Pursuit of Happyness!!!

What does Happiness mean? According to the Wikipedia, Happiness is an emotion associated with feelings ranging from contentment and satisfaction to bliss and intense joy. In this fast paced world people want to be successful by going up to any extent and in this journey they lose the so called happiness. According to Albert Schweitzer: “Success is not the key to happiness. Happiness is the key to success.” If you love what you are doing, you will be successful. Why do we need happiness? Well I need happiness so that I can remain peaceful, blissful and stay contented in life. What does happiness mean to me? Happiness to me means harmony and peace in life. Here’s what Amy Lowell has to say about happiness.

Happiness: We rarely feel it.
I would buy it, beg it, steal it,
Pay in coins of dripping blood
for this one transcendent good.

We are fortunate enough to get our desires fulfilled. Always be contented with what you have. Get rid of the negative thoughts and believe in yourself. Never underestimate your capabilities. At first I was really embarrassed to post my views on the blog, especially where thousands of people visit .I always had the fear that they would criticize me for what I have written, but now I no longer feel so. With each passing day, the amount of confidence with which I write gives me immense pleasure and happiness. I am fortunate enough to have a bunch of friends who inspire me to write. With so much good around I feel myself proud that there are people who want me to reach skies. And for those who have discouraged me let me tell u something. I have learned to let go things to remain happy.

One cannot borrow, steal, earn or own happiness. It is the experience of living every moment of life with grace, love, respect and gratitude. Don’t leave any room of doubt when you do things. Whenever I do something wrong, it always eats me up until I own up, so one of the best ways is to own up and viola you are happy again. Trust me guys this works. I try to find happiness in everything I do. I feel happy if I help someone, when I am with my family and loved ones, when I play with my doggie, when I get a good feedback from my bosses. Happiness can be summed up in two words: be self sufficient and contented. Never think that Life is too small. Just wake up and spread happiness around. One good deed will lead to many good deeds. “Smile everyday and keep worry at bay” is my mantra. Keep smiling in order to be happy and healthy. At the end I want to say that you need not go in pursuit of happiness. It lies within you. The day when you realize it, I am sure you will conquer the world. So stay happy always and spread happiness where ever you go.

Blogging fever!!!

Looks like people have caught up with blogging fever. Everybody is busily blogging .I didn’t want to be left behind and joined the bandwagon. But then you must ask me as to what is the in thing in blogging? Well just the way orkut got popularity, blogging is not far behind or shall I say has become so fast paced that it outnumbered orkut or other social networking sites. I read that families keep in touch by blogging regularly; now that’s some news isn’t it. I first should confess that I hardly blogged because I considered myself a very bad writer. Blogs to me means something very personal, where in I can share my good experiences and listen to what others have to say.

I was introduced to the blogging by my bosses, who are so sweet that they give me enough freedom to pursue my passions. I was told about blogs by friends but turned a deaf ear till yesterday, when I really thought that I should blog in order to improve myself not only physically but mentally too. I feel writing reflects the kind of person we are and what a best way to introduce ourselves to new people.

Blogging definitely helps shape personality. Take me for example, till yesterday I never felt like blogging because some or the other obstructions came in my way or let me put in saying that I hardly took interest in blogging. But seeing my fellow colleagues’ blogging regularly, an alarm rang in my heart saying “Why do you want to be left behind?” Just start blogging no matter what. But it looks like I might get addicted to blogging which will help me shape myself better. Blogging helps in total personality development. So for all those who are new to blogging world and haven’t heard of blogging yet my mantra is “Blog everyday to know yourself better”.

What does ‘e’ stand for in e-learning?

Most of us are aware of the fact that ‘e’ in e-learning stands for electronic. E-learning presents education with a new spectrum of challenges and practices. I completely disagree with the fact that ‘e’ in e-learning solely stands for electronic. I believe that e-learning is technology centered and a hybrid version of education, but then you might question me “If e-learning is merely about technology where does the learner fit in"? Does it mean that e-learning is a technology driven learning where the learner is the passive recipient? I believe that e-learning is something beyond technology. It is a medium to deliver effective learning with the help of technology outside the classroom.

The technology and media act like a helping hand to e-learning to extend learner’s experiences by providing them superior quality learning in ways that suit their lifestyles.

Students who are unable to attend educational institutions can study at home or in workplace by connecting to tutors and resources. Students who are domestically committed can shift their study timings. They can access asynchronous learning sessions to maintain momentum of study along with their peers. E-learning is in a way an extended learning that makes time and place of study more suitable for the individual.

As practitioners we all strive to deliver good quality courses and the quality should reflect in our practices. Owing to versatility, E-learning is capable of acknowledging learning experience. E-Learning can deliver programmes to isolated rural communities, which are beyond reach by transforming lives and enhancing careers.

Gone are the days when we said world is a large place. The world is shrinking as each passing day brings in new technologies that are more advanced and the process of globalization which is rapidly growing. With the help of Multimedia the potential to take the classroom out in the world and this is really turning into a reality.

With the advent of technology, learning is no longer confined to classrooms. “Everywhere learning” is set to transform radical thinking of the way we practice education in the next few years to come.

Cheers to a new beginning!!!

Though I wrote good compositions in school, I never was interested in writing. I focused more on reading academic books and did a good job in elocutions and debates. You might wonder as to how I got good grades? I used to always learn by heart. I know that’s the worst way of learning but then I was taught that way so couldn’t help much. I always was fascinated by news readers when I was young, so I always read my academic books aloud to ape them. I am good at reading and even my vocabulary is good but then I never put them into writing, so that’s where my “Achilles heel” lies.

I have friends who churn out excellent articles and I am in a way jealous too. I too want to be like them. I got a familiarity feeling whenever I looked at the vocabulary used by my friends in their writings. It is as if things look closer than they appear. Whenever I tried to write I was always discouraged by my friends and family members saying that at my age one should write crisp articles .But then there had to be a beginning and it became the end to all my writing stints. I was very much hurt and felt ashamed to even show them what I wrote. Writing one good article would take me hours. I even tried to maintain a personal diary. One day my brother got hold of it and read all its contents aloud. I was so embarrassed that I immediately stopped writing. I even wrote poems but never got inspiration or encouragement. I really wanted somebody who could boost up my spirits so that I could write better. This went on for many years and now I feel as if I have forgotten to write. This made me accept the fact that I am a bad writer and writing is not my cup of tea.

Whenever someone asked me to write I always got intimidated. Whenever I tried to showcase my writing skills my friends’ discouraged saying writing was not my cup of tea. But I believe that writing is the best way to communicate. It is more concrete and sometimes it is the only mode of communication. I always worked hard to be on a platform shared by my peers and wouldn’t want to stay behind just because I can’t write properly. I won’t be disheartened if you laugh at my blog entry. I would appreciate if you leave your comments and advices. After all, I am a human being and I tend to make mistakes. I believe Failure as the stepping stone of success, so please help me out so that I can also be a successful writer like you all and weave out wonderful articles.

E-learning tools.

There are lots of assumptions that e-learning takes out the creativity out of you. This may not be the case. There has been a debate off late on the automated nature of the e-learning tools that they are responsible for taking the creativity out of the e-learning process and thus making the course dull. This may or may not be true . The only thing that holds back your creativity is you.

One of the exciting things about e-learning tools is that I have my own independence in creating a course and I am not dependent on others to help me out. The most difficult part in the e-learning development process is giving instructions and working with programmers because they have many time constraints and , whatever good idea we have , we may not be able to implement it properly because we devote ourselves to a specific direction and it is very difficult for us to accept there ideas. This may not be the case with e-learning tools. With the help of these tools we have a lot of scope and flexibility to change our project design. With the help of these skills we can create a very good and engaging e-learning course.

Some of the tips of making an effective e-learning course are:

Using power point presentations: I have been using power point presentations to make my courses effective. Power point presentations not only bring life into the courses but they are visually appealing too.

Creating an engaging and interactive course: Courses should be created in such a way that they are engaging and interactive. Interactive in the sense by adding scenario based examples to make the course more interactive and an engaging course so that the learner may not get deviated from the course.

There has been a rapid change in the e-learning industry. The e-learning tools have made our life easy by enabling us to bring knowledge and skill to learners. With the help of these opportunities one can weave magic into their courses .

81 lions dead in last two years

NEW DELHI: A total of 81 lions have died across the country from January 2006 to 2008, with nine of them becoming victims of poaching, Rajya Sabha was informed on Thursday.

Fifty two lions died a natural death, 1 because of an accident and 6 due to electrocution while 13 fell in a well and 9 lions died because of poaching in Gir protected area and surrounding habitats of Gujarat.

Out of th 6 lions electrocuted, five of them died in Permpara village, outside the Gir Protected Areas in October 2007.

Investigation shows that a farmer had laid electrified wire fencing his agriculture land to prevent crop damage from wild herbivores, Minister of State for Environment and Forests S Regupathy said.

Answering a separate question on declining population of endangered animals including lions, tigers and elephants, Regupathy said fluctuation in the wildlife population is a natural phenomenon.

As per the information available there are no reports to indicate a continuous sharp decline in the population of endangered species, he said.

The minister said, "census of gharials are conducted on a regular basis and is not done for the first time."

It is very appalling to hear that Lion the 'Pride of Jungle' and one time National Animal of India; now replaced by Tiger; is facing the threat of extinction. Unscrupulous hunting and poaching has resulted in the extinct of this animal in India.What is Indian govt doing about poaching?Man so called rational and a social animal looks to be more a depraved animal who gets a sadistic pleasure in slaughtering such innocent animals. 'Humanity' seems to be word extremely ironical when analyzed in this context wherein our deeds as a human being are unforgivable! We must wake up now before its too late lest this 'Pride of the Jungle' gets converted to classroom subject alone.

Divorce goes Hi-tech

Read this !!!
This age of time crunch, divorces are also getting a hi-tech avatar.
In the first case of its kind, a judge of Tis Hazari Court in Delhi will hear a divorce case through video-conferencing. The plea was filed by the husband, Vijay Viswanathan, who lives in New Jersey.

Since the case has been filed in Delhi, it’s difficult for Vijay to attend all the hearings. But the big question is, will this new mode of divorce ease off the burden of Indian courts by facilitating a faster decree, or will it make a mockery of the man-woman relationship with its fast track oeuvre?

In courts around the country, there are thousands of divorce cases pending at the moment. Out of these around 20 per cent cases are such in which one party is stationed elsewhere.

The Principal Judge of Family Court, Meera Khadakkar says, “The High Courts and the Supreme Court have accepted this form of recording the statements. It will help those who have a genuine problem and can’t travel to some other city frequently to attend the court proceedings. This mode is here to stay and will turn out to be a time-saving device.”

When a marriage fails and couple decides to part ways, the vibes between husband and wife are at their lowest ebb as negativity reigns supreme.

In such a scenario, it is better that they don’t meet in person, says Preeti Manchanda (name changed), who’s working as an event organiser in the city.

She adds, “Recently, I went through a divorce process and seeing my (then) husband during each hearing was a painful experience. Since I had gone back to my hometown Jabalpur when my marriage started failing, for every hearing I had to come back. I really wish this facility of videoconferencing was introduced earlier. It could have saved me a lot of heartburn.”

Industrialist Vishal Dange (name changed), who went through a divorce recently, feels that this step will help all those middle-class people, who find it difficult to travel to other cities for each court hearing.

“For the elite, distance is not a big deal, especially when there are several flights connecting the various metros. But yes, this hi-tech mode will nail the trouble makers who try to delay the divorce proceedings by not appearing for the hearing and make various excuses. But in this hi-tech process too, the couple must not forget to be sensitive to their child (if there’s any), before parting ways forever.”

Senior High Court lawyer Kumkum Sirpurkar feels that in divorce proceedings, the presence of husband and wife is vital.

“Even after the one year separation and additional six month statutory period, there have been instances when the couples decided to come together when they met during the court hearings. Video-conferencing will not give them that final chance. But yes, when the marriage has broken down completely, then these hi-tech modes will speed up the process,” says she.