Vikasit shikshak, vikasit bharat

  During this year end I happened to travel beyond the city hustle. Leaving the driver's seat behind, this time I got ample space to look through the window pane as we dived onto the Pune - Solapur highway! Even though we crossed different cities some common hoardings caught my attention. Being in the education domain I guess, I was reading them thoroughly.   'School admissions for the academic year 2025-26 open', said the banners all around. Be it a new school or an old one, each one of them had their own thought, philosophy and story to share. With NEP 2020 budding and blossoming, all of them had one line in common ' We ensure holistic development in every child'. This is one line that bridges schools of all boards. I happen to exchange this thought with my family in the travel.  Driver who was busy with his hands on steering wheels and eyes on the road all this while happen to ask,' Madam, holistic ka kya matlab hai? Hume toh kuch nahi samajta. Mere beti ke r...

  The world famous tabla Maestro Zakir Hussain left for heaven a few days back. He was known for bringing global audience to appreciate Indian classical music. Tabla was often played as an accompaniment instrument and did not earn much fame for the artist. It was Zakir bhai who showed the world that tabla has its own identity and it was this instrument which also has the capacity to hold the audience spell bound for hours together just like any other vocalist.  Definitely it was not a cake walk for him to establish himself as ustad though born to a musical family. Breaking stereotypes and crossing boundaries to explore new horizons is what he sets as an example for all of us.  Nevertheless, his compositions did involve relevance to the common man who hardly knew technicalities in music. A simple dialogue between Radha and Krishna played on tabla, clattering of railway on the track, shakhanaad and many more.  All these brought the common man to appreci...

' Raddiwalla ' a loud usual sound on a Sunday morning made me travel back in time in my teenage.  I used to accompany my father to raddiwalla store. We used to carry two full bags of newspapers neatly folded and pilled in perfect symmetry. At the store, as the storekeeper weighed it, I noticed my father used to pull back some of those to be read again. I happened to ask him, "If we have come all the way up here to give them away, then why are you pulling some of them back again?" He said, "It's so interesting to read it again. I perceive a different thought." As a teenager I wonder what difference it makes reading it all over again. Seldom did I realise, that he wanted to go over a few things once again to check if they can be perceived in another way. A similar thought struck me when I was watching the movie ' Zindagi na milegi dobara ' for a second time. In the theatre I perceived it as, "Wow! What a way to overcome fear and celebrate it...

 “Children learn more from who you are than what you teach.”  --- Unknown  We all have been fascinated, enthralled and zapped by an idol at some point. Just activate your grey cells to pull up a memory where you ended up playing teacher- teacher at home as a kid on every weekend. You were the teacher while your parents, friends and relatives were students. And trust me you were simply a replica of what your teacher rolled out to you in class that week.  Even today though we call ourselves as matured we do follow somebody else's footsteps. Be it a father, mother, star, celebrity, business person, friend as well as foe.. well we do respond to what our foe does... And in turn we too turn out to be a foe..irony  isn't it.  We follow this all the while unknowingly. After all we are all genetic descendants of monkeys in the process of evolution.  Think my dear teachers, our students are looking up to us as role models. As you hop on to a class today, just le...

(Image generated by AI) Father (to a child while the food is being served) - Why are you fidgeting? Sit straight, stay focused. You will get it soon. Grandparent - We do not understand why this generation is always in a hurry? They just want everything first. Mother - They just want it instantly... Everything at a click, right there at the very moment. No patience to wait at all. Indeed this is an era of instant things. See how we have advanced.  Simple messages were sent through pigeons, then we had messengers deliver them, sooner came post office vans to ensure they reached faster, guess that too was slow, so up came the speed post promptly at our service. Then with electronic revolutions we got a message 'you have got an email.' And finally here we are at the click of an Insta post.  All for the want of sending messages. Isn't this journey incredible and true even for us. Our day starts with instant coffee or a dip tea and extends all the way to transfer funds, pay bi...