Sunday, October 28, 2007

What are your goals???
Short term; long term ; medium term!!!
Give me a break.
I want to live life to the fullest and longest :-), isn't this enough to justify that you are focused!
OR may be
I want to earn a lot of money and to have all the comforts in life, isn't this a statement signifying a high level of motivation?
Then why waste 200 words!!!
(...incomplete, wait for the mid terms to comlete)

Saturday, September 1, 2007

Memorising vs Understanding

Memorizing n understanding, seem to be synonymous in meaning to LEARNING, but are they really?
Memorizing or loading some observation in the human storage device-BRAIN-hard disked (permanently) or RAMed (temporarily), is the first step to learning.
The primary step in the development of a human child is HARD –DISKING. Children start memorizing things that are helpful to them-calling out to parents, walking, picking things-all these include the storage of observations permanently. Hence it is but natural for every human to have a reasonable HDD. But as the HDD starts to store data the memory space goes down and like PC-HDD’s humans do have a limitation to their storage capacity. Hence, in the course of time, as the child gets mature, he starts to economically and resourcefully fill the HDD. He, now tries to learn things-have a common memory for similar things (understanding)-so that not much for HDD space is used. Now this thing, understanding, is a whole lot different as to memorizing.
In the process of understanding, there has to be a widely open mind that is
a better PROCESSOR. All have a different level of PROCESSOR speed-understanding capability- some have high speed processors with better cooling system while some others can’t afford to run their PROCESSORS fats enough because of fan problems.
As there are differences in each human being-physical, mental-so are there differences in their HDD n PROCESSOR combination. Some have high capacity HDD-very powerful of memory-while some have high speed processors-highly understanding ones.
Now the main thing-which one is better or superior?
Well, I don’t want to give a verdict as to which one is better,I just want to present my views about the two types.
Memorizing, gives an impression of something good. As adults and particularly students we certainly have to remember a lot-names, addresses, passwords, course material etc. But people try to extend this process to a large dimension. They develop a tendency to directly write to the HDD without even bothering to run their PRCSRS. Memorizing is a good thing but every body has a capacity.Also storing data in HDD requires quite a lot of time-by reciting again and again-very boring process. You can also store data in RAM but it has limited capacity and life.
But certainly this HARD DISKING is a lot easier method than PROCESSING-which requires a wide open mind to think.Hence most of the people incline towards HDDing.
Actually we students in India are groomed in such an environment where theres too much to remember and too little time to spend and thus most child develop this ability and tendency to HDDing and suppress the more logical way of learning thing.
I am a supporter of former approach, as is clear from the above views. I don’t want to waste time in reading over and over again the same thing till it gets stored in the RAM or HDD, I like to devote my time to learn phenomena and process from the basics and there by storing little amount of information but having access to a very large store of data. Still I have to HDD when it is the only feasible path butnot by heart. I sometimes don’t spend much time in reading as do others and hence is able to remember less. I don’t like the method of mugging up without any PROCESSING and also devoting much time in order to write to the HDD. Whether I am right or wrong I don’t know and als I don’t want to know but I certainly want to show that the HDD approach certainly not the way that I like.
What do you expect a student to do-mug up a pile of crap and reproduce it in ink? Certainly most of the students will do that to score,but I am not of that class. I don’t understand how can you judge someone’s learning ability through this process of CRAP TRANSFER. Learning is a different thing and mugging is a different one.
You can remember things through constant attachment to the process. Remembering stats of, say, some sport involves constantly following it. Remembering words involve constant attachment to literature. There are so many examples but each indicate one common thing-you have to devote time and interest. And thus each person has a HDD containing information relating to his interest and time devoted. But the amount of DISK space and utilized space varies from person to person according to the habits and mentality of each.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

What Went Wrong?

As a lover of cricket, as do every third person of our country, its hard to believe that WC-07 is over for us before it has actually started (the super-8). And like any one of the cricket followers in the country I have a question in mind n heart and most of us have a varied no. of answers (or solutions) to this Q- WHAT WENT WRONG? Well most of us will say "what is left to debate?" over or may be "there's no point in discussing over such a useless topic", but I know and most of us will agree that we can't help but to think over it and have an opinion about it. And that each one of us has a feeling deep in our hearts that India will win the WC. And each one of us has view on how to improve things which come up either during a discussion with friends in the lobby, or watching TV and giving a tip to the Men in Blue on how to improve their running betw the wkts, how not to give away extra in crucial matches, how to contain opposition in slog overs, how should the superstars play and even the minute of the tech faults like playin on front or back foot, moving the feet , etc. So like each of us I too feel very much disappointed after India's exit from WC-07. But what next-who is to blame?- the coach (for excessive expts), the captain(not inspiring enough), the senior members(letting the team down at imp. occasions), the selection committee(not picking the right blend of players),the pitch(not much help fot the spinners :)), the playing conditions(why didn't it rain?), or Bermuda(why did they lose to BANGLA), BAngladesh(why did they played so well), the followers (why they didnt pray with intensity?), LUCK (why didnt Sachin survive the Lemon cut while every other batsmen did?), or any other TOM, DICK and HARRY for reasons of no sense. But blaming a single person, condition or factor is like slauter of a cow for the sake of rain. And I feel even blaming the whole team would not be appropriate. So who's to blame? the answer lies in one of the observation of Imran Khan. He pointed out the difference in the level of domestic cricket in Indian sub-continent (particularly India n Pak) and some other nations like Aus. even at the lowest level the ground conditions are of international level in Aus- that is the place and time for a player to learn slinding on the field.If a player has been playing cricket from his childhood on poor grounds then either he has to stop thinking about sliding or end up in the hospital. We have a large no. of teams competing at the domestic level(nearly 28 odd) as compared to about six in Aus and that is quite logical as the population is also propotionately higher. But can we ensure quality cricket with so many regional boards which depend soley on the BCCI for funding and despite BCCI being the richest of all cricket boards in the world, its impossible to maintain the standards with such a large no. of boards. our domestic cricket system is also quite individual performance based- mostmatches end in a draw not because there are only four days to play but because every team wants to bat for most of the part and score points on the basis of 1st innings lead and in the process players aim at not scoring runs but occuping the crease. There no feeling of a team at that level mostly beacause all of them know that one good season and they will be the the 'TEAM', TEAM INDIA. And that is why most players play for themselves rather than for the team. ANd if the sense of team spirit is not aroused in the players at the initial level then its hard to imbibe it when they play for the country. But the feeling eventually comes because of the driving force of playing for the nation. But they are not able to express that inner spirit because they simply dont have the skills- fielding, running betw, etc.So what needs to be done?- the best way out is to avoid the same cycle being repeated over n over. Start from the teenagers.Change the way players grow from initial level onwards. There is a need of individuals with the in built passion for cricket in the BCCI so as to mobilize changes.And mind you it is one of the least popular sports in the world and god knows what will happen to the system when it becomes popular in Europe, if that happens and the changes in India dont then cricket might become another sport like hockey in India.