Teaching for the bright generation

-Chitra Bhandari

The winds of change blowing across the world presage a bright future of the young generation. The transformation from regulation to liberalisation, from protection to integration with international standards and from planned and service oriented institutions to qualified mentors immersed in new teaching methodologies to accelerate the growth moment will assure success in the years ahead.

The twenty first century order also brings to sharp focus the necessity  to efficiently channelise the resources of the world. In this scenario, the demands on quality education at all levels would be far more challenging than ever, leading to a boom in the opportunities for rewarding careers and top positions in the world.

These developments place a premium focus on well-trained young men and women possessing superior professional degrees. The pursuit of the mentors and the pupils demands intellectual maturity, strengths of purpose and willingness to work hard. The quality education system for those who are endowed with inquisitive minds and professional aspirations would be a voyage of discovery.

In my opinion, an ideal teacher is the one who comes into young lives as light to enlighten their paths, to nurture, to guide and shape their future. A teacher is someone who accepts the students as they are with all the talents and faults, strengths and weaknesses. A teacher helps the students to recognise their abilities within them as a sense of confidence and self-importance.

It is the teacher who through patience, toil, proper instruction, sympathetic guidance helps the budding citizens become educated. Education is important only if they make students humane and the teacher’s task is exactly to help them use their education in a way that will benefit themselves and the whole mankind.

Since mental and physical changes go hand in hand, there has to be a simultaneous  development of both for which morally stimulating faculties are required. Therefore the foundation of a sympathetic value based and progressive education has to be laid down. The responsibility of making students “good” before making “smart” goes to the school and the teachers. In reality, the term “education” has a wider and wiser definition than what we generally understand. Nowadays, the education system seems like the mysterious process whereby information passes through the student’s pen unto their notebook from the notebook of the teacher, without entering into their mind. If the notebook is lost, both the pupil and the teacher seem helpless. This clearly expresses that the current education system is stuffing the brain and not  training the mind. The efficient education system is making sure that the students grasp what is being taught to them. For this, one should well understand that teacher is the root and  students are its branches and how high they perform depends on how deep and strong their roots are and what technique is applied to help them grow. Just as the root supports and nourishes a giant tree, a teacher must absorb the very essential and distribute it among the wards. We should never try to give them a fish which they can eat for a day, instead of that we should always try to teach them how to fish. So that they can eat for their whole lives.

Many years ago when our seniors first inherited our educational system from different sources, we followed it faithfully without thinking about its usefulness and worthiness. A rigid and inefficient system, which has been damaging and stressful for millions of our young people and their parents. On the other side, it did not foster individual accountability. Some citizens believe it promotes mediocrity. That is why we need to ponder over our educational system along with all the aspects of teachers and students.

As blood is necessary for the smooth functioning of a body, an educated civilisation is essential for the smooth functioning of a democracy and to the preservation of every citizens, as proved by some of the democratic countries like the USA, UK, and Canada in the western world. A decent education is a ticket to a good, comfortable and secure life. Further, it should provide hope and open avenues for a secure future for intelligent and productive people of our society. It must enable youngsters to become contributing members of the society through knowledge, skills, and character development, and help them to compete in a global economy.

But right here, all these dreams are full of questions. Such as, are we ready for a change? Do we have the will and the vision to make meaningful and effective changes in the system ? We need more central players, not too many bench warmers. So we must prepare students to compete successfully with their counterparts in the twenty first  century by providing avenues for them to grow intellectually, mentally and physically. The essential element for these kinds of developments in education is the business of educators. Just as we do not select lawyers to treat patients, or chartered accountants to build roads and engineers to audit, the business of education also must run by fair, objective and qualified professionals. They must set the standards and various procedures of the systems within broad parameters set by the country.

Whatever may be the final product, our objectives as a teacher would be to provide a broad knowledge based education. It should not be only an examination oriented system as we have throughout the country. An efficient system of education would involve examinations, papers, seminars, practicals, internships and other means of testing to measure the students knowledge for over a period of time. What I have realised, from my own experience and observation is that it is not so much the education that counts; it is the discipline that keeps a person driving towards goals. Today, the concept of specialisation is not enough. What the world needs for the important jobs are well-rounded human beings with generous hearts full of humanity. If someone feels educated, then he or she must learn to organise, educate and re-educate himself or herself. Though our untiring effort to change the system may not bring immediate results, definitely it will bear fruits in the coming years.

Himalayan Art

-Madanjeet Singh, a well known    scholar and a photographer;  has contributed a great deal to provide an in-depth knowledge of the Himalayan art. He has to his credit many books like Indian Sculpture in Bronze  and Stone and Ajanta.

Himalayan Art deals with the wall painting and sculpture of Ladakh, Lahaul, Nepal, Sikkim and Bhutan.

The book deals with the Himalayan range, the people living there and the contribution made by the inhabitants. He also describes the role of Hinduism and Buddhism in these areas for the development of Art and Architecture, the influence of Gandhar, Kushan and Gupta schools of art. Singh not only has provided the photographs of the paintings and sculpture of Himalayan range of antique value but has also illustrated the existing birds of the various species  and their relation with the paintings.

The author has provided examples from ancient cannons of Indian Buddhist Art from Guhya-samaja, Manjushrimulakalpa, Sadhanamala, Nishpannayogavali and many inscriptions of India from fifth to seventh century. Various schools of  Tibetan Buddhist and their influence on the Arts of Ladakh, Himanchal Pradesh, Sikkim, Bhutan and Nepal are also described.

The history of Hindu and Buddhist art of Ladakh along-with the secular art of the place are illustrated. The symbolic representation of Yamantaka and other Tantric divinities is also prominent in this book. The Bodhisattva from Alchi monastries influenced by the Viswarupa Vishnu is well illustrated.

Singh also gives a glimpse of the architecture of Nepal after providing a geographical introduction of the country. The Terracotta Head of Benjarahi is compared with that of the art of pre-christian era from the Indian Gangatic plains. The so called real personage from Mrigasthali, now in the collection of the National Museum, is believed by various scholars to be the Sun God. This idea is based upon a round nimbus on his head. The designs of his lower garment and the detailed work show an early feature of Indian Art. The finding of the statue of King Jaya Verma dated 185 A.D. and carvings of  Goddesses from many parts of Kathmandu have proved the hypothesis of the author, namely the magnitude of the influence of  Kusan art in Nepal. His idea that many Indian artists after 466 A.D. who took refuge in the Kathmandu Valley introduced the Gupta Style art can not be accepted any more. From the very beginning of the Lichchhavi rule two different schools of art developed in Nepal. One school followed the traditional style while the other school encouraged the classical Gupta style. The learned author has missed many aspects of Nepalese culture. The so called Virupakshya is described by him as a noble man. If the author had studied more carefully he would not have missed the third eye indicating that the figure is one of the manifestations of Shiva and not a noble man. Sometimes he has jumped to the wrong conclusion such as Amsuvarma entering into a matrimonial alliance with Tibet by giving away the hand of his daughter, Bhrikuti, to the Tibetan King. This idea is not accepted any more. He compares Budhanilakantha with the Ananta Vishnu of the Vishwarupa friezed at Changu Narayan. The  motives of these two are completely different. The greatest contribution of the writers is the detail in the photographs of the wall paintings of the court yards of Bhaktapur palace. He has not only provided the best photographs possible but also studied them carefully and has identified them properly. In some cases, his dating has been challenged by the Nepalese scholars. Like the standing images of Lokeshwar from Hirayana Varna Maha Vihara. He dates the standing Padhamapani Lokeshowar of the same place from seventeenth century, whereas the same now has been dated by the scholars as belonging to the eleventh century. His dates for the Vishnu mounted upon Garuda from Changunarayan and the Mahishasamabara of National Museum have been challenged by the scholars. Almost all these paintings of Bhaktapur palace have faded and have not been restored. Singh then looks at the art of Sikkim both in a general and academic way. Sikkim was influenced by Tibetan Buddhism from the very beginning. Thus the study of   Sikkimese art has to start from the history and art of Tibet. One surprising   thing is that he did not find any art forms in Sikkim that can be scientifically dated to be prior to fifteenth or sixteenth century of  the Christian era. He describes the early art work after the sixteenth century, as seen in Chhortens, to be rather crude. The indigenous people were practising Buddhism long before the said periods. The clay statues and wall paintings from various Nyingma Schools are described. The Bronze Statute of Buddha, Bodhisattva, supplied to meet the demands of  Sikkim,  were sent from Nepal. The Nepalese artists and the bronze casters were summoned by the Namgyals to caste the Bronze Buddhas. The Shakyas of Mahaboudha area used to visiting Sikkim on invitation from the monasteries and aristocrats of Sikkim to cast the Bronze statues, paintings and other works of art.This fact has been ignored by the author.

Finally he deals with the art of Bhutan. Two great centres of Bhutanese art, culture and learning are Paro and Thimpu. People from Tibet came, lived and popularised the then Buddhism. The Bhatanese script has its origins in Tibet. The wall paintings, the embroidery works, the architecture and the monastic life are also like that of Tibet.

Nepal provided many Bronze Sculptures to Bhutan prior to 1950, as many Sakyas visited Bhutan to cast the Bronze figures. The whole of Bhutan is influenced by the Nyingma -pas School and Padmasambhava is highly venerated. This facet of the history of Bhutan is not properly mentioned in this Book..

Reviewed by
Diwas Dhakal

Cloning
An ethical debate

-Kajan Raj Shrestha

Cloning has begun to gather pace across the world. Since the first successful cloning of Dolly, a sheep by a Scottish scientist, by now they have cloned monkeys, the first primates and are planning to clone humans which has started a revolution in the field of science and technology throughout the world. Chicago physicist Richard Seed announced the plans to clone humans but ethical debates continued to pour in from all sides until President Clinton ordered a ban on federal funding of human cloning research.

President Clinton immediately passed a federal legislation to outlaw human cloning and so did other countries too. As the men in suits called for such anti-cloning bills in their country, controversy poured in from different fields to legalize it. Many researchers opine that laws prohibiting human cloning will threaten important research but even then, some believe that human cloning will become a reality of scientific advancement regardless of what ever laws are passed.

As the question of human cloning bounces between politicians and researchers, it puts forward a number of fundamental questions relating human life and technlogy. Does human mean only flesh and blood? Will clones have same identity as ordinary people? Should the government stop the cloning research? Must we stop such advances in bio-technology because of ethics?

The optimists of such technology claim that such advances offer a means of curing diseases and are a help in the acquirement of new data for embryological and organism development. Cloning can also be used to improve agricultural products and nuclear transfers. Scientists also believe that this methodology can prevent endandered species from extinction. Infertile couples can also have hope or couples having genetical disorders can have healthy siblings. We can have people like Einstein, Morther Teresa, Nelson Mandela or Cindy Crawford with similar facial structures but the question whether they would have the same personality and intelligence as the originals is still a mystery.

The arguments continue but the fact is the world today doesn’t require people like Einstein or Mother Teresa, they require brains like them, they need their ideas. Similarly, Richard Seed who announced human cloning also can’t neglect the consequence that such cloning can increase homozygosity and can lead to the decline of genetical diversity. Above all reproduction is a natural phenomenon and cloning can decrease the vitality of the nucleus. Diversity, the rule of nature is disrupted if all people look alike, so these cloned people will be disposable. Similarly, health hazards  like genetical abnormalities and diseases are also created by this technology which can wipe out entire populations. Ethically too, none of the human religions favours the idea of human cloning because it is like playing God thereby challenging the nature and disrupting the whole evolutionary trend.

The euphoric ‘euphemism’

Let us say you are trying to peddle some fake flowers. Do you call  yourself a fake-flower peddler? Of course not. You are a floral marketer, an artificial-flower division.

Now you can look at your product - sometimes quite beautiful pedals made of silk or whatever - and you ask yourself, “why artificial?” That is a word that generally turns buyers off: you brood about that and come up with a flesh-as-a-daisy answer: You will create a market for permanent flowers. That not only lends longevity to your produce, but it also knocks the noxious weeds turned out in hothouses and pesticide-ridden, inorganic, fertiliser-driven gardens as temporary flowers.

That is the art, or racket, of euphemism, from the Greek eu -, “good,” and pheme, “speech”. And it has been gaining speed ever since environmentalists were able to transform the damn jungle into the glorious rain forest where you can get wetlands fever).

Some objects of green wrath, lumbermen and fishermen, counter-attacked with euphemisms of their own. Even the most innocent words, when they take on a taint are quickly euphemised. The Miss Nepal contest, eager to shed any hint of royalism, now forbids the use of reign to denote the period in which here-she-comes holds the title; her once-reign is now “a year of service.”

No longer need Shakespeare’s Edmund, in King Lear, cry, “Now, gods, stand up for bastards!” As Ban Wattenberg has written of those born on the wrong side of the blanket: “It was once called bastardy. Then illegitimacy. Then, out-of-wedlock birth. And now, frequently, wholly sanitised, non-marital birth” (He left out love child.)

- DEEPS

On losing Manisha's   autograph
with apologies to J G Ballard

-Suman Subba

And I awoke from my dream of sleep. Mechanical parrots caw-cawing in the branches of my evergreen jungle leaves. The torch light lay dead. And her fingers moved like cold water along my spine though I could not see where she came from or how long and low down her hair fell. All around me grew a bright translucency like a gold nugget dropped into tepid water where I first noticed her footfall as sharp as a pike and as hungry. The mechanical parrots creaked out their wired wings as my eyes moved away from me and took on the wide transparency of a silent film actress. Someone somewhere had suddenly dreamed up a script in which I was the unpaid hero, underrated and unassuming. The mechanical parrots began screeching out their clawed music trembling in the coils of my ears and I realised I was inside their mating call. And again I felt her hand beside my spine, this time cupping the humps of my spine as if they were hills of bone stripped of flesh for her delight. My eyes lay aching somewhere off to one side laid flat like fish eyes on slabs of stone astonished staring at the sight of the sky. The torchlight still lay dead. My fingers, only my fingers inched their way round the skeletal structure as the camera zoomed in to catch the expression in my fingers looking for the button on the torch as I woke from my dream of sleep. But the darkness was as overpowering as the bright light from a fully funtioning torch and my head smarted and span from the vulture like presence of the camera trained to its cruel level of perspicacity by a thousand and one film stars. The mechanical parrots started closing in, each one ripe with their metallic smell of flesh. Suddenly it seemed they had been programmed to see me as a quixotic redeemer lying spread-eagled next to a broken torch inorder to release them from their charmed existence. I felt around for her presence. I needed her now to direct me towards the already written conclusion, but her fingers had delved so deeply into the subterranean caverns of my imagination that I felt smothered by her overwhelming wish to love the contours of my body. Her hands seemed to move like sculptors’ hands, shaping the portions of my back which she loved to hold and cup. And I loved her for that. Not understanding that I was the unwilling participant in this highly charged love affair. The script now lay off to one side, entangled beneath the camera wires that seemed to grow like her hair, like the roots of a love she wanted me to disentangle before the mechanical parrots got close enough to envelop us inside their technicoloured metallic wings. The torchlight lay still and dead, like a skeletal finger pointing to a supposed escape route enveloped in the darkness as the camera lurched in for a final close-up merging her hands and my sightless face with the growing technicolour of the enclosing wings. Then they were everywhere, these glittering emissaries from my waking dream landscape of evergreen jungle leaves. And I felt, at last, the encircling palms of her hands round me off as the camera panned away following the gaze of my disconnected eyes into a blue stillness.

A synchronous transfer mode and the high speed

-Dipesh Bhattarai

Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) is evolving as an all-rounder in Data Communication core technology. Every other protocols, newly developed or  already extant, are attracted towards it for its efficient handling of all   kinds of data and possibility of very high speed data transmission due to   obviation of large chunk of header in its 53 byte cell. This attraction is   making the interoperability a major factor to be taken into consideration. 

ATM is optimized to handle aggregate of data efficiently with very high speed, whether it is voice, data or video. Even then, due to lack of proper broadband technology to handle the full motion video efficiently for in-home  service, ATM’s capability to transfer it is unable to bear fruit. Two main  factors thwarting such development are— lack of high bandwidth   residential connection and very high bandwidth requirement (30 Mbps) for  full motion video. So, I want to concentrate mainly on ATM as core  technology for data communication and reduction in bandwidth requirement for  full motion video. 

The basic connection technology used for Internet access is telephone lines. Those lines according to the Shannon-Hartley Channel Capacity Theorem are  able to provide only about 56 kbps of speed which is very very smaller than  the basic required bandwidth for full motion video, 30 Mbps. So, either the   bandwidth for full motion video must be decreased to a considerably smaller value or every user should be provided with high bandwidth connection. If it can be implemented, former alternative is technologically and financially  viable alternative. In this case, only replacement required is end users’ equipment which in any case is being replaced every two to five years due to rapidly changing technology. So, such replacement will not face any  significant decry from customers’ side. As far as, the broadband connection is  concerned, it requires volte face in infrastructure. Also huge commitment  and colossal investment requirement make this choice prohibitive. In such cases, full utilisation of the redundancy inherent in motion  video during coding phase is a very cost effective way of reducing the  bandwidth requirement. Computation requirement for such coding will not, in  my view, pose a prohibitive time delay such as to detract the quality of  video. Obviously, such coding scheme will detract some of the aesthetic  value of natural scenery but will result sufficiently good quality for  video-conferencing purpose. 

But everybody has his own style of thinking. Though revamping the existing  infrastructure to accommodate future need of high bandwidth Internet connection costs prohibitive money, may become more cost effective with   time.Though it is a bit risky, it can definitely be a market leader. Whereas   utilisation of inherent redundancy of video though decimating the bandwidth   requirement will ultimately face a cul-de-sac. There at a point will remain no more redundancy to utilize. But users cosseted by broadband  connection will still remain unsatiated and will obviously want more. So, with high speed new infrastructure at one side, returning from the blind alley of bandwidth requirement reduction will keep its adherents at the back seat of this technological train. 

Both the alternatives have pros and cons. But it is still to be seen  which will be the leader. In both the alternatives, though, it will be mandatory to use ATM as the core communicating protocol without which large   bandwidth capacity available will be wasted in large chunk of useless header   which carries no information except for administration purpose.

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