Teaching to fish..

They say feed a man for a day and feed him once, and teach him fishing, and feed him for a lifetime.

Only metaphorically when you think about the new “fish and feeding model“, education comes on the forefront of it all.

Education is the forerunner to something really big and far beyond its size.Education creates,reciprocates, and attracts.

It is a key to empowerment, to acknowledgement of self dependence, to being aware of the abyss between the good and the bad. Of course, not all educated men and women are righteous men and women, but education just gives hands on experience of what it can achieve.

Back in my school, I used to be fascinated by the word competition. Thinking back now, I cannot really say if it were healthy or not, just that all I wanted it back then was to TOP them all.

Education is right when it teaches you what a healthy competition is, learning from others, adding on to what we already know, and sharing the pearls of knowledge like tiny droplets of water on an arid desert. Education is righteous, when you can stand up and say “I believe “,and die for it. 

Sadly our conventional schools do not teach the kids what a healthy competition is , there is nothing wrong in the system, just that , there is something that needs to be here, and isn’t , Let get it !

~

ek

“If we dont help each other, who will..” 

The Secret

I love morning walks, just that I’m a a little lazy or worn out at times . Last month I hurt my back , and was virtually confined to bed rest, and as soon as I picked up, I decided it was time to get the muscles rolling. I set out on the street at 5 am. I had just moved a few yards , when the a group of 5-6 dogs circled me. Scared that I was I considered returning  home, but something in me urged me to keep moving,which I did .

The point : Are you just being too skeptical of the situations, people and of yourself ? There is this wonderful book “The secret” at the core of which it describes the “law of attraction“, I call it the “Murphy’s law part two” , if something has to go right, it will . Are you pondering too much over helping out people ,reaching out to them, but get bogged down by failures at your attempts?

The point is, “Thoughts become Things“,so if you continually reinforce any feeling, it morphes into a belief , and we never fail when we belive in something. Coz when you truly believe , you fight back !

~

ek

 

Hold on, Hold fast,Hold out, Patience is genius ~ Comte De Buffon

Why we need you, and more badly than we ever did ?

There is this interesting book, Bottom of the pyramid, at the heart of it; it doesn’t try to touch upon a newly discovered problem. It just states may be a lot better given the statistics that are very well compiled in the work.

So what the work reinstates is that the poor and the less privileged section of the society is where our future will be, and empowering these people is where we collectively as a society will be able to move forward.

 

Talk of Microcredit(The Gramin Bank), or eChoupal, at the core they imply a change, and a shift in focus from ME to the less blessed in the space around us.

We draw our identity from the space we live in and this is why this section should be empowered, for we do not do everything in self interest. 

In her book, The Blue Sweater  Jacqueline Novogratz  ,Founder and CEO of Acumen Fund, brings us a series of insightful stories and unforgettable characters — from women dancing in a Nairobi slum, to unwed mothers starting a bakery, to courageous survivors of the Rwandan genocide, to entrepreneurs building services for the poor against impossible odds.

I was just exploring how we can use social media, Acting Wikily; to amplify the cause and raise funds. I do not quite believe in charity, because when you ONLY give monetary support you are feeding someone for a day or two, but when you teach him, a vocation, or provide him/her employment opportunities, you are feeding him all his life and this is my vision. 

Make them believe in themselves, and trust me, half the job is done, for  the most untutored person with passion is more determined than the most tutored person without it.

As years go by, I hope to be able to touch more lives, and hope that what I am trying to do will be simulated in the space we put up in.

In essence I wish to redefine community wellbeing and I am looking for off beat ideas in improving community service and making it exemplary, because this is what I can be my personal BEST at.

I m amazed at the amount of energy each one of us here has got with them. Given that we belong to varied backgrounds, cultures and bring varied experiences in the forum, there is a lot we can do together.

I am here to learn from you, and how do I make my project more visible, adaptable, and truly inspiring.

 

Yes, I need you .

 

~

ek

 

If the path is beautiful,first confirm where it leads,but if the destination is beautiful,dont bother how the path is..Keep walking..

About role models

When you were a kid, your teacher asked you to write a ten line essay on your role model. Unfortunately, you were young then and would be fed with names that you  did not know enough about. Names which moved nations like Mahatma Gandhi, Dr. Martin Luther king, Nelson Mandela, Abraham Lincoln .

But the question remained the same? How much could you relate to them? How well were you told about these role models, enough to be motivated to motivate, or to be the change you were seeking to happen.

My assertion is small, yet powerful, for I believe the beginning of the role model begins in YOU. If you are a parent, your kids look up to you to form a subconscious character of what is right and what is incorrect. When you misrepresent your income, and hence evade the tax regimes, your kids overhear you, and think, “oh maybe its not bad to cheat after all.” Then one day he gets caught cheating in a term paper and you blame him/her when you meet the class teacher.

As I was on my evening walk, I saw a man, tattered up on mud in the park, probably he was drun, had a fight with someone, and dozed there .Think about it, if your son sees you like that , what you do to undo the wrath that you brought to his nestling  mind  .

Don’t tell your kids to be Sunita williams , or Sania Mirza, tell them to be just like you, and be that model of perfection yourself.

~

ek

The English language is nobody’s special property.  It is the property of the imagination: it is the property of the language itself.  ~Derek Walcott

Why do you go to School?

To study, get good grades and get a stable well paying job and social quo ?

That’s about the old school. In fact an archaic one !

You don’t go to school to learn, you go to school to enable the receptivity to learning. You go to school to enable the realms of imagination and creativity dawn upon you. Because real learning happens all the while, beyond the claaroom, how can four walls which symbolize confinement open the gates to the emerging knowledge societies?

Language is often said to be the primary vector for communicating knowledge and tradition, knowledge because you need the syntax and tradition because you need the semantics. And without either of them learning reduces to a process that has little value of its own.

It is this learning that must be taught to each child in every classroom across our country, for this not only teaches, but inspires.

And they say, the most untutored person with passion often outdoes the most tutored one without passion 

~

ek

The need of the immaterial is the most deeply rooted of all needs. One must have bread; but before bread, one must have the ideal. ~ Victor Hugo

On Teaching and Peer Pressure..

Today a friend called me to tell me that he had chosen an off beat career in HR and seemed pretty excited about it. But through out the conversation one thing kept lingering in my head, why do we need to justify to our for choosing a career over other?

Each child is special, and so is his flair for liking a thing , or activity over other.

If you like something, want something, want it bad enough, Go for it !

You don’t have to justify to people why you made a particular move in chess, may be you lost upfront, but may be.. a remote possibility can be that you were being foresighted, thinking about how to save your king !

Life’s like that , at every crossroad it will shake the dullard and person who constantly doubts himself, and each of the encounters with a buzo who will tell you why a certain thing will not work, will rock aside all your beliefs and strength, and mort importantly your passion.

When I t think about those few wonderful people who have been like the mainstay of my support basket, and  tell the people about the gig I want to do, because I so much want to people DOUBT ! But its ok, its my life, and you just can’t go about explaining to people who don’t matter and who will never understand. At each of these times, I send a subtle message of appreaciation to myself, I ROCK !

I love the poem by Robert Frost “ The road not taken “ 

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

Decide what you want and hit the bulls eye,nothing more, nothing less !

~

ek

The saddest of what the pen or tongue could have ever said is ..”if”

On Financial literacy

When you were a child you found your parents quite illogical, for you always though they were old fashioned, conventional and adhered to the old school.

You would have that nagging feeling of being treated for a “Child” ,let down every time they used to accompany you to places, where your peer group might potentially turn up.

And then there were choices to be made, of sharing the lunch with your parents on your birthday, and going over for a party in the night.

 

All said and done, your parents never were illogical, in fact they see ahead of you, with all that experience in hand as they used to tell you ” Beta, yeah bal dhoop mei safed nai kiye maine ..”.

They used to tell you about the value of money, not because it can buy you luxury, or wealth is respected, because freedom is being able to do all that you can , not all that you want to and possibly CAN !

I believe that way, we are being fair by not teaching our kids about Financial literacy .

This is how Rich Dad Poor Dad starts..

“Does school prepare children for the real world? “Study hard and get good grades and you will find a high-paying job with great benefits,” my parents used to say. “

That way, we have been told to play safe, study well, find a well paying job , and then carry on with our lives. They say in America they tell their children .. “Son, study well , or an Indian will take your job ..” : P

Today, lets teach our children the difference between money and wealth. For now, go grab a copy of Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki , one of the best reads to “Financial literacy” . 

~

ek

Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.

 Theodore Roosevelt 

On burning the night lamp

 

When I was a kid, like all kids of my age, I used to hate examinations, for that meant, disrupting my normal “non-exam” day and getting down to some serious business, bearing that pain of overhearing kids in the lane playing, when I would just pray that mom would sneak away to a neighbor, so that I catch Tom and Jerry

 

 

 

 

We sure grew up, but we haven’t come past “burning the night lamps”, and living by a day, a day alone.
One day you get up, and want to throw all the books out of the school bag, only to realize that what you are taught is not what will carry you through, why?

Because learning doesn’t happen overnight . Learning is a process, a journey, not a destination in itself, which parts off with end of formal education.

  

Learning should be a joy, and an activity that stands for believing in yourself, before you are set to change the world.

It is knowing that change begins within, and endlessly questioning oneself to find the answer to the problem, and thinking strengths, not weaknesses. It is about chasing your dreams, and believing that they all come true, all in this life alone, if only you PERSIST.

 

Learning is about being master of one, and not pushing in all the subjects and trying to score all B’s rather than one A++, just one. Learning is about passion, and being aware that this journey that will open the gates.

About collectively realizing that, only then can we in true terms, will begin to build a new nation, one that stands and prides upon its most valued asset, its people.

As a first step, let’s learn to unlearn..

We don’t need any more books, just the passion that will carry us through   

 

~
ek 

” If you meet a strong resistance, you are trying to change something VERY fundamental, Stck onn..”

On Parents, Pressure, Persuasion and Failure..

More often than not we are asked, what do you think is the most compelling problem with Indian Education system, Is it rote learning, infrastructure, lack of committed and qualified staff?

I think none of these is as demanding as the dilemma of the creative mind, which is blown to pieces every single day in school, at home, when a child wishes to know about a thing that’s considered a taboo, and excluded from its mention.

The child is forced to live on the dreams of his parents, rather than allowed to explore what he wants to do, ending up in careers that do not excite him, and eventually learning becomes a burden rather than a joyful activity.

I believe that more often than not, we subconsciously tell our kids to follow our aspirations, thus first persuading them, and as a second resort pressurizing them in a particular way of living. What we don’t realize is that each child is special, and that there must be a way for him to find a way out to let his creative energies be a synergy.

Just let him be !

Like a mother bird, nurture him, condition his thought process, be involved, and let the baby set out on its maiden flight when it is.

Be involved, Let his competition be your competition.

Most importantly,Teach him to fail. Because it is ok. Because failure teaches you to persist, to stick on and to embrace it positively.

 

~
ek

On some positions, Cowardice asks the question, “Is it safe?” Expediency asks the question, “Is it politic?” And Vanity comes along and asks the question, “Is it popular?” But Conscience asks the question “Is it right?” And there comes a time when one must take a position that is neither safe, nor politic, nor popular, but he must do it because Conscience tells him it is right. I believe today that there is a need for all people of good will to come together with a massive act of conscience and say in the words of the old Negro spiritual, “We ain’t goin’ study war no more.” This is the challenge facing modern man. 

Martin Luther King

 

Learning to teach..

India goes to school to learn and to teach..

The Class of 2009

It’s a class unlike any other

The children won’t come in with handkerchiefs neatly pinned on uniform pockets. But in clothes that probably bear stains of soot or grease.

What you teach here isn’t something that’ll help a child get to the next class. But to a future free of poverty & deprivation.

Learning won’t happen from textbooks. But from pages borrowed from your life and often, from the lives of the students themselves.

U don’t get paid here. Yet u will return home each day with riches no remuneration can match.

Come to think of it, you’ve never seen a classroom this size. The walls after all, are the 4 corners of our country.

And when a child from this class passes, the nation will graduate. From being the world’s largest illiterate population to the world’s largest literate workforce.

So whoever u are, whatever u do, here’s calling out to the teacher in u.

Good Morning Teacher!

And welcome to the class of 2009.