Deliberate Thinking - visually explained

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Cut to the Chase with Alka Nalavadi, Partner at AZB & Partners, a prestigious Indian law firm

In Cut to the Chase this week we chat with Alka Nalavadi, Partner at AZB & Partners, a prestigious Indian law firm - http://bit.ly/alkanalavadi

Cut to the Chase is our weekly interview series with professional at the top of their game and we hope these interviews help our young audience make wiser career choices, more aware about the 'future-self' in a particular profession.

Cut to the Chase with Rajeev Joshi, Senior Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory

This week we interview Rajeev Joshi, Senior Engineer at NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Rajeev was a member of the flight software development team for the Mars rover Curiosity and, since landing, has been supporting the surface operations team - http://bit.ly/rajeevjoshi

Cut to the Chase is our weekly interview series with professionals in different fields, who are an inspiration to the community of youth Timeless Lifeskills wishes to reach out to.

Cut to the Chase with Divya Gururaj, Global Account Director for Coca-Cola at MediaCom

In our weekly interview series with professionals at the peak of their game, Cut to the Chase, this week we chat with Divya Gururaj, Global Account Director for Coca-Cola at MediaCom, Singapore - http://bit.ly/divyagururaj

Cut to the Chase with Tarun Tahiliani, Fashion Designer

In our Cut to the Chase weekly interview series with professionals in different fields, this week we chat with famous Indian fashion designer, Tarun Tahiliani – http://bit.ly/tahiliani

We hope our interviews with professionals at the peak of their game are an inspiration to the community of youth we wish to reach out to. Feel free to share.

Cut to the Chase with Vandita Pant, Business Treasurer, RBS

We are starting a new initiative at Timeless Lifeskills – Cut to the Chase – weekly interviews with professionals in different fields, who are an inspiration to the community of youth we wish to reach out to.

We want to give our young audience a sense of what a typical and a not-so-typical day feels like in that profession, how can a young person prepare for entering that profession, what formal and non-formal education they should pursue, what kind of personal traits matter most, pitfalls of that profession… stuff that will help youngsters get a real sense of ‘future self-concept’ in a particular field or profession and help them make wise choices.

We kick-off with our first interview with Vandita Pant, Business Treasurer, RBS Bank, United Kingdom. Read it here – http://bit.ly/vanditapant

Feel free to share.

Role Playing to become Aware Citizens of a Democracy

A student giving his campaign speech

Last December Atul was back at Jeevanshala school in village Maram in the Himalayas. Earlier, in July '14, Atul had introduced project-based learning and grade 4 and 5 students had visited a local ‘naula’ (traditional water source) and created a newspaper based on their findings (see our earlier FB posts). Atul was pleasantly surprised that the students had since created half-a-dozen newspapers on different topics.

This time the focus was on encouraging the students to become aware citizens of a democracy and get them to think more about their school and education – how it is different, what is the purpose, what and how they learn…

Their teacher Sandeep explained to the students how a village Panchayat works. How the villagers vote for their village representatives or panch, how these members then elect their leader or Sarpanch, how a village meeting or Gram Sabha is called where anyone living in the village can participate and raise any issue they are concerned about. How these issues are then deliberated, voted upon and communicated to the Block Development Office (BDO), who is the local representative of the State government. Children learnt all this through role-play!

Grade 4 and 5 students together became village Jeevanshala and some of them decided to stand for elections to represent their village. They prepared their speeches and campaigned about what they would do for their village (i.e. their school) if they got elected. Students made ballot papers with all the names of candidates and lined up to vote. They had a pen mark put on their index finger once they had voted to simulate the real experience of voting in India. The votes were then counted with each ballot paper shown to the losing candidates. Results were declared and Jeevanshala gram panchayat was constituted. This was followed by election of the Sarpanch.

A Gram Sabha (general meeting of all the villagers/students) was called where students voiced issues of concern – leaking water pipe in their school water tank, need for more school stationery, more books, sports equipment etc. These issues were put to vote and the Sarpanch then presented the most important issues to the BDO, which was played by Sandeep!

An interesting aside of the Gram Sabha was a big discussion on the Ration Cards that are issued by Government of India based on who is above and below the poverty line and what category is eligible for what benefits. There is the APL or Above the Poverty Line card, BPL or Below the Poverty Line card and Antodaya or extreme poverty level card. By the end of the discussion the students probably knew more about eligibility and benefits of each card than most villagers! Atul learnt that village Maram is a 'nirmal gaon’ because every house in the village has a toilet (no open defecation)!

To explain the nuances of their school the students, along with Sandeep, composed a school song. You can view this song and other videos on Jeevanshala YouTube channel http://bit.ly/jeevanshala (thank you Manan for creating this channel).

A student casting his vote

Sandeep putting a pen mark on the right index finger of the student who cast his vote, to simulate voting in India