Unsung Heroes - #2

I was thinking of a theme to picture a bouquet of flowers. The subject matter of "Unsung Heroes" crossed my mind. Hence tried to shoot with the focus on the small white flowers in the lot rather than the bright, eye-catchy ones. These white ones (see, I dont even know their name!) are there silently adding contrast to the whole bunch to make the "stars" look more prettier and grab more attention than they already have. First one was with 200mm and next 55mm (both with very small DOF possible in my lens). A still shallower DOF at 200mm would have made my point more clear. To enhance effect in the 55mm shot (second one), I had to post process using "Focal B&W" to get the attention to the focussed white ones.

Blame the Victim

Please meditate on the following situations for a moment -

• The government addressing the families of the 9/11 victims and saying that their kin should not have been there in that building that fateful day. There after, the govt moves on to ask common people working in "potential terror targets" to either be prepared to counter attack or switch jobs to less risky places of work.
• A hapless assault victim told by a court that its her fault not to be able to defend herself against a bunch of roudy, powerful assailants. 

Ridiculous,  right ??. Thats basically what will happen if I extrapolate the logic implied in a recent media article I read about "bullying in US schools". It went on to blabber about how the victims of childhood bullying cope up with their lives later on and how it has affected them in various different ways etc. I felt like yelling "What's wrong with this society ?". 

The problem is not the one who got bullied, Idiots. Its the one who did the bullying. I have found it really surprising (read shocking) how indifferent these school systems are to the actual bullies. Talking to them is not going to be of any avail. If they are good at listening to these nice talks about being a good kid, we wont be having them as bullies in the first place. You have to make sure you punish them such that they don't do this. I remember my schooldays where a miscreant (nothing even close to a bully) gets punished right then and there by the teacher whoever is present in the scene. Think about punishments like kneeling down (may be in the sun), running around the ground, or standing on a bench depending on the act and the punisher. Thats what we need to say the least to tackle this bullying scenario. Not counselling or advise to the hapless under-dogs that they shouldn't cross paths with the pitbulls. School is a place for study. Anything that happens within the premises other than learning should be dealt hard. May be the american society in general or its teachers or both should stand up and take these bullies to task. Who knows a generation down the lane - gun violence and gang violence may even reduce.

I personally had a chance to experience this behavior of their school systems. I was a TA in UTDallas during summer of 2003 when one of my duties was to help the kids of Dallas School district with science camp stuff. Outside of the class, one day, one weak kid got bullied (right in the UTDcampus) by one other stronger fellow. Not sure if he was attacked physically. The older brother of the victim was furious and wanted to know the details of the assailant. But the teachers were dodging about how they dont know who did it etc etc. But apparently, the suspected bully dint show up for the class next day onwards. I still considered he was shielded by the system. I couldn't intervene as I was neither a witness nor did I know the exact details. But the "cover up" if you want to call it happened before my eyes. 

Thoughts on Education

My take on few aspects of education in general based on what I heard being discussed in the US Media.

• Quality of Teachers in General is decreasing. (Meaning our kids are not getting that good teachers as we used to get).

• One factor for this notion becomes obvious if you think about where the "cream crop" of a  generation goes out to work for. In the generations of my parents and their parents, teaching was one of the most sought after jobs of the learned. The cream from the top educational institutions voluntarily took up teaching career. It was very well respected and the earning, compared to those days' standards wasn't bad. I come from a family of teachers on both sides. My father, his father, my mother, her sister and brother and the list goes on and on. My mom was a university gold medalist and opted for teaching for good or bad. Now-a-days the "Cream of the crop" from top institutions opt for lucrative greener pastures outside of teaching. I attended a decent undergrad school and my colleagues at work are from good schools. In all of my network, only 2 people I know of my age ventured into teaching line, every one else is in industry - either engineering or management. So, essentially the entire teaching profession is left to the next-in-line for that generation. Don't get me wrong here, there are good teachers. But I am talking about the big picture. Here I am not differentiating school or colleage education.
• Public Schools funding by the states is dwindling (here in the US). 
• I agree that the developed nations boast a "free education for all" social setup. But with the  unprecedented economic situation being faced by states like California (tax revenue dwindling from weak economy and a huge budget deficit), its not too late for them to swallow some pride and re-assesses the situation. Rather than trying to fund a schooling system from an already over-stretched budget and paving way for teacher lay-offs etc, why don't they just make the parents pay some nominal fees for their kids' education. It will do good in lot of ways. Say $10 a month or so per student. Helps a long way in maintaining the teachers jobs, students benefit. Just because the parents are paying out of their pockets, they wont take the system for granted, will want to know what their kids are up to, introduces some accountability and might even reduce the ridiculous school drop out ratio as parents would make sure their kids make use of their money. I don't think this small amount will break any parents' home finance budget. There are about 6 million school kids in CA and right there we have $60 million. and I meant, $10 for starters. 
• High Cost of Text books affecting college students (here in US again)
• This is ridiculous. Even when I was a grad student, I noticed this. The same text book comes in a hard-covered glossy-paper version (available in US) and also in a third-world-edition which is a paperback with a lower grade paper. The cost difference for a typical grad school text book between these two "twins" is astronomical - Usually a 20x price difference. What costs $5 (equivalent) in paper back sells for ~100$ in glossy hardcover. Add it up for all courses in a semester, you get a student's one month living expense at least. The radio show that featured this over air tried reaching the publishers here in US for comment but couldn't reach them.Why would the publisher care when their profits are cushioned by this needless lavishness. 

Whose Line Is It Anyway? #16 - Car Talk

We realized how much the concept of "road trip" had sunk into the mind of my son only when we went for a day visit to LA area. He assumed that we are going to be on road for a few days. While we reached Malibu to visit the temple there (after 2hr drive), he was checking with me whether I have made reservations at the hotel. And went to the extent of cutting a deal that he will wear his watch (which was not comforting him) only till we get to the hotel. For him, the highlight of any road trip is the occasional stops we make to get him his milk during his snack time. Invariably its the flavored milk/cookie snack at some Starbucks location. Hence in today's pic you can see him enjoying his snack next to an unknown person in a high stool in Malibu Starbuck's location along the PCH - all by himself. Taken with my cellphone camera.

My car is a Black Honda V6. I took care of it so well that I would never even let the tank go more than half empty. Some of my friends that time found it amusing too. Then along came my son and my grip on the car's cleanliness started to wane. Plainly speaking couldn't keep up. At present, most times I pretend the rear seats don't exist and not dare to look behind - with everything from toys, crayons, pencils, papers, empty juice cans and so on and so forth strewn across the entire rear seat area - courtesy of you-know-who. One fine day, my son looked at me and , out of the blue, said, "appa, I dont like our car". I know he has a thing for cars (the number of hot wheels toy cars we had bought would near triple digits now). Hoping to hear a name like Mustang or SUV etc, I asked why he thought so. With a matter of fact face, "Its very dirty appa". Now thats what they call "adding insult to injury".

While we are filling up gas at a Costco Gas Station, a Corvette pulled in to the pump next to us. Familiar with Hondas and Toyotas, our son was somewhat intrigued by the Corvette's design. He asked "Whats that funny car, Mom ?". My wife took a look and said, "Its a Corvette". My son thought my mom din't frame the sentence correctly and hence doubled-checked "Are you saying the car is wet ?".  The owner of the famed vehicle was blissfully unaware of whats happening to his famed car's ego in our car near him.