Conquering fear

By Archana B A

Today’s world is engulfed with the Fear Factor. The too ambitious younger generation with ample opportunities and uncertainties is leaping towards an unknown destination.

The constant changing personal and professional scenario is causing this fear to spread its tentacles to every nook and corner of our lives. The solution to overcome this fear is knowledge or awareness about the situation and our capability to overcome the fear. It is rather very unfortunate that the so called knowledge lies chained in the high-tech strata of society in the form of big volumes of books, abbreviated management and engineering degrees. So is this the real knowledge? people who are capable enough in financial terms or numerical caliber get access to pursue this knowledge which lies hidden in this system. That is the acquired knowledge, where one has to follow the footsteps of the author or the creator of the course material which just reflects his point of view, where as the real knowledge and skill which runs through generations is far more above these types of conventional academic knowledge; which fails when put to test. For instance, the skill to solve a real life situation comes with the exposure to real life situations and not according to the hypothesis of the books, projects and case studies done by someone.

Liberalization of education can be achieved by getting real life exposure to solve real life problems which is what is the need of the time. The contemporary education system is just trodding the footsteps of someone else’s experience and reflecting it in our perception which is then examined by someone else in their own view point. This is just like child’s mock play. The real intelligence and creativity of the individual is never given a chance to be expressed. The unconventional form of knowledge like the information collection and broadcasting of a fussy neighbour woman is always mocked at as being too gossiping or talkative, but her hidden talent of collecting information and reaching it to the target group is done more quickly and efficiently than our mass media sometimes. Then the best way to exploit her potential is by giving her more indebt training and knowledge to become a CID personnel or informant to the police department, even though she may not possess the formal educational prerequisite. Similarly a roadside mechanic urchin may deal with automobile spares and repairs more efficiently and quickly than a mechanical engineer because he has got the flair for the profession, because he depends on his profession for his livelihood and so he adores it, when we love the little things we do we enjoy doing them and excel in it. An old grandparent may tell small bedtime stories to her grandchildren and imbibe good moral values without even knowing that she is building up a future generation of morally responsible citizen, for that she has not undergone any teacher’s training or such. A simple housewife who has never seen any other world except her four walls and has never dealt with financial markets; knows better than any financial analyst when it comes to financial management of her household expenses and bargaining with the small purchases she makes in her day to day life. For that she does not undergo any Management degree. On the contrary, it looks ridiculous that in spite of  the so called talented pool of prestigious degree holders, marketing and financial professionals could not handle the great economic recession that swayed the world economy in recent times and are working head along heal to set it right.

What is really astonishing is that life is simple but is made complicated by us, resulting in needless competitions, ambitions which only results in endless health hazards. The only way out is liberalization of knowledge which has been imprisoned in the huge volumes of words that are the slaves of books. Let us liberate ourselves, thus liberating our knowledge like a free flowing river. Let it flow through the wild jungle of human mind and in the process get carried away with it all the unsung talents of unknown minds and lead us to the destiny of fearlessness.