Adult Learning

Prelude : Mind you, this is going to also touch upon review of a book that I recently read....

Warning : I am increasingly concerned these days about the average size of my musings. This posting too is not going to be an exception - looking from any angle.....viz., content, coverage, too much earnestness from my side, confusion from poor "you".....!!

Dear All

Thinking people clearly perceive the difference between reading and learning.....!! In fact this basic difference is only tip of the ice berg; "Learning" - by itself - contain many dimensions and the scope of such "ever continuous" words has to be understood in the parlance of the adjectives that is getting associated with these words.

Let me muse today about "adult learning" which is an all new subject compared to the root word "learning".

An "adult" mind (I mean only "technically"!!) denotes maturity and reaching of saturation point in terms of evolution. It is really a paradox if only we appreciate the fact that real maturity means constant learning process getting imbibed into a person as a habit more than a virtue !! Some one who is worth his salt can identify himself as "matured" person only when he at least knows for himself how much immature he IS and keeps moving towards the matured state constantly and continually. This movement to more awareness (Asathoma Sathgamaya - as our age old prayer verse says) can only happen only when he develops an yearning for improvement AND do not get stuck up with a self clarity and gets stuck up there for ever. (Have you noticed this ??...some people very proudly declare "enakku mun kobham konjam jasthi-thaan.....")

YES, the natural process of "learning" becomes bit complex and require lot of awareness when it comes to grown up people. There could be numerous slippages viz., "I KNOW IT ALL" syndrome, "HOW DIFFERENT ?" questioning and "WHY TO CHANGE ?" arguments...!! That's why "Training" industry in corporate arena has become a specialized skill these days needing lot more than basic teaching skills. One needs to learn the art of enticing and entertaining people if he wants to be successful in handling "soft skills" training sessions at offices which are meant primarily for employee engagement.

Coming to learning thru' books - many people go on reading books - approach it in various ways. There are many who develop an ego about remembering things that they read and quote them appropriately when they talk while few others read them quite seriously as an input for their professional speaking (at times even for their "written works") ; Many read for the purpose of getting into sleepy mode (??) instead of tossing in their beds while very few read out of their sheer passion. Many like to read general category books while very few like to read books on intricate subjects or technical subjects. Depending on the need and craving - so is the choice of the book and the degree of involvement.

I always carry an interest in the category of books which is called "self" improvement books and have found them amusing and interesting when ever I have stumbled upon one of them. This category of book is bit intricate and tricky compared to all other categories - according to me - as the purpose of reading ("learning") gets completed only when some impact happens to us as a result of reading !! Let us leave out those people who read even such books only to "kill" time or to keep themselves busy in their beds until their eye lids become heavy - they are outside the scope of this musings and also my thought process.....!!

Learning from an inanimate object like BOOK (I particularly mean "self improvement" book here) needs lot more humility, receptivity and earnestness than compared to learning from people / life experiences. People around us and tragic incidents that happen to us teach us ANY WAY.....many times after inflicting some damage too !! A mere volition to read a self improvement book and to learn some thing from it before some tragedy happens to us -according to me is one of the pro active step that a human being can take for himself.....AND just in case he succeeds in allotting time for this and reads thru' such books in a consistent manner, believe me....it works. In fact as I have consciously used in the beginning of this para, the adjective "inanimate" will become inappropriate if one learns life's lessons thru' a book. It becomes a treasure for him with life kicking out of every page and perhaps even every word imprinted on it.

I read some where that in western countries (particularly in US), self improvement books are big business....AND it is not surprising to see volumes of literature and dozens of authors are available in this section at any book store even in our book shops when it comes to English Language. Tragically (it is my little experience) there are very few genuine writers in tamil in this subject as a specialization though we can always learn life thru' the umpteen number of scriptures that we have in our wonderful language. I think one of the first who attempted this specialized writing was Mr.Udaya moorthy (UNNAL MUDIYUM THAMBI series) who wrote some real original stuff at least 3 decades back. I have also admired "LENA" Tamilvaanan's books during my school days and had a particular flair for his musings in his weekly magazine. These days a brand of "translators" have cropped up who are smart enough to pick up (or perhaps the smart publishers pick them up...what ever way it is) the best sold book in Western countries AND do a copy cat job in Tamil and make it a roaring success here too....!!

I am not advocating any specialized writing skill needed for self improvement in Tamil Nadu or other Indian Languages.....Neither do have any aversion for "translation" as an art by itself. But, it appears to me that there is tremendous possibility of writing such books with our own roots and culture instead of borrowing from West....!! In fact many of our deep rooted philosophies are slightly different from western societies (perhaps it is so much different....!! I am expanding this part at a later stage) and I see a real danger of dilution of our culture and our intrinsic strengths when we get into translation mode for such books.

Happened to see a wonderful book written by V.Iraiyanbu, IAS recently and it was so enticing that I could not leave a single page un-turned. The book is titled EZHAAVATHU ARIVU (Seventh Sense) and is in three volumes - I understand; I read the first and third booklets quite rapidly. Eager to share some snippets of this book with you all ... but considering the size of this posting already, let me continue it as next posting......with your kind permission....

Asathoma Sathgamaya....... (Lets move from darkness to light......) !!

Suren