This blog post is not about marketing, its not even about New Media, which I write on, but this is about life. I have been lucky enough to see the evolution of a trend which is great, but has many in-built flaws.
If you really give it a minute of your time and think, then you will see a particular trend in everything in this world. The things we go through, what we do, its all a trend. Everything in this world has its own good and attached with it its own bad (or not so good) however you want to put it.
Lets talk about Independence
I am proud to be the citizen of one of world’s largest and strongest democracies, where people sacrificed their lives many years back to give us freedom. I can see dreams and do what I want to today because I have been bestowed with the freedom to do this. But over a period of time, I have strongly felt that whatever comes to us easily in life, we start taking its presence in our life by default. The appreciable value of the same thing goes down!
Women and Independence
Before I write this, I must confess there is a lot I have learnt from the leading ladies in my life, my Mother, Sister, Wife and Many of my female friends. There’s a certain way of life for them. Anyway, now let me share a picture and this is not a myopic view of things, so hold before you react.
My Mother (just like you’rs) went through much in life, she saw phases when she lived her life and raised us up with almost no means. Obviously my Sister and I were brought up well. My Sister belongs to the generation which has values from her Mother but is changing and evolving with the times. My Wife pretty much belongs to my Sister’s times.
What’s common though in all the three ladies?
Well, they have all been raised up and been ‘looking for’ a certain kind of a feeling called ‘Independence’. For my Mother, Independence lets say is about having enough means to build a strong happy family. For my Sister, lets say to ensure while she is a working woman, she is project managing her home. For my Wife its pretty much the same perspective.
My Mother raised my Sister, telling her stories about what all she has faced and hence made her daughter strong enough to face the world. My Wife’s mother did the same. But what is changing now is, these stories along with the times we are living in are becoming inspiration for the birth of a small ‘Rebel’ inside the heart of the otherwise sane human.
I earn my own money, I am Independent!
I have heard so many women today speak of this and I am sure many of you would agree, that I want to earn my own. A girl in college says I don’t want to be dependent on my parents and a Girl getting married says, I don’t want to be dependent on my Husband.
Hold for a second and think, its the same girl who is growing up and one day will have her own family and will tech her daughter/ son one day that I had to go through so much in my times, I will make you guys strong enough to ensure you don’t.
Does money really makes you independent in life? Well, yes it might buy you many things, but Independence, well, probably not. And mind you, it also does not buys you confidence. It only buys you things.
I have my own life, my own decisions: I am the 21st Century Woman!
Agreed. And everyone has the right to live a good happy life. But in this whole ‘want’ of living your ‘own’ life and taking your ‘own’ decisions, you are being ‘reduced to only you’. I take many workshops for college students and corporate(s), I have seen the shift in the thought process. Education must have made us go getters and more enlightened, somehow I feel its making us more like rats in a race.
Especially in India, where we are all ‘bechara’s’. Somehow I feel we have been fighters (not in the literal sense), but we have many fights in our lives. The whole thing is, we are trying to ‘prove ourselves right’ all the time, by getting over the whole scene of ‘boss life mei bahut fight hai’. From a railway station to a college form line, there’s fight in every sense of the word.
http://www.ambuuncle.com/images/indian_women.jpg
And one day we get married!
While we are growing up through all these fights of life, one day we get married and the whole thing of raising up a successful family dawns upon us. Now lets re-visit, what I said in the starting of this post. When a girl gets married, the same mother will give her lessons of life, her friends will give her some. But what’s happening in India, as I see it, today is, what a professor of mine at college told me: “Paritosh, chances are that the woman you will marry tomorrow might have multiple relationships in her life before and she must have learnt from all of them, for you life is not the same as what I had”.
And I agreed to him and accepted the fact with just a line from my side, I said whether a woman OR a man, I don’t see much differences other than physical. What I would really want is to see women in this world really creating a beautiful world (because I strongly believe, men are a little lacking in this). The only rider I have for women is, have fun ladies, but do take care of the future, which is changing for all of us.
I hear so many people talking of how the world is changing and I instantly get reminded of a line I heard from a gentleman many years back who said, in Bhagwad Gita, Bhagwan Shri Krishna has predicted that generations will go down because the raisers (women) are changing.
Do I have issues with women leading the game?
NO! Ask my current boss/ colleague Geetika, she is a wonderful person to work with (not because she is my boss). Entrepreneurs don’t have this thing of buttering and all, we are straight talkers and so am I. I love the fact that women lead the game, infact I would love to see women creating a whole compassionate environment in the corporate jungle. But not at the cost of creating a future in the name of a feeling called Independence. Remember Money in the short term is NOT independence.
But I do have issues seeing the future!
What we do will come back to us within this lifetime, I strongly believe in this as well. And hence the next generations. More sharp, more intelligent (great), but into drugs, cigarette buts in schools, liquor is a fashion statement. And I am not saying this is all due to women, it is NOT. Men are as much responsible. But Ladies, you always say it and its true, you guys can create a far better world and a great happy future.
Maintain your relationships, whatever it takes
Ensure that whatever it takes, build strong relationships, because a broken relationship in your early days is an experience which you will at some stage share it with your kids, your daughters who will be raising a world of their own tomorrow!
I just wanted to share this on this Saturday, because this is one thought which disturb me personally, this is one thing I am seeing building around me and I will be the happiest to see folks roaming around happily with each other, creating a future of this country, which is truly BOLD AND BEAUTIFUL 
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An Exclusive Interview with Jeanette McLeod, Founder Wizz-e a company which is redefining how the children of the current generation learn!
Wizz-e leverages what your children love doing, that is using the computer, by creating innovative eBooks for children which are highly interactive in nature and makes learning fun and easy!
I was introduced to the concept of eBooks and Wizz-e by a good friend, Shama Hyder who runs a successful company (ClickToClient.com) in the US. Though I was initially not sure of the outreach of the concept, but Wizz-e I feel is redefining the space entirely.
Jeanette, who is a mother to four is an amazign Mompreneur and I caught up with her for a small interview. This interview is an exclusive on this blog and I thank Jeanette for her time!
Paritosh: Wizz-e.com is a brilliant Idea, what made you think about eBooks as a medium for teaching the next generation?
Jeanette: Most people with kids will probably recognize that kids love computers. They are such a ‘tech savvy’ generation. My passion is to get kids reading more so why not use the medium they love to teach them to read? The technology gives us the ability to make the books interactive so kids can have the story read to them whilst the words highlight.
In this mode kids learn to model fluency, read left to right, pause at punctuation marks and associate sounds to letter groupings, just like having an adult read to them whilst using their finger to underline the words. For emerging readers they can read to themselves and if they get stuck on a word they can click to hear that word spoken. For our early readers that means that they can read without having to rely on an adult to be there all the time. The illustrations are animated which really bring the books to life.
After all if it is fun, they may not even know they are learning!
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Paritosh: You are a Mompreneur, a mother to four, how do your kids relate to the concept? What kind of research has gone into the project?
Jeanette: My kids are great at giving honest feedback!!
I knew I had hit the spot when the 2 youngest children sat transfixed to the computer having a story read to them. They are really behind their mum doing this. One of my kids has also done the voiceover for a book we are producing for charity [to be released later this year]. That made me really proud. A lot of research was done before the start-up about how children learn to read. We are not trying to compete with the plethora of phonics books or early readers, we want to be complimentary to them. We produce high quality, engaging stories for young children in a format they love. When kids read more their vocabulary and literacy skills improve.
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Paritosh: Looking at the quality of eBooks that you have, I am sure kids must be engaged into the content. What all goes into creation of such wonderful eBooks for the young ones?
Jeanette: Well it starts when an author submits a story to us. We have slush pile readers who will assess whether the story will make a great picture book. If we accept a submission then it goes to the editorial team who go through it with a fine tooth comb to make sure there are no grammatical or spelling errors. Then we assign an illustrator, who we work very closely with, to produce beautiful illustrations to enhance the story. We then have the story read by a professional voice over artist. Then off it goes to the technical team who transform the text, audio and illustrations into page turning, animated audio books.
As kids can click on every word to hear it spoken it is a time consuming process but we firmly believe that all this hard work brings a much higher quality to the world of eBooks for children.
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Paritosh: Have any children contributed to the eBooks as Child-Guest authors?
Jeanette: No not yet, although that may be something we consider in the future. A great story is a great story no matter what the age of the author.
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Paritosh: I appreciate your effort in reducing paper usage. What would you like to tell the readers of this blog about eBooks and how they save the environment by reducing tree felling?!
Jeanette: Paper books consume far more of the world’s resources in their production than eBooks. It is not just the impact of felling trees to make the paper. There is a lot of energy consumption in the book making process. During paper production obviously are trees required making the paper, however, further energy is used to transport the trees to the factories, turn the wood into paper during the pulping process and at the paper mills, and to produce chemicals in making dyes for the inks. Then further energy is used in the transportation of the paper to the print factories, during printing, storage and then shipping and distribution. All this uses energy as well as producing CO2 emissions.
There is also the sad fact that books that do not sell are simply destroyed (more than 1 billion books in 2006) some are repulped (using energy) others end up in land fills. Our eBook business is completely electronic. Apart from the energy we consume using computers in their development we do not have a detrimental impact on the world’s resources.
Some key facts:
- The carbon footprint of a book (2006 figures): 8.85 lbs, in carbon dioxide terms
- The total carbon footprint of the book publishing industry (2006 figures): 12.4 million metric tons
- The biggest contributor to the industry’s footprint: using virgin paper – forest and forest harvest are responsible to 62.7% of the industry’s total carbon emissions.
The book world (in the U.S.) uses up more than 1.5 million metric tons of paper each year.
Full report here http://www.ecolibris.net/book_industry_footprint.asp
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Paritosh: I love your blog, NextInLearning (www.nextinlearning.com) ! Can we see kids contributing to the blog?
Jeanette: What a great idea. We would love to hear what kids think about eBooks, reading and how they see the future of learning and we will publish them on the blog. Any views or thoughts should be sent to info [at] ebooks4kidz [dot] com. Let’s hear from our next generation of learners!!
Paritosh: Wizz-e.com is also present on facebook and I see you twitter as well! Its great to see a Mompreneur in action all across the internet, reaching out to as many kids and touching lives! How do you manage to do all this? Please share with us your twitter Id.
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Jeanette: When you love what you do, when you have a mission to get kids reading and help improve literacy levels across the world then you find the time! The internet and social media is a fabulous way to connect to people across the world. Let’s get kids reading! My twitter URL is http://twitter.com/JeanetteMcLeod. I’d love to connect with people who are interested in getting kids reading more.
I would like to thank Jeanette, for her time and the value that she is providing to the generations in a way that they like it, there is so much knowledge which our children can access, how we can contribute to it is by giving them the access to all of it, the way they like it. The way it is easier for them to grasp things and really learn.
Give your smart ones the experience of learning through eBooks by gifting them a FREE eBook
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