FADING RELATIONSHIPS

Few days ago, I called up a friend. Her husband answered the phone. On asking about my friend, he told me that she is disappointed with me and is not interested in talking to me. He said that she believes I consider myself superior to her.

I was shocked to hear this as it was not easy for me to take. I began introspecting and probing to myself, if I was actually what I am blamed for. I usually stay connected with my pals. Also, I never considered myself superior to any friend ever. 

I was really concerned, so I decided to meet her in personal and ask her to explain me in detail that what led her to believe this way. What she told me really surprised me.  I christened that feeling of hers towards me as ‘Digital Ego’.

She complained that during the last few months, I never "Liked" her posts on Facebook, and Instagram. I never appreciated her efforts of forwarding the posts on "WhatsApp".

All these things made her believe that I had developed a superiority complex. I recalled and realized, I had considerably reduced my presence on social media as I was occupied in accomplishing the tasks assigned to me.

I couldn’t get a clue of this discovery, but add on suddenly brought a ray of smile on my face. I didn’t google it for the apt meaning nor referred to Webster since the word was my baby. Anyways, "Digital Ego", for me, is the Ego influenced by our digital activity using tools like Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc. Isn’t it exciting and worth pondering!!!!

With the introduction of Internet and phones, our reel lives have become sunny, but our real life has lost its shine. Our friends and relatives feel offended if their post or pictures are not liked or commented and perhaps develop more respect for you, if they find you liking or commenting their post.   

I think our society has undergone a tremendous change. We are always over concerned of the speed of INTERNET but have forgotten about INNERNET which is the need of the time. Our real world relationships are being guided by our digital ego. We lack in the signals of Innernet. Let them become strong so that digital ego finds no room in our lives. Perhaps if we don't change, we will lose whatever real world relationships we have. Let me know your thoughts on this subject.

KAMINI S HALDHAR
TEACHER
THE MANN SCHOOL

NEED OF THE HOUR-LET’S EDUCATE OUR SONS TO RESPECT WOMEN

Why are Indian women denied the freedom of walking on the streets of their own city fearlessly - broad daylight or not! Can they not use their own judgment of appropriate dressing when stepping out of the house - not one stipulated by our narrow-minded society? What would it take to let a girl enjoy her own personal space in a crowded marketplace - without being rubbed against, pinched or felt up? This is the 21st century and in this day and age, to read something as horrific as the molestation incident at many places leaves you in despair about the state of the country. It is not important whether the girl was drinking or not - no one has the right to hurt and brutally humiliate another human being. Clearly, education has not taught the key instigators even the basic principles of life, while the law seems able only to react, not prevent. The world will not change for our daughters until we make a change in our sons.

As mothers, there are things we can do, some simple steps to make that change. If we call ourselves a generation of empowered women and informed mothers, surely the least we can do is to ensure our sons are not the ones responsible for a woman's discomfort at any level in the future. This is now a global movement, one from which India cannot afford to be left alone.

"Mothers need to wipe out gender stereotypes completely. These stereotypes are the first indicators to children that boys and girls are not equal and as they grow up, they will take this gender imbalance in status and power as a given,” A simple first step is to sensitise children that household chores have nothing to do with gender. Housework is work too and needs to be valued and respected just like any other work.

There is a need for creating an environment where both men and women can opt for professions of their choice freely. "Traditional roles of women as homemakers and men as breadwinners imposed by society have only reinforced the gender imbalance. A man may prefer to take on the role of a homemaker and he should be able to make his life choices without hesitation. You may not realise the impact today, but imagine the positives of a whole generation of young men who don't believe in any kind of gender discrimination."

Mr Dheeraj Kumar

Dayanand House

GUIDANCE

The Structure and pattern of families and societies are changing. Distances are shrinking. People are not confined to one locality or even one country. Joint family system is cracking up and elders’ advice to young children is not so frequently available as was available in the earlier days. A child of a farmer may not work as a farmer. The daughter of a doctor may join a course in modelling or linguistics. Due to technological changes many vocational opportunities have emerged in the fields of education, technology or communications. One can choose from these opportunities according to one’s abilities, capabilities, interests and aptitudes. But how would one know where the opportunities are, how one can avail of them, whether one is suited to a particular opportunity or not, how to prepare and so on? Apart from choices of careers, there are many day to day situations one has to face and deal with. A child does not want to go to school, parents try their best, give him gifts so that he can be persuaded to go to school, he cries but refuses to go. Nobody knows why. Another child sits in the class silent, teacher asks him to participate and play but the child does not do so. Why? Some children in the class learn faster than others. How to teach the children who do not learn quickly? The answer to all such and similar questions lie in the concept of guidance.

Guidance has been defined as ‘a continuous process of helping the individual develop to a maximum of his capacity in the direction most beneficial to himself and to society.’ Guidance is must for children which can be easily provided by his teacher as well as his parents. Guidance has following needs:-

 
Educational Needs:-

· Choice of education streams.

· Choice of training course.

· Time management.

· Adjustment with School Environment.

Vocational Needs:-

· Choice of vocations.

· Vocational Development.

Personal Needs:-

· Facing new challenges.

· Coping with problems.

· Better adjustment in society.

· Development of soft skills.

Social Needs:-

· Encouraging and motivating. Social empowerment. 

Guidance is hence a very desirable force which should be used to help individual to understand and accept the positive and negative aspects of one’s personality, interest, aptitudes, attitudes and skills.

Vishwajeet Pandey

Asst. Teacher

The Mann School

DIWALI: A DIFFERENT ANGLE

A festival of lights. A festival declaring the arrival of Lord Rama to his kingdom after the defeat of the evil. This was a very simple reason of why we celebrate “Diwali”. But the spirit of Diwali was not in bursting crackers and chanting community slurs, it was to accept that there is hope, after all, Evil cannot keep its reign over good for long.

India today is in a reign of various “Religion-based Political powers” and they are playing with the spirit of not only Diwali they will never back off in politics, just for personal gain to destroy the spirit of any festival be it EID, Eid-ul-Fitr, Holi and Ram Navami just to name a few. They are the people who might say “Why are Hindus asked not to burst crackers in Diwali when Muslims are not asked to stop killing sacred animals of Hindus at EID?”, these questions are not diplomatic these questions are ‘Knives’ that are introduced to cut the fragile thread that holds the tolerance of a particular community.

The reason for these comments getting attention is the fact that people in India take religion as a very sensitive issue and anything related to religion makes them anxious.

We need to understand that the spirit of nationalism can only be brought in practice when you are ready to accept everything that happens in the country, I mean you need to accept other cultures, ideas, and religions and if necessary politely ask them to modify a bit in some aspects that makes a country united and great.

That is the beauty of diversity, it is the art of thinking independently but deciding being one.

So, this Diwali let’s not get caught up by the religious politics and small Ego. Let’s celebrate this Diwali and any other festival with the sense of respect for all sections of the community. Let’s pledge to celebrate a cracker Free Diwali to ‘Save Environment’ for all and the next generation. 

Thank You

Shashank Mishra
Dayanand House

DRESS CODE IN SCHOOLS, A WAY OF ACHIEVING SENSE OF EQUALITY AMONG STUDENTS

 

www.themannschool.com

For most people, one thing pops into mind immediately when they think of boarding school: dress code.

While every boarding school almost certainly has a ‘dress code’ of sorts, the style and requirements differ widely.

“While most students would rather be casual all the time—because it takes less effort and is generally more comfortable—I think the dress code is a positive part of a boarding school. It provides more structure on how we are to look, it allows us to express ourselves in a new way, and it prepares us for a life beyond”.

While dress code can be a hot point of debate among students, there are many reasons that this is a popular policy across private school campuses:

Promoting a sense of Community. Dress code and uniforms bring everyone together as a united team and increases school spirit.

Improving the Classroom Environment. A dress code can limit the amount of distraction in the classroom so students can focus on learning and schoolwork.

Fostering Self-Esteem. Having a standard dress code or uniform teaches students to focus on what’s inside, not who can afford to dress the best.

Preparation for Life beyond High School. Learning how to dress professionally early on in life will undoubtedly assist students as they embark on college and job interviews later in life—many alums report feeling a “step ahead the rest” when it came to knowing how to dress professionally with ease.

Just like a sports team wears a uniform, boarding schools often look at the academic community as a team. Above all, the dress code is there to promote a sense of safety, unity, and pride.

By - Aditya Gupta

Dayanand House

WEB WAR: Cyber attack

WEB WAR is the new word in the dictionary of a techno savvy which probably talks about a surreptitious smash of digital hearts. It means a war of words. It’s a much quieter act of violence which begins with just an error message here and a disconnected server there, ending up by making the governments crippled. It has proved to be a bane for the countries.

Estonia, a small country in the Northern Europe, believes in the cashless system. From the deposition of fee to transport, from buying household goods to selling, transportation, hospitals each and everything goes cashless in this country. Pioneering e-government and Internet voting, they’re a world leader in utilizing the Internet freedom.

In 2007, their system had to bear a setback as with an unprecedented speed, the website of their largest selling newspaper was brought to its knees. It was convulsed, crashed, and ultimately collapsed under the weight of a wave of internet traffic which couldn’t be supported by it. A horde of computers numbering in the hundreds of thousands were enslaved by hackers to act as a weapon for a botnet master to knock the networks down. Botnet; a network of private computers infected with malicious software and controlled as a group without the owners' knowledge. Within no time span, the botnets hit banks, broadcasters, police, and the government. The parliament and ministries networks were overwhelmed, government’s communication network was acquainted with. The national emergency number got buckled up. It Created havoc in every single citizen of Estonia as they were unable to buy, pay, commute or get treated in the hospitals.

A beginning of web war. Unbelievable!

America and Israel created STUXNET and destroyed centrifuges pushing the Iran’s nuclear program almost two years behind.  President of Iran Ahmadinejad ordered to build a strong cyber army to respond back to USA on 4 December 2011. The army hacked UAV, an aircraft piloted by remote control or onboard computers. It was brought down by its cyberwarfare unit which commandeered the aircraft and safely landed it,

Even India did not remain untouched with it. In July 2012, India’s power grid failed affecting 300 million people, which was the largest power outage in the history. It resulted in the halting of everything from railways to mines, from metro rails to the hospitals. Millions of people suffered in blackout.

Later on, the secret agencies came to know that it was China’s cyber army behind the attack.

A CIA’s (Central Intelligence agency) operation exploded Russia’s gas pipe line by deliberately creating errors in the software which was controlling the gas pipe lines. It was the biggest non nuclear explosion ever.

There are countless examples which manifests hunger for the data by many countries. Countries like USA, ISREAL, RUSSIA, CHINA, KOREA, GERMAY, FRANCE etc have created a new division of army called CYBER ARMY just to keep a vigil on other countries and to safeguard themselves from any cyber espionage.

It’s JUST A CLICK OF A BUTTON that changes the destiny of nations.

PRAVEEN KR SHARMA

MAPSIAN

THE MANN SCHOOL