Walter Elias Disney was an American Business Magnate and a filmmaker. But he was one of the greatest Cartoonists this world has ever seen. It is particularly true when we are thinking of one cartoon. When we are thinking of one character created by a cartoonist which has survived more than a century. The character is. Mickey Mouse.
Of and on Mickey Mouse makes fashion statements on t-shirts, sweat shirts and children pajamas. It appears that the character is going to live another century. Walter also created Donald duck and Goofy. These are also good but nothing to beat Mickey Mouse. He won 22 academy awards including a record of four in just one year. It gave him the honor of being one with maximum nominations (59) and 22 awards.
Disney Land theme parks in US, Japan, France and Hong Kong are the places which attract tourists from all over the world. If the family travels with children there is no way that they could miss the Disney lands if they are visiting that particular country.
He died on December 15 1996 from longue cancer in California. He had created a large number of animated shorts and future films. The company created these parks and animation studio which bears his name. At times we think how could a cartoonist create a cartoon that transcends the limits of time and space. What Shakespeare is to drama and literature, Walt Disney is to entertainment particularly for the children.
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Guru Shishya Parampara 2
Today, I will talk to you about the qualities of a great Guru in the context of present day teaching. While in our country, our Education System seems to have drifted away from the traditions, some of the teachers in the US are following our traditions.
The Guru-shishya parampara always emphasized that the Guru should also be a mentor. It meant that he/she does not just give lectures. But the classroom sessions are made interactive and participative. Here in India, we see that most college students have to rely on private classes. It is not only unnecessary, but also wasteful. Students lose the time spent in the college. At the same time College Lecturers are also unhappy because they don’t find devoted students.
Now I will describe how a good and passionate teacher is rated in a typical US school or college. The teacher ensures that the class is interesting. He/she does not stick only to the text, but gives examples from life to ensure a clear understanding of the subject. The teacher is always willing, and in fact wanting to help. The teacher displays deeper understanding and carefully listens to the students. Polite and human, the teacher ensures that everyone in the class understands the material before he/she is subjected to any kind of tests. The message is given repeatedly that Teacher should never bring personal problems to school. The teacher should have great respect for the students.
At the same time, the teacher motivates the students to come to the class on time. They are mentally prepared to learn, in fact eager to learn, and to respect each other. Students must listen when another student is talking. Of course there should be no cross talking during the class. The teacher repeats to the students, never say I can’t. Further, the teacher reassures them not to be afraid to say “I don’t understand”.
I hope that the new government and the HRD Minister will take suitable steps to ensure that we go back to our tradition.
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Guru Shishya Parampara
The Education System in our country was based on Guru-Shishya Parampara (tradition). Each individual who was educated in this tradition was able to think for himself/herself. However, The British did not want this system to continue. They only wanted followers who blindly obeyed their diktat. They needed manpower in administration. So they disbanded this system. The present education system is based on recommendations of Lord Macaulay who felt it necessary to tame the citizens into becoming unthinking followers. This system continues till today.
The biggest problem of our current education system is that even though students have great imagination, extensive knowledge, they have difficulty to express themselves. They lack courage and confidence. In complete contrast, the Guru Shishya Parampara creates a bond between the teacher and the disciple which transcends the traditional teacher student relationship. The Guru acts as a mentor ensuring that each of his Shishya feels free to ask any questions which he considers duty bound to explain.
As a mentor, the Guru considers it his duty to ensure that the future of Shishya is well protected. The Guru ensures that Shishyas develop the capacity to think for themselves. Further, they inculcate the necessary skills to deal with each other and conduct themselves elegantly among people.
Great knowledge of our scriptures can be disseminated properly by bringing back the system even though in a new modern avtar.
The biggest challenge for the Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry is to give proper orientation to the teachers. Besides, the number of students in a class should be between 10 to 15 but never more than 20.
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Voice Culture & 2015
Voice culture is training to enhance the quality of your voice. It also develops the ability to speak each and every word clearly, in any language. Verbal communication has assumed greater importance in the last few years. The changing business and telecom environment has made it necessary that we speak more effectively. The efficacy of speech has assumed centre stage. In the coming year 2015 it will become imperative that we all improve our verbal communication skills. That will only enable us to create an impact on the social media sites.
What is Voice Culture? How do we go about it?
Voice is produced by the breath that is released from the lungs. The breath strikes the vocal cord and sound is produced. The sound travels in the cavities in the mouth and cavities in the nose. Resonance is added and sound becomes rich. But it is only sound not the words. The words are created by the speech organs.
5 speech organs that are critical to the creation of words in any language are: jaw, tongue, teeth, lips and palate. Any person whose speech is not clear is not using one or more of the speech organs in a manner in which these should be used.
Let us consider example of a flute player (Indian tradition flute). Flute is just a hollow tube. There is one hole for the flute player to blow. Other holes are for manipulating the fingers for producing various notes. We find that with the simple equipment some expert flute players are able to mesmerize their audience with exquisite music.
As compared to the flute our speech box is a fabulous musical instrument. Just as the success of the music produced by the flute depends on the expertise with which the musician plays the flute, the speaker can hold his/her audience spell bound with effective speech. It is necessary that the speaker must play his/her musical instrument with an expertise.
Voice culture enables you to acquire the expertise of using your musical instrument (the voice box).
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Bhopal Gas Tragedy
It happened on 3rd December 1984 at the Union Carbide India Ltd. pesticide plant in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh. 30 years have passed; but the tragic remains of the disaster continue to create anguish among thousands of families. Even after 3 decades survivors suffer from various elements and deformities. 3500 lives were lost immediately. About 25000 families continue to suffer. The Bhopal Gas Peedit Sanghatan (Bhopal Gas Victims Organization) continues to fight an unending legal battle.
It is important to remember the day. It is important for such plants to take all the necessary measures that such a huge tragic disaster does not recur. Many such plants though originally built away from the populated places have now come within the thick of population. It is time that the authorities and such manufacturing units contemplate about shifting the locations.
Let us all pray for the families.
Enemies of Happiness – Greed
Yet another enemy of happiness may have entered in the mind of some of us. This is greed. It keeps on growing unabated when not controlled. The end result invariably is a disaster. It can be greed for money, it can be greed for power or fame, respect, sex or even attention. Greed for food is also not uncommon. Greed has a tendency to grow faster when you achieve more. Unfortunately greedy people lose the perspective. If the human wanted more for happiness, it may be considered normal. But greed invariably makes you unhappy. In this case the desire is never controlled.
In fact one can be rich without being greedy. Making more money should not be the objective. Enjoying what you have and of course aspiring for more can be a legitimate goal of successful people in a competitive world. But greed does not allow you to enjoy what you have. It only reinforces your anguish on what you don’t have.
The great English Victorian explorer – Sir Richard Frances Britten once said: ‘conquer thyself till thou have has done this, thou art but a slave; for it is almost as well to be subjective to another’s appetite as to thine own.’
Shakespeare the great dramatist discussed these characteristics of human mind in great detail when he created the character of his play Macbeth by the same name. Hunger for more power keeps on increasing until Macbeth is pushed to the wall of disaster.
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Enemies of Happiness- Hesitation
The main cause of hesitation is uncertainty. Often we are not sure of the result of our decision or action. Fear of making a mistake is the root cause of hesitation. How can we overcome this fear of making a mistake?
Ask yourself “have I met anybody how does not make mistakes”. Is there any leader in the world ever who never made any mistakes? Everybody does. If that be so then why one should be afraid of making a mistake. It gives you enough reason not to hesitate. But, reason is not the only thing when we talk of hesitation and or fear of making a mistake. The associated problems like how others will feel or perceive about decision/action bothers our mind.
What happens if you don’t take a decision? What happens if you don’t take action where it is required? Consequences of inaction or indecision are far more severe than the fear of making a mistake.
The best thing is to think and act. When it something serious you can note down crystallize your thoughts and then act. But act you must. And that to must happen well in time. Delayed action often leads to further problems. Where ever you hesitate you must fix a time limit which could be from a few seconds or minutes or hours as the situation remains. Stick to the time limit. Don’t worry about the consequences of actions that you have taken after due consideration.
You must imbibe in yourself a desire for doing new things. Habit of doing new things also builds your self confidence. Self confidence in turn makes you a decisive person who does not hesitate. Hesitation is a serious development need which you must address.
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Enemies of Happiness – Attachment.
You like something, you are attached. You believe a creed you become attached etc. Likewise you become attached to your possessions, your house, your car, and things like that. However attachment does not lead you anywhere. It’s necessary that you identify the reason for attachment and then decide to pull yourself out.
Change is the law of nature. Everything that belongs to this earth must change. And you should accept these changes as a part of life. Therefore, wherever you get attached to, you are likely to be unhappy due to possible loss of the attached thing, person or place. Stop fearing the loss. Some risk is always there in life; no one can avoid all risks. I would go one step further to say that taking some risk is necessary for your growth.
In the circumstance it is best not to be attached to anything. You should be prepared for change as they say change is the only thing which is constant. Except that, everything else changes. And just because we have decided to be happy; we propose to defeat all the enemies of happiness, we must upgrade ourselves. We must not harbor attachment in our mind.
Start loving yourself. Have lot of respect for your person, for your capability and for your skills. This will lead to greater self esteem. This will also motivate to hone your strengths.
Learn to let go of an attachment to feelings. There is no doubt that emotions are powerful. It is difficult to control emotions. But constant efforts to empower your personality will definitely enable you to control the negative feelings.
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Enemies of Happiness- Procrastination
Procrastination is the bane of life. It is a major problem. The procrastinator losses perspective. He/she tends to do unimportant tasks because either they are easy or to his/her liking. In any case this is a bad habit which must be eradicated all together.
Normally one tends to postpone difficult and time consuming projects. In case the project is likely to take a long time you need to decide that you must make a beginning. Long ago I had listen to a training tape where the trainer said that in such cases use ‘Salami Technique.’ Further he described when you look at the Salami it is very unappetizing to look at. But if you cut it into smaller slices it becomes quite palatable. Similarly if we break a daunting task in small pieces we can handle the small parts of the problem and solve it using this piecemeal approach. The best suggestion is that you focus on starting the project rather than thinking about how it is going to be finished.
Another suggestion is that you decide that you will devote only 10 minutes on the tasks which you have been postponing. Spend these 10 minutes. You may note down the steps that you are likely to follow. At the end of 10 minutes you should write it down when you’re going to spend next 10 minutes on the same job. Deciding and spending just 10 minutes will not create any kind of pressure in your mind. And that is the best way to handle the job which you have been postponing. After completing every bit of it you can pat your back with any such thing that you love to do. May be listening to your favorite music, watching a TV show, or any such thing. This will reinforce your good habit of taking on the difficult, challenging projects and delivering results with confidence.
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Enemies of Happiness- Indecision
1. Spend a few days noticing when the malady i.e. indecision bothers you? What types of things trouble you? Are they small things or big things? How much time do you devote to make simple decisions?
2. Pick one thing to focus on, something that you’re constantly struggle with (it could be what time to get up the morning, what to eat that day, what outfit to wear). Make sure it’s a small thing to start with. Bigger problems can be dealt when you are more experienced.
3. When you go to a restaurant do you take too much time to decide what to order?
4. When your boss asks you to work on a holiday, how much time you take to respond? Do you say instantaneously and then repent about it?
5. While driving in heavy traffic, do you feel that you that you have taken a wrong lane which moves very slowly?
6. Next time you find yourself struggling to choose on your chosen subject, remind yourself mentally “I am a decisive person and I will not waste my time and energy with this.”
7. For important tasks, you may even write down pros and cons. Then it’s easier to decide. But never feel bad about wrong decisions. Some decisions go wrong for everyone. The more you start taking decisions, you will find that incidence of wrong decisions will reduce.
8. Now – simply pick one option. Make a decision quickly and commit to it. It doesn’t matter if it’s the right decision or not – just do it.
9. Let it go. Refrain from laboring about whether you made the right choice or not and move on. Do something immediately that really does matter to you – and if possible something that will make a positive difference to your life or to the lives of others.
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