Information & Knowledge: A Distinctive Insight

Sometimes you feel you have nothing to do for the day and something really fascinating happens. All my days are the same. Each day I enter my office at sharp 8:00 in the morning and by the time I leave, somewhere around 12:00 in the night, there would have been so many changes.

Since I assumed my position as Director at Prabal I have had made a promise to myself. I want to see to it that I seldom let a day pass by without having learnt anything. I buy a lot of books and a major part of my investment goes in it. I read it or not, I just want to make sure that I have in my shelves enough of good books seeing which I can always recall how little I know and how much more, at the least, I have to read.

In my office I have 3 large shelves, designed well enough to keep books safe from dust and worms. Because they are fitted with transparent mirror anything inside is clearly visible. Every day I am remembered, while glancing at them, how little books do I have in my selves and second, I am sure, when they are filled, they will speak to me of how little I have learnt.

‘But life is something more than books.’ you may find many people saying this. But they say for a very simple reason to justify the very fact that they haven’t even read even one book. Honestly, I feel it’s a pathetic idea to call a person as an ‘educated’ who have read not a book in his life. ‘Oh don’t ask me to read books… I have lived life so long and I never felt the need of It.’ one proud gentlemen told me once. ‘But did he even read a book before he could conclude to such a rustic statement?’ I wondered, but seldom conveyed as I could realize how proud he was of his unrealized ignorance. That’s true people are not just ignorant these days but are also pompous about it.

The only reason why people read today is to say wisely ‘for the heck of it.’ They read to pass in their exams to win marks. Once the marks are obtained and the certificate is received, they hardly touch a book again. To be in their own words ‘After all, what is the need?’ Many consider the ones with degree to be ‘learned fellow’. That is certainly not so.

Today’s education, I firmly believe, imparts not knowledge but information. Information is time sensitive. Once the time is passed away you can’t use the information. You cannot use your information of using a 386 Processor computer in the age driven by Intel Dual Core Processors. Or can you?

There is so much to write. But I have recently decided not to write lengthy researched and thoughtful articles as I have given up writing as a profession. I would certainly appreciate if someone would take this idea and write a detailed thesis on it. No acknowledgements needed.