A Day to Cherish-Celebrating 150 years of Worship with the Youth Fellowship

September, the twenty-fifth was a day to remember and cherish for all the members of the congregation of the Church of the Epiphany especially as it was a day of performances by bands from different churches and congregations from the National Capital Region of Delhi. Part of the ongoing celebrations of the 150th Anniversary of the Church of the Epiphany, the event was also attended by Ryan Martyr of the Now You Think You Can Dance fame, the Vice President, Revd. Suresh Kumar of the council of the Church of North India, Doicese of Delhi and Brother Dr. Monodeep Daniel of Brotherhood.

The whole day event which started at about one in the afternoon, went on till about nine in the night.

This wonderful programme, part of the ongoing celebrations of the 150th anniversary of the Church was a grand success thanks to the efforts of the youth fellowship, guided by its President, Mr. Ayush Paul, members of the pastorate committee, and most important of all the persistence and patience of the Presbyter in Charge, Revd. Sunil S. Ghazan!

Cookies for Sale Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot

Cookies for Sale Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot: The way these cookies had been arranged caught my attention, and I just had to take a snap of them. Hawkers on the New Railway Road, Gurgaon generally have a lot of stuff to sell.The way the products are arranged, speaks volumes about creativity.

The Scene from Ranichauri Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot

The Scene from Ranichauri Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot: While on a visit to Ranichauri n Uttarakand with some students, I came across this scene, the trees seemed to have the appearance of animals. If you look closely, you will notice that one of the trees looks like a lion, or perhaps some kind of a horse? Since these moments pass away too swiftly I decided to take the snap with the I pad I was carrying!

Antique Gadgets Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot

Antique Gadgets Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot: On a visit to Mussoorie in Uttarakhand, I came across this strange sight, I thought these objects were miniature steam engines, but when I read the plaque under the gadgets, I learned the they were a pair of cinema hall projectors used in the early twentieth century!

Indian Tribal Fashion Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot

Indian Tribal Fashion Photo by Rodrick Lal — National Geographic Your Shot: When I visited the Surajkund Crafts Fair at Faridabad in 2014, I came across these tribal dancers from Chattisgarh. I found the colour combination of their dresses rather attractive!

Is Information Overload killing us?

Do you feel tired by the end of the day even if you have not done any physical work? Do you feel rather irritable these days apparently no reason at all? Do you forget where you left your car keys, or sometimes an urgent mail you had to send - perhaps even that today was your wedding anniversary and you had to take her out on a date? It can often be embarrassing when you forget important things, surely. Don't even be surprised to acknowledge the fact  of having forgotten that this your daughter's birthday! In the old days people would have labelled you as being absent minded, but then how do people label you when you forge Do you feel tired by the end of the day even if you have not done any physical work? Do you feel rather irritable these days apparently no reason at all? Do you forget where you left your car keys, or sometimes an urgent mail you had to send - perhaps even that today was your wedding anniversary and you had to take her out on a date? It can often be embarrassing when you forget important things, surely. Don't even be surprised to acknowledge the fact  of having forgotten that this your daughter's birthday! In the old days people would have labelled you as being absent minded, but then how do people label you when you forget important things - careless, perhaps?z If the answers to all of these questions amounts to a 'yes,' in that case, you might be suffering from the stress resulting from information overload!

Strangely but surely, human relationships are breaking down because of your forgetfulness and this adds up to a sense of frustration and even a sense of guilt because, somehow or the other you believe that you were responsible for the breakup because you forgot an important date! Today, more than ever, a lot of us are multi-tasking like never before, and often we remove things that we believe to be less-essential from our lists of priorities. Experts believe that multi-tasking erodes the quality of work that we do. The human brain apparently is not quipped to multi-task but then the information that we are bombarded with leaves us with no other option than to multi-task.

The human brain is being subjected to a bombardment of information that it cannot handle in an effective manner. One may claim, that the human brain itself is moe powerful than a supercomputer, but then even supercomputers have their limits! There was a time when the hard disk in your computer had a capacity that ran in the range of megabytes, today your hard disk can handle terabytes of information. The question is how much information can the human brain handle? I don't know, but then all I can suggest is that the human brain too can handle terry bytes of information, so then why are we feeling so stressed out today, even if our brains can store large amount of information?

The question of how much information we can store doesn't seem to be the issue, if we agree that the brain can store so much information. What is a matter of concern lies in our short term memory which prioritises information that needs to be processed. That brings us to the the equivalent of short term memory, the RAM in the computer. The RAM or the Random Access Memory has grown exponentially and today we believe that a four gigabyte ram should work fine for common applications. The fact however is that the human brain might be lacking in this area. The human short term memory is not able to handle information at the primary stage. We are not able to filter information at the initial stage with the result that we are overwhelmed by the amount of data that we need to process in its initial stage. With computers it is possible to upgrade the RAM further but with the human brain, this seems to be an uphill task! The fact is that we are, today, not able to handle the terabytes  of information that we are bombarded with, (thanks to being a most connected generation) because our short term memory.

The main problem is that because we are not able to handle all that information at the initial stage, we feel fatigued, and overwhelmed. The human brain is being made to handle information like never before, and it is getting overwhelmed. Information overload is forcing the human brain to re-wire itself, into a super information processing machine that it was never meant to be! Evolution and adaptation are being put to the test like never before, and I wonder how Darwin would have incorporated this into his concept of adaptability because the challenges that we are facing as a human race go beyond the slow process of adaptation that  he envisaged.

The human brain is being forced to re-wire itself in a way that could never have happened if nature had its way. We are forced to work like the machines that we were never meant to be. If we are a more confused generation then it is because we are being forced to to handle information that simply is simply beyond our capacity. We are a highly stressed generation today because our very humanness is being challenged. It is therefore not surprising you feel exhausted, drained out and irritable by the end of the day, don't feel bad because you have been forced to handle a quantum of information that you were never meant to handle. Today, everyone can access the Internet, and that includes even those who who are not hardcore internet surfers. The smartphone has made it possible for even novices to access the Internet  and sure it has affected them like never before. 

We are a rather forgetful, anxious, and restless generation because we have been overwhelmed by the quantum of information that we have been forced to process in spite of not having the capability of processing information in its initial stage. Unfortunately we cannot upgrade the RAM in the brain and therefore we are becoming a generation of anxious and irritable people who are losing out to a higher intelligence. What we need to do is to learn how to filter the amount of information that we can handle and need for everyday use. What matters s to understand the fact that we are human beings and that we work differently from information processing machines ! t important things - careless, perhaps?

Strangely but surely, human relationships are breaking down because of your forgetfulness and this adds up to a sense of frustration and even a sense of guilt because, somehow or the other you believe that you were responsible for the breakup because you forgot an important date! Today, more than ever, a lot of us are multi-tasking like never before, and often we remove things that we believe to be less-essential from our lists of priorities. Experts believe that multi-tasking erodes the quality of work that we do. The human brain apparently is not quipped to multi-task but then the information that we are bombarded with leaves us with no other option than to multi-task.

The human brain is being subjected to a bombardment of information that it cannot handle in an effective manner. One may claim, that the human brain itself is moe powerful than a supercomputer, but then even supercomputers have their limits! There was a time when the hard disk in your computer had a capacity that ran in the range of megabytes, today your hard disk can handle terabytes of information. The question is how much information can the human brain handle? I don't know, but then all I can suggest is that the human brain too can handle terry bytes of information, so then why are we feeling so stressed out today, even if our brains can store large amount of information?

The question of how much information we can store doesn't seem to be the issue, if we agree that the brain can store so much information. What is a matter of concern lies in our short term memory which prioritises information that needs to be processed. That brings us to the the equivalent of short term memory, the RAM in the computer. The RAM or the Random Access Memory has grown exponentially and today we believe that a four gigabyte ram should work fine for common applications. The fact however is that the human brain might be lacking in this area. The human short term memory is not able to handle information at the primary stage. We are not able to filter information at the initial stage with the result that we are overwhelmed by the amount of data that we need to process in its initial stage. With computers it is possible to upgrade the RAM further but with the human brain, this seems to be an uphill task! The fact is that we are, today, not able to handle the terabytes  of information that we are bombarded with, (thanks to being a most connected generation) because our short term memory.

The main problem is that because we are not able to handle all that information at the initial stage, we feel fatigued, and overwhelmed. The human brain is being made to handle information like never before, and it is getting overwhelmed. Information overload is forcing the human brain to re-wire itself, into a super information processing machine that it was never meant to be! Evolution and adaptation are being put to the test like never before, and I wonder how Darwin would have incorporated this into his concept of adaptability because the challenges that we are facing as a human race go beyond the slow process of adaptation that  he envisaged.

The human brain is being forced to re-wire itself in a way that could never have happened if nature had its way. We are forced to work like the machines that we were never meant to be. If we are a more confused generation then it is because we are being forced to to handle information that simply is simply beyond our capacity. We are a highly stressed generation today because our very humanness is being challenged. It is therefore not surprising you feel exhausted, drained out and irritable by the end of the day, don't feel bad because you have been forced to handle a quantum of information that you were never meant to handle. Today, everyone can access the Internet, and that includes even those who who are not hardcore internet surfers. The smartphone has made it possible for even novices to access the Internet  and sure it has affected them like never before. 

We are a rather forgetful, anxious, and restless generation because we have been overwhelmed by the quantum of information that we have been forced to process in spite of not having the capability of processing information in its initial stage. Unfortunately we cannot upgrade the RAM in the brain and therefore we are becoming a generation of anxious and irritable people who are losing out to a higher intelligence. What we need to do is to learn how to filter the amount of information that we can handle and need for everyday use. What matters s to understand the fact that we are human beings and that we work differently from information processing machines !

Where have our values gone?

A very pertinent question that comes mind today is whether we might not have failed, as educationists to instil positive values in our children today! The recent incident of a student stabbing his teacher to death in a Government School in Delhi makes one wonder if the student was not perhaps lacking in respect for a teacher, an elder person. Violence in schools today is most probably a result of the deterioration of values in the society. Perhaps the single most important value that we are lacking as a society is respect - respect for our elders, respect for those who are younger to us and respect for each other! Can we not ascribe ascribe for that effect, the increase in the number of incidents of road rage to the deterioration of values in the society? How about the increase in the number of cases of crimes against women? Is it not because, we have done away with values that give respect to women in the society? Are we not therefore lacking as educators, in teaching our learners to respect the rights of others? Have we not in our drive towards academic excellenc somehow forgotten the importance of timeless values in ensuring the all round development of the personality of the learner? Man is a social being, and in order to be better integrated into the society he lives in, he needs to be grounded in the essential values that make social integration a success.
Where have our values gone today?Do we really need a value based education in our schools today? The questions might be taken otherwise, what with educationists arguing against the dissemination of values as values themselves. To such educationists I would like put forth a question, 'Do you value marks more than integrity or honesty?' To them I would like pose another question, 'What is your aim for education, is it to create professionals who can mint money, or is it to build character and good adults?' People who are against the direct nurturing  of values will argue that values should be taught through examples, whereby, students learn values by looking for them in their peers, elders, and teachers of course! While the idea of teaching values to students through the setting of examples might be a good idea, especially since it is more experiential in nature, its effectiveness might vary from school to school, and situation to situation. What I don't understand is why some people are hesitant to label 'Honesty' as honesty but are ready to rusticate students for plagiarism or academic dishonesty!

Today, more than ever, it seems as if there has been a dilution of the importance we give to values in schools and at home. The advent of the age of competition, thus validating the idea of 'survival of the fittest' has meant that we have become as a generation a selfish generation, a generation that thinks of the self more than anything else. While selfishness or self-centredness is on the rise, it has also led to a sense of emotional detachment, an inability to forge relations that last, for the basic reason that we are not ready to let go of our needs, perceive or otherwise, nor are we ready to respect the needs of other people. This shift from a readiness to put others before the self to a desire to put the self before the others is in itself a corrolary to the teachings that we have recieved from the family. Out children are today taught to look out for themselves, fight for their rights, and in general demand that they be served first! Ironically enough, this obsession for rights has led to our forgetting our duties, duties towards our elders, teachers, younger ones, and even towards 'other human beings.'
The disintigration of the extended family into a nuclear family, in fact the disintegration of the society as a whole might be to blame for the lack of a robust value system in our children today. Unlike the past, few children get to live with their grandparents in present times with the result that they are not able to benefit from listening to folk tales based on values that our grandparents used to tell us. Grandparents provided a much needed support structure for their grandchildren which, unfortunately is missing today in nuclear families. With both parents struggling hard to make a decent living, children might find it really difficult to connect to grown ups. Parents are not able to spend quality time with their children, and thus, that important aspect of value based education that is nurtured by the family is missing. The family ideally  provides  a rich environment of values in the child  but then  when parents are not able to spend time with their children and there are no grandparents to take up from where the parents have left, then the children are bereft of sound values.
Many years ago, I happened to assist my colleague, Dr. Yadram with his thesis on the importance of a value based education in present times. I couldn't help wonder about the relevance of such a research as at that time it did not appear as if such a topic deserved researching. Then things started changing swiftly, there were stories of confrontations between students and teachers. There was the story of a boy stabbing a lady teacher in a school in Yamuna Vihar, Delhi, all because she would not allow him to cheat in an exam. This is one example that suggests that if the student had better values then he wouldn't have taken up such a drastic step. The number of cases heinous crimes involving juviniles is on the rise today, take for example the involvement of a minor in a rape case that took place in Delhi and rocked the entire nation. One might argue that these are mere instances that involve a particular section of the society. The fact however is that the deterioration of values cuts across all the sections of the society. The delegation of parental responsibilities to the domestic help, day care centres, and other so called surrogate agencies, all in keeping with the culture of outsourcing has begun to affect the emotional and mental development of children today. The fact, simple though it may be is that children need to spend as much quality time with their parents and grandparents as possible. The family is the primary source of moral values and it is the moral duty if not obligation of the family to nurture the timeless values of honesty, respect, sincerity, humbleness,  and generosity in children.
Schools can only take up from the family the duty of nurturing of sound moral values in their students. Unfortunately this becomes difficult when the school takes up children who have little or no idea about sound moral values. To make matters worse, there is no actual or direct teaching of moral values because of the hue and cry it would draw from various sects and communities that would claim that their religious beliefs had been hurt or even neglected. Well if one cannot teach moral values in school, then can't these be taught through a careful selection of rich literature that celebrate the timeless values that have made us civilized?
An important question before us as educators and parents is whether we really want to inculcate the timeless values in our students and children. After the family, the onus of inculcation sound values in children lies in educational institutions, colleges, and other organisations that provide some form of educational instruction. The CBSE, (Central Board of Secondary Education of India) has introduced value based questions in its board exam papers, but then more needs to be done than just add value based questions in its Board Examination Papers.  Looking at the fast rate at which erosion of moral values is taking place in the family and the society at large, it is high time responsible  educationists, social activists, and policy makers took steps to intervene in a decisive manner. School is the last resort for addressing this deterioration in moral values in our children. It is therefore, important that school curriculum should include some form of syllabus that attempts to instil basic values in its learners. Ultimately, what matters is that we train students to not only excel in  academics, but also to be good human beings with sound principles and values. A good education will always be reflected good behaviour, humbleness, modesty, and the ability to carry oneself with dignity and poise. When a child with sound values graduates from school and grows into an adult, he or she has an aura of dignity, and poise that is unique and distinct.
Dr.A.P.J.Abdul Kalam, the erstwhile President of India, is a symbol of what it means to be person with sound moral values. His humbleness and modesty could only enhance the fact that he was one of the most learned persons in our country, the missile man who helped develop India's Space programme further. The maturity to assimilate greatness, and the ability to handle success, or for that effect, failure, depends to a large extent on one's value system. Research has shown that E.Q., or Emotional Quotient is as important, if not more important than I.Q. or Intelligence Quotient. A sound Emotional Quotient depends to a great extent upon the type and kind of values one carries with him or her!
It is a fact that we are facing a serious crisis today, the society, as we know it, is breaking down. The family is breaking down. Today we have more cases of divorce than ever before. We have more young people committing suicide. More and more children are abandoning their elderly parents. Our children lack patience. We are ready to fight with each other even for the smallest reasons. We shifted from the joint family to the nuclear family, the nuclear family often breaks further and then we have a broken family, we have more single parents today who are struggling between parenting and working to make both ends meet. The whole society is disintegrating, as we have less and less tolerance for other communities. This is a disturbing picture, but it is true and it is staring at us in the face, irrespective of the fact that we don't want to look at it! The only thing that can perhaps reverse this integration of the society is to build up a strong value system in the society, the family, and our children.

Note: A list of important values would probably include 20-25 values that need to be focussed on. Values might be further divided into Moral values, Social values, Ethical values, Religious values, Emotional values. However, it would be too difficult to categorise values into sub-components, therefore when I referred to values, I meant all the categories, and I would not mince my words to justify the importance of Religious values. When our elders said that they were God-fearing people it meant something! Today however when I ask some of my students if they have no fear of God, they reply that they are atheists!

A tribute to all teachers

Sure we have come a long way from the times when a student was expected to prove his respect for his teacher by giving a Guru Dakshina or a tribute to a teacher who was almost like a second parent! In ancient times, parents sent their children to gurukuls an equivalent of today's residential schools. Parents placed complete trust in the gurus, believing that the guru would help their children grow into complete adults who were ready to take on the world n its own terms.

Today, things have changed, with the advent of the commercialisation of education, things have changed. In ancient times we had mostly, a single teacher who catered to all the educational needs of the Shishya or the student. Commercialisation of education and the presence of multiple teachers has led to a dilution in the amount of respect that a single teacher would have received in ancient times. One wonders if today students might be as capable as their ancient forbears in showing their gratitude towards their teachers.

The fifth of September also coincides with the birth day of Dr S.Radha Krishnan, an accomplished educationist and an erstwhile President of the country. On teachers  day many years back, student would take up the roles of their favourite teachers and they would then run the whole school for a day. The experience of teaching other students was an experience worth remembering! I remember, many years back how after the day ended, students who had played teacher would have a get together with their teachers and they would then share how they feel about being a teacher. It was an emotional moment when they shared their feelings. One girl expressed her amazement about how we teachers were able to handle difficult students day after day. There were a few others who expressed wonder and amazement about the ability of teachers to work with such patience and that too with a smile on their faces.

Teachers day is a day when all of us remember our favourite teachers - they were people who made a difference in our lives. The extra care that they took of us, the pains they took to ensure that we scored better grades. Quite a few of my teachers in school were Ethiopian as I went to school in Ethiopia. I remember how energetic and dynamic they were, the enthusiasm of the Amharic teacher, the patience of the librarian who was patient enough to entertain me with my long list of books, Ato Bogale, who taught me English in grade eleven, he had one the most amazing pronunciations and a splendid baritone too! College too was wonderful with all those teachers who made you want to be with. The teacher who taught us child psychology, the teacher who dabbled in abstruse philosophy and yet end it all up with a commonplace remark, they were all exceptions!

I would like to say 'Thank you' to all my teachers for making me what I am, a teacher, and very happy to be one, too!

It is true that commercialisation has taken place in the field of education, and some students believe that teachers are paid to teach them so why should there be so much ado about be ing grateful to their teachers. Unfortunately no amount of money will ever buy the love and dedication of a teacher. Teachers are never bought, rather they are won through love and respect. In a world of virtual reality and virtual classrooms, nothing can ever beat the human touch that a teacher brings to the classroom. Processes and procedures might give structure to the lesson , but then it is only the teachers passion that can give life to the lesson!