Nil Battey Sannata Review

 I just finished Nil Battey Sannata. What a wonderful movie about a single mom who is trying to raise her daughter. The film was amazing and gives insight into what many of us are not even aware of the plight of poor people. For example growing up I was always told that or kind of knew that I will be an engineer. So in a way I always had confidence about myself and the future. The film hit me hard when you realize that not everyone is so fortunate.

            Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia has made this movie tax free in Delhi and that speaks volume about the quality of the movie and their intention is to make education free for all. It's an uplifting story that should be seen by everyone. Few weeks back there was a story about the drought in Bundelkhand district of India and how the people were fleeing their villages and migrating to big cities. They hardly had enough money to pay for the train tickets. Most of these families will end up with menial jobs in the big city and that will totally wreck the future of their families.
            I am totally convinced that good quality education is the most important tool to uplift the economy of the country. Take for instance the Ecuador example the president there has been proactive in implementing quality education through the IB program. They have been aiming to have over 500 IB schools by 2017. Working in IB school has taught me its one of the best program for schools as it prepares them in multi facet way. Especially I like the IB learner Profile where they are trained to be better communicative, risk-takers, inquirers, knowledgeable, open-minded, thinkers, principled, caring, balanced and reflective. Because once you have defined it then its easy to focus on each of those ideas and that's where I think IB shines.
   So to sum up my review of Nil Battey Sannanta. Please go watch it. It's a great uplifting movie that should be shown in each government school in India. It helps one to think and have dreams!
       

Bringing Moocs to solve India's higher education problem

One of the big problem in India right now is to provide quality higher education to every one. One of the good step in that direction is the NPTEL program and they have done a good job of providing certification for their online courses. However this year just in Delhi there will be over 150,000 kids who will have a rough time getting admission in university as there are not enough number of seats. What government can do is to open a mooc university which will help not only in reskilling but can also provide everybody the opportunity to gain a certification and degree. Considering the success of Georgia Universities tie up with udacity to provide a legitimate degree and now Coursera jumping into that its high time we do this in India.  Edx is also providing the global freshman curriculum through Arizona State University. American Universities will be very reluctant to provide degree as the end product as education is a big business and this is where India can come in and fill the gap. Several factors work in our favor. We have a pressing need to educate large number of people and we can do it cheaply as we are doing with NPTEL certification.

    Take for instant the MITs free OCW program. Its been 10 years and still they haven't been able to provide all the video lectures for their courses and they are way behind India's NPTEL in terms of sharing their resources inspite of the massive funding they enjoy!

     Coursera when started initially had big and lofty goal of making the content available for free but inspite of thier best intention have now been struggling to provide the upper level courses.
     India will have to take a lead by providing the way to certification. The model could be where you can take exam and get the degree. The exams should be very hard and test your mastery and should be affordable. The goal is that anyone who has passed those exams has demonstrated the mastery of the subject.

Angry Indian Goddesses

I think this is one of the best movie to have come highlight the plight of women in India. It covers many areas that women in Indian find themselves at the receiving end and anyone who has lived there can readily identify with that. It's truly a wonderful one directed by Pan Nalin. Finally a movie that should be watched by every Indian. I hope Kejriwal sees it and tweets about it and more people get to see this really touching movie and I do hope that it inspires new generation of directors to take up such issues and bring positive change in the society. Kudos Pan Nalin, cast and everyone involved for the amazing work.

Delhi Government gives paid holiday for its employees and students to learn Vipassana

This would put Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia the practicing duo into the league of Ashoka. Vipassana is now going to be taught in schools and the teachers can get a paid leave to learn this technique. This is perhaps the biggest social engineering step that AAP has taken and its good step in the right direction. This is a step none of the opposition can publicly oppose especially Kiran Bedi who brought this to Tihar Jail and got lot of publicity. Going by her tweets its very clear that she doesn't practice or even understand Vipassana but will be tongue tied to speak against it. The biggest political beneficiary will be AAP and biggest loosers will be current political parties. which is great for the country. Another great step by AAP. 

The Speech that made me Arvind Kejriwal's fan

I love this speech and it was that speech which made me his fan. It's better to make 5 less flyover but to educate our children and tomorrow they will make 2000 more flyover. Hats off Arvindji !!

Biased Indian media. Aap will win more than 100 seats in Loksabha poll !

The Times of India is today claiming that AAP will win only 7 seats in the upcoming lok sabha poll. I am bookmarking this article so when the results come out you could verify for yourself. My conservative estimate is AAP is going to get more than 100 seats easily. So this article is totally fake and it is sponsored by BJP and Congress who still cannot see the writing on the wall. Their political days are numbered. People have woken up and you guys are going down the drain. Sorry Modiji you will not become prime minister. Come back after 5 years and in the mean time get rid of your corrupt ministers.

How can AAP party dramatically increase its reach ?

There are three things they need to do.
1. Pass the lokpal bill.
2. Give details about their education and economic policies.
3. Express clearly their foreign policy.

Arvind Kejriwal's interview with Rajdeep Sardesai has already gone viral. Over a million people have watched it through facebook, different postings on youtube. The way he has answered the questions left Rajdeep Sardesai in total awe and so is Barkha Dutt. So much so the media think tanks have begun to shun away taking his interview as more people are now identifying with him. Here are the link in case you want to have few laughs at the expense of these interviewers

Bad media politics, AAP will surprise in Lok Sabha

I am keeping track of the happenings in Delhi Politics. I had never been interested this much before and in spite of my self imposed curfew on not writing about it. I think if I don't it will be a grave injustice to people of India. Aravind Kejriwal has given new hope to people of India about getting rid of corruption. It has become such an integral part of the fabric of nation that we thought its better to ignore as this cannot be get rid of. However the more you watch Arvind speak you get convinced that after all this monster could be contained only if we begin from scratch and not let he honest people get sucked in. That is one reason we all need to support Aam Admi party. It will be be a grave mistake if people let this opportunity slip by. Most of the media houses in India are operated by cunning politicians who just want to stay in power and milk money. See the above interviews and speech. The media is trying to show him in bad light. So now they are blocking his speech and the other side of story. People like Barkha Dutt, Arnab Goswami are trying their best to mint money from Congress and BJP and showing the skewed story. The stupid politician like Dr. Harsh Vardhan and other BJP officials when appear on television end up showing their true color when they speak. Let they appear more on tv and let people know that how bad and corrupt these people are.
    I am a big fan of Narendra Modi and think he can truly bring change but to elect him means to get people like Harsh Vardhan, Shushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Dr Swamy, Yedurappa which will be a total disaster. Its shame that Modi will not become the prime minister and I am guessing even winning 150 seats in Lok Sabha will be a big deal. Embrace for some exciting times.
     I hope people realise this and bring more honest people in politics. This lok sabha election could be a game changer and people should exercise their vote.