Lighting the lamp of education

This story is yet another generous gesture by my friend Ritu Raj Mate shown to me. He not only gave the story theme to me but also drive me to their house. That’s why I have always insisted this to my juniors where ever I have worked that have one person who knows the city and also the city’s people who can keep providing you stories from time to time. The trust factor is very important because one can be taken for a ride too, by means by the source trying to plant a story to nepotism him or whom he wants to be written about. So first one has to check the credentials of the subject on whom they are going to report about so that it matches that of your sources information. Well anyway after I visited this lady who was self funding her education programe for the underprivileged children, I knew that this story would make to the HT Bhopal Live paper of the Hindustann Times, Bhopal edition, on its own merit.

It’s a story of staunch social commitment as heart-warming as it is inspiring. Denied any Stat aid, a lady in the Madhya Pradesh State capital of Bhopal has been ploughing a lone furrow to shine the light of education on street urchins.
He own failure to make it as a doctor fired a strong desire in Mehraj Nadim to prepare slum kids to make it to the top professional league. She launched a primary school, Legion school in Koh-e-Fiza locality in n1997 to fulfill her dream.
And it’s not run-of the mill education either. Some of he charges have made it to the best schools of the State Capital on the strength of their academic performance. Take, for instance, Serish Iqbal, who was later admitted to the St Joseph’s Convent Girls School on Idgha Hills.
The teachers, all of whom comprise Muslim women, share the feeling that free access to education should be made the country’s policy in order to facilitate nation building.
The academic curriculum in her school in her school has some unique features. “Children are taught four languages – Hindi, English, Urdu and Sanskrit,” she says with obvious pride. “Verbal and written language skills are the key to a successful future,” she says.
Including the hands-on principal in Mehraj, the school has seven teachers; all paid a token sum of Rs 300-500 per month. ‘We’re here top extend a helping hand to Mehraj in her mission. Salary is only incidental,” says Faiza, one of her colleagues at Legion.
The journey for Mehraj and her school began on a humble note. “We had only four students to begin with,” she reminisces. But that was the least of her problems. The slum dwellers were reluctant to send their children to school. “They wanted the kids to start working early for extra income,” she says.
Untiring efforts to convince them was the first obstacle she overcame. Now, the school has on its roll over five-dozen children in different classes. For those in Class IV and V, basic computer training is mandatory.
Despite the wholesale effort, Mehraj is till handicapped by some odds. For one, cash for meeting the school expenses. “While the teachers have been gracious enough to work on paltry honorarium, there are other unavoidable expenses,” she says.
She has to provide them with free books and stationary. Then, there are shoes and uniforms for those children who come from the lowest strata even amongst the slum dwellers. “I have often taken money from my husband to meet the expenses,” the lady -on-a-mission says.
To her utter disappointment, the Government agencies haven’t been supportive enough. “My application for State Government aid has vanished without a trace. I’m still awaiting the Union HRD Ministry’s response to my letter,” she recalls.
The support from her husband, Syed Nadim-ul-Hasan is the best part of the Legion tale. He couldn’t have been more cooperative. “My parents have also chipped in from time to time,” she says, confident that as the school grows, so would the list of benefactors from the immediate family circle.

NSD readies its Stage for South

This story was written when I had visited a friend of mine during my stint at the Deccan Herald Bureau office at New Delhi some time in 1993. Since it had a south connect and more so with Bangalore I went back to the office and discussed it with my seniors who asked me to write it and send it for the Sunday pages.

Theatre: National School of Drama’s decision to open its first regional center in Bangalore augurs well for theatre in Karnataka, Writes S Shiv Kumar

After several years of debate on strengthening theater traditions in various regions of the country, and a recommendation of the Haskar Committee, the Delhi-based National School of Drama (NSD) has decided to open schools at Bangalore, Bombay, Calcutta, Guwahati, Varanasi/Patna and Chandigarh.
The first of these zonal centers is expected to begin functioning in Bangalore in March. It will be a resource-cum research center (RRC) which will conduct its activities in the local languages.
NSD Director Kirthi Jain told Deccan Herald that these regional centers were meant to rejuvenate local theater traditions. Bangalore has been chosen as the first center because “it has people from virtually all parts of the country. All languages of the south have a presence in the city, which will enable the center to turn mobile and access villages and tap the right potential”.
The Bangalore center- which will work in co-ordination with State level cultural bodies-will begin short-term courses of 15 days to two months, for serious students from all over south India to be chosen on the basis of entrance tests and interviews. Experts like G V Shivananda, B V Karanth, Prasanna, Raghunandan and Walter D’Souza are expected to guide the students and monitor their progress. Prominent NSD alumni in the State like C Basavalingaiah, Srivivas Prabhu, Jayatheertha Joshi and Chidambara Rao Jambe will be on the faculty.
The State Government has assured the NSD that it will provide the premises to house the regional center. “Otherwise, we will hire an apartment to start with,” says Keerthi Jain, which hopes funding agencies like the UNESCO will lend a helping hand later. Depending on the response in Bangalore, “we will start in Calcutta followed by Bombay. That would mean a center in each of the four zones.”
All these days, as she points out, people from various parts of the country came to Delhi only to realize that they were taught in Hindi. This will change now. The regional center will conduct training programmes, promote research, encourage children’s theater through workshops and activities in schools, undertake field work, mount exhibitions, take up documentation and data collection. It will also coordinate the activities of university drama departments assist them in their activities.
An advisory committee with representatives from all the States, the NSD, the regional centers and the repertory companies, and headed by the NSD chief, will be formed to achieve these objectives. A decision is yet to be taken on who will head the regional center.