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

  Re-defining Museums A day-trip to this amazing place in Patna Some images An art installation at one of the open spaces amidst the buildings An empty gallery A gallery with many visitors - 3,000 turn up each day on an average This may be an island in the city - but one which is connected with its people  A 'library' for researchers  There was also a 'classroom' - a workshop on traditional Mithila painting in natural colours was underway Staff kept the spaces clean  These photos in these frames kept changing  The museum has its share of surprises - and they work   Like the museum at Allahabad this too has space devoted to the Bideshiyas or the Batoiyas  Only this one was more interactive and had technology stamped all over  What would happen to our history if Alexander Cunnigham and Huen Tsang were to suddenly disappear? Same that would happen to our lives if tea and coffee went missing? I enjoyed trying my hand at the interactive installati...

Surrounded by openness This piece finds place in Teacher Plus' December issue.  Thanks to the colleagues there and to Richa for comments on the draft.  Image credits: Achyut Patwardhan Junior High School  What all can a school do if its building is surrounded by open spaces? How can the adults and children at the school optimally use these spaces? Does greenery at these open spaces become the proverbial icing on the cake? Do these spaces lead to rekindling openness within us as well? First the school. Located on the outskirts of a fast-growing town, along the riverbank in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the school began sometime in the 1940s. Housed within a large campus, the school today has 15 teachers and 250 children. Most of the children, from nursery to 8th class, come from the nearby areas. There are no other open spaces in the vicinity and these spaces around the school play a crucial role in the lives of the children. They come to these spaces during evenings, on holiday...

  Schools and other institutions   This finds space in Teacher Plus December 2023. Thanks to colleagues there and to Richa for comments on the draft.   We often discuss how adults and children interact with each other or how they interact amidst themselves in school. Let us look at how these adults and children together, in other words - the school, interacts with some of its neighbours. We will also explore if these schools could benefit from higher intensity of engagements than those currently in vogue.   https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/exterior-museum-hospital-police-station-post-office-government-bank-school-theatre-university-city-town-halls-cartoon-vector-illustration-set-house-construction-building-facade-concept_21683710.htm Image by pch.vector</a> on Freepik Public-institutions like banks, post-offices, railway-stations and bus-stations Many of our schools have banks or post-offices or transport stations in their vicinity. With m...

A taboo in our schools Published at Deccan Herald . Thanks to the team there.  Thanks also to Richa for comments on the draft.  Caste-based census has been in the news during the recent days. Caste-based violence often gets some space in the news. Caste-based discrimination, however, is too ingrained in our lives to become news. Unless, of course, for example, one of our elite high education institutes faces the brunt!  This is what Saniya Roomie and Kapil Joshi had to say in How caste discrimination plagues IITs earlier this year, “ What strikes clear as day is that despite the rising cases, IITs across the country are hesitant to acknowledge the institutionalized casteism within their campuses. This is further cemented by their unserious stance on creating a robust grievance redressal system ”.  We also refrain from discussing caste at homes and at schools. Even the British were careful not to topple this proverbial apple-cart.   Let us focus on schools here;...

Another chapter . .  An invigorating experience . .  JEEVAN KEE NADEE (THE RIVER OF LIFE) - Trailer on Vimeo

Editing . .  A new journey . .  https://www.teacherplus.org/

Title: A Case of Indian Marvels - Dazzling Stories From the Country’s Finest New Writers Editor: David Davidar Publisher: Aleph First Published: 2022 ISBN: 978-93-91047-64-1 Pages: 390 Price: 999/- Thanks are due to Aleph and Purple Pencil Project.  The editor was “ surprised by the lack of anthologies that focused exclusively on the work of writers belonging to the millennial generation ” and we are glad that he felt this way. We have these forty stories put together. The authors have been described as India’s “ finest ” and “ most exciting ” new writers. The list also includes well known names like Meena Kandasamy and Prayaag Akbar. The editor is “ frustrated by lack of quality translations ’”. However, he has managed to include five of them - A J Thomas and Rita Kothari are amongst the translators. These stories present voices of today’s India – perspectives of the youth. An India that is unjust but at the same time “ will not dance ” to someone else’s tunes. A generation that ...

Utpal Dutt On the Theatre Publisher: Seagull Books, Calcutta Printing Years: 2009, 2022 ISBN: 978-8-1-7046-251-4 Price: 499/- Pages: 201 As I read the book I recalled watching him as Dhurandhar Bhatawdekar – a few years ago,  Few questions also came up, How well read was he? How the hell did he manage to recall so much! How did he see where we were headed? Was he that ahead of his times?  How could he have been such direct, frank and yet so popular? How broad and deep was his repertoire? But then he was at best an enigma - someone who worked closely with Ghose, Sen and Ray, was a Shakespeare scholar, and yet known to many of his generation for his roles as a 'comedian' in Hindi cinema! Dhurandhar Bhatawdekar was just one of the many such roles.  Some lines from the book – that have stayed, On Shakespeare Urdu alone, of all Indian languages, can capture fully the sound-quality of Shakespeare’s verse. The decline of interest in Shakespeare in our times has been brought ab...

Where the Buddha gave his first sermon . . . . .  Last week I returned from Sarnath hassled – a frame of mind I do not associate with the place. Roads have been dug up and blocked. Drains are being constructed and vendors have been shifted. Select monuments including the Mulagandha Kuti Vihara are under restoration. It is a Sarnath taken over by dust, noise and chaos. Increased tourist numbers ( spill over of the record spike in number of people visiting Banaras ) further exacerbate the situation. Image Credit: Pawandeep Kaur I am unclear whether this is being done under the Smart City project or for the upcoming G20 meetings in town or for another reason. I sadly wonder though how long it would be before I resumed my trips to Sarnath! Notwithstanding the current scenario the peace and calm associated with Sarnath have been eroding over the years. Not much unlike the names previously used for the place, names that seem to have disappeared: Rishipatana, Mrigadava and Mrigadaya....

Walking Education Campuses Nimesh Ved and Sanjay Dwivedi Published at The Hindu Education Plus . We thank the team there.  We also thank Pawandeep Kaur for the image.    Learning during the schooling years warrants moving beyond the conventional classroom set-up as well. This is all the more crucial in a society like ours that seldom invest time and thought towards expanding the child’s horizons. Exposure visits can help meet this need. They enable learning in a non-formal and fun-filled environment. Multi-day trips to mountainous and forested landscapes are, of course, a wonderful option. Financial and logistical challenges however ensure that these trips are out of bounds for majority of our schools. Many schools are then left with the option of going out, with children, for some hours in and around their towns and cities. Some schools visit spaces like museums and events like book-fairs . A few also venture to the banks and factories. One option we have e...