Simplicity Redefined...

आज फिर …

आज फिर सुबह सूरज को ऊगते देखा…

आज फिर…

आज फिर गगन में निले रंग को भरते देखा…

आज फिर…

आज फिर आसमान में पंछीयों को उडते देखा…

आज फिर…

आज फिर खुली हवा में पत्तों को लहरातें देखा…

आज फिर…

आज फिर मासूम से चेहरों पे हँसी को खिलते देखा…

आज फिर…

आज फिर एक सपना देखा…

- Gaurav Pradhan… Random Thoughts…

I know I’m writing this post on the last the day of the festival, but Ganesh festival has been my favorite since childhood. My memories range from my grand-father taking me on his shoulder to show various Ganesh pandals in Thane to my father and mother taking me to the significant pandals in Pune. There’s something divine that makes me connect with the Elephant God. Ganesh, as per mythology, is son of Lord Shiva and Parvati. It is believed that Lord Ganesh got his elephant head after Lord Shiva beheaded him, which made Devi Parvati angry and she asked Lord Shiva to get head of the first creature Lord Shiva sees and elephant it was.

Lokmanya Tilak first started the Ganesh festival to spread unity and togetherness in the society. This festival slowly graduated to its “Sarvajanik” avatar which was strongly protested by Justice Mahadeo Govind Ranade fearing its commercialization. Who knew his fear would one day take form of its own and in a rather bad way. It pains to see the commercialization of the festival or I should say most of the hindu festivals. This filth is rightly depicted, in parts, in the marathi movie “Morya” released last year. Though the movie is nothing to go gaga about, still it points some questionable things that have become part of the festival e.g. filthy competition amongst pandals, political leaders promoting themselves and using the black money they have accumulated and many such things.

Now, I’m not a staunch believer in God and all the things related with it, but one question that I face every progressing year is are we getting into an era where everything is nothing but promotion and competition? And at what cost? Are we forgetting all the “shastras” that our ancestors have listed? There’s no doubting our ancestors; there is definitely a strong reason behind these “shastras” and “vedas”. In future, are our festivals going to get restricted to nothing but “noise” and all the bad things mentioned?

At the same time there’s no denying that I absolutely love visiting people during Ganesh festival and getting involved in daily “aartis” that take place. The unity factor with which Tilak started the festival is still there. That is the beauty of the Indian festivals! Coming together and celebrating the festivals in a good and peaceful way. The environment Ganesh festival and most of the festivals create is magical and very divine indeed. These are the things everyone should love about our festivals, instead I saw some hatred messages on a social networking site from random people mentioning how much they hate this festival. It’s ironical that same people tolerate the noise and other things in pubs and discos they regularly visit. Or I should say they are in such “high spirits” that the noise there actually sounds like a romantic duet or a love ballad :P

The point is, India is what it is because of different cultures residing within the country and that’s what makes it rich culturally and traditionally. It’s up to us the way we see it, positively or negatively. Though I hate the bad things, I prefer the first option.

Ganpati Bappa Morya….Pudhchya varshi lavkar yaa!! :)

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. 
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. 
It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us. 
We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, 
talented and fabulous? 

Actually, who are you not to be? 
You are a child of God. 
Your playing small does not serve the world. 
There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other 
people won’t feel insecure around you. 

We were born to make manifest the glory of 
God that is within us. 

It’s not just in some of us; it’s in everyone. 
And as we let our own light shine, 
we unconsciously give other people 
permission to do the same. 

As we are liberated from our own fear, 
Our presence automatically liberates others.

- Marianne Williamson

So, the D-day finally arrived! I joined the Teach for India 2011 cohort on the 10^th of June. First impressions, man, there was some diversity! We had people from IITs, BITs, NITs, IIMs, LSE, Oxford, dramatics, law, humanities and corporate like TCS, Cogni, Stan Chart, Deloitte; phew! The list just does not end! There was no dearth of talent and enthusiasm.

Days at the institute were indeed memorable, thanks to the people around. Early morning sessions, summer school, submissions and late night chats, just awesome! Of course we find some cranky creatures everywhere and people who take such great efforts to make themselves visible, always (sorry, but that’s me, as straight forward as I can beJ I have tried to be as subdued as I can be ;)) Also looking at some people, I would get puzzled, as to what are they up to and are they really going to do justice to their students? I mean, just imagine a thief telling his son that stealing is bad or A. Raja participating in a rally against corruption! But, leaving the values and integrity part (though the most important one for me), at the end of it I knew that each one of us was going to take some really unique things in our classrooms.

I joined a classroom of 35 kids at Varshanagar MPES in Vikhroli, a central suburb in Mumbai. I think it was just the type of classroom I desired. First year of intervention; we have a great team of TFI fellows there, Sagarika (my co-teacher) and Prasid. Sagarika, so sweet with the kids, but at the same time well balanced in her approach and Prasid, so dedicated towards this movement and so focused, yet so grounded! They had already put in lot of efforts before I was placed there, hats-off to them! I think that has been the best part of my life, always landing up with likeminded people, who believe in no-nonsense stuff.

Now, about the school, the problem as everywhere, the same, mindsets of other teachers and parents, quality of education; these kids were taught by the supporting i.e. cleaning and peon staff of the school! They were used to getting beaten-up and could seldom read English except, just reciting the letters in the words in front of them. But, the best part, unlike others we have got a great infrastructure, in terms of space and the kids! Kids have been the best part. The learning has been definitely happening and the credit goes to the kids of course and little to us J In all the city meetings and conferences, I have been hearing some horrifying accounts from some of the fellows and we are so lucky that we have a bunch of angels with us in terms of behavior. Yes, there are always some exceptions, but it has been a good journey overall, till now.

The second half of the year also had some unfortunate events in its bag and even worse, those events were all related to health of me and my family L It started with a mosquito attack! I was diagnosed with dengue and was out of action for two and the half weeks. And the bad part was, the full recovery actually took more time than the illness and made a mess of some of my plans….”Ek macchar aadmi ko kya kya kar sakta hai”…grrr! It followed with health issues of my father and grand-father. And all these things took place during the festive period which really upsets you. Then, I lost my grand-father post diwali, which again came as a shock to the family. It was really frustrating sometimes. But, all the unfortunate things too need to stop somewhere and so they did, as we welcomed a new member in our family, my nephew J It was such a relief and a moment of sheer happiness to see him!

So, a new year dawns and with this new year comes a realization that I’ll be a year older soon :P :P But, seriously, with some paths still unexplored, few territories still unchartered and some questions still unanswered, it will surely be a memorable one with lots of self-realizations and challenges in the bag! J

I think there’s not a single person in this world that does not start his/her new year with a resolution and actually ends up not doing it! My new year, this year, starts with a resolution of trying my hand at serious blogging. There are few more, but I think those can be shared after I actually accomplish them! J

So, my first few days or should I say months passed thinking the topic with which I need to start with. Then came a thought, why not start with an account of the year that was. The year was definitely one to remember, in terms of professional and personal life.

It all started with that day or deadline I should say, since it’s the most dreaded word in the corporate life, especially in the life of a Software engineer! Okay, so date was January 23^rd, 2011. The day started as usual with me heading for work, a place where I think every person in the Pune City seems to head these days, Hinjewadi IT Park! But something was different; my mind was bustling with lots of thoughts. Thoughts that could change my life for better or I could just end up screwing my career!

Honestly, my corporate career gave me everything that one demands from life, a brand name, decent sum at the end of the month, decent lifestyle and how could I miss my prized possession (it was)? My car! I always dreamt of owning one since I was a child. But, some things in life need to change and if you want them to change, you are the one who needs to take charge of them. As a line in Spider-man’s climax says “Whatever be the battle raging inside you, you always have a choice!” And this was the time for me to make a choice. I say more than the materialistic pleasures, it’s the happiness and satisfaction a man yearns for at some point in his life and I thought I had reached that point.

I started with the Teach for India application with all such thoughts in my mind. It was the focus on inequity in education as a whole that attracted me towards the movement. The state of education is definitely in a complete mess and I have always said that education is the only thing that can uplift our society and economy, as it plays a major role in changing people’s mindsets. I thought there’s nothing bad sparing 2 years of my life for such a cause because it was going to make me wiser personally and professionally. I wanted to do something challenging in my life and this was one such chance to explore and face the situation first hand rather than just placing my opinions and commenting on it.

Okay, so now more on the application. I missed the deadline, thanks to the plethora of thoughts going in my mind. But, the next day I received a mail that the deadline was extended due to some technical snag. Some things are destiny as they say. So I submitted the application with my details and 6 essays. Then, I got a call for the assessment centre where again I had to face 4 rounds, which were, a 5 min teaching lesson, a GD, a critical reasoning test and a final interview. After some days I got a mail stating I was selected! Then again, the spectrum of thoughts and may be “I should” or may be “I should not”. But, I took the decision rather fast since I had nothing to lose!

Last few days in the organization were all about farewell parties and some pure and unadulterated fun with my beloved roomies and friends, my extended family (Dhaval, Kailash, Inder, Nitin, Swapnil, Kevin, Chaitu, Upen, Harry, Hrishi, Yashoda, Shanku and Deepu).  I miss them all! I still recount all the wonderful moments I had in Pune. God’s been really kind by giving me the best of both worlds and the people I met were some real gems! Then I decided to sell-off my prized possession, which again was tough but I think right because of the shortage of proper space I had for maintaining it back home in Dombivli.

I always believe, things good or bad always happen for better….