GREAT Foundation was born in the classrooms of IIT Bombay. I had joined the HSS Department in 1974 to teach English. Aged 24, I was no social worker; just another idealistic young person who had joined the teaching profession out of love for the vocation. My life’s mission was to teach and help students. I had no vision, not even a career path. Then things happened. The very first class I went to teach was that of SC/ST students selected into IITBombay on reserved entry as it was then called. Meeting the poorly clad students with stars in their eyes was a new experience. Until then I hadn’t even known that there was a class of people called the SCs and STs. 1973 was the first year that students in this category had been selected into an IIT. Their selection had been mandated down to zero marks in the JEE by the Indian government eager to turn the wheel of caste inequality full circle, quickly. (more…)
Blog
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From the Beehive
October – November, 2017
Like the goddess Durga who stands out majestically during the nine days of Navaratri, this month we focus on women with an identity of their own, who have reshaped and overthrown the patriarchal norm. While the economic empowerment of women across the world is one of the most remarkable revolutions of the past 50 years, yet the question remains if access to power equates to actual power? In this issue, we delve into this question and many more through a fascinating mix of memoirs, articles and essays by our alumnae who reflect their own diverse life journeys. We also explore the changing relationship between women and power in public and private spheres through fascinating stories of alumnae achievements.
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On Computer Science, Animation, YouTube and the Future
I grew up in Bombay, and as all true Bombayites, always had aspirations to get into Bollywood – that glamorous movie business! I actually even performed in a movie, a small 5-minute dance on a patriotic song, as a child actor. The movie, alas, was a flop the minute it screened, but the song would come on Chhaya Geet every 15thAugust and I would pretty much be the laugh of my friends on the 16th. This movie incidentally is nowhere online – not even on YouTube! It hit me hard that my dashing looks were probably not going to be my ticket. (more…)
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You Think You Know Them, But You Don’t – Part 3
Photograph by Dariusz Sankowski
In most large companies, we barely know most of our colleagues – we see only the professional side of their personality (if we’re lucky) during the typical work-day. We may learn more about them during office parties and off-sites, sometimes with assistance from ethanol. The process of forming deep friendships (or enmities) usually takes a long time, sometimes many months or even years. Travelling with them is one way to accelerate this process, to its bitter end perhaps? As I’ve mentioned earlier, Mark Twain was no doubt prescient when he noted, “I have found out that there ain’t no surer way to find out whether you like people or hate them than to travel with them.” (more…)
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Lighting Up Lives
Global Himalayan Expedition (GHE) teamed up with IEEE Smart Villages to electrify the centuries old Linghsed Monastery and the Lingshed School. The entire project was documented by National Geographic as part of its Breakthrough Series, featuring top innovations of this century that will change the world we live in. The DC (direct current) Solar Micro Grid concept engineered by GHE was showcased as the breakthrough innovation that GHE has implemented to bring access to energy to more than 38 villages in the remote mountain communities of Himalayas, impacting the lives of over 15, 000 people. (more…)
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Managing Volunteer Expectations
Why do volunteers quit? Is it the lack of enthusiasm and commitment? Sometimes it is a poorly managed volunteering experience that leads to volunteers falling out.
I have been a volunteer for as long as I can remember. Starting at nearly 5 years of age, when my parents used to take me to medical camps, to until recently, when I just finished a 2-year volunteering project with a Foundation in Angola, Africa working with street children. (more…)
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Examination Without Invigilation – An experiment in trust
It is generally acknowledged that there are many things seriously wrong with our system of education. Otherwise we could not have become so corrupt or so incompetent. Of course it is possible to argue quite convincingly that because we are so corrupt and incompetent, we have produced the present system of education. But then it is the usual question about the precedence of the egg or the chicken. Whatever that may be, and we will leave it to the sociologists to argue, and analyse it interminably, surely there is little doubt that the education we get these days is far from satisfactory. Particularly deplorable is the situation is what we call as higher education which may be defined as any programme of education which follows the 10th class. (more…)
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Bringing Change
When I was in IIT, some of us had been interviewed for a documentary– “I am 20”[1]– in 1967. I had then said, “Freedom in India means freedom to starve, go naked, be uneducated and die of hunger.” I was critical about the conditions in India and felt we had failed to achieve our goals. After graduation I set up an industry in plastic packaging. To me providing livelihoods was one of the key priorities, and at the end of the last century we employed 500 people.
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Jamming to Innovate
(Image Source: Link )
It is estimated that less than a hundredth of the world’s built space is designed by architects. As members of the community, this limited contribution has been the cause of some discontent to us. So, in 2013, when HSMI, the R&D cell of the Housing and Urban Development Corporation (HUDCO) accepted our proposal for a project aimed at exploring the affordable housing space, we were excited at what we saw as a precious opportunity to push the boundaries of our profession, to design for ‘the other 90 percent’ and to truly innovate. (more…)
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My Tryst with Open Wells
Over the past 10 years I have been working with BIOME Environmental, an organization that looks at ways to promote sustainable living in a city – not only in theory but also in practice. The practice comes from the solutions that the group of BIOME engineers and architects offer – homes designed to keep energy requirements low, homes made of sun-dried mud blocks, homes which store and reuse rainwater, homes that treat wastewater and allow it to be reused within the site itself, etc.. I am a part of the Water team within BIOME, and this allows me the opportunity to travel and look at various aspects of water – the issues and solutions – around Bangalore and across the country. The water sources that capture my imagination and that of my team– for their beauty, human ingenuity, history, adventure and poetry – are not the springs, rivers, dams and lakes, but simple manmade structures that provide access to water – shallow open wells. (more…)