By Doing Nothing

Every warrior wants to know something,
Every warrior finds a few important questions,
Questions whose answers mattered a lot,
whose answers could decide a war

The philosophers probed these questions,
and arrived at an answer, a very simple answer,
yet, the warrior wouldn't accept it,
even if he did, he can't implement it

The philosopher goes into the details,
explains how the nature works,
how great artists work,
and proves the elegance of the solution

The warrior buys in and walks in,
determined to implement the plan,
but he ends up ruining the plan,
he just can't implement the plan

He realizes it is humanly impossible,
to do this, to implement this plan,
how do you build the mental strength,
to be able to stay put and to implement it?

The philosopher explains,
if it is so hard to implement,
it is equally hard to anticipate,
you change the battle-field!

you change the battle-field,
to your advantage and play,
play the game your way,
take that for an advantage

Tzu points out the chairs,
the wheel and the hollows,
he points out the power of nothing,
the power of doing nothing!

Things have so many features,
that brings out value,
they have hollows,
which bring out utility

The most elegant things emerge,
when you discover what and how,
not to do something, how to hold,
how to hold your horses.

Are you like a sculptor,
to add wood, subtract wood,
repeat and wait?
again,it is the power of the hollows!

So if you're terribly confused about life,
you're probably ignoring this supreme power,
the power of doing nothing,
that's the secret of elegance!

---
Inspired by personal experience (of being unable to do nothing) and the book - "In Pursuit of Elegance by Mtthew E May"

Education- Spreading Love

I had entered the education space, informally in 2008, as a 11th class student, due to my passion for teaching Mathematics. Back then, one single question drove me- "Why can't fifth graders be taught differential calculus, if they'd like to?". I started off with the objective of teaching 'higher order' concepts early, so that kids can accelerate their careers, However, my perspective evolved over the years. I have now begun to look at something more fundamental.

I had been mentoring Einstein, a 7th grader of Tejasvi Vidyaranya, a wonder kid who is full of ideas and questions. I feel so happy whenever I get to speak to Einstein, whenever I get to ask him questions, draw answers or listen to his endless questions. Infact I'm often accussed of being biased towards him and supporting him for whatever he does, He had stunned me with an amazing display of answers (he is insanely awesome with questioning, but sometimes his answers blow your mind) at Hack your MVP, an entrepreneurship competition at JNTU.

Einstein presented his idea of developing a software patch to make latest computer run on incompatible computers with obsolete hardware/software. His marketing strategy was to get YouTubers to write about his software. Here is the Q&A which followed.
Panchajanya: What if the Youtuber call your programme shit and refuse to write about it?
Einstein: It is good for me, I will find out why it is shit and fix those problems.
Anjali: Why did you choose only YouTube?
Einstein: Computers gamers are always on the PC, they don't have time for TV or newspapers.
Judge: What if your YouTube strategy fails?
Einstein: I will try two or more other websites, if that fails too, I will change my idea.
Judge: Why not try from the beginning itself?
Einstein: I would like to build my foundation with YouTube first. Once the foundation is strong, I can get into say Facebook and if Facebook fails, I will atleast have YouTube. I will focus my energy on building one platform.

You may want to note that Einstein started his last answer by telling the judges- "Tarun sir actually taught me this, about having a solid foundation". There is this age old dilemma or conundrum of whether you'd place all your eggs inside the basket. And then a maverick questions- why not, if the basket is actually a safe one- which is precisely what Einstein was going after.

It was an amazing feat, to see young kids think and speak so well at the event. The orientation went for 1.5 days, before the competition. We wondered what we did in those 1.5 days, which got those outcomes and how do we scale that, to impact more kids? My colleague Prudhvi responds- "they travelled with us". I somehow think that is precisely the objective of education- to get the kids to travel with somebody who has got a few insights to offer- to enable a baton pass from one generation to the other or to place the child on the proverbial shoulders of the giants. But then, how do we do that?

I think education is all about spreading love. Would you enjoy the success of the student as much as his/her parents would? I think what made me pursue this startup for 5.5 years, with little or no revenues is the success of my students and the warmth displayed by them and their parents. Once an educator can own the future of a student, then education is nothing but transfer of love. The child connects with the teacher, picks up problems, perseveres and pursues it to meaningful conclusion.

We talk about teacher training and improving the quality of education. But then, I think, more than the content aspect, the connect/context aspect becomes extremely important- how else can you activate the child? You can tell stories, but how do you ignite so many questions? I believe the child deserves attention and needs somebody to speak to.

Most questions might be trivial, might have answers on the internet, but the child needs a human interaction, to understand his/her feelings and help him/her to achieve success. At the end of the day, it is this attention which wins the child and once that happens the child wins the game for you. At Sciensation, we are working towards being that person who is always there for the child when he/she needs us- someone who is there to listen to their voice.

The purpose of education is proabably to give attention, spread love and nurture curiosty. Once a child is happy, confident and curious, self-learning is naturally activated.

The Awesome Jungle

I love the jungle, it has so many stories to tell,
so many stories, oflate I found one amazing story,
a story of life, a story to remember for a life-time,
a small little story, a profound story, yet a story to be told.

In that jungle lived two small trees,
they lived right next to each other,
they grew together, their leaves danced together,
they enjoyed the breeze, they enjoyed the rains,

But the joy was shortlived,
not every moment of life is the same,
not every breeze unites the trees,
not every drop dances off the leaves.

One big storm, with all its might,
took off one of the trees,
however, the tree could rebuild,
the tree could grow up once again.

But then, he was a plant and the other a tree,
they could no longer dance together,
they could no longer rock together,
the tree would outgrow the plant.

The plant needed to catch up,
the plant had to convince the tree,
of the beautiful moments together,
of the dream of growing together.

The beautiful moments may be hard,
but they bring you together,
that's when the plant values the tree,
that's when the plant tries to grow faster

the plant had to restart from the scratch,
the plant had to dance with the tree,
in it's own small way, to win the tree,
so that they could grow up once again

it was definitely not easy,
but the plant new, he wanted to catch up,
he was game, he made frantic efforts,
will the efforts go in vain?

Only time will be able to tell,
but then the jungle has so many stories to tell,
people come in, people go, out of your life,
but then there are a few, who are there to stay

so when a storm takes you down,
how do you restart, how you go back,
how do you recall the beautiful moments
how do you catch up, how do you reunite

the jungle has so many awesome stories to tell,
the jungle tells you not to leave a few people,
who'd be there for you, for a life-time,
but would they stay, well only time can tell

Whatever the answers are,
whatever the choices are,
I have heard so many stories,
for, I'm in the awesome jungle