Oh ri Duniya...

Oh ri duniya, Oh ri duniya,
Aye duniya, aye surmayee aankhein ke pyaalo ki duniya oh duniya,
Surmayee aankhein ke pyaalo ki duniya oh duniya,
Satrangi rango gulalo ki duniya oh duniya -2 times

Alsaayi sejo ke phoolon ki duniya oh duniya re,
Angdaayi tode kabootar ki duniya oh duniya re,
Aye karwat le soyi haqeeqat ki duniya oh duniya,
Deewani hoti tabiyat ki duniya oh duniya,
Khwahish mein lipti zaroorat ki duniya oh duniya re,
Heyyy insaan ke sapno ki niyat ki duniya oh duniya,
Oh ri duniya, oh ri duniya, oh ro duniya, oh ri duniya,
Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai? – 3 times

Mamta ki bikhri kahani ki duniya oh duniya,
Behno ki siski jawani ki duniya oh duniya,
Adam ke hawwa se rishte ki duniya oh duniya re
Heyyy shayar ke pheenke labzo ki duniya oh duniya,
Ooooo…oooo…hoooo….hooo…ooooooooo…
[Gaalib ke maumin ke khawabo ki duniya,
Majazo ke un inqalabo ki duniya] – 2 times

Faize firako sahir umakhdum meel ki zoku kitabo ki duniya,
Yeh duniya agar mil bhi jaaye to kya hai? – 3 times

Palchin mein baaten chali jaati hai hai,
Palchin mein raaten chali jaati hai hai,
Reh jaata hai jo sawera wo dhoondhe,
Jalta makaan mein basera wo dhoondhe,
Jaisi bachi hai waisi ki waisi, bacha lo yeh duniya,
Apna samajh ke apno ki jaisi utha lo yeh duniya,
Chitput si baaton mein jalne lagegi, sambhalo yeh duniya,
Katpit ke raaton mein palne lagegi, sambhalo yeh duniya,
Oh ri duniya, oh ri duniya, wo kahen hai ki duniya,
Yeh itni nahi hai sitaaro se aage jahan aur bhi hai,
Yeh hum hi nahi hai, wahan aur bhi hai,
Hamari hare k baat hoti wahin hai,
Hume aitraaz nahi hai kahin bhi,
Wo aayi zamil pe sahi hai,
Magar falsafa yeh bigad jaata hai jo,
Wo kehte hai…aalim yeh kehta wahan ishwar hai,
Faazil yeh kehta wahan allah hai,
Kamil yeh kahta hai,
Manzil yeh kehti tab insaan se ki,
Tumhari hai tum hi sambhalo yeh duniya,
Yeh ujde hue chand baasi charago,
Tumhare yeh kale iraado ki duniya,
Ohh ri duniya, oh ri duniya…
Hoo ri duniya…

source: http://www.indicine.com/movies/bollywood/duniya-lyrics-gulaal/

Reading List - Education

1. Teacher (Sylvia Ashton-Warner)
2. School Teacher: A Sociological Study (Dan Lortie)
3. Learning to Labor: How Working Class Kids Get Working Class Jobs (Paul Willis & Stanley Aaronwitz)
4. Other People’s Children: Cultural Conflict in the Classroom (Lisa Delpit)
5. The Element (Ken Robinson)
6. Multiple Intelligences: Theory in Practice (Howard Gardener)
7. The Language Instinct (Steven Pinker)
8. In a Different Voice (Carol Gilligan)
9. The Indian Psyche (Sudhir Kakkar)
10. White Teacher (Vivian Paley)
11. Rousing Minds to Life (Tharp & Gallimore)
12. The Psychology of Literacy (Sylvia Scribner & Michael Cole)
13. The Significance of Schooling: Life journeys in an African Society (Robert Serpell)
14. Apprenticeship in Thinking (Barbara Rogoff)
15. Situated Learning: Legitimate Peripheral Participation (Lave & Wenger)
16. What Video Games have to Teach us about Learning and Literacy (Jim Gee)
17. Actual Minds, Possible Worlds (Jerome Bruner)
18. Acts of Meaning (Jerome Bruner)
19. Revising Herself: the Story of Women's Identity from College to Midlife (Josselson)
20. Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience (Csíkszentmihályi)
21. Ways with Words (Shirley Brice Heath)
22. Animal Farm (George Orwell)
23. Waiting for the Mahatma (R.K. Narayan)
24. How Children Fail (John Holt)
25. Divaswapna (Gijubhai)
26. Tottochan (Tetsuko Kuroyangi)
27. Summerhill (A.S Neill)
28. What did you ask at School today? (Kamala Mukunda)
29. Deschooling Soceity (Ivan Illich)
30. The Open Classroom (K. Margaret)
31. Redesigning Education (Lynn Stoddard)
32. Proust and the Squid: The Story and the Science of the Reading Brain (Maryanne Wolf) Swami & Friends – R.K.Narayan
33. The English Teacher – R.K.Narayan
34. Bachelor of Arts – R.K.Narayan
35. 36 Children

Super 30

Super 30, a distinctive programme that coaches students for the IIT entrance exam, has seen unparalleled success in the number of students that make it into the prestigious IITs each year. Its founder, Anand Kumar, selects 30 students from economically weaker families, provides them with food and boarding, and tutors them for a year as they prepare for the IIT JEE.

By 2011, 236 out of 270 Super 30 students made it into the IITs. We bring to you an exclusive interview with the man behind the success of Super 30. Pioneer, visionary and guru, Anand Kumar, as he talks of his inspirations, his plans for the future, his take on education in India, and the Indian Teaching Service he hopes to see become part of India’s blueprint for education.

How does it feel to see the running success of Super 30?
It makes me extremely happy. Many of these children left their homes, their villages, to come follow their dream; and to see this kind of result makes me very glad. This is the chance they need to break out of poverty and build a future for themselves.

What has been your inspiration to set up Super 30?
Growing up, I had a keen interest in Mathematics, and spent many hours working on my subject. After graduation, I applied and got admission into the University of Cambridge. But my financial situation, and my father’s medical condition were factors that held me back, and I had to let go of the opportunity. It made me realize that there were many students in India facing the same situation. Despite being gifted students, with a strong academic inclination, poverty and inaccessibility to quality education held them back. If there was a way to help them, I knew I had to find it.

Who has been your role model?
There have been many, but most outstanding in my memory, remains my father, Rajendra Prasad. He passed away around the time that my admission into Cambridge came through. He always said – Son, whatever you do, do it wholeheartedly. Put your heart and mind into it. He had a good heart, and encouraged in us, the idea of giving back to society.

What advice would you give our readers that are aspiring IIT-ians?
I would advise them to read voraciously, and be thorough with the basics. One must never memorise or “ratto”; that is not learning. Instead, study the basics, and understand them fully. As you develop on this, use your imagination and then apply to new learning.

If you could be India’s Education Minister, what changes would you bring into the system?
To begin with, everyone must understand that education is not a commodity to be bought and sold. Right now, there are expensive private schools, and there are Government schools, and there is a great divide between them. Quality education is being sold to the highest bidder. That has to change. Education - quality education - must be accessible to everyone. Government schools must impart education of the same standard available at private schools. And excellence in quality of education must begin right from primary schools.
Secondly, the IITs that now allow only 2 attempts at entrance admissions, must make allowances for children from less privileged backgrounds, and give them 3 attempts at clearing the IIT entrance exams. You spoke of primary schools; what changes do you think we need to see in this sphere of education? As I said, the quality of education must improve, and this begins right at primary school level. Most importantly, we have to attract and retain good teachers. It is the teacher that can transform a student, and it is imperative our schools have good teachers. We need to change the existing policies, and re-look at the salaries we give them, the facilities and tools to aid them in the classroom. Why don’t we have something similar to the IAS, and IFS? The ITS – Indian Teaching Service. Something as prestigious, to attract and build talent in the education sector.

In your opinion, why aren’t there more schools like yours? Is this a difficult model to replicate?
Super 30 is a school that takes no donations. In this sense, yes it can be hard to sustain. But we have created a prototype, and we encourage the government, and corporate business, to replicate this model. In fact, several State governments have expressed interest in setting up something similar, drawing inspiration from the success of Super 30.

Any plans to expand Super 30 into Super 50 or Super 100?
Yes, why not? Super 30 started as an experiment with 30 students who showed potential. We had no idea the name would become so popular. If there are more children with the talent and determination, then there is always room for more.

What do you see yourself doing over the next few years? Any plans beside Super 30?
Well, it has been a dream of mine to run a school for children from lower income families, and from villages where quality education is not available. I plan to set up this school, for children from the 6th to the 12th standard. I am looking for land right now, for the school premises, and for a hostel for the children to stay. I want to give them a chance to think of going abroad, to study medicine, to attend Olympiads, and meet other students excelling in different fields of academics.

source: http://in.education.yahoo.com/news/yeduyahooindia/super-30-founder-start-school-20110603

more @ http://www.super30.org/

Join Hands with Aastha Parivaar

Join Hands with Aastha Parivaar

Aastha Parivaar –a federation of 14 community based organizations by sex workers across Mumbai and Thane –is an organization formed by, of and for sex workers. Living in shadows, these are women who aspire for a dignified, empowered existence and violence free society. Paradoxically, Mumbai and its satellite town Thane are hubs of large migrant population as well as sex trade. Aastha Parivaar, an umbrella organization of male, female

and transgender sex workers, does serious work for the community, from finding alternate means of sustenance to meeting their health care needs, working toward HIV prevention.

But Aastha Parivaar is a young organization and it needs your support! For the first time ever, sex workers across Mumbai and Thane, are coming together to put forth an edutainment program, Anand Utsav – an array of skits, songs, folk dances and children’s performances – now on 12th October 2010. The event is open to general community.

Passes already bought will still be valid.

Donation passes are available for `1000/-, ` 500/ and `200/-. The proceedings from the donation passes will go towards the education of sex workers’ children. They are marginalized not only because they are children of sex workers, but also because several are themselves infected or affected by HIV. Intervention for sex workers’ children is vital for they are also most prone to enter the profession.

Show your support to Aastha Parivaar. Be there for the event!

We look forward to a long term relationship with you. Let Anand Utsav be the beginning!

Venue: Hotel Rangsharda, Bandra Reclamation

Date: 12th Oct, 2010

Time: 7 pm onwards.

Email at manager@aasthaparivaar.org.in.

Tel: 2368 6636 / 2659 2350

Visit us at www.aasthapartivaar.org.

SAHAYATA - Collection Drive for Leh Victims

The recent cloudburst in Leh has created havoc on the lives of all those affected. Hundreds of lives have been lost, houses have been destroyed and people have lost everything they have. According to Mr. Anshu Gupta (Founder, Goonj) who recently visited the site - "180 recovered dead bodies, 400 missing people, hundreds of houses totally crumbled, heavy loss to crop, cattle and property is not a small loss. Many families have been wiped out completely; even the dead bodies are still under the 6- 7 ft. of mud, which suddenly entered their homes as they were sleeping. The prime concern is the upcoming winter. In winters the temperature of Leh goes down to -20 degree celcius. There is also a bigger question of food security as the affected people have lost the stocks they created to use in the 6 months of harsh winters.

To offer whatever assistance we can in their time of need, Pankhudi Foundation is doing a collection drive for the victims of the floods. We are collecting money and other items that will be needed by the victims to now and in the coming months to re-build their lives.

Material Contributions:

• Good quality woollens and blankets (Important)
• Tarpaulins and thick plastic sheets
• Export surplus or Cotton cloth for making sanitary napkins
• Cooking and water storage utensils or buckets
• School material- toys & games, stationary, notebooks etc.
• Lanterns, candles, matchbox, torch & batteries

Material contributions must be packed in plastic gunny bags to make storage and transport easier. All contributions will be sent to Goonj for further distribution in Leh.

Monetary Contributions:

• Monetary contributions must be in the form of CHEQUES / DRAFTS ONLY in the name of “GOONJ”(No cash accepted).
• All your Monetary contributions are eligible for Tax Exemption under 80G.
• For receipts purposes, Please write the following information behind your cheques/drafts – Name, Address, Phone No. and PAN No.

Taking material to Leh is costly and difficult therefore GOONJ will be using the money we raise to buy materials from cities near Leh.

The LAST DATE for sending in your contributions is 10th SEPTEMBER 2010 .

For contributions please provide your details HERE.

Or contact one of our Sahayata representatives in your city:

City	Name	Contact	Email
Bangalore	Mr. Anuj Bhargava/ Ms. Chhavi Arora	+91 9739137485 / +91 9740375954	sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org
Delhi	Mr. Amit Garg/ Mr. Vaibhav Khandelwal	+91 9971006580 / +91 9310121285	sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org
Hyderabad	Mr. Rajesh Kumar Singh/ Mr. Ramesh Kolluri	+91 9704165208/ +91 8008099898	sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org
Mumbai	Mr. Abhishek Shenoy/ Mr. Aditya Karandikar	+91 9920396422 / +91 9004991505	sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org
Pune	Mr. Shrikanth Iyer/ Mr. Sachin Agrawal	+91 9730580513/ +91 9604895693	sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org
Other locations	Mr. Rohan Honawade	+91 9986203352	sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org

For any other queries, email us at sahayata@pankhudifoundation.org Visit our Facebook page: Raahat - Collection Drive for Leh Relief Corporate Letter: Sahayata: Collection Drive for Leh Flood Relief

About Goonj (www.goonj.org): Goonj is a recognized non-profit with initiatives running across 20 states in India and several awards to their credit including 'Indian NGO of the year' in 2008. They played a huge role in bringing relief to the victims of the Bihar Floods in 2008 and the Karnataka and Andhra Floods in 2009.

Can Meena Build An Indian Google?

Meena wants to become a computer engineer. She believes that if she works hard enough, she can build her own “big business”—maybe a Google. So she is determined to complete her schooling and earn an engineering degree. Young girls like Meena, just 16 years old but with the ambition and confidence to enter the tech world, are a rare commodity even in Silicon Valley; but Meena lives in a slum in New Delhi. Her father works as a day laborer. He used to spend half his income on alcohol, and would come home drunk every night and make so much noise that Meena could not do her homework. He considered Meena a liability, saw no value in her education, and had nothing to be optimistic about.

Sana Azmi too lives in a Delhi slum. She is determined to become a lawyer. Sana has long had this ambition, but her unemployed father had made the decision to withdraw her from school this year, when she turns 16. His plan was to get her married as soon as possible, and he believed that if Sana received too much education, it would be difficult to find a suitable groom in their socioeconomic community. Moreover, they simply couldn’t afford to educate her. Sana begged her Dad to find a way; she told him that without higher education she would be like an “empty room”.

Meena’s father has now stopped drinking and is working long hours to save money for her education. He considers Meena to be the pride of the family, and is hopeful that she will lift the family out of poverty. And Sana’s parents are no longer on the lookout for potential grooms for their daughter. Instead, they are supporting and encouraging her efforts to complete high school and continue on to university.

How did these transformations happen? Through a non-profit group called Roshni Academy, which identifies, trains, and mentors brilliant girls from socioeconomically underprivileged communities. Founded by Saima Hasan when she was a junior at Stanford in 2007, and funded by Silicon Valley business leaders and philanthropists, Roshni has already transformed the lives of more than 500 underprivileged girls, in seven districts of Delhi.

The Roshni formula is simple: empower smart girls with self confidence, critical thinking skills, basic social skills, and life skills—and make them realize that they can succeed by working hard and taking risks. Roshni girls, all of whom live below the poverty line yet maintain top academic standing, undergo intensive education through three training modules over a six-month period. The curriculum covers 25 subjects, ranging from public speaking to conflict management to hygiene. Students are also taught computer and internet basics. At the end of each training season, 60 top-performing students are granted scholarships by the Nurul Hasan Foundation to pursue their secondary and higher education.

I was blown away by the energy and enthusiasm of the Roshni students I met on my recent trip to New Delhi. They were as confident as the students I teach at Duke and Berkeley. They bombarded me with great questions—they had a deep hunger to learn. And they were amazingly optimistic. Like the techies I know, they believed they could change the world. What surprised me the most was that that each of them claimed to have learned English through the Roshni program. This didn’t make sense given the short duration of the course. It turns out that even though they had studied English in school, these girls had never had the opportunity or confidence to speak it. Watch the video below of 15-year-old Roshni student Bazla Ambareen (and the other videos) to understand what I mean.

Conditions for the poor in India are dire, and people live at the extremes; but, sadly, things aren’t always that much better in some parts of the U.S. and in other parts of the world. You don’t have to go as far as Harlem, NY, or Durham, NC, to see poverty and disfranchised youth. In Silicon Valley, you can just visit schools in East Palo Alto or Oakland. In fact, Saima Hasan says that she got the idea for developing the Roshni program while tutoring students in East Palo Alto. That’s where she hopes to pilot, next year, an American version of her program.

My conclusion: if Roshni girls can rise above poverty, alcoholism, gender bias, domestic violence, marriage pressures, religious oppression, and a wide range of complex social and economic obstacles through pure hard work and determination, so can underprivileged communities in the U.S. There is nothing to stop us from lifting our minorities out of poverty and fixing the societal problems such as those that I’ve previously written about—American girls being left out of the tech world.

Editor’s note: Guest writer Vivek Wadhwa is an entrepreneur turned academic. He is a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, Senior Research Associate at Harvard Law School and Director of Research at the Center for Entrepreneurship and Research Commercialization at Duke University. You can follow him on Twitter at @vwadhwa and find his research atwww.wadhwa.com.

India: Tribal Area Medical Program Traditional & Modern - Gender

WUNRN

http://www.wunrn.com

Women's Feature Service

http://www.wfsnews.org/

India - New Delhi

"India - Another SEARCH intervention has been in improving the hygiene of the traditional Gond 'korma' - the rather dark and dirty hut in which women are isolated during menstruation. While it has been difficult to convince the community to do away with this practice of isolation, SEARCH health workers have managed to at least improve the 'korma', turning it into a clean, comfortable place, with perhaps a bed and a tiled roof. The 'korma' has, in fact, been transformed into a 'women's room', where women meet during their difficult days, rest and share experiences."

________________________________________________________________

Dr Rani Bang has successfully introduced modern medicine and practices of hygiene into tribal lifestyle. (Credit: Shekhar Soni\WFS)

India: Tribal Area Medical Program Traditional & Modern - Gender

By Shoma Sen

Gadchiroli (Women's Feature Service) - Deep in the forests of Gadchiroli, a tribal area of eastern Maharashtra, live the Gond 'adivasis' (tribals), some of the poorest and most neglected people of the state. The region is considered dangerous because large parts of it have come under the sway of Maoist rebels, also known as Naxalites, who have taken up the challenge of organising the Gonds to fight for a society they claim is based on justice and equality. The ensuing conflict between the rebels and the state has turned the region into a "police state", where anti-insurgency security forces are constantly on the vigil, storming Maoist hide-outs and eliminating suspects. The word 'encounter' - a euphemism for such extra-judicial killings - has become a part of local vocabulary.

The forest is usually not a place where one would expect to find qualified doctors, especially ones who have studied at the world renowned Johns Hopkins University in the US. But then Dr Rani Bang and her husband, Dr Abhay Bang, who are both in their fifties, founders of the Society for Education, Action and Research in Community Health (SEARCH), are not "usual". They were determined to take the road less travelled.

Rani Bang (nee Chari), daughter of a doctor and the granddaughter of a prominent Congress Party Member of Parliament (MP) from Chandrapur, met Abhay, the son of the famous Gandhian, Thakurdas Bang of Wardha, at Nagpur's Government Medical College. Abhay was involved in the Sampoorna Kranti (Complete Revolution) movement initiated by political leader Jayaprakash Narayan. On returning from Johns Hopkins, where the couple had gone to pursue higher studies after their marriage, Rani and Abhay resolved to put their powers of healing, as gynaecologist and physician respectively, in the service of government Primary Health Centres (PHCs) for the benefit of ordinary people.

In 1985, the couple set up SEARCH, a multifarious village within a village. Located in Shodhgram, about 15 kilometres from the district headquarters of Gadchiroli on the Dhanora road, SEARCH is a hospital, a de-addiction centre, a voluntary organisation that runs various projects on tribal welfare, health, adolescent sex education and so on. It is also a research institute that has brought out many publications. Reminiscent of a tribal village, it is equipped with all the modern amenities necessary to meet its objectives. Mud houses amidst trees built around a common courtyard, hutments for in-house patients to live in with their families, a temple dedicated to Danteswari Devi, worshipped by the Gonds, and other symbols of tribal culture, are around to make patients feel at home. "We asked the people what kind of a hospital they would like and then designed this facility," says Dr Rani Bang. Of course, the funds to do all the good work come from various government schemes and donors like the Ford Foundation.

The greatest achievements of the SEARCH project have been to bring about a fall in the maternal mortality rate (MMR) of the area through improved neo-natal childcare. This has been done by introducing modern medicine and practices of hygiene into the tribal lifestyle, through camps, visits to villages, training of birth attendants and health workers from among the community and by encouraging city-trained doctors to work in the area.

According to Sunanda, Women's Health Coordinator, SEARCH, maternal mortality has been high in this region because childbirth is carried out at home in the most primitive way. "Women arrive at the hospital only in cases of an emergency, due to factors such as lack of transport, finances and, initially, a lack of faith in modern medicine. But this is gradually changing." This positive behavioural change - including a growing preference for institutional deliveries - is largely because workers of SEARCH take the pains to explain the danger signs to pregnant women so that they understand when they must go to a hospital. "We explain about the anatomy, nutritious food and convince the mothers-in-law to feed the pregnant women well," elaborates Sunanda, who has been with the project for 15 years. Sunanda is originally from Nagpur and has done her MA in Sociology. She and her husband are both social workers employed by SEARCH.

Local customs are the reason for infant deaths, too. Traditionally, Gond mothers starve themselves for an easier birth, don't nurse for three days after their babies are born, and don't clothe the newborn for five weeks. As a result, pneumonia kills a large number of infants. In an attempt to address this concern, SEARCH has been encouraging mothers to check the weight of their newborns, among other measures. SEARCH has also trained birth attendants (TBAs), who can be any committed person who has attended to around four child births in the village.

Another SEARCH intervention has been in improving the hygiene of the traditional Gond 'korma' - the rather dark and dirty hut in which women are isolated during menstruation. While it has been difficult to convince the community to do away with this practice of isolation, SEARCH health workers have managed to at least improve the 'korma', turning it into a clean, comfortable place, with perhaps a bed and a tiled roof. The 'korma' has, in fact, been transformed into a 'women's room', where women meet during their difficult days, rest and share experiences.

Elucidating the SEARCH approach to improving the well-being of the Gonds, Sunanda speaks of the need to understand the essentials of Gond culture and build on their tribal heritage. "We don't laugh at the tribals, their beliefs or superstitions," she says. "Their medicine is mainly herbal medicine and black magic practised by traditional healers. We tell the people that they should also take our modern medicine. We encourage them to bring their healer along and try to train him in modern medicine. Now the traditional healers trained by us carry malaria slides and give tablets."

At the other end of the spectrum, Rani Bang has been working on the Gond tribal medicine, conducting scientific experiments to ascertain their veracity. She feels that the use of asafoetida (hing) to treat fungal infections of the skin; garlic for vaginal infections; and boiled guava leaves for anal fissures probably have a sound scientific basis.

Her book 'Goin', a Gondi word for 'friend', has a study of the flora of the area as seen through the eyes of Gond women and traditional healers. Her research has introduced her to a wealth of tribal knowledge and anecdotes. Yet, despite her wide exposure to tribal customs, there are times when she is left startled. Once she was taken aback when a woman casually pointed to a plant which she claimed was useful to "kill a husband"!

But how can people work so selflessly in an area of conflict? Don't Rani Bang and her colleagues sometimes feel intimidated by their difficult circumstances? Says Rani, the recipient of the National Award for Women's Development Through Application of Science and Technology, 2008, as well as many national and international awards, "What is there to fear? After all, everybody has to die some day?"

source: http://www.wunrn.com/news/2009/05_09/05_25_09/052509_india.htm