communication and understanding – with oneself

If there’s one thing I can think of to improve Indian culture it is this – and I believe it should be taught right in school itself, or atleast during the degree level of education…

On an average we really lack such a crucial life skill as communication – listening effectively, speaking clearly, articulating ourselves, organizing ideas on the spot and presenting any topic in a structured way, etc. Atleast I myself learnt it pretty late – only a couple of years after working in icope.

But in the first place, the most crucial thing is understanding ourselves and seeing atleast a small fraction of our own potential (let alone others)! As far as my own experience is concerned, I cannot claim I’ve understood myself but I’ve only made an attempt, and so far its turned out to be what seems to be a never-ending lifelong and a very fascinating process. In fact that’s the reason for the title of this blog – rediscovery – every now I’ve found that I need to discard some obsolete baggage of assumptions, prejudices or ideas, and learn something radically new!

But there are a surprisingly large number of people who apparently don’t even make an attempt, who don’t even acknowledge that there’s any necessity for this at all. Of course a fraction of such people are truly self-content and happy, there’s no need for them to make any attempt at all. The others aren’t, but simply feel compelled to drag their feet through life like its something that just must be gotten over with.

There are these two quotes…

“The unexamined life is not worth living.”
– Socrates

“The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed.”
– Einstein

Though the contexts may appear to be different, I feel there’s a strong relationship between them.

Can the curiosity about the mysterious that Einstein refers to not be curiosity about one’s own life that Socrates refers to? …which would of course lead one to examine it! Else, according to these legendary figures, it is simply not worth living at all! 😉