in a hurry to conclude

Why there is a human tendency to come to conclusion very fast? Why should we conclude about something about which we know very less? I keep discussing with my friends and acquaintances about some social issues and concerns. Most of them have concluded on the scene even without even knowing it!! For example, on something like global warming, people wouldn't have probably seen "An inconvenient truth" or "Story of stuff" but they have read "State of fear" and they have concluded that global warming is a media hype!!

Similarly, a few months back, while discussing on inclusion of kids in reality shows, I was stating my point with multiple references. Nobody else in the group was neither willing to accept my point nor give counter-references. Forget about a reference, none of them stated something that has come out of his/her own observations over a time period and nobody shown an interest in reading/studying about the problem further, then why just be in a hurry to conclude?

A similar example of coming to conclusion that an entire caste/religion is bad. How can one hate an entire cast/religion? I like what P G Woodhouse said - when asked about does he hate Germans - "I do not hate in plurals".

I guess having an egoist attitude towards knowledge and lack of learning attitude causes this conclusion problem.

actions express priorities

This is an excellent quotation by Mahatma Gandhi. I got this quotation by sms from somebody few months back. Since then, it has been extremely useful to me.

afraid of conflicts or to criticize?

Why to be afraid of conflicts with each other? I do fight with my mother on certain points. We have strong opinions on those points, so we do fight on those points. But either me or she doesn't think that our love for each other reduces by expression of such conflicts. Similar is case with few friends, we do fight and it doesn't affect much to our friendship. So having conflicts does not necessarily mean we disagree with the person in all. We just disagree with the person to the limited scope of the conflicting point.

Positive criticism to friends helps them to get better - at least I feel so. So why afraid of telling some friend that you feel he or she is doing wrong? Isn't this keeping opinion to yourself harming that person? Isn't this one kind of selfishness?

importance of certain times

I had fight with one of my friends some days back. We had decided to meet on some particular day. She called up that day to say that we will meet the next day. Somehow I insisted we meet on the same day. I strongly felt like seeing her so I insisted we meet on the same day. She dropped plan of meeting me because of her other priority tasks. I felt the priority tasks were actually sub-priority tasks and I told her so. She didn't seem to like that ( I wouldn't have liked too).

If one sees logically, I might be wrong in this case, and may be I am. How can I define priority tasks for her? But, I have habit of expecting certain things in certain ways from my friends - and I follow those. For example, I get upset if some of my friends misses my call and doesn't care to call back within sufficient amount of time. Regarding conversations with close friends, I feel sometimes the particular time has to be respected for that particular conversations. Obviously, these are not where-about type of conversations. It could either be some type of intense experience sharing, something discovered or similar. I feel, once the time is missed, the zeal of that thing goes away. Sometimes the experiences are so intense, that you can't have the same conversation at some later moment.

Probably I need to re-define the importance of time in such cases.

communication

No communication or keeping silent is an important type of communication and its actually effective way of communicating one's feelings.

Ignorance is not justified

I was reading Vinoba's 'Madhukar'. It is a collection of short thought-provoking essays written by Vinoba Bhave. Vinoba writes in an essay - the lack of knowledge (ignorance) cannot be justified. One cannot say that I broke the law because I didn't know such a law exists.
How true is this! Thirst for knowledge is must for the very reason.

an excellent film

Watched THE movie yesterday - GUNDA!! Directed by Kantilal Shaha and the hero is Mithun. It is a best worst movie :) I don't know what would be the intentions of the director - such as to create a real movie or a spoof or a crap, but it is an awesome movie for sure. I was not able to sustain my patience till the end as I do not have the appreciation angle essential for a such best worst movie.

memory

Wrote this some 2 months back when Gangubai Hangal expired.
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Gangubai Hangal passed away today. I am not a big fan of Gangubai, have listened to some of her recordings. Though I found them nice, didn't find them to be my favourite.
She was 97. She was ill from quite some time. She was serious since last 3-4 days, so this news was kind of expected. Still, I was touched by the news of Gangubai's death. Some days back Miachel Jackson passed way. I listened to three of his nice songs after he passed away. Now probably I will explore Gangubai's music. I am not great fan of either, nor am I related to some or other way to these people. I know it is a benefit of technology that they have left some of theirs part in the recordings.
I can also record my voice or get myself photographed or something similar before I die. But probably nobody distant will be interested in these things after I leave this world.

expectations

I expect certain things from friends or from those whom I call friends ( or people who call me friends). Those things could be some ways of communication, some greetings (like bdays), or similar. If the friend(s) don't fulfill that expectation, either I feel bad that I expected more out of a friend or I get angry at those. At this moment I feel it is bad. I will try to change it.

alien

back from nirman camp today. I m feeling like an alien in my office. Experiencing two completely different worlds day after the other. bored and enjoying the difference :)

science - better, arts - not so good

Came across this blog article today (it's in marathi). I wondered most of the things I never thought about before. I hardly have any friends from my school or junior college who had excellent marks in 10th and still went to arts stream for the 12th. I have some examples where people gave 12th exam in science and later shifted to arts stream.
I felt ashamed that till few years back myself used to look down at arts graduates thinking that either they chose arts stream because they didn't have good marks in 10th/12th or they lack the 'intelligence' required for science/commerce streams. Though my views became clean and clear in last 2-3 years, I still wonder about the surroundings that were responsible for conditioning of my mind.
Like the author says in the blog article, don't we need good socialogists, economists, political analysts, journalists, linguists along with 'doctors' and 'engineers'? Then since when and why did this 'science - better, arts - not so good' came into existence?
One reason that I find is education is always related to employment or salary. There have been different opinions about what edducation is for - right from Mahatma Gandhi to Ravindranath Tagore and from J Krishnamoorthy to A. S. Neil. A common person hardly looks at education as a process of becoming a good learner for his/her lifetime. Since high paying jobs were grabbed by science stream people (atleast till few years back), it would have helped in creating the 'science better - arts not so good' picture.

A side note while concluding this - few days back, I came across an excellent work on education process by Acharya Vinoba Bhave - "Shikshan Vichar". The book comments precisely on the purpose of education process, the means of it, its implications, its practicality. The essays in the book are more than relevant to current times (or rather it is relevant to the education process irrespective of times).

communication is important

Communication is an extremely important skill. Yesterday I talked to one of my senior acquittance. He is a great person and I am a fan of him. For some reason he fired me yesterday. The things he told, most of them were true, but he told them in such a way that created anger and irritation in my mind despite of the genuineness of the person's feelings.

So whenever I have to interact with that person now onwards I will always have a reference of yesterday's conversation which is bad for me. Even by realizing that every person has some strengths and some weaknesses, I feel communication is something that weighs little higher as compared to other qualities/skills. I obviously don't mean that it is 'the' important quality and everybody should have only good communication skills and nothing else. What I mean is even if the intentions for any act are correct, mis-communication might hurt somebody's ego, convey things in a manner that are not the way they are and thus screw up the things.

My learning : communication is as important quality

attending weddings

Went to a wedding in recent past. I actually didn't want to go; but was forced to go because I received multiple invitations. Nowadays I dislike to attend weddings as formality. Why should attending weddings (or similar functions) be considered as a measure of friendship or something similar?

Wedding is an important event in somebody's life. It is ok for him/her to believe that his or her friends/relatives also should believe the same. What if they don't believe so? Are they allowed to have the opinion that going to wedding is a formality? If yes, then the friendship or relationship shouldn't be measured depending on whether somebody is present or not for the wedding/function.

In general, the question is whether one accepts that whatever one feels or believes is one's feeling or belief. The rest of the people might feel the same or might not feel the same way. I am learning to accept that whatever that is not 'proven' and is just what I believe is my belief only. Rest might have different opinions.

another blog

Net in office not working today. So thought will do 'something else'. My other blog is mainly about literature/music. I didn't have a generic blog, so thought why not to have it? Let's see if I post something here.