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

Train of Thought This article was published in The EDGE (The Hindu) on 14 th October, 2019. Thanks are due to the team at THE EDGE. We stood, all excited, in front of the school gate. We were to depart for the annual trek with class IX students. Plan was to take a train from Varanasi to Dehradun and then travel by road till the base-camp. Our feet would take us further - up and down the Himalayan paths. One of the parents who had come to see his son off suddenly asked, “ Why are you all travelling by rail? Why does the school not arrange for air travel?” Surprised, and not keen to argue moments before we left for an event many of us had long since awaited, I smiled and responded meekly. The questions, however, kept visiting and re-visiting me once the train began to move and students were enjoying at their assigned berths. Learning opportunities Train travel holds the potential to educate us, about our country, in a manner that few other avenues ca...

Scaling great heights This piece finds space in Spectrum (Deccan Herald) on 14 th October.  Thanks are due to the team at Spectrum. Image Credit: Himalayan Ecotourism Four of us sat in the dimly-lit room of a restaurant at Gushaini in Himachal Pradesh, eating noodles and momos. The discussion began with tree planting – local tree species, tree guards, funds required ..... The idea was to plant trees along trek routes, the routes beyond the Great Himalayan National Park (GHNP) that today stood bereft of trees. This would also be an apt follow-up to the awareness campaign they had taken up with Himalayan Ecotourism . Cooperative here is the group of locals engaged in undertaking treks in and around the GHNP, and Himalayan Ecotourism is a set-up that helps market the treks . Gushaini, in the lower Tirthan valley, is the gateway to GHNP . At the restaurant, Sanju and Keshav shared how the cooperative managed the treks. Stephan, of the Himalayan Ecotourism, ...

This heritage resource is a mixed bag The review appears in the October 2019 issue of Teacher Plus. Thanks are due to the team at Teacher Plus and Parag. Series: Title: UNESCO World Heritage Sites of India Series Year of Publication: 2018 Publication: Mapin Publishing Pvt. Ltd. (Roshni Children’s Books) Number of pages: 32 (each book) Number of books: 5 (at this point) Price: Not mentioned on the books Series Editor: Narayani Gupta Series ISBN: 978-93-85360-47-3 Supported by: Parag, an initiative of Tata Trusts Editorial Board: Krishna Kumar , Girish Joshi, Swaha Sahoo, Sopan Joshi and Narayani Gupta. Overview: Natural and cultural sites of importance are indentified by UNESCO. India boasts of 8 natural (eg: Great Himalayan National Park Conservation Area ) and 29 cultural (eg: Champaner – Pavagarh Archeological Park) sites of importance. This series – 5 books - talks of 5 of these 37 sites. It is pertinent that the younger generation takes...

The ‘festival’ and bird ‘season’ in our parts appears to overlap, as we get ready for both – place below list of species we have come across during our ‘bird walks’, Many a time I have slowed down my cycle on spotting a bird but then been unable to identify the ‘exact species’; these   moments too have been fun – especially in the drizzle,   Thanks are due to students and colleagues for joining on many of these walks, Binoculars for Charity for equipment and to Kumar Radhakrishnan for the images,  Ashy Prinia Asian Koel Bank Myna Barn Swallow Baya Weaver Black Drongo Black Kite Black Redstart Black-crowned Night Heron Black-eared Kite Black-headed Gull Black-winged Kite Black-winged Stilt Bluethroat Blyth's Reed Warbler Booted Eagle Brahminy Starling Brown Shrike Brown-headed Barbet Brown-headed Gull Cattle Egret Common Hawk Cuckoo Common Hoopoe Common Iora Common Myna Common Pigeon Common Quail Commo...

Musical offerings in Hanuman’s court Thanks are due to the team at Sruti . An edited version of this piece appears in their September 2019 issue. Ustad Moinuddin Khan, prior to his performance, shared, “ This is where I derive pleasure in playing ” while Vidushi Kaushiki Chatterjee conveyed respects of each of her family members to the deity. Her father too, like was the case with few other artists, had previously performed at the venue. Kankana Banerjee, the first lady to perform at Sankat Mochan, set up a record of sorts   by performing at the venue for the 41 st consecutive year. Shailaja Khanna in her article, An ode to the master musician, put it thus, “ the concert is regarded as on offering – a ‘hazari’ which literally translates to formal presence in the court of the ruler or divine ”. Banaras too has a role. Kathak maestro Shovana Narayanan had stated, during a performance at a temple nearby, “ at temples of Banaras we perform for God and ourselves, neither ...

From a teacher’s lens This piece finds place in the Hindu EDGE.  Thanks are due to the team at Hindu EDGE . Few days ago, over tea, a friend mentioned the challenges she, a teacher, faces at her school. These include provocative parents, all-knowing students, changing technology and pressure from management. ‘Provocative parents’ had me recall a discussion, at a workshop, on how parent’s interference, especially in high paying schools, is on the rise. In some cases it is they who set the school agenda. The conversation took me to the challenges at our school. While the friend works with a fee paying English medium school in a Metro I am associated with a free Hindi medium school located at the fringes of a much smaller town. Majority of our students belong to under privileged families. In the lines that follow, I share some of these challenges. Students. On the one hand in our quest for a ‘happy’ school and ‘overall development’ we devote a significant chun...