AS OF NOW UNTITLED

The game is at a draw
I have to take your illusion away
The one which was so bright
Shining like a resplendent ray.

I have to pick them up
Those scattered unreal shards
I shied away for so long
That reality is really really hard.

The game was an unending trail
I looked for the finish line
When the smokescreen finally lifted
I knew the illusion had been mine

Autumn at Natchez Trace

Small things can be so beautiful--this place is barely a 20-minute drive from where I live but look at it in the fall!

Development and the vicious cycle

I attended a talk for neuroscience today and I realized something--development is a process that can stop very easily if we get caught in the vicious cycle of routine and the so called ''necessary jobs". For instance, in several countries including my own, India, academics is given great significance and children are encouraged to devote themselves to it since their early years. Diversion in the form of other activities is not well looked upon because 'how can drawing help you to get a high rank in your entrance exams?' The result is a population of youth who have excelled in the academic system but have never had a chance to explore themselves or understand what they like or want. However, if you go by the Indian way of life, what chance is there to discover yourself? At the end of it all is it important to be well-rounded, to seek knowledge and to engage in a constant process of development? If people try to follow this then what about the necessities--because the fact stands that the mind can explore in peace only when the basic needs have been fulfilled. There are also people who do not let the system affect their own development (some scientists and artists)--how does their preoccupation transcend basic needs or does it? So ultimately it appears that the choice is to be made by the individual but what seems appealing is to be able to do both--fulfill the needs and still be in a progressive state. That's a matter of time management, perhaps.
The education system in other countries is also not amenable to development--you have to be in the system and tweak it to a reasonable degree to come out with a sense of true achievement. The American system, for instance, has a great deal to offer in the way of liberty, choice and opportunities. But when you combine it with politics, collaboration issues and subjugation from superiors, you wonder if this is really the liberal education system that you were looking forward to? It has a lot to offer just like the British-based system yet the advantages are shrouded in a veil of superficiality that the learner has to remove bit by bit.
There may be no perfect answer or exact solution to designing these cycles to achieve what can only be called idealistic aims but it is possible to be in the system and explore the opportunities within. Change can only be brought about by the people within and that too, by enough people within. Revolution has to be accompanied by volume in addition to concept. The point of trying to explore this situation, interestingly enough, comes back to the seminar. I was initially going there for the free food! I had planned to leave it early but I could not. It was fascinating and I realized how good it felt to be just learning after a long time just to learn, not to take exams or get grades, but just to know. Why are we not educated mostly like that? Would such a system work where students were actually encouraged to learn and not to channelize their education totally towards material aims? I am not saying that material aims should be abolished , I just feel that the stress should be towards a more broader goal which leads to a lasting development.

UNRELATED NOTES:
Key points of the seminar:
Multiple sclerosis
Infection c.pneumoniae
disease combination of demyelination and infection
Can infection cause demyelination?
Early cases of MS in Faroe islands after British troops left