Q for Questioning - Within and Outside

Analysis and questioning – these are two aspects for an open mind and it has to start from one’s within. While second-guessing your own self on a continuous basis may not be good for the confidence, it is indeed needed to put a mirror in front of you and face a tough question or two to stay on course.

Outside - in quite a few situations, we just accept things lying down with a mindset that there won’t or can’t be any change by raising any voice or question.  Someone somewhere might gather courage to stand up against the atrocities and things might get changed. We, then, would end up thinking that we also thought about it but did not do anything to effect the change. A feeling of guilt encompasses but, it is too late, by then.

The point I am raising here is twofold. 

First, regarding the parenting and education system, do we really encourage our children to analyze and ask questions? It has been often seen that a question is not appreciated at home or by the teachers and an environment gets created where children just listen, and learn by rote.  There is hardly any effort to spark the light in their mind to analyze and ask – in the process, making them ready for future where they are required to address the unknowns faced in life. As we cannot make them prepared beforehand to face each and every situation in life, inculcating this ability is very important for them to confront the world on their own. I am not generalizing all parents, teachers and institutions here but hope you would agree that this is not very uncommon.

Secondly, it is related to standing up against the issues in our professional or social circles and even in the four corners of our home. While it is true we are forced to ignore a lot of misdeeds done to us or to the system, with a fear for life or name of ours and our near and dear ones, there are cases where we should have taken steps but just gave it a pass. There are ample cases where we just close our eyes without raising a single question and accept the things as it is. Can we not come out of shell and take small steps to change the course in such cases?

I do agree that people who have tread these steps, have paid the price with their lives. None of us have forgotten the whistle-blowing cases in relation to construction work for golden quadrilateral project in Uttar Pradesh. The brave man who could muster courage to raise his voice against malpractices was ruthlessly killed. While the Indian Government has decided to act on this by passing an act to protect such whistle-blowers, we do not feel safe and shy away from such scenarios. Knowing fully well the repercussions, yes, we need to have the line drawn in a pragmatic way and ask questions before leaving everything only to fate. 

Engaging in Governance - Youth and All

Education is the first thing that comes to mind with letter “E” for the theme that I have chosen – “Towards a better world”. While the importance of Education is beyond any question and doubt, some of my fellow bloggers & esteemed educators are already enlightening about it – one of them notably is here by Mrs. Beloo Mehra. I will make an attempt to express my views about another equally important issue gaining importance in the current socio-economic structure and that is getting engaged and involved in governance of the country.

I personally believe that the current upswing in public involvement, from being conscious of our immediate environment to voicing our concerns with a firm resolve, have done immense good for our democracy. If we continue the momentum in the same way and be a conscious citizen, people in power will dare not do any harm to our society and country. These issue based upheavals observed in recent past- be it women safety, corruption, poverty alleviation or other matters of importance to the country have changed the dynamics of governance altogether giving rise to more of a participative governance.

We have endured enough and now with our back on the wall, we can only rebound. Youth – a potent force in this movement will need to be equally engaged in this journey. With support from media- both print and electronic ones, getting involved is not of a much hassle nowadays. In this context and with regards to my previous efforts to urge my fellow men to get engaged, I would like to bring to your attention few of my earlier posts here and here  (as a guest post).  It is my strong conviction that keeps on reminding me that there is no point siting on the fence and crib about the system. We can do our bit – however small it could be, to participate physically or electronically in these activities.

As I started the post with Education, can’t resist myself from touching upon the subject a bit in next few lines. To me, on one side we have a responsibility to make basic education reach and enter every household to prevent masses from getting cheated anymore and on the other side, we need to ignite the minds that ask and analyze rather than mug up information. When the mind manifests – quoting Swami Vivekananda- “Education is the manifestation of Divinity already in the Man”- our children will be better prepared to handle any situation in life independently.