Mom, are you studying? Yes! How long to your finals? one month precisely!! Howz the subject coming along?...Its difficult to follow, but I am getting there! Yes this is a conversation between Mom and her daughter, completely reversed. Talking to my friend who asks..."which subject does your mom study"...Philosophy is my proud reply. Now there it is. I personally think that Moms have their own philosophy, and hence "Mom's are always right" and when they study a subject called philosophy, sure it will be darn difficult for them to follow someone elses won't it be? Jokes apart. I am not 12 and my mom is not in her 30's. She is around 45 and just finished her MA in Yoga and philosophy topping her class. She has come a long way from studying in Marathi medium to getting an MA in Philosophy in English medium. I have attempted to read her books, but Kant, Aristotle, Plato were smart and people of heavy words. I have learnt in an English medium through and through and still the first para of book was enough for me to open up a dictionary. But dictionaries give literal meanings of words and not the hidden philosophy in them. So there you go reading the same lines in the book again and again, unless you have a good teacher.
Journey of my Mom in 3 years of Diploma in Yoga and MA in Philosophy was not easy for her age but definitely entertaining. No I am not mixing the words serious and entertaining. You will be surprised to know it is nothing related to serious and so people stop giving weird looks to people who study philosophy. It is not Psychology either and hence not a study of human behavior. So lets get our ideas straight and for beginners that is those who are still looking at this article weirdly you might like to entertain yourself with a book called 'Plato and Platypus walk into a bar'. Even if you don't get to the deeper meaning of the book, it is definitely a wholesome entertainment.
So let me give a bit of introduction of this course offered by our own Kalina University in Bombay. It is a one year diploma in Yoga and a two year MA in Philosophy course. The teachers had definitely designed the subjects well by which I mean: Over the period of the course, the students had a lot many guest speakers from here and abroad sharing their views on western philosophy, Hindu/Jain/Buddhist philosophy and yoga philosophy etc. While the airing of movies like matrix and Ice age and a talk of philosophy of those movies was definite entertainment as we all know. I was just glad my Mom watched some good movies :) The course also offered an opportunity to make projects and present them in front of speakers and have them evaluated. Its awesome to see how well the course is put together with fun and turned into an extremely interesting journey.
After her MA, My Mom went ahead and gave an all Maharashtra test for Lecturers, in order to qualify to become a lecturer for such course. She met a lot of ladies in her exam hall all in different age groups and she asked one of the 25+ girl why was she studying the subject. And her quick reply was, its definitely not boring as it sounds and it will go a long way to help me lead my life with a extremely different and practical approach. Another lady of my mom's age in the hall was also of the idea that its never to late to learn anything at all. After which my mom came home and gave me the example of the 25 year old girl to me and also made some of her friends join the course, for which all of us were thankful to her later. So ladies, well not many men were in the course, but then as everyone knows if you educate a woman you educate the whole family, its a profitable deal, if you are interested in pursuing something think of what your Mom would have said...because after all this the fact remains "Mom's are always right" :) Pursue it!!
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