A hair-raising, soul-realising experience

I had decided that once I am done with the marathon, I'll put up a post about something non-related. Something more mainstream. Movies,Cricket, Indo-American values and the usual stuff we bloggers love to express our useless opinions on .

But-here's something that happened, that I think I should write:

It was one of the track events for the marathon program. After finishing it, I went to another location and parked my car. I had to buy something and I came back to my car. I just sat inside, all doors unlocked and was looking up a restaurant menu just to check what I could eat for dinner .

Just about then, someone opened the right front door of my car (which was unintentionally unlocked) and came and sat right next to me. I was just too shocked to realise what was happening. It was an old lady with dense white hair . She was probably European and must be really old. She looked scared, and told me something in a language I did not understand. I was shit scared for a moment, but she seemed harmless and was trying to tell me something.

Just as a precaution, I opened my left side door (I seriously thought of an emergency plan to escape the vehicle). But I was still somewhere confident that she was very harmless. She looked a little like Gloria Stewart from Titanic . She was trying to communicate me to go ahead , go ahead.

The first impression was that - she got into the wrong car. I got out on the road to not find a single car. I tried to reason out with her - but to no avail. Finally, I waited for about 2-3 minutes, before I stopped a car (just waving my hand) and a Chinese lady stepped out. She was a little angry on me as to what I was up to- but I convinced her that I was in a situation that needed help.

To my big relief, the Chinese lady understood my problem- she saw and said that there was an old age home board she could spot. She volunteered to go in and find someone as I stood outside my car, still kind of shocked by the event. The Chinese lady came back and said someone would come by soon, and left. I got into the car and tried to comfort the lady, but realised I was only scaring her more.

I waited for what seemed an eternity - after which I stopped another car, and asked a gentleman to help me . Before he could do so, a nurse came out . She went and talked to the old lady . She apologized to me, but all I could say was "No don't worry about me- just take care of her".

It was a feeling that left me sad. Sad enough that I could not eat dinner that night.
What must have gone through the old woman's mind to leave the old age home? Is old age really something that you just need to live waiting for your life to end? Will the western philosophy of "It's my life" lead everyone to such a life?

The question remained unanswered. As for me,it's time to volunteer for another cause that's suddenly become close to my heart.

(Image courtesy trueclassics )

The Marathon - in pictures and words

The first thoughts after the half marathon

As I mentioned in my earlier post , I was training to run the beautiful SF half marathon. Here's how it went:

The build up to the race




I was feeling quite well after I ran 11 miles comfortably at Crissy fields (which was preceded by two 9 and 10 mile runs), and it did not seem to be a big issue to run the 13 as such. Of course, there were 2 major issues. The first being that the race started at an insane 6:02 am, which meant, reaching SF by 5:00, which meant leaving South bay at 3:45, which meant leaving home at 3:15, in short waking up at 2 )

For a nocturnal animal like me, sleeping early was going to be a pain, but luckily I slept at 10 pm. Before that, Mahesh and Arpan came home and we went over my checklist, getting everything ready, so on and so forth :)Everyone's mantra: Make sure you enjoy the race



Me and Arpan the night before the race

The morning

I had a sound sleep for close to 4 hours, and woke up at 2 am. With all preparations in place, got ready, had a little pain in the left leg (which had been a nagging issue), foam rolled a little and got ready for Arpan. Arpan came a little late as I stood outside in the cold updating my f/b status (Boy , am I addicted to that) and we soon got into the sunnyvale caltrain station .

Got into the bus, chatted with Coach Raman, tried to sleep, eat something- too many thoughts.The bus had a restroom too-prob good for runners to avoid the port-a-potty lines [Every SF marathon starts with the first instruction as -get to the race and stand in a port-a-potty line] . My interesting observation was that the toilet in the bus had no flush, no lock, no light, but yes - it had a mirror . People were even more amused by how I observed that of all things

Got down at the drop point- Figured out it was an awesome decision to take the shuttle, it drops you right at the start point. Met a few Asha runners- with similar sentiments, a little bit of fear, a nervousness, last minute things. I figured out that most people were not in the mood for too much stretching. I found Rohit, who was as enthusiastic as me to do a warmup and stretches (I had severe issues once when I ran without stretching). We decided to go for a warmup run - and I did not realise that Rohit's idea of the run was a pretty long one. Came back , did our warm ups (which in hindsight were very useful). The excitement continued till our wave was finally announced.



The start of the marathon. Just about dawn. Awesome time . (photo courtesy Rupanshu)

I lined up with Arpan , Sumedha and Parag (I am not sure how me and Rohit somehow did not end up together) . As soon as the wave went off, I started running with Arpan and Sumedha. The start is something to be careful about, you have to take care to not trip or fall else thousands of people are going to run you over in the race. Kept running, but realised they were too fast for me. I remembered the coaches advice - to run slow during the first 2 miles . I let these guys go ahead, but realised I was without company.

Slowly, I started running, enjoying the beautiful SF coastline. First target- finish 5 miles and get to the Golden Gate Bridge. I went along at about 12 minutes a mile. I was seeing some people running with me , but no Asha folks. Was feeling very bored. As I approached the Golden Gate Bridge, I found a runner from AID. We talked for a bit, she was running a little slower than I was - but we were both in for some well needed company, the race was getting pretty dull otherwise.



The Golden Gate Bridge is visible from very early on in the race- and as you slowly move towards it, the excitement increased. We kept running and soon reached the Golden Gate Bridge



The Golden Gate Bridge Stretch

This was the most amazing part of the race. As we started running, suddenly, the feeling of tiredness and pain seemed low. This was what I had dreamt off 3 months back, this is why I had signed up for the first half at an unearthly hour . The Golden Gate Bridge means a lot to every resident of the valley- and it was a true pleasure running over it.I met Coach Bharath on the way, but he asked me to run faster since he was running the full.Eventually though, I stopped for taking a photo and saw him way ahead of me .




Some more photos along the Golden Gate Bridge

To add to my happiness , I got an sms from Himani- that they were on their way. The bridge was beautiful, I got my iphone out and decided to take as many pictures as I could. It was nice and cool, till my iphone realized that handling 3 applications of Camera, Ipod and the running app was getting too much for it, and it crashed. Crashed pretty bad. It was a tedious thing to stop in the middle of the Golden Gate bridge and try like an idiot to restart your phone .

But then, something struck me. Might sound filmi, but I realised that the app, the camera, the music, was nothing compared to the beauty of this place and the experience of the race. It somehow reminded me of "Zindagi na milegi Dobara" and I decided to shut it down, squeeze it in and just enjoy the beauty. It was heavenly, awesome! I was again down to running alone since my friend had ITB issues and stopped abruptly.

The last few miles

All through the marathon,I have had this psychological thing. Once you cross the halfway mark, it all seems fine. I have had this in the 2 mile run , 3 mile run, right down till the 10 mile run. After crossing the GGB, you knew that you were done with more than 50% of the race and it was just a matter of time now.

The other interesting part is that through the Golden Gate Bridge, with runners running in 2 directions, I was finally able to see some known faces from Asha [ it felt awesome, Team Asha rocks!] . We kept on egging each other, with "almost there" and (Coach Raman special) "Looking Good" . I was running exactly as per my expected time, and maybe a little faster, so I decided to take it a little easy. Did a run-walk for about half a mile.

I saw Balu and Chakri along the way, as they shouted "Hey, it's Harshit " click click! and I posed for some nice snaps. Thanks guys! - it was awesome to see a known face after a while and someone actually shouting for you . Both of you guys rock!



I lost my running companion somewhere, she was running like a hare, stop at times, and then run fast, and I was like a tortoise, running slowly now with a lot of rolling hills. Met some more runners on the way including Vikram (my Baylands AM mentor), who was running with Nupur .

Vikram slowed down a little with Nupur for some stretches, and asked me to go ahead. Soon I hit my 11 mile marker and now I exactly knew what I had to do. It was a less crowded SF street with runners a little more tired and a little less enthusiastic, so I restarted my phone , and called Himani and the other folks that I was expected to come down the finish line soon. I decided not to ask her who all had come, the suspense and excitement were keeping me going .I decided to continue walking till I hit the 12 miler, so that I could finish the race in full strength. It is interesting that amongst all the excitement, you still want to look strong when your friends and on lookers are seeing you. Decided to walk till mile 12.

Hit the 12 miler, it was a little uphill so I continued walking for a bit. Started running , I don't know why, but I felt emotional, had moist eyes. It was maybe the culmination of the dream to run the half-marathon, the happiness of actually raising money for kids, the belief in myself that I could do this, or just the pleasure of being with yourself, or the anticipation that soon friends would see you and cheer for you.


Very soon, could soon spot Sneha and Ritika - who had both run this race last year. Before I knew, I could see Chetan, Himani, Jigi, Nimish,Kanu all coming and running with me, with Kanu instructing me to "go slow" for non-marathoners :). It was such a sweet experience. I carried on to the finish line and maybe missed the idiotic electronic bib tracker which meant my timing was screwed up.But who cares ? I know I finished the race in good time and thats all that mattered.





I went over to collect my medal- and seeing it was so awesome!

Akki came out of nowhere with his DSLR and took very cool photos. It is great when people are like "Mera bhi ek photo Harshit ke saath" -I was enjoying the momentary celebrity status . Some friends called , spoke to them, updated facebook, took more pictures.




The cheering squad (most of them). Thanks for coming by guys!

We had a lovely time together after which they left for home.I met Wako , it was awesome to see her, given that she had been one of the people who had constantly motivated me throughout the season. Soon, I found Vikas, Akash, Divya and we headed to catch a shuttle to the Asha Tent.

We reached the Asha tent to meet our fellow runners/ coaches / mentors and some great food. Imagine getting paneer , parathas, gulab jamun, Raita and Samosas . It was freaking awesome! Thanks to all the people who made it possible (Asha volunteers are awesome. I can name a few, but I am sure there were a lot more who were involved)

Chatted with Coaches,runners before we headed out to Shivam's place for a relaxing session ahead :).Thanks to all the wonderful coaches, volunteers, all friends who cheered and supported me , Mahesh Palekar for being a driving force through the marathon. It's been an awesome one.




Baylands PM group met on the Monday after the race - most of us just enjoyed the feeling while season 2 runners did their stretching and strengthening and then used their help to click so many nice photos . Can you also believe that just the people in this picture must have raised about 40,000$ to 50,000$ this year alone ? (numbers might be approximate)




Both Baylands groups on a potluck party after the race

More coming soon ! Oh btw, if you wish to donate here's the link!

I run ....for them and for me :)

The first thoughts after the half marathon

As I mentioned in my earlier post , I was training to run the beautiful SF half marathon. Here's how it went:

The build up to the race

I was feeling quite well after I ran 11 miles comfortably at Crissy fields (which was preceded by two 9 and 10 mile runs), and it did not seem to be a big issue to run the 13 as such. Of course, there were 2 major issues. The first being that the race started at an insane 6:02 am, which meant, reaching SF by 5:00, which meant leaving South bay at 3:45, which meant leaving home at 3:15, in short waking up at 2 )

For a nocturnal animal like me, sleeping early was going to be a pain, but luckily I slept at 10 pm. Before that, Mahesh and Arpan came home and we went over my checklist, getting everything ready, so on and so forth :)Everyone's mantra: Make sure you enjoy the race



Me and Arpan the night before the race

The morning

I had a sound sleep for close to 4 hours, and woke up at 2 am. With all preparations in place, got ready, had a little pain in the left leg (which had been a nagging issue), foam rolled a little and got ready for Arpan. Arpan came a little late as I stood outside in the cold updating my f/b status (Boy , am I addicted to that) and we soon got into the sunnyvale caltrain station .

Got into the bus, chatted with Coach Raman, tried to sleep, eat something- too many thoughts.The bus had a restroom too-prob good for runners to avoid the port-a-potty lines [Every SF marathon starts with the first instruction as -get to the race and stand in a port-a-potty line] . My interesting observation was that the toilet in the bus had no flush, no lock, no light, but yes - it had a mirror . People were even more amused by how I observed that of all things

Got down at the drop point- Figured out it was an awesome decision to take the shuttle, it drops you right at the start point. Met a few Asha runners- with similar sentiments, a little bit of fear, a nervousness, last minute things. I figured out that most people were not in the mood for too much stretching. I found Rohit, who was as enthusiastic as me to do a warmup and stretches (I had severe issues once when I ran without stretching). We decided to go for a warmup run - and I did not realise that Rohit's idea of the run was a pretty long one. Came back , did our warm ups (which in hindsight were very useful). The excitement continued till our wave was finally announced.

I lined up with Arpan , Sumedha and Parag (I am not sure how me and Rohit somehow did not end up together) . As soon as the wave went off, I started running with Arpan and Sumedha. The start is something to be careful about, you have to take care to not trip or fall else thousands of people are going to run you over in the race. Kept running, but realised they were too fast for me. I remembered the coaches advice - to run slow during the first 2 miles . I let these guys go ahead, but realised I was without company.

Slowly, I started running, enjoying the beautiful SF coastline. First target- finish 5 miles and get to the Golden Gate Bridge. I went along at about 12 minutes a mile. I was seeing some people running with me , but no Asha folks. Was feeling very bored. As I approached the Golden Gate Bridge, I found a runner from AID. We talked for a bit, she was running a little slower than I was - but we were both in for some well needed company, the race was getting pretty dull otherwise.

The Golden Gate Bridge is visible from very early on in the race- and as you slowly move towards it, the excitement increased. We kept running and soon reached the Golden Gate Bridge

The Golden Gate Bridge Stretch

This was the most amazing part of the race. As we started running, suddenly, the feeling of tiredness and pain seemed low. This was what I had dreamt off 3 months back, this is why I had signed up for the first half at an unearthly hour . The Golden Gate Bridge means a lot to every resident of the valley- and it was a true pleasure running over it.I met Coach Bharath on the way, but he asked me to run faster since he was running the full.Eventually though, I stopped for taking a photo and saw him way ahead of me .

To add to my happiness , I got an sms from Himani- that they were on their way. The bridge was beautiful, I got my iphone out and decided to take as many pictures as I could. It was nice and cool, till my iphone realized that handling 3 applications of Camera, Ipod and the running app was getting too much for it, and it crashed. Crashed pretty bad. It was a tedious thing to stop in the middle of the Golden Gate bridge and try like an idiot to restart your phone .

But then, something struck me. Might sound filmi, but I realised that the app, the camera, the music, was nothing compared to the beauty of this place and the experience of the race. It somehow reminded me of "Zindagi na milegi Dobara" and I decided to shut it down, squeeze it in and just enjoy the beauty. It was heavenly, awesome! I was again down to running alone since my friend had ITB issues and stopped abruptly.

The last few miles

All through the marathon,I have had this psychological thing. Once you cross the halfway mark, it all seems fine. I have had this in the 2 mile run , 3 mile run, right down till the 10 mile run. After crossing the GGB, you knew that you were done with more than 50% of the race and it was just a matter of time now.

The other interesting part is that through the Golden Gate Bridge, with runners running in 2 directions, I was finally able to see some known faces from Asha [ it felt awesome, Team Asha rocks!] . We kept on egging each other, with "almost there" and (Coach Raman special) "Looking Good" . I was running exactly as per my expected time, and maybe a little faster, so I decided to take it a little easy. Did a run-walk for about half a mile.

I saw Balu and Chakri along the way, as they shouted "Hey, it's Harshit " click click! and I posed for some nice snaps. Thanks guys! - it was awesome to see a known face after a while and someone actually shouting for you . Both of you guys rock!

I lost my running companion somewhere, she was running like a hare, stop at times, and then run fast, and I was like a tortoise, running slowly now with a lot of rolling hills. Met some more runners on the way including Vikram (my Baylands AM mentor), who was running with Nupur .

Vikram slowed down a little with Nupur for some stretches, and asked me to go ahead. Soon I hit my 11 mile marker and now I exactly knew what I had to do. It was a less crowded SF street with runners a little more tired and a little less enthusiastic, so I restarted my phone , and called Himani and the other folks that I was expected to come down the finish line soon. I decided not to ask her who all had come, the suspense and excitement were keeping me going .I decided to continue walking till I hit the 12 miler, so that I could finish the race in full strength. It is interesting that amongst all the excitement, you still want to look strong when your friends and on lookers are seeing you. Decided to walk till mile 12.

Hit the 12 miler, it was a little uphill so I continued walking for a bit. Started running , I don't know why, but I felt emotional, had moist eyes. It was maybe the culmination of the dream to run the half-marathon, the happiness of actually raising money for kids, the belief in myself that I could do this, or just the pleasure of being with yourself, or the anticipation that soon friends would see you and cheer for you.

Very soon, could soon spot Sneha and Ritika - who had both run this race last year. Before I knew, I could see Chetan, Himani, Jigi, Nimish,Kanu all coming and running with me, with Kanu instructing me to "go slow" for non-marathoners :). It was such a sweet experience. I carried on to the finish line and maybe missed the idiotic electronic bib tracker which meant my timing was screwed up.But who cares ? I know I finished the race in good time and thats all that mattered.

I went over to collect my medal- and seeing it was so awesome!

Akki came out of nowhere with his DSLR and took very cool photos. It is great when people are like "Mera bhi ek photo Harshit ke saath" -I was enjoying the momentary celebrity status . Some friends called , spoke to them, updated facebook, took more pictures. We had a lovely time together after which they left and I found Vikas, Akash, Divya and we headed to catch a shuttle to the Asha Tent.



We reached the Asha tent to meet our fellow runners/ coaches / mentors and some great food. Imagine getting paneer , parathas, gulab jamun, Raita and Samosas . It was freaking awesome! Thanks to all the people who made it possible (Asha volunteers are awesome. I can name a few, but I am sure there were a lot more who were involved)

Chatted with Coaches,runners before we headed out to Shivam's place for a relaxing session ahead :).Thanks to all the wonderful coaches, volunteers, all friends who cheered and supported me , Mahesh Palekar for being a driving force through the marathon. It's been an awesome one.



More coming soon ! Oh btw, if you wish to donate here's the link!

Educate! Encourage! Empower !

Weird blogpost this time - because I am going to ask you to simply visit this page :)

From (huff)(huff) half a mile to (I love it) 10 miles!

As most of you would have observed / known, I have been training to run the Half Marathon this year.

I would not say that I got into it almost by accident, in fact, it was something that I was looking forward to it ever since Animesh's marathon . It was an interesting thing to think about. Can I, who would go huff huff in half a mile of running, actually think of running 13.1 miles (or more than 21 km,or more literally, from Kurla to the Gateway of India )

With so many of friends here in the bay area running the marathon with Asha, it was almost imminent that I would follow suit. And I did , this year.

To be honest, the decision was not that easy. I first played with the idea of just working with Asha. As you would put in a job resume, "Use my interpersonal skills to benefit the organization". I joined Team Asha as a volunteer earlier this year - working towards getting sponsorships , contacting tons of businesses and asking them if they would contribute to the noble cause. I was getting into marketing (albeit for a good cause) after quite a few years- and soon enough, I managed to get sponsorships of almost 2000$ for the cause.

And then came the idea of taking up the challenge. I show up for the first couple of runs, and find people from all ages, castes, nationalities, professions show up and run. Trust me, that worked- or was the "Aha" moment for me. The truth is that you can't stop when a 50 year old gentleman keeps running right next to you and keeps encouraging you.

1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9 and today I ran a full 10 miles ( and also a little more due to a missed mile marker :P) ,and am all set to run the SF half marathon which runs right over the lovely Golden Gate Bridge

But then, why run this marathon? Coming up in next post. Soon. Very soon.

The big business men of Mumbai

Post-started in Oct- laziness and work meant procrastination


So Barack Obama is visiting India. While people are speaking about the impact of this visit on Indo-US relations , about what previous presidents did, about how Obama answered students of Bombay, there was one news story that caught my eye.

The closing of sections in and around the areas where Obama was visiting (in Mumbai) and how normal people faced harassment. Security for a visiting foreign head of state is one thing, and enforcing curfew (Some residences in South Bombay were advised- come home at 7 pm - or else next morning ). Well, still, I might accept that.

But the worst I felt was for the small business men of Mumbai. Coming from the city, and also being a Gujarati - who are famous (or infamous) to be very great at business , I felt bad for a lot of people who earn their daily bread and butter by putting up stalls/ tapri's / or even doing roadside vending . While some people might term them as a perennial nuisance , I have somehow always been impressed by this class of people.

I have developed this habit of striking conversations with people in India. More often than not, it works wonders, and also gives me an insight that is very rare to achieve. Like that doli-wallah who lifts people across 3800 steps in Palitana for a meager amount. Like that rickshawallah who earns 200 Rs a day, spends rs 20 on himself and sends the rest to his family. And for all the criticism that these people might fact for making Bombay unclean, unhygienic , disorganized, corrupt - my heart still always has a lot of respect for them. All of them have some common points: A simple business idea, innovative techniques for sales and marketing, a lot of hard work and an aim to make it big.

Last year, I was having a 'Dabeli' at a small roadside joint, when I happened to ask the guy, how old was he, and how did he run this business. The conversation was simply mind blowing. He told me about his business- this guy used to sell about 350 Dabelis in a 8-10 hour shift at 8 Rs / piece. On further analysis, I figured out that the cost of materials/ transport / cleaning /miscellaneous came to about a 1000 rupees a day. And wait, this meant that this guy was making a clean profit of Rs.1800 per day!!!! If this wasn't enough, he said that he takes a lot of party orders where the revenue is much higher.

The truth about Bombay (which I know a lot of people might not be very convinced about) is that if you are intelligent, willing to work hard and know to do the simple things correct- it'll never betray you. I had a similar conversation with a Taxi driver. Sometimes, it just helps if you show some respect by sitting on the front seat and referring to people as 'Aap'. They are after all, simple people, who are trying to make their living, working hard. He said he earned about 20,000 rupees a month and though he himself came from a poor family in UP, he had made sure that his son and daughter have the best access to education and they don't have to struggle. He spoke about his early days, when he had to save money, make efforts to go forward in life, and how that period makes him a very satisfied man today. I could see bits of my first day in the US- and was somehow so happy that he was satisfied by his life today.

The third was an interaction with one of my father's friends, who had come to India in the 1950-1960s , and started doing odd jobs. From there, he started selling pens which he would buy from a wholesale market and sell them on the streets of Bombay. From there, to a small shop, from there, to a wholesale business, and finally to become one of the Bombay-made Crorepati.

True, Bombay has the stock market, one of the best natural harbours, some great industries set up by the Parsi businessmen in the early 20th century- but seriously, if there's one point that is a big factor to the development of the city as the commercial capital of India, it's this bit of entrepreneurship that people seem to have learnt from their mother's womb and the willingness to work hard - maybe not just hard, but hard enough to make the impossible possible. Something that involves self-made management skills.

The only sorry thing is that their businesses (as mentioned earlier) are subject to losses when India or in particular Bombay succumbs to one of the many 'business-stopper' events. Be it the Shiv Sena Bandhs, the rains - and really irritating- Obama's visit meant that a good part of Bombay was closed to the general public - and that too on the eve of Diwali/ New Year which are prime holidays and mean a lot of business to these people.

The other interesting angle I see in this- is the commonality I find between my first days in the US - to what they must have had in Bombay. Any city which breeds immigrants (be it domestic or International) has a flavor which is worth an experience. The Bombay that I have seen- is surely different from what they have . A lot of things we took for granted- from having your own home , to having parents with you always , is something, they have fought their way through. That - coupled with the spirit of the entrepreneurs of Bombay- is what makes the city special !

Do Dooni Chaar ! and some memories!

The Indian cinema in the last decade has seen a lot of change. The most evident according to me - is the acceptance of movies which need not have even one of the basic masala ingredients (a) a love story (b) a fight sequence (c) a conventional story (yes, all hat-ke movies did need to have some kind of convention in the 1990s)- and where a simple but well made story line would still gain acceptance and popularity among the masses

And one of the movies that I really loved off late was Do Dooni Chaar . It's a simple story really- a story of a middle class family in Delhi with a school teacher as head of the family- and how the school teacher struggles between balancing his ideals and wallet to make his children happy.

And the film was really well made, and had a nice message too. And the movie definitely was a reminder of the tremendous effort all those teachers at Friends School put in to make me what I am today. To all you great people, a real big thanks from the heart . I wouldn't have come so far without holding on to your finger. Again - Thanks!

But then, the film disturbed me to an extent. And the reason was it's truthfulness and the fact that there is something wrong in India. Why are the schools not as great as they should be - when the teachers working there are extremely hardworking and intelligent too ( At least I can vouch that for all of my teachers) ? Why is it that people will do timepass while listening to lectures in school but pay the same amount of attention to the same thing being taught by an equal or lesser-experienced teacher in the badly crammed A/C room of a coaching class ? Why is it that people will pay tens of thousands on tution and coaching classes, but crib for a school fee raise of a hundred rupees? Why is it that we sat through 7.5 hours everyday during our summer vacations ( 2.5 months non stop including sundays ), but cribbed about being called for a saturday extra class?

Something , somewhere is not right. Having said that, I won't be radical to say that the system is totally messed up- and neither would I say that coaching classes are necessarily bad. No one in the entire system is bad in their own right, and at the end of the day, they are all good teachers, trying to make their life a bit better by giving knowledge to students. It's any day an extremely noble profession.

A brief analysis of what I think the problem / what the solution could be:

a. Low pay scales at school

This I think is really is the bottom of all things. I could not find enough data on the internet (some stats here ) - but the truth as we all know is (and what the film signifies is) - it's not deserving enough. Some school teachers I know say that the only reason to stick to a school is to have an 'extra income' and to be in constant touch with students. So then, if we are ready to pay the teacher the same salary for tution classes , why not give more fees- which would in turn increase their salaries and in-turn their performance?

b. School hours and attendance worries

This is really the most interesting part here. As I mentioned before, why do people crib so much about long school hours (which are mostly less than the hours you spend in classes anyways)? On the other hand, why do schools crib about attendance?

As a student myself, I know that there are some lectures which would benefit me to such an extent that I would think a hundred times before missing them. This in turn would also enable teachers to develop reputation and the feedback on them (simply measured in terms of how many students actually turn up for their class)- would ensure that good teachers are rewarded and under-performing ones are put through developmental programs.

So, really, why force students to sit through lectures? Also, that is a consequence of (a) . I am sure if a student missed school, the parents would be fine, but if they missed a coaching class , the parents would be "We paid 5000 rupees for this one" - you have to go and you have to be serious about it. Simple solution: let the performance of teachers get the attendance running- and for good teachers, I am sure students would not mind odd hours (longer than the school hours)

3. A constant crib about the system

The classic problem which magnifies itself as "Is desh ka kucch nahin ho sakta" .

If there is one thing I could change during my attitude when I was in India- it is the constant belief in the minds of all that the system is faulty - there's more emphasis on memorizing, there's not enough attention to every student - and so on. During my engineering days, an HR person from a famous IT company in India who came for college recruiting said these words " The first thing we need to do is to train you for 3-6 months. You haven't learned anything during your engineering. We need you to forget all this and begin re-learning" .

Why? Having worked in the USA-there's an enormous respect for Indian learning standards here too. And frankly, the system might be flawed, but it's definitely not something that is not useful. Maybe it needs some tweaks. A greater emphasis on class projects and practical work. A more systematic examination system. But to term it as non-useful is a crime- and also a bad thing to instill in the minds of young students.

The same holds true for schools. Why constantly blame teachers for being too fast when you could have asked a few more questions? Although-somewhere, the schools are also to blame for having given up on a few of these things.

Solution to the problem: An active, secure feedback system - where parents can raise their concerns , not about individual teachers, but maybe point out great ways to improve them.

4. More realistic and popular scholarship plans

I got an NTS scholarship which is awarded to only 750 students in India every year. During my school days, the scholarship used to be less than Rs. 3000 per year. While for me, it was more of a reward, but for students who really needed it- I am sure it was way lower than the mark. To give you a comparison, the Tata Foundations used to give out scholarships upto Rs. 30,000 to Rs. 40,000 to a lot of deserving Engineering students strictly on the basis of performance.

The sad truth is that the NTS is really known for the honour it gives you- but not really for the scholarship amount - which I am sure is one of the important issues it is designed to address.

Solution:

How about corporates giving an income-based scholarship to NTS students (and maybe based on other criteria like merit/sports etc) who actually need them? It could be based in income alright, but then every student would be happy to pay their fees and not burden their parents with it.

Also, how about schools charging a little higher fees, but having 10 selected students - based on merit, performance - to have their school year free?

--Incomplete blog, hope to add more stuff here soon --

Again, a big thanks to all teachers!