Republic Day I
This was one of the most colorful and action-packed Republic Days I can remember at the Foundation. Every centre (and there are so many now!) made a presentation. Some Highlights: Here’s Sree, with some help from her friends, unfurling the flag. My question: why is it called a flag “hoisting”? We hoist the flag in […]
Corporate Schools, Part 2
The previous post on Bharti Foundation’s foray into providing quality education through the shells the government school system has passed on to them obviously begs the question: why isn’t the government doing its own job? The teachers who were transferred to other districts so that Bharti could supply its own and actually start teaching are […]
The Corporates Move In
I visited the Bharti Foundation yesterday – both their corporate office in Vasant Kunj and two of their projects in Rajasthan. Bharti is Airtel’s CSR wing – a reflection of Rakesh and Sunil Mittal’s stated commitment to social change through education. At the moment, they have set up 153 schools in four states. Approximately 2/3 […]
Nametags
We recently hosted a small conference for the Sir Ratan Tata Trust which organizations working on disability issues all over the country attended. It was a very interesting and provocative experience, with many new ideas discussed and challenges raised. We all learned a lot and some of the issues which came up will keep us […]
Pedometer
My sister Mary is my exercise guru. Some years ago, she introduced me to the 10,000-step-a-day plan, in which fitness is almost guaranteed by consciously walking those 10K steps (that’s around five miles) daily. An integral part of the plan is wearing a pedometer to measure exactly how many steps one has actually taken. I […]
Birthday Girl
January 5th. What a special day in our family. Cathleen arrived into the outside world on this day 22 years ago and has been a festival of joy and happiness for us ever since. In our family, she has the title “Director of Domestic Affairs” (DDA for short). We depend upon her for everything when […]
More Christmas
Most babies find Santa terrifying. White hair and beard, funny hat, over-friendly: what’s a baby to do? Most burst into tears and howl to be rescued. Not little Angel. Nirmala’s baby girl found our Santa utterly charming. And he found HER enchanting. Merry Christmas!
Christmas, Latika Style
It was the usual celebration at Latika this year, except that, also as usual, the turnout was twice as large as we expected. But we had it covered for once. Last year, we planned for 100 (our usual attendance in December is 50) and 150 came. So this year, we decided we would finally beat […]
A Death on the Road
This is not the man I am going to tell you about, but he might as well be, for he represents Everyman for me here in India. I use his photo frequently in slide shows and reports and though I don’t know him, I have looked at his face so often, I feel as if […]
Another Christmas Elf
Moy Moy loves Christmas too. She’s disappointed that neither Anand nor Cathleen will be coming this year (as are we all! This will be the first time ever that both of them are missing Christmas at home), but she approves of their desire to save money and to consume less of the Earth’s resources. However, […]