Thinking Skills - Workshop - Prof. Milan Pandya

Two day's Thinking Skills Workshop:-

         The Department of English organised a two day's workshop on Thinking Skills by Prof. Milan Pandya. He is a teacher, trainer and educator in the field of Thinking Skills, Critical, Creative and Design thinking, English Language Teaching and Communication skills. 

             The Workshop started on 13th August. While introducing Prof. Milan Pandya, Dr. Dilip Barad sir first warmly welcomed him and then gave very brief information about Mr. Milan Pandya and his achievements and also his work areas. I really like a line from Barad sir's welcome speech, while he was talking to keep on asking questions to Milan Air during the workshop that 

"A Stupidest Question can Bring the Smartest Answer." 

              This line of sir helped us a lot during the session. 

DAY:- 1

              On the first day of the workshop Milansir started the session by asking a question "What is the meaning of the word 'Critical or Thinking'. And that can be the perfect definition for that according to Sir. Initially he talked about two inseparable parts of thinking - 

1. Creative

2. Critical

                     According to him Thinking means when we start to apply our Mind on anything that we come across. We - Humans have an advantage of thinking, doesn't mean that animals never think, but it is limited when we compare it with human beings. So, it is the only aspect that distinguishes man from animals. As we have the power of Thinking, it is necessary to evaluate things rationally. We should not accept the thing as it is presented or shown to us. Anyone can be wrong while presenting something. We need to be Skeptical, because only this thing led us to the truth. At that time it is necessary for us to go into the roots and find out the truth. For that he recalled Socrates as a great critic. He was a Western Philosopher but more than that he was a Critical Thinker. He took simple examples of Machines and artificial intelligence. When we talk about Thinking, it covers three major areas,

• Logical

• Rational

• Scientific

                If we look at the definition, we would find lots of things, but defined Thinking that,

 "Thinking about Thinking in order to improve Thinking".

              In this he emphasized on Thinking by using the word Thinking thrice. He further explains his statement that thinking is the soul of our body. We are what we are because of thinking. Our personality development only can be done by thinking. And that's why many revolutions took place and are taking place only in the Human race.

"You are what You are because of Thinking."

              Further he gave justification of his words by providing Six Major examples. He explained that context is everything. When we look at anything we have to be critical about what else has to be true. For this also he uses line,

"If something is True, What else has to be true in that."

           So we always have to think about it from various perspectives. 

1. Scene from Karina Kapoor's Advertisement for Lux soap.

               This advertisement is about a 3 rupee discount on Lux soap. Karina Kapoor is from the richest family and in the ad she is smiling on a 3 rupee discount.

2. A scene from a StarPlus TV serial Yeh Hai Mohabbatein.

 

                    In this scene a husband is helping his wife to set a Sari. But at the same time, if we look at it in Critical way, we would find the silliest thing. The female protagonist's hand is fractured, but her make up and hairstyle looks very pretty and perfect and  if she is taking help of her husband for Sari then she won't be able to do make up and hairstyle.

3. A Twitter post of the well known actor Satish Santosh.

                   In this post he says that "The very same Tiranga Dhwaj my mother had got during Quit India Movement, 1942. If we look at it critically, we would find that the flag which he has in his hands was made after the independence of India in 1947. Before that it was not like there was another symbol, not Ashok Chakra. So if we are not aware of History we will take it as truth.

                While talking about this image, he explored various incidents and thought about the questions asked by students. Like Nature of fact, like gravity. We need to see possible and plausible aspects of the thing or event. Like there are so many narratives spread across that Shahjahan chopped up the hands of the makers of Tajmahal after its completion. The only logic we come to know is that if a person likes art, he will spread it and will not like it. It can also be possible that he hadn't done anything like this. We always have to find out the truth. He also talks about the existence of God and if someone believes that God exists, he has to prove it. If we are arguing then we have to have proof of it. 

            He further talks about QAnon theory.  QAnon is an American political conspiracy theory and political movement. It originated in the American far-right political sphere in 2017. This conspiracy theory, we can relate with Divya Bharti, Death of Shri Devi and Sushant Singh Rajput, our first prime minister of India, Hitlar, Bhagat Singh and Gandhi. 

             While exploring this question, sir tools used storytelling skills. He also narrates one of his most famous stories of Alif Laila- 1009 Nights. 

4. Photo shared by Shraddha Kapoor about Siachen Glacier and Our Indian soldiers.

           The image shared by her is not of Siachen but of Russia. It can be possible either she was not aware of the truth or she wanted to get attention by this. 

5. Video shared by Kiran Bedi about helicopters and Shark.

             In this case, we can see that a person who is in a high position is spreading such things, who has too many followers.

6. Photo of world map during Covid pandemic tweeted by Amitabh Bachchan.

                In this also we can see that he is sharing such a photo which we can't consider as a reality.

7. Photo of Kerala shared by Sunny Leone.

                This photo shows many controversies. Though Kerala is considered as the most literate state, people are on the road for our Home minister Amith Shah's welcome. Here he tries to differentiate literacy and education. The whole road Is covered by people so there can be problems for people to manage their daily work, it can cause traffic, and disturbance in schools and Hospitals.

                  By All these pictures, sir explains that always be a critic. For that we need to search for the truth. He presented a quote by Lao Tzu,

"Your teacher might be wrong. Learn to think for yourself."

            He also talked about two other things by quotes that i personally like the most,

"You don't need anything when you start to think of your own."

"Be clear about yourself and what you want."

                Both the lines present self worth. 

               Sir gave answers by clear explanation of it, asked by students and during the session involves us in that thinking process. I have learnt a lot by this session because whenever I think of anything I just sink into a dilemma for its truth and appropriateness for the same. So the session has given me a vision to be clear at my level. 

DAY:- 2

            The second day was all about Thought Experiments. Man is a Rational animal. But we can’t say that man is born with rationality, for that cultivation training plays a vital role. For that we have to understand four major concepts of it,

1. Person 
2. Process
3. Press
4. Product

“Men have the capacity to Rational thinking, they have to cultivate the thing.”

“No one is born critical or creative, they have to train themselves.”

             When we look at anything, it is very difficult to come to a conclusion whether it is creative or not. Look at the picture bellow,

                The picture presents various aspects. One can conceive it as a Family Cycle, Where sewing work by Mother and driving work by father is included in order to manage family and feed children very well. But when we look at it from a creative point of view, it is somewhat difficult to consider it as a creative work, as it doesn’t contain originality and has no value itself.

                To test our creative power, sir gave us a picture, and we had to categories things, where at least two things should be there. 

                    In this picture, there are so many items from various fields. We all tried to do it. By this activity we come to know how creative we are. We all tried to differentiate things and some best categories which was imagined, presented and emerged by the class are,

• Black Magic

• Aristocracy

• Living or Nonliving 

• Destruction vs Creativity

• Inward and outward journey

• Book names, like- Macbeth, Othello, The Gun Island, The Home and The World, Journey to the centre of the Earth, 

• Movie names, like- Chalti Ka Nam Gadi, Tarzan the Wonder car, Robot, 

• Songs

• Proverbs, like- Where there is Will, there is a Way, Pen is mightier than Sword, It’s not a Rocket science, Hardwork is the Key to success.

• Religion vs Science

• Metaphors in literature, like- Flower, Axe. We can consider all as a particular metaphor.

               To find differences and collaborare things together help us to train our mind as well as creativity. For that it is important to look at the thing from different angles and change our way of observation.

                   After that we were told to think of other uses of the things like, Paper pin, Toothbrush and Gogals. It was rather difficult for us to find it out. The purpose behind this activity was to look beyond.

                At the last part of the workshop, we had very wonderful but rather difficult activities. In this, we got two problematic situations.

                    Both the images put us in a dilemma or rather we can call iit ethical dilemma. We can not choose any one option as both of our decisions will not give us any relief. Another situation was about driving and it was the same as above two.

My observation and learning:-

                        After attending the webinar, I can now think about the possible ways of looking at things in a different manner. We also have to think whether the thing is Possible or Plausible. And have found that we all are just looking at possibilities not Plausibility. Yes, possibility is an inevitable part of thinking, but sometimes it is necessary to look at its plausibility. And that’s what makes a man Rational animal. For that it is necessary to be Skeptical. 

                   I really Like Thought experiments, as we are told everyday to listen or read between the lines. So by the workshop I come to know now it is very important to even Look or Observe behind the lines. In the 21st and technical century it is easy to spread anything in a while. So earlier the foolish things were limited to those people but now it is spreading very widely which I have observed on the first day by the example of the post of Amithabh Bachchan, Satish Santosh and Shradhdha Kapoor. It has given me a sight to first analyse the thing and then consider whether it is right or not.  

             Thank Barad sir and Milan sir for this wonderful and life lessons like session. It gave all of us a new way of thinking.

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