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

Title:  Moonlight Express: Around the World by Night Train Author:  Monisha Rajesh Publisher: Bloomsbury Pages: 326 ISBN: 9781-5266 -4418-3 MRP: 699/- Thanks to  Deccan Herald In this book, Monisha Rajesh takes different trains, mostly in Europe, that move during the night, meets friends and strangers, soaks in the views, enjoys food, visits places, shares what is in her mind and takes us along. I had read her ‘ Around India in 80 Trains ’ around the time it had come out, about a decade and half ago, and I must confess that I enjoyed this journey with her far more. As I travelled with her again, I discovered areas of common interest, one after the other, be it soaking in silences or darkness, keenness to slow down or invest time with self, concern for the earth and people, meditation, engaging with interesting people, and of course trains and travel. She writes about trains which boast of carriages that get on to a ferry or those which can carry cars, have fridges and pla...

The real problem with history education is bigger than textbook revisions. Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald . This week NCERT has released the new Social Science textbook for Grade 9 - Understanding Society: India and Beyond Part 2. As with the previous ‘new’ textbooks, some of us have been complaining about a few topics that have found their way into the textbook and a few that have been shown the door. Syllabus changes dictated by those in power are a matter of concern and warrant deliberation. But, is this the only concern with our textbooks? Let us look at a few questions. How important are textbooks in today’s time? Textbooks, today, are just one of the many sources children have to build their knowledge and understanding of a topic. Our fetish for marks and ranks, has fuelled the popularity of guides and exam-keys, and as a corollary rendered textbooks - and the pedagogy envisaged while designing them - virtually ineffective. A few years ago I had pitched an article on ‘errors...

Learning and Sustaining Agricultural Practices The Dialectics of Cultivating Cultivation in Rural India Springer, 2021 Karen Haydock, Abhijit Sambhaji Bansode, Gurinder Singh, Kalpana Sangale. More about the book, including the PDF, at the publisher's and the author's websites. The book and I. This book too came into my life courtesy Bookworm's Reading Circle and I begin by thanking the group and Bookworm. I read the book slowly, very slowly, as it repeatedly set me thinking. It made me question some of my actions and I was left wondering if I would have benefitted by reading a book of this nature at an earlier stage in life. This book is immense in its scope — it deals with documenting a process, understanding societal realities, and exploring science, education, cultivation, learning and more. Cultivation and us. We eat multiple times a day and yet we know so little about the food we eat - who grows it, where it is grown, how it reaches our homes, who all were involved ...

I have been lucky when it comes to friends, Enjoy talking with them. Amidst talking about school days, worrying about the state of the world today, distilled nonsense, books we have read and such they come up with lines that stand-out, Friends who matter and lines that have since been a part of our lives since, Share a few of these below - Receiving is a fine-art in today's time, warrants grace, and a few seem to have it in our rush to give, to appear bigger. (A friend who gifts me each time I meet) Multi-tasking is a bloody myth; one task we cannot do properly. (A friend whom I used to enjoy long conversations with) Academics is highly overrated, chances are high that many are in academia today as they probably had no other options. Then do it now, simple (in response to my telling him that I had never done it). (A friend who used to encourage and enthuse me when I needed it badly) झुकता सब से ज़्यादा ब्राह्मण है, तब ही तो वह ऊपर बना रहता है, देखो अपने आस पास ध्यान से। फसता तो हर क...

Over the years, I have learnt a lot from people,  Including from random conversations with people I came across during my meanderings,  People I am glad I bumped into, conversations I am glad took place,  Some of these conversations have been eye-opening, made me stop and think,  And, have stayed with me since,  S hare a few below -  What is there to think so much, go ahead, and if you see shoes - chappal somewhere leave your's too nearby. (A monk at a monastery in Bir, when I asked him if I could enter the monastery and where I need to keep my footwear - The message : keep it simple, don't complicate) जब खाना ख़त्म हो जाता है! (An old uncle running a small restuarant in Secunderabad, on my asking him, during Ramzaan, what time the restuarant closes for the day - He made me realize how silly and boxed I had become!) I have been beginning my days with a warm glass of water and reading a page of Bhagwad Gita, my life has changed, try that - you too will benefi...