Sunday, November 27, 2016

Maintenance and Welfare of Parents and Senior Citizens Act - Hindi Video - Bansal

Here is a Video from a law firm on MWPSCA But it is in Hindi. As I know the subject though I am not proficient in Hindi I could follow most of it. May be I misunderstood some part as well! The video gives comprehensive gist in just less than 10 minutes covering definitions, tribunals, procedures of appeal, appellate tribunals, maintenance amount, interim award, abandonment etc. I wish they come out with English version as well.

Thursday, November 10, 2016

Benefits of Lifelong Learning

Benefits of Lifelong Learning
By SH Subrahmanian

Part I
Benefits of lifelong learning.

Consciously engaging in lifelong learning is worth it. We should be intrinsically motivated to learn and do we need a list of potential benefits of lifelong learning! It is its own reward. Some key areas in which lifelong learning has tremendous benefits:

1. Economic Benefits: To thrive economically, we simply have to keep on learning. It is increasingly important to be well-rounded, to have a sense of perspective, and to be able to leverage a variety of learning experiences into generating new ideas and ways of doing things. Ageing is no barrier.
2. Intellectual Benefits of Lifelong Learning: Lifelong learning increases our knowledge and; just as importantly our ability to use that knowledge in diverse and meaningful ways. It opens up and enhances your mind. It fuels creativity and innovation. Also, it is an approach to living life consciously and deliberately, rather than being guided purely by instinct, emotion, and the desires of others.
3. Cognitive Benefits of Lifelong Learning: Wikipedia states : "Cognition is a group of mental processes that includes attention, memory, and understanding language, solving problems, and making decisions.” There is a wealth of both scientific and anecdotal evidence that actively continuing to learn throughout life is beneficial for all of these processes. Bottom line is that it helps to keep our brain working well, and as we continue to live longer and longer, this is a benefit that is hard to ignore.
4. Social Benefits of Lifelong Learning: Indeed a good percentage of what I know comes from reading posts here, broadening with new ideas, gauging reactions, adjusting and adapting. Learning sparks social engagement; I often connect with others because I want to learn from them and with them; and it is also an outcome of social engagement, often without my even realizing it.
5. Spiritual Benefits of Lifelong Learning: Learning feeds the spirit. It gives us purpose; it gives us focus. What, after all, is a philosopher up to if not for his lifelong learning?

Let's embrace lifelong learning simply because it feels right. It is part of who we're. It helps give our life meaning. It is its own reward. There are many more benefits of lifelong learning; they are important but secondary.

To become a step closer to success, one must have an unquenchable desire to learn as the most powerful tool one can use. True, fostering a desire to learn isn’t easy, but the great reasons why lifelong learning is the greatest asset in life will make one fall in love with “everything” new and gain more experiences along the way.
As it is getting longer, let me continue in Part II: on Some reasons why lifelong learning is essential:

 Part II:
Some simple reasons why lifelong learning is essential:
1. It broadens your horizons:
 While learning, it’s important to broaden our horizons as much as possible; this means reading widely, and learning more about subjects that we might not normally be interested in. It also means making use of the many free and inexpensive resources available to us on and offline, as well as changing how we learn. Doing so can set us up for lifelong learning.
Just taking the time to read more every day can make a big difference to our education; try to read the newspaper online, and cover multiple papers to get a different point of view. It’s also possible to broaden our horizons by reading a wide range of different genres, which can be particularly useful if we’re into the habit of reading the same authors. 
We can also start to change how we learn by trying memorisation techniques, and by researching writing skills. Getting better at being self aware about what we’re doing is a useful first step to trying to figure out where we may be having problems with some subjects; this means looking more widely at techniques that were not available to us in school and life.
Broadening our horizons ultimately means being able to develop improved critical thinking skills, while also making us more confident in tackling subjects that we may not be familiar with. In the same way, learning about a wider range of topics should hopefully feed back into our main studies, and can enable us to stand out. This can make us appear more distinctive. 

2. It helps us understand ourselves better: Personal development is a lifelong process. It’s a way for us to assess our skills and qualities, consider our aims in life and set goals in order to realise and maximise our potential; to lead to a more fulfilling, higher quality life. Although early life development and early formative experiences within the family, at school, etc. can help to shape us as adults, personal development should not stop later in life. 
 
3. It helps us develop your natural talents:
 “True happiness involves the full use of one’s power and talents.” – John W. Gardner

The ability to learn provides a good case study of both the prospects and the pitfalls that people encoun-ter in the study 
of intelligence. 
An ability to learn is related to intelligence. Everyone is born with certain talents and we’re no exception. When we keep developing, growing and learning the world, it’s easier for us to figure out the talents we were born with. As soon as we know what our hidden talents are, we will feel more in tune with our inner self and our overall life. Research shows that people who use their natural talents to make a living are a lot happier and more successful than those who fail to figure out what they are most talented at.
 Learning for the sake of learning can in itself be a rewarding experience. There is a common view that continuous learning and having an active mind throughout life may delay or halt the progress of some forms of dementia.There is actually very little scientific evidence to support these claims, though! However, keeping the brain active does have advantages since learning can prevent you from becoming bored and thus enable a more fulfilling life at any age becoming easily adaptable.
There are many reasons here: to increase your knowledge or skills around a particular hobby or pastime; to develop some entirely new skill that will in some way enhance your life; to learn more about the history and culture; even to take a degree course later in life simply because we enjoy our chosen subject.
 
 We learn a lot from the people around us. The more people we know, the more new things we learn. Even lifelong introverted learners strive to get to know as many people as possible. This knowledge helps us to build strong relationships, differentiate the good and bad traits, and inspires us to improve ourselves.

6. We don’t care about the age:
 Age is not an obstacle to achieving goals. If we’ve ever met a lifelong learner who is 70 but keeps learning rather than waiting for death, you know how enthusiastic he is and how many goals he has. Lifelong learners don’t care about the numbers, they simply find a purpose in anything and everything they do.

7. It encourages you to take part in educational programs:
 If we attend an educational seminar, we probably won't wonder how many people in the age range of 60 to 80 are involved in the seminar. They still want to contribute to society and share their experiences. They're wise and smart people who have spent their lives learning without a second of hesitation. Won't we like to be one of them? 
    “Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is.” – Isaac Asimov

8. You live a life of purpose:
 There're so many lost souls who have no idea why they live or, say, “exist”. That’s a reason for a high suicide rate worldwide. Robin Sharma once said, “The purpose of life is a life of purpose.” It’s okay to feel lost at times – lifelong learners feel that way too. But, since they take an active part in making the world better, they still have a purpose. They live an enriching life full of knowledge, adventures, and different people.

Knowledge is a power and it’s up to us to decide whether to take a full advantage of that power or give up on it. Becoming a lifelong learner isn’t a trend, it’s a calling. All we need to do is to discover that calling within ourselves!


Contributed originally in the discussion group: sss-global by SHS