Learning

I have something against people using the phrase : "Learn it the hard way" and "Learn by making mistakes"
If I were given the option, I would learn things the easy way and by making as few mistakes as possible. Learning by making mistakes and learning the hard way are in my opinion inefficient methods of learning. I am ready to face the fact that learning is not possible without making mistakes, mistaken assumptions, misunderstandings. As I heard a wise old man say.. A man who hasn't made a wrong decesion in his life is one who never made a decesion at all. But there is often this whole ideology, which claims that the hardest way to
learn is the best way to learn and I find this concept wholly absurd and counter intuitive.You do learn from mistakes, but that is not your primary source of learning the way some people look at it.

The way I would like to learn is to look at something I need to learn, find out how much I need to know and find out whats the easiest and most reliable method of gaining a working knowledge so that I can go about the task at hand by doing things right and making as few mistakes as possible.This absurd alternate ideology would have me learn with absolutely no guidance from any reliable source of information. It would have me blunder my way through a task, doing a terrible job at it, spending ten times the amount it should have normally taken and ending up with a mixed up knowledge based purely on experience and not on fact.

I believe that facts must form the basis of any approach to a task and thereafter the experience in performing the specific task will come into play purely because the amount of information required to go beyond a particular level of understanding is too large.The task of sifting through this information would be too time consuming. I wonder from where people form this twisted notion that the best way to learn is by making
mistakes and by doing it the hard way. I think its easier to learn from other people's mistakes and from other people who might have been forced to learn things the hard way due to lack of any well informed sources. I
think the only exception to this would be in learning where creativity and individual thinking is needed.

Reservations

Here is an isue that has polarised the country, brought forth the divisions that run deep in the system and all that. It's been seen as an Us vs Them and Merit vs the rest and so on... and rightly so perhaps. If I've worked hard for it and someone else gets that seat owing to a caste certificate, I feel wronged and justifiably!!!

As everyone agrees, it's about time we did something to fix primary education and paved the way for people to be able to compete on an equal footing. A quick-fix solution in the form of reservations in higher education is playing to the gallery and is self-serving for the politicians.... so what do we propose as an alternative... a reform in the system, rite? What about the intergenerational gaps in growth, development? It is in this light that the following article was one of the saner ones I read, a point of view that recognizes the disadvantages suffered by many and many of them quite valid.

http://www.hindu.com/2006/05/23/stories/2006052305841100.htm

The above was not perfect- no system is. It fails to talk about time frame for reservation- that is the only acceptable way, if at all.
The above analysis sounds fine in its basis though and places sufficient(?) emphasis on academic merit to ensure that people who come through the system aren't terrible and can cope. And I'm not stating that reservation is the best way forward. But I'm wondering what is, a system that will be inclusive and dynamic at the same time. A time bound system while our primary education sytem grows to cope.... hmmm

PS: I hope the views aren't considered biased as I will not be affected by this system any longer.

One fine day

Sunday morning on the beach. The cool, salty breeze blowing and the clouds blocking the beautiful sunrise. A sea of sand and the sea beyond it. The hundreds of walkers walking by. Wonder what each one is thinking. A son and his father. The pleasant drive and a nice stroll. I love the beach. (In spite the garbage strewn all over the place).

A Walk in the Park

The cold breeze, the gentle drizzle, the dull grey clouds, the unfamiliar greenery, red flags fluttering. The silent walk of a lonely man. He walked into the greenlands for he had nothing else to do. He moved slowly, stopping to take pictures. He walked until his memory card was full and when he turned back, what seemed claustrophobic and dull now looked magnificent. The place acquired new meaning. He realised that every place you had been in the past, every person you have know, they all seem beautiful from a distance in the future. Retrospection was simply a filter to weed out bad memories and means to cherish the struggles and triumphs and to forget failures and sadness.The past was not something to hold on to and the size of adversity was not something to ponder about.From afar what he needed to do seemed more within reach.He deleted some old pictures, took newer ones and then walked back home with a resolve, which wouldnt last too long. But atleast it gave him new strength to take on the world. A world with unfamiliar greenery, red flags and a tongue he knew nothing about.