Author: charukesi

A friend of mine recently started her blog with a post on a topic that has been on my mind for a while. On her tryst with the telly. She wonders through the post at the way educated, intelligent women soak up whatever trash is churned out in the form of popular entertainment. Very thought-provoking…..… Continue reading On ‘serial’ killing….

Dina writes about the ongoing debate on qualitative vs quantitative studies (her link through James Robertson). Having read both sides of the argument, she says I suspect both are a little extreme – and call for a case-by-case decision. I was naturally intrigued; after all this is a question that all researchers keep asking and… Continue reading Which research method?

Earlier this week, I was at a conference where the focus was on ICTS for development in India. Among many interesting speakers was Prof. Kriti Ramamrutham from IIT Bombay. The Professor is working in the Media Lab Asia Project which has been described as the world’s largest academic research program dedicated to bringing the benefits… Continue reading Thinking out of the ‘demo’ mode

After adults and teenagers, it is now the turn of children…. To be researched as ‘consumers’. O&M India’s knowledge management unit, Ogilvy Discovery recently conducted a national-level study on Indian children in the 4-to-12-years age group. The aim of the study was to understand the pressures and motivations of Indian children, and glean implications for… Continue reading Insights on Indian kids

Received this on email today. This presentation has a lot of cool clip-art pics and colours…. I wish I could reproduce them here but here is the content anyway…. Read on….. ——————————————————————One upon a time there was a French rowing team.France and Japan agreed to an annual rowing race. Each team containing eight men.Both teams… Continue reading The Race

I recently finished reading two books, both by foreign writers on a chase within India. It is rarely that one comes across writings on India that is empathetic without being condescending. And sadly enough, I find that foreigners manage that more often than Indians themselves do (me and my Naipaul basing, will it ever stop?!).… Continue reading The Great Indian Chase

What is it about flyovers and over-bridges that speaks to the artist in a person ? I am talking about paintings and signs on flyovers that take graffiti to news heights…. Was crossing Tilak bridge in Dadar recently, reading all the painted signs and slogans along the sides. I stopped short at ‘ie Push DIe’.… Continue reading All about contemporary art

Going by the comments on my earlier post on education standards, I have some more thoughts : where we seem to getting it right is in content. And where we are goofing up is in teaching methodology…. I used to see kids in UK schools being encouraged to draw and paint and write stories at… Continue reading Teaching – content v/s methodology ?

While we in India are struggling with the huge problem of universalisation of primary education, there are more and more rumblings from the West, struggling with yet another issue : providing literacy and learning. Note, not schooling, for that is a given, but education, the expected end-product of those fifteen odd years at school. While… Continue reading Education standards : here and there

In a column headed Minor Matters, The Times of India writes about motivation classes for young children. In an attempt to give their kids a headstart in life, parents are putting them through personality development programmes…… A headstart to what ? Heck ! Till I was 18 or so, I did not even know I… Continue reading Not so minor a matter