Yesterday I had the pleasure of viewing a nice travel show on Maldives on Travel XP Channel channel. Whenever I see or hear about this beautiful country I can't help remembering my good friend Jose (Jose Kottuthundiyil Cherian) who served there as HOD English and Principal in schools. (He and I were colleagues in a school in Bhutan in the late '70s. We lost contact for many years until a few years back, thanks to the Internet). I'll post his photo when he sends me one.

Sink sanity

Most people do works just like how others do. But some people do the same works differently (so that the work can be completed more efficiently). I belong to the second category though at first seen as a sort of `eccentric'. 

We all know that kitchen sinks are sources of mosquitoes, cockroaches and other living organisms that can harm our health. We also know that these organisms feed on kitchen trash. In order to minimise the inflow of these organisms, I always make it a point to close any sink-bound utensil with a lid before placing it in the sink (as shown in the photo below):

(The photo is upside down. I tried to insert it in the proper orientation, but couldn't. I regret the tech problem which I'll try to sort out when I find time. Sorry for inconvenience).

It is always better to place any utensil away from the centre so that when we open the sink tap, the water doesn't spill out from the utensil.

These are all simple (probably uncommon) ways of functioning with significant benefits.

Yesterday, after several weeks, I bumped into a very meaningful malayalam movie "Aathma Kathaa" meaning "Soul's Story", on Bharat Channel. This morning as I write this post, I hear a nice rendering by Placebo, a German rock band, on DW TV. Any entertainment medium isn't bad as long as it is meaningful. 

A few days back, Goswami Gaurav Krishnaji was narrating a small incident in one of his discourses on Srimad Bhaagavatham: An inspecting officer was visiting a school to assess the quality of education imparted to children. During his visit to a class, he asked the students, "Who broke Shiv Dhanush?" Students said that they didn't know. This happened in all classrooms. He presented this question to teachers. They also said that they didn't know. Eventually he called the headmaster and asked the same question. The headmaster replied, "Sir, I really don't know. By the way I didn't break it. As whatever has happened cannot be undone, please don't worry about it any more."   

Any one who read the Indian Epic Raamaayanaa would know that it was Lord Shri Raam who broke the Shiv Dhanush during Goddess Sita Devi's Swayamvaram and married her.

This incident gives a somewhat correct picture of what is happening in our K-12 schools. Our schools seem to teach our children as to how to make a living (in any manner)  but not how to live.