The tuition fever

"Today education has become business." This is one of the most common quotes that I keep consistently hearing from most of the parents. They are bowled over by the amount that gets spent on their children's education. They don't even have an option of not doing it. If they don't spend, the children don't get the required education. Peer pressure has made students demand more out of their parents and, unfortunately, parents are made to yield for the same. While we accept that the normal school education is essential from an authorized body, what about those tutorials which re-teach the same lessons? How are students fighting the tuition fever? Let's discuss more on this.

I have been to tuitions for my under-graduation. Until my tenth grade I used to find that tuition was just waste of time. Post my under-graduation I felt the same as well. But it had become quite crucial for me during the under-graduation time. As I observe the present generation juggling between too many classes it just makes me wonder if they are opting the right decisions. What is tuition? It's a place similar to a class atmosphere where one goes to learn his subjects. Who goes to tutorials? Students who are unable to cope up with the classroom education provided at school/college go to tuitions. This was the earlier definition. Today, students go to tutorials because there are no good and capable teachers available in school/college because the good ones have opened tutorials rather than working for a meagre monthly salary in institutions. With more and more tutorials opening people's mindsets also have got tuned towards tuitions, both that of parents and students (needless to say). Education is not about marks until you enter your competitive exams. It's about understanding the world around. Textbooks have been comprehensively prepared to make sure that students are able understand in the simplest manner. All it takes is good amount of patience and hard work to invest time on reading them. Since students are unable to input these two voluntarily a force is required to enforce the same. That is where tuitions have come into picture and the students have caught the tuition fever.

Today's generation plays with smartphones in its primary standards. In fact, there is no tuition to teach how to use a smartphone. Still kids are able to do it because of the curiosity. It means that kids are able to understand the automated guiding machines like phones, comprehend the instructions and use them. The same needs to be applied to text books. This requires commitment towards studies by the student. He must be ready to read until he understands and practise until he remembers. If the student is able to do this then there is no requirement of tuitions. Time investment coupled with serious commitment is the perfect medication for the tuitions fever which is affecting not the just the child but the parents too.

Realign with your vision

Every endeavour that man has ever taken up has been with a purpose. There has been a problem statement and the answer to the question of why to solve the problem has given rise to a planned activity. A very simple example for this is our education system. People enroll their kids into schools because they want their children to be educated so that children are aware about things around them and eligible to use this knowledge to create a sustainable livelihood. After some time the focus goes more on marks on paper than the education that the kid has embodied. That's where parents need to realign their vision to educate their kids than merely seeing them as marks-vending machines. When you get off-track with any of your activities and you aren't having fun doing it, then ask yourself as to why you started it and realign with your original vision.

The world is filled with a lot of chaos today, and there is too much of information bombarding happening from all directions. We start with an objective which over a period of time becomes subjective. I have observed so many people who started to work hard to excel in life and after some time were working hard only to be better than their friend. There will be a lot of factors which shall influence our course of work. Sometimes they will affect positively while some other times they shall affect negatively. We needn't change our strategies only to increase the influence of positive factors or decrease the effects of negative influences. By doing so, we are only giving more respect to factors which appear during the run-time than the future vision. The moment you try to adjust your flowchart of action as per the run-time factors your remodeled plan shall start taking you towards a new end which you had never envisioned at all. Just like how there is an end for every start there is an end result for every plan. The moment a plan changes, its end result also changes. Hence we must focus on keeping ourselves abreast to our visions and regularly go through our vision statements realigning ourselves to our visions. Only then our true visions shall get accomplished in the true sense.

No matter what, at the end of the day, we are all humans, and not Gods. We need to brush every day and we need to take bath everyday to make sure that we are physically clean and neat. Similarly, we need to give some time on a regular basis to maintain our visions and dreams clean and to realign along with them. There is too much of information dirt that keeps floating in the air around us that sits on our positive thoughts of life and blinds us from remembering our visions. We need to get them back each time we tend to forget them. Revision is as compulsory to a dreamer as it is to a student who wishes to score in his exams. A student's dream is limited to a dream of marks but a dreamer's visions are as unlimited as the width of the sky. Go back and realign with your visions of and for life.

Modes of knowledge transfer

In earlier days when the Gurukul system of education existed in India, children from the kingdom used to go to a forest area where a school was established by a Guru (Teacher). This school was called as 'Gurukul' in Sanskrit. The children used to reside in this place for a decade to learn from the Guru. Among such students, there would be a group of students who learnt when taught only once. There was another group which learnt when taught twice and there was another group which learnt when taught thrice. Based on the number of repetitions a student would take to learn a lesson, there were different groups of students made and the lessons were taught accordingly. Learning was the same but the method was different for different sets of students.

In the current world, there are people with different abilities. Some need to be taught by teaching directly with words. Some need to be taught by exposing to practical exposure. Some can be taught by just speaking over phone. Some can be taught through online video tutorials. Some can be taught by asking them to perform certain tasks. The modes of learning differ from one person to the other. It becomes very important for the mentor/ teacher/ trainer to choose the right mode for the right student. I do accept that it's not easy for someone to spot the right methodology for every student instantly. One has to try every available method to find out which method exactly works for the students. The quickness in choosing the right method shall be achieved as one garners more and more experience. This option of choosing the right method doesn't apply only for the person who is sharing lessons. It applies to the student also who is learning the lessons. It's the individual's responsibility to work and find out which type of learning works right for him/her. Once again the method which sounded right some days back might not sound apt some days later. So, one should be ready to change and adapt to new modes of learning as time moves on. Different information demand different modes to reach a person. So, one should be ready to explore different streams to embody different kinds of information.

While one is battling through different modes of knowledge transfer to choose the right one, a student or a teacher might get into conflict while choosing the right method. A method which looks lucrative might not be practically implementable for a certain student. But the feelings attached cannot be erased until the wrong implementation is proved. So people must be ready to face bitter consequences too while exploring and experimenting with different modes of learning and teaching. At the end of the day, what's important is, learning the lesson. If the right lessons aren't passed between the mentor and the mentee then not just one person is at fault, it's the relation which is at fault by default.

Time for graduation

Education has become one of the most basic necessities for people to avail a job and lead a decent life. Without education, it's highly difficult to survive in today's highly competitive and highly cunning world. There is enough number of people around to take advantage of your unawareness and cheat you from getting what you really deserve. Hence education becomes very much important in all our lives, but the misconception is that education is nothing but graduation. Pursuing graduation and completing a degree course doesn't guarantee right education. Unfortunately, majority of the graduation pursuing students have fallen into the wrong assumption that it takes 3-4 years to complete graduation of one degree. We must evaluate the right time that is invested on graduation and not the time that is spent.

According to my experience of having addressed a lot of students pursuing different degrees, I have come to know that irrespective of what degree a student is in, s/he doesn't study everyday like how students do in school. The last night before the exam becomes the most important time for such students. There are few students who start studying a week before the exam also. Many students are not even interested in attending regular classes and due to lack of experienced and good teachers students seldom listen to teachers' lessons. In this case, it gets proved that students study on their own and that too, during the dead end when the exam is just one or two days far. If students can score and pass exams with last night preparations then all semesters of any graduation can be completed within few months and it is not required to spend years to complete graduation. The college also doesn't run for 24 hours a day. It only runs for 6-8 hours a day. Taking holidays and mass bunks into consideration, on an average, just 6 hours per day is spent on graduation by students, which means just one fourth of the day. Extrapolating to 4 years of B.E, only one year of complete time is invested into graduation by students. This gets stretched for 4 years by the existing education standards, wherein students have no idea that they are wasting three-fourth of their time during graduation in the name of graduation.

After 3-4 years, when you look back you will only be able to say that you did so many years of graduation though you knew that it could get over within one fourth of the time. So, it's high time for students to understand the responsibility of every day that is bestowed on them. One should make sure that s/he is involved in lot of other things in free time apart from graduation. Only then 3-4 years of graduation will also encompass experience in different kinds of work along with exposure to different fields of life along with graduation. Filling in your day with variety of activities instead of wasting time in the name of graduation will be the best way for any student pursuing graduation to follow.

You gotta girlfriend; get serious boss

Pretty hot topic, I know! Right from the time I updated this title as my Whatsapp status people have been enquiring about my girlfriend. Getting a girlfriend in life is one of the hottest discussions amongst students, teenagers, grads and to-be married individuals. It makes the eyebrows of people raise and the cheeks of girls go pinkish red and no wonder it's a treat to watch these happening. Having a girlfriend is a sense of pride upliftment for most of the boys and young gentlemen. Anyways, I am definitely not against guys who have girlfriends or those who want to have girlfriends. I shall be the first person to encourage provided that guys are aware about certain important aspects. Everyone needs someone close enough to share things happening on a daily basis for moral and emotional support. Once things go beyond the scope of discussion with parents or teachers or close knit of friends, people enter into relationships.

I observe many of these boys who are lost in their phones. They keep smiling innocently conversing on messages, playing with smilies and blushing at regular intervals biting their lips. Some of them, who are engaged on long daily calls are totally unaware of the traffic on the road or the ticking clock. The wild imaginations and fascinations of girlfriends fill their heads and flow out to occupy the metaspace too. Her earrings to lipstick to nose ring to sandals are the highlights of these day dreams. Guessing the colour of their girlfriends' clothes and decorating her with different designs of clothes become the daily homework for most of the guys while they are alone with their imaginations. Just a glimpse of her smile and laughter kills every heartbeat of these dreaming Romeos. Wow! These are some of the wonderful sensations that every guy deserves to enjoy, but, to what extent is the question here. I was watching a couple of movies in which they showed that a criminal who gets a girlfriend gets into the above explained fantasies when he is right in front of his enemy. So many movies showcase that students in schools and colleges are lost in thoughts about their girlfriends in the classes and don't study properly, ultimately ending up failing in their subjects. A lot of working men lose focus from their work the moment they get girlfriends and perturb their own career growth. Such scenarios are very well stitched into the movie scenes along with beautiful songs and romantic dances. People end up feeling that those are the real ways of being in love, or rather, falling in love. Cinemas are nothing but exaggerated versions of pure reflections of things happening in our daily lives around us. Unfortunately , such presentations of love are leading people in wrong directions.

I am not saying that such fantasies happen only with boys and not with girls. I personally believe that it's a guy's responsibility to take complete accountability for his girlfriend's wellbeing and future. Hence this blogpost is more focused on what boys need to be and do once they have a girlfriend. A girlfriend comes into a guy's life with all her dreams and hopes on him, and with a guarantee that he shall be the soulmate who shall fulfill all of those. Now, it's the boy's turn to keep up to those expectations. His life is shared between two souls now. He must amend his mistakes soon and work extra to reach better results in shorter spans of time. If he has to do so, he can't lose his time in daydreaming about his girlfriend. He has to get serious and focus to do more with higher efficiency so that he can devote certain amount of time everyday for the person who loves him. If movies start showcasing this as to how a student studies extra hard and passes his exams with good grades, or how a professional improves his time-management skills and enhances his multi-tasking ability to do more work in lesser time resulting in quicker promotions, having a girlfriend shall no more sound as a distraction. She shall be the major reason of success in a guy's life the moment he develops seriousness having her in his life. Earlier, men used to get serious at the time of marriage but it's high time now, that people need to get serious at the onset of their relationships, both about their lives and relationships instead of being lost in filmy ways of getting lost in love feelings.

My best wishes are with all the present generation Romeo-Juliets and Laila-Majnoos. Especially, the Romeos and Majnoos should take my serious advice along with my wishes. Make your girlfriend feel that you are the right MAN in her life with the results that you bring about rather than with your words or descriptions about her beauty. (But don't forget to keep continuing admiring your girlfriend and appreciating all good things about her; girls love them and I certify that for you).

Placements in colleges: now a history

All the folks in your graduation or post-graduation, please get ready to read this news in the media very soon. A lot of students have pinned their hopes on colleges for their lives ahead. All your hopes might come crashing down once this news becomes a reality soon. Prevention is better than cure. Instead of relying on the past record of history it would be quite helpful if students start relying on their own strengths and skills. Some of you might be wondering as to why this would happen very soon. Let me explain…

Few decades ago, there was nothing called as placements in colleges. Schools and colleges were meant to be places for pure education. They were just limited to teachers and students and a few other technical staff who would manage and run the entire show. Parents expected that their children would come out as the brightest students from the respective institutions and chose them based on the quality of teaching alone. Few years back, when the concept of placements was introduced into colleges, when few companies started recruiting people even before their graduation was complete it was a bonus for those students who performed really well up to the penultimate year in colleges. Since companies also could save time on interviewing a bunch of candidates just to select few, and hence save time, they collaborated with colleges to do the job of filtering the applicants. Even the few colleges chosen by companies, got the reputation amongst public for developing their students so well that they would be recognised by corporates even before convocation. So, it was a win-win situation for all. Unfortunately, as time passed this bonus no more remained a bonus; everyone wanted to make this bonus a part of the curriculum itself which started to ruin things in all directions for everyone. Applying facial make-up products at times can help you look better but applying them day and night shall only ruin your skin. The same started to happen in our education system.

Colleges were meant to concentrate to bring in good teachers, get good lab facilities, and conduct programs for overall development of students. Instead their focus shifted to getting companies to their campus to conduct placements for students. Naturally, the focus on earlier aspects reduced, and hence, the quality of education took a back seat. Companies also had to select students, no matter whether they were employable or not, only to maintain their good relations with the colleges due to past records and future hopes. On the contrary, students who chose colleges based on quality of education earlier, now started to blame the lack of quality, but still joined the same only with the hope for placements. Now, the students, who needed to concentrate on studying well and scoring good marks in tests, projects and exams, instead postponed their seriousness to the final year exclusively for placement tests and interviews. Obviously the subject knowledge went down in them. Hence the students’ quality also started decreasing cumulatively. Companies, who had tied up earlier with colleges depending on quality of education provided by the college and the quality of students graduating from the college, started losing hope on getting the best students from the college. Hence they stopped coming to colleges and students hopes went crashing down. Everyone was only losing in all directions. Colleges and companies started blaming students for lack of seriousness in studies and lack of skills while students started blaming colleges for lack of proper infrastructure and under-quality teaching. It only became a more vicious loop day by day as years passed by.

This has to end somewhere and equilibrium has to set in at some time in the very near future. As people say, ‘History repeats itself’, people will start realising soon the mistakes of their predecessors and start adopting the conventions of their predecessors following the rule of ‘Old is Gold’. Colleges shall soon shift their focus on giving the right quality in education than running around convincing companies to hire their students. Companies shall become choosier before entering any college, or might wait until the right candidates apply directly. Students have no other option but to change because college rules and company laws are in the hands of few wise people who might implement the changes overnight but, a student’s life is only in the hands of him/her. You need to make a wise choice for your life. You can no more depend on the college campus placements for deciding your future. Choose a college for the right quality of education, learn your subjects well, give your best in studies to score the best marks, use the time in college to develop yourself in multiple dimensions, and especially, take the help of teachers, not to adjust your attendance, but to clarify your doubts and answer your questions. Invest your time in developing yourself than your resume. It shall get built on its own and it shall speak to the company heads on your behalf in the interviews.

Many companies have stopped coming to colleges, many colleges have postponed their placement schedules, and many students are graduating out of colleges unemployed even with the best percentage. These are the signs to prove that the news in the title of today’s blog post is going to be in reality and in the media soon. Beware my dear students!

Somewhere someone is doing something for sure

The world offers a variety of diverse environments and different kinds of lives that coexist. The same earth is inhabited by people who are struggling for food on one side and people who are wasting food on the other side. Some are trying to earn their livelihood while some are worrying about how to spend their livelihood. Some are running around with bluetooth hanging on their ears and talking while driving, reading the news on their phones while eating, coding on their computers while drinking, and on the other hand are people who have loads of time in their hand and are doing all these activities patiently one after the other just to make sure that their time doesn't get bored being in their lives. Someone somewhere is doing something for sure.

We get so busy in our lives, and especially in our routine lives that we fail to see our own lives from the perspective of a third person. Just think about it once. What would a pigeon that sits on your terrace every day morning think about you when you keep rushing to your work or college? All that it has to do is eat the nuts and cereals available on your terrace and keep flying from one roof to another to digest the eaten food. Seeing you rush like a mad horse out of the house on your two-wheeler or four-wheeler only makes it wonder, 'Why are you acting so silly! All that you need to do is just have your food and relax.' The pigeon is seldom aware of the fact that you've to write your exams or convince your client. It just feels that you're that someone who is doing something just like how you feel that the pigeon is also doing something. I see so many students worrying about their tests, internals and exams. They are worried about marks, syllabus, question papers, evaluation and invigilation. Even I was one such student few years back. After coming out of the school and college world, I see that all those tensions were just too temporary to even worry about. None of those worries can take life further. No matter what are the results someone has to keep doing something somewhere to carry on the journey called life.

As humans, we build so many apprehensions on so many different things, people and situations that we keep testing our predictions and anticipations. We build our own challenges, expectations and work and try to prove it to ourselves what we are and we are capable of. We build a world that we imagine around us. We don't imagine the entities around us. We just imagine the perceptions of the real entities that exist around us and lead our lives to confirm that we have built the right set of perceptions in our imagination. Each individual lives a life of the same kind while s/he is doing the most necessary thing of his/her life while others are doing something. Ultimately each one knows that someone somewhere is doing something for sure.

Old lessons die hard

Recently while speaking to one of the students I came across one of the most important lessons of life, and that was 'Hard work is the route to success'. The student came up saying that in today's world, hard work doesn't yield anything. If that was the case then donkey would have been the most rewarded animal. Hence smart work is the trend of the modern world. Only smart work leads to success. That is where I was trying to find out how come a lesson that stood firm and true for 20 centuries suddenly was failing in the 21^st century. The Laws of Science haven't failed till date and I was only wondering how Laws of Success could fail.

Today, people are searching for new reasons which are stopping them to reach their goals or others expectations from them. Hence they wish to disprove every existing theory that leads to success. A simple example of this is what I have presented above. One of the proverbs that always comes back to my mind is, 'Old is Gold'. One can go around and ask all the successful people around about their secrets of success. All of them shall share the same old lessons on hard work, passion, commitment etc. For example, Sachin Tendulkar is known for his patience, consistency, passion for Cricket, hardworking nature and other positive qualities. Shah Rukh Khan also expresses the same attributes that have led him to success in the cinema industry. Even the Ambanis from the business field exhibit the same positive qualities like commitment, love for people, perseverance etc which make them the undoubted Lords of different businesses. No matter which field you are in you can always achieve pinnacle in that field through the same old dedication, discipline and devotion which have been taught to us by our parents, elders and teachers from time immemorial. There is no point in searching for new ways to achieve your dreams. Follow the age old proven principles of success and excellence shall be your present.

Excuses and success don't go hand in hand. There is no point in debating about why a particular rule cannot apply to you which has applied to a lot many achievers. You don't even need to know all the Laws of Success to bring life to all your dreams and passions. You just need to know many, understand some, adopt few and implement one. One such lesson is more than powerful to help you connect to your dreams in reality. A single lesson realised and inculcated in life is much better than a million lessons learnt and forgotten to remember.

Something for something

'Give all that you can but expect none from the others' is the slogan that people advise the disturbed souls. For the universe to be balanced, they say that for every particle there is an anti-particle. So if one person is giving away something to the other, definitely there shall be an imbalance because the giver receives nothing as per the general perception. However, the world doesn't survive if there is such an imbalance. Hence we jump into the theory of, 'for every something that is given there is always something taken as well'.

 

Let's take a few examples and prove this hypothetical theory. If someone gives another person some amount of money then he receives back a promise that he shall repay the amount. May be the give and take doesn't happen in equivalent form of an object but definitely in equivalent forms of feelings. The guy receiving the money is happy and the guy lending the money is happy because he knows that he will get back his money with extra interest added to it. In a class, when a teacher is teaching, she is passing on her knowledge to the students in exchange for their attention. The teacher gets attention for her teaching while the students get education for their attention. In above two examples, if the receiver would be absent i.e., either the students or the loan receiver then there would be no scope for the lender or the teacher to exist to perform their roles just like how if all planets cease to exist, the sun would have no reason to burn. So there is always a trade of something for something in this universe.

 

If we accept the theory of this barter that there is always that's got for something that's lost or given away, a lot of problems and worries in our life can be reduced. If a thief steals away your money, it only means that he gave back the lesson of safety to you. If a friend cheated your trust, he only gave back an experience to trust a friend carefully in future. In every possible situation, your assets remain the same. Only that, with every occurring transaction the form of your assets keeps changing. When you know that you receive something for every something that you lend out, then why worry? You can just be happy always. You can throw in your comments here.

Break your fear and love yourself

On february 4th,2013, I was glad to have been invited by VVN degree college for an inspirational talk to address close to 200 young ladies pursuing their graduation. The main convener for the event was Smt.Prasanna Udupikar who is a English lecturer in the same college. The talk was scheduled at 3pm but was delayed by thirty minutes as all the students had to come from their classes to the auditorium. All I knew when I entered the hall was that I was trusted with next 120 minutes to bring about a positive change in all these people.

 

The event kicked off with a wonderful introduction about me by madam. It was one of the best introductions that I had ever heard. Once I was given the microphone I made it a point to thank the almighty God, parents, teacher, friends and made the audience appreciate themselves with a round of applause. Then I discussed about what's happening in the current scenario as to how studies and marks are failing to motivate us to work hard. I also spoke about how visual and internet media are distracting us apart from providing us the necessary information. The fear of taking action and the problem of inferiority complex were addressed as well. I narrated the example of Lizzie Velasquez and the audience learnt a great lesson about how they should come out of inferiority complex and face the world.

 

Finally I taught them the mantra of "BREAK YOUR FEAR AND LOVE YOURSELF" by which one should be able to break any fear and try out the task at hand. Also not to forget that one should appreciate and love oneself instead of depending on anyone else for moral support. Hitesh.G who is pursuing his BBM also shared about his journey and a wonderful message that "IF YOU ARE NOT A GOOD LEADER THEN BE A GREAT FOLLOWER" following which Bharath.G.C sir introduced the audience to various platforms by which they can grow and the response of the students was just stupendous. These students, especially girls had stayed back for 2 hours after college hours and mam had to struggle to make them leave the auditorium. I hope this suffices to prove the worth of the talk. If you want to know more about such talks, message me on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Youngsters with 36meals.com

On a sunday morning when more than half of the city is still sleeping, we 25 youth of bangalore have joined hands with 36meals.com organization to walk an extra mile to bring a smile on someone's face. Today we have teamed up into teams of two and have moved to different localities of bangalore in search of poor and needy people so that we can serve them with our homemade food. I am really happy to let you know that 24 students from Vijaya degree college who are doing their graduation have volunteered to make this campaign a massive success. I am blogging live while the event is happening. Hence you might find most of the sentences in present continuous tense. Since I don't have any internet access right now, I will be posting this blog by tonight.

 

All these volunteers from Vijaya college gathered in the college premises at sharp 9:30am to know and understand the complete procedure to perform this fun-filled activity from 36meals.com. After getting the necessary instructions from me, all these 12 teams sped in different directions through different means of transport. Some took their 2-wheelers, while some boarded buses while the rest gave some work to their feet. It's a privilege to see youngsters involving in adventurous social activities. Top three teams will be selected based on the number of meals they donate, their reporting and the time taken to complete the task and these team members' names will be featured in the report of this entire activity.

 

All the teams have reached back within 2 hours and are sharing their fabulous experiences and learnings with others having donated close to 100 meals on a sunday morning. Some are satisified, some are proud, some are happy, some are inspired etc. Varied emotions is seen on these young faces. Really glad and happy to know that a routine monotonous activity like meal donation gave so much of learning and enjoyment to students. The winners of the competition will be announced soon. You can check out the photos on www.facebook.com/36meals

Feels nice to be remembered

It was around a couple of days back when I had been to the gym by 9pm or so that I saw a lady who reminded me of someone whom I had met before. By the time I gave few seconds to my brain to search its memory bank I recollected that the lady in the gym was none other than my beloved teacher who taught me during my kindergarten schooling. Immediately I rushed towards her and asked if my guess was really right. I was almost 100% sure that she would feel happy that I still remembered her but definitely she wouldn't be able to recollect my name because it had been a gap of more than 2 decades since I passed out of my kindergarten.

I went near her and uttered her name just for confirmation and to my surprise the reply wasn't a 'yes' or a 'yeah'. The reply was 'Mohan!!!!!' pointing at me. I was just astounded. How on earth could this teacher of mine remember my name so clearly after 2 decades????? I was just amazed by her memory. I just thanked her for remembering my name. Then throughout my workout I was only smiling that my teacher could remember my name even after 20 long years. I was just patting my back that I was so famous in school that no teacher could ever forget my name. It's very natural for students to forget the name of 50 and odd teachers' names that they witness during their lifetime of education. The teachers interact with hundreds of new students every year. When a student cannot remember just 50 teachers' names how can one expect a teacher to remember all the students' names. Might be no teacher remembers all his/her students' names but if he/she remembers your name even after 20 years then you might just be one of those lucky pets of his/her.

This small incident taught me so much about remembering people. Even after 3 days of the incident I am still happy that my nursery teacher remembered my name. Just imagine how much of happiness you can create for a person by just remembering him/her. You need not help or serve or give anything to the person to make him/her feel happy. Just remember their name until eternity and that itself shall serve as the best gift you could possibly ever present because it feels really nice to be remembered. Do let me know if you remember my blogs on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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Not interested but compulsory

I have met a lot of people who say that they are not interested in doing certain things but are forced by their parents, relatives or society to do the same. Especially coming to students, some of them don't like to study. Some employees don't like to do the work and follow the rules of the company. Lack of interest coupled with forced implementation is just lengthening the gap between the work and the people. I am damn sure that each of us are committed to something that we have no interest to do. So how do we deal with this?

Let's accept that the world doesn't run on our words. There is a structure that has been established by many civilizations through decades of decades where all of us have landed up in. I haven't heard of any person who has proclaimed that he is very interested and passionate about brushing his teeth and taking bath everyday. Still we do these 2 activities no matter how difficult or boring they are. {I really pity those people who surround the specimens who don't perform even these 2 basic essentials}. Coming back to the point of interest in the work that we do, let me not inhibit from claiming that not every work is interesting. It's upto the person who is entrusted with the work to perform the work with complete interest in it. When certain work is compulsory and you can't escape from it then it's good to do it. Even more better is to generate and vest some interest in it and doing it.

If you like sweets you can't keep eating them daily because very soon you will get bored of it. There should be other spicy and sour food that you must taste in between so that you completely rejoice the sweet once again. Same case with the work. Complete the work that's compulsory and once you have done it you will be filled with double the interest to work on your passion. Completion of any form of work is what that gives the ultimate satisfaction to human life. I have completed my work of blogging, can you complete your work of writing a feedback how much ever disinterested you are about that on is.mohanbn@gmail.com

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What are your priorities of life?

Right from the time we are born we are fed by others, taken care by others, taught by others, coached and guided by others. Obiviously I wouldn't expect a newly born baby to take care of itself independently. But my question to my reader is as to how long will we be a dependency stack on someone else in our life. I am not just talking about the dependency in terms of money such as children depending on parents. Sometime or the later everyone has to start earning for the self because the supporters cannot be immortal. Independence day of India is nearing and I have a question to all of you - "Are we really independent?"

We are influenced by the society we live in, we are influenced by the opinions of the people around us, we are bound to follow the existing rules and regulations even if some of them don't make any sense. The regular pattern of two decades of education followed by job and family is running through the minds of all parents today for their offsprings. If you even try to deleniate from this pattern you're perceived as an outlaw. In this everlasting race of life many of us are spending our time, thoughts and energy in competitions just to climb up our career in comparison to those around us. Most of the times we don't even know if this was the career that we dreamt of pursuing but still all our eyes are blindfolded from seeing the future. Forget work, even before that, many of the students are not even aware of the degree they are entering into which they would be pursuing for next 3-4 years and building a career based on that. The herd mentality has put curtains on the creativity of students today. Even parents are not spared from this vicious arrangement. Folks! I clearly understand that money is a necessity commodity for life and we have to earn it to lead a fulfilling life but when you forget the priorities of your life and just keep money in the first position of priorities then you might be just filling your lockers than your life. Even this money is a very talented actor which can play the role of either the cause or the effect. You might want to earn money and that's why you might be ready to do anything. On the other hand you might just want to earn money following your passion. Either ways money comes into picture. Its upto you to choose where to place it.

If you feel that you are just sailing with the wave and can't do nothing about it please rethink for a moment. Anyways you will sail with the wave, why not give one try to rediscover the priorities of your own life? Why not give just one more chance to the child inside you to see the future it had dreamt during childhood? Remember pal! Life is once, the worst thing that can happen is that one might die. Even more worse is killing the dreams also in the process. Let's open our eyes to see what the future has to offer us, lets open our ears to listen to what the soul calls for. I wish you a very happy journey in the awakened life henceforth.

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Food donated is hunger killed

Food, clothing and shelter are three basic necessities of life. Everyone of us on this earth are struggling through life to fulfil these three constraints of life. Be it a multi millionaire or a person who earns every meal of his day on that day, no doubt that all of us are in a pursuit to satisfy our basic needs and probably man could have survived even without clothing and shelter but not food for sure. This is the reason food stands at the top of the priority list. It was indeed a great eventful day today when a group of youth woke up to a social call on a Sunday morning when most of the rest were enjoying their cozy sleep on a weekend.


A group of twenty youths studying in different courses and young professionals working in different MNCs got together this morning to be a part of an exciting event of meals donation. I was glad and surprised to be a part of this super happening. This was not just a normal meals donation in an orphanage or an old age home where you just go, donate and feel satisfied for doing the good deed. Today's generation looks for adventure in everything and that is what exactly happened. There were twenty enthusiastic Indians who were grouped into ten teams of two each and were asked to explore random areas of Bangalore, find the needy people in that area and serve them meals as an initiative of IU cares under the banner of 36meals.com. The best part was that people had to take buses to new places. Also this entire task had to be completed within just 120 minutes. 


After the entire adventuristic task people came to share their feelings and experience of donating meals. We search around different places to buy things for us but this was the first time for many of us when we searched for someone who needed our service. It was a sense of accomplishment after we had killed the hunger of close to hundred genuinely needy people. It was a reinforcement in us that good deeds can be done in an enjoyable way and that's why I feel that I want to share this event with all of you. An amazing feeling to see a hunger free world set in all of us today. Are you also with us to make this dream realise into reality???


For further information I'm sure that you'll check out www.Facebook.com/36meals

Test yourself

Everyone of us are put through the system of learning right from our childhood. We spend lots of hours learning new things and practising the learnt things. I am not talking about just the conventional form of education of going to school and learning. Even those who do not have the facilities to go to school learn some sort of work which they have to use in order to earn their living. Not just the children or the youth, even the working professionals keep learning new developments in their work, new technologies. To convey in short everyone on this earth is in a continuous process of learning.

 

Atleast in schools and colleges, there are regular tests and exams in order to validate the learnings but once we come out of the education system not just by age even by syllabus, whatever we are involved in is the syllabus of life. Are we sure enough that we are performing to our best capabilities in the activities other than studies. Marks determine our performance during studies but when we are in other activities there is no one to rate us by marks. We will be only given feedback which cannot measure our performance levels. Hence it is necessary for us to test ourselves regularly. We have to set the measure for the results that we expect of actions done by us. Just sharpening the axe without using it to cut the log never tells us how sharp the axe is or how much more sharpened it should be. Whatever you are doing test that activity time and again. Set a benchmark that you must touch everytime you test yourself. Life is too short to wait for the circumstances and life's challenges to test our strengths. Develop various kinds of tests to test yourself. This will not only keep you guard about your skills but also will help in sharpening your abilities.

 

Just imagine if Sachin Tendulkar had stopped playing cricket in practice matches just because he played very well in the international matches. Then Sachin wouldn't have been the Sachin we are proud about now. He practices in the nets and in practice matches to test himself as much as possible because he needs to be perfect when he is playing for his country. Likewise to be the best and the perfect in whatever you are doing test uourself regularly. All the very best.

 

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ACADEMICS

When it comes to academics different people are of different opinions. Some feel it is the most important thing of any student's life. some feel it is very difficult to be the TOP in academics whereas some of them are of the opinion that it doesnt even matter. Lets not get into debates or discussions about the importance of academics

here because I dont know who you are until you give your feedback. Lets see academics as a part of our life. A winner choses to be a winner in all the fields. Everyone would be happy to do their best and get the best results in whichever field might it be. Hence here I would like to share with you few methods which helped me get amazing results in academics. I hope and in fact am sure that these methods would work for you as much as they worked for me :)

My name is Mohan.B.N. I did my schooling in MESKK, Under graduation in MES College of Arts, Commerce and Science and completed my Electronics and Communication Engineering from RV College of Engineering. I was a topper in my school right from 4th standard. I have been in the top 3 ranks always in all the tests and examinations except for some 6 times until I completed SSLC with 93.92%. I was awarded the MERIT student award consecutively for 2 years in 8th and 9th Std and secured 5th rank in NTSE examination at state level. Being he 4th topper for Karnataka in my 2nd PUC with 97% score (98.33% in PCM, 100 on 100 in Mathematics) and securing 29th rank in Engineering CET and 33rd rank in Medical CET were many of the memorable accomplishments. Passing out with YOUNG ENTREPRENEUR AWARD and 86.4% aggregate in engineering under VTU was yet another milestone. If you are thinking all these were difficult I would say it was not as difficult as you are thinking but it was one of the best funs of life.

Studies or academics require the same attitudes for being at the TOP as required to achieve success in any other field as sports or entertainment or art. HARDWORK, PERSISTENCE, AMBITION, CONSISTENCY, CONCENTRATION are the words that we regularly hear which are most essential to achieve the best results in this field.

I dont deny with any of the above advices because I, myself have been a stern follower of each of the above qualities. But one factor we need to observe is that the above words cant be measured. So many students get confused as to how much hardwork to do or how much more consistent to be. I promise you my dear friend, I wont put

you into confusion after you read this blog :)

I am going to talk about just 3 most important topics:-

1. EVERYDAY STUDIES

   

"Everything starts small" is a very famous quote we have heard and over-heard. Lets not forget "Everything BIG is built in small steps". Likewise in academics too, no one becomes a topper overnight. Successful studies never happened in past through last-night efforts just before the exam and will never ever happen in the future. Beware of those advisors who advise you to study just the day before the test or just the week before the exam. As we require daily food at regular intervals our brain also being a living entity needs daily regular consistent amount of food called knowledge. In general, as overdose of food on a single day can upset our stomach likewise overdose of studies in a single day can upset the mind as well. Hence I always believe in and advocate daily regular studies.

Whether you are a school student or an undergraduate or doing your graduation, make sure you have something new to study everyday. Let it be something that has been taught in your school or tuition or college on that particular day or if nothing new has been taught, study the next topic which will be taught the next day in your instituition. Because new things, new information, new people always build curiosity and interest in us. So starting off your daily studies with something new will motivate you to study without any boredom. Once you have completed this, then go for that part of studies which you have planned (in-detail discussion about PLANNING is discussed in the next topic) for that particular day. The third part of your daily studies is all about writing. Writing is equal to 3 times reading in my opinion because first time you think in

your mind what to write, second time you are physcially writing, third time you are telling in your mind what you are actually writing.

The writing part may consist of writing your homework, records, assignments, datasheets etc or just a handwriting improvement.

Make sure that you take atleast 5-10 minutes of between each of these 3 parts. Each of the 3 activities should atleast be done continuously for 30-45 mins depending upon the requirement. I dont specify any particular time of studies because some are comfortable to study as soon as they return from their school or college, some prefer to play and study after 7 pm while some prefer late night studies as it would be a lot more silent. The choice is yours. Starting your studies once you light the lamp in the evening after praying to God would be very asupicious as most of our elders suggest.

2. STUDY-PLAN

Has there been any building built without a plan? Has there been any business started without a business plan? The answer is big "NO" in both the cases. In the same way, only well-planned studies can yield the best results. Random studies will only lead to disaster. This plan can either be written down at the back of your diary or on a paper and stuck to your cupboard door or might be neatly placed in a photo frame and kept on your study table or might be there just on your mind. Once again the     choice is yours. But the main point I want to drill down here is that there must be a plan for your studies.

A basic study-plan must be able to remind you at any point of time the following 3 things;

1. What portion of studies need to be done?

2. How much of time has been alllocated to complete that portion of studies?

3. How many days before the exam/test are you studying that portion?

  

As described in the above EVERYDAY STUDIES section, once you complete studying of new information first the second part is to study the portions planned for that particular day. In general, planning is done keeping in mind an exam or a test as the target. Make sure your planning should be done much ahead before the test or exam. The number of days required to completely study the portions for a test or exam depends on your capacity. While doing EVERYDAY STUDIES initially itself you will have a fair idea about how much you can study per day. Based on this prepare your study plan. Keep atleast 2 days of buffer before the exam or test so that you dont have any last minute tensions if you havent completed any portion of the studies. If you have completed as per the plan, Congratulations!!! you get 2 days of revision time.

There are few final titbits about study-plan that I would like to share with you my dear friend. Make sure the you are reading your entire study-plan twice, once before starting your studies and after finishing your studies everyday. This will help you keep track of your daily studies and also will create a subconscious blueprint of the study-plan in your mind. Keeping a combination of two subjects in your daily study-plan will avoid the boring of studying the same subject and at the same will give you a good feeling of completed part of two subjects simultaneously. Mathematics should be a part of your everyday study-plan irrespective of the other two subjects and maths should never just be read. Always practise mathematics by writing.

   

3. FUN 'N' RELAX

  

Last but not the least life is all about enjoyment of every minutest of the work we do. So why make studies an exception. Lets enjoy studies. But HOW??? is a very big question on many minds. I still remember while I used to write the exams, many songs used to play in my head and by the time I realised I would have completed writing the entire answer. My marks dint go down because of this as I have stated my records above. Lets accept the fact that we will have to do our studies, we will have to    attend the exams and tests. There's no escape. Lets do it in the best way possible. Fun is the best way of learning anything. Whenever you sit to study just prepare your mind to enjoy what you will be studying. Try to picturise almost everything you study. It will stay in the brain longer. Talk to      the characters in whatever you are studying as if they are your friends. Associate a song tune to narrate a description. Explain to your mom or younger brother or even a dog whatever you have just studied. Invent funnier ways of your own while studying which will make even the most boring subject the most interesting one. Trust me, it    works.

After a good amount of time invested in studies, relax yourself. Deep breathing will be very helpful. You dont have to revise once again in your mind while relaxing. Relax    means just RELAX! Before any exam make sure you have atleast 8 hours of good sound sleep. As I have mentioned earlier, no point in last night studies and last night tension if you are aiming to be a TOPPER. Go out for a walk or if you are into bodybuilding, go to the gym and have a good workout. Exercising the body is as important as exercising the mind. Relax! Enjoy studies, enjoy LIFE.

My dear friend, I wish you all the very best for your studies. Just waiting to see you in the toppers list in the topmost rank. All the very best! Please pour in your feedback. I will try to provide better and easier methods as we move along further.

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