Justice and piety

Few things are just horrific, barbaric and unpardonable – like the beheading of journalist James Foley.

Justice is next to piety, says God in the Holy Quran..

Where is the justice here? How can one man, who is only a journalist, be responsible for something that is not in his control.. How can one claim adherence to the religion and yet so blatantly violate the basic tenet.

 

 

 

And how can one commit a crime in broad day light and try to hide behind religion – when the inhumanity is thoroughly exposed by the same religion and it is the same religion which is the most vehement in condemnation of any form of injustice?

The Holy Prophet of Mercy (peace be upon him) taught the believers how to behave in peace and war.. Never cut down trees, harm no women or children, treat the captives with the dignity that need to be given to fellow humans, free the prisoners of war if they can teach you something…

If there is a fight for justice, there is no license to unleash unjustice. Period.

God save all of us.

Children and the classroom…

What do we teach our children – do our children enjoy the learning as it should be done? Are we giving our children the freedom to experience the joy of learning?

Unfortunately there seems to be too much focus on exams these days – and even very young children are not spared.

How very often we see parents happy, when their child scores very high marks and depressed when the grades are not good. The child now learns to please its parents – and if there are siblings in the family, the rivalry to outperform becomes intense with the criteria seems to be on scoring high marks… and children base their self-esteem on how much they are able to win their parent’s public affection.

Focusing on exams robs the joy of learning – and for a young child which cannot cope with this stress of reaching to their parent’s expectation sometimes is too enormous

Why do I need to derive social mileage out of my child’s success in her exams?

Exams are one part of the learning process – though vital they need not be seen as the be-all and end-all of all learning.

Children should enjoy the learning so much that they should never forget what they have learnt in those years — that should be the goal and focus of learning in school and we as parents should be able to support our children in every possible way for that to happen.

I like most parents, want my child to be one of the brightest in the class. Well, what is wrong with this desire?

At just the level of the desire, it is very normal thing to expect – but things turn bad when I tell my child – “Be friends only with the good students – and avoid the bad ones”.  Bad eggs make good eggs rotten, I fathom and I want to protect my child…

But wait a moment – what about the bad eggs? Who cares about them?

If every parent wants their child to be with the best ones – who will accept the “bad” ones? This is what we see in schools and colleges – there is the brand of students labelled and ridiculed and looked down and these poor children pass out of school and college with the same stigma and have the same outlook in life.

On the other hand, if I had told my child I have no issues with you joining with any group of people, but be firm  on your values and guard them – then I have trusted my child and have trusted her with a responsibility. The child now carries my trust, knows what is right and wrong and has the opportunity to share and teach the same with all the other students alike without prejudice… Here is an opportunity for good eggs to remain good eggs in any situation, and to have bad eggs transform into very good ones.

On the contrary, if I had only told my child — keep away from the bad ones in class, then my child will remain good only in the company of good children, it will not know how to handle itself when there is a demanding situation that challenges its core values

And there is a social imbalance right inside the classroom – the good versus the bad students. If we continue to exclude and ignore and treat differently the “bad” students, and try to remain aloof from the underlying problem of social acceptance in class, then there is no opportunity at all for the “bad” eggs to become good and your child is at an even greater risk of “catching the infection”. Remember the boomerang effect?

We are only teaching our children selfishness when we tell them to stay away from “bad” children.

Where is the balance that we are creating? We want good children to be good and “bad” children to forever remain bad. Society is based on equality – or the movement towards it – where then is equality being practiced in the early formative years?

All students are inherently intelligent. The goal is to make leaders of the students, by embracing everyone with love and not being judgmental with these very young minds.

Teachers (which also includes parents) should strive to  build leaders and make leaders of children.

“Be friends with everyone – do not make distinctions – do what is right thing to do and avoid what is wrong and if your friend is not doing right, gently urge them, give them the opportunity – the trust – the space and the freedom to become like you”.

No prejudices – no hatred – no looking down upon anyone – and bereft of anything negative, the classroom is so enlivened and the child learns the best.

 

On learning… and being a student

One never seems to cease learning – from the cradle to the grave – however hard one may try not-to-learn, we end up learning something. And there seems no escaping this fact.

And there are a few of us, like me, who groan at the idea of learning – but looks like that is how our nature seem to have been created. Our five senses, besides the biological function, seem to be exist only to help us continue learning.. learning.. learning.. till we need not required to learn anymore, stopping only when we breathe, our last…. breath.

Okay – so am giving up – I cannot help, but learn – but might as well do a proper job of it.

Am I a good student? and what makes a good student?

First and foremost, I become aware that am a student. A student need to understand that he or she is no different from any other professional. And who is a professional? The dictionary describes a professional as one who is an expert in his or her work – is making a constant practice of something.

The way a professional approaches his profession, we need to approach the process of learning – with total dedication and sincerity. There is no half baked dishes that get the customers. A thorough professional approach to the process of learning, making it a constant practice, seems to be the the first and foremost thing to have.

What is being professional as a student means? approaching the studying in a timely, orderly, methodical and thorough manner.. we see how professionals work – they start at a precise time and log in a minimum day’s work of 8 hours – no excuses – no compromises and a no-nonsense approach

Once I have got this commitment to professionalism, the responsibility and the opportunity of being a student begins dawns on me. What is the responsibility a student has — that someone has entrusted you to learn and you have to uphold the trust – and this oppurtunity was given specially to you – and you are a chosen one to learn. As this truth starts sinking in me, I became aware of my responsibililty and the gratitude for this opportunity.

I will then stop learning only for the sake of exams – the exams are a necessary part of the learning process – but they are not the end goal of education. Always keeping the exam in mind and learning for the sake of exams or for the exams, robs the joy of learning.

What is learning then? Learning happens when something that was previously away from us not becoming a part of the self. You do not forget when you learn.. ofcourse memory may fail but the learned knows how to go work his way and remember what was forgotten .

What about my teachers? Do not good teachers matter? Is it not necessary for me to have a good teacher in order to learn well?

Well, let me first ask myself inward – am I a good student – I will keep asking this question to me many times during the day — I do not want to lose sight of my goal – which is to learn and discover the joy of learning. And when the student is ready, the Master appears… always.

But lets say the Master appears, and if I am not a good student – the value proposition is lost. More depends on whom I am inward – what I am made up of. And what I am made up is the only thing in the world that I can work on..

Let me ask myself – am I a good student, and move back on to my learning…

A Thousand Taj Mahals

We know the Taj Mahal – as the symbol of love – a man’s love for his beloved – and what a majestic monument of love, it is!

But the Taj Mahal has its fair share of controversy – how many people were employed as slaves to toil relentlessly in most difficult situations- and how much money was spent on a monument when some people were starving in the kingdom – but still the symbol of love has never failed to capture the hearts and minds of people, because it was a symbol of love.

If you, like me are one who is totally captivated and inspired by this epic love, wait till you hear about Dasarath  Manjhi

Dasarath Manjhi lived with his family in Gehlore village of Gaya district, in Bihar. Their’s was a village that was separated by a mountain and to go to the nearest town a mere 1 kilometer away, but people had to circumnavigate 75 kms to around the mountain.

A peaceful life by standards it was – but fate had other things in store for Dasarath Manjhi and his wife. Dasarath Manjhi lost his beloved in an accident because she could not be administered timely medical help — it was that mountain that stood in the way of timely help reaching Dasarath Manjhi’s wife.

Dasarath Manjhi resolved that day – that no one, should suffer the same fate of his beloved wife. He soon gave up going to the administration to help him out with this plan of having a pathway through the mountains.. no one was willing to listen to a poor man.

It was then Dasarath Manjhi decided to bring the mountain to its knees – he resolved to make a path thru the mountain by himself.

Now imagine the sneers and the jeers from everyone around – but Dasarath Manjhi believed in his love. With just a hammer and chisel he started out. Nothing could stop him – everyday before the break of dawn he would be at work, slowly humbly in the labor of love.. nothing could stop him – not even twenty long years and finally the mountain bowed to Dasarath Manjhi.

The distance between his village and the nearest town was now only less than a kilometer – when it had been 75 long kilometers previously.

One man, his faith and his love – made it. The ultimate triumph of human spirit – made possible only with love. And there it stands, as a testimony to human will and perseverance and love – one man’s thousand Taj Mahals

 

Dasarath Manjhi is no-more with us, but will forever in our hearts and continue to inspire us to move forward each day, every step, in love.

 

War crimes in Sri Lanka

War crime is just an average word that camouflages the barbarianism, the savagery, the brutality, the inhumanity and injustice, that has been exhibited in the most violent manner.

Isai Priya – is no different from my sister and your sister – she walked the same earth we walked, breathed the same air we breathe now, and had the same dreams like any of us.

 

What did she deserve to get this violent ending? Why have all the countless women and children made to suffer the most tragic in-human un-dignified end?

Who has given some-one the right to treat a fellow human-being, worse than anything imaginable? And how bad is it that many of us do not even protest, being ever busy in our work and other ‘commitments’, and be indifferent, to just carry on with our lives as if nothing has happened at all?

What has numbed the senses and where is all the love and compassion we felt in our hearts sometimes ago?

If a person can do this to some other human being, how long is it going to take for him to turn it on us. What is stopping him from doing it now? His nationalism? His pride? His patriotism? And how long will it take for his ideas to change on what his values are?

Are we going to be happy, that this same person who has exhibited the lowest of the lowest form of barbarian-ism, accorded great honor, given the most powers, celebrated and living among our own family and children? Is this a comforting thought? How can we then be quiet and sit around and not do anything about it?

How long will it take for this endemic of the mind to travel to another land, another city or country and not knock on our doorstep as well? Unless we do something about it.  And at-least for our own self-selfishness, we can start condemning it.

What is more worse than not having even a voice of condemnation? A voice of protest and a hand of solidarity with all the innocent people who have been so brutally silenced? ….. maybe it does not change anything much – but it comforts the victims and their souls, showing we are with them – shows us we are still human, and we feel for them as our own flesh and blood.

And this icy cold stare of condemnation, we give to the perpetrators may gather the strength, to move the mountains, it now seems to be necessary, just to get justice done.