinated by Rajagiri Outreach of Rajagiri College of Social Sciences ( www.outreach.de ). Suchithwa Bodhana Yajnam (SBY) is a citizens’ movement intended to support the government initiatives to make Ernakulam, a clean district. Vision : Clean, Green and Healthy Ernakulam District in 15 years

Mission :

Involve committed individuals, institutions and organizations as core motivating agents to support the government’s CLEAN KERALA initiative so as to realize the vision in reality.

Actions:

Mobilize all people especially institutions, organizations, elders, students and children as motivators and actors to realize the vision of a clean district . Cleanliness is next to Godliness and is vital for a happy and healthy life. Some concrete actions that could be undertaken are given below:

1. Seek the support of all the government and local administration authorities and officials in your circle. Actively work with them to achieve the targets of the clean Kerala Mission. 2.Communicate and bring as many citizens, organizations, institutions as possible to this noble vision and mission. 3. Do whatever possible in your field of work to achieve a clean, green and healthy neighborhood. 4. Form action group with your neighbors and develop innovative concepts to activate all in the neighborhood. 5. Write articles in news papers, journals etc. on related subjects, especially suggesting concrete action plan that can be taken up by all. e.g. vegetable growing for the house by children and retirees which will improve the knowledge (intellect), health (body) and supply organic food to the family ( tasty food , saving money, hobby for elders). 6. Distribute information materials and meet the head of the institutions, associations etc. in your neighborhood. 7. Arrange classes and discussions in institutions with support of people who really practice these things in their lives.

8. Make educational institutions as motivating organizations in their localities. Environment clubs, nature clubs and NSS, NCC etc could be involved. Identify talented and practicing staff to lead the mission and to assist the head of the institution. 9. Arrange essay competitions in schools on topics such as “ suggestions for making your home a clean home including the road frontage of your house” 10.Organize competitions of various kinds in educational institutions, local bodies, samajams, parishes, family units, employees associations etc. to promote cleanliness, orderliness and environment friendly actions. 11.Click photos for publication in the magazines. (successful examples of citizens, institutions, associations, schools, teachers and students etc.) 12. Make stickers, printed T-shirts, printed tissue paper, paper cups, tea cups, glasses, plates with material helping for a clean, green and healthy life. 13. Spend one hour every week for discussions with your colleagues, co-workers and friends on topics related to environment and cleanliness leading to concrete action. 14.Create flower and vegetable gardens in your premises. Every one has a plant ( flower or vegetable) and credit given to the those who bring good results. Plant a tree on birth days. 15. Organize yearly campaigns in your township with placards such as “let us keep the roads clean” etc. 16. Consider actions for making an attractive neighborhood a mission of your life. 17. Do at least one such action today. You will find great joy in life and it will enrich your life and solve many of your present problems in ways you have never imagined. Take a step forward. Start today. Do not wait.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

NEWS

UK face drop in Indian students due Spoken Wikipedia now in 20 languages to stringent visa policy S B ritian’s stringent norms in student visa has resulted in decline of number of Indian students in higher education by nearly a quarter last year. Students from India coming to study at UK schools and universities fell by 23.5 per cent overall, including a 28 per cent drop at postgraduate level. Figures released by the Higher Education Statistics Agency yesterday show fewer than 30,000 students from India were studying at UK higher education institutions in 2011-12, compared with around 40,000 in the previous year. India, however, remains the second most common country of origin for foreign students in Britain after China, which sent 79,000 students last year. Universities have been warning the UK government that recent changes to student visa rules mean they face losing bright foreign students to rival colleges in the US, Canada and Australia.

Changes to the post-study work visa from April last year removed the option for most foreign students to stay and work for two years after their studies. Under new rules, students can stay for three years poststudy only if they find “graduate-level jobs” on salaries of BP 20,000 or higher. Last month, Home Secretary Theresa May had announced that consular staff would interview more than 100,000 prospective students in an

attempt to prevent bogus applicants entering the country. These developments have been seen as largely responsible for making Britain seem like a less welcoming educational destination. “It is essential that we have a period of stability on immigration policy for international students and that our immigration procedures do not create inappropriate barriers for international students who want to study here,” Nicola said.

poken Wikipedia to be available in 20 major Indian languages was launched at a summit held at Azam campus. The two-day summit organised by Wikipedia Club Pune (WCP) began on January 12 focusing on increasing quality content of Wikipedia and its sister projects.The club holds several workshops, activities and projects throughout the year where volunteers are encouraged to join and participate in its activities. “Spoken Wikipedia in Indian languages is a project undertaken by WCP to give a voice to Indian community and create a knowledge domain of information related to India and its languages through audio recordings of the articles (in various native Indian languages),” said Abhishek Suryavanshi,Director, Wikipedia summit.

CBSE call centre to bridge communication gap T he Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) has set up a dedicated call centre for handling routine queries and grievances pertaining to activities and functions of the Board. Students from various CBSEaffiliated schools, their parents, the school authorities and the public in general can obtain information of procedures/ rules and regulations of the Board, from the call centre. Aspirants and applicants for examinations like NEET, JEE and JNVST can benefit from the initiative, besides and recipients of

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

CBSE scholarship schemes and CBSE school alumni. CBSE officials said a dedicated team has been appointed to handle queries and grievances. CBSE, an autonomous organization under the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development, has more than 8,900 affiliates including all Kendriya Vidyalayas, all Jawahar Navodaya Vidyalayas, many private schools, a considerable number of the schools approved by the Central government, and certain schools located outside India.

NEWS

Universities to raise student tuition fees in 2013 More than half of universities are preparing to impose tuition fee rises next year amid fresh concerns over levels of student debt.

igures show that 64 out of 122 institutions plan to raise average costs for undergraduate degree courses starting in the autumn. Data published by the Government’s Office for Fair Access shows that universities in England are preparing to push up charges by as much as £900 per student. Experts claimed that some institutions had been forced to raise fees on popular courses to balance the books because of an overall slump in student demand nationally.Data submitted to the Office for Fair Access has shown that more than half of universities are to increase average fees in 2013. It is only the second year that universities have been given

powers to impose charges up to £9,000 for degree courses. In all, 94 universities are planning to charge the maximum amount for at least one course, compared with 82 a year earlier. Others imposing the largest average increases include Bournemouth, Chester, Derby,

Greenwich, Kingston, Salford, Westminster and the University of West London. Data also shows that some 43 universities are freezing their fees at 2012 levels and 15 are imposing cuts in prices.Most top universities, including members of the Russell Group,

already charge an average of almost £9,000 and charges will largely remain unchanged in 2013. The disclosure comes just days before the January 15 deadline to apply to degree courses through the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS).It is feared that students are already being put off higher education by rising fees. Data shows that demand was down by 18,000 – 6.3 per cent – in mid-December compared with the same point a year earlier. University leaders insisted that it was too early in the academic year to draw conclusions from the data and insisted that poorer students could rely on generous support packages to soften the blow of higher fees.

First medical college under SC-ST dept in Palakkad

oundation stone was laid for the first medical college under the Scheduled Caste-Scheduled Tribes Department here by Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy.Stating that this was the first medical college run by the SC-ST Department in the country, Chandy said the UDF government gave top priority to the health care and educational needs of backward areas in the state.He said the medical college would start functioning from the next academic year as attached to the district hospital here. The institution would be shifted to the new campus at KizhakkeYakkara after the work is completed there, he said.SC-ST Welfare Minister A P Anil

Kumar said the SC-ST Department had made an initial budgetary allocation of Rs 50 crore and a special allotment of Rs 5 crore by the government for developing the campus at the 78-acre campus.

670 colleges in Andhra to shut down 670 colleges in Andhra Pradesh will shut down from January 19, following a strike called by the Consortium of Engineering and Professional College Management’s Association demanding the state government to release pending funds.The state government has to release Rs 210 crore as part of the

pending arrears for the academic year 2011-12, under fee reimbursement scheme. Also, a total of Rs 2,000 crore has not yet been released as part of this year ’s reimbursement funds.“We have not paid the salaries of teachers since the past three months as funds were not released by the government.

We want the government to release the funds before January 19. Over 570 colleges which are currently charging Rs 35,000 per annum as fee have asked for a hike upto Rs 50,200. The government should consider this demand,” said Ramesh Nimmatoori, Chairperson of the Consortium.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

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Kpcp-Z£ - nW F¬.kn _p°v \ns‚ ASn-ÿm\ Pohn-Xt- c-Jb - mWv. AXn\v th≠n-sb-¶nepw \o ]Tn-°W - w.'' So®-dpsS \n¿_‘w sIm≠v Ah≥ kv°qfn¬ hs∂¶nepw ¢m n¬ Ib-dm≥ an\-s°-ń-√. Ifn-°f - a - m-bncp∂p Ahs‚ temIw. kvIqfn¬ h∂ Znh-k-ß-fnse√mw So®¿ A‰‚≥kv \¬In. Aßs\ hnPojv ]co- £ - s b- g p- X n. ""F\n°v Ct∏mgpw Adn- b n- √ , ae- b m- f - Ø n\v Ah\v Fßs\ C{X am¿°v Inń- s b- ∂ v . - R m≥ Ahs\ ]Tn- ∏ n- ® n- ´ n- √ . Ah≥ ¢m n¬ Ib- d n- b nń- √ .]s£ Ft∂m- S p≈ kv t \lw sIm≠mWv Ah≥ ae- b mfw ]Tn®- X v . SmIv k n ss{Uh- d m- W v . Ct∏mgpw Fs∂ ImWm≥ hcm- d p- ≠ v . '' So®¿ ]d™p. ^ntem-an\ So®¿ hyXy-kvX-bm-Ip-∂Xv Chn-sS-bmWv. \o thsW-¶n¬ ]Tn-®m¬ aXnsb∂v So®¿ Hcp hnZym¿∞n-tbmSpw ]d-™n-ń-√. X\n°v th≠n ]Tn°-Ws - a∂mWv So®¿ Ipń-It- fmSv Bh-iy-s∏-Sp-∂X - v. sslkv°q-fn¬ ]Tn-°p∂ {]mb-Øn¬ Ipń-Iƒ°v Pohn-XsØ ]‰n H∂pw Adn-bn-√. hnZym-`ymkw AXymh-iy-am-sW∂ Xncn-®d- n-hp-≠m-hp-tºm-tg-°pw ]Tn-°m\p≈ kabw Ign-™n-cn-°pw. Zmtam-Zc - ≥ kv°qfnse òI-c\ - m-bn-cp-∂p. tXmsfm∏w \oń-h-f¿Ønb apSn. So®- ¿ am¿s°√mw Ahs\ t]Sn- b m- b n- c p- ∂ p. Hcp Znhkw Ah≥ Fs‚ ]nt‰∂v apSn apdn®v Ah≥ Fs‚ apºn¬ h∂p. ""\∂mapºn¬ h∂p- s ]- ´ p. ""F¥mSm s]Æp- ß sf t]mse apSn \oń hf¿Øn- b n- c n- bn- c n- ° p- ∂ - t √m- . \o H∂p hoń- t e°v hmSm'' ¢m v hn´-tijw Ah≥ hoń¬ h∂p. {Iqc-s\∂pw òI°p- ∂ Xv ? \msf hcp- t ºmƒ apSn apdn- ® n´v hc- W w.'' c- s \∂pw So®¿amcpw Ipń- I fpw hnfn- ® n- c p∂ Ahs‚ lrZbw Rm≥ sXm´- d n- ™ p. A∏s‚ I≈p- I pSn aqew ¢m v hn´-tijw Ah≥ hoń¬ XI¿∂ IpSqw- _ w. A∏- t \m- S p≈ tZjyw sIm≠v h∂p.{Iqc-s\∂pw òI-c-s\∂pw Ahs‚ N¶v IØp- I - b m- b n- c p- ∂ p. ""F´mw ¢m n¬ ]TnSo®¿amcpw Ipń- I fpw hnfn- ® n°p∂ Fs‚ s]ßƒ°v Hcp-tPmUn IΩ¬ hmßnsImSp°m≥ Ign- h n√mØ Bß- f - b mWv So®sd Rm≥'' F∂v cp∂ Ahs‚ lrZbw Rm≥ ]d™v Ah≥ Fs‚ apºn- e n- c p∂v s]mń- I - c - ™ p. sXm´-dn-™p. A∏s‚ I≈p-IpSn So®¿ Ah\v Pohn- X sØ Ipdn®v ]pXnb {]Xo- £ - I ƒ aqew XI¿∂ IpSpw-_w.A∏-t\m\¬In. A—- t \mSv £an- ° m≥ D]- t Z- i n- ® p. So®- d ns‚ hoSn- t \mSv tN¿∂p≈ Nmbv ] n- e n- c p∂v sshIp- t ∂- c - ß Sp≈ tZjyw sIm≠v Ahs‚ fn¬ ]Tn- ® p. A≤ym- ] - I cpw \m´p- I mcpw So®sd IfnN¶v IØp-I-bm-bn-cp-∂p. ""F´mw bm°n. ¢m n¬ ]Tn- ° p∂ Fs‚ ""Zmtam-Z-c≥ \∂m-Ip-Itbm?'' So®- d n\v ]s£ {]Xo- £ - b p- ≠ m- b n- c p- ∂ p.- dnkƒ´v h∂ s]ßƒ°v Hcp- t PmUn IΩ¬ A∂v cmhnse Bdv aWn°v So®¿ ]≈n-bn¬ t]mIm-\n-dß - n. hmßnsImSp-°m≥ Ign-hn√mØ At∏m-gmWv ASp-Øp≈ ]mc-e¬ tImtf-Pn¬ shfn®w I≠Bß- f - b mWv So®sd Rm≥'' Xv. ]mc¬ tImtfPv A≤ym-]-I≥ Xte-cm{Xn Xncp-h-\-¥-]pcØv t]mbn Fkv. Fkv.-F¬. knbpsS dnkƒ´pambn h∂nF∂v ]d™v Ah≥ Fs‚ apºncn-°p-I-bm-Wv. So®¿ Ahn-tS°v sN∂p. en-cp∂v s]mń-I-c-™p. ""Cu \º¿ H∂v t\m°nt° kmtd'' ""So®-dnsS aIs‚bmtWm?'' ""A√ Zmtam-Zc - s‚''

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Kpcp-Z£nW ]mc-e¬ tItfPv A≤ym-]-I≥ A¤p-XtØmsS t\m°n. So®- d psS aI\pw As°m√w Fkv.-F-kv. F¬. kn Fgp-Xnbn-cp-∂p. kz¥w aI-t\bpw hnZym¿∞ntbbpw B \nanjw thdn´v ImWm≥ So®¿°v Ign-™n-√. Xs‚ aI\v kvt\lap≈ Hcp A∏\pw AΩ-bp-ap-≠v. Zmtam-Zct\m? Ah≥ Pbn-®p. XpS¿∂pw Zmtam-Z-cs\ So®¿ klm-bn-®p.- _n n-\ v XpS-ßm≥ ]Ww \¬In. C∂v At±lw CwKvf-≠n¬ Dt±ym- K - ÿ - \ m- W v . Ah- [ n°v hcp- t ºmsg√mw IpSpw-_ - ambn So®sd ImWm≥ hcpw. ]cm-Pb - s - ∏´p t]mIp-am-bn-cp∂ Hcp-]mSv PohnX-ßsf So®¿ ssI]n- S n®v Db¿Øn- b n´p≠v . Hcp kv t \l kv ] ¿iw sIm≠v PohnXw am‰n adn-°-s∏-´-h¿. ae-bm-f-amWv So®-dpsS hnjbw. ]s£ So®¿ Ahsc ]Tn-∏n-®Xv Pohn-X-Øns‚ ]mT-ß-fm-bn-cp∂p. \mev aWn°v kv°qƒ hn´mepw Hcp-aWn-°q¿ IqSn Ahsc ¢m n-en-cpØpw. B ka-bØv Ah¿°v CjvS-ap≈ hnjb-ßƒ ]Tn-°mw. ]mh-s∏´ hoSp-I-fn¬ \n∂pw hcp∂ Ipń- I - f m- W v . hoń¬ sN∂m¬ Ah¿°v ]Tn-°m≥ kabw Inń√. AXp-sIm-≠mWv Hcp aWn-°q¿ IqSn Hcp kv t \l kv ] ¿iw sIm≠v PohnXw am‰n adn- ° - s ∏- ´ kv°qfn-en-cp-Øp-∂-Xv. Cu ]cn-jv°mcw h¿. ae- b m- f - a mWv So®- d psS hnjbw. ]s£ So®¿ Ahsc a‰v A≤ym-]-I¿°n-jvS-s∏-ń-√. ¢m v ka- ]Tn- ∏ n- ® Xv Pohn- X - ] mT- ß - f m- b n- c p- ∂ p. bw Ign™v Hcp aWn-°q¿ IqSn kv°qfn¬ Nne-h-gn-°m≥ B¿°mWv XmXv]cyw? So®-dpsS So®- d ns\ tXm¬∏n® Ipń- I - f m- s c- ¶ n- e pw......? ¢m nse dnkƒ´v I≠-t∏m-gmWv Ah-cpsS IÆp Xpd-∂- tNmZyw tI´v So®¿ Nncn- ® p. Pohn- X - Ø ns‚ ]co- £ - b n¬ Xv. So®¿s°∂pw \qdp- a m¿°v . Iqń- I ƒ°v th≠n PohnXw ]Tn-°mØ Ipń-Isf Ipdn®v ]cmXn ]d-bm≥ hcp∂ amXm- Dgn-™p-h-®-t∏mƒ So®-dpsS a°fpsS `mhn tim`-\-am-bn. ]n-Xm-°-∑m-cp-≠v. Xpºnsb sIm≠v Is√-Sp-∏n-°-cp-sX-∂mWv ]Tn-∏n® Ipń-Isf Btcbpw So®¿ ad-∂n-√. apºn¬ h∂v So®-dpsS A`n-{]m-bw. Ign-hn-\-∏p-dØv t\´-ß-fp-≠m-°m≥ Nncn- ° p∂ Hmtcm apJ- ß - f n- t e°pw kq£n®v t\m°n Ipń-Isf \n¿_-‘n-°-cp-Xv. sF≥Ãos‚ a°-sfm-∂p-a- t]cpw, ]Tn® h¿jhpw, Ccp∂ _©pw, e`n® am¿°pw √t√m? \nßƒ°v Ign-bm-ØXv \nß-fpsS a°ƒ t\S-W- So®¿ ]d- b pw. AXn\v Hm¿Ω- b psS ]pkv X Iw adn®v sa∂v hmin ]nSn-°-cp-Xv. t\mt°-≠-Xn-√. kvt \lw sIm≠v Xncp- Øm- \ m- hmØ Pohn- X- ß -f n-s √∂v A{X \n›- b w. ]Tn® Ipń- I ƒ°pw Aßs\ Xs∂. So®¿ hniz-kn-°p-∂p. C\n-sbmcp P∑w IqSn Inń-bmepw So®sd I≠p- a p- ´ n- b n- √ m- b n- c p- ∂ p- s h- ¶ n¬ Xß- f psS Cu tPmen Xs∂ Xc-W-ta-sb-∂mWv {]m¿∞-\. tPmen-bn¬ PohXw as‰m- ∂ m- I p- a m- b n- c p- ∂ p- s h∂ Xncn- ® - d n- h m- W v , \n∂v hnc-an-®p. ho≠pw ho≠pw So®- d psS ASp- t Ø°v aS- ß n- h - c m≥ hn{ia Pohn- X - a m- W v . F∂n´pw A≤ym- ] - \ - t Øm- S p≈ Ahsc t{]cn- ∏ n- ° p- ∂ - X v . Ah- c psS a\- n¬ AΩIºw Xocp- ∂ n- √ . k¿°m¿ A\p- h - Z n- ® m¬ ]Tn- ∏ n- ° m≥ bv s °m∏w kv a cn- ° - s ∏- S p∂ t]cmWv ^ntem- a n\ So®Xøm¿. AXn\v i_fw Xtc-≠. Hcp {]Xn-^-ehpw th≠. dptSXv.- ImeØn\v ambv°m-\m-hmØ kvt\lm-£c - ß - fmWv Ipń- I sf Ipdn®v ]d- b p- t ºmƒ So®¿°v \qdp \mhm- W v . So®¿ Ah-cpsS lrZ-bØ - n-se-gp-XnbXv. Ah-cn¬ Db-c-ßƒ Iog-S-°n-b-h-cp-≠v. Pohn-X-tØmSv ]Sshń Xf¿∂-h-cp-≠v. F{X ]d-™mepw XocmØ kt¥m- (ChnsS D]-tbm-Kn-®n-cn-°p∂ t]cp-Iƒ bYm¿∞-a√ - ) j- Ø n- s ‚bpw k¶- S - Ø n- s ‚bpw PohnX IY- I ƒ.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

INTERVIEW

Foreign Universities are not here for charity Brig (Dr) RS Grewal

Chitkara University is a new university, what are the major areas you want to focus on? Brig (Dr) RS Grewal is presently serving as the Vice Chancellor of Chitkara University. Dr Grewal, joined the National Defence Academy in 1963 and was commissioned into the Corps of Engineers of the Indian Army in 1967. After retiring from the Army in 2002, he joined the Manipal Group. His more than 40 years of service includes proven track record of managing training institutions both in the Army and in the Universities. He has been the Director of Sikkim Manipal Institute of Technology. Later he was the Pro-Vice Chancellor of Sikkim Manipal University and also the first Director of ICICI Manipal Academy. Dr Grewal has been the Chief Engineer of a Project in the prestigious Border Roads Organisation in eastern India in a terrain that is considered a logisticians nightmare. His services were recognized by the President of India by the award of coveted Vishisht Sewa Medal. Dr Grewal shares his views about the higher education sector in India, in an exclusive Interview. Excerpts:

Dr Grewal: At the outset, I must mention that Chitkara University is a State Private University and has been sponsored by a family of educationists. Thus, the ethos in its operational philosophy is different. We have realized that in the present era of knowledge economy the emphasis has to shift from teaching ‘what to think’ to ‘how to think’. The former basically relies on content whereas the latter tries to encourage learning by curiosity and fosters critical thinking. A major challenge in achieving that objective is to have faculty with the requisite skill-sets. But majority of the members of the faculty are a product of teachercentric and examination-centric system. Thus, our major job is to mould the faculty to meet the new challenges.This type of change cannot be brought by delivering lectures to the faculty but has to be inculcated by regular intensive practice under the guidance of mentor professors, a category of personnel that is difficult to find. Thus, we have to rely on ICT and human resources from reputed universities in India and abroad. We are also, apart from focusing on enhancing the skill-sets of faculty, paying considerable attention to pedagogy. We realize that the emphasis has shifted from a typically verbal approach of 1960s and the visual approach of 1980s to the present era virtual model. The students now prefer to learn by doing and this process gets a boost if electronic gadgetry is incorporated into the learning process. Thus, project based learning and incorporation of internet-based techniques and MOODLE form an integral part of our pedagogy.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

INTERVIEW What have been the major initiatives taken since you have joined as the Vice Chancellor? Dr Grewal: The faculty development and relevant pedagogy are the two cornerstones of our operational strategy. My main focus has been on conducting faculty development programmes within the University and also deputing faculty to attend similar programmes being run by other reputed organizations like Mission 10X of WIPRO and IUCEE (Indo US collaboration for Engineering Education). Professors from reputed universities abroad have been hired to guide research work being undertaken by our faculty. Efforts have also been made to ensure that our curricula for various courses are industry relevant and that we deliver these in a meaningful way. Specific modules that help students to find easy assimilation in their first assignments in the industry have been incorporated in to the curricula. In addition, Industry Oriented Hands-on Courses form an integral part of our syllabi. Paying attention to development of soft skills has been another area on which we have worked. In addition, we have gone in for collaboration with foreign universities. In that we have been selective and have tried to ensure that we collaborate with reputed universities and that the collaboration results in a twoway process. We tried to collaborate with some leading Indian universities but without any success. We Indians still have to realize the importance of knowledge sharing.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

What are the new areas you would like to tap in the field of research and education for your university? Dr Grewal: We must realize that the 20th century saw the manufacturing and the services sectors bloom. The 21st century would belong to the development of life-sciences. Unfortunately, the Indian academia has not been able to give life sciences the importance they deserve. Some of the reasons for this state of affairs are: firstly, lack of response from the students who, with an eye on the job market still prefer to go in for â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;traditionalâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; programmes; secondly, the study of life sciences requires setting up of very expensive laboratories and the investors do not seem to be keen to venture into these. The development process in different domains has brought in some unintended consequences resulting in degradation of ecology. The academia would do well to pay attention to those. Moreover, the Indian academia has largely ignored the study of liberal arts that are so important for the well being of a society. We need to pay attention to that aspect. After all, profit should not be the sole motive for research and education in our institutions of higher learning.

You are from an Army background, how do you look at your role as a Vice Chancellor in a university as compared to one of the senior level positions in Indian Army? Dr Grewal: That is a very interesting question; sadly, the common perception in Indian society is that education and the Army are two diverse entities. Not many people are aware that the most successful adult education programme (you may call it continuing education programme) in the country is conducted by the Army. Lifelong learning forms an integral part of training in the Army. Moreover, I can say with a firm conviction that Army is the only institution in this country where the best person is selected to be a teacher and, unlike the national

INTERVIEW trend where teaching profession is the last choice of job seekers, anyone assigned the role of a teacher in the Army considers it to be an honour and that person is held in high esteem by the Services community. Coming from that background it was not very difficult for me to adapt myself to the new role. Moreover, I had been teaching at some of the prestigious institutions like the College of Military Engineering, Pune and the Defence Services Staff College, Wellington. Institutions of higher learning in the Army are as good as the top educational institutions in the country.

Tell us something about your university’s collaboration with other higher education in India as well as abroad? Dr Grewal: As explained earlier, we have entered in to collaborations with a number of reputed universities from the developed countries. We have tried to ensure that the faculty and student exchange is a twoway process. To that extent we have had some success. We have been able to convince some foreign universities to collaborate with us in research activities. At present, that involves teaching our faculty on how to carry out research. Thus, we have hired some mentor professors. We have had limited success in collaboration with Indian universities. The main reason for that state of affairs is the institution of a ‘caste system’ in our higher education sector. Our regulatory bodies are mainly responsible for spawning that culture.

Please remember that not all public universities in India are doing a good job and not all private universities are there to make money. The trend in the country is to paint all with the same brush.

How do you look at the entry of foreign higher education institutions in India? Is it a threat to private universities here? Dr Grewal: Universities in developed countries are facing a very severe fund crunch. They are now looking for avenues to sustain their operations. That is why so many foreign universities have entered into collaborations with Indian universities. We must realize that they are not here for charity. Thus, our endeavor

should be to enter into collaborations that result in two-way exchange of faculty, students and knowledge sharing. On the other hand, we must not ignore that diversity is the corner stone of knowledge management in good universities. Thus, we should allow the entry of

foreign universities in to our country but should safeguard our interests. Our universities have not been able to develop a research culture. We should learn that from foreign universities. Our regulatory bodies and the Government should keep such aspects in mind while formulating the policies.

What are your views about the international rankings, in which none of the Indian What are your future universities could figure even among the top plans for the 200? university? Dr Grewal: There is a wide spread view that international ranking system is very subjective Dr Grewal: From just one but it still has some value. Indian institutions institution to two universities of higher learning lag behind because of the – our group has seen poor quality of research. We are all aware of phenomenal rise in the last this fact. But no serious and pragmatic effort decade. We are now in a has been launched to remedy the situation. consolidation phase. Moreover, There are numerous institutions of higher in order to ensure quality we learning and also government-funded have voluntarily put a cap on research establishments which get huge grants the total number of students in universities. We would like but have little to show that could qualify as our to concentrate on quality. To good quality research. There is no that extent our future plans accountability. Till the time we start paying revolve around improving the attention to research activities and develop standard of research and an environment of research-culture in our venturing into new emerging universities we would continue to lag behind. domains. Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

OPINION

The plough or the pen? L Dr. Soumyanetra Munshi Assistant Professor, IIM Bangalore

Dr. Soumyanetra Munshi , Ph.D. in Economics from Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey, USA is currently an Assistant Professor in the Economics and Social Sciences Area at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore. Alumni of renowned Presidency College, Kolkata she has done M.S. in Q.E. (Master of Science in Quantitative Economics), from Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata. In six years of academic career, she has also worked as an Instructor in Rutgers University’s Department of English and Economics besides taking up projects as a research assistant. Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

et us go back in time to about 4,000 to 6,000 BC in Mesopotamia, the cradle of civilization. The plough was just getting introduced. Fernand Braudel, the famous historian writes, “Until now, women had been in charge of the fields and gardens where cereals were grown: everything had depended on their tilling the soil and tending the crop. Men had been first hunters, then herdsmen. But now men took over the plough, which they alone were allowed to use. At a stroke … there would be a shift away from the reign of the all-powerful mother goddesses... and towards the male gods and priests who were predominant in Sumer and Babylon. Developments were longterm: domestication of large animals like asses and oxen, followed by horses and camels took centuries and was accompanied with a move towards male domination of society and its beliefs, from a queen resembling the Earth Mother to a king resembling Jupiter…”. Ester Boserup (1970) originally put forward this hypothesis in her seminal book “Woman’s Role in Economic Development”. She argued that to understand cross-cultural differences in attitudes about female labor force participation, one needs to reach back into history and examine differences in primitive agricultural technologies. She contrasts shifting cultivation (called jhoom cultivation in India) to plough cultivation. With shifting cultivation, which is labor intensive and does not use the plough, women do most of the agricultural work. By contrast, plough cultivation requires more strength to manipulate the plough and

OPINION the animals that pull the plough. Because this requires great muscular strength or quick burst of energy, men have a relative advantage in this activity. In addition, the use of the plough also leaves less need to weeding, a task which is typically undertaken by women and children. Finally, it is also the case that plough agriculture is less compatible with child care than hoe agriculture. Child care is most compatible with activities that do not require concentration, do not put the child in danger, and can be stopped and resumed easily - characteristics that are true for hoe agriculture but not for animal plough agriculture. Because child care is universally undertaken by women, this is another reason why women have a comparative disadvantage in plough agriculture relative to men. Whatever the specific mechanisms at play and the relative importance of each, the fact is that in plough-societies men tend to dominate agricultural work, while women primarily engage in home production and other activities that occur within the household. Interestingly enough, Boserup maintains that this division of roles persisted even after a country moved out of agriculture: factory work appears to be avoided by married women in many part of the developing world and there is considerable evidence that this social norm is widely accepted. The correlation with female employment appears to be strong. For example, in India, Boserup says, “. . . the regional distribution of women’s industrial employment has changed considerably in favour of the South. It was seen that women are much more active in agriculture in Southern India than in the North. This pattern

is now seen to be repeated in the modern industrial sector.” Again consider the majority of the tribal population in the north-eastern hilly states of the country where jhoom cultivation is practiced. In Meghalaya, for example, there is prevalence of a matrilineal system where lineage and inheritance are traced through women, where the youngest daughter inherits all the property and acts as the caretaker of aged parents and any unmarried siblings. And according to India’s National Family Health Survey, Meghalaya is the state where parents have shown the least interest to have a male child— 73% less than the national average. Just a coincidence? Norway was ranked first by the World Economic Forum in 2008 in its gender gap index and ranks highly in other measures of economic and political gender equality. It has been described as a “haven for gender equality”. Isn’t it interesting and

So what historians and anthropologists argue is that this apparently exogenous factor - that of agricultural practices arising from equally exogenous variations in terrain, soil, clime - has, to a large extent, laid the foundations of cultural differences, especially with

suggestive to note that female labor force participation today is the highest in Europe in Northern European countries (like Norway) and their original ethnic group was one of the few who did not adopt the plough historically in Western Europe?

respect to gender roles. In a nutshell, this is a case of geography, leading to agriculture, leading to culture. We know cultural differences persist, but this theory explains the difference in the first place. Or does it?

Child care is most compatible with activities that do not require concentration, do not put the child in danger, and can be stopped and resumed easily - characteristics that are true for hoe agriculture but not for animal plough agriculture. Because child care is universally undertaken by women, this is another reason why women have a comparative disadvantage in plough agriculture relative to men. Harvard University Economics professors Alberto Alesina and Nathan Nunn, along with Paolo Guiliano, professor of Economics at the University of California Los Angeles, set out to see if this was indeed true. Female labor force participation has increased strongly in many countries in the last few decades and proximate causes of this dramatic change have been extensively examined. However large cross-country differences still persist and remain very important. In fact, the vast majority of the variation, almost 70%, in female labor force participation across countries and over time between 1980 and 2008 is explained by differences across countries in cultural norms about the perception of women in society. What causes such differences, to begin with? Their answer seems to be, like historians and anthropologists, strangely enough – the plough! Even though plough has greatly dwindled in its usage, people have migrated, the world has progressed technologically in leaps and bounds, the plough

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

OPINION still seems to wield its power. The authors look at behaviors and perceptions among US immigrants, who face the same kind of environment and institutions and conclude that cultural differences (gender inequalities) still persist in a big way. They find a strong and robust negative relationship between the historic use of the plough and female labor force participation as well as gender role attitudes. This, then, no longer is a belief. No longer is a stylized fact. This is hardcore empirical evidence! For example, again anthropologists suggest that difference in agricultural technology (plough!) also leads to different organizations of marriage. In areas with shifting technologies women are an asset for men who pay a price for them. In fact polygamy is common since the first wife welcomes other helpers in the field and at home. In plough intensive cultivation instead the wife’s family pays a dowry to marry their daughter and polygamy is rare. The plough then is behind the origins of dowry. But what happens when society evolves? Men start industrializing, education spreads, and modernization spreads?And education surely has spread in India. Child education is mandatory and literacy has spread to approximately two thirds of the population. India’s improved education system is often cited as one of the main contributors to the economic rise of India. Of course, challenges remain, so that 35% of India’s population is still illiterate, only 15% of Indian students reach high school, and just 7% graduate. Moreover there are concerns over the quality of education. So of course, the reach of education is still to be broadened

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Dowry is prevalent more among the ‘new rich’ and educated sections than it is otherwise. Again, this is strong statistical evidence! And dowry practice is just one aspect of deeper gender inequalities prevailing in society. Understandably, the liberalizing contribution of education that Gandhi and Tagore hoped for, contributes approximately 30% in ultimate decisions and actions of individuals, while a whopping 70% would be a complicated morass of inherited perceptions. significantly. But consider the handful that are privileged enough to be among the educated lot. How different are they likely to be and behave when making significant life decisions? Gandhi, for one, thought education to be the harbinger of change. He wrote in Young India in 1928, “Any young man who makes dowry a condition of marriage discredits his education and his country and dishonours womankind”. In the same year, Mahatma Gandhi explicitly wrote that change could only be brought about by the educated youth. Education, he held would be the great equalizer that would also mark the beginning of reforms and eradication of social maladies.

Rabindranath Tagore held education to be a gem, a precious stone, and culture to be the radiance or glow emanating from it. However if modern empirical evidence was anything to go by, their ideas, till now has been quixotic, in the sense that more education hasn’t really led to changes or betterment of cultural perceptions and norms that ought to have been redressed. In other words, more education has not translated into better values. Economics Professor Sonia Dalmia finds that statistically, education of the grooms increase the price he can command in the marriage market, while education of the girls, has no real impact on dowries as such. So if anything,

education seems to be exacerbating the gender inequalities rather than bridging differences. “Education, instead of acting as a change-mover, is becoming a catalyst for dowry practices. By and large, dowry is prevalent more among the ‘new rich’ and educated sections than it is otherwise”. Again, this is strong statistical evidence! And dowry practice is just one aspect of deeper gender inequalities prevailing in society. Understandably, the liberalizing contribution of education that Gandhi and Tagore hoped for, contributes approximately 30% in ultimate decisions and actions of individuals, while a whopping 70% would be a complicated morass of inherited perceptions. The pen may be mightier than the sword but empirical evidence seems to suggest that for now, the plough may be mightier than the pen! This indeed is rather perturbing. I, like others, would want to believe that things are in our hands, but I also believe that any hope to reverse or even check trends must begin from a humble acknowledgment of what is. Given how deep-trenched the influence seems to be, we must realize that any change, whatever it is, is bound to be very slow and time-taking. If it has taken centuries to change perceptions induced by the plough by 30%, one can imagine how long it might take to fully alter it. But the good news is that there has been change, no matter how small it is, and all we need to do is help that stay and grow. Gandhi was prescient in what he thought, just that he may have had a different time frame in mind, while the real one may be much longer before his hopes might come to fruition. I, for one, also do not doubt that education must have a very

OPINION important role to play in bringing this change. How? One of the steps might be to make education more valuebased, make it in a much more broader and inclusive, rather than just thinking of it in terms of grades, formal degrees, and vocation. A way to start would be to add explicit elements of social and moral responsibility within the educational curriculum of young people right at the school level. For example, some schools have ‘moral science’ classes, where basic values and principles of sharing, humane treatment of others, honesty etc. are imparted through class enactment of s k i t s , discussions, and debates. Often, social services and o t h e r charitable activities are built in to the academic curriculum of students. The whole point is to m a k e education more holistic, so that it embodies greater aspects of social awareness and responsibility explicitly, than might be expected in the form of indirect benefits from a purely performance-centred approach. Think of ‘The School for Sympathy’ by E.V. Lucas. Miss Beam, the proprietor, quite candidly says to the author, “we don’t as a matter of fact do much teaching here… The real aim of the school is not so much to instill thought as thoughtfulness – humanity, citizenship. That is the ideal I

have always had, and happily there are parents good enough to trust me to try and put it into execution.” She goes on to explain her methods. “In order to get a real appreciation and understanding of misfortune into these young minds we make them participants in misfortune too. In the course of the term every child has one blind day, one lame day, one deaf day, one maimed day, one dumb day. During the blind day their eyes are bandaged absolutely, and it is a point of honor not to peep. The bandage is put on overnight; they wake up blind. This means that they need

have themselves undergone those misfortunes. He himself emerges ‘ten times more thoughtful’. Remember, not separate schools for the blind, or those for the deaf and dumb. This is a school for the fully able-bodied about lessons in blindness and other misfortunes that they are not directly afflicted with, but others in the society might be suffering from. This school is not about instilling sympathy but rather empathy. And of course, that there are parents good enough to let Miss Beam try her methods. This is the kind of approach that I think

and processes are summarily due in our education system. Otherwise, all evidences point in the same direction – the overwhelming, overriding effect of the plough that makes cultural change through education a chimera! A power that defies technology, defies democracy, defies education. The almost-allpervading subtle, sure but very strong bondages and dictates of culture – something that originated centuries before our times. The plough in fact, seems like ‘the ring’ of the Lord of the Rings of J.R.R. Tolkien. Just like ‘the ring’ wields a power and a will of its own and wants

assistance in everything, and other children are told off to help them and lead them about. It is educative to both of them – the blind and the helpers.” “There is no privation about it”, she continued. “Everyone is very kind, and it is really something of a joke, although, of course, before the day is over the reality of the affliction must be apparent even to the least thoughtful.” The author finds out that the children are really more sensitive to the needs and sufferings of others, when they

must be cultured for education to really get reflected in our day-to-day living. Education, in short, to be a vehicle of change, must be utilized as a means for instillation of basic moral values, rather than just an end. I guess that is what Gandhi and Tagore meant by education. It is more of a prerogative of education specialists to device methods of making education more out-reaching in its scope, and I will not dwell on that, but all I want to emphasize is that, some inclusion of such thoughts

to be found, has a currency of its own and finds its own sustenance, so does culture. One wonders if Tolkien actually had something like the plough in mind, that the ‘dark powers’ tend to propagate for their own selfish ends, and which surely finds ‘bearers’. The question is whether education can impart enough strength to the Frodo Bagginses in the world who could and would tide against the power of ‘the ring’ for the good of the world.

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PERSONAL

How to face your exams with confidence Dr. Kannan Gireesh I am a Class XI student and find it difficult to sleep the day before my exams. Moreover, when I enter the examination hall, I don’t feel confident. Kindly advise. Firstly, don’t ever think of taking any antianxiety or sedative pill that are commonly available at home. Secondly, you can do a simple exercise — breathe slowly and deeply, for about four-five minutes, threefour times a day. It would be better to do this before the exam. Good amount of oxygen intake will definitely promote a good memory. Next, don’t try to cram too much in the last minute. You are not supposed to revise the whole subject 12 hours prior to the exam. You should make bullet points of every chapter a day before exam. Also, it is common to either over-eat or starve during exams, which is wrong. Spicy and salty food before the exams can lead to a lot of sluggishness. Green leafy vegetables, fruits, salads and pulses should be encouraged instead. Small meals prior to the exam will help you to be more awake during the exam. Sleep properly before the exam. Lastly, communicating with family members is very important. Don’t forget to sit across the dining table and share a few moments of togetherness with your family and discuss things which are not related to your exams. Repeat the same before leaving the house on the day of the exam. Don’t think that you can go through the whole book in one minute while standing outside the examination hall. This can be disastrous, as the anxiety will make you feel amnesic about the whole subject. Rather, going to the examination hall with a blank mind is a good sign. It means that you know whatever you have internalised and you are going there without anticipating what is going to come in the exam. At least five-six hours of sleep before the exam is essential. Have your meal a little early in the evening. You can also have a midnight snack.

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I am a third-year marine engineering student. I feel that the course is very stressful and demanding, as a result of which I cannot focus on studies. I feel pressurised by my family to perform. Please help. Marine engineering is a tough course and also a very demanding profession to pursue. You really need to be mentally and physically prepared to face the demands of the programme effectively. It is designed this way to bring out the best in you. Focus on the current priorities with vigor. All other distractions can wait. Try not to get too involved in family matters.

Dr Kannan Gireesh is a Chennai-based consultant psychiatrist, psychotherapist and counsellor. Students can send their queries to editor@rajagirimedia.com

NOTES ON CREATIVITY-2

Foal Kick “Aristotle has kicked me, as foals do their mothers when they are born”!

ristotle was just seventeen years old as he joined Plato’s Academy, the group of “Friends”, as the members of Academy preferred to describe them. He continued in Plato’s academy for twenty more years. Impressed by Aristotle’s penetrating intellect, Plato used to describe him as the “Mind of the School”. Later on, Aristotle made an excellent career as tutor of the young Alexander the Great. With the favors of emperor Philip of Macedon, the father of Alexander the Great, he also established a school of his own. He developed own philosophy, as distinct from that of his teacher. According to Diogenes Laertius, Aristotle abandoned part of Platonic philosophy while the latter was still alive. This alerted Plato, who remarked: “Aristotle has kicked me, as foals do their mothers when they are born”. Aristotle perhaps did not lose his personal regard for Plato. But in his later writings he never mentions Plato, except to refute his doctrines. He wanted to be original and completely his own. Alas, Aristotle rendered Plato, his teacher, a ‘foal kick’!

Dr. Varghese Panthalookaran CMI

Is Plato kicked out?

On a deeper analysis it could be seen that good intuition originates from years of consolidated knowledge and experience.

Aristotle is known today as the Father of Modern Science, while Plato is often called the Father of Modern Mysticism. Aristotle was convinced that Platonic method of intuitive thinking is fatal to science, while Plato knew that Aristotelian method of purely logical thinking destroys foundations of mysticism. Aristotle is the father of logic and considered reason as man’s only means of knowledge. Plato, on the other hand, argued for intuitive knowledge accessible especially to the “initiated”. He promoted dialectical reasoning. In the modern parley, Aristotle could be considered champion of Linear Thinking, where as Plato champions Lateral Thinking. Aristotle gave importance to logical, deductive and inductive reasoning, where as Plato laid emphasis on dialectical reasoning and intuition. Both linear and lateral thinking generate new and useful knowledge. Both source wisdom. Plato is never kicked out!

examples and general principles are derived from specific facts. It involves certain amount of guess-work. Inductive reasoning is often probabilistic; it only states that, given the premises, the conclusion is probable. For example: 50% of humans are males. Joe is a human. Therefore, the probability that Joe is a maile is Inductive Reasoning Inductive reasoning is “bottom-up” logic: Here 50%. general conclusions are drawn from particular

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

NOTES ON CREATIVITY-2 Another example: All known life forms need oxygen to survive. Therefore, if we discover a new life form it will probably depend on oxygen to survive.

Deductive Reasoning Deductive reasoning, on the other hand, is “top-down” logic. Here specific conclusions are derived from general propositions. Syllogisms are generally used for deductive reasoning. Examples: All apples are fruits. All fruits grow on trees, Therefore, all apples grow on trees. God created everything, including human beings. Johnny is a human being, Hence, Johnny is also created by God. Deductive reasoning works also without systematic syllogisms. For example: Every day I go to school. The journey from my home to my school takes one hour. My school starts at eight o’ clock in

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Both linear thinking of Aristotle and lateral thinking of Plato provide insights into the noumena, the core of truth. Platonic reasoning could in fact complement Aristotelian reasoning. They are but two sides of the same coin. Together they give a better view of the process of “knowing”. the morning. So, if I leave my home at seven o’ clock in the morning, I will reach school in time.

Intuitive Reasoning Intuitive thinking doesn’t use rational processing of facts or data. It is a rather sporadic instance that occurs like “lightning” in the mind. It is Platonic “direct view of truth”. On a deeper analysis it could be

seen that good intuition originates from years of consolidated knowledge and experience. Intuitive thinking may be explained based on modern insights into the way how human brain functions. The human brain operates through very complicated processes. Only a small portion of these electrochemical fireworks could be controlled by conscious mind. Major portion of such processes are triggered from the unconscious mind. They remain hidden. Hence, we get the feeling that we apparently have “direct view of truth”. Intuition is essential to creative thinking. Those who excel in intuitive thinking excel in creative thinking also. Intuitive power of a person is decisive to his/her creative power. Creative people are just like “seers”, who “see” the truth directly. They perceive truth directly and express it uniquely. Interestingly, even counterintuitive thinking may lead to creative conclusions. Consider the following example, a common statement oft heard at stock market strategy: “Buy low and sell high.” This seems

straight-forward and intuitive conclusion. However, according to William O’Neil, who started a successful financial paper known as Investors Business Daily, a more effective way to make money in the stocks is to “buy high, and sell higher.” It does not sound illogical, but obviously is counter-intuitive. However, it is proved to be an effective strategy in the stock market!

Aristotle only complements Plato The inductive and deductive reasoning of Aristotle complement well with the intuitive reasoning of Plato. Intuitive thinking could act as foundation for logical thinking, whereas, logical thinking could perfect intuitive thinking. Upon the foundations erected by intuitive thinking is built the edifice of logical thinking. Axioms of mathematics are classical examples for foundational role of intuition. Axioms may be alternatively called intuitions; e.g. Euclidian axioms are in fact “Euclidian intuitions”, upon which the entire Euclidian threedimensional geometry is founded. The axiom of natural numbers is “intuition of natural numbers” upon which the number theory is based. The “foal kick” of Aristotle on Plato bears signature of Aristotelian arrogance, which has little substance and could be attributed to over-enthusiasm of a disciple to establish supremacy of own philosophy. Both linear thinking of Aristotle and lateral thinking of Plato provide insights into the noumena, the core of truth. Platonic reasoning could in fact complement Aristotelian reasoning. They are but two sides of the same coin. Together they give a better view of the process of “knowing”.

STUDENT OF THE MONTH

Milky Way Kid sees his name written in the stars A 15-year-old schoolboy has helped change the way science views the way galaxies are formed. Rodrigo Ibata said he was “expecting the complete opposite” result. Though the researchers are not sure what it means, they believe the finding could reshape the understanding of how galaxies are formed.

Neil Ibata published his findings in Nature journal. Working with his father, Neil developed the code for a computer model of celestial objects.

or many scientists, having their research published in a major journal is about as good as it gets — especially if that publication happens to be the prestigious journal Nature. But for 15year old Neil Ibata, it’s already a case of “been there, done that.” Working with a team of astronomers, including his father Rodrigo Ibata, Neil took

part in an analysis of dwarf galaxies surrounding Andromeda, our nearest galactic neighbor. Working with his father, Neil developed the code for a computer model of these celestial objects. His simulation showed that the galaxies appear to orbit in concert and align in a vast, thin disk — a discovery that came as a complete surprise to the researchers.

And it shouldn’t come as a complete surprise that Neil Ibata managed this tremendous accomplishment. He is an accelerated student attending the Pontonniers International School in Strasbourg. And in addition to his Python programming skills, he speaks German, English, and Chinese, and he studies piano at the local conservatory. Although the astronomers are still not sure what this means, they believe the discovery could reshape the understanding of how galaxies are formed. Neil Ibata said he completed work experience with his father’s team to learn about the computer programming language Python. Apart from telling the research team, he told no one else apart from his mathematics teacher at school. The teenager is an accelerated student at the Pontonniers International School in Strasbourg. He admits he doesn’t yet know whether he would like to follow in his father’s footsteps and become an astrophysicist, but he will “certainly” pursue the sciences. The 15-year old is the oldest of three children, speaks German, English and Chinese, and studies piano at the local conservatory.

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EXPERT TALK

Number theory can popularise mathematics M. Ram Murty obtained his PhD in 1980 from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) specializing in number theory. After post-doctoral fellowships at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) in Mumbai, he joined the faculty of McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1982. In 1990, he was elected Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and in 1996 was awarded the Balaguer Prize (along with his brother Kumar Murty) for the monograph ‘Non-vanishing of L-functions and applications’ published by BirkhauserVerlag. In 1996, he moved to Queen’s University where he now holds the Queen’s Research Chair in Mathematics and Philosophy. In 2008, he was elected Fellow of the Indian National Science Academy and in 2012, Fellow of the American Mathematical Society. He has written more than 10 books and over 150 research papers in mathematics. He spoke to Shubhashree Desikan, while in Chennai recently.

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EXPERT TALK

Number theory is a very beautiful topic in that the unsolved problems are easy to state in ways that a high school student can understand them.The Pie Mathematics Association is using number theory and Ramanujan’s life to popularise mathematics. Can Number Theory be used to arises whether there are infinitely many mathematics. I see that in Chennai the Pie popularise mathematics? such primes. Mathematics Association is using number

he answer to that question is a resounding “Yes” because Number theory is a very beautiful topic in that the unsolved problems are easy to state in ways that a high school student can understand them. Here is an example of an unsolved problem. Everyone knows that there are infinitely many prime numbers. Prime numbers are like 2,3,5,7,11, 13 and so forth, numbers which do not have any proper divisors.We know that there are infinitely many primes, p. The question arises whether p+2 is also a prime for infinitely many p. Such primes are called twin primes. For example, 3 is a prime and 5 is also a prime; similarly 5 is a prime and 7 is also a prime. But 7 and 9 are not both primes. 11 and 13 are twin primes. 17 and 19 are twin primes. So you have these pairs of primes that differ by two. The question

The interesting thing is that the question whether there are infinitely many such twin primes, is an open question. That’s a question I can explain to a high school student.That’s an unsolved problem. We do not know the answer. We do know however that if p is a prime number, p+2 is either a prime or a number that is divisible by at most two prime numbers. You see, now I have been able to explain a major achievement of twentieth century mathematics to a high school student. If students want to know how this comes about, then I will have to tell them that either they will have to take a course in number theory, or, (laughs) if you are Ramanujan, you go to a local library and teach yourself all of undergraduate mathematics. So certainly number theory can be used to attract students to take up higher

The reason a problem in mathematics is unsolved is because we do not have the necessary tools or concepts. And the problem becomes the occasion for us to discover these new tools and concepts. In the case of Fermat’s last theorem (FLT) it opened up a whole collection of new concepts linking representation theory and number theory.

theory and Ramanujan’s life to popularise mathematics.

Applied math can be understood and appreciated by many people while pure math is considered very elitist. Your comments. There are lots of examples where the purest of pure mathematics can be applied in a profound way. When Einstein came up with the theory of relativity, he needed something called Tensor Calculus and differential geometry. Now these were developed in the 18 and 19 centuries purely for their own sake. These were mathematical theories and were beautiful, coherent and consistent. Of course they had some applications, but not as dramatic as its use in theory of relativity. But the theory wouldn’t have been in place had someone worked it out with an application in mind.

After the solution of Fermat’s last theorem what has been happening in mathematics? Unsolved problems are useful because they show us what’s missing in mathematics. The reason a problem in mathematics is unsolved is because we do not have the necessary tools or concepts. And the problem becomes the occasion for us to discover these new tools and concepts. In the case of Fermat’s last theorem (FLT) it opened up a whole collection of new concepts linking representation theory and number theory. And out of that emerged a powerful tool and this tool has become instrumental in solving many other questions that the lay public doesn’t know about. At least half a dozen major unsolved problems have been settled by the

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

EXPERT TALK approaching the problem will work. They pushed that faith and I think they surprised and baffled even the experts.

About your work... My work does not relate to Fermat’s last theorem. Some of the work that I’ve done recently and spoke about at the conference on Ramanujan in Delhi last week, has to do with new techniques that emanated from the solution of F e r m a t ’s l a s t t h e o r e m t o a n o t h e r p r o b l e m c a l l e d t h e S a t o - Ta t e conjecture. That conjecture more or less made predictions beyond that of Ramanujan. Ramanujan made some predictions on the Tau function and Sato and Tate conjecture made further predictions beyond that. Ramanujan’s three conjectures on the Tau function have been settled. (as of 1976) ...What I have done is to use the Sato-Tate conjecture, now that it is a theorem, to go further and see what are it’s applications and consequences. Kumar (Kumar Murty) and I have just finished a book called the Mathematical Legacy of Srinivasa Ramanujan. The purpose of writing this book was to introduce to undergraduate students of mathematics some of Ramanujan’s work and the techniques that emerged from the solution some new ideas are needed to solve some developments that came after that. That of Fermat’s last theorem. Two examples problems. I think it was a tremendous act might be useful for an undergraduate level are given by the Serre conjecture and the of courage on the part of these three Indian course or a graduate level seminar. Sato-Tate conjecture. In fact, one of the mathematicians to have faith in their idea – major contributors to this theory is an that perhaps some elementary way of Indian by the name Chandrashekhar Khare, who won the Cole Prize that is awarded by the American Mathematical Society for outstanding contributions in number theory. He is one the people who developed and pushed the new methods to greater heights.

Will you comment on the primality proof of Agarwal, Kayal and Saxena? Well the interesting thing about the AKS discovery is that the mathematics used to solve an ancient longstanding problem is practically at the level of high-school algebra. Which means sometimes even the experts can be stumped into thinking that

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Ramanujan made some predictions on the Tau function and Sato and Tate conjecture made further predictions beyond that. Ramanujan’s three conjectures on the Tau function have been settled. What I have done is to use the Sato-Tate conjecture, now that it is a theorem, to go further and see what are its applications and consequences. 25

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Zpc-¥ß - f - psS I\¬hgn Xm≠nb Pohn-XI - Y - b - mWv cmPw tKm]n°v ]d-bm-\p-≈-Xv. Ah-K-W-\-bpsS thZ-\-bv°n-S-bnepw {]Xo-£-bpsS Inc-W-ß-fmWv Ah-cpsS IÆp-I-fn¬. XpS-cp-I-bm-Wv.G-Ipń-°mew apXte Fs‚ PohnXw t∏mgpw jy≥-- am-kv-t‰-gv-kv- Nm-ºy≥IjvS-∏m-Sp-Ifpw Zp:Jßfpw \nd-™-Xmbncp-∂p.-hn-[n-tbmSpw Po-hn-X-tØmSpw t]mcmSn Rm\n-t∏mƒ A`n-am-\m¿l-amb Hcp PohnXw t\Sn-sbSpØp.Im-eØ - n-\pw{]m-b-Øn-\pw- hn-[n-°pw- ap∂n¬ Xe-Ip\n- ° msX Db- c - ß ƒ Io- g - S - ° nbmWv Rm≥ Ft‚- X mb PohnXw ]Sp- Ø pb¿Øn-bX - v.P - o-hn-XZp:Jß-fpsS ag-ta-Lßƒ Xe-b° v p-aosX Db¿∂p-hc - p-tºmgpw Rm≥ F-\n-°m-bn- I-c-p-Xn-h-®- t\-´-ß-fnte-°v- C-t∏m-gpw- \-S-∂p-sIm-≠ncn-°p-IbmWv.cmPysØ Gd-dhpw {]ap-J-bmb shd-d-d≥kv Imbn-I-Xm-c-ambn Rm≥ Db¿∂p-h∂ - Xv Ht´sd Pohn-XØ - ns‚ ISº-Iƒ Xm≠n-bm-Wv.-cm-Py-Øn-\-IØpw ]pd-Øp-ambn At\Iw Imbn-I-a¬k-cß-fn¬ F\n°v ]s¶-Sp-°m≥ Ign-™p.ssZ-hm-\p-{K-lw-sIm≠v ]s¶-SpØ a¬kc-ßf - n-sems° t\´w sImøm-\m-bn.-116 tesd- kz¿-W-sa-U-ep-Iƒ,A-Xn-tesd shffnbnepw sh¶-eØ - nepw Xo¿Ø saU-epIƒ,-hn-tZ-ia - m-[y-aß - f - n-epƒ-s∏-sS- A-`n-apJßƒ,tZ-iob am[y-a-ß-fn¬ {]tXyI ô®-dp-Iƒ.-cm-Pw- tKm-]n-sb-∂- km-[m-cW - °m-cn-bm-b- Fs‚ Pohn-X-Ønse t\-´ß-fp-sS- ]-ń-I- C\nbpw A-hk - m-\n-°p-∂n√.- c mPw Xs‚ PohnXw ]d- ™ p- X pSßn................ sh-‰-d≥-kv- Im-bn-I-ta-f-I-fn¬cmPy-Øns‚ - A`n-am-\-am-bn- am-dn-b- F-dWm-Ip-fw- I-cn-Ø-e- sh-kv-‰v- IΩ--ń-∏-m-Swho-ń¬- cm-Pw tKm-]n-sb-∂- 56 Im-cn- ]p-Xnb- t\-´ß - ƒ-°m-bn- ho≠pw IpXn-°p-Ib - mWv.-]t£ t\´-ßƒ Gsd-bm-sW-¶nepw Xe- N m- b v ° m≥ Hcp Iqc Ct∏mgpw Ah¿s°mcp kz]v \ - a mbn XpS- c p∂p.]ecpw\¬Inb klm- b - ß ƒ°v ]pdsa _m¶vtem¨ FSpØv Hcp hoSns‚ \n¿ΩmWw XpS-ßn-sb-¶nepw ]q¿Øo-Icn-°m≥ CXp-hsc Ign-™n-ń√.cm-PØns‚ Hcp henb kz]v\-ambn AXn-

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

jn-∏,v - \m-jW - ¬- am-kt-v ‰-gk -v -v Nm-ºy≥-jn-∏,v - thƒ-U-v am-k-v t‰-gv-kv- A-Xv-e-‰n-Iv- Nm-ºy≥jn-∏v,- apw-ss_,- U¬-lnamc-tØm¨-- cm-Pw- cm-PyØn-s‚- A-`n-am-\a - m-bn- am-dnb- Nm-ºy≥-jn-∏p-Iƒ- A\-h[n-bm-Wv.- \nXyZm-cn-{Zy-sØs]m-cp-Xn- tXm¬-∏n-®m-Wv- ]e- ao-‰p-I-fn-epw- cm-Pw- ]-s¶Sp-ØX - .v - {Sm-°n-en-dß - p-tºmƒAh¿ th-Z\ - I - sfms° - a-d°p∂p.F-dW - m-Ip-fw- K-h.tKƒ-kv- kv-Iq-fn¬- ]-Tn-°ptºmƒ- A-©mw-¢m-k-v ap-X¬Rm≥ kv-t]m¿-Sv-kv- ao-‰p-Ifn¬- ap-Sß - m-sX- ]-s¶-Sp-°pam-bn-cp-∂p-.- ]t£ hońse Zm- c n- { Zyw- a q- e w- F- ´ mw- ¢ mkn¬- ]-T\ - w- \n¿-Øp-tºmƒkvt- ]m¿-Sk -v n-se Fs‚ B{Kl-ßƒ AkvXa - n-®p.]n∂oSv hońse ]ńWn amd-dp-Ib - mbn-cp∂p Fs‚ {][m\ IS-a.-\K - c - Ø - n¬ ]nd-∂-Xp-sIm≠v tPmen-Iƒs°m∂pw henb _p≤n-ap-´p-I-sfm-∂p-ap-≠m-bn-√.]e Xc- Ø n- e p- f f tPmen- I ƒ Rm≥ sNbvXn- ´ p≠v.- A - ° m- e sØ Fs‚ PohnXw Zpcn-Xß - fpw Zp:Jßfpw \nd-™Xm-bn-cp-∂p.C-Xn-\n-Sb - n¬- hn-hm-lh - pw- Ign-™p.- a-°f - pw-Iq-Snbmb-tXm-sS- ho-Sp-am{X-am-bn- Fs‚ tem-Iw.-\K-cØ - nse Nne ÿm]-\ß - f - n¬ Xq∏p-Im-cn-bmbn t- Pm-ensN-bvX - v- Ip-Spw-_w- t- ]m-t‰-≠- Np-aX - e - b - pwF\n-°m-bn.c≠v a°-sfbpw hf¿Øn-hep-Xm-t°-≠Xpw Fs‚ Npa-en-em-bn.-Ip-ńIƒ°v th≠n-bm-bn-cp∂p ]n∂o-Sp-ff h¿j-ßƒ \o≠ Fs‚ Pohn-Xw.-CX - n-\nS- b n¬ Hcn- ° ¬ t]mepw a\- nse kvt]m¿Svkn-t\m-Sp-ff tamlw Db¿∂p-h∂n-√.-]n-∂oSv a-Iƒ- Zo-]-bpsS- kv-Iq-fn¬-

A-Ω-am¿-°m-bn- \-S-Øn-b- Im-bn-I-a-Xv-kc-am-Wv- F-s‚- Po-hn-XØ - n¬- h-gn-Øn-cn-hmIp-∂X - .v - B- a-Xk -v c - Ø - n¬- ]-s¶-Sp-Øt- XmsS- ho-≠pw- kvt- ]m¿-Svk - n-t\m-Sp-≈- Fs‚B-{K-lØ - n-\v- Nn-dI - v- ap-f® - p.- C-Xn-\n-Sb - n¬]{X-Øn-¬- Pn-√m- sh-‰d-≥k - v- ao-‰n-s‚- ]-ckyw-I≠ - v- A-t]-£n-®p.- A-ßn-s\- 1996˛¬F-dW - m-Ip-fw- Pn-√- sh-‰d- ≥-kv- ao-‰n¬- A©v- In- ao-‰¿- \-S-Ø-Øn¬- ]-s¶-Sp-ØpsIm-≠m-bn-cp-∂p- Fs‚ Xp-S° - w.-B Xp-S°w- tam-ia - m-bn-√.-]n∂oSv Fs‚ PohnXw cmPysØ {]apJ Imbn-I-Xm-c-ambn Dbcp-∂X - n-te-bv°m-bn-cp-∂p.kw-kvY - m-\- ao-‰p-If - n-epw- Rm≥ hn-P-bn-®p.- 1998 HmsS- tZ-io-b- ao-‰n-epw Rm≥ - kz¿- W - s °m- b v - Ø v - Xp- S - ß n.2000Øn¬- _w-Kf - p-cp-hn¬- \-S∂ - - G-jy≥-

AXn-Po-h\w sh-‰d- ≥-k-v Nm-ºy≥-jn-∏n¬- B-Zy-kz¿-Wwt\-Sn-b-Xv- F\n°mbn-cp-∂p.- 2006˛¬- \-S∂- G-jy≥- am-kt-v ‰-gk -v -v Nm-ºy≥jn-∏n-epw5000 ao-‰¿- \-S-Øw,- 5000 ao-‰¿- td-k-v,- 300 ao-‰¿- l¿-Un¬-kv- F-∂n-h-bn¬- Rm≥ kz¿-Ww- t\-Sn.- 2008˛¬- A-k-an¬- \-S-∂\m- j - W ¬- Nm- º y≥- j n- ∏ n- e pw- - a- t ejybn¬- 2008˛¬- \-S∂ - - Hm-∏¨- Nm-ºy≥jn-∏n-¬- \m-ev- k-z¿-W-am-Wv- Rm≥ t\-S-nb-Xv.- 2009˛¬- Xm-bv-e≥-Un¬- \-S-∂- Gjy≥- Nm-ºy≥-jn-∏n-epw- 2010se- a-tejy-bn-se- G-jy≥- Nm-ºy≥-jn-∏n-ep-ambn- B-dv- kz¿-Whpw F\n°v e`n®p.Rm≥ ]s¶-SpØ Imbn-I-ta-f-Ifn-sems° kz¿Æw Fs∂-tØSn hcpI-bm-bn-cp-∂p.2011˛¬- N-Wv-Un-K-Un-se- \m-j-W¬- ao‰-n¬- l¿-Un¬--kn¬- ]-s¶-Sp-°p-tºmƒIm¬-ap-´n-ep-≠m-b- ap-dn-hn-s\- Xp-S¿-∂vF\n°v Hm-∏t- d-j≥- th-≠n-h∂ - p.-]t£ a-p-dn-hn-s‚- th-Z-\-bp-am-bn- ho-≠pw- ao-‰pI-fn¬- ]-s¶-Sp-Øv- F\n°v kz¿- W wt\Sm\mbn.{Sm°n- e n- d - ß p- t ºmƒ a\ n- s ‚bpw ico- c - Ø n- s ‚bpw thZ- \ Iƒ Rm≥ ]msS ad- ° pw.- ]- c n- i o- e I≥- F- cm- a - N - { μ- s ‚- b pw- kv - t ]m¿- W k¿- am- [ - h - t am- l - s ‚- b pw- k- l m- b - ß -

F- d - W m- I p- f w- K- h .- t Kƒ- k v - kv - I q- f n¬- ]Tn-°p-tºmƒ- A-©mw-¢m-kv- ap-X¬- Rm≥ kv - t ]m¿- S v - k v - ao- ‰ p- I - f n¬- ap- S - ß m- s X- ]s¶- S p- ° p- a m- b n- c p- ∂ p- . - ]t£ hońse Zmcn- { Zyw- a q- e w- F- ´ mw- ¢ m- k n¬- ]- T - \ w- \n¿Øp-tºmƒ- kv-t]m¿-Sv-kn-se Fs‚ B{Kl- ß ƒ Akv X - a n- ® p.]n∂oSv hońse ]ńWn amd-dp-I-bm-bn-cp∂p Fs‚ {][m\ IS- a .-

fn-√m-bn-cp-∂p-sh-¶n¬- Cu- t\-´-ß-sfm∂pw- F-s∂- tX-Sn-sb-Øn-√m-bn-cp-∂p-.]ns∂- Rm≥ tPm-ensN-bv-X- kv-Ym-]-\-ßfn¬-\n-∂p-≈- t{]m-Xk v- m-l\ - h - pw F\n°v apX¬°q-´mbn-.F-´v- h¿-j-tØm-fw- F-dWm-Ip-fw- Ir-jv-W- B-ip-]-{Xn-bn¬- A‰≥-Ud- m-bpw- F-sF-Fw-Fk - n¬- kzo-∏d- m-

{Sm°n-en-d-ßp-tºmƒ a\- n-s‚bpw icoc-Øn-s‚bpw thZ-\-Iƒ Rm≥ ]msS ad°pw.- ]-cn-io-e-I≥- F- cm-a-N-{μ-s‚-bpw- kvt]m¿-W-k¿- am-[-h-tam-l-s‚-bpw- k-lm-bß-fn-√m-bn-cp-∂p-sh-¶n¬- Cu- t\-´-ß-sfm∂pw- F-s∂- tX-Sn-sb-Øn-√m-bn-cp-∂p-.]ns∂- Rm≥ tPm-ensN-bX v- - kvY - m-]\ - ß - f - n¬\n- ∂ p- ≈ - t{]m- X v - k m- l - \ - h pw F\n°v apX¬°q-´mbn-.

bpw- Rm≥ tPm- e n- s N- b v - X p.Ign™ A©v h¿j-ambn- Fw-Pn- td-m-Un-se- X¬hm-°¿- Pn-Ωn¬- C≥-kv-{S-Iv-S-dm-Wv.- c-m-hnse- B-dp-ap-X¬- 7.-30h-sc- a-lm-cm-Pm-kv{Ku-≠n-se- ]-cn-io-e-\w- F-{X- Xn-c-°n-\nS-bn-epw- Rm≥- ap-S° - m-dn-√.{]m¿∞-\bpw ]cn-io-e\ - hpw F\n°v Hcp-t]m-se-bm-Wv.{Ku-≠n-se- ]-cn-io-e\ - Ø - n-\n-Sb - n-epw- a-Xvk-c-ß-fn¬-\n-∂p-am-bn- F\n°v \n-c-h-[nhn-e-s∏-´- ku--lr-Z-ß-fpw- k-ºmZy-am-bne-`n-®n-´p-≠v.- ]n- Sn- D-j,- ta-gv-kn-°p-´≥,{]o-P- {io-[c - ≥- Xp-Sß - n- tI-cf - Ø - n-s‚- A`n-a-m-\-am-b- Im-bn-Xm-c-ß-sf-√mw- F-s‚kp-lr-Øp-°-fm-Wv.-kXy-Øn¬ CsXms°-bmWv Fs‚ kºm-Zyw. t\´-ßƒ°-∏pdw cmPyØns‚ A`n-am-\w -{Sm-°n¬ ImØp-kq£n- t °- ≠ XmWv Xs‚ IS- a - s b∂v cmPw- t Km]n ]d- b p- ∂ p.cmPy- Ø n\v th≠n kz¿Æw sImbvXp Iq´ptºmgpw B km[pkv { Xo Pohn- X Øns‚ Ibv ∏ p- \ o¿ IpSn-®p-sIm-t≠-bncn-°p-∂p.-]t£ thZ-\I - sf Ah¿ ]p©ncn-®p-sIm≠v t\cn-Sp-∂p.-km¿∞-I-amb Hcp PohnXw t]mse.Hm-t´m-ss{U-hd- m-b- aI≥- A-\n¬-Ip-am-dn-s\m-∏a - m-Wv cm-Pw- Xma-kn-°p-∂-Xv.- a-I-\pw,- a-Iƒ- Zo-]-bpw- cmP-Øn-s‚- kv-t]m¿-Sv-kv- kz-]v-\-ßƒ-°vFt∏mgpw ]n-¥p-Wb - pam-bn Acn-In-ep≠v.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY

Rebuilding Relations

COVER STORY

Our relations have changed. Parent-children, student-teacher relations are no more the same. New generation kids are in their virtual world, parents are always under the pressure of work, teachers are more interested in their pay packages. Quality time needs to spend for a healthy relation has minimized to the bottom level. Houses are converted into food joints or theatres which run TV programs throughout the day. Communication between family members become mere formality. Once our families were pleasure houses. Parents and children share happy moments and teachers were our role models. In this cover story we discuss about relations. How to rebuild family relations. Tips to improve teacherstudent relation, how to improve communication and many more. Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY

Families Are Changing, But Still Key To Happiness “Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way”: Anna Karenina

Jeena James

ove them or hate them, family really matters in shaping happiness and well-being. People are directly influenced by the quantity and quality of family interactions—phone calls between mothers and daughters, extended family vacations, visits with in-laws, and perhaps later, time with Grams and Gramps. Beyond the time and emotional bonding between individual family members, relatives also form a powerful support and approval network. The way we interact with that network can make our lives much easier and healthful, or much harder and stressful. That’s because in

ways small and large, our life’s efforts and achievements are given meaning by how we’re judged within our families. Do you remember your childhood and interaction with parents, grandparents, brothers and sisters ? There was a lot of closeness, but at the same time there was an unspoken division between the elder members and the younger members of the family. We were never encouraged to oppose anything that our grand parents said—their words were the unwritten law and were to be strictly followed, right or wrong! It was the same with the other elder members of the family. The younger

generation never had the right to question them or put their own points of view across, and, even if they did, most of the time their voices were subdued and discouraged. One could not make any decisions without consulting the family elders and be allowed to have one’s own personal views; one had to bow down to a joint decision taken on behalf of one by the entire family, which made the more independent-minded unhappy, and many times led to clashes and disagreements. On the positive side, family values were strictly adhered to, and this unified the family. Decisions were taken jointly and

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY

The older members of the family have lost their importance, and find that not enough value is given to their advice, even when it is sound. They are also lonely after the children grow up and move out to make their own homes.

when difficulties arose, it was the same. All the members pooled in and helped out those who were in difficulty. Even marriages were decided by the entire family sitting together and discussing the merits and demerits of the groom or bride and their family background. The bride and the groom had very little say in the matter! It was more a case of a marriage between families and not the two individuals. But, again when one takes a look at the statistics, there were hardly any divorces or broken marriages during those times. When the couple had some disagreement, the family stepped in and quickly things were restored. The couple had very little time for each other and seldom had the chance to enjoy time together. For better or worse, happy or unhappy, they stayed together because they could never disobey or go against the elders in the family.Now when we see a modern day familyâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;a typical urban family is nuclear and independent

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

with both the parents working or at least the father working and the mother managing the home and the children. In many cases the elderly parents do live with their children and the children do have love and respect for their grandparents and other elders of the extended family. But since the interactions and the influence of the elders is limited, there is no stress on them. There is not so much pressure on the family by the elder members. They may give advice when asked, but refrain from taking any major decisions or imposing them on the youngsters. The children go through life making their choices in education and marriage. Most urbanite marriages are a combination of arranged and love marriages. The parents introduce the likely candidates to their children, and the boys and the girls get to know each other with the approval of the elders from both the sides and decide to get married with their blessings. Things do go wrong when

these arrangements do not work and the children decide to look around for partners elsewhere other than within their communities. Once a member of the family makes his own decision to get married to a girl of his choice, he is left on his own with the family members opting not to interfere; and if and when there are misunderstandings between the couple, there are not many family members willing to help out. This can work both waysâ&#x20AC;&#x201D;the couple may sort things out and may be ready to compromise a little more, knowing that there will be no help coming forth. On the other hand, a smaller misunderstanding which could have been set right with the right kind of advice by the wise and experienced elders, may escalate and lead to a major issue and a complete breakdown of the relationship. One can see that the number of divorces and broken marriages have sharply increased in the past 3 decades. The major disadvantage is the manner in which the older members of the family have lost their importance, and find that not enough value is given to their advice, even when it is sound. They are also lonely after the children grow up and move out to make their own homes. On the other hand, no system is perfect and it is important to find a balance between the old and the new lifestyles to see that the family values are maintained. After all, we need to care for people and their feelings, and family values ultimately lie with relationships between individuals. One has to take responsibilities in life, especially regarding our own parents and grandparents.

COVER STORY

5 Reasons Why Children Hate Parents 1. Over-protection does more harm than good. Allow your child to discover new things on his own. Over-loving parents tend to over-protect their children in many ways—this can make kids to hate them. Keep in mind that while a child continues to grow, he attempts to discover many things around him. All kids have this natural inclination. For younger boys, climbing up a small tree excites them. You can provide useful tips on how to climb safely rather than restricting him. So when the child climbs up again, he knows there are precautions to take. Children could hate a parent who is over-protective.

Top ten things kids loved most about their mothers

2. Unfulfilled promises. There are situations that parents do promise things for their children. The kids with all their efforts do their part. When time comes, parents provide lots of excuses to break their promises. If this happens, young kids may begin to hate them. They won’t be convinced anymore that you can still keep your promise. These unfulfilled promises are instilled in the child’s mind.

3. Frequent scolding is hateful. You break their heart if you respond negatively while attempting to offer their help. Kids want to please us in some small ways they can do, but how we ignore and hate their efforts. Worse, they get unreasonably scolded rather than being appreciated and praised. Be realistic that kids are too young to live by their parents’ standards. Illogical anger is one thing kids hate about their parents. Parenting skills know how to discipline children without yelling and reprimanding.

4. Paying no attention. There are times kids want to be proud of their own accomplishments Never ignore your child’s great art work if he shows it. It builds his selfworth and confidence if parents become happy for them. On the contrary, children may hate their parents if you don’t always pay attention to their efforts. They will have the impression that their works are not important to you. Wouldn’t that be hateful for the little ones?

5. Not doing what you teach. Parents want their kids to be action doers but not for them. This is one reason why children have feelings of resentment. They keep instructing their kids not to fight but aggressive blows are displayed by the father and mother. Giving explanations is not helpful, showing your action does. Kids view their parents as role models in every circumstance.

1.Come into my bedroom at night, tuck me in Also tell me stories about when you were little. 2.Give me hugs and kisses and sit and talk with me privately. 3.Spend quality time just with me, not with my brothers and sisters around. 4.Give me nutritious food so I can grow up healthy. 5.At dinner talk about what we could do together. 6.At night talk to me about anything; love, school, family etc. 7.Let me play outside a lot. 8.Cuddle under a blanket and watch our favorite TV show together. 9.Discipline me. It makes me feel you care. 10.Leave special messages in my desk or lunch bag.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY

Child rearing and clash of cultures Mohan Ramamoorthy

Photo: Anand Pious

ringing up children has never been easy; and modern life has made it more complex. Already, India is grappling with increasing media reports on children in distress — particularly suicides due to educational stress and failure, or corporal punishment in schools and homes. To make matters worse there have been reports about violence against children — ranging from ‘torture’ by ambitious and demanding parents and stressed out teachers to abuse by adults. As if the complications were not enough, cultural differences between the developed west and the developing east add to the confusion. In fact, the recent controversy surrounding the Norwegian government’s

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

seemingly drastic action against parents of children — a boy and a girl aged less than Indian origin in two different cases has four and two respectively — as per Norwegian law and standards. One started a new round of debates. bizarre charge was that the boy slept with his father and not on a separate bed. Parenting and Norway Law Lack of space in the living room and the The first case related to a Norwegian court absence of toys, loud arguments and order that separated two children from fights between parents in front of their Bengali parents and sent the infants children, “force-feeding” the boy instead to foster homes. The shocking case that of convincing him to eat, were other separated children from each other and charges. Finally in April 2011 the their parents took a few twists and turns. children were sent to the Indian home of It all started in late 2010 with the their uncle (father’s brother). Norwegian government child care service In the second, more recent, case, an accusing Anurup Bhattacharya, working Indian software engineer and his wife — as a geoscientist in Norway, and his wife both from Andhra Pradesh — were Sagarika of failing to bring up their sentenced to 18 months in jail for

COVER STORY “abusing” their seven-yearold son in Norway. The child apparently had a problem of wetting his pants. The government alleged the use of physical and mental violence, including burning the child with a spoon, hitting with a belt and threatening to send him away to India. The parents have denied the allegations.

The Debate

Parenting is only now evolving into a science. In India it is based on culture and custom. In the west, it has become a science. In India parents pick up parenting from their elders, while in the west they rely more on child care books, guides and manuals.

Parenting standards differ from one s o c i e t y t o another. What is ‘abuse’ in Europe or America could be a ‘common and normal’ practice in Asian countries such as India. Parenting is only now evolving into a science. In India it is based on culture and custom. In the west, it has become a science. In India parents pick up parenting from their elders, while in the west they rely more on child care books, guides and manuals. In India, the joint family system was prevalent until recently. Here parenting was a collective effort — involving parents, grandparents, uncles and aunts, teachers and even neighbours. In the west families are disintegrating. There are single parents, divorcees, step-parents and child care social workers, counsellors, psychiatrists, paediatricians, and teachers. A second aspect is the method of parenting. In the West the use of force or violence to discipline a child is illegal and socially unacceptable. Urban Indian parents too are averse to it. But definitions and degrees of violence vary. For instance,

Indian parents often use mild and subtle threats which may be construed as ill-treatment or violence in the west. There are many who believe that sparing the rod will spoil the child. The third aspect is the impact of urbanisation and globalisation. Working, urban parents have little time for their children. Children no longer benefit from the care of grandparents. After liberalisation, Indian society has become extremely competitive. Parents are driven to use unhealthy methods to force children to achieve not one but many unrealistic goals — educational, sports, and cultural. With globalisation, more and more parents are emigrating to western countries where they find themselves torn between two cultures, two social and legal systems. No doubt, the use of force by parents or teachers is wrong. At the same time positive parenting needs a lot of time, energy and patience, which working parents may not have. The need of the hour seems to be moderation — between strong punishment and extreme pampering, between reckless freedom and total control, between setting unrealistic goals and an absence of purpose and goals. The well-being and allround development of the child should be the most important criteria.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY

Parenting Mantras 1. Say I Love You Tell your child you love him every day — no matter his age. Even on trying days or after a parent-child disagreement, when you don’t exactly “like your child” at that moment, it is more important than ever to express your love. A simple “I love you” goes a long way toward developing and then strengthening a relationship.

2. Teach Your Faith Teach your child about your faith and beliefs. Tell him what you believe and why. Allow time for your child to ask questions and answer them honestly. Reinforce those teachings often.

3. Establish A Special Name Or Code Word Create a special name for your child that is positive and special or a secret code word that you can use between each other. Use the name as a simple reinforcement of your love. The code word can be established to have special meaning between your child and you that only you two understand. This code word can even be used to extract a child from an uncomfortable situation (such as a sleepover that is not going well) without causing undue embarrassment to the child.

Prajitha Prathapan

Build and Maintain a Positive Parent-Child Relationship

ust like with any relationship, building a positive relationship between parent and child is one that requires work and effort to make it strong and successful. Parenting is a tough job, and maintaining close relationships and open communication helps to ensure parents and their children stay connected through all ages of their upbringing. Here are 10 simple tips for enhancing the bond between parent and child.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

4. Develop And Maintain A Special Bedtime Ritual For younger children, reading a favorite bedtime book or telling stories is a ritual that will be remembered most likely throughout their life. Older children should not be neglected either. Once children start reading, have them read a page, chapter, or short book to you. Even most teenagers still enjoy the ritual of being told goodnight in a special way by a parent—even if they don’t act like it!

5. Let Your Children Help You Parents sometimes inadvertently miss out on opportunities to forge closer relationships by not allowing their child to help them with various tasks and chores. Unloading groceries after going to the store is a good example of something that children of most ages can and should assist

COVER STORY with. Choosing which shoes look better with your dress lets a child know you value her opinion. Of course, if you ask, be prepared to accept and live with the choice made!

6. Play With Your Children The key is to really play with your children. Play with dolls, ball, make believe, checkers, sing songs, or whatever is fun and interesting. It doesn’t matter what you play, just enjoy each other! Let kids see your silly side. Older kids enjoy cards, chess, computer games, while younger ones will have fun playing about anything...as long as it involves you!

7. Eat Meals As A Family 9. Respect Their Choices

Tell your child you love him every day , no matter his age. Even on trying days or after a parent-child disagreement, when you don’t exactly “like your child” at that moment, it is more important than ever to express your love.

You’ve heard this before, and it really is important! Eating together sets the stage for conversation and sharing. Turn the TV off, and don’t rush through a meal. When schedules permit, really talk and enjoy one another. It can become a quality time most remembered by young and old alike.

8. Seek Out One-On-One Opportunities Often Some parents have special nights or “standing dates” with their children to create that one-on-one opportunity. Whether it is a walk around the neighborhood, a special trip to a playground, or just a movie night with just the two of you, it is important to celebrate each child individually. Although it is more of a challenge the more children in a family, it is really achievable! Think creatively and the opportunities created will be ones that you remember in the future.

You don’t have to like their mismatched shirt and shorts or love how a child has placed pictures in his room. However, it is important to respect those choices. Children reach out for independence at a young age, and parents can help to foster those decision-making skills by being supportive and even looking the other way on occasion. After all, it really is okay if a child goes to daycare with a striped green shirt and pink shorts.

10.Make Them A Priority In Your Life Your children need to know that you believe they are a priority in your life. Children can observe excessive stress and notice when they feel you are not paying them attention. Sometimes, part of being a parent is not worrying about the small stuff and enjoying your children. They grow up so fast, and every day is special. Take advantage of your precious time together while you have it!

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY

Tips to Improve Student-Teacher Relationship Always greet students with an affectionate smile on your face. Talk with them and listen to what problems they have in their lives.

eachers should build and maintain a good relationship with students. It is somewhat difficult to build a relationship that is friendly. Teachers, who succeed in building and maintain such a relationship with students, also become able to have better control over classroom. Here are some tips which can be followed to improve the r e l a t i o n s h i p b etween students and teachers:

Be Friendly: First thing you need to do is to treat all your students the same. Try to know how friendly you should be with your students. You need to set some limits while being friendly with your students.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Give Respect to Students:

Understand your Students:

Make sure to receive same amount of respect from every student. Students always learn what their teacher does. If you treat them with respect, they will return you the same respect and love.

You not only need to listen to students but you should also understand them. Students might face various problems in school. You should not be too strict so they cannot come to you due to fear.

Be Available:

Be Kind:

To improve the relationship with your students, you must be there whenever they need you. So make sure that you are available for students to talk during lunch time, after class and before school time. Students may need your help regarding studies or they may need s o m e o n e w h o c a n l i s t e n to t h e i r problems.

Always greet students with an affectionate smile on your face. Talk with them and listen to what problems they have in their lives. This behavior of yours will make students feel thattake care for them and are interested in their activities. These are some simple tips for improving your relationship with your students. This may also become a key to your successful teaching career.

COVER STORY

amXm-]n-Xm-°ƒ Adn-bm≥: Iuam-cØ - ns‚ Bi-¶I - ƒ tUm. h¿Kokv ]pXp-ticn CMl

Iuam-c° - m-cpsS am\-knI ]IzX AhcpsS sskt°m tkmjyepw sskt°m skIvjzepw Bb Pohn-X -X-e-ß-fnse sshImcnI hf¿®sb kqNn-∏n-°p-∂p. CXv ]e-Xc - Ø - n-em-Wp-≈X - v. CXn¬ H∂ma-tØXpw {][m-\s - ∏-´Xpw am-Xm-]n-Xm-°tfm- S p≈ B{in- X - X z- Ø n¬ \n∂p≈ tamN- \ - a m- W v . CXns‚ XpS¿®- b mbn hy‡nXz cq]o- I - c Ww \S- ° p- ∂ p. ssewKo-Ihpw _u≤o-Ihpw aqeym-[njvTn-Xh - p-amb Xe-ßƒ kwtbm-Pn-®p-sIm≠m-Wn-Xv. ]n∂o-Sp-≈Xv kmº-Øn-Im-[njvTn-X-am-Wv. sXmgn¬kºm-Z-\w, AtXmS-\p-_-‘n®v Pohn-X-ssi-en, IpSpw-_-_‘-ßƒ F∂n-h-bmWv Cu L´-Øn¬ {]m[m-\y-a¿ln-°p-∂X - v. Cusbmcp t\´w ssIh- c n- ° m- \ p≈ {]{In- b - ° n- S - b n¬ Ah-cn¬ Nne tNmZy-ßƒ Df-hm-Ip-∂p≠v. Rm≥ BcmWv? ka-{]m-b-°m-cn¬ \n∂v Rms\-ßs\ hyXy-kvX\ - m-Ip∂p?

a‰p-≈h - c - p-ambn _‘-s∏-tS-≠s - X-ßs\? Rm≥ Ct∏mgpw Hcp Ip´n-bmtWm? Xm≥ ]n≥Xp- S - t c≠ aq- e ym- h - ÿ - t bXv? CØcw tNmZy-ßƒ°p≈ DØ-c-am-bn´mWv Ah-cpsS hy‡nXz cq]o-I-c-WØns‚ Cu L´-Øn¬ ico-c-Øn\pw kp{]-[m\ ]¶p-≠v. \√ t_mUn Cta-Pp≈-h¿°v Xmc-Xt- ay\ {]iv\ - ß - ƒ Ipd-hmWv. A]-I¿j-Xm-t_m[w Ipdbpw F∂p≈-Xp-Xs∂ Imc-Ww. amXm-]n-Xm-°-fpsSbpw apXn¿∂-h-cp-sSbpw AwKo-Imchpw t{]m’m-l-\hpw ka-{]m-b-°mcpsS ]n¥p- W bpw e`n- ° p- ∂ - h - c psS Sot\Pv Imew kpK-aa - mbn IS-∂p-t]m-Ip∂-Xm-bmWv I≠p-hc - p-∂X - v. CXn¬ amXm]n-Xm-°f - psS ÿm\w hfsc hep-Xm-Wv. Xß-fn¬ \S-°p∂ am‰sØ Adn-bm≥ Ah¿ BZyw kao-]n-t°-≠Xv AYhm kao-]n-°p-∂Xv amXm-]n-Xm-°-sf-bm-Wv. amXm- ] n- X m- ° ƒ Ah¿°p- a p- ∂ n¬

tdmƒtam-Ue - p-If - m-bn-s√-¶n¬ Ah¿ a‰p≈-hsc tXSn-t∏m-Ipw. ImcWw Cu L´Øn¬ Bsc-sb¶nepw Hcp tdmƒtam-Uemt°≠-Xp-≠v. Nne-t∏mƒ CXv A≤ym]-Itcm _‘p-°tfm Ab¬°mtcm BImw. Ah-cp-ambnIqSp-X¬ kabw sNe-h-gn-°p-Ibpw Ah-cpsS hm°pIƒ°v hne-I¬∏n-°pbpw sNøpw. CXv Nne-t∏mƒ amXm-]n-Xm-°fpw Ipń-I-fpambn kwL¿j-Øn-\n-Sb - m-°p-∂p. am{Xa-√, Ah¿ tamU-ep-I-fm-°p-∂-hcpsS Zpxkz-`m-h-ßƒ Ipń-Isf kzm[o-\n-°m\n-S-bp-≠v. Xm≥ tamU-em-°p-∂-h-tcmSv Hcm-cm-[\ Ipń-If - n¬ D≠mIpw. imco-cn-Ia - mb am‰-ßƒ {]I-Sa - m-Ip∂ Hcp L´-am-WnXv. Cu L´-Øn-ep-≠m-Ip∂ DXvIW - vTI - sf adn-IS- ° - m≥ \√ kulrZ-ßƒ Bh-iy-am-Wv. kplr-Øp-°f - psS ]n¥p-Wbpw AwKo-Im-chpw Ah¿°v Bfl-hn-izmkw \¬Ipw. Cu L´-Øn¬

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY amXm-]n-Xm-°-fpsS A`n-{]m-b-ßƒt°m D]-tZ-i-ßƒt°m henb hne-I¬∏n°m≥ Ah¿ Xøm-dm-In√, adn®v kplrØp-°f - psS \n¿tZ-iß - f - mIpw apJ-hn-ebvs°-Sp-°p-I. _mey-Øn¬ Ipń-IfpsS kvt\lw amXm]n-Xm-°t- fmSv am{X-am-bncn-°pw. F∂m¬ Iuam- c - s a- Ø p- ∂ - t XmsS ssewKo- I tlm¿tam-Wp-If - psS D¬∏mZ\^-ea - mbn Ah¿°v FXn¿enwKtØmSv BI¿jWw D≠m-Ip-∂p. {]Xyp¬∏m-Z\ - Øn\v {]IrXn Hcp-°n-bn-´p≈ H∂m-WnXv. Cu L´- Ø n¬ imco- c n- I mI¬jWambn-cn°pw ap∂n´v \n¬°p-∂Xv. ]e-t∏mgpw H∂n-e[ - nIw t]tcmSv Htck- a - b Øv BI¿jWw D≠mImw. FXn¿enw- K - h p- a mbn tNcm- \ p≈ B{Klw D≠m-Imw. Xm¬°m-en-Itam ss\an-jn-Itam Hs°-bp≈ hnIm-ca - m-bn´mWv CXv ImWp-∂X - v. CØcw BI¿jW- ß ƒ°v ÿnc- X bpw Kuc- h hpw ssIh-cp-∂Xv Iuam-cØ - ns‚ Ah-km\ L´-Øntem AXn-\p-ti-jtam BWv. `mhn-bnse Pohn-X-]¶mfn-°p-dn-s®ms° Imcy- a mbn Nn¥n®p XpS- ß p- ∂ Xv At∏mƒ am{X-am-Wv. AXp-sIm≠v Xs∂ Iuam-c-Im-esØ ssewKo-I-tam-l-ßƒ A]-IS- ß - f - n-tet°m Ipg-∏ß - f - n-tet°m sN∂p-Nm-Sm-dp-≠v. Ipń-If - psS Nn¥ aq¿Ø-am-Wv. {]Xy-£Øn¬ ImWp-∂X - ns\ Ipdn®v am{X-amWv Ah-cpsS Nn¥. A\p-`-h-ßƒ°v Ipń-a\-kn¬ ÿm\w Ipd-hm-Wv. Idp-∏v, shfp∏v, sX‰v, icn F∂ coXn-bn¬ am{X-amWv Ah¿ Imcy-ßsf a\-kn-em-°p-∂-Xv. CsX√mw tN¿∂ Ah-ÿ-sb-Ip-dn®v Ah¿ Nn¥n-°p-∂n-√. F∂m¬, ]Øp ]{¥≠v hbkv Ihn-bp-∂-tXmsS AhcpsS Nn¥-If - n¬ `mh-\bv°v {]m[m\yw e_n-®p-Xp-S-ßp-∂p. Aaq¿Ø Nn¥-Iƒ Bcw-`n-°p-∂p. ]Xn-\mdv hb-tkmsS AXv ]q¿W-am-Ip-∂p. F√m-hc - nepw CXv kw`hn-°W - s - a-∂n-√. Imcy-Im-cW - ß - s - f-°p-dn®v Nn¥n-°m\pw AXns\ A]-{K-Yn-°m\pw Xocp-am-\-ßsf-Sp-°m\pw Hs° ]cn-io-e\w Inńb hnZym¿∞nIƒ \√ Nn¥-Ic - mbn amdm-dp≠v. Cß-s\-bp-≈h - ¿ a‰p-≈h - sc At]£n®v Zo¿L-ho-£Wap≈h-cm-Wv. AXpsIm≠v Xs∂ Iuam- c - ° msc

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

kzm[o\n°m-\n-Sb - p≈ ]pI-he - n, aZy-]m\w, hnhm-l] - q¿h ssewKoI _‘-ßƒ F∂nh D≠m-°m-hp∂ `hnjyØp-Is - f°p-dn®v t_m[-ap-≈-hcpw AXn¬\n∂v AI-∂p-\n¬°m≥ sI¬∏p-≈h - c - p-am-bncp-°pw. am\-knI hf¿® t\Snb Ip´n-Iƒ amXm]n-Xm-°t- fm-Sp≈ BI¿jWØn¬ \n∂v ap‡-cm-bn-Øo-cp-∂p. AtXmsS Ah¿°v

amXm-]n-Xm-°f - p-ambn _u≤n-IX - e - Ø - n¬ kwh-Zn-°m≥ Ign-bp-∂p. amXm-]n-Xm°sf kvt\ln-Xcpw A`yp-Z-b-Imw-£nIfpambn ImWm≥ Ign-bp-∂p. Ah-cpsS hy‡nXz cq]o-I-c-W-Øn-\p≈ km[y-XIƒ, `mhn-sb-°p-dn®v k¶¬∏-ßƒ, aqeyßƒ, Pohn-X-ssi-en-Iƒ F∂n-hsb Ipdns®√mw ap≥Iq´n ImWp-∂-Xn-\p≈ Ignhv Cu L´-Øn¬ D≠m-Ip-w.

tUm. h¿Kokv ]pXp-ticn CMl, Ph.D Ub-d-IvS¿ km¥z\ C≥Ãn- ‰ yq´v Hm^v Iu¨kn- e wKv B‚ v sskt°m-sX-dm∏n Nn‰q¿ tdmUv, It®-cn-∏Sn Fd-Wm-Ipfw˛682013 t^m¨: 0484-˛2352961 E-mail:vpudussery@rediffmail.com Website:www. santhwana. net www.santhwana.info

COVER STORY

De-bp∂ IpSpw_w; XI-cp∂ hy‡nXzw F≥ Fw lpssk≥

GXm\pw

h¿j-ßƒ°p apºv {_n´\nse {]i-kvX-]-{X-amb sSen-{Km-^n¬ t]mƒ sI‚m¬ Fgp-Xnb hni-Z-amb dnt∏m¿ńs‚ io¿j-Ia - n-Xm-Wv˛"-˛N - n-Xd- nb {_n´≥˛ \Ωp-°X - ns\ Iqń-t®¿°m-\\ - mIptam?'' (sSe-{Km^v 12 Pqembv 2009). cmjv{So-b˛ kmº-ØnI {]iv\ß - f - m-bn-cp∂n√ teJ-\Ø - nse N¿®m-hn-jb - w. adn®v {_nójv kaqlw t\Sp-∂ -C-∂sØ G‰hpw henb {]iv\w IpSpw-_Ø - I - ¿®bm-sW∂v teJ-I≥ ka¿∞n-°p-∂p. Ubm≥ sa‚q-kb - psS IY ]d-™p-sIm≠mWv dnt∏m¿´v XpS-ßp-∂X - .v \m¬∏-Øn\memw hb-kn¬ Ah-cpsS IqsS-bp≈Xv A©p IpńIƒ; aq∂v ]nXm-°∑ - amcn¬ P\n-®-h¿ . F∂n´pw A—≥am-cn√mØ A\mY IpSpw_w. aZy-Ønepw ab-°p-a- c p- ∂ nepw tamj- W - Ø nepw kabw ]mgm°n hf¿∂ Ipń-Iƒ. ]nXm-°-fn-√msX hf-cp∂ CØcw IpńI-fpsS FÆw Ign™ Zi-I-ß-fn¬ h≥tXm- X n¬ h¿[n- ° p- I - b p- ≠ m- b n. Ct∏m-gXv Gsd-°psd Aº-Xp-i-X-am-\Øn¬ FØm≥ t]mhp-I-bm-Wv. "^mZ¿sekv {_n´¨' Hcp kmaqly {]iv\a - mbn amdp-Ib - m-Wv. {]iv\ ]cn-lmc-Øn\v _n_nkn t]mse P\-kzm-[o-\ap≈ am[y-a-ß¬ ap≥I-sø-Sp-°-Wsa∂v {_nójv Kh¨sa‚ns‚ aoUnb sk{I-´dn sPdan l≠v Bh-iy-s∏-´tXmsS {]i\w kPo-h-N¿®-bn-se-Øn.(sS-e-{Km^v 28 sk]v‰w-_¿ 2009). Hcp h¿jw 3.33 _ney¨ ]u≠mWv k¿°m¿ _n_n-kn°v \¬Ip-∂s - X∂pw Ch-b-{Xbpw \nIp-Xn-∏-W-Øn¬ \n∂msW∂pw AXn- \ m¬ P\- ß - t fmSv Ah¿°v DØ- c - h m- Z n- Ø - a p- s ≠∂pw l≠v hy‡-am-°n. Nn∂n- ® n- X - d nb IpSpw- _ - h y- h - ÿ sb kap-≤-co-I-cn-°m-\p-≈-_m-[yX _n_nkn°ps≠∂pw At±lw Hm¿an-∏n®p. G‰hpw HSp-hn-embn e≠≥ \K-cØn¬ Ac-tß-dnb el-f-I-fn¬ `mK-`m°mb sNdp-∏-°m-cn¬ an°-hcpw ]nXm-

"^mZ¿sekv {_n´¨' Hcp kmaqly {]iv\ambn amdp-I-bm-Wv. {]iv\ ]cn-lm-c-Øn\v _n_nkn t]mse P\-kzm-[o-\a - p≈ am[y-aß¬ ap≥I- s ø- S p- ° - W - s a∂v {_n´ojv Kh¨sa‚ns‚ aoUnb sk{I-´dn sPdan l≠v Bh-iy-s∏-´-tXmsS {]iv\w kPo-hN¿®-bn-se-Øn. °≥amcn-√mØ IpSpw-_-ß-fn¬ \n∂p≈- h - c m- s W∂v k¿°m¿ \S- Ø nb k¿sΔ- I - f n¬ \n∂pw hy‡- a m- b tXmsS IpSpw-_Ø - I - ¿® ASn-b¥ - c ]cnlmcw tXSp∂ hnj-b-ambn amdn-°-gn™p. \thm-ZvYm\ ImeØv ]c-ºc - m-KX IpSpw_-k-¶¬∏-ßsf tNmZyw sNøm-\p≈ {]h-WX - I - ƒ hf¿∂-Xmbn hne-bn-cp-Øs∏-Sp-∂p. Ign™ Ac-\q-‰m-≠n-\n-Sb - n¬ ]pXnb imkv{X˛ kmaq-ln-I-imkv{X

kn≤-m-¥-ß-fpsS AI-º-Sn-tbmsS Cu {ia-ßƒ AXyp-∂-Xn-bn-se-Øn. IpSpw_- Ø - I ¿®- b pw kmaq- l n- I - s si- Y neyßfpw \nc-h[n kmaq-ln-I-kw-lmc {]{In- b - I fpw IpØs\ Db¿∂Xpw CtX Ime-L´- Ø - n-em-bn-cp-∂p.-Ip-Spw_w F∂ Nnc-]p-cm-X\ kmaq-ln-Iÿ m-]\w \nc-h[n ]cn-jvI-c-W-ßƒ°pw ]co-jW-ßƒ°pw hnt[-b-am-bXv CtX ImeØm-Wv. C∂v CØcw ]cn-jvIm-c-ßfpsS ^e-sa-¥m-bn-cp-∂p-sh∂ tÃms°-

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

COVER STORY Sp-∏n-emWv kmaq-lnI imkv{X-⁄cpw hnZym-`ym-khn-N-£-W-cpw. ASp-Ø-ImeØv {it≤-b-amb AØ-csamcp {iaw Bkvt{X-en-bbnse sa¬t_m¨ bqWnth-gvkn-‰n-bnse C≥Ãn-‰yq´v Hm^v AssπUv C°-tWm-anIv B≥Uv dntk¿®n-t‚-Xm-Wv. s{]m^. Unt_md ¢m¿°v t\XrXzw \¬Inb Hcp kwLw Kth-j-I¿ hni-Z-amsbmcp dnt∏m¿´v {]kn-≤o-Icn-°p-I-bp-≠m-bn. ]e-Xcw ]co-£-W-ßƒ°v hnt[-bamb IpSpw-_h - y-hÿ b - nse Ip´n-Iƒ°p≠mb KXn-hn-]cy-b-ßƒ hni-Z-ambn ]Tn-®tijw Ah-sc-Ønb \nKa\w CXm-bn-cp∂p: Fathers provide children with male role models and can influence children' preferences, values and attitudes while giving them a sense of security and boosting their self- esteem. They also incrase the degree of adult supervision at home, which may lead to a direct reduction of delinquent behavior''(Melbourne University Institute Working paper no. 23/ 11). ]nXm-°-fpsS kwc£Ww e`n-°msX hf-cp-∂-hcpw ]nXm-°-fn¬ \n∂pw ^eØn¬ kwc-£Ww e`n-°msX AI∂p Ign-bp-∂-hcpw ]q¿Wambpw XI¿∂ IpSpw-_-_-‘-ß-fn¬ \n∂pw A\m-Ycmbn hf-cp-∂-hcpw \mK-cn-I-ssi-Yn-eyØn\v B°w Iq´p-I-bm-sW∂v ]pXnb Xe-ap-dbnse kmaq-ln-I-im-kv{X-⁄¿ Is≠-Øp-∂p. _n¬ ayqse≥_¿Kv IpSpw-_-Ø-I¿®bn¬ \n∂pw Bhn¿`-hn-°p∂ \nc-h[n {]Xn-k-‘n-I-fn¬ NneXv Xmsg kqNn-∏n°mw: 1. Poverty, 2.Lower educational performance 3. Increased crime 4. Increased drug abuse 5. Increased sexual problems . 6.Incresed mental health problems 7. Increased physical and sexual abuse of chiledren.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

e≠≥ \K- c - Ø n¬ Ac-tß-dnb el-fI - fn¬ `mK- ` m- ° mb sNdp-∏° - m-cn¬ an°hcpw ]nXm-°≥amcn√mØ IpSpw- _ - ß fn¬ \n∂p- ≈ - h - c msW∂v k¿°m¿ \SØnb k¿sΔ-I-fn¬ \n∂pw hy‡-am-btXmsS IpSpw-_-ØI¿® ASn-b¥ - c ]cnlmcw tXSp∂ hnjb- a mbn amdn- ° - g n™p.

CØcw {]iv\-ßƒ ssIImcyw sNøm≥ Bkvt{X-en-b≥ Kh¨sa‚ v Hcp-h¿jw ]Xn-aq∂v _ney-Wn-tesd tUmf- d p- I ƒ sNe- h m- ° p- ∂ - X mbpw At±lw IW-°m-°p-∂p(-B-kvt{X-enb≥ sskt°m-fPnÃv 1995, ]n]n 174˛182) hnhn-[-cm-Py-ß-fnse IpSpw-_-˛km- a q- l n- I - { ]- i v \ - ß ƒ hni- I - e \w sNbvX-tijw ^mtZgvkv C≥ ^maneokv F∂ tUmIyp-sa‚ v \¬Ip∂ D]-kw-lmcw CXmWv: The weight of evidence indicates that the traditional family based upon married father and mother is still the best environment for raising children, and it forms the soundest basis for the wider society.''(Fatherhood Foundation Publication, NSW 2520). \thm-ZvYm-\sØ XpS¿∂p-≠mb IpSpw_-hy-h-ÿ-bvs°-Xn-cmb ]≤-Xn-Ifpw ]cn-jI v m-cß - fpw D]-cn-hn-πh - N - n-¥I - f - psS ^e-am-bn-cp-s∂∂pw kmaq-ln-I-{]-iv\ßƒ ]cn-l-cn-°p-I-b√ h¿[n-∏n-°p-IbmWv AØcw ]cn-jvIc - W - ß - f - n-eqsS kw`-hy-am-bs - Xm∂pw C∂sØ A°m-Zan-am-t\z-jW - ß - ƒ sXfn-bn-°p-∂p. hnaduvilakath@gmail.com

LESIURE

My wife is great!

Jose Thomas Manavalan

hen I married Rosy she could not distinguish sugar from table salt. When ,one day, my mother asked her to break open three eggs, she took from the kitchen cupboard a hammer. That was how some mothers brought up their daughters. They thought that cooking would make their daughters ‘hands uncouth and their complexion dusky. They forgot the fact that soon after the marriage their daughters had to reckon with a more malevolent “sandy” we all call mothers in law! When i brought her home after our marriage, my mother was scaling, cleaning and cutting a fish weighing 4.5 kilos and she was almost 72 years at that time. Two months after the marriage mummy gave Rosy her first test. I had to take mummy to her mother who was indisposed. “we will be back late in the evening and you should manage till then. Daddy must have his lunch at 12 and his evening coffee at 4.Mary maid will help”. Rosy was determined to prove her worth within the time allotted to her. She made a dhal curry with the help of Mary maid and exactly at 11.50 she laid the table giving prime place to the dhal curry displaying the other items a little far from it. Daddy came to the dining room at 12 and took his usual seat. After finishing the fish he waited, when Rosy served rice with plenty of dhal .Rosy was sure he

was enjoying it because he took two helpings. She was overjoyed and when daddy left she was sure mummy would be mighty pleased. She wanted to hum a song but she desisted. She envisioned the scene in which her mother-in -law embraced her passionately for the manner in which she accomplished her mission . Rosy sat on her chair, pushed away from her the plate with the rice, put in her plate a sizeable quantity of dhal curry and started eating. The moment she put the curry in her mouth, she was totally flummoxed ,she grimaced and she wanted to throw up. Immediately she realised salt is an important ingredient of a curry .Rosy looked at the clock ;it was 3.50 and at 4 Daddy must have his coffee .Rosy prepared the coffee and exactly at 4 Daddy arrived and took his seat and immediately took a sip from the cup and grimaced and then he looked into the cup as if to confirm if the demon was still there ;but immediately regained his composure and said:""Do you have some more coffee?”He drained the second cup and left the room. Mary maid appeared in panic and said :”Rosy mol ,we did a terrible mistake, what we put in the coffee was table salt!”. These things happened in the sixties. From those days onwards, she kept her eyes and ears wide open. That was the only advice she gave her sons and her grand children. Now she is an authority on all kinds of cooking_ a connoisseur of good food. Even the pieces of vegetables cut by her carry on them her unique signature. One day the District judge, Manohar visited our neighbour, Thomas. They went on talking, and when Kitty invited the judge for lunch, he readily consented. In the course of the lunch, the judge examined a piece of cauliflower and said:”while practising in Cochin on so many days, I used to take food from the house of advocate Jose and his wife, Rosy, cut the vegetables exactly like this” .It was then

that Kitty told him about us and also that the cauliflower curry was a gift from Rosy. All her grand children adore her. Eventhough she is a fierce discipl-inarian ,when it co-mes to their future, education and car-eer, she is very supportive. During meal time, she insists, there must be no small talks, no irrelevant chitchats but only serious pursuits of learning. According to her, meal time is the best time for learning and that learning is a continuing process. According to her learning time is not six hours a day or eight hours a day, but it is the whole day, the whole month, the whole year . As soon as every one was seated ,Rosy would

start teaching “John———a song”, Little Rosy shouted “John sings a song”, “John and Mathew——a song, “Rohan would answer, “sing”” Rohan, spell carcass “Rohan “C A R C AS””wrong” ,little Rosy “C A R C A S S” Good. Every child enjoys the exercise. Similarly new words, grammar, pronunciation were all explained. According to Rosy if properly orchestrated teaching children is a pleasure.

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

BOOK REVIEW

THE TIME KEEPER by MITCH ALBOM Sphere, Great Britain, 2012

Sonia Paul

Man alone measures time. Man alone chimes the hour. And, because of this, man alone suffers a paralyzing fear that no other creature endures. A fear of time running out.

makes us question the value we place on time. Dor’s preoccupation with inventing water clocks and sun dials, indirectly measuring time, makes him lose sight of the here and now. He can’t be drawn away from his inventions, neither by love of family nor tribe, or so he thinks, till through endless aeons, he is forced to realize how his invention has come to rule man’s life, and has created a confining world. Death in this world is either a welcome reprieve or a frightening prospect – depending on how you value time. If you want more time on earth, it would be the latter; if not, then death is definitely the former. Sarah Lemon starts out by enjoying how time flies, and then it turns into a literal wish for time to fly; Victor Delamonte wants time to crawl, and grant him immortality. It is up to Father Time to show them what time is all about. While we chart our life in terms of years, months, days, hours, minutes and seconds, where is the life we are supposed to live? What would have been if there was no concept of time? What if instead of begging for more time or wishing it would get over sooner, we were just to be, live and exist in the radiant and numinous present? Has counting time made us better or worse – contented and generous, or the opposite? And is it ‘time’ or is it ‘us’ – should our priority be to grab a few hours more when we need, and throw away the minutes when we no longer feel we can go on, or should we look beyond the clock on the wall at all the possibilities that a life truly lived would offer us? Yet, without a concept of time, where would our sense of control be? Many of the man-made structures and concepts would crumble to dust, just like the biblical tower-of-Babel, an allusion brilliantly captured by Albom in this book. The book reminds one of T.S. Eliot’s lines, “Where is the Life we have lost in living? Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge? Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?” … What actually counts in the life we have been given to live? The book may not give you the answer, but it will certainly set you thinking, beyond the concept of time, and the next time you look at the hourglass, it will bring to mind the myriad possibilities of the infinite specks of sand.

owerful lines these! The sheer mindlessness with which we attempt to select reading which will nourish our thoughts and minds, and which will inevitably be the way in which we while away our hours, or make the most of it, like drawing out a short weekend, gets punctuated with a question mark when we chance upon a book like this. Don’t be belied by the simple storyline, the effortlessly comprehensible language; this is one book which will continue to resonate within you long after its designated reading time. It is intuition which leads me to the book I should read, whether that be on a day when I get to spend two hours in the library, or two minutes. I feel a book is calling out to be read, and I select it, and so it was with this. Mitch Albom is a writer who makes you think, reflect, and sometimes silently weep at the underlying poignancy of the message in his book. Be it Tuesdays with Morrie, or The Five People You Meet In Heaven, we are forced to confront the reality of life from a totally different perspective. The Time Keeper continues the tradition. Most of us suffer from an unhealthy obsession with time: little wonder in a world obsessed with planners and schedulers, where time management mantras are deemed very important in professional and personal success, and personal coaches wax eloquent on the need to develop the skill. This book succeeds precisely because of that. It is the chilling reality of a cold breeze: an opportune reminder of the truth of life lost in the hustle and bustle of the rat race. Through the interspersed portraits of Dor – who later becomes Father Time, Sarah Lemon and Victor Delamonte, Mitch Albom soniaclarispaul@gmail.com

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CAREER

Management Students, Know How to Get the Best Placements Advice from experts on how to grab your dream job Are you a management student gearing up for placements and wondering what you should opt for in terms of a good organisation, the job profile or salary? With the campus placement process underway at major management institutes in the country, we spoke to students who bagged plum offers with some of the big players in various sectors, and got advice from experts, to find out how to grab that dream job.

Impress the recruiter According to Aman Bhatnagar, an alumnus of IIM Lucknow who was hired by the Boston Consulting Group during the preplacement process recently, “You should not put too much pressure on cracking the interview. Treat it as a conversation between people and take it in a relaxed manner.” Recalling his campus interview, Bhatnagar says, “The first 15 minutes in two of my interviews included informal chats with the recruiters about my interests. HR representatives and partners in the firm were present. I was given real life case studies to solve by my current recruiter and one of them was about a life insurance company consistently losing its market share. I was asked to analyse it and suggest solutions.” To prepare for case studies, candidates successful in placement interviews recommend reading case studies of ISB,

Wharton School and Harvard Business School. Another important thing to keep in mind is the group discussion as it helps you in your interview. “If you have made a good impression in the GD then it helps during the interview - during which you have to be specific while replying to questions. Quote numbers wherever possible and

ensure that these are backed by strong reasoning,” says Ravi Pandey, an alumnus of IIM Ranchi, who bagged a job as an assistant banker with a leading multinational bank. Recruiters today look for a wellrounded personality. Just having the subject knowledge is not enough in today’s competitive world. “You have to go a step further to distinguish yourself. Participate in corporate competitions, campus events, extra-curricular activities, paper presentations etc,” says Merlvin Jude Mukhim, member of the placement cell at IIM Shillong. Another factor that helps in making your interview experience good is how much you know your recruiter. “You must try and make an effort to know people of that company. Most companies have buddies or mentees who are there to guide students,”

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CAREER adds Bhatnagar. Once you get an interview call, it is important to do a thorough research on the company and understand how your profile fits into the scheme of things. “Beyond a point, recruiters look more for a culture fit with the company rather than technical concepts. Matching your expectations from a job with the opportunities available in the given profile helps you convince the recruiters. Asking a good relevant question to the interviewer gets you brownie points,” says Prashant Maheshwari, an alumnus of XLRI, Jamshedpur, currently working with a leading financial advisory firm.

Money matters Grabbing a handsome package depends on various factors, say students and faculty members. “Your prior work experience, performance at the institute and how you perform during the placement week are the most crucial aspects that will determine whether you get that dream job with a dream salary or not,” says Pandey.

Company or profile? Brand, profile and package are the three major aspects of a job. “Students today realise this fact and give due importance to all three. They have become increasingly open about their options and are willing to join small companies and even startups, if the work offer promises good value. Hence, the profile is a deciding factor for a candidate to choose a company,” says Mukhim. In such a scenario, candidates need to decide what exactly their expectations from their career are. “If they value aspects like job security, future growth potential and prestige associated with working for a big name, they should go for a job in a big company that might not offer the position or pay they aspired for. If they value money/position as the biggest driver and are sure that it can keep them motivated enough, then they can go for a job offer from an organisation that might not have a

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great future,” says Rajiv Misra, head, placements at XLRI, Jamshedpur.

Before accepting the offer Says Arpan Srivastava, an alumnus of the Faculty of Management Studies, Delhi University, who is a manager (product development) at InfoEdge, “It will be easier to change your industry (where you do what you like) than to change your functional area (what it is that you do). In the initial phase, you need to build your key skills – whether these are in finance, sales, operations, HR or marketing. Once you have demonstrated consistent results in your function, you can take your talents to multiple industries and companies. Instead of being swayed by package or brand name, ask yourself if you will enjoy doing the core functions of this job day-in and day-out for several years in this specific company. Many b-school jobs deal exclusively with crunching numbers on excel sheets, others require constant travelling to remote areas, some may require you to acquire IT skills. Be sure of what you are getting into.”

Your key to success Treat your campus placement interview as a conversation between people and try to be as relaxed as possible To prepare for case studies, read the case studies of ISB, Wharton School and Harvard Business School Go a step further to distinguish yourself. Participate in corporate competitions, campus events, extra-curricular activities, paper presentations Try and make an effort to know the organisation you are being interviewed for. Do a thorough research on the company and understand how your profile fits into the scheme of things Your prior work experience, performance at the institute and during the placement week are the most crucial aspects that will determine whether you get that dream job with a dream salary or not Instead of being swayed by package or brand name, ask yourself if you will enjoy doing the core functions of this job day-in and day-out for several years in this specific company

FOCUS

Flavours of a victorious life Tell us about your Rajagiri daysâ&#x20AC;Ś.. I belong to the group of back benchers. But I will not forget the lessons of life I learned from Rajagiri. We lived in the period were mobile phones and computers were dreams. We depended on our teachers for everything. Teachers were our role models. Our teachers gave a importance to discipline. It was difficult for us to follow their instructions , but now I understand the value of their advice. I respect relationships. There are people who left this organization. But still I keep my contacts with them.

Dr. Viju Jacob learnt the art of relationship from his Rajagiri days. His teachers including CMI priests taught him the lessons of life. Viju was a football player in his school days. He still carries the team sprit when it comes in terms of business . His role as the Executive Director of Synthite Industries is of team captain. His priority is values than profit in the business. Excerpts from his interview:

What is your philosophy of life? Love and faithfulness. I believe in the philosophy of love. Without that you cannot win the hearts. One thing I would like to tell my fellow business man: be faithful. That is the only virtue which will make your life and business a success. God has changed my life. I will not do anything against His will. Who do you consider as the best leader, an inspiration for you ? My father C V Jacob has inspired me a lot. He is well disciplined and methodical in his approach. He has great love and respect for employees and considered them as his own children and gave ownership of the organisation to them. I got to learn a lot from him and successfully implemented it in my life. How would you describe yourself as a boss? I am always friendly with my employees. I consider them as friends. They can share anything with me, ever their personal matters. I do not believe in yelling at people and getting things done. I donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t dictate terms and I am more democratic with people. In meetings and discussions I ask our employees to give ideas and suggestions rather than doing all the talking. We must give equal consideration for everyone, and I strongly believe people are the key to the success of any organisation, if people fail organisations fail.

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FOCUS As a boss,what are the innovative HR practices that you have initiated in your organisation ? We have Synthite Centre for Learning and Development (SCLD) to help our employees to develop their skills and advance their career. Family@ work is a recent initiative to thank the families of Synthite employeesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;. It is a half-day program where the employees parents, spouse and children accompany him/her to office. They get an opportunity to interact with other Synthite staff and management and to visit processing plants. After the program, there is a sumptuous lunch and gifts for the families. What are the initiatives that you have introduced to keep your employees engaged and motivated ?

Synthite was among the first in India to enter spice oleoresin manufacturing. From that pioneering start in 1972, the company has grown to become the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s most trusted spice ingredient provider today, with a turnover of over USD 125 million and commanding over 30 per cent of the global market share. Synthite supplies spices in ground, extracts and value added forms. Synthiteâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s quest for quality makes it the preferred choice of its clientele in over 75 countries. Synthite is a diversified group now, with interests in fields as diverse as bio ingredients, spice, natural specialties, farm tech, hospitality, and realty and wind energy.

We have an employee recognition programme called Synthite Star. All employees of Synthite are eligible to be nominated for the Synthite Star recognition programme under three categories - Outstanding Care For Our Peer Award, Outstanding Care For Our Customer Award and Outstanding Care For Our Business Award. These awards are conferred on a monthly basis with best amongst-best award at the end of the year. We organise Synergy,a monthlong activity of sports, games, arts, literary and cultural events. We also organise Synthite Day where we encourage family members of the employees to come in and enjoy. We provide travel opportunities for our employees and offer discounts to stay at Ramada resorts. All our employees are insured under a prominent insurance scheme. We also ensure that every employee working with us has a house and we provide interest free housing loans. How do you strive to renew your passion for work on a daily basis ? I love to travel and it helps me renew myself. When you travel you get new ideas and new thoughts which are really helpful in your professional and personal life.

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Education in Ancient India -II Augustine Thottakara, CMI

I am trying to present here some scattered thoughts on education in ancient India. I say ‘ancient India’, because education and formation of boys and girls in modern India is known to all, and all the sections of Indian society follow more or less the same pattern of school curricula and course of action in making education available to people.

Responsibilities of the Guru

only in the back of the body, and never in front, or in noble parts of the body (Manusmºti VIII.292).

The guru should consider the pupil as his own son and instruct with great care the texts of the sacred scriptures, the rules of purifications, rules and regulations for good conduct, methods of fire worship and sandhya prayers, etc. Above all the guru should lead the student to the spiritual experience of the Divine, which he himself possesses. Referring to the attitude of the teacher towards the student Manu says:

The teacher is not supposed to extract fees from the students for his noble work. But he may receive gifts, especially at the end of the successful completion of the studies. Before the Samâvartana Samskâra, the official send off of the student from the household of the teacher, the student is expected to give proper gifts to his teacher.

Created beings must be taught (by the teacher) for their wellbeing, without giving them any pain. A teacher who wants to abide by the Vedic laws should use sweet and mild speech (for instructions). He, whose speech and thoughts are pure and guarded, will gain all the rewards promised by Vedanta. Let him not, even if he is pained, use harsh words painful to others. Let him not injure others in thought or deed ... (Manu-smºti II.156-161). Corporeal punishment was not very much in favour. Manu says that if no other way is possible to bring the student to the right track, the teacher may punish him with a thin rope, or cane, or a split bamboo, but

Procedure of the Daily Lesson Sage Gautama narrates: with his right hand the student should hold the left hand of his preceptor, but leaving his thumb free. Then the student shall say to his teacher thus: ‘Respected Lord, recite’. He shall fix his eyes and mind on the teacher. He should then touch with kuœa grass the places of vital airs of his body. He then should hold his breath three times for the duration of fifteen moments. He should sit on leaves of kuœa grass, the ends of which are pointed to the eastern direction. The words ‘Om’ and ‘Satya’ are to be pronounced before uttering the five vyâhrtis. Every morning the

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RESEARCH phenomenal and without any parallels in the world!

The Œrama of This Stage of Life

feet of the teacher should be embraced by the student, as also at the beginning and end of a lesson of the Veda. Once the teacher grants permission, the student should sit to the right side of the teacher facing towards East or towards North and then he must recite the Sâvitri. These acts must be performed at beginning of the lesson of the Vedas (Gautama Dharma-sutra I46 ff.). Ingenious methods have been developed to commit the Vedic mantras to memory. There are four kinds of recitation (pâþhas). In the pada-pâþha each consonant is pronounced separately, without compound words. In the krama-pâþha two letters are pronounced in one unit and the second letter is always repeated as the first letter in the second unit. The jata-pâþha and ghanapâþha are still complicated. This was a

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very clever and extremely effective method invented by the resourceful Vedic scholars of ancient times to protect the mantras from interpolations in the process of oral transmission and thus guarantee the loyal and complete handing down of the Vedic hymns. In fact, the capacity of the ancient teachers, to commit texts to memory is

I said that a stage of human life is known as âúrama, and that âúrama, means total and comprehensive effort or endeavour. What is the specific effort of the first stage of life, namely, the stage of studentship, brahmacarya? It is the intellectual effort. The student is supported by the householder to meet his material needs. So his prime duty and main objective is to acquire wisdom by steadfast efforts.The word used to denote the first stage of life, namely, studentship, is brahmacarya-âúrama. Brahmacârin is a student. The word “Brahman” originally meant the Vedic word, the sacred formula, the mantra. One who is devoted to Vedas and Vedic studies, namely, the Vedic student, was a brahmacârin. Later in the Upnisadic period the word “Brahman” meant the absolute Being and the ultimate Reality. So a seeker of this supreme Reality is considered to be a as brahmacârin. Celibacy was one of the most important conditions for Vedic studies. The importance of celibacy was stressed so much, that later it is identified with brahmacarya itself. So today brahmacarya means celibacy and a brahmacârin is a celibate man.

Upnishadic period the word “Brahman” meant the absolute Being and the ultimate Reality. So a seeker of this supreme Reality is considered to be a brahmacârin.

RESEARCH

The Gita presents one of the best models of guru in the Hindu scriptures. Lord Krsna, who is supposed to be the most important incarntation of Visnu, plays the role of guru in this most popular sacred scripture of Hinduism. The End of the Formal Education A student has to stay at the household of the guru (guru-kula) at least for twelve years. It can be more. The Vedic concept of the life-span of a man is one hundred years, œatâyuh puruº ah, the age of man is one hundred years. O f t h a t t h e f i r s t q u a r t e r, n a m e l y, twenty-five years, is meant for education. The second quarter is to be spent as a householder in the married life. The third quarter is meant for the life in the hermitage, and one has to spend the last quarter in the life of total renunciation. The orthodox Hindus believe that in this Dark Age (Kaliyuga), in which the evil has the predominance, the life-span of man is no more hundred years. After the successful completion of the studies, with the permission and blessings of the guru, the disciple takes the ritual bath (dîkº ânta-snâna). Then he gives the ceremonial gift (dakº ina) to the teacher. The guru gives him the final exhortation and sends him home to get married, beget children and establish his household. The ritual of this official send off of the student from guru-kula Instead he undertook a long pilgrimage. The is known as the samâvartana student Upakosala was so unhappy and samskâra. disappointed that he started a hunger strike. B u t i f t h e t e a c h e r i s n o t Even at the insistence of the wife of the satisfied with the performance of the teacher he did not take any food. He spent student and his character, he may day and night in the sacrificial hall tending refuse to perform the send-off ritual. the sacrificial fires. Then the sacrificial Chandogya Up. narrates the story of a fires took pity on him and started to give student (brahmacârin) c a l l e d him instructions on the supreme Self, Upakosala Kamalayana. He stayed which was later completed by his guru with his guru Satyakama Jabala for twelve when he returned from the pilgrimage years. But the teacher refused to conclude (Chandogya Up. IV.10). Taittiriya Up. I.11 his education and perform the gives a beautiful exhortation of the guru to samâvartana ritual, the official send-off. his disciple at the end of his education

which I would like to quote at the end of this essay. The Gita presents one of the best models of guru in the Hindu scriptures. Lord Krsna, who is supposed to be the most important incarntation (avatâra) of Visnu, plays the role of guru in this most popular sacred scripture of Hinduism. He, through his words and through his blessings, guides and instructs Arjuna, his disciple, who, not knowing the course of action he should take, was perplexed and confused to the point of desperation. And

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RESEARCH “As all beings live depending on air so all the stages of life live depending on the householder” (III.77) (Cf. Manu-smº ti Chapters III & IV). His œrama, effort, is predominantly bodily. But he is in no way exempt from studies. Taittiriya Up. exhorts the householder: “You shall not fail to study the Vedas and to teach them”1 .

The Hermit (Vânaprastha)

Arjuna is depicted in the Gita as an ideal disciple. He has supreme faith in the ability of his teacher and totally surrenders to him and is ready to carry out the will and wish of his guru. He says: “I am your disciple, teach me who has taken refuge in you” (Gita II.7). Devotion and obedience to guru is not only an obligation and duty for the well-being of oneself and that of the society, but also a great virtue and spiritual value, that is capable of leading the seeker to spiritual perfection and finally to liberation. Great sanctity and extraordinary powers are attributed to disciples who loved and respected the teacher selflessly and obeyed and followed him unreservedly.

The Householder (Gºhastha) The second stage of human life is the life of a householder, the married life in family with wife and children. Of the four âúramas, stages of life, this is the most important one. The householder protects and nourishes not only his own family, but also the entire society, the members of all the other three âúramas. Householder is the guardian and upholder of societal life and order. Householders are in charge of governing the country, defending the

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country and people, production of goods, providing the infrastructure for societal life, etc. Householder takes care of religion and religious worship. Only a householder can perform ritual worship, sacramental and family rituals, etc. Manu states: “Of all these four (states of life) the householder, who performs Vedic and Smrti rituals, is the noblest. He indeed protects all the other three. As the rivers find their rest in the ocean, so all the states of life find their support in the householder” (VI.89-90).

The householder, after having carried out his responsibilities and obligations to his family and to the society, and has now become old, entrusts his duties to his sons and retires to the forest for a solitary life with or without his wife. This is the third stage of life (âúrama), and the effort (œrama) here is mainly mental. The hermit reflects, meditates, prays, writes books and also imparts wisdom to the seekers of the supreme Reality. The place where he lives is also called âúrama or âúram. Most of the ancient writings of Hinduism were produced by these sages. I could imagine the asram of a sage. The clean and unceremonious thatched hut in the midst of the lovely and luxuriant forest, a silent symbol of the simple existence of a saintly sage on earth. A small rivulet with its sprinkling and sparkling water flowing freely nearby making its own rare rhymes of celestial music, reminding the visitor of the ephemeral ethos of embodied existence. The birds, small and large, flying above and frolicking around, are chirping and singing mellow melodies unknown to

The hermit reflects, meditates, prays, writes books and also imparts wisdom to the seekers of the supreme Reality. The place where he lives is also called âúrama or âúram. Most of the ancient writings of Hinduism were produced by these sages.

RESEARCH the cycle of births, deaths and rebirths. He carries three staffs tied together to signify the control over mind, speech and body. He possesses only a begging bowl, a staff, a loincloth/fire-coloured garment and water-strainer. He removes all the symbols from the body like the sacred thread, tuft of hair, etc. Manu-smº ti elaborately explains the characteristics, vision of life and life style of a renouncer in chapter VI.33-97.

human beings. Animals, wild and domestic, gambol and ramble around in perfect peace and fraternal friendship, an ideal world of everlasting rta. Tall trees housing and nourishing hosts of birds and animals with unasked charity and saintly abandonment. Lushy foliage and fragrant flowers in dainty designs dancing in the cooling breeze. The unending parade of the butterflies ever fluttering in a riot of colours. There, in this heavenly calm and beatific serenity, the rsi sits under the mighty tree, sunk deep in contemplation on his own inner Self. His inner experiences were then put down for the benefit of humanity. He did not write for money or fame. That is the reason why the ancient Indian literature lacks all kinds of historical data.

Education and the Four Values or Goals of Life Hinduism proposes four values or goals for human life. In Sanskrit they are known as the puruºârthas. They are artha (wealth and fame), kâma (pleasure and love life), dharma and mokºa (the eternal salvation).

The Renouncer (Sannyâsin) The last asrama, stage of life, is that of total renunciation (sannyâsa). He renounces and leaves everything, and leads the life of a wandering mendicant. A sannyâsin is not a teacher, not a priest, not a preacher nor social worker. He is not bound to any person or place, nor does any person or place bind him. He owns nothing and he is not owned by anybody. He builds no house for him, but he has house everywhere. He never needs the

Artha (Wealth) world but the world needs him. He is a symbol of God’s presence on earth. His mission is to be and not do. He lives in perfect harmony with the nature, in full fraternity with humanity and intimate union with God and enjoys total freedom of the children of God. He is beyond the laws and conventions of the society, beyond rituals and religions. His effort, œrama, is purely spiritual, for the final liberation from

Renouncer is a symbol of God’s presence on earth. His mission is to be and not do. He lives in perfect harmony with the nature, in full fraternity with humanity and intimate union with God and enjoys total freedom of the children of God. He is beyond the laws and conventions of the society, beyond rituals and religions. His effort, œrama, is purely spiritual, for the final liberation from the cycle of births, deaths and rebirths. 54

Wealth and related matters are not bad and are considered as objects worthy of human endeavour. Money and matter are in themselves neutral. It is our attitude to them, and the ways and means we employ to procure and retain them make them good or evil. The desire for wealth however, should not become greed. Education should help a man, especially a householder, to evaluate worldly matters in the correct perspective.

Pleasures of Life (Kâma) Pleasure in earthly life is a value. Enjoyments worldly things, especially in married life, are to be seen as positive things. But it should not become lust. Happiness negating, world denying and matter rejecting spirituality are to be avoided. Kama, when wrongly conceived and practised, is one of the six cardinal sins, the others being krodha (anger), lobha (avrice), moha (infatuation), mata (pride) and mâtsarya (jealousy).

Dharma Dharma is religion, duty, righteousness, virtue, piety, law or simply the correct and honest way of living. The second chapter of Manu-smºti defines dharma and explains

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

RESEARCH

Photo: Anand Pious its essential nature in a few verses. “Understand dharma as that (rule of life) which is followed by those learned in the Vedas and what is approved by the heart (conscience) of the virtuous people who always live without hatred and attachment” (II.1). “All the Vedas, the Smrti which knows the Vedas, the good conduct of holy people, and that which is agreeable to the conscience – these are the sources of Dharma” (II.6). “The wise men have expounded the four essential sources of dharma, namely, the Vedas, the Smrti, the approved usage and that which is agreeable to one’s self (or, good conscience)” (II.12). Dharma, as defined, described and propagated by Manu-smº ti, has four sources and foundational inspirations, namely, the teachings of the Vedas; the Smrti literature, which ultimately is the sublimation and interpretation of the Vedas; the dictates of the conscience; and the practice of upright people approved by the society. Undue stress on and overdue importance to dharma, however, may turn into fanaticism and fundamentalism, which are to be avoided.

the human activities are to be directed. Education should ultimately serve to this purpose. It should be noted here that one of the most distinguishing characteristics of the Indian mind and thinking is the insatiable obsession for liberation or Godrealization. Indian sages and saints and scriptures and systems have devised various paths (mârgas), means (sâdhanas or yogas) for securing this ultimate eschatological goal of human existence. Every branch of learning in India ultimately has to show the way to salvation. Even pure philosophical treatises like logic finally say, if you do this or that, if you know such and such things, you will be liberated from the law of karman. No form or method of education is perfect and orthodox unless it imparts to the student the wisdom of liberation. The nature of the state of liberation may be different from system to system. Even atheist systems like Samkhya propose means and methods to get rid of the bondage and embodied existence. I would like to show two examples from the Upanisads. In The Final Liberation (Mokºa) Chandogya Up. VIII.1 the sage and Liberation is the supreme goal, the ultimate scholar Narada approaches sage aim and the summum bonum for which all Sanatkumara (who is supposed to be one

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

of the four sons of Brahma himself) to learn the brahma-vidyâ, the wisdom of Brahman. Narada says: Ve n e r a b l e Sir, I know Rg-veda, Yajur Veda, Sama Veda and Atharva Veda as the fourth. I know the Epics and Puranas as the fifth. I know grammar, the rule of the worship of the ancestors, mathematics, the science of portents, the science of treasures, logic, the science of ethics, etymology, the knowledge of Vedangas, physical science, science of war, science of stars, science related to serpents and fine arts. All this I know, revered Sir. But, Sir, I am only a knower of words. I am not a knower of Brahman (Chandogya Up. VIII.1). Narada continues that only a knower of the Self can cross over to the other side of this ocean of sorrow (tarati úokam âtmavid), and requests Sanatkumara to teach him this wisdom. Narada was well educated in all the known branches of wisdom and learning of his time. He was a great scholar in every respect. But he considered his immense knowledge and long education as miserably inadequate, because he did not know the correct path to God. Likewise Praœna Up. narrates the story of six scholars.

ENGLISH TEACHER

SAY

ynonyms abound in the English language, and this is why some of the simplest usages get confusing for Indian users of the language. While synonyms do exist in the Indian languages, they are usually interchangeable with little or no change in the grammatical structure. This is not the case with English synonyms. Let us take a look at one of the most common mistakes committed by Indian users of English, an innocent act of replacing a word with its synonym, but which results in wrong usage: What did you say to him? (Right) What did you tell to him? (Wrong) Both say and tell have the meaning express in words. The word say is derived from the Germanic sagjan, which is descended from the Indo-European base seq-, which signified point out. Tell is traced back to the Germanic taljan, which was a derivative of talo – something told (from which we have the English word tale). Talo was formed from the base tal-, considered to be the source of the English word talk. Apart from narrative, discourse, the word carries the meanings counting, enumeration (which is how we have the derivative teller). Given the synonymous nature of these two words, the easiest way to avoid the

above-mentioned mistake would be to remember that say does not take indirect object, whereas tell does. So, you say something, but you tell someone something. For example, Tell somebody something (with indirect object) – Mary told me that John has gone to London. Say something (without indirect object) – Mary said that John has gone to London. Further, note that say is used with both direct and indirect speech, whereas tell is used only in indirect speech. “I will not come,” he said. He said that he would not come. He told me that he would not come. Take a look at a few more examples, He said, “Leave”. He told her to leave. She said that she might visit us. She told me that she might visit us. You forgot to say goodbye. I told her the truth. Having come so far, let us take a quick look at some expressions which use say and tell, which we can add to our daily repertoire.

Expressions using say: (1) Have your say – give your opinion about something

TELL?

(2) Say your piece – say exactly what you feel or think “Now that he has said his piece, you can have your say.” (3) Just say the word – you are willing to do something as soon as somebody asks “I am not busy this weekend, so just say the word and I will help you pack.” (4) To say the very least – used to say that you are using the least strong way of saying something “To say the very least, this kind of behavior is unbecoming of a professional.”

Expressions using tell: (1) Tell its own tale/story – explains or show something, without the need of any more explanations or comment “Contrary to what they say, the plight of the children tells its own story.” (2)You never can tell – you can never be sure “He seems to be kind, but you never can tell when people change.” (3) Tell tales about somebody/something – tell somebody in authority that another person has done something wrong “I don’t think it is nice of you to tell tales about her; she has helped you out on so many occasions.” (4) There is no telling – it is impossible to know “There is no telling what he will do once he comes to know of the truth.” We sign off this time, pointing out that the expression, “Tell me about it!” is not an invitation to divulge more information. It merely means “I understand what you are talking about.” soniaclarispaul@gmail.com

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

PERSONALITY

temI-Øns‚ s\dp-I-bn¬ Hcp ae-bmfn km∂n[yw Ata-cn-°-bpsS cmjv{Sob Ncn-{X-Øn¬ BZy-ambn C¥y-°m-cn¬\n∂v sXc-s™-Sp-°-s∏´ ae-bm-fnbmb B\n-t]mƒ Pohn-Xm-\p-`-h-ßƒ ]¶n-Sp-∂p.C¥y-bn¬ -kv{Xo-Iƒ hym]-I-ambn A]-am-\n-°s∏-Sptºmƒ temI-{i-≤-bn-tebv°v s]mcpXn Pbn® B\n-t]m-fns‚ PohnXw kv{Xo kaq-l-Øn\v amXr-I-bm-Wv.Ah-cpsS hnti-j-ß-fn-te-bv°v........

]n.-Fw.-amb

BXp- c - t km- h - \ - c w- K - Ø p- \ n∂v cmjv{So-bØ - n-te-bv°p-ff IS-∂ph-chv? \yqtbm¿°nse tdm¢m‚ v Iu≠n ePnt…-®-dmbn sXc-s™-Sp-°-s∏´ {]Ya C¥y≥ h\n-XbmWv Rm≥.hfsc henb ÿm\-amWv ChnsS F\n°v e`n-®n-´p-ff - Xv.-Hcp \gvkmbn tPmen sNbvXn-cp∂ F\n°v Ata-cn-°-bpsS cmjv{Sob cwKtØbv°v IS-∂p-hc - m≥ Ign-™X - n¬ hfsc-tbsd A`n-am-\a - p-≠.v h - f - sc km[m-cW - °m-cn-bmb F\n°v Cu cwK-tØbv°v hcm≥ Ign-™X - n¬ \mSn-t\m-SmWv IS-∏mSp-f-f-Xv.v.s]m-Xp-cw-K-tØbv°v kv{XoIƒ IS-∂p-h-cp-tºmƒ IpSpw-_-Øn¬\n∂v

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

kwL-S\m `mc-hm-ln-bp-am-bn-cp-∂p.-s^m°m-\b - p-sSbpw {- ]-h¿Ø-Ib - m-bn-cp-∂p.kaq-lØ - n¬ F\n-°p-≠m-bn-cp∂ Cu {]k‡n-bmWv Fs∂ Ata-cn°≥ cmjv{So-bØn-tebv°v sXc-s™-Sp-ØX - .v Ata-cn-°bn-ep-ff Fs‚ _‘p-°fpw \m´p-Im-cpa-S-°-ap-ff k¿Δcpw ]n¥p-W-bp-ambn F\n-s°m-∏a - p-≠m-bn-cp∂p.sX-cs - ™-Sp∏v {]h¿Ø-\ß - f - n-sems° Ah-cpsS klI-cW - hpw hfsc hep-Xm-bn-cp-∂p.km[mcW sXc- s ™- S p- ∏ p- I - f nse hodpw hminbpw AhnsSbp-ap-≠m-bn-cp-∂p.-F∂m¬ kplr-Øp-°f - p-sS-sbms° ]¶mfnØw hfsc ck- I - c - a m- b n- c p- ∂ ptdm°vem‚ v Iu≠n-bn¬ `qcn-`m-Khpw aebm-fn-If - m-bn-cp-∂p.-B{- ^n-°≥ Ata-cn-°°mcpw slbvØn,-kvs]-bn≥ F∂n-hn-Sß-fn¬ \n∂v h∂-hcpw IqSp-Xe - m-bp-ff Rm≥ a¬k-cn® ]Xn-∂memw Unkv{SnIvSv Fs‚ hnP-bØ - n\v Gsd KpWw sNbvXp h≥`q-cn-]-£-hp-ap-≠m-bn-cp-∂p.-F-Xn¿ i‡-amb FXn¿∏p≠mImdp-≠v.-]t£ ÿm\m¿∞nsb 63% thmń-\mWv ]cm-Phoń¬\n∂pw AXp- ≠ m- b n- √ .--F s‚ b-s∏-Sp-Øn-bX - v. `¿Ømhv AK-kvdd- n≥ t]mfmWv Fs∂ Cu ÿm\-tØbv°v sXc-s™-Sp-°s - ∏- Ata-cn°bn¬ FØp-∂-Xn\v ´-Xn¬ Gsd klm-bn-®X - .v A - t- ±-lØ - ns‚ ap≥]p-ff PohnX kml-N-cy]q¿Æ- k - Ω - X hpw kl- I - c - W hpw ß-sf-°p-dn®v? F\n°v Icp-Ømbn amdp-I-bm-bn-cp-∂p. Ata-cn-°b - nse At\Iw k∂≤ kwL- km[m-cW ae-bmfn s]Ïp-ń-Is - f-t∏mS-\I - f - nse {]h¿Ø-\ßƒs°m∏w k∂- se-Xs∂ Rm\pw sa®-s∏´ Hcp tPmen ≤-tk-h\ cwKØpw Rm≥ Bflm-¿∞- B{K-ln-®mWv Ata-cn-°b - n-se-Øn-bX - v.ambn {]h¿Øn-®n-cp-∂p.-Fs‚ AØcw Ip-ń-°mew apXte \gvknwKv tPmen-tbmSv {]h¿Ø-\-ß-fmWv sXc-s™-Sp-∏n¬ F\n°v Gsd CjvSa - m-bn-cp-∂p addv taJF\n°v hnP- b n- ° m≥ Ign- ™ - X v . l- e-I-sf-°m-dp-tasd \gvkp-am¿°v a\pUvk¨hmen ae-bmfn Atkm-kn-tb- jy¿°p- t h≠n Hcp- ] mSv Imcy- ß ƒ j≥ {]kn- U ‚ v , - C - ¥ y≥ \gv k kv sNøm-\p-≠v.-a-c-W-hp-ambn a√-Sn-°p∂ Atkm-kn-tb-j≥ {]kn-U‚ v XpSßn tcmKn- I ƒ°v \gv k ns‚ km∂n[yw

PERSONALITY hfsc hep-XmWv Aßs\ thZ-\n-°p-∂h¿°v \ap-°m-izmkw \¬Im≥ Ignbp∂ al-Ømb tPmen-sb∂v IW-°m°n-bmWv Rm≥ \gvknwKv saJe sXcs™-Sp-ØX - v.k - X - y-Øn-¬ Fs‚ PohnXw \gvknwKv taJ-ebv°v th≠n ka¿∏n-°s∏-´X - m-Wv. Pohn-XØ - n¬ Db¿∂ ÿm\ß-fn-se-ØW - s - a∂ henb B{K-la - p-≠mbn-cp-∂p.-]-cm-P-b-ß-sfbpw FXn¿∏p-Isfbpw t`Zn-°W - s - a∂ ZrV-hn-izm-khpw F\n-°p-≠m-bn-cp-∂p.i‡-amb a\- mWv Fs∂ cmjv{So-b-Øn-te°v ASp-∏n-®-Xv.U¬ln-bnse teUn lm¿UnwKv saUn°¬ tImtf-Pn¬\n∂v \gvknwKv ]T\w ]q¿Øn- b m- ° n- b mWv Ata- c n- ° - b n¬ FØp-∂X - v.] -- T - \ - I - m-eß - fnse Fs‚ Ignhns\ ASn-kn-Ym-\-am°n A°m-eØv tUm.-hn-P-b-Ip-am¿ KpPvdmƒ Ahm¿Uv t^m¿ tamkvddv F^n-jy‚ v B≥Uv knw]-X-d-dnIv \gvkv F∂ _lp-aXn A∂sØ {][m- \ - a {¥n Cμn- c m- K m‘nbn¬\n∂v Rm≥ t\Sm\mbn´p≠v.1982 emWv Rm≥ Ata-cn-°b - n-te°v IpSn-tbdp-∂X - .v t- dm-°e v m‚ v Iu≠n-bnse \bm°v Bip-]{- Xn-bn-em-bn-cp∂p tPmen sNbvXncp- ∂ - X v . - C Xn- \ nSbnepw Rm≥ ]T\w

tIc-f-Ønse Btcm-Ky-cw-K-sØ-°p-dn®v F\n°v h√mØ Bi¶- b m- W v . Ht´sd {]iv\-ßƒ Chn-sS-bp-≠v.-k¿°m-cn\v ]cnl-cn-°m≥ Ign-bp-∂X - mWv AsX-√mw.-]t£ k¿°m-cns‚ `mK-Øp-\n∂v AØcw \o°ß-sfm∂pw D≠m-Ip-∂n-√.-cm-Py-Øns‚ \√ ]ptcm-K-Xn-°v kaq-l-Øns‚ BtcmKyw sa®-s∏-tS-≠-Xm-bn-´p-≠v.-\-ΩpsS s]mXp-P\m-tcm-Ky-cw-KØv {]h¿Ø-\-ß-fn¬ amddw A\n-hm-cy-am-Wv.XpS¿∂p.- \ - g vknw- K nepw ]ªnIv sl¬Ønepw amkvdd- ¿ _ncpZw t\Sn.-]n∂oSv \gvknw-Kn¬Xs∂ tUmIvS-td-ddpw t\Sn.tdm-°vem‚nse sUman-\n-°≥ tImtf-

Pn¬ s{]m^-kd- mbn {]h¿Øn-°p-∂X - n-\nS-bn-emWv ¢m¿Ivkv Su¨ Iu¨kn-te°p-ff sXc-s™-Sp-∏n¬ Rm≥ hnP-bn°p- ∂ - X v . - c mjv { So- b - Ø n¬ Cdßn- s b¶nepw Rm≥ Ct∏mgpw tPmen XpS-cp-Ibm-Wv.P-\-ß-fpsS {]iv\-ßƒ°v ]cnlmcw ImWp-Is - b-∂X - m-bn-cn°pw Fs‚ cmjv{So-be - £ - yw.-AX - n-\p-th≠n F∂m¬ Ign-bp-∂s - S√mw Rm≥ sNøpw. a-eb - m-fnIƒ°v th≠n Ahn-sS-bp-ff sse{_-dnI-fn¬ ae-bmfw ]pkvXI - ß - fpw ]m´p-IfpsS tiJ-chpw Hcp-°W - s - a-∂p-≠v.-

tIc-fsØ°pdn-®p-ff A`n-{]mbw? tIc-fØ - nse Btcm-Ky-cw-Ks - Ø-°p-dn®v F\n°v h√mØ Bi¶-bm-Wv.Ht´sd {]iv\ß - ƒ Chn-sS-bp-≠.v k - ¿°m-cn\v ]cnl-cn-°m≥ Ign-bp-∂-XmWv AsX-√mw.]t£ k¿°m- c ns‚ `mK- Ø p- \ n∂v AØcw \o°-ßs - fm∂pw D≠m-Ip-∂n-√.cm-Py-Øns‚ \√ ]ptcm-K-Xn-°v kaq-lØns‚ BtcmKyw sa®-s∏-tS-≠X - m-bn-´p≠v.-\-ΩpsS s]mXp-P-\m-tcm-Ky-cw-KØv {]h¿Ø-\-ß-fn¬ amddw A\n-hm-cy-amWv.-{Km-a-ß-fpsS ]ptcm-K-Xn-°p-th≠n Xt±- i - k z- b w- ` - c W ÿm]- \ - ß - f psS {]h¿Ø-\ß - ƒ C\nbpw sa®-s∏-Sp-tØ-

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

PERSONALITY

Fs‚ tdmƒtam-UepIƒ C‘n-cm-Km-‘nbpw tkmWn-bm-Km-‘nbp-amWv.C¥y-bp-sSbpw tIc-f-Øn-s‚bpw sXcp-hp-I-fn¬ \ΩpsS s]Ïp-ń-Iƒ {Iqc-amb am\-`w-Kß - ƒ°v Cc-bm-Ip∂ kw`-hß - ƒ henb Zp:JamWv D≠m-°p-∂Xv. ≠-Xp-≠v.tI-c-f-Ønse \gvknwKv taJ-ebnse {]iv\ß - ƒ ImWp-tºmƒ h√mØ Zp:Jw tXm∂m-dp-≠v.- \gvknwKv taJ-e-bnse {]iv\-ß-fn-tebv°v k¿°m¿ Kuch-ambn {i≤ Xncn-t°-≠X - p-≠v.\-gvknwKv hnZym-¿∞n-Iƒ°v IqSp-X¬ DØ-c-hmZnXzw D≠m-Ip∂ Xc-Øn-te°v Ahsc hf¿Øn-sb-Sp-°p∂ Hcp ]mTy-]-≤Xn Xs∂ hc-Ww.CXn-s\ms° k¿°m-cns‚bpw k∂-≤k - w-LS- \ - I - f - p-sSbpw klI-cWw IqSn-tb-Xocq.C-—m-i-‡n-bp-ff cmjv{Sob t\XrXzw D≠m-bmte CØcw {]iv\ß - ƒ°v ]cn-lmcw ImWm≥ Ignbq.Cμn-cm-Km-‘nbpsSbpw tkmWn-bm-Km‘n-bpsSbpw cmjv{Sob {]h¿Ø-\ß - ƒ Fs∂ hf-sc-tbsd kzm[o-\n-®n-´p-≠v.Fs‚ hnP-bß - f - n-sems° ]e-t∏mgpw CØcw i‡n- I - f n¬\n∂v Du¿÷apƒs°mf-fm≥ Ign-™n-´p-≠v.Fs‚ tdmƒtam-UepIƒ C‘n-cm-Km-‘nbpw tkmWn-bm-Km-‘n-bp-amWv.C¥y-bp-sSbpw tIc-fØ - n-s‚bpw sXcp-hp-If - n¬ \ΩpsS s]Ïp-ń-Iƒ {Iqc-amb am\-`w-Kß - ƒ°v Cc-bm-Ip∂ kw`-hß - ƒ henb Zp:JamWv D≠m-°p-∂Xv.C-Øcw kw`-hß - ƒ temIØn-\p-ap-ºn¬ C¥ysb A]-am-\n-°s∏Sm\mWv kml-Nc - y-sam-cp-°n-bn-´p-ff - X - .v t- I-cf - Øn¬ s]Ïp-ń-Iƒ kz¥w hoSp-Ifn¬t]mepw kpc-£n-Xc - s - √∂ hm¿ØIƒ tIƒ°p-tºmƒ Rm≥ \Sp-ßn-t∏m-Im-

dp-≠.v

IpSpw-_-hn-ti-j-ßƒ? Ata-cn-°-bn-em-sW-¶nepw Rß-fp-sS ho´n¬ Ct∏mgpw tIc-fob PohnXssienbmWpf-fXv.amdnb PohnX kml-Nc - y-ßfn¬ Ata-cn-°b - psS kwkv°mcw kzm[o\n-°m-dp≠v.Ip´nIƒ tIc-f-Øn\v shfnbn¬ P\n- ® - X p- s Im≠pw ]Tn- t °≠

]-T-\-Im-e-ßfnse Fs‚ Ign-hns\ ASn-kvYm-\-am°n A°m-eØv tUm.-hn-P-b-Ip-am¿ KpPvdmƒ Ahm¿Uv t^m¿ tamkvddv F^njy‚ v B≥Uv knw]-X-d-dnIv \gvkv F∂ _lp-aXn A∂sØ {][m-\-a{¥n Cμn-cm-Km‘nbn¬\n∂v Rm≥ t\Sm\mbn´p≠v Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

kml-N-cy-ap-≠m-b-Xn-\mepw Ah¿°v tIc-fob Pohn-Xc - o-Xn-Iƒ A{X-tbsd ]cnNn-Xa - √ - .Fs‚ amXm-]n-Xm-°ƒ aqhm-dd- p-]pg-bv°S- p-Øp-ff I√q¿°mSv s\Sp-¶t- √¬ tPmWn-s‚bpw ]tc-Xb - mb tacn-bp-amWv.R-ßƒ 12 a°-fm-bn-cp∂p.RßfpsS PohnXw sI´n-∏S- p-Øp-∂X - n¬ amXm-]n-Xm°ƒ Hcp-]mSv IjvS-s∏-´n-´p-≠v.-Fs‚ hf¿®-bpsS Hmtcm L´-Ønepw amXm-]nXm-°sf BZ-ct- hmsS Hm¿°m-dp-≠.v F - s‚ \mev ktlm-Zc - n-am¿ Fs∂-sSm∏w Atacn- ° - b n- e p- ≠ v . - tIm´bw cma- ] pcw tXh¿Ip-t∂¬ IpSpw-_mw-Ka - m-Wv Fs‚ `¿Ømhv AK-kvdd- n≥ t]mƒ.--.- Ata-cn-°bn¬ D]-cn-]T - \w \S-Øp-∂ a-do-\,-j_ - m\,- \ - S m- j F∂n- h - c mWv Rß- f psS a°ƒ.ssZ-h-Øns‚ A\p-{K-l-Øm¬ kt¥mjtØmSpw kam-[m-\-tØmSpw Rßƒ Pohn-Xb - m{X XpS-cp-∂p.

INVESTIGATION

Is the current educational system imparting life skills education? Dr Subitha G V Director, Shriram Institute of Teacher Education and Research

Dr. Subitha G.V. is Director, Shriram Institute of Teacher Education and Research (Chennai). She completed her Ph.D. in Education from the Regional Institute of Education (RIE), Mysore. The study involved development of an instructional strategy for B.Ed. students, classroom implementation for both regular and distance education courses, and evaluating achievement. Recently she has been involved Projects monitoring of SSA implementation in the Government schools of Tamil Nadu, at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras funded by MHRD and is currently working as Assistant Professor (NCSL Project) at NUEPA, Delhi. She has also published, Children with special needs-SSA intervention in Tamil Nadu. Published in Bharathidasan University Journal of Science and Technology

In the current scenario of increased urbanization and rampant globalization, the children hitherto are a confused lot. There is a lot of stress on achievement and performance from the teachers and parents. Children are pushed to do much more than customary to get the desired acceptance and acknowledgement from the family and society circle. As contemporary educationists rightly put it, the focus of the current education system is on what the child doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t know rather than on what the child knows. With the breakdown of joint families, children are unable to find an anchor, and feel trusted and loved. More often than not, in the absence of such a figure whom they can identify with and discuss their hurts and disappointments, more and more children are tending to externalize their frustrations through aggression and violence, (Kapur, 2012). Sometimes when the pressure of subscribing to high expectations gets overwhelming, they fall back and are labelled by the school and society as a child with ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder). Whichever way the story goes, the end products of our schooling system are children who have moderate to low self-esteem and selfconcept, moderate to low tolerance for frustration, and are poor problem solvers and poor decision makers. So what is wrong with the education system of our country? In an article for CNN Opinion, John D. Sutter quotes Sir Ken Robinson, British author and

international advisor on education, as saying that the educational system works like a factory. According to Robinson, a typical school has in it all the qualities of a factorythere is a bell, there are separate subjects, and separate facilities, children are educated by batches and by age group. Education system is based on the model of mass production and conformity and views the child as the product of the mechanical system. It could not have been otherwise, Sir Robinson adds, as the whole idea was developed and conceived in the economic circumstance of the industrial revolution and was driven by the economic imperative of the time. Applying this factory model in the perspective of the Indian education system, we can say that we too have unmistakably adopted this factory-like system in all its oppressive rigidity to our schools. We have been blatantly influenced by the mechanistic, bureaucratic organizational theories developed at the time of the industrial revolution and have adopted a hierarchical top down management approach to organizing the education system. In the process, the child is being viewed as just a product of the system. The emphasis that should be laid on the personal growth and development of the child has been overlooked. Faith in human capacity defined in terms of ability to assess a problem situation and find solutions, capacity for convergent and divergent thinking, effective interpersonal skills, ability to communicate effectively,

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

INVESTIGATION

has been undervalued. In an article in India Educational Review, March 2012, the VicePresident Hamid Ansari quotes the Yashpal Committee report which states that ‘we have followed policies of fragmenting our educational enterprises into cubicles’ and that ‘most instrumentalities of our education harm the potential of human mind for constructing and creating new knowledge’. The genesis of this problem probably dates back to the time of the British rule in the country. The present educational system of India was an implantation of British rulers. Wood’s Dispatch of 1854 laid the foundation of the current system of education in India. Robert Kanigel, author of ‘The man who knew infinity–a life of the genius Ramanaujan’ has this to say about the system -‘it was designed after all to churn out bright well rounded young men who could help their British masters run the country….not restless ambitious spirits’. The British were very clear that the restless and the ambitious had to be suppressed as they would be directly averse to the British power and interest. They did not want to groom independent, haughty and deep thinking individuals. They shaped and created the Indian educational system accordingly and we, on our part, have accepted the regimented policies imposed by them in the name of

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

education and have continued to obey it in right earnest. To date, the Indian educational system is obsessed with producing individuals who conform. Rebels are snubbed and thrown out of the system while individuals with passive virtues like patience and tolerance are acknowledged. Independent thinking is discouraged as against conformity and passivity. As a race we are victims of this paradox in the name of education and thereby it is no wonder that the country is unable to churn individuals who are unable to think for themselves or even acquire the knack of independent work, to take

ownership and responsibility and to solve problems and take decisions. The system needs to undergo a paradigm shift in its emphasis on the philosophy of education. It doggedly holds on to the behaviouristic approach to learning as against the humanistic approach. The behaviouristic approach to learning assumes that individuals have no free will and that an individual’s environment determines his behaviour. This means that the individual doesn’t have the capability to manipulate his environment so as to make it convenient for him to achieve his goals. According to behaviouristic theory, cause and effect are what control behaviour and not mind and reason. Thereby rote learning is given more importance as against creative thinking and reasoning. On the other hand, the humanistic approach emphasizes the personal growth of the individual. It argues that human beings are capable of thought and reason. They have a free will and are capable of making choices and taking decisions. The education system needs to harp on this belief that each child has the innate drive to achieve his maximum potential. The system needs to believe in the individuality of each child and to help the child deal with the vicissitudes of life. The education system needs to enable a child to deal effectively with the environment, discern available opportunities and deal with the challenges of society. To enable these behavioural transformations in the child, the system needs to enrich the school curriculum with

The system needs to undergo a paradigm shift in its emphasis on the philosophy of education. It doggedly holds on to the behaviouristic approach to learning as against the humanistic approach. The behaviouristic approach to learning assumes that individuals have no free will and that an individual’s environment determines his behaviour. 62

INVESTIGATION a highly researched and effective life skills training programme.

What are life skills? According to Wikipedia, life skills are problem solving behaviours used appropriately and responsibly in the management of personal affairs. They are a set of human skills acquired via teaching or direct experiences that are used to handle problems and questions commonly encountered in daily life. UNICEF lists10 life skills as most important under the domain of psychosocial and interpersonal skills. These are problem solving skills, critical thinking skills, effective communication skills, decision making, creative thinking, interpersonal relationship skills, self-awareness building skills, empathy and coping with stress and emotions. Life skills education is a very important and integral part of educational system worldwide. In Indian schools however, life skills education is yet to be fully initiated and recognized as an integral part of the curriculum. Shiela Ramakrishnan, in her article in Teacher Plus, says that in most schools, value education is confused with life skills education. According to her most schools have value education as part of the curriculum as it is one of the requirements of the NCF, though there is not much emphasis on life skills education. The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) asserts that life skills education has been introduced in class 6th in 2003-4, in class 7th in 2004-5 and subsequently in classes 8th, 9thand 10th. The CBSE has presently introduced (in 2012) life skills training programme as part of Continuous and Comprehensive Evaluation targeted at the adolescent students between 10-18 years of age. Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan (SSA) has under its agenda life skills training for the upper primary girls along with providing quality elementary education. Yet, classroom observations of Government schools in few districts of Tamil Nadu, have revealed that life skills education has often been confused with vocational education. When asked about the details of life skills education being offered in the government schools, pat

comes the reply from teachers that the girl students are being taught to make dolls, stitch frocks, make candles and napkins. These data indicate that the Indian education system has not yet awakened to the necessity of life skill training programmes in its schools. A lot of thought requires to be given on how to bring in life skills education into the mainstream curriculum. The schools need to develop a in-depth conceptual and practical framework of the programme which should be made functional at all levels of schooling starting from preprimary, extending to primary, middle and the secondary stage. The school curriculum should have lectures substantiated with situational case studies and role plays where children can practice correct

The education system needs to harp on this belief that each child has the innate drive to achieve his maximum potential.

behaviour and experience its effects. Efficient networking of educationists, psychologists, mental health professionals and policy makers would be required to develop a concrete workable life skills training programme. The training programme would need to transcend all development stages of the child and should have an inbuilt monitoring and evaluation system. Promoting efficient life skills training programme in schools would thereby be an ode to the youth in the country. It would be a way of empowering youth to build their lives and their dreams. It would be a means of handholding them through the critical stages in their life and helping them tap their potential to the fullest. Thereby, it is hoped that the current education system with its oppressive rigidity would open up and make life skills education a part of its mainstream curriculum. This would enable the country to build individuals who believe in themselves, who are efficient leaders and administrators, who are able to understand their potentials and achieve them. This is reminiscent of the verses penned by Richard Bach in his book ‘Jonathan Livingston Seagull’, ‘How much more there is now to living! Instead of our drab slogging forth and back to the fishing boats, there’s reason to life! We can lift ourselves out of ignorance, we can find ourselves as creatures of excellence and intelligence and skill. We can be free! We can learn to fly!’

Pallikkutam Feb. 2013

Confessions Sania Mirza What is your idea of happiness?

What or who is the greatest love of your life?

Spending quality time with family and friends and sharing my happiness.

My husband of course!

What is your greatest fear?

On the day of my wedding.

I fear God. Which historical figure do you most identify with?

When and where were you happiest? What is your present state of mind? Happy, contented and grateful to God for everything he has given to me.

I canâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t think of anyone. Which living person do you most admire? Steffi Graf. What is the trait you most deplore in others? Being fake! What is your greatest extravagance? Clothes, shoes and shades.

How would you like to die? When I am closest to God. What is your favourite motto? Give it your best shot and leave the rest to the Almighty!

What is your favourite journey? The journey of life! Who is you favourite painter? Aziz. What do you consider the most overrated virtue? Anything that I consider to be a virtue cannot be overrated in my book. On what occasion do you lie? To keep liars at a distance. What do you dislike most about your appearance? The tan on my hands and feet! Which words or phrases do you most overuse? No comments. What is your greatest regret? I regret nothing. Every moment that I have lived has made me richer in experience.

Sania Mirza is the only Indian woman tennis player ever to win two Grand Slam titles (mixed doubles). She has achieved what most Indian girls can only dream of â&#x20AC;&#x201D; a career best singles rank of World No. 27. Married to former Pakistan cricket captain Shoaib Malik, Sania continues to be a premier player focussing more on doubles.

Rajagiri Media Publication February 2013

Is the current educational system imparting life skills education? Foreign Universities are not here for charity

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Rebuilding Relations Discussion on family relationship