Anamika Chakraborty

                                    ENGLISH – JOURNAL WRITING

A. short reflective accounts of significant life experiences.

This morning, I woke up smiling, no particular reason but probably because I slept weeping and then the dream that followed : Me living in my young age but not so long ago. It was somewhat around January 2002 when I came to realize that each and everyone in this world is mortal, whether it’s a human or an animal. You all might be thinking why I am saying this and what is the relationship of this with my life. But I would like to say that this incident had changed my life. The time when every child enjoy their childhood with full of joy and happiness. At that time I was making myself stronger and kept saying whatever be the situation you are going to face, you don’t have to react but to respond.
I think at every moment we learn something. We cannot say that only one incident can change someone’s life. My father was not with me not because of job but because he passed away earlier. I was too small to understand what is going to happen next in my life but as we know that time doesn’t wait for anyone, it keeps going on and we need to move it. After this incident I used to sit alone and kept on thinking that why this happened to me? My family helped me a lot to overcome this situation. They told me that there’s must me something good waiting for you, so don’t be upset and keep working hard. A time came when I was unable to concentrate on studies my aunt told me don’t worry I will take you to someone who can council you and can solve your problem. When she took me to a woman who was eventually my school principal. She asked me do you want to study? And want your parents to feel proud? I said yes I want to. Then from that moment I realized the change that had taken place and this motivated me to change myself. Therefore I consider this to be my first incident that had taken me to a different level. When I stepped into my adolescent age, as we know this age is full of stress, strain and storm. At that time I met another teacher who changed my thoughts, view and helped me to move in a positive direction. According to me, I think our life is full of an experience which motivates us to follow our dreams. My aim has been being influenced because of teachers who came into my life from them I learn that teachers are those people which help individuals to behave in a society follow certain code of conducts, moral values, cultural values, etc. Now if I talk about my college life there I was the member of the theatre group and I used to be the coordinator. One day our group decided to do a play in which we portrayed eve teasing from that we wanted to convey to people that girls should not feel shy and reserved to defend themselves and keep the suffering to themselves, it’s time for them to raise their voice. Although we can always pretend to ignore the comments but thing would be much better if we can just look straight into eyes of the offenders and loud our voice.
As we all know understanding life is very difficult it’s a mixture of every emotion. So with every step it makes us experience experiences which led us to become more sensible and mature so that we could be able to tackle the situations and led a happy life.

B) Observations of life situations that evoke questions and responses.

    Today I woke up in the morning with a cock’s crow. My mother asked me to go and get a packet of milk from the mother diary. As I reached there, a girl wearing shabby clothes and carrying a torn book .With a curiosity I told her what happened? Why are you looking so upset? To which she replied,” Didi do want to study”. Her response left me speechless. As the day drifted alone, people outside in the neighborhood were actually talking about the ‘gender discrimination’ that our country   facing. After this conversation my thoughts took me too far and forced me to think, that what is wrong with our country? Why such gender discrimination taking place still in the 21^st century? Is our country really developing, where a child could not get his/her universal rights? Everyday in  newspaper, television or in radio’s we heard of girl abuse ,molestation, child trafficking, etc. when this all be stop? Each girl child should have the same right as that of a boy. As a citizen, it should be each and everyone’s duty to ensure that each child whether it’s a girl or a boy should get their rights and elementary education.                 Talking about the socialization of Hindu middle class, a woman says-once a girl is married, she too cannot expect to visit her family often. “Is it really necessary to follow such customs or traditions?

    We often see that in an Indian family, the girls are being neglected in terms of food and nutrition , healthcare, education and decision-making. Even at the time of birth, the family members keenly want a boy child. The desirability of having sons and undesirability of having more daughters is made explicit. We often heard a statement: Four daughters? Each one will take ten thousand (Rs.10, 000) and walk out of the house. Bringing up a daughter is like pouring water in sand or like watering a plant in another’s courtyard.

     There is another aspect of the process of socialization i.e. training for feminine task like work around the kitchen, dirty household work and childcare generally in the feminine sphere. The distinction between feminine and masculine work comes early in childhood and becomes sharper as the child grows up.

A girl who does not like to do feminine work is reminded that if she thinks that she becomes a male,” she has mistaken”. How can she escape it? Having been born a female? Even in the serving and distribution of food within the house is that the leftovers food should be eaten by female and not by male members of the family. A country where we worship women as a GODDESS then why on the other hand women gets deprived of their basic rights. This can be stopped only when we will give our best bit of contribution to raise a voice against this discrimination and an equal proportion of equality for women. Then our country can get rid of this discrimination which has been practicing in our society.

One more situation that every girl has faced at any point of their life is that of eve-teasing. Why this crime is getting more and more? Are we responsible for this or the perception that society think for girls? Eve –teasing is a form of sexual harrasement by strangers. Even Delhi, is considered to be most dangerous cities for women. The structure of Indian society is always been male dominated but in the modern era, women tried to break this male domination. Though, we have grown by leaps and bounds yet, the most basic structure of society is showing no sign of improvement. A large percentage of Indian women have faced or facing this menace, whether it is a public transport system or public places or shopping malls, a women find themselves vulnerable to threat of eve-teasing everywhere. Eve-teasing is a complex problem and it required more attention than what it has actually got. The term ‘eve’ actually signifies that the eves are the women who provokes male for vulgar comments and behavior. But that is almost like blaming the victims for their sufferings. Every man needs to know how to behave with women.

Eve-teasing in India has to be removed with women empowerment and girl education. What’s the point of education if the people are not willing to respect women? The traditional mindset often blames the eve teasing incidents on women that they provoke male by wearing scanty clothes. That is actually a lame excuse. Even if females wear modern dresses it does not give man license to harase women, the answer lies in the changing the mindset and inculcating morals and values in our education. Women should empower ourselves to fight back. Same story everyday and now you are wondering what to do? Many women have been found carrying pins, chilli-powders and even daggers to protect themselves. Self- defence classes have been practiced in metropolitan cities that teach karate etc. Joining those classes will not be a bad idea. If you feel too shy and reserved to defend yourself and keep the suffering to yourself, its time you get up and raise your voice. Although, you can always pretend to ignore the comments but things would be much better if you can just look straight into the eyes of the offenders and speak up. So, I think a change can be there but it needs effort and needs to be implemented.

C) Question on education, learning and teaching that he/she is facing.

      Now, I am 23 years old but still when I go out for any interview or any exam I always feel low and very less confident attitude towards everything this is not because of my personality but because of my education which is always in doubt for me. Somewhere the reason of my lowness and less-confident which I feel is because of my school and my higher school or somewhere because of the education system. In school we must have gone through the situation where the teachers are expecting from us to mug up knowledge rather giving us the moral values of education so that we can understand things in a simple way. They always go with the difficult one. The system in which our school regulates I think it should be change. We all need some rules and regulations but when so many things go wrong then the rules and regulations no long can be same.

 Have you ever thought of changing the rules? If not, then we should not blame anybody for our difficulties and if we really think that the impact that has been with us in every moment then we all should raise questions. Have we ever thought that why education is being changing from year to year? Why it is necessary? Why do syllabus get revised after every ten years? I think this is because of the change in the society, advanced technology , morality, mentality and so many other things which forces us to make changes. If we look back to our history, the way of teaching practices, thoughts and belief delivered, were very different and more understandable than what it is now. For example, there were “GURUKULS” in which a child came at the age of 4years and remain there for about 10-12 years. Generally, this age group is considered to be the age of “childhood” where a child can learn more than what it used to. Here each and every child gets equal attention from their Gurus. Each child was taught and trained according to their need of interest and habits. Nothing was being done forcefully. But if we talk about our education system, the concept is being totally different. Nowadays, children used to mug up  rather than to understand it. They are more concern about marks that they are obtaining in exam. This is even because of the family pressure as well as from peer group. The education system needs to be change so that a man can prepare himself to earn his livelihood and support his family to the best of his ability. Education, however, has another vital responsibility and that is to prepare a man to face life itself and all struggles, problems and joys with a calm mind and to be able to make appropriate decisions when a crisis arises. Even, after class 12^th a child could not make out what should he do next? Why he/she is not able to make out? Does our education system really make us self-reliant? I do not think so, because if a child after his graduation, is not employed then it is obvious that something is wrong in the teaching methods. Our system manufactures employees but not employed. When this be change? The changes which can be get only the help of leaders, teachers, administrators and society. The way of teaching needs to be changed. Students can no longer be fed  information, they need to learn to be leaders equipped with the knowledge as well as vocational skills to solve unknown problems. Education researchers  foreseen a major disruption in the education sectors. The political leaders need to find a way for educators to best nurture today’s youth as they are the future of our country. What qualities should leader possesses in the future? Leadership is not only about giving and following order, rather thinking critically and serving humanity. The future depends on inspired leadership and that every society must be very intentional about how it trains its leader.

Most students ask virtually none of these thought stimulating types of questions. They tend to stick to dead questions like “Is this going to be on the test”?  Most teachers in turn are not themselves generators of questions and answers of their own, that is are not seriously engaged in thinking their own subjects. We must continually remind ourselves that thinking begins with respect to some content only when questions are generated by both teachers and students. No questions, no understanding. Superficial questions equal to superficial understanding. Most students have no questions. They not only sit in silence, their mind is silent as well. Hence, the questions they do have tend to be superficial. This demonstrates that most of the time they are not thinking through the content they are presumed to be learning.  Most  of the time we see  that in school teachers scolds students even if they were asking for pencil, eraser, etc. Have we ever thought why education system is divided into four levels i.e. primary, middle, secondary and higher secondary? Why teachers do not give us practical knowledge? Why they are tend us to focus on theory and not on practical use? According to me practical knowledge should be there and teachers should change their teaching techniques according to the need of interest and aptitude of the child.      

As children we are born with infinite curiosity and lack fear to use it. The new system should be implemented this understanding by: Letting learning happen instead of making it happen. The new future needs a new method of preparation. As, Sir Albert Einstein says: “Everybody is a genius   but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree. It will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid”. So, I think our curriculum should be flexible and each child can opt their subject as per the need, aptitude and interest of the child.