గంగిరెద్దు

ఈ రోజు మా కాలనీలోకి గంగిరెద్దుని ఆడించేవాళ్ళు వచ్చారు; తండ్రి, తల్లి, వాళ్ళ అబ్బాయి (13 ఏళ్ళు వుండచ్చు) వున్నారు ఆ గంగిరెద్దుతో. కాసేపు సన్నాయి వాయించిన తరువాత డబ్బులు అడిగారు. నేను పెద్దాయన చేతిలో 20 రూపాయలు పెట్టాను. ఆయన ఆనందంగా పక్కింటికి బయలుదేరాడు. వాళ్ళు వెళ్ళిన తరువాత కూడ, వాళ్ళబ్బాయి ఇంకా అక్కడే నుంచోని నన్ను డబ్బులడగడం మొదలుపెట్టాడు. నేను తనతో అన్నాను, "మీరందరూ ఒకటే కదా, already ఇచ్చేశాను కదా మీ నాన్నకి" అన్నాను. "కానీ సార్ ఈమధ్య మానాన్న నన్ను నా కాళ్ళమీద నేనే నిడబలాలని సావకొడుతున్నాడు సార్, please నాక్కూడ ఏమైనా ఇవ్వండి" అన్నాడు. నాకు నవ్వాలొ లేక ఏడవాలో అర్ధం కాలేదు!

Rote learning

Rote learning: many people question the way kids are taught in primary schools in India which is mainly thru rote learning. Ability to remember a lot of stuff is given more importance over original thinking and creativity. Given that we can “google” for information any time, what is the need for rote learning, many will ask nowadays. I feel it is still required.

Let me tell you an analogy of a computer.  Imagine a computer that has 1 TB hard disk and 2 GB memory. If you try to play a memory intensive graphics game on this computer it may crash frequently because the graphics program requires the data from the program be available “in-memory or RAM” for it to work properly and It will find that 2 GB is not enough. All the information that is required to play the game is available on the hard disk; yet, the program needs it to be in RAM for effective playing experience.

If you want to increase the performance of the computer in above example, we will need to add more RAM to it. We can simply upgrade the memory by purchasing suitable RAM.

Coming back to humans, you can think of “Google” as the hard drive and “RAM” as the brain/memory that is required to process the information and synthesize it into new ideas! Unless we have large enough memory we will not be able to make sense of what we are reading and also gain new perspectives! We need good memory to be able to do that.

How do we get good memory? We won’t be able to upgrade our memory like we can upgrade a computer! We need to train it from a very young age to hold and retrieve a lot of information on the finger tips; whether you do it thru rote learning, associative learning or active learning it’s all up to you!

So in my opinion, rote learning/having good memory is very important in the formative years to be able to become a free, independent thinker when the child grows up to become an adult. 

Drones

Nowadays we hear about how technology is disrupting everything around us including the way we live, we do business and how we connect with each other. We have been hearing a lot about drones lately and the disruptions it can cause in terms of hyper local delivery, aerial reconnaissance, planning rescue operations during natural disasters, delivery of emergency medication and many such uses. There are huge regulatory obstacles to clear before the drones become part of our everyday life.

I have a surprising story to tell regarding the use of drones in an indian marriage in a remote town near Guntur. My brother's friend from Sattenapalli (May be Tier-3 or 4 city in Guntur district) used the drones as part of the Hindu wedding ceremony of his daughter. 

The ceremony was held in a big ground attended by around 2,000 guests and a huge stage was erected where the groom and bride were seated for the ceremony. One drone was used for aerial photography. One of the key moments of the ceremony was exchange of garlands by the bride and groom. Believe it or not, two drones suddenly appeared from the sky bringing with them the garlands and they made 3 rounds around the stage before delivering the garlands into their waiting hands and disappearing!! I was speechless when my brother told me about this. Here we are arguing, thinking, discussing about the use of drones commercially and someone is already using them in an innovative way for something you would have never thought drones could be used...As part of Hindu wedding ceremony!