A TRUE SPORTSMAN

It was in the final of Long Jump event on August 4th 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin. Jesse Owens and Lutz Long each were competing for Gold medal.Jesse Owens was regarded the favourite having already won a gold medal the day before in 100m sprint.But Jesse Owens fouled his first two jumps although he jumped much longer than his opponents.He was very much depressed with this act of his.Then Lutz Long came to the rescue of Jesse Owens and adviced him to jump just two inches behind the line ,risking his Gold medal otherwise which Long could have easily won it.Jesse Owens heeded to Long's advice and went on to win the Gold Medal.Lutz Long had to satisfy for Silver.

Lutz Long displayed a true sportsman spirit denying himself a Gold Medal which could have easily been part of him.Lutz Long,being a German,got himself in the wrong books of Adolf Hitler by not winning the Gold medal who wanted Germans' command over the Olympics.Many modern day sportsman should take cue from this great sportsman in maintaining the spirit of sportsmanship as they are always seen in verbal abuse on and off field with their opponents.

This is what Jesse Owens had to say of Lutz Long
"It took a lot of courage for him to befriend me in front of Hitler. You can melt down all the medals and cups I have and they wouldn't be a plating on the twenty-four karat friendship that I felt for Lutz Long at that moment."

Lutz Long was Posthumously awarded Pierre de Coubertin medal which is awarded for "Spirit of Sportsmanship".

INDIAN EDUCATION

Food,Clothing and Shelter have been from times regarded as the basic necessities of a human being.But what i feel is that Education should be given, if not prime importance but on par with these three.Education is the only thing, gaining which all the above three can be bought.Hence education is a must for a human being for him to progress as well as the country.

Here i shall discuss the education system that is prevalent in India.The education in India can be classified as Primary,Higher and graduation(includes Post graduation).

In the first part we shall discuss about primary education.

Primary education is foundation for the student's development.Our primary education system teaches the languages(based on the state they are studying),basic science,basic mathematics.They have little practical exposure of what they study either because their respective schools don't have the required infrastructure or the teachers don't show interest stating that such practical things wont be asked in the exams.This generally happens in rural and semi-urban areas because of lack of infrastructure to have equipments related to some practical activities or taking an educational trip to nearby places.This results in weak knowledge of the subjects which reflects struggling in their educational career further in life.But some students who are able to grasp things easily climb up the ladder easily.This difference results in urban and rural divide among students.Our education system should not classify students performance based on the marks they score in their exams in fact it should be evaluated on day to day basis based on his performance in the class.And also our primary education should be such that it should inculcate some moral values, leadership qualities etc.The teachers should encourage students to find their own field of interest.The Government should not try to capture the vote bank by manipulating historical facts and it should not be biased.As this would lead to wrong notion about country's culture,history and other things.

Coming to higher education,a student must be given a choice to choose his/her own field of interest.Often students tend to choose the career because of family pressure,which they don't like and cant excel in it because of lack of interest.And others who are interested cant pursue their career because of financial constraints.The government should not have step motherly attitude towards any form of education and encourage all form of education.Government must deal with this issue properly by providing subsidies for higher education.And also there shouldn't be any caste or language based reservation so that everyone is given equal opportunity.The standard of Higher Education should also be improved.I being a technical student i am much aware of technical education than any other.We see the robots of south Korea,Japan etc dancing and imitating various human activities but robots developed here have not yet come of age.This is because our technical education is out of date as it does not reflect the present day technologies.Our syllabus should be updated at least once in two years to reflect the upcoming technologies.A lot of encouragement should be given to institute-industry interaction.The semester system should be scrapped because what subjects students are supposed to study in one year they study it in a span of 3-4 months and hence students tend to study just for exams and forget it as soon as exams get over.Instead the span of higher education can be increased.


Finally, some points regarding improvement of education system in India
->Primary Education should be made compulsory
->Subsidies must be provided by the government
->More practical exposure
->Syllabus based on current trends
->Industry-Institute interaction
->reservation based on economic background
->More prominence to R&D

PS:I am not an expert in this field so the suggestions what i have mentioned is purely based on my views.

Quotable Quotes........

"No gut, no glory."

"A man's reputation is seldom in his own keeping, it depends on the calumny that others choose to heave."
-William Hazlett

"The only man who behaves sensibly is a tailor; he takes measurements anew every time he sees a person, while others go with their old measurements and expect them to fit on that person."
-George Bernard Shaw

"Nothing serves better in politics than short memory."
(This is with respect to politicians swapping the parties.)
-Gerald Ford

"Its better to prevent and prepare, than to repent and repair"

"There are four things that you cannot recover
->the stone after the throw
->the word after its said
->the ocassion after the loss
->the time after its gone"