Change Agent series (2/3): Moneyshiksha - Pursuit of Financial Literacy

Change Agent series – features individuals who are contributing in their own way, in challenging the status quo, for bringing about a positive progressive change.

"I lost my Dad when I was 29 & being the eldest child had the responsibility thrust upon me to take charge of my mother’s finances. I personally observed the painful transformation of my mother from a happy housewife who just signed anywhere told to one who could handle bank transactions herself. Be it depositing cheques to writing them she learned it bit by bit by asking around. I used to wonder how it would have been if my mother knew 'how to' from the beginning. Asking and learning at this stage made her feel more despondent" - Ms Shubha Ganesh. 

Sometimes adversities in life, becomes the impetus for a life long mission.

Reflecting back, Shubha vividly remembers the painful transformation her mother had to undergo, after her father's untimely demise. The importance of financial literacy, dawned upon her as she could feel the pain her mother was undergoing, in her struggle of financial management. 

Also having an academician mindset, she soon realised financial illiteracy at her home was not an exception to the norm. Sadly, abysmal lack of financial literary was the norm & by the time a person recognises this flaw in their skill repertoire, unfortunately it's already too late in the day. 

Shubha fondly expresses her gratitude for Mr. Y.S. Hegde (retired Managing Director of Can Fin, Canara Bank) saying he has played a significant role during the formative years of Moneyshiksha. 

The central theme of her mission, draws inspiration from Albert Einstein's famous quote: "Everything should be made as simple as possible". Her aim is to simplify financial education by delivering it at the level people understand (non-finance background).

Walking on the road less traveled, eventually Shubha's vision, idea, thoughts, experiences & learning came together in the form of Moneyshiksha a 'financial literacy & individual investor education program'.

Walk us through the early days of Moneyshiksha?

"Those days, I used to regularly write articles in Economic Times & I consider it very humbling getting to Mr. Y.S. Hegde, reading my columns & he finding them of value & substance" - Shubha.

Around that time, Mr. Hegde was in leadership position with Canara Bank & had just retired as Managing Director - Can Fin Homes. One of the common grounds between them was a keen interest in the field of personal finance. A meeting took place through a common friend & the idea of teaching personal finance to commoners, instantly struck the chord. 

In Mr. Y.S. Hegde's own words, "In 2010 very few people spoke about financial planning in India. During my frequent travels aboard, I have seen that personal finance education helped people a lot. I shared my experiences & wanted to do the same in India with Ms. Shubha".

The first program 'Be your own Financial Planner', was launched on October 2011, conducted at Royal Orchid Hotel Bangalore. Mr. Hegde took the lead in organizing this event & Ms. Shubha played the role of a teacher. A passionate teacher & academician, Shubha ensured all the learning outcomes - concepts, practical applications were well comprehended by all the participants. Post it's successful launch, a series of sessions were conducted on a regular internal at Times of India Building Bangalore & many other venues - Yoga centers, for retired people, academic institutions (including MBA colleges) & IT companies.

In recent times, Mr. Hegde busy travel schedule keeps him away for considerable long duration. He fondly reflects back & says, "We did our bit to spread financial literacy among people. I teach about financial lifecycle guide to people. People should understand how to approach their finances at each stage of their life. I also look at finances from the angle of our Hindu scriptures. Saraswathi Ashtakam book talks about the need for Lakshmi, Saraswati & Durga representing wealth, knowledge & health all equally important for complete happiness. Now Ms. Shubha, is carrying out the good work started by us. I hold on high esteem her in-depth understanding of the subject & her passion to contribute to the society".   

So what is financial literacy? 

In her own words, Shubha explains:
"Today our approach is to depend on somebody who rightly or wrongly displays some confidence and knowledge about investing. We take their advice as gospel truth and blindly invest. If it is wrong investment we blame them. We do not take charge of our finances.

In contrast, financial literacy is having sufficient knowledge to manage your own money properly. So financial literacy will give you the confidence and ability to invest right after duly consulting experts but owning the investment decision yourself".

Shubha strongly believes, financial literacy is a very important life skill. She beautifully articulates the rational why financial literacy is so important:

"Finance pervades our life today. When child grows up we tell him or her to go to the best schools to “earn more”.  But we do not educate them what to do with it? How to preserve it for the future? & how it will be required in later years? So I feel however far you go in your field of expertise a bit of financial knowledge leads you to have a secure life". 

Having the basic understanding of what is financial literacy & why it is important, makes so much of common sense. Yet why is financial literacy, so elusive among the general population? 

Shubha mentions, the root causes for poor financial literary are:

• Finance is considered as 'difficult', 'boring' & highly avoidable' by an average person. So educating the reluctant requires high level of dedication & patience.
• Our formal education system (school, colleges) does not consider financial literacy important enough & hence does not allocate high level of resource and time. 

She points out, lack of financial literacy is in fact a global phenomenon.

However, being an eternal optimist, she is quick to mention the wheels of change, has been set into motion. On a global landscape, United States of America has done commendable efforts to correct this lacunae. Back at home too, Regulators are now seriously putting efforts to spread personal finance knowledge, though with limited success. 

Shubha proposes the following project charter, for pursuit of financial literacy:

• Personal finance should be taught at school (middle school to high school levels). 
• Educators & parents should encourage children to attend such classes or programs. 
• Make financial literacy a natural process rather than a forced education. 
• Ask questions without fear or shame. 
• You need to know just enough to ask the right questions before investing.
• As a grown up adult you should read and learn the basics of financial literacy. 

In this pursuit, Moneyshiksha plays a big, meaningful role as a change agent - 

• Striving to bring about shift in mindset of general population 
• Inculcating financial literacy in parallel to mainstream education
• Proactive positive intervention (knowledge & skill enhancement) to mitigate crisis

Like all inspiring stories, Moneyshiksha started small by teaching at colleges, but it always kept a lofty goal of trying to solve the financial illiteracy problem prevalent among the general population. It aspires to empower the individuals, who are most ignored & subjected to exploitation or misguidance by "so called experts".

Moneyshiksha is an independent educator, not affiliated to any financial institution or organisation. Being independent & non-affiliated is it's biggest strength as it speaks volumes of it's unbiased nature, zero conflict of interest & it's deep rooted philosophy on education.

Moneyshiksha's mission statement, beautifully narrates their educational philosophy: 
'Financial empowerment comes from financial education. We enable individual investors by educating them, by delivering knowledge of managing personal finances in simple and easy steps to investors of all ages'.

Faculty members at Moneyshiksha, are all experienced senior finance professionals, with teaching experience at premier B-schools. Through their educational seminars & workshops, they strive to bring in value by: 

• Teaching an individual financial concepts & techniques, for managing their finance
• Bridges the knowledge gap between individuals & the financial products
• Road map creation of an individual's life long journey of wealth creation
• A wide range of modules - Fundamentals to advanced investment picking strategies

As in real life, a journey is far from ideal, Moneyshiksha's story is also made up of real life flesh & blood. They started quite small, taking baby steps by teaching in colleges. Eventually, they ventured out into public space by conducting workshops & programs as an independent entity. There have been times, when their workshops were attended by very few participants. Needless to say, many times they have incurred financial loss & have been subjected to big dent to their morale. 

Upon reflection Shubha says,"The first challenge is to convince people that they need to know about personal finance.The mind shift, people have to make is our biggest barrier". Despite these low phases, Moneyshiksha has persisted with their mission 'pursuit of financial literacy' & their goal of educating as many individuals as they can.

For encouraging people to take up personal financial classes, she tried offering various freebies (very nominal fees to completely free of charge classes), as motivators. But to her surprise, she found free classes were not valued. In her own words, "What pained me was to see people walking in, walking out, disrespecting faculty members time & efforts. After a series of such bad experiences, Moneyshiksha adopted a model of reasonable fees for it's educational program. This ensures enrollment of students who are serious about learning & increases the engagement level.

There are other practical challenges, which Shubha's recognises as an hindrance while reaching out to the younger generation. In her own words, "My challenge as an educator is that education now has become rote learning. However, with width of knowledge acquired by reading is almost non-existent among youngsters. I am trying to be on Board of Education in many colleges to include practical training as part of curriculum. Moneyshiksha tries to bridge this gap to an extent". 

Apart from external factors, Shubha has to deal with internal challenges as well:

• Pursuing self-education & adding on to her skills: After her Chartered Accountancy, instead of carrying on in auditing & taxation, she switched over to stock analysis & stock market. She educated herself further in this field by pursing a post graduate diploma in Equity Research.  She gives lot of credit to the support she has received from her husband in this journey, "My husband encouraged me to explore this field and has been my guide and mentor throughout".

• Time management: Being a working professional & a family to manage. Moneyshiksha is Shubha's weekend effort & in this trade-off she has to sacrifice family time.

So what keeps her going, in midst of all these upheavals & challenges?

Shubha is quick to respond, "Passion & Compassion!"

"Every time somebody comes back to me and says that they have benefited from my workshops it drives me to do more. I think with my workshops I am able to convince people that equity investing is not taboo and they can generate wealth through equity mutual fund. It pains me to see people lose money due to bad investing or bad advice. So I am trying to do as much as I can to avert it". 

How does the road ahead, looks like for Moneyshiksha?

With a twinkle in her eyes, Shubha responds "Till date, we have reached out to more than 10,000 people & we plan to reach at least a million more".

Quite a lofty milestone for Shubha & Moneyshiksha. But when one is fuelled with passion, inner drive to bring about a social change, their pursuit transforms into a mission much bigger than themselves. Moneyshiksha's mission continues to gather momemtum & it continues to bring about positive change in people's life through their pursuit of financial literacy.

                                                              ----------^^^^----------
                   
Links:

www.moneyshiksha.in/

www.facebook.com/moneyshiksha/

www.in.linkedin.com/in/shubhaganesh

Career Guidance series (1/1): Fashion Design

The content of 'Career Guidance' blog series, are based on my detailed interaction with experienced working professionals, from their respective domains.

The objective of this blog series is to offer insights to students about various profession, so that they can make informed career decisions.

Fashion Design

A BIG THANKS to Chitransh, for sharing your experience & valuable insights about Fashion Design profession.

Pre-requisite attributes for students, who are aspiring to become fashion designing professionals are creativity, innovative thinking & sketching skills.

Graduates in fashion design, can seek employment as a 'Designer' (apparel industry) or be on their own as 'Freelance Designer' (designer label).

A designer to be professionally successful has to apply the following principles in their work:

• Apply creativity without compromising on the products sales volumes & profit. 
• Have a good understanding of consumer behavior (their likes, dislikes, interests, predicting their buying behavior etc). 
• Keeping oneself regularly updated with fashion trends
• New ideas - to be able to innovate or seek inspiration to create new products suiting local market
• Need to be deeply observant to pick up clues from social media, fashion blogs, movies, television, society at large to be able to understand whats in vogue, the changing trends & to be able to predict what is going to be in demand in next fashion season/year.
• One needs to be highly energetic, passionate, hard working & should have the ability to handle pressures of demanding project timelines & deliverables. 

The apparel industry, caters to four seasons: spring, summer, autumn & winter.

The career path in apparel designing industry falls into three broad categories:

1. Designing 
2. Product Development (Apparel production team)
3. Buying
4. Sourcing

Designing: The designer, develops a 'concept', taking into account 'trend research' & 'sales analysis'.

Product Development: The apparel production team, converts the 'concept' into a marketable product.

Buyer: The buyer, plays a crucial role as they decide on the final salable concept (design/product).

The 'apparel production team' comprises of sourcing (procurement of raw materials), product development (manages various stakeholders) & technical team (body fit & pattern making of the garments).

On a comparative scale, the 'Designing team's' nature of job, demands higher creativity compared to 'Product Development team'. On the other hand, the 'Product Development team's' nature of job, demands higher analytical skills, managerial skills & business acumen, in comparison to 'Designing team'.

The buyer profile demands the following skill-set: 

1. Very good understanding of fashion/design/trends. 
2. Very good at number crunching (mathematical ability, data analysis, trend analysis). 
3. Good decision making ability for product allocation (i.e. what quantity & what kind of products to be allocated across geographic locations (tier 1, tier 2, etc...). [These decision making are based on demographic data, consumer profile, trend assessment on consumer behavior etc.]

Apart from working directly in apparel designing domain, there are several interesting employment opportunities in associated domains, for example:

1. Sales domain - multi-brand & single brand outlets (visual merchandising), 
2. e-commerce (UI/UX designer/Graphic designer), 
3. Fashion/style magazines,
4. Fashion communication (mass media, e-commerce/websites/mobile apps).

Many global brands have their manufacturing hubs in developing countries & these contract manufacturing units provide opportunities for employment as line manager, production manager, quality assurance manager etc.

Fashion Design graduates, can also opt for a specialised MBA degree in retail & get into the commercial/business side of the fashion retail industry.

Fashion design graduates, who are inclined for further specialization, can pursue Masters program in their choosen area (textile, fashion, accessory etc).

In summary, fashion design industry provides many career opportunities, after all it is not just about design rather this industry offers various job opportunities all along the continuum, from conceptualization to sales.

There are fashion design, graduate & masters degree offered by prestigious Govt. institutes like NID (National Institute of Design) & NIFT (National Institute of Fashion Technology).

The entrance examinations for NIFT (and in general for all design institutes) checks for general aptitude, mental ability & creativity (e.g. on the spot a topic is provided & the aspiring students need to convert it into a slogan/banner/visual aid etc). Candidates, who successful pass the first round appear for situation test (e.g. raw materials are provided & the aspiring students are challenged to convert them into a product).

NIFT offers the following programs:

• B.Des (Bachelor of Design): (4 years program)

1. Accessory Design
2. Fashion Communication
3. Fashion Design
4. Knitwear Design
5. Leather Design
6. Textile Design

(Graduates of B.Des, typically join apparel industry as Designer)

• B. FTech (Bachelor of Fashion Technology): (4 years program)

Apparel Production

(Graduates of B. FTech, typically join apparel industry as Product Development/Apparel production team).

The 2 years Masters program in offering from NIFT are:

1. Master in Design
2. Master of Fashion Management
3. Master of Fashion Technology

NID (National Institute of Design) offers Bachelors & Masters degree in Textile Design:

1. B.Des (Bachelor of Design) - Textile Design (4 years program)
2. M.Des (Masters of Design) - Textile Design (2 years program)

There are a host of govt & private institutes offering Diploma, Bachelors & Masters degree in Fashion Design: (an indicative list)

• NID   www.nid.edu
• NIFT  www.nift.ac.in
• NIFD   www.nifd.net
• JD Institute of Fashion Technology   www.jdinstitute.com
• Symbiosis Institute of Design   www.sid.edu.in
• Pearl Academy   www.pearlacademy.com
• GD Goenka School of Design   www.gdgoenkauniversity.com/schoolofdesign
• Wigan & Leigh   www.wlci.in
• Raffles Design International   www.rafflesmumbai.com
• Northeast Institute of Fashion Technology  www.neift.com
• Army Institute of Fashion Design   www.aifdonline.in
• BIFT    www.bift.co.in
• Arch Academy  www.archedu.org
• IAM - Apparel Management  www.iamindia.in
• GIFT www.gift-india.com

The career prospects are very bright as apparel industry is fast growing & going by the trend of globalisation, global exposure, evolving consumer, the growth trajectory is headed northward.

                                                           -------^^^^-------

Who am I?

Image courtesy: www.bravegirlclub.com

When I asked myself, "Who am I?" I realised we seldom pay attention to this fundamental question in life.

I realised I have various labels which I have acquired through my life's journey & they become my identity knowingly - unknowingly. I am an Indian, I am a son, I am student, I am a brother, I am a husband, I am a father, I am a working professional.....so on, so forth.

But is that all I am?

Peeling off these labels, to my amazement I discovered more about myself - I am an adult yet a small boy at heart who refuses to grow up, I am philosophical yet practical, I am not religious yet spiritual, I am an introvert yet like to be around people, I aspire to live a meaningful life but still trying to understand what is the true meaning of life. 

It dawned upon me that, I am just a tiny spec in the grand scheme of things. 1 among 7.4 billion human beings, walking on the face of mother earth, who will eventually fade off into oblivion when their time runs out.

Yeah, this is the eureka moment of me!.........this is what I am.

A fellow human being, one among you, walking besides you in humanity's collective journey, through space & time.

     

Murphy's Law - Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong

Murphy's Law is a popular adage, that typically states: Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong.

This blogpost narrates my observation of how Murphy's law is enfolding in Tata Motor's endeavour of positioning itself as a key player in the Indian passenger car market segment.

Couple of other brief points to set the context of the blogpost:

- It is written from a qualitative aspect (hence refrained from number crunching)

- It is a personal observation (objective & subjective, in nature)
- It is not intended to be written as a case study 

- It is written as a free flowing thought journal & not written with any pre-determined conclusion

Tata Motors is India's biggest automobile company, established way back in 1945. 

They have been the front-runner, in the commercial vehicle segment (trucks, buses, mini-truck). Thanks to their length & breadth of global manufacturing and R&D facilities, acquisition of Daewoo Commercial Vehicles Company (South Korea), joint ventures with Marcopolo (Brazil), Thonburi Automotive Assembly Plant Co. (Thailand) & Tata Africa Holding (South Africa), conglomerate of subsidiaries & associate companies.

But when it comes to passenger car segment, Tata Motor's journey have been a tale of twist & turns.

They entered the passenger vehicle market in 1991 with Tata Sierra (multi-utility vehicle), followed by Tata Estate (station wagon) in 1992 & Tata Safari (sports utility vehicle) in 1998.

Tata Sierra advertisement

However, Tata Motors being ingrained in people's mind as commercial vehicle company, the switch in people's perception to view them in a new light (passenger car) became a major stumbling block.

In 1998, Indica (fully indigenous Indian passenger car) was launched.

Tata Indica advertisement

It overcome the initial round of criticism/skepticism due to it's overall good performance & when it seemed it will make inroads as a private car, it's image was once again overshadowed as a commercial vehicle when fleets of Tata Indica cabs (taxi), started plying all over India. Quite obviously, the perception of a cab (taxi) turned off many potential buyers from owning it as their family car. 

In January 2008, Tata Motors unveiled Tata Nano, at Auto exhibition in Pragati Maidan, New Delhi.

It was positioned as the world's cheapest car (no frills, fully functional, practical car for India's lower middle class but aspirational families). It was promised to be launched by October 2008, priced at 100,000 INR (3000 USD).

Tata Nano advertisement

An emotive Ratan Tata had said at Nano's launch, "Today is another milestone in what started six years ago as an emotional desire to provide affordable & safe transportation to the families of India who are exposed to the elements on two wheels, carrying a family of four in somewhat dangerous circumstances."

It was indeed realisation of a dream, he had six years ago to create a car cheap enough for Indian families to trade off their motorbikes. 

But not everyone shared the same exuberance & Tata's Nano project was publicly criticised by well reputed spokesperson like Anumita RoyChoudhury & R.K. Pachauri from organisations like 'Centre for Science & Environment (Delhi) and 'Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC)' respectively. They were concerned on the possibility of mass motorisation in India, leading to pollution & global warming. Expression of such environmental concerns, added to undesirable controversy to Nano's fan-fare launch.

Work at Tata Nano production facility in Singur, West Bengal begun on schedule by January 2007 & by July 2008 trial production of few cars had also commenced. But it soon ran into rough weather, due to the Singur farmer agitation gaining momentum (farmers unwilling to sell their land, lead by the then state opposition leader Mamta Banerjee). All the efforts of negotiations, enforcement of state machinery to control the situation fell flat & the protest reached a flash point raising grave concerns about Tata Motor's employees safety & security. On September 2008, Tata Motors announced temporary suspension of construction at Singur. The last effort for a breakthrough was attempted unfortunately yielding no result, prompting Tata Motors to officially announce on 3rd of October 2008, their decision of moving Nano project out of West Bengal.

On 7th of October 2008, Tata Motors tied up a new deal with Gujarat Government to relocate the Nano plant at Sanand. With this decision, started a series of herculean tasks: 

(i). car assembly operations was shifted to Pant Nagar facility (Uttarakhand) & engine and transmission line was shifted to Pune (Maharashtra). This was to ensure Nano gets delivered atleast by March 2009, instead of earlier promised date of October 2008.

(ii). Dismantling the Singur plant & transporting it to Sanand. (at a distance of 2,163 kilometers)

(iii). Re-commissioning the transported plant at Sanand.

This entire exercise lasted for 13 months & trial production of Nano at Sanand re-started in November 2009.

After overcoming this huge obstacle which is unparalleled in the history of automobile industry, Tata Motor's tasted success at Nano's launch in 2009, by receiving over 200,000 pre-bookings. But over the years the steam quickly fizzled out & sales hit rock bottom figures of only ~500 units per month, at certain instances. So what turned the dream sour? One of the probable reason was it's perceived image of a cheap car, in the consumer's mind. In the hindsight, it is now clear that car buying is not just about economics but also an emotive & social affair. Possibly the first time car buyers, didn't wanted to be perceived as belonging to lower income segment, by their choice of car ownership. The positioning of Nano got it slotted as a cheap car & it did not connect with the imagination of the consumers.  

To break Nano's undesirable image, August 2013 onwards Tata Motors started to reposition Genx Nano from a 'cheap car' to 'smart city car'. It is now reaching out to younger customers & associating it with terms like cool, peppy & fun.

Tata Nano Gen x advertisement

In 2015, Tata Motors launched Zest (compact sedan) & Bolt (hatchback) were billed as their comeback cars.

Tata Zest advertisement

Tata Bolt advertisement

Inspite of being very good products, they are finding few takers. The issue seems not to be about the product any more, as much it is about the brand. The shackles of negative perception was proving to be a tough nut to crack, for Tata Motors. 

Tata Motors, were working very hard for launching a comeback hatchback offering - Tata Zica.
The car was backed by Tata's "Made of Great" campaign, to elaborate the brand philosophy & ideologies saying "What drives us from within is what makes us great."

Tata Zica, was scheduled for launch at Indian market by March/April 2016.

The buzz was already created around Tata Zica, but unfortunately this coincided with the widespread epidemic of Zika fever, caused by Zika virus in America. The WHO (World Health Organisation) declared the Zika virus a global public health emergency.  

Tata Motors took the decision to rename the Zica as it was uncomfortably similar to 'Zika' virus. This being a comeback car for Tata Motors, quite wisely they did not want to proceed with a controversial name that could potentially result in bad publicity & adversely affect sales. In order to show empathy to those who were affected, Tata Motors decided to change the name of the car & did so by using global crowd-sourcing competition called "#FantasticoNameHunt' (fans voted among: Tiago, Adore & Civet).

It was finally made official, that Tata Zica will globally arrive in a new name, Tiago.

Tiago almost saw a fiasco at birth, when it was named Zica, while a virus named Zika took the world by storm.

Tata Motors roped in Lionel Messi as the global brand ambassador for Tata Tiago & was made part of 'Made of Great' advertising campaign. (It was a happy coincidence, that their brand ambassador Messi's son's name is Thiago).

Tata Tiago was launched in India in April 2016, & by it's third month itself, Tiago outsells every other model from the Tata stable.

Tata Tiago advertisement

Tiago's good product quality & Messi's image, managed to pull in the young, first time car-buyers into Tata Motors showroom. Messi, has been signed for a two year deal & he is an integral part of Tata Motor's solution for pulling up their passenger vehicles business.

Just when things seemed to be falling in place for Tata Motors, it's ambassador Messi landed into a series of misfortune. Messi, after a sterling performance upto the finals of Copa America, missed his shot in the penalty shootout & Argentina lost to Chile. An emotionally shattered Messi, impulsively announced his retirement from international football. In a week's time, Messi & his father were convicted of tax fraud in Spain (3.5 million Euros as fine, with prospects of suspended jail term of 21 months).

Tata Motors did issue an official statement post Messi's retirement announcement, it will not change their relationship with Messi & he continues to be their brand ambassador.

One feels genuinely sorry for Tata Motors, as Murphy's law recurrently keeps unfolding into their journey of making inroads into the Indian passenger car market segment.

 There are three new launches lined up for Tata Motors in days to come, Kite-5 (code name) in sedan segment, Hexa in SUV segment & Nexon in the compact utility segment. Going by Tata Motors promising pipeline, they seem to have kept a long-term vision for positioning themselves in the Indian passenger vehicle segment. It will be interesting to see, how their journey unfolds from here on......hopefully with their grit & determination, they would be able to nullify Murphy's law, from their story line sooner or later.

Parenting Series (3/5) - Simple tips to cultivate a lifetime Reading Habit

In general, there is a growing consensus about the phenomenon of declining reading habits in today's society. In UK, Nielsen Book had conducted a survey (year 2013) on 2,000 children & parents. The data revealed a 28% increase of non-readers. Though the sample size is small & the study is localized to one country, it still serves as an indicator towards today's global trend - 'increase of digital entertainment, which is eating up the book reading space'.

Reading books has various benefits ranging from intellectual development, stronger skills (analytical, communication, writing, language), exposure to wide array of subjects & serves as a relaxation technique. If reading habit is not inculcated early on, development of these important skills & attributes can be seriously dented.

The cultivation of a lifetime reading habit in a child, can be achieved by consciously practicing the following simple tips:

• Reading Log is an effective tool for the following reasons:

1. Facilitates goal setting
2. Reading log provides a tangible outcome, hence facilitates monitoring (self or parental)
3. Facilitates positive reinforcements (rewards/appreciation), based on target/milestones
4. Facilitates social recognition, if reading logs are shared periodically with friends, teachers etc
5. Visualising successful accomplishments of goals, enhances self-confidence & self-esteem
6. Provides insights to types of books, choice of books (liking) of the reader

Below is a reading log template, I use for my child. One can customise it, to suit their style & need.

Dates	Book	Author	Fiction/Non-fiction etc	Category (Novel/Short stories etc)	Page no. read	Publisher

• Role modeling: as parents, we have to position ourselves as a good role model. When our children see us reading, they tend to learn from us through observation.

• Creating a reading environment: as parents, we can incorporate books into our lifestyle. For example: personal collection of books at home, daily ritual of reading books, discussion about books in family conversation etc.

• Experiential learning: as parents, we can generate interest of books among our children through occasional visit of book stores, book fairs & literary festivals. Participation in book clubs, library membership are effective measures for developing interests in books.

As parents (guardians, teachers) our primary duty is to generate a spark of interest (motivation) towards books in our children. Only if the motivation is intrinsic (self-driven), the reading habit will be sustainable & life-long. Hence our approach towards cultivating reading habit, should be empathetic, reasonable, age & interest appropriate. We should exhibit patience & not trading off long-term gains over short-term outcomes. The key is to instill willful reading & making the reading experience pleasurable for our children, through the above mentioned tactical approaches.

Happy reading to all!

References:
CBR - Computer Business Review - Children's reading habit on decline (27-Sep-2013)
Image courtesy - habitsforhappiness.com

Stories are told from the position of Power

Story from different perspectives

"Until the Lion learns to write, every story will always glorify the hunter" - an African proverb

Last week, the most talked about news in Bangalore was a leopard entering into a posh school campus in suburban Bangalore (Varthur, Thubrahalli). Fortunately the incident happened on a Sunday early morning while the school was off. By afternoon, every news channel was flashing the news & the school campus was hounded by media personnel, police & bystanders. By late night, the news of capturing the leopard successfully was flashed in the media.

A leopard entering into residential area is obviously a cause of concern & it does generate sentiments of man-animal conflicts. But events which followed after Sunday, were nothing short of hyper-reaction & lop-sided outcry. Narrating few of them, to elaborate this point: Over the next day couple of days, there were unprecedented reports of leopard citing in Varthur, Thubrahalli. These reports started doing rounds on whatsapp & other social media, newspapers, news channels. Many parents voluntarily kept their children indoors & didn't send them to school. State Government declared closure of 135 schools, mid-week. One must ask one's self, will a leopard selectively enter only school premises while rejecting other buildings like offices, malls etc. On Sunday, the leopard probably might have accidentally jumped into an empty school premise, & in a knee jerk reaction we (intelligent human beings) shut down schools & keep the children indoors. I wonder had the leopard entered a sprawling IT park instead of a school, in reaction would the state administration close down all the offices in that area :-).

The leopard did attack a wildlife conservationist (fortunately it was not fatal) & it took an entire day's effort with 3 shots of tranquilizers before the leopard could be captured. The leopard was finally send off to Bannerghatta National Park, in captivity. . 

Glimpses of the stories on popular newspapers

Barring a negligible few, the tone & reporting of the news all over the place was all about human concerns & panic: reminders of similar incidents from the past, do's & don'ts. In short, the deeper angle of Man Animal conflict, the unbrazen speed of deforestation, wild animals being pushed to the brink of extinction, the responsibility of we humans in triggering such incidences, were conveniently ignored.

This reminded me of an African proverb, I had read somewhere, which has always stayed along with me for it's deep meaning: Until the Lion learns to write, every story will always glorify the hunter.

Had the leopard learned to write, his version of story may have been:

My forefathers used to inhabit the woods of Varthur, Thubrahalli. Life was good, with lush greenery, lake & ponds in abundance, a self-sustaining eco-system. Human beings started causing havoc in our paradise & adversely impacted every animal's life. We were being hunted down for pleasure, our forest were being bulldozed to give way for farming, we were caught & put in cages as an exhibit for circus & zoos.

In our losing fight for survival, we started to move deeper into the forest land but in no time human activities would spread their tentacles & reach deeper into the jungles. Today, in my generation only a handful of us are left. I live in a small stretch of wood, in & around this globally renowned IT city Bangalore. Through out the day, I am so scared with all the hustle bustle of human activities around me, that I live in hiding & only at nights I venture out for food.

But things are getting increasingly challenging for me. The forest areas are no more in continuity, it is interjected with human development & we are forced to trespass the human habitat. The human beings do not keep their localities clean & they dump food waste, which brings in stray dogs & pigs, & these attract us & we give in to our hunger pangs.

On one such fatal night, close to the break of dawn I was returning back to my home, I mean forest. Somehow, I lost my way & I jumped into an empty school building. By the time, I could figure out my way out, I was spotted by the security guard & soon it seemed like the entire hell had broken lose. There were so many media personnel, TV cameras, police, forest officers & crowd all around the building.

Things seemed to go just out of control, the sound decibel was unbearable, random shots were being fired at me, nets & traps being laid all around the place. Had I been left alone, I myself would have ran away, after all we hate contacts with human beings.

All day long, I was running from post to pillar, trying to find an exist to my freedom....without food, without water, fear was running through my spine & in self defense I attacked one of the wildlife conservationist. Believe me, my intention was not to harm & kill anyone, I reacted out of my own fear & insecurity. I was fired thrice with tranquilizer, eventually I fell down unconscious, only to regain consciousness in a small iron cage.

My worst fear had come true, I had lost my freedom forever. Memories of my family, my friends, my home, came rushing to me, I was choked with deep anguish & my eyes were tearful. But no human being, understood my state of being & I was sentenced to live in captivity for the rest of my life for just one mistake, trespassing into the human territory in error. But who will listen to my story? After all, stories are told from the position of power!    


  

Change Agent series (1/3): Anna & Little ArKidtects - the LEGO Educator

Lego experiential learning - Transport system

In the by-lanes of Hazra road & Townshed road crossing in Kolkata, I was standing in-front of a non-descriptive building. On it's second floor, Anna Butenko an educator of Ukrainian origin is experimenting with a BIG IDEA - teaching young children through play, build & discovery.

Anna Butenko a passionate educator with international exposure in teaching, who has worked extensively in practicing novel concepts of teaching for young children. She wears several hats, graduate in Mandarin (Chinese language), practicised Helen Doron concept of teaching in Shanghai, China & now settled in Kolkata, she is trying to introduce contemporary international teaching methodology by partnering with LEGO Education.

Little ArKidtects, is one & only such educational institution for young children, in whole of Kolkata. Though Lego Education, is a very well established teaching methodology in Europe & US, it is in it's early days in India. Currently, there are few centers in Chennai, Bangalore & New Delhi.

I had set an appointment with Anna during the schooling hours, so that I could have a first hand experience of teaching with LEGO Bricks. When I arrived the class was in progress, I took a corner seat  in the visually appealing, bright & colourful classroom.

What caught my immediate attention, was Anna & her fellow teacher Sukanya's, undivided attention towards the children. They were so engrossed all through out the session - bringing up flashcards, engaging the children in dialogue, exchanging ideas, involving them in reflection, allowing space & time for experiential learning, building on the child's self-esteem & self-confidence, pacing their instructions to match the child's skill level.

What was even more heartwarming to see, was the level of engagement in the children. All through the one hour long session, they were equally engrossed with a spark in their innocent eyes. It was a testimonial for me, to observe how teaching through play, transforms the entire educational experience. There was not an iota of stress on the children's faces, they were gleefully engaged, intrinsically motivated, exploring & experiencing by themselves, they lost track of time & were in a flow.

The class decor was thoughtfully done - colourful bright walls, minimal furniture to leave enough space for the child to explore & build concept LEGO models, placards & pictures elaborating new concepts all over the place to be appealing for the curious minds. The space greets the children with so much of freshness, positivism & it provides them the much needed opportunity to step out of the daily grind of books & theories, into the world of play, build & discover.

We had set aside time for detailed conversation, during Anna's one hour break before getting into the next session. Over the course of this one hour conversation, she passionately shared with me her thoughts on education, her affinity towards Lego Education as a teaching methodology, her experience as an educator over these years across geographic locations - Ukraine, China & presently India.

She got introduced to LEGO Education during her teaching years in Shanghai, China. Her school used to cooperate with LEGO Education centre in organising workshops for children. These workshops gave Anna first hand exposure to the trans-formative power of LEGO educational resources, which transformed the traditional learning process into innovative hands on experience for children. She has also observed this phenomenon in close quarters in her own family. Back in her hometown Kiev, Ukraine, her nephew, who is just four & half years of age exhibits creativity, problem solving ability, conceptual understanding & perseverance, comparatively much higher than her niece, ten years of age. Her sister-in-law, attributes this phenomenon to his exposure to Lego education since an early age, which wasn't the case with her elder sister. These personal experiences, got her deeply curious about Lego Education. She went on to do a thorough online search for materials related to LEGO education, got connected to practicing LEGO educators & she ordered a Lego tool kit for herself, all the way from Denmark. She experimented with LEGO tool kit over a period in time, to evaluate it's merits by herself.
"It was very important for me to get convinced about this teaching methodology, as I won't do justice by recommending something which I haven't tried out myself".

With a twinkle in her eyes, Anna was recollecting her childhood days in Ukraine. She still vividly remembers, the Kinder Joy chocolates inside which there would be few building blocks. It used to be one of her favourite play time, she & her sister would build models with them. She says, "how I wish there was something like Lego bricks during my childhood days, I would have spend hours together in this conceptual & imaginative play".

Eloquently she quoted, Benjamin Franklin - "Tell me & I forget, teach me & I may remember, involve me & I learn". This is what Lego Education, is all about, it involves the child in this playful learning activities, it's hands on, it's experiential, it's is stepping out of bookish learning into the real world practical learning.

Anna & her team, picks up an exciting themes ranging from animals to transport, space to super heroes & involves the children in constructing models. Little ArKidtects teaching methodology is as follows:

• Lego Brick Building, 
• Story Telling,
• Role Play, 
• Props & Songs, 
• Experimentation & Exploration.  

"When children construct things with hands - they simultaneously construct knowledge in head".
Anna, passionately explained Why hands-on learning matters?

1. Hands-on learning is real learning - When students building a bridge with LEGO bricks, they are dealing with concepts in the real world rather than in a book or a pencil & paper problem. They are acquiring knowledge through experience rather than abstraction. 
2. Hands-on learning fosters creativity - Creativity has been named a 21st century skill & a key contributor to workplace success. Unsurprisingly, research confirms a direct link between hands-on learning & creativity. Drawing, building, sewing & other forms of hands-on activity give children endless opportunities to discover their own creativity. 
3. Hands-on learning keeps children focused - Reading a book or listening to a lecture can be a challenge even for the most focused student. Building with bricks is one of the most engaging, effective techniques that can help students stay focused & learn better.
4. Hands-on learning encourages failure - We are raising generation who doesn't know how it's like to fall. Failure teaches the importance of perseverance & hard work. When students build an unsuccessful model of pulley, for example, they not only see engineering principles in action, but also learn the failure plays the central role in the design process. They learn to ask questions like 'what went wrong?', 'what can I do differently next time?' & 'how can I make it better?'.
5. Hands-on learning supports common core - The common core is about creating, testing & refining knowledge & there's no better way than hands-on learning to do it.
6. Hands-on learning inspires teamwork - Collaboration another one of crucial 21st century skills. Whether children are completing a group projects or an individual task, they are asking questions of one another, sharing thoughts & ideas. This kind of communication leads to natural conversations about team work & the best way to collaborate. They learn how to work together & understand the roles best played on a team.
7. Hands-on learning is fun - Learning by doing starts with a few basic supplies & a question that invites exploration. "What would happen if...?" "How can we solve this problem?" All these questions trigger children's curiosity & desire to explore, all while having heaps of fun. 
8. Hands-on learning develops logical & critical thinking - When the children are working conceptually, they encounter real time problems which challenges their problem solving abilities.Through this process, their logical & critical thinking skills are harnessed & it undergoes progressive development.

Anna, also emphasised on how LEGO Education can help educate the whole child:

1. Creative development: Children plan & design projects, create models, structures, mosaics based on their imagination.
2. Social development: Speaking, listening, team work, role play, story telling.
3. Cognitive development: Developing problem solving, logical & critical thinking skills through maths & science activities.
4. Physical development: Gross motor skills, hand-eye coordination. 
5. Understanding the world: Children explore how things work in the world through experimentation. Bricks, figures & other resources allow children to think creatively & express their views as they work together to construct their world.

   Currently, Little ArKidtects  are offering programs for children 2 to 7 years of age:

• 2-3 years old - My World
• 3-4 years old - Little Explorers
• 4-5 years old - Young Learners
• 5 -7 years old - Creative Architects

All these programs, encompasses key learning areas such as Math & Science, Creativity & Imagination, Story Telling, Early Engineering & Social studies. 

She is thinking of introducing Robotics as a program for older children. But she does not want to rush through it, as she would like to experiment it first, experience it by herself before introducing it for the students.

It's been quite an achievement, she being the only LEGO Educator & Little ArKidtects being the only LEGO educational center in whole of Kolkata. In fact, she & her institute are among the very few pioneering educators & institute in whole of India. But it hasn't been an easy ride & the road ahead through the educational landscape, continues to be a challenging one. In Anna's words, "For elders (parents/guardians) to see value in learning through play, is a mind shift change". In all her demonstration sessions, she & her team puts on the hat of an educational counselor, counseling the elders on the merits & long lasting value of learning through play & experiential learning. Since the concept is new, it requires sustained efforts in reaching out to the larger community, which resides outside the classroom. For now, she is all set wearing the hat of an Change Agent, on this exciting journey of bringing about a change in the teaching methodology from route learning to playful experiential learning for children.

Related Links: 

www.facebook.com/littlearkidtectsindia (email: littlearkidtects@gmail.com)

https://www.facebook.com/LEGOEducationIndia/

https://education.lego.com/en-us

http://juniorfirstlegoleagueindia.org/blog/