“With great power comes great responsibility.” Who hasn’t heard that? But who actually has realized, understood and implemented that? The media, our leaders, the celebrities? Huh, you bet!
I better not talk about our leaders.
Media – The most powerful medium that exists in today’s world. What is it doing? Minting money!?
Was the media too lazzy to keep a watch on the common wealth games since the begining. Why did it wake up just two months before? Ok, some might argue that reports were out there, but were they highlighted enough – front page, flashed in bold!? One more thing – take any newspaper, remove all the news articles which generate a negative feeling inside you. Tell me what’s left of it – Apparently nothing. By the law of attraction like attracts like – you see bad news the moment you get up, on front page! Please realise how it affects your mind.
Manipulation of our thought process is what they are doing. We need to become aware that the top powerful class is constantly highlighting negative feelings and the differences among the middle class, and the poor class is maintained by them to scare the middle class, as rightly said by George Carlin years ago. Divide and Rule – still prevalent.
Need I speak of the television? Thank God the youth is aware of the crap shown on TV. I am so glad and happy for you guys 
Being a celebrity people fail to realise that their smallest actions are being emulated in one way or the other. A few like Aamir Khan do realise, but still its not up to the mark.
Just to cut across, how many of you have actually implemented the message given in 3 Idiots? I have! I have stopped writing definitions dictated in class. Have you? 
Look at the philanthrophy of Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, they are a good example of what people and organizations with power can really do. After awareness, engagement is very crucial. Change now.
“Need I speak of the television? Thank God the youth is aware of the crap shown on TV. I am so glad and happy for you guys”
Don’t kid me, Swami. I am forced to write this, as you seem too swelled up by what you think you are doing. I wondered why divorce rates in USA are so high, before I watched some episodes of Friends and HIMYM. I’ll get beaten up by you if I you tell that stuff is “crap”. WE ARE NOT AWARE. You heard George Carlin. You read Gatto. Things which seem blatant to you are not as harmful as the things which people do to you subtly. We are young. Subtlety is not Phunsuk Wangru dancing naked in front of us telling us in his drunker storpor to break the “system”. Subtlety is like Slytherin’s locket, chipping away your ability to think highly logically on the straight path out of the box, without you realizing it, as you are laughing while some NRI talks “Balatkar” on stage. You may see only humor or interesting plots in your favourite TV serials. I see Idiocracy’s message every time.
“Just to cut across, how many of you have actually implemented the message given in 3 Idiots? I have! I have stopped writing definitions dictated in class. Have you?”
Talking about 3 Idiots, who reads from Easy Solutions and the Great Bible of Mathematics? The great guy who wants to change our Education System? OBBVIOSLY, he will say (All Subjects, All Clear. Yes. Imbibe that too in the new education system, if you succeed in your “revolution”, puh-lease, nobody wants to really study… all they want is a pass grade kyunki nahi hota hai Engineering, magar pass to hona hi hai). The last time I looked, Easy Solutions was much worse than the definitions dictated in cla- … heck, have they ever dictated definitions in class? Never in the lectures I sat. They have never ever urged us to rattofy, they just resigned themselves to the fact that no one gives a damn about what they teach, unless it comes for 10-20 marks and has been asked repeatedly. It’s more of a client-server relationship than a guru-shishya one. I doubt you even know what “understanding concepts” is exactly, and it is very difficult to, given the fact that you may never have picked up a reference book yourself (not that there is awesome stuff in there, but at least it is a start for people who really want to learn and do something like building new systems [you AND yours truly have never done so, though the latter brags about it so often]. MU gives 4-5 reference book names just for fun, nei? Ever asked it to the person who set the syllabus? He, like you, thinks that people want to learn. No. People just do that shortcut, provided in a small booklet).
You talk about Media. 3 Idiots IS a part of Media. The very same media whom you call so negative and manipulative. You know, it’s a good idea. Take a foul-mouthed, ill-mannered but good at hearted protagonist (aah, the quintessential Indian Hero), take an idealistic stand, sugarcoat it with love stories with daughters of deans, supposedly heartwarming sub-story of friend dying/injured, and an unrealistic ending where everyone is happy again, and you have the audience lapping up the goulash. Great way to make money in my opinion, and earn brownie points while you are at it. Creating starry-eyed youth who are “inspired” by the story (people like you) and would then be hell-bent on spreading the message (publicity) is also a part of the plan. Might be you did not realize, but creating that happy ending could be the main plan, to keep us as a herd of sheep, which can be trained to follow the shepherds without much of a bleat against them. The revolutions the films show will remain in dreams, while the publishers of Easy Solutions laugh all the way to the bank.
You know what I think the problem is, personally? Not the media, no. The problem is hypocrites, who are so hell-bent to change the system, that they forget that there was no system in the first place, just millions of lazy, corrupted youth, “fighting”, they say, to revolutionize education but never really educating themselves, never setting an example, never listening to oddballs (yes, oddballs like that mirrorwala bhaiyya in Delhi 6), let alone their parents… They don’t understand that there is no Easy Solution for pulling off grand ideas, that Phunsuk Wangdrus exist only in films and that they should not emulate caricatures, as they fool only themselves in the process. And they wonder, why, oh why God, is the system so flawed What can I do about it? Change this, change that, change Now… Hark who’s talking, God says. Ever implemented your ideas on yourself?
Mate, you are fooling yourself. You are one who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, the one who “pontificates about politics in pubs”. You want to revolutionize teaching, but you have never taught rowdy 7th standard students of questionable schools in your life (at least, you have never written about it). You have never practiced what you have preached, even if you are confident that you have. It does not take a very canny eye to know that.
Dare pass this in comment moderation. More importantly, dare change yourself now, unless people you want to change watch you as an entertaining movie for a few hours, and then go back to serve the “system”.
Television series – crap referred to obvious crap on Hindi local channels. About western shows, it depends on how you look at it and learn from it. I understand the negative effects by them are subtle but I urge you to also look at the fact that the positive effects are also subtle in them. It only depends where you wanna focus your attention. Eg. Awesome relation between Chandler and Monica.
3 idiots mention of definitions – Whatever you said is right, but the problem is deeper. The problem is choice, informed choice. Choosing engineering by passion is only 10% of the crowd, so the consequences you mention. People have forgotten to follow their passion and creativity, that’s the whole issue. People have been systematically educated not to think. About understanding concepts, my mind cannot work otherwise. The person who sets the syllabus is unaware of a lot of things, cause he never considers taking real-time feedback. People love shortcuts cause they are not following their passion.
I really suggest you go through the stuffs I have mentioned earlier and expand your horizons. Don’t restrict yourself only to this blog post, there are things I have shared before it.
3 idiots and media – You have a limited and so, a wrong perception of me.
I am aware that there was no system.
I have certainly implemented my ideas on myself and continuing to do so, you will know soon.
Yes I have never written about a lot of things, and may do it soon or ever.
I may not have practiced fully what I have preached, or I may not have written about it.
Good is happening. I always learn a lot from you, keep posting and sharing your thoughts.
I am learning and changing for the good 24×7.
I must point out the fact that Mr.Fool is no fool…He has a different perspective of analysing and looking at the world.His critical comments bring out certain “never so thought” issues and facts…Mr Swami I would say I enjoyed reading the comment more than your blog post..The comment (which actually is an essay)has a touch of reality.It castigates the hypocrisy and superfluous nature of our society and of our thoughts.As rightly said
“To bring about a change ,you be the change.Your goals and ideas should be reflected in your deeds and not just in your thoughts.Every thought has to be put into a feasible action.”
This is certainly lacking in you Mr.Swaminarayan (in context to the critical statements of The Fool regarding your dependency on easy solution).
I hope you’ve seen improvement in me since. All my focus is on action, thanks to you guys
Mr Swami you want bring about a revolution in “The Education System”..This is however a very broads term…You want to change the existing system..But can you explain me how would the victims of this system be revived again?.Besides in a country like India,let alone secondary school, children’s are not even provided with the primary education..There a certain problems faced by your country which requires a lot of thought and planning on how to overcome the shortcomings..Why not work for bringing about a revolution in the traditional patterns of our system..”MANAS BHANELO KARTA GANELO HOVO JOIYE”..its a Gujarati saying with a deep meaning.I hope it makes you understand my point of view.Why not come together and develop a positive focused and a rational workforce for the country, which actually strives for the development of the country in all fields especially changing the outlook and the attitude of the people,making them realize their responsibility as humans and making them understand the true meaning of life,the fact the we are the MOST INTELLIGENT animal ever born on the earth.
I totally agree with you. Lets do it.
Why are we in India so embarrassed to recognize our own strengths, our achievements? We are such a great nation. We have so many amazing success stories but we refuse to acknowledge them. Why?
-Abdul Kalam
The only thing to be blamed is the Media around us. Though manipulation is a powerful tool which makes people believe any news irrespective of its creditibility. Whatever you see, you believe. Today, we are living in a negative society influenced by a negative media. The only positive news that you ever come across is India winning a cricket match.
People on the streets say that “Iss country ka kuch nahi ho sakta” and at the same time they are littering or spitting on the roads while they are criticising our country.
How many people have the patience or civic sense to find a bin instead of throwing trash on the streets??
Change has to be brought from within. Media shows negative news because people like to see negative news as they are often more entertaining and sensational than positive ones and the news matches our thought frequency of a corrupt country. The day we start doing something positive for the society and focus on all the positive that is happening around us, the media will start covering more positive news. So , it is a cycle that needs to be broken. The thought process of every single Indian needs to change.
Our country is struggling only because we are. India is corrupt only because we are. Our society is negative only because we are.
Well, if the people above had contributed with some ideas instead of being cynical about a change in the system, the process of change would have been one step easier for Harsh. The very fact that he has such positive intentions of doing something good are praiseworthy especially, today, in a world where everyone wants a piece of everything but refuse to give anything back to the society.
Change has always taken time. It does not happen overnight. Few people in the 18th century would have believed that India, one day, would indeed be a free country.
So, the point that Harsh does not practice what he preaches is not a valid one since it would take some time to change. He would need to establish himself in the current state of affairs in order to better understand how change has to be brought in. If he has never studied from Easy Solution or has never written assignments, then how can you expect him to know what the problem is and how can you expect him to change things around. Atleast he has a positive thought process as he expects to change things for the better.
ASK WHAT WE CAN DO FOR OUR COUNTRY AND DO WHAT HAS TO BE DONE RATHER THAN ASKING WHAT OUR COUNTRY CAN DO FOR US!!!
Once again, people show off their (in)ability of critical, outsider thinking . KC, you should try to imagine a world outside commonplace rhetoric. Try Faking News for starters.
We should not rip off hands that feed us (although, playful/please-handle-carefully nibbling is okay). I doubt many of us would have had the imagination to even suggest that something is wrong with the “system” had our media (however bad it might be) had not highlighted the rot. We would have all been trying to emulate the “test-taking strategies of toppers” (reminds me of all sorts of large hoardings of IIT/CET/CAT classes). Positive media for you.
You say that change takes time, that it does not come overnight. However, have you aver wondered WHY change takes time? You should ask yourself such serious questions; questions of such caliber that they strip society down to it’s basics, questions that dare to change your own path of thinking. Very few people do that. It takes a lot of bravery to question our own ideals, and find them wanting. Only such people have the power to change themselves. All we have to do is to change ourselves, but hell, it’s difficult. Because we don’t ask questions, just like the 18th century folks. Our freedom fighters asked a question to themselves. That is why we are free.
“Change has to be brought from within.” I wasted so many lines trying to explain the same thing, and you state it like a junior KG teacher teaches “2+2=4″ and leave it at that. I gave that example of Easy Solutions to show him the magnanimity of what HE is trying to teach others but has never taught himself. Answer me, why does a person who wants to change the studying habits of generations after him refuse to change his textbooks? Why does he lean on the very same wall he wants to break down?
Does he want to be an archetypal leader which our media takes so much pleasure in deriding: a hypocrite who does not stand by his own philosophy? I would hate to see him in that position, and hence I rant.
“He would need to establish himself in the current state of affairs in order to better understand how change has to be brought in”. Should he, now? Swami is not a fool (unlike me). Fools learn from their own mistakes. The wise learn from mistakes of others. He has the whole of India to learn from.
I agree that many people wouldn’t have imagined the wrong with the system.
But you see, the media highlighted it in a negative way. It can start focusing on alternatives and solutions and give highlight to the ideas of people like Sir Ken Robinson, George Carlin and Gatto.
About changing my learning habits, I think you clearly know by now that easy solution is not made for subjects I am actually learning and wanting to learn. You seem to neglect some hidden facts which I think I made clear when I had a talk with you. Its only that I read this reply to KC now. And I am not establishing myself in the current state of affairs, just observing, thinking and taking actions to as far extent as I can.
I would really like to know your updated thoughts on this blog entry after all the discussion.
I accept that the way I put forth the thoughts is not self-explanatory and that I should be more clear on what I want to put forth, I am improvising. Thank you.
Please replace “magnanimity” by “enormity”. Sorry.
Thank you guys for sharing your thoughts.
I will try to learn as much as I can from each thought put forth.
Your support in any way is very encouraging and inspiring.
Keep sharing your thoughts…
Cheers!
You may find this pretty interesting since it deals with unbalanced power relationships.-
http://harshswami9290.wordpress.com/2010/12/08/power-2/
A post and a conversation that might interest you:
http://giovannibenedetto.wordpress.com/2011/03/23/the-critics-burden/
Don’t forget the comments.
nice…
Thanks.