The lateral thoughts,
emanated from the unilateral meet,
where bilateral talks
gave way to trilateral discussions,
complying all multilateral references.
Author: meenas17
A lover of classical Carnatic music.
An avid reader, passionate writer, into stocks and investments for livelihood
Categories
Impermanence.
Mortals think they are immortal.
Rich feel they are absolutely insulated.
Powerful assume they are invincible.
Wise observe everyone with zeal.
Thus goes the world round and round
unaware of its impermanence.
Categories
A Moral Disarmamant.
It was a toughest and a depleting moment.
It was a strongest and a deadly hit.
It was a more or less a moral disarmament.
It was an attack highly unfit.
The players were wrongly poised.
One side was loaded with strength.
The other was weak but juxtaposed.
The uneven status reposed a tug of length.
The majority went about with much fanfare.
They were drunk with enormous power.
The lonely set about with subdued affair.
They remained calm in an isolated tower.
The advocates of law confirm that mighty would win.
The task of the powerless would dissipate as dust.
It would be so in most issues but not in fronts genuine.
The manipulating schemed would certainly go bust.
Initial setbacks should not be a deciding factor.
The painful struggle would reap a fortune.
That which stand for truth might be a detractor.
Surely sincerity would harmonise the tune.
So say the epics and the ballads in a lively tone.
Mythology embedded in them elicits morals with illustrations.
The incidents and the routine affirm the same with a groan.
It goes without saying that truth triumphs with distinction.
Going back is never too easy.
Back tracking is ever too easy.
Keeping up the promise is never too easy.
Eating up the words is ever too easy.
Hearing slander is never too easy.
Listening to praise is ever too easy.
The world moves on round and round.
The interruption of movement is never found.
People’s talk reverberates with full sound.
Their activity advances never with a bound.
The life becomes meaningful with wealth abound.
No other means seeks a serious wound.
Living in the middle of conceit and greed
Man accepts the reality with a distinct breed.
Well, money has always been the prime need.
It is a requirement to arrange a feed.
What then is the crux of the deed?
It is something that directs to a bleed.
This transaction has been going on for years.
It has been carried out without any fear.
Nestling behind the scene in the rear.
We trace a slight jerk which is out of gear.
The affinity for wealth is found with extreme cheer.
As a finale it is held to the bosom so near.
Categories
A Gift
A gift bought with care,
unmindful of fare,
was a piece very rare,
bearing lot of credentials to share.
proposing many features in pair.
It was brought across the shore,
was priceless even more.
The special feeling it bore,
was the core,
enhancing the significance by a score.
Reaching the destination finally,
it was unpacked carefully,
Lo! it was damaged slightly.
the tear was visible obviously.
The precious gift lost its value immediately.
Eat vegetables calls the father.
Drink fruit juice pleads the mother.
Take cereals for breakfast shouts the father.
Have a cup of milk compels the mother.
The six-year-old has a lot to bother.
She prefers chips and muffins altogether.
She looks beseechingly at her father.
She turns lovingly at her mother.
Her eyes express her desire rather.
Would she have her choice? a pointer.
Never would she we gather.
It is a four letter word.
Call it what you may.
It is on the sign board.
It denotes a place.
Many names are below it.
They also stand for places.
The four letter word stands first.
Look at it, nothing else.
The command reckons.
She being a scholar stays put.
She gazes at it from afar.
Nothing is visible.
The colours blue and white sparkles.
She sits puzzled.
She sees no letters
She perceives a writing vague.
She squints her eyes.
Tries to decipher.
She could not.
It is a four letter word.
Shouts the voice.
She keeps silent
She has become an illiterate.
She expresses a wry smile.
She makes no noise.
It is packing up once again.
It is a periodical schedule all again.
A month here and a month there all again.
puts one to no profitable gain.
A long drive down the road,
in the Express Highway broad,
is pleasurable for not too often trod,
exhaustively tiring for a monthly slot.
Up in the air for half a day,
right from the morning ray,
sitting with a fastened belt all day,
p
ushes one to the edge of the bay.
Formalities at the port of departure,
leaves one in discomfiture,
Similar rituals at the arrival is a feature,
creating agony and exertion in a single capture.
The up and down movement is throbbing.
What for the mind starts probing?
Might be to clinch a fortune is the lobbying.
Alas! it is a meaningless expedition almost a robbing.
Little did Lina knew about it.
Little did she talked about it.
Little did she care about it.
Yet, she was thrust into it.
The much she knew about it.
The much she talked about it.
The much she cared about it.
She was let out of it.
So much to know about it.
So less to talk about it.
So much to care about it.
Lina was more or less away from it.
As much to think about it.
As less to speak about it.
As much to attend to it.
Lina absolutely ejected it.
That much thought about was a trash.
That much talked about was a bash.
That much cared about was a gas.
She discreetly committed a thrash.
Well, it was a cock and bull story.
Well, it was a series of tales hoary.
Well,l it was a compiling of events unholy.
Well, Lina relinquished herself totally .
It might sound vague to all.
It might read incoherent to all.
Better it be an enigma to all.
It is best to be so to all.
| Article first published as Are Schools Really Seats of Learning? on Blogcritics. |
Schools are seats of learning. They should inculcate values and establish reason while imparting education. The personality, as a whole, should undergo a development.
The child in school has to blossom into a beautiful individual endowed with refinement and sharpened wit. Academic excellence alone should not be the prime criterion, as it can be anybody’s achievement once you rely on learning by rote, revisiting the subjects often, and taking innumerable tests and examinations. Top grades have become the targets of modern schools, which try to churn out products in quantity tagged with high scores, very much akin to industries producing goods.
Industry aims at profit and looks out for competition. If the industrial houses slacken their productivity their existence in this highly competitive world becomes a question mark. They have to service loans borrowed from financial institutions, pay wages to their workers, buy raw materials, maintain quality, pay power charges, and spend on research and building infrastructure to survive in the marketplace. As their demands are high, they concentrate on production.
Schools do not have such compulsions. Production should not be their aim. Quality should come first. The teacher should teach the child in depth, not look into the grades. The pupil should understand the subject before he or she is tested on it. The child should enjoy learning, which leads to a love of the subject. It is the teacher who makes a lesson interesting or boring. A monotonous lecture confined to the subject renders it extremely uninteresting. An hour of lecture should contain a pep talk, a discussion relevant to the subject, then take up the core lesson followed by a short question and answer period.
The last period of every school day should be allotted to games, moral science, library, hand work, debating, and quizzing. The students’ work should be displayed in the classroom ando remain there for the term. Parents should be invited to see their child’s performance. This would develop bonding, a grip over the child, and a rapport with the teachers.
How many schools do these things? The child right from kindergarten is subject to tests. Examinations bring in fear. The small child undergoes a tedium that robs him of his childhood fancy and imagination. He becomes a live gadget and assumes a mechanical style of living. He gets up in the morning, rushes to school, listens to the teachers, comes back home, does homework, and prepares for tests. His eyes automatically close, leaving him a hapless child devoid of freedom and enjoyment.
The parental pressure on the child is enormous. They impose their aspirations on him. They want him to become an engineer or a medical professional so that he can turn out to be an income generating machine. The child has no choice. He has to obey his parents. The child has to study irrespective of his wishes, and graduates as an engineer or doctor. Thus begins his ordeal of making money. He does so and builds wealth. He has sacrificed his interests and love. He has lost his childhood happiness which will never come back at any price.
Nowadays schools are run as businesses. Education has become expensive. It is an economic novelty bound by no principles. It is a great money spinner. Many with little education establish schools, as they yield enormous revenue. The world has found a technique based not on science or commerce, but on the fundamentals of desire and greed.
Schools are apparently great enchanters attracting the public with their intrigue and seducing them by their fanciful advertisements and misleading pro formas.
Meenas Poems 