greedy farmers

thats us.
thats what we became after this boast.

thereafter, we planted each seed with eager anticipation of how much yield we would get, and how impressive it would look as a blogpost.

the seeds must have sensed our greed and have boycotted sprouting, quite rightfully.
and even those who have sprouted seem to be taking their own 'sweet time'.

even in the simplest of surroundings, it is tough to relinquish years of indoctrination - maximise results!!
the gita says - perform your duty without any expectation of the results.
the exact translation uses"fruits of labour", etc.
in our case it should have been fruits and vegetables of our labour.

the move becomes pointless if we indulge in the same excessive thought process.
we have to become greedless.
simple to understand intellectually, a life-long journey to practise.

morality of career choices - prayaag joshi

while attempting to respond to survey san's comment to articulate the thinking process while moving from mumbai to pR, i came across this well written article by prayaag joshi - Morality of Career Choices.

i fully agree with prayaag and feel a sense of oneness with his trajectory.
though a dated article, i tracked prayaag down to the imlee mahua nai taleem center of learning in chattisgarh.

remarkable. i remember writing about teaching in a similar school just over a year ago.

THE bunch of girls

in nov/dec 2002, i entered into jari mari in kurla west, mumbai.
i was accompanying a resolute young lady, neha, into the girls' school she was managing.
that day was a life-changer.
i was entering Sahyog Girls' School - The School Without Walls.
the community-based school that aimed to re-school adolescent girls who had dropped out of formal school.

i walked into a computer-center (masquerading as a classroom) to meet the 4 teachers.
4 real dynamo women. raging with determination to make a difference and high ownership of the school. my life was changed from then on.
i was going to teach them english, but in reality, i became their student.
this once-a-week interaction with them over a year allowed me to into their lives and their school.

simultaneously, from dec 2002 to april 2003, i taught a group of girls appearing for their Std 10 NIOS exams.
the subject was Maths.
the medium of instruction was Hindi.
time available was 4 hours every saturday.

daunting as it seems now, i was in my late 20s then and was still blessed with energy and a boyish eagerness.
i went about the task with gusto and was certain that a few of the girls will make it through (at least 1 in 3).
talk about misguided enthusiasm and forecast accuracy. 100% tanked and by a significant margin. devastated as i was, the girls did not seem overly affected by the decimation. they were far more balanced than i was over how things had turned out!
neha, being the sensible analyst, re-calibrated my thinking into proper perspective, "look here. till you started teaching, maths scared the dupattas off them. but they have managed to overcome that fear, take the exam with confidence and deal with the failure with reasonable equanimity. is this not a significant achievement?"

in these 9 years, i have drawn massive inspiration from the girls.
in these 9 years, Sahyog has almost made itself redundant, i.e., within a decade, most adolescent girls in that community are continuing in formal school; reversing/correcting the earlier drop out trend.
claiming only a small part of the credit for this transformation, Sahyog's teachers, alumni and graduates have fuelled the desire and ambition in the girls to inspire them to continue their education, overcoming parental and other opposition.

Sahyog has won the Edelgive Social Innovation Honours 2010 award for the education category.

this post should have been written several years ago.
the awards have triggered this sub-conscious decadal story.

neha, the teachers, the alumni, the students.
THE bunch of girls.

putits the 'oles

i.e., 'oles podunga...
a commonly heard phrase out here at pR.
which usually involves a sharp rotating tool impinging through a softer (comparatively) medium - like wood, earth, cement.
even a single hole will merit this phrase - holes podunga!

this sharp rotating tool is what this post is about - an auger.
it augers well that the readers are confused by the noun auger.

auger is a more engineering title of a drill-bit (the ones that get attached to a drill to make holes in the wall, etc.)

last week, we used an earth auger to drill a 2 feet deep hole in the ground. this was part of the foundation of the nursery that we are building. thats another story coming up later.
1. here it is in full display (notice the lazy elegance a la VVS).


2. it takes two people to maneuver (rotate) the auger. the helical screw will drive vertically downwards. it is advised to soften the earth with water before attempting.


3. here is a closer look as it moves downwards. the removed the earth moves upwards along the screw.


4. here is a better view of the auger after being pulled out. the hole is deeper by that much earth.



5. here is how the hole looks from the top. it is one smooth operator.


6. here is karpagam taking a shot at it. without being sexist here, it does take some strength (especially in the spine) to rotate the auger.


as we work with such simple tools and involve ourselves with each activity, it is such a phenomenal learning experience.

jeevan vidya - madhyasht darshan

i have been hearing/reading in parts about the concept of जीवन विद्या (jeevan vidya) aka मध्यस्त दर्शन (Madhyasth means Mediating. Darshan means Insight (of reality - direct understanding of reality or knowledge)).

the concept is explained here in some level of detail here. i find it really fascinating.
to get my teeth sunk into it, i will need to do a 7 day शिविर (shivir - workshops).

along with vipassana, this is another self-discovery is shall be definitely doing in 2010.