Exam phobia

A kind of phobia found in everyone, children, adolescents, adults; irrespective of age are prone to the stress and worries an examination brings along. The question is, why is this fear? After some thought, I could come to a sensible conclusion. That was:
because some uncontrollable force beyond our reach and knowledge, an unknown force is going to interrogate us and on the basis of our knowledge, understanding and application we have to answer and our saviours, our resources, our books wouldn't be in our access to save us.
Everyone feels the same in the examination scenario, no matter what age group they belong to. Adults handle the examination time and stress on their own because they have become accustomed to it but younger ones, adolescents and children are the most vulnerable ni victims. The sense of competition frightens them and they have sleepless nights coupled with loss of appetite. Of course examination is necessary to evaluate the learning of the students and I am certainly not against it, but there are certain simple things that can be done to avoid the stress and anxiety here. If everyone is told competition is only with themselves and their previous scores, perhaps things would be much better. The comparisons that parents do have a lot of effect on the young minds which can hamper their overall social development. Its best to make them compete with the scores they had earlier, that would for sure bring out better of their potential.

Selfie: making lives better?

Human beings have always yearned for appreciation and admiration. For this purpose, since time immemorial, women continue to groom themselves to have that attention as it is stereotyped but men may not accept, but they wouldn't disagree if complimented. Nowadays men have also started paying attention to their physical looks. If not men's beauty saloons, grooming saloons are definitely in the picture.

As trends have changed, so has technology which led to the birth of cellphones and from cellphones to smartphones. Smartphones brought social media into people's pockets which brought with it the concept of taking pictures and selfies. These selfies transformed the people's worlds because they didn't need or have to wait for anyone to take their picture. They did it on their own whenever and wherever they wanted.

As the quote goes, "excess of everything is not good", this is applicable here. These maybe called the demerits of "selfie system" but I would rather call it "the aftereffects". Selfies have attacked people on the mental level in various ways. In the garb of the "coolness quotient" people end up doing stupidities jeopardising their very existence. In the wake of this, many even lost their lives, as per recent regular news updates. Somewhere this selfie obsession is killing their sensibilities and cognitive abilities. No thinking, no wondering, only clicking seems the fundamental operating in these times. That in itself is a major reason of the increase in the number of deaths.
People take selfies and show how much they love themselves. Love for self isn't wrong. But if that love becomes an obsession, it's fatal. I see people zooming in their own pictures to see how perfect they look (we all know how many editors are available). This obsession leads to jealousy, hatred (towards others or own imperfections) which is not good for any human especially teenagers.
Ultimately, the more important aspects in life loose attention. The obsession of selfie perfection has become a serious problem now. If something is not done, more people would be killed in the younger years than ever before.

Dedication to children

As I sat in a corner
Watching and looking,
They were unaware.
And kept running and playing.
Looking at them I could only think,
What is long lost for me at a certain brink.
Yet I find them beautiful,
Their play, their fights, yet all cheerful,
Transform anything by nature into a plaything.
The raw talent in working.
In between calling out their mother
To show the new game created,
Or to accuse each other.
But mother knowing it to be an annoying habit,
Ignores it altogether.

The elders continue to play,
In between the young one vanished and lay,
In the mother's lap for some pampering.
They mother well aware starts caressing.
Having the lap's fun,
The little one again on the run.

The purest forms of human race,
Play with each other with grace.
Without differentiating colour or class,
Like they were altogether, just one mass.

State of language today

There was a time when having the basic knowledge of English language gave people an edge over the others and they were guaranteed success in their life and career. Now, atleast when talking about metro cities, the scenario is quite different. Even saying quite different would be an understatement.

Since most people have the idea of the basics of the language, they think they know everything and thereby they don't need to get into the detailed parts. Alexander Pope said, "A little knowledge is a dangerous thing". This is proved by  the language users.  Hence, due to lagging in clarity of the ideal concept and true meanings of words (many are even similar in sound or spelling) they end up making blunders which only someone with a proper knowledge of language can understand and laugh off later. Interestingly, when the same people are told of the same mistakes committed by others, they laugh off easily!

Being a language teacher/instructor (whatever may be called) I got the best experiences and observations regarding people's attitudes to language from the workplace and the classroom. Since language syllabus doesn't really aim to take the young fertile minds into the depths of words and the world of literature, the respect towards this pure discipline is quite unacceptable and unhealthy at the same time. Students and teachers (of other subjects) do not feel the need for a full fledged teacher. This is totally visible and absolute considering the attitudes of both the students and teachers (which do not belong to the field of language). They fail to understand the depth words have and the differences words can make.

Unfortunately, despite the fact they don't respect the subject, they consider that they could learn everything overnight. Which is not true at all. Why would renowned literati spend most of their childhood reading classics and then end up writing classics themselves? But to know all the facts, people (non language people included) need to try knowing first (which they would never know to try). If the syllabus is not revised and loaded (a bit) with canonical texts to be taught in the right way, the future of communication itself seems bleak

Just witness to

In this world of competitiveness and tendency to be ahead of everyone else, the humanity of these competitors seems dead and buried for long. Being witness to such mental brutality and play with the innocent souls is an even pitiful thing. The  competitiveness corrupts the souls of most as they get more engrossed in it. This is where the inhumanity element starts making its mark which can go to any extent, inconsiderate of how it will impact other people who are yet innocent and unaware of the cruelties of the world.

From telephones to smartphones

At a time when people had to wait for hours near the telephone, they couldn't have even imagined that there could be a time when they could carry it right in their pocket and take it wherever they wanted to.
This was the revolution from telephones to cellphones and from cellphones to smartphones.
We did progress in terms of technology but moved even before ancient times in terms of sensibility. You can't see people talking to each other now. All you get to see is eyes glued in phones and headphones stuck in their ears. Unfortunately, there are people who really need help to be guided for the right route in the course of travels but no one can try hearing them. Other case would be where they behave like zombies.
Telephones to smartphones, the only purpose was to bring people closer and together. The inventor would not have thought even in his wildest dream of what the actual result would turn out to be
God bless humanity!

Strengths yet to be found

Humans generally have fears of being unable to get through certain situations. Fact of reality to be questioned is, how can they just assume such notions without having faced them actually?
Point is, we can only find what we are capable of when we have to face those situations. Only when we encounter those situations with all courage and resilience, we can find out how much strength and power we have within us.

A walk alone

One day, just had a thought to bask in the sun a get myself some vitamin D. But the thought was about being alone and no one to go with me. But I thought, I'm doing this for myself then why would anyone come along. It's a miracle to find selfless people in today's world.
But the walk turned out to be a delight for myself! I did enjoy my own company. I put some soft music in my ears and let my feet take me without really deciding where to stop.
Best part was that having the eyes of a photographer, I could some extremely "photographable" sites from my perspective and I just got to work with my  camera😊
So the time alone is now one of the most important parts of my day and I ensure to have it for a while everyday.