A Time To Reflect

charukesi June 14th, 2008

interfere with my education. and when it is a question of exams…

Mumbai Mirror gave six Class XII toppers a simple GK test. Most of them didn’t even come close to getting a first-class - and so the newspaper calls them rather cruelly, floppers in its cover story of Friday June 13th.

The questions we posed to them were based on common knowledge that any educated citizen should have. But most of them got less than 50% marks in our test. The overall HSC topper, Priyanka Shah, who had got 96.59% in the Board exams, in fact got 36% marks in the GK test, and one of the CBSE toppers got just 27%.

On this article which goes on to attack the “mugging-culture” in the education system, a commentor has this to say - “You have infront of you, your whole life, to get your General Knowlege ripe. You did the right thing by concentrating on the studies. You can pick up newspapers anytime and improve your general knowledge throughout your life. There is no need to feel any sense of incompleteness or a lack of confidence on that”. Concentrating on studies is one thing - but to the exclusion of everything else?

And as an aside, also this - which I found myself agreeing with - Please don’t call them flopper and that too on the front page of a leading daily. I am very sure if similar kind of test is conducted for your newspaper staff you guys won’t be able to score anything near to what these kids scored.

• Children and youth , - Education
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charukesi January 5th, 2008

SelAm tags me on a meme he says is so last year - All you have to do is select and upload one photo that you have clicked this year that is special to you. Could be anything…aesthetic, technical or personal. Also, put in a short note why it is special.

My favorite from last year is this one of Nandini, an old young friend from the Kala Ghoda area where I first met her…

Meet Nandini. She lives somewhere around this area. She is not very sure where. She can’t tell me anything more about herself and her family. But she knows one thing for sure - she likes pani puri. She has no idea what it is called; will she have dhokla? nahi. khandvi? nahi; she quickly dismissed these foolish offers I make in the assumption that the kid would like the less spicy things on offer. Yeh nahi, woh gol gol jo hota hai - her little fingers making whirring circles in the air… oh, the round things? realization dawns as I point to the kachori. She directs a withering look at me (how dumb can you get?, it says in loud tones and I duly wither), gives up attempts to explain and instead leads me confidently to the stall, her little hands in mine. She takes ages to eat the first puri - the tiny mouth can open only so big. So the panipuriwala fill the other puris, piles them up in a leaf cup and she takes them away to a corner by the tree to eat them in peace.

Read her story where it was originally posted - the Kala Ghoda Gazette…

And while no one is looking, can I sneak in another favorite quickly? (Say two pics of kids equals one of an adult?)

(Taken at the primary school at Hampi on independence day - I have posted this pic on this blog earlier) - I call it the colors of freedom - what story does this tell you?

And oh, photographically speaking (if one can do that), one of my aims was developing skills at street and portrait photography - and these images prove how intent was translated into some action. A beginning…

• The World of Indsight , Children and youth
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charukesi November 27th, 2007

My husband spent an hour yesterday in Bandra looking for a cybercafe to send an urgent mail - time was when he would have found ten on the same street. He did find ten - gaming parlours - where there were cybercafes earlier. In one, he says, there were unoccupied computers but the manager refused to allow him to use any of them for “browsing purposes” since they were meant strictly for gaming. What about that kid with his gmail open? - well, he was checking on his points and transacting game goodies with his gaming friends. And oh, did you also read about parents who wait outside these gaming joints with thermos filled with Horlicks and coffee for their children playing tournaments inside?

• Indiawatch , Children and youth
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charukesi November 2nd, 2007

The last time I wrote on this, I had over a hundred comments, most of them from “post-graduates with teaching skills” (but not terribly good spelling skills, I may add), all of them asking me for details on that - but here goes anyway, from new York Times - Hello, India? I Need Help With My Math on how while the tutees are all over the world (seeking help with math and whatever else), the tutor is in India. But then, why not? Read - from the same newspaper - Classroom of the Future Is Virtually Anywhere.

• Technology , - Education
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charukesi October 30th, 2007

I found 1 in 10 schools are ‘dropout factories’ on my yahoo homepage. Not surprisingly - The highest concentration of dropout factories is in large cities or high-poverty rural areas in the South and Southwest. Most have high proportions of minority students. These schools are tougher to turn around, because their students face challenges well beyond the academic ones — the need to work as well as go to school, for example, or a need for social services.

A spokesman for South Carolina’s Department of Education has tried to explain this saying - “Part of the problem we’ve had here is we live in a state that culturally and traditionally has not valued a high school education” - I do not think it is about valuing education - it is about the children - and their parents - thinking about what that education gives in turn, in the long run, and finding almost nothing. Atleast nothing worth the effort of going to school everyday under challenging personal circumstances. Added to that is the pressure from schools that tend to grades and scores above a more intrinsic capability and understanding. And this article here, is about America, not India.

• - Education
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charukesi October 25th, 2007

Time has this interesting article - India’s Call-Center Jobs Go Begging - about how young graduates are no longer interested in these once-attractive high-paying jobs.

Young people say it is no longer worthwhile going through sleepless nights serving customers halfway around the world. They have better job opportunities in other fields. Kiran Karnik, president of NASSCOM attributes it to opportunities in other service fields like retail and airlines and hospitality and also more sophisticated outsources jobs in areas like financial analysis.

So is it that young people are rejecting call center jobs are are they merely seeking a better profile of call center jobs? Either ways, Bangalored could easily be New-Yorked and Londoned soon.

• Indiawatch , Children and youth
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charukesi September 21st, 2007

This happens everyday on the train between Vashi and VT - school kids, none of them over 12 get on to the ladies first class compartment somewhere near Kurla (or Wadala on the way back) - and one or more of the woman start shouting at them to get off - hey, don’t you know this is ladies? first class? (yeah, right - what are boys of 8 and 10 doing with ladies anyway? and what are they doing traveling in first class? gasp!). I watched for a couple of days (very new to the train business having been out of touch for some years, not wanting to get pushed off or something) and then started protesting. What do you lose if they travel for few stations in this coach? Let them stay.

But they don’t have first class passes, pat comes the answer.

So what? Let them travel. What do you lose? (aapka kya jaata hai).

Then this gem - par aap jaante nahi hain - yeh loge chori karte hain (oh you don’ know - these kids steal) - heard more commonly than I would have believed. School kids in uniform, who can hardly stand straight up, their backs bent under the weight of their bags and books and lunch boxes.

Why? Why are people so petty? I know just how much my pass is subsidized by the poor government - why should school kids be made to pay anything at all to travel to school by the local train? And why is it that anyone who cannot actually afford the pass suspect?

• Indiawatch , Children and youth
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charukesi August 17th, 2007

Patriotism takes on a different dimension in small town India - while we jaded urbanites sigh in delight over a midweek holiday (or if lucky, the prospect of a long weekend), real India brings out the tricolor and all the colors of patriotism. My fondest memory is of an Independence day procession on the road, early morning, in a village en route Mangalore from Bangalore, a hundred tiny tots moving their hands up and down, fists closed, in rehearsed frenzy, shouting Van-de Mata-lam,. And a tiny tot Bharat Mata in the middle of the group, trying to wave with one hand and trying to hold the escaping white-with-orange-border sari with the other. Loved it.

This is from Hampi, where I saw young India celebrate Independence day this year in many many ways :

Independence day at the local school

The colors of freedom

Patriotism written all over the face

Flag-waving future generations

Keeping the tricolor flying

• Indiawatch , Children and youth , My Roadblog
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charukesi August 1st, 2007

I am feeling very happy today. I finally started music lessons - after years of learning Carnatic music as a kid (as any good Tambram girl of my generation) and then years of never ever singing, followed by years (yeah, I know, that makes me sound so old) of agonizing over resuming music lessons, I finally went ahead and did it today. Sure, I started with Sa Re Ga Ma Pa and will have to keep at it for a few months but it just gives me a happy feeling all over to sing.

When I was in class, little Aditya walked in, all of seven years, hiding behind mother’s pallu. No, he has not learnt music but he sings very well, proud mother said to teacher. Uh, oh! I knew what was coming. Teacher did not.

Oh really? Can you sing Sa Re Ga Ma for me?

No, no, he can sings songs, not Sa Re Ga Ma.

Teacher does a double take and says, ok? what song do you want to sing?

Aditya twists and turns and hides even deeper into mom’s pallu. Go on, beta, sing your favorite song…

Humko maloom hai, ishq masoom hai, dil seeeeee… the tune runs away, boys makes no attempt to catch it and taal, what be it please? but what the heck, he is only seven - but the mom is not - I look at teacher’s face - you just have to imagine this now - there is no way I can describe the look on her face. And the mom says, he sings so well, no? I have not taught him anything - he has learnt everything on his own, only from TV. Good for him.

***
I know kids will be kids and all that but do parents need to be pushy parents? here is Dance baby, dance from long ago… a similar story.

• Pot-pourri , Children and youth
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charukesi July 8th, 2007

Mumbai Mirror carried this brief piece yesterday under ‘Fashion’ - South Mumbai salon opens exclusively for kids (will post link when I find it). Starting with - kids really have it good these days, the article goes on to describe Tears to Cheers, a salon launched in Mumbai to cater to the beauty and grooming needs of children from age 1 to 16. It is never too early to begin the grooming process, I understand. But a one year old in a beauty salon? Can you imagine a one year old going in bawling and walking out all smiles, utterly satisfied with the shape of her eyebrows?

Among the services offered, besides hair-cuts, are manicures, pedicures, shampoo, blow dry, oil massage and basic hair-setting. it’s good to be little right now. This sounds to me the 2.0 version of ‘go out and play dear (and let me take a break while you are at it)’

Does anyone else immediately remember the Friends episode in which Rachel’s sister baby-sits? And her chosen career path - being a baby-stylist… And while on this, does anyone else know that wikipedia has a page devoted to every single episode of Friends with detailed plot description and comments? Wikipedia never ceases to surprise - man, this is going to be one long day.

• Indiawatch , Children and youth
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