Why not contribute the money you spend on crackers for a social cause which not only makes your life more meaningful but also that of others. Let me share how.
If you find an injured cobra, what will you do? You might get scared and kill it or run away, but there is another choice and that’s to help it heal and after recovery release it into the jungle. That’s what Mansukhbhai Harji Bhai Panara (see picture) a teacher in Keshod, Gujarat did and that’s not the only thing he does.
Mansukhbhai takes his students to a sanctuary, organises camps even for Muslim girls (who are seldom sent out), makes children wear lion masks and take out rallies. Children shout, Save me! Save me! With this they will surely never become poachers or hurt lions ever.
If that is not enough, he also asks children to bring old waste boxes from home and teaches them how to make a nest out of it. Children are then asked to keep these nests at a safe place in their homes and observe the development like how many eggs were laid by a bird, how did the eggs hatch, in how many days and when did the chicks fly away.
Singing songs given in school books are not easy because they have often not been set to a proper tune or raga. Meet Taslima Salim (from Junagadh) who took around sixty songs in text books up to class eight and set them to a different tune or ragas in English, Sanskrit and Gujarati for children to sing them properly. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W9zZTgF9OzA, also see(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4oEHmLvpPXk)
Her channel on youtube has seventy songs for free download. I wish every teacher across the country creates an open source content for democratisation of education with excellence. IIMA and SRISTI will be happy to honour such creators of open source multimedia and multi language content.
It is not for nothing that Taslimaben will be felicitated along with nine other creative teachers by former India President Dr APJ Abdul Kalam on November 19 before NIF’s Ignite function at IIMA.
Dr Kalam will also meet creative technology students awarded by SRISTI’s Techepdia.in, innovative school teachers scouted through DIETs (District Institute Of Education and Training Institute, Junagadh) and encouraged by Chetan Patel and Prof Vijay Sherry Chand. He will interact with the IIMA students who have come out with creative public policy ideas for transforming India through GRIIT course and honour 35 creative children innovators as a part of annual Ignite competition for children ideas (nifindia.org/ignite).
When the state of Gujarat and the whole country is suffering from a serious issue of malnutrition among children, Dilipbhai C Bhalgamiya and his colleagues in Botad, Bhavnagar have shown a new way to tackle the issue.
Medical tests conducted by the state government had shown serious extent of iron deficiency in schools. Hence, pulse ingestion was suggested as a way of overcoming the problem. The teachers asked children to bring handful of pulses from their homes. These pooled pulses was sprouted and fed to students in addition to the mid-day meal.
The enthusiasm of students increased, so did their participation in various activities. Soon, a significant improvement was noticed in the attendance and all this due to the contribution of handful of pulses by parents for their children.
Now, why don’t we resolve that such self-help ideas will be replicated like a virus without any delay so that our children become healthy, happy and more curious and concerned about the society.
Social innovation fund needs to expand to support thousand of such ideas. Let us give a thought that lighting our house is easy, but lighting our life in such a manner that the illumination reaches others who need it, is the real celebration of this festival Diwali. I wish you all a lot of light in your life...
The author is a professor at IIMA
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