Friday 25 October 2013

View Counter-view - Children Should not be burdened with homework

View :
             Nowadays, children are sent to classes and tuitions from the tender age of 11 years. It might be necessary for some. But because of this, there is burden of homework that the child carries. Children so young have stress problems. They can't keep up with this and get depressed. After learning something in school and revising it in class, homework from both the places is given. This is brutal. More than necessary. They need practice. Agreed. But this much ? They get confused with their priorities.

Counter - view :
             Children have become lazy and do not study. After doing homework they consider that their studies are over. But is that true ? If such is the case, Lots of homework should be given so that that particular individual gets practice. After solving math problems in school and classes, no body bothers to repeat them. Hence, homework is an effective way to give the children practice.

Monday 7 October 2013

Book Review : Koleshwar's Secret

             This book in contrast to Anirudh's Dream is much much better. The story of Irfan's life continues and concludes with Irfan's dream. Anirudh wakes up from a coma of 13 days and is in functioning state in less than week. Anirudh confides to his mother about his dream. After proving of his uncanny knowledge of historical monuments whose foundations don't even exist now, his mother dreads that the dream is true. Yet she is not thoroughly convinced. Anirudh then confides into his best friend Vikram. They set out to find proof throughout Mumbai. they are kidnapped by Mario's and Ajit's descendants when they are on the verge of finding out the truth. The kidnappers take them back to the Koleshwar plateau and a incident unfolds in front of them. After a month, Anirudh calls Vikram to the plateau again and tells him the whole story. The book ends with Vikram having a astonishing discovery and him giving Anirudh some useful and enlightening advice.
             There are a few lengthy descriptions but not as many as in Anirudh's dream. It really is a page turner. I enjoyed this book much more than its prequel. The cons can be Anirudh always explaining to Vikram about the situations. He is the one mainly doing the talking. At the start of the book Anirudh is explaining the dream to Vikram and in the end he is narrating the story he learnt from a parchment in a secret safe. In the end, when Vikram makes his discovery it becomes very predictable.
              All in all, this book is interesting. It could have been combined with the first book if the lengthy descriptions were removed. 

Saturday 5 October 2013

Book Review : Sahyadri

          Sahyadri is a book written by Deepak Dalal. The protagonists in the book are Anirudh, later also known as Irfan, And Rustom. The story is set in the cities of Pune and Mumbai, which was earlier known as Bombay, and in the mountains and plateaus of Sahyadris.
          The book begins with Anirudh and his friends being in the NDA academy for the Annual Sailing competition. His father, not considering Anirudh's fear of the water, has enrolled him in the competition. After some pages of this non-essential text, the group of friends decide to go to the Fort of Torna on a trek. Salim, the man-servant of the Dongre's acts as a guide since he was brought up in those hilly regions of Sahyadri. After an unexpected fist-fight with some thugs who were apparently after Salim, Anirudh leads the group to safety showing uncommon knowledge of the Koleshwar plateau for a person who has never visited the plateau before. Anirudh slips and falls and hits his head hard. He gets into a coma and is taken to a hospital in Mumbai.
             During his coma, he experiences a dream in which he relives his past life of Irfan who has an uncanny resemblance to Anirudh in many ways. In this way he discovers about a treasure, stolen from the British con-man Wallace. There are some other moments of friendship with his friends Mario, Ajit and Rustom which are told about. Deepak Dalal also tells about Irfan's deteriorating relationship with his father.
             The things that I like about this book are that Deepak Dalal speaks of unity in the time of 'Each religion for themselves'. Mario, a Christian, Ajit, a Hindu, Rustom, a Parsee, And Irfan, a Muslim, are friends together. The book has more cons than pros sadly. The description of the situations is very lengthy. One tends to skip paragraphs and paragraphs of these descriptions. This book has some pages which were totally unnecessary. But still the idea of having a Desi Adventure is fresh and that's what makes the book readable.
             

Wednesday 2 October 2013

Actions speak louder than words

Words express our feeling about surrounding but actions shows them. Words are only reflection of action. Words can lie and so aren't as trustworthy. We make promises without thinking and latter break them. 
Everyone can say whatever they want. We say we will do this and do that and be this and be that. But unless we actually go out and try to achieve it, what's the use ? Usually people evaluate a person, understand them, get to know them by their actions and not their words.
An example can be made of the politicians. When the elections are near and they are giving speeches on how they will help improve our nation. Their promises are just words. And they remain words. If they put their promises in action, then maybe the people will not always be trying to lynch them. Their actions speak for them.

Hence the proverb means that what someone does is more important than what he says.

Thursday 26 September 2013

Failure is just an opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.

          'I have not failed. I have just found out 99 whys that won't work.' This was rightly said by Thomas Edison. He invented the bulb on the 100th try. 
          'Try Try till you succeed' should be the motto when a task is at hand. There will be many barriers, brick walls. We have to cross these to get the treasure we deserve on the other side. These brick walls are for people who don't want the treasure badly enough or who are lilly-livered. They admit defeat and turn back. But a person who wants it badly will try innumerous methods to get past that wall. He will not stop till he crosses that wall.
          While doing something, if you fail, start again. Try another method. Failure means that you are one step closer to success. You may encounter many defeats. But you should not be defeated. You should rise up from the ashes like a phoenix and try again. 
          A spider builds fragile webs and fails. Then he backtracks and starts again. To defeat failure, Perseverance is required.

         After all, it is bad to fail, but worse to have have never tried to succeed at all.

Saturday 21 September 2013

Stress management

Stress - What is it ? The pressure of expectations. That's my way of looking it. Everyday you are burdened with work. There are expectations from your parents, relatives, friends, etc. There is constant competition. If you fail to match these expectations, well, there will be negative consequences. Thinking about this generates stress. 
Today I am here to tell you how to deal with stress. SO basically stress management. I follow certain steps to de-stress myself. They are very effective. I think you should try them too.
The first step is identifying the cause of stress. This isn’t as easy as it sounds. Your true sources of stress aren’t always obvious, and it’s all too easy to overlook your own stress-inducing thoughts, feelings, and behaviours. Is it your family, or work burden, or Teachers, or Friends or something else all together ? Take responsibility for the stress. Until you accept responsibility for the role you play in creating or maintaining it, your stress level will remain outside your control.
Step two is seeing how you currently deal with stress. Do you ignore it ? Or DO you store it ? Do you take out the frustration on someone else ? Or Do delay it by saying" I will deal with you tomorrow" Because as we all know, Tomorrow never comes.
Step three is finding effective and productive ways to deal with stress. So when you are like " I am stressed, I will do this". There are many options like taking up a hobby or a sport, reading books,etc. In this manner the stress can actually be put to good use and and some experience or knowledge can be gained from it.

Well, those are the three basic steps of stress management that will help you this year as well as next year. Thank you.

Are we happier than our forefathers ?

There are virtues and flaws of both the ages. Some aspects of the life of our forefathers are inviting but then we look at our life and we long for this one too. 
We live in an age when men admire riches more than Honesty, and long for Money than the peace of mind. This age will never be happy till men pay more attention to the old values taught by our forefathers. True happiness is a state of the mind, and can be attained better in the cottage than in the king’s palace.
In our modern age, life is full of comforts and luxuries. We wonder how our forefathers lived without them. These are the blessings of science. We can travel in railways, ships, motor cars and airplanes. The old days of trouble and difficulties have come to an end. In every walk of life we have begun to use electricity. Medical science has done great service to man. Even the most serious diseases are cured very easily. When we are tired by the day’s hard work, radio and television provide us nice recreation. We have comfortable homes, fine schools, hospitals and many other amenities of life.

We people living in the modern times feel that the present century is the most glorious period of history and that we are far better than our ancestors in every respect. Undoubtedly man has progressed and modern civilization has advanced in scientific and other fields. Today we believe in liberty, equality and fraternity although we are still far away from this cherished goal. According to me there are more virtues to this modern life than vices and I think we are most definitely happy than out forefathers were.

Speech by a student on Teacher's day

In India 5th September is celebrated as Teachers' day. 5th September is the birthday of a great teacher Dr. Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan. When Dr. Radhakrishnan became the president of India in 1962, some of his students and friends approached him and requested him to allow them to celebrate 5th September, his "birthday". In reply, Dr, Radhakrishnan said, "instead of celebrating my birthday separately, it would be my proud privilege if September 5 is observed as Teachers' day". The request showed Dr.Radhakrishnan's love for the teaching profession. From then onwards, the day has been observed as Teachers' Day in India.
A true teacher is not someone who just teaches academic lessons to his/her students. Rather, he/she is like a guide, who helps the students in each and every sphere of life, by giving the right advice. They are future makers. None of the achievers in this world has attained a feat without the guidance of a teacher. 
We have chanced upon Many such teachers. This is our chance to acknowledge and appreciate the things they have done for us.

Teacher's Day seeks to acknowledge this very contribution of teachers.

Perseverance is the key to success

What does Perseverance mean ? Perseverance means persistence in doing something despite difficulty or delay in achieving a goal or success. Perseverance is an attitude of persisting one single idea, discipline, ideal, rules to achieve success, to achieve a goal- in spite of facing n- number of difficulties, obstructions, hurdles, failures etc.
There are numbers of failures and hurdles, you have to pass through before you achieve something worthwhile in life. The only undying quality imbibed in every successful man, is the quality of perseverance. It is this quality which makes even seemingly impossible task possible.
Permanence, Perseverance and Persistence in spite of obstacles, discouragement and impossibilities. These are the things that distinguish the strong from the weak. Perseverance is failing 99 times and achieving success the 100th time. Perseverance is a necessary quality for success. Only if you bang hard enough and loud enough on someone's gate, they will wake up and open the gate. 
There is an apt saying that “Fire is the test of Gold and Adversity is the test of Man”. The key to success in any field is perseverance, industriousness and single minded effort to achieve the Goal. Success is like a ladder where you have to climb step by step and do a lot of hard work to reach at the top. The fruit of your success will surely be sweet. You must not run away from perseverance but rather adopt it and use it.
Abraham Lincoln was driven by perseverance to fight for the freedom of the slaves. Many battles were lost, A lot of blood was shed. But finally the rebels with Abraham Lincoln supporting them won. This is a very good example.
 Perseverance is not just a show of trying. It also shows the courage of a person. Lots of courage is needed to avoid the temptation of giving up and being free of expectations. So a perseverant person is one you can be sure who will never give up and a courageous individual. You can always count on such a person. Everyone should aim to be such a person. 

Change we need

Change is in the very nature of being. Change is Inevitable. Sooner or later it will occur. Change brings evolution to the way of thinking of man. Change is not always for the good but it can always be used in our advantage. Nothing is perfect. Not our society, government, anything for that matter....! There is always a flaw that needs to be corrected. 
Many things need to change in order to be better.
A change we all need is the change of way of thinking. Life has become a race and nobody believes or trusts or puts good faith in anyone. Most of the people have become selfish. Nobody thinks about helping a handicappable man to cross the street. Everybody has their own problems and they prefer to be in them rather to help other people solve their problems. This attitude of people needs to change. This change is for the good of man kind.
Our nation has many virtues.  But do we look at the vices and other problems ...? We are no. 1 in many good aspects. But we are no.1 in many bad aspects too. We are no.1 in tobacco consumption. No.1 in diseases. No.1 Diabetes patient. No.1 corrupt nation. This all has to change.

We all should be making an effort to accomplish this change, Strive for the better....

Thursday 15 August 2013

A stitch in time saves Nine

Proverbs have a deep meaning and if we analyze them ,we can decipher their meaning . This proverb literally means that a small tear in a cloth or garment can be corrected or remedied if attended to in time . But if ignored this small tear may widen leading to more work or the garment may have to be discarded.
"A Stitch in Times Saves Nine" is a well known proverb.  It means that evil should be nipped in the bud, and thus much future trouble would be avoided. A cloth which is torn must be stitched at once for otherwise the torn portion would increase in size and many more stitches would be required. Similarly, in every walk of life things must be set right in the very beginning in order to avoid much future trouble and expenditure. Sometime, if the evil is not put down in the very beginning, it may become unmanageable and may not be remedied at all. Hence we may say that the proverb "A Stitch in Time Saves Nine" has much truth and wisdom in it.

In this manner, this proverb warns us against neglecting small faults or imperfections which may lead to big troubles . Time waits for no one , so we should never put off till tomorrow something which can be done today . Opportunity knocks on our door but once and if we fail to open the door in time we will lose out on success .