INDIA: Perfection, Competition and Swami Vivekananda

INDIA: Perfection, Competition and Swami Vivekananda

 

"Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man – Swami Vivakananda"

“Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man – Swami Vivakananda”

Sometime back I wrote about Abraham Lincoln’s letter to his son’s school teacher and my perspective and how it was appropriate for our lives here too. To bring up a good human being and to help him/her learn and get educated is the role of the parent and also the teacher at school.

Well, there were these competitions going on in my seven year old son’s school again, here, in India. This time it was Western Music. I am so fond of these musicals. My son sang some of my favorites and then Que Sara Sara and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer. He continued to the preliminaries, quarter finals, semi-finals and the finals. But one day while preparing for the finals at home, my son suddenly said, “Not all are going to win.” 

I said, “Yes, they are not. But if you want to win, you need to practise.”

 

He was not the type of person who was interested to sing, but the type who loved to listen to music and songs. And I discovered this during this time.

“But amma, I don’t care.”

“Well, you should do your best. And then if you don’t get to win, that is fine. But you should not just give up.”

“I am not giving up. I just don’t want to sing.”

“Oh?”

Well, I was at a loss of words. I did not want him to do something he did not want to do. But then we were already into the finals, and I thought was it not a sheer waste if he did not even participate? This got me thinking…

The next day I found this quote in his school’s website.

Education is the manifestation of the perfection already in man – Swami Vivakananda.

We send our children to school for education and the teachers and parents are loving and affectionate and try to encourage the children to imbibe knowledge.

But then, what do they actually learn? Only what they chose to!

And also, sometimes they don’t learn and at other times they are very smart in academics. They also indulge in sports and other extra-curricular activities. We are happy, sometimes sad, and at times indifferent to various achievements, successes and failures and mediocre performances of our children. So many choices, actions, results, and yet Swami Vivekananda says we are all perfect.

If everyone is perfect, then where are the gaps? Why do only some people win? Why are there so many differences and scales of grades? ‘Manifestation’ is the significant word. What manifests out of a child is important. And whatever manifests, the society, the parents and the teachers are responsible to some extent. And then the children themselves are finally responsible. We bring up a child, giving him a lot of room to explore, think, discover and find joy, and, thereby, allow him to manifest his perfection.

I did not ask him to practise a lot for the singing competition. If he is not interested, let him not be. Maybe he is interested in building robots. Maybe he is interested in literary pursuits. Maybe he is interested in astronomy when he points out the pole star and Venus.

Because he is talented to sing, does not mean he should want to do it or become the next pop star. Whatever he allows to be manifested from himself, only will be, and I cannot force it.

And the reason for what he focuses on, no one can understand. It is his own mind acting under his own will and there are no explanations for that. So, let me not put a restraint to the manifestation of his perfection. Let him lay down his own options and channel his own interests.

In the end, he did end up participating in the finals, but without practising and the results are not out! But I shouldn’t care about the results because he doesn’t, right?

Is your child exercising independence in what he wants to do in life and what he wants to achieve? If so, are they different from what you think? And how do you handle it?

This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Purnima, our Indian mother writing from Chennai, India. Her contributions to the World Moms Blog can be found here. She also rambles at The Alchemist’s Blog.

Photo credit to Wiki Media Commons.

 

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle Plus

WORLD VOICE: How to Host a GAVI Global Tea Party!

WORLD VOICE: How to Host a GAVI Global Tea Party!

Host a GAVI Global Tea Party!

Host a GAVI Global Tea Party!

Who wants to add a spin on their regular ladies night out?

We all do!

How about throwing a GAVI Global Tea Party?  It’s easy!

The GAVI Alliance is a public and private global health partnership which carries out vaccination programs in developing countries.  And the GAVI Global Tea Party is a grass-roots movement of people talking around the world over tea, about immunizations for children in developing nations.  There is even a documentary being made out of these international tea parties.

Want to join the movement?  Here’s how to host a GAVI-WMB tea party:

  1. Brew some tea, get out your tea-cups, throw in some snacks, cakes or anything you prefer to eat with a cuppa!
  2. Next, fire up the computer and fire up some GAVI videos featuring mothers and children around the world benefitting from well needed immunization programs.  These videos are great conversation starters! You can discuss what you saw in the videos and your views about spreading awareness.
  3. Just get talking!

Just three steps – it is as simple as that. Host a party, drink tea, talk about immunizations, ask how interested your guests are about continuing the conversation on immunizations.

Your tea party can be as varied as you want it to be. You can have a minimum of 2 people to 50 people, or however many people, talking about helping to save the lives of children.  Did you know that a child dies from a vaccine preventable disease every 20 seconds?  Consider helping us shout out about how important it is to have these conversations on global health.

Ideas for your own party can include your own ethnic or geographical spin on it! Or you can just do something as simple as hanging around in a coffee shop for just 5 minutes to view and discuss the videos or host a party in your child’s school for half a day along with the other parents.

There are no hard and fast rules about how you go about raising awareness to help immunize children, many who lack access to vaccines and good medical care.

Some World Moms Bloggers have already hosted their own GAVI-WMB tea parties! Jennifer Burden, founder of World Moms Blog hosted the first party. Allison Charelston of New York did a very memorable party. Lady E of Indonesia did her party in a very scenic place with very beautiful china cups. From India, I did a very informal tea party with my neighbours.

Check all the above links to see how each blogger did it her own way.

Join the GAVI Global Tea Party movement and help save the lives of children in your own fun tea-party kind of way! And…why tea? It’s available in most places on the globe, something to bring us and our compassion to the cause together.

Social Good for international mothers and children efforts are a part of our collaborative mission statement that the writers created at World Moms Blog. We are happy to volunteer this grass-roots awareness idea that we created especially with the work of The GAVI Alliance in mind!

In fact, this tea party was the first international opportunity for social good in the long list of volunteerism for World Moms Blog. We’d like to revive it and get the ball rolling again!

Do you want to be a part of the oldest and first social good initiative of World Moms Blog? Contact me, Purnima Ramakrishnan or Jennifer Burden at  worldmomsblog@gmail.com, and we shall guide you in this socially conscious spin on your next gathering! 

This is an original World Moms Blog Post written by Purnima RamaKrishnan in India.

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle Plus

WORLD VOICE: A Village Made Into Heaven

WORLD VOICE: A Village Made Into Heaven

A couple of weeks ago, we featured a remote village, Piplantri (Western India) on the Gates Foundation. Piplantri is a model village, whose actions of change have been very well received all over India.

Aloe Vera products from the small scale industries

Aloe Vera products from the small scale industries

They plant 111 trees for every girl child who is born, create a fixed deposit of INR 31,000 (approx. USD 620) in her name which attains maturity when she is 18 years old and chalk up a legal agreement between the parents of the girl child and the government that they won’t get their girls married off before she is 18 years old. They also have Aloe Vera industries in which the women of the village are employed. So they have achieved MDGs #3 (promote gender equality and empower women), #4 (reduce child mortality), and #7 (ensure environmental sustainability) at one go. Today on the blog, I would like to introduce Mr. Shyam Sundar Paliwal and his wife, Anita, who were the pioneers of this change action in their village. Anita is 42 years old, and she got married after she finished her 12th grade. It was an arranged marriage and the couple were happy.

Their first daughter Kiran was 18 years old when she passed away. She died due to dehydration. That was the turning point in their life, and they vowed to make lives of others happy.

They also have another daughter Hemanshi (22) and a son Rahul (15) who is in 10th grade. Hemanshi is married and has a child, too.

The women of the village tending Aloe Vera

The women of the village tending Aloe Vera

Anita recalls that when she came to her in-laws place after she got married, the first lesson she received from her father-in-law was to plant banana saplings such that they bear fruits during the rainy season and then plant mango saplings around the banana trees. Banana trees absorb water during the monsoon and transfers this water to the mango trees through its roots during the arid summer season. She says she has stuck to this piece of advice to date in her village and ensured that her villagers follow such age-old farming wisdom.

Anita, who is the wife of the ex-sarpanch (ruling political head) of the village, Piplantri, is a very active community member. She is a Zila Parishad Member (Elected person of the district council). Her husband has always been supportive of her as a woman and wants her to do her best for her villagers. He has never restricted her in any way. Though she is more educated than him, he has never been jealous of her, but has only encouraged her and furthered her growth and development as an active member of their society and community. She says, if only all women of the world gets a husband like Shyam, the women of the world will be better off and we would not be speaking of women’s rights here. 

Shyam Sundar won the panchayat elections in 2005 and he says he first wanted the people who worked in the government offices to be comfortable. He installed the first AC in the office, brought in some comfortable furniture and ensured that people in all echelons of the society were treated equally. (In rural India, at times, the upper caste people are given more respect and sit on chairs, whereas the lower caste people are treated shabbily and sit down on the floor. Read more about the Evils of Caste system in India here). He said, he worked on the psychology of the ruling body to make them happy and comfortable. He says, only if they are happy, they would start working on reform measures and help provide for the remaining villagers. He, at his own expense, made the offices a comfortable place to work and conducive to provide better results.

He started small. In this difficult water shortage era, he diverted the waste water from all houses/offices towards the fields. Better water conservation was ensured. If waste water does not stagnate anywhere, there would be no mosquitoes and no dengue and fewer diseases. So, he solved primarily problems with simple, cost-effective solutions.

He installed drinking RO water systems in schools. Brought in furniture for the students and made the public schools better than the expensive private schools. People started flocking towards government schools. He raised awareness slowly and in a small way, which evolved out.

Mrs. Anita Paliwal working on the Water Harvesting Structure

Mrs. Anita Paliwal working on the Water Harvesting Structure

He started rain water harvesting with the help of government. He built canals. He used the women of the village who were unemployed. To the left is a picture of Anita, who at times does not hesitate to get into the fields with a mean sickle. She and her husband were instrumental in starting the water harvesting structure of the village. In most of his welfare activities 90% of the employed are women and 10% alone are men. Women of the village have been blessed indeed to have him there, says Anita. In addition to 25,00,000 Aloe Vera plants, there are 10,000 rose shrubs which are also used in small-scale industries for toiletries and medicinal supplements. Women are employed in all of these schemes.

Mr. Shyan Sundar Paliwal and Mrs. Anita Paliwal with Anna Hazare

Mr. Shyan Sundar Paliwal and Mrs. Anita Paliwal with Anna Hazare

He started the Kiran Nidhi Yojna with the 76-year-old International Social Activist, Anna Hazare to ensure that no girl child is married off before 18 years old. This man who himself did not study in a college, ensures that all girl children in his village get a college degree. He also nudges the parents to get their girls married off in collective wedding, so that money is conserved and better utilised for other public welfare schemes or for their own savings. This scheme also granted government land to the parents in return for planting 111 trees on the birth of their daughter in that land, and tending to it to fruition before their girl child is 18 years old. On the death of any community member, the family is requested to plant trees again.

He says this again works on their psychology. The girl children treat the trees as their own brothers and sisters. After all, the saplings were planted on the day of their birth. And the parents get emotionally attached to the trees which came into existence on the day their family member was born or died.  They then take care of it as a family member, and would under no means cut it down. He says, it is all in the hearts of the people. If people get involved with their hearts, anything is possible. He made people to get emotionally attached to nature and trees and the earth.

I learnt something new from Anita and Shyam that day – Ecofeminism.  It is such a beautiful concept. Women and nature have been connected since time immemorial and this couple have harnessed it.

After all, he who was not highly educated could work on such things and make that beautiful village into a heaven, he says, the whole world could change too. And we would have no need to talk about the MDGs or uplifting of any downtrodden society/community.

When asked how he felt when his village was showcased by the Gates Foundation on their Blog, he gushed with happiness and pride. The district collector and Panchayat officials were so excited, too, he said. But his only complaint was that he could not get a hard copy of the magazine which he could show his villagers. He is so proud like a father, like the father of the heaven he created.

He also invites donation to his Kiran Yojna Scheme for the fixed deposit of INR 31000 of every girl child born in his village. He invites the contributors, readers and fans of World Moms Blog to make a trip to Piplantri. He wants people to embrace such change and for them to build upon it to suit their own society, and community.

This is an original post to World Moms Blog by Purnima, our Indian mother writing from Chennai, India. Her contributions to the World Moms Blog can be found here. She also rambles at The Alchemist’s Blog.

Photo credit to Piplantri.com

What do you think about the traditions put in place to support girls and women in the community  of Piplantri? 

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle Plus

SOCIAL GOOD: Interview with a Pediatrician in India (Part 2)

SOCIAL GOOD: Interview with a Pediatrician in India (Part 2)

Uganda Immunisation 0-5 YrsThis post is a continuation of the interview with Dr. V.R. Purushotham that ran on Tuesday, April 23rd.

In an effort to better understand health care services in India  and help expand public awareness, World Moms Blog Senior Editor, Purnima, has interviewed several physicians. The first in this series is an interview with Dr. V. R. Purushotham, a pediatrician in Bangalore, India, and is being run during World Immunization Week. He is consulting in St.John’s Medical College, Bangalore.

Purnima Ramakrishnan: What are some of the most pressing health concerns for children where you work?

Dr. V.R. Purushotham: The primary concerns are anemia, malnutrition and infections as these are major causes of poor growth and mortality in the community.

PR: What is the socioeconomic level of the area you work in? Are the families of the children rich, poor, middle class, etc.?

Dr. P: Being a referral hospital we see children from a varied strata but a majority are from a weaker socioeconomic level.

PR: What is your opinion on the alleged link between vaccines and autism, and how do you answer parents who come to you with those concerns?

Dr. P: There have been enough scientific studies to confirm that MMR vaccine is not associated with autism. The timing of the vaccine was a major reason as to why it was implicated. Previous scientific papers stating their association have been refuted. My view is that the damage caused by measles, mumps and rubella is far more than an unlikely association which is unproven.

PR: What is the biggest obstacle in India for all children to receive routine vaccinations? – Government policy? Financial resources? Supply of vaccines? Access to healthcare facilities? Trained practitioners? Geographical barriers/lack of infrastructure to reach rural areas? Cultural beliefs about vaccines?

Dr. P: The obstacles are multifactorial, but financial constraints and infrastructure would be the major ones. Community education initiatives have helped in this regard too and we are gradually seeing a positive change towards improved  healthcare.

PR: And what could help overcome those obstacles the most? Political influence? Foreign resources? Medical staff training? Communication/Awareness campaign?

Dr. P: Better awareness and door to door coverage services would help us overcome these barriers .

PR: As far as you have followed World Moms Blog, do you think WMB has been making an impact in improving the vaccination and immunisation awareness in India? Or do you think blogs and internet do not reach those socio economic echelons where people do not adhere to vaccinations? And if so, how do you think WMB can help bridge the gap?

Dr. P: Any forum which discusses and promotes health from the grassroots in a positive manner is playing a constructive part in the society and WMB is one of them. Having said that, it is the personal and community based initiatives which tend to have a larger impact. I concur that the population with access to blogs would be well aware of the basic requirements of vaccination .

The fact is that you are and will make a difference to the people who do read WMB and I would urge you to keep up the good work.

This post is the first in a series of interactions with physicians and health care workers in India by Purnima Ramakrishnan on behalf of the World Moms Blog.

This is an original post to World Moms Blog by The Alchemist, our Indian mother writing from Chennai, India. Her contributions to the World Moms Blog can be found here. She also rambles at The Alchemist’s Blog.

The photograph in this post is credited to Jennifer Burden and was taken at a UNICEF Family Health Day in Kampala, Uganda, where children were being immunized in October 2012.

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle Plus

Social Good: Interview with a Pediatrician in India

Social Good: Interview with a Pediatrician in India

This is the first in a two-part Interview. In an effort to understand health care services in India better and to help expand public awareness, World Moms Blog Senior Editor, Purnima, has interviewed a few physicians. The first in this series is an interview with Dr. V. R. Purushotham, a pediatrician in Bangalore, India. He is consulting in St.John’s Medical College, Bangalore.

Dr. V. R. Purushotham

Dr. V. R. Purushotham

Purnima Ramakrishnan: How many cases do you come across on an average everyday and out of that how many sick children recover and get healthy again?

Dr. Purushotham: At the outset, I am extremely happy and honored to be associated with an initiative like this which caters to the needs of mothers all along the globe. It is my belief that a caring and loving mother is the strongest immunity which a child can get and there is scientific evidence in support of that.

I work in a tertiary care hospital in Bangalore which caters to a large population of children both in and around the city and serves as a referral centre for about 300 sq.kms.  Having specialized intensive care units we do see a good number of sick children daily and 90-95% recover well.

PR: Out of the sick children, how many or what percentage are those which could have been prevented by vaccine?

Dr.P: A good chunk of diseases which we come across  are infections which affect the lungs( pneumonia), Brain( meningitis) and diarrhea. The introduction of vaccines has reduced the incidence of these diseases but cost being a limiting factor in India, the number of children who have received all the vaccines are a small population of them. (more…)

Purnima Ramakrishnan

Purnima Ramakrishnan is an UNCA award winning journalist and the recipient of the fellowship in Journalism by International Reporting Project, John Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Her International reports from Brazil are found here . She is also the recipient of the BlogHer '13 International Activist Scholarship Award . She is a Senior Editor at World Moms Blog who writes passionately about social and other causes in India. Her parental journey is documented both here at World Moms Blog and also at her personal Blog, The Alchemist's Blog. She can be reached through this page . She also contributes to Huffington Post . Purnima was once a tech-savvy gal who lived in the corporate world of sleek vehicles and their electronics. She has a Master's degree in Electronics Engineering, but after working for 6 years as a Design Engineer, she decided to quit it all to become a Stay-At-Home-Mom to be with her son!   This smart mom was born and raised in India, and she has moved to live in coastal India with her husband, who is a physician, and her son who is in primary grade school.   She is a practitioner and trainer of Heartfulness Meditation.

More Posts - Website

Follow Me:
TwitterFacebookLinkedInPinterestGoogle Plus