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

Keeping the questions alive This piece appears in the August 2014 issue of Teacher Plus. Thanks are due to Shalini, Teacher Plus, Rishi Valley School, its students and teachers - especially Radha, Santharam, Kaustubh and Sonali.  A recent trip to Rishi Valley School ( Andhra Pradesh ) presented an opportunity to interact with students in different classes on divergent topics. During the trip I enjoyed being with the students and partially succeeded in soaking in their energies, enthusiasm and knowledge. But, it was their eagerness to know more that left me stunned and pleased at the same time and in no small measure. As Eugene Ionesco put it: " It is not the answer that enlightens, but the question. " My interactions with the sociology and ecology students I shared my experiences at Baghmara ( South Garo Hills, Meghalaya ) and Saiha ( Mizoram ) with the two sets of students. For my interactions with the sociology class I decided to focus on my experiences in...

Shared my meagre understanding on CCAs at Rishi Valley during a recent trip. The setting was amazing ( entire school in the evening at the assembly hall ) and am absolutely indebted to Rishi Valley for the opportunity.  Two conversations of the evening stand out. During afternoon tea one student shared that she and her friends were excited not because of the talk but because of the dinner that was to precede the talk; just in case I had any illusions. After the talk ( and questions that followed ) one student came up and as I bent down he put his hand on my shoulder and said 'shy ok - so talking like this'; his tone was very much like that of one of my closest friends.  Select slides and accompanying 'bullets' are placed below Control and management ( decision making ) rest with community Community is closely related to ecosystem  Efforts lead to conservation Not necessarily strict preservation but multiple ( flexible ) rules ...

Kaustubh's very encouraging email got me back to putting in place this post on discussions with students pursuing ecology ( at Rishi Valley ). We discussed what ( if anything! ), from my meager experiences in the region, I could bring in that would add value for the students. We, after a not so long conversation, narrowed down on jhum ( shifting or slash and burn cultivation ). Share some of the questions I faced below. Couple of these have been more pertinent and thought provoking than those I have heard in my meanderings in the region. Some of these are tricky and answers ( as placed here ) may appear a tad too simplified but I understand the session served its purpose and we had a nice time!   Is jhum rice different from wet rice? ( ~ sure it is .... ) Are their varieties of rice in jhum? ( ~ of course, I am not aware of these though!.... ) Does government decide where jhum will be done? How? ( ~ we discussed who decides and how this has been 'affe...

Continuing with the lovely time at Rishi Valley : Would I want to chat with students in the Sociology class? Well I would - but what do I chat on? This was how the conversation on the topic started. Suggestions from teachers then made things easier for me: How about talking on meetings ( and interactions ) when you initially went to the villages in Mizoram? Also what you observed in and learnt from the villages during initial days– especially in context of your work? As I started jotting notes I was clear that I would talk of initial days in Baghmara ( South Garo Hills, Meghalaya ) and put to use neither images nor power-point. Images in this post are those scanned from the album of monsoon 2004. These I dug out only last evening and I have put in the image names I then used. As I write I recall Rama Bijapurkar in Telegraph writing that power-points hardly had power and seldom conveyed the point! In the space below I share some of these notes and questions that followed:...

During a recent trip to Rishi Valley I was asked if I would like to address the junior assembly ( which I happily agreed to ) and warned that the students asked too many questions !! I shared the story of my walk to a meeting place at a village in Nagaland I started from the foot-ball field, which also has a volley-ball court, at one end of the village I then came across young people at the amphitheatre Just nearby was a community place with painted walls Couple of pines had fallen at the corner As I walked further I saw people had stocked firewood  Reaching next locality I saw a house with a tin-roof (oil-cans) While another had beautiful carving and different colour Just besides was a house which had maximum look-alikes  Around the corner I saw the garage which looked familiar I reached the destination and saw the wooden-box which I recalled from last time; a grain storage-place Tea was getting ready at the center of the roo...