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

Getting goose bumps on listening to a live performance is an experience not common for me. But here I was enthusiastically joining the, rest of the, 250 odd strong audience in giving an emotive standing ovation. We had just heard Ustad Abdul Rashid Khan who at his age of 108 redefined few terms, for many of us, that evening. Listening to him was akin to watching Sunil Gavaskar or John McEnroe at 65 had they been physically fit and evolved at their crafts. We were at Jashn E Deccan organized by KMR Foundation at the Amphitheatre in Sreenidhi International School . Mumi and I felt this each of the 2 days that we savoured the music there - that a setting of this character would be very difficult, if not impossible, within city limits. ‘ Everything here is so beautifully unconventional ’ was how Pandit Biswajit Roy Choudhury very succinctly put with a smile before he began playing Sarod. He added that an ambience of this nature they got to soak in once in two odd years. His perf

What I had read and heard of the Magic Bus Learning Centre was not enough I realized as I walked towards the dining area for breakfast after dropping in my luggage in the dormitory. The food was lovely and during the next few trips to the dining area it would be difficult to not over eat! Quiet walks in the campus were fun, once during the late evening and then during the next morning. I was there to participate in the 2 nd Experiential Education Conclave and in the coming lines share some thoughts from the event. Need to get back to the campus to indulge in the activities though! I indulged in some very interesting conversations on a wide range of topics with co-participants from diverse backgrounds! To begin with I put forth two very interesting lines I came across during the two day event: v We are in the 16 th year of the 21 st century and our education practices still belong to the 20 th century! v If my students don’t fail, I fudge up to give them that experie

Why do we – and frequently at that – feel that the circumstances that govern us are unique? Is this our need to feel special? One of the earlier conversations I recall – from school days - is our ( 9 of us ) believing in and taking pride in our batch being the naughtiest / silliest batch ( as if we had knowledge of what earlier batches had been upto! ) and being told by the teacher - with a particularly dead pan face - that all batches are the same! As I write I recall Amitabh Bachchan in Sholay telling Dharmendra ‘ Muje to sare policewale ek jaise lagte hain ’. This continued – during later years - as we talked of how we were in more remotely located places or without phone / net connectivity or how traffic was bad, especially the particular stretch we had to cover daily! Two conversations, during the past fortnight, brought up the question  again. A remark, by a co-participant, during a workshop on leadership and its overlaps with personal and work spaces – organize

** Khet ke boundary par ped khade hai : sentry ho jaise, Raat ki khoobsurti badhati aakash ki chamak : jaise lazy sa koi pearl, Train ki khidki se aati light : jaise chadhti utarti hai zamee pe, Halki si baarish me yeh dekh raha tha : darwaaze pe khade, Ki, gili chamak wale ek chote station ne bulaya : mano apna sannata baantne, **  ** Aise bikhre the baadal, Maano bachon ne khel ke baad khilone bikher diye ho, Ki : koi khel hi raha tha, Kaaun : aakash aur baadal ya nila aur safed, Ya : kahin chand toot ke tukde to nahin ho gaya! **   ** In a train on a new route, So many routes are still single lanes and not electrified, So many stations yet beautiful with large trees, Some of us do not use trains, stating time, I often wonder, how interesting other actions are! ** Images depict one the remaining narrow gauge beauties. ** Earlier posts on trains Trains From the rolling tracks