Wake Up Child!

The Indian system that we see as such, is apparently well known to build the makers of tomorrow. Comparatively we hold a pretty much decent standard of education here. We are good at grasping things, good at slogging through huge text much faster than anyone. Yet, we have a heavy price to pay. Something we people deny ourselves and move ahead firmly assuming that what needed is accomplished.

Creativity, mother of difference, mother of new life. The Indian system that we have taught ourselves to follow, crushes out every tiny hope of it. The cycle of life, perfects you so well, it makes you automated machines sans any slight possibility of a mistake. Where there lies no mistake, lies no dare to ask for new, or challenge the old.

The bubble every parent holds their child in, is an ardent fort of safety and pamper-ness. Securing him away from all modes of experimentation. In India, children welfare means just the good health and the good food part, a little less maybe but nothing more. And within that, a race is set. The fittest survive and the race is only deprived to certain fields, fields that earn more money. Children are oriented as to achieve a set target and failure to do so, within the specified time would be met with undesirable factors. The government is busy giving us education and healthcare and have no time to look into our most prized asset – innocence and imagination.

It is perhaps that we blatantly try to steal it away from children in the contexts of their educational experiences and their upbringing. Here are common "creativity killers." It is important to note that all of these "killers" are commonplace in our schools and homes.

1.       Surveillance

2.       Evaluation

3.       Rewards

4.       Competition

5.       Restricting choice

6.       Pressure

Children's lives, just like those of adults, should be compartmentalized. And yes, children need to be taught to regulate their behavior according to situational and social needs. But there should be some sense of balance between the times when children have time for creative exploration, experimentation, and innovation, and the times where choices are restricted, where direct instruction is given, and where children are required to obey rules and conform to social norms. Unfortunately, what happens is that there is usually a lack of balance and life becomes an all or nothing proposition. Thus, many children go through childhood learning only about competition, rules, control, and conformity, and little about the joy of exploration, innovation, and discovery as these elements pertain to acts of creation.

And off goes it all, lost in the realms of the dead, each one of us educating our children out of creativity and innocence. Creating no possible surprises in the future except copying propaganda, stigmas and ideas from the West.

Creativity and literacy must be given the same weightage by the nation. Imagination is the stepping stone of experimentation. This leads to innovation which is the doorway to revolution-an ideal gateway for accomplishment.

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Civil Offices

The constitution of India is famed world wide. With its detail and heavy literary content, it proudly is the longest ever. Our proud and rich legacy.

Oh hey!! That stops there. What implied is, umm, somewhere below the ideal model mark. Civil Offices, the interface between the public and the government, are meant to bridge the gap between these two. But lo! Reality differs, and here its way off line. Civil servants, on a general basis, regard these offices as heavily guarded forts.

People at the Collector’s Office, Hospitals, Ration Shops, Regional Transport Office, Police station etc, and from all hierarchy have this airheaded-ness that hovers so strongly above them, you can literally sense it around them. Toying you like small stuff.  

You step into an office and find that you are always one document short, or at the wrong time or sometimes even at the wrong office. And yes, the service is not to be discussed about. You are always sent to room B from room A, who directs you to room C who turns you back to room A, where you finally learn the officer is not available or something you dint want to hear.

It’s the demand and supply issue, people need civil offices and they need it badly cause they have nowhere else to turn to for stuff that concerns the government. And so, the bossiness gets etched very deeply that they fail to function without it.

But sorry, did I mention, that factors only for the lower or the middle class, when you have money or when you have a little influence, things do change. Time comparatively lessens and lesser documents are required. Marvellous wonders money and power can do. Doesn’t matter how old you are, doesn’t matter how long you had waited, all that matters is what can you do for them.   

And also, the article is just about highlighting the black sheep one finds. Pretty common at civil offices. Straight ones live too, and hats off to them.

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