Happy Teachers Day

We can never thank our teachers enough. But i now realise that the gratitude is even deeper for the teachers of our children. Because of them, we see our kids blossom into real people.
Thank you, for being who you are. No civilisation has yet paid its debt to its teachers.

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sansaar

हर घर में होता है
सारा संसार
बाग़  गलियारे,
मौसम सारे

वेदना की खाई, महत्वाकांक्षा  के पहाड
हंसी के फव्वारे, आहों के अम्बार

हर कमरे में मिलती है
धुप, छाँव, और बारिश

रूठने के बादल से,
इन्द्रधनुष की गुज़ारिश ।।

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The Child Labour you did not know about

Warning: Controversy ahead

There is this training for children. Every year, thousands of children go into depression because of this. A few hundreds even commit suicide. Yet there is no law against it and no one talks against it.

We say that children should not work. Yet we think nothing of burdening not just their bodies, but also their minds, with content that they are unlikely to use again for a long time. We see no crime in taking them away from curiosity and pushing them into memory games that they nothing for the spirit.

Why is it, that no one thinks of formal education as child labour? Because, inherent in this whole "education is best for children" lie, is the assumption that formal schooling is the only kind of "education" that a child should get. Anything else is "child labour".

Yet, to a child not interested in rote learning, or what we call "formal education" that is the worst form of child labour - where you tame the spirit and teach the mind to absorb rather than question.

Even in the new age schools that promote discovery and a spirit of enquiry rather than rote learning, there is a curriculum to be covered.

Obviously, there is nuffink that is universally suitable. So i want to know why parents of multiple generations have believed the lie that formal schooling is the "only best thing" for their children? Why did no one look at their children and say, "this one? he wants to learn vocational work. His heart is in wood."

I am not saying keep children unlettered. Nor am i saying that we should accept child labour for what it is. I just want to modify the definition of child labour - What a child is being forced to do is child labour. A child labours in school just as s/he labours in a vocation.

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ek aur paheli. one more ridde

दो पहेलियां :

वो क्या है, जिस में पड़ना तो आसान है, पर निकलना मुश्किल?
(जवाब सोचें)




वो क्या है, जिसे पाना बहुत कठिन है, पर गंवाना आसान?
(जवाब सोचें)






और अब तीसरी पहेली :

वो क्या  है, जो इन दोनों पहेलियों का जवाब हो सकता है?
प्रेम. 

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Why do we need a second name?

Some of my friends have a very simple naming convention. They just take the father's / husband's name as their last name and thats that.

Last night, i was thinking, its such a lovely way. And then it occured to me: Other than filling up forms and reinforcing patriarchy, a second name doesnt do anything. For anyone.

It helps us slot people into stereotypes. It hurts the society by reinforcing the very pernicious caste system that we are trying to get rid of.

There was a brilliant Idea advertisement, where the protagonist comes up with the idea that henceforth, people will be known only by their phone nos. No caste, no religion, nuffink.

So, why do we need a second or last name at all?

 

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Review of Play Begum Jaan by Ekjute

It was a delight. Thats the short review.

Nadira Babbar plays Begum Jaan and as Juhi Babbar says rightly, Begum Jaan mein jaan daal di (she put life in the character) .

The play is entertaining without being flippant, funny without being vulgar (yeah thats a rarity these days) and tells a story without preaching.(ok, only in parts).

When one goes to see a play, one expects a play. one expects performances, sound modulation and stage presence. One gets all that. AND, one gets a lovely stage setting. That stage setting had my jaw drop from the word go. That the play itself is very, very nicely written is a bonus.

This play is like an onion - layers come off personalities, bit by bit. One of the dialogues in the play can be roughly translated as : People are a lot like onions. If you start peeling off the layers, at some point, your eyes will water.

The play is also like a classic book - everytime you encounter it, you are likely to come away with a new meaning. The characters are not black or white. They have shades of grey, turqoise, bright green, and everything in between. They are real characters, with real personalities - not the unidimensional personalities that popular fiction has us believe exist.

The play raises no new questions. Provides no new answers. But for those 2 hours, it takes you on a journey into a different world. Its like a roller coaster ride on the wings of a thumari.



 

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in this country, politics is in safe hands. the thinkers dont vote, and the voters dont think. :)
 

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