Thursday, June 11, 2009

Change. Accept or not?

The Principal Ponders!
My objective in having my own blog is to share my thoughts and experiences with all my friends that I meet or don’t meet regularly. There are people I meet professionally or personally who are not exactly friends or just acquaintances, but someone I would like to include in my list of friends on this planet.
When I read other blogs and the comments on the write ups in it, I realize how many people actually respond to various issues.
I do hope that I would be able to transform that response into action... a progressive and proactive action is all that is needed to usher in positive change.
My all time favourite line, “You be the change you wish to see in the world” is what drives me all through!
I want you to respond, discuss, debate or comment and I do hope ( I hate this word ‘hope’ coz it sounds so pessimistic that what you wish for may not happen)
So I change the word hope to...’I am sure’ we will together build an action packed community who will make a difference.


11th June

I feel obliged that I have so many friends who are willing to share my thoughts and respond too.
I am amazed at the change in this world where without meeting or calling up one another, we are able to interact. Interacting is one harmonising action in itself, however I follow the ‘Covey Habits’ sincerely so ‘Begin with the end in mind’ is what I would like to recall at this moment. My objective through this blog is to harmonise thoughts to bring in proactive changes in the world.
After all changes that occurred till now are the culminations of somebody’s thoughts.
For instance I am able to express in English thanks to Lord Bentinck and Macaulay.
You may wonder why!
Lord Bentinck was responsible to rationalise the mounting British expenditure in India, then. His proposal to employ Indians (the first outsourcing measure) who can be hired at a lower cost seemed practical. But the question was Indians are not English educated.
I now thank Lord Macaulay who supported Bentinck. They wanted to educate us Indians.
Neither Gautam Buddha nor Mahavira prevailed upon them to enlighten us poor Indians! Let me quote them: “we must form a class who may be interpreters between us and the millions whom we govern- a class of persons Indian in blood and colour, but English in tastes, in opinions, in morals and in intellect”.
Change Then : A change with a selfish motive for them. And for us, it was a change for ruining our identity.
I believe that when we fear something, we are sending out negative vibes which attract negativity and our fears come true. That is what happened to the fear of British who believed that “educating Indians in English would result in the British getting kicked out in 3 months”. Well may be not in 3 months but they were sent out.
Change Now: A ‘Change’ which was brought in for a ‘selfish end’ but proved to be beneficial for all concerned. Of course it was not readily accepted, but who complains now? Neither those who opposed English education nor those who brought it in!
We in our country are enjoying the benefits of western education and those in UK are happy that they don’t have to rule a billion people where 300millions can speak English. All is well that ends well.
I also have to thank the Tamilians for their opposition to Hindi as the National Language. English is the un’official’ language because of the ‘change they resisted’.
But for them, I would be blogging in Hindi for which most of my friends would not respond. In this case they opposed a change but I don’t know whether they benefitted out of it or not.
In all this, look at the proactive changes we Indians have adopted! English is spoken all over the world by Indians...albeit in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu or Bengali..but, it is spoken!
We are such good learners and we know how to make things happen. One university in Kerala has actually permitted its students to write the exams in a mix of English and Malayalam, and why not?
On the flipside: I somehow have this eerie feeling that Macaulay will be turning in his grave whenever he reads the ads in newspapers for Indian teachers to teach English in US UK and Australia. The sheer blasphemy of it all must be making him toss and turn all night and all day too!
Before I sign off for today, I just want to leave you all with a thought. If we are proactive and positive, change of any kind or size, shape or form will only make us into more intense human beings!

Episode punch:
I once had a healthy debate with someone on the importance of mother tongue in the development of foreign languages, in this case English. He tried convincing me that our first thoughts are in our mother tongue and then we translate into the language we have to express in. Clarity of speech in mother tongue helps a person in developing a new language.
Fair enough! My contention is that when we have so many typical regional, local and communistic forms of language, how does one think with clarity?
For example Telugu is spoken in many different ways in many regions. And what to say of the movie heroes and heroines who developed a new style of Telugu lending an unkind hand to the increasing confusion, lesser said the better!
In this global world that we have to live in, it is imperative that we groom ourselves with clear communication skills, particularly so in English. Do you think the Chinese example is good?
English immersion camps in China
A commitment towards learning English was part of China’s bid to host the Olympic Games, to the point that taxi drivers who failed an English test did not have the licences renewed and hotlines were set up to report incorrect English use in public places.

13 comments:

Unknown said...

hi!
Change means resistance in any form,and as u rightly said it can endanger the society if not channeled in the right direction.it needs tremendous drive and a positive outlook too.
looking forward for a moment which can funnel the change in every human being for the good.

rgds,
sudesh

Hemant Kancharla said...

Hello ma'am, this is Hemant, from grade 10.
Sensational blog, I really liked it, especially the episode punch. Please keep updating it and you are sure to have a lot of fans.
Cheers,
K. Hemant

Anonymous said...

Hello ma'am!

This is Kruthi.The views you have shared regarding 'change' has provoked many thoughts in my mind. Your favourite line "You be the change you wish to see in the world" is exemplary. Looking forward for many more great views!

Regards
Kruthi

Anonymous said...

Kudos to your creative idea of utilizing the blog as a tool for reaching out to many people worldwide.
The episode punches are very interesting.
Change is a constant process, is irresistible and is always for the good. Change may be slow or quick. It depends on our mindset whether to accept it or not.
If the time is not sufficient for thinking then we may not judge the change in the right direction. So to accept it or not depends on the time and the issue.
If the change pushes us into a comfort zone then we accept it.
Accepting change with a right perspective may help one rediscover themselves and a positive change is always welcome.
A small change can lead to a bigger change with global impact.

Regards
Uma

Yohith said...

hiiii ma'am,dis is Yohith f grade 10.
hats off 4 ur thohts f bringing a change in ur friends comunity & more den dat too.
d 1 i likd d most was "change now" n episode punch.
hope dis changes evry1
wanna c u creatin more blogs like dis 1
3 cheers ta u ma'am
Yohith

Vamshi Krishna - vamshkrishaqua@gmail.com said...

Hi ma'm,

Your blogs are excellent and there is 'kick' in your episode punches which makes them more interesting. What I understood from the second punch is, if the change brings many benefits along with it and if it becomes inevitable to survive then everybody accepts it. The example of Chinese taxi drivers learning English for Olympics is very suitable in this context.
Looking forward for many more such blogs and punches.

Best Wishes and Smiles,
Vamshi Krishna. G
Grade - IX,
Silver Oaks

Jaya said...

That's true! Change for everyone is enevitable... CHANGE has a great and broad meaning ... Ms Seetha Murty talking about change in the school is showing the greater side of hers in making the change happen thru her blog... Learner's community will definitely learn to change for a change and for good....

Sunil Kumar said...

Firstly, I would like to thank Ms.Seetha Murthy for initiating this blog to exchange ideas among the people on various topics.

At this point in time, I do not have any specific comments on this blog, but I will continue to watch this space and add my comments.

Malyadri said...

HI mam,
i appreciate your initiative of creating a blog. i wish its going to form into a ocean of current with all the innovative thoughts of proactive citizens and make change inevitable. as you said change is a welcome aspect of life. why not take the election results as a indicaton of the change in the people' s perception or expectations? may be it's not the chalta hai attitude which made them vote for congress! if they have voted for congress it is not that they were satisfied with the 10% good it has done to them. it may be because no other party or independent candidate could convince them of that 10% service. if the indians were so blind or had a 'don't-care' attitude of the leaders they were going to choose, why couldn't they vote for the super stars that have shone on their screens for years? Indians are waiting for a proper leader. time has come when the waiting turns into action and each indian transforms into a leader of his own and the country. there will come a time when the indians wouldn't accept just a lay woman as the home-minister of the state. did mr raja sekhar reddy not understand what value and responsibility it carries?( i wonder he must have thought that as she is a woman , giving her a 'home ministership' would be appropriate).
Coming to the point of english , i still feel that every thought in a person's mind first comes in a mother tongue and then changes into the language we want to put it into. the only thing is we don't realise it because the distance between the mind and the brain is too less.
thanx once again for the chance to blog into this wonderful spot.
akhila

Suma Athri said...

Hi Seetha

Its just great!!! I am impressed by the way you have tried to bring change in the way we think about change....keep writing and we will keep appreciating...

rgds
Suma

Aniruddha said...

CONGRATS!

Nice blog to trad.

Read -> Think -> Act -> Achieve -> make others achieve

The process continues.

I remember the following:

"Change Agent -
I am a catalyst for developing high performance in large organisations."

The blog contents will make everyone to undergo a metamorphosis and make the society and environment more beautiful and woth living for.

Aniruddha

Smile, the Panacea said...

Your Present Blog on change ,more specifically about the resistance to change from many to learn English is an issue for long debate. English Language is a great unifier and offers plethora of opportunities to learn .Nevertheless, treasures of knowledge is available in many regional languages , sanskrit etc and one should be flexible to learn any language including English .

Harika said... said...

hi ma'm!
congratulations...
the views you have shared has inspired me a lot...!the episode punch was really good.thanks for such a good blog.I am proud to be an acorn of SILVER OAKS.I am sure u will post many inspiring blogs like this.Cheers to you:)

Regards
Harika
Grade-X