Our youths are facing challenges that today's adults did not have to face in their childhood. While drug abuse, crime, violence, sexuality and poverty continue to be critical issues, today’s youth also face the challenge of coping with a fast-changing, complex and unpredictable world. To cope with this almost frantic pace of change in the world, youth need a very different … [Read more...]
Ferocious competition: A perpetual scenario for an Indian teenager
"The ultimate victory in competition is derived from the inner satisfaction of knowing that you have done your best and that you have gotten the most out of what you had to give.", although, unambiguously, a judicious set of words by Howard Cosell, still fails to withstand the vagaries of the contemporary world. In my opinion, simply doing one's own best and offering the … [Read more...]
Guru, Shikshak or Adhyaapak: The vivid hues of an Indian teacher
“Good teachers are costly, but bad teachers cost more.”, facetiously quoted by Mr. Bob Talbert. Yes, facetious because it urges a grin on my face even after being so critical in its meaning. ‘Teacher’ as an entity, throughout the course of time, has been perceived by some as the ultimate good and by others as the ultimate bad! Those purporting it as bad are primarily the ones … [Read more...]
Quota system exists to help the backward classes, but at what cost?
After a long period of inactivity as a writer, I decided it was high time I get down to writing, but what to write about? Where do I get a topic that matters? And then it hit me. The thing I have been cribbing about almost my whole life, the quota system. Now, before all those people who are beneficiaries of this get all indignant, let me explain my basic problem with it. … [Read more...]
Bullfight Part II: How ‘Science’ has always prevailed in our adverse education system!
I’d like to dedicate this article to Apurbo Kar, who will always be an amazing physicist, and has inspired me greatly into the belly of the beast of physics. The Bose-Einstein statistics is a statistical law obeyed by a system of particles whose wave function is not changed when two particles are interchanged; Pauli’s Exclusion principle isn’t applicable here. And if … [Read more...]