MyTake

'sir, whatever I am, it is because of you' 'It's ok' 'sir, you taught me so many things, I have totally changed' 'if you have any problem, you can come back to us, we are all here to help you people' 'sir, I came to you to thank you as it is our last day'. 'ok, thats fine' This conversation was between a student and a teacher on the last day of formal teaching. The student is going to appear in last semester exam after around 10 days. As the student entered the room, he saw few students sitting in the teacher's room, so he sought permission.  'sir, can I come' 'yeah come, how are you' As other students started leaving the room the conversation had started in the way mentioned earlier. This student who joined the university some 22 months back in the first semester of masters in commerce program, was a shy lad. He had problems dealing with friends, making presentations and many times was...

Few years back while I was reading Thomas Friedman’s The World is Flat, a thought kept penetrating my mind as to whether the transformations that were illustrated and explained really resulted in making the world flatter. There was a feel which was somehow hindering the entry of such belief that really the world is getting flatter, whether opening up of the economy has really helped India in appropriate distribution of wealth. Isn’t it a reality that big corporate houses and huge multinational corporations are killing small businesses and the opening up of the economy is in fact resulting in consolidation? This thought kept me busy for few months till I happen to read the views, comments and research papers by Harvard scholar, Pankaj Ghemawat and the world is flat began to sound more like an illusion, a fiction well defended and attributed to the success stories. I began to read comparative literature and kept an eye on the growth of Indian industries, especially small and medium ...

North Eastern Region (NER) of India has been on the back front so far as visible economic indicators are concerned. However it has huge potential to grow. There are several inherent limitations as well. But while these limitations pose challenge for growth, it becomes more important to concentrate on the potential that this region has and by focusing on this we can deal with the limitations in a better way. Having spent more than two decades in this region, having interacted with policy makers, stakeholders, members of the civil society, and read related literature, I would like to put forth my views as to the initiatives that the new government at the centre needs to take. These are required for capacity building and tapping the potential this region has. Need for inclusion of some chapters related to the life, people, and places of the north eastern region in the primary and secondary standard syllabus (CBSE & ICSE) so that the students of all regions are aware of this r...

India lives in its villages. And India’s most important characteristic on which its strength rests is ‘unity in diversity’.  We have grown with this fact.  The belief that people residing in urban areas are better off than their counterparts toiling in the villages is highly relative.  It really depends as to what really one wants to look at, in tangible form or intangible form. Whatever the case be, it is evident from the practices that the back end support to industrial power houses is provided by this strong rural working population, working hard through their lives. The thinking that standard of living in the villages in tangible terms is poor or relatively bad, is obscure.  It has given birth to an idea of focusing on developing better infrastructure in the rural areas.  It is also necessitated out of issues related to migration (from rural areas to urban areas), which is posing a great challenge to the urban development departments of the respective go...

The other day we were discussing among ourselves the motivation of students to study.  And some of the views of friends were really surprising. One of them said,  'these students are not really students, they are individuals, the class is a group of individuals, not really group of students'.  I thought let me think in my mind what ideally a student is. A student has a drive to learn new things, a student has urge to know more, a student has desire to excel, a student want to compete with others, a student raises questions, a student prepares and participates, a student engages him/herself in studies, etc etc. And then it struck to my mind, if a student is not doing either of this activity, one can not really call a student a student.   This is what gave me questions to raise and solutions to find for the problem that we, the teachers, are facing. Our experiences may not be generalised to all students at all geographies and I also wish that it is proved wro...

I have been thinking about great people and their faculties.  Just thought about following and feel there are many myths about success and achieving greatness and many times we focus on the activities which may not really be as important as their counter activities.  So thought of Intelligence, Mind and Brain, Institutions, Qualification, Degrees and Diplomas, Destination, Profit, Output, Expectation, Pride, Position, Philanthropy, Rigidity, Styles, Relationships, Companionship, and Competition, Tangibles, Acceptance, Expectations, Dexterity etc.  All these are important and contribute well for attaining targets, however their counter terms as a focal points for action become more important.   Though MORE makes it highly relative and I have no intention, whatsoever to get into an exercise of measuring it.  However I am convinced about the hidden importance of counter terms which needs more concentratio...

इंडियन पैनोरमा के द्वारा   शिलांग मे आयोजित फिल्मोत्सव के अंतिम दिन (६ मार्च, २०१४) ,   यानि कल ,   निष्ठा जैन द्वारा निर्देशित   ‘ गुलाबी गैंग ’   देखी।   सम्पत पाल के प्रयासों द्वारा बनाए गए गुलाबी गैंग की प्रष्टभूमि उत्तर प्रदेश के बुंदेलखंड क्षेत्र के बांदा जिले मे स्थित ग्रामों मे महिलाओं के प्रति बड्ते अत्याचारों की कहानी है। भारतीय समाज का एक बहुत बड़ा हल्का इस मद मे लिप्त है कि पारिवारिक ,   सामाजिक व आर्थिक निर्णयों मे पुरुष की प्रधानता सार्वभौम है। इतना ही नहीं लड़कियों व महिलाओं का मानसिक व शारीरिक शोषण इस पुरुष-प्रधान समाज का एक अंग सा बन गया है। उत्तर प्रदेश ,   हरियाणा ,   राजस्थान व देश के कई अन्य स्थानो पर महिलाओं के प्रति अन्याय व उनका शोषण   आय दिन की बात हो गई है।   सबसे चौकाने वाली बात तो यह है कि शोषितों के परिवार वाले भी उनके साथ खड़े होने को तैयार नहीं हैं और इसको भगवान व प्रकृति के द्वारा किया कृत्य   मान कर संतुष्ट   हैं। शोषण कर्ता के खिलाफ आवाज उठाना असंभव सा दीखता है। ऐसी परिस्थितियों मे ...