My needs are special - Hello!

Special Needs - When we were growing up Special needs was never a part of the learning process.Inclusive learning /exclusions/ Sensory's breaks etc was not something that I had heard of. This could stem up from 2 reasons:a) The school that I went to was an ordinary schoolb) Indian society per se is not sensitized to specials needs children.Today as I close a book about a child in the autism spectrum and has Aspergers - again Autism was not something that I heard of until 6 years ago when I had taken up teaching as a profession.It refreshed memories of my own classmates and how learning at that time was seen as a need. I don't think teachers themselves were exposed to this is area of childhood development. So if a child was slow in school he was immediately discounted as "dumb" or more so beaten up.I don't think that has changed at all in the indian education system.When I think of children who couldn't get Math or couldn't spell - they were thrown out of class like it was a solution to all their issues. No one ever made an attempt to understand "WHY".Neither were fellow students sensitized to the this whole concept. Luckily at that time no used the word "Retard", obviously because of limited vocabulary, but instead "Mad/Mental" was the derogatory term.Teachers never bothered to investigate why a child had issues and why at that time as well there was a need for specialist intervention.Parents on the other hand in our classic society must have thought about "log kya sochenge syndrome" "mera bacha pagal nahi hai". They were basically embarrassed  or fear of acceptance because they probably NEVER saw the signs. The never read books /they never bothered to research.I still  have a 70% stat in my head (since the time I know it), which prompts me to say that if it is true that 30 years later 70% of our population  still lives in the villages and thrives on agriculture - One can imagine our plight when it comes to child development.It is estimated that close to 50% of our population will literate in 2020. I can foresee another 10 decades until things change for children in this country!

Mere baap ki gaadi syndrome!

Firstly I dont mean to offend anyone by this post or the title of my post.

For those of you who fly down to Mumbai what is the first thing you see? I can tell you - you see nice colourful dots. Oh maybe I am lying - you also see the arabian sea if you look farther.But the point is I choose to see the colours or maybe some of us do!

The closer you come they seem to look like cellophane strips . You are now descending maybe 2000ft above sea level and are approaching Mumbai - the country's financial capital and by far one of the most loved cities in this country!  

A little farther down and you begin notice that those little thatchments - popularly know as the largest slum in Asia and a stark representation of our beautiful country . Enough to shock a traveller who is all set to explore India. As you enter the city you are so overwhelmed by the poverty and children on the streets and oh the beggars and ragpickers. This probably is best story line for most travel based stories or articles about this city . Well that was just an example. Besides the cows /snake charmers and elephants walking on the street.

Do tourists still have that wheezy imagination in their heads? May be they do - and then staying on in India they are stuck in flurry of confusion.

What just happened! They went partying - they saw bars , pubs, clubs et al catering to all kinds of expat needs. And they saw the 16/17 yr old with "Mere baap ki gadi "!

Wait outside a club and watch these teenagers whizzing past in their swanky coopers, beamers - you name it and its all there. And then your asked - does he/she really own that car? Then I say no - you think they do ? That when I decided to call it the "mere baap ki gaadi" syndrome. 

And there is this completely bewildered look - how can that be - perception questionable eh? Did all the tourist guides lie then - no maybe they just cant keep up with the rapidly-growing -ever-so-changing land.

Yeh Log kaise hai!

Happen to be writing after a really really long time.

This was some time last week and I was in a mall walking around with a friend when we watching people and my friend  said " Kaise hai hai log?" (Look at these people!) What she was referring to was the new breed of pseudo confused Indian's - a generation that is "in between". A generation that does grew up with roti's for breakfast to be replaced by "pan " or "croissants". A generation that went to English medium iskool and wants their kids to go "Yadder yadder play school". What has changed ? "Wannabeness" or self awareness . My personal thoughts - a generation that does not know what they want ! And I refer to the 80's.

Simple observations of the day!

We don't travel because we want to experience the richness of travel but we want to travel because we want say to someone "Oh my god! you know the last time - I went  to Thailand and Dubai and Bali" So that everyone knows you hit one international destination once a year!

Even today our society is one that is highly judgmental and opinionated about so many things! Even today we do not hesitate to ask personal questions to strangers "how much do you make" "Oh you must be married?" "Are you not planning to have a baby". 

We work because we have to - what are the other choices - very few in this great country of ours would dare to backpack - leave their cushioned jobs ! SO lets say we are sort of stuck! Stuck and we cannot be pulled out of that mess! We were born to be educated and get great corporate jobs - study in the best of institutions. All our lives the only probable ambition was money. And so we never got perspective - we could never learn what the word "experience" meant!

Lets take for example - typical conversation when we are looking for a match!

"What does the boy do for a living" - He is bartender/social worker ! - well great - but what is he going to feed you.

"What do his parents do" - Well they do nothing - they come from another social class/caste/sub caste!

This proposed alliance therefore stands annulled!

Tell me if this happens in other cultures too or is it typical to India/Asia! Correct me if I am wrong !

So there I am engineer because my brand value at the age of 26/27/30 is going to be X amount of rupees! And if I am UPenn post grad - then well there is no looking back!So basically its all about the "jhing - thing" - the sound of money at the end of the day.

I happen to have a lot of interest in languages my self - so I go to language class on weekends - now my personal ambition when people ask me - why - I say well i like learning about the new cultures - vis a vis the rest of the class(barring a few) - This is the fastest way to make money - Its great to be ambitious and there is nothing wrong in doing that - but people take a step back - love what your doing - learn because you want to know - travel because you want to learn - marry because you want to love ! Not because our social conditioning has driven us to !