Explorer: Social Lens

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Tamasha - the show, we are all part of which, every moment of our life.

I am about 8 months late in watching the movie Tamasha, starring Ranveer Kapoor and Dipika Padukone and Piyush Mishra in lead roles.

But it was worth watching the movie on Saturday evening. I am really happy that I made this choice.

I happened to visit GTB Nagar (close to D.U. campus in North of Delhi). The place sells everything that a struggling individual might be interested in.

I bought a few DVD's that I have been wanting to watch but couldn't do so because of poor time management and priority setting in daily course of life.

Though, when I came home, I realized that my DVD player is broken long ago!

I unhesitatingly knocked doors of couple of neighbours, until I found one who could copy the movie from the DVD to a pen drive.

After a few hours spent in this relentless effort of running movie on my laptop, I finally finished watching it, lying in the comforts of my bed, sipping tea.

The movie makes you ponder upon the lines that I have been thinking since I left my corporate job - Is the race we are running blindly worth participating?

What are we trying to prove, and to whom exactly?

Why does everyone seem so happy in a most futile ways of living?

What is it that I am not able to find? And is it just me who is after that?

In a distinct town in outskirts of France, Ranveer and Dipika meet in the opening scene. They don't introduce each other, because as he says, it would make us tied to each other in some way. Let's be strangers, without the fear of being judged, known, familiar.

In my recent solo trips to small towns in Himachal Pradesh, I have been thinking on the same lines.

Is an introduction necessary at all for two individuals to connect?

Do your name, vocation have to do anything with who you are? Or rather, what you are!

You may be an investment banker by profession, and an artist at core of your heart? Which of that introduction you would like to give me, or does it even matter?

I am thoroughly enjoying its lead song that goes as -

Pal bhar theher jao...

Stay here for a moment. As one moment is enough if we have played it right, on the drama-stage of this little-life!

Given the fact that most (available) job opportunities are based only out of a very few cities in India, we are bound to migrate leaving our hometown at an early age. Going back home on the festivals are something we look forward to the entire year. Thanks to Indian Railways for making this a herculean task for us!

Though, I dearly appreciate the special trains being launched by railways for the ease of passengers during festivals. But I am extremely disappointed with the services provided in this special addition that are no less than a nightmare for passengers. Most trains (regular or special) are running late for about 3-9 hours. The trains that run on long routes reach to some stations after mid night, making the passengers (and those who accompany him/her) awake the entire night to wait for the train’s arrival. A standard six-hour journey turns out to be an eighteen-hour journey! One can almost reach to the US in that many hours!!! Uff!

Fortunately, Indian railways have evolved a lot over last few years. I was very lucky to start travelling in the era when booking tickets has already gone online. I am sure the older generation appreciates this facility a lot more than we do. The booking window opens 120 days prior to the date of travel. You have a long four-month time to plan your travel. Though, all seats get immediately booked up as soon as the window opens, leaving hardly any space for last-minute-planners like me!

Well, I have been a regular passenger of Indian Railways for last few years, owing to the same reason mentioned above. Travelling from New Delhi- my workplace, to my hometown- Allahabad has been the most common and frequent route for me in these years. The only difference that I am experiencing with each next trip is that the cost is getting higher and the facilities getting lesser. For a third-class AC ticket, one has to pay almost double now than the amount last year. Additionally, the curtains being provided in a third-class AC compartment have been removed now.

The special ‘Premium’ facility given to us resembles with the booking system in the US. The sooner you plan, the cheaper it gets for you! It is a great relief to the passengers who are not-so-early-planners or those who have to travel on short notice. If you want a seat, you have to pay unreasonably high amount charged as “dynamic” pricing over the base fare. But that’s okay. It’s your choice. You are not bound to buy those tickets. The only problem I have with this facility is that even after charging that high amount of money, the accountability on railways part is zero on these facilities. Nobody is responsible if the train is late for a few hours. No compensation is made to passengers for the great inconvenience caused due to these delays, and consequences of getting late to work /meeting, or missing next flight/ train etc.

For some reasons, the aam-admi in India has become super tolerant to all of this. We don’t react at all if a train is late for a couple of hours. That’s something we take for granted! Some of us hardly speak only when the inconvenience gets to its peak. A trip that earlier costed around Rs 2000-3000 now almost costs Rs. 10,000, with no real or visible addition to its facilities or services.

The journey from home to the railway station was a trip that took away my complete faith from the entire traffic system in New Delhi. The great chaos of vehicles near the railway stations, bus and auto stops took my imagination to a whole new world full of filth and noise and pollution. The longest I could see from bare eyes, was full of empty buses ready to travel inter-states. Public was on road trying to get out of that horrible traffic-jam and board a bus that could easily get out of it. I was counting seconds on my fingers as I just didn’t want to miss my “special train” booked after taking so much pain. After boarding the train, I was so thankful to my auto-wala who took a great trouble for dropping me to the ANVT station at Ghaziabad. Now I was on my special Suvidha train that was launched to handle Diwali-crowd. I took a deep sigh of relief. Who knew that time that the journey has just started. There was so much more to come before I could finally reach to my destination!

I hope that we don‘t become so numb that one day we are left as puppets run by some handful of politicians as and when they want. As a consumer, citizen, or passenger it’s your right and responsibility to speak for yourself when there is a need. The least we can do is –start voicing!

With each tiny or tall thing in the world getting online these days, information about the education sector catches my attention the most. In my last six months in a government school in New Delhi, I have found that we still need a lot of data to get online for the ease of students, their parents, and of course the educators.

It's interesting to find how Indians pay too much attention on buying too trivial things - but hardly care to spend some serious time and effort on their children's education - which will matter most in their lives, not to mention though. I receive parents of my kids every day to inquire about some or other fund that they haven't received yet from the government. I feel had they spent a tenth of that effort into quality education for their kids, life would have been much better for everyone!

INSTICHOOSE- choose your institute

Well, having said that I want to share a site I found online - http://instichoose.com/ that lists the CBSE board schools in Delhi and Kanpur (as of now), zone-wise. Once you enter the zone you're looking a school for, it displays the names of schools with their ratings on the prima facie. This list can be sorted further based on locality, facilities or any type. If you want to check out any school in particular, you can instiview that to find information on its rate, infrastructure, teachers, students, contact details etc. When you open a school page, it will also give an idea of student-teacher ratio, students and teachers distribution etc. The site has already received more than 100 feedback from school alumni and parents.

The modern India must make some sincere efforts for getting every child an excellent education. Giving him the right to preview his class before making a decision of lifetime to end up in that class for next 12 years can be a great kick-off in that direction. I am happy to see that Instichoose is doing something like this. More-so, one can see this as a great business opportunity to invest, create, or cultivate.

Hope you find this article of help. Please spread the word more and more to make this an effective movement.

Festivals in India bear different meanings to different 'janta'. There is a wave in the city, the festive wave, where all seem to be completely drowned in that wave, differently.

I see restaurants and local stores filled with special packets of chips, 'kacharis', 'papads' etc etc to serve people who fast during festivals like Navratra. Fasting people have more food choices during festive days than "singles" in India have, especially if your cook goes on an impromptu leave!

The temples become the most-sought-after tourist places. All roads to these temples get jam-packed. Long queues of 'shraddhalus', holding 'pooja-thalis' in their hands, start from across the street of each temple. Special 'jagratas' are held at different localities for joint celebration and 'pooja', off course. These are like the Indian version of Western Discos. Vegetarian restaurants come with special package of food for fasting people which gets more demand than delicious packages of Mc Donald's or Dominoz.

The non-vegetarian food is banned for these days in most families- at least officially. Not to mention that people still go to NV restaurants to satisfy their appetite.

Some so called atheist people feel neglected at most places - since you're not fasting, you are 'paapi', you have no values, blah blah.

Indian railways have got one more reason to fail on giving reservations, now. But that topic deserves a separate one book, for analysis. Let's not devalue its value by bringing it here.

Killing Ravan's putla only helps us mix more polluted particles in air.

Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan gets in garbage, and the garbage gets in road, all of a sudden. Nobody cares for anything when it comes to our rituals and festivals!

Ah, I hope there is one festival that requires people to be quiet, disciplined, clean, healthy, less show-off etc. After all, who wants to be called an atheist?

Jai Hind!

An interesting article titled as “Execs ditch jobs to drive Uber, Ola cabs”, on TOI, (dated 23rd Sep' 15) caught my attention this morning while taking tea sips. It showed data about how various “well-educated” people working in big MNCs have quit their jobs, and joined as taxi-drivers, possibly for two major reasons, subcategorized further per my understanding.

First- to get rid of: (strict and unpleasant) work timings, (annoying) colleagues and bosses, (boring) workplaces loaded with files and computers, tight (and nonsensical) deadlines, (a never ending) chain of client queries etc; Second- to compete with the salary packages that they deserve, or at least desire.

Nonetheless, the article posed some serious questions on my mind. First- why do we think that driving a taxi is a layman’s job or a low-profile one?Why we still want to ride in a taxi which is being chauffeured by a somewhat poor, illiterate, or an ignorant man? This by extension means that we still want to travel in a country where we think that education is only a rich man’s asset. And scores of professions that build our nation’s very foundations are not meant for well-educated people.

Second – why Ola, Uber or other taxi giants are able to offer salaries that are par above than IT or other companies? Is the data correct, or does it only show one side of the picture? What is the gap in the market that these companies are filling, or rather creating? However, this is true that in the scheme of pathetic condition of public transport in metro cities, and highly expensive and environment-unfriendly condition of private one, the employers are making and the common-man is suffering! And that leads me to the next question –

Third- is there any restriction on the number of private or commercial vehicles be rolled on the road? How are we ensuring the quality of air as a result of the overflowing taxi aggregators in the market? Shouldn’t govt. force these taxi giants to start carpooling apps and support them to implement the same? Uber has already declared to start such a service in Bangalore in the coming weeks. While we are enjoying the solo taxi rides, we are forgetting the fact that each single ride is contributing into polluting the air which we share with one and all.

Forth- is there any restriction on the MNCs upon the salary they ‘must’ pay to their employees as per their talents or the output produced? Why most of the working population in our country is underpaid? The big MNCs open their offices in India (and some other developing countries) because of the availability of cheap resources: both human and natural. However it’s very unfortunate that owing to the mismatch between the shrinking-job-openings and the sprawling-job-applications the common man joins “any job available” in the market at “any salary being offered” irrespective of his/her talent, let alone the ‘passion’!

On prime-minister’s impending visit to US next week, a discussion on global warming is much awaited; I believe a step in this matter would only prove an old adage true – “Charity begins at home!”

Hope you enjoyed reading the article, and it gave you some push to thinking various other questions on these lines. Comments are welcome!

Cheers,

Swati

This post was originally published here-

Soon after I got into Teach For India (TFI) fellowship program, I started making my online presence stronger than ever. Why - to simply yet rigorously spread the TFI virus that made me go head over heels with the fellowship lately!

(Credits to the TFI training where I learned the hard way - "Sharing indeed is real joy!")

Since then, I have been getting lots of questions from various friends, friends of friends, foes and so on to learn more about the fellowship. Just like me an year before, they are clueless if this fellowship is a right ~~career option~~ decision (I will discuss this term in the article later) for them; if it offers them with a challenging platform equivalent (or better) to that a corporate offers; if this place will actually take them closer to their dreams or away from it; etc.

That led me to summarize my understanding of the fellowship in a write-up once and for all. Let me start with quoting one of my recent experiences with you-

"The first day I entered into my classroom, I felt as if I was back into the black and white era of 60's. A place filled with an unbearable odour from nearby washrooms, orthodox bulbs, broken walls, and a huge space crunch to fit in most vivacious eyes of about 100 bunch of cute little girls that looked upon me - with immense love and hope!

I remembered what they said during the training that there would be tough times; all you need is to keep that hope alive!

After waiting for about two weeks outside the principal's office, before and after school, every day, I managed to get a new classroom for my kids. For them, it was a huge transition from a place where they were struggling for mere space, fresh air, comfortable sitting to a neat and clean classroom that they can boast about now. For me, it was like a dream come true! I had a deep sense of relaxation and joy within!"

Coming back to quench your thirst on the various aspects of the fellowship -

Well, my stint at TFI has been too small to comment on how life of a fellow looks like. I am sure I will keep having ups and downs just like any other place I will work in. But one thing I am also sure of is that I don't have to work to please anyone anymore. I am not going to be part of a senseless race of perks, hikes, promotions etc. I am going to be me every moment from now on.. And this realization is worth living the experience!

If you wonder whether this fellowship is right for you, here is a list of questions you can ask to yourself to understand the fellowship better-

If you are ready to make a lifelong commitment instead of a career option for two years-

If you are ready to get inside the gutter to clean it-

If you feel mad about the idea of inequity on so many things-

If you creep out about bad governance, corruption, false practices, policies etc-

If you want to see lives impacted by your work instead of some binary codes on a monitor screen -

And most importantly,

If you WANT, then you CAN, Teach for India!

Good luck with your application journey!

And trust me, the question is not - if the fellowship is right for me! It's indeed- if I am right for the fellowship!

Cheers,

Swati

This post was originally published here -

I have seen these numbers previously just as a statistical result. But what shakes my heart now when I look at these numbers is the fact that they define the lives, futures, careers, dreams, and hopes of millions of children of our country.

Let’s take a look-

The 2011 census shows that less than 5% of India’s population have access to all four assets – television, computer/laptop, scooter/car and telephone/mobile phone.
As per the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) 2012, 97% of all rural children between the ages of 6-14 were enrolled in school, up from hovering around 80-85% in the early 2000’s.
Only 47 of the 100 children enrolled in Class I reach Class VIII, putting the dropout rate in primary and elementary schools at 53%.
About 90% of children that get enrolled don’t complete school.
It is estimated that only 5% of Indians speak English as a second language with a proficiency that equals or surpasses that of a native speaker. About 90 % population of our country don’t speak English at all.
According to a 2011 study done by Times of India, only 12% girls in India use sanitary napkins in their menstruation days. Over 88% of women resort to shocking alternatives like unsanitised cloth, ashes and husk sand.
According to a 2012 study done by BBC News, only 3% of India’s population have access to home internet.
According to another 2012 study done by BBC News, 47% of the 246.6 million households have lavatories while 50% defecate in the open.The remaining 3% use public toilets. (About 76-77% of homes in the eastern states of Jharkhand, Orissa and Bihar have No toilet facilities.)
India has 33 percent of the world’s poorest 1.2 billion people, according to a World Bank Report released in 2013. (China has been the most successful country in helping improve its people’s economic condition. Its poverty rate fell to 12 percent of the population in 2010 from 84 percent in 1981.)

There are still hundreds of other fact which can give us goosebumps anytime I have not been able to cover here. If you’re able to comprehend this article, I am sure you must be feeling by now how privileged you are!

When we involve in discussions like ‘what-is-the-future-of-our-country’, or ‘what-to-do-to-change-it’ etc, we belong to a top 5% of population who understand any of this. And I am sure you and someone in your family must have worked really hard in his/her life for you to get to this level today. So what’s next? You deserve every bit of what and where you’re today, and you deserve to be even at a better place. You can continue to work harder, and be lost in the constant struggle of earning in six-seven digits for the rest of your life. Or,

You can take a moment to think about that 95% of your country who is still dying there every day in the relentless effort of surviving.

Why should I bother?

This question has been hitting my grey matter since a long time. And it is a valid question if you also happen to ask to yourself.

I am sure life has not been easy for you too. You studied hard, passed hundreds of examinations, worked day in and day out, to reach to where you’re today. But has this been enough? Don’t you think that for you to reach those heights, someone has sacrificed in some other corner of your country?

Don’t cry for a bad government when 10 years down the timeline, you are still wishing for a safe Delhi for your daughter! Don’t mourn when someone you know dies in a terror attack someday. Don’t worry when your kids breathe in one of the most polluted environments of the earth in few years. Don’t panic if you hear the news of your relative being kidnapped, harassed, or murdered one night. I am sorry if I am sounding rude. But that’s the harsh truth! If we are not giving back to the country from what we have earned, who else will be? If we’re not bothered about our environmental, social, physical, emotional, political etc issues, who do we think should be? The government or the Gods? Is paying your bills on time enough for making this change to happen? Does paying tax suffice to be a responsible citizen? (By the way, according to various media reports, only 2 to 3% of Indians pay any income tax at all.) Your efforts are deeply appreciated, but let’s think once- are they sufficient?

What I can do?

I am sure many of us want to contribute into making this world a better place to live in. But we don’t really know what to do, where to go etc. Of so many other NGO’s, corporations, philanthropists, social workers, Teach For India is one group that is working toward the goal of bridging the education inequity gap. Join our movement to hit the problem that’s the most fundamental of all –EDUCATION INEQUITY!

Last, but not least, I am keeping this discussion open for all to suggest and contribute WHAT-CAN-I-DO to make my bit. I will be very happy to find out your solution to deal with such shocking numbers about our current reality!

Note- Please keep in mind that some of this data might not be accurate. However, I have tried my best to compare results in various sites before quoting them. (The fact that government doesn’t release any such data in frequent intervals, anywhere in some authentic website also causes such ignorance about our current reality.)

Thanks for reading till here. Any feedback, comments, suggestions are heartily welcome!

Cheers,

Swati

Explorer

Tamasha - the show, we are all part of which, every moment of our life

Train Crisis in India– Suvidha Trains Giving Passengers “aSuvidha”

Getting Schools Online - Instichoose

Festivals in India -What it brings to you?

The Implications Of An Exponentially Increasing Taxi Rides On Our Roads

Can I Teach For India?

THE NUMBER GAME OF LIVES: LET’S REDRAW INDIA

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