Nazarul Islam

As the clock will strike, midnight on December 31 of this fast closing year, it will be time to make our ritual New Year Resolutions. We will start bragging about how grandly we are going to fail to keep them?

And, indeed, the accompanying feeling of relief, even secret pleasure, that we experience as we do so. In the delicious confusion of the festive season, when the old year is about to die and the new one is yet to be born, with cheek, glee, and self-irony aplenty, we let everything go. “I want to drink less or quit smoking this year.”

But who are we really trying to fool? “That’s never going to happen!” we tell ourselves with a giggle. We know only too well that in the morning, when the feast is over, we will return to our old seriousness. Only now, we play the end-of-the-year game with all the more abandon.

Our conveniently vague or unrealistic New Year resolutions have failed because these are meant to fail. Because they are made half in jest, in an unguarded moment of carnivalesque freedom. For most of us, this may be the only time of the year when can afford to mock failure, even as we mock ourselves in the process.

Most of the time, it is failure that controls and mocks us, and we can’t even attempt a smile as it does so

The only time where we can take back control of our failings—or at least, feel like we do. Most of the time, it is failure that controls and mocks us, and we can’t even attempt a smile as it does so.

An honest truth we accept is that failure is no laughing matter. In Western culture, and especially in the U.S., we tend to associate failure with the most serious of calamities: loss of social status and respectability, public degradation, marginalization, ostracization. Since failure doesn’t like to travel alone, whenever it shows up, a sense of finality and doom also creeps in.

There is a good historical reason for that. The way we think about failure today is informed, in more than one way, by the strong Calvinist ethos that played such an important role in the birth of modern capitalism in the west. Very much like the early Calvinists, we associate financial prosperity and social success with a sense of personal salvation.

For readers in this part of globe, the Calvinist viewpoint vests in a person who has sinned was predestined to sin, and no matter what a person does, they will go to Heaven or Hell based on that determination. There is no repenting from sin since the most evil thing is the sinner’s own actions, thoughts, and words.

To make money, and to show it, is a sign of “election”—divine in Calvin’s case, social in ours. Reversely, failing to do so signals personal damnation; Calvin called such people “reprobates,” and relegated them to eternal flames. We call them “losers,” and consign them, a touch more charitably, to the margins of polite society.

Unsurprisingly, the guiding principle is the same in both cases: It’s not enough for Calvin’s elect to be saved. Others have to be doomed, too. The heat of hell makes paradise’s breeze all the more refreshing. It’s only in relation to those who lose that victors are victors— and can feel as such.

Indeed, the existence of “losers” is key to the success of capitalism as a system: it’s what keeps it in perpetual motion and everybody on their toes. Just as Calvin’s elect could never be completely certain of their salvation, and had to work on it incessantly, so too do the capitalists need to watch their back continually and make sure there is always a distance between them and their competition.

Very much like the early Calvinists, we associate financial prosperity and social success with a sense of personal salvation.

And since everybody is playing the same game—and playing it ferociously—we just cannot afford to stop. To do so would be to allow someone else to take your place and to feel like a “loser.” As the cycle goes, we end up working ourselves to death just to stay socially alive.

That’s why if there’s something that capitalism cannot do without is not necessarily the free market or private property, but a much humbler thing: ranking. Thanks to it, the players of the capitalist game know, at any given moment, where they are exactly, who is ahead and who is behind, who has made it big and who has gone under.

Also read: Failure is a catalyst for change…

We rank everything: countries and companies, universities, high schools, books, and films—even individuals. Each one of us is reduced to a set of numbers, which largely predetermines our biography: credit score, GPA scores, class rank upon graduation, the ranking of the university we went to. We are not who we think we are, but what our numbers say about us.

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The Bengal-born writer Nazarul Islam is a senior educationist based in USA. He writes for Sindh Courier and the newspapers of Bangladesh, India and America. He is author of a recently published book ‘Chasing Hope’ – a compilation of his articles.

The post Celebrating our failures…. first appeared on Sindh Courier.

Ashfaque Ali Zardari

Currently, Finland is on the top in terms of educational ranking, while the superpower America is at the 20th place. This year, Finland will be the only country in the world where there is no such thing as a subject in schools. Any school in the country has a maximum of 195 children with one teacher for 19 children.

The longest recess in the world is also in Finland, as the children spend 75 minutes of their school time in recess. It follows 57 minute recess in New York schools. A school gives children such a long break instead of teaching that they would be out of school the next day. Interestingly, these schools only have 20 hours of teaching in a whole week while teachers spend 2 hours a day on improving their skills.

There are no schools in the entire country for children before the age of seven and no formal examination of any kind before the age of fifteen. A math teacher was asked what do you teach children and he smiled and said “I teach children to be happy and make others happy, because that way they can solve every question easily.”

Take the example of Japan, children are taught only one subject till the third grade and that is ‘ethics’ and ‘manners’. Hazrat Ali said, “He who does not have literature does not have religion.” I don’t know how the people of Japan know about Hazrat Ali and why we still don’t know about him. However, the implementation responsibility is currently held by the Japanese.

One of our friends went to Japan and upon reaching the airport, he introduced himself as a teacher and then he thought that he might be the Prime Minister of Japan. The late writer Ashfaq Ahmed once had to go to court in Italy and he also introduced himself that I am a teacher. He writes that all the people present in the court, including the judge, stood up from their seats. This is the secret of the progress and rise and fall of nations.

Social studies is not “taught” in Japan because it is not something to be taught. They are teaching their generation very well how to socialize. In Japanese schools, children and teachers organize themselves for cleaning, from the time they come to school at 8 in the morning until 10 o’clock, the whole school is engaged in cleaning, including children and teachers.

On the other hand, you should look at our education system which consists only of copying and printing. Our children have become ‘publishers’. You see the spectacle of what is written in the book, the teacher copying the same on the board, the children reprinting the same on the copy, the teacher giving the same copied and printed material in the exam, marking the important questions themselves and so on. They prepare the paper themselves and check it themselves and give marks by themselves.

The decision of the child to pass or fail is also made by themselves and the parents keep clapping their hands on this result and sing praises of the children’s intelligence and ability; whose children fail, they keep regretting this result. And they continue to taunt their child with “leprous brain” and “dull mind.” For 13 and 14 years, we make the children stand in a line and do the assembly, and as soon as they leave school, they break the line and do their work.

Students spend all their time in school “learning” science and you won’t see any “scientists” in the whole country because science is unfortunately a matter of “learning” and experimenting. And we call it “Ratta” too. You will be surprised that the first matriculation exam was held in 1858 and the British government decided that the people of the subcontinent are half of our intelligence so we have “passing marks” of 65. So 32 decimals should be for those in the subcontinent. Two years later, in 1860, the passing marks were changed to 33 for the convenience of teachers, and we are also busy finding the intelligence of our children with the same 33 marks.

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The post Pakistan and its failed education system first appeared on Sindh Courier.

By Neelam Malkani

In a society which adulates victors and shuns losers, speaking candidly about failures might be considered an absolute disgrace. So might be the idea of listing one’s failures.

All experts advise crafting résumés by cherry-picking the details of feats and accolades and minimizing the mentions of failures. In anticipation of the desired result, we act upon such recommendations, naively believing that we can create the perception of infallibility. Because the advice generally works, the idea of making a list of failures and setbacks sounds counterintuitive. However a résumé of failures promises to be an instrument of self-discovery and affirmation to reflect on the journey, experiences, and lessons learnt along the way.

In 2016, an esteemed professor at Princeton University published his résumé of failures, detailing all the grants he could not receive, the fellowship he was denied, and the papers he could not get published. This honest revelation, which aimed at bringing some balance to the skewed saga of triumphs, received admiration from all quarters, and more people in academia felt less inhibited to speak out about their failures. A similar trend picked up in some B-schools in India too, and students studying in premier institutes posted their failures on social media. This fresh bout of openness not only helped readers process their own failures positively but also discarded the aura of invincibility around the distinguished personalities.

Generally, while listening to the success stories, we start to believe that the star performers are innately gifted or their situations differ from ours: Steve Jobs was a born genius, or Amitabh Bachchan was born in The Bachchan family. We sometimes even attribute their successes to some divine intervention, ‘blissfully’ ignoring their grit, determination and indomitable spirit that made the ‘divine’ possible. Learning about setbacks, struggles, and disappointments of our ideals, we realize that they are also vulnerable and relate with them more on a ‘human’ level. This, in turn, helps us draw inspiration to deal with rejection and dejection in our lives.

However, we all undertake different journeys and face distinct circumstances. Hence, creating our list of failures, professional or personal, examining each outcome objectively and realizing how these adversities shaped us can be an illuminating experience and an answer to some critical questions: have we become resilient, tenacious, and solution-oriented or cynical, bitter, and nit-picking? Have we taken those failures in stride, or have we let those failures define and defeat us? Have we learnt our lessons and become humble and flexible, or do we follow the default pattern with dogmatic adherence? Finding these answers may require some contemplation but would surely be cathartic.

In fact, nothing can be more affirming than looking back on the past challenges we encountered and the actions we took to surpass them. No motivational speaker can be more helpful in instilling faith in our abilities than a mature reflection on past failures that we managed to turn into successes with our diligence. We might feel fulfilled because we took the risk for an initiative which did not culminate into a full-blown success but taught us invaluable lessons. It can also help overcome any misgivings about the tasks seemingly insurmountable at present.

Every person, every business, and every organization fails at some point. World’s fastest person missed the gold medal; the biggest company had to recall the products; the richest person witnessed his enterprises crumbing down. And when we ditch the trodden path and experiment in lives, failures are inevitable. Unfortunately, we have not practiced the skill of learning from our mistakes but only the skill of foisting blame on others. We have not developed an ecosystem which fosters learning from failures to pave the way for the future successes. In reality, failure is always an option, but giving up is not. Learning from a mistake is wisdom, but ignoring it is not.

Hence, making this list could be a transformative experience so long as we take failures as the feedback of what did not work for us in the past. Therefore, let’s not be afraid to venture out for the fear of failure, rather hope to fail better with each new endeavor. And remember, some goals are so worthy that it is sometimes glorious to lose. I can’t think of anything else to conclude this piece except the following quote by an iconic author who, unflustered by the constant rejections, enchanted entire generation of readers with her magical writing.

“It is impossible to live without failing at something, unless you live so cautiously that you might as well not have lived at all, in which case you have failed by default.” — J.K. Rowling

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Neelam Malkani is a Bhopal-based educator and freelance writer

The post Nothing succeeds like failures first appeared on Sindh Courier.

The biggest barrier in life you have is your fear. Overcome your fear; I would rather say, defeat your fears.

Fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of flunking an exam, fear of not having adequate skills, fear of losing something or else. If there is nothing, so fear of unknown. There is something which is holding you back.

There may be tons of reasons after your fears; there may be several reasons – perhaps your upbringing, probably your terrible experience, lacking of will power, motivation or may be absence of proper guidance, direction, whatsoever. They are but one thing is clear – it is you who have created all fears, it is you who knowingly or unknowingly has surrounded yourselves with all these fears.

Break all the shackles.

You know the fact is that it is you who can root them out; Just the moment and the day you decide to overcome your fears you can, yes you can, anything around the world, anything outside or inside you, anything you wish or anything you believe or expect, is in your reach. You just need to recognize what you are cut for, you need to recognize your niche, find your passion.

Check the field you want to achieve, just find your calling, and stick to it. Yes, that’s the key, perseverance, unbeatable, indomitable spirit to achieve.

With all passion and some patience, your power of perseverance will take you wherever you want. Keep on learning, keep on developing skills, keep on trying, continue to find a new you, continue to do things without the box approach’ and take pride in what you do, have a sense of bliss in your contribution to yourself, family, society and thereby your nation.

Nobody can stop you; you will be blessed, loved and cherished. Just believe if your intentions are right, nobody can even shake you an inch; stand firm, stand tall.  Also stay humble and keep learning, keep earning. I just want to tell you – you can do whatever you want. Nobody can stop you!

Ashfaque Ali Sangi

Karachi Sindh

The post Defeat your fears, overcome your fears! first appeared on Sindh Courier.