Thetrailblogger

So many questions and we are looking all around…….. the answer my friend…. is blowing in the wind. Last month the Nobel Committee on literature in Sweden awarded the Nobel prize for literature to the uncivil but iconic figure of the 21st century, Bob Dylan. A rebel with many causes. Bob Dylan came by at a unique time where the world was undergoing changes. Industrial revolution was taking shape in Europe and America.The world was just about settling down after being battered by two world wars and the first use of the atomic bomb in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The world was broadly drawn apart by two primary political ideologies. The Communist thought, practiced and led by Russia and China, large parts of Eastern Europe, many Latin American countries besides many African and Asia countries and the other called themselves Free world democracies where the people decided who would lead them through elections like Western Europe, India, Japan, USA, Australia etc. The world was bipolar one l

Every year, the months of March to June are times when both parents and children undergo an arduous journey of being tested, getting admitted and being bench marked, notwithstanding the interventions of the government education officers and the glee amongst the journalists of the fourth estate. The news being created for them free of charge means they have to use less grey cells to write meaningful, impacting, transformational articles or editorials. All the good deeds and misdeeds across the nation come out from all parts of the country. There is woeful lack of clarity and purpose all around, be it examinations, results, admissions, discipline, leaking of question papers, the toppers and the failures, the success against all odds and failure due to missing the train to help you reach the examination hall on time… the train being cancelled, the inability to show compassion by educationists and soulful efforts of a rickshaw puller in Patna whose son or daughter makes the grade.

Every once in a while we are faced with a grim reminder as people, as organization, as a country, that how callous are we when dealing with human life. The tragedy of young engineering students falling prey to the inviting sea near Alibaug when the college went on a “Picnic”?!! Not far back a school kid crushed his leg in one of the rides during a school trip. A year back we saw another set of young students of engineering from Hyderabad washed away in Manali when the sluice gates of the river were opened. We saw school children from Mumbai on a school trip, injured seriously while taking a horse cart ride in Panchgani tableland, another where the child was dragged by the horse and killed, and when a travel company took children to a high altitude camp in the Himalayas and had no clue why the child was having a headache. They gave the child crocin and the next morning the school child was no more having passed away in the night because of high altitude sickness. The company did not

Not more than a century ago an eminent poet Sir Rabindranath Tagore created a storm in Macaulay’s world by taking the classroom “Outdoors”. This happened in Bengal at Shantiniketan and the story goes on. The only replication of it is done by Trailblazers which calls itself “The Outdoor School”. Last year when we concluded another stunning outdoor workshop series on Environment, for over 500 B.Ed. students, I had asked if they had any question - a young girl got up and said she had a prediction. I was not sure what was coming. She said she wanted to join Trailblazers and then she predicted that the schools of the future would be such, which was being addressed by Trailblazers at the outdoor workshop! That the classroom will move outdoors. That there will be no rooms suffixed to class! The thought  led me to think  and I wondered why should classrooms be fenced off by walls, in a way fencing off children’s minds. My team of outdoor teachers and me, have been successfully conduct

Schools & colleges need to come around to doing their basic tasks well. Provide a safe and conducive environment to every child for learning, teaching and growing up to be a reasonable citizen of the world. The key term is reasonable. Exceptional children will be supported to incrementally benefit from his/her god gift. The core competencies of an educational institution is the above. When they begin to fail in these areas of excellence that the rot sets in fast.  Since the role reversal has happened I will not go down the road of guru Shishya param para etc. suffice here to say that schools which keep to their basics will survive the competition and all others will fall by the wayside. There is no need to lament that schools have become a magnet for making money, that politicians, business investors who have barely passed their high school have set up institutions of learning. The top management and the market  will decide the long term performance of an institution. Should th

Continuing on the subject of safety,  as a civilisation as a whole we need to assess the way we dress when we are in the outdoors. During many of my outdoor trips with children, teachers,corporate executives,families I have observed many small but crucial safety compromises. These compromises are made during any outdoor activity be it indoor or outdoor sports activity, picnics, get together, treks, camps, bird watching trails, training assignments etc. Some of those compromises are as follows: Not reading the communication carefully a couple of days prior to the trip and getting to know about it from the third person. You are here assuming the person you called is more diligent than you and not as lazy and must have read the communication. Not clear about the outdoor activity and what is going to happen, in many cases not even knowing the destination. The opposite is also true in some instances we have a Mr. "Know it all", we call this person the influencer who has bee

Every once in a while we are faced with a grim remainder as people, as organisation as a country how callous are we when dealing with human life. The tragedy of young engineering students falling prey to the inviting sea near Alibaug when the college went on a "Picnic" ?!!.  Not far back a school kid crushed his leg in one of the rides during a school trip, A year back we saw another set of young students of engineering students from Hyderabad washed away in Manali. when the sluice gates of the river was opened,  we saw school children from Mumbai on a school trip crushed taking a horse cart ride in Panchgani Table land and another where the child was dragged by the horse and killed, or when a travel company took children to a high altitude camp in the Himalayas and had no clue why the child was having a headache. They gave the child crocin and the next morning the school child was no more having passed away in the night because of High altitude sickness.The company did