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Tushita

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I have attended 2 retreats at Tushita . An introductory retreat during June 2022 and an intermediate retreat during May 2023; each spanning 9 days. During the first I did not end up taking notes other than during the couple of days towards the end. It was more about just being there, observing, absorbing, and walking in the campus. During the second I enjoyed putting the pencils, the sharpeners, and the diary I had taken along, to work. Perhaps I was more at ease during the intermediate retreat, perhaps I had an urge to just get it all out, or perhaps I was just enjoyed the act of writing, the sound of pencil caressing paper amidst the silences of the Himachal hills. Some musing from my notes. Tushita A meditation centre, around 50 years of age, and if you enjoy walking in the hills - a pleasant walk uphill from the main traffic junction at Mcleodgunj. The Hyatt Hotel and the Goenka Vipassana Centre are its neighbours. We Indians seem to be flocking to Dharamkot only during the recent ...
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The Story of Ram Leela

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A young friend at school gave a wonderful parting gift,  As a project he had to talk with an adult, ask her / him to tell a story from her / his life, and write it down, like a book, with illustrations and all,  When he approached me I wondered for a bit on what to talk about - a story that would be a interesting for him as well, I needed to stay away from complicating and ensure that it enthused him enough to write about it,    Initially my mind wandered to my days in Agraa and Baghmara, but then I settled for time in Banaras, the Ramleela,  We talked a few times, it was fun to engage with him on the event, (locally referred to as the mela, the Ramleela at  Ramnagar  takes place over a month and at different spots across Ramnagar, there is no use  of electricity despite the large numbers it attracts),  It is special for me for multiple reasons, but it is a also kind of event he has never been a part of, this made our interactions all th...
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Children and us, today

Children in a changing world  During the past few years our society has undergone humongous changes. Some of these changes have made impacts way beyond what is apparent to the eye and what we accept. They have led to many of our age old practices, and with them the accompanying wisdom, disappear quickly and silently. Today, we are a society that has, at large, embraced two religions - markets and technology. Advertisements and algorithms are driving our lives and individuals have been replaced by consumers. The majority, if not all, of these consumers act in a uniform manner and many of their actions have us questioning some of the classical theories we have grown up with. The law of Diminishing Marginal Utility (DMU) for example does not seem to be effective in the context of entertainment and food when reels and home-deliveries are available at our fingertips. How have these changes impacted children? Today, the children seek freedom and abhor rules - yet they appear out of depth...
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India today, schools

Schools in India today Up at Teacher Plus , thanks to the team at Teacher Plus.  Today, the economic disparity in our society is abysmally high and this disparity is only increasing. Not only does the top 1% of India’s population own more than 40% of its wealth but this 1% has also seen its wealth rise by more than 50% during recent decades. All of this has been written enough to sound cliched but unfortunately this is the story of our times. So, how are the schools placed amidst all this? One way to look at the schools is the boards they are affiliated to. Broadly, we have the IB, IGCSE (Cambridge) and ICSE schools at the top, read - the most expensive schools. Then, somewhere in the middle are the CBSE schools. And, at the bottom of the pyramid lie the state board schools, including government run schools. The scenario becomes stark when we talk numbers. The total number of IB, IGCSE (Cambridge) and ICSE schools, all put together, is less than 5,000; while the total number of sch...
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Caste in the classroom

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Thanks to the team at  Teacher Plus  for publishing this in the March 2026 issue.  Meeting the Savarnas by Ravikant Kisana resonated in a manner than not many books do. It reminded me of some of the conversations I had had, took me back to some situations I had been a part of, had me reread some sections, got me talking excitedly about the subject with friends, and make notes. This is a book school teachers will do good to read. It may help broaden their horizons, and in turn, benefit children in the long run. I will briefly talk about the book and follow it up with how it can help teachers. First, the book. Title: Meet the Savarnas: Indian Millennials Whose Mediocrity Broke Everything Author: Ravikant Kisana Publisher: Penguin Random House India First Published: 2025 Pages: 187 Price: 699/- This is a book that questions the credibility of the elites by pointing out how deeply entrenched caste, and as a corollary, privilege are in our society. How we have looked at, and...
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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

Also up at the School Magazine.  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 a...
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