Wednesday, June 16, 2010

Annals of Extreme Childhood


Exhibit 1: Reality Shows:

... [O]ne of these shows, which aims to select a “vamp queen” from among young girls, drew 340 initial entries after offering Rs 1 lakh for the winner and a chance to dance with “item girls” of Telugu cinema.

Exhibit 2: Cram Schools:

Last month a Bangalore preschool made national headlines when it started accepting eight-month-old babies for an educational program called "Brain Bear". It is designed to develop communicative, aesthetic, physical and mathematical skills.

7 Comments:

  1. L said...

    Eight month old?why leave it till so late? Like Abhimanyu, we must start pre-natal classes.... a little calculus in the first trimester, a little fluid mech in the second and maybe organic chem in the third trimester. Then the baby can be admitted to IIT. Crazy people.

  2. Anant said...

    How about Ashtavakra?

  3. Yayaver said...

    Make a name of yourself fast & big philosophy is growing amongst us. Life is not fair - that is reality. Neither are reality shows which are actually not real at all...

  4. Venkat said...

    You may want to consider this also;

    http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_g9Ssbl03NHs/TBcg14LNfOI/AAAAAAAADbQ/4ZkRXvUyZgI/s1600/img001.jpg

    Venkat
    http://domesticatedonion.net

  5. gaddeswarup said...

    Ashtavakra story may have a point. Carl Zimmer says in The Switches That Can Turn Mental Illness On and Off
    "Our experiences can rewrite the epigenetic code, however, and these experiences can start even before we’re born. In order to lay down the proper pattern of epigenetic marks, for example, embryos need to get the raw ingredients from their mothers. One crucial ingredient is a nutrient called folate, found in many foods. If mothers don’t get enough folate, their unborn children may lay down an impaired pattern of epigenetic marks that causes their genes to malfunction. These mistaken marks might lead to spina bifida, a disease in which the spinal column fails to form completely."

  6. Anant said...

    Dear Swarup,

    Thanks for the Astavakra update!

    Best regards, Anant

  7. Murthy A V N said...

    Dear Prof Abi, Please watch Sir Ken Robinson's new (Second) TED video, he starts off where he left from regarding education. I suspect you might already have seen it.