The future of our children lies in the hands of 'this' type of irresponsible teachers.

I read this news about an intermediate student who got 'zero' (do they give 'zero' mark to anyone nowadays?) in the exam, got 75% after he applied for re-valuation!

The Deccan Chronicle says:

An Intermediate student who was shocked at getting ‘zero’ marks in the exam was wonder struck at seeing it climb to 75 when he applied for re-verification.

Likewise, a student who got 59 marks in math had been given nine marks by the evaluators. This startling ‘counting error’ also came out during re-verification.

Variation of one to five marks is common during re-verification,” said Mr G. Balaramaiah, secretary of the Board of Intermediate Education. “But this time, we have noticed huge variation in some cases. We will initiate stern action against the evaluators responsible for this.” The BIE has found serious evaluation errors in the case of 4,000 of the total 20,000 applicants who sought re-verification.

The gross negligence of evaluators would have marred the career of thousands of students in the wake of 25 per cent weight given for Intermediate marks while determining the rank in Eamcet. BIE top brass have decided to issue notices to about 1,500 lecturers who committed mistakes during evaluation and to impose a penalty ranging from Rs 3,000 to Rs 10,000 on them. They will also be barred from evaluation duties for three years. The BIE is also planning to lodge criminal cases against negligent evaluators in cases where the variation of marks was ‘abnormal’.


The Hindu has got more to say on the 'zero' mark to 75 marks case:

With the startling variation of marks coming to light, the Board of Intermediate authorities are planning to initiate stringent action against the evaluator – a lecturer of a private college in Kadapa district.

Stranger is the explanation of the lecturer that he had awarded zero marks “as he could not understand the answers written in English”, authorities disclosed.

Considering the fallout of such an irresponsible action on the future of the student, the Board secretary, G. Balaramaiah, said a criminal case would be registered against the lecturer, whom he refused to identify.

“We have also asked the college management to remove him from service and a penalty fee would also be claimed from him,” he declared at a press conference here on Monday.

In some cases, some answers are not evaluated at all; some answers evaluated but marks not given; in some cases, evaluation is done, marks given, but not added to the total. In the last category, the evaluator simply strikes down the answer and awards ‘zero' marks.


This news hurt me more because I know a student, who had faced this type of blow in his Plus II marks.

This boy had been a top scorer in his classes throughout and got 100% in maths in 10th standard. When he came out of the examination hall, he told his parents, friends and teachers that he was sure of getting 98% (Maths exam). That year, the maths paper was long and many students could not complete answering the paper. This problem went upto the Parliament and they decided to add 5 or 10% (I don't remember correctly) as grace marks for the particular paper. After all this, the boy got 56%! He was planning to write IIT entrance, but he could not do so. He stayed at home for one year and the parents thought that he would try the IIT, the coming year. Instead, he wrote SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test) and got 99 percentile (top score in India), got admission in a top Engineering University abroad with 94% scholarship.

This is one example of why the cream of our intelligent children hate to settle down here, in our country. Sincerity is not visible anywhere, even in our education system, where the future of our children is decided.

The teacher who just got bored to correct the paper and gave 'zero' marks to the student must be having children of his own.

We are taught to treat teachers as god from our childhood - 'Maatru devo bhava, Pitru devo bhava, Aacharya devo bhava'. My own family has got devoted teachers but the teacher from Kadappa, is a shame on the whole clan of good teachers.

A garland of songs...add one or two of your own to this please...!

After a long time, I am doing a musical post and all of you please come and join!

Both sides of my family are music lovers. When we have a get-together or a function at home we play 'anthaakshari'. Sometimes, one of us will just hum a song and others will join with another song which comes to their mind after hearing that song...so we continue in this way and it will become a chain or garland of songs of similar tune - raaga.

As many of you know by now, I am a great fan of Jagjit Singh and this song is one of my favourite. Whenever I play this cd, I hear this song in the 'repeat' mode! I never get bored of hearing this song! Now, let me start this chain with this song:



This soulful song from the movie 'Leader', is picturized on Vyjayanthimaala and Dilip Kumar. Music is by our famous Naushad saab:



This Kannada song by Rajkumar, from the movie 'Hosa Belaku', is my favourite one. The tune is the exact replica of the above two! Rajkumar's voice is so expressive, here:



This is also a melodious song. You can watch MGR and Jayalalitha (younger Ammmaa!) in this song. MGR's movies were famous for melodious songs. I could not get the video of the whole song, this one runs for just 3 mts., sorry. Now, watch this song:



This song is from my favourite film, 'Unnaal mudiyum thambi'. The storyline of this Tamil movie was very good. I love this song picturized on Seetha and our Kamal:



Sharmila Tagore is one of my favourite actress and I loved the movie 'Amar Prem'. As soon as I got married (1974!), we were invited to our relatives' places for dinner and everyone 'thought' I was a good singer, that too, of Hindi songs, which was new to them! If anyone asked me to sing a song, I used to start with this song! I remember the lyrics of very few songs - 2 stanzas of songs! I can sing along with many songs, though! Whenever my husband hears this song now, he will start laughing and recite the old story to my sons! So, this song has got a special place in my heart!



Now, please hear the songs and if you remember anyother song after hearing this, please jot down! If you don't get it in 'you tube', it is OK! Let us enjoy music together!

Nagercoil bids adieu to plastic - District Collector explains how they did it!

I received this comment for my post 'Nagercoil bids adieu to plastic, shall we try to follow them?' today, from the District Collector of Kanyakumari @ Nagercoil. He has explained the step by step method of how he was able to implement this ban, which each and every State of our country and people can follow as an example. Now, to the comment:

Rajendra Ratnoo has left a new comment on your post "Nagercoil bids adieu to plastic, shall we try to f...":

Thanks to the author and all those who contributed here in discussion, on behalf of District Administration and the People of Kanyakumari District! Its really encouraging for me, my team and the people of this district to hear such nice feedback! One little correction, the plastics carry bags and cups are banned in the entire District, consisting of 1057 rural habitations, 56 Town Panchayats and 4 Municipalities (Nagercoil is one among the 4 municipalities) and not in Nagercoil alone! What made us to succeed is that we did almost a six months long campaign and this campaign had some specific strategies, such as

1.Campaign had three components- Awareness generation, Training for behavioral Change of all stakeholders and Enforcement from a preannounced date i.e. 1st April

2.Focus in the trainings beyond knowledge i.e. on change in attitude and behaviour

3. Leading by example before preaching i.e. before launching the campaign in Public Domain, First Collector and his family stopped using plastics, then entire Collector Office Staff and District Level Officers said NO to it, then we targeted the Leaders and opinion makers, including Honourable Minister for Tourism, MLAs, Municipal and Town Pt Chairpersons and gradually we went down upto ward members, SHG leaders, Traders, and sanitary workers!

4. Multiple Channels of Communication, including vernacular media, Schools, Colleges, FM Radio, SMS,Voice calls from District Collector to all citizens, through religious leaders i.e. both mass media, and interpersonal communication strategies were used!

The results of our team work are very encouraging and we are following and monitoring the Enforcement! Tamil Nadu Pollution Control Board provided good support in the campaign.

We have now launched the next Campaign for waste segregation and decentralised composting wherever possible and stopping pollution of water bodies that will be liable for criminal action from 1st July! We finally dream for a Zero Garbage Kanyakumari District! Solicit support and encouragement of responsible civil society members like you!

Thanks and regards

Rajendra Ratnoo, IAS

District Collector, Kanyakumari @ Nagercoil, TN

Thank you Sir, for your valuable comment to my post and this will help everyone who wants to follow your steps to ban plastics in our day-to-day usage.

I made this comment of the District Collector into a post because I would like everyone to know that if there is a will, there is a way. There is no meaning in just complaining that the government is not doing anything for banning plastics or in any other matter. We can all come together with the help of leaders like Mr.Rajendra Ratnoo. We really admire him and we need more people like him.

Mumbai Meri Jaan - a movie which hails the spirit of Mumbaikars!

Long back I had read the review of this movie 'Mumbai Meri Jaan' written by one of my blog friends, sorry, I have forgotten the name. The review said that the movie was very good. I always like to go to the theatres and watch movies. If watch at home, in TV, I must go through the boring ad breaks, which will disrupt the flow of the movie. Watching funny light movies in TV is OK with me. So, I watched this movie at home reluctantly - in dvd. But, after watching the movie at home, I didn't regret much because it was very good and waiting to go to the theatres means, I would have missed this superb movie!

I had reviewed 'Firaaq' earlier, the storyline of which is nearly similar but the way both the films are picturized, is entirely different. In Firaaq, in the after effects of a terrorist attack, some violence is shown. Here, except the burning compartment scene of a First class compartment, they don't show anyother violence.

This movie, Mumbai Meri Jaan, is made on the impact of six people from different strata/lifestyles, after the July 2006 serial bombing of suburban trains of Mumbai.

Soha Ali Khan plays as Rupali, a TV journalist who is to be married in two months, loses her fiance in the bomb blast. Her colleague compels her to face the camera for an interview, like she was doing all these time. I have never seen her movie earlier and it was a surprise to watch her superb acting.

Madhavan, as Nikhil Agarwal, who acts as a corporate officer, is a patriotic man and doesn't want to leave the mother country even when he is offered better jobs abroad. After the bomb blast, he has got second thoughts about staying in India. Madhavan, as everyone knows, is a versatile actor.

Irfan Khan, as Thomas, is a roadside coffee vendor, a happy man with a wife and daughter. Though he is not affected directly by the bomb blasts, he watches the effects of them and tries to use them. Irfan is at his best, as usual.

Kay Kay Menon, as Suresh, is a computer tech, who is not a responsible person, just spends time blindly criticizing muslims, blaming them for the blasts. His acting is always memorable in each and every movie.

Paresh Rawal, as Tukaram Patil, is the typical policeman who is to retire in a couple of days. He is used to the system and whether he likes it or not, blends with it. Rawal is a versatile actor, who can do his best in any role ... villain or comedian or father or grand father!

Vijay Mourya, as Kadam, his deputy, who dreams to be a good cop, struggles to adjust with the corrupt police world.

The story depicts the worst and best sides of these characters, after the devastating incident and shows how the people of Mumbai come together, which brings hope in a corner of our heart.

This film is directed by Nishikant Kamat and like Firaaq was Nandita Das's first directorial venture, this one is Nishikant's first Bollywood film! He had directed a Tamil movie called 'Evano Oruvan', with Madhavan and it got rave reviews too. This is really unbelievable, these are born directors. Waiting to see his next movie.

This is a scene which I loved, where Paresh Rawal gives a speech on the day of his retirement, shows a sample of the quality of the movie, though many many more scenes are there to remember about this movie:




This is a 'must watch' movie.

Good bye, USHA! 27 years of sweet memories...

.

Sometimes we never know that we are so much attached to ordinary things, until it goes out of our lives. We take it for granted when it is in front of our eyes. We think that it is occupying the extra space and cleaning/dusting it, is an extra work. Once it is removed from that space and when we look at the empty floor with scratch mark, our heart becomes, sort of, heavy, maybe for the first few days - I feel so now, I might be wrong, only time will tell.

I learnt to pedal a sewing machine as soon as I finished school. I went to some free classes for a few days, in the school holidays and learnt to stitch the corners of kerchief-like squares! When I was pregnant with my first child, I stitched napkins for the baby - again squares and triangles! No 'Huggies' were available in those days (1976!)! I used my neighbour's machine for stitching them.

After we shifted to Hosur (I remember Smitha's words saying that I write a lot about Hosur which must be my favourite place, yes, Smitha, you are right!) and settled with the school routine of my children, I joined a tailoring class. A Maharashtrian lady taught me and I and my friend used to go to her house thrice a week for 2 hours. I got very much interested and wanted to buy a machine. Got this USHA machine for around Rs.2000 (27 years back!) and paid in instalments of Rs.200 a month! I stitched so much that though it was a 'table top' model, I never folded it and used it as a table until some years back, no, I should not lie (!), say 10-12 years back.

I remember going to the local textile shops and buying for pittance, the last pieces of blouse and dress materials, design and make frocks and skirts out of them. Since I don't have daughters, I used to gift them to my nieces, friends' daughters, etc. I remember stitching umbrella cut skirts, frocks etc. with garden dress materials (one type was called china silk and it never faded for a long long time). Did smocking, applique work, mirror work etc. on frocks. Stitched pinafore school uniform dress for my friend's daughter, full-arm shirts and full pants for my sons (though not many!)too.

I had many many good friends there and once three of us planned to do an exhibition of baby dresses. We stitched nice cotton jablas and small frocks etc. with embroideries. Small small dresses with smocking...all were of pastel shades. Tied some ropes on the walls of my friend's house and hanged them with clips. The price was very nominal. Because it was a housing colony, news spread very fast and people visited our exhibition and everything was sold within two days. I remember stitching small small flowers (french knot, chain stitch etc.) at night after finishing all the house work, on frocks and kerchiefs. I learnt many new things from my talented friends, when I was in Hosur. One friend was an expert in cutting and designing, one was good in embroidery, I was good in stitching and to some extent, in some embroidery too......hmmm...those were the busy busy happy happy days!

I used to stitch my own blouses until nearly 15 years back. Mostly high necked blouses with short sleeves, sometimes round necked with long sleeves. Then when we had a function at home, I started giving my silk blouses for stitching with lining material to a tailor and lo, that was a wrong decision! I stopped stitching blouses! Later on, the machine was used only for stitching pillow cases and other ordinary things. Then, most of the time, it was used as a table!

We had been thinking of disposing it off, for sometime now, because it was lying unused and occupying space. When my servant maid said that she was looking for a second hand machine for her father-in-law, I decided to give it off for a nominal amount. Nothing is valuable if it comes for free, my husband always says. So, my machine was sent off and after it left my house, I feel bad now. I was consoled by my friends, saying that they had sold their machines long back!

'My pyjama is torn near the ankle and no machine to stitch it now', my husband was grieving, today morning!