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you hear the whine of a dog hit by a stone- or, the sight of a horse being whipped to makeit trot faster, or again, the sight of an overburdened rickshaw with the poor manstruggling to cope with his burden. Then there is the feeling of silent awe thataccompanies the sight of a dead body being carried on four shoulders.Think of other situations — the sickening smell of a dirty lane, the stench of an openlavatory, the stark reality of poverty stricken people on the road, the strange sounds andcuriously mixed odours at a railway station you can surely add on to the list.We respond in different ways to different situations. It would be interesting to observehow we meet these situations and what impact they make on us. How strongly do we feelanything? Will you try watching how you respond to situations and if you are in the habitof keeping a diary, try noting down your feelings about the things you observe.Let us now examine a common emotion, felt by young and old, teacher and student,parents and friends; the feeling of anger. Can you find out the things that make youangry?Once a group of students like you, were asked to describe what made them mostangry. Some very interesting statements made were:When I am accused of something I have not done.When someone has wronged my friend.When teacher is prejudiced against me and is partial to another.When I want something very badly and can’t get it.When mother keeps nagging me and all the time to do this or that.Now consider the amount of chemical energy that is wasted when the body is in a stateof anger. Observe how you suppress your feelings and boil inside or burst out in a rageand say all kinds of things, or how you cry in anger. Think of the amount of time it takesyou to be normal again after the incident. It is important to understand ourselves and allthe feelings that arise in us. Just as there are so many extraordinary things outside us,there are many strange, unexplained things inside us too, in our minds and hearts. Weusually love to go out on long journeys, don’t we, discovering the beauties of thecountryside, the wonders of the earth and the seas and the skies. Likewise, it might be funto goon a voyage of discovery inside us, wouldn’t it — to find out all about ourselves,our thoughts, our feelings, our responses, our actions? The beauty is that for the inwardjourney you do not have to spend a lot of money or go away to a hill-side to meditate ordo anything different. If you observe yourself, the way you walk, talk, dress, eat andrelate to your friends, teachers, parents, if you learn to look at the trees and the flowersand the beauty of the earth, if you observe people and their ways, you begin to learn a lotof things about yourself and your feelings.Think of some situations at home or at school that awakened strong feelings in you.Talk it over with your friends.If you look around, you will find that Nature has infinite form, infinite beauty andinfinite variety. Can you put down some aspects of Nature that have touched you?
26. The Art of QuestioningLet us look at a day in your life and see if there is any place in it for questions. Youare young and naturally curious and your mind is possibly full of questions about lifearound you, about what you read in books, about what others tell you and so on. In fact,one may say, the art of learning is closely related to the art of questioning.Notice that at school something quite different happens most of the time. It is theteacher who asks you the questions and you have to find the answers! She has taught yousome physics or history, perhaps, and she questions you closely to find out if you haveunderstood what has been explained. So, gradually, your mind becomes more full ofanswers to questions on various subjects rather than questions to which you want theanswer. Of course, if she is an intelligent teacher she allows you to raise questions atevery point and lets you discover things for yourself. In that way, she knows your mindwill keep growing because there is wonder and curiosity in it.As a matter of fact, it was the feeling of wonder that was the birth of what we callsubjects today, or the various branches of knowledge. Discovering cave paintings, rockedicts, parchments, coins and the like, the historian asked: Who could have producedthese? When did they live? What was their life like? And thus the study of the story ofman began. Looking at the vagaries of climate and rainfall, of mountains andearthquakes, man discovered more about the earth by questioning, and so was born whatwe call geography. While history dealt with questions related to man in time, geographysought answers to questions about man on earth. Wondering about the physical laws ofthe universe, men asked questions about natural phenomena which have resulted inphysics and chemistry. Newton’s law of gravitation was the answer to his wonder: “Whydoes the apple fall to the ground?” The biologist asked questions about plants andanimals and their behaviour. This is so with practice everything you call a subject. Theyare answers to questions. Their starting p. is wonder, leading on to curiosity and enquiry.Does language belong to group? What was its origin? Think about it.In your daily life too, you can see it happening all the time, can’t you? You spot asnake in the compound and instead of running away from it, all rush around and wish tolook at it closely and you marvel at its glow skin and its graceful writhing movements.You see a car that has broken do on the road and you are full of questions about how ithappened and how a driver is going to get it to move. You hear there are computers beingbrought to schools and you want to know more about them. Our surroundings evequestions as day moves into night and on to another day.Likewise, feelings arouse questions. You see so many people who are pc and younotice so many who are rich and naturally you are moved to ask: ‘’ W is this so? Whymust some people suffer? Why does this inequality exist: Is there no justice in the world?You listen to the story of people fighting with each other and ask, “Can’t we livehappily? Why do people fight?” and on. Compassion is the source of questions too.If you learn this art of questioning and keep your minds alive you will fir that you donot accept opinions and beliefs blindly. When you read the newspaper you will not becarried away by one item of news or the other, good or bad. You will pause and questionif the report could be right. Try it sometime. If someone tells you that, “If you do suchand such a thing it will result in such a thing”, you will examine it critically. Cultivating amind that listens to questions and thinks over them quietly is a good thing. If your mind is
Page 1 and 2: THINKING TOGETHERAhalya ChariNATION
Page 3 and 4: There is, therefore, a different ap
Page 5 and 6: 20. On Beauty21. When Trees Hold a
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Page 9 and 10: thoughtless and conceited and she w
Page 11 and 12: his hair combed back neatly. Anita
Page 13 and 14: that require the use of the hands.
Page 15 and 16: slightly bigger decision like ‘Sh
Page 18 and 19: I want to share with you one incide
Page 20 and 21: Yet another teacher said, “I don
Page 22 and 23: them but can one have fun even whil
Page 24 and 25: studies and they were angry that th
Page 26 and 27: The entire evening and all the item
Page 28 and 29: know best what your hurts are at th
Page 30 and 31: working with your hands there is no
Page 32 and 33: job. In fact, since his school days
Page 34 and 35: Bachhu lived in the hills of the no
Page 36 and 37: important for growing children. His
Page 38 and 39: through design books and his eyes n
Page 40 and 41: tamarind, cotton, kadam, cinnamon,
Page 42 and 43: vision of education. Children loved
Page 44 and 45: from which he draws his energy. In
Page 46 and 47: “What about you, Lalitha? Aren’
Page 50 and 51: stuffed with the opinions and belie
Page 52 and 53: to make the work simpler. There wer
Page 54 and 55: Devinder’s can he such happy, pro
Page 56 and 57: means that if you are an Englishman
Page 58 and 59: TEACHER: No, he can’t. He is resp
Page 60 and 61: serene face. He also learnt at scho
Page 62: not calculate and solve elaborate m

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