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

Why India's children need safer roads to reach their classrooms Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald . The Supreme Court recently declared the right to walk on safe footpaths a fundamental right and urged the government to bring a law that declared this right and recognized the duty of municipal authorities and local bodies to build, demarcate, and maintain necessary pedestrian infrastructure. It passed this landmark judgment in a motor-accident claim case related to the death of a 5-year-old boy, who met with an accident while walking to school.  This was not an isolated incident.  Data shows that many children walk or cycle to school -  The NSO’s 2020 data showed that 60% of India’s children walk to school. ( 12 to 15 crore children walk to school each morning ) Delhi - A 2026 report by the Transportation Research and Injury Prevention Centre at IIT Delhi, highlighted that 51% of the children walk or cycle to school.   And, recent news-reports remind us that...

These are 2 of the most endearing videos I have seen on YouTube in a long, long time. The sheer beauty of these videos had me watch these again, and again, in silence. These are from Lahore's Sur Taal Academy.  I then sent these to a friend who said this is how morning assemblies at school can be. This line of his left me wondering - why cannot these be THE school itself? They have so much we (children and adults ~ ) can learn from - Music and poetry of course we learn when we engage with these songs. But there is a lot more - we learn to be a part of a team, to wait for our turn, to observe our teacher, to sing about Mandir and Masjid in the same breath literally, to engage with the classics and such. If our intentions are clear and we get the basics correct there is little that we need in terms of paraphernalia - be it fancy equipment, or clothes or lighting. Nusrat Saab  has left such a legacy. All we need to do is to respect it, and learn from it. And, this group is doing ...

Pickle-ball, golf and the new divide: Sport was once a shared experience, it's now a purchased service. Team at Deccan Herald - Thank you. Pickle-ball - a racquet sport that combines elements of tennis, badminton and table tennis - began in the US during the 1960’s but was introduced in India only during the 2000’s. Its popularity, however, rose during COVID, and today pickle-ball courts are mushrooming in our cities and towns. With over 500 courts, Amadavad has emerged as the pickle-ball capital of our country. I asked a friend, who often plays pickle-ball, why the sport is so popular. The main reason, he responded, is that the sport is not demanding: the court is smaller than a tennis court, it requires less energy than badminton, age and gender are not barriers, and it is easy to learn. On top of these, it gives players the feeling of having played a serious sport. He suggested that I observe the pickle-ball set-up not far from where I live, a set-up fairly representative of th...

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 ...

How much can you learn by listening:  The educational potential of conversations online. Thanks to the team at Deccan Herald for publishing this. Webinars and online sessions are the norm today in many of our education institutions. Listening to conversations, too, can be an equally effective tool. Listening to conversations between people who have made the best of life's opportunities, are well-versed in their fields, and have lived inspiring lives can open up new worlds. These are conversations where two people discuss, at length, a topic they are passionate about - conversations that Ralph Waldo Emerson referred to as “ art ” and “ the best of life ”. These conversations, available on YouTube, include sessions from events such as literature festivals. Watching these videos provides us with an opportunity to listen to people who leave us flummoxed by their sheer brilliance - people we may never get to meet. These conversations can make us aware of people we were ignorant of unti...

A World of Possibilities Thanks to the team at The Hindu. Published here .  Recently, a board was installed at our institution to to put up newspaper articles. The idea was to encourage students and teachers to read newspapers. Actually, to just read. We began with an open mind and four dailies. We were keen to get to know of the developments in the country and the subjects we pursued. We began by reading and rereading the newspapers, short-listing articles, pondering over them, and neatly putting them up on the boards. In course of a few weeks, we increased the board area and made it more reader-friendly. ‘ Shall we read? ’ talked of parents’ and bookstores’ efforts to increase reading. We were doing our bit here. Next came the themes. AI is extensively written about these days. We put up articles on how it reinforces gender and caste biases ( Sociology ) or even on how it discourages creativity . We also had articles on the water guzzling and carbon-footprint ( ESD ) that go into...

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...

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...

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...

Some thoughts on reading a newspaper article a couple of weeks ago -  Newspaper: The Indian Express Date: 4th October  Title: The Teacher is Walking Away Author: Krishna Kumar  At the onset I clarify that I have, over the years, read Krishna Kumar’s articles,  learnt from them, and also shared them with friends.  This particular article talks about problems in the school system today - a system that relies excessively on data and where ‘teaching and children don’t matter’. There is no denying these problems - many of which are driven by societal changes. The focus on ‘permanent teaching job’ - the first line onwards - though, left me perplexed!  Now, the questions - Let us begin with numbers -  How many people have quit ‘permanent teaching jobs’ to return to ‘state of unemployment and uncertainty’? Is the number high enough that we need to be concerned in the manner that the article suggests?  Where does this number of quitting teachers stan...