Educated and Literate

I still maintain that there is a distinct difference being literate and being educated. A slew of degrees lead to nothing it just makes one a “literate”. Education has to do with a lot of deeper meaning. The Indian education system is one lot of people take pride in, I for one don’t. Reason, one amongst the many being, it produces stalwarts as D.

All through my school days I have been through the situation explained in the Write Up and really speaking, its sad but true. History in a way is taught with such a mundane fashion that it somehow becomes a pain to study it. I loved history, a habit that my father inculcated in me. And my love for the subject had nothing to do with the marks received. I know am blessed with an elephantine memory but I never memorized history lessons. Never felt the need to; The main reason why I did not fare too well in the subject but loved it.

This love for the subject being equated with marks is the biggest bane of a school goer. Whenever you ask a kid about his /her favorite subject invariably comes the answer the subjects where you get the most marks. Marks!!!! Like money I never let any emphasis on them. They are important but not something that’s a make or break. As for a 3 hour stint in a sweaty room with a pen and reams of paper; well I guess every student deserves a better deal.

I know of schools where they force kids to buy “essay writing books” and force kids to reproduce the essays on the exam and the kid with the most available GBs in this head is the winner. Another example of “learning” – never ask questions, teacher’s word is sacrosanct, memorize the whole subject/text and spit it on those reams. Am glad my schooling till 10th grade never ever felt this way. Well memorization was rewarded but the independent mind to think and ask questions was encouraged – nobody came down with an iron fist to kill the curiosity of the toddler.

But post my Tenth I have a few. Couple of them I can recall from my high School days. The English teacher taught us her own version of Hamlet and a physics teacher who, after messing up a kinetics problem, claimed that the value of G could vary (????). But my lecturer in college took the cake. After failing to convince me that right shift operation is multiplication (well right shift is division and left shift is multiplication) she said
"I have completed my BE
I know more than you
Don't argue!"
Needless to say, I struggled in her papers all through the remainder of my course.


A lot depends on the upbringing of the child. My parents never ever compared me to any neighborhood kid, never ever forced me to study and let me do things I liked to do. So it was football and music all the way peppered with books. I started studying only when I developed a sheer interest in the topics at hand. I loved Physics , hated Maths and was never too interested in Chemistry. But my mark sheets always showed Maths on top followed by chemistry and then physics…

Another reason why I did not fare too well in College. Simple I did not cram lessons the way the bloke sitting next to me did. I never did that, never felt the need to. For me the takeaway from any subject should be more than just a mark sheet. Which is why I can still give some gyaaan on high school physics to someone even though I have not been actively in touch with the subject for 8 years.

I always wish I had the writing skills of my dad when it came to English and that of mom when it came to Bengali; but I being the proverbial black sheep never got any of them. Neither are my academic, extra-curricular “achievements” above average. But am grateful and thankful to my parents for being there, supporting me in whatever I little I did, however much it pleased/displeased them.

Citius, Altius, Fortius

After the Marion Jones incident, I felt so cheated that I don’t follow track events with the same earnest that I used to follow few years back. So even though Usain Bolt's WR time of 9.68 s goes to my personal database but somewhere I don’t feel the rush of adrenaline that I used to. Somewhere the bitterness of the Jones' episode ceases to go away. Hence I shifted my attention to the pool arena.

Well as I write this post, Michael Phelps has already created history winning 8 Gold medals in the 8 events he competed in (including 7 world records and 1 Olympic record). He did break Mark Spitz 36 year old 7 Gold haul. So all in all Beijing 2008 belongs to Mr. Phelps, his 12000 calorie daily diet and Speedo LZR $500 swim suits and his attitude (I don’t want to be the second Mark Spitz but the first Michael Phelps). But as with Every Olympic Games I have followed over the period of two decades now, they have their own heroes and heroines.

To me this Olympic belongs to a lot of people. Mr Phelps being the foremost contender. But I dedicate this post to Mrs. Dara Torres. Why? Even who is she, would ask lots of people. Dara Torres is a 41 year old US swimmer who is competing in her fifth Olympic games. She first participated in Los Angeles 84 games as a 17 year old. In an age where the time separating the winners is a measly one-hundredths of a second, competing and qualifying for a spot in the US swim team takes a lot. Even for a nine time medal winner it’s very demanding. Fondly referred as “Mom” in the US swimming team, Dara Torres, mother of a 2 year old, not only manages to compete but actually beat girls half her age. What makes the fact much tougher is the fact that she is a swim sprinter. And imagine Dara Torres is clocking times that are bettering her efforts 20 year back. In fact Dara retired after Barcelona 92 coz she felt she was "too old" to compete - she was 25 back then. Returned from retirement in 2000 Sydney games and won 5 medals. 8 years later she again scorched the pools to win 3 medals in the 3 races she participated. Critics though haven’t been quiet. After being accused of using performance- enhancing drugs Dara herself volunteered for an USADA program for ruling out such allegations. She won 3 silver medals (50 m freestyle and 4X100 freestyle relay and 4X100 medley) in Beijing 08 becoming the oldest individual to win a games medal. Something that really questions the very basic of physiological queries, does our body really have a peaking time? Or is it as much as we can exert to extract the best, till the last ounce? Dara benefited from a cutting edge training and recovery program, but that does not undermine her feat in any way. Standing on the victory with her two year old daughter on her hip - Few, if any, can claim that. I can only say the following - Its an awesome, unattainable feat.

More information on Dara Torres can be found at the following links

Torres Is Getting Older, but Swimming Faster

Dara Torres

Dara Torres No 2 in people to watch out for in Beijing 08

Jaane tu ya........

Jaane tu ya Jaane na. Finally watched the movie. Well had in fact wanted to watch it a while back, but the kind of mixed reviews I had received had kind of put me off. And well even today I was putting it off till it was nearly midnight. What was the movie all about? In a nutshell it’s a feel good teen romance in some part of Mumbai where students go to college for 5 years and graduate/post-graduate (?) by their teens.

Lets start with the good parts. The hang out group in question does have its characters - ahem! A pot-pourrie of cute to queasy, charismatic to “rotlu”; it’s an eclectic mix which will transport few to their own college days and hangout groups. The cast is nice and played their respective parts rather well. A rather goody goody story with some really good scenes interlaced with teenage comedy. And the music – its classic Rehman. "Kahin toh hogi Woh" is the best song, a touching number by the maestro – have fallen in love with this one, Kabhi Kabhi Aditi is a nice fun song while "Pappu cant dance saalaa" is already the youth icon number of the year. .

Now coming to the bad part - Well lets be a bit sceptical, the movie is a cross between American Pie, My Best Friend's Wedding and Harry met Sally and of course Archies (The oh-so obvious Juggie is too “subtle” to miss). And this is what takes the movie down. The scenes are entirely predictable. A nice teeny bopper romance it set out to be was achieved only in part. What I did not like about the movie, well a third party narrative is supposed to keep the suspense tight, but that was majorly lacking.

I would only give it a 60% thumbs up of which a big share will definitely go to Rahman. My suggestion , go with an open mind - in case you havent watched the previously mentioned movies or their numerous Hindi remakes you might even give the movie full marks. The cast is rock solid as claimed by many other reviewers but I will give out a secret; despite his good looks, "someone" cant act saala!