by Anuradha Bakshi | Jul 4, 2009 | women centre
R came to the women centre two months ago. His parents wanted him to spend the summer holidays with us. He was in class IV in a government school. According to his parents he was not doing very well. We all know that there is scant teaching in government schools, particularly those around the Khader area. R seemed an intelligent child and was quick to learn. In two months he had almost come to level with the curriculum of class IV.
A few days back R stopped coming to the centre. We wondered why and set out to find out what had happened. A teacher was sent to his home and sheepishly the mother told us that R would not be coming to the centre anymore as he was now going to a private school. His father, a factory worker, had decided to give a better education to his child. We asked what class young R was in and were horrified when we were told that he was in UKG. R had been in class IV in the government school and was 11 years old. Now he had been demoted to UKG.
Our mind went back to early times at Khader where we had found many kids in UKG matters to the notwithstanding their age or knowledge. The story was repeating itself. We tried and explained to the mother but she asked us to talk to the father. We hope to be able to convince him to put back his son in the government school in class IV.
This is the dawning of a new age in education as we seem to have a Minister willing to make sweeping changes. We only hope that he also keeps in mind the plight of the children of a Lesser God and puts an end to the multitude of teaching shops that proliferate in the city and are simply money making enterprises. What is needed is sound government schools where all children can be given quality education.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Jul 3, 2009 | Uncategorized
After many twists and turns, many false starts and many terrible moments, Radha’s mom has finally accepted to come and work at the women centre. We had tried everything to help this little family in every which way possible, even if at moments we were close to giving up. We wanted to find a solution because little Radha is one of a kind. We even got a national TV channel to cover her story but forgot that in our land there is no compassion towards a disabled little girl. Hardly anyone came forward to help this little family in distress.
And yet to me it had sounded so simple: Radha and her mom and three siblings could have easily moved to our women centre and lived a safe and protected life. But once again I was rapped on the knuckles: we had forgotten about the extended family, the one that thought they could use Radha’s terrible condition and extract whatever they could, the typical case of the hen that laid golden eggs and was killed out of greed. And Radha’s mom herself seemed reluctant to come and live in a place that had rules and regulations. The young widow was also a free spirit.
A few days back they lost their sole means of livelihood – a food cart – and even if they retrieved it from the clutches of the police, they would never be able to set it up again: new rules were now in place and food carts were a big no no! Radha’s mom came to us seeking help again. We knew that she would not give up her extended family. She wanted to work but who would give her a job as she had a one year old she could not leave anywhere.
We offered her a job at the women centre. She could bring her baby and leave him at the creche. But there was a rider and that was that she also attend sewing classes. She accepted. Radha’s mom began her job yesterday and even attended her first sewing class. The baby played happily in the creche. I hope she settles down and continues to work with us. Once she has completed her sewing course we will buy her a sewing machine which will enable her to earn some extra money from home.
Radha’s mom will rebuild her life, one day at at time and we hope that she realises where her future truly lies.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Jul 1, 2009 | God of lesser beings
Allow children to be happy in their own way, for what better way will they find wrote Samuel Johnson. All gloomy thoughts and worries that had been plaguing me for quite some time lifted in an instant when I saw this picture. I had to stop, get off my dark clouds and celebrate life, at least for the time it took to write this blog.
The picture shows Utpal and Mehar spending some wet moments at an amusement park where they had been taken last week. For a big chunk of the day they decided to call the shots and find their own way of being happy. For a big chunk of the day ugly scars on the body and the soul were cast aside and they were just children having a ball.
For the past six weeks Utpal and Mehar have been housemates at the women centre. Utpal because it was his summer holidays and his mom is again in rehab, and Meher because she is in the midst of complex reconstructive plastic surgery and needed to be kept in a clean environment. And moreover her mum is in the village having another baby. For the past six weeks they have shared every single moment and comforted and cared for each other. Like all children they have also fought and sulked.
Utpal and Meher are soul mates. They are bonded by a similar ordeal they both suffered at a very tender age. They are both third degree burns survivors. Today they carry their scars with courage and grit but have to sometimes bear the hurt of being ogled and laughed at. Utpal more than Meher as boarding schools can sometimes be ruthless. Little Meher wears her new look with her three huge expanders with great aplomb. To us she looks like an adorable real life ET! Utpal the big brother is always at her side to defend her if needed. But at the water park, for a few blissful moments, all was forgotten: the scars, the blemishes and the balloon like expanders. They were just two children having the time of their lives. And boy they did!
The picture made me smile for a long time. Even after I had seen it and shut the computer, I carried it in my heart the whole day and every time I thought of it I could not repress the smile on my face. It also set me thinking at the God of lesser beings and his strange and mysterious ways. Here were two kids who should have never met. They belonged to different faiths, different regions, different roots. What brought them together was a terrible ordeal one would not wish to its worst enemy and yet that is exactly what would change their morrows for the better. Is this God’s way of creating miracles or transforming lives? I do not know. But one has to admit that it is nothing short of extraordinary. Chapeau bas!
by Anuradha Bakshi | Jun 26, 2009 | Uncategorized
Listening to our new HRD Minister outlining his proposed educational reforms was music to the ears and balm to the heart. He said his mantra was “expansion, inclusion and excellence” and this was not possible “if you deny access to education to every single child in the country”echoing in his own way what I have been harping about for almost a decade now.
A grading formula instead of the inane mark systems, a common Board for all the children of India, making the Xth Boards optional it all sounds too good to be true. For once the right R word is being used Reforms and not Reservations. Unifying and not dividing.
The new Minister seems to have his heart in the right place when he proposes: for instance, a municipal school building has two floors vacant. A private player can set up his classes and charge fees, while he imparts the same quality of education free to those studying in the municipal school. Personally I would have liked to hear the word common school but perhaps that is still a long way coming. I still hope it will happen one day.
This is the first time one is hearing a Minister talk for the children and not trying to fulfill and pursue some hidden political agenda. This is the first time one feels that education is in safe hands. Emboldened by what I read and hear I would like to suggest going one step further and institution an Indian Education Service on the lines of the IAS. This would bring about quality and unity in the teachers and give primary and school education the much needed acceptance.
Education is the corner stone of our society and it is time that we have it the place it deserves. I just hope that our new Minister will continue to address the situation the way he has begun. It is high time someone thought of India’s children.
by Anuradha Bakshi | Jun 25, 2009 | Uncategorized
It is the end of an era. Kodak is taking Kodachrome away. For those of us that belong to the Paul Simon generation we cannot but remember the words immortalised by him: They give us those nice bright colors. They give us the greens of summers. Makes you think all the worlds a sunny day, I got a Nikon camera I love to take a photograph So mama don’t take my Kodachrome away!
At times like these which are almost like rites of passage one is tempted to take a walk down memory lane and reminisce about times gone by. Those of my generation will remember the camera as a prize possession. It required some handling and one of them was the art of placing the film roll correctly. I was never good at that and often had to seek help. Taking a snapshot in those days was no instant gratification. There was a fixed number of shots in each roll you bought and once you had clicked those you had to fulfill one more task: that of rewinding the film and getting it out of the camera, and then place it in the box you purchased it in and then take it to a photographer’s shop to get it developed, hoping against hope that your shots were in focus, and not overexposed. Then you had to wait for a day or more before you collected your pictures. These we given to you in a folder along with your negatives. Only then did you know whether you had your Kodak moments or not.
Today with digital cameras all this is long past. You click your image and can see it on the screen of your camera moments after you have shot it. If it is not to your liking you delete it and shoot another. The digital era has dawned and taken away the film reel. Many may not know it, but Kodachrome was a process invented by two musicians a violinist and a pianist know as God and Man (Leopold Godowsky Jr and Leopold Mannes) way back in 1935.
But what were the Kodak moments we so loved to capture. My mind travels back to the late sixties and early seventies: my college years. What did we do with our free time? Where did we go? What did we enjoy doing? Slowly images trickle from the recesses of my memory, images of parks and open spaces, of poetry books and strummed guitars, of syrupy cups of tea and oily omelets in between slices of white bread, of overstuffed jholas (cloth bags) and worn out chappals (sandals). Those seemed to be our Kodak moments, the ones we wanted to immortalise on paper as this is what we did in our free time. A free afternoon with friends was often translated into a walk in a park or in the zoo, a poetry reading session or a heated debate on some philosophical subject or the other. We made and remade the world and felt on top of it. You were appreciated and liked not by what you wore or possessed, but by your ability to share your knowledge and talent.
And if you wanted a lasting memory you had to select what you wished to consign on paper. Even today, after many decades I find myself looking at the innumerable yellowed photographs that tell the story of my life and lie not in a computer hard disk but in some old drawer, or stuck in the pages of well worn albums.
Today everyone wants instant gratification and all good moments are measured in the amount of money spent. I recall a newspaper article where a journalist decided to spend an evening with a bunch of high school kids. The night was spent zipping from one five star hotel to another and buying an expensive drink that was left untouched as the gang felt bored and needed to move. The evening cost over 10K a head and resulted in not a single Kodak moment.
It is with a sense of nostalgia that I read the about the demise of the good old photo reel, the one that had given people like me hordes of wonderful moments that now lie yellowed in some corner of my home.
