Copyright

Protected by Copyscape Duplicate Content Software You will copy with risks to penalties and criminal procedures.

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

The Pygmalion Effect

Pygmalion seeing his statue come to life
by Francois Le Moyne
Paris 1688-1737
French Rococo Artist


Pygmalion(Greek Mythology) : A king of Cyprus who carved and then fell in love with a statue of a woman, which Aphrodite brought to life as Galatea.

The Pygmalion effect (or Rosenthal effect) refers to situations in which students perform better than other students simply because they are expected to do so.

Wondering why am I referring to it?

Read the following write-up which recently fetched me a prize in a creativity contest in my office on the eve on Independence Day.

*****
What does the 59th Anniversary of Indian Independence mean?
Is it just another holiday? 59 free years after 150 years of colonial rule- where do you stand?

India 2006: 1,080,264,388 people
1652 languages
25 and more regional divisions

We have so many things to divide us yet a single spirit to unite us.
Incidents like the recent blasts in Mumbai may have wounded our bodies but they couldn't jade our souls.
The legacy of a rich cultural heritage has taught us that we can conquer even without invading. We can find Indian culture, tradition and beauties diffusing into every other culture of the world and yet standing a class apart.

Facts like- 26% of NASA scientists are Indians- will make any true Indian proud.


We are like the emblematic tricolour kites that are flown on the occasion -our spirits have soared higher with every gust of contrary wind.

My vision is seeing the poet's (Tagore) dream true:

Where the head is held high
and the mind is without fear
Into that kingdom of Heaven, my Father,
my country will awake
*****

The day the creativity contest was announced(14th August), my TM asked me -Ae tui dicchish na?
(Aren't you participating?)
unaware of the fact that everyone in the company was handed a post card.
I told her I got one and I will try and scribble something.

Something in her tone said that she had faith in me and that made me want to live up to it.
15th was a holiday and I was busy practising for the upcoming music performance on 2nd September.
16th was a terrible day when I started for office but came back from halfway coz I had a terrible stomach ache.
While the rest of the day passed in a daze,I thought to myself 17th is the last day to submit the card.
The following morning I woke up at 5 am, organized my thoughts for 10 mins and in another 3 mins' time I filled up the card.
Today when I saw all the entries on display, I thought to myself, I could have done it better..more colourful maybe...could have added a sketch...ummm
Then,I could have got the first prize maybe
Anyways, there's always a next time.

Oh btw, going back to the title of the post- I'd say...all through my life I have seen people believing in me and my capabilities even when my faith in me wavered a little.

My family, my friends, my professors,...and now in my workplace my colleagues and seniors.

Oh My Gawd! I am sounding like I just got the Oscar!
Well, until I get something tantamounting to that I can always cherish these little achievements when I topped ICSE in school or got JBNSTS scholarship or scored highest in my fav subject.

Each day has a gift to give
Small joys and great ones too
Beauty to see and songs to hear
And wonderful things to do

Enjoy each to the fullest
For they add up to nothing less
Than a life full of lovely moments
And a heart full of happiness

27 comments:

Anonymous said...

A schizophrenic article... wavering between the Einstein and the Patriot in ya :)

Needless to say, enuf for ne sane guy to wrack his/her brains o'er for sometime.

True to life, its always the people around us... who keep us going even when the inner lights dim down. But, self-confidence reigns supreme!

Aparna Ganguly said...

lol
I guess it's megalomania u wanted to mention
Can't help it if it sounded like shameless self-advertisement
I am good at it :P

Life said...

good keep on admiring ur self...ur good at it

Anonymous said...

congrats....(for the stomach ache??) for the spontaneous article. :)

so what kind of musical performance are you talkin about?

Aparna Ganguly said...

@diabolic preacher
1.Lol..thanks
2.I will be doing the vocals

Anonymous said...

another cracker of a post :D though i do beleive in our quest to be the spritual heaven in this planet and trying to be the flag bearer of peace ...we have lost our soul/spirit somewhere...for in no other condition i would expect us to bleed for year after year and still do nothing...it's good to forgive n forget but the question arises till when!!!

abt the pygmallion effect ....its good u see.... self belief is the key to all locks of life...

abt ur performance i thought it was a dance recital (having seen u dance that would have been the 1st reaction anyway)...but vocal it is...the final rehearsal will be heard by your honour over edison's device :D:D:D:D

neeways have messed up with ur number...so msg me that..

tc..keep smiliN :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@saikat

m smiling:)
u already brought it with ur comment buddy

Oh yeah I still remember the Kritva video footage by Aaj Tak..it had you and me dancing all the while :D
Had a rocking time then Saiki:)

About freedom...it just isn't being yourself..it's also about having a sense of dignity in what u do..

and nobody..NOBODY.. in this world has the right to take it away...
(speaking more to myself)

Anonymous said...

would there be a webcast?? :D

Anonymous said...

i dont know wat to say....but i can just say it was great

Anonymous said...

yeah kritva..yeah dancing *sighs* those were the days ... had a gr8 time dancing like never before then :)..even aaj tak couldn't escape the fun :)

am touching down del tomorrow...hope to catch up with u n yeah hear the final recital :D...see ur honour is flying down to hear the recital....kya importance hain recital ka :D:D:D

tc...'ll call u after reaching del..keep smiliN :)

candid diary said...

Kudos for prize in scribbling and best wishes for music performance on 2nd Sept.
You may find the following article interesting
http://usembassy.state.gov/posts/in1/wwwfspjulyaug0616.pdf
I have sent a copy 2 you.

Aparna Ganguly said...

@candid

Thought provoking..

Thanks for sending across the link :)

Can always count on you to open a different channel of thoughts

Candid, you rock!!

Aparna Ganguly said...

@anonymous
When u have said, "it was great"- you have already said something:)
But you could have been more specific.

I guess you are new to blogspot..

And if you are not an registered blogger, you can use the OTHER option and leave your name as the user id.

I don't usually prefer anonymous comments..
Feels like u r talking to someone invisible.
Makes me a tad uncomfortable...

Aparna Ganguly said...

@diabolic

could do..in fact I was thinking of hoisting a few audio clips..
Only thing is I need advice HOW to...

Can anyone help?

Prasoon said...

congrats..
it was very nicely written - mujhe laga ki i too am soaring high with those high spirits !!:)

Anonymous said...

im really proud of u ur lost friend

passer by said...

in your case more than the pygmallion effect its the stockholm syndrome that performance suffers from :p

Anonymous said...

for posting music check out www.castpost.com or www.multiply.com they allow you to upload the clip and you can put a player kind of a thing in your blog and thus post music

candid diary said...

Wow!
So Aparna has started posting pic in her blog and in the near future we will find some audio/video clippings as well :D

Anonymous said...

@lost friend we got the audio clipping ehh

Aparna Ganguly said...

@lostr friend

Proud of what?
Could you be more specific...?

Aparna Ganguly said...

@Shashi

Who's the victim here?
And the captivator?

passer by said...

thats for the captivator to know and the captivated to guess..

Adi Oso-Groot Finch said...

"Into that kingdom of Heaven, my Father,
my country will awake"


... interesting thought... where's the action, I often wonder!

A friend sent this on I-day:

"59 years in the journey from independence to freedom...lets arrive..."

Anonymous said...

the castpost homepage makes it look like it's a video hosting service like youtube. well u got odeo.com too and there's a studio section to record clips from the browser.

umm...btw even google plays your mp3 files...provided u just dump them on any free space providing server...hopefully which doesn't just give a trickle of bandwidth. check here(scroll down to pt. 7 :)

p.s. offtopic: your khawar choices are simply deeleecius...darun selection :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@diabolic preacher
Hey thanks for the link :)

@khawar choices
good to know someone has a rich palate :)

Aparna Ganguly said...

@raven
Look around you..
I am sure youwill find find enough instances..