Some things happen in life unexpectedly. And what happened today is really out of the blue. The day after tomorrow ( 9 Dec., 2008 ) is my cousin sister's engagement. So my uncle and his family is in the town visiting us. And my father's maternal uncle Govinda Okhade (Govinda kaka for us) and his wife have also come. At night when the we were having a party, I recited some of the "rubaayi" from Madhushala - a collection of immortal "rubaayian" by legendary
Dr. Harivanshrai Bacchan. It was after this event something interesting happened. Govinda kaka recited some hindi poems of his elder brother Prabhakar Okhade.
Prabhakar Okhade - as the folklore goes in our khaandaan - was an intelligent man. A man, who lost his mental balance due to some unknown reasons. But despite that he was a great poet. He used to make my grandfather write those poems. Where those papers are gone is not known. LOST probabely. But I just thought of putting whatever Govinda kaka, my father Vinayak Sheode, my uncle Srinivas Sheode were remembering on this blog so that atleast these are not lost. We also called my other uncles - Dileep Golwalkar (Raipur) and Pradeep Golwalkar (Guna) who were also remembering some poems. So here is that collection of the genuine soul called Prabhakar Okhade. In fact Govinda kaka says that had he lived more and been mentally stable he would have achieved the same status as the greats like Nirala, Ramdhari Singh Dinkar, Sumitranandan Pant, and Makhanlal Chaturvedi.
Poem 1
इस निशीत की नीरवता में मृतक सा यह संसार
शाम अंबर का कफ़न ओढ़ कर बेशुध पड़ा बेलाचार
कुछ तारे गण उसका कर रहे बिघडा श्रृंगार
कौन कह रहा कौन सुन रहा बंद अभी प्राची का द्वार
========
Poem 2
स्वर्ग मैं जा कर विधाता से कहूँगा पैर पड़कर
अब किसी को भेजना मत तुम कवि बनाकर
मैं हलाहल पी रहा हूँ जगत को पियूष दे कर
जिंदगी में तिमिर छाया यद्यपि है नाम प्रभाकर
========
Poem 3
दुग्ध सी ढुलका कर धार
धरा में करने रजत प्रसार
अवनी टला पर आई इस बार
जगाने किस निष्ठुर का प्यार
अरी ओ चन्द्रकिरण सुकुमार
========
Poem 3 : People are not remembering this completely. So whatever they have remembered I am putting it here.
एक पल अपलक द्रवों से
विश्व की आँखें चुरा कर
कह रहा है मन देख ले तू वोह सुछावी मद मस्त हो कर
ह्रदय में अंकित उसे कर विजन में फ़िर कभी आनंद लेने
अवकाश पा कर
(तव दंत पंक्ति दलिम दल कहता हैं यौवन का पागल पण
कैसा था यामिनी का महा मिलन)
========
Poem 4
चित्त चातक हे घनश्याम
तुम्हारा दर्शन कर अभिराम
पा गया मन मयूर विश्राम
Prabhakar Olkhade
Sunday, December 7, 2008
Sunday, November 30, 2008
Just a thought.....
I am blessed ....Rather I should say...We are blessed....On 26 November 2008 our daughter was born.
As I was travelling to reach Pune from my place of work, a thought crossed my mind. I have been little sceptical about the whole concept of GOD. Personally I believe that it is concept developed out of fear. I mean those who ruled the masses or wanted to rule the masses created the concept of GOD for their own mean purpose and the masses fell victim. But having said that if someone asks me do you believe in GOD despite the scepticism, I would say I believe in nature. That is GOD for me. Anyway this is a debatable topic which would never end. But the reason this chain of thoughts started was the birth of our daughter.... How is it that from a single sperm and an ovule an entire body gets developed.....Is it a chance ? Is it some kind of intelligent design ? I do not have answers to these questions. All I can say is I am humbled by these unanswered questions.
As I was travelling to reach Pune from my place of work, a thought crossed my mind. I have been little sceptical about the whole concept of GOD. Personally I believe that it is concept developed out of fear. I mean those who ruled the masses or wanted to rule the masses created the concept of GOD for their own mean purpose and the masses fell victim. But having said that if someone asks me do you believe in GOD despite the scepticism, I would say I believe in nature. That is GOD for me. Anyway this is a debatable topic which would never end. But the reason this chain of thoughts started was the birth of our daughter.... How is it that from a single sperm and an ovule an entire body gets developed.....Is it a chance ? Is it some kind of intelligent design ? I do not have answers to these questions. All I can say is I am humbled by these unanswered questions.
Friday, May 2, 2008
Nirmal Diary - Part 2
Its been quite some time that I have not written anything. I do not wish to give any explanations but the reason is that I do not have a good access to the web in Nirmal. I decided to chip in few words today. Actually what encouraged me to do so was a party at a Yogesh's (a close friend) place where we talked about the documentation issues. In reality I have been jotting many points in my diary about my experience at Nirmal. Today I decided to write at any cost.
The result is out:
We declared the first final results of the first academic year of the school. Pheew.....What an experience this has been? Will narrate some of the incidents and the changes I have tried to bring in what, I consider, was a REAL mess.
On 27 April, 2008 (Sunday), the results were declared. Actually I am satisfied with the secondary school results. It is 100 %. Some students need to work harder, which I am sure they will. But overall the performance has been good. Now I must say that some of the higher class students are really impressive and the issue is just of exposure to the wider "ORGANISED" knowledge data base. (Comment: By the way, many of them are from the backward class communities. The SCs/STs/OBCs etc.). The issues are of low confidence level and power of expression. The poor power of expression is due to poor english, which depletes the confidence. I have been teaching physical sciences to 8th and 9th classes. Now, when I joined, the students memorised the answers and reproduced in the exam. I consider it a dangerous trend. After a regular talk with the 8th and 9th class students, they have begun to make efforts to express themselves. This has resulted in a slight downfall in the performance but I am sure it will pick up when we work on english language more rigourously next year. (Comment: Honestly speaking, I must confess that during my school days (and even college days) I had the bad habbit of memorising the things. Things started changing at Masters level and changed completely during my stay in Germany. Courtesy: My boss Prof. Dr. John Burrows and my advisor Dr. B.-M. Sinnhuber). Another important issue which I have stressed on is "learning with understanding" . I shall write a blog on learning environment in school later.
The result of primary section has been satisfactory. I am not too happy with that. I shall have to work on that during the next academic year.
The issue of overaged students :
One major issue during the last academic year has been the overaged students in primary classes. I will give you an example of a case which has freaked me out. I was observing a very tall buy in 1st standard for quite some time. I was curious to know his age. I asked the class teacher. What she narrated zapped me. The guy was studying in a telugu midium school in 6th class in 2007. So this year he should have been studying in 7th class. One bright sunny morning (The mornings are always bright and sunny and HOT in this part of the world) father suddenly felt that he should be admitted to an english midium school because the future is english. The present vice principal was the acting principal before I joined. And on his wise advise he was admitted to 1st class. (By the way the vice principal has been in the field of education for last 25 years and he has M.Sc. and B.Ed. degrees. I feel that probabely he is a good example of typical indecisive teacher in a school education system in India). So, continuing the story, I did some back of the envelope calculations and concluded that he would be around 21 years old when he reaches 10th class. I went crazy. I called his father and advised him to admit the boy to 7th class in telugu midium school in 2008 which would waste his 1 year. This was the worst case scenario. Otherwise (and as this happened in January), He could be given some private tuitions and made to appear for the 7th class exams so that he goes to 8th class. This would be the best scenario. Fortunately the man agreed. But it took me almost 1 and half hour to convince him. I almost went dizzy when he told me that there is one more similar case in class. I was to discover one more case 2 weeks later. Now these were extreme cases. The cases of students being 2-3 years elder have been aplenty. That mess is being sorted. Things will be fine soon. Amen.......
The result is out:
We declared the first final results of the first academic year of the school. Pheew.....What an experience this has been? Will narrate some of the incidents and the changes I have tried to bring in what, I consider, was a REAL mess.
On 27 April, 2008 (Sunday), the results were declared. Actually I am satisfied with the secondary school results. It is 100 %. Some students need to work harder, which I am sure they will. But overall the performance has been good. Now I must say that some of the higher class students are really impressive and the issue is just of exposure to the wider "ORGANISED" knowledge data base. (Comment: By the way, many of them are from the backward class communities. The SCs/STs/OBCs etc.). The issues are of low confidence level and power of expression. The poor power of expression is due to poor english, which depletes the confidence. I have been teaching physical sciences to 8th and 9th classes. Now, when I joined, the students memorised the answers and reproduced in the exam. I consider it a dangerous trend. After a regular talk with the 8th and 9th class students, they have begun to make efforts to express themselves. This has resulted in a slight downfall in the performance but I am sure it will pick up when we work on english language more rigourously next year. (Comment: Honestly speaking, I must confess that during my school days (and even college days) I had the bad habbit of memorising the things. Things started changing at Masters level and changed completely during my stay in Germany. Courtesy: My boss Prof. Dr. John Burrows and my advisor Dr. B.-M. Sinnhuber). Another important issue which I have stressed on is "learning with understanding" . I shall write a blog on learning environment in school later.
The result of primary section has been satisfactory. I am not too happy with that. I shall have to work on that during the next academic year.
The issue of overaged students :
One major issue during the last academic year has been the overaged students in primary classes. I will give you an example of a case which has freaked me out. I was observing a very tall buy in 1st standard for quite some time. I was curious to know his age. I asked the class teacher. What she narrated zapped me. The guy was studying in a telugu midium school in 6th class in 2007. So this year he should have been studying in 7th class. One bright sunny morning (The mornings are always bright and sunny and HOT in this part of the world) father suddenly felt that he should be admitted to an english midium school because the future is english. The present vice principal was the acting principal before I joined. And on his wise advise he was admitted to 1st class. (By the way the vice principal has been in the field of education for last 25 years and he has M.Sc. and B.Ed. degrees. I feel that probabely he is a good example of typical indecisive teacher in a school education system in India). So, continuing the story, I did some back of the envelope calculations and concluded that he would be around 21 years old when he reaches 10th class. I went crazy. I called his father and advised him to admit the boy to 7th class in telugu midium school in 2008 which would waste his 1 year. This was the worst case scenario. Otherwise (and as this happened in January), He could be given some private tuitions and made to appear for the 7th class exams so that he goes to 8th class. This would be the best scenario. Fortunately the man agreed. But it took me almost 1 and half hour to convince him. I almost went dizzy when he told me that there is one more similar case in class. I was to discover one more case 2 weeks later. Now these were extreme cases. The cases of students being 2-3 years elder have been aplenty. That mess is being sorted. Things will be fine soon. Amen.......
Thursday, October 4, 2007
Nirmal Diary - Part 1
It has finally happened. After 23 hours of tiring journey from Montreal to Mumbai and a couple of weeks stay in the home town I have finally stationed myself at 19.06 N and 78.25 E. It is damn hot here. The place is in the northern most district called Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh. Adilabad is THE district of forest. 43 % of the district is a reserve forest area (National Average is around 23, I am told by the District Forest Officer). I lived at the guest house for a month before I got my apartment. But before I share the school experiences, here the first impressions of an amateur educator :-)
India Shining: Myth or Reality
A lot has been said about the rising and shining India. The electronic and the print media show and print some numbers called sensex and inflation rate every day and we in cities bulge with pride after glancing at the numbers which most of us do not understand. We discuss and celebrate those numbers as success stories with our families in drawing halls, with colleagues on coffee tables, with friends (with a glasses of alcoholic drinks ("perhaps")) without knowing what they really mean. And it does give us a feeling of being an intellectual. And yeah....we also talk about how we should make the villages rise and share the glory of cities. PERIOD. It all ends there with a dinner, a coffee, and a beer. But after seeing this part of India, the projected success appears HOLLOW and gives me a feeling of hallucination. It irritates me to see the non-existant infrastructure required for a civilised life. The English robbed this country for almost 200 years and left. The remains are being settled by the petty politicians. And they are having a free hand in fooling the people with literacy rate so low and the SO CALLED middle class intellectuals busy in debates on coffee tables and unenthusiastic to vote.
I do not know. I might be wrong. But the root cause of all this is EDUCATION. So it is important that we give the same quality education in remotest village as is accessible to city. So atleast at present the "Shining India" motto appears a myth to me.
The First Acquaintances
Let me introduce you to some people I got introduced to during my stay at the guest house.
Rajanna: He was my cook for a month during my stay in the guest house. He is from Palsi - a small village on the border of Maharashtra and Andhra. He can speak marathi. So gives me a good feeling. Rajanna is around 45 and is a hard working man. He really makes good food
Mubashir: My driver. He is 22 year old and cool guy. Speaks Hyderabadi hindi along with telugu. He taught me that in Hyderabadi hindi bus is pronounced as "Busaan" and road as "Roadaan". In fact I have realised that many words in Hyderabadi hindi end with that "aan".
The School
The school is sorrounded by the Sahyadri mountain range and dense forest. It becomes really beautiful when it rains. After the rains many birds come on the school ground in search of insects. I have identified - Indian Robin, Wagtail, Red Wattled Lapwing, Drongos, Bee-eaters. Few days ago I have also seen Indian Roller. There is a poultry farm of King-Fishers - Literally. The school is sorrounded by rice and corn fields.
India Shining: Myth or Reality
A lot has been said about the rising and shining India. The electronic and the print media show and print some numbers called sensex and inflation rate every day and we in cities bulge with pride after glancing at the numbers which most of us do not understand. We discuss and celebrate those numbers as success stories with our families in drawing halls, with colleagues on coffee tables, with friends (with a glasses of alcoholic drinks ("perhaps")) without knowing what they really mean. And it does give us a feeling of being an intellectual. And yeah....we also talk about how we should make the villages rise and share the glory of cities. PERIOD. It all ends there with a dinner, a coffee, and a beer. But after seeing this part of India, the projected success appears HOLLOW and gives me a feeling of hallucination. It irritates me to see the non-existant infrastructure required for a civilised life. The English robbed this country for almost 200 years and left. The remains are being settled by the petty politicians. And they are having a free hand in fooling the people with literacy rate so low and the SO CALLED middle class intellectuals busy in debates on coffee tables and unenthusiastic to vote.
I do not know. I might be wrong. But the root cause of all this is EDUCATION. So it is important that we give the same quality education in remotest village as is accessible to city. So atleast at present the "Shining India" motto appears a myth to me.
The First Acquaintances
Let me introduce you to some people I got introduced to during my stay at the guest house.
Rajanna: He was my cook for a month during my stay in the guest house. He is from Palsi - a small village on the border of Maharashtra and Andhra. He can speak marathi. So gives me a good feeling. Rajanna is around 45 and is a hard working man. He really makes good food
Mubashir: My driver. He is 22 year old and cool guy. Speaks Hyderabadi hindi along with telugu. He taught me that in Hyderabadi hindi bus is pronounced as "Busaan" and road as "Roadaan". In fact I have realised that many words in Hyderabadi hindi end with that "aan".
Kishore: He is a local bloke trying to make his career in local politics.
Rukmesh is accountant and Mahendra is office clerk. Chinnaya, Narayan, Sayanna are the attenders in the school.
The School
The school is sorrounded by the Sahyadri mountain range and dense forest. It becomes really beautiful when it rains. After the rains many birds come on the school ground in search of insects. I have identified - Indian Robin, Wagtail, Red Wattled Lapwing, Drongos, Bee-eaters. Few days ago I have also seen Indian Roller. There is a poultry farm of King-Fishers - Literally. The school is sorrounded by rice and corn fields.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Wah Taj!!!
Today on the 7th day of the 7th month of the year '07, they declared the new 7 wonders of the world. And the list is:
1. Chichen Itza (Mexico)
2. Christ, The Redeemer (Brazil)3. Machu Picchu (Peru)
4. Petra (Jordan)5. The Colosseum (Italy)
6. The Great Wall (China)7. The Taj Mahal (India)
The selection was based on a popular vote. Even I voted - And being an Indian I obviously voted for The Taj Mahal despite the fact that I have not been to Agra. (But now I hope to visit Agra soon.)
I had put the topic and information about the voting on my school's community on Orkut. A couple of opinions were written which opposed the vote for The Taj. The reasons were as follows:
1. It reminded us of the Moghul invasion.
2. The Taj was built on a Shiva temple. I would like to voice my opinion about the two reasons today.
Reason 1: "It reminds us of the Moghul invasion."
First of all I seriously doubt the intensity of the reason expressed by this guy. Nevertheless the reason just demonstrates the close mindedness. By this mode of logic all the monuments which have been built by those who attacked and/or ruled India should be hated. Also the systems which they brought in and which have had a positive effect on India should also be disliked. Now the funny part is that the guy asked to vote for Angkor temple (Combodia) conveniently forgetting that perhaps his ancestors might have attacked Combodia destroyed the local beliefs existing at that time and set up new belief system and then built Angkor temple in Combodia. This cycle of attacks and establishment of new system has been a part of the world history.
My point is simple and clear. Now we live in a free country and all these monuments are treasures of our past and should be preserved so that the next generations can see these monuments. They will remind us of the invaders and force us to learn some lessons from our past mistakes. So we should not loose the great opportunity of preserving them and use these very monuments to make some money. This is what I have observed in the west. The Americans or the Canadians have a history of few hundred years and yet they preserve it with pride. Why cannot we ?
(I just hope and pray (literally) that this new declaration will help Agra develop its infrastructure.)
(I just hope and pray (literally) that this new declaration will help Agra develop its infrastructure.)
2. "The Taj was built on Shiva temple"
This may be or may not be true. I am not aware of the fact but I doubt if Shiva temple (if it at all existed) would be as popular as the Taj. We should seriously get over this fanaticism and move ahead and make money using The Taj. Period.
This may be or may not be true. I am not aware of the fact but I doubt if Shiva temple (if it at all existed) would be as popular as the Taj. We should seriously get over this fanaticism and move ahead and make money using The Taj. Period.
Friday, June 15, 2007
Indian films and songs
I am down today : Ruk jaana nahin tu kahin haar ke..
I need motivation: Aye saallaa...abhi abhi..hua yankee..
I want to be romantic: Chehera hai ya chaand khila hai..
I want to fill myself with patriotism: Yeh desh hai veer jawano kaa..
I wished to express my friendship: Yeh dosti..hum nahi..
And the list is ENDLESS (literally). There is a song for each and every occassion (literally).
It is a sheer coincidence that it is BOSS' birthday today as I decided to write this blog. It is 27 June - But BOSS ? Who is the BOSS ? Hey!!!! We have a song to solve that mystery too...BOSS kaun tha malum hai kya ? BOSS kaun hai malum hai kya ? (Jhankar beats starring Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla and cool dude Rahul Bose. Music directors: Vishal-Shekhar). And the BOSS is R.D. Burman a.k.a. Panchamda. Man.. it drives me crazy when I hear his evergreen and immortal creations. Remember - Chura liya hai dil ne jo....OR Yeh Jawanee....Yeh Deewani....OR Chingari koi bhadke....He was a true legend. Hindi films and songs have made our lives so colourful.
But read this dialogue I hear many times when I have discussions about hindi films. "HUH!! I hate Bollywood movies. It is the same theme again and again and so much running round the trees. I do not watch them. I 'to baba' like only Hollywood movies. They are so hepp"- Many people say this. I just smile on such comments. Of course its a matter of personal opinions but they are comparing apples with oranges. So it is irrational - if not stupid - to compare Hollywood with our film industry. We have a unique style of making films - Films with songs. Culturally we are so different. And by this I do not mean to demean Hollywood. They indeed make great movies undoubtedly but our movies have totally different flavour - the local flavour - the indian flavour. I mean McDonalds burger is OK sometimes but legendary Wada Paav and cutting chai or Uttappa and cutting chai are for all seasons.
Some of my favourite movies which I can watch anytime are :
Chupke Chupke - A typical Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie. I mean the theme cannot be simpler than the one in this movie. I have seen it so many times but still it is like evergreen. Dr. Parimal Tripathi, Sulekha Chaturvedi, Professor Sukumar Sinha, Vasudha Kumar, Raghav bhaiyaa, Haripath bhaiyaa, James D'costa, Prashant are the characters I can relate to in so many situations.
I shall not speak in such details as Chupke Chupke as it is my favourite movie. But the other which fall is the same league for me are Khubsoorat, Chashm-e-baddoor, Choti si baat, Angoor, Golmaal, Abhimaan, Guddi, Rang Birangi, Jaane bhi do yaaron, CID, Kala Paani, Chalti ka naam gaadi and many more.
And though most- if not all - films have the same theme of a boy and a girl falling in love, I have continued to enjoy them for years and years. I have grown with hindi films. And my personal opinion is - "I LOVE MOVIES OF BOMBAY FILM INDUSTRY."
I need motivation: Aye saallaa...abhi abhi..hua yankee..
I want to be romantic: Chehera hai ya chaand khila hai..
I want to fill myself with patriotism: Yeh desh hai veer jawano kaa..
I wished to express my friendship: Yeh dosti..hum nahi..
And the list is ENDLESS (literally). There is a song for each and every occassion (literally).
It is a sheer coincidence that it is BOSS' birthday today as I decided to write this blog. It is 27 June - But BOSS ? Who is the BOSS ? Hey!!!! We have a song to solve that mystery too...BOSS kaun tha malum hai kya ? BOSS kaun hai malum hai kya ? (Jhankar beats starring Sanjay Suri, Juhi Chawla and cool dude Rahul Bose. Music directors: Vishal-Shekhar). And the BOSS is R.D. Burman a.k.a. Panchamda. Man.. it drives me crazy when I hear his evergreen and immortal creations. Remember - Chura liya hai dil ne jo....OR Yeh Jawanee....Yeh Deewani....OR Chingari koi bhadke....He was a true legend. Hindi films and songs have made our lives so colourful.
But read this dialogue I hear many times when I have discussions about hindi films. "HUH!! I hate Bollywood movies. It is the same theme again and again and so much running round the trees. I do not watch them. I 'to baba' like only Hollywood movies. They are so hepp"- Many people say this. I just smile on such comments. Of course its a matter of personal opinions but they are comparing apples with oranges. So it is irrational - if not stupid - to compare Hollywood with our film industry. We have a unique style of making films - Films with songs. Culturally we are so different. And by this I do not mean to demean Hollywood. They indeed make great movies undoubtedly but our movies have totally different flavour - the local flavour - the indian flavour. I mean McDonalds burger is OK sometimes but legendary Wada Paav and cutting chai or Uttappa and cutting chai are for all seasons.
Some of my favourite movies which I can watch anytime are :
Chupke Chupke - A typical Hrishikesh Mukherjee movie. I mean the theme cannot be simpler than the one in this movie. I have seen it so many times but still it is like evergreen. Dr. Parimal Tripathi, Sulekha Chaturvedi, Professor Sukumar Sinha, Vasudha Kumar, Raghav bhaiyaa, Haripath bhaiyaa, James D'costa, Prashant are the characters I can relate to in so many situations.
I shall not speak in such details as Chupke Chupke as it is my favourite movie. But the other which fall is the same league for me are Khubsoorat, Chashm-e-baddoor, Choti si baat, Angoor, Golmaal, Abhimaan, Guddi, Rang Birangi, Jaane bhi do yaaron, CID, Kala Paani, Chalti ka naam gaadi and many more.
And though most- if not all - films have the same theme of a boy and a girl falling in love, I have continued to enjoy them for years and years. I have grown with hindi films. And my personal opinion is - "I LOVE MOVIES OF BOMBAY FILM INDUSTRY."
Monday, May 28, 2007
A new beginning
Finally, I have arrived. I was damn reluctant to start with blogging. But then, I read a friend's blog (Pallavi Kale to be more precise) and I thought that I should give blog a shot. Hopefully with practice, I hope to improve my writing skills. And that is my sole motive behind blogging. I would not want this blog to look like an autobiography because I feel whenever one writes one, there is inevitably a lot of filtering of thoughts in an attempt to show how great (or modest) one is. I would just like to put my views and thoughts on varied topics (hopefully without filteration). So cheers!!! I say to myself for this new interesting beginning.
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