Conversations : 5

I feel happy that I have now been able to replace my teaching commitments with other kind of work, because I didn't think the teaching I was doing was moving me forward. I am hoping that the work I shall be taking on will do this - and allow me to move towards my goal of returning to India/ Asia and eventually settling there. Once I transition into this life starting 1st of August, this will truly be the next big thing in my life.

As always for me, I am preparing for this now. I believe this new phase will require a new living ethic, learning ethic and relationship ethic, radically different from how I have lived my life in the last ten years. 

For a start, this is a time for to stop waiting, which was the predominant theme of what I have done for the last ten years, a patient build-up for some undefined future, and start doing things. I wanted an education and experience of travel, which I have got: It is time now to get doing things that I thought I would do after I have got the experience. Indeed, there are things still to be done - I would still want to go back to school and do my Doctoral studies some day - but this may have to wait for now, for another phase of life. 

This means that my learning ethic has to change. For all these ten years I spent in UK, my predominant objective was learning. I did spend ten percent of my income every year on learning, acquiring qualifications and professional accreditation. I intend to stop this now, focusing all my time on practical work instead. The point, of course, is that when one gets busy at work, it is all too easy to stop learning. This is why I want to live by certain criteria that I set for myself, which I have already set in motion. I spend a lot of time reading books, watching videos and doing MOOCs, but I did this as a supplement to my formal learning activities, and therefore, gave myself considerable license on what it was that I was pursuing. Once I stop the formal learning endeavour, these bits become more important. My idea is that I shall work on particular topics or ideas for each three month period. One of the things I noticed I lack is intellectual discipline (which, anyone who looked at this blog, will know) and this is my way of instilling some of these in my life.

Finally, I need to perhaps look at all my relationships and commitments that come with it. Indeed, I have always treated my relationships independent of my goals or ambitions, as I never wanted to look at people as means to something else. I want to maintain it the same way, as this is one essential part of my living ethic. But this approach sometimes crowd out the more important conversations that I want to have, and seeking out the new relationships and maintaining deep and regular conversations as I wanted to do. One of my long term goals is to create a community around ideas and it is important for me to go out and connect to people who are excited by ideas and want to connect and contribute. So far, I have had some such connections, mostly facilitated by this blog, but it is time for me to think about this more seriously and spend time reaching out to people.

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