by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
Recently a friend wrote a short note in the memory of the loss of two of her dear friends. It was a touching note reminiscing about rites de passage that had always been shared and she reminded us that this one too awaited us all. The wisdom was in accepting it and preparing for it in the best manner possible.
I must admit that of late I have often found myself thinking of my final curtain call. Life is made of a plethora of rites de passage, and each bring a new awakening and take us one step further on the road of life. But the last one is different. It is the final high note of the symphony of your life, the one followed by eternal silence. And yes the wisdom is to accept that it is inevitable and that to prepare for it is the best we can do.
It is true that this realisation comes in our twilight years and is often heralded by some event or the other. It can be the sudden and unexpected loss of a dear one or it can be much gentler, like the slow realisation that time that was once your friend and moved slowly, suddenly becomes frenzied as days seem to pass at lightning speed, barely allowing you to catch your breath. This takes me back to my university days when one tried to comprehend the theories of Bergson on time and its duration. We all remember how time sometimes hangs and sometimes simply flies. When we were young this duality of time was associated to pleasant and unpleasant experiences, today it seems otherwise. As age advances time seems to take wings.
This is perhaps a gentle reminder from the Gods that one must put one’s house in order and do it pronto! I just realised mine is a little larger than the conventional ones. So it is time I pulled up my boots and got to work. There is no time left to think, ponder, deliberate or reflect. These are luxuries that are no longer my due. It is time to act and act fast even if it means making some mistakes or slipping a few times. One can always retrace steps or apply some soothing salve. The house has to be set in order. And that above all means that pwhy has to be protected and given a life long lease. The wisdom lies in making the right choices even if they are not the ideal ones. Let us not forget I am now in the queue!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Apr 1, 2010 | Uncategorized
This our class of 2010! It is a matter of pride for me to write about them on the very day the children of India have finally got the right to education after waiting for sixty three long years. This class beat all odds and made it in spite of all those who took almost four generations to get their act together.
Today everyone is taking the kudos for this land mark legislation or as our Minister calls it “tryst with destiny”. The Government in power, the politicians, the educationists et al. I feel a little uncomfortable at all this as I wonder why it took 22630 days for the powers that be to realise that the future of any country lay in the tiny hands of its children. I also feel uneasy at the tortuous route that we as a nation chose to take to get to this day. Why did we allow our state run schools to run into a state of such despair that even the not so privileged had to go for the private option thus opening the gates for a new and very lucrative business: education! Were not our erstwhile leaders in various fields proud products of the government school system? That we allowed schools to become a lucrative option somewhere spelt the doom of the very free and equitable education for all we have so painstakingly brought about. Wonder why we chose this road and allowed this to happen?
We can celebrate to day, and have cause to but the battle is far from won. There are huge hurdles and they will soon appear. Let me share some. The new law states that no child can be failed till class VIII. How will be ensure that children get from class to class with the right knowledge. This needs sound systems and committed teachers. We all know the real situation! The Act is supposed to ensure education to 22 crore children (6 to 14). Out of these 1.1 crore are not in school. And the moot question remains: who pays the bills? Let us not fool ourselves, nothing will change overnight.. let us hope it does not take another 20 000 days to get where we want. And I am not even venturing into questions like what about those under 6 and above 14.
As I said, we chose a convoluted road to get to this day. Had we walked another path, the one that seemed to have been chalked out by our past leaders, we may have been able to realise the dream of a level playing field kind of education. A quick perusal of the city shows that there are state run schools in every nook and corner, with prime land. It is another matter that the buildings are often dilapidated. Had these schools been made into centres of excellence, the journey would have been easier. Today the road chosen to provide supposedly inclusive education for all is to force private schools to reserve 25 5 of seats for the poorer children. Reservation again, it seems that we as a nation can never get over this word. Now the private schools are up in arms and in court. We are talking business here and not education ideals, who will pay for these 25%. Then if the system mooted is followed it will take 12 years for a school to have 25 of poor kids as we start in 2011 with class 1. That is another 7665 days.
I read an interview with the Minister of Education and my heart skipped a beat when he said in answer to a question on the common school, something many of us think is the answer to education for all: Obviously we can’t nationalise education. As you know that we have neither the will nor the funding. The will Mr Minister, not the funding. One always finds funding if there is a will. Rad the interview and you will agree that the day when all children of India get their constitutional right to Education is still very far away.
And yet it does not take much to change things on the ground. Our valiant class of 2010 and their committed and passionate teacher is proof of the fact that if there is a will there is alwya a way!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 28, 2010 | manu
For the past few months many annoying things have occurred. First after years of placid relationship our bankers have suddenly jumped into mistrust mode. I now regularly get calls or mails asking inane questions, this in spite of due diligence having been undertaken more than once: do you have affiliations with any political parties, are any of your trustees politicians, are you purely a social service organisation etc. Come on, we have been in the business for a decade, have been vetted by the Home Ministry, the Police department, the Income Tax authorities and have all required certifications. So are we not legit! It does not end there. For the past months many donations from long term donors have been sent back as the word DONATION was not mentioned in the transfer document. Our word was of course not good enough. Explaining this to our donors is not always easy. In one case one poor donor from Italy had written DONAZIONE but even that was not accepted! The word is DONATION screamed the banker!
But that is not all, last week our on line payment facility was also stopped. This is indeed a killer as this facility enabled us to receive the small donations that form the backbone of project why. I wonder how we will overcome this one. I shudder at the paper work that will be asked for. Our volunteers too have also born the brunt of this new age order. Poor souls cannot access their on line banking facility from India, as it is considered a high risk country an are left high and dry.
Yes there is an insidious new world over that was surreptitiously hijacked the world and entered every nook and corner of our daily existence. Police checks at every corner, always at peak traffic time creating terrible snarls, need of ID proofs to purchase a SIM card or much else, security checks that will soon get very invasive once electronic body scans replace the already humiliating manual one, need to carry your personal belongings in a clear plastic bag for all to see etc. Last month a friend was refused a drink in a pub in London. The reason was that he had grown a beard and ‘looked’ like a terrorist though he is of sound European lineage.
The whole world is at war against ‘terrorism’ and yet the end is nowhere in sight. This leads us to try and define what is ‘terrorism’ or who is the ‘terrorist’ we need to watch for. And the answer is very nebulous. If you have time read this essay. I am not one to favour or support any form of terrorism, whatever the hue, but when you read the essay you wonder what makes young children, barely grown girls and boys, women, simple souls take up guns and follow a destructive path with utmost belief and faith. What dreams of theirs have we as society crushed, what invisible hurt have we inflicted upon them, how have they become prey to hidden and often incomprehensible agendas? I know these are uncomfortable questions that we would like to avoid but that need to be answered if we want a semblance of order to be restored in this world.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 27, 2010 | Uncategorized
An invitation card for a upmarket promotional do, landed on my desk yesterday. I do not know why such cards come my way! And as always it made me wince. The card looked like a cigar box and was made of outrageously expensive paper. Open the box and in lieu of cigars, you find a card nestled at the bottom soliciting your presence to yet another extravaganza with not only imported food and wine, but imported entertainment.
L, a volunteer, was sitting there and after looking at the card simply said: wonder how many children could be fed with the price of this one card. Strange that she should have mentioned this, as the previous day a TV channel had aired a report about malnutrition in India. The figures was startling, shocking and made one hand one’s head hang in shame: in Madhya Pradesh alone 83 children die of malnutrition every day, and that is just one state of India. And this while surplus grain worth millions rots in what is known as the granary of India.
The amount of extravagantly priced cards that come my way is staggering. I have figured out why I, the proverbial recluse, am on their mailing lists: courtesy the husband’s upmarket club affiliations! PR agencies get hold of club directories and voila! Cards are printed by the zillions and couriered (no post please) and you find yourself invited to dos galore, opening of bedroom and bathroom furniture showrooms, jewellery exhibitions and more of the same. The cards often land unopened in the trashcan! I was tickled pink by a recent ad of a mobile phone company that urged everyone to save trees and use SMSses to communicate everything! Come to think of it it could be cheaper and one had the luxury of the DND (do not disturb) option. With the courier man you are subjected to the door bell ring at all hours of the day, and they have an uncanny habit of coming when you are taking forty winks or have just stepped into your bath. Blessed were the days of the postman: he only rang the bell twice a day!
But bantering apart, time has come for all of us to stop wearing blinkers and start looking at the harsh reality that surrounds us, and not just look but ask ourselves some disturbing questions. The first one is whether we can carry on the way we do without batting an eyelid as if all was well? If the answer is yes then sorry I disturbed you; if the answer is a no even a hesitant one, then comes the next question: how responsible we are and what can we do? My answer was pwhy. A tiny drop in the ocean but nevertheless a beginning.
There are many things around us that should upset if not abhor us. The little child who knocks at your car window every day without fail and who should actually be in school as says the Constitution. The obscene amount of food thrown on the street after religious feeding sprees or outrageous marriages, the mounds of plastic choking every part of the city, the unnecessary breaking and remaking of perfectly sound pavement and roads that remind us of children playing construction games but they do not waste tax payer’s money. And this is just what we see. Open the newspaper or turn on the box and the nightmare continues. Kangaroo courts that decide whether you should live or die, children sold and abused. Many of us express our shock or concern from the comfort of an armchair and then simply procrastinate. Many of us rant and rave a bit while getting ready for the next do one is invited to and then simply forget till the next aberration. Some simply feel it is not our problem as there if a government that is meant to solve all that is not right smug in the comfort that we did our civic duty by casting our vote.
It is time we took a step further and made our voices heard, not just for the page 3 cases needing justice, when we are quick to light candles and stand vigil, but for every single child dying of hunger every 8.7804 minute, one who has no voice and above all no vote.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Mar 26, 2010 | okhla
Prince will never study at Princeton – excuse the pun! But Prince is actually a very real human being and one that does us proud. He came to us many years ago as a primary student. A seemingly shy and withdrawn boy, Prince was nevertheless always first in class and a very serious student. He passed all his Board exams and recently joined a B Com course. His dream: to be a teacher and that is why he came hesitantly last week asking us whether he could join pwhy! Undoubtedly we said! And today he is one of the team: a secondary teacher at the Okhla centre. Another dream come true.
You must be wondering why I mentioned Princeton at all. A new venture or should I say adventure is being crafted by our new Minister of Education. If all goes is way, then very soon foreign universities will soon set shop in India and the moot question is whether their will be a quota for economically and socially backward classes. According to our flamboyant Minister foreign universities are private and therefore free from any commitment to social inclusiveness when operating in India! All this spells danger and a further division of education. One had hoped that the new Minister would have walked the path leading to leveling education rather than creating more layers. Now you will have the super rich who can go to Princeton and the not so super rich who will enter the portals of Princeton India if that university decides that India is a lucrative business. A repeat performance of what happened with school education when the middle class opted for private schools leading to government schools becoming schools for only the poor.
The article presents a probable scenario which I cannot but agree to: the creamiest layer – using at word now politically correct I presume – will continue to go to the real thing for the ambiance, the ersatz will be for those just below them. And for all others it will be the local colleges reputed or not quite so. And then there is one more question lurking: if branded universities do land on our shores, will our best teachers leave their present jobs and join the more lucrative options? And thus quality higher education, just like quality primary education will only be for the privileged.
Where are we going Mr Minister! Education was the only hope for the teeming millions of Indian children to whom our Constitution has finally granted the right to free and equitable education, to break the cycle of poverty they are enslaved in. From 1983 to 1999 overall education expenditure has declined from 80 to 67 %. Is education for all a farce or a sad joke played on poor unsuspecting and voiceless children. And yet the children of India beat all odds. Prince always stood first even though he lives in a squalid hole. His father is illiterate and drives an auto rickshaw he does not even own. Things would be right if Prince one day could join Princeton, where this temple of knowledge even open its doors in India.
