Why don't we remember what we did in School or in college?

I feel like I live in a world where education has lost its essence!

In my generation, I rarely see people who can talk about the subjects that they learned in school or in college. The typical answer they have is “Oh I did that 2 years back when I was in college! How can you expect me to remember that?”, “Yes it is true that I was the gold medalist in college but again that was 4 years back!” I too make such excuses all the time. It is like we have to delete a few folders from our memory to add new ones! For the same reason I thought it was normal to forget old things... and make space for new additions!

But, recently I realized how wrong I was. I met up with my grandfather’s cousin brother in Chennai and had a discussion with him. He is 70 years old and he wanted to learn how to SMS using the dictionary mode. I was more than happy to help him as this was one subject I dint have to make excuses about not knowing the subject. Anyway that’s beyond the point of my discussion. I was shocked at the way he was showering me with his knowledge...the subjects he did in law school around 45 years back (Not 2 years or 4 years!!!)

I obviously thought it was just him... but again I was wrong! Almost every educated person in their generation had a clear understanding of the subjects that they learned in School... especially English grammar and arithmetic.
So is it the current education system that should be blamed? Or is it that our generation is less intelligent from the previous?

Grades grades and only grades are in our minds now! But I don’t blame us for that mindset. Only good grades allow us to enter the next level of our career building game! Book stores are filled up with R-Kumars and S Chands...most frequently asked questions, past 10 years question papers, chapter wise questions and answers....and you name the kind of shortcut you need and you’ll get it! But only questions and answers! No theory is available... No understanding is required to clear exams! Just mug it up and spit it out in the exam hall... After all this, how can you expect someone to remember what they studied in college 2-3 years later?
I think we should be very careful in choosing our career path. I know that only a few are gifted with a clear mind to know what they want to do in college and further. However constant prayers and deep focus can help 

I feel ashamed to say that I am educated... and now God has given me yet another chance to study.. .a chance to grow up once again 

Are "we" the "we" on facebook?

We have all become so addicted to Facebook that we fail to notice that it is controlling over lives...to an extend that we suffer from an identity crisis!

Recently, I noticed how we move around with a camera, looking for moments fit to take a picture that will make our lives look interesting and make us look beautiful! Then the first thing we do after reaching home is look through the pictures a hundred times to select the ones in which we look gorgeous and our life looks exciting! It is very rare that we get a balance of both and then we decide to put pictures in which we look nice even if it is not an interesting picture.... AND THEN UPLOAD IT ON FACEBOOK... Check every second after that to see if anyone has commented on it!

So now we have a profile in which we look beautiful ... all prim and proper! But in reality are we what our Facebook profile depicts us to be?
We are not only putting ourselves in to an identity crisis but also missing out on a lot in life...

Recently I went to a beach to spend an evening with two of my friends and we had a nice time.... POSING for pictures!!! At almost every moment at least one of us was clicking pictures!!! Then we spend a few minutes looking for a person who could click a picture with all three of us!!! It was really good fun but it would have been better if we dint have to worry about our looks...

In another instant, I was scanning through a folder of pictures from my friend’s trip to Rishikesh for white water rafting and I realized that each and every picture was suitable to be uploaded as a profile picture in Facebook! There wasn’t a single picture which had an underlying story or a picture with dirty clothes and ruffled hair! They claim they had a wonderful time during the trip but the pictures were not speaking for them!

It is really a sad state...

Take wildest of wild pictures and capture the actual essence of your life and send it to people close to you and maintain your identity! Capture natural moments so you’ll have a hundred things to tell your folks a couple of years later!
Be yourself and enjoy every moment... Let Facebook and photo clicks not control you life!

P.S: I am not sure if this is the case with men! And I love Facebook and I am a very active user 

Opposites Attract?

It’s is so strange how we judge people or in particular couples by their outward appearance!

There are so many couples that I come across in my daily life... a few in movies, some on the streets and some others in coffee shops... For many at times I have stopped to ask myself what is it that makes those two people in that movie, street or coffee shop a couple? In my eyes the girl looks annoying, boy looks desperate, girl looks ugly, boy is shy and still he or she claims to be in love!

Couples in movies confuse me... I always wonder if there are real couples like those depicted in movies. For instance the couple in ‘500 years of summer’; I thought summer was not worth her boy friend, Tom. She is so annoying and talks arbit stuff and sticks her views and day dreams. In spite of all this Tom is totally in love with her.

It is vague how Florentino Ariza continued to love Fermina Daza in ‘Love in the time of cholera’ in spite of her leaving him to get married to a guy of her father’s choice

I know a couple who has survived for six years now without meeting each other in spite of being in the same city!

All this reminds me of my vague habit of sitting in coffee shops and watching people... surely not to an extent to make them uncomfortable! I watch them; think about their homes, relations, qualifications, commitments...and once I noticed myself wondering how an obese lady was in love with a physically fit, handsome guy who was sitting adjacent to me in a CCD in Mumbai. I could not stop thinking about them and I asked my friend, who was happily sipping her electric blue drink! She thought of it for a second and suggested that it could be because the girl is really rich and the boy is after it!!! I dint argue though I dint agree... I still have that question in me!!!

From what I have come across over the past few years of my life I can say real couples are made in heaven! For no applauding reason for human eyes, a guy could love a girl and vice-versa. There is definitely a proven justification behind the saying “opposites attract”!

“How can I get along with that person? He is just not like me!” How wrong is this statement? If “Opposites attract” is true!!!

I really appreciate people who respect a man and a woman in a relationship for what they are and not make comments like...” Oh God! How can that guy fall in love with such an ugly girl? “Or “Goodness what the hell was going on in that girls mind when she fell in love with that horrible looking guy?” or “ the couple looks like a black and white film” or “ one and zero is the best way to describe them”

There is no rhyme or reason for 2 people to fall in love! For the same reason there are good looking couples, happy couples, couples with a good chemistry etc...

I have promised myself to never again comment on other people for their humble circumstances that make them less privileged than I am!

So much for calculations!

Lately family and friends have been asking me if I have been reading inspirational books or adopting “religious” methods of speech...
For a second I wondered why!
At a second thought I realized how life has changed and how people have started noticing the change in me...
Earlier, almost every page in my note book had calculations... Yes I did math in college... but the calculations I am talking about is not from calculus! But calculations on the probability of clearing the wait list I managed to enter as part of the placement procedure in college, Calculations on the chance of getting a 1st division as my aggregate in college and calculations and calculations on what I will be, when!
Racked my brain to fill my book with these calculations...however my calculations worked and I got the job, managed a 1st division and entered a life of certainty!
But this certainty was short-lived!
I lost my job even before I could even say “I am an Analyst!” ...Had to put an end to my beautiful life in Mumbai and relocate once again! So much for my calculations! Dragged myself through sleepless nights and horrifying days wondering where I went wrong with my calculations!
Nothing exceptionally good happened for me to be happy again... I just promised myself to not make another calculation or try to control my life. I decided to take life as it comes and just be happy by counting the positives!
Now, I don’t believe in calculations! Que Sera sera... What will be.. will be...
Today, I am at peace! My life is not based on calculations anymore... I realize that acceptance is the only way to happiness!

Pen Power :)

I want to write! Almost every second, there is something that I want to discuss.. and I am better off writing than talking!

Hope to pen every thought and get a perspective...