Learn-Develop-Grow

[This blog post is inspired by a rush of thoughts which floated through my mind over the last 3 days. Last week I conducted an "orientation program" at a well-known school in the city. I was referred to as the "speaker" in the tradition of their having a speaker at their term orientations. Despite my protest, facing a group of 100 teachers from pre-Primary to Higher Secondary level, I was branded the Speaker.  However, this was a small glitch in an otherwise fabulous morning.  Read on ... ] The topic I was to present, though limited by time and space, encompassed teaching skills, motivation, instant lesson planning and, because the teachers felt they needed something for their personal lives too, we added Time Management Tools.  The precise content was not as important as the methods I have been used to employing.  So, on with the show. I firmly believe that one has to live the part, so rather than deliver a talk, I found myself involving the teachers in inter...

[Blame it on the Pujas! The various sounds coming from the Pandals.  And lots of house-arrest, time to write.  So here goes my thoughts on music, singing and modern instruments.] No American Pie, this Sincere apologies to those who thought this might be about Don McLean, Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the team. But the music died several times since then, in my opinion.  So this is about events in my life that make me think, and sing.  What are the events that could have kicked this off? A party at home, several good friends who are close to over the proverbial hill, a couple of amazing singers and pianists in the house and, lubricated by spirits that raise the spirits, the party becomes a "jam".  That's event #1. A query by a lady friend to my wife, "How does he remember all the words of every song?" - in response to my grabbing a microphone and letting rip somewhere around the right note, that too on a public stage. That's event #2. A ...

[This is largely from a blog post I had put on my website several years ago (February 2011).  I was reminded of it by two incidents that happened recently.  Read on ... ] Ah! The joys of earning money This evening I visited my mum, now nearing ninety, and listened, for the umpteenth time to several of her stories of yesteryear.  And, like rediscovering a good book, as one thumbs the pages, suddenly nuggets of information pop out that you hadn't noticed earlier.  She was recounting how she got a job in shorthand-and-typing back then.  It was a long and interesting story which probably deserves its own post. But the upshot of it was that she did land the job at the princely sum of Rs 70 a month. And then, I was reminded of my son earning his first Rs 300 working as a Kayaking Instructor at EcoPark, Kolkata.  And when you're getting older, you tend to reminisce about your life and times and the first money you ever earned. Imagi...

[This blog is dedicated to many people, but the picture alongside is courtesy a post and comment on Facebook by Ninad Vengurlekar, one of my thinking buddies of yesteryear - not to mention the exquisite Bombil Fry at Gazale we enjoyed together.] So, I am going to answer the question that was posed in the last blog, " Why did you give up teaching? " Literally, thousands. The first of many answers is the simplest - Money!  As the lady alongside exemplifies, even in the land of overflowing milk, honey and orange hairdos, the teacher is still one who is at the top of her class in what she does and close to the bottom of the economic pile when take-home salary arrives. Yes, teaching was literally for thousands ... I willingly took up the profession in 1977 with a consolidated pay of Rs 350 a month in one of Calcutta's Premier Institutions.  I have the appointment letter to prove it too. Things improved in a few months when I accidentally landed a job at St ...

Teachers' Day Revisited Clearly Larry Hartnett's doing, this.  He posted on Facebook today, musing about Teachers' Day tomorrow, and I got to wondering if I should answer the oft-popped question, Why did you leave teaching and join corporate life? But before we go there, allow me a comment on this whole concept of Teachers' Day. For one thing, it's the punctuation that often gets me, especially in the greetings cards that are so lovingly and painstakingly directed by the parents of those ever suffering kids. The term has been variously misspelt: Teacher's Day (only for that ONE special teacher?) and Teachers Day  (all of them, no possessive case).  So I thought it might be a good time to reiterate my obsession with the proper apostrophe, seeing that it's part of my name. So, three cheers for all those kids (and adults) who write Happy Teachers' Day  on September 5th this year and every year. I miss it, for sure, every year.  Those fabulous...

These were the first three questions when I began my brief workshop at the British Council today. The workshop was titled Essential Skills for Young Professionals and I opened with, "Do you have any questions?" Asked for it, literally! How young is young? Someone said 20-30 years, someone else said it's the ability to change, be flexible, adopt new technologies. As expected the one liner, age is just a number,  you're as young as you feel was popped up. So, I used my facilitator's shield - I don't know the answer, ask yourselves why you have come here. To me it's really not important to define the word 'young'. It's more important to recognize that these people attended a workshop with that title to learn a little about skills considered essential to the workplace. What are skills? This was easy. Anything that can be learnt and practised. So while the group recognized that there are some people born with innate characteristics, the rest ...

The Story behind the Logo Six years ago, when I was deciding to work for someone else or myself, I initially had to create an option to my full time job.  Will it work?  Will it grow? Will it fail? Into this quagmire of indecision stepped Sumit Lai Roy - an old friend, a schoolmate and a person I admired for the kind of things he has done for advertising and for theatre in my city, Kolkata (or Calcutta as it is better known).  In fact, I had recently returned from an offsite at Khandala where Sumit was a driving force behind the creation of one of the excellent learning facilities there. Over a soup and sandwiches at Chai Break, we talked about what I wanted to do.  His incisive questioning led to me believe that the safety of a nine to five might be preferable to striking out on my own.  However, we persevered through a conversation that made me very shaky ... then I left my job. With several years of teaching, training and development und...