Does Indian Education system breed innovation?

Innovation, much like a distinguished jurist said about pornography, is easy to recognize, but hard to define. If we are serious about innovation, we might as well ban this word from usage. It stands today in the annals of the most abused words of our age, with reams of literature and legions of innovation consultants still arguing to find its meaning . It has become a joke now. I am not going to use it any further because, using this i-word doesn’t make you innovative.  As I write this, I am reminded of my favorite sufi kalaam by Hazrat Zaheen Taji, 

Pani-Pani rat'te rat'te pyaasa hi mar jaaye

(One who chants 'water' endlessly dies of thirst)

Kids today suffer the same fate of the ignorant seeker the poet vividly describes inside schools. Kids are lulled for hours inside class rooms to believe in, what John Dewey called,"verbal knowledge". Ask any kid what he learnt in the school today. He  would probably say, (depending on his mood), "..Hmm..I learnt about leaves ...photosynthesis..microbes.,etc". Ask again, "What did you learn about them". I did this once with my eight year old niece. She gave me a wry smile and fled saying, "Mama, I can't answer your question."

Tao of Social Media

What is Tao? It is often referred as the pathless path. What does it mean? Osho, in his commentaries about Taoism, puts it succinctly, "..the way and the goal are one." Leaving aside its philosophical ramifications, I would like to use this language to ponder over the way we perceive Social Media. 

Given the staggering amount of discussions this topic generates everywhere, with  innumerable consultants, gurus and the like who are dying to share, "Everything you wanted to know about...", "The Ultimate guide to..", " Top 5 killer strategies of .."(Ok.I confess.I made up the last one)Social Media, I think it would be worthwhile to examine whether such a thing exists.