FEASTING ON SCAPEGOATS

 

Barbosa was the Brazilian goalkeeper who conceded the decisive goal that led to Uruguay's 2 - 1 triumph over hosts Brazil in the 1950 World Cup final.

50 years after the game, a woman in a shop spotted him. 

"Look at him", she told her son, "He is the man that made all of Brazil cry."

Unfortunately, the newspapers and  the TV news channels in Kerala are moving heaven and earth on a drive to feast on scapegoats. For them, the rulers of the State on date are the convenient scapegoats.

They feed on negative news. They feed negative news. The gullible public toe their line. They depend on ventriloquism. They make people sing their songs. 

Since the supposedly  have nots far exceed the haves - though have nots are no longer have nots - the have nots are happy to vent their intolerance of rulers of the day through the media.

The media thrive on the ratings.

Sans scapegoats they can't ever do that.

TRANSFORMING YOURSELF

 

Inspire people

Improvise

Find the purpose of your life

Success is non-negotiable 

Never try to impress people

Pursue satisfaction

If you have a spiritual outlook towards life, you will be able to do very well whatever you set out for.

IF SHE IS TALLER

 

What if she's taller, richer, older or better educated

Happy is the man who ignores it and listens to his heart

Gulf in stature is never a deterrent for those who strive without inhibition 

QUALITY // ADAM GRANT // THINK AGAIN

 

Quality means rethinking, reworking, and polishing.

One should not be ridiculed for going back to the drawing board.

He  must feel he is celebrated for that.

You have to revise your thinking based on inputs from others.

Critique the work rather than the author.

Avoid preaching and prosecuting

Show humility and curiosity.

Upgrade your own criteria 

Redefine your standards 

Discuss and debate how excellence should unveil itself.

Education is not the information we accummulate. It's the habits we develop as we keep revising our drafts and the skills we build to keep learning.

Good teachers introduce new thoughts, great teachers introduce new ways of thinking. 

Collecting a teacher's knowledge may help us solve the challenges of the day.

But understanding how a teacher thinks can help us navigate the challenges of a lifetime.

Quality alone delivers a dynamic metamorphosis.

AGNOSTIC // EXAM - AGNOSTIC

 The headline of an article in The Times of India of June 20, 2026 read "NTA goes exam-agnostic, 'blinds' its paper setters."

The sub-heading was "Deploys Larger Question Pools To Stop Leaks."

NTA is National Testing Agency.

Quoting here the first paragraph of the article by Manash Gohain

"A large question bank, more paper-setters and restrictions ensuring nobody can know or see the final question paper formed the core of the redesigned question-setting  system for the June 21 NEET-UG retest - a part of the high security process undertaken following a leak that led to the medical entrance exam's cancellation in May."

(It seems Indians as a whole wish to become Doctors and if they don't suceed in that, they wish to become Engineers through the JEE Main and the JEE Advanced)

The term exam-agnostic made me search it out as it was beyond comprehension.

Agnostic, I was familiar through enlightened debates with my friends at Sagar. We all had ended up there since we were no good for admission to the few PG seats available in Kerala at that time.

We were of three categories: 

Atheists, Agnostics and Theists

I belonged to the last.

Our debates were healthy and arguments were strong. Once we were done with we used to climb into the six wheeled tempos to reach the city and troop into a cinema theatre to watch a movie.

Our debate would go on and reach nowhere and it would go on for days together, just as the current day debates in Kerala that end nowhere.

Internet on AGNOSTIC and EXAM-AGNOSTIC:

AGNOSTIC

A person who is not sure if God exists or not.

EXAM-AGNOSTIC

The term "exam-agnostic" refers to content, platforms, or tools that are not tied to any single specific test or curriculum.

 It means the resource is designed to teach foundational skills or deliver services that apply universally, regardless of the test you are preparing to take.

Depending on the context, here is how the concept is applied:

1. Education & Prep Materials Definition:

Resources—like books, AI platforms, or coaching portals—that teach core concepts rather than memorizing answers for a specific test like the JEE, NEET, or UPSC.

Benefit: 

Allows students to build fundamental skills (like reading comprehension or math principles) that translate to any examination they face.

Examples: 

Platforms like SATHEE provide access to curriculum-agnostic learning modules and competitive exam prep via the Ministry of Education.

2. Job & Platform Matching Definition: 

In technology and data science, it means an algorithm or matching system that operates successfully without relying on predefined "examination functions" to evaluate candidates or match them (e.g., job postings on LinkedIn or dating platforms).

Benefit: 

Creates fairer bilateral matches between two parties by looking at mutual preferences rather than rigid, formulaic test results.

3. Medical & Diagnostic Context Definition:

A medical exam (like a physical checkup or an MRI review) conducted without the doctor or radiologist knowing the patient's prior history or prior test results.

Benefit: 

Prevents bias. By remaining "agnostic," a physician evaluates physical symptoms or imaging scans completely objectively, without preconceived notions.

The conclusion is left to the viewers.

READING HAS BUILT ME UP

 

I have been reading since I was a child. I can't remember a time when I wasn't reading. Papa had nurtured my love for books, newspapers and periodicals.

Reading has given me the courage to be who I am. It helps me make sense of the world. It allows me to step into lives apart from my own. It builds empathy in me. It helps me express myself with clarity.

Books have sparked my imagination. Reading is invaluable as it assists us in understanding people and their emotions. Growing up with books has instilled in  me an impetus to familiarise myself with the art of storytelling.

Reading has enlarged my horizon. It has developed my personality.

I love books that explore relationships, identity and complexities of life. Fiction has been the platform that has brought them alive.

There was a time when I used to read three books a day. I had been searching for a job. I was staying at home. My siblings had been away in their college hostels. After Papa left for his work, Mummy and I were the two at home. I would be immersed in my books - fiction, western and thillers -  and Mummy on  finishing her tasks in the kitchen would spend hours together reading the bible, praying  and singing spirituals in praise of  God. The exact count of books I had been through those two years is beyond recall.

Later on my favourite spot for reading  became my travels. When you travel you have to spend a long time over it.  And it  helps you catch up with  reading as nothing can replace the experience of getting lost in a good book.

One thing I am sanguine. 

Reading has transformed me.

Reading has built me up.

I composed this, drawing inspiration partially from the reflections of Indian actors Andrea Jeremiah and Kalyani Priyadarshan in Trivandrum Times, The Times of India of June 19, 2026 on the influence of books and reading  in their lives. For me, they were depicting my own life. I have taken the liberty of interjecting what I had been through here apart from reframing a few  words,  phrases and sentences in the articles.

ASK WHAT PEOPLE CAN DO, NOT WHAT DEGREE THEY HOLD

 ASK WHAT PEOPLE CAN DO, NOT WHAT DEGREE THEY HOLD

The things worth doing rarely fit neatly into a planning cycle.

The deepest shift needed in selection of people for recruitment is the simplest.

We have to stop asking what certificate someone holds.

We have to start asking what they can actually do. Project based assessment, demonstrated competency, applied evaluation- these have been on the reform agenda for years. They keep getting deferred as they are hard to standardise. That difficulty is exactly why they matter

The things worth doing rarely fit neatly into a planning cycle

Ipsita Gauba in Times of India 18June2026