chroma thoughts...:)

Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan ( Education for All Movement ) was an intervention programme by the Indian Government to universalize elementary education in a time-bound manner, which became operational since 2000-01. SSA proposed provisions such as free and compulsory education to all children between the ages of 6 and 14, by observing right to education as a fundamental right of the child. The fact being that SSA had no legal backing and on finding that proposals as under SSA will play a major role in shaping India’s future, 'The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education Act', commonly known as the ‘ RTE Act  2009 ’ came into existence on 4 th August 2009. The act entitled free and compulsory education to every child in India between the ages of six and fourteen, as proposed by SSA. With the enaction of the Act, India became one among the 135 nations of the world to make education a fundamental right to all children. Few of the provisions as under the RTE Act 2009 a...

 I remember having a collection of these as a child. But somewhere in the midst of growing up, I lost them. I don't exactly remember when or how. But then it was quite normal. I knew a place where there was a Manjadi tree and I could always collect from there, if I ever wanted them. If I remember well, my association with these lucky red seeds started during my visits to Guruvayoor Temple as a child. One could play with the thousands of these seeds kept inside the big Uruli . That was the favourite part of my temple visit. Later on growing up, my visits to any temple reduced considerably and even stopped.  It was in 2012 when  Manjadikuru the movie got released. I watched the movie only after its DVD release, but. And there started my vain pursuits to get hold of a few of these seeds. I wanted to grow them in the backyard of my house. I wanted a Manjadi tree in my house. My little research over the internet showed that it would take nine...

Leadership Curriculum: Influence Without Authority 12 Angry Men is a 1957 courtroom drama written by Reginald Rose and directed by Sidney Lumet. According to the American Constitution, the verdict is passed on the basis of whether there is a ‘reasonable doubt’ in the guilt of the accused. In the movie, we see an 18 year old boy from a slum who has allegedly stabbed his father to death. The court proceedings are over and the 12 member jury is now to decide by discussions based on reasons, whether he is guilty or not. Also, the jury’s decision is to be unanimous. In case of a hung jury, a new jury would be called for. An initial voting is done to know how many members feel whether the boy is guilty and how many members not. 11 members vote “guilty” and one member “not guilty” saying that he is not sure of it. He proposes to discuss further, saying that it is the life of a person that they are dealing with and that they owes him some time. To this, many members disagree and w...

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...