Teah For India

Finally,
After so much of thinking and consideration I landed up in Pune to join the Movement that works to end education inequality in India. Lot of concerns raised by the friends, family regarding the career, money etc etc. But as I am, I decided to join so I had my justification or logic ready to convince them. So I came to Pune to be a part of the initial training that prepares us for the coming two years of intensive teaching in low income schools. The training started with comparatively lighter but thoughtful sessions like visiting a community and connecting with a child, then yellow hat was about exploring the opportunities and hidden potential in ourselves. The best thing about the TFI is reflection. There is a learning in everything you do and you should reflect and share your learning with others and you are really amazed sometimes about how many perspectives are there for a so so called simple activity. On the lighter side I sometimes feel that TFI makes you reflect so much that you start feeling like a mirror. Then there are sessions like life map which gives you the courage to share your deepest secrets with complete strangers and give you the courage to own your mistakes and correct them. After 2-3 days of somewhat fun and gelling up activities there came the hardest part, the CS sessions that talks about management of the classroom and then a much more tougher part that is 'Lesson Plans' and trust me making a presentation in a B school is quite easier than preparing a lesson plan. From the second week, we started going to the school to use the learning of Cs sessions in practical classroom. A lot of anxiety and nervousness was there but once I entered the class I gained a lot of confidence that yes I can teach. The worst part is to wake up at 5 in the morning to get ready for the school. Honestly speaking, there are times when I feel that whether I was right about joining TFI or not but then I find much more reasons and activities that makes me feel proud about my decision. Seriously, I never reflected so much in my life but I seriously feel that this exercise brings you much more closer to your real self and helps you in believing yourself. I am yet to find a place with such an enormous energy level where irrespective of the hierarchies everybody enjoys together and share their happiness and achievements in the best possible manners. I am really mesmerized by the liveliness of this place. Yes, there are challenges to encounter but then there is trust that yes we can. People are here that makes you feel special and making you confident that you are here because you have what it takes to face the challenge and you can create a change. This is just a beginning, a lot more is yet to come. Hope to stand tall amidst all the challenges. In the end:

Woods are lovely dark and deep
and I have promises to keep
and miles to go before I sleep
and miles to before I sleep

Freedom & its significance (All is not well)

August is a very important month from every Indian's perspective. It reminds every Indian of
one of the most beautiful day in Indian history & the biggest tragedy as well, the partition of
India. A question is very often asked in this month that what is freedom for you??, What is the
significance of freedom in your life? etc. My take on this is quite different. My question to you is that are we really independent ?? From political perspective, yes we are independent. We are the biggest democracy in the world. We choose people ourselves to run the country & feel betrayed after some time. Actually we live in an illusionist world, an illusion created by the market. We are still slaves, slaves of the market driven powers. The market has become the basis of our lives while it should be the medium not the target. Human values are lost somewhere in the storm created by market powers. Bhagat Singh once said a very important thing about freedom- "Freedom in its true sense will be achieved only when there is an equality of opportunity- of opportunity in social, political & individual life otherwise what we will achieve is the transfer of power not the absolute freedom."
This is exactly what we are witnessing today. It is true that power has been taken politically from the British but it has come in the hands of ruthless market, a market that is exploiting in nature.

Though everything seems alright but the direction in which we are moving has serious negative consequences & a horrible example of that we have witnessed last year in the form of recession. We claim to recover from the downturn but are you sure that this recovery will be stable or sustainable?? I don't think so, because the progress on the basis of which we are sure that we will come out of this terrifying situation is limited to a very small section of the society. This is a harsh truth that more than 50% of the people in this country are still struggling for their basics, more than 60% of our population earns its living from agriculture but its contribution to the GDP is mere 18-20%. As long as these divisions are there sustainability & stability would be a distant dream. The vulnerability of the system can be understood from the fact that a bank goes bankrupt in USA & the vibrations are horribly felt here in India. Things changed drastically. Glittery & lucrative world started looking so vulnerable & volatile. Don't you think this good looking & illusionist system is shallow from inside which seriously lacks substance. Yes we are theoretically free but honestly speaking we don't have the right to even think freely. The best way to survive in this world is to just stop thinking. We are so busy & limited to our comfort zone that we don't want to think outside it. Until & unless we start thinking on these lines & seriously do something about this we can't even imagine about a stable & prosperous world. I mean the market should not be the master, the main priority of any system should be the upliftment of its people especially the people from the bottom of the pyramid. The present system makes changes in hardly upper 2 0r 3 layers. If we want to achieve freedom & sustainability in its true sense we will have to involve our people in the development. Only by developing them we can lead to a happy & prosperous country or world at large.

Food for thought

Hi Friends

I have been following a news related to the controversy that is created by the statement of great Mr. Khan regarding the participation of Pakistani players in IPL. Mr. Baal Thakrey immediately started criticizing him & threaten him that he will not let his awaited movie ' My Name is Khan' to be released. Our great Maharashtra government came in action & provided him with the police protection. Finally My Name is Khan was released peacefully and as expected the shows were houseful. A lot of discussions were held over the issue & the whole issue became the most popular daily soap for our news channels. A lot of intellectuals came forward to oppose Mr. Thakrey. I recently heard an actress saying that this is a threat to democracy. I completely agree with her but at the same time I also want to ask a question that
why democracy is limited to a certain section of the society?
Few Days back a statement came in news that all the taxi drivers in Mumbai must learn marathi to continue driving taxis in Mumbai. Further to their pain there came a news that showed a statement that if you are not a marathi, you have no right to be a taxi driver.
You all must be knowing what I have written but the reason behind writing this is not to just let you know about the latest happenings. The reason why I have written this is that I want to ask some questions from you, from myself and all the responsible citizens of this great country that why eyebrows are not raised? Why questions are not asked? Why all those intellectuals and celebrities who came forward to support Mr. Khan don't come forward to support hundreds of taxi drivers who earn their living in Mumbai by driving taxi?
Why do we give utmost importance to the nonsense statements passed by so called celebrities and melodrama created by that?
Why do we always need an iconic figure to make us realize that democracy is being threatened?

And if this wasn't enough we try to show our power by going around Mumbai In local trains with a lot of security guards around and think that we have saved democracy.

Please guys think and try to answer my innocent queries:
You might think that I have a weakness of thinking a lot but isn't it the only thing that differentiates human beings from animals?