Innovative Ideas for Teaching English

Ghalib, Sarat Chandra and Subramania Bharati deserve the honour. We tend to ignore our real heroes, and hail superficial ones. These days, the issue of awarding the Bharat Ratna on Republic Day is in the news. When I appealed for the Bharat Ratna to Mirza Ghalib and Sarat Chandra Chattopadhyaya, some people objected, saying that such awards should not be given to people who are no more. In my opinion, there is nothing wrong in giving awards posthumously, provided they are given to the right persons. The Bharat Ratna has been conferred posthumously in the past. Two examples are Sardar Patel and Dr. Ambedkar. Mirza Ghalib is a modern figure, not a legendary one like Lord Rama, or an ancient one like Gautam Buddha. Though he was brought up in the feudal tradition, he often broke through that tradition on perceiving the advantages of modern civilisation. Thus, in one sher (couplet), Ghalib writes: Imaan mujhe roke hai, jo khenche he mujhe kufr Kaaba merey peechey hai, kaleesa m...

Sunday TOI, 18 Dec 2011 Why are some people bounding with energy, while others get exhausted just dealing with everyday life? Where did Dev Anand's indefatigable energy spring from?  Say 'Dev Anand', and the first words that come to mind are "energetic", "evergreen", "forever young" -- epithets associated with the thespian through his life. When he passed away, headlines proclaimed that Bollywood's 'youngest' actor had died at 88! Sometimes your own reputation can dictate the path of your life, and Dev Anand loved his evergreen, youthful, energetic image, working hard at living up to it. When he was diagnosed with hernia, he reveals in his autobiography Romancing with Life (Penguin), he  refused to get operated in India fearing his fans would think that the "'evergreen', 'forever young' man of unstinted energy, gifted by the Gods with eternal youth…..was but an ordinary mortal like them all..!" Extraordi...

The key finding in a recent study that even top schools in major cities in India suffer from the entrenched tendency to impart rote learning may have some shock value to those who believe that private educational institutions place greater emphasis on quality and holistic education. However, for those closely observing the school education scenario, it is a re-affirmation of a bitter truth: schools in our country are, by and large, quite far from seeing education as a process of learning with understanding, acquiring knowledge through self-discovery and conceptualisation; rather, education remains a mere transmission of information in a rigid classroom atmosphere, where the emphasis is on memorisation and the objective is to rush through a pre-determined syllabus and prepare children for examinations. While on the scholastic side the WIPRO-Educational Initiatives 'Quality Education Study,' which covered 89 schools, shows a fall in learning standards among students in classes 4,...

लहरों से डर कर नौका पार नहीं होती , कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। नन्हीं चींटी जब दाना लेकर चलती है , चढ़ती दीवारों पर , सौ बार फिसलती है। मन का विश्वास रगों में साहस भरता है , चढ़कर गिरना , गिरकर चढ़ना न अखरता है। आख़िर उसकी मेहनत बेकार नहीं होती , कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। डुबकियां सिंधु में गोताखोर लगाता है , जा जा कर खाली हाथ लौटकर आता है। मिलते नहीं सहज ही मोती गहरे पानी में , बढ़ता दुगना उत्साह इसी हैरानी में। मुट्ठी उसकी खाली हर बार नहीं होती , कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। असफलता एक चुनौती है , स्वीकार करो , क्या कमी रह गई , देखो और सुधार करो। जब तक न सफल हो , नींद चैन को त्यागो तुम , संघर्ष का मैदान छोड़ मत भागो तुम। कुछ किये बिना ही जय जय कार नहीं होती , कोशिश करने वालों की हार नहीं होती। - हरिवंशराय बच्चन

STOI, 11 December 2011 Faced with opposition from its own allies like Mamata Banerjee, the government has shelved its proposal to allow Walmart and other multibrand foreign retailers to have majority stakes in Indian hypermarkets. Critics have accepted the bogus claim that foreign retailers will kill small Indian shopkeepers.  In fact, the Walmart model is a 20th century concept that's rapidly becoming obsolete in the 21st century. Internet shopping now threatens the hypermarket, which may survive in small towns with low land prices, but looks doomed to becoming a minority player. In the massive annual shopping spree during the Thanksgiving season (end of November) in the US, 39% of consumers said they bought goods mostly through the internet, against 44% who mostly bought from brick-and-mortar stores and hypermarkets. A small proportion also made purchases through catalogues. The internet proportion keeps rising. Arvind Singhal, a top marketing guru, says that in Britain, no le...

STOI, 11 December 2011 The past two weeks witnessed a remarkable spectacle in which India's democracy won but India's people lost. On November 24, the government announced a bold reform to allow 51% foreign stake in retail. It triggered off a storm of protest across the political spectrum, and eventually forced the government to back down and suspend the reform. During the entire debate, no one asked why China and dozens of countries welcome foreign investment in retail. The defeat of the government means that Indian consumers have lost a chance for lower prices, India's farmers have lost the prospect of higher returns, a third to half of India's food will continue to rot, and millions of unemployed rural youth have been denied jobs and careers in the modern economy. It is also a severe blow to the future of reforms in India. It does seem odd that democracy should win and people lose. But democracy's great flaw is that it is easily captured by vested interests. In ...