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History in Hyderabad

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What I learnt from the History Literature Festival?  Not long after Eesha and I reached the venue I realised that the impromptu decision to take leave from school and book seats on the only available train to Hyderabad to attend a literature festival focussing on history was a good one. At the school students often ask us why they need to learn history at all - in other words why we are doing what we are doing! Incidentally we also teach history! Over the course of 3 days we listened to people talk about not only the history of the Deccan but also history of businesses, history of music, history of cinema, history of  arts, history of WW2, and other facets of history. It was also heartening to see some of the students ( especially grade 8 ) of HPS ( the venue ) actively participate, to make use of the opportunity at their doorstep. The overall vibes were positive - vibes we could not have experienced online. Some of the speakers were ( for lack of another term ) high quality...
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The Social Life of Indian Trains - A Journey

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Title: The Social Life of Indian Trains - A Journey Author: Amitava Kumar  Publisher: Aleph Price: 399/- ISBN: 978-93-6523-896-9 Genre: Non-fiction First Published: 2025 Pages: 142 This review finds place on the Deccan Herald here . Thanking the team at Deccan Herald. Amitava Kumar takes us on a journey with trains - a journey where he touches upon history, literature and personal experiences.  He sets the tone in a manner befitting the book, “ the railway lines that criss-cross the country, and are longer even than our majestic rivers, bind the landscape into a whole and give it a sense of a nation ”. He has us revisit classics like Richard Attenborough’s Gandhi , Gulzar’s Raavi Paar , Kamal Amrohi’s Pakeezah , Dushyant Kumar’s Tu kisi rail si guzarti hai , Bhisham Sahni’s Amritsar Aa Gaya Hai , and others. With a keen eye, comfort in multiple languages, and dexterity with words he elucidates the role of trains in these poems, movies, and books, and as a corollary in our soci...
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Tryst with words

During the last week I savoured William Dalrymple's ' The Golden Road '. It was after long that I read a book with 2 dictionaries and a thesaurus by my side. This book I was keen to read since a while, the dictionaries and the thesaurus however, I picked up on whim. The thesaurus was Collins ( ~ year 2006, pages 799 ), one of the dictionaries was The Pocket Oxford ( ~ year 1999, pages 1,089 ) and the other Oxford Advanced Learners ( ~ year 1989, pages 1,579 ).   Over the recent years I have gotten used to web-based dictionaries if a computer is handy. This is fine when I am working online but seldom the case when I am reading - especially given the locations I usually read at and the positions I am then in. So, more often than not, I plan to look up the words later and then conveniently end up forgetting them. People wiser have warned, later is a time that seldom arrives! On occasions I have also convinced myself that if I keep the book aside to delve into a word or two ...
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School-going children or trapeze artists

Striking a balance in the world of children  An edited version  has been  published by Deccan Herald here . Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald.  During a recent bus trip I came across a group of school students sing Maati Kahe Kumhar Se, Tu Kya Rondhe Mohe - a song they often began their days at school with.   A few minutes later they followed it up with Chaar Bottle Vodka, Kaam Mera Roz Ka - a song that often accompanied them when there were ‘chilling’ with peers during the later part of the day. Kabir and Honey Singh, one after the other.   This perhaps aptly brought out one of the challenges today’s school-going children  face - trapezing between different worlds. Some of these scenarios the children are able to express clearly. Few years ago I overheard a child convey her frustration to her friend. It was election time and her father and her teacher were at the opposite ends of the ideological spectrum. When at home she would have to listen to he...
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Lives in a Cafe

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Title: Days at the Torunka Cafe  Author: Satoshi Yagisawa  ISBN: 978-1-78658-757-2  First Published: Japanese 2022, English 2025  Pages: 224  Price: 399/-   Six lines on the book First things first. The cover entices.   I purchased a book on whim, after long, and it turned out to be a good companion to 2 of the author’s previous books -  Days at the Morisaki Bookstore  and  More days at the Morisaki Bookstore . There is a special feel to the author’s simplicity, and, the translator too has kept it so. Together they remind us that life is simple, and we can live it better that way,  The author sees no need to project an iota of complexity or intelligence more than the story, its flow, warrants. There is not much that is earth-shaking, or book-shaking here, but the book keeps you glued.  The book reminds us that the normal is so very different for each of us. That there are stories within and around us which we will do good ...
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Evening Walks

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  Evening walks sometimes lead to surprises,  Surprises - around the corner - that do what no planning can,  Suddenly these flowers are there, and only there on the hill,  And, we dare not ask any questions, but do it all, Go close in awe, look with admiration, touch with trepidation,  just be there around them, We do not plan, but are back the next day,  To pay respects, to thank them for being there,  To the beauty that reminded us of Van Gogh, Beauty that, at times, in sheer human arrogance, is brushed aside as weeds,  Walks that gel with the silences around,  Walks that help set the pace of our lives, Walks where we are closer to ourselves,  Walks, one of the reasons we are here, 
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Finding a bookshop

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A book I recently read, and enjoyed About the book Title: The Lost Bookshop  Author: Evie Woods Publisher: One More Chapter (Harper Collins)  First Published: 2023 ISBN: 978-0-00-860921-4 Pages: 434 Genre: Fiction Price: 599/- What I liked about the book Has 3 parallel stories spanning 2 timelines The author is good with words and has enjoyed writing the book Frequently mentions other books and authors  Characters converse with historical personalities (including authors)   The section where story turns sad was touching  Page turner with the pace picking up towards the end  Different from what little I have read recently Magic realism  Few lines that stood out  It was such a terrible excuse, it must have been the truth It is only in something’s absence that you realise how much space it takes up At least in children’s books nothing terrible happened, and if it did, it always got fixed by the end People don’t like it when you tell them things you s...
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Tryst with a book

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Old Path White Clouds People wiser have taught us how it is the book that decides how and when it will interact with us and not the other way round. Old Path White Clouds underscored this dictum yet again for me. It is 7 months now that we had purchased the book (from, of course, our favourite book store ). Since, it sat (needless to add, peacefully) on the rack - an arm's length from where we sit and chat at the end of each day.   Reading Old Path White Clouds accompanied by the vacation sounds (read quality silences) on the campus has been special. I had enjoyed, on similar lines, my time with the two books I had read during the previous vacation - Learning from silence and Sachha Sur .  Like I did with the previous two books, with this book too, I went slow and after every few pages or so I took a break to absorb what I had read. The mahaul around only helped - the silences outside gelling aptly with the inner silences, peace, and calm these books talk about.  I read...
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Permanent teaching jobs

Some thoughts on reading a newspaper article a couple of weeks ago -  Newspaper: The Indian Express Date: 4th October  Title: The Teacher is Walking Away Author: Krishna Kumar  At the onset I clarify that I have, over the years, read Krishna Kumar’s articles,  learnt from them, and also shared them with friends.  This particular article talks about problems in the school system today - a system that relies excessively on data and where ‘teaching and children don’t matter’. There is no denying these problems - many of which are driven by societal changes. The focus on ‘permanent teaching job’ - the first line onwards - though, left me perplexed!  Now, the questions - Let us begin with numbers -  How many people have quit ‘permanent teaching jobs’ to return to ‘state of unemployment and uncertainty’? Is the number high enough that we need to be concerned in the manner that the article suggests?  Where does this number of quitting teachers stan...
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Gender, Craft and Education

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Gender and craftwork in rural society: The role of education  Author: Nidhi Gaur  ISBN: 978-1-032-84327-6  First published: 2025  Publisher: Routledge  Pages: 181 The review up at Teacher Plus here .  Warmly thanking Teacher Plus and Routeledge . Is craft-centred education the way to go? This book is an outcome of the author, Nidhi Gaur’s, study of Anand Niketan in Wardha, Maharashtra. This is a school where “ Work is not associated with particular people; rather, it is perceived simply as work that needs to be done. ” The first chapter, Introduction, deftly conveys what the book is all about; it states, “ So far, craft-centred education has not been studied from the perspective of gender, so this study revisits an older idea with a new perspective. ” The book has been neatly structured over nine chapters spread across 181 pages. The final chapter, Implications and conclusion, succinctly sums up the learning – “ The examination of the pedagogy of crafts ha...
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