Central Tool Room offers winter classes for Engineering students: ad in Samaja
October 28th, 2007
Archive for October 28th, 2007
Dhanada Mishra’s READ Orissa campaign diary
(For those who do not know, Dhanada is a Ph.D in Civil Engineering from University of Michigan, is in his early forties, was principal of JITM after passing over many offers.)
From http://groups.yahoo.com/group/agamiorissa/message/2399.
As I sit in a review meeting of our campaign in the Cuttack office surrounded by eager young faces as zonal cordinators, state office functionaries, state head of projects etc., I am bombarded with passionate arguments about the progress of our efforts in the 180 blocks of 24 districts in different remote corners of the state. As we look in to the number of volunteers mobilised, numbers of those trained, numbers of classes started, the meeting erupts with arguments and counter-arguments. Some one doesn’t believe the numbers, some one defends vociferously as for a while I sit back and let the energy drain and enjoy the passion that people bring to their work as which is perhaps only possible in my new occupation! We discuss and debate our work culture, the need to open up more, to take more people with us in the campaign, the urgency and importance of motivating that grassroots level volunteer, the need for travelling to keep in touch and support each other, the enegy, the passion, the dedication to the cause stands out above the occasional din of arguments and counter-arguments. Welcome to the Read Orissa Campaign at its peak!
As I adjust in to this new life of no office, no 9-5 office hour, no Sundays to take a break, there has been very little opportunity to reflect on this dramatic transition from that of a volunteer to a full-timer, let alone write the experience down. When I relocated suddenly back to Bhubaneswar, to re-occupy my parents’s home leaving my job at JITM, Paralakhemundi behind, my parents as well as Babita’s (my wife) parents were perplexed with a tinge of concern as to what I was up to. I was not sure how to put it to them, other than saying that I am on a sabattical and will be working on social issues full-time. This was not very convincing for most of my family and well wishers and I had to make up some story like I am still working for JITM on their Bhubaneswar campus etc.
Continue Reading 4 comments October 28th, 2007
CUSAT about to become an IIEST
Following is an excerpt from Hindu on it.
Education Minister M.A. Baby said here on Saturday that the government would go ahead with the conversion of the Cochin University of Science and Technology (Cusat) into an Indian Institute of Engineering Science and Technology (IIEST).
Mr. Baby said the government would make all efforts to secure the Rs.519-crore allocation for the project.
He said the Union HRD Ministry accepted the State government’s request for reserving 50 per cent of the seats for students from Kerala at the IIEST.
The government would get a chance to nominate a person to the IIEST’s governing council.
2 comments October 28th, 2007
Ruchika: If a child can not come to school, then the school must come to the child
Hindu magazine has a heart warming story on the Ruchika School and Ruchika Social Service Organization. A documentary film on Ruchika narrated by Robert Redford and shown in PBS is here. Following is an excerpt from Hindu article.
A young housewife, new to Bhubaneswar, started a pre-school in her house with two students: her sister’s daughter and the gardener’s daughter. Soon, she put up a small board, “Ruchika” on the gate. This attracted curious neighbours who got used to seeing a couple of children laughing and playing with a lady in the “posh” Forest Park house. The number of tiny tots soon grew to 11 and then 20.
Soon after, she started a school in a rented building. Ruchika was a school with a difference. Teachers took the students out to post-offices and railway stations, banks and bridges to give them a “feel” of what they learn in books, and “see” how things work. Every day, the lady saw a number of children from nearby slums peeping in at the gate. “But I didn’t have the freedom to open my own gates to those poor semi-clad children. We have stratified our society that way. That really hurt,” she now says.
Whenever she went to the railway station, she saw children with bright faces wiping compartment floors and begging from passengers. Inderjit Khurana’s husband was an engineer in the Army, and the Khuranas had moved to Bhubaneswar in 1970s. When asked what brought them to Bhubaneswar, Inderjit smiles, “Destiny”.
Idea that worked
Inderjit often thought of the children outside her gate and those bright faces covered with grime. She hit upon the unique idea of “Platform schools”. If a child cannot come to the school, the school should go to the child! She asked teachers in Ruchika if they would volunteer to teach the “platform children” early in the morning before they started their regular work. Only one, R.P. Dwivedi, the physical training instructor, agreed “provided you don’t sack me if I say ‘no’ after one month”. Ruchika’s Platform School was born, with one frail lady and a physical training instructor marking the boundaries of the “school” with chalk in one corner of the Bhubaneswar railway platform. The duo went with toys, paper, crayons, soap and towels. Platform children flocked in and “it was a joy to see them bathing and laughing. They drew, talked and asked very intelligent questions”, recalls Inderjit 27 years later.
1 comment October 28th, 2007
Sarba Siksha Abhijan related positions in Jagatsinghpur district: Ad in Samaja
1 comment October 28th, 2007