Education Today, Society Tomorrow. Asia Plateau, Panchgani

Akshay and Padmnabh had attended this workshop in previous years and enjoyed their experience. So three folks from Chalothinkare.org, Yours Truly, Sanika and Isha, who had not attended so far, decided to attend this year. Nirmala, Sanika’s mom, who is associated with Rishihood University also signed up. The course is priced very attractively – Rs. 9400 for a 5 day program, which includes food and stay. Pinki, the better half, decided to join in, if not anything else, but for a VFM vacation.

We cycled down to Ved Vihar, Chandni Chowk, and parked our cycles at Akshay’s house. We then walked a km to the Bavdhan flyover to sync up with Nrmala and Sanika, who were driving down to Panchgani. Note to self: the Chandni Chowk intersection is definitely not designed keeping the pedestrian in mind. We picked up Isha from Warje. Sanika drove non-stop to Panchgani – and we reached in time for lunch. The Wai Surur road was all dug up and we were told later on that the plan is to widen the road all the way from Surur to Poladpur. This is going to involve cutting 444 trees. Sad way to start the day!

There were about 70 of us. I realised how it felt to be in a minority – there were just 9 guys in this gang. We realised during the inaugural lamp lighting that of the 70, 10 had attended a previous ETST workshop. We listened to a lovely song recorded by the ETST team – It’s better to light a candle than to curse the darkness. You can find the song on YT over here – https://youtu.be/EJcbaQ5j-3Q?si=Qnvcx-xIXXwQ8Nf3

We heard more about Initiatives of Change, https://iofc.org/en, from Siddharth Singh, whose association with Moral Rearmament, MRA, the erstwhile moniker for IofC, when his parents were involved with its setting up. MRA was a product of the post second world war years, where the vocabulary was replete with phrases associated with weaponry. A group of peaceniks founded this movement. In India, Rajmohan Gandhi, MKG’s grandson, was involved. Many meetings happened in India, with one held at Panchgani, on the hills that fringe the Krishna Valley. A decision was made to have a permanent setup in India – and Panchgani was chosen – I guess in large part because of its climate! Rajmohan Gandhi continues to stay here for 6 months a year.

Work started in 1961 – 68 acres of land was acquired on the outskirts of Panchgani town (Panchgani refers to the 5 plateaus in the area.) The land was barren, with a lone Silver Oak tree, standing guard. The volunteer architect for this project was Gordon Brown from Australia. The idea was to build a home, not a hotel. The Infra has a middle class sensibility about it – with the logic that all kinds of people can feel @home here. By 1969, around the time I was born, MRA’s first buildings came up at the Asia plateau.

The home still seems rooted in the 1960s or probably the 50s look that Cuba has managed to preserve, thanks to keeping the US away from the island. Very little plastic is around even today. There are many halls, which are like drawing rooms themed around different parts of the world. We met most often in the North East room, which has artefacts from the North East. Fun fact: Meghalaya separated from Assam without any bloodshed – the only state in the NE to have achieved that. There is the Asia Lounge with objects from SE Asia. The coolest room, temperature wise, is the Australia room. Then there is a prayer room, called the Mami room/ It is named after the Japanese woman who stayed there her whole life. I loved the bay windows in this round room, though it can get a trifle hot in summer. The low furniture and the mats were what one would expect in a Japanese home. The foyer is a double height area, which serves as an auditorium outside the auditorium. People who grew up in the 1970s will remember the pre-ceramic-tiles mosaic era. The foyer continues to have a red background mosaic floor that has also stood the test of time.

The dining room is called the Canada room – what I liked about the room was its sound-deadening wooden panelling – even on the roof. This helped absorb sounds – and keep the conversations possible even in a place like a dining area. A young man with a love for carpentry, Suresh Khatri, made the tables. They have aged well – and are in service 55 years later. And so is the young man, Suresh. He has called MRA home for the last 60 years – and the few occasions that I met him on the paddle tennis court – he continues to be super fit and agile. Note to self: Will need practice in serving, but surely better than the lawn tennis that I tried my hand at 30 years ago.

Auditoriums are the most expensive piece of real estate on a campus. MRA has had one almost from the time it started. Gordon was much ahead of his times when it came to sustainability. There is a rainwater-harvesting tank below the auditorium that can store 2.5 lakh liters of water. The auditorium has a booth, which was used for live translations during events. Each seat is provided with a quaint 1960s era Phillips headphone port and a selector switch that was used for language selection.

In a rebranding exercise, MRA was baptised in 2001- as Initiatives of Change. And change is what drives programs at IofC. The beginning is with changing oneself. What works for driving this change is introspection in silence. For teachers, it is important to understand the difference between being quiet and being silent. The greatest teaching happens inside of us. Quietness has an enforced quality whereas silence is voluntary. Silence helps in listening to your own self, to recognise that our self is still Work In Progress.

Although there was a dedicated silence time every day from 1845 to 1900 hrs, I found the silence of pauses in conversations to be more powerful. There was also white time between 1630 and 1845 hrs, which I used mostly for my late afternoon siesta, followed by a bath and a few conversations. What I loved most was the early dinner at 1900 hrs. (Note: the preposition is at and not from, so that everyone eats together.)

Post dinner, groups were involved in clean-ups and wash-ups. I do this at home all the time, but doing it in a group was more fun, in large part because the instructions were to sing while the bartans were washed. The clean-ups were simpler and involved getting the leftovers off the tables. Alas, our family group never got the easy duty. We ended the typical day with family time – a group of 10 of us – with a facilitator. Families were identified by looking at the badge color. Most of the discussions were guided ones, but we could hijack the agenda and weave conversations around areas of higher interest.

The day would start with an optional exercise session from 0600-0630 hrs, conducted by the sprightly ever-young Arun Wakhlu. Arun finished his electrical engineering from IIT B in 1976 and did his PGDBA from IIMA in 1980 – you can do the age math there. We would start with some loosening up hand and leg rotations. There would always be cardio, which could be sit-ups or surya namaskars. Some of the participants were excellent teachers. Geeta taught us to walk in figures of 8 – excellent balance building, especially for our senior friends. Another interesting vibration inducer was an exercise of pushing your ears in the thumb, closing the eyes with 3 fingers – and drawing out a deep om. This is the Bhramari pranayam (it is synonymous to humming of the bee). With the ears closed, the vibrations resonate inside the head, creating an effect that most people can only experience after consuming some psychedelic concoctions. 

And there would be a dose of spirituality. Of all the senses, we use touch the least. In today’s world of education, all touch is ‘bad’. Getting folks to hold hands – and even get some physiotherapy done was unexpected, but refreshing. I remember a time when my dad was admitted in the ICU. Dr Shirish Patwardhan, my gyanaec friend, visited us. When other doctors would look at the charts and chat, Shirish took my dad’s hand and massaged it, instructing me to do the same later on. It may have been a placebo – but science sees a 25% efficacy even in placebos. I have been a touch fan since then, though I rarely get to use my fandom with strangers.

The high point for most of us was the Canada room. As much for the food – as for the conversations. I checked the weighing scales on my return – and found that I had gained a kilo in 5 days. What can be expected if one gets cakes along with tea, salads, fruits, gulab jamuns for dessert. I am experimenting with veganism, but gulab jamuns result in failed experiments. To be fair to the ETST organisers, the last day was vegan day. Ending the day with mint tea was also so refreshing.

The design was to have a lot of breaks, chai time, coffee time. The genesis for this design goes to a gentleman called Harrison Owen. When Harrison took feedback for the effectiveness of his training programs, he was surprised when most participants said that the best part was the coffee break. The reason: participants can decide who to talk to and what to talk about. The Vibe attracts the Tribe. In Harrison’s next conference, everything was a coffee break. In the Open Space organised by Arun, we were allowed to join and exit groups at will. Arun calls this the law of two feet. If you are not learning or contributing to a group, use your feet.

In one of the chai sessions, I talked with a group of teachers. When I asked them about the challenges they faced, their reply centered on student behavior, especially the lack of values. A few teachers also came up with ideas that they use to help with the mental health of students. A Mumbai based school starts its day with a Zero period from 0700-0730 hrs. Students chat amongst themselves and enjoy light snacks like dry fruits that they carry in their lunch box. Another school has a practice of students ending the day with personal journal writing. They are free to write about what they did in school and what is happening at home. Teachers are not supposed to look at these journals. There is random checking by the Principal, who uses this as a feedback mechanism. If she feels that there are issues that need to be addressed at a personal level, then the student is offered counselling.

There was a 15 min session at the auditorium every evening. About half of the participants would attend, including Yours Truly. Instead of closing eyes and reflecting, I would find it interesting to observe the unfortunate bees who were making unsuccessful attempts to escape the massive glass windows of the auditorium. Dusk was also an interesting time to see silent branches swaying in the breeze – and that was a very meditative experience. Another experience that I found to be profound was to sit near a small pond and watch the frogs watching me. They would sit for minutes with their noses above the water meditating on the fly that they were waiting to catch. And disappear under the leaves at the bottom of the pond on sensing danger. But the real Zen was being able to pick up enjoyable conversations with absolute strangers – and come back having discovered something new about the world.

One 20 min meditation was titled Listening to nature. We were instructed to talk to the trees and discuss our problems. I thought a lot – and realised that there is nothing much that I need to discuss with my tree friends. We will continue to have problems as long as we live – but they have a knack of taking care of themselves. Why trouble the poor tree? But wait, maybe the tree has a problem. So I asked Ms Tree and she answered. She needs more water, she needs more space. So I got the answer I was looking for – spend more time at 14trees.org – and initiate the change that IofC has been wanting me to do.

Vijayam Kartha

Vijayam Kartha is one of the senior members of IofC. She came to Jamshedpur in 1974 after her marriage. 1981 saw her start her career as a librarian in a school. Her only aim was to be the best. That helped her with opportunities. After completing her B.Ed. In 1986, she joined Kerala Samajam Model School (KSMS) as an assistant teacher. KSMS had 2400 kids when she joined. She was excited when she became Principal. But within a few months, she started seeing a behavior change in her old colleagues. Whenever she dropped into the staffroom, conversations would stop. She had become more of a boss than a leader.

And then MRA happened. Amit Mukherjee, a local orthopaedic surgeon and MRA lifer, recommended that she do a course at Panchgani. She came back a changed person. Stopped talking, started listening. Started noting down teachers’’ ideas. From seeing the wrong in everything, she started finding the good in the most ordinary of things. Her journey that had started with criticism moved on to motivation. She could identify the conflicts that she needed to work on for her own peace/happiness. And she was unafraid of saying sorry. Her apologies happened In public. The idea of change was pervasive. One day a visitor asked kids in her school: Are you honest? The answer was obviously in the affirmative. The next question: Then why do you need invigilators? Now students sit for exams without invigilation.

Soon. she was promoted to be the Vice Chairman of the KPS TRUST. KPS is a group of 9 schools, mostly in Jharkhand, one in Odisha. She started thinking of not just the schools, but of what she could do for people around her. KPS adopted a village, 16 km from Jamshedpur. Schoolchildren would work with villagers. Self-help groups were formed. Barren land was converted to forest. Organic farming was introduced. The village changed and stays changed. From 1400 to 1730 hrs, the school premises are used for a Hindi medium school for underprivileged – this was started in the pre RTE era.

Vijayam talked about Inner Listening, espoused by James Clear in Atomic Habits, a self-awareness that helps you understand and manipulate your habits to achieve desired outcomes. We don’t live in our houses, we live in our minds. Declutter it. You have to do it yourself. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? What are you trying to achieve? She talked about her own struggle to show her capability to the world.

The journey to declutter the mind has three steps. Connect, Correct & Direct. Connect starts with reflection. We need to remember that anger is an internal reaction to external stimuli. Start with meditation, witness your thoughts and then engage with them. I liked the way Vijayam separated her brain from her self when she demo’ed an internal conversation she had. She suggests using paper & pen to build our connection with ourselves. After realising the mistakes we have made in the past, we need to begin the journey of correction: Admit mistakes and Apologise. This has to be followed by change: maybe a habit, maybe a part of your nature!

We then moved on to managing conflicts. The noblest of persons- will still have their share of critics. Humans tend to be judgmental about the world around them. She invited participants to share their conflict stories. Asma, who is doing excellent work with schools in her community, shared her worries about her eldest daughter, an APU passout. She is 26 – and doesn’t seem to have any plans to get married. Asma, the mother, is worried. Vijayam talked about acceptance. When Asma accepts that it is ok for her daughter to not get married, then she can normalise her relationship with her daughter. Each one of us has 3 identities: @work, @home and with friends. Vijayam observed that internal conflicts can be reduced if all our 3 identities behave the same way!

Life Balance Sheet

Most of us are familiar with stuff like income, assets and liabilities. Is there something similar that we need to measure for our own life? What would be the currency in that case? Happiness? Health? Vijayam talked of an interesting model to create a life balance sheet. When I looked at it, it resembled a P and L account more than a balance sheet. The first two pages are the income equivalents – people who have helped us, and people who we have helped. The next two pages are expense equivalents – people who have hurt us, and people who we have hurt.

Most of us had long lists for Page 1, and yet when people started reading out their list of helpers, we all realised that there are many who we had missed out on our lists. I listed out parents, kids, friends, neighbours and work associates. I realised that the spouse is missing, and so is the maid who we have come to rely so much on. In the workspace, I realised that there was a supplier who trusted me a few decades ago, selling me material on credit for 3 months when the norm was 1 month. This allowed me to execute a critical order in a time when working capital was scarce. I definitely should have added Mr Sangvi’s name to my list. And most shameful was not including names of teachers and mentors. Apologies to Fr Manuel Mascarenhas, Dr DK Joshi, VK Bhatnagar, DK Sharma, Sudhir Krishna, and Shashi Sastry.

Page 2 was sparsely populated. I couldn’t think of names. Probably I have helped more people in the line of duty, but then that was being selfish for the business. In the same way, helping your own children comes from a similar sense of duty. Should we include their names here? Debatable. But can one add to the list – and add people who we are helping – but not with an expectation of any kind of reward. People like Pravin Bhagwat and Nirmala Samant come to mind, who are selflessly spending most of their time growing 14Trees.org. And also Akshay B who is doing stellar work at http://chalothinkare.org/. I hope to spend more time with these folks and be a small part of their journeys.

Page 3 was again as populous as Page 1. I probably have hurt quite a few people who helped me grow. I guess that is part and parcel of any relationship. Quite a few of the folks I hurt are no longer in touch. The moot question here is what can we do to remedy past ills. Should I just forget and not forgive? Is it too late for an apology? Does a Michami Dukkadam play any role in repairing a broken relationship?

Page 4, people who hurt me, was more populated than page 2, but had only 4 names. And in a sense, each of these persons had helped me because they helped me reorient. I could change my career, my priorities, thanks to the feedback I received from these people. I will remain grateful to them. I am sure there will be more people who will get into this list. But I hope that I will be in a better state to handle hurt, as I try to follow Amit Mukherjee’s advice – nothing to achieve, and nothing to prove.

Amit Mukherjee

Amit Mukherjee lives in Jamshedpur. He is a practicing Orthopaedic Surgeon and Corporate Executive of manufacturing industries. He visited Panchgani 50 years ago, as a student and gave his life to this ideology. He has a simple life principle…..’ Nothing to achieve & nothing to prove’. He has been supporting the Jamshedpur MRA/IofC team all along. He has one daughter, who is married, and stays in Kolkata – she runs a company that provides animation support to European clients.

Amit’s dad was in the Indian Foreign Services – but he wanted Amit to have an Indian education. The family toyed around with the idea of putting Amit into a boarding school, but his grandmother would have none of it. She insisted that Amit stays in Jamshedpur with her – and does his schooling there. Amit got into the government medical college in Ranchi, but shifted to Jamshedpur Medical college after some seats opened up there. On finishing his MBBS, he was visiting with his dad, who was posted in West Berlin. Those were the days of a shortage of medical professionals – and the Berlin folks got him a job in a sarkaari hospital over there. He worked there for 1.5 years. In the meantime, he had applied for positions with the Bihar government, and received a call to join.

Amit’s mother reminded him of a promise he had made to her to serve the rural poor after he finished medicine. It was time for the promise to be kept. Amit returned to Jamshedpur – and surprised the recruitment panel by asking for a village posting right away. He was asked to run a hospital that was attached to a mine – and look after the medical needs of neighbouring villages. He returned to Jamshedpur after his rural stint – and continued his surgical work in the Tata hospitals. After a decade of working, he felt that he needed to specialise – and so took a sabbatical to finish his MS from Bangalore. Returned to Jamshedpur after his MS to continue to work with the Tatas, who had sponsored his PG education.

During his stint as head of the hospital run by Tata Tinplate, he was faced with an interesting challenge. Tata Tinplate employed 6500 workers – and had been making losses after facing low demand. As a cost cutting measure, the management was planning to shut down the hospital. Amit was sure that he would easily continue practice outside the hospital, but his worry was the 150 staff that worked at the hospital. He proposed to make the hospital a profit center for the company.

When he turned around the hospital, the Tinplate MD was impressed. He invited Amit to join the factory as head of HR and Admin. The target was to get the headcount down from 6500 to 1700/ That was the only way the company could make profits. Amit knew most of the trade union leaders because of his hospital connections and so he could convince them of the need for workforce reduction to ensure survival. Tinplate survived – and thrived. Today it has merged into Tata Steel and exists as the tinplate division.

Amit was entrusted with additional responsibility for sustainability. He continued to wear multiple hats comfortably. He was given an extension at the age of 60 – but he refused. He wanted to get back to serving his patients full time. But this was not to be. During a morning round of golf, one of his golfing buddies convinced him to come along for a trip to Delhi. They landed up at Sainik Farms, to meet with a Sardarji who was one of the leaders in automobile springs. He had 6 factories all over the country, with one located in Jamshedpur. The Jamshedpur unit was making losses – and by now Amit’s reputation as a turnaround specialist had reached Delhi. Amit was invited to head the Jamshedpur plant and show his magic there. Amit agreed – on the condition that he would be given total independence in how the plant would be run. Sardarji agreed. Amit joined.

The plant was located around 40 km from the city center. It was the only factory in the area. They were making leaf springs and coil springs for the likes of Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland. Amit was the 5th CEO the company had seen in 3 years – and so was received with skepticism by the workforce. But things changed when workers realised that their new boss knew nothing of engineering but everything of medicine. They began to open up. Amit listened. HR took center stage. He ensured that new protective equipment and clothing was in place. He also nudged a highway dhaba wala to open an outlet near the factory, so that folks who were asked to do an additional shift were fed. The dhaba wala was promised a minimum guarantee order of 50 meals every day. The usual story happened – the company turned around in two years – and Amit, mission accomplished, called it a day.

The next day he was on duty at a village hospital – working for zero salary. In between he also managed to start 3 rural schools, which he continues to support till date. Amit talked about identity: Who am I? He likes to use a Sanskrit phrase for this. Sat-Chit-Anand. Truth-Wisdom-Happiness. If you don’t talk to yourself every morning. you have  lost the opportunity to talk to a great person. Each of us has two voices inside of us. Amit calls these two as Atma Ram and Tota ram. We usually listen more to the Tota Ram and do what everyone else is busy doing. But Atma Ram is our real calling.

One of the secrets of Amit’s eternal youth is the conversations he has with students. It keeps him alive. And he continues to do random acts of kindness. His cook has a son who is struggling to pass his school exams. Amit has started taking English tuitions for the kid in the evenings. Amit’s math is not up to the mark, so he has got in touch with a math teacher who comes to help. As a barter, Amit takes English classes for the math teacher’s students.

In 2017 on a vacation in Cambodia with his daughter’s family, Amit had an episode of weakness. During lunch, he realised he could not lift his left hand. His daughter realised something was amiss – and they boarded the next flight to India. An MRI in Kolkata revealed tumors all over. Amit had grade 4 cancer, which had reached the right lobe of his brain, apart from having spread to the lungs and the lymph nodes. He was given 6 months to live. He told himself – If I have to live for 6 months, why not live happily! The first thing he did was to take his wife out – for a dosa!

Treatment was done at CMC Vellore. There are advantages in getting treated at a teaching hospital, especially one run by a religious trust. There are no revenue pressures on doctors and surgeons. So no unnecessary procedures are done. Tragically, his wife, Sumita, passed away a few months after Amit’s treatment started. Given the advanced nature of the cancer, Amit continues to take oral chemotherapy everyday. 7.5 years after the doctors had given up on him, Amit has a simple definition of well being – being alive! He has thinned down considerably – but his mental acumen and sense of humor remain the same. I will remember the panache with which he narrated a poem about the ostrich who would put his head in sand whenever he would encounter danger, and how the ostrich ended up becoming a lion’s meal. I tried googling for it – but with little success. Thanks to Nirmaa, managed to get a copy of the poem. Have added it at the end of the article.

Malati Kalmadi

Malati is Vice Chairman of the Pune based Kaveri Group of Institutes run by the Kannada Sangha: One interesting initiative by the group is the Kaveri Gifted Education & Research Centre. Her family runs Sai Service, which has multiple dealerships for Bajaj Auto and Suzuki. They also run https://neutonbus.in/, a company that manufactures e buses.

Malati has been inspired by Ananda Ashram’s teaching philosophy, which has been summarised in a book – Education for life. You can find the book here: https://www.ananda.org/free-inspiration/books/education-for-life/ Adding a random excerpt from the book:

A recent survey of professors found that the majority preferred wordy, intellectually intricate and abstruse articles on subjects in their own fields over articles that made the same points, but in a style that was simple and easy to read. The people conducting the survey then took articles that had been written simply and clearly, and restated them in convoluted terms, replacing short words with long ones wherever possible, and clear statements with others that were muddy or contrived. They offered these altered articles to the same professors, along with the original versions, and asked for a comparative evaluation. Most of those learned pedagogues, never guessing that they were in essence reading the same article to which not a thought had been added, and from which none had been deleted, declared they preferred the more complex version. When asked why, they replied that the more intellectual sounding version showed better research, deeper thought, and greater insight.

Malati talked about wellbeing and our gunas. Here is some Wikipedia gyan on the same. Guṇa can be translated as property, quality or attribute. There are three guṇas (triguṇa) that have always been and continue to be present in all things and beings in the world.These three guṇas are called: sattva (goodness, calmness, harmonious), rajas (passion, activity, movement), and tamas (ignorance, inertia, laziness).

These qualities are not considered present in an either-or fashion. Rather, everyone and everything has all three, only in different proportions and in different contexts.The living being or substance is viewed as the net result of the joint effect of these three qualities. The balance of Gunas of everything and everyone can change and does. However, change in one quality faces inertia from other two qualities. The force to change comes from the Rajas guṇa, the Sattva guṇa empowers one towards harmonious and constructive change, while Tamas guṇa checks or retards the process. In Indian mythology, Vishnu is envisioned with more Sattva, Brahma with more Rajas, and Shiva seen with all three Gunas.

There was an interesting discussion: Aren’t Tamas and Sattva two sides of the same coin? A Tamasic teacher, who is ignorant and lazy, may actually get her students to work more! Arun had an interesting take on this. The gunas are like jokers in a pack – they can become anything. Malati asked us to meditate on different situations we encounter as teachers and observe which of our gunas dominate there. Teach a tough class, Deal with conflict and Plan your day.

I caught up with Malati at tea time. She wants my friend Milind Sohoni, an alumnus of KHS, to come and talk to her students. She has also asked me to meet her daughter, Aarthi Parigi, an architect from MMCC. Aarthi stays in Bangalore but spends half her time in Pune, where she leads the bus manufacturing company. Another interesting area of work that she is involved in is the Sai Service Skill development center at Parvati. Must visit that some time.

Stephania Menezes

Stephania Mendezes came to IofC as an intern in 2015. She had been working with the IT sector and was disillusioned with life on the small screen. She was the perennial rebel – and her parents did not even know what she was doing at Panchgani. She chose conviction over convenience – and decided to stay back, informing her parents about the decision. Along the way, she got married – and now has a lovely 2 year old – Reva. She was the apple of everyone’s eyes. I was lucky to have been given a rose-apple by the young Reva. The family was staying for many years on the campus, but have recently built their own house in Wai. The plan is to homeschool Reva – and travel a lot in the process. Stephania wants Reva to grow up in a world which values values. A world where no bribes are required for getting work done. A world where vulnerability is expected and welcomed.

She has gravitated towards experiential training, which she believes builds emotional resilience. And we had fun moving not just our heads but our bodies during the time we spent with her. We went into Brownian motions as atoms, coalesced as molecules to ask each other questions about our personal values. Decided whether we were the moon or stars. (I preferred being a blackhole.) Played games which were like rock, paper scissors to move around make believe continents.

Actually the rule for moving around continents was to play the game between two random people. Both keep their right hand behind and then show a random number of raised fingers. The one with the lower number wins and is allowed to go continent hopping. If both show the same number, then repeat. Same groups got a series of 4 ties. Sarang Jhaveri travelled the most. He always showed one finger. He did not encounter the participant who showed zero fingers, by making a zero sign between her thumb and forefinger. And there were the lazy folks who decided to stay put on a continent. All they had to do was keep on showing 5 fingers. Folks modified rules and made up their own games. At the end we reflected on the rules that we follow in the game of life – our values?

Conversations with Students

Getting students as facilitators for a module was indeed interesting. Students from Swadhaa Waldorf, Orchid and KHS participated. Groups sat down with students to ideate on what can be done to improve learning outcomes in the classroom. Our group themed the ideas into three categories:

Open Classrooms

• Stress free environment
• Teachers to also learn from students
• Discuss new research
• Reflection time for students and teachers
• Honest conversations
• Periodic review of academics to check for relevance

Collaborations

• Teachers to be a bridge between students and outside experts
• Work with genuine NGOs like Goonj for social skills development
• Work with neighbourhood schools on joint projects

Environment

• Have neighbourhood cleanliness drives
• Instead of just cleaning, also educate and make neighbourhood aware of hygiene issues
• Adopt a village or a slum.
• Tree plantation

We listened to students discuss more ideas for inclusive classrooms. Here are a few of the interesting ones that our group had not thought of:

• Respect each other’s thoughts
• Incubation program at school for students who want to linger on.
• Maker spaces
• Work on real life problems
• Inculcate curiosity
• Constructive criticism
• Classrooms outside schools

Grampari

On the MRA campus, there are fields and training specific to the rural sector. I had had lunch with Dhananjay on the day I landed, so for me it was kind of a homecoming. We were bombarded with a dozen PPTs – all relevant, but I think a prioritisation would have helped. We appreciated the work in watershed management, organic farming, women’s self help groups and managing village sewage and waste management systems. Given the education background of participants, we would have been interested in Grampari’s work with schools – and skill development.

Dhananjay made us go through an interesting post lunch wake-up exercise. We had to get up and put our hands up and clap 4 times followed by 4 foot stamps. This had to be then done 3, 2 and 1 times. Good stuff to get the blood flowing. One suggestion for Dhananjay would be to arrange for participant seating in a circle – and provoke more questions from the audience. He has requested my help for taking some math sessions for a summer school that they will be running for village kids. I would have been happy if he had made a public request – he would have found many more teachers ready to help.

Rekha Shahani

Rekha used to run an institute for the underprivileged, Kamla High school, in Khar, Mumbai. The school was started by her grandfather. He also founded KC College and National College. Every morning at 0730, 20 students would accompany Rekha for a walk in the school neighbourhood. Some snacking was part of the plan. Students first asked Rekha her budget and then decided how it needed to be spent. One day, she walked into an ex teacher’s house, along with her 20 kids. They were served breakfast by the teacher, and she gave each of the students Rs. 50 as a gift. Rekha also often had lunch with the school kids. Her motto in life – Aaj kya pagalpan karna hai?

Harshita Sharma

Harshita Sharma, was the repeater champ – this was her 11th workshop! I caught up with her over evening chai. Harshita runs a phonics program for preschoolers in Pune. She is based out of Vijaynagar Colony, close to SP College on Tilak road. Her true calling is teacher training. She likes to work in schools where principals welcome new initiatives. She enjoys working with younger teachers, who are more open to new ideas. She also finds non B.Ed teachers to be more receptive. She feels that an IGNOU B.Ed. degree works better than a traditional one. Most HODs are 40+, and are quite fixed in their routines. I asked her about her training calendar: April is devoted to CBSE schools, May is vacation time for her, June is when the SSC school training calendar is on – and after that training is mostly on Saturdays.

She was an encyclopedia about Pune schools. We got into a chat about Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, which incidentally sent 3 teachers to attend the program. Harshita considers BVB and Sri Sri school to be a suljha hua school for teachers. What they like is predictable workloads and fixed timings. The flip side is that the school tends to lag behind a bit on the innovation front. We then moved on to schools for the underprivileged – and she talked about https://avasara.in/. Considering that it is in my backyard, I was pleasantly surprised to see an IB infra quality school for our young learners. Must cycle down some time to visit – it is near the Oxford Golf Course in Lavale. We then moved on to affordable schools. Harshita thinks that the best resource persons for such schools are FYBA or FYBCom students – training them as teachers is good RoI – as they do stick around for a couple of years. She has also done some work in skill building, but we did not end up getting time to catch up on that.

Seema  Ramchandani

Seema grew up in Africa and shifted to Pune in the nineties and was planning to go to the US for her higher education when Viva happened. Viva! was an Indian pop girl group that formed in 2002, composed of the winners of the first season of the Indian version of the international television talent show Coke [V] Popstars. The five original members were Seema Ramchandani, Pratichee Mohapatra, Neha Bhasin, Mahua Kamat, and Anushka Manchanda.^[However, Seema left the group soon after the launch of their first album, to join the Art of Living Foundation. After a few years, she shifted base to HongKong, where she did her Masters in Education and continued to work in building English language skills using song and dance for pre-schoolers. After HK, she stayed at Kodaikanal for a few years and is back in Pune now.

Seema is a very high energy person who continues to be in love with her own voice. Seema and Arun jointly took a session in the foyer. Arun used his exercise approach of making circles and getting folks to move in and move out. He also made us sing a version of Hum Honge Kamyab with Ek din being replaced by Iss Pal,and Mann main hai vishwas being replaced by Dil main hai Vishwas. The intent was to change the messaging – We are successful, not just wishful of success and we say with our heart that peace is there now – not that it will happen sometime in future.

There was an exercise where we had to express our inner feelings and aspirations using dance – but no conversations. I had the pleasure of having Snehal for company, because both had names that ended in the same alphabet. Snehal is a dancer par excellence, as the group discovered in the concluding talent show. For Yours Truly dance was a non-starter. Having no expectations, I had no idea of what to dance about. I think I enjoy singing more than dancing. Maybe a combined song and dance may have helped.

Action Points

When we started I asked this question about takeaways from the repeaters. They have fewer conflicts, have become less judgmental and are ready to listen to stories that they have not previously listened to. Is constant reinforcement required? No, but constant reflection is. MRA gives them a space to reflect. And an army to help take over household duties. So I wonder, can’t we be the army for each other at home?

The last session was about our own action points. Here is an excerpt:

• Connect with family and neighbours
• Improve fitness
• Connect with Nature
• Be more calm
• Become an empty flute
• Pause more, slow down
• Give up chemical based cosmetics

There was a huge diversity there – which in a way reflected the diversity of participants. But it also means an opportunity exists to focus on fewer things in future programs. I personally will spend more time finding the good in people and things around me. The last word, as always, is a suggestion from Amit Mukherjee. The best feedback is how you feel one month after the program. My calendar for 7-Jun is set. Will I be able to bridge the gap between knowing and doing?

ODE TO AN OSTRICH – Richard Weeka

From the largest egg ever laid on this earth

An Ostrich named Oswald one day came to birth

He grew to be handsome, he grew to be strong

He could run like the wind, his legs were no long.

Now Oswald he had but one weakness when there was danger at hard

Instead of facing thing squarely he would bury his head in the sand

When his friends by the score used to ask him

Why he acted in such a strange way

He would gaze at them all in amazement

and after a pause he would say

With my bead in the sand I’ve nothing to fear

I quite forget that danger is near

I don’t know, I don’t care, What I can’t see, just isn’t there

When Oswald was out for a walk in the morning

A bird flying overhead give him a warning

Á fierce looking lion is coming your way

And I don’t think, he has had a square meal for a day

Said our friend in a manner quite unperturbed 

If I mind my own business I’ll not be disturbed 

I’ll make myself look like the bushes around, 

So saying he buried his head in the ground.

The lion drew closer and said with a sigh 

There’s more to this than at first meets the eye 

I’ve seen bushes of hawthorn and bushes of tea 

But a bush made of feathers, that’s quite new to me 

first he thought he was going insane 

But his hunger had certainly sharpened his brain 

It didn’t take long for the truth to get through 

The rest of the story I leave up to you.

When he had finished and eaten his course 

The king of the jungle was filled with remorse 

So he did as he thought that great bird would have planned 

Dug a hole and buried his bones in the sand…… 

Hm

You can write your own words to the last verse

Hmm

Copyright 1985. The Oxford Group, 24 Greencoat Place, London