Reading core part of Cognitive process

Reading as is defined and understood is a process of acquiring knowledge while decoding symbols (words) and deriving or constructing meanings out of them. It is part of "cognitive process" i.e acquiring knowledge through our thoughts, experiences, and senses. In-fact a first step towards learning how to pay attention.

There is no boundary or regulations in reading, but rather it lets readers have an avenue to make their own products meditatively. It takes them through a journey of deep exploration during interpretation. It is a beautiful collaboration between the text and the reader which is shaped by the reader’s prior experiences, knowledge, and language carrying impact of its community and sociocultural background. Reading is a process that requires unremitting exercise, development, and modification. In response, it builds creativity and critical analysis.

For children reading skills are important as it opens doors to all kinds of new worlds for them and they are exposed to a wide range of words. This not only helps them build vocabulary but greatly improves their listening skills.

How it benefits

Exercise for our Brain “Connect”:

Reading is a practice of brain connections, in fact making new ones at the same time. This exercise is done while you are in complete silence. This state of silence is actually making your brain focus more and seeking more. You learn, you grow, and you experience to feel the point of view of the author. This practice of silence develops the ability to focus more for longer periods.

Knowledge:

Through reading children get to know more about the world around them. They learn about different cultures, places, communities and places outside their own familiarity. They are exposed to other surroundings that may be different from their own. Silently it also builds a knowledge store in the back of their minds which helps their mental capabilities grow better.

Build Vocabulary:

Reading builds vocabulary since children learn new words as they read and unconsciously they are absorbing information. They learn the flow of information like how to structure sentences and how to use words and language effectively. 

Develop Imagination

As you read your brain is in a process of translating and engaging people, characters, and places into pictures.  At the same time when we are engaged in a story we are developing our sense of empathy, imagining how the characters are feeling, how we would feel in the same situation. 

Doing Better overall

Children who read are not only good at linguistic subjects but they perform well in overall conduct of their school routine. They gain knowledge and develop their ability to concentrate, listen and

Entertainment and a great tool for relaxing body and mind

While reading you enter your brain in a silence mode without the lights and outside sound of any electrical equipment. Your creativity and imagination is geared up. Your mind sketches the scenes, places, people, sounds and whole crew of various kind is working at its full capacity to translate and bring the words into pictorial narration. It’s like you have your own movie or filmmaking crew all in your mind and you are your own director of imagination.

Books are the quietest and most constant of friends; they are the most accessible and wisest of counselors, and the most patient of teachers.  -Charles W. Elio-

LEARNING TO KNOW THE CONCEPT OF SURVIVAL

In a morning discussion with a colleague about what’s so urgency about things all the time, I realized a grim fact about the change in human behavior over a period of time. It was hard to realize that the fight for survival which has been there since inception it has overcome all the other aspects of human societies and now we are all majorly just fighting for survival and the rest is our secondary priority.

This seems to be cruel though as it has its own diverse and vast effects on social norms, human behavior and ultimately the development of a nation as a whole. The basic philosophy of nature is to live in the present not in past or future. Reality is the present. It is all so clear and all so evident but one just has to sit down and think, all the answers are all around us. 

Birds are up and about to find their food for the day with the first ray of morning. They spend the whole day in search of food and as the sun is settling they return to their homes. They get their food for the day return home and are asleep as the sun goes down. That is the basic philosophy of belief. God has promised food for everyone He created. The birds can not carry food on their wings or store in their nests for a rainy day and may be when some day they don’t feel like doing any search they could just use their stored food. They are not fighting for survival in the sense to store the keep building any estate or empire.

I am sure it’s not like that with normal human behavior. In fact nowadays seems like a race for survival. This factor has surpassed all other thoughts and worries. We want to gather and store as much as we can. So are we going away from our basic rule of religion which is the rule of nature indeed? The success stories of nations and countries are based on their learning, believing and practicing the true spirit of nature. Live in present not past or the future. And off course if you do good in the present your future is to be good and when you reach there and look back your past would also be a memory to cherish.

No Names, No Blames, … and still a Hope and Dream

It’s kind of a rare weather in January and that too in Lahore. Light drizzle and not too chili though one would still feel the cold breeze. Surely this calls for a good cup of coffee and a muffin if you have an English desire for breakfast. Nobody can say no to an Aloo (potato) Paratha Roll with Omlate and a hot cup of Tea. While I was thinking of indulging myself in any one of these morning delicacies of Lahore a strange feeling of depressing was floating in my mind.

I don’t want to think about the chaotic call of long march going on for a week or so. I want to put behind all the media and political follow up on this new so called “CALL for Change” which ended up in yet another coalition. What are we talking about? What are we falling for? And that too once again, another agreement? For all those who had been following this event quite particularly and silently hoping for SOME Change” big new for you once again they all will live happily ever after. (this includes the new SUFI or Leader as he calls himself, the almost ex-government and its allies) and as for you my fellow Pakistanis we will have new tariffs, no CNG, inflation, low income and the list goes on.  

Ok I have finally decided that I will have coffee and a donut. This should make me feel better. The bitterness of coffee should lessen the after affects of another coalition (which I also hope to be a CHANGE for our nation) and the sweetness of donut would bring me another dream for ourselves to look forward to.

Yes I am still optimistic that we can bring change and we don’t need another leader to do that. A change in any individual will carry this chain which can bring good things in our coming times. I make a promise to change myself and believe and follow the true and basics. This is how all other flourishing and rising nations have believed and followed. It’s a pity at times when I see all the true lessons and extracts of our religion are being followed by other nations and which has been reason of their success. When we try to learn the way how these nations became so united, powerful, progressing and yet welfare states. The answer is nothing but the true extracts of our religion.  We need to be focused and non judgmental in order to accomplish something. This is our factual learning and only way to achievement. So good bye Political and so called SUFI leaders. We can do better job for ourselves. 

Taxing the Education

While proposing for taxing the private schools fee structure,  I am sure it would have not occurred in the minds of the so called “Special Advisors” that this in-fact would be  another burden being passed on to the parents of the students. Taxing the salaried class has become so common norm that it seems the most viable solution to fill in the deficit of any kind. Let it be the taxing of textile, household goods, eatables, few available utilities and now even the education of schools. For crying out loud this is insane. The private schools are the only option left for salaried class to improve their children’s future in some way and now they would be deprived of even this option. Did they actually believe that by actually taxing the fee structure they would be getting tax money from the owners of the institutions…. They cant be serious or so naïve that this could be in their minds. The only class of society which will be paying them is the one and only SALARIED CLASS. Who has always been their rescue boat for all kind of miseries and yet again they get fooled.

As the pressure is building day by day on this poor nation who is not finding any way to get out of the vicious circle of politicians, establishment and God knows what, living a normal life is becoming obsolete. Every month the salaried person has to make a toss between the necessary eating items, books, clothing and off-course the bills not to leave out the energy resource comprising of petrol and diesel. One cant stop thinking that will this pressure actually promote corruption or not. For how long a person will be able to stand against the odds of not getting the necessities of life and see that people in the other sector of the circle are having Ball of their time.

An Islamic state is responsible for providing the food, shelter, education and medical free to its inhabitants who are paying taxes and Zakat in any way that the rulers demand. But we don’t see and cut down in energy prices, better law and order environment. Medical facilities are either unavailable or those that re present are unreliable and if found injurious to health covered in deep sheets, hushed and not to be talked about. The easy way out for all and any corruption case is another severe topic thrown to the public for distraction.

Let's move

Call out to Mothers. Inspiring doings named as "Let's Move" initiative and motherhood issues (by the First Lady)

Going through the daily articles and news of what’s happening around the world I would like to share something that really attracted and inspired me.

First Lady Michelle Obama sat down with a small group of women at the White House yesterday to discuss her "Let's Move" initiative. The roundtable discussion quickly turned to other topics, including fitness, healthy eating, work-life balance, and finding some semblance of a private family life while living in the public eye. Here's the first lady's point of view about some of the things that matter most to moms:

On women who feel disenfranchised or disempowered by what's going on with the world:

"The truth is, the greatest power I feel like I have is raising two more intelligent, decent people and putting them in the world prepared to give and contribute," she says.

Changing the big picture takes time, she pointed out, and the best thing to do is focus on the things you can control. "If everyone focused on raising their kids and doing the best that they can do at it, in addition to working and all that," she says, "there are hundreds of wonderfully small changes that we can make in our lives if we're doing all that. That becomes the collage of real change."

When confronted with the economy and the wars and the environment and all of the big problems in the world, "we lose sign of the fact that day-to-day work is really how change happens," she says. "So I would urge them not to get discouraged."

It's important to remember that the next generation was born seeing the world differently than we do. "They're born into a different way of thinking that I think is good," she says. "They're more open. They're more curious. The world is different. And each generation, just by the sheer fact that they come on this Earth, is creating change."

"That's sometimes more real than changing legislation," she added.(courtesy, Yahoo Shine)

When I finished reading this article I was filled with a great feeling of relief as it had answered most of the questions that had been bothering me lately. The kind of chaos, distress and frustration that is going on these days in my home country Pakistan worries and scares me just as it does to most of the common people. While I feel unable to go out and make a big change this is the right way of thinking. The big change can only happen if there is change at the individual level.

A Chinese proverb explains it better as it says that “every single grain of rice matters”. We all have our duties to fulfill towards a bigger achievement and being a mother is the most important role that one can have in this world. A mother is the first institution that a child has. So this impact is long lasting and has a great importance. I hope that this call out of thoughts for mother is helpful for all the readers. Happy contribution moms

Beautifully Balanced out

Today I happened to read an article on Yahoo.com. It was about a person who earned only $40,000/- a year and he had an amazing way of splitting his earnings. He and his wife made a roughly sketched out plan about starting a family in few years down the road and till that time spend one salary and save the other. While reducing the existing debt they had planned to save up some money so that when they start a family they could survive with one person doing the job.

Once they decided to get along with this principal of spending they had to tie up their wishes and rethink of impulsive buying habits and argue with one’self for final decision of buying something. This principal where helped them go through an equation of earn and spend they had to bear the so called peer pressure. But o matter who says what they kept on sticking along and eventually today they are a perfect example of balanced spending nature.

This didn’t stop here but they inculcated the same principal in their young daughter. Told her how she can earn money while doing household chores (to begin with). The best part of this entire story is that once their daughter would have a weekly earnings of $10 she would split it into three parts. 10% for Give away, 25% for saving and the remaining for spending (all of these categories were kept in three separate jars) . Whenever she would accompany her parents to a store and want to buy something she was told that they will have to look into her spending jar how much money she has and also for the saving part so that she can buy her things. She also helped people in her own kiddi way with the help of her Give away money. She bought a gift for an orphan kid at her father’s school, helped a family get some groceries (just to name a few)

In our language we use a term ‘Meezan’, quite elaborative in meanings. In Islam the basic principal of spending is somewhat very similar. Let’s not get into hard core mathematical division and percentage but the base line is so similar. Once you get your income divide it into portions for helping other, saving and then spend the rest of it. But I was amazed to read this article in the western world and hoping to see an example in our so called hardcore Islamic societies.

Pride and prejudice redefined

It was a lovely evening long drive and an impulsive shopping spree that took me and my hubby to the Lark n Finch sale to the most wanted streets of Lahore. Yes I am talking about MM Alam Road of Gulberg. My went in the shop to have aquick look and if it was worth making an effort  he would call me for the final approval (I love this feeling of giving final go ahead, J typical wife thing J .

So while I was waiting I started looking at the shops around and there was a sign I first misread. But then I went over to the door and read it again. The Sign said “ No men allowed without family” this is actually and truly a sign written on the door of a very famous clothing outlet. I felt a shock that may be they wanted to say something and it is being misread or mot written appropriately. But sadly enough I discovered that they did mean that no men are allowed if they don’t have a family. Here we are living God knows whatever escalated hip named society one can think of. But this is against the very human rights when you have the owners and male workers roaming around and being present at the outlet. How can you deprive men of not shopping from such a place? I think that men and women both should place a protest of redefining Pride and prejudice in today’s progressing society. It is totally understandable if it a secluded item with only a female items and female shoppers. If families are allowed I am wondering they would be asking for a proof next time that says that you are a family of accompany and God know s what would come next …