manedge

After all the hullabaloo preceding its release, and promising to deliver more than what it actually did, one can only say that Prakash Jha's AARAKSHAN has only stirred two debates affecting India's youngsters today. The film's release was preceded by protests in many parts of the country, with three states actually jumping the gun by banning the film. After seeing the film one can say that had these governments also seen the film, they would not have banned it in the first place. The film does raise the reservation issue but only compassionately. While there are umpteen references to the friction in the society that reservation is creating, AARAKSHAN doesn't oppose it. It talks more of meritocracy and one can see filmi jingoism at many places which even a director like Jha fails to escape. The film brings up the malaise afflicting the educational sector in the second half. The coaching-tuition mafia and big money involved in setting up of educational institutions...

Six months back I took over as Senior Principal of Bhilai Steel Plant(BSP)'s number one school - Senior Secondary School, Sector-10. The offer came two months prior to that, literally as a bolt from the blue. But the gut feeling was that I should say YES. And I did in less than a day, though I had never thought about moving to Education from core engineering. In fact in my twenty years at BSP, I had worked in different sections of Distribution Networks (DNW), later Power System Department (PSD). The very nature of the department meant that I had the opportunity to have worked with all the departments of BSP, except Education. In the interregnum I had completed by Masters in Business Administration from IGNOU and later a Diploma in Training and Development from the Indian Society for Training and Development. These two distance learning courses and my foray into quizzing and writing thanks largely to my mentor, V Ravi, had helped me develop my skills as a trainer. I must confess...