| ஒத்திசைவு | प्रत्याह्वय | resonance |

When such soul uplifting  music exists, life is much more bearable,even when viewed from the dank dungeons of stark social realities that one finds oneself enmeshed in.

Yes.

In spite of what Douglas Hofstadter has to say about music (on as to why we love it), groups like Pink Floyd seem to have been able to make some good music that is likely to live far  beyond that of the bands or their members.
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Sri Wendell Berry happens to be one of my favourite poet-essayist-novelist-farmer-educationist-activist swarajists (if there is such a term), who practices  what he sermonizes. And, I am sure you would agree that this species of real swarajists is a fast dwindling one and is truly endangered.

Au contraire, this species can also be dangerous, as they can look at the world through new possibilities, contexts and history – and question & undermine our uncalled-for assumptions. We merely need to be open, that’s all.

As Michael Jackson of Thriller fame could  have agreed with me and when he might  have said: This Species is Dangerous! Read the rest of this entry »

James is a guy better known for his novel – Shogun and a few others – not that these novels are great pieces of world class literature.  With some effort, one can read them once, that’s all.

But, I had read this rather unusual short story –  The Children’s story of his, a few years back  and I remember to have been very pleased with it – and thanks to the efforts of good ol’ Arvind Gupta, this is available online and I read it again,

Oh, the horror, the horror…

With shades of the ‘animal farm,’ ‘keep the aspidistra flying’ and ‘1984’  – and even that of that fascist & crazed maniac Pirabakaran’s very own ‘Tamil’ Eelam, if it ever does shape up — this story makes one shudder.

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We (at the ErdKinder environment, I mean 12 – 16 year oldsyoungs in our Montessori classroom) get (also) to ‘see’ a lot of  films and this ‘Our Daily Bread’ happened to be one of those. And,  we had some discussions centred around the film – and, the children had a written ‘test’ to boot a few days later, to collect their thoughts and reflections. More on this, and the content of the ‘question paper’ further down this post…

For anyone who is even remotely concerned with the  food (and by extension, our dear life)  related issues that our world is facing and especially the mass production and consumption angles – this film is a heart wrenching reminder of the grim situation. The film has little commentary, anyway the moving images speak volumes and volumes – technically also, it is one of the most canonically produced pieces of cinema verite.

dvd cover / wrapper image

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To make sense of this post, the previous post on the topic  should perhaps be read. It would at least, provide some semblance of a context and continuity.

Here are the frequently avoided answers to the (should be) frequently asked questions on rote…

What is ‘rote memorization?’

I would define it as the ability to recall in a snap, certain ideas (or ‘facts,’  if you will) with very little effort or thought (or ‘logical thinking,’ if you will) – to build on these basic facts and the ability to act upon them in applicable & relevant domains.

This would be in terms of arithmetic operations, instantaneous responses to emergent situations, recalling of applicable processes and logic, recalling of mapped entities etc etc. Read the rest of this entry »

Yes.

Rote memorization is an important aspect of learning and we do it all the time.

But most of us hate to admit to that – perhaps because it is not considered kewl to have such antediluvian notions. It is not postmodern. It is not hip!

Whenever one comes across this much maligned term called ‘mugging’ – the immediate thing which a given ‘avant garde,’  ‘knowledgeable’ & ‘alternative’ parent  (purely self assessment, so pardon them) does is to choke, gag and vehemently say that he/she is against all mugging… Read the rest of this entry »

This is a very fine essay titled ‘the six myths about engineering that you should know‘  – a MUST read for all the desperate & demon possessed parents, who want their children (most of whom, unfortunately & firmly are still tucked into the wombs of their mothers, reluctant to be born, very understandable too, given the helicopters) to become a dakkutor or an ingineeer or (god forbid) an IT goofball…

These parents want their wards to start preparing for IIT JEE (thru FightJEE, DieJEE, RamJEE, F**kJEE whatever) the moment the hapless children get delivered!

These parents obviously know that a valuable 9 months’ time has been completely squandered by their children, while they were rotting in the womb, doing nothing but floating around and generously kicking their mothers! grrr Read the rest of this entry »