Education in India : a test of memory or knowledge?

It’s that time of the year when many parents complain either of high BP or the healthier ones dash to the bathroom at an alarming frequency. It’s results time folks! More than the students, results are stressful on the parents with a whole bunch of them declared in quick succession starting early May well through July. IIT-JEE results followed by HSC, CET (for the academically challenged as IITians would call, not me) , SSC, University cut-off lists and ohh let’s not forget the most important of all - kindergarten admissions!Throw in the combination of numerous boards - CBSE, ICSE, State and you have a packed summer calendar.

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MRR : Media’s winning formula

Reading the daily newspaper first thing in the morning over a cup of chai is no longer a pleasure.  The experience is depressing to begin the day on a dark note. Media, Rape, Robbery (MRR) appears to be the mainstream media’s winning formula to garner more readers and viewers. If the headlines of a national newspaper announces the murder of a reputed physician in the city, then the pages inside are filled with more stories of double murders, homicide of an aspiring air-hostess or the latest gory details on the trial of Aarushi Talwar’s murder. As if this wasn’t enough, the twists and turns in the Neeraj Grover murder case takes up more space. Honestly, I don’t know if the ratings of the news channels increase because of sensationalizing such news. It is such a pity to give so much media attention to some families when they are grieving (not in these two where the families maybe involved but in other cases) and not treat the deceased with the respect and dignity they deserve. I can’t quite recollect when I last browsed through a news channel for more than 5 minutes. Before these murders took up prime time, it was the case of Scarlett. There’s always either some murder or rape that gets more coverage over real news. Is it really required to go into the weapon used, recreate the scene and such? Reporting on the news is not the end of story. A whole series of programs are aired ranging from talk shows discussing on the values of today’s children to the lack of involvement of working parents on their children’s education and general knowledge about their mobile/Internet usage and whereabouts on weekends. A set of specialists from child psychology to marriage counsellors is always readily available who lose no opportunity in preaching on parenting and ranting on Indian values. Oh..let’s not forget the saas-bahu serials who are quick to edit the plot to give a new twist based on the latest real life thrillers.

The print media is not far behind. In addition to such news of national significance (not the right word perhaps), there is the daily dosage of local robberies and other anti-social activities.  Can we please stop focusing so much on such news in mainstream media? Are you creating awareness amongst the public in the process or corrupting more minds in the process actually hinting that there are other brilliant ways to do it?

Here are a few clips of the news items that appeared one day last week in consecutive pages of a local tabloid. Now tell me if it makes for a pleasant reading. People who are interested in reading thrillers every morning, please get yourself the Sherlock Holmes series and spare the rest of us.

On a closing note, the editor-in-chief David Schlesinger of Reuters writes in his blog about news beautifully:

There is no question that news is emotional.

News is about real people, real issues, real money and real lives.

News is about history, and about how history - and different views of history - impact the present.

Readers of news services, including those of Reuters News, have strong views and often emotional views about how we cover stories that either directly affect their lives or their emotions.Every year brings to the headlines stories that have the power to stir bitter feelings.

Our job as journalists is to keep the emotion out of it, to strive for objectivity, to strive to be free from bias, to strive to tell the story as it is.

Couldn’t have been better said. If only our journalists learn a thing or two to strive for objectivity in reporting - all in the true spirit of journalism.

Related Reading : Dial M for Murder

Are urban Indians immune to inflation?

The scene at the local malls last Sunday was a bit overwhelming, if not surprising! This is neither a sale season (one of those dozen ones they have round the year like dad’s birthday sale to clean-the-stale-products-off-our-shelves sale) nor is it any festival time to attract such large numbers at every mall in the city.  Long queues at the checkout counters that I’ve rarely witnessed before and we were indeed lucky to get parking space, I failed to understand what the excitement was about. With the summer vacations over and the school sessions on, only two possible explanations for this sudden splurge occurred at me - either everyone found a treasure / big fat paycheck or there was some hidden clue to shop more/pay less that I failed to discover. The streets which otherwise wear a deserted look on Sunday evenings was exceptionally busy with every restaurant in the area doing great business. I once read somewhere you can judge how a economy is doing by the number of restaurants that open in your neighborhood.  The economist who said this might be in for a disappointment.

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LG turns eighteen months today

“Your child is coming of age”, read the opening line of Baby Center’s monthly newsletter. Can’t be more true. As Lil’ General turns eighteen months today, he doesn’t lose a moment or an opportunity to assert his independence and behave like a grown up who can very well take care of himself. To begin with, he hates holding my fingers while walking on the road even if it means tripping over a stone - will someone teach him to see what lies beneath before taking the next foot forward? He is fine being fed because that’s convenient while his fingers work on something destructive like breaking the coaster box or ripping apart the TV remote.All energy is channeled towards throwing objects, deconstructing toys, stacking food containers and unplugging telephone.

There has been very little improvement in his vocabulary. From from talking coherently or even saying sensible words, it is limited just to a handful.  “Hello” is “ow..ow”. “Doggy” is “bow bow”. “Ball” is “baw..baw”. “Candle” is “ca..”. Words he pronounces legibly are “bhabhi”, “baby”, “papa”, “akka” and “amma”.

His working knowledge of appliances impresses me at times. Aqua Guard is turned on and off with precision once the bottle fills. The timer is first set in the microwave and then goes the start button. If it’s on for too long and it gets boring, there’s always the start button that leaves mama wondering what the heck happened - if the power went off only to realise someone was upto his mischief.

I spend a good deal of time everyday searching for things like gas lighter or V’s lunch box’s cover that are strategically hidden under the sofa or on the parapet wall or in some corner of the lawn downstairs.

Playtime in the park is what the family is highly fond of and look forward to every evening.

Tantrums are rising by the day. What he eats and when he eats is dictated. The shrill shrieks of his sends my pulse racing at times.

Aversion to books continues. He has grown tired of the nursery rhymes ..I hate to admit this but he loves watching the song “mauja hi mauja” from Jab We Met and dances to it.

His achievement of the month was locking me out.

It’s been over three months since he started pointing to things in our neighborhood that were familiar to him - like waving at the laundry uncle or pointing to the house of his favorite doggy Caesar’s house with a bow bow or jumping form his pram as we reach the park or bringing his hands together to pray as we cross the temple.

There’s  certain predictability about his daily activities too - like he has to ring the bell as he enters the home from a walk, climbs the stairs and hits the pot midway before proceeding further, water the plants every morning before going for walk or opening the flush tap while seated on his potty seat.

After months of resisting mango, he finally took a liking as the season draws to an end.

He loves going on a  ride in  the scoot not worried about hanging onto dear life. It’s not funny when he turns off the key in the middle of the road. When he does this two times, he loses his chance of standing in the front and is duly transported back.We run small errands on the scooty as he loves the ride and hates going in the car - it’s the view folks!

Finally, I present you with his first art work.

The second child debate

I don’t know how to begin this one. It’s best to start with the obvious - before you run images in your head of a pregnant-again me or LG getting a sibling for company , let me put your doubts to rest. Not so soon, at least not yet.

A friend recently announced that a second baby is on its way later this year. As a first time parent, I can now appreciate what a second child means - to the first child, to the parents and in general to the family as a whole.  Before we became parents, I recall my reaction when my neighbor announced she was expecting a second one. My reaction was far from understanding of anyone who wanted a second child - more often the reasoning being why such educated people care so less about the society in general and are so selfish giving so little thought about contributing to the already billion+ population. I would reason in my head what if every one of us reproduced two which by the way comes easily to Indians - not that Indians have more sex than the rest of the world (statistics say).  The decision to have or not to have is something personal that requires no discussion from anyone not involved, much less an unwarranted opinion. This is India - a democracy for Pete’s sake not China where you will be put behind bars for not exercising control. People who thought like me were often congratulatory of desis reproducing more than one because those developed countries need a younger population decades later and don’t want the birth rate to come down any further - the desis are happy to do their bit even if the motive is personal. And the same very people would criticize and question when the folks went in for more in India.

This is a favorite topic in the mommy blogosphere where tons of posts are written citing their reasons for expanding the family that range anywhere from company for the older sibling after the parents pass away to we didn’t plan, so what - it’s our choice - you take a hike! Those who plan debate over the issue endlessly before taking the plunge. In many cases, those who choose not to go ahead are usually because the first pregnancy was a very difficult one right from conception tho delivery and the trauma so much so that they are not mentally prepared to go down the same path a second time. Sometimes career and financial reasons too come into consideration.  I doubt if there is any parent who doesn’t care for a second one because the first one was too naughty to handle.

We haven’t come to that phase of life to so much as discussing a second one. There are times when it seems like LG getting a sibling sounds like a cool idea. Not so cool when I think of the moments when a jug of water is poured down the floors of the just-mopped drawing room or a mouthful of wet sand from the pot in the balcony or my beautiful broken vase splattered all over the rug. It is draining physically and mentally. But they say it is easy the second time round. LG’s park friend’s mom once said, “your first child never grows up until the second one arrives. then both of them grow together and fast enough.” I doubt if my mother would agree to this one :)

I share a very healthy relationship with my brother. If there’s one thing that would ever make me consider second one, it has to be because of this relationship with my brother - which I hope LG will cherish as a lifelong gift to him.  The days I am down and out, all it takes is to pick up the phone and call him not worrying about what hour of the day it is considering he lives timezones away. Buried deep in household chores, I’ve lost count of the calls I miss from him but that doesn’t stop him from calling or taking offense. This is not calling “taking for granted” or taking liberties.  It is being yourself and not having to explain. Running out of topics to talk on is hard to come by - there’s always something even if it was those stupid ghar-ghar games we played on Sunday afternoons when we were kids or how many times we got spanked by dad for throwing balls in the toilet. They say true friends fit this description. True, but only to an extent.

V is a single child who has never played games like Chinese Checker or Chess that require more than one player. Most of the games he is fond of to this day are outdoorish like soccer that they played at school. A single child grows mature too soon for his age. Childhood leaves them soon enough. On the other end of spectrum is the case of my mother who was born with nine siblings. That must’ve been a riot at home every day. It was - I’ve seen it. They’ve grown too old now and too apart for whatever reasons. But it was fun when it lasted. Most importantly, they stood by each other when it mattered the most - through the ups and downs of each other.

I have all these examples laid out before me. It wouldn’t be tough to decide which way to take when the time arrives. Until, then it’s Lil’ General who rules our lives.

An evening in a media house

As a child I was nosy and would often fancy being a journalist once I grew up. The image I carried of myself was that of one dressed khadi kurta with a white salwar, big black-rimmed glasses with a chequered jhola hanging over the shoulder with a leaf of papers / pen in one hand. All my imaginary colleagues were dressed in a similar ruffled fashion. How ‘70s right?  Lot of day-dreams during those growing up days before I succumbed to the usual rut of studying engineering to code java in a software company culminating with an onsite assignment.  

Recently, something good came of this blog. Finally. An editor attached to a reputed publishing house discreetly contacted me; one thing led to another and before I knew I was summoned for a meeting in person one evening last week. The thought of lugging around Lil’ General for a discussion across the city was weird at first but there was no way out. It was kind of V to drive back from the city to accompany me and watch LG. It’s been a good year and half since I’ve met with someone in a professional setting; this was very different from my previous interview(s) in the IT industry. For one, I knew what I wanted in IT – role wise, compensation wise and what I could give back to the organization so that both of us benefited from the association. The publishing industry is new to me but I am very excited to learn. This is an opportunity in disguise.

Over the years, I’ve visualized a media house to be some sort of a crazy place - far from being organized. I carried images of people running around, scrambling to edit some piece at the last minute, exchanging stories, finding appropriate reruns when short of news items and always staying up late to meet deadlines and get the paper out the next morning just in time.  What I saw was so very different from this image. The people were real for one and ordinary ones – not the hippies I had imagined them to be.  The editor was cool – chilled out who didn’t speak some fancy language. That was a relief. And more importantly dressed casual. The workplace was similar to any other IT organization – divided into cubicles – only the barriers didn’t matter for there were islands of people chatting (umm, discussing) away in every corner.  And like many It offices, people in the same floor didn’t quite know what the guys in the extreme corner did – let alone their names. It was chaotic but in a nice way.

The editor had a corner office full of magazines and other national dailies. And I did get a glimpse of what was to appear in the next day’s paper. No sneaking – it was out there laid out in full on his desk. Cool, right? After a good wait of about 30 minutes, I got to meet him in person.  What came out of that meeting, only the coming weeks will tell. Nevertheless, it was a pleasant experience and I was impressed beyond words how creative juices flow – one idea after another.

As they say, ideas are capital; the rest is just money. It can’t get more real than this.

A grand party

Take two of living in the dark ages. Just when I thought the nightmare was over, another episode started which was worse than the previous one. The monsoon set in with a heavy downpour on June 3rd bringing the city to a near halt. After every monsoon, the civic bodies are quick to promise to be better prepared the next time around by unclogging drains, better laid roads and replacing decades old electric poles. They just remain a promise year after year - false ones!

With just one rain that lashed for a good 2 hours, we were reeled into darkness. Electric supply in most parts of Pune was restored after a good 27 hours. Ask any MSEB office guys, they would have another story to tell as how power was restored on Wednesday morning. The truth is it served no purpose because the voltage was so low.

It takes just a thunder and few strokes of lightning to cut off power. Sometimes when it rains in Mumbai, I guess they send Puneites into darkness. So, the saga continued and all the other associated problems soon followed - BSNL phone line service disruption, Tata Indicom broadband down and no water supply. While water supply and land-line returned after a day, it took a goddamn 12 days for Tata Indicom guys to restore my broadband connection. In this span, I made 48 calls to their call center - and every time I was promised response within 3 hours, a call back and some different reason for why connection wad down. They blamed it on the rains for the server being down - oh yes, they have it in their backyard! Blaming on the monsoon is so convenient.

If BSNL was the pits in service, I can’t find a more derogatory term to describe Tata Indicom. My only advise is refrain from taking a new Tata Indicom broadband connection. It is testing patience. Nothing worked - talking gently, empathetically and finally when I lost it I even threatened of taking them to the consumer court - they are used to such ourbursts from consumers and have gone immune like the cockroaches to Hit. They lied and lied for 12 days before fixing the damn thing. In the midst of this, Economic Times came out with a survey of the brands that ranked high in service in India. And guess what, Tata Indicom ranks sixth. I don’t know what to interpret of this - if the service of other brands are far worse or if the surveys are manipulated? I kept looking blankly at the flashing green ADSL light all day longing for it to become stable. And when it did on Saturday afternoon, I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was nirvana. That explains why a grand party was in order and I called every person I knew to tell my net connection was up and they could stop ridiculing that I live in the ’20s. My family has recently promoted me from a villager to a town resider. This is Pune for you!

The monsoon is here

As temperatures soared since the beginning of March, tempers flared too. Blame it on the furnace liking conditions inside the house with a high humidity. The first downpour of the monsoon season Tuesday evening brought a much needed respite from the heat. The first showers are always welcoming. I love the cloudy look while many find the Seattle-like gloomy atmosphere very depressing. The first rainfall of the season is akin to the first snow of winter. The excitement is high when one doesn’t really give much thought to the long winter ahead or the incessant downpour for weeks confining us to stay indoors. It’s also the beginning of muddy roads, power cuts, mosquitoes breeding in poodles of water and when white clothes are better kept in wardrobes. 

Yet it’s fun despite all that it gets with it. The smell before the rain or the dust settling in with the leaves showing their true green color, roads cleaned naturally – there’s more to celebrate during monsoon than any other season. Chai (for a buff like me) has never been more exciting. And for people like me with all the time in the world, it’s a pleasure to watch the rain while singing “rain rain go away” to my toddler son. Sure, it disrupts our evening schedule but who cares? - it gives me an opportunity to go out with LG at noon or any time of the day when it isn’t raining. And sometimes the unpredictability of it all is such a turn on with LG looking at me like I’m crazy to go out at that hour of the day!

CO2: Kick the habit


            Striving for a carbon free lifestyle this World Environment Day

 

World Environment Day (WED), commemorated on 5 June, is hosted by a different city every year. First established in 1972 by the United Nations General Assembly, WED is used by the United Nations Environment Program to create awareness the world over relating to the environment issues affecting us. The day is celebrated in many ways including street rallies, parades, exhibitions, and competitions to make it more interactive, empower people to act on issues affecting all of us and change the attitude towards adopting a healthier lifestyle.

 

The slogan for the World Environment Day 2008 is Kick the Habit! Towards a Low Carbon Economy. It will be hosted by New Zealand with the main celebrations scheduled to take place at Wellington on June 5, 2008. The Chicago Botanic Garden will play the North American host this year. New Zealand, among the first few nations striving to be carbon free, is focused on controlling deforestation and promoting forestation as a means to curb the release of greenhouse gases. It may be recalled the greenhouse gases such as CO2 is one of the main reasons for global warming.

 

The World Environment Day 2007 held in Tromse, Norway concentrated on the impact of climate change on life ecosystems in colder regions such as Arctic with the theme “Melting Ice – a Hot Topic?” If 2007 was about the colder regions of the planet, then 2006 laid emphasis on the hotter ones with the theme “Deserts and Desertification”. What could have been a better place to host the event than Algeria.

 

June 5, 2008 will mark a milestone in the celebrations of World Environment Day - the 35th year since it was first observed in 1974. What is sadly worth mentioning here is that, in all these years India has never been a host even once. India, the seventh largest country in the world area wise (3,287,590 sq km) and second population wise with a burgeoning population of over 1.1 billion, we use a significant amount of the planet’s natural resources and cause a greater impact on its environment if not more than the developed nations.

 

One of the topics that has repeated as the theme several times is climate change manifesting itself in different forms – global warming, greenhouse gases, ozone layer depletion, melting ice, green cities to name a few. It was not without reason that Al Gore (jointly with UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007 in recognition of his efforts to create awareness across the world about global warming through his much acclaimed documentary “An Inconvenient Truth”.

 

It’s not surprising that this year’s theme focuses again on climate change. What is commendable is the focus has narrowed down to a specific cause of global warming – emission of carbon gases which makes it easier to educate people how to kick the CO2 habit. If each of us does our bit, it will go a long way in controlling the emission of greenhouse gases. Carbon dioxide comprises about 9-26% of the greenhouse gases, the others being water vapour, methane, nitrous oxide, ozone and CFCs.

 

Puneites are becoming increasingly aware of the green revolution, thanks to the exhibitions, seminars and talks about it in the mainstream media. The “go-green” campaign is gaining momentum like never before. Despite this, feeling down of trees continues in most parts of the city. Recently, one witnessed a beautiful cotton tree being cut down for no apparent reason. Every individual has a carbon footprint that depends on their lifestyle. Research by Energy Information Administration (EIA) shows an average Indian in 2003 emitted about 0.96 tons of C02 annually while an American’s emission was about 20 tons annually – about 20 times more than that of an Indian. The next EIA report is due in May-July 2008.

 

Here are some of the changes that we can bring about in our daily life which will go a long way in reducing the emission of CO2:

Conserve Energy: Switch off fans and lights as you leave a room. Turn off the electrical appliances such as washing machine, mixer-grinder, TV, music system when not in use. Reduce the usage of water motor to pump the municipality water to the overhead tank. Finish off your chores as much as possible when the direct water supply is on. Use solar heater as much as possible. This will reduce your energy bills drastically.

 

Conserve Water: Make provisions for rainwater harvesting at your home. The collected and stored rain after the first few showers of the monsoon can be used for future use. Ensure the place where the rain water is stored is kept clean.

 

Plant trees: If you have a backyard full of wild grass or a lawn that is not mowed, clean it and have it planted with trees such as mango, papaya and some flowery plants or simple have a vegetable garden. It will not only lighten the atmosphere of your home, it is also good for the environment. The pleasure of cooking vegetables plucked from the backyard is to be experienced. With the monsoon a few weeks away, now is the time to get started.

 

Fresh vegetables from the local vendor: The lure of modern retail stores is hard to resist and people are increasingly turning to More, Spencers’ and such for buying vegetables. These vegetables are presented and packaged well which is appealing to the buyer but think of the energy consumed in processing and storing to keep them fresh. So, buy fresh vegetables from the local vendor in your street corner.

 

Use CFL bulbs: CFL bulbs are becoming increasingly popular such as the ones from Philips or Wipro. Replace incandescent bulbs with CFL to save power.

 

Say “No” to packaged products: No Tropicana or Real can beat the taste of freshly squeezed oranges or mango shake. Fresh juices are healthy with no added preservatives. Sure, it’s a little effort but one that’s worthy and healthy!

 

As Al Gore rightly said in An Inconvenient Truth, “Future generations may well have occasion to ask themselves, “What were our parents thinking? Why didn’t they wake up when they had a chance?” We have to hear that question from them, now!” Let’s make the right choices now to save the planet for our future generations. And, there is no one giant step that does it. It’s a lot of little steps like you and I.

Civilized existence remains a dream in India

Two days with no water supply, eight hours with no power, five days with the phone line disconnected and a four feet drop into a gravel hill as we step outside our home - these are the realities we lived with last week. I feel ashamed to say I live in urban India and it’s funny how often I contradict myself. Just in the last post I boasted about the wonderful locality of Pune we live in and now a nightmare unfolds in our lives.

It all started Wednesday last when the PCMC (Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation) guys in a strive to make the area look Singapore were engaged in making and remaking the well-laid roads. I fail to understand why they spend so much money on concrete, gravel and man power in redoing nice stuff and breaking better things along the way. I mean is having a walking pavement such a bad thing. To satisfy the whims and fancies of a PCMC officer, the entire brigade was out there breaking the 4 feet wide walking pavement and small lining of plants that people have outside their bungalows. Apparently having plants along the pavements is encroaching into the corporation property and the pavements eat into the road space which is alreayd wide enough to engage the current traffic - these are service lanes for Pete’s sake. In their over-enthusiasm, they first damaged our driveway making it near impossible to take the car out. What followed next was even more scary.  They ruptured the water line and we were left wondering when the following evening and the next morning there was no water and I’m standing in the bathroom with my toddler son with potty in his bum wondering how to clean him up. I scrambled for a cup of water from the bucket (damn! I always fill the bucket for emergency and just when I needed it it wasn’t there) and cleaned his bum before going down to inspect if there was something wrong with the motor. Then a quick glance at the previous day’s paper to see if there was an announcement about no water-supply. Nothing there either. About a good hour later on my usual morning walk, I notice there is water gushing out of the pipes in the neighboring building which confirmed my fear - our damn pipes were damaged.

This is not even Chennai so it was a funny sight of to the morning-walkers passing by - as I carried buckets and buckets of water from the adjoining building to stock supplies in the bathroom and kitchen. An hour later the corporation guys showed up and in their typical style blamed each other for the problem all the while empathizing with us. They promised to fix it by the end of day. To cut a long story short -  the plumber not being able to detect where the leak was and lack of equipment to dig in as using heavy machinery would mean damaging the electrical lines beneath and blackout of the entire area (daunting idea) meant a delay of another 24 hours before the connection would be restored. Imagine the ingeniousness of a laying water pipes beneath the hi-tension electrical wires and fiber optic cables! Finally, when it was all done by Friday evening, the water was trickling when the supply started (water from corporation is twice a day - morning and evening). Another inspection and we detected the fitted pipes were loose that let most of the water out thereby lowering the pressure immensely. We put on the plumber cap ourselves and fixed it.

Two days later, I see the end of the road flooded with water. Water gushing in full force from the main water pipeline. It was the turn of the people down the road. They just don’t learn from experience, do they? This was not all. In the process, they cut BSNL phone lines sending me into the dark ages again (that should explain the absence of posts). If that wasn’t enough, the Thursday power cuts are on.

I’m an optimist and a believer in India - but days such as these make me revisit the decision and if it’s really worth it? Is it too much to ask for - water & electricity. Aren’t these among the essentials of today’s times?