What does an atheist do when caught in a religious trap? Pray for release? When the suggestion came to attend a workshop in the salubrious climes of Lonavla – and that too at a MRP which seemed to be quite reasonable, the reaction was ‘What the hell? I can always take a furlough if it … Read more

Indians create 2 crore babies a year. All of them will end up in schools. But typically in grade 5, about 1 crore of these babies will drop out – to join the workforce. Even today 70% of our unskilled workforce is educated till grade 5. So the opportunity is in trying to give these … Read more

There are 12 ‘learning centres’ in Pune. Jidnyasa (http://jidnyasa.org/) is one of them. It’s an experimental school located at the base of a hill on the road that starts from Kinara Hotel on Paud Road. There are 85 students in the school. Students appear for the NIOS / IGCSE pattern in class 10. Timings are … Read more

Came across this lovely question: Banta Singh decides to travel to reach the North Pole. He starts from the equator and always heads North West. How much distance would he have traveled when he reaches the North Pole? Decided to use it as part of a class. Students were allowed to use Google. Student groups … Read more

Paridhi is Nidhi’s younger sister. She has done her BTech in electronics and communication. She went on to do her M tech micro electromechanical devices. This includes stuff lke accelerometers and nano cantilevers. The advantage of the smaller devices is that the response time is lower. Which means that when there is a car crash … Read more

Watched a TED video by Simon Sinek. Rivetted me completely. An excerpt from the talk: Every single person, every single organization on the planet knows what they do, 100 percent. Some know how they do it, whether you call it your differentiated value proposition or your proprietary process or your USP. But very, very few … Read more

Meher is Director of Social Audit, Govt of Chhatisgarh. He is based out of Raipur. He has a deep interest  in education. Here are people that he recommends we find out more about: ·       Deepalaya is a slum school in Delhi. Meher has been involved with Ajax, an NGO which funds in the education sector. … Read more

Talk to Students: Mak started by talking about how he lived in a hostel in his education from 4th standard onwards. Students somehow did not find hostel life too exciting – so there was no major discussion on that. He then moved on to discuss how important it is to have a plan for careers. … Read more

Sandeep Sarnobat had done a good job of organising this meet. Almost 15 speakers from industry and another 8 to 10 from academics. The start was a little slow, as we had to listen to a lot of officials from the college. It would have been interesting if we industry guys had been able to … Read more

In June 2013, I did 5 group discussions on Homework – with students in Pune, Dehradun, Ludhiana, Yamunanagar and Jammu. My role was that of a documentor rather than a mentor. Most students understood the importance of Homework. As a student in Pune, who is also a Company Secretary, mentioned – How can a lawyer … Read more