War Vs Peace- Mizan Ali

My journey so far as a teacher; Joining a new school

Transition to a new school as a teacher can be both exciting and challenging. It seems difficult to navigate the transition smoothly but it actually depends on many factors. I still remember my first day at Sunbeam Indiranagar. 

It was the 1st of  Feb 2023, the harshness of the winter was moribund, the temperature was mild, the sky was clear, and early signs of spring were visible. A scenic landscape was in front of me. A cosy place; not very big in infrastructure but big at heart, created a stunning sight for exploration and learning. Longer daylight and a perennially blooming shady neem tree standing in the eastern corner of the assembly ground, protected people from harsh sunlight for decades and gave a peekaboo view of the vast sky, providing ample scenic beauty to admire nature's blessings with refreshing and invigorating air all around, took away my heart as if it was love at first sight.

My sight captured the view of a designated space in the centre, for the performance of little artists to begin their journey of becoming eloquent orators and dramatists, in future.

I entered Indiranagar premises, being an optimistic person I didn't lose hope so I gave a second chance to myself and prayed to God to help me prove my worth but still, my heart was skipping beats.

I had worked tirelessly at my previous workplace, giving my tooth to it, even in bleak circumstances related to my health and happiness, but I couldn't prove myself. So again I swam with the current to prove myself.

I kept walking and then climbed the uncarpeted stairs to reach the staffroom. I was a little nervous and had some apprehensions about my future but with a big smile, I entered and found inquisitive eyes, smiling faces and open arms to accept this fallen leaf of a strong, old renowned tree. And soon they became strong pillars for me, no less than family. They were generous, kind, and gave me a warm welcome, showed nonjudgmental behaviour that allowed me to fly high & walk the extra mile.

The day passed enthusiastically and we had a lot of fun working together. After a few days, I was asked to move to the kindergarten section as a recruit was demanded over there. Meeting all new faces back to back was a little sceptical but I was proved wrong. Their heart and arms both were waiting for me. They made me old in a day. 

Ongoing learning, tireless striving towards perfection, daily insights and of course the true and unconditional support of my work buddies made me what I am today. The appreciation, trust and recognition by the chairperson and colleagues helped me gain my courage back, granting me access to demonstrate my confidence and allowing me to think and do beyond boundaries. Hence what I learnt at Indiranagar is not to be judgmental even with the Wanted Back Bencher and Last Ranker Teacher (Book by Kavita Bhupta Ghosh).

A unique, note-worthy, verdant, enchanting, harmonious, majestic, luminous and invigorating school that nestles its people to foster growth, is my ''Sunbeam Indiranagar'' a great source of peace for me!

Mizan Ali 

Sunbeam Indiranagar

Peace and Freedom - Mezhu Chopra

I believe peace and freedom are interrelated because one can be at peace only when one is free from things or situations that bind us. The word 'freedom' makes me ponder freedom; from whom, what or where? At times, we only look at the tangible things that we need to break free from, often forgetting how our minds weave together a web by feeding on our deepest insecurities. I was also a victim of my own fears, grappling with the fear of losing my eldest child. 

Starting from his premature birth coupled with multiple health issues, the fear kept growing. Without me knowing, every time we celebrated his birthday, I thought, "What if it's his last birthday"? Over time, the thought of losing him became more prominent even amongst my relatives as visits to the doctor became more frequent. When my child turned 12, he suffered a major health issue, which further gripped me with fear. The next morning, as I was meditating on the Scriptures, I came across this verse, “For by Him all things were created, and in Him, all things hold together". I heard a voice asking me if worrying would help me add one day to my child's life. At that moment, I decided to surrender my fear into God's hands and let his will prevail over my child.  Words cannot comprehend the peace I experienced 16 years ago as I freed myself from the clutches of fear. Although the health issues continued for a few more years, I was no longer living in fear.

Mezhu Chopra
The Doon Girls's School, Dehradun

Small Steps Towards Honesty - Arundhati Shukla

 

As I sat contemplating the dual qualities of honesty and respect, an entire series of events and stories began reeling in my mind. My earliest acknowledgement of Honesty that I recall takes me back to my childhood. As my parents’ only daughter and the eldest child, I received immense love and care. My father would guide me not only through tough mathematical concepts but also through what seemed like pressing questions about the world around me. These discussions could stem from the collection of storybooks-Padho, Samjho aur Karo (पढ़ो, समझो और करो). This series of books was released by Geeta Press, Gorakhpur.

One day I asked my father: who is God?  Why do you pray? Why can’t I see Him? In response to my questions, he told me that Mahatma Gandhi claimed that Honesty and Truth are two sides of the same coin – two sides that cannot work in isolation and these qualities, themselves, are what we perceive as God. I was still not satisfied. My fervent questioning resumed, and I asked: how do I see God? He promised to tell me more on this elusive topic if I held patience till the following day.

That night I noticed a box of sweets in the kitchen. On opening it, I was delighted to see my favourite sweets. Unable to control my temptation, I gobbled down almost half of it. I was enjoying eating sweets all by myself, as I did not have to share it with my siblings. The following morning, I heard my mother scolding our domestic help regarding the missing sweets. Instantly, I felt relaxed that no one found out that I was the one who had eaten all those sweets.

Later that evening, my father called me to continue our earlier conversation and tried to explain to me why we cannot see God. He said emphatically, “Each one of us has two inner voices. Before we take any action, one voice gives constant go-ahead and encourages us to do whatever comes to mind. The second voice is more prudent. It warns us when an action is not right and dissuades us from it. Those of us, who are honest with themselves, even in the absence of others, can listen to this voice clearly and loudly. This inner voice is none other than the concept of God. So, your God is within you, and it aims to help you deliver all your actions with utmost honesty.”

I immediately remembered the sweets and the realization dawned on me that what I had done was indeed stealing! I was purposely hiding the truth, and this dishonesty caused pain and repercussions for another innocent person. This epiphany troubled me. I closed my eyes and ears tightly and tried hard to listen to my inner voice- It was feeble but yet clear, it was urging me to tell the truth! This turned out to be a Eureka moment for me, I suddenly knew that honesty and truth always come together. I gathered all the courage and confessed the whole incident to my parents and went to my help’s home to apologise. I must admit that the happiness and satiation that I derived from this apology was much more than the one I did after secretly eating those sweets.

My father told me,” You will come across a lot of such sweet temptations in life, but you should never fail to listen to your inner voice- as that is God conversing with you.” I now understood why Gandhi said that truth and honesty are two sides of the same coin. I had learnt that by being more mindful of my inner voice, I could steer myself towards honest actions.

I decided that looking forward, honesty is that one cardinal value that I would not compromise on. I realized that honesty fosters a whole realm of positive qualities, too - courage, fearlessness, and a sense of justice automatically take sides with honesty.

As I grew older, I read about Abraham Lincoln, who was known as “Honest Abe” when he was working as a young store clerk in New Salem, III.  His character precedent was such that even his opponents agreed, without objections, that he was honest, fair and the most deserving candidate for the role of President.

When I joined my first job at Mayo College Girls’ School as a Physics teacher, my father gave me the letter that Abraham Lincoln had written to his son’s school Headmaster, and it truly illuminated my worldview. The line from the letter that stuck with me emphasized how it is far more honourable to fail than to cheat! It goes to show that regardless of how dishonest one has been in their life, they never want their children or students to be dishonest. In a recent discussion with my students, I instructed them to imagine themselves as leaders of reputed organizations. When I asked them to state one quality that they would look for while recruiting managers and staff, they all unanimously agreed on one quality, and that was honesty!

Almost every child is narrated about the ‘kettle’ story of Mahatma Gandhi as the preamble to honesty. Children wonder as to why they should be taught the lessons of honesty. Often, my students ask: what do we get by being honest? The answer to that is that repeated honest actions bring integrity to one’s character and allow one to earn respect from their fellow beings. Looking at it backwards, to earn respect, one requires the integrity of character which, in turn, comes from an ability to be true and honest with all those around us.

I have come to the conclusion that honesty cannot be seen only as a product of mere words or theory. In its entirety, honesty flows from three key steps – Mansa, Vacha and Karmana (मनसा वाचा कर्मणा). The chain of an honest action has to begin with the right thought process by listening to one’s inner voice. It must then flow into one’s communications through words and finally culminate into actions.

The Universe has a salient feature wherein it is constantly aligning itself to move away from disorientation and make way for orderliness and patterns. From an atom to the galaxy (micro to the macro world), everything has a pattern. Similarly, honesty brings forth order and discipline in one’s life. As intelligent species, we humans must hone our skills to listen to our prudent inner voice and make Honesty our lighthouse of guidance to unconditionally help us sail our boat of life through the uncharted ocean of the Universe.

Arundhati Shukla ( 18.11.2020) <arudhatirajivshukla@gmail.com>

References added to images and one more https://greatamericanhistory.net/honesty.htm

Happiness and Tolerance - Rudrani Ray

Happiness is something which we can’t describe in words it can only be felt from someone’s expression or a smile. Happiness is a signal or identification of good and prosperous life.  Happiness is a feeling and difficult to describe. However, happiness comes from within, and no one can steal any one’s happiness.  True happiness comes from within yourself.  Happiness is basically a state of mind.

Happiness is defined by different people in different ways. When we feel positive emotions, we tend to feel happy. Happiness is also regarded as the mental state of a person optimistically.  Every person defines happiness in his/ her own manner. Happiness should be distinguished from joy. When joy as a constant state of mind, happiness depends on events in our lives. Happiness is that feeling that comes over you when you know life is good, and you can’t help but smile.   

Happiness is one of the most important and most desirable aspects. Happiness may also be defined as being nice and spreading it all around. When joy and happiness are a constant state of mind, Happiness depends on events in our lives.  

To achieve the state of complete happiness, one has to practice on improving the state of life by: 

1. Staying contended in life what you have been cribbing and grumbling never lead to happiness.

2. Staying focused on the current life instead of daydreaming of the good days or old days.

3. Stop blaming for something that went terribly wrong in life. Life is all about moving on. stop worrying and set new goals in life.

4. Being thankful to God for all the good things that you have in your life.

5. Having good people around you who can boost -up positivity in your life. 

Happiness is a sense of well-being, joy or contentment. When people are successful, safe or lucky, they feel happiness. 

Tolerance is being patient understanding and willing to accept the ideas of others. Tolerance is accepting others and appreciating difference and live together peacefully. Tolerance means that you accept other people’s opinions and preferences even when they live in a way that you disagree with. To be tolerant means that you accept other people’s opinions and preferences, even when they live in a way that you disagree with.  Tolerance can be defined as the possession of a fair and objective perspective and attitude towards those people who are different races, religions, nations or have a set of opinions, beliefs and ideas. 

Schools must teach children the right values. Tolerance is a significant one. In every society, we need tolerance and acceptance of religion, eating habits, culture. To be tolerant means that you accept other people’s opinion’s and preferences even when they live in a way that you disagree with. Tolerance is accepting differences. Tolerance plays an important part in promoting equality in school.

- Rudrani Ray is pursuing the Professional Learning Program at the Learning Forward Academy, this is the post after attending Session I of Joy Of Learning. 

World Teacher’s Day - Prerna Rathod

If school is a temple, then teachers are definitely the God.

World Teacher's Day is celebrated on 5th October every year for celebrating the anniversary of the 1966 International Labour Organisation (ILO) and UNESCO Recommendation concerning the Status of Teachers. This sets the rights and responsibilities of teachers. This day is celebrated to give tribute to the teachers all over the world and to show appreciation and honour. They all find ways to improve the condition of teachers and enhance the teaching techniques for the future generation.  

The theme of this day for 2020 is “Teachers: Leading in crisis, reimagining the future”.  This year due to the Covid-19 the education system has to face a lot of problems and so the teachers are under stress and pressure. But as teachers are great fighters they are learning new techniques and going through hardships, just to keep the light of knowledge alive. They are teaching online and taking regular classes. So this year theme is very appropriate.

Thus, 5th October is a day to celebrate the teaching profession all over the world. Being a teacher is one of the toughest professions as the future of the country is in their hands. It is a profession that will never lose its importance. As we know that there is no age limit for learning and so teachers will always be there to guide the students. 

Prerna Rathod, The Fabindia School <prd@fabindiaschools.in>

Service to Humanity - Urmila Rathore

Service to humanity is service to God.

We all are aware of COVID-19.

The whole world is suffering from this disease. Italy, Spain, America, China etc .are in brutal condition. Even developed countries are still fighting against this curse. Including ours, most of the countries are on lockdown. Lockdown is the safest step to avoid COVID-19 but what will happen to those people who don't have a home, shelter, and money.

In this condition, humanity comes in front of COVID-19 as one because it is not differentiated through caste, creed, gender and religion. Any religion of any human race has come to serve the poor and needy ones in this pandemic.

Many people are serving food packages and have donated money in CM and PM relief fund for saving humanity.

If I say that doctors, nurses, paramedical and police forces are our real heroes and gods

who are serving us, then I would not be wrong.

We can help them by staying at home and it is our duty of every human being to make our universe more beautiful and liveable for all species.

Due to lockdown, our living planet is also healing. Birds and animals also feel comfort without human disturbance, so God keeps all things on the place positively. I hope that governments take sustainable steps when this lockdown is lifted so that the environment does not suffer a rebound increase in emissions(as has happened in the 2008 financial crisis).

With our thinking and actions, we can support our nature, serve love, kindness and hope, soon everything will positively cure and we will win this fight against the Coronavirus.

- Urmila Rathore, The Fabindia School

God of all things..

Time and again we chance upon meetings with random strangers that stop you in your tracks of your monotonous thinking and shake you up into really using that rusted thought process. Living the herd mentality makes us belong to the community of the living dead. I’m afraid I also am guilty of turning into a living dead every once in a while.  Fortunately or unfortunately my own nature and destined coincidences do not allow me to vegetate in that state for very long.  After all is dead and gone, after all the glory has faded and the wealth of money spent away….the only thing left alive is our voice and our mind. What truly remain alive even when our physical manifestations have decayed are our thoughts. A little while back I was introduced to somebody that asked me why all photographers as a community loved to show the ugliness of our country by photographing dirty street children with runny noses and village people. Something in that statement refuses to leave my head as it brought up so many things to the forefront and many questions that needed answering. My first instinct was to ignore the statement as very understandably different people have different beliefs and thought processes. But as usual I failed to follow my first instinct in life and kept reminiscing over the issue.

While it’s true and reasonable that most people would like to see beauty in art at all times sometimes we forget that the naked truth also needs to be represented from time to time and artists are the best medium for that. When I was told how I should not photograph dirty children on the street I was forced to go back down memory lane into each and every photograph that I had taken. The best part of that little journey was that I relived some absolutely joyous moments. What this gentleman had failed to consider in his generalization was that there was a possibility for each individual to be unique in his or her own way and viewpoint.

I revisited that small village in Himachal where I had photographed the oldest lady in the village who was then a little over hundred, still standing straight and very proud of her own independence at being able to invite me in for a cup of tea and a session of intriguing conversation. I remember feeling respect for her and much admiration at her spirit, will and enthusiasm for life. That’s when I had asked her permission to photograph her.

I revisited that construction site in the hills of Kumaon where there used to be a gang of little children who looked at you with their adoring big eyes even though they had no clue who you were. My mother and I would pack food for them each day for almost three months and go to the site and spend some time with these children. They loved us not because we got them food but because we had made the effort to get to know them and share some love together. This is when I had asked their mother’s permission to photograph them.

I revisited a small village in Karnataka where I was working on a project and stationed in Belgaum. I was inherently spending time with the children and the local people in the village and while being constantly under observation I also spent much time returning the favour of their constant surveillance of a city person. The girls there were always getting into trouble with their naughty little pranks on everyone including me. Overcoming the language barriers we managed to form our own parallel system of communication that allowed us to share a few laughs together. This is when I had asked an elderly person in the village for permission to photograph them.

You see it’s all very convenient at a superficial level and it seems alright to just generalize and compartmentalize people as per one’s convenience but the only thing that makes us different from the herd is our ability to really think and use that god gifted and much sought after brain. In this age of the Kali, the rich and affluent have in their own limited heads and experiences bought the services of God and sometimes we forget that apart from our own comfortable existence there are other worlds and other people with far bigger stories than ours.  Unfortunately the naked truth of our country remains, that outside the bubble of comfortable existence for the privileged few there exists an ugly and far greater reality.  This is a reality that doesn’t need to be told. This is a reality that WILL be told. Again and again, not just by a few, but by many, till maybe one day somebody is satisfied that they managed to make a difference.

My thoughts are all that I will leave behind, my actions will be what I will be remembered for and maybe, just maybe through my photographs those dirty street children and villagers will stay alive and somebody will have a story to tell and a chance to make a difference.

About the author: Neha Parmar is a wildlife photographer and a conservationist with some tolerable talent for writing. If you liked, connected or have a contrary perspective with anything that you read please feel to share your feedback. 

To see more work by Neha

Parmar  https://www.facebook.com/NehaParmarPhotography. 

Disclaimer: This article remains copyright of the author and is her individual perspective. If you wish to give any feedback please get in touch with the author.