At Lajpat Nagar, yesterday my daughters witnessed something for the first time.
Policemen thrashing and beating street hawkers and vendors, and throwing away their belongings. Within a minute the buzz in the market disappeared. As, a lot of vendors quickly fled the scene with their belongings. I knew everything would be back to the normal soon.
But, for my daughters this was something shocking, and something which should not happen to anyone. I could notice their sad and confused faces, and I also prepared myself for some new questions. I decided to introduce two new words to my younger daughter:
Disparity and Privilege.
I told them that the world doesn’t give everyone a fair chance. We belong to a lucky and privileged lot. This hawker who was being beaten, was standing here, honestly earning for his family..he was not the one really at fault. Our planning is at fault. Our planning isn’t really inclusive, it is mostly done keeping only the rich in mind. It ensures that poor remain poor and rich become richer. Poor people have no place in the system. That creates a lot of disparity in the society – and so the insecurity, mistrust and crime.
My wish is to travel across India, before I die. I prefer travelling by train over road or air. Air is my last priority. One gets to see the real India on stations, in second class railway compartments and more in general class. Of course there is India which is also. traveling by upper class (air-conditioned, three-tier and above). But, majority of India travels by general class and sleeper class and many times without reservations and tickets. Some pictures from my last travel:
To-Do lists scare me. Even if I start writing one, I am sure I will intentionally and consciously miss upon several things, I do not want to do. These might have already become a top priority, like accounts. Anyway, long ago somebody advised me to maintain a To-Do list and become more organised. I started one, but soon forgot where I saved or kept that to-Do list. Also, personally, I find fun in chaos. Organised day and life style do not motivate me.
I have a simple formula here: “Do all things first that you do not like, then all the remaining time is for the things you love.” I have been telling this to my daughter and students both. But wait, I myself do not follow this. Who the hell, would like to start the day with doing things that are not liked?
मेरे दिल और दिमाग की लड़ाई में, जीत चाहे जिसकी हो, हारता तो मैं ही हूँ. (In the battle between my Heart and my Mind, no matter who wins, I always lose.)
If a teacher gets bored with assessing assignments, I am sure even students must have got equally bored doing it.
Happy Teacher’s Day!
I am not teaching the ‘batch’ of 40 students, I am teaching 40 students.
A random thought:
A few days back, I came across a photograph of a teacher presenting a 500.00 Rs. note to a student for scoring 10 on 10 in Design subject.
To me 10 out of 10 does not make any sense, It is more like death, where there is no room for further improvement. Specially in design subjects, where no answers are perfect and everything can be improved.
Updated: Nov 13, 2015