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Two poets

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Teachers we never meet There is something very poetic about this image ~ Is it about two people mature with age and experience? Or, the warmth that eyes carry when poetry flourishes? Or, about that child that a few adults carry within ~  Were they trying to delicately fit a word in a line? Or, appreciating a word? a line? a word in a line? Or, talking about their unfinished poems? Or, smiling at what they are leaving behind for us?  Harivansh Rai Bachchhan wrote on seeing Gurudev Tagore That he got to know how graceful and stunning old age could be This image perhaps is equally poignant, in a slightly different way though ~ What Ashok Vajpeyi said on Kedar Nath Singh tells u s about both, “He was a poet of both presence and absence, of love and loss .. of anxieties and questions . . And he achieved in his poetic craft that which can be only called Kedar rhythm, a verbal construct uniquely his own but simultaneously communicative" Or, is it just two amazing poets?  Poets who have t

Mountain love

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In love with the mountains Some books take you to the mountains as you flip pages Some books remind you of the time you have invested in the mountains Some books make want to go the mountains Some books touch you gently Some books hit you hard  This book does each of these  Ruskin Bond and Namita Gokhale - a big thank you for coming out with the book For allowing me to stand on the shoulders of giants as they shared of their time in the mountains. The cover by Roerich stands tall. Authors include Rahul Sankrityayan, Rabindranath Tagore, Mark Twain, Dom Moraes and Manjushree Thapa.  This is what Namita Gokhale's website refers to the book as, " This anthology attempts to capture some of its complexity and vastness, traveling through time, place, and attitude. Beauty and melancholy, courage and defeat, philosophy and poetry surprise and illuminate us in these pages " Mountains, many a time, make us go silent So does this book Few other books on the mountains  Between Heaven

Together with Pratham

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Our journey with Pratham books Anshumalika Rai and Nimesh Ved Published at Teacher Plus.  Thanks to colleagues at Teacher Plus, Pratham books and Richa.  We received a bunch of recently published books from Pratham publications for review. These books had us revisit our journey, of a few years, with Pratham books. So, rather than only review the fresh books, we take a step back to talk about our experiences with books we already had in our book room. The experience so far Pratham books have been a part of our book room since we rejigged the entire collection of books . Then we had reset not just the furniture but also the ethos of the room. We were keen to create a space that the children would enjoy being at and get the books they would like. During this restructuring phase we visited the book fair in Delhi . Here we got Pratham books. It did not take us long to figure that these were the kind of books we were in need of. Books that were colourful, diverse, and attracti

Book room : Three

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  Books and us Nimesh Ved and Anshumalika Rai   Published at Teacher Plus. We thank colleagues at APS and Teacher Plus, friends at CIHTS and Harmony, Richa and others who have held our hands in this journey.    We have written about our journey with books in our school in the July 2020 and February 2022 issues of Teacher Plus . In this article, the final in the series, we move beyond the rooms and walls. We look at ourselves. The only way to grow is by looking inwards Tim Noonan We sensed the need to visit and observe other book places to broaden our horizons. Things fell in place and we secured a membership of the library at the Central Institute of Higher Tibetan Studies ( CIHTS ) at Sarnath. To say that this library is different from the book room in our school is an understatement; be it the objectives, the collection it houses, systems in place, or the aesthetics. A love for books, however, is common to both spaces and this has enabled us to learn from the pr

Bihar Museum

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  Re-defining Museums A day-trip to this amazing place in Patna Some images An art installation at one of the open spaces amidst the buildings An empty gallery A gallery with many visitors - 3,000 turn up each day on an average This may be an island in the city - but one which is connected with its people  A 'library' for researchers  There was also a 'classroom' - a workshop on traditional Mithila painting in natural colours was underway Staff kept the spaces clean  These photos in these frames kept changing  The museum has its share of surprises - and they work   Like the museum at Allahabad this too has space devoted to the Bideshiyas or the Batoiyas  Only this one was more interactive and had technology stamped all over  What would happen to our history if Alexander Cunnigham and Huen Tsang were to suddenly disappear? Same that would happen to our lives if tea and coffee went missing? I enjoyed trying my hand at the interactive installations in more than one section

APS: A photo story

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Surrounded by openness This piece finds place in Teacher Plus' December issue.  Thanks to the colleagues there and to Richa for comments on the draft.  Image credits: Achyut Patwardhan Junior High School  What all can a school do if its building is surrounded by open spaces? How can the adults and children at the school optimally use these spaces? Does greenery at these open spaces become the proverbial icing on the cake? Do these spaces lead to rekindling openness within us as well? First the school. Located on the outskirts of a fast-growing town, along the riverbank in eastern Uttar Pradesh, the school began sometime in the 1940s. Housed within a large campus, the school today has 15 teachers and 250 children. Most of the children, from nursery to 8th class, come from the nearby areas. There are no other open spaces in the vicinity and these spaces around the school play a crucial role in the lives of the children. They come to these spaces during evenings, on holidays and duri

Schools and their neighbours

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  Schools and other institutions   This finds space in Teacher Plus December 2023. Thanks to colleagues there and to Richa for comments on the draft.   We often discuss how adults and children interact with each other or how they interact amidst themselves in school. Let us look at how these adults and children together, in other words - the school, interacts with some of its neighbours. We will also explore if these schools could benefit from higher intensity of engagements than those currently in vogue.   https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/exterior-museum-hospital-police-station-post-office-government-bank-school-theatre-university-city-town-halls-cartoon-vector-illustration-set-house-construction-building-facade-concept_21683710.htm Image by pch.vector</a> on Freepik Public-institutions like banks, post-offices, railway-stations and bus-stations Many of our schools have banks or post-offices or transport stations in their vicinity. With more than one lakh f