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The Puzzle

Things taught in school but I never really understood: Schools are challenging, I'm sure it will always be, … especially for teachers. As a student, I guess you largely try to keep it moving to next level. Now when I look back, after almost 20 + years of schooling and still counting, I recall several things which were taught in school but I never really understood quite well. In fact, it hasn't been too long since I began to realize that at times knowing mere facts about something can be overtly illusionary as actual understanding of the core concepts we are attempting to unveil.    Richard Feynman, an American physicist, puts it quite well in his interview with BBC in 1981, popularly titled as ' The pleasure of finding things out'. He talks about how knowing what a crow is called in different languages doesn't mean we know a lot about crows. Rather it reflects our linguistic ability to a certain extent. Also, he highlights the importance of distin
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On Weekends

Weekends weren't the most favorites of my days while growing up as a kid. I do not know quite well what was it like spending weekends for other kids in Nepal in the 90s but I sure wasn't very happy about not being able to leave home or potentially enjoy my leisure time wishfully.  My strongest memory from childhood about weekends is the notion that my father would be home all day and I won't be able to do things I love doing. Of course, I used to be happy that I didn't have to go to school. But it wasn't just me, my brothers or my mother who stayed home. My father didn't have to work on most Saturdays. In Nepal, we still have Saturdays as only day off in a week, except for national holidays. My father used to be a very strict parent. Especially on Saturdays, he ensured that we woke up early in the morning, after cleaning ourselves up and daily worship,  we sat down with books to study. He would have busy weekdays, maybe that's why he wanted to spend

Opposing viewpoints

Why is it worth listening to people you disagree with: Ted talk by Zachary R Wood Wood begins his talk mentioning a racially controversial book " The Bell Curve", citing how the authors reported that some race is of lesser intelligence and is destined for poor outcomes in life. He talks about how he interviews people who have controversial viewpoints, for better understanding of  their mindset, to find a common ground. He faces opposition and hatred for doing so. But Wood is very clear regarding the significance of such engagements. It is quite obvious that he has insightful understanding of thought process and hesitation among people who oppose to such practices. He acknowledges that some people might have bad memories or terrible experience and would opt to completely avoid anything that would remind them of bitter past. But he adds that tuning out opposing viewpoints doesn't make them go away. Additionally, there might be several others who agree to opposed id

The beginning

I'm starting this blog to encourage myself to read, write and thus, create. I wasn’t sure about being ready yet. But like people say you’re seldom ready for things like this, where you're so exposed and vulnerable. I will just start, try to keep it moving and see where it takes me. This is how it’s supposed to be. I’m excited and nervous at the same time. It also goes with my natural urge to write. I ponder over ideas. I mesmerize and stay haunted. Above all, I badly wanted a tool to capture these experiences, and perhaps share some of it.  So, here we go…