Everyone Has An Alter Ego

Besides being a pretty awesome mother look what else she does in her free time.

By the way if you haven't already heard of it - Janaagraha - check it out

Empowering children for active citizenship Rama Errabelli I was standing in a queue at a pharmacy, when a man cut the line, and walked confidently up to the counter, stuck his hand out, expecting the pharmacist to fill his prescription. I was standing in a queue at a pharmacy, when a man cut the line, and walked confidently up to the counter, stuck his hand out, expecting the pharmacist to fill his prescription. A foreigner, waiting patiently in line for his turn, called out: “excuse me, sir, there’s a line here!” To this, my fellow citizen turned around and said: “what line? No line in India, only line in America!” And turned back to the counter. Extremely embarrassed and offended at the man’s response, I walked up to the counter and requested the pharmacist not to attend to him unless he joined the line. The pharmacist firmly requested him to join the line. But when the man pressed on, insisting that “there are no rules in India”, the pharmacist gave up and filled his prescription. Several situations like this have arisen before, but this time the incident really annoyed me. Initially I was concerned about the man’s irresponsible response. But as days passed, and I recounted the incident to my family and friends, two things began to bother me. The first was the pharmacist’s “let us get this over with and move on” attitude, and the second — no one else in the line objected to the man’s disregard for the people waiting their turn. I was, and continue to be, deeply concerned by this attitude. What makes us so numb that we do not even respond? Is it the “I cannot change him, why should I bother?” attitude or is it “what is the big deal?” Swalpa adjust madi or just “let someone else take care”. I believe it is deep-rooted apathy. How do we teach our children and ourselves that being silent spectators will not solve our problems? How do we confront this apathy and engage as “active citizens” of our society? How do we develop a deep sense of belonging to address the challenges that face us? How do we inculcate respect for our fellow citizens, respect for the society, the nation? The answer is quite clear. We need to teach our children social and moral responsibility, the idea of citizenship, from an early age. Children have to be empowered with knowledge, skills and values that will guide them into being active citizens. To strengthen the values taught by parents, schools too must teach children — honesty, integrity, fair play, service and respect for fellow citizens. Schools can also play a crucial role in nurturing active citizens by focusing on building skills in children. Skills that will make them confident to effect change. Skills to think analytically, communicate effectively, solve problems and make decisions. Finally, schools play a key role in empowering children with knowledge, and motivating them to actively engage in the concerns of the society. Children need to be taught their rights and responsibilities, and to understand how the various public institutions like the government functions. Schools can build awareness and sensitise children to important civic issues in their communities, and encourage them to explore solutions to those issues. One cannot lecture to children on the idea of citizenship. Citizenship values, skills and knowledge can be cultivated only through practice. Classrooms are a perfect place for this learning to take place. Over the past five years, Janaagraha successfully introduced Bala Janaagraha, a practical citizenship education programme for children, to nearly 15,000 children in schools across Bangalore. Through interactive classes and project work children are empowered with the knowledge, skills and values necessary to shoulder the responsibility of citizenship. If we “sow the seeds of citizenship” in our children today, then, it won’t be long before there is a scenario where if a person breaks the queue, every one in the line will protest, the counter in-charge will insist that he will not be served unless he joins the line, and the man understanding what he has done, will graciously move to the end of the line. (The writer is Coordinator, Bala Janaagraha, Janaagraha)

1:05 AM and the end of the Summer

A few thoughts

• After a whole month of observing lab mice pretty closely - I think my picture looks quite mousy - or perhaps I just spent too much room in the "mouse room" today.
  
• I am going to miss what I've been doing here the past month - despite the number of hours I spent brooding about wasting my time - I actually did enjoy it and learned a lot. And now its over and back to the same. Damn.
  
• Even Atha's house here at Houston - going to miss that too.
  
• So other than for a couple of days of speed meet and greets in NJ and Philli (no NY unfortunately - makes me so sad) its back to India
• A few hours in Bangalore
• And then back to well, I may as well say it, home - Chennai.
  
• The thought of travelling excites me but not lugging those huge suitcases around - ugh
  
• Check out the You Tube Obama Pound - more importantly the comments below it - now if you're a US Citizen of voting age and don't vote in this election - sorry but you're missing something to tell your grandkids.
  
• Too tired to make this prettier or follow the recommendations on Seth something's blog on how to get more traffic to your blog.
  

I Can Attest to This

"For being a foreigner...is a sort of lifelong pregnancy--a perpetual wait, a constant burden, a continuous feeling out of sorts. It is an ongoing responsibility, a parenthesis in what had once been an ordinary life, only to discover that that previous life has vanished, replaced by something more complicated and demanding. Like pregnancy, being a foreigner...is something that elicits the same curiosity from strangers, the same combination of pity and respect."

- Jhumpa Lahiri, The Namesake

My Conclusions:

Without going into a self psychoanalysis that would be way too involved for me to feel comfortable sharing with the general public:

I think I am going to absolutely hate being pregnant.

I've hated being a foreigner everywhere I go. Switching between India and the US every 5 or so years hasn't been good for me - apparently I'm a person who prefers calm, peace and serenity.

Is there anywhere where national identity doesn't matter? Perhaps I should just go and live in Auroville.

Theres a big conclusion I can draw from this summer - and I know now exactly what it is that has to be done - but I'd really prefer not to.

Great - things just got so much more complicated now that I see the solution at hand.

:)

NASA and Elections

Any normal person has at one time in their life been obsessed with space and, especially if you've lived in the US of A - NASA .

If watching Apollo 13 was a momentous event in your life and you wanted to be an astronaut at some point - then I'd bet you begged your parents to send you to space camp as well.

And if you're like most families - you wouldn't have ever made it to the space camp.

Well, I never made it to space camp - not yet :) . But I did make it to the Johnson Space Center today. It was - for lack of a better phrase - pretty damn cool. I made the trip solo but it was still fun. I got to see a bunch of things including the historic mission control room. :)

And I bought a poster of the Earth - the one taken on Apollo 17 (the last manned mission to the moon) and if I'm correct was the picture featured on Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth.' The most widely printed photograph in history or something if I'm right.

So I am happy.

*****

Also all the US citizens out there that read this - please please please please please and once again PLEASE exercise your right to vote in the upcoming elections. (If you're a Rebuplican perhaps you'd prefer a nice night out on the town instead ;) just kidding) If you live in Chennai or abroad and need any information about how to vote via absentee ballot, here it is. Also if you have any questions, contact me and I'll answer them as best as I can.

Even if you think that the future of the country is going to the dogs, or all of the candidates are trash - vote for the best of the trash. Even if you 'don't do politics' please vote - or you won't be doing a lot of things if the wrong candidate gets voted in. And believe me there are some very wrong candidates out there.

If you're not voting - move to North Korea or something. Its your responsibility to voice your opinion.

And if you still think this is crap.

Vote for me - it'll make me happy.

Believe me random acts of kindness are good for your karma.

Phantom

One of these days I'm going to do a nice long post on why I and millions of others absolutely love this play