Recent Posts

Goddesses are Us: Maitrikas in Indian Art

In a recent conversation about museums, I remembered one of my favourite exhibitions at the National Museum in New Delhi from 2014: The Body in Indian Art by the incredibly talented Naman Ahuja, Associate Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University. In the catalogue, Dr. Ahuja writes: “The body and its […]

Of Last Messages and Messages that Last

“Got another one: ‘Dung-beetle, scarab from Egypt’” It was the 4th of March 2019, Shivaratri day, when I took a flight to meet Dr. Anandalakshmy for the last time. I had been meaning to take the trip for a while, but something kept coming in the way. We had received news of her failing health […]

What’s that word?

We often struggle to find words for our thoughts, and more specifically, to recall a known word. And as we grow older, maybe even more frequently. Searching for appropriate words in another (known) language can also be a challenge for multilinguals, not only because the word may be temporarily inaccessible (which also happens), but also […]

Conversations in the Classroom: Reflections on the New Education Policy

In an earlier post, we presented some highlights of the New Education Policy released recently, after several years of intense discussion between the policy-makers and experts in the field. Today, we address the issue of conversations in and outside the classroom; basically conversations outside the familiar terrain of the home. There are several nuances related […]

New Education Policy 2020-Extracts

The launch of the New Education Policy on July 29th, 2020 that was delayed on account of the pandemic, the Government appointed panel led by the former chief of the Indian Science Research Organisation former Indian Space Research Organisation Prof. K Kasturirangan, the Government aims to introduce the policy before the new session kicks in promises […]

Science and Ethics in a ‘Post-Coronial’ Society: Students’ responsibilities

Today’s essay features the proceedings of a webinar organised by the Department of Human Development and Childhood Studies at the Lady Irwin College, University of Delhi on the 22nd of July, 2020. Here is an audio file of the talk that you can listen to along with the PPT, if you wish. I have also […]

Encounters in E-learning: News and Views

In today’s post, we bring you some encounters in online teaching, some fun moments, as well as some serious reflections. At the end of the post, we also provide some readings that may be of interest. Ever since children have been engaged with online classrooms, we have had a flood of jokes about awkward moments […]

Scenes from a Himalayan Festival: Part Three

Today’s photo essay brings a small story from the annual festival held at the Nyoma monastery, with a brief introduction and references to the spiritual and religious activity of the Changpas, a deeply religious Buddhist community. We focus on the lighthearted role children play in the sombre ceremonies of the festival.