Page 15 - Seniors Today - March Issue

while having their utility, will be adding to boundaries of human behaviour and
the digital clutter and social distancing of the
real kind.
The guru-shishya parampara in our
culture over thousands of years involved
a daily physical interaction between the
teachers and the disciples, and ensured
service, discipline, learning, debates
and discussions. It enabled transfer of
knowledge to successive generations via
word of mouth, which can be called as
‘shruti’, essentially learning that have
been heard and transmitted by gurus to
shishyas in a continuous cycle of knowledge
transmission (am intentionally leaving out
the divine revelation context here). This
system also ensured over time, that what
is learnt is preserved in an understandable
format giving rise to ‘smritis’ (essentially
meaning that which is remembered) or texts
written by various gurus. Little wonder that
our scriptures and texts have lasted till today
with definitive knowledge encompassing
the cosmos, its source, the evolution, the
humans, the animals, flora and fauna,
elements of nature, religion, rituals, sciences,
morality, roles and responsibilities, principle
of business and warfare. You name it, they
have it. The bank of knowledge is so deep
and wide that a lifetime will not be enough
for anybody to learn or understand it, live
alone live it.
The inveterate technology and infinite
scientific discoveries are pushing the
The virtual classroom works, but it deprives children of the
holistic school experience
SENIORS TODAY | ISSUE #21 | MARCH 2021
interactions. Family and friends’ dinners
are no longer about group conversations,
but singular shutting out of everyone at
the table, but the cell phone. Perversely,
you can detach yourself from practically
anyone, except the cell phone. The downing
of the internet or the lack of charge to the
cell will be worse than a catastrophe and we
will all be paralysed of speech and action.
Information is universal while original
thinking is out. Wisdom is gone, knowledge
is plenty. Silence has become golden,
not in a spiritual sense, but because it is
camouflaging ignorance. The art of small
talk is gone and the era of the big yawn is in.
Daily interaction needed
Coming back to where we started, the need
of the hour is to ensure a daily interaction
between teachers and students in brick-
and-mortar schools at double quick speed,
wherever possible or by turns, while taking
enough precautions to ensure safety of
teachers and students. The fight with the
microbe seems to be a long-drawn-out
affair, but with preventive vaccines getting
discovered and used, the administrators
need to look at out-of-the-box solutions.
When solutions are being found for public
places in the name of economy, why can’t
solutions be found for the more fundamental
need of the students. The formative years of
children are crucial and their development
and learning abilities at the formative
stage is exponential and hence social and
personal interactions cannot be kept at bay
for uncertain lengths of time. Yes, humans,
particularly young children are adoptive
of ideas and adaptive to situations, but
there is no gainsaying the fact that human
interactions are indispensable in a holistic
development of the children.
15