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	<title>With the Left and the Right</title>
	<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog</link>
	<description>There is much more in life...</description>
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		<title>A new trigger to productivity?</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday I felt miserably lost and figured I wasn&#8217;t doing anything worthwhile staring at the screen. I took a quick shower and decided to take a stroll. Left at about 1749 and decided to walk down to the Shangumugam beach about 6kms from my house. In a sturdy pace I hit the beach and returned back on a different route. Thought process all through the walk was nothing intellectual. Just random strings buzzing in and out. Got back home and hit the bed pretty early. What happened post this is something that really got me thinking. I saw this amazing dream of me strategically and miraculously surviving from a historic fort that was giving in to torrential waters from an ancient collapsing dam. Looks like we[Not really sure 'Who'] were walking across this really huge dam. The water is quite transparent and is sparkling blue. All of a sudden we sense the water level going up. People start running helter skelter and there&#8217;s a mad rush to get across to the safer contours. Funnily there&#8217;s also a set of people who&#8217;re lazily walking around. Then there&#8217;s an immaculate focus on a few people trying to help others cross. and even before we know most of us are in the water. A few know how to swim, rest are left dangling underwater on to crevices on the stone formations. [The water is pristine blue and transparent.] Somehow the whole setup changes and is now of a historic fort and water gushing into....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2011/11/a-new-trigger-to-productivity/</link>
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		<title>When a dynasty is born&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yet another day was coming to an end and the people of the land were tending their chores. It was all one peaceful ambiance with just minor disruptions here and there.  To help manage the affairs, the architect of the land decided to pull up a few responsible men and women and give them the authority to administer sections of the land..Well, &#8216;Decentralization of power&#8217; as they call it. And then, things changed. With just one word, rose eleven kingdoms all powerful and energetic. And within minutes, the Kings and Queens swore at the altar to uprise their just formed kingdoms. Ministers, Treasurers and Soldiers were deputed and responsibilities bestowed. Ever since then, things have drastically improved. The men and women now have something really concrete to look forward to &#8211; a structure, a pattern and above all rejoice in the powers that they otherwise would not have. There&#8217;s now an aura of peace in the empire and the subjects seem to be showing quite some interest in strengthening their kingdoms.  As days progress, the architect is still working out the finer details as to how the empires could be allowed to rule in mutual peace and still compete with each other for mutual benefit. Welcome to Class of IIA at Epiphany- Where we play the Age of Empires with real Kings, Queens and Ministers! Looking back, it&#8217;s kind of funny how just a random idea seems to be making so much of an impact on the kids. Ever since we divided....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2011/02/when-a-dynasty-is-born/</link>
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		<title>Looking back at 2010&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Over the past few months, there&#8217;s a lot thats been happening; but for some reason I just didn&#8217;t take the time out to visit this space. With the school closed down for the Christmas break and keeping up with the self imposed rule of updating my blog every year-end, here&#8217;s a quick snapshot  of &#8216;my&#8217; 2010. This year has been quite interesting from various perspectives. Looking back, the major checkpoints[not necessarily listed in order] this year  would be: Ran the infamous Auroville half marathon and vowed never to stop running! Resigned from Infosys to join TeachforIndia. [leaving an awesome team behind and making one profound shift in my career.] Met Paruammai, attended a close friends wedding and more importantly explored Kerala like never before. Joined TFI and reveled in the five week long induction programme. Couldn&#8217;t resist the temptation to do the Katraj-Sinhagad night trek [Twice on successive weekends!] amidst the rigour of he institute. Missed spending quality time with family! Reported to Epiphany School where I&#8217;ve been teaching IInd grade kids for the past six months and probably continue to do so for the next 1.5yrs. Paid obeisance to the rain god by trekking the Kenjalgad fort [First monsoon trek by DH.] Hiked up to the Ahupe village to take some time out and celebrate yet another important milestone. Visited the Khadakwasla dam.[Failed executing  the rock band idea though!] Revisited[Hiked] Koraigad, Rajmachi and Ratangad. Rode to Khadakwasla dam [Got back to the byke after a long break of 5....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/12/looking-back-at-2010/</link>
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		<title>Dynamics of the playground&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Couple of  hours back I opened my student tracker,  just sat back and started mulling over how each of my kids have changed over the past few months. As I went through the list reading each of the kids names, images of the kid kept flashing in and out of my mind and most of them, so turned out to be of those moments when they were being ecstatic or really happy. This made me wonder how we as humans tend to capture/remember only the positives or the cheerful part in our relationships. But as a teacher, am I not failing my kids in not noticing their negative behaviour and working to get them back to their normal self? Am I doing justice to them by not stopping what I&#8217;m doing and not taking that extra time to pay attention to that minuscule behavioral change? How many times have I swept a behavioral change under the blanket and continued with my class/session? How many times have I &#8216;neglected&#8217; a kid in the rush to finish off a topic/objective? Sadly in retrospect I seem to recollect more than one occasions where I&#8217;ve failed noticing/paying heed to the change. This could probably be one of those reasons why a particular kid did not perform well in a particular objective; a reason why a particular kid did not receive me with the same enthusiasm as he otherwise would have and this is something I&#8217;m really beginning to appreciate in this role as a....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/11/dynamics-of-the-playground/</link>
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		<title>Windowed Illusions&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Yesterday was one of those real interesting days. Couple of friends and I had been to the Korlai fort and were heading back from Alibag late in the evening. Seated in the rear of the bus, I&#8217;m not really sure how this conversation/debate ensued. For about an hour or so the six of us had a heated conversation on various policies, practices, ideologies and biases. Probably one of the best ever deliberations since my Infy days. In introspection, it kind of gave me some food for thought on how I&#8217;d like to proceed with the rest of my fellowship or for the next two years. Since I last wrote, things have quite changed in my classroom and otherwise.  TFI has this concept of having two teachers in one class room if the number of students is more than 30. Kavitha, My co-teacher formally chipped in in July. With this things slowly seem to come under control. The kids receive more personal attention and we&#8217;re able to address issues in a much better fashion. Couple of kids who never even open their mouths are slowly opening up and and are showing interest in the classroom. The class dynamics has changed and kids are slowly learning to appreciate English.  Community visits seem to make an impact. Going by last weeks assessments the class per se has shown significant improvement. But looking holistically I still do not see myself doing justice to the kids. Two years down the lane when I move out....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/09/windowed-illusions/</link>
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		<title>Reflections by the roadside&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[As I take one last gulp of hot tea from a roadside stall, Ronnie wickedly smiles and brings his hand forward with a congratulatory gesture. He just says &#8211; &#8216;One month&#8217; and grins wildly! I wink back, pay for the tea and walk back towards the school gate. As we quickly make our way through the puddles and pits in the slight Pune drizzle, my mind wanders out in search of those small moments that I could call &#8216;achievements&#8217; of the month thats been from my one month of teachers life. Sadly I get to recollect just a couple of them. And then it looms on me again how important it is to appreciate minuscule milestones in this journey &#8211; Something which I&#8217;ve been working hard on ever since the summer school. Today for some reason, I&#8217;m not really as happy as I should have been. Administered a diagnostic test today and a perfunctory look at the sheets sunk me deeper in the gravel. These kids are just not able to answer even bare simple questions. I&#8217;ve spent about 23 whole days with these 46 kids and things do not really seem to be on the green side. Classroom and Behavior management still seems to be an issue and objectives wise I haven&#8217;t progressed much. They seem to understand Math concepts but for some reason that is just not translating onto the answer sheets. Collectively they seem to know how to reach to the solution but when asked individually they just put up....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/07/reflections-by-the-roadside/</link>
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		<title>The Induction wave&#8230;</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It’s been close to two months that I&#8217;ve been with TFI. 1 week of induction, 4 weeks of summer school and 2 weeks of Placement school.  There&#8217;s quite a lot that&#8217;s been weaving around here. I initially had planned to document most that’s been happening right from the first day but failed miserably.  The ‘induction’ wave just swept me off the coast and kept me in the waters for close to a month. The rigorous schedule during the institute and other things took priority and I just couldn’t fit in time to sit back and write what’s been brewing out here. Things slowly seem to have fallen in place now and I’ve decided to be a bit more regular on my site. For the next two years I would be a class teacher for about 45 second grade kids at the Epiphany school at Guruwarpet, Pune primarily focusing on their English and Math. Going by my preliminary analysis – None of my kids can speak even a basic English sentence properly, Most write in incorrigible handwriting, 2 have been passed on to the second grade despite failing in the first, Just 8 of them understand my English class instructions, Only 4 can differentiate a question from an answer, Average reading fluency stands at about 15wpm [Expected – 40wpm], 3 always retort in Hindi/Marathi when asked a question, Only 6 can add single digit numbers having carryover, 5 cannot even decipher numbers written on the board, 4 just do not want....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/06/the-induction-wave/</link>
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		<title>Connecting the dots&#8230;backwards</title>
		<description><![CDATA[Two more days and my vacation comes to an end. A lot was planned for but not everything worked the way I wanted it to. The North/NE trip didn&#8217;t materialize, the bamboo shelter remains an open chapter and the Kanyakumari-Delhi ride somehow just cascaded into oblivion. But a lot DID work out of the blue &#8211; I had an amazing trip down south, got a hang of living on a restricted budget, walked a couple of nice business deals to closure with a decent profit and also earned a couple of bucks by just reviewing stuff. I now have the confidence of eking out a living by doing meaningful things than just doing some mundane job! And an icing on the cake &#8211; The research proposal clicked. I just couldn&#8217;t have asked for a better vacation! Looking back on other aspects, I definitely have slacked a bit in terms of the outdoor activities. I&#8217;ve not been running and cycling as much as I wanted too. Probably it&#8217;s just the heat thats keeping me indoors. I definitely don&#8217;t want this to be on the downswing so I&#8217;ve revisited this years targets. Last year I&#8217;d ridden about 1300kms so this time I&#8217;ve set my target to 2500kms. On the running front I need to finish a Full Marathon in about 3h45m. &#8211; The August Hyderabad Marathon should be a good target. Given that I&#8217;m heading out to Pune these numbers should be pretty much reachable, but only time will tell. Coming to....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/04/connecting-the-dots-backwards/</link>
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		<title>17 Days.</title>
		<description><![CDATA[31st March &#8217;10. A few days back, I was mentioning to a friend of mine – Kerala is actually not ‘Gods’ own country’ during summers. Today as I sit by the window of a state transport bus bound towards Ernakulam from Munnar, I take back my statement. The cool gusts of evening breeze from the omnipresent coconut and Banana trees, the winding roads cutting through the Western Ghats, the narrow age old over-bridges on the canals and water-ways, the yellow haze of the sun as dusk sets in and the distinct architectural splendor portrayed by each of houses round the corner &#8211; Cruising in 80s on the barely twenty feet wide ghat roads, I realize there’s something ethereal about this place as I’m left to the mercy of the short mustached man behind the wheels. I just got back home from a long – or should I say, very long trip from deep down south. This for one was way too different from my regular trips. There was quite an element of predictability and specific destinations and timelines were charted out even before I left Hyderabad. But looking back at the places that I’ve covered during this 17 day vacation and more so the short yet invaluable time I got to spend at each of these distinct locations, I’m more than glad things turned out the way they did! The informal TFI meet at Pune on the 20th, for which I’d made last minute bookings and changes in my itinerary....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/04/17-days/</link>
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		<title>Meeting Paruammai</title>
		<description><![CDATA[It&#8217;s about 04:30Hrs and there&#8217;s not a single soul or bus in the stand. At about 05:00hrs, a tea vendor rides in on his bicycle. I check with him if there&#8217;s a direct bus to Pallavur to which he responds in affirmative stating the first one should be leaving at about 05:30hrs. He even obliges to get me on to the right bus once it comes in -  Buses in Kerala are mostly marked in Malayalam and unless you know to read the language, It becomes a bit difficult in boarding the right bus. I&#8217;m amazingly pleased and gulp about three glasses of his hot masala tea.Buses start rolling into the stand one by one. It so appears that this gentleman is quite popular in the Bus stand and all the Drivers seem to know him by the name. He individually goes about handing over tea and flower garlands[For the deities in the buses] to each of the drivers. Slowly the Bus stand comes to life with newspaper vendors and the omnipresent &#8216;Lottery ticket wallahs&#8217;. [I'm amazed at how the Lottery fever has struck Kerala. You'd find folks selling tickets at any given point of time at any given nook and corner of the state (religious places included!). Some day I should get back and try figuring out how this whole system works!] At 05:30hrs, as promised I&#8217;m &#8216;packed off&#8217; in the right bus and the conductor is instructed to drop me off at Pallavur. The bus lazily winds up....]]></description>
		<link>http://srikanthperinkulam.com/blog/2010/04/meeting-paruammai/</link>
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