This is about the last comment. "The cab driver earns well. He gets his children educated " etc.
Preconceptions are a part of our way of thinking. We assume things freely and rarely stop to think whether or not our assumptions are based on the truth. If the person in question decides to get his children educated, it is great. But this is not always true.
This is a story that was told to me by a person I know very well. And it is true I believe. A few years ago, my friend was on a business trip away from home, where he met a business man. This person was rich, wallowing in money in fact, but was uneducated. He had built his business singlehandedly through his shrewdness and calculative business forays. When talking casually my friend asked RB (Rich Businessman) why he had never been educated. RB revealed to him that his parents had been very poor and were uneducated themselves. They simply had not had the means to get him or his siblings to school. After a while my friend asked RB about his children. He rambled on about them but never mentioned any educational qualifications. "What have they studied?" my friend finally asked. "Study? What study?" My friend was shocked. "Why, you have all the means in the world to get your sons to study. Why haven't you educated them? You feel sad for not having been educated. Then why deny them?" To this RB replied, "My parents did not educate me for the want of money. Now I have all the money that I want. My sons will get all of it. So why should they study".
Well this I know is a badly told tale because it has been translated, please bear with it. But I am sure you get the message. The cycle does not end. No money - no school. Lots of money- so no school.
Another thing about poverty and our assumptions about it. The Hindu's Sunday Magazine (30th September) carried an article on terrorism and its relation to poverty by Shashi Tharoor in his weekly column. You can read it for yourself here. (He talks about how terrorism can be made difficult to promote by eradicating poverty.)
Preconceptions are a part of our way of thinking. We assume things freely and rarely stop to think whether or not our assumptions are based on the truth. If the person in question decides to get his children educated, it is great. But this is not always true.
This is a story that was told to me by a person I know very well. And it is true I believe. A few years ago, my friend was on a business trip away from home, where he met a business man. This person was rich, wallowing in money in fact, but was uneducated. He had built his business singlehandedly through his shrewdness and calculative business forays. When talking casually my friend asked RB (Rich Businessman) why he had never been educated. RB revealed to him that his parents had been very poor and were uneducated themselves. They simply had not had the means to get him or his siblings to school. After a while my friend asked RB about his children. He rambled on about them but never mentioned any educational qualifications. "What have they studied?" my friend finally asked. "Study? What study?" My friend was shocked. "Why, you have all the means in the world to get your sons to study. Why haven't you educated them? You feel sad for not having been educated. Then why deny them?" To this RB replied, "My parents did not educate me for the want of money. Now I have all the money that I want. My sons will get all of it. So why should they study".
Well this I know is a badly told tale because it has been translated, please bear with it. But I am sure you get the message. The cycle does not end. No money - no school. Lots of money- so no school.
Another thing about poverty and our assumptions about it. The Hindu's Sunday Magazine (30th September) carried an article on terrorism and its relation to poverty by Shashi Tharoor in his weekly column. You can read it for yourself here. (He talks about how terrorism can be made difficult to promote by eradicating poverty.)
7 comments:
Yes I agree with you. In fact its quite common sense these days. The father in your story clearly has proof that education is not a requirement for someone to be successful. His goal in life is Money and just that. Education is least of his worries. Either that or he is so filthy rich that his grand kids can afford to live without doing any real jobs.
I'm not sure if I agree completly with Mr Raghavan's previous comment.
'It is just a matter of time when it wud spread across to all places in India'
That point contradicts with your last statement. What you say is true but we need some sort of initiation in one way or another for things to speed up. I'm not saying there is no initiation taking place. We have to work from ground up in certain matters. If everyone blames the govt depts for being lazy or corrupt then we are carrying the same blame for electing them (?) I know I'm not being very practical when I say this and there are many things to it and me, you or the blog owner is going to change squat. The least we can do is create awarness among general public and even businesses and work out a strategy to tackle problems such as the education system. We should aim to to create more "thinking brians" and giving least importance to just money or list of paper degrees one has.
Education is not the only means for survival. Please understand. Brains need to tick. If you think only educated can make it big in life am really very sorry. If you think completing a book is fun in life i feel u have missed out going out and playing in the sand and getting your hands dirty. Please understand that "things that you call are FUN is mundane to someone else.. and what you call is pitiable state is where they are toiling to come up"... We are going to be big one day. By we i mean the poor and the down trodden people too. I said its just matter of time when things would be right in India coz things will not turn around in a night.
Poverty is felt because of hunger. I too have spoken about Hunger http://words-on-the-go.blogspot.com/2007/06/hungry-kya.html. But made it comical saying we need cheat codes for food like in a game.
Excuse my agressive tone. I am bad in english but good in communication i hope. ;-)
If education is not necessary, how do the minds keep ticking. The reason we are taught things in schools so we could "stand on the shoulders of the giants" and look further. i.e so we could learn things that have already been discovered instead of trying to discover them for ourselves.
I agree that people might find reading books boring ( and yes I have enjoyed playing in the sand :)) but I only meant to say that there are a few things that become better about you as you get educated.
Education is not merely literacy. Please note the difference. By education I do not mean simply being able to write your name. I mean development of character, ability to respect elders and love subordinates.
Thanks for paying attention but I think you really need to look at your ideas and thoughts with more care. You seem to have some up-side down perspectives.
I do not mind the aggressive tone at all. I am only concerned with your ideas. If you are wishing for "cheat codes" does it mean that you simply wish to throw away your responsibility and wish to laze your life away?
Everything in life has a price.
OK madam thanks for diagnosing it... I will visit a EDUCATED scholar and get to know what to do in life... Utter redemption... Thanks for opening my eyes... u r awesome!!!
Cheers!!!
'If you think only educated can make it big in life am really very sorry'
Yes maybe your argument could have been true if you've said that in the 1900's. Sorry I do not buy the Ambani life story no more. Not everyone can achieve everything by putting their mind to it (not being harsh, just hate it when the media tries to shove this down our throat). Above the average intelligence is required for you to succeed. World has evolved and playing field is very competitive. Human intelligence is the major aspect of human nature. Education highly influences the level of intelligence. If more and more people conclude education is not THE deciding factor then human innovation that helps us to move our standards of living forward would grow only at a minimal rate.
Change is so rapid these days and it is the intellifence inbred in our nature allows us to advance in the face of any sort of adversity.
Well I would say that the Ambani story is entirely that of luck. But the later part of the story - that the senior Ambani educated his sons in good institutions (in spite of being uneducated himself) goes to show that he understood that his rise was based on his luck. He was wise enough to realize that luck would not go on helping his sons as well. What luck cannot do, education can. So what would you rely on??
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