Times Of India Dated: Sep. 18, 2002
By Deepa A
Times News Network

Excerpts:

Many learning disabled children have benefited because of computers. A recent study by Anandilal principal Vandana Lulla confirmed that children showed a marked improvement in their studies after they started using computers. Around three per cent of the 700 students in the school suffer from learning disabilities.
"If a child has dyslexia, parents and teachers usually use placards with the words written in huge letters, so that the students can grasp them easily," said Ms. Lulla. "It's easier to do that with computers, as you just have to use a bigger font. Many children with learning disabilities have bad handwriting - a problem that doesn't arise when computers are used to take notes or answer exams. The spell-check facility in computers also reduces spelling errors.
"The visual component in computers is of great help," said Purnima Hindia, administrator of Nalanda Institute of Byculla, a school for children with learning problems. "We find that children understand, learn and remember concepts better when we use multimedia presentations." The Nalanda institute uses software specially written for children with learning disabilities.

Dyslexic children are more comfortable with computers because they don't have to worry about spelling, said Vinita Pandit, the former principal of Arya Vidya Mandir at Bandra-one of the few schools in the city that provides special attention to learning-disabled children.
"The tension that children have because they can't write is not there," said Ms. Pandit, who is the educational consultant to the Maharashtra Dylexia Association. Children can work at their own pace on a computer and there is no fear of being rebuked by a teacher either, she said.

Studies in the West have shown that dyslexics who avoided writing letters are very comfortable with e-mail. In fact, the British Dyslexia Association Advocates the use of computers for educating dyslexics. It's still unclear whether children do learn spellings by using computers. "But the main thing is that it helps them understand concepts easily," said Ms. Pandit. However, the state's education system places greater emphasis on a student's performance in the exams. "When children score low marks, we say they are no good or ask them to leave the school," she said.

Special educators say that all this is likely to change. "Computers will be the answer for dyslexics. In another decade, examining bodies should allow dyslexic students to write answers in computers," said Ms. Pandit.

Times Of India Dated: Sep. 18, 2002
Column: The Speaking Tree
By Vikas Singh

Excerpts:

Question: Gurudev, I find it very hard to see God in my enemy despite my best efforts.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Don't try to see God. Just see a human. You may not have devotion, but at least you can have compassion.

Question: What do you feel about disbelievers?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: All good things are doubted. Negativism is so inbuilt that if I say I have great affection for you, you will ask 'really'? But if I say I hate you, you will immediately accept it!

Question: I see Krishna in you.
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Krishna is in every child in the world. He is in every one of us, but we have lost touch with him. And the agony every human endures is the pain to be reunited with the Krishna within us.

Question: Is there place for spirituality in a world still trying to come to terms with what happened on September 11 a year ago?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: But after 9/11, New Yorkers have become much more loving and caring towards each other. They display much less aggression.

Question: Does it mean that the overall global level of aggression declined?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: Recently, I was in Bihar. I told a gathering there, give me guru dakshina. The hate you feel towards your enemy, give it to me. That place used to be rife with violence and crime. Now, things are much better. But those were simple villagers. City people tend to think in much more complex ways...

Question: Is the art of living difficult?
Sri Sri Ravi Shankar: The way to 'gyan' is really simple. A child doesn't know his mother, he just loves her completely. fall in love with all shrishti, gyan will come itself.
I have a letter from an Al-Qaida member, who underwent Art of Living training in jail. That man had been brainwashed into believing the only way to attain heaven was to kill other people. But today, he says he has attained heaven right here on earth, through meditation. He has written that given a chance, he would like to help others attain this knowledge.