The Kedarnath Cloudburst

So what's trending these days?

Kedarnath?

Yeah! I saw on TV. 60000 people are stuck; thousands have died; 10000 soldiers have been sent there for help; 45 helicopters are transporting people to safer places;

Till yesterday, Each and every news channel was showing the rescue operations. People getting off the helicopters, military supplying food to the affected. Believe me, those were only two or three videos being rolled over and over again. One of my beloved friend Naman Goyal has been missing in Kedarnath. I pray for him and I wish he is safe. Naman's relatives have gone to Dehradun, as military is transporting people to Dehradun too, in hope that they might find him there. I was astonished by what they told me. "Only 17 people in total were transported to Dehradun yesterday." Then I thought If 45 helicopters are working and we are in a country where media reaches a place before than anyone else does, why wasn't any live telecast of helicopters transporting people was shown. All I saw on TV was different ministers ans respected personalities taking an aerial round of the affected areas as if they are going for sightseeing. And allowing media to enter their aircrafts and then video-taping them looks more like a publicity stunt. This makes me think "Are they really worried or this is a new way of doing election campaigning"

I woke up today and found that it is totally a new story on news channels today. As if the opposition party had given more money to the media than the ruling party had given. Media is showing food lying in the camps and no helicopters have come to take them. People who were stuck had walked miles to get to safer places. They are surviving on plants. The rescue camps have just 4 to 5 soldiers and no facilities are being provided to the people coming down. I mean where are the 10000 soldiers. Figures say that 60000 people are stuck and I don't think it is tough for 10000 soldiers to rescue them. All this seems just so fake. Incidents like this one are a lottery to the politicians. Instead of rescuing people, the helicopters are being used by the ministers to take a round of the area. I don't see any logic in doing that.

And yes! The most important thing. The people of the weather department are also on TV now. In a world where you can see what will be the weather conditions next month just from your mobile phone, how come you don't expect the government to have all this information. The people of the weather department are saying this that they already informed the government about the cloudburst about three days before the incident but the government took no action. Thousands of lives would have been saved if the government would have issued an alert and evacuated people from that area. Three days were more than enough to do that. This makes me say, "What is this f%*king government for."

Do we really know where our Education System is heading??

    The world needs an education system that excites and stimulates children, providing them with the learning they need - and deserve - to fulfill their potential. The education system has not incorporated the change at a pace that is required. It is largely based on a system developed over a century ago; a factory manufacturing model where children are placed on a learning conveyor belt, then sorted, packaged and labeled according to their so-called intelligence. The oppressive, prison like institutions where students are forced to stay seated in a building all day pumping out paperwork can and should be reformed.

        I blame institutions as much as I blame parents. They feel validated only when their children score a 98%. Rarely is the path to the goal question. A student is only a sum of his grades. Less than 90% marks is not acceptable – It makes his/her existence as a student questionable. The system is creating clones. Sad and unhappy clones wearing same uniform and shoes. What our education system is doing the best is - Nazification of the entire student population. Everybody is taught to think in a certain way. You cannot question the book?

    I am also the product of the same system but I always had grievances. While I was doing what I was required to do, I had an innate sense of anger and protest. Nothing in the system excites your intelligence. One learns by rote and regurgitates in a manner prescribed by the teacher. There is no room for individual thought. One cannot disapprove of or have an opinion about anything being taught. In truth the system does not educate or enlighten us. It just makes us literate. We continue to live with prejudices and beliefs that are handed down.

   

       The belief that children need to be "taught" is based on the arrogant, adult centered belief that children are unmotivated and will not learn unless adults force it upon them. Nature endows all children with the passion and ability to learn what they need and want to learn on their own. Youth learn the best when they themselves are the driving force behind their learning process and when they are doing what they love. When I did a project for NASA Space Settlement Design Competition this year with one of my friends, we both worked really hard because this was something we really wanted to do. We worked for hundreds of hours, day and night. It was our passion and hard work, which helped us to bag first prize in the competition.

How can we reform a system where children need a doctor's note to go to the bathroom when needed? Do we truly believe that a place that runs this contrary to the needs and humanity in children can be "reformed"? “Reform” has been attempted over and over since forced schooling was instituted in 1852. The only change has been more systematic and regimented drudgery. Reform in the system is always exclusive of the students – because it is firmly believed they are incapable of understanding what is best for them. They are driven to 90% and sometimes to suicide. But the system still insists it knows best. School continues to steal their free time, commit human rights violations against their bodies and minds and confine them. School continues to prevent children from doing what nature intended- Playing, running, jumping, climbing, exploring, creating, socializing and inventing…

    It is shocking that while this great nation takes such pride in its heritage pays such little attention to the student with whom the legacy rests in the future. The mind needs to be shacked for the spirit to soar