yet again ... getting lost ... then enjoying self-discovery ...

Why India's children need safer roads to reach their classrooms Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald . The Supreme Court recently declared the right to walk on safe footpaths a fundamental right and urged the government to bring a law that declared this right and recognized the duty of municipal authorities and local bodies to build, demarcate, and maintain necessary pedestrian infrastructure. It passed this landmark judgment in a motor-accident claim case related to the death of a 5-year-old boy, who met with an accident while walking to school.  This was not an isolated incident.  Data shows that many children walk or cycle to school -  The NSO’s 2020 data showed that 60% of India’s children walk to school. ( 12 to 15 crore children walk to school each morning ) Delhi - A 2026 report by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre at IIT Delhi, highlighted that 51% of the children walk or cycle to school.   And, recent news-reports remind us that...

These are 2 of the most endearing videos I have seen on YouTube in a long, long time. The sheer beauty of these videos had me watch these again, and again, in silence. These are from Lahore's Sur Taal Academy.  I then sent these to a friend who said this is how morning assemblies at school can be. This line of his left me wondering - why cannot these be THE school itself? They have so much we (children and adults ~ ) can learn from - Music and poetry of course we learn when we engage with these songs. But there is a lot more - we learn to be a part of a team, to wait for our turn, to observe our teacher, to sing about Mandir and Masjid in the same breath literally, to engage with the classics and such. If our intentions are clear and we get the basics correct there is little that we need in terms of paraphernalia - be it fancy equipment, or clothes or lighting. Nusrat Saab  has left such a legacy. All we need to do is to respect it, and learn from it. And, this group is doing ...

Pickle-ball, golf and the new divide: Sport was once a shared experience, it's now a purchased service. Team at Deccan Herald - Thank you. Pickle-ball - a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis - began in the US during the 1960’s but was introduced in India only during the 2000’s. Its popularity, however, rose during COVID, and today pickle-ball courts are mushrooming in our cities and towns. With over 500 courts, Amadavad has emerged as the pickle-ball capital of our country. I asked a friend, who often plays pickle-ball, why the sport is so popular. The main reason, he responded, is that the sport is not demanding: the court is smaller than a tennis court, it requires less energy than badminton, age and gender are not barriers, and it is easy to learn. On top of these, it gives players the feeling of having played a serious sport. He suggested that I observe the pickle-ball set-up not far from where I live, a set-up fairly representative of th...

Celebration and Prayer: Life and Light in Raza's Art Ashok Vajpeyi Speaking Tiger  184 pages  Sometimes a book finds you all of a sudden, and as if calls you. You pick it up, and as you read you are both surprised and happy. It reminds you that books and whim go well together, and that you are at the right place.  I was at Arthshila's library then and am now keen to revisit, especially to meet the book again. I had not begun a new book for some days now despite more than a few unread lined up at home, but this was special.  This book , with a few unfinished sentences and some blank pages, I could not complete then. But it touched me in a manner that many books which I have completed did not.  This book talks of Raza's journey from a small hamlet in Central India, the teacher who introduced him to the Bindu, to France and to finally returning to India and painting daily in his 90s.  Sample a few lines -  All the world is produced by touch.  ...

Title:  Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train Author:  Monisha Rajesh Publisher: Bloomsbury Pages: 326 ISBN: 9781-5266 -4418-3 MRP: 699/- Thanks to  Deccan Herald In this book, Monisha Rajesh takes different trains, mostly in Europe, that move during the night, meets friends and strangers, soaks in the views, enjoys food, visits places, shares what is in her mind and takes us along. I had read her ‘ Around India in 80 Trains ’ around the time it had come out, about a decade and half ago, and I must confess that I enjoyed this journey with her far more. As I travelled with her again, I discovered areas of common interest, one after the other, be it soaking in silences or darkness, keenness to slow down or invest time with self, concern for the earth and people, meditation, engaging with interesting people, and of course trains and travel. She writes about trains which boast of carriages that get on to a ferry or those which can carry cars, have fridges and pla...

The real problem with history education is bigger than textbook revisions. Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald . This week NCERT has released the new Social Science textbook for Grade 9 - Understanding Society: India and Beyond Part 2. As with the previous ‘new’ textbooks, some of us have been complaining about a few topics that have found their way into the textbook and a few that have been shown the door. Syllabus changes dictated by those in power are a matter of concern and warrant deliberation. But, is this the only concern with our textbooks? Let us look at a few questions. How important are textbooks in today’s time? Textbooks, today, are just one of the many sources children have to build their knowledge and understanding of a topic. Our fetish for marks and ranks, has fuelled the popularity of guides and exam-keys, and as a corollary rendered textbooks - and the pedagogy envisaged while designing them - virtually ineffective. A few years ago I had pitched an article on ‘errors...

Learning and Sustaining Agricultural Practices The Dialectics of Cultivating Cultivation in Rural India Springer, 2021 Karen Haydock, Abhijit Sambhaji Bansode, Gurinder Singh, Kalpana Sangale. More about the book, including the PDF, at the publisher's and the author's websites. The book and I. This book too came into my life courtesy Bookworm's Reading Circle and I begin by thanking the group and Bookworm. I read the book slowly, very slowly, as it repeatedly set me thinking. It made me question some of my actions and I was left wondering if I would have benefitted by reading a book of this nature at an earlier stage in life. This book is immense in its scope — it deals with documenting a process, understanding societal realities, and exploring science, education, cultivation, learning and more. Cultivation and us. We eat multiple times a day and yet we know so little about the food we eat - who grows it, where it is grown, how it reaches our homes, who all were involved ...

I have been lucky when it comes to friends, Enjoy talking with them. Amidst talking about school days, worrying about the state of the world today, distilled nonsense, books we have read and such they come up with lines that stand-out, Friends who matter and lines that have since been a part of our lives since, Share a few of these below - Receiving is a fine-art in today's time, warrants grace, and a few seem to have it in our rush to give, to appear bigger. (A friend who gifts me each time I meet) Multi-tasking is a bloody myth; one task we cannot do properly. (A friend whom I used to enjoy long conversations with) Academics is highly overrated, chances are high that many are in academia today as they probably had no other options. Then do it now, simple (in response to my telling him that I had never done it). (A friend who used to encourage and enthuse me when I needed it badly) झुकता सब से ज़्यादा ब्राह्मण है, तब ही तो वह ऊपर बना रहता है, देखो अपने आस पास ध्यान से। फसता तो हर क...

Over the years, I have learnt a lot from people,  Including from random conversations with people I came across during my meanderings,  People I am glad I bumped into, conversations I am glad took place,  Some of these conversations have been eye-opening, made me stop and think,  And, have stayed with me since,  S hare a few below -  What is there to think so much, go ahead, and if you see shoes - chappal somewhere leave your's too nearby. (A monk at a monastery in Bir, when I asked him if I could enter the monastery and where I need to keep my footwear - The message : keep it simple, don't complicate) जब खाना ख़त्म हो जाता है! (An old uncle running a small restuarant in Secunderabad, on my asking him, during Ramzaan, what time the restuarant closes for the day - He made me realize how silly and boxed I had become!) I have been beginning my days with a warm glass of water and reading a page of Bhagwad Gita, my life has changed, try that - you too will benefi...