The alarm clock

Birthdays and anniversaries are like alarm clocks. Sometimes I wonder if we would be growing as old and as fast if we were not reminded of it precisely every year at the same time. Since when did we start celebrating birthdays? Since when did it become such a special day? A day to cut cakes, distribute sweets? A day of expectations? A day when you expect to be the center of attention. Is it because at some point people realized that we need at least one day in a year to be treated special? Or is it mainly the marketing of companies like Archies and Hallmark?
What about the fact that the inflated importance tagged with the date also gives rise to heart breaks, unfulfilled promises, failed expectations and thus leading to depression? What about the competitive nature of birthday celebrations which are taking place more and more these days? Parents going out of their way to celebrate their kid's first birthday in a five star hotel, just because all others are doing the same. Does a one year old even understand what a birthday is?

As with many other things in life, when the ritual becomes more important than the meaning behind it, I start getting uncomfortable and I have to ask questions. Why do you celebrate your birthday?  What is it you are proud of? What exactly are you celebrating?

Random train of thoughts

Having bypassed my pre planned Mumbai halt, I am now in Nashik with my family.  I had wanted to take the overnight train from Delhi to Mumbai initially. The whole experience of sitting in a train, and passing by many states and different sceneries in a single journey always excited me. Apart from that, the thought of building a temporary mini home for yourself within the single seat that is allotted to you is also exciting. The seat is then converted into a bedroom at night. But it is a slightly more interesting bedroom than the one back home. In the sense that you get to peep into random people's temporary homes, even see them get ready for bed and finally fall asleep to the gentle rhythm of the train.  I usually feel this rhythm for a few hours even after the journey is over and I am back in a static place.

The fact that you can observe people so closely for the entire period of the journey is one of the highlights of such a journey for me. In rare cases of course the observed party may not be all that interesting, and then you just have to make do with the book you are reading, the music in your ears and the scenery passing you by... but in some cases the co-passenger is a good looking intriguing guy, or a silent professor looking middle aged man, or a flamboyant teenage girl or a foreign couple smuggling a little puppy with them unofficially.

Train meals are also very interesting. Usually if the train has a catering service your order is taken in advance and you are served at a certain time. The train compartment now gets converted into an eating room and if you happen to have a family with lots of home made food with them, you even get offered some delicacies.
Waking up in the morning also means a fresh order of breakfast. Apart from train catering service there are also random hawkers on the train who serve a special variety of train-street-food. This brand of street food can only be had in trains or sometimes in stations but nowhere else. Thus eating, drinking and even playing games with fellow passengers is an inclusive part of train ride and as a child I have enjoyed these journeys to the fullest.

Why then can I not find time to take up such a journey now?
I am told people these days prefer to travel by flight. ( I myself took the flight from Delhi to Mumbai because I wasn't keeping too well the last week I was in Delhi). Most people don't have the time to feel the relaxed pace of a train journey these days. Trains are now the second option, and only people who cannot afford flights take them. I had initially started off writing about the many people I met in this trip who kept telling me they are so busy and they just didn't have the time. But all I could really think about are the memories of different train journeys from my childhood and I have to resolve to take effort to make this journey happen in future.

UPDATE: I did it!! Overnight train journey from Mumbai to Goa 2nd class. Awesome!! Try it to believe it!

scribbles: Census - See it now?

In a parallel universe, my better half has been working on the visualisation of Indian census data. Do take a look here. The work is not complete, but getting there!

scribbles: Census - See it now?

Diversity yes, but where's the unity?

From childhood I have heard greatness about India's diversity. Whether it be cultural, regional, geographical, religious or even of languages. It was always emphasised how different we are from each other within the same country. We were made to feel proud about our diverse nature and the feeling of being different was instilled so deep within us that we always became a Bengali, Marathi, Keralite etc. before an Indian. In fact the difference became all the more evident when I left my country and went abroad. I started realising that Germans flocked with Germans, French with French but Indians usually subdivided and South Indians flocked together, Marathis searched for Marathi community and even my parents asked me if I had found any Bengali association in the UK. The reason too was understandable. When I communicated with fellow Indians from parts of India I was unfamiliar with, I really could not relate much to them. It actually felt like we didn't really come from the same country. Regional differences aside, the class difference itself is so stark and prevalent in our country, that a person from lower middle class would have had completely different experiences in life compared to a person belonging to upper middle class (and I am not even comparing rich with the poor here!)

At this point the question arises where is the unity in all this diversity? My school text book always had a quotation on "Unity in Diversity". This is India's biggest moto. Then why don't I see signs of this unity anywhere? Why do so many states want their kingdom separate from India? Why do the North Indians and South Indians not get along? Why do people seek marriage alliances within their own community, culture, caste? The reservation system only pronounces the difference and inequality of certain sects of our society. Although it is aimed at equality, I don't see why an open category student would feel equal to a reserved category student?

India has such a huge population, collectively and as a team we can do wonders. However most of us are quite literally wasting our lives fighting this diversity. Right from getting admission into school/college and then later getting parents to approve our out of caste/community love interest and in successful cases living with the  sky high expectation of a culture we are unaware of.

Personally I think each of us consciously need to take steps to build this missing unity in diversity. Without a feeling of nationalism, we cannot really fight bigger battles of corruption, illiteracy and poverty. And for this I do agree social networks have indeed built a common platform where people from all over the world and country can share and react to different incidents in their day to day life. But I don't think this is enough. There has to be a change in attitude as well. There should be encouragement for people to leave their own home towns and travel to different parts of the country. Meet people from different places. Live in different environments. It is time we take definite steps towards being a citizen of the country before being regional.

Women are from Earth not Venus

So as expected I asked the most obvious question to the FAT (Feminist Approach to Technology) organisation. Why did they choose to call themselves feminists? Why not humanists?
The answer I was given was mainly the history of oppression of women. With time our society has become so male dominated that unless you fight for the cause of women you are not really bringing them up in the society.
I was also reminded that feminists are really looking for equality of men and women and they are not anti-men. There are in fact a few men who are part of the feminist organisation, who believe in the cause and have provided their support.

But I have a few thoughts about this.

Firstly, the word feminism has a slight connotation. Even if I am not afraid of the society and don't care about what people think about me, there are loads of people (women even) who are affected by this negative connotation. Calling yourself a feminist means losing the support of all these women who are not fighting for this cause just because of the image of the name.
Secondly, if this revolution is really about bringing equality, why not call it humanism? Calling it feminism instantly alienates many men, who are also part of the target audience and need to be educated as much as a woman. Making men aware of women being equal to them, automatically makes it easier for women to take more active steps to go out of their homes, into the world and do something meaningful with their lives. Educating men may lessen the struggle for an independent woman who otherwise will always be perceived as a rebel in the society.

I am very much in agreement with the activities the organisation is conducting. I agree that women have gone through hell, and need the support from the privileged part of the society to get truly liberated. It is important to fight for their equal opportunity. It is important that women take active part in science, technology, finance, politics, policy making and everything else that has for ever been predominantly a man's job.
But as I understand, this is a joint responsibility of every man and woman, and not just a few women. If equality was a product that I was selling, I would package it in such a way that every man, woman and child would want to buy it. I would not want to give it a name which has a possibility of alienating half the population. I would give it a more neutral name and conduct exactly the same exercises which this organisation has undertaken.

My personal belief is that a man and a woman are as equal to each other as they are different. This difference or equality is no different to the individual differences or similarities between a man and man or a woman and woman. As a woman I don't want to be equal to a man. I enjoy being different. I would only want that my society and immediate environment would acknowledge that I am as unique as any other human, man or woman.

Friends, Indians, Citizens

Lend me your ear.

I have come to your country
your home, your pride,
show me around,
do let me stay.

I see new buildings, new roads,
new malls, but I can't see too well
the smog covers your achievement
a fuzzy blanket of grey.

I see you are rich,
the old Maruti 800
exchanged for a loan,
a Honda city with driver and of course
a brand new three BHK.

I see you eat in posh restaurants
if you can steal yourself
away, from the flat panel LCD TV
reporting live stories of corruption
but you aren't affected anyway.

And why would you be?
You have worked hard to get here
coding, managing, producing, investing or
perhaps bribing, lying, tax evading
it's hard work all the same.

Friends, Indians, Citizens
Lend me your heart.

I am convinced your nation is growing,
and all of you brave hearts,
competing in this race.
But do you see a finish line,
do you see the end?

Do you feel the pressure
you exert on your children?
For every inflated crore you earn
for tuition classes and college admissions
the young one will have to pay.

And how will they return your investment
your emotions and your expectations?
How will they choose to be individuals
and fall in love, and write their own future
how will they ever innovate?

You tell me it's the society,
the corrupt government and wicked politicians
you tell me it is practical, this lifestyle
you have chosen, to save yourself
from this evil age.

Friends, Indians, Citizens
Get rid of your fear.

You don't have to live like robots
programmed not to think
You are your society, not the society you
so why take orders from
someone else?

Exercise those unused rights, the muscles
and your mind, think what you believe in
fight for the cause, take risks
stand tall, be firm, demand explanation
and be true to yourself.

Know this, when you start your movement
and set an example, others will follow
slowly at first, but later in numbers.
Be a leader, be the change and
use your fancy degree in MBA.

Friends, Indians, Citizens,
If you betray yourself, your country will fall one day.

Women and technology

I was reading up a bit tonight before I go to the FAT organisation tomorrow. Few different points were raised in the transcripts that I was going through.

• Actual use of technology as opposed to intended use - can/should this be checked?
• Penetration of internet in India is only 8%, which is very very low especially for a country which basks in the fame of being an IT country. Lot more scope for Indians to conquer the world (so to speak)
• Internet democracy - freedom of speech and choice.
• Policies which are supporting the cause of empowering and educating women.

Few other points, which I did not read there, but was thinking about myself

• Exposure to other kinds of technology, not just internet technology
• Concentrating on need based education, and making women more eligible to get jobs
• Spread confidence, not just the knowledge
• Discussions on subjects like sex, marriage, children, ego, independence, exploitation, torture etc.

I hope I have a more fruitful discussion about these points tomorrow, and can elaborate about them here.

Capitalising on opportunities

So I have reached Delhi, the capital city of India. The experience so far has been excellent though I am so jet lagged after the 9 hours of flight time, during which I was not able to sleep a wink.
Apart from the two great friends that I have in this city, I was also greeted by the grand new international airport, which looks truly international as well as the spanking new metro (underground) service with air con (imagine the most pollution free, cooling ride through the heart of the city without having to hear the incessant honking and reaching your destination in precision timing!). I also managed to taste a little bit of street food (though I am taking that aspect a bit slow for obvious reasons :) as well as walk down the colourful streets of Connaught Place, Janpath which as people from the city will confirm is one of the liveliest streets of the Capital.


There is just so much to absorb and learn just by throwing yourself in a completely new environment!

On a side note, I am looking forward to meeting up with the team in FAT organisation on Monday. Let's hope all goes well for me on that end.

Learn and let learn

The chemistry between the student and teacher in a classroom is a very interesting topic.
From the student's point of view, they need someone they can relate with. Someone who they can speak with and above all trust completely. They need the affirmation from their teachers that they are special, and that they have the ability. They need teachers who will treat them as equals and consider their little problems as real problems and discuss it with them like adults. As children we really want to be taken seriously and treated with respect. Something which often the grown ups fail to understand. For young students, learning is seldom ever the primary objective in going to school. It is merely the by-product of their interactions with other students and teachers, their surroundings and the experiences that they get in the school.

On the other hand, teachers feel that a student should respect them, listen to them and learn from them. They have the experience and the knowledge and which by default puts them in a position of authority over the students. However the experience, knowledge and the power does not mean much to a student who feels misunderstood or weak or simply wants the attention. The knowledge and authority of a teacher therefore does not automatically translate into respect and trust from the student. Which is why many times there is a communication gap between the two.

From my personal experience, I have had teachers who walked into the class with an air of superiority. Some of them controlled a class by injecting fear of punishment in the hearts of students. Some of them were so unapproachable, I could never ask them questions, I felt silly to stand up and let everyone know that I wasn't following a thing.
According to me the teacher who walks into a classroom with a view of controlling the class has already lost half the battle in making his students more receptive to him. No doubt we do a lot of things because of fear, but I think we have the potential of doing a lot more when we see the sense of doing it and want to do it for our own reasons.
Looking back at the times when I have been a student, I think I would really have liked a teacher who walked into the classroom with the view of learning and helping others learn in the process. That would be my instant connection with the teacher, that we are both here to learn. That we are both here to absorb equally from each other. That we are both contributing to each others process of gaining knowledge.

Professional teachers may disagree with me, or may be able to throw some light over my mere observations. Do help me understand what steps are taken to improve the chemistry between a student and teacher in a classroom? What makes a student want to listen to a teacher without force? How do you communicate and connect with your students?

We, the heroes

Super heroes don't just talk about improving their cities nor do they give fancy speeches in public halls. They don't advertise their thoughts and reasons for what they do, they simply inspire us by their actions (and of course their cool costume).
If I were a super hero, this blog would merely be my costume. The real inspiration however comes from physical actions. And so I thought I need to do something.

I will be going to India for two months, and my prime objective there is to gain some first hand experiences, volunteer through some organisations who are already in the field and to come back with more stories and thoughts which I can add here.

I believe each of us have a super power but we need to search for our own gifts. It may or may not be so obvious. And once we discover our power, we may need to design our own costume as well. I just hope when the time comes, we don't get too bogged down with the costume, and can still concentrate on saving the world and thus ourselves.

One plate of 'success' for my daughter please!

"Did you know there are tuition classes for children to train them to pass the admission interview of the best schools in the city?"
My friend informed me over dinner. I was in Mumbai for a couple of days and I was catching up with her after a long time. This was the first time I was meeting her after she became a mother. I was hoping against hope that motherhood had not changed her much and that she would still be the wild carefree person that she used to be in the past.

After her last titbit of news, I looked more closely at her, wondering if she was joking. She quickly went on to say that of course she would not think of doing anything like that. "But you know Ara..." she said, "there is so much competition these days. It is better to let kids get used to it. They have to live in the real world after all, and it is the parent's job to prepare them for it."
"But," I intervened, "that is not how we were brought up. And look at us, we have done well enough for ourselves. Why can't we give our children the freedom and the space as well? How important is it to get into the best school? How do we know it is the best school? What is the definition of a best school? Why are we so driven to eliminate the possibility of our children making a mistake or doing something wrong? Why do we want to insert them into a sterile equation, and then expect that the proven formula will carry them towards success? Don't you think that the fact that we were not always given the best of everything made us better able to cope with the real world? That it helped us in thinking differently and uniquely to attain the same state of equilibrium that we are all after?"
"No Ara, you don't understand because you are not there yet. Maybe once you are a parent you will understand how it feels and you will see that you need to change too... anyway forget about all this, tell me more about your life..."

And we continued chatting about things in the past, things we had in common. I wondered if we will ever have anything common in future at all. Only time would tell I guess, but for now I knew that my childhood friend had changed. She had somehow become one of them and this was not a good feeling.

I came back and googled about tuition classes for toddlers in Mumbai, and sure enough my friend was not joking. Here is one report.

Start your movement

In a recent conversation, I was told that it is better to use what we have than to build theories on what we should have, or what is good to have and I completely agree with this. While I may have lots of ideas, I need to zero in and start from one, and it should not be an impossible one.

To implement any idea it is necessary to decide upon the starting point. While some parts of the society are trying to create the awareness by rebelling and campaigning and striking, another part of the society needs to attack the same problem from a different starting point. If each of us see the same problem but come up with different techniques of solving it, the problem is bound to get solved much faster than the time taken by one person or organisation with a single vision.
Hence participation is a must. If you have an idea, or if you think you can make a difference, you should act on it. It does not matter how big or small your participation is, I think it is important for you to at least make the effort. And I don't even say this in the manner of charity. Do something that means more than just a regular job and see how it makes you feel. Do it again for that feeling which you get in return. Giving could be the most selfish act that you have ever done in your life.

Happiness is a very selfish concept. To be really happy you have to be proud of your self and respect and love your self. For that you will need to understand yourself and be good at things which the inner you loves doing. Personally it has always helped me to sometimes step back and think what is my idea of an ideal person? Am I that person? What is stopping me from being that person? What should be my starting point?

Also technically I know that overcoming the starting inertia is the most difficult task. You need maximum torque to go from speed 0 to 40 miles per hour. Once in motion, reaching 80 mph is not difficult.

Changes to the Existing Education system: some ideas

I had posted this article quite some time back on a different blog where I contribute articles occasionally. But I am adding the link here so that it can remain in my catalogue of thoughts on the current education system.

Click here to read the post.

To summarise I have asked for two additional subjects
India today - Current affairs and discussions on different topics
Innovation - To promote independent thinking and thinking out of the box

In general I wanted to make learning fun, more intuitive and less parrot like in nature.

To all this I would like to add another compulsory subject in schools.
Education and teaching - I know this is an applied subject and that we rarely learn any applied subjects in school, but I think this one can be an exception. There is a dearth of good teachers in our country. And one of the reasons for that is teaching as a profession is hardly made popular. this will ensure that children appreciate the job of a teacher from a young age.
Another reason is it will keep all the teachers refreshed with the basics as well new techniques of teaching.
A subject like this will introduce fundamentals of psychology, philosophy and communication to the children at a younger age.

Technology Vs Teachers

Technology plays a big role in today's education. Easy availability of computers and accessibility and affordability of internet connection means that an unlimited quantity of information on an unlimited number of topics is available for free at our finger tips. People have wondered if there is any need for teachers at all any more?
I saw this innovative approach used by Sugata Mitra here, and it made me think.

The large amount of information on the internet is similar to the huge amount of products and shops which are available within the real world. Just like people flock towards the product/shop with the most glossy look or in other words the product that is advertised more and made more visible, similarly within the virtual world some applications, or websites are advertised better and made more visible and hence they are the most popular. Using the model of learning using the internet, one cannot guarantee that the students will open the right sites and go about the process of learning in a systematic way. I therefore think it is very important that there are teachers who can push the students in the right direction. Giving assignments or open ended questions on different topics and asking them to do a research maybe one way of doing this.

Also there is so much information on the internet, but there is no obvious way of making sure of the correctness and validity of the data. Teachers are therefore required so that students can come and verify their findings, understand its context, and discuss its application for the problem at hand.

I also feel that the maximum impact of the internet based learning can be seen on the young minds in remote villages and rural areas just because good teachers don't want to go there, and these children are so unaware and unexposed to the rest of the world that exposure in any form is better than none. But unfortunately remote villages also mean that they may not have internet connection or even electricity to run computers. What can be done in this case? How do we solve this problem?

One idea I had was the introduction of compulsory community service for a fixed period for city schools/colleges. There are countries around the world where compulsory military service is required by everyone. Why can't we have something similar in India. Make students from secondary or high school (maybe in 9th std and 11th std) go to nearby rural areas and conduct workshops under the guidance of their teachers. The state government / local governing body can distribute the responsibility to all the schools and colleges of that area. The school that shows the best results could be rewarded.

So far I am sticking with the following equations

Technology + Good teachers = Best education

But in the absence of good teachers, technology + helping hand from other privileged sector of society =  Decent education

Don't be a teacher, be a super-hero

"No.."
I said into the microphone, standing on stage in front of thousands of students and all my teachers. I had participated in the personality contest for first year engineers organised by the senior students of the college. I was being asked if I would like to be a teacher and why. I was looking at the panel of judges, all teachers, all of them looking at me expectantly. I knew the expected answer was to say yes, and then praise the job of the teachers. But I had already said no impulsively, and everyone in the audience had become silent and was staring at me. I had to continue,
"No, I don't want to be a teacher. I don't think I have the strength and the right qualities that is needed to be a teacher. The job of the teacher is of great responsibility. You have the power to make or break the future of the youth. You are the tools to influence the future of our country. At this moment, I don't know if I can do that."
The face of the judges, and the claps from the students, told me that I had saved myself in that round. I didn't end up winning the competition (due to my lack of knowledge on a current affair question), but that is beside the  point now.

The point is do teachers understand what role they are playing in the lives of their student? We don't just go to school/college to study a syllabus, get marks and get jobs. We go there to get an experience. To get an exposure to different aspects of life. We can all read our books and study the chapters on our own. But we all need the motivation. We don't need teachers to teach us the obvious. We need teachers to tell us what is not there in the text book. We need teachers who inspire us and push us and believe in us. We need teachers who are interested in us. Some one who can give us more feedback than just the marks and grades on our test papers. Someone who can touch our lives and send us off on a journey to discover ourselves armed with the some fundamental real world knowledge.

Now then, do you want to be a teacher? And why?

Perspective

We all see things differently just by virtue of being different people. Why then do we strive so hard to be the same person as our neighbour? How is it that most of us believe that the definition of being a successful person is to earn a lot of money, have a house, own a car, have the latest gadgets, afford to go to the posh restaurants, have a good looking wife/rich husband, have cute kids eventually who go to the best schools etc?
I like to think of this visually as a circular set path. But this path is overloaded with people. There must be and I know there are other paths and orbits which are not so crowded. Why don't we explore these? What stops us from finding out? We are the mighty humans, we built this modern world and all its facilities. We have started off as cavemen and yet managed to discover fire and electricity. We figured out hunting and agriculture. We were not always spoon fed and our paths were not always set in stone. Why then do we not draw from that and aspire to do and achieve more with the limited resources we have? Why don't we sit and think what success means to us. Forget about the successful neighbour, what about you? Why do you want the money, the car, the house, the gadgets? What will you do once you have them? Do you think its enough?

To me starting a family means I am in a position where I feel I have achieved something in life and have learnt something unique. And the desire to pass on this trade of lessons learnt makes me want to have a kid, to influence a mind, to create a life-form which starts with the basis and fundamentals of my cumulative experiences and lessons.

What does starting a family mean to you? Do you have conversations with your family about your life, dreams and what makes you happy? Do you ask them the same questions? How much weight or importance to you give to this knowledge?

What is your take on life?

Lesson 1 - Origin

I had read these lines when I was in school and they never left my mind.

"Men must be taught

As if you taught them not

And things unknown

Proposed as things forgot"
                      - Alexander Pope (from "An essay on criticism")

I have forgotten about them for many months at times, but have always found reasons to come back to them. I want to use this blog as a space for jotting down my thoughts on alternate learning and teaching methods. I want to try and collect data and conduct experiments to support or refute these lines. A big motivation for doing this task is because I come from a society which is severely facing the problems of:

Illiteracy

Sub-standard quality of education

Rote learning

Cut throat competition

Lack of all round development of a child

I will try and write down ideas here which I think can make an effort of solving these problems