www.saurabhagrawal.com

www.saurabhagrawal.com

Presently listening to "Trampled Underfoot" by Led Zep. Now everyone can guess my mood..;)

oooooo, yayiyayiyaaaa

There is a dark and troubled side of life,
But there is a bright and sunny side too,
Though we meet with the darkness and strife
The sunny side we also may view.
Keep on the sunny side of life!

Peace!!

Today, Teachers' day was not celebrated at my school. There was a small uproar. I expected it. The answer was ready. If you can find a single child out of 300 who wants to be a teacher when he/she grows up, we'll have a celebration. Everyone was quite. Dead quite.

Moreover, the guy in whose honour we celebrate Teachers' Day denounced the profession to join politics. OK, I can forgive him for that. But when he became the President, what did he do for the betterment of the community in our country? Give me a solid example, and again, I'll let go of all my grudges.

Today government is paying a salary to teachers in M.P., which is less than that of an unskilled labourer, which again has been fixed by the govt. When we are at such low in our society, do we really have a right to celebrate Teachers' day? I guess not.

Feeling Good!

Today after many days, I had a relaxing weekend. My mom came down from her place and we went for a long due shopping. :)

I was really tense over the last few weeks for that simple NOC matter. Its such a simple matter really, that initially I was pretty much confident that it wouldn't take any more than 2-3 days of effort on my part. But it really bubbled up to gigantic proportions, taking months. Actually I am talking about the NOC required for the schools affiliated with the state boards, to apply to CBSE. However, getting this NOC is no simple matter, as I have very well realized in the past few months. Our administration has become so corrupted, that these days the officers, many of them of the IAS cadre refuse to do your work unless they get proper dakshina, and some of them don't do it even after that! You have to make rounds and rounds of visits and only then the situation improves slightly.

I really recommend that some clever and cunning guys should take up the jobs of getting these petty things done by our govt. officers. It would be a really great business plan, as people like me wouldn't mind paying something extra, if it saves some 3-4 pairs of Reebok sneakers and the harassment. But I guess, this sort of thing is already in place, I am just new to this whole system. For an example, visit any RTO in India. You can easily get a driving license. It doesn't matter, if you are underage, or you haven't driven a vehicle in your life. On the other hand, if you plan to go straight, you'll have to go through a lot of stringent testing (as the case should be with all), which you'll almost surely fail. Then you'll go back to the agent to get your license made. So its all the more better and you save effort and time for all involved by going to him directly. I am really feeling bitter on writing this, but, my dear friends, is the situation in our country. I observed this when I got the school permit made for a school bus of mine. Now I got this bus brand new from Tata, specially made for this purpose, that is, yellow colour, railings on windows and the works, that is, everything according to the norms prescribed and that too built by a "reputed" company such as Tata. But right in front of my eyes, I was refused the permit, giving some silly excuses and a bus which neither had yellow colour, nor looked maintained in any form was passed. I was really let down that day. So I decided that its better to go along with the system and stay cool, rather than waste your time fighting for it. After all, I have got only 24 hours a day. I can use it for my work or to improve the system. I chose the former.

Bahut Dinon Baad

Today after a gap of what, almost 10 years, I heard the song, "Ek din bik jayega mati be mol..", sung by Mukesh. It used to be my favourite song when I was 10-15 years old and today when I heard it, I was again blown away by the song. Such beautiful poetry, such haunting music. Oh my god, I just can't believe how some people are so creative. I have come in contact with many such people during my stay in IIT. Its quite surprising that I don't/didn't envy them even a bit. But I respect their talents and hope that they will use it to maximum of their capacities to give the world some good. But as has been said so rightly in a song, "So many times, it happens so fast, we trade our passions for glory." Alas, I have really seen it happen some times. One of them was a very good friend of mine and I was unable to warn him, because of the extremely lucrative offer he had recieved (in his opinion) and my advice would have sent wrong signals.

Swimming feels good..

I have gained a lot confidence in the last week. Now I don't even go in the shallow region of the pool..:) Now, I think I'll try some other strokes. I seem to be doing OK enough with the general stroke. What is it called? My memory sucks...:(
Hmm.. so what else? Have been really busy these days. With having to give results, conduct interviews for new teachers and a lot of other new things for me. But it was fun, and now the school session is officially over. Now that that's done, I am planning out some vacation plans. My family wants to go out for vacation too.. so maybe I'll club with them. However, still I can't afford anything more than 10 days of absence from my campus. That would really sadden me, as well as my employees..;)
After all, they won't get their daily dosage of hard earned rebuke..
We are planning to have a trip to the Tribal area of Himachal this time. Leaving from Simla, going to Kaza, Rekong Peu, Key Monastry etc. Basically, as far as our vehicle will go. And after that maximum 10 km of trekking. Nothing further than that, as my parents will be with me. Will go with some friends next year maybe, to Chandra Tal and all places. Maybe, we can go to Chandra Tal in this trip only, if the weather permits!

Mommy mujhe CBSE chahiye..:(

Oh My God, I can't believe these guys. These M.P. Education Deptt. guys. They are so lousy.. I just hope that they are not reading this.

All right so this is the situation. Already I have automated most of the clerical work of my school, and that includes preperation of results for children.

So the Education Deptt guys (I'll call them EDG from now on) ask me that they would like to see the result of my school and I can give them on to the parents only when they "approve" of it. Hmm.. I say, OK Saurabh, breathe deep.. nothing to worry or fret up.. its their habit to interfere and so on.. Nyways, it took me around 1 hour to make up the result sheets according to their prescribed format, and then I asked my faithful printer to print out all the results, which it did, without a hassle, expect a paper jam or two, like a good friend..:) So everything over and done in another 2 hours.

Now I send my Administrative Officer over to EDGs' office to get their "aprroval" and I am sure none of you can imagine their response. They say, that they won't accept these computer generated results and want hand written ones! Now this was when I really lost my temper and had some nice words to say to the EDGs' boss over the phone.

Nyways, what can I do.. I am a small person. They are a big govt. I can either work or fight with them. I choose to work. I asked my A.O. to prepare all these results by hand. That poor chap puts up a night out and has submitted the results today... But approval is still pending till tomorrow...

Now I'll have to really redouble my efforts for getting my school affiliated with CBSE.. Hope it happens soon enough. Otherwise, I really would have to shut down my school and run away!

More storied about the EDGs to follow soon!