The cosy mosquito net

Mosquito nets can serve two purposes:

One, as a home decor accessory it can add to the beauty of your cot and bed (so, as a want).

Second, the most important, to protect oneself from 'obviously' mosquitoes (so,as a need).
As far as our family is concerned, it's serving the second purpose thanks to the Shilpa Park mosquitoes (breeding park for these killer insects).

Whatever may be the reason i have always liked using mosquito nets.
The process of tying it every night and then reassembling it the next morning is quite cumbersome and boring;that is the reason why my mom would tie it for me then every night murmuring few words for not doing my works.

Now i am forced to do the same job to save my girl from those creatures. Though initially i was happy as S had taken over the job, later i realised that the responsibility was falling on my shoulders gradually.

But at the end of all this painstaking work i do get a cosy place to dwell in the night.
It creates a separate room-like space once you enter it and makes your bed look more bigger than it actually is (it just looks but doesn't make your bed big in reality:()

These protecting nets can even be nightmarish once it gives way to a single mosquito. But right now i am worried about the next season- 'Hyderabad Summer' and 'The Use of a Mosquito Net'!!!

About Self and Individuality...

...by Rabindranath Tagore

"At one pole of my being I am one with stocks and stones. There I have to acknowledge the rule of universal law. That is where the foundation of my existence lies, deep down below. Its strength lies in its being held firm in the clasp of the comprehensive world., and in the fullness of its community with all things.

But at the other pole of my being I am separate from all. There I have broken through the cordon of equality and stand alone as an individual. I am absolutely unique, I am I, I am incomparable. The whole weight of the universe cannot crush out this individuality of mine. I maintain it in spite of the tremendous gravitation of all things. It is small in appearance but great in reality. For it holds its own against the forces that would rob it of its distinction and make it one with the dust.

This is the superstructure of the self which rises from the indeterminate depth and darkness of its foundation into the open, proud of its isolation, proud of having given shape to a single individual idea of the architect's which has no duplicate in the whole universe. If this individuality be demolished then though no material be lost, not an atom destroyed the creative joy which was crystallised therein gone. We are absolutely bankrupt if we are deprived of this speciality, this individuality, which is the only thing we can call our own; and which, if lost, is also a loss to the whole world...."


P.S: Take time and patience to read this.

ಅನಾವರಣ

I really like this new serial 'Anavarana' aired at ETV Kannada.
It's dialogues are good, it's story is bounded in reality and it's not about a boy-girl relationship nor about never ending saas- bahu saga.
In today's episode, one of the characters speaks about getting bored so easily with life to her grandmother and her granny reasons and figures out the possible reasons.
She says, your childhood (referring more to the present time) has not had taste of playing outdoor games, but only of computer games; has not lost games with friends and peers but with machines so on and so forth.

I was instantly reminded of the interview that I'd seen weeks back with Daniel Goleman.
He said human brains are wired to have conversations with other individuals face to face and to have a social relationship by physically being present. They are not meant for making connections virtually. Virtual world seems good for some time and later the mind yearn for face to face connections, you are left with nobody around and you become a loner.

Coming back to my serial, one small experience grandmother shares with her is: she learns making upma from her mother. She tries it out in her mother's absence. It turns out to be good, she is happy for herself and the father who will taste it. The next time it turns out be bad, she cries. Her grand-daughter stops her saying why worry about that in this present age when you get ready made mix not just for upma but all the dishes and more over who has the time to spend on preparing a simple dish like upma.

Their conversation gets carried away to all such detailed topics of everyday life, conflicts between the past and present generation and ends for the day. Waiting for the next episode (if my daughter allows me to watch).

Divided attention

I seem to be very bad at multi-tasking.
If am talking over the phone, I can do just that and not mix it with any other work.
If am listening to music, I just concentrate on the lyrics and the music and not do anything else.
But, there are people who are so good at carrying out multiple tasks at a time.
They drive, same time listen to music plus attend a phone call.
People listen to music while they read etc etc.,
Especially people belonging to this generation are very good at this.
I do not know,though, how much of the information that they gather during this inter-changing activities is really fruitful.

Many researchers quote that this type divided attention tasks though good in some respects, but may hamper the span of attention (the amount of time that is given to focus on a subject)of an individual.
The Internet has a big role to play in bringing down the span of attention of people, with people easily and quickly jumping from one web page to the other to find loads of information.

Of course, there are many people who are good at multi- tasking and have very good span of attention too.
Ultimately what matters is the quality of information that one is gathering.

A B C D

Majority of parents think of the learning process in terms of the letters of the alphabet that their child has learnt.

Just for example.,the other day i was speaking to a neighbour at my native place whose son is almost of my daughter's age. And i casually asked if he is attending school. She said 'he doesn't in class but cries all the time' and soon she added but 'he can recite ABCD very well and can count up to 10'.
There are parents who search for schools for their children where there is stress on teaching academics rather than anything else.

What these parents not want understand is to see if their child has the readiness to read and write. A child cannot read or write just because he has started schooling. It takes a lot of mental as well as physical preparation on the part of the child to formally start writing or reading.

I was amazed at one of my acquaintance's (whose son too is slow at learning) remark on a child who had learning difficulty.
She remarked "may be her parents doesn't shout at her and don't control her so she has the problem?" Even after telling her what the problem was she was not in a position to understand it.

Initially i thought the educated parents would understand such problems better but now it doesn't hold good. Because, even if some of the parents are educated and hold good jobs their attitude towards education and the problems related to educating the children remain to be age old.

Of course there are people who very sensitive their children's feelings and take very good care but still a majority of them whose mindset needs to be changed towards learning.