Miranda Days - Orpheus Wins at IIT, Kanpur

 Orpheus won joint first at the IIT, Kanpur festival so the trip was well worth it. Well done Orpheus.

Wishing you many more.

What Great Teachers Do differently - Todd Whitaker

 This book gives 19 things that matter most. Todd  is a leading presenter in education and the author of over 50 books including a bestseller called 'What Great Principals Do'. He is a Professor of Education Leadership in the University of Missouri. 

The key ideas that he shares are -
- People matter more than programs (keep the student in mind)
- Set clear expectations and follow up - when you say something mean it
- Correct behaviors so they are not repeated
- set high expectations from students and teachers
- Its about results and work so do not get caught in building relationships -be clear about your purpose
- Stay in business mode (transactional analysis) - not child or parent
- Always look to improve
- Keep the student first
- Create a positive atmosphere in classrooms and schools
- Use the power of praise
- Filter out the negatives and share a positive attitude
- Keep good relations
- Ignore trivial disturbances and respond to inappropriate behaviors without escalating
- Plan and purpose - reflect on what they could have done differently - think of what the best people will think in  given situation
- Think of what is most comfortable and what is least comfortable with each decision
- Have empathy for students
- Keep standardised testing procedures in perspective and be clear that the real issue is of learning
- Care about your students, make it cool to care
- Understand that their behaviours and beliefs are tied to emotions, understand the power of emotions to jump start change
-  Clarify your core
- Focus on what is right for the students

 Todd makes it clear that the purpose of teaching is to impart learning to the students and that it is the teachers job to find ways to do that. Not all students are the same nor do they learn at the same pace or the same way so the teacher must understand how to deliver to each student, be patient. The only way to get the approach right is to genuinely care for each student and find the right key for each. To do that one must understand behaviors (how to encourage good behaviors and limit poor behaviors), emotions (using them to change), human psychology (what motivates students and what discourages them), process (of planning, preparing, delivering, testing, feedback, improving). If one follows what Todd says one will understand teaching from a deeper perspective of imparting learning and making better people or rather allowing students to find and fulfill their potential. In the process the teachers fulfill their own potential.

I felt that the book could have been structured better (purpose, approach, behaviors, stick and carrot etc) so a new teacher could follow the path of 'why' (purpose), 'how (values, processes), and 'what' (goals). I also felt the examples could have been presented better. There is so much good content but its a little all over the place for me and I have to put it together which the book should have done. That said, maybe I am looking at it from my way, and another reader might like the way it is presented. Despite it all the core ideas are very good and solid - that we must care for the student and be committed to their growth and any failure to do that is our own failure as teachers.  

Thought for the Day - Choose for Yourself - Don't Please, Don't Rebel

Deep down our choices are mostly shaped by the external. We are either choosing to please someone or to rebel against someone - both sub consciously.

Both ways we are making a choice for someone else instead of making the choices for ourselves which is the wrong reason to make a choice. Both ways it sets us back because it takes a while to undo the damage and find your own path. 

If one can be aware of the choices and why we are making them, it can help save time and energy. Next time you choose, it might help to ask who you are making the choice for - yourself or for someone else.

Own your choice. You'll be happier for it.

Hyderabad by Walk - Chowmahalla Palace

Mukthyar and Tareekh-e-Dakshin planned a heritage tour of the Chowmahalla Palace (1750-69) and I decided to join even though I'd been there a few times. Chowmahalla Palace was the centre of the Nizams power (1720-1948), the place from where they ruled, and the official residence during their reign. It was built on the spot where an earlier palace of the Qutb Shahi kings existed. 

 

The Khilwat from the entrance

I asked Ramaraju if he wanted to join and he was game so I picked him up and we managed to land up at Chowmahalla palace at 10 am. Since my last visit I realised there were a few changes - they had opened up another gate ahead to the left which opened up more parking space and a proper entry and exit system. Ticket cost 150 bucks and for a mobile camera 50 bucks. As usual the chap at the counter had no change and he looked at me to find an online solution for that which I found in Rammaraju.

Khilwat Mubarak building and the Khilwat clock tower in the background

Mukthyar was there and we were soon joined by Anirudh who always amazes me with his knowledge of Hyderabad cricket and cricketers - it's surreal sometimes and I feel he knows more than many cricketers themselves. During our discussions he told me he watched the TG20 finals, watched both Ranji games recently and spoke of the people he met etc. He's one of the few people in Hyderabad one can hold a sensible conversation with on cricket in Hyderabad. He could write a book on Hyderabad cricket.

 

An impressive window

We bought our tickets and were soon joined by Ashik, Pavan and his father, and later on by Nissar, a psychiatrist, his friend Arjun.

The Diwan-e-Khas where the Nizam conducted his durbar

Mukthyar gave a general idea of how the Asaf Jahi dynasty came to be. The coming to India of Mohamad Abid who later came to be known as Qilich Khan, a general who fought for the Mughals and died in the siege of Golconda under Aurangzeb in 1687. Qilich Khan's grandson it was, Qamaruddin Khan, who became the first Nizam ul Mulk and ruled mostly from Aurangabad.

View of the garden behind Khilwat 

The first Nizam established the Asaf Jaf dynasty in 1724, defeating the Mughal Governor Mubariz Khan, but did not secede from the Mughals, choosing instead to operate under them with full independence. The official firmans would come from Delhi though.

 

View of the Khilwat from behind

After he passed away three rulers ruled - Nasir Jung, Muzaffar Jung and Salabath Jung. None of the above got official sanction from Delhi and hence they do not show up in the legitimate list of Nizams. Why they are important to this tour is because Salabath Jung who ruled for 12 years (1751-62), started construction of the Chowmalla palace around 1750. The first phase was completed during the time of the 5th Nizam Afzal ud Daula during the 1757-69 period. Other buildings kept getting added on.

The gates to Chowmahalla palaces

Mukthyar said that the palace grounds extended from the Jillu Khana gate on Lad Bazaar to where it is now. Once inside we passed through servant quarters or offices, past the store which had some quaint stuff, and landed up at the Khilwat Mubarak. This building was built by the seventh Nizam circa 1912 onwards .

Afzal Mahal

Before this building is a beautiful water body, gardens. To the right of the Khilwat building is a clock tower and a majestic gate that leads into the road adjacent. 

Afzal Mahal

Inside the Khilwat building we step into the Diwan-e-Aam which is where the Nizams would meet the ordinary people, a huge marble hall with a marble throne, 19 massive Belgian chandeliers. To the right and left are huge rooms that have been converted into museums with brief bios of the Nizams seven Nizams - Nizam ul Mulk, Nizam Ali Khan, Sikandar Jah, Nadir ud Daula, Afzal ud Daula, Mahboob Ali Khan add Osman Ali Khan. Then we step into a photo gallery, walk behind the hall, step into another show area and into a beautiful garden behind. 

A lovely gate leads us into the area where the four Mahals are - Tahniat Mahal, Afzal Mahal, Mahtab Mahal and Aftab Mahal. Couple of them are open and a couple are off bounds.

 

Behind these Mahals is an area where the many cars of the Nizam are on display. It's an interesting area. By this time a couple of calls came in which I had to take and there went the rest of my walk.

Walking through Chowmahalla Palace takes up half a day for sure. We headed out

A Nice Surprise - An Old Tinkle Story Shows Up

I have been flipping through some of Anjali's old Tinkle Digests these days and quite by chance saw a story that sounded familiar. I looked it up and found my name as the writer of the story - Grandpa Helps Out.

Almost a couple of decades ago I wrote a few children's stories and sent them off to various places. One of them was accepted by Tinkle and it got published. When Anjali was growing up that was the only thing that really impressed her about me - getting a story published in Tinkle.

Now after all these years finding that story in a double digest or whatever gave me the best thrill ever. 

Love the ways of the world. Surprises everywhere.

Thought for the Day - What Makes You Happy

Small things really. A cool breeze. Clean towels. A nice fragrance. A smile. A good book. An easy conversation. A lovely sunrise. Or sunset. A barefoot walk on the beach.

I also realised reading funny books makes me laugh (and happy). Funny movies. People who make me laugh. 

Things that would make me happy but I gave up are toys (mini cars), cricket (should start playing again), table tennis (same), reading comics (started), watching cartoons or animation films (started). 

When I was a child, five years old perhaps, I got the best birthday gift ever - a bunch of mini cars. I think it must have been my mom's idea though they said some uncle bought them. One of those was an open top Willys Jeep and to this day I mentally search for it. Can't get over that I lost it somewhere. Would it have felt abandoned by me my poor Jeep?

I bought a few mini cars on a whim recently and told a few people and lo behold in a couple of months my collection grew to some 18. I just love seeing them all over so I put them in places i can see and push them here and there. Makes me feel happy seeing them.

Yesterday I told Vinod that I want to buy a car. He thought I wanted to buy a new car. I told him I wanted to buy a mini car. He told me he read an article that older people were now buying toys. I am part of that brigade. I need to read that article.

I guess that's it then. Whatever rocks your boat - get them out, keep them in sight, touch, sound. Enjoy the feeling. Don't let the old man in like Mr Eastwood said I think. It may seem silly to some but its ok, this is about what makes you happy.

The Winter of Discontent - John Steinbeck

This is the third Steinbeck I read after 'The Grapes of Wrath' and 'Of Mice and Men' and am in awe of how he writes. I finished reading the novel and went back to read it again and was amazed at how tightly he set it up, how deep his understanding of human psychology is and how well he articulates the subtle in such few words. 

So we enter the world of Ethan Hawley, happy in his unfortunate circumstance of having to work as a clerk in a store he once owned. Ethan has made peace with losing his family's legacy and riches and in the end even losing the store in a building he owned. But he remains honest and true to his values. Happy with his wife Mary and his two children, Mary and Allen. Steinbeck, the matter of a few taut opening pages introduces us to Ethan, his boss, a migrant Sicilian Marullo, his wife Mary and her friend Margie, the banker Baker and his assistant Joey. Conversations turn towards some money Mary has received from her dead brother's estate which the others feel should be invested. Ethan however says its her money and should be left alone.

Margie, a fortune teller of sorts and someone who is living off her husband's alimony, tries to seduce Ethan, just as a supplier tries to bribe him but Ethan sticks true to his values. But then Margie tells Mary that Ethan will come into fortune, Joey tells him how to loot a bank and not get caught and Baker tells him he should make money. Ethan slowly changes and tips off the authorities about Marullo's immigrant status  and acquires the store, pushes his friend Danny to drink and death and gets his estate and even tries to loot the bank which does not happen. In the end Ethan is disgusted with himself and tries to kill himself but his daughter, sensing his mood, stops him. The scene where she says she wants to go with him when he says he has to go out is so beautiful and heart rending. Steinbeck ends the novel with hope which was a relief to me.

One para he wrote stayed with me and rings true even today - 

'Now, a slow, deliberate encirclement was moving on in the town and it was set in motion by honorable men. If it succeeded they would be thought not crooked but clever. And if a factor they had overlooked moved in, would that be immoral or dishonourable? I think that would depend on whether or not it was successful. To most of the world success is never bad. I remember now, when Hitler moved unchecked and triumphant, many honorable men sought and found virtues in him. And Mussolini made the trains run on time and Vichy collaborated for the good of France, and whatever else Salin was, he was strong. Strength and success, they are above morality, above criticism. It seems then that it is not what you  do, but how you do it, and what you call it. Is there a check in men, deep in them, that stops or punishes? There doesn't seem to be. The only punishment is for failure. In effect no crime is committed unless a criminal is caught.'

How true it is even today. Its a human thing and will never go away.

Steinbeck is up there among my favorite authors. Now to read 'East of Eden'.