Few days ago I got a chance to watch television (as I hardly watch it) and as a matter of fact it had to be some good news channel or the sports because of my inability to tolerate all those saas bahu serials. As I was playing with the remote, I happened to stop at one of the news channels exploring the elections. Now when I say elections it has to be something pertaining to our popular political parties. It was fun watching the way the channel was portraying the drama with all the sound and light effects that will put to shame even our film-makers. The target-obviously the category of people which doesn’t have the potency to ‘infer’. There were so many things one could infer out of all that drama which might impel someone to not to vote. But we hardly do that. And I reckon that is what the problem is with most of us Indians and that’s why we don’t see one political party coming out successful election after election. The reason: because they don’t read between the lines and because they take what is in front of them as true. They might know that all that glitters is not gold but they don’t comprehend what it means. I would say, another inference problem.
The next issue is ‘who is to blame for this?’. Frankly speaking it is the people themselves who are to blame but the major proportion of it goes to our education system. From the moment a child becomes a student, he is enrolled into an endless loop of theoretical education. He assumes every written word in the text book to be a fact and starts memorizing it. Now this will always create problems because a person can remember a certain fact only to some extent, the longevity of which depends on the number of times he comes across the same fact again. That is why most of us still remember 1 plus 1 is 2 and tend to forget history dates. But then you’ll ask me is there any logic behind why 1 plus 1 is 2. I will definitely say no. The important point here is that we need to be selective and shrewd as to what needs to be assimilated and what needs to be inferred. And if this inference thing is not practiced at a younger age, then it creates problems later on and that can have a good (I mean bad) impact on your decision making. The decisions that you take when you are someone’s son or someone’s daughter doesn’t matter much but certainly do when you become someone’s father or husband or employee or employer. Because then you are answerable for all the good and bad. Schools should be aimed at exploring one’s mind. I don’t think many schools out here in
The consequence of this not-inferring-things is that some other people are reaping benefits for your impotence. If you are able to infer you will be able to eliminate most of the options and be amongst the really-required ones. And I guarantee the life also eases out a bit as you can decipher most of the crypted situations in your daily life. There are many people who know ravi goes to temple but only a handful of us ask themselves as to why ravi is going to the temple and what will he do over there and that explains why most of us are ravis and only a few of us - einsteins.
2 comments:
I am one of those people who believe there is logic behind everything- why we write it as '1', why we call it 'one' and also why 1+1=2. There is a reason everything evolves as for the way it exists today. If you do not understand it in its present form just go back further in its history and you will.
As for the schooling- there are two sides of it. The model that is used by the American schools uses discussion and tries to explain logic to students. But then there is as much you can understand and gain in school. The onus of learning the details and gaining more exposure is on the individual. In Indian case, as you said, the individual has to think about the 'logic' himself. Our education system has not proved so bad for so many of us, then why do we complain? Because despite having been educated in a system which does not teach logic, we have nevertheless acquired it. How?- because its inherent in human
mind. The difference is the extent to which we utilize it and of course show it. I won't say the same thing for the Americans.
As you rightly said, those who ask questions and infer correctly are the einsteins of our society. This art of asking right questions also makes effective and successful leaders. But for answering questions you need to understand inference and logic/reasoning both.
And yes- as for the individual learning it on their own- Einstein did not exactly receive a sound school education. Also, can you imagine a society where everyone thinks before they do? In that case the people who know more than they understand will be the achievers- coz he will be different from the others.
P.S- I came across your blog and it was a nice read. My aim here was just to bring to light a different point of view.
Hi Nalini, nice to see you replying. I did not expect that someone will come and read and finally comment. I agree to many of the things you said. And i am happy that you took pains and wrote something. I don't consider myself to be a pro-writer but when i see my first and my last post, i feel there is a great difference and i am happy that i have gained every bit of it.
Keep writing and enlightening me.
Regards,
Abhinav
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