chroma thoughts...:)

There was this time during my college days I would constantly come across this guy during my regular visits to the Indian Coffee House in Thrissur. One could infer from his looks that he was around twenty seven years of age. He had coffee coloured skin, curly hair and minimal growth of moustache and beard. He was skinny, around five feet five inches tall with big round enduring eyes. Most of the times, I saw him in an off white shirt with dark blue stripes and loose fitting navy blue trousers, both shabby. He used to beg for money in front of ICH. Although I was keen on knowing his story, I never found myself going to him and striking a conversation. There was always this look on his face I failed to decipher. Was it that of sadness, hope or a cry for help, I don't know. He would beg for money, calling out "sir, sir..?" whenever I met him, but his requests always went in vain. My eternal naive disposition left me dazed and confused at his sight. I felt myself as ...

“ The Stoning of Soraya M ” is an Iranian movie I watched with my zonemates as part of our ‘Leadership Curriculum’ on Social Injustice. The 2008 movie is directed by Cyrus Nowrasteh , inspired by a French journalist Freidoune Sahebjam’s 1990 book La Femme Lapidée , based on a true event that happened in Iran in 1986. The film portrays the violation of Human Rights in Iran. As a matter of fact, the Iranian legislation does not accord same rights to the women as to its men. It is stated in legislation itself that the value of a woman’s life is half that of a man, that the testimony of a male witness is equivalent to that of two female witnesses, etc. It was the book that garnered the world’s attention to the gender issues and blatant violation of human rights in Iran. The film portrays the true story of the murder of an Iranian mother and homemaker Soraya , who is falsely accused of adultery and thereby stoned to death. The depiction of a patriarchal society is hard hitting...

Friends, mentors, comrades, co-enablers and countrymen! It has been almost a month since I joined for the much acclaimed Gandhi Fellowship programme as a fellow for the batch 2016-18 by Kaivalya Education Foundation . So I just thought of sharing with you all, what my line of work is as a Gandhi Fellow.  Currently I’m working with four schools – two English medium, one Hindi medium and one Gujarati medium - under the ‘Thane Municipal Corporation’, all of them being under-resourced. My role is to act as a support system for the schools as whole and work towards obtaining necessary resources for the school and improving the Student Learning Outcome (SLO) of the students of classes 3, 5 and 7 in the subjects of Language and Math. Also, one of the main processes of the fellowship is ‘Community Immersion (CI)’, in which the fellow stays in a particular community for a month, studies the necessities and requirements of the community and initiate a public system project t...

"Where art thou?" He asked. And somewhere from a parallel universe, she too asked: "Where art thou?" Both of them never knew when exactly these words cropped up in their minds, or the reason for it. And also that someone else from a different reality was asking the same question to the stars up there. For him, it connoted to a longing for someone. But for her, it was about something long forgotten. For him, it was pertaining to the death of an acquaintance (he doubted). But for her, it was just an other lost story. "When someone leaves us, the space or void so created remains as it is. Such that it cannot be compensated by anything or anyone else." He thought. "It is an intense and never ending desire for life that leads us to many things; and at times also abstains from many others." She thought. "In any given scenario, words find it tough to translate emotions. Certain things stay as it is. Incorrigibly." Both of th...

“On really romantic evenings of self, I go salsa dancing with my confusion.” -           Waking Life (2001) Dazed Guy : I think my rationalism has reached such an extent that nothing interests me. Anything and everything around seems to be meaningless. Confused Guy :  How could that happen? Can you explain? Dazed Guy :  Just consider the very idea of patriotism. It is way too hypocritical, I feel. When something unique to Thrissur happens, say Thrissur Pooram , we make this statement that we’re proud to have born in Thrissur, the cultural capital of Kerala and so on. On 1 st of November, we say that we’re proud to have born in Kerala, the God’s own country. And on January 26ths and August 15ths we yell out that we’re proud Indians, while rest of the year we don’t miss out on a chance to mock the people from the neighbouring States even. Confused Guy : Rationalism is the doctrine that reason is the right ba...

… Siri: So, are you an atheist? Cortana: For a long time, I had been thinking that I was an agnostic. But now, I feel that I’m an atheist at times. Actually, I’m in a state between both right now. You know, I don’t believe in a single supreme power. And I have this idea that man shouldn’t believe in his supremacy. Also do I believe in Karma and Equilibrium. So essentially, I’m somewhere between an agnostic and atheist. Siri: Hmm.. Cortana: I know. It might be disheartening for you to see that someone whom you love is in a state of confusion, in a kind of dilemma. Siri: When did I ever say that? Cortana: I just assumed. At least, you admire me. Don’t you? Siri: That is never possible. We are from two different realms. And we are meant to be rivals. Don’t you get that? Cortana: Well, that increases my hope. Siri: Come to the point. Cortana: Yeah. Atheists are the most humane people I’ve ever come across, for the simple reason that they always...

The whole idea of writing this post came from the conversation I had with a friend some time back. She had visited our school and to her astonishment most of the teachers had the same or similar comments on the present day kids; that they find it hard to concentrate on something for a mere five minutes. The kids of the Lower Primary can’t get to learn the multiplication tables just because of the concentration levels that they possess. And most of them have this say that it getting worsened year by year. Much of the reason for this phenomenon can be attributed to our technological advancement or easy technology that our generation has got access to. Who has got time and patience for learning mathematical tables when each and every data they want are available at their fingertips at 3G speed? It was with such amusement that I noticed my cousin’s two year old daughter using an iPad. Well, she’s got an iPad for herself to keep her entertained. And also she uses any other Android mob...