Save water on Holi - Illogical Environmentalism - Let the Rang Barse

Just came from a jog and saw the notice board of my society. There were at least two messages asking me to play a dry holi as there would be wastage of water otherwise. The morning newspaper also had a couple of advertisements to the same tune.  Though I get the concern of the individuals is simply to save water but its unfortunate that most of the people don’t question this illogical environmentalism.

So, let me make it simple. Holi is a festival of colours and its traditional to play with water. Until you are dipped in a water pool on Holi…its not really a holi. And its not wastage of water by the way…its judicious use of water for entertainment purposes.

If the citizens of this country do not use water on Holi, its not that we are going to save a huge amount of water to solve the water crisis of this nation. I don’t have the statistics but I can certainly state that if all citizens played a dry holi the water saved would not even cater to .5% of the water gap that we have. By the way I couldn’t  find a single piece of authentic research to show the amount of water wasted on Holi.

Then why this tamaasha. Let the people enjoy. Instead of putting a ban on wet holi…lets concentrate on more sustainable practices of water resource optimization like rain-water harvesting , water reuse and measures to minimize distribution losses of water.  While I support a wet holi I also support using organic and natural colours. That for sure is healthy and good for the environment.

And mind it, its not just Holi, this illogical environmentalism has taken the toll on many a festivals. I have been part of some of the largest environment education movements of this country and one of the things where the same mentality is at play is during Diwali.

It’s a trend for everybody to join the anti-cracker campaign. I say let the kids have fun for a day at least. Climate change is not going to happen if we light crackers on Diwali or may be a week before it. The amount of air pollution that we do by our crackers is nothing as compared to what we do by taking out our cars whenever we have to buy a pack of milk.

This reminds me of a popular Centre for Science and Environment’s report on pollution in Yamuna. The report was name the  Sewage Canal. It clearly asked the authorities to point the finger at the right place. If you were to give the topic of river pollution in a painting competiton of kids. 99% of the paintings would show a factory spewing its affluents in the river and people throwing stuff in the river. That’s the world we live in whereas the reality is that it’s the sewage from our civilized population, which causes that pollution…it’s the sewage not the affluent or what we throw, which is the real culprit. It is at max 5% responsible.

So, its good to save water but lets look at the right place rather than play spoilsport on Holi.

Let environment not come in between our festivals…let environment be our religion instead…so that we live it every  moment rather than getting sceptic on festive days.

Wish you all a happy and wet Holi. Let the Rang Barse.

Mere Dad ki Maruti - A lesson in parenting

Watched the new flick 'Mere Dad ki Maruti' yesterday...great entertainment. But I am not going to review the film here. Woh kehte hain na ki halwai ko hamesha mithai nazar aati hai. Educationist ko hamesha education nazar aati hai.

I could see one of the primary lessons of parenting in the film...but not in action.

The primary  lesson is that of trust betwen a parent and a child...such that if a child goofs up in life...the first person to contact and confess has to be the parent. You may drill this into your  child...right from day one. Because if you dont then what happens is ...Mere Dad ki Maruti.

The film is all about a kiddo sneaking out his Dad's Maruti Ertiga to impress his girlfriend. The car gets lost and the kiddo is freaked out. Then starts a series of lies and arrangements...such that the father doesnt get to know that the car is lost. The kid gets into more and more trouble...and even at some point thinks of commiting a theft in his own house.

Such is the fear of parents...that kids will do anything not to let the parent know of a failure in life. We have heard so many incidents of kids faking parents signatures on report cards and what not.

Well had this not been the case...we wouldnt have got this entertaining flick...which ends on a good note. But not all such stories end in a good note in real life.

Kids get into murkier things in life and relationships with parents go from bad to worse.

The answer as I said before lies in a simple lesson in parenting - Give permission to your kids to let you know first if they  ever goof up...dont cover and assure them that you wouldnt scold or hurt them...thats it.
I assure you will be a happy parent forever.

Part 2
The logic extends to early adulthood as well. I know of a 26 something youngster boy  who lost his job and didnt tell his parents. The reason...yaar Mom and Dad get tensed and thats it. I will tell them once I get the next job...what if he doesnt. Its the same old story of childhood repeating itself. nothing else.

Part 3
This will be outrageous for most readers I know but I would fully self express myself here.

I am a dog lover and have been the proud owner of 2 dogs. One dog phenomena which every dog owner faces is that some dogs when they are able to break free sometimes dont come back. They would run here and there in the lawn or the society ...no matter how much the owner shouts 'Frisky...come here'...the dog doesnt come back. The owner tries to scare the dog and shouts in anger but the dog does not come back. After a while the dog gets tired and comes back on its own to the owner...and the owner gives it a tight slap. Whats the message the dog gets...never go back to the owner and this keeps on repeating. The dog never gets trained. Most dogs dont.

And then there are some wise one's like me...who got this tip from a trainer. who give the dog a treat when it comes back...and Wow...the next time the dog runs free...he comes back quickly to the owner...because he knows he wont get a slap.

Try it out with your kids...Create trust in them that when they goof up....they come back to you. And dont mind my comparison between dog training and parenting

Gross Motor Skills

We do talk about skill based learning at least in Early Childhood education. And in the domain of physical development...gross motor skills are a lot talked about. In fact you will find a number of lesson plans on gross motor skills with kids being asked to walk on a line drawn on the ground or walk on bricks.

Visited a school in a hamlet in Punjab. It had rained the day before and as the road was not metalled at this place....so there was mud  around. There were pools of rainwater everywhere and I had a difficult time reaching the school...jumping here and there...carefully placing my foot at places where I could get a grip.

After the school got over...was going back and saw some young kids negotiating the mud filled road...and then I realised...what nonsense it is to teach these kids gross motor skills...when they are getting developed anyhow on the road.

These kids are anyway skilled.

Perhaps the curriculum for these small ones in rural areas need to be customised to cater to only those skills which matter or may get missed out.

Questions, Quiz and Quexaminations

Was just listening to John Holt's discourse on questions and quiz. Amazing guy...and I am in total alignment with this guy.

Quizzing is the most archaic thing to do as far as education goes because it just tests information and does not neccessarily let you create an answer.

In fact it made me feel a little proud as well because I have written on similar lines in my book in the chapter on questions and later on the new concept of 'quexaminations'. In fact the chapter on quexaminations can be read online at www.quexaminations.blogspot.com

Appreciation Tags for school students

Happen to be at Springdays School, Jabalpur sometime back on some official work.

Its a usual small town school by the look of it but I found something unusual about the school.

While roaming around the school...found some students going around with 'unusual' name tags...like Punctuality, Confident, All rounder etc. It was obvious the guy with the 'confident' tag was confident but the practice of tagging kids was interesting.

Instead of the usual intelligent and non-intelligent categories which conventional schools often tag(virtual not real) students with...this was different.

Dont know about the long term ramifications of this practice but I guess there is actually no harm in such 'appreciation' or 'acknowlegement' tags. I wonder what are the long term ramifications of this on the kids?

Spoke to the Principal...and complimented her for starting this practice. She told me that she had actually got the idea from some school in Delhi. Dont know... but havent seen any school actually doing this. The only tags that I have seen are the class monitor, School Captain and House Captain tags.

Well...if we follow this I am sure every kid would have at least one tag to flaunt...and happy kids lead to better learning.

Ferrari ki Sawaari

Watched the film Ferrari ki Sawaari...nice film.

One of the first few scenes in the film touched a cord somewhere.

The father is driving his son to school on his scooter and break a traffic signal.

He immediately realises the mistake and stops....asks the son to look for a cop...but there is no cop around.

They go ahead to the next intersection and find a traffic cop there. The father walks up to the cop and tells that he broke a traffic signal at the last intersection... and wants to pay the fine. The cop asks who caught you...he says nobody...we have come on our own.

The cop is astonished and says that if nobody caught you or saw you breaking the light...why didnt you just ride away...why have you come to me.

The father says...somebody did see. (Frankly speaking I thought the father would answer that
'God saw me'....but the script write tripped me)

The cops asks 'who saw you'

And the father points towards his son. He says..."My son saw me break the signal and I cant go ahead without paying a fine"

That was a Wow point for me in the film...not because the script bowled me but because it just made me present to what true parenting is. Its anybody's answer...what that kid is going to grow into?


My friend runs a parenting insitute...would definitely ask him to include this clip in his parenting workshops at Parwarish.

As a school educator what fascinated me was the simplicity with which the message gets conveyed...class.
I wish I could write similar scripts in the school education domain.

Jodogyan Resource Centre and Shop

I have known of Jodogyan for a long long time...and really appreciate their work. But wonder how I never got a chance to be at their store at Jia Serai, near IIT Delhi.

Last week I was there and was thrilled to be there. A must visit for any teacher. I am sure you will pick up a lot of stuff even if you had walked in without the thought of buying something.







Interestingly apart from the Maths and Science kits around...there is a book corner as well. You will find all the important and popular titles on school education at this place. Krishna Kumar's old book 'Learning from Conflict' which is hard to find anywhere can be found here...I picked up one.


The address is- Jodogyan Resource Centre, 28A/1, Jia Sarai, Hauz Khas, Near IIT Gate, New Delhi-110016
Phone- 011-32400290; 09891516084