Many Indians recognize Rabindranath Tagore as the winner of the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature, and the philosopher who discoursed with Gandhi, Albert Einstein, W. B. Yeats, and other greats of his day. Many more Indians are admirers of his poetry and   artwork. Throughout India, students recognize Tagore as the author of India’s national anthem, Jana Gana Mana. Despite his fame in other arenas, Tagore’s progressive educational philosophy is largely forgotten today. The experimental models Tagore pioneered in his schools, Santiniketan and Sri Niketan, remain mere experiments. His ideals have not found their way into India’s schools; future generations have returned to rote-memorization as the predominant learning style.

The term “emotional intelligence (EI)”, is often used interchangeably with the term “emotional quotient (EQ)”, and became popular after Goleman published his first book called Emotional Intelligence in 1995. In another best-seller, Working With Emotional Intelligence, Goleman pointed out that IQ only accounts for 20 per cent of a person’s success in life; the rest is attributed to other factors, including EQ. EI refers to the capacity for recognising our own feelings and those of others, and for motivating and managing emotions in ourselves, and in our relationships.

MANY PEOPLE WEAR THEIR FAITH LIGHTLY. They may wear their religion loudly, but in their inner lives, they touch God lightly. Or their brushes with the divine are fleeting and superficial, accidental and incidental. Not so the psalmist who declared to God from his inmost being: “My soul clings to you” (Ps. 63:8). This statement is thick with intensity and personal experience. Here there is no light and cursory touching of God. Instead there is an earnest and wholehearted hanging on to God, and it was with soul-felt and soul-led intentionality. Why do some people have this deep and intense experience of wanting to cling to God? There are at least two reasons we should examine.

Our world has been redefined to a faster pace than we thought, especially in the last 5 years. Our world has grown additional tongues, ears and eyes; we call it the virtual world. My mother is still trying to wrap her head around that fact that majority of the ministry work is actually done on the computer. And from the way it seems, the virtual world has taken over a generation itself. From relationships to direct communications, everything seems to be moulded by this world.  Now since there are thousands of benefits available, if we are not careful, we may end up becoming slaves to the computer and it in turn affecting our overall job performance, relationships and other activities.

Who am I?, I log-in as a user-name. Key-in protected life-passwords, to prove I am ‘me’. Elsewhere, it is a 4 digit PIN. I enjoy online status. Faceless existence. Multiple Identities. I juggle ‘this-is-how-I-look-now’ profile images . . . . Am I my image? Am I my profile? Am I myself, after my 15 minutes of fame? Is this my alter-ego? Or am I just trying to be me? Can anyone know the real ‘me’?