Monthly Archives: March 2016

Indian student wins Noor Inayat Khan Prize

Geetakshi Arora, a PG student of the South Asia Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, won the £1,000 prize.

An Indian student is the winner of the first Noor Inayat Khan Prize for 2016, the London-based Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust announced on Saturday.

Geetakshi Arora, a post-graduate student of the South Asia Institute at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, won the prize — which consists of £1,000 and a certificate — for her dissertation on “Goddess Myths in Graphic Novels: Reimagining Indian Feminity”.

The Trust awards the annual prize to a post-graduate student from SOAS, University of London, working in the area of gender studies and South Asian history.

Ms. Arora said that she was “humbled” by the award. “Noor has always inspired me to stand up for the values of peace, education and respect for all individuals irrespective of race, gender and religion. I will always try to live up to her legacy,” she told The Hindu.

Noor's bust in Gordon Square, London. / The Hindu
Noor’s bust in Gordon Square, London.
/ The Hindu

Of Indian descent, Noor Inayat was a secret agent in the Second World War, who was sent to Nazi-occupied Paris in 1943 from where she worked as a wireless operative sending intelligence reports to the Allies. Though betrayed to the Gestapo, tortured and ultimately killed at the Dachau concentration camp, she defied her captors to the very end.

“We hope the annual award keeps the memory of Noor Inayat Khan alive in the student community. We felt that SOAS was the natural choice to locate this prize given its long tradition of promoting South Asian culture and history” said Shrabani Basu, founder and chair of the Noor Inayat Khan Memorial Trust, and author of the biography of Noor Inayat, The Spy Princess.

A campaign by the Noor Trust resulted in the unveiling by Princess Anne in 2012 of a bust of Noor Inayat in Gordon Square, a tranquil lung space close to a cluster of institutions including SOAS.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> International / by Parvathi Menon / London – March 19th, 2016

At Sufi meet, Modi lauds Islam as a religion of peace

Prime Minister being welcomed by AIUMB founder-president Syed Mohammad Ashraf Kichuachwi at the inaugural ceremony of the World Sufi Forum in New Delhi on Thursday. / The Hindu
Prime Minister being welcomed by AIUMB founder-president Syed Mohammad Ashraf Kichuachwi at the inaugural ceremony of the World Sufi Forum in New Delhi on Thursday. / The Hindu

The Prime Minister quotes from Koran and makes a strong pitch against terrorism.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Thursday that all Indian communities were an integral part of India, making a pitch for pluralism and diversity.

Mr. Modi was addressing delegates of a global Sufi meet here at a time when shrill statements from many within the BJP and the Sangh Parivar have created controversies in the past few months.

Rejecting terrorism, Mr. Modi hailed Islam as a religion of peace, citing the Koran and also paying rich tributes to the eclecticism of the Sufi tradition.

“Welcome to a people with an abiding belief in Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam, the world is one family,” Mr. Modi said. Mr. Modi said leaders like Maulana Abul Kalam Azad chose not to side with the idea of division based on religion after Independence.

“This is the spirit of India. This is the strength of our nation,” he said. “All our people, Hindus, Muslims, Sikhs, Christians, Jains, Buddhists, the micro-minority of Parsis, believers, non-believers, are an integral part of India.”

He sought to draw a parallel between these values and his own policies, saying, “The values of harmony, welfare, compassion and love for human beings are the foundation of a just society. That is the principle behind my creed of Sab Ka Saath, Sab Ka Vikas.”

The Prime Minister made a strong pitch against terrorism, underlining that “terrorism divides and destroys us”. “Indeed, when terrorism and extremism have become the most destructive force of our times, the message of Sufism has global relevance,” he said.

“Sufism is a celebration of diversity and pluralism, expressed in the words of Hazrat Nizamuddin Auliya, that every people has its own path of truth, beliefs and focus of reverence. These words reflect the divine message of the Holy Prophet that there is no compulsion in religion; and also that to every people, we have appointed ways of worship which they observe,” Mr. Modi said amid applause.

In reading Islam as a religion of peace, the Prime Minister may, however, have broken with many Hindutva outfits that, academic studies have argued, have tended to highlight Islam as an “invader” in India.

The PM also saw the basic attributes of Sufism among Indian Muslims: “It is this spirit of Sufism, the love for their country and the pride in their nation that define the Muslims in India.”

“They are shaped by the values of the Islamic heritage of India. It upholds the highest ideals of Islam and has always rejected the forces of terrorism and extremism,” he said.

Underlining that Islam is a religion of peace, Mr. Modi said: “When we think of the 99 names of Allah, none stand for force and violence, and that the first two names denote compassionate and merciful. Allah is Rahman and Raheem.”

While asserting that the fight against terror was not a fight against any religion but one between humanism and inhumanity, he hit out at terror as a threat to religion itself. “Terrorists distort a religion whose cause they profess to support. They kill and destroy more in their own land and among their own people than they do elsewhere. Those who spread terror in the name of religion are anti-religious.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National /by Vikas Pathak / New Delhi – March 18th, 2016

Return of the prince

THEATRE Playwright Danish Iqbal tells SWATI DAFTUAR about “Dara Shikoh”, a play that takes a look at one of Mughal India’s great lost names.

The cerebral MughalA scene from the play; (left) Danish Iqbal
The cerebral MughalA scene from the play; (left) Danish Iqbal

It is 1653, and the siege of Kandahar is raging. Dara Shikoh sits in his tent at night, writing his treatise on comparative religion. His general, a veteran and a contemporary of his great grandfather, enters with the request to discuss battle strategy for the next day. Dara Shikoh explains that for him, the treatise is more important. He doesn’t ask the general to sit down, showing him this respect only later, when the general’s conversation takes an intellectual turn.

This is a scene from “Dara Shikoh”, the modern classic directed by M.S. Sathyu and written by Danish Iqbal, which encapsulates the play’s portrayal of the young Mughal prince and heir apparent to Shah Jahan. The play, being performed after three years, is once again being directed by the eminent director and stage designer and art director M.S. Sathyu and presented by Impressario Asia. After a recent show in Gurgaon’s Epicentre, it will be performed this Friday at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi.

The play, Iqbal believes, cannot be considered a revival. “It’s been performed on and off over the years. This time, it’s only got minor changes. It’s a little shorter now, and there are a few new scenes.”

It was ten years ago, in 2004, that Iqbal, who confesses that he only works on commission because he needs to know that the words he pens will be performed, was approached by K.K. Kohli of Impressario Asia, the play’s producer. It could easily have been action oriented, a harsh, blood and gore portrayal of a prince whose life ended brutally and violently, killed in a succession struggle by his own brother. Iqbal and Kohli, though, decided to go a different way. The Dara Shikoh that Iqbal has penned is a prince who respects intellect over privilege. He is an egoistical, liberal, peace loving man who ignored war and translated scriptures.

“Dara was, in my opinion, the greatest person in Mughal history. I think he was greater than Akbar too.” Iqbal, while researching his play, says that he was surprised to see that this giant had been ignored by history. In this play, he has been careful to highlight Dara to the maximum, not allowing Aurangzeb or Sufi Sarmad, Dara Shikoh’s mentor, to take the stage. “I was questioned about this, but I think that in the case of Aurangzeb, the fear of the invisible and unknown would be much greater. Plus I didn’t want Dara overshadowed in any way.”

The playwright also goes on to admit that he owes more than half his knowledge about writing and stage skills to Sathyu. “He’s a grand old man of Indian theatre. He has a terrific sense of aesthetics. He makes sketches of every scene before the performance, to work out how the stage characters, headgear, beards, dresses, everything would look. He’s a very meticulous person. It’s a pleasure working with him. His art work is tremendously beautiful.” Iqbal adds that while he has indeed provided the dialogues, characters and content of the play, they’ve been given shape by Sathyu.

The shape this play has taken seems strangely placed in the past and the present. For Iqbal, the play holds a sort of every day importance. “In the past 10 years the challenges to inclusiveness and coexistence have increased in a big way; people are more fanatic. And terrorism is a bigger threat than before. The play has actually become more relevant.” He terms Dara as the first prince who died for his ideals, and adds that “Dara Shikoh” is today’s play. “It is a metaphor. We discussed if this play, because of how it ends, was becoming too sad and tragic, but it was in his defeat and death that Dara’s principles emerged victorious. This is what we wanted the play to show.”

Iqbal, a student of philosophy, has written a work that plays with many concepts and ideas that affect and influence human existence. Of death, a quote from the play says, “ Maut kya hai, maut hai fakth ek dehleez ”, which loosely translates to mean that death is ultimately the first step to a door between one chamber and the next. That death, ultimately, is nothing.

In a play packed with such layered, ambiguous dialogues, Iqbal confesses that it has become hard to cast the right actors for the roles. “It’s a great challenge. We don’t have very good actors, and especially young actors lack the capacity to understand the nuances of the play, absorb its ideas and translate them into emotions and gestures. This requires intellectuals of a certain calibre, and not all actors can deliver. Often, the average actor only sees the superficial meaning of a dialogue. To overcome this, we have conducted workshops with the actors, to explain the multilayered aspects of play.” Iqbal adds that there are hardly any professional actors hired for this season of the play. “They have their jobs, and (we have) amateur actors who wanted to be part of the production.”

He’s holding a book on Pataudi, and as a closing remark, adds that he’s working on another story that gives him the goose bumps, that of Mansoor Ali Khan Pataudi. “Like Dara Shikoh, his story is also inspiring, and can reach people in manifold ways.”

Director M.S. Sathyu says, “We’ve only made minor changes in the play, and this time there is a new choreographer (Astha Dixit) and they’ve got trained Kathak dancers. The casting is always a problem, because this play requires a lot of Urdu and there are very few actors who can speak good Urdu. They can speak in Hindi and Punjabi but Urdu is a challenge.”

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> MetroPlus / by Swati Dastur / January 23rd, 2014

SJCE Wins ‘YUKTI’ Quiz Contest

ATMECE emerges runners-up

YuktiQuizMPOs15mar2016

Mysuru :

Builders’ Association of India (BAI), Mysuru, had organised an Inter-College quiz competition ‘YUKTI 2016, The Battle Of Brains…’ for the Civil Engineering and CTM students of various Engineering colleges of Mysuru, Mandya and Chamarajanagar districts.

The quiz was conducted by Shilpi, students’ wing of BAI, Mysuru, on Mar. 6 at MBCT premises, Mysuru. Five finalists were selected after the first round of written test among 18 teams.

There was a technical talk for the students on ‘Smart Cities – Spain Model’ by M.P. Manjunath Prasad, COO of Brigade Group, Benagaluru, on the same occasion. The technical talk also included short film on Building Technologies which ended with an interactive session.

After the Techtalk, the Quiz YUKTI 2016 continued for the finalists — NIE, MIT, SJCE (Civil), SJCE (CTM) and ATMECE.

An excellent Audio Visual final round was conducted by the Quiz Master S. Prakash, who is the Past Chairman of BAI, Mysuru and MD of Pramur Constructions.

Mohammad Zaidur Rehman and Bindushree of SJCE (Civil) emerged winners of YUKTI 2016. S. Supreeth and K.P. Meghana of ATMECE were declared Runners-Up.

A cash prize, mementoes and certificates, along with a trophy for the College, were given to both the teams. All the finalists were also given certificates.

BAI Mysuru Chairman M.S.Ramprasad, Hon. Sec. JVR Naidhruva, Shilpi Co-ordinators A.S Yoganarasimha and Ganapathy and others were present on the occasion.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of  Mysore / Home> General News / March 15th, 2016

Urdu Academy picks 4 names for Gaurav awards

After pondering over it for long, Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy has announced Gaurav awards to poets and authors of Urdu language.

After pondering over it for long, Gujarat Urdu Sahitya Academy has announced Gaurav awards to poets and authors of Urdu language. Names of four persons have been announced and they have been conveyed individually about the academy’s decision. The awards are likely to be given in April.

According to sources, Urdu poet Shakil Azmi, academic and Congress leader Nisar Ansari, Palanpur-based poet Musafir Palanpuri and Surat-based poet and former Surat Municipal councillor Vaseem Malik have been nominated for academy award for different years.

The announcement has been received in literary circles with applause, but there are many who are not amused because some senior writers have been “sidelined” by the academy.

One such person is Qayyum Kanwal Fatehpuri, a former member of the Academy in its early years. He has authored four poetry collections, besides having edited the Academy’s journal Sabarnama. He was also a close associate of former Congress MP Ehsan Jafri. “The academy has overlooked senior writers like me for some unknown reason for a long time now,” said Fatehpuri whose first collection Sang-o-Gul was published in the early 1980s.

To him, it is hard to establish the credentials of some people who have been named for awards. “Something is seriously lacking in the functioning of the academy and something should be done if the credibility of its awards has to be saved,” said Fatehpuri, who had published an Urdu monthly magazine for some time.

Bhagyesh Jha, chairman of the Academy, said there was no favouritism or grudge at work in selection of persons selected for the awards. “Before announcing the names, we duly consult experts of the subject who suggest panels of names of likely winners, then these names are sent to the executive committee of the academy, which sends the names to the culture minister for final approval,” Jha said.

He said the names were worked out by a senior academic M G Bombaywala, who had been associated with the affairs of the academy for many years. “The names were discussed with him before the announcement,” Jha said. He said he had no information about several writers or their background. “The academy is ready to discuss issues and suggestions threadbare with persons in the know of things,” he said. He added that the criteria was that the candidate should have made contribution to Urdu literature.

Bombaywala said, “I have been suggesting names even before Jha became president. No one objected when other names were suggested and they got awards till 2010. There are better names than Qayyum Kanwal even at present, but still they have been left out for some reason. Let Kanwal go to the academy and present his case if he feels injustice has been done to him. Awards are not given by one’s age or to maulvis, but on literary merit.”

source: http://www.indianexpress.com /  The Indian Express / Home> Cities> Ahmedabad / by Tanvir A. Siddiqui / Ahmedabad / March 14th, 2016

Voonik.com looks beyond the brand

The online fashion marketplace is here to provide a fillip to unbranded fashion

Sujayath Ali, founder of Voonik.com
Sujayath Ali, founder of Voonik.com

Voonik.com, (both website and app) was founded with an idea to be a fashion marketplace for women looking for their everyday wear. As it’s labelled as the country’s first personalised shopping app, you’re curious about what it means in this context? “Voonik takes the skin tone, body type and preferences into consideration to see if the fit suits you. We’ve developed a 10000-rule algorithm in coordination with our stylists to assist users,” the founder Sujayath Ali states.

Finalising the criteria was a tough ask, but they’d readied them from a generalised questionnaire of over 150 questions in discussion with stylists that women consider as they shop.

Screenshot of the website
Screenshot of the website

For now, its users are shown a series of celebrities with whom they can compare their body, tone and other preferences. Isn’t that objectification of sorts? “As it was a new idea, we needed a way out to familiarise our user-base. It’ll have an adequate replacement in the coming days,” elaborates Ali.

Voonik respects the fact that not everyone needs to be a fashionista for buying clothes online. “There are so many shopping sites that promote branded fashion but we’re here to show how potent unbranded fashion can also be. We didn’t want to sophisticate things and are clear of catering to the masses,” Ali elaborates. He justifies this saying, most women are focussed on the place and quality where a fabric comes from, than the brand altogether. It looks like their focused strategy has indeed paid off with nearly 6 million app installations in its 18-month run.

Beyond user needs, Voonik’s uniqueness shows up in their ‘Become a seller’ section. They have a one-of-a-kind image recognition platform that’ll help the management assess the quality of the fabric once sellers upload the images of the stock. That has helped them build a vast collection of 15-lakh clothing, the most for an online fashion outlet to date, globally.

They have interesting plans lined up for the times to come. Having just acquired a menswear shopping portal Getsty, they’re on the path to integrate men’s collection to their platform, which users can access through another exclusive app. There are two other acquisitions they remain tightlipped about, but with persistence, we get hints. “There’ll be a premium luxury section that’ll be launched too,” Sujayath manages to say.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / by Srivathsan Nadadhur /Hyderabad – March 07th, 2016

On a mission to prevent suicides

SanaMPOs12mar2016

by S.N. Venkatnag Sobers

Majority of women in our country spend their lives within the four walls unaware about the outer world. For them, their family is their world. Though women put all efforts to cater to the need of their loved ones, yet there are incidents of them being harassed for dowry or other reasons. Only, few have braved the dare consequences to stand tall in the society and emerge as the role models for fellow women.

Here is a woman from Hyderabad who has been travelling across the country creating awareness against committing suicide and also motivating the youth fight depression.

Meet Sana Iqbal, a native of Hyderabad, who has been travelling across the country creating awareness against taking the extreme step. A mother of the seven-month-old son Mohammed Saqib Ali, Sana has taken up the initiative to prevent youth from ending their lives for trivial reasons. “It is important to address the youth and children in certain issues as they get very emotional and sensitive with matters closely related to them. It is very important for parents to spend quality time with their kids and talk to them as they feel depressed on not being given concentration they rightly deserve. When it comes to youth, they fall for the person who listens to them and sometimes get into relationships without knowing if the person is an ideal partners and later regret when the relationship turns sour. And that is when they get depressed and think of taking the extreme step,” says Sana.

Having covered 17,500 kms since November, 2015, on her Royal Enfield, Sana has covered 49 cities in North and Central part of the country. She has been visiting various colleges and giving special lectures on how to come out of depression and not to take the decision to ending lives. Talking about her decision to take up this initiative, Sana tells that she was also a victim of depression for 5 years and had spent many sleepless nights.

Having gone through the trauma, Sana, one fine day decided to break the shackles to come out depression by going on a bike ride and that is when she decided to go on a solo tour throughout the country on her motorbike creating awareness. Sana was in Mysuru recently where she addressed students at a few colleges before heading to Ooty. She expects to complete her solo tour during first week of June this year.

Being a lone woman travelling across the country, Sana has been received well by the people at places she has visited. For her, it has been a memorable journey so far as many people have come for her help at the times when her motorbike broke down. “There have been instances when my vehicle broke down in middle of the road and people came to my help without any expectation after they learnt about my mission. In fact many offered me free hospitality at her houses which motivated me to carry the message that India is a safe country for women,” adds Sana.

One look at her jacket and you will get to see the badges of various bikers clubs. But, one badge that Sana adores is the one presented to her by Civil Defence of Patiala in Punjab which has the National Emblem presented to her in recognition for her initiative. There was a time during the tour when Sana had to cut short her tour while in Delhi as her father-in-law fell seriously ill and she had to return to Hyderabad. Without giving a second thought she came back to Hyderabad but sadly her father-in-law passed away. She later continued with her tour. Sana, who has been away from her kid over the past few months is determined to reach her goal and motivate the youth. Hats off Sana!

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Feature Articles / March 12th, 2016

A journey to Road to Wimbledon Masters

Guntur, ANDHRA PRADESH /  Hyderabad, TELANGANA  :

Sk. Mubhashira Anjum (right), who has been selected to play at the Road to Wimbledon Masters. Tennis coach Sk. Ahmmad and Mushrath Anjum (left) are also seen.— PHOTO: T. VIJAYA KUMAR
Sk. Mubhashira Anjum (right), who has been selected to play at the Road to Wimbledon Masters. Tennis coach Sk. Ahmmad and Mushrath Anjum (left) are also seen.— PHOTO: T. VIJAYA KUMAR

For this tennis prodigy, the journey from the clay courts in the small town of Guntur to Road to Wimbledon Masters, a tennis tourney for Under-14 organised by All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club, is a long one. She will take part in the Masters beginning on April 2 at Kolkata.

Ranked No 4 in Under-14 category and 14 in U-16 category, Mubhashira has been among the 16 top junior tennis players in India to be selected for the tourney, out of which two boys and girls would be invited to compete in the UK HSBC National Finals on the grass courts at Wimbledon in August every year.

Mubhashira would soon travel to Vietnam to take part in International Tennis Federation Asian 14 Championship which will begin on March 13.

Mubhashira had her first lessons on the clay courts at B.R Stadium under tennis coach Sk. Ahmmad during the summer camp in 2010. She later mastered the game in the tennis courts at NTR Municipal Stadium under coach G. Siva Prasad, North Club (Vijay Vardhan) and CTC (Venkat Rao).

“She was the pick of the boys and girls and her powerful ground strokes and an ability to cover the court stood out. For a girl of her age, she had an amazing fitness level,’’ Mr. Ahammad said.

Her father Sk. Baji is a small time trader but the family had moved to Hyderabad to enable Mubhashira to take coaching at Sania Mirza Tennis Academy.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> National> Andhra Pradesh / by Staff Reporter / Guntur – March 08th, 2016

Around the country in a solar car

COIMBATORE, 16/02/2012: Syed Sajjad Ahmed (left), a businessman dealing with electrical accessories in Bangalore, with his relative on a solar car in Coimbatore on February 16, 2012 as part of his tour of South India for 1,000 km to generate awareness among the people on pollution and corruption. Photo: M. Periasamy / The Hindu
COIMBATORE, 16/02/2012: Syed Sajjad Ahmed (left), a businessman dealing with electrical accessories in Bangalore, with his relative on a solar car in Coimbatore on February 16, 2012 as part of his tour of South India for 1,000 km to generate awareness among the people on pollution and corruption. Photo: M. Periasamy / The Hindu

Syed Sajjan Ahmed travels 3,000 km in self-built four-wheeler.

Bengaluru , KARNATAKA :

Sixty-three-year-old Syed Sajjan Ahmed arrived in Bangalore in a self-developed solar electric-powered car to cover 3,000 km from Bangalore to Delhi to participate in the first India International Science Festival (IISF).

It took Syed 30 days to cover the arduous journey, which included crossing the Vindhyas. Born in Kolar, 70 km from Bangalore, the standard XII dropout began his career as a fruit vendor and went on to set up a shop for electronics repair.

His work included assembly of electronic goods, starting off with transistors, tape recorders and television sets and antennae. Later, he moved on to computers, before attempting to realise his childhood dream to do something for society.

“I had to leave school when I was 15 to start earning for my family. But the fire to create something that would be of use to humanity kept burning within me,” he says.

The break came in 2002. “I told myself that I am 50 now, and I must do something before I become too old and infirm.”

Ahmed started by modifying a two-wheeler to run on electric power, and then a three-wheeler, and later a four-wheeler.

He bagged the Karnataka government’s award for environment protection, instituted in honour of former president A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, in 2006, for his innovation. Ahmed says that the modified car is equipped with a set of five solar panels, each with a capacity of 100 watts.

The power generated by the panels propels the machine through a bank of six batteries, each with a capacity of 12 volts and 100 amps. He takes pride that his small car withstood the test of the 3,000-km trek. “There were times when we thought we would not be able to take the steep climbs on the ghat roads. But, it crossed all the hurdles without much trouble,” he adds.

Ahmed says he has travelled 1.1 lakh km in his four-wheeler across the country so far. He is accompanied by a cousin, Salim Pasha, who travels in a regular car alongside. Both started their journey to Delhi from Raj Bhavan in Bangalore on November 1.

Ahmed, who says his vehicle costs around one lakh rupees at present, would further be driving from Delhi to Dr. Kalam’s hometown of Rameshwaram. “I wanted to make this journey an adventure; I have driven this vehicle for 10 years and hope to keep it going,” he says. He will then return to Bangalore via Kanyakumari.

“Dr. A.P.J. Abdul Kalam is my inspiration. Through my journey, I want to inspire and educate the public, especially students, about Dr Kalam’s Vision 2020 for uplifting the country,” he adds.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> MetroPlus / IANS / December 08th, 2015

A different formula on TV

Children working with the Maths kit. Photo: Special arrangement
Children working with the Maths kit. Photo: Special arrangement

A clever television contest for Most Innovative Maths Teacher finds schools vying for honours, and viewers asking for reruns. 

February 14. It was a special day for many students in the north Karnataka taluk of Kushtagi, Koppal district. They were all set to watch their teachers vie for the title of ‘Most Innovative Maths Teacher in Kushtagi’, at the first-ever mathematical reality TV show for teachers of government schools.

Doing the Math: Iranna Patil Photo: Special arrangement
Doing the Math: Iranna Patil Photo: Special arrangement

Of the six finalists, at the Ganitha Kalika Andolan contest, Iranna Patil of Government Higher Primary School, Thopalakatti, walked away with the title for his demonstration of the concept of data collection and analysis, and how it could be taught creatively to students of classes IV and V.

Teachers Hafisa Begum of Lower Primary School, Mankalkeri, and Geeta Basarakoda of Lower Primary School, Sherifnagar, took the second and third places, respectively. They were chosen for making maths an enjoyable learning experience.

Ganitha Kalika Andolan (GKA) was started by Akshara Foundation in partnership with the Karnataka government and Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan to improve numeracy skills and facilitate classroom teaching of mathematics in the six districts of the Hyderabad-Karnataka region. Since June 2015, the Bengaluru-based not-for-profit movement has trained over 7,500 teachers in mathematics teaching, especially using teaching learning material such as the Akshara Math Kit, which contained play money, dice, weighing scales, beads and geometric shapes.

But how effective was the programme? Were teachers enthused about it? In 2014-15, the organisation had included popular film dialogues and even a maths jingle composed by Grammy award-winner Ricky Tej to make teaching and learning fun. Would television also help? This led to the GKA contest. The Nanjundappa Committee report for the Redressal of Regional Imbalances states that Akshara Foundation chose Kushtagi, one of the 39 taluks in the report’s ‘most backward’ taluks list. The organisation had trained over 300 teachers in the taluk even before GKA. A peppy teaser was aired on television, and soon teachers started sending in their entries in the form of short videos.

Of the over 230 entries from the 220 schools in Kushtagi, 20 were shortlisted for an exciting buzzer round. During the finals on stage, excitement was high. The teachers had to use elements from the maths kit to demonstrate their lesson. “I knew the answer to one of the judge’s questions, but I fumbled while facing the camera,” says Savitha Maleda. A teacher at the GHPS in Ryavanaki, she always enjoyed using song and dance to teach, but since the maths contest was announced, she has been trying out other creative ways as well. She now wants to do a post-graduation so that she can teach high school students as well.

For Iranna Patil, the contest was a big fillip. “It spread awareness about creative methods of teaching. Earlier, the maths kits were not being used much. Now, all my teacher friends want to use them. We have a Whatsapp group of science teachers, who share news about teaching methods,” says this young man.

Kanchan Bannerjee, managing trustee at Akshara Foundation, says, “We hope the contestants can inspire the larger teaching community as also the students and their parents to see maths as a fun subject.”

As partners involved in releasing the Annual Status of Education Report (ASER), Akshara Foundation is convinced that mathematics needs a leg-up in our schools. Before approaching the Karnataka government with the idea of GKA, the organisation had run the module for nearly four years in schools in Hoskote. They made sure the comprehensive teaching methodology envisaged in the GKA programme was compliant with the guidelines prescribed by the National Curriculum Framework 2005 and that it supported the textbooks and workbooks designed by the Karnataka Department of State Educational Research and Training. They made their manuals and video modules for teachers available under Creative Commons, making it possible for people to freely use them.

“The GKA model runs for two years, and with just a few adaptations it can be replicated anywhere. We hope that our government will extend this to other districts too,” says Ashok Kamath, chairman of Akshara Foundation.

That the TV channel had several viewers asking for a re-telecast shows what a masterstroke it was to use television for maths.

Mala Kumar writes for children and edits books for Pratham Books. She was one of the judges at the GKA contest.

source: http://www.thehindu.com / The Hindu / Home> Features> Magazine / by Mala Kumar / March 05th, 2016