Today was sad. One of my most cherished ideals broke down. People don't....actually, cannot...appreciate other people fairly. They aren't designed to do that.

 

People work hard for appreciation. But getting appreciation has more to do with whether you fit in people's good books. Whether you fit in their scheme of things. Whether you have appreciated them openly.

 

People will continue working hard for appreication. But while expecting...its useless to think that appreciation is ever 'due' because you have done something valuable. Appreciation is critically dependent on history.

 

Though we aren't designed to appreciate fairly....is it useful to do so ? I think it might be. Especially in the context of an institution.

. Appreciating people for what they do and think is an amazing tool in the building of an instituition. Honest and fair appreciation brings in a respect for value.

 

One observation is that we try to deal with all things about a person at the same time. If someone is enthusiastic and creative but indisciplined....his enthusiasm and creativity is not appreciated. On the other hand if it is, then his indiscipline is not criticisized. A single 'consistent' stand is taken for or against a person. This seems to be from our evolutionary past....when dealing with people, we usually deal with them in a more or less binary manner....we are either interested in them or we aren't. We can't be interested in part of them...even though we might want to be....they come in only entire packages genetically. In such a scenario, it might be a good strategy to make overall judgements about people rather than a detailed itemised analysis.

 

I feel this might be too perfectionist for it to be good for today's institution. When you are trying to encourage people to become effective, it helps if you accumulate. If some things are effective...keep them...work on others. Appreciation can be a useful glue to keep things that are fine. Criticism will also be a lot more effective in the background of Appreciation.

 

Yet, though its useful, its still difficult to do. It means beating 'nature' or your genetic makeup. Thats always hard. One way to do it is to use it as a tool. Just because you Appreciate fairly....you don't have to use the same theory when assessing whether you're getting fair appreciation.

 

In the end, its not a good idea to say that "fine, i don't care whether i get appreciated or not...". You need it. Fact of life. Just understand whats happening and getting appreciation involves a lot of other things. Yet, giving it fairly can be brilliant in an institution.

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Selecting people is one of the most fundamental skills for someone who wants to build institutions.

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Noticing Opportunities

My biggest regret from college is that I was neither humble, nor wise enough to learn from others. I was good at something...and I worked hard to transmit insights from my ability to other people. However, I wasn't serene enough to notice the opportunities that existed in their own being. I missed the opportunities...and hence lost something...but there's more that I'm sad about.

Opportunities, in an educational context, are a resource. Opportunities not

utilized must come under 'losses' in the balance sheet of an annual balance sheet of an academ institution. Opportunities exist at all levels, and hence must be accounted at all levels.

Take my case. My core competence is thinking and generating ideas. At least I think so. In college, this competency developed and matured. College also provided me oppurtunities to develop other aspects of me. Some of these opportunities were 'official'...like the research program, and the summer training program, and the industrial training unit. Others weren't as 'visible'. And in fact, these 'official' ones depended on the 'invisible' ones. Let me explain.

I'm a good thinker. And wherever I went, thats all I did. Be it the trainings, the SY BT pracs, the ITU, whatever. I didn't try to develop the other parts of myself. Even in research, after I didn't get in...I was away...didn't try to learn from the people who did have that 'visible' opportunity. 

Opportunities don't always knock. They aren't always in front of you. The most fundamental, and the most numerous opportunities walk at your side. You have to notice that they are there. I spent a whole year with Nischal at the ITU...I didn't learn an ounce of practical rigour or technique. I was with Stuti through the three years, and yet, I can't claim to know a single Molecular Biology technique properly.

These are all missed opportunities....it won't show on my CV that i missed them. And am I the only one to have lost ? No. By not attempting to honestly learn from others, I have deprived them of an opportunity to instruct. And I have made the whole system incurr a loss of a whole cluster of opportunities...which have obviously had an impact on the growth of the whole system.

And I am only one such person. The no. of such missed opportunities must be immense. There were so many people around. Who had things to share, who had things to learn. Most of the exchanges never took place. Obviously, even in an ideal process, only a fraction of these possibilities will come into being. But, we are from the optimal. And worse, we still don't recognise that we are missing something. And that what we are missing is not just a loss for you or me...but for the entire 'network'.

It's a bewildering complex system. There's no way to plan your way through it. I have no 'solutions' or 'suggestions' that will change the way things work. The challenge, as individuals, is not to push the entire network towards optimal conditions. Rather, the challenge is to be aware of these opportunities that arise silently at the micro-level...and to facilitate their utilization. There is nothing that will ensure that this happens. At the macro level...all we can do is encourage, catalyse, and appreciate these opportunities...and the role they play. Any attempt to control these micro-properties will be counter-productive.

 

Do I have any advice for a delayed Apoorva clone coming into college ? Well...I'd just say...."If somebody is good at something....become a student. And give them the same respect you'd give a great teacher."

In short. Respect experience.

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The aim of an instituition cannot be extended natural selection. And I believe this principle to be immutable and eternal.
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The rasa of 'accessory education' is that we are not trying to necessarily change the system...rather, we acknowledge it's strengths...and only work towards assisting the modern education system to fill in not just gaps, but to add new dimensions to it.

 

Often, overhauling systems is a bad idea...systems can't be built overnight...they take decades...and it isn't a good idea at all to demolish them in one go. The rebuilding process will need too many resources, too much time, and will most probably end up as it was, if not any worse.

 

Systems however tend to be inflexible...if they are flexible, often they don't need assistance. But if they can be assisted not by twisting and turning their structure...but by building upon their foundations, and using the spaces left in their gaps we can produce a more solid organism of learning.

 

Such a task is intrinsically associated with the difficult task of dealing with umpteen contradictions that will arise. Running a parallel process in synchrony with the system, and with such different rules, can be disconcerting...not just to the participants, but also to those who perpetuate each. And so, it's not a evolutionary attitude which will be of use...rather..a practical yet visionary attitude is necessary...that understands the plausibility of the contradictions..and yet, never fails to stop dreaming.

 

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This is Supriya's gem...she just answered a simple question....Why Teach ?

Because teaching, is about growing. Each day. And in each moment. Within you. Its about learning anew everyday, from within the fabric of that which you knew yesterday.

Because there's nothing like that "click" when you see ...comprehension on the face of someone. And you just stand there awe-struck by the immensity of the moment ....where you....you little teeny weeny insignificant entity in this time space compendium said  something, and to someone...it made sense. To someone, it mattered. And the universe changed forever.

 

Because teaching is about sharing. Because teaching truly, needs you to be...brave. And I admire courage more than most other things.

 

Because inspite of everything (including them being themselves), I like people.  I like being with people. I like talking. I like listening. I love it when I say something and they smile.(Aside: I like attention)

 

And because science has so much to give to all those people. Because science is the most misrepresented thing ever. Because I want to be science's spokesperson....and tell them about all the splendour that awaits them.

 

Because, I believe that one of the most important "commodities" in life, is a sense of wonder. And the primary objective of a good teacher, is to instill that wonder within you....somewhere "in your middle". And I want to be that teacher. I want to try.

That's why.

I was going up the road opposite IIM when for some reason I noticed the PRL director's residence. I noticed, most of all, it's size. And immediately, all those examples of big homes came to mind. In any other frame of mind I think I would have thought...what a waste. But, something made me think beyond. Becaue of the reverie I had been in IIM maybe...I didn't feel like bashing up people with big houses. I still wondered, though, what do people do with such big houses. What would I do with one, if I had it. And, I thought, maybe, if you had a biggish house, you could catch hold of somebody, and start a small casual science club in the house. You know, use the space...fill it up...with kids...with boys and girls....with books. Just for the fun of it. In fact, if we did it well, we could do it in every other area of the country. Just find a richish guy with a biggish house and enthuse him enough to let out some of his space...round up kids from around the area...and play. The science would come on it's own. All you need is some sense....and some enthusiasm from somebody. It would build communities, competition (of the nice sort), co-operation, and a whole lot of fun. The kids would get a nice place to call their 'own'...the rich guy would maybe feel that he's done something good, and there'd be a motiff to give people the love, attention, the chats, the togetherness that they usually need. And hopefully it would resolve That community mismatch.

 

I wonder if this isn't the way you free up the vast locked up resources we have in the country. Thats what VS did i think. He had tons of land. He just played around with it. Letting it out to groups of interesting people. In fact being part of the interesting people. Result is clearly visible. He could well have sat on it, and been rich all his life. Waited for 'enlightened' governments to approach him for the land. And then we know what we'd have there. His is an extreme example i suppose. On smaller scales...of space and time...this would build up that critical mass of intellectual networking...that would hopefully emerge some day as national awareness.

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