I really enjoy this class a lot. It's not just because it's fun, but also because it's really providing me a platform to meet people, know them, discuss with them many things from around the world. For all the speeches we do or exercises we do, we get to have a small session for comments/discussion. And I really appreciate that short period of time because I get to learn a lot and besides I can speak my voice as well. I am really impressed with the ability of US people to discuss any issue openly without getting into a fight. And important respecting others views as well. Especially I feel this from what I have seen in our class. I cannot imagine having such an open discussion in India, no matter what the topic is. We tend to loose our patience so fast, most of the time discussions result in nowhere. One of the boys persuaded us to vote and he did it really well. One main point that struck to me from his speech was that he mentioned that we the people are branch of government and we are falling behind. Now how many 1st year college kids in India would speak like that? Well just after that boy another speech followed on voting and she specifically persuaded to do better for US by voting for Barack Obama. She had already read the books by him and also done enough research that she was really confident in what she was saying.
Well I just wanted to say 2 main points,
-how active Indian youth is in thinking about Country's prospects or for that matter anything other than individual goals. How much Indian youth is thinking about India's political future?
-And how open minded are we in talking about issues or discussing them?
Certainly from my own little experience I know that our Netas(leaders) are really not powerful enough to lead a diverse country like India. Because when they start discussing they end up with either face to face quarrels or fights in parliament. And worst, fighting with chairs and speaking slang and offensive language. We are really poor in discussing issues and that's why we never come to a good conclusion (edit: Not really a general statement, some people do discuss really well, but not Netas). And that's because everybody thinks his/her alphabet is right and that of others are wrong. That's why sometimes even a common interest cannot come to any conclusion. Well I remember myself in college days and I know I had similar attitude at that time, so I would really not keep myself open to others ideas. I don't think it's general because I was that way, but because I see a lot of difference in discussions in US and in India. I think what we lack the most is the skill of listening. We are so ready to overthrow some body's point of view that sometimes we never realize what other person is talking about. And that can be one of the reasons creative fields are really not given respect they deserve. One more thing I really like in US people is that while discussing, people just do not bashing others' views, but they also appreciate any strong points in others' views. Can we really imagine in India, people appreciating your positive views or any small idea? We don't make it to the appreciation or applause until it's something "Very extra special" (we have our own definition for this and I don't like it). I now realize that in order to build a big dream, one needs to start with smaller ones. DON'T neglect the small things, each tiny bit counts in forming the large piece.
Our country is where it was, in terms of social issues, no matter what political party is elected. But we need to ask this question to ourselves, what major things we did last decade in terms of improving our country? I know my knowledge is really poor, but still I would have known. Politicians may show some statistics and yes statistics help, but don't always rely on them, esp if our netas are quoting them. I know that to run more than billion people with so many diverse people on a land size of India is not really easy. I really appreciate all the efforts went into holding it together till date, but that does not mean we have nothing to do. We have tons of issues by which our country, our people are suffering from. We should thank God or Nature for what we have and we should think about our own personal responsibilities like giving vote to a proper person, or be disciplined and honest in what we do.
Being a great fan of Miyazaki and Studio Ghibli, I had to buy these 2 books. And I really really love them for highly rich contents. I love all drawings and paintings and movie stills they contain and once I open the book, I keep looking at scenes for long time. Reading and watching these books is an amazing experience.
