education etc.

Had been to a primary school in a rural area (about 100 km away from Mumbai)... and lots of things I used to take for granted blew up in my face.

The children in this school were from poor families, and its a government school where students don’t have to pay any fees for education (read non middle class school, which i am used to in general).

Most of the students ranging from age 6 to 10 years old, seemed under weight, and in comparison to middle class school students, not exposed or taught much. Many of them had poor pencil grip, were specking in pidgin variety of local language, and quite passive (low achievement need, or not much competitive). It seemed to be such a different world compared to a city school atmosphere.

India as still a third world country (or under-developed) hit me hard enough, I guess. Even though these rural school students also will have a school education certificate, they definitely would be at a great disadvantage if compared with same level middle class private school students. And I could imagine how much influence a school can have the attitude of a person.

Such schools and students would be common all over India. About 50% of the Indians would be as poor as these families from this rural school… and that many children go through such a sub-standard educational training. Can’t imagine what would be the impact of such a poor training and exposure they get and the meaning of ‘discrimination’ bared its fangs at me in those last 2 days.

BPL (below poverty line) is an index used to measure poverty in India. I checked on this and found that, the BPL figure India is somewhere around 26%. (That’s for a population of 1100 million people). The BPL definition is, if the person can spend Rs. 540 a month on food, then he/she is above poverty line. And mostly our national statistics would label a person as above BPL if he/she earns more than Rs. 540 a month, regardless of whether they spend that much amount on food (finding out how much a person spends from overall monthly earnings for food would be much more difficult to obtain).

The above 2 paragraphs contain quite a few hazardous guesses, but even if 25% of population of India (more than 250 million people) live Below poverty line, you can imagine how it would be affecting the progress of the country overall.

Fleetingly...

How fleeting our state of mind is... of course, sometime it might even last for some years, but when you look back, it seem moments earlier. Our emotional states they play trick on us by making us believe it will remain for ever. Love, which has had the biggest media advertising campaign ever to support it is just one example.

But often the good-ness or heroism is shown as unwillingness to change. movies for example show the hero or the good side as sticking with their ideals their whole life, show one side bathed in sun shine from beginning to end.

of course, movies also show the temporary nature of emotions, as they make us go through various states within the duration of few reels...

But maybe we humans need to be brainwashed (indoctrinated) with all this concepts which are socially approved to stick together as a group? How much indoctrinated a group need to be to stick together? Maybe more important still... how much integrity should there be in one person (personality) for that person to be normal? (Here I am using integrity as similar to an indoctrinated group). Of course, no one would like dictatorship when it comes to social situation...

But as an individual, single focus or dictator like single personality trait is often appreciated. (And a chaotic, democratic personality structure (person) would not be considered as a role model.

[I had argued that integrity as something good in an earlier blog. But of course, here context is different to some extent at least, or so I hope].

Maybe its bit too complex. but a germ of an idea, and comparison between group and individual, I feel exists somewhere up there in those words, maybe just fleetingly…

another 1st

november 1st, a new month begins... though never cared for a date to start something. but today was thinking of ways to get out of this goal-less-ness cycle. maybe i needed a break ;)

i guess it would be common enough, to have such feelings & thoughts of just existing without a purpose, more so if you are un-attached singleton. (maybe by being unattached, by distancing yourself away from even your friends you achieve such a state).

being forced to remain unattached doesn't seem to be an option for netizens, as all you have to do is click on the numerous spams you receive everyday. of course there are 100's of friendship network sites and all that.

but yeah, just plain interaction with others seem to help and today i could feel it. maybe this is another new beginning, another fresh attempt to improve, achieve, be part of the guilt free, functional member of the civilized world. (you can ignore my sarcasm, its not part of the goallessness, but general part of me ;) there, i even cracked a joke).

Does this need for other people mean i am dependent on others? but does anyone exist on their own? the search is on...