हॅट्रिक

( CTMM वार्ताहर कोलचेस्टर कनेक्टिकट USA )

काल  इथे झालेल्या CTMM गणपती उत्सवाच्या कार्यक्रमात उपस्थित प्रेक्षकांची हसून हसून पोटे दुखली. एक सोडून तीन धम्माल विनोदी प्रवेशांनी  प्रेक्षकांना इतके हसवले की EC ने त्यांना   लोळायला गाद्या ठेवल्या पाहिजे होत्या असे मत काहींनी व्यक्त केले. २४ तास उलटले तरी काही प्रेक्षकांना आठवून आठवून हसू येत राहिले. ह्या परिस्थितीस EC  ला जबाबदार का ठेवू नये असे मत काही उपस्थित कायदे तज्ज्ञ मंडळींनी व्यक्त केले

हसण्या च्या हॅट्रिक मध्ये पहिला प्रवेश होता अमेय टुमणे , वर्षा देशमुख, जोत्स्ना कुरकुटे आणि अनुप्रिया कायंदे यांचा. ST प्रवासात इरसाल मायलेकी स्वतःकरिता एक डबल  सीट एका reserved प्रवास करणाऱ्या  होतकरू युवकाकढून कसे लांबवतात असे नाट्य होते. आई चे काम केलेल्या जोत्स्ना यांनी त्यांच्या गावरान साजावरून आणि ग्रामीण मॉडर्न  मुली चे काम करणाऱ्या वर्षा  यांने धमाल आणली . अमेय वर खरंच दया आली शेवटी. अनुप्रिया चा शेवटचा टच  कभी हा कभी ना टाईप होता. अमेय चे direction अप्रतिम.

दुसरा प्रवेश सचिन कुलकर्णी यांच्या पुरुष आणि स्त्रियांना मध्ये क्रिकेट मॅच चा होता. छोट्या जागेत खूप लोकांनी समाविष्ट असलेल्या स्कीट  मध्ये खूप  धमाल आली . बेवडा मारून  तर्रर्र  होईन भेभान  डान्स करणारा PP (नितीश पंडित ), साडी घालून बॅटिंग  करणाऱ्या काकू(आसावरी नारकर ), cheer लीडर( वैभवी पंडित) , घुंघट घालून मॅच खेळणारी ठेलेवाली मौशी ( पल्लवी राजे), जेन्टस कॅप्टन महेंद्र जोग आणि खेळाडू ( शिल्पा कुलकर्णी,आशिष दळवी) यांनी क्रिकेट किती वेगळ्या पद्धतीने खेळता येते याचे प्रात्यक्षिक दिले. त्यांनी world  कप मध्ये टीम इंडिया ला टिप्स द्याव्यात असे क्रिकेट फॅन्स म्हणतात . सचिन कुलकर्णी  यांनी हेल्पलेस अंपायर चे काम करत असताना डायरेक्शन  करताना किती मेहनत घ्यावी लागली असेल?

तिसरा शो मध्ये  कहानी  घर घर की पेश केली . नवरा बायको (किरण-वैदेही परांजपे)मधले कायम उडणारे खटके आणि येणारा इरसाल  मित्र (मुकुंद औटी )  त्यामध्ये तेल ओतून खूप आग लावतो. प्रेक्षक इतके इमोशनली गुंतले की  नवरे आणि बायका  मंडळी रेस्पेक्टिव्हली sympathize करायला लागली . शेवटी दिपाली औटी यांनी कहर केला आणि मित्राला (मुकुंदाला )जमिनीवर आणले. बहुतेक आता कनेक्टिकट मध्ये मुकुंद ची(कु) प्रसिद्धी दूर -दूर पर्यंत पोहोचली . वैदेही यांनी खूप अप्रतिम दिग्दर्शन केले

ह्या तिन्ही प्रवेशांनां जोडणारा असा टॉक  शो गौतम नाईक यांनी लिहिला होता. प्रसिद्ध राजकारणी स्त्री  नेता (माधवी कानेटकर) यांची खुमासदार  आणि धमाल  शैलीत मुलाखत नाईक यांनी घेतली आणि वरील प्रसंग गुंफले . प्रेक्षकांना त्यांनी अजून हसण्या चा बुस्टर डोस  दिला आणि मंडळी पुढील काही महिन्यांसाठी कंटाळ्यापासून सुरक्षित केली. 

 तसे बघायला गेले तर हास्ययात्रा हा CTMM गणपती हॅट्रिक सेलेब्रेशन चा तिसरा भाग. प्रथम लोकांनी गणपती मिरवणुकीत ढोल ताश्यांवर भरभरून लेझीम व  डान्स केला. नंतर CTMM १५-२० सुग्रणींनी केलेल्या घरगुती, शास्त्रोक्त स्वयंपाकावर यथेच्च ताव मारला. घरी  २०० लोकांची स्वयंपाक स्वयंसेवकानीं करणे असे काही अमेरिकेत  होऊ शकते ह्यावर खूप जणांचा विश्वासच नव्हता . पण हौसेला मोल नाही. १९८२ पासून हि प्रथा आहे . त्यावर हॅट्रिक केली हास्ययात्रे ने.  गणपती पूजा , आरती, मुलांनी म्हणलेले अथर्वशीर्ष पण छान  झाले. अनुप्रिया कायंदे , अंजली साठे, अश्विनी जोशी  आणि ग्रुप मधील मुलांनी छान गणपतीची गाणी आणि भजने म्हणाली. CTMM  मराठी शाळेतील कोरगावकर दाम्पत्याचा सत्कार झाला. गणपतीचे डेकोरेशन , सभागृह , ध्वनी , पूजा सगळ्याचे आयोजन अविरत काम करत  EC  मधील राधिका परमानंद, किरण परांजपे, वैभवी पंडित, वृषाली सालोडकर,  माधवी कानेटकर, सिद्धार्थ पेंढारकर आणि वृत्त निवेदक गौतम नाईक यांनी केले.

 

Making of History Education

 

A few days back, there was a post floating on social media about the government asking opinions about how we can teach our correct history. If we want to create youngsters who can make history you need to educate them and make them understand the history and be a part of the progression of Humanity. Here I do not want to get into any debate about nationalism or anything about the dividing lines of History. I know some people think that not teaching History will erase conflicts. Though I do not want to argue this line of thoughts I want to highlight some positive things we can learn from the US system. There is a huge debate even in the US about the wrong focus of the US to exclude controversial topics. But even that is beyond the scope of this post. 

 

I had read HG Wells as a teenager. I watched a few movies like Back to Future which focused on hyper-local history or series like Making History which focused on American revolutions. I conclude that the best way to teach history is through Time travel. As a teenager, I wanted to invent the machine and pack it in my rucksack and then climb Rajgad and set the console to the year 1650 to experience the best thing that happened in modern Indian History. I then wanted to set the console to various years from 1857 till 1947 to witness sacrifices made by real patriots like Tilak, Lala Lajpat Rai, Pal,  Bhagat Singh, and his team, Azad, Savarkar, Patel, Netaji Bose just to mention very few among the score of unknown heroes.  I also wanted to witness the golden era from the 10th century BCE till 10th Century CE. This was the time when India was the center of the world with the highest % GDP of the world and had centers of Knowledge and civil rule. This golden era was plundered by the invaders and corroded by internal divides created for personal gains by few and unscientific tempers systematically implanted among masses creating ignorance.

 

The next best thing to Time Machine as a tool is to understand how they teach in countries like the USA. Students are first introduced to a stand-alone history class in 5^th or 6^th grade. US History, World History, and Geography are the typical offerings.  

 

In the HighSchool, the state's expectation is the desire to produce informed citizens. The US systems offer courses that build upon each other and electives. Students generally are required to take a minimum of 3 years of Social Studies credit and they are required to pass Civics and US History to graduate. They offer Western Civilizations I and II, United States History, AP Euro, AP US, AP Gov. and Politics, Psychology, Current Events, Civics, Law & Order, and Advanced American Studies. (AP is Advanced Placement ie college-level courses)

 

The scope of the Western Civilization course starts from the Greek and Roman Empires, covering the middle ages and then Renaissance and Exploration of the New World. American History starts from Pangea's to Beringia Strait where humans theoretically entered American Continents, Indian History, Colonial Era, Colonies, American Revolution, Civil War, World War, Civil Rights movement, Cold war, 9/11, Economic Depression. The teaching methodologies include Projects, Roles took by students in history, Socrates' seminars, Exams, assignments also are thought-provoking as against memorization we have in India. It would be very interesting to follow your child doing all this as a parent.

 

I had a chance to interact with a History Teacher, who had taken it upon herself to ensure that the students are provided with a sound foundation in terms of historiography and understanding historical bias. In her own words: “This is a natural extension of my own experiences at the college level. Informed citizens must be able to evaluate information presented to them with a critical eye. This is an important life skill and is why I place such importance on it. I have been told before by my students that this is the first time that they have been told that history is what historians say it is.   We discuss these items in Socratic Seminars (Debates). This is where we hone our critical thinking and argumentation skills”.  

 

It is an expectation that the curriculum is updated regularly, but there is no hard and fast deadline. Courses are revised every few years. However, teachers make small changes to how the curriculum is delivered on a regular basis based on individual reflection and collaboration with teachers teaching the same course. Departments typically guide the revision process with administrative oversight.  Yes, the ruling governments here have a say in the matter as we have in India.  

 

No wonder students find History interesting and equipped to analyze history independently as compared to what we have government-sanctioned chapters and dreadful memorization. Even then some people are very critical of US education despite all efforts taken. 

 

Debates over history-class outcomes surface periodically in the U.S. Such controversies are usually about a prescribed set of historical facts, subjects, and themes about America that students ought to know, be it American Exceptionalism or the civil rights movement.   Similarly, it was noticed that students did not remember what they should really have: the Louisiana Purchase, the judicial precedent set by Marbury v. Madison, reasons why Loyalists opposed independence, and so on.

In India, we have a total blank about the Golden Era I just mentioned:  between the 10th Century BCE till 10th Century CE. Though the Scope of Indian History is very huge compared to the US History or even Western Civilization for that matter we need an innovative approach to be able to create that understanding and outlook in the young minds to choose his/her area of interest in History.

 We in India are quick to imitate everything from the US, let's try to do that by learning how they teach History. Going as per much controversial slogan in the Indian context: let's Make Learning History Great Again.

28th June: A Forgotten Date

 

28^th June is not an important date in the Indian Political Landscape.  But it is a date that new so-called aspirational India should keep a note of. It is the birth anniversary of India’s 9^th Prime Minister P V Narasimharao. The Millennial or Generation Z population in India, who have benefitted from the deeds of this particular politician in the Indian Landscape may or may not be aware of the significance of few actions that were taken by the prime minister who inherited empty coffers and braved all the political brunt of something as unthinkable that time as the opening of economy to foreign investment.

Many would attribute credit to then FM Dr. Manmohan Singh. But though as economist Dr. Singh would have suggested the norms or policies, it was another thing to run a coalition government always under threat of political instability to have pushed these economic measures. The politics of India from 1989 till as late as 2014 was marked by coalition governments. Barring the infrastructure focus of the Vajpayee regime during 99-04, the years always had political compulsions which resulted in political majority abused for wrong policies or policy paralysis.  Thus the period of 91-96 when PV Narasimharao ruled was the base of India Story.

As a kid, I grew in the small window of economic growth in the mid-80s. The reforms came in and allowed opportunities for middle and lower-middle-class kids like me to look forward to global careers, opportunities which earlier were very scarce. I remember getting jobs in banks, factories, the public sector was so difficult. Entrepreneurship was something out of the syllabus for any middle-class constituent. Money really trickled down due to liberalization. We now can think of eating out, spending large sums on an outing, shopping, traveling every week. Earlier which I mean as late as mid 80s was an annual event. Our kids dream of international careers, jobs that can post you globally, jobs in MNC and brands. The Investment has trickled into booming construction, (un) real estate, transportation, agriculture, logistics, banking, and so on. Tier two city children compete with metro kids thanks to communication and technology. Though we have severe gaps in basic infrastructure, urban planning, education, and healthcare, we had driven our population under poverty to the middle-income category which is reflected in GDP with purchasing power parity. Thus it is very important for current incumbents to focus on many concrete reforms to revive the Indian story after corrections of GST and setback due to economic impact of a pandemic arising out of virus originating from Wuhan.

Younger generations may know his role in guiding the economy through reforms but they may not know his key role in many things that can be termed as political suicide in earlier politics. He guided a minority government through policies and steps which ensured free elections in Punjab and got a democratically elected government which led to the resolution of the crisis. He initiated India’s look east policy and facilitated the entry of India into ASEAN. Under his regime, India started diplomatic ties with Israel and Taiwan (partially). Dr. Kalam admits his role in rekindling India’s nuclear program Though it was the Vajpayee government that actually did the Pokharan II, Narasimharao shared many briefings to Vajpayee Govt. He kind of cleaned up the mess created in Kashmir by VP Singh government with a tough stance against militancy.  In 1994, when the UN was voting against India for Human Rights Violation in Kashmir, some nimble diplomatic steps taken in Iran, Our Government led by Narasimharao saved the day for India’s Position in Kashmir.

As a person, Narasimharao was soft-spoken. He was educated, multilingual, and even equipped himself with IT skills then like many professionals. I would say he was the first prime minister of India who mastered Sanskrit. He was the first prime minister from the non-Hindi speaking belt and peninsular India. His ascent to Prime Minister Post was a boost to the national integration of India. I still remember his speech in Marathi during the inaugural world Marathi meet. What he said that languages cannot remain sacrosanct with technical correctness they have to evolve and include.  He was the one who created the identity of leaders within Congress who had their own standing outside the dynastic successors. Though because of that, he stood the brunt of the neglect during his last days.  One event in Dec 92 and allegations done by the mastermind of the stock market scam maligned his reputation. Also, his political maneuverings during parliamentary votes were questioned.  But for me, it was a (non) action of a statesman. He had a unique style of doing things correctly yet making them appear as things taking their own shape out of his non-action. That’s why maybe he did not get credit for many stellar and difficult things that any Prime Minister of India has ever done.

As a representative of Gen X which saw liberalization unfurl, I feel very thankful to PV Narasimharao. Our Gen-X rode on the waves of free economy and easily acclimatized ourselves from deprivation to consumption. We have seen boons and banes of new tech coming in. We got accustomed to global brands and got recognized worldwide. We became a part of the world and the world saw there was more to India than snake charmers and elephants. We have a long way to go but our young economy and numbers definitely matter for the world. Eventually, globalization would have caught up but maybe our generation X or millennials would have missed out. And our infrastructure would really have made it difficult for the population we have today. Sometimes I wonder if we would have seen new lows thanks to our stagnant economy and limited investment. Thankfully there was one man at the guard during those delicate years and after the lowest level of politics seen in India. But then his contribution still remains unsung and 28^th June doesn’t get any recall in our collective memories.