Posts

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 Advertisements and algorithms are driving our lives and individuals have been replaced by consumers.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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Caste in the classroom

Image
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

History in Hyderabad

Image
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Social Life of Indian Trains - A Journey

Image
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...
Post a Comment
Read more

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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more

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...
Post a Comment
Read more

Lives in a Cafe

Image
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 ...
Post a Comment
Read more