Wah!!! Wah!!! Wah!!! -- With regards, J. M. Garg
On Fri, 29 Apr, 2022, 10:08 am Pankaj Kumar, <[email protected]> wrote: > *TEACHING VS. LEARNING* > > There are many social media platforms like google, facebook, orkut (till a > few years back) etc, with many groups where people put up images for others > to identify. While some of the ids were very pathetic, I was surprised to > see how college students and even PhD scholars used to take help from such > groups to get their plants identified. I always used to think, "what the > point of helping them and wasting my time, I am not getting anything out of > it". "Why a PhD students taking help from such a group. I literally hated > people who used to send me images of their camera screen with plants on > display for identification. I used to scold them and tell them to have > patience, go home and then email or send proper pictures on whatsapp. I > even blocked many such people from my facebook and whatsapp. > > During the time I was pursuing PhD at Wildlife Institute of India and I > saw my mentor Prof G.S.Rawat getting lot of plants for identification and > some of these plant specimens comprised a single leaf of the plant. He > would sit there selflessly and study all those specimens and identify them > for scholars from all parts of India. I used to get frustrated seeing him > help people and waste his time like this. One day he asked me to take some > classes on plant taxonomy and orchidaceae, for some tiger researchers. I > said "tiger researchers?", "but why should I waste my time? they are not > working on plants and they have no interest". He said, "EXACTLY, THAT'S > WHY! Even if you are able to raise the interest of one out of 100 students > on plants, that would be your achievement, then that tiger researcher will > bring orchids for you from all over India, from protected areas where no > one has gone before, which no one has seen before". > > That day I realised the difference between identifying plants for others > and learning from others, about teaching and learning. My mindset changed > and this is what stopped me at eflora and flowerofindia.net. If I don't > identify orchids for others, then people will stop sharing and if people > stop sharing, then I am myself missing the opportunity to learn. Sitting in > Hong Kong, today with the help of this group I can know what plants > including orchids are flowering in India and Nepal when they are shared. > This is the beauty of this group. But that's not all. > > This group is an inspiration about how even people who never studied > botany can do botany better than many trained botanists. And of course > there are legendary trained botanists like Gurcharan sir who not only gave > me lessons of botany but lessons of life too.And above all, Garg sir, a > relentless guy, as if putting his whole life into this group. Can't even > imagine what tonic he is taking!! And gradually this group became more > like a family to me with many members like Dinesh Sir, Balkar Sir, Nidhan > Sir, Tabish Sir and many more.... met some good friends back here like > Smita, Ritesh, Vijay and many more. > > This group is to learn from, about various aspects of life, whether > personal or professional. This group is actually a family or people, many > of which have never met in real life, yet know each other. A group of polar > bears is called a *celebration*, but for me this group itself is a > *celebration > *and I love being part of it, despite the fact that I even got into an > argument with many of the members. > > कोई तितली निशाने पर नहीं है > मैं बस रंगों का पीछा कर रहा हूँ > ------------- ज़ुबैर अली ताबिश > > > > > -- > > *Pankaj Kumar* MSc, PhD, FLS > > > Kadoorie Farm & Botanic Garden (KFBG) Corporation > > Lam Kam Road, Lam Tsuen, Tai Po, New Territories, Hong Kong S.A.R., P.R. > China > > *email*: [email protected]; [email protected] > *Phone*: +852 9436 6251 (mobile); +852 2483 7128 (office) > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "efloraofindia" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To view this discussion on the web, visit > https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/CABpo8%3D2HGOPCD7KVF7e86n%2BhFr85da2gfO%3DstRUNWSHxmp1buQ%40mail.gmail.com > <https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/CABpo8%3D2HGOPCD7KVF7e86n%2BhFr85da2gfO%3DstRUNWSHxmp1buQ%40mail.gmail.com?utm_medium=email&utm_source=footer> > . > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "efloraofindia" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To view this discussion on the web, visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/indiantreepix/CA%2BiuSFB6vFtJ9BPx6MUcuRpqW-jg0TQ4miY2c5xorp-GeaT_QA%40mail.gmail.com.
