tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-86241538480163173532024-03-06T00:53:46.760+05:30education @ home... in IndiaArunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.comBlogger37125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-77187020767789963952013-12-18T16:08:00.001+05:302021-11-11T11:37:19.542+05:30The last post<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Dear reader,<br />
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This is the last post on this blog. I find that I have nothing more to say about our homeschooling journey.<br />
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Our daughter has successfully negotiated the minefield called school education and is in a college of her choice enjoying her learning experience. We have two more children walking the minefield but there is no fear in walking on a known path.<br />
<br />If you feel the need for a conversation, please feel free to write to me at arunelassery at hotmail dot com. </div><div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on"> <br />
Thanks for taking the time to read this blog,<br />
Arun<br />
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Update: Most of my recent writing on education appears at the Society for Integrated Development of Himalayas (SIDH) blog <a href="http://blog.sidhsri.org" target="_blank">here</a>.</div>
Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-56594859472561487422013-07-08T12:25:00.000+05:302013-07-11T12:08:16.495+05:30One homeschooler less<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
Aditi has finished her 12th standard exams and has joined a college of her choice (http://www.djad.in) and seems to be enjoying herself.<br />
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This is what she got in school. (TMA stands for Teacher Marked Assignments that the children taking the <a href="http://www.nios.ac.in/" target="_blank">NIOS</a> board exams have to submit as part of their course) <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPWsR0XMMrDi0CuaNyVX2K3ZNiHSNIrUV2sl1J81UK0Ys9s-XatJ4mYnwukEP7dYbJ1hpGHyjuvdxKo7bXA9k2s3zCr08mz261QsS1BjkBs7aEopyEb-Tfd6ZB0wIoUt0hFquaBrK4oZg8/s673/AditiResult.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="272" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiPWsR0XMMrDi0CuaNyVX2K3ZNiHSNIrUV2sl1J81UK0Ys9s-XatJ4mYnwukEP7dYbJ1hpGHyjuvdxKo7bXA9k2s3zCr08mz261QsS1BjkBs7aEopyEb-Tfd6ZB0wIoUt0hFquaBrK4oZg8/s320/AditiResult.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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Pretty good considering that she studied completely on her own no?</div>
Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-73532737969621948572012-10-17T16:46:00.000+05:302012-10-18T23:16:32.613+05:30Goood mooorning teacher!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Aditi has been using many wonderful online resources preparing for her 12th standard open school exam. I asked her to make a list and write short descriptions for each. This is what she came up with. Explore and enjoy! </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Name: <a href="http://www.khanacademy.org/" target="_blank">Khan academy</a></span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Short description: Over 3000 interestingly presented videos on maths, physics, chemistry and many other subjects. Used by millions of children across the world, Khan academy is a pioneer in online education.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sample:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/SQzjzStU1RQ?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Name: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/Vihart" target="_blank">Vi Hart</a> <br />Short description: Beautiful doodle videos on geometry and other math concepts. She calls herself a 'recreational mathmusician' and is currently also on the Khan Academy team. Her videos inspired me to make my own mathematical art. <br />Sample: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/DK5Z709J2eo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Name: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/1veritasium" target="_blank">Veritasium</a> <br />Short Description: 'The science video blog, from atoms to astrophysics!'. Whether it is showing how reducing the pressure in a tube of water can make it boil or how far away the moon actually is from Earth, these videos are amazing and lots of fun to watch. <br />Sample:</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/rM04U5BO3Ug?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Name: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/crashcourse" target="_blank">Crash Course</a> <br />Short description: There are two courses here- World history taught by John Green and Biology taught by Hank Green. Entertaining, useful and very well made. The biology videos were the reason I was able to understand what my 12th standard textbook was all about. They manage to explain advanced level concepts in 10 minute doses and in a way that anyone can understand. </span></span>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sample: </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/cj8dDTHGJBY?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Name: <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/minutephysics" target="_blank">Minute Physics</a> <br />Short description: As the name suggests, these are 1 minute videos on physics (most of the time!). The videos on quantum mechanics helped me understand these insanely complicated concepts a little better. </span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Sample: <br /> </span></span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><iframe allowfullscreen='allowfullscreen' webkitallowfullscreen='webkitallowfullscreen' mozallowfullscreen='mozallowfullscreen' width='320' height='266' src='https://www.youtube.com/embed/Wp20Sc8qPeo?feature=player_embedded' frameborder='0'></iframe></span></span></div>
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Others I haven't fully explored-<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/numberphile" target="_blank">Numberphile</a> <br /> 'Videos about numbers, its as simple as that.' <br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/periodicvideos" target="_blank">Periodic table of videos</a> <br />They claim to be the ultimate channel for all things chemistry.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/scishow" target="_blank">Scishow</a> <br />Videos featuring great scientists, interesting experiments, amazing facts and current news from the world of science.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br />Do you know of any more?</span></span>
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-40826478981579106872012-08-13T12:57:00.001+05:302012-08-13T16:28:20.627+05:30Homeschooling: A day in the life<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<i>(The cover story of the current issue of 'Teacher Plus' is on homeschooling. This article I wrote was published with the cover story. Check out http://www.teacherplus.org if you want to read other related articles) </i> <br />
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There are fast-moving white cotton-puff clouds in the bright blue Bangalore sky and through the big window I can see that it’s a beautiful windy day outside. I am sitting in my home-office from where I manage SeasonWatch, an India-wide tree monitoring program for school children, which brings in just enough income for the family. Teacher Plus asked me to write an article about homeschooling and every day for the last month or so, Dinkar, my 10-year old and I have been writing one story each and sharing it with the family in the evenings. Today, I thought I’d combine these two requirements and write an article-story about our homeschooling day.<br />
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As it often happens with us, all five of us are at home. So let us go around the house and see what the others are up to. In the children's room, Aditi, our 16 year old, is watching Bharatanatyam videos on YouTube. Aditi is interested in dance but her first love is photography and she is always experimenting with her high-end DSLR camera. The camera is a gift from her aunt for doing well in her NIOS 10th board exams last year. Aditi maintains a photo blog and many people like her work.<br />
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Dinkar, who unlike his brother and sister, has never been to school, is sitting on the floor behind Aditi and drawing something. He learnt to read only when he was eight years old but he has been sketching and painting from a very young age. He has a knack of representing scenes with very few lines and he likes drawing cartoons with speech bubbles.<br />
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On the dining table, Srikant is reluctantly going through his 7th standard Hindi textbook, which he should have finished two months ago before the end of the last academic year. For two years now, Srikant has been studying completely on his own, but today Kanti is sitting with him to ensure that he does not quietly move to the baithak and curl up with the Terry Pratchett novel that he has obsessively been reading.<br />
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Kanti has taken time out of her busy schedule to sit with Srikant. Her time goes in advanced level cooking, such as the multi-grain sourdough bread that she baked for breakfast today, or in experimenting with the technologies of growing<br />
things for our kitchen on our sunny balconies, or in stitching professional looking clothes for the family, or in the hundred other simple things that keep our household ticking and fun.<br />
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Today is a Saturday – a busy day. Except for a loosely structured basketball class in the evenings, the weekdays are very flexible and free for the children but the weekends are busy. They have music and dance classes for which they walk a kilometer, catch a BMTC bus, get off and walk another kilometer to Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan for their one or two-hour class. Aditi learns Bharatanatyam and both the boys are learning to play the tabla. Srikant has an additional carnatic vocal class with a special teacher on Sunday evenings that he is very passionate about. He travels across town spending 3 hours in buses for his one-hour music class.<br />
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These weekend times when the children are away and also most weekday afternoons when the sun is bright and the roads empty, Kanti and I go for long walks. Although there is not too much of 'nature' around, I like to look at this as our reconnecting-with-nature walk. All five of us are very interested in nature and culture and a lot of the children's weekday time is spent in mostly non-academic reading, in listening to music and in a lot of free play. And because this is Teacher Plus, I feel the mischievous urge to challenge a myth. Over the year, doing two-three hours a day, with week and sometimes month-long gaps, with self-directed, self-paced, unsupervised self-learning, the children finish their academic curriculum with extreme ease.<br />
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The white cotton-puff clouds are still moving across the bright blue sky and Kanti and I have to go walk in the beautiful sunlight outside, so let me wind up this article-story with a really broad perspective on our homeschooling journey. Are you thinking that our family is made up of two stay-at-home adults 'teaching' three children? That is not how I see it! I think our journey has been about five people, who, over the last six years, have had the great good fortune to research, learn and work together with the technologies of happiness and good health and personal growth and sustainable living. And although all these may appear to you like luxuries we do not really need to focus on as we go about our busy lives, I am convinced that these are the technologies that will be valuable in a future that is just around the corner.</div>
Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-14178030474352153332012-02-13T14:27:00.001+05:302012-12-10T00:41:49.495+05:30Perspectives on teaching, learning and education (Part 2: Practicals)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><b>Aim:</b><br />To transform a (0% interest + 100% fear) 12th standard chemistry student to (100% interest + 0% fear) in a weeks time<br /><br /><b>Apparatus: </b><br />A. 1 hard working and intelligent 12th standard student who is going to take his board exams in a months time<br />B. 2 hard working and intelligent homeschooling parents of 3 homeschooled children<br />C. 1 ability to download (without paying even one naya paisa) content from the Internet<br />D. 1 Internet ready computer to do the above<br />E. 1 week of time to do the experiment<br /><br /><b>Procedure:</b><br />There are of course 1 million ways of doing this right. Apparatus B (the experimenters) modestly claim to have accidentally stumbled upon only one of these ways. (Detailed out in Annexure 1 but don't jump there right away because the few lines in between are carefully chosen to instruct and entertain) <br /><br />There are of course also 1 million ways of doing this wrong. And apparatus B are happy to suppose that the more than 1 million schools in the world are probably doing diligent research on these ways. <br /><br /><b>Observations:</b><br />1. It was observed that apparatus A (the student) was excited not just by the chemistry resources he used but also by the very process of learning. <br />2. It was also observed that apparatus B who had thought that nothing from their homeschooling experience was valid for the 'conventional' school system were very pleasantly surprised to have been proven wrong.<br /><br /><b>Result:</b><br />100% interest, 0% fear and 90% of the entire 12th standard chemistry syllabus 'learned' in 1 week.<br /><br /><b>Precautions: </b><br />Doing this experiment with sub-standard apparatus can possibly cause dangerous local explosions. <br /><br /><b>Ideas for further research:</b><br />The readers are urged to do their own research on the other 999999 right ways of doing this experiment.<br /><br /><b>Acknowledgement:</b><br />Apparatus B would like to thank Shashi, apparatus A's father and, even more, Anita apparatus A's mother, for allowing this experiment to be conducted on their precious son by the often wild-eyed and admittedly volatile and unstable apparatus B.<br /><br /><u><b>Annexure 1: Some random notes from the experiment</b></u><br /><br />Looking back and analysing what went on, it seems like the experiment had three fuzzily-demarcated and parallel processes:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">- Interest generation</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">- Learning how to learn</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">- Confidence building<br /><br />Some points from the above processes are listed out below in no particular order:<br />(Pranav is a very hardworking and very intelligent young man and every point that follows should be seen with this context in mind)<br /><br />Pranav came the first day expecting to be taught! I told him that I didn't remember enough chemistry to teach a 2 year old baby (that shook him a bit :-)) but also told him that there was no question that he could ask that I could not find the answer to. Also told him that he obviously knew more chemistry than me and getting him equally confident was what the experiment was really about. <br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">During the course of the week Pranav discovered on two or three occassions that indeed I (or Kanti) could answer his questions. I think our availability and capability that had got proven was enough to boost his confidence. He didn't seem to need us after that.<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">All five of us at home + Pranav sat together and watched and marveled at a three part BBC serial- Chemistry, a volatile history. Pranav as you can well imagine had no clue that this kind of stuff is what chemistry was really about. He was hooked! He also then on his own steam went through some random Russian books on popular chemistry and science that were lying around here at home.<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">He had heard about http://www.khanacademy.org but after he eagerly went through 50 or so Salman Khan videos on organic chemistry and learned the difference between 1,2-dimethylcyclohexane and 1,3-dimethylcyclohexane he was very excited that for the first time in his life he knew all this without having had to mug anything up. <br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The new way of learning we tried had no lectures, no hand holding and also no scope for rote learning (Pranav believed that many parts of his syllabus like organic chemistry required mugging up and he did not want to do this. The first time I opened the 12th standard text book, written in the Preface I discovered- 'The approach of presentation of the subject matter discourages students from rote memorisation.' Pranav's well thumbed book did not have the outer cover and the preface pages :-))<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Pranav spent 1.5 to 2 hour intense alone periods where he shut himself into a room with no interruptions, no doubt-clearing and no distractions (his cell phone :-)). He would come out for a half hour or 1 hour in between the sessions for rest, questions, discussions and any other diversions like lunch or playing with the kids.<br /> </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">When we started, I read through the first 3 chapters just to make sure that I could hold my side of the bargain. This engagement with the subject really helped when Pranav had his few doubts. For example I discovered that I needed the 11th standard book to see the continuity of the subject. Pranav, of course, did not have his 11th standard text book because he had already 'finished' with it last year.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Towards the end of the week Pranav was trying to get a
full chapter on to a single large sheet of paper as a visual,
interlinked, non-linear mind map.</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Annexure 2: The last word </b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">(This is inspired by the ending of part 1 or the theory part of this post which, if you get interested, is available <a href="http://arunelassery.blogspot.in/2008/12/perspectives-on-teaching-learning-and.html">here</a>)<br /><br />Beautiful heaven, true heaven, look how I change!<br />After such arrogance, after so much strange <br />Idleness- strange, yet full of potency-<br />I am all open to these shining spaces;<br /><br /><i>(A fragment from 'The graveyard by the sea' by Paul Valery<br />Translated by C. Day Lewis)</i></span></div>
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-10225858570449002342011-09-06T17:17:00.001+05:302022-03-03T12:03:00.228+05:30Aditi's 10th standard marks<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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That is an aggregate of 73% and if you take Sanskrit out of the equation we get a respectable 77%.<br />
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We WERE thinking that it would be in the 90's you know, just like what all the other intelligent and hard working children like Aditi appear to be getting in their 10th standard board results nowadays. <br />
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But this result probably proves that you cannot get 90% if you:<br />
a. Prepare only 3 months for a public exam<br />
b. Do not have practice writing exams<br />
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Well, the 90 would have been a story worth shouting from the rooftops but probably just as well. Just as well, I think, because I do not at all feel confident about inspiring any more befuddled and misguided homeschoolers like us.<br />
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:-)<br />
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Peace brothers and sisters! <br />
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-4116713157053439452010-10-25T16:17:00.006+05:302012-08-13T13:07:10.838+05:30GreenScraps- Nature journaling workshop<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;">About GreenScraps:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQF9pObNUZ7Wg-JLfhI4f1IB-6X4XWT7h9ph3xmC9TSybS02WwLDWT860OzwMOTmYy9TVVnvhNDN8vfFjpfC6ce6B69pbfepWJdWM_7Roxhnc07z1-sGUezazj2dTw9zMPL42BhM5FHyxK/s1600/GreenScraps+Post+copy.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQF9pObNUZ7Wg-JLfhI4f1IB-6X4XWT7h9ph3xmC9TSybS02WwLDWT860OzwMOTmYy9TVVnvhNDN8vfFjpfC6ce6B69pbfepWJdWM_7Roxhnc07z1-sGUezazj2dTw9zMPL42BhM5FHyxK/s320/GreenScraps+Post+copy.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">About the organizers:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lG1FNq50VhShogW79IW2zdUMwLfm4jk9dJbZq2qclZuCbRXtWx6RO-Cj9omlJ0qhJsrkmjCrcAsNXTqNbofRtM6voyz-obIibrLZvzD8Ca3XB0Cfn-OJxtDqeEsSAOHanOCujGAz6MJT/s1600/IMG_2024.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7lG1FNq50VhShogW79IW2zdUMwLfm4jk9dJbZq2qclZuCbRXtWx6RO-Cj9omlJ0qhJsrkmjCrcAsNXTqNbofRtM6voyz-obIibrLZvzD8Ca3XB0Cfn-OJxtDqeEsSAOHanOCujGAz6MJT/s320/IMG_2024.JPG" width="320" /></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Sangeetha Kadur and Shilpashree, artists with a deep interest and knowledge about nature. Check out Sangeethas blog <a href="http://sangeethakadur.blogspot.com/">here</a>. </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">About what our children experienced:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Epilogue:</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Dear Sangeetha and Shilpa,</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">Thank you both for this wonderful initiative. Your 'art' and your 'science' and your ability to form relationships with the children is awesome. Yesterday I got the children to write about the workshop. This is what they had to say.</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">Aditi:</span><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">The GreenScraps workshop was about observing, recording and learning more about nature. I really liked the way that we not only drew the plants and creatures but were also told their names and interesting facts about them. Both Sangeetha and Shilpa know so much about trees, plants, birds and animals! They were both very nice and made the workshop very interesting and lots of fun. We also played lots of games and did some activities like taking impressions of tree barks, finding the things they called out and also identifying a tree after being blindfolded and led to it. The whole workshop was very memorable and I thoroughly enjoyed it.</span><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;"> </span><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">Srikant:</span><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">GreenScraps is a 5 day nature journalling workshop by Sangeetha and Shilpa. Although I loved all the 5 days, I particularly liked an activity called 'nature bingo', in which you draw or sketch the things in a list given to you. The only thing I was sad about was that the workshop was so short. One of the most memorable moments was when we were sketching cormorants and pelicans by the Lalbagh lake. Both Sangeetha and Shilpa are very nice teachers and people.</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">Dinkar:</span><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">GreenScraps is a workshop on nature run by Sangeetha and Shilpa. I liked how Sangeetha and Shilpa showed us different birds, trees and plants. I liked everything. Sangeetha and Shilpa are very good nature teachers.</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">Thanks again to both of you,</span><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">Arun, Kanti, Aditi, Srikant and Dinkar </span></span></div>
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-75423670796760624382010-08-14T21:47:00.002+05:302012-08-13T13:09:49.897+05:30About Us: In the media<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://indiatoday.intoday.in/site/Story/97365/Education/The+De-school+brigade.html">The De-school brigade</a>- Malini Bhupta in 'India Today'</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://woman.intoday.in/woman/story.jsp?sid=6749">No kidding we don’t go to school</a>- Preetha Nair in 'Mail Today'</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.andpersandmag.com/archives/october/magazine-page.html#3">Home school home</a>- Preetika Mathew in Andpersand</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;"><a href="http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=hub181008home_furnished.asp">Home furnished</a>- Nisha Susan in 'Tehelka'</span><br style="color: black;" /><br style="color: black;" /><span style="color: black;">A small list yet, but Tehelka? I am honored :-) </span></span></div>
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-19068432608926674662010-07-26T16:51:00.008+05:302012-08-13T13:11:48.120+05:30About Us: Aditi<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-owu75WhZPtLKFEShO8WQiDbWjMsBb2gUa5xr4_5RgtWZfY4-LDCQ_xTHvZWgW3QgWoRnBn4LCSL1nKossqZLOPv2E5jAWoBCOSAgFQ7Lj5byohKzcPC0nU_yVJYIcGj6me5kZIhLDAXG/s1600/aditi.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-owu75WhZPtLKFEShO8WQiDbWjMsBb2gUa5xr4_5RgtWZfY4-LDCQ_xTHvZWgW3QgWoRnBn4LCSL1nKossqZLOPv2E5jAWoBCOSAgFQ7Lj5byohKzcPC0nU_yVJYIcGj6me5kZIhLDAXG/s320/aditi.jpg" /></a></div>
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<u><b>Details:</b></u></div>
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Name: Aditi Elassery</div>
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Age: 14</div>
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Education: Homeschooled since 2006. Probably next year taking the 10th standard board administered by NIOS </div>
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<u><b>Interests:</b></u></div>
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Reading, photography, drawing, history, music, nature</div>
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<u><b>Sample of creativity:</b></u></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1fWGsHKdPPLeQ2MgCvUVc7ykp7pEI89tQOVV8t6RDhGGa0UZHUoFoA47wOZQ4ATKyddqaFb-kzrO66LWyzlViYtohS5iVK7TDUugEI64v_i0B1JgtzfkkqhTvt3VvpbRf5houdrKmhIj/s1600/lightcircl.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiX1fWGsHKdPPLeQ2MgCvUVc7ykp7pEI89tQOVV8t6RDhGGa0UZHUoFoA47wOZQ4ATKyddqaFb-kzrO66LWyzlViYtohS5iVK7TDUugEI64v_i0B1JgtzfkkqhTvt3VvpbRf5houdrKmhIj/s320/lightcircl.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">A lit paper lantern photographed by Aditi</td></tr>
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<u><b>Family's Assessment:</b></u></div>
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Aditi is...</div>
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... an introverted teenager but is still very comfortable in her relationships with both children and adults.<i> (Arun's opinion)</i></div>
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... a gentle, considerate girl who can be focused and efficient when situations demand it. <i>(Kanti's opinion)</i> </div>
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... always trying to become better, like not getting too angry, but often forgets. <i>(Aditi's opinion)</i> </div>
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... a very good person but sometimes gets on my nerves and irritates me. <i>(Srikant's opinion)</i></div>
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... nice. <i>(Dinkar's opinion)</i></div>
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<u><b>One positive external assessment:</b></u> </div>
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With the simple camera that she uses and with no formal learning I have not seen anybody else who can take pictures like Aditi. <i>(Friend Surkhab Shaukeen a professional photographer who has studied and taught in the US)</i></div>
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-18322663072754986622010-07-26T16:51:00.007+05:302012-08-13T13:13:21.030+05:30About Us: Srikant<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIXbzfMv4tS4TRLPDFvcNmJXVMUbwI3eVz1LSWl-HOZUpd4NJKxpO9GdT-2IaS9KD1TRsVyHP4wX-U2DuOt-K4qZCdWTotB5PJfLYiXkppJ7v6FpbW_uNPHgcrkgYbvQgJjSe3nR1Nf3Q/s1600/srikant.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjIXbzfMv4tS4TRLPDFvcNmJXVMUbwI3eVz1LSWl-HOZUpd4NJKxpO9GdT-2IaS9KD1TRsVyHP4wX-U2DuOt-K4qZCdWTotB5PJfLYiXkppJ7v6FpbW_uNPHgcrkgYbvQgJjSe3nR1Nf3Q/s320/srikant.jpg" /></a></div>
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<u><b>Details:</b></u></div>
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Name: Srikant Elassery</div>
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Age: 11</div>
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Education: Homeschooled since 2006. Going through class 6 material now </div>
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<u><b>Interests:</b></u></div>
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Reading, music, drawing, geography, trains, planes, cooking </div>
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<u><b>Sample of creativity:</b></u></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4Va_xbjZ2BiirIkfLlk_wlTq3j2uVeW31QTCYDWLlM8NqUoZNlXIyxEVbabgbhJgqvv-De3tPO9ZP9riftb4F8cvruAZtGEoETB88Hp4hLW7g2y_ZRgdyoJAPYbGhwaFmmPhXAKyXro_/s1600/newship.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgD4Va_xbjZ2BiirIkfLlk_wlTq3j2uVeW31QTCYDWLlM8NqUoZNlXIyxEVbabgbhJgqvv-De3tPO9ZP9riftb4F8cvruAZtGEoETB88Hp4hLW7g2y_ZRgdyoJAPYbGhwaFmmPhXAKyXro_/s320/newship.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ship made with the pod of the tulip tree</td></tr>
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<u><b>Family's Assessment:</b></u></div>
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Srikant is...</div>
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... physically strong, musically talented and has a vivid imagination.<i> (Arun's opinion)</i></div>
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... a bit enamored with the trappings of money, extremely strong-willed, a talented musician. <i>(Kanti's opinion)</i> </div>
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... sometimes stupid and sometimes very sensible. <i>(Aditi's opinion)</i> </div>
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... a nice boy but sometimes he is very selfish and stubborn. <i>(Srikant's opinion)</i></div>
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... interested in planes. <i>(Dinkar's opinion)</i></div>
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<u><b>One positive external assessment:</b></u> </div>
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If he continues, Srikant can become a professional Tabla player. <i>(Srikant's Tabla teacher)</i></div>
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Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-40737958879442713872010-07-26T16:51:00.006+05:302012-08-13T13:29:09.630+05:30About Us: Dinkar<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xWWygEIMcimjBsTuJpKT2G_ishu-dx39pVhyY-eAHq8z-ZQwi7TsUfPYYGD3aUbmKh9Ov69KIPR_ppWBM-b9d9jQ8y79Wz8IIcNyOGFcli2gS2Ap4fSp1ZQkOBuUYek6nULSUM6Qqfo9/s1600/dinkar.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg9xWWygEIMcimjBsTuJpKT2G_ishu-dx39pVhyY-eAHq8z-ZQwi7TsUfPYYGD3aUbmKh9Ov69KIPR_ppWBM-b9d9jQ8y79Wz8IIcNyOGFcli2gS2Ap4fSp1ZQkOBuUYek6nULSUM6Qqfo9/s320/dinkar.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Details:</b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Name: Dinkar Elassery</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Age: 8</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Education: Never been to school. Going through class 3 material now </span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Interests:</b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Drawing, cars, planes, nature</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Sample of creativity:</b></u></span></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgw7W6vpCN3X110nf4UbshPVrznFCxZjn09sjlUeY2hB-fLkum9ph0ky2dxTcOMMj_JEGtdpAVnXNVvVSVNCA0hTETx2whSmak2qZnvziCzrnLjFAMuWtWIqGwp9v1qFRA0YVJmfAgpG2/s1600/horse.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiUgw7W6vpCN3X110nf4UbshPVrznFCxZjn09sjlUeY2hB-fLkum9ph0ky2dxTcOMMj_JEGtdpAVnXNVvVSVNCA0hTETx2whSmak2qZnvziCzrnLjFAMuWtWIqGwp9v1qFRA0YVJmfAgpG2/s320/horse.jpg" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>Family's Assessment:</b></u></span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Dinkar is...</span></div>
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<span style="font-size: small;">... mischievous and artistic and wise beyond his years.<i> (Arun's opinion)</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">... creative and intuitive, appears insubordinate because he thinks totally out of the box. <i>(Kanti's opinion)</i></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">... very troublesome sometimes but otherwise quite nice. <i>(Aditi's opinion)</i></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">... a very good person but very naughty. <i>(Srikant's opinion)</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">... interested in playing. <i>(Dinkar's opinion)</i></span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><br />
</span></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;"><u><b>One positive external assessment:</b></u></span> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<span style="font-size: small;">Many children come to me but nobody is able to think at this level. <i>(Shashi Maheshwari, Dinkar's drawing teacher in Delhi talking to us)</i></span></div>
</div>
Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-85327492001235135262010-07-26T16:50:00.004+05:302012-08-13T13:28:27.105+05:30About Us: Kanti<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJg3N_z9Hnh5rTf0AXRq4_XRJWkgtm8bTq5pcR2qgf7sEHw1hyphenhyphenVIzdIzXJT1upwGv8i9glxX0PAJqpC2_SshgDtQXm1dIYmabrw-CWDMUMskjbrz0rH_pAul0QCTBWVbUfgVOP-0gli4s/s1600/amma.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnJg3N_z9Hnh5rTf0AXRq4_XRJWkgtm8bTq5pcR2qgf7sEHw1hyphenhyphenVIzdIzXJT1upwGv8i9glxX0PAJqpC2_SshgDtQXm1dIYmabrw-CWDMUMskjbrz0rH_pAul0QCTBWVbUfgVOP-0gli4s/s320/amma.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif;">
</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Details:</b></u></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Name: SV Kanti Ratna</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Age: 40</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Education: Master of Computer Science (MCS), Pune university, 1993 </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Current work: Full time at home</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Interests:</b></u></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Cooking, growing plants, stitching, education, personal growth</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Sample of creativity:</b></u></div>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEE7i69C8KkMNiJ3P0J0FcNDK21K6JARV55hSlMhI1oFZqV4Khqqd_RUrt3Mvg9TI41AQ8CFAUtUM3y5uIToCrA80JJm7a-yWCXd3jSVVoZ74yXNsVdSmn7hDgGWN2jEHtc6vbhbeTCLfa/s1600/bread.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhEE7i69C8KkMNiJ3P0J0FcNDK21K6JARV55hSlMhI1oFZqV4Khqqd_RUrt3Mvg9TI41AQ8CFAUtUM3y5uIToCrA80JJm7a-yWCXd3jSVVoZ74yXNsVdSmn7hDgGWN2jEHtc6vbhbeTCLfa/s320/bread.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sour dough bread baked by Kanti</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Family's Assessment:</b></u></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Kanti is...</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... the real implementer of all our strange ideas and she is very good at this job. <i>(Arun's opinion)</i></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... an autocratic perfectionist. <i>(Kanti's opinion)</i> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... a nice person to be with, though she shouts a lot occasionally. <i>(Aditi's opinion)</i> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... a very lovable person but sometimes she shouts a lot. <i>(Srikant's opinion)</i></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... nice sometimes and bad sometimes <i>(Dinkar's opinion)</i></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>One positive external assessment:</b></u><br />
The only good thing that Arun has done in his life has been to get married to Kanti <i>(Arun's friend, after he met Kanti)</i> </div>
</div>
Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-80115782953808444172010-07-26T16:50:00.002+05:302012-08-13T13:20:43.700+05:30About Us: Arun<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
</div>
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgun3_fhZGikh89BYdZoQlEYL3qM4XKGaqzV7_zSY6u53a8TjM2Qf0lE78d790HlEMZzwmsiiDLx9l15kEPc4BYQapzKsW0MiKwaE4Mkz0lbxyiEsszMdlv8wL_tArC_Jso5VdgWTayW5qj/s1600/arun.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgun3_fhZGikh89BYdZoQlEYL3qM4XKGaqzV7_zSY6u53a8TjM2Qf0lE78d790HlEMZzwmsiiDLx9l15kEPc4BYQapzKsW0MiKwaE4Mkz0lbxyiEsszMdlv8wL_tArC_Jso5VdgWTayW5qj/s320/arun.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Details:</b></u></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Name: Arun Elassery</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Age: 44</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Education: BTech, IIT Kharagpur, 1988 </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Current work: WATIS (Wipro Applying Thought In Schools)</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Interests:</b></u></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Talking, writing, reading, education, self development</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Sample of creativity:</b></u></div>
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwNcA5tMk9JqQvxErq3lWX-kV0CH4yXVq4VMk3rxq_rW7Ji1g_XTuMa6mD6u_2cT9MU9Pull5CoGJI05hIJPuBBgNMBhcVZ6uYTJY5_cEG81eTpdR-EHXHlFFOYYRTJCYOcD9VrrK692U/s1600/front+cover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEikwNcA5tMk9JqQvxErq3lWX-kV0CH4yXVq4VMk3rxq_rW7Ji1g_XTuMa6mD6u_2cT9MU9Pull5CoGJI05hIJPuBBgNMBhcVZ6uYTJY5_cEG81eTpdR-EHXHlFFOYYRTJCYOcD9VrrK692U/s320/front+cover.jpg" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
A picture book for children called 'The Laughing Onion' written by me. Available from Eklavya <a href="http://www.eklavya.in/order/">here</a> or from A1 books <a href="http://www.a1books.co.in/laughing-onion/itemdetail/8189976133/">here</a></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>Family's Assessment:</b></u></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Arun is...</div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... still in the process of growing up out of a long childhood. <i>(Arun's opinion)</i></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... the happy philosopher captain of our family ship. <i>(Kanti's opinion)</i> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... a fun person to be with, though he irritates me sometimes. <i>(Aditi's opinion)</i> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... a very nice person but sometimes he is irritating. <i>(Srikant's opinion)</i></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
... nice sometimes and bad sometimes <i>(Dinkar's opinion)</i></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<br /></div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
<u><b>One positive external assessment:</b></u> </div>
<div style="font-family: inherit;">
Nice article. Fun to see the picture. They failed to mention that you're a rebel mystic, though, and quite likely a danger to society. <i>(Friend Chuck Schreiner after reading the Tehelka magazine article on homeschooling that featured us that you can see <a href="http://www.tehelka.com/story_main40.asp?filename=hub181008home_furnished.asp">here</a>)</i></div>
</div>
Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-68968163433113677282010-06-25T21:00:00.006+05:302022-03-28T11:30:06.163+05:30Trip to Sikkim<span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="font-family: Times,"Times New Roman",serif; font-size: small;"></span><br />
<div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Description: </b> </span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">6 day trek from Yuksam to Dzongri (Kanchendzonga base camp) and back, West Sikkim<br />
<br />
<b>Date:</b> </span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Late April, 2010<br />
<br />
<b>Why</b> (or why not on Discovery channel):<br />
To stand at the highest point of our trek (14000 ft) at 5 AM in freezing cold surrounded by majestic white mountains to watch the sky lightening as the sun rises over the kanchendzonga mountain range and to feel the incredible joy and incredible sadness of being there<br />
<br />
<b>Team:</b></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b></b>Family 1: Kanti, Arun, Aditi, Srikant, Dinkar<br />
Family 2: Sangeetha, Sathish, Shalom, Ishaan<br />
Guide: Jeet Bahadur Gurung alias JB </span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Cooks: Bir Bahadur alias BB and helper Ashish<br />
Yakmen: Mani alias Baichung and Indra the intrepid Chang drinker<br />
Yaks: Blackie 1, Blackie 2, Snowwhite, Brownie 1, Brownie 2<br />
<br />
<b>Problems:</b><br />
- Walking trails full of yak and pony dung, slushy slippery mud, leeches </span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">- Bitter cold, Hailstorms and at Dzongri a proper snowstorm, leaking tents, no proper toilets, no change of clothes <br />
- Mild altitude sickness, low energy on the way up (only for the adults, children were fine throughout)<br />
<b><br />
Discoveries:</b><br />
- Chang a wonderful millet wine that you have to see and taste to believe<br />
- Our own arrogance (or is that ignorance) in thinking we could do this difficultish walk. (The first people we talked to said we can't take 7 and 8 year olds up)<br />
- Our guide whom we chanced upon and who made the whole experience very very special indeed (Contact JB at 9647888415 if you want to do this or other treks in Sikkim. He comes with a very high recommendation from all of us adults and especially children for his exceptional efficiency and good humor)<br />
<br />
<b>Random photos:</b></span><br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyhCnhGAZlWh6swi18K0LTzKAgzc4oNvvFTdrPNDvAiy5tTj0iGpaa-Z_UW5IxWuAvLj9d0BgnRQfzVgIrAG1UfN6ef4kEWzTqb_9RfNvLUve6mZTcazNhy9_5QXdFdz2kGM8ca-S1y9J/s1600/IMG_1794.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiyhCnhGAZlWh6swi18K0LTzKAgzc4oNvvFTdrPNDvAiy5tTj0iGpaa-Z_UW5IxWuAvLj9d0BgnRQfzVgIrAG1UfN6ef4kEWzTqb_9RfNvLUve6mZTcazNhy9_5QXdFdz2kGM8ca-S1y9J/s400/IMG_1794.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b><span style="font-size: medium;">The children. Ever cheerful and ever ahead</span></span><br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0V-VAbbiwZ-or5g8laW_Xf9_91U7kba4y3gv7EnGrsWOdKE6MpYvI13tLfV1PxJiVFbOLtsZLEYt4wJtLLsG5TEEpFb6AFJrYim34DcpanTLaZfLKfSPqTC4i6Kv7doSEw4SysTPeAkOF/s1600/IMG_1757.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi0V-VAbbiwZ-or5g8laW_Xf9_91U7kba4y3gv7EnGrsWOdKE6MpYvI13tLfV1PxJiVFbOLtsZLEYt4wJtLLsG5TEEpFb6AFJrYim34DcpanTLaZfLKfSPqTC4i6Kv7doSEw4SysTPeAkOF/s400/IMG_1757.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><span style="font-size: medium;"> The tents we stayed in on 3 of the 6 nights we were trekking</span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrj-BeVYCzMwW8KOOt05DrENzVQXawhxy-niipUCjQJ9wANgsobVj0QqIzuqHo5sSPpm0w55byOUFaL78sRaKPvlqI9pFGD6hQL2Em7SJHL-gs5YFuioHOveiXBMXfo-SICasJrozCwtGB/s1600/IMG_1797.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjrj-BeVYCzMwW8KOOt05DrENzVQXawhxy-niipUCjQJ9wANgsobVj0QqIzuqHo5sSPpm0w55byOUFaL78sRaKPvlqI9pFGD6hQL2Em7SJHL-gs5YFuioHOveiXBMXfo-SICasJrozCwtGB/s400/IMG_1797.jpg" width="300" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">JB with Ishaan. Believe me, JB is magic!</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS-NmvUYI01fy5QFlKteWV5nqX5PLV5p2CCUk7_DnUSQ_VOV2tZ4BFIxO35h2cKKLwes7gfAvpPgVCNfjkhEdAdk81DQLU2b4yGPS20neEWQEErkUOggeZXW9vZZ2ihVuxyTb9DLy0dlIs/s1600/IMG_1812.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS-NmvUYI01fy5QFlKteWV5nqX5PLV5p2CCUk7_DnUSQ_VOV2tZ4BFIxO35h2cKKLwes7gfAvpPgVCNfjkhEdAdk81DQLU2b4yGPS20neEWQEErkUOggeZXW9vZZ2ihVuxyTb9DLy0dlIs/s400/IMG_1812.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Viewpoint at Dzongri. The highest point of our trek</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZv2n73d9Qb7abH5jPQ3P397-u6t74LgSq6tUFbp2AzXzaUkZ4BbgXZb_iGSLTuo5gEk9b1Pf8UgKKrQlnlpO5ADK6vgTkKQL_Mbj5ONnArZekvHQwvMYsTbZC-2yHB4KikMEAl-G5rEY/s1600/IMG_1847.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvZv2n73d9Qb7abH5jPQ3P397-u6t74LgSq6tUFbp2AzXzaUkZ4BbgXZb_iGSLTuo5gEk9b1Pf8UgKKrQlnlpO5ADK6vgTkKQL_Mbj5ONnArZekvHQwvMYsTbZC-2yHB4KikMEAl-G5rEY/s400/IMG_1847.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Majestic Kanchendzonga range. Praying distance away</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyTrpJXAcOAuKxEqpksoCAwO5d2UQpLcu5xihv3HWmXyGJFaRNRqMN3HTgwIeMUAzr8kJBI_aVSPOvG1WmLjmjEgkfS5WcL9uHDlQwBq8fIBGg86fVqslzrKPW3gCQX5Be1zA75xmqUAu/s1600/IMG_1883.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigyTrpJXAcOAuKxEqpksoCAwO5d2UQpLcu5xihv3HWmXyGJFaRNRqMN3HTgwIeMUAzr8kJBI_aVSPOvG1WmLjmjEgkfS5WcL9uHDlQwBq8fIBGg86fVqslzrKPW3gCQX5Be1zA75xmqUAu/s400/IMG_1883.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Mist on the way down</span></span></div><br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8eOjbTpwZikK3rlixeOzRHknLbtC-4hFZth_EnUn0uafgJWKSRJmv9EPv7sNmE5Zp_tey4av76katDk98voqLU9ZvNTlI77BGvGqAf5jcU51xiQexVYNtbpqQ7C4IZVuY8TMHemETmX6/s1600/IMG_1888.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS8eOjbTpwZikK3rlixeOzRHknLbtC-4hFZth_EnUn0uafgJWKSRJmv9EPv7sNmE5Zp_tey4av76katDk98voqLU9ZvNTlI77BGvGqAf5jcU51xiQexVYNtbpqQ7C4IZVuY8TMHemETmX6/s400/IMG_1888.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Dinkar test rides a yak. Yes, I will take this one with the power steering option please!</span><br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><b> </b></span></div></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMyVUp_kMOy1dPbVRy5iS_Jkccp3GIpOS992_e9caOHE1zYA29rEvnw3O9-NtuzN7gKqwMRDzLuv8NHcjsHmujxLaDzuGBOcxLmUU1Jl4kwqz2kNFTol6aEPZIIG_vyxB75ncDqeRG_hPO/s1600/IMG_1922.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMyVUp_kMOy1dPbVRy5iS_Jkccp3GIpOS992_e9caOHE1zYA29rEvnw3O9-NtuzN7gKqwMRDzLuv8NHcjsHmujxLaDzuGBOcxLmUU1Jl4kwqz2kNFTol6aEPZIIG_vyxB75ncDqeRG_hPO/s400/IMG_1922.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><div style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The adults celebrate with Chang. The smiles on the faces and the haziness of the picture depicts their collective state of mind</span></div></div>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-72880886158861307202010-06-20T20:11:00.009+05:302022-03-28T12:44:19.423+05:30What is 'Spiritual education'?<div style="font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: small;"></span><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Over the years I have been feeling that the most important component of our educational journey, the most value we have created together, has been due to the simple fact that due to great good fortune all of us ended up spending a whole lot of time together as a family. This i have been feeling has resulted in all of us growing up TOGETHER and also miraculously growing TOWARDS each other. <br />
<br />
Examples:<br />
- I got interested in history because of Aditi my daughter's interest<br />
- Dinkar our 7 year old got interested in kabir bhajans because of me <br />
- 10 year old Srikant likes and understands carnatic music so all the rest of us are also very interested in it <br />
- All five of us together have begun to awaken to beauty in art and nature<br />
<br />
I can give many more examples but you get the point no?<br />
<br />
Now take a look at this excerpt: <br />
<br />
<i>After all, the child is essentially a soul with a body, life-energy and mind to be harmoniously and integrally developed. The education is therefore so organised as to secure:</i></span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>* the fullest possible development of the physique;<br />
* a fruitful channelisation of the life-energy in pursuits that contribute to the growth of the personality;<br />
* a sufficient training of the mental faculties in the fields of various Humanities and Sciences; and<br />
* the requisite help, through a powerful spiritual atmosphere, for the soul to come forward and gradually begin to govern the rest of the being. <br />
<br />
- Excerpt from the website of 'SRI AUROBINDO INTERNATIONAL CENTRE OF EDUCATION'</i><br />
</span><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-size: medium;">This now makes me ready to attempt a tentative definition for what spiritual education may mean. Here goes...<br />
<br />
IF <br />
we can define 'Spiritual art' as art that is created by a 'spiritual' artist<br />
(Think of Ajanta or the great temples or a beautiful Tibetan Thangka all of which if it moves you inexplicably are probably created by spiritually evolved humans)<br />
<br />
THEN</span></div><div style="color: black; font-family: Times, "Times New Roman", serif;"><span style="font-size: medium;">we can probably define 'Spiritual education' as education happening around a 'spiritual' educator<br />
(Or in other words education taking place within a spiritual atmosphere)<br />
<br />
Does that make sense or does that sound a lot like trying to define one variable in terms of another? What do you think?</span></div>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-87132925946515350042009-11-18T11:00:00.004+05:302022-03-28T12:42:55.349+05:30A DisclaimerPrema and Nithya came and met us some time ago with their young children. This post is a response to Nithya telling me that she got depressed reading some of my blog posts because we seem to be superparents and superkids always DOING the right things. Her specific complaint was about our family watching the solar eclipse together as mentioned in a previous post. Nithya was convinced that she would not have the energy to organize their family looking at the eclipse together like we did.<br /><br />And this I thought gave me the perfect setting to write this...<br /><br /><b>Disclaimer:</b><br /><br />1. Our children are older than six. And this blog is about our experiences homeschooling them. If your children are not six yet, please don't get exhilarated or unhappy about anything written here. What you read here is probably not directly relevant to you.<br /><br />2. I did not have to spend energy convincing or coercing my children to watch the solar eclipse. All of us were equally excited by it. Please remember that this broad commonality of purpose that is one of the miracles that we have noticed over our 4 year homeschooling experience did not happen overnight. It has come as a wonderful gift slowly over the years, unheralded and unsought. And I believe that this or other unsought gifts will come to all who are willing to take the plunge into the unknown. Just don't expect it to appear within 30 minutes like a Dominos Pizza.<br /><br />3. Our homeschooling experience is 99% about long boring days, about a general air of tension in the house, about angry moments and smacked bottoms and in many other ways lots of material too boring to be talked about on this blog. We consider homeschooling to be a long term practice and we recognize that any long term practice is made up of a few peaks interspersed with many many plateaus.<br /><br />4. We wanted to live a more conscious life, we needed more time together, time to think and act in a manner that was not dictated by EMIs or school or office schedules. This was our central requirement and my working from home and the children not going to school were the means to meeting this requirement. So homeschooling in our case is like an indicator or a symptom of our life choices and as such not the main focus of our lives. (I know that I need to do some explaining here and I intend to do that in a more leisurely manner in my next post).<br /><br />5. All of us (and especially Kanti and me) work very very hard. (Although to the unsympathetic eye it may look remarkably like lazing around) We strongly believe that this commitment to hard work on the part of the parents is the pre-qualification to become a homeschooler.<br /><br /><b>---End of disclaimer---</b><br /><br />Thank you Nithya for making me think about all this. I hope this public answer helps you to forgive us our superhumanbeingness.Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-82862817347334042812009-08-04T15:13:00.025+05:302022-03-28T12:40:04.393+05:30The Rule of TenI think that Kanti and I discovered the 'Rule of Ten' when Aditi was two or three years old. The way we defined it, it states that-<br /><br />Where one unit of effort is required (by your estimation) to get a desired outcome with your child, you have to unquestioningly, unconditionally put in ten!<br /><br />I thought this important enough to communicate to my friend when he became a first time father and so I took the time to write it out in a long funny/serious email to him. (Arvind Chhabra my friend grew up in Punjab, studied with me in Bengal, worked in Bangalore, married an American and now lives in New York. He speaks fluent Bengali and his English still has a south Indian twang to it. In short- he is as mixed up as me) And reading the email again just now I thought it worth putting up on this blog. It is a long email with a single sentence message but you may enjoy reading all of it. I know that I very much enjoyed writing it!<br /><br />(If you do not speak Hindi and know some Punjabi you may not 'get' the mail below and I advice you to stop reading here and find some other way of wasting your time)<br /><br />And if you are a Punjabi likely to take offense at the tone of the email I have only one thing to say to you...<br /><br />'Oi, tu jaanta nahi mein kaun hoon?'<br /><br />...As I grew up in Delhi I used to hear this as a preface to most fights. And dear, possibly angry, Punjabi reader, the very next sentence you will hear from me will be...<br /><br />'Oi tu mujhe maarne ayega tho mein yahan se full speed bhaag jaunga.'<br /><br />Peace, brothers and sisters! Anyway, without further ado here is...<br /><br />-----------------------------<br />Arun's email to Arvind:<br />-----------------------------<br /><br />Oi pappe (literally!!!),<br /><br />Great news! Amy and Arvind we take great pleasure on this occasion to welcome you to the world of parents and congratulate you on taking the first step towards being the parents of a hundred children!!! As you know, we are only two steps ahead of you and we know that moving forward together, we will soon reach that wonderful goal.<br /><br />Given below...<br /><br />(Just for you at a heavily discounted, once-only, special price of just $9.999, to be paid later in person when we meet)<br /><br />...is the distilled wisdom of more than 10 years of full time research by Kanti and me.<br /><br />-----------------------------<br />If you agree to pay $9.999 as mentioned above please read further otherwise destroy this email. Or my laayer will do some 'gaal-kittha-si' with your laayer. OK?<br />-----------------------------<br /><br />General Disclaimers:<br />1. The author sometime lapses into pnjbi when affected by strng emotions. These lpses are usually mnifested by dropped vowels and additional 'h'es. Such lpses should under kind cnsidration be maafkaroed.<br />2. The author takes no responsibility of translating all these wonderful jokes into english for Amy. The author's personal viewpoint is that if the world doesn't speak pnjbi we have many muscular pnjbi men and even more muscular pnjbi women who know how to communicate real pnjbi in all languages.<br /><br />Aim:<br />Create/devlop good bachhhhe (children).<br /><br />Definitions:<br />Good children-> Pleayure to be with + fill you with enrgy -> Basically in pnjbi=Patiala pegs<br />Bad children -> No pleayure to be with + drain your enrgy -> Basically in pnjbi=golgappe ka paani<br /><br />Apparatus:<br />One ordinary or garden vriety of child. (More than one is exponentially better, but usually diffcult to get at short notice)<br /><br />Procedure:<br />The thumb rule (for angootha chhhaps) to follow in this all important procedure is-<br />eik-ka-dus<br />Which means that-<br />Where one unit of effort is required (by your estimation) to get a desired outcome with your child, you have to unquestioningly, unconditionally put in ten. No bargaining and no laziness here please!<br /><br />Observations:<br />If<br />your child is irritating you OR boring you OR is a pain to be around with<br />then<br />look within- The slution is with you<br />goto slution<br />endif<br /><br />If<br />you feel guilty of neglecting your child<br />then<br />you have been giving < eik-ka-eik and you deserve all the pain your child is giving you<br />elseif<br />you feel that you are putting fight but no results are showing<br />then<br />You have been giving only = eik-ka-eik and this is where most people get stuck<br />endif<br /><br />slution<br />give >= eik-ka-dus and notice immediate changes...<br /><br />Result:<br />Good bachhhhe te good baaps. oi waat?<br /><br />Oi mei kyia balle balle,<br />With lots of love to Amy and you and with blessings and 'oi mei sadh ke jaawa's to baby Taj,<br />From Dinkar, Srikant, Aditi, Kanti and Arun<br /><br />------------------<br />Arvinds reply:<br />------------------<br /><br />Oi Pappe,<br />This email is wrth eik-ka-dus so you dsrve, $99.99 for this advice and effort. Changa pher.<br />- ChhabraArunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-79823268032508624002009-08-03T12:23:00.014+05:302022-03-28T12:35:08.332+05:30What the solar eclipse taught us<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">The solar eclipse of 22 July 2009 was the longest total solar eclipse during the 21st century, not to be surpassed until June 2132. It lasted a maximum of 6 minutes and 39 seconds off the coast of Southeast Asia, causing tourist interest in eastern China, Japan, India and Nepal.<br /><br />- From the Wikipedia<br /><br />All of us were very excited about the eclipse and we wanted to catch it 'live' as it happened. (We have no TV so no 'action replay' option) So we went to Nehru Planetarium and bought the special 'glasses' that would let us watch the eclipse without becoming the first fully blind homeschooling family in the world. The glasses were actually some sort of very dark plastic set in cardboard frames and cost 25 Rupees each. We bought one for each of us because none of us wanted to share the glasses and miss any of the action.<br /><br />The time for the eclipse in Delhi was between 5:30 and 7:30 in the morning and the children (even 7 year old Dinkar who usually sleeps till 8:30) were all up and ready by 5 in the morning. Where we live, the roofs are connected together without any walls in between so we were thinking that the whole place would be swarming with children and their parents in a Holi or Diwali kind of festival atmosphere. It was cloudy at 5:30 and when we reached the terrace all ready for the crowd and the great experience with our special cardboard glasses we found... Yes you are right, no other children there. The only other people we could see on our terrace and on the vast sea of terraces in our neighborhood were ONE middle aged couple looking at the sky through a big Xray film.<br /><br />We waited on top till almost 7:00 braving the heat and the flies and watched through the glasses as the sun played hide and seek with us through the clouds. But at around 6:30, the time for the maximum eclipse in Delhi, for about 30 seconds or so, we saw with our naked eyes, and shared amongst ourselves, the miracle of the crescent sun. And Aditi took this picture as a keepsake.</span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="color: black;"> </span><span style="color: black;"></span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi82WP79K2XuHZMwpoTGzeuAt2hysc_YJCIOkSeCkPbuZ4ZVzxZNTiNeuINR5B5_JsaWkkaleXM1Jr22nZNVE1eVxDgVZAHLgRFxm36onGzqqqBnRbyNuula13EYiXTUl-VhuWrgd9FUWHU/s1600-h/eclipse.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5365627365713656130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi82WP79K2XuHZMwpoTGzeuAt2hysc_YJCIOkSeCkPbuZ4ZVzxZNTiNeuINR5B5_JsaWkkaleXM1Jr22nZNVE1eVxDgVZAHLgRFxm36onGzqqqBnRbyNuula13EYiXTUl-VhuWrgd9FUWHU/s400/eclipse.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 85%;"> <span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Yes, I know, YOU went with your children and saw the eclipse but why were all the rest of the children in Delhi not on the roofs? Why didn't every school in Delhi buy the 25 Rupee glasses and make it compulsory for each student to buy it at 50 Rupees from the class teacher? Why didn't they make it compulsory for each student to be on the roof or on the road and for each student/parent to write a 250 word essay on 'The longest eclipse that I will ever see in my life'?<br /><br />I think the partial answer may lie in a conversation I am almost sure I overheard:<br /><br />Mother 1: Did you see the eclipse?<br />Mother 2: Yes. Wasn't it spectacular?<br />Mother 1: Which channel did you see it on? I saw it on NDTV. I think they are great.<br />Mother 2: Oh! I saw it on BBC. I don't trust the Indian channels. They are capable of showing us the previous eclipse and saying that it is this one you know.<br />Mother 2: (sympathetically) Yes, I know. You can't trust the media at all. By the way, you know 'X' is learning about it in school, so he wanted to go on the roof. Finally I had to tell him that his hair will all fall out if it gets exposed to the cosmic rays of the eclipse. That stopped him! He is very attached to his hair.<br />Mother 1: (Smiles) Good. I didn't let 'Y' and 'Z' go up either. It says in the newspaper that many people have gone fully blind by looking at the sun during the last eclipse.<br /><br />X, Y and Z, as you may have been taught in school, are unknown variables in Algebra. In fact they are so much unknown that their mothers 1 and 2 are nearly at their wits ends about their unknownness.<br /><br />Mothers 1 and 2 are post graduates, have lived abroad, dress fashionably, live on the top floors of their apartment blocks and between them have 3 children below the age of 10. Walking up to the roof with their children wouldn't have been very much more effort than pressing the remote buttons on their TVs...<br /><br />...But then post graduate degrees by themselves do not necessarily make you less superstitious and high levels of intelligence do not necessarily lead to wisdom.</span><span style="color: black;"></span></span></p>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-49985949583131211192009-07-20T20:41:00.016+05:302009-07-24T13:55:03.933+05:30Why we want to grow our own food<span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society -</span><span style="font-size:85%;"><span style="font-style: italic; color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"> Jiddu Krishnamurti</span><br /></span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><br />We are shifting to the outskirts of Bangalore and plan to experiment with growing our own food. A friend who is accustomed to our weird behavior and sudden shifts of focus wanted to know why. He was very much in favor of the shift away from the city and a lifestyle closer to nature but his question really was why we wanted to take the livelihoods away from the poor farmers.<br /><br />Well friend, the short answer is-<br /><br />Our life as we live it now is fragmented and dysfunctional and reducing our dependence on a dysfunctional system in whatever way we possibly can seems to be the way to make it whole. Growing our own food and living in a semi-urban environment seems to be a way to reduce our dependence on the current, dominant, anachronistic, flawed economic/financial system of the world.<br /><br />The long answer follows-<br /><br />(Please remember that what follows is valid for people like you and me </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >working in 9 to 5 jobs in cities </span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >and not for the large majority in this country who work without an 'appointment letter' )<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Examples of dysfunctionality in our current lifestyles</span>:<br />1. A working couple I know spends fifty thousand Rupees every month just on their cars. (EMI, drivers salary, maintenance, petrol etc). They also spend a lot of their time traveling in these cars in bad traffic. So they have to work to earn money to pay for their cars and a car is a basic requirement to go to work to earn money to pay for their cars.<br />2. We have no EMI, no car, I work from home and the activities of our children happens in our colony. We are together a lot and don't get stressed driving through traffic jams. But I am forced to work to earn money to pay the rent on our house and a house is a basic requirement to do work to earn the money that I have to pay as rent.<br />3. We came back from a trip to Agra and got off at Okhla station instead of the larger New Delhi station. This was at 10 in the morning- office time. We were in the AC chair car but hundreds of office-goers crowding into the two or three unreserved compartments also got off with us. This whole crowd carefully crossed the railway line which is one of the busiest in India. Then on the road outside where we thought we would get an auto to take us home we found this...<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ1pKCF7H6NOf5kxQ14vX-e4tgJgD4nXilTqGOBSAN9JtT1LkqB-MjAkdLlXINBaux1QuzzL1nAWGFLQrZlbwhoRSP9UEj5HAg3HzyLW6mXX6wdif5R-NoV-muSz1-dfO80xUYwa_5a1ES/s1600-h/traffic.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJ1pKCF7H6NOf5kxQ14vX-e4tgJgD4nXilTqGOBSAN9JtT1LkqB-MjAkdLlXINBaux1QuzzL1nAWGFLQrZlbwhoRSP9UEj5HAg3HzyLW6mXX6wdif5R-NoV-muSz1-dfO80xUYwa_5a1ES/s400/traffic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360814491406458530" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >... A huge traffic jam. We walked till Nehru Place, a distance of 2 kilometers or so through the mud and garbage on the roadside before getting into an Auto on a relatively empty road. The scary thing I felt was that the people traveling by train were only doing so because they had not yet got a car. They too aspired to be stuck in the traffic with their AC's on. </span><br /><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />Why do you and I tolerate it: </span><br />1. We are cut off from the consequences of our actions. The way we live our life doesn't seem to be directly creating any problem. (A person working in a tobacco company doesn't think that the salary he takes home causes cancer. Like you and me he is just doing a job)<br />2. We are cut off from the real meaning behind our monetary transactions. (</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >When we buy bread for 20 rupees we only record the money transaction and not the fact that behind all human food stands nature and ultimately the shining sun</span><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >. We mistakenly assume that getting the 20 Rupees is what we need to do to get us food)<br />3. After working very hard for a long time we finally became qualified to easily do well in the dysfunctional system and we were given the tools and the strong latent desires to help perpetuate the dysfunctionality. As we begin to acquire what we have dreamed of it becomes very difficult to let go of the system even when we see things going horribly wrong. We cannot usually even admit that things ARE going wrong<br />4. We know of no other alternatives that are less dysfunctional. The only alternative appears to be to join Ramakrishna mission or other such missions and become a monk or to become a Nanga (pardon the pun) sadhu in the Himalayas<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />What can you and I do</span>:<br />1. Take our children out of school :-)<br />2. Grow our own food. Prof Dabholkar a pioneer of intensive natural farming had demonstrated how a quarter of an acre of land is enough to grow enough to fully feed a family of five. In his book 'Plenty for All' there were also photos of people who have done experiments in growing their food on their city terraces<br /><br /></span><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7pREtTU0bCYdN3cW5juoNPT4sAKh2I4bTwbeRR3qrKZrx7BAY6xYcO18vQN2ws2PpqU0vQseELDKBWqDFaxNiNqD0dvcw-wgqD7iZZbpMGHM-Hamioz6hS9SUKEwUtdwccNTg2iDLQUM/s1600-h/rt+doshi.jpg"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgL7pREtTU0bCYdN3cW5juoNPT4sAKh2I4bTwbeRR3qrKZrx7BAY6xYcO18vQN2ws2PpqU0vQseELDKBWqDFaxNiNqD0dvcw-wgqD7iZZbpMGHM-Hamioz6hS9SUKEwUtdwccNTg2iDLQUM/s400/rt+doshi.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5360814488009605154" border="0" /></a><span style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0);font-size:85%;" >3. Reduce our dependence on a salary. And if you say that you are not anymore dependent on a salary for your comfortable living then what are you doing still stuck in a traffic jam?<br />4. A friend who works for a software company grows most of his food on a 10000 sqft patch of land they have. His wife and son spend a lot of time on the farm and he joins in on the weekends. Farming is not a full time job so they also run an informal village school. He was telling me that except for his travel to and fro from office in his car, his living expense is 1500 Rupees per month.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Conclusion:</span><br />Now, in my long educational journey I didn't spend even one hour learning how food (that I cannot live without!) grows and ripens. It is only recently that I noticed what miraculous things seeds are and how easy it is to sprout them into new life. If there is a way to remove the dysfunctionality of our lives, I think that falling back on mother nature and getting in touch with the miraculous mystery at the center of the living seed may not be a bad place to start searching.<br /><br />Anyway, we are going to give it a shot. If it works, you can come and join us. And if it doesnt, it would be easy for me to find you in your traffic jam. :-)<br /><span style="font-weight: bold;"><br />References and resources:</span><br />1. <a href="http://cluborlov.blogspot.com/2009/06/definancialisation-deglobalisation.html">Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation</a>- A blog post by Dmitry Orlov the author of 'Reinventing Collapse' which talks about everything covered in this post (and much more)<br />2. <a href="http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=7065205277695921912">Zeitgeist addendum</a>- A low budget 2 hour underground movie that takes a look at the ills that plague society and suggests some radical solutions<br />3. <a href="http://www.storyofstuff.com/">The story of stuff</a>- A very well made 20 minute animated film on the consumerist society<br />4. <a href="http://www.natuecofarmingscience.com/natueco.htm">Natueco farming</a>- A scientific and more efficient reapplication of natural farming techniques<br /></span>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-20687068563433181842009-06-13T12:02:00.018+05:302022-03-28T12:30:20.372+05:30Shared holidays<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz4G7lqpfU1P1D_9pSFgLByAfiUN1xdTfUOprgL6Btfhg0Hy6iaXpuIfIIBjhAIh_msKqY9zPJax7YZddnuWFWeVExj9E4CGhKkXrjiM3CusoDAsZcp1evRqeB2g2BDPalMT_I9-KjTs7o/s1600-h/Panchachouli.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346753896322314738" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhz4G7lqpfU1P1D_9pSFgLByAfiUN1xdTfUOprgL6Btfhg0Hy6iaXpuIfIIBjhAIh_msKqY9zPJax7YZddnuWFWeVExj9E4CGhKkXrjiM3CusoDAsZcp1evRqeB2g2BDPalMT_I9-KjTs7o/s400/Panchachouli.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="font-size: 85%;"><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Sathish and Sangeetha and their two lovely children Shalom and Ishaan recently introduced us to the joys of walking in nature. They travelled from Bangalore to Delhi, stayed with us for a day and all of us (4 adults and 5 homeschooled children) went to pay our respects to the beauty of the Kumaon Himalayas.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: black;">
The place was called <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Munsiyari">Munsiyari</a> and it was a 13 hour jeep ride from Kathgodam, the rail head which we got to after an overnight train journey from Delhi. On the beautiful, pine-forested, surprisingly good but steep and curvy roads up we had to make many stops to get the children unsick.</span></span>
</span>
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fkIGADHHEQE/SjN75eieodI/AAAAAAAAAKs/vZJr6z-CKSA/s1600-h/OnWayToMunsiari.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346753409999348178" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_fkIGADHHEQE/SjN75eieodI/AAAAAAAAAKs/vZJr6z-CKSA/s400/OnWayToMunsiari.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">Our stay and the walking trips into the mountains around town were organized by an eco-tourism NGO that works with the villagers there. We stayed in quaint small houses in a village on the outskirts of town.</span><span style="font-size: small;"> <span style="color: #330000;">Like this 50 year old traditional house.</span></span>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTDHj-n_E93Qn_qEwsAmo7ozpoOD8pn4qJPqHSu9fs-Cr5SoGdrfJX8H1H8koOqL30ceUDNvvL8LJ4LmjH24wkcavsa7jXXy0jbX32lLiBqObb1YLrhRmaztB1tL3upbauPUMdxrtw_c7k/s1600-h/Homestay.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346753559964377330" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiTDHj-n_E93Qn_qEwsAmo7ozpoOD8pn4qJPqHSu9fs-Cr5SoGdrfJX8H1H8koOqL30ceUDNvvL8LJ4LmjH24wkcavsa7jXXy0jbX32lLiBqObb1YLrhRmaztB1tL3upbauPUMdxrtw_c7k/s400/Homestay.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="color: #330000; font-size: small;">Munsiyari is the end of the road. Literally! It is the place from where people start walking towards the Tibet and Nepal borders and the place from which the few tourists, who brave the 13 hours in the jeep, start their treks towards the Milam glacier. None of our city distractions worked here. No credit card, no ATM card, no cell phone (Only BSNL connectivity) and no Internet. So in the 12 full days we spent here- all of us- pizza loving kids and sedentary adults- all of us got used to eating aaloo in its many forms and to walking till our shoes wore off. Every day a local guide would take us up through the forests around our village- a little higher and to a little more spectacular place- acclimatising us till we were surprised at ourselves and at our presumption, at our easy new familiarity with slippery and cold and wet mountain heights .
</span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdmGiTs7xasQFqU52tIKtxeOQSty9qx2GjagidT2QTOC7prmrm6G5xi-2n3sLm-F47ESk9OnFNz6rV9zfITFLauFXdo1MVr25esJWO3hC5tTNM-v9SnzIRzxg589Fy7v-or9ZChrBzAi-R/s1600-h/WalkingOnTop.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346753723463810354" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgdmGiTs7xasQFqU52tIKtxeOQSty9qx2GjagidT2QTOC7prmrm6G5xi-2n3sLm-F47ESk9OnFNz6rV9zfITFLauFXdo1MVr25esJWO3hC5tTNM-v9SnzIRzxg589Fy7v-or9ZChrBzAi-R/s400/WalkingOnTop.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">We also spent two days camping up at 10000 feet where we realized the inherent superiority of women and children. The people who trekked up to 12500 feet, the highest point in the neighborhood, were the two mothers and two of the older kids. The men were down with altitude sickness and by the time Sathish and I recovered it was time to walk back to the village.
</span><span style="color: #330000; font-size: small;">
</span><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8piDPMDzqlzJQxVSHvsCh39eD8WvmzorjB58URJyIP6GIS6DrdHYNV0BvBgvj5S31WLvXQbWncUADmtJasuCJXzngEn44oWYsMCdXltDFtU96wr1gjhg1aBS_CgvSHO_PZbi_psVNqkie/s1600-h/MorningAtTenThousand.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5346754006902850802" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg8piDPMDzqlzJQxVSHvsCh39eD8WvmzorjB58URJyIP6GIS6DrdHYNV0BvBgvj5S31WLvXQbWncUADmtJasuCJXzngEn44oWYsMCdXltDFtU96wr1gjhg1aBS_CgvSHO_PZbi_psVNqkie/s400/MorningAtTenThousand.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 400px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 300px;" /></a><span style="color: #330000;">But I see now that the Himalayas have hijacked my post. What i wanted to talk about was the idea of two families with homeschooled children taking a holiday together to get to know each other better and to learn from their combined experience. But then maybe the photos have already told you more than I could have in my usual tongue-tied manner. So let me wind this up with a- Thank you Sathish and Sangeetha for making this trip happen. Thank you for introducing us to the fears and pleasures of communing with nature in the raw form.</span><span> All of us here are </span><span style="color: black;">eagerly looking forward to the next outing.</span></span>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-12449147078334526812009-04-21T21:15:00.008+05:302022-03-28T12:28:19.752+05:30Unconditional something<p><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">The children were excited about their trip to Kerala. They were going to meet their friends in Thrissur after 8 months.
They wanted me to come too but I had to finish some work and couldn't go with them so they went with their mother. Whenever the children called from Kerala and asked me when I would come my reply would be that I would come as soon as my work finishes and when they asked when that would be I usually told them that the work was a mountain and I was only a small mouse making a small hole in its very bottom. Well after the first few days in Kerala, Aditi and Srikant (13 and 9 respectively) stopped asking. Only 7 year old Dinkar persisted, calling up every day or so to give me the latest news and to ask me when I would come.
</span><span style="font-size: small;">
<span style="color: black;">14th April was Vishu and my brother and sister and our family were all converging to my parents place in Kerala. Everybody except me! So I decided to surprise them all by dropping in unannounced for the Vishu lunch. I caught an early morning flight and after a full nine hours in various modes of transport (Taxi, plane, auto, bus, camel, elephant... Oh sorry no camel and elephant:-)) I found myself outside the boundary wall of our house in Kerala.
I called up Dinkar on my cellphone. And as this is climax of this story let me switch to drama-mode to make it, well you know, more dramatic: </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Hello Dinkar how are you?
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> Fine.
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Have you had the Vishu lunch already?
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> Not yet. They are setting all the banana leaves for it. </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> What are you doing?
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> Playing with my new car that Saniatta gave me today.
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Oh! What car is that?
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> It is a Volkswagen Taureg.
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Show me!
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> </span><span style="color: black; font-style: italic;">(Short silence and then...)</span><span style="color: black;"> How?
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Me:</span> Just walk out to the gate and just show me no.
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> Oh!</span>
<span style="color: black;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(Sound of phone getting hurriedly cut) </span>
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Srikant:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">(To Dinkar running out from the house towards the gate)</span> Where are you going?
<span style="font-weight: bold;"> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dinkar:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">(Not stopping running)</span> Naana is standing outside the gate! Come quickly! </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">Srikant convinced by the urgency in the voice joins in the race and they reach the gate together to find me standing crouched behind the wall.
</span></span><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6R5WzOe4UKynK2ZpmQwOHY1ko_agGbP9VBa7ZTBHJnReA4tHcYir7olCl5ghiRYH_t92wuuo1dZXMKoWVPqIUDvPJgTSbCYkvsgESQ7YmrPJD_J0A-MkGjHY1sv56nDm6nOy8dyYxuycs/s1600-h/dinkar's+pic.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5327796508356550146" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg6R5WzOe4UKynK2ZpmQwOHY1ko_agGbP9VBa7ZTBHJnReA4tHcYir7olCl5ghiRYH_t92wuuo1dZXMKoWVPqIUDvPJgTSbCYkvsgESQ7YmrPJD_J0A-MkGjHY1sv56nDm6nOy8dyYxuycs/s400/dinkar's+pic.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a>
<span style="color: black; font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-size: small;">I don't know why but I think there is some big important point hiding here that I cant put my finger on. Is it the fact that Dinkar had no doubt in his mind that his father was standing outside? And anyway what has all this got to do with homeschooling and the fact that Dinkar has never been inside a school. I can't tell! But I still think there is some important...
<span style="font-style: italic;">(Quickly illustrated by Dinkar)</span></span>
</span></p>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-67393527747204566692009-03-14T18:36:00.026+05:302022-03-28T12:24:44.702+05:30Homeschooling Report Card: 2008-2009<p><span style="color: black; font-size: small;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Summary:<br /></span>1. After 3 years of homeschooling, two of our children have done well in standardized online tests (Asset-online) for Maths, English and Science. Asset is designed to test concepts and is therefore textbook independent. This means that these tests cannot be 'prepared' for like school exams. Our children finished their syllabus and then just sat for the exam with no other preparation.<br />2. Their doing well implies that they 'got' most of what the textbooks were trying to 'teach'.<br />3. They spent less than 13% of the time that school-going children spend on academics to go through the entire syllabus for that year. Their 'school-time' was only an hour or two of any one subject a day and with long gaps for travel and other such non-academic interests.<br />4. The entire process of studying and getting tested was joyful to the children.</span></p><p><span style="color: black; font-size: 85%;"> </span> <a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioj0-ZmCHCQm2kOKUy8t1TE9xTdW7MMLUMmw7Iupyy9fGiKzRszPBwyIFdPhReOa7WTE2t6Uhq_BRz0n2dtJlFFLn8goeKTTu9ru8hDx_ZmV-vCFis_6BljS254QunxyNOZsjrdSgQsiNG/s1600-h/temp.JPG" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5318529964212468130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEioj0-ZmCHCQm2kOKUy8t1TE9xTdW7MMLUMmw7Iupyy9fGiKzRszPBwyIFdPhReOa7WTE2t6Uhq_BRz0n2dtJlFFLn8goeKTTu9ru8hDx_ZmV-vCFis_6BljS254QunxyNOZsjrdSgQsiNG/s400/temp.JPG" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 331px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="color: black; font-size: 85%;"><span style="font-size: small;">* The Asset-online website says that more than 3000 students take each test and the percentile value reflects how many students did worse than you. So 97 percentile means you did better than 97% of the students who took that particular test.<br /><br />** The Asset Online Maths test that Srikant took had pre 2005 content. (All NCERT textbooks were revised after 2005 to make the subjects simpler and more relevant to the student's daily life) This means that his scores in a test of what he actually studied would be much higher. How much higher? I don’t know and what is more, I don’t care either. :-)<br /><br /><b>Endnote:</b><br />My claims all along, that our children were learning much more than what was contained in their school books and that I was very happy with their progress and that I was not interested in testing them on just their ‘school-time’ was always angrily argued about by the numerous well-wishers of our children. So this report card is the public answer to squash these concerns. Well well-wishers, time to take YOUR children out of school now. What?<br /><br />:-)</span><script type="text/javascript">
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So we sat down last night, the wife and I and made a random list of things that we would want to tell someone starting out homeschooling in India. Issues and advice and insights that helped us in our own journey.<br /><br />This is what the list looks like when I added some structure to the randomness:<br /><br /><b>Unwind and unlearn:</b> It is good for your new homeschooling family to 'unlearn' all you have ever 'learned' about 'learning'. (This may seem paradoxical but going ahead you will find that paradoxes and contradictions will become the road-signs in the no-road territory you have decided to walk on. Another paradox:-)) Take a month/ six months/ one year or whatever time you can afford off to do this. This process of unlearning is very important because the standard social structures, schooling being one of them, are embedded so deeply in our psyche that we ARE the structures. It is good in the beginning, therefore, to not have any agenda but to become less tense and just watch things as they unfold. There is a chance that you may learn a lot from this exercise but you will DEFINITELY 'unlearn' a lot. So it may be a good idea in the beginning to perhaps meanderingly, slowly, follow your child's interests wherever they take you.<br /><br /><b>Work hard:</b> Managing constant change in unfamiliar terrain is a lot of hard work and very tiring. Be prepared for this. Also remember that in this case even what to work on is not very clear and needs to be discovered first. It is only in the era of mass schooling that hard work has come to mean sitting at a desk or on the computer and DOING something. Do not feel guilty about doing NOTHING but watching and waiting and thinking.<br /><br /><b>Be stubborn:</b> The results will take time to show. Till they do, 99% of your immediate world will loudly object to what you are doing. In time, when the results are plain for everyone to see, 98% of them will still object. Growing up away from the mainstream is a difficult thing. The mainstream is not evil. It evolves too. Become aware that you are the leading edge of that evolution. Be stubborn about this!<br /><br /><b>Set up alternative structure:</b> When you break one basic structure you need to start work on setting up an alternative structure that you consider better. Many homeschoolers wont agree but the point is that 'no-learning-structure' is also a structure. Start thinking about and working on version 1.0 of your alternative structure. Use your unlearning time to unhurriedly work on this problem.<br /><br /><b>Research resources:</b> If you want a school curriculum for 1st standard to 8th standard the CBSE curriculum and the NCERT books that go with it are a wonderful wonderful resource bank. The text books were revised after the <a href="http://www.ncert.nic.in/html/framework2005.htm" target="_blank">National Curriculum Framework</a> document of 2005 talked about making learning more fun for the children. If you are taking your child out of an ICSE school you will be way ahead on the CBSE Age-Curriculum curve and can afford to take it easy without any curriculum for as long as one year. (If you are into unschooling then all this curriculum talk maybe getting you edgy but bear with me. A lot of people are caught up in curricula and suchlike things and just like you and me they need help too :-)) For more information on homeschooling in India check out the alternative education India site <a href="http://www.alternativeeducationindia.net/" target="_blank">here</a> and join the yahoo group of Indian homeschoolers <a href="http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alt-ed-india" target="_blank">here</a>. You may also like to go through the posts under the label HS FAQ on this blog.<br /><br /><b>Read:</b> I could have added this under some other heading. But Arvind Gupta deserves at least a new heading if not a whole blog post just for himself. If you don't know who he is, please find out about him <a href="http://www.arvindguptatoys.com/" target="_blank">here</a>. His site has ALL the books and video links that you need to equip yourself as a homeschooling parent. You will need to read and read till you find the things that resonate with you. There are books here that have the potential to change your established worldview instantly which brings us to the next heading...<br /><br /><b>Evolve worldview:</b> The Wiktionary defines worldview as-<br /><br />1. One's personal view of the world and how one interprets it.<br />2. The totality of one's beliefs about reality.<br />3. A general philosophy or view of life.<br /><br />Worldviews change and evolve over our lifetimes. Often due to apparently random events that happen to us. By choosing homeschooling you have just signed on the dotted line of the non-random route to evolving your worldview :-). So start reading and discussing and thinking and passionately working on the evolution of your worldview.<br /><br /><b>Coalesce a sangha:</b> For the homeschooling parent a peer group that approximately talks the same language is extremely extremely important. Its the rubber dingy in an angry sea. No less! And for the homeschooled child another homeschooled child is reassurance that her parents are not the only weirdos on the planet :-)<br /><br /><b>Understand the process of learning:</b> This is talked about in a lot of detail in another post <a href="http://arunelassery.blogspot.com/2008/12/perspectives-on-teaching-learning-and.html" target="_blank">here</a>. Let me just add that it is important that you observe and understand for yourself how the learning process actually works. Don't listen to the experts and don't listen to me the non-expert. Rely only on your own observation and experience and insight. You may then discover that you need to throw out all your previous ideas about it. This is what John Holt has to say from 'Teach your own', his book on homeschooling (But don't listen to him either:-))- I can sum up in five to seven words what I eventually learned as a teacher. The seven- word version is: Learning is not the product of teaching. The five-word version is: Teaching does not make learning.<br /><br /><b>Recognize homeostasis:</b> This is the tendency of complex systems (from the circulatory system to whole human beings to whole societies) to resist sudden change. It is a basic self preservation mechanism and it is blind to the difference between ''good' change and 'bad' change. Why is it relevant here? Well, when you embrace radical change you usually discover after it seems to be successfully implemented that the entire initiative loses its energy suddenly and appears like a bad decision that you begin to regret. Become aware that this is probably the drawing room of homeostasis auntie and you are having tea with her. And the point of writing it out in such detail here is that in such cases your awareness IS therapy.<br /><br /><b>Work on self development:</b> This is an opportunity to come out of your comfort zone. Search for and implement in your lives long-term practices that transform your body, mind and spirit. Educating yourself or growing consciously is the biggest contribution you can make to your child's development. There can be nothing better for real education than a family working together to grow and develop and realize its collective potential. Some of the clear areas where you can immediately start working on your growth are:<br /><br />1. <b>Awareness:</b> Become more aware of every waking moment. You cannot afford to miss any of the gifts that the universe showers on you for swimming against the tide.<br />2.<b> Love and service:</b> Grow outwards to include more of the universe in your loving embrace. (Moving forward from your taste buds to your comfort to your family to the nation to the world to the universe)<br />3. <b>Gentleness:</b> Even if you are stressed out and irritated and sleeping less please remember to increase the gentleness with which you handle your children. You can go to a pub to drown your sorrows but they have no escape from you.<br />4. <b>Patience:</b> Be aware that lasting change is a slow process. There would be some peaks but many more plateaus. Continuously affirm to yourself that you are in it for the long haul. Cultivate deep patience.<br /><br />And lastly...<br />Don't get frightened: by this long post:-). You are on to a good thing. Have fun!<br /><br />So already-homeschooling friends- we cant think of anything else to say here. Please comment on this post and tell us what we missed. I will update and correct the post as I start getting your feedback.Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-64981531514994956952009-01-08T13:46:00.016+05:302022-03-28T12:05:45.804+05:30The educational institution of the future: A fantasy<p><span style="font-size: small;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCSjn3LXtPsBbMe6dsIJuGcFpZNmfDqrAMro6NMNvcpP_iW4Rwo178bVIsEtatvzeSSyHEeluRfgxoHIbb_9B6krRICjS6f31OP8cMWGt-ozKQ2BtsFbdR8rusBY1-zs-AlzQOTMEX298W/s1600-h/TheSchoolOfTheFutureSmall.jpg" onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}"><img alt="" border="0" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5299312492644933058" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCSjn3LXtPsBbMe6dsIJuGcFpZNmfDqrAMro6NMNvcpP_iW4Rwo178bVIsEtatvzeSSyHEeluRfgxoHIbb_9B6krRICjS6f31OP8cMWGt-ozKQ2BtsFbdR8rusBY1-zs-AlzQOTMEX298W/s400/TheSchoolOfTheFutureSmall.jpg" style="cursor: pointer; display: block; height: 300px; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; width: 400px;" /></a><span style="color: black;">Add another adult facilitator or so and add not more than a couple of children and there you have the prototype for the school of the future. </span></span></p><p><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">What fun!</span><span style="font-size: small;"> </span></p><p><span style="color: black; font-size: small;">
It is foolish from our fast changing perspective today to predict the contours of a future even a few years ahead in time. But we have to begin the discussion somewhere. So listed out below is a random, incomplete look at the practical details of a school of the future.</span>
</p><ul style="color: black;"><li><span style="font-size: small;">No school has more than 10 students</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">There are no teachers (Only facilitators who speak only when they are spoken to :-))</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">The facilitators direct the efforts of the students when they can or pass them on to other facilitators who can guide them </span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">Anybody above the age of 14/15 and who has been a student of this type of school from their first school days is considered qualified to become a facilitator (Till we get the first batch of such facilitators any industrial era trained person who has a high school certificate can become a facilitator)</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">All schools run in their local communities in a house or community area not more than a ten minute walk for any child</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">The minimum infrastructure in a school is an internet ready computer</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">The thousands of school buildings and their administrators that mushroomed across the world for the industrial era become sports and other similar educational infrastructure providers</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;">The education of the future focuses on body, mind and spirit development (Includes things like sports, yoga, CBSE text books, meditation etc)</span></li><li><span style="font-size: small;"> The education of the future also focuses on social and cultural development (Includes interpersonal growth, music, social service activities etc)</span></li></ul>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8624153848016317353.post-33861959157221870862008-12-31T12:58:00.005+05:302022-03-28T11:36:26.016+05:30HS FAQ: Prologue<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-style: italic;">(The posts starting 'HS FAQ' are translated from a Hindi document I created to answer the most common questions we face on Homeschooling in India. I hope you like it and I hope you find it useful)</span>
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<span style="color: black;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="color: black;">When people meet us they say- ‘Such nice children you have. Which class are they studying in?’ Or they ask the children- ‘Which school do you go to?’
And me or the wife or the children themselves have to answer this straightforwardish question in a straightforwardish manner.
<span>‘We study at home. We don’t go to school.’</span>
<span>‘You don’t send your children to school?’</span>
This question is asked in surprise or with a smile or sometimes with a trace of anger in the voice. And then I have to again bring out our two-year-old story in small bits and pieces.
The last time I repeated this story for the one thousand and one-eth time I got a tremendous idea. Why don’t I write it down and make a small document out of it. The next person who asks me- I just whip out the document and hand it to them and say- ‘Bhai everything is written here. Read it. I don’t have the time to explain it all again for the one thousand and two-eth time.’
‘What? What do we do with our time? Bhai, don’t we have to teach our children at home? It’s no joke. Its a full 24 by 7 job.’
So this document was born out of my need to tell the story of our children not going to school. Tell it one last time. But will you in the middle of your hectic life have the time to listen to my story? I think not and that is the reason that I decided to use a question-answer format here. The advantage is that you can read the answer to the specific question that rises in your head and then throw this document into the dustbin. Matter finished. Your precious time is saved and the burden on your brain is also minimized. What do you think? Good idea no?
Some people may have even more questions than the ones that are answered here. My email ID and address are given on the last page and you can write to me at these addresses. And some friends out there who after reading this document feel that they have no need at all of my friendship can send me a collection of their best gaalis. Great fun no?
From our side the blessings of our family-that-studies-at-home are always with you that reading this small document will wake you up and make you instantly take your children out of school and start teaching them at home.
</span></span></p>Arunhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09967686968998869487noreply@blogger.com1