Pratima Shah

   In today's time an individual barely finds the solitude to talk to himself/herself. Man today is surrounded by people all the time and amidst this gathering man talks of the benefits of solitude and realizes the power of solitude. The biggest tragedy is that today's individual prefers to live alone when in a crowd and seeks company when alone. How can a person with a family, friends and relatives be alone? Why not? Many of us are alone despite of having people around them. In distressing times an individual feels like getting free from all the ties that bind him/her to people. He/she seeks time to talk to the self. But most of the times when we talk to ourselves we talk about relations, work, money, career etc. But we do not try to know ourself; we do not speak to ourself.    Being in solitude means you need to speak to yourself about the way you feel, the emotions that rise in you and the issues that need to be seriously addressed. One needs to discover each...

"To be or not to be" is a dilemma faced by most of the individuals. But connecting it to a life of a woman it can have a plethora of meanings for every woman. Women - whether working or home makers, come across many a situations in life when they need to pick up options - in the form of individuals, opinions, choices or anything in which they are confused. Despite of being educated and independent when it comes to their immediate family it gets rather tough to take decisions. Women do not have the freedom to get real. If they get real they are many judgements, criticisms and what not which they have to face. They are even warned and threatened with ultimatums from the immediate family. Despite of being surrounded by their clan, I have often found women remaining untouched by what is going around them. In the deepest corners of their heart they are lonely. They know they do not belong to that place where they are in but carry on with the flow of life by bearing the identi...

   If the education system is augmented with emotional intelligence (EI), it will dazzle robotized teaching. This will be of great benefit to the teachers. Sooner or later robotized teaching is going to be deprived by the propensity for human teaching due to the limitations of artificial intelligence. But this rosy picture can be marred if there is no timely reintroduction in the teaching done in classrooms. In this age of artificial intelligence teachers need to take a break from their general inertia and sloppiness. A dramatic transformation is required in teaching and thinking.    The worst isolating factor for any teacher is when there is a minus of emotions from intelligence or say knowledge minus wisdom. As teachers we must first teach the students to create emotions first and then promote intelligence. It is a major challenge for any teacher to develop emotional intelligence along with intelligence. But if done, we are on the path of fulfilling the basic ...

 The duel that constantly goes on between our intelligence and our emotions is very tiring for each one of us.  We are so much hurt by our ebbs and tides of our own emotions that at times we feel crushed under its weight. The logic and intelligence of a person remain steady when the person experiences strong intense feeling towards something. We relate our thoughts to the brain and feelings to our heart. The emotions that arise from our heart are very intense. When roused with emotions - be it the emotion of anger or be it the feeling of loving someone a lot; it is all very intensely felt by the person. When offended or neglected by our dear ones we feel shattered. As a learned friend told me during a conversation that " dil to bas khoon ka pyaasa he" because the function of the heart is to pump blood and keep us alive. It is the brain that does the thinking part and rouses emotions in us. To be aware of our thoughts and our feelings we need to be watchful over our activi...