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Teachers, Google and YouTube!
Just wondering how like other professions teaching too is undergoing a drastic change when all that you need to know is just a click away.
The adjectives we use to describe good students – obedient, hardworking and sincere are long passé. The appropriate words or expressions now are maybe and could be – curious, out of the box thinking, defiant, change agents, entrepreneurial, creative etc.
But the words used to describe good teachers largely remain the same – knowledgeable, strict, patient, and meticulous (can’t think of any more)
And so ~ we want different and new outcomes with the same old methods.
No wonder, teacher’s day in India is becoming more ceremonial than usual.
Bring on the pedestal, garlands and the ladoos.
That’s seemingly the best solution, it’s been working for women in India for a long time!!!
Not that celebrating is not a good thing, but wish things change in the many classrooms of India.
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Parle G – Going……….
According to media reports yesterday, Parle, India’s leading biscuits manufacturer is contemplating laying off approximately 10,000 workers across its plants in India.
It’s only today that I found out that the name Parle comes from a Mumbai Suburb, where the company was founded in 1929 in a Mumbai Suburb of Vile Parle.
Who could have ever thought that there would be a day when I would be searching for “history” of Parle – G biscuits?
All of us have Parle g moments and Parle g memories …… the first bite of the biscuit dipped in mummy’s cup of tea and the second crumbling inside the cup …….
Looks exchanged when Parle g biscuits were offered by guests ….. (Oh No!!!!!)
My father had the distribution rights of Parle Products and we as kids had visited one of the manufacturing plants. The sheer sight and smell of biscuits going up and down huge conveyor belts are still etched somewhere in my head.
Also, look at old advertisements... Simplicity and charm. All our mothers looked like that !!!
I guess that’s the strength of a brand. Products become a part of our collective identities and memories.
But, it’s inevitable.
Will Parle G stay or will it crumble in the concoction being brewed by socio, economic and political forces.
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The Planet Strikes Back!
– While we keep looking for empirical evidence And a Dam collapses!
The Midwest in America freezes where temperatures plummeted to record lows. Some places are colder than the North Pole. Eight people have lost their lives due to the severe chill.
Whereas, down under, many parts of Australia are sweltering due to severe heat conditions.
Climate Change sceptics and deniers are battling with numbers and empirical evidence to back their claims.
Meanwhile.
Planet Earth is changing.
The human race is just a mere speck in the larger scheme of things. Where is the place for our individual, emotional dramas?
We came, we saw and we conquered.
To become the most vulnerable species on earth and maybe beyond.
As we dig and mine and extract more vehemently, it might help to remember
The Indus Valley Civilization which was once highly advanced and rich just disappeared without a trace. Historians still don’t know what caused its end.
Probably Atlantis is not a myth. The most advanced civilization which had flying machines, enchanting portals and all the riches of the world rests on an Ocean bed.
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