Arrested Character Development-Are we losing out on spiritual and values based development in our Children?

When a colleague of mine told me about  how flustered she had been by the elder of her two daughters who would call a friend over for the day and close the door to her younger sister for six hours at a stretch and how she just wouldn’t share her gadgets with her younger sister, it just struck a chord with me. In a society where we have learned to share things with our siblings, the very idea of me, mine, and I, have never really gained popularity till now! With the change in the way most families live today, a shift from the joint family system to the nuclear family system, wherein a smaller family size would also mean that the only child in the family would not have siblings or for that effect their would be only two children along with two parents. In times not so long ago, their would be uncles and aunts, and lots and lots of cousins to share things with! But that is not all, enter the situation where both parents are working parents.

In times where the need to conform seems to play such a lot of importance in the development the characters of children. Children soon begin to regard their parents as not as cool as the friends in their circle. In such cases, peer-pressure and the need to conform to popular trends are some of the issues that affect  behavioural issues in children, especially those who have just entered their teens. In a class of twelfth graders, I observed that students wanted to laugh just because their friends were laughing. There was this strong urge to laugh even if the joke was a damp squib and merited not even a grunt! In some cases, students who were not very good in studies, but could do well by studying harder were in fact getting drawn into a vicious circle of bad friends with bad habits. The need to conform to the popular trends and habits was based on the desire to just be part of a group, irrespective of whether it was a good group. In many cases it has been observed that students with a weaker self-esteem ordinary looks or even those coming from marginalised communities  had a strong desire to be part of the clique so that they had an identity.

It seems most surprisingly that while we talk about the need for individualism, creativity, and speak against rote memorisation while teaching in some of the progressive school, what is in fact happening is the exact opposite of our expectations. So then, what is making out children rather selfish, self-centred and not ready to accept change, and growth? While we keep preaching about the need to evolve and grow, learn new things, talk to new friends rather than remain loyal to only a tight group of friends? It has been noticed how children who are more exclusive so as to limit themselves to small exclusive groups could in fact be more vulnerable to deception. They begin to trust their friends more than their parents and immediate brothers and sisters. A very frightening situation, no doubt-which often results in children becoming more and more secretive regarding what they do amongst their friends. I have come a cross many students who don’t share anything with their parents, and often it comes as a surprise when the teacher tells the parents little things about their wards! As this distance between parents and children keeps growing, things begin to fall apart in terms of relations between both. While no doubt, much information can be gained from the internet, but to thinks that the internet can replace the social, cultural and value based education that the parents can give is a big fallacy! Today’s tendency to base the value of everything on the basis of a  price and purchase ability has meant that of our young ones have begun to look at life from a very skewed perspective! There is clearly more to life than money can buy, and this has to be instilled in children through example and tactful explanation. In an age which has begun in surrogacy and outsourcing, the process of nurturing children has begun to neglect those very essential moral mores, social, ethical, and spiritual values that give meaning to life! It came as a surprise when I asked my students went to temples and churches and other places of worship, and no one was ready to own up! It was probably unfashionable, or not “cool” to go to temples or churches to worship. My next question to these students was whether they ever prayed, and this time, one of the students stated very proudly that he was an “Atheist” and I replied, “Thank God your are an atheist” trying to underpin the fact that God exists for everyone, even for atheists; and he smiled realising the implication of what I had said!

It may be old-fashioned for some to  pray or go to places of worship, but the fact remains that Godliness, Spirituality, and Respect for Values, moral, social, and cultural make all the difference! What our children have gained through technological advancement has resulted in a corresponding loss of all those good things that were passed by word of mouth by grandparents, uncles and aunts. It may not yet be too late to salvage the situation wherein progressive generations keep getting more and more selfish and self-centred. The need to look beyond the self can only be explained through the example of sharing and sacrifice  which, unfortunately, is missing in many ways as we teach our children to fend for themselves, think first about themselves and then about others. As life becomes more and more mechanical, and we tend to think of success solely from the amount one earns, it is high time we thought about a better way of teaching our children about the importance of healthy values. A value based education is the need of the day, whether we like it or not! An exposure to good books with sound moral values, movies with a sound spiritual message, and other media tools can help bring about a change in how we view our children and how they view us. The fact is that the family that prays together stays together! If we, as elders are not strong spiritually and morally, then how can we expect our children to have a sound outlook towards life and the the society at large? Thanking God for providing us nourishing food is just one more way of telling children that prosperity and a full stomach should not be taken for granted and that we pray to God, thanking him for this gift and that he might continue providing us with more down the years!

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Flight-My Photo Assignment on flying migratory birds

A Couple of a painted storks flying to their nest. They are faithful to each other and remains together throughout their flight!

Coming in to land?

Graceful as a dream floated a Stork over head!

Painted storks are graceful in flight, it is a joy to watch them fly!

Painted Storks fly in formations.

 

Ducks fly in larger groups often presenting the most amazing patterns!

As many as the eyes can see fly the brown ducks!

And so the ducks form patterns in the sky, a fish that they eat!

Brown Ducks taking a rest before a long flight!

 

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Eco-Tourism a New Fad

The teachers and students of a Primary School in Delhi recently visited an Eco-Tourism Farm at Najafgarh in Delhi. The group enjoyed some of the activities offered by the Farm which included and exposure to Farming and Rural Life, Adventure Activities, and Food and Fun.

 

A Tractor Ride

Travelling on a camel cart

A Tractor-ride

 

A bullock cart ride

One of the students attempting a crossing

A Magic show for the gathered students and teachers

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The Birds are back at the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary

 

Today, when we decided to visit the Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary, a few kilometres from Gurgaon on the Gurgaon-Jajhar road, we were in for a pleasant surprise. The Park had re-opened today on the occasion of the Birthday of Mahatma Gandhi, and added to this, the park authorities have decided to make the entry free for all visitors from the First of October to the Seventh of October to mark the wildlife safety week.

At the park we were able to see a variety of birds, teals, painted storks, and ducks, lots of them! The painted storks were setting up nesting sites for their winter sojourn and they would probably lay their eggs which would hatch in a few months time!

There were a lot of ducks swimming in the water and grazing on the grass were the regular inhabitants of the sanctuary, the larger species of deer called the Neel Gai, in Hindi.

Fortunately, this time there was some water in the lake, and it looks as if it is here to stay for some time. Hopefully the birds will have a good time this season. The greatest problem for this Bird sanctuary however is that all the channels of water that used to drain into the lake during rains have now been cut off because of rather extensive construction of flats and buildings all around the lake.The Sultanpur Bird Sanctuary has in any case become an island of nature surrounded by a concrete jungle which threatens its very existence! The snap pasted below shows how this island of Nature is gradually getting cut off from other open areas which were also once upon a time wet lands!

 

This picture taken from one of the observation towers shows some of the construction sites surrounding the bird sanctuary. These building site are steading cutting off the only sources of rainwater that feed the lake with fresh water. The future of this bird sanctuary is at stake because of the greed of people who want to cash in the booming realty rates. It won’t be surprising if one day, soon in the future, the true inhabitants, the Teals, the Ducks, the Cormorants, the Cranes and the Storks suddenly find that instead of the lake, there are tall buildings, apartments and that their nesting grounds have suddenly disappeared. Recently, there was a story doing the rounds in the town about a duck that had laid eggs in one of the residences in the town. The duck flew away leaving behind its chicks. Migratory birds return to their nesting sites with great accuracy every year no matter how far they have to fly. Siberian Cranes and some of the Ducks fly in from as far away as Siberia. They have made their homes in this little sanctuary, and they will keep coming to this site even after it has disappeared! The birds will lay their eggs and the chicks that hatch will not survive in the harsh and bleak environment which is without a water body. Thus entire generations of exotic species of migratory birds will perish when this bird sanctuary also disappears, giving way to the demands for land for building houses for people!

 

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Gandhi’s Experiment with Non-Violence and Non-Cooperation

It goes without saying that Gandhi’s experiment with Non-Cooperation and Satyagraha in Champaran was a turning point in his life! It was a phase in his life when he used the tools of Non-Cooperation and Satyagraha to force the British Administration to accept that there was a problem with the share-cropping contract and the cash that the British Landlords had taken from the innocent peasants. The sharecropping contract dealt with an agreement that the sharecroppers would till fifteen per cent of the land hired by them with Indigo. The entire crop of Indigo cultivated by the peasants would be handed over to the landlords in lieu of rent. The cultivation of Indigo was irksome to the peasants so the British Landlords in Champaran jumped at the idea of accepting rent in the form of cash on when they came to know that Germany had developed a synthetic form of Indigo which was much cheaper than the natural form. The landlords wanted to take advantage of their advance information and so they fixed the value of fifteen per cent of the harvest in terms of cash value based on the existing market rates of natural Indigo. When the peasants came to know about the discovery of synthetic Indigo, they realised that they had paid more than the value of Indigo to the Landlords. They demanded a refund of the difference of the amount they had handed over to the Landlords as per the existing value of Indigo. The Landlords refused to return the difference.

Raj Kumar Shukla was an illiterate but rather stubborn sharecropper and he brought the problem before Gandhi who was attending an Indian National Congress meeting at Kanpur. Gandhi was busy at that time and he told Raj Kumar Shukla to meet him many months hence at a particular spot at a park in Calcutta. When the moment came, he found Raj Kumar Shukla waiting at the appointed spot. Gandhi had to acquiesce and agreed to accompany Shukla to Champaran. At Patna Gandhi stayed at the house of Dr Rajendra Prasad. Incidentally, Dr.Rajendra Prasad was not at home. The servants thought that Gandhi was another peasant, an untouchable because of his simple dress and they didn’t allow him to draw water from the well lest some of the drops from his bucket should pollute the water. This, in essence, speaks volumes about his simplicity!

Once in the district of Champaran, Gandhi set out to collect evidence of the amount that the British landlords had extorted from the peasants. History tells us about how one day he set out to investigate a case of the maltreatment of a peasant at the hands of thugs employed by the Landlord. On the way he was accosted by a messenger of the Police Superintendent who ordered him to return to Motihari, on the way back, the messenger served him a notice to leave the district immediately. Gandhi accepted the notice and wrote on it to the effect that he would disobey the order. This was the first example of his use of the tool of Civil Disobedience, and it resulted in a summons to appear in court the next day.

The common people of Motihari came out in full support of their champion with the result that the next day on the day of his hearing, a large number of peasant turned up in his support. The multitude was a cause of concern for the authorities, although Gandhi helped control the crowd. The government was baffled and the prosecutor requested the judge to postpone the hearing. Gandhi however, did not wait for the judgment and read out a statement pleading guilty for a “conflict of duties” for breaking the laws of the land, but that he couldn't be held guilty for upholding the higher laws of humanity. This was the second example of civil disobedience. Gandhi refused to wait for the judge to read out the sentence, he pre-empted the judge and passed a sentence on himself. The judge then proceeded to order Gandhi to furnish bail for two hours. Gandhi refused to furnish the amount (which was the third example of civil disobedience) with the result that the perplexed judge released him without bail. This was a moment of triumph for Gandhi’s experiment with non-cooperation. Now that the arrest of Gandhi had been postponed, the lawyers who had come to advise him stated their desire to return to their hometowns especially since their practices were suffering. They added that since they had come to advise him and that if he went to prison, their services would no longer be required. Gandhi replied to them and asked them what would happen to the sharecropper’s plight. This simple but loaded question put them into a tizzy and they were ashamed of their selfishness. They were ashamed of the fact that if Gandhi who did not belong to the district was ready to go to jail for the peasant, where would they who belonged to the district be placed! Shamed by this, the lawyers returned to Gandhi and told him that they were with him and were ready to go to jail with him. This speaks volumes about Gandhi’s skills as a leader. He was able to convince and cajole his followers to his point of thought by setting an example and by shaming them! For Gandhi, this turn around of the lawyers was proof that the battle of Champaran had been partly won!

What happened next was that Gandhi was granted an audience by the Lieutenant-Governor, Sir Edward Gait and resulted in the setting up of a commission to go investigate the grievances of the sharecroppers. Commission was highly biased in favour of the landlords because of the fact that the majority of the representatives were from the landlord’s side and Gandhi was the sole representative of the peasants. The landlords agreed in principal to refund the amount they had taken from the sharecroppers but the question they put before Gandhi was about the percentage that was to be refunded. The Landlords were clever and they wanted to enter into a stalemate as they wanted to drag the whole issue based on an argument on the percentage of the amount to be refunded. They believed that Gandhi would demand a hundred per cent refund, so in order to prolong the case they asked Gandhi about the percentage, Gandhi replied that he wanted a fifty per cent refund. To this, the landlords bargained for a twenty-five per cent refund, and Gandhi agreed! Gandhi later stated that the amount of the refund was not as important as the fact that he had made the landlords return part of the amount that they had wrongfully taken from the peasants and the fact that they had been compelled to surrender part of their prestige. Gandhi had been able to send a message across to the landlords that they were not above the law, and along with this message to the landlords, he had been able to tell the peasants that they had rights and champions to fight for their rights. He had been ultimately been able to teach the peasants a lesson in courage! Finally, because of this debacle, the landlords couldn’t face the peasants and they were forced to flee from the district-their prestige had been finally tarnished! This was the enigma of a man called Gandhi!

The greatness of this man lay in his simplicity and his exceptional qualities of leadership. He was a man who didn’t flaunt his charisma, and he was a man who didn’t bask in his superior intelligence. He was foresighted and could read the minds of not only his opponents but also his followers! What Gandhi did in Champaran is an eye-opener for all of us in today’s times of terrorism and violent dissent. We need to learn from him that there are more effective tools than violence and terrorism that can help us ventilate our grievances! There are better ways of fighting exploitation and ventilating grievances than with guns and bombs!


You might also like to read:

1.https://rodrickwrites.blogspot.com/2019/08/gandhis-leadership-qualities-included.html

2.https://rodrickwrites.blogspot.com/2014/02/why-was-champaran-episode-turning-point.html

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