basic reflections

School Or Mint?

This piece on education was sent in by Radha:

 

My daughter’s School’s Chairman was roughed up by parents.

 Andhra Pradesh proposes a fee ceiling for private schools.

 My daughter’s current school Timpany, is supposedly one of the better schools in Visakhapatnam

When she started school there was much debate about which school she should go to. And I remember poring over lists, speaking to various parents, friends and researching other sources. At the end of it, we decided that our daughter should go to another school,Visaka Valley School.

What decided our choice was an excellent argument from one of our friends. She said every school has its good teachers and bad teachers. And your child will be concerned about the teachers. The management of the school makes for a good school or a bad school and the child never comes in contact with the management. Hence no matter which school you choose, the quality of teaching will not be much different. I found that excellent advice. We chose a school which had much better ambience, larger, free and open spaces, and with smaller class strengths. And we never regretted our decision.

Timpany, however, seems to be part of her fate. She went to Timpany for her 11^th and 12^th class as this school offered the combination of subjects which we wanted. And that’s where we got embroiled in the management problems. Timpany has a history of management problems. With stories of the director embezzling funds to now this insane fee-hike.

Timpany, this year, arbitrarily increased its fees 80%. Without prior information to parents in adequate time. When we opened the fee book in June we saw that the fees have been almost doubled. The management had played clever and dirty. They waited until June. They did not inform anyone. We could not pull our kids out of the school and take them elsewhere. We were stuck. The problem was the method adopted. The slyness and underhand way of going about the monumental increase in fees. Parents with 2 or 3 kids in school would feel a major crunch.

The parent’s association has raised a hue and cry. They have been fighting the management, have brought orders from the District Department of Education. But to no avail. The management is adamant, in spite of ‘dharnas’ in front of the school.

In this context and atmosphere, the AP government’s proposal for a fee ceiling is welcome. Private schools have become places of rip-offs. They charge incredibly high fees, but the quality of teachers is less than mediocre. For eg. the teachers of the two most difficult subjects for my daughter – maths and accounts, are much less than mediocre. The children do not understand a word of what is being taught. And we spend tons on tuitions. Classroom and toilet conditions, simple comfort levels, attention to non-academic and creative activities etc. are much less than adequate.

Education, has become like politics. A dirty place. A quick, fast way of making huge money, and a no-options situation for the public. With so much push and awareness about education, every parent now, whatever economic situation, vies for the best education for the child. But do we get it ? Education has remained mediocre. Teaching methodologies, management policies, classroom and school conditions have not shown the escalation that the fees have shown. I am not even going into education and its impact on the child – that is another can of worms.

Under these conditions, what is the common (wo)man supposed to do ?

Radha
 

 

 

 

 

"People Of The Lie" - A Psychiatrist Looks At "Evil"

 

In his book “People Of The Lie”, which I am reading at the moment, well known American psychiatrist Scott Peck examines once again the question of “evil”. Being a Christian there is a tendency to look at the subject through spectacles somewhat coloured by religious notions, but his attempt does help put the question of evil into perspective.

To really “appreciate the forces acting” on people who are evil, Scott Peck suggests that we look at the phenomenon of narcissism. As a rule we are all self centred to a lesser or greater extent but at some point, although our immediate reaction is to judge a situation or a plan according to our own advantage, most of us do quickly begin to see things from another person’s side as well, that is, from a viewpoint different from our own.

The people whom Dr. Peck refers to as “evil” are those who lack this capacity for empathy, altogether. Hitler sending millions of Jews to the gas chamber for example, was obviously not able to think in the least about how his victims might have felt about being gassed to death. According to Peck, the “evil need victims to sacrifice to their narcissism”

Again, apart from the mystical point of view, each of us at the worldly level, is not only a unique entity but we do also have clearly marked boundaries which need to be recognised and respected if we are to live in peace with each other. A mentally healthy person is able to both, see and appreciate his own boundaries and those of others. “We must know where we end  and others begin”. Narcissistic people lack this ability to distinguish between boundaries.

The tendency of so-called evil people mostly evokes a feeling of repugnance in us and Dr. Peck feels that this is natural. However, while it is important to label a person’s character or actions as evil, he feels that it is necessary for us to also see that evil is a sickness and that the only way to really heal it, is through compassion. On the surface people who are seen as evil might not appear to suffer, but under the surface, they are battling with tremendous currents of fear. It is precisely through the attempt to keep fear at bay and his lack of preparedness to face reality, that an “evil” person develops the kind of personality he does, so as not to have to acknowledge his own suffering.

Uma

 

Reflection On The Freedom Of Gays

This piece was sent in by Suresh a few days ago:

At yesterday evening’s  Saturday Meditation Session, Uma played a narrative by Osho, about what he perceived as lying underneath all the destruction and war in the world today. He put it all down to our incapacity to deal with our own sexuality.

 

We agreed that the life-force, the energy we find around around us, in the seedling, the plants, in animals – is essentially sexual in nature. And everything in nature, except man, is able to express his sexuality easily. Doesn’t mean that one goes around having sex with everyone, but the moment we even come face to face with sexuality in human relationships, we shy away from it. We repress it until it digresses into some "Perversion", according to Osho – like anger, aggression, even murder.

 

In all this, I who was the only gay present in the session, asked myself – how much gay people like me in India, even in a metropolis like Mumbai, get to express our sexuality, leave alone explore it.

The denial of that expression alone, the repression, the judgments and the convention of denial and prejudice against being gay in Society, even in a circle of “friends” or “colleagues” – makes our Existence itself a big Oppression, a burden to be borne… when our very basic primal urge needs to be covered with lies such as “I am not married yet because I had a break-up with some girl”, I don’t have “girl-friends” because… And not to mention the sneaking glance at a passing good-looking guy when straight men and women get to cruise away to glory.
 

In a City where everyone is so busy with their own problems, and bigger survival issues like No Water Supply, No Electricity, No Rains, Religious riots, Human rights violation in the name of Ignorance and Power, where does a gay start to express his own rights/the right to live “as he is” without having to depend on double-identity or lies?

 

Even in the age of Internet, we find it difficult to find and explore people who are similar in urges like us, other gays! In the absence of Government Social-Security Pension schemes like in the UK, most of us are paranoid with fear about old-age. Indian gays get married to have a child: In India, a support, a security for old age.

 

I, for one, am tired of looking out for my angel… Gay matrimonial, parties, hang-outs! Why is it so difficult for somebody to find another person to share his primal urge with, to live out life with, to care for and be cared for, to live like a couple? How can I, when there is  Victorian law in the Indian Constitution Penal Code 377 which brands a gay as criminal in the eyes of law, making us easy targets for a corrupt Police Force?! (Do something about it Mr.Chidambaram!)

 

The thin line between hope and disappointment blurs everyday, and each night a new one is drawn… as I sing a lullaby to my own heart….

 

"Somewhere someone is made for me, is waiting for me, will meet me soon!" I coo to myself.

 

That will be the day! That will be the Day!

What are we each looking for?

A stranger with potential,

A one-night stand,

Or just a dance

Together

At some loud Party…

 

A funny chat over coffee

A movie, a play

Or a rain-dance

Getting wet in the rain

Hand in hand

At Nariman Point…?

 

What are you looking for?

What am I looking for?

Beyond these!

Seemingly meaningless rituals

Is there a future?

Two walking sticks together…?

Suresh