Learning, then and now – I
When I look at the past and see how it was for people like me, it saddens me and makes me laugh as well in the modern LOL way
Post by on Monday, June 21, 2021
MUDASIR MAJEED PEER
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Learning is a means to the attainment of knowledge. A
good education makes it relatively easy for us to get along with our lives. If
we lack in the knowledge about the things happening around us, we are then
unresistant to the amount of harm coming our way. Knowing is owning, someone
has said.
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Around fifteen years ago learning through internet
from home in our part of the world was close to impossible because internet had
just born for us. It was only after the launch of 2G in 2008 that we were able
to acquire data connections. Today the world appears so different. A good
Internet connection at least is one step towards the path of progress, not
discounting the recent dark period of internet blockade which defeated dreams
of so many people.
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Data connectivity has powered the domain of education.
If we have the motivation today, we can access the a-list resources of learning
on the internet. Two months ago, I enrolled for seven courses on EdX, an online
learning platform created by Harvard and MIT, finished four of them so far. I
cannot put the level of excitement in words. The fact that someone lives in
Kupwara and can learn at Harvard, Yale MIT, Stanford etc without leaving
his/her home for me is the simplest definition of globalisation. Learning in a
world class university without going through the long ordeal of reaching there
physically is a possibility now anywhere.
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Online learning platforms like EdX, Coursera, Yale Courses
(Youtube), NPTL, Vidya Mitra, Swayam etc are the knowledge revolutions. Whosoever
wishes to be the beneficiary of this diffusion of knowledge through internet
can easily be so without facing any barriers. Maximum useful content is freely
available, just a single click away.
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Do kindly believe me there is no gatekeeper asking you
for Aadhaar card, no one even asking you to present your ration card. And no ‘Master
Je’ looking at you with spiteful eyes as most of us have experienced at some
point in our lives during our school, college or university days. All you need
is a phone with internet support, the same phone with which most of us have
conversations with our Tinas, Minas, Rahils and Rahuls every day. To raise the
bar and make our profiles better by assimilating a good amount of knowledge
everyday won't be a big deal. I am sure it’s going to add more quality to those
conversations.Â
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If opportunity is knocking at our door, we must
welcome it. We are amply aware about how our educational setup has worked.
Personally, when I look at the past and see how it was for people like me it saddens
me and makes me laugh as well in the modern LOL way.
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I am reminded of some funnily tragic instances from my
school days about how it used to be then and how it is now. Our science
teacher never told us Lal Dhamay Khulaye
(Urdu) meant Red Blood Cells in English. We knew Lal meant red, but
had no clue what Khulaye and Dhammay meant. He never cared to
tell us. And these Urdu words did anyway not evoke any temptation or curiosity
except at the time of exam when we found a question on 'Blood' in the paper. We
made sure that we write blood is red, at least. Lal
DhamayKhulaye was a route to losing the marks because the
teacher wanted us to be angels and write RBCs without ever making a whimper
that Red Blood Cells was English translation of Lal DhamayKhulaye in Urdu. His class was relief in one
sense at least— he used to sleep for at least 20 minutes in a class of 40
minutes. Not just that. He would snore too. I always prayed for such an easy
sleep, never happened not even in the night. If today anyone complains of
sleepiness, I sincerely wish that my teacher's Rooh enters him/her.Â
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My urdu teacher always had his kidney as an excuse to
not teach us. He always told us he had pain when he entered the class which
might have been true, God knows. But we were never able to figure out why the
pain started always only after he entered our class. He was always fine with
other stuff like eating, spending time in gossiping with other teachers at
school, discussing at shop fronts etc.Â
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My zoology teacher completed the structure of kidney
in one year when I was in 12th standard. I swear this is truth, though
unbelievable, but could be corroborated by all my classmates. It was a
small topic in zoology. (My cousin had taught me way better than him in one day
when I was in 10th.)Â He always told us it was a very important topic. We
never asked him about the other parts of the syllabus, typical govt school
student behaviour. Whenever in difficulty we used to wish that some bomb fell
on our school or some calamity struck us. That way we were lucky only once when
2005 earthquake happened, we were in the midst of our exam. But our teachers
still conducted the exam, the only thing they were best at Exam. One of my
Ma’ams made me miss my first two classes every day when I was in 4th standard.
She used to send me to pick her lunch from her home. It would take close to two
hours every day. But I was happy always. We had agreed to a deal that I
will have highest marks for lending that service. When exams were near, she was
transferred. I was devastated.I felt like Bandiya (Raj Pal Yadhav) in ChupChupke
movie when he is given so many clothes to wash but when it is the time for
eating, he loses it to the communication confusion and therefore is deprived of
meals, the price for acting over-smart. Thanks again to govt schooling system
till 5th we enjoyed mass promotion always.
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     (To be continued...)
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(Author lives in Kupwara and has postgraduation in Journalism and mass
communication and Political science. He can be reached at mudasirmajeedpir@gmail.com)
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