When we were locked in !

This is my first attempt at photo blogging! I am not too sure of the rules and formats and not sure even how useful is this platform for the same but we won't know until we try. 

This relates to the period when we were all locked indoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic. When our freedom to step out of our homes at will, our choice of meeting people (friends, colleagues, strangers) and doing what we wish was taken away. Forced to see the world from the limiting frames of our windows and balconies, I found the frame of camera liberating. The frame allowed me to look up to the skies, zoom in and look at objects far away, zoom out get a different perspective, step back to soak in the surroundings all through the power of the lens. One of the things that my wife and I used to talk about is the colour of the sky. I used to joke around that in Delhi the sky is brown or grey because of the terrible air pollution. The AQI numbers of Delhi were usually a matter for memes as we had stopped worrying about it beyond a point and started to make jokes about it. Due to the pandemic induced lock down the AQI numbers were as good as any other city and "the sky was never blue(er)" as my wife often remarked. 

I was particularly fascinated by the birds in and around my house and the small park facing it. We live in one of the smaller blocks of the busy and bustling Malviya Nagar in the southern part of Delhi. Delhi contrary to it's image and actual status of one of the most polluted cities of the world with worst AQIs which are often 7-10 times that of the accepted range, is home to a large species and number of birds. There could be many reasons for it but one of them is the fact that Delhi for a capital city of a large, populous country has one of the largest percentage of green cover in terms of forests, parks and natural habitats. Most pockets of Delhi's 'colonies' or 'blocks' would have a small or big park. 

Where one would find common birds like pigeons, crows and bulbuls along with many other small birds such as the sun-bird, fly-catcher and others. 

And just because they don't have a fancy name, we see them everywhere around us and do not have to travel to somewhere and wait for sometime doesn't take anything away from their beauty, their cheerfulness, playfulness and voices.

We have a special relationship with the pigeons though. We love them, hate them but can't do without them and vice versa it seems. They are always eager to come to our small balcony, sit on our AC, do their thing (yes!) and even tried to make their nest and lay eggs. We call them our 'boys' and one of the first things that my wife does in the mornings is to clean up the mess the boys leave around and rest of the day it's my job to shoo them away. But boys will be boys! 

And boys like to do boys things! They reproduce and their children do necessarily take after them initially but soon they too become part of the 'boys' and we can't tell one from the other.

These are pigeons too (they are called yellow-footed green pigeons and are apparently the state bird of Maharashtra)

When you are forced to slow down and be steady, you observe the change in things, you otherwise would not. Like we saw the change of seasons through this peepul tree: where we saw how the lush green leaves of the tree turned pale-yellow, fell to the ground leaving the tree without any leaves but where hope and life slowly found it's way back. We saw the cycle of life repeat itself again and again.

These vegetable vendors and other essential service providers were the only humans we could see other than ourselves. It was interesting how it took a pandemic to make us realise what was essential and what was not! How these jobs and people, hitherto unnoticed became celebrated as frontline workers and heroes. But for how long?

We also saw deep compassion and thoughtfulness for not just humans but animals. This guy would turn up at the exact same hour, sun or rain; serve the dogs of our and other streets with cooked food on paper plates and then come back to collect the plates.

Here are some of the rockstars and celebrities! Well, I know some of their names and could share details but just enjoy their beauty, grace and poise ! 

Will end this blog with a story of hope. I was told that sparrows - the common house sparrow had apparently almost disappeared from Delhi some time back. Maybe because of some efforts, or some prayers or hope but most certainly because of the wonderful ways nature works they have now made a comeback. 

Do leave a comment. On the photos or the writing or both. All photos were taken by a human (me) using a Canon EOS gifted to us many many years back by family. To the freedom to be out of our homes, fly away from the routine, travel and live.

Hope for learning and learning for hope

It's hard for me to feel elated, ecstatic and upbeat about the day i.e. 15 Aug, our independence day. I am not a pessimist but it's hard to look beyond the 'here and now' and find solace in what we have achieved as a country in all these years and feel as euphoric at least not as we are supposed to feel about it - 'Har Ghar Tiranga', 'Har office Tiranga' and post-selfies about it and 'Amrit kaal' the echoes of which is going to last another 1000 years or so we are told. 

Well, people who have tried to control, predict and shape history with their vice like-grips, ever-so-sure about the firmness of their iron-fists, the certainty of results of their actions, infallibility of their designs and programs (or pogroms if you like) have often lived to see something different, unexpected and disastrous befall their el-dorado or utopia. Some of such mythical, imaginative (as they have no base in reality) and utterly nefarious designs, structures and actions may take a few generations to be decimated and pulverised to the dust of time! 

Coming back to 'what is' and 'what would be' makes one a bit poignant, a bit pessimistic, almost forcing one to flee and avoid these thoughts and find solace in work, endless distractions on phone, music, Netflix (cinema, webseries) or in travel, yoga or gym, in social occassions, family and other banalities of the day! 

Yes, we have achieved many things and the very existence of this nation-state as a sovereign (yes we are not directly governed by another country), democratic (at least in pretention of adult franchise, elections and government) and united (yeah, we haven't had state(s) splinter away from the country, a civil war that resulted in a coo or similar) should be celebrated. We are doing better than ever as economists and statisticians will tell us in terms of well-being not only in economic development (GDP, GDP per capita, roads, ports, airports, infra and what have you!) but also in social indicators of health, education, nutrition etc. Many social disaparities have reduced such as access of girls and socially disadvantaged groups (SC, STs) to primary education, women's participation in economy etc. So what's the crib about? 

The gripe isn't about the direction; it's about the pace, the inclusiveness and wholeness (of texture) of this progress or growth we have achieved in all these years after independence. 

Let's unpack one by one. The pace or quantum or rate of growth. It's hard to disagree that a faster rate of progress would have been better, that's the nature of any growth, more always seems better! But, haven't we done well looking at the constraints of resources (we were left an extremely poor country) and where we started (our baseline was so low!)? Yes, we have done well compared to where we were (the starting line) but one has to also look at where one should be (the finishing line)! I will quote only one set of statistics of a field I know well - education and can argue, debate with facts, data, experience and understanding. But, I am urging you to reflect if the same is true of other areas of human life. 

We have ensured (today and almost for a few years now) that almost all (90% or more) of our primary school going age children are enrolled in some or the other school (government or private). This we should be happy about. Could we have done this earlier ? Yes. There was no reason why we couldn't have started earnest efforts soon after moving education into the concurrent list in 1977; making universal primary education as a national goal as we did after the MDGs prioritised Education for All (EFA) and allocating resources and efforts towards it for the next 20-25 years as we did under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA). We could have been where we are today in the early 2000s! 

Second, talking about the wholeness of things. Most children are enrolled in schools but only 60-70% of them attend schools regularly. I am taking a larger range to accomodate and avoid discussions about which sources I am using and reliability of one versus the other - ASER, NAS, NFHS or anything else. And as with any avereges, they mask the situation or starkness of data - so Bihar, UP (and that's a lot) attendance situation is 45-60%. Enrolment is not schooling ! My name is there in a school register, is not equal to I go to school. Simple? 

Third, more than half of the children in the schools are not learning the foundational skills of reading, writing and basic maths. The world bank calls it 'learning poverty', some of us call it a 'learning crisis' and even 'learning emergency'. It is all of that. Again, let's not get into statistics, data reliability, incentives or under or over reporting here. I can separately engage on it. More than half of all children (mind you this is regardless of private or public) of primary age not learning or acquiring these basic universal skills would means crores of children, 7-8 crores of them ! Let that sink in slowly, take your time. 

To come back to the inclusiveness of the progress. It shouldn't be too hard to guess who would be the majority of these 7-8 crore children. Children belonging to SC, ST, religious minorities, remote rural areas, girls, children enrolled in all government or affordable private schools? In other words, children of poor parents or parents who are unable to spend large amount of money on their child's education or life. That's the single biggest determinant - parental income. So, income poverty is the reason for learning poverty and further those children who are subjected to learning poverty today are the ones who will very likely suffer from income poverty as they become adults and start their families due to lack of these basic universal skills. I used the word subjected to learning poverty as we the state (people of this republic) are responsible for it not the child. 

We even guaranteed it (mind you not enrollment in schools, but education or learning) as a fundamental right ! So, if the children are not learning, we have failed to provide and ensure that right for them. 

I want to end with 'what would be' and yet again in this age and times of post-truth (basically falsehood) something that doesn't give a lot of scope for optimism is that if we are not aligned on a single picture of reality today how can we on the plans and direction of future. In fact to make matters worse, some people are actively attempting to change 'what was' i.e. history! What happened, happened! Yes, we know that certain narratives get more prominence than others - that of the victors and that of the rulers but alternative narratives do exists and they come out in their own time and space. It is for the students of history and others interested to pick a wholesome meal out of this buffet of narratives. But for a section of those who are ruling today (and in majority) for the furtherance of a bigoted agenda, driven by the desire to shape the future, it's not very scientific or healthy to attempt to change the past. 

That's worrisome yet again not just because we are making a mistake or many mistakes or going down the wrong path! That we have done many times in the past and will continue to do so. It's the systematic shutting down or the attempts to shut down the possibility of learning (from our mistakes and successes both) that's the most concerning for me. Starting with poor learning for children but certainly extending all the way to the very poor learning (or re-learning tending to brainwashing) of adult-citizen, fuelled and fully aided by media, technology and the powers of narratives. 

Societies and nations will continue to make mistakes and have deep rootes challenges of class-divide, caste (this is our special contribution), religion, region, language, sex, sexual-orientation and everything else that can divide (and interestingly unite) the homo-sapien but as long as we learn there is hope ! 

There is !

Sincere, apologies for lack of editing and mistakes. I just typed this whole thing on phone and posted it.