Why a Gap Year for Kids?

Why parents and educators should consider a “gap year” for their children

One of the emotions we experienced as (“highly educated”) parents was the overall negative impact of the schooling system on our three boys. We found they were happiest when out of school. If it had not been for the compulsion, they would rarely have gone to school. At some stage, youngsters placed in such a situation – not just for a year but for an almost never ending decade – can experience a need to be set free from it all, for some time at least. Read the rest of this entry »

The Post-Modernity of India’s Scientific and Technical Traditions

(Abstract)

This paper first sketches the broad contours of India’s scientific and technical capacities prior to the arrival of the colonialists. It discusses the philosophies of science within the framework of the intellectual traditions of the time. It examines how the ideas in circulation were fairly elaborate, detailed, intellectually satisfying and above all practical in their approaches to the primary issues of an economy based on permanence and non-negotiable quests for meaning in life. Looked at another way, technical solutions appeared to be designed explicitly to flow with the natural cycle. The paper further discusses how these scientific and technical traditions enabled a vast degree of dynamism of which there is considerable evidence even today. In fact, had it not been for the disruptive, rude, intentional disruption that commenced circa 1750, Indian society was perhaps well on its way to a development scenario that sustainability theorists today promote as necessary for a planet increasingly disabled by the crisis of climate change.

(Paper to be presented at the International Conference on Multiple Trajectories of Early Asian Modernities, 16-17 December 2011, Banaras Hindu University)

Counting Our Blessings

(A foreword to the Indian edition of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring)

One of the astonishing features of life that you notice in Europe or in the United States of America is the general absence of birds and their lively music in residential areas. You can awaken in the morning, in Frankfurt, Amsterdam or even Woods Hole, and it is deathly still. There is no chatter of birds, no chirruping of crickets and no croaking of frogs. It is not that these creatures do not exist any longer in Europe or the U.S., but you will find them largely in well-demarcated, protected nature reserves or wilderness areas.

This is to be contrasted with the experience of countries like Malaysia or India. Be it in the city or the village, daylight arrives with birdsong, twittering, whistling and cooing. The monsoon brings with it its own special sound: the chorus of frogs in the fields. Despite the imposition of ‘development’, nature continues to be alive and prolific in our part of the world. For this, we should count our blessings. If you want to understand and appreciate the true significance and value of these blessings, then you should read Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring. Read the rest of this entry »