Pattern changes in the 10th and 12th Board Examinations

National Curriculum Framework 2005

I am jotting down this note with extreme respect to the research and experiments NCERT is doing from time to time. I was going through the National Curriculum Framework 2005 as part of drafting this and I am highly delighted to see the clarity and care that have been put up there to groom the students across rural and urban backgrounds as well as to reduce undue pressure and competition on them during school days. 

Creative and Critical Thinking (CCT)

The very applaudable initiative to include prime importance to design thinking aspects to schools via Creative and Critical Thinking (CCT) is yet another progressive aspect that will bring a far-reaching fundament change to us as a whole. I am very confident this will enable us to transition from solution providers to the right problem identifiers and will help our country to make an orbit shift to a developed nation.

Grading vs Screening

I also loud my sincere thanks to the very notion of classifying the grading examinations (like 10th and 12th board exams) and the screening examinations (entrance examinations) separately, and the idea of conducting screening exams by a centralized agency, multiple times a year. This not only allows pupil with different goals to excel but also will support them through multiple attempts to qualify for a generic screening process.

Need for some tuning?

I, as a parent and as a friend and relative of many parents and students of the past 10th and 12th grades, wish to humbly draw your kind attention to the NCERT board examinations of the last couple of years. 

CCT patterns to regular examinations

Pupils have a general feeling that by virtue of creative and critical thinking, many times, entrance examination type of questions are being included in the board examinations. As we have a vivid spectrum of students and only a subset of them are interested in entrance examinations, this is found to be discouraging for many of them. It is also observed that many loving teachers are also echoing this concern and they are worried by the sorrow of their buds. It is being observed that, when concerns are raised, authorities grant moderation to compensate for the pattern difference to elevate some of the much-affected students by increasing their percentages.

Impact on basic studies

The children who are very serious about the overall percentage of marks may be most affected by this pattern. The award of moderation may not help them, as without that itself, they may be able to score above 80 percent of marks and the entrance patterned questions may be preventing them from scoring more than 95 percent. Such students are mostly ambitious to take up basic science, humanities, or linguistic-related studies and research, in my view. In my reading, they are the potential torchbearers and thought leaders compared to the technologists, who opt for fields like engineering, medicine, or commerce. It is a fact that many state boards are very liberal in granting marks. Hence, this question pattern may be crippling the chances of very bright students getting admission to basic streams.

Urban vs Rural Impact

In the urban areas, this trend is pushing students to enroll in entrance training centers directly, or many times schools themselves are getting working arrangements with large entrance training firms. Thus, the very efforts of NCERT to bring down undue load to students are diluted, indirectly. The specialized entrance training may not be feasible or affordable to kids from rural areas as well as from economically weaker sections and may be demotivated as some numbers of questions are getting reserved for specially trained ones.

Moderations are reactive

Moderations can be seen as a reactive measure to contain the increase in difficulty levels of examinations. But it also paves the way to dilute the quality of grading examinations, by which more students will be granted undue grades. This will have a ripple effect on the higher education sector, as a whole, due to the entry of fewer effective kids being admitted. The pressure on pupils getting admission via undue grades may be higher and may lead to a higher rate of dropouts. The overall productivity of graduates also may be affected in a bad way.

NCERT may review the patterns

NCERT may have to pay attention to the increase in entrance patterned questions in board examinations. This not only increases the urban–rural gap but also affects the overall productivity of education space, in general. This trend may be coming from the "one-exam-fits-all" mindset, referred to in the NCF 2005 document as well. My humble opinion is to completely de-link school-leaving board examinations from competitive entrance examinations, in letter and spirit as they are for different purposes.

Reference

• https://ncert.nic.in/pdf/nc-framework/nf2005-english.pdf
• Attention: Section 5.3 EXAMINATION REFORMS
• https://www.iitms.co.in/blog/national-curriculum-framework.html
• https://teachersgazebo.files.wordpress.com/2008/11/ncf-2005-presentation.ppt

Compiled on 2023 Apr 04

The west, conflicts in the east, before rest is lost..

Be vocal to stop wars, let us come out of our hypocrisy!

Below is a wonderful talk by Dr. Roy Casagranda. Watch it fully, it's worth it (do not get prejudiced by its title, How Islam Saved Western Civilization)

https://youtu.be/C8M4i9fvq1M?si=vsKNUpdvoYLlKe8K

This video helped me to relate, to why the West does not care about ending conflicts in the East. Be it Gaza, Palestine, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, or name any... The West seems to be afraid of the rest of the world, named after the East. Some Jewish, Islamic, and Christian groups are trapped in dilemma and act as tools of the insecure West. They really do not know why they are in conflict. 

In fact, most of the sectarian and fundamental groupings have many things in common, they are born out of insecure feelings and mistrust. While they fight each other, they also protect each other. 

Are we just? 

Let us raise our voices to end the conflicts in the "middle east" and "east",  by saying aloud that they are meaningless and directionless, at least as a token of gratitude towards the knowledge we dwell on now. Let us keep the awareness spread, at least that we can do for us.

Beware, when we align to identities - by attire, thoughts, deeds, or words - we are getting trapped. Take a resolve to keep away, and help all around us to keep away from it. Let us not repeat the wrongs of the West in general, the activities of restrictive medieval Europe in particular.

Note: The West is not only Europe, it also includes its heirs like the United States!

Probably, the credibility crisis and related financial slowdown may be prompting the finance capital owned by the "West" to restructure the ground to re-animate the capital flow, via active conflicts and distructions. Like in medieval Europe, the colors of various identities, including that of religions are cleverly deployed on the task.

Mistakes might have happened, and some dirty tricks might have worked; correcting mistakes and stopping tricks makes one great. It's true for the "West" as well. West should stop dividing human beings into identities, making them fight each other, and most importantly manipulating wisdom and knowledge to support these ill designs. These have harmed humanity a lot, we need to be wise and stop it somewhere. Population decline is staring at us, as more and more feel reluctant to meaningless struggles for vested interests.

It is, again, the duty of the "East" to save the "West", to rise to the situation to contain the conflicts so that civilizations (including the European ones) are not destroyed.

Watch it!

Here are some of my takeaways from the video, there are many more for sure... watch it!

• The "East" was a word to demonize the rest of the world, by the West.
• It throws light into the dark age, which is seldom discussed, and it  is not as dark as we are taught 
• Establishment of identities, be it national, religious, linguistic, ethnic, or of any creed, always works against humanity, in general
• The Hebru was restored using Arabic, once the Hebru was almost lost.
• Socrates was a disciple of a lady, which shows the degree of women's empowerment once Europe had
• The civilizations were mostly created by governments. The civilization of the West was mostly built on its Pagan roots
• There was an ancient Great Library run by a lady named Hypatia, in the Greeze
• Destroying books was done multiple times by the European empires of the West, to hide their failures in governance, by using closed religious schools as tools.
• While empires tried to destroy books, a small group started Greek Academia to protect some
• Later the emperor Justinian banned academia as well. But some took asylum in Persia with a portion of books
• The Persian king Shahpur was jealous of the great library and was trying to build one. The books from academia were accepted with grace.
• He also collected books from different parts of the world - from India, China, etc
• Persians thus prevented complete loss of knowledge. They have not only collected knowledge but also enriched and built building blocks of modern inventions.
• Later the Arabs captured Persia, and they also participated in building knowledge.
• Persians and Arabs advocated religious freedom. Unlike what we were preached there were no forced conversions and Jews, Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, etc used to follow their thoughts in the medieval period.
• While Abu Backer took control from Persia, from Pakistan to Spain, there were only 2% Muslims, and 60% of the world's Christians were under his control, and it contained Hindus, Buddhists, etc.
• Later Europeans captured the empire and again they started using religion as a tool to conquer and to avoid consolidation of rebellions. Again freedom was at stake, women were marginalized, and so on (the artifacts of medieval European cultural decline)
• The collected and enriched knowledge then resurfaced as European wisdom, as we enjoy them with enhancements from modern-era Europeans and others.
• ...

Thanks, Dr. Roy for the insights.

About Dr. Roy Casagranda

Disclaimer: I was born in India, which is one of the vibrant plural nations. I am aware of the wisdom of India and, to some extent that of Asia (China, Arabia, British, maybe). My "hypocrisy" is built around the exposure to bits and pieces of above. There may be great wisdom which is not known to me. If there are any factual errors in my consolidation, please guide me. My main intention is to raise public opinion against bloody conflicts and to encourage us to discard our dogma and prejudice based on baseless greatness. Sometimes, what we think of as dark, maybe the shining pearl... like the pure carbon of the jewels. May god (or whatever is the cause of us) guide humanity to better heights so that we can love to allow more dialects.

Stop the WAR, please!

 

What we sow, we may have to reap, blood never settles!

“Reap what you sow.”

“They sow the wind and reap the whirlwind.”

In Old Testament as well as Quran, there is a narration of a wrongdoing (calf worship) of the Israelites and Gods strong response against it. Above two proverbs may be traced back to this narration. [Old Testament - Hosea 8:7, Galatians 6:7, Quran - 2:54 (and verses around it)]. 

These sayings clearly say, wrong actions will certainly recoil. 

Our great epic Mahabharata clearly portraits the aftermath and meaninglessness of conflicts. After the war, only dead and lost remains - most of the braves and their achievements are dead and the most remains are pained the women and children, with a highly damaged lively hood. 

King Asoka realized the same meaninglessness of war, after Kalinga. He was blindly applying his force against the helpless civilians of Kalinga and the destruction and pain changed him, and the world.

The modern world is yet to realize it. The conflicts for and after European aggression of the world and the atrocities of two world wars have not made us realize the pain. Now, Israeli war lords may be thinking that they are solving the problem, instead they are making the wound much bigger. 

Unfortunately, the modern world is crueler, most of us are not touched by the irony. Instead, our morality and values are termed so that we are ready to be beneficiaries of the restructuring after every conflict. We are becoming foxes of the old story and encourages the fight between goats. 

Let us open our eyes, heart and mind to the man-made tragedies called wars and armed conflicts. Let us educate ourselves on the useless nature of it. We do not have Jawahar Lal Nehru or Mahatma Gandhi with us, we have to learn from the wisdom they have preached us to not to take sides on this inhuman exercise. 

Holding on to anger is like drinking poison and expecting the other person to die - Sree Budha

“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.” ―  Dante Alighieri

... ashamed of us, everyone please introspect on what can we do to stop these bloody armed conflicts, in our capacity. 

After all, no one wins and none of us can disown the responsibility of this. All of us have already failed 😥 revenge - counter revenge - counter counter revenge ... 😔

May the ongoing conflicts an eye opener for us and work towards peace. Please stop the war now.

• https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Hosea-8-7/
• https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/Galatians-6-7/
• https://legacy.quran.com/2/51-57
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden_calf
• https://feminisminindia.com/2020/09/04/book-review-after-kurukshetra-by-mahasweta-devi/
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ini_Njan_Urangatte
• https://letusdiscoverindia.com/the-kalinga-war-and-its-aftermath-ashokas-accession-to-the-throne/

എന്തു കൊണ്ട് നമ്മൾ തോറ്റു !

നെഹ്റുവിന്റെ കാലത്തോളം വർഗ്ഗീയതയെയും സാമ്രാജ്യത്വത്തെയും കോൺഗ്രസ് പ്രതിരോധിച്ചു. ദീർഘകാലം പ്രതിപക്ഷമായിരുന്നെങ്കിലും വലിയ മുന്നേറ്റമൊന്നുമുണ്ടാക്കാൻ ഇടതുപക്ഷത്തിന് കഴിഞ്ഞില്ല. മാത്രവുമല്ല, കോൺഗ്രസ്സിലെ സോഷ്യലിസ്റ്റ് ചിന്തകളോ വെളിയിലുണ്ടാക്കാമായിരുന്ന കോൺഗ്രസ്സ് വിരുദ്ധതയോ ഉപയോഗപ്പെടുത്താനുള്ള കഴിവും ഇടതുപക്ഷത്തിന് ഇല്ലാതെ പോയി. വർഗ്ഗീയതയുടെ വളർച്ചയും സത്വ രാഷ്ട്രീയത്തിന്റെ ഉയർച്ചയും നിസ്സംഗതയോടെ കണ്ട് നിൽക്കാൻ മാത്രമാണ് ഇടതുപക്ഷത്തിനായത്. ആകെ പറയാനുള്ളത് ചില കായിക ഇടപെടലുകൾ മാത്രം! 1930 മുതൽ 1980 വരെ 50 വർഷങ്ങൾ ഇല്ലായിരുന്നോ? 

മൂലധനത്തിന്റെ മൂല്യം മനസ്സിലാക്കുകയും സാമൂഹിക മൂല്യങ്ങൾ ചവറ്റ് കുട്ടയിൽ എറിഞ്ഞിട്ട് പണത്തിനും പദവിക്കുമുള്ള ചവിട്ട് പടിയായി പാർട്ടി ചട്ടകൂടിനെ മാറ്റുന്നതും നമുക്ക് മനസ്സിലാകുന്നില്ലേ ? പുസ്തകങ്ങൾ അലങ്കാര വസ്തുക്കളും ആശയങ്ങൾ വാചകക്കസർത്തുമാകുന്നത് നാം തിരിച്ചറിയുന്നില്ലെ? 

നെഹ്റുവിയൻ മൂല്യങ്ങൾ കോൺഗ്രസ്സിലും പുറത്തും കൊണ്ട് വരാനുള്ള രാഹുൽ ഗാന്ധിയുടെ ശ്രമങ്ങളെ പിന്തുണക്കുകയല്ലെ വേണ്ടത് ? അതല്ലെ ധീരത ? അതല്ലെ സത്യസന്ധത ? 

https://fb.watch/lcV81MCMYk/?mibextid=2Rb1fB

ഈ പ്രഭാഷണത്തിൽ നിന്നും എനിക്ക് മനസ്സിലായത് ഇതാണ്. 

Our Ban Syndrome!

Injustice is not specific to any religion or belief; if the state is serious, generic law-making is to be done... though the cinema "The Kerala Story" or the play "Kakku Kali" are exaggerated and contains backbites, there is a point (do not read it against a specific faith). 

• While we are promoting family life as a state, why we are giving over importance to love marriages? Why we are allowed to relate families and marriages to religious structures? It is supposed to be a state affair, not a religious affair.
• While we have a state, why poor has to go to NGOs for relief? The state is not enough, we need to build a welfare state.

We need to see human trafficking as human trafficking; do not attach any color to it. Some use chocolates, some use drugs, some use cinema, and some use religion to trap people in traps. We need to understand, how we can prevent this, in the case aired by "The Kerala Story", it is all about misusing religion and the over importance of religion in the family building to capture people. How can we prevent it? We need to reduce the reliance of family on religion; we need to unlink, marriage, birth, and funeral from religion and re-brand it as state affairs.

We need to stop religious recognition of marriages and we should ban religious institutions and bodies from formally issuing marriage certificates and ceremonies. There should be state-defined procedures and religious ceremonies of both families may be "optionally" included there. If we can do this, it may not be necessary to "convert" to get married.

We need to form a law to make mandatory self-declaration every year for all godmen and women of all faith to say that they still are comfortable with the institution. If they are not comfortable, there should be a way to decently rehabilitate. Exploitation and forced submission are the properties of all organized institutions. For some, it will be comfortable, for some, it will be uncomfortable, as some of us may be joining these structures based on illusions and/or commitments, at times made by others.

An art form will be expressive, sometimes over-expressive, it is natural. It is the same for this play, and it is the same for "The Kerala Story". We need not overreact to it. Just see and be empathetic to see whether it is airing an injustice. If yes, give an ear to it, and keep it for action; else ignore it as a noise.

• Kakku Kali - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HDhA1fOzyPE
• The Kerala Story Trailer - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3Jk3vquJDGs

Someone says something and my belief is affected, and I am smelling trouble in continuing with the belief !. In that case, I should seriously think, about whether I am really believing or not... I may be just "following". What is wrong with taking a pause and testing whether I am believing or not? Why should I protect my belief, which was supposed to protect me? Why do we need to "ban" things that we do not like? 

Kerala: In between education and superstition

 In between education and superstition

1. An inherent contradiction

Kerala is treated as one of the highly literate and educated pockets of India. Unfortunately, the vibes of education do not prevent us from being equally superstitious. This dubious contradiction may have to be well debated in society to come out of the chaos.  Let us go through some of the aspects that might have contributed to the current state of our immensely superstitious but formally highly educated society.

2. Acceptance of superstition

There are many aspects that paved the way for the unusual acceptance of superstition in society. Rather than going after absolute reasons, understanding the contexts that nourished the silent growth and co-existence of many of the unhealthy practices, maybe more meaningful.  Analyzing some of the below broader headings may be worth revealing the context.

• The decline in the spirit of education
• Dilemma of Freedom
• The general acceptance of escapism
• Thrust of capitalization
• Decline of honesty

2.1. The decline in the spirit of education

Education poses many good definitions. Through his experiments with “Viswabharathy”, Rabindra Nath Tagore showed us, how education can be used as a tool for the liberation of thoughts, wisdom, and values. With the notion of scientific temper, our first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru attempted to bring an analytical mind to equip us to come out for slave mentality. There were many veterans who struggled to use education as an effective device to bring value and humanity.

Independent India, had another challenge for the spirit of education. It was nothing but one of the side effects of education called employability. Unfortunately, the more, we started relying on formal education as entry criteria for jobs, the more we were running away from the very spirit of education. This was silent, but, powerful re-definition of education. Its intent was mostly shortened to a job-finding technique, which we failed to unwind.

The destination-focused education sector was to face some traction of social responsibilities, reflection, and commitments, via the existence of campus politics. During and after the freedom struggle, campuses, through open reading, discussions, debates, and conflicts, acted as the energy hub for transformations. Like any stage of adolescence, campuses were also not immune to physical conflicts. While unplugging campus politics, we surrendered our last weapon which would have been used as an effective voice against the shift in spirit and objectives of education. It gradually fell down from building value systems and scientific temper to mere mechanical qualification exercises.

A consistent decline in humanities and an emergence of a more technical-focused curriculum across our country may be viewed as proof of the paradigm shift. The diversion is now blatant when we are entering into the era of industry-focused deemed-to-be universities that drive syllabuses pointed to specific employment needs. The shift is from knowledge to technology or tooling.

Superstitions, on the other hand, enjoy an undue place in society, under the helm of beliefs and freedom. The decline in the spirit of education is directly or indirectly contributing to the unchecked growth and acceptance of superstitions.

2.2. Dilemma of Freedom

Freedom is a tricky term, most of the time – it varies from context to context. At the time of our great freedom struggle, it was the haul for self-reliance.  After the declaration of the official freedom statement, we seem to have tumbled into a dilemma. Instead, of taking up nation-building to pursue the motto of self-reliance, the majority of us focused on making ourselves free of dependencies.  More than the building of a collective nation, we started building independent individuals. The new definition of freedom conveniently created “others” among ourselves and started becoming self-protective. This tendency not only brought doubts about the goals of the collective called nation but also increased the air of mistrust and fear of loss for many of us.

Independent India witnessed many attempts at restructuring like land reforms. Since the shift of freedom was the undercurrent, the actual result of land reforms, ended up in forming more independent induvial than the expected uprise in social justice. A keen observer and scholar of all times were warning us on the side effects – Dr. B. R. Ambedkar, used to advocate for declaring the farm sector as an industry and was pushing for creating state-owned land banks instead of distributing lands to equip persons. The suggestion would have been to make a more collective and interdependent society than a society as a collection of people starving for independent existence.

The over-focus on personal freedom was paving the way to a highly selfish mindset among ourselves. We have started shrinking towards our individual virtues, aims, and comfort. Our social concern, commitment, and sense of responsibility started running low in the context of over-personalization.

The impact that emerged was far-reaching, the first generation after independence was thrilled by the personal heights and often lost in its objectives and goals. While doing this, they were also effective in resource accumulation. The next generations often experienced a sense of dictation on choosing objectives in the pre-text of achievements and understanding of their forerunners. Thus, we nourished a population who were free but were piped with clueless achievements, not of their will.

The result of all these aspects is one of the other contexts for the over-acceptance of rituals and shortcuts. Having unconvinced goals, on one hand, confused mind with growing suspicion; fueled by spiritless education might have given a better ground for mechanical solutions. As the population is already termed to be comfortable with told objectives, told actions might have been swallowed without any thought. Lack of social sense and selfishness nourished by over-personalization may be seen as a reason for accepting superstition and a viable tool.

2.3. General acceptance of escapism

We have discussed the decline in the spirit of education and the emergence of individual selves in the previous sections. The erosion in the value system and rise in selfish motives makes it very convenient to disown anything. This might have led to another problem, that of escapism.

The tendency is obvious on all fronts of life. An injustice happening to a neighbor may not be attended, to because it may be disowned as the responsibility of law enforcement agencies. One may not worry about an unhealthy institutionalized practice by a religious group, as it can be disowned by priests or so-called religious scholars. The democratic process may be disowned by established political parties and leaders. While disowning everything, the attempt is to run away from the responsibility and to find someone responsible for the shortcomings.

Everyone holds beliefs to one degree or another – some may be scientific; some may be religious. The habit of disowning and escapism makes ones on beliefs untrue, without even asking any questions in fear of ownership, the dictations are seen as comfortable choices.

In this context, if we view rituals and superstitions, the ownership of the actions lies with a godman or a black magic professional, and hence the actions can be performed without any feeling of guilt.

2.4. Thrust of capitalization

Capital makes sense in the context of an exchange value. A thing or service attains capital value or can be capitalized if it can be exchanged (and not consumed) for a value. Thus, the expectation and optimism aired by any of the capital-based systems are founded on the ability to sell or service. We can not say that it is totally unacceptable; as it is the way that capitalism works.

The tool of capital is money and persons who can exchange money. A highly self-oriented society with the habit of disownment is, in fact, a result of a misguided education objective. Such a society will be more flexible for ruthless exchanges with less moral baggage.

Rituals and superstitions are sellable or serviceable commodities. In addition, it also generates optimism. It gives news value, another commodity on the fly. Hence, for an unchecked capital flow, such unhealthy practices may be inherently comfortable.  We could see that the victims of such practices roam around the practitioners – event after failed goal - as the optimism it generates overrules everything, and business is involved on many fronts.

2.5. Decline of honesty

Only a brave soul can be honest. The lack of ownership and decline in the value system eventually generates a society of slaves. A mind that accepts slavery can not question it. To avoid raising questions, and facing questions, the easiest way is to learn to be dishonest. The drive of capital and selfish motives makes dishonesty justifiable and sometimes it is glorified as well.

Rituals and superstitions are dishonest from any angle. The follower is dishonest since he is afraid to understand the hollowness of it. The conductor is dishonest since he is articulating actions that he is in no way convinced or authorized.

The media in general and social media in particular acts as a messenger of dishonesty. It acts as a thread that effectively connects the dots of the doctrine.  This amplifies the impact and, in a way, gives an impression that these are socially accepted practices that are there for some time.

3. Coming down to the problem

While reviewing these aspects we could easily relate that all of these aspects or contexts are tightly coupled and interconnected. Almost all of them give strong indications that as a nation or as a society we are derailing from collective ownership and objectives of nation-building.

3.1. Be the change

All of us have to think about the reasons from one’s own viewpoint. I have tried to lie down, and some of them found logical to me. The first step towards a change is to be convinced that a change is needed and the change will follow. The more we are aware, the more we will be capable of adapting to positive change.

We can be more reactive as well as proactive in the contexts or aspects we discussed.

3.1.1 Be Reactive

We have to bring back thoughts and ideas and have to challenge cold-minded repetitions and rituals to come out of this impasse. The below-listed objectives may be more realistic than forming rules to ban, and probably glorify, superstitions in particular and rituals in general.

• Realign the objectives of education to the building of a value system, social commitment, and scientific temper
• Social responsibility and a sense of collective growth need to be established
• A general sense of ownership and bottom-line responsibility may be emphasized in the social fabric
• The system should not be aligned with the capital flow, rather it should be brave enough to play a vital role. Nehru was trying to take the middle path, later it seems we have lost track.
• Need to insist on the value of honesty and the amount of happiness it brings

3.1.2. Be Pro-Active

The transition of illogical practices to false truth is most probably well represented by one of the all-time favorites of Keralites, none other than “Kumaranasan” - “Yesterday’s mistakes may be misjudged as today’s rituals. They may be treated authentic tomorrow; do not give them a space”.

He rightly said it, say no, or avoid, if we are finding some illogical things evolving in front of us.

4. Part of the wave

Humanity might have gone through many relative ups and downs. The show goes on…

It may sound unrelated – the solution may have to start from a cultural renaissance! Various forms of arts and literature have to emerge with the known, unknown, direct, or indirect goal of advertising the context of the decline in the commitment we are facing on different fronts.

In fact, it happened in past, many times – freedom struggles, literary booms worldwide, movements of veterans of various religions – Krishna, Jesus, Muhammed, Sree Budha, Kabir Das, Sree Ramakrishna, Vivekananda, Sree Narayana Guru, etc. – if we are mindful.

Let us be part of the next one or the ongoing one!

NB: Written for Srishti 2022, the literary fest conducted by Prathidwani @ Technopark, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala

https://prathidhwani.org/node/13035

https://prathidhwani.org/guidelines-srishti-2022

Fascinating Infosys Days, best wishes for Infy@40

I made an accidental entry to Infosys, while I was looking for options to relocate to my home state (Kerala). It was a too fascinating experience for me than I ever expected. A vibrant environment, filled with actions, a golden mix of long-timers and freshers, a place where the service industry and product industry was contributing to each other, a playground of collective learning and mentoring, etc., etc.

I am extreamly thankful to my close friend and classmate, Satheesh Chandran, for forwarding my resume to Infosys, the tenure at Infosys was really resourceful.

Though I lead people in past, on the technical front, Infosys, helped me to understand that management is a field of art and science. Through well-thought tools like PRIDE, IPM+, and SPC matrices, they equipped middle managers to have their roles fulfilled. 

I left Infosys on misconceptions and dilemmas, which I regret quite often. 

I was much thrilled when iRACE was first introduced without relative ratings. Later, I understood that my reservation about tagging people with relative ratings was the real issue I was facing at Infosys. I was not convinced by the "Bell" curve and the notion of "the ability" of people. I was of the opinion that opportunities and attitude are what make a person jell well and produce magnificent results. Though I could not effectively articulate my reservations well during my Infosys days, now I realize that it was essential to have effective filters and goals to keep a large organization running. On top of this dilemma, a wrong fancy on agility and an unwanted fear of losing my technical skills, fueled me to look for options. Infosys was a very good place to work and still dream that one day I may be able to rejoin the family, which gave me a lot of dignity and reverence.

I got opportunity to work with some of the good leaders, I admire most. Arunima, Suresh NR, Gayas, Poonam, Sudhindra (CG), Subbu... etc.

Apart from my professional gains, I was blessed with a lot many good Infy colleagues, and they continue as my best friends now as well - to name someone - Shino, Vipin, Bhagya, Saritha, Peyush, Saritha, Vidya, Rakesh, Deepu, Tamil, Arun, Sajosh, Sree Devi, Surya, Kiru, Jyothi, Sheethal, Vijay, Mathew, Palani, the Lion batch, and so on.

Wishing you Infosys Family, all the very best, on the occasion of your 40th land-marking year. May the collective wisdom and courage create more success stories and patterns for the world in general and India in particular. 

May Infosys continue as the inspiration for the coming generations and may it be an icon of success with values.

India, belongs to Nehru

Happy Independence Day, all my brothers and sisters of India, May god bless us to be independent, in our thoughts and deeds.

In fact, India, belongs to Nehru, as he represents the very idea of India, every struggle that formed India, and so on...

We live in an India, discovered by Nehru. We love the idea of India discovered by Nehru, that connects past with future, that unites many to one, that represents peace above all. 

If thoughts represented by Nehru was not there, instead of Indian Union, we would have been a collection of independent nations, just like middle east or Europe. Nehru could pave the basic skeleton of unity not only by his writings, but also by his actions. 

Nehru lived in a time when capital based systems and commune based systems were emerging and establishing. He could weigh the highs and lows of both and carefully took a middle path. We could see that he picked only one jargon "socialism" from the spectrum, in his drive for a welfare state. He carefully, nurtured a non-alignment stand that was a ray of hope among furious camps.

He might have realized the pain of exploitation, the capital based system brings in, he might have realized the trauma it introduces via false hopes and alienation. On the other hand he, as well thought by Gandhiji, recognized the commune based proposals are reactive in nature. Time had proven him, all the communist evangelist states were exposed as either ultra nation states or autocratic regimes. As a scholar of all times and statesman of every nature, he thoughtfully placed us in a safe path. 

Let us remember, some of his quotes:

• Without peace, all other dreams vanish and are reduced to ashes
• You don't change the course of history by turning the faces of portraits to the wall
• It is the habit of every aggressor nation to claim that it is acting on the defensive.

Bhagat Sing recognized him as the "revolutionary", as he was quoted saying when Nehru returned after visiting him in jail. Gandhiji said that Nehru will speak his words after independence. Nehru was a leader of devine choice, bestowed upon us for nation building, in every angle.

.. but, how far we are successful in upholding his idea, our India ? Every one of us have to review and retrospect.

Lessons to be learned.. over nationalism may backfire... ?

🤲 തുടക്കം 🤲

കാരുണ്യവാനേ, കരുണതൻ കടലേ,

കാത്തരുളീടണേ, കരുതലായിടേണേ.

കാര്യ കാരണമേ, കാലാതീതനേ,

വണക്കം നിനക്കല്ലോ, ലോകാധീശനെ.

കരുണാവാരിധീ, കനിവിന്നധിപതീ,

വാഴ്ത്തു നിനക്കല്ലോ, വിധിതന്നധീശനെ.

ആരാധനക്കർഹൻ, ഏകനാം നീ മാത്രം,

ആശ്രയമേകുന്നോൻ, ഏകനാം നീ മാത്രം.

നിൻകൃപ നേടിയോരിൽ എന്നെയും കൂട്ടണേ,

നൻമനമേകണേ, നേർവഴി കാട്ടണേ.

നിൻ കോപമേറ്റോരിൽ എന്നെപ്പെടുത്തല്ലേ,

തിൻമതൻ വഴികളിൽ എന്നെ നടത്തൊല്ലേ.

കാരുണ്യവാനേ, കരുണതൻ കടലേ,

കാത്തരുളീടണേ, കരുതലായിടേണേ.

🤲

സർവ്വശക്തനായ ദൈവം, പരിശുദ്ധമായ ഖുർആൻ എന്ന വേദ ഗ്രന്ഥം, ജിബിരീൽ (ഗബ്രിയേൽ) എന്ന മാലാഖ വഴിയായി പ്രവാചകനായ മുഹമ്മദിന്, അദ്ദേഹം ഹീറാ ഗുഹയിൽ പ്രാർത്ഥനയിലായിരുന്നപ്പോൾ, 30 ദിവസങ്ങളിലായി, വാെമൊഴിയായി നൽകി, എന്നാണ് വിശ്വാസം. ഈ 30 ദിവസങ്ങളാണ് പിന്നീട് റമദാൻ/റംസാൻ എന്ന അറബി മാസമായി ഓർക്കപ്പെടുന്നത്.

വെറും ഏഴു വചനങ്ങൾ മാത്രമുള്ള ഖുർആനിലെ ആദ്യ അദ്ധ്യായം (ഫാത്തിഹ അല്ലെങ്കിൽ പ്രാരംഭം) ഖുർആന്റെ തന്നെ ലഘു സാരമായി കണക്കാക്കപ്പെടുന്നു, ഏറ്റവും നല്ല പ്രാർത്ഥനയായും. 

ഫാത്തിഹയുടെ ഒരു സ്വതന്ത്ര പരിഭാഷ ചെറു കവിതയാക്കാനുള്ള ഈ ശ്രമത്തിൽ എന്തെങ്കിലും മൂല്ല്യേശോഷണമുണ്ടായിട്ടുണ്ടെങ്കിൽ അത് എന്റെ മാത്രം കുറ്റമാണ്, ഖുർആനുമായി ഒത്തുനോക്കി മാത്രം സ്വീകരിക്കുക.