My views

Last week, My family and I went on a week long trip to Kanazawa with some of our family friends. Kanazawa is a city in Ishikawa prefecture which is located near the coast of Japan.  I was very excited for this trip as I had not gone for a vacation to a place outside of Tokyo for more than a year. Furthermore, I was very excited to be going there with my friends and family.  Day 1 I got up at 5:00 in the morning, and left our house at 6. For the trip, we had booked two Toyota HiAces, in order to fit in all 17 of us and our luggage. As we drove along the winding roads and majestic mountaintops, my friend and I settled down to watch a movie(We watched 5 in total by the end of the week!). Our first destination was Kurobe Dam which is Japan's tallest dam. Sadly however, we didn't get the opportunity to visit it as we could only reach the dam by taking a train and the last train had just stopped running 15 minutes earlier. Nevertheless, we continued our drive, exploring the be...

In this blog, I will be writing on the grand day 5, 6, and 7 as well as my return to Chennai. Day 5: As a reward for our hard work in the past four days, Shaheen Mistry and the other teachers let us have a free day. This free day was unique as it was embedded with lot of learning. For the first half of the day, we could do whatever we wanted in the hotel. Around four in the evening, we set off to an auditorium in Bandra. On reaching the auditorium, we got to know that there are many NGOs, which just like Teach For India, strive to end educational inequality in India. The KER team and the heads of the NGOs collaborated together for a mind-blowing experience for us students. All hundred of us were thrilled when we heard that the children of the schools run by the NGOs were going to perform for us. We were given two superb KER t-shirts, one black and one white. I quickly wore the black KER t-shirt and went and sat in the auditorium. It was three hours of amazement as the perform...

In this post, I will be blogging on my companions from Chennai, the journey to Mumbai, and my thoughts on the city. Out of the hundred kids chosen to attend the Kids Education Revolution happening in Mumbai for one week, five of us(including me) were from Chennai. One student was from my school and we already knew each other so we became friends immediately. The other three students were from schools in which Teach For India taught. But there was no difficulty in breaking the initial bonds as we found that our topics of interest were the same and could break the ice easily. Prior to travelling to Mumbai, I also met the head for Teach For India in Chennai. She, along with a teacher from my school, as well as a teacher from the other school, were going to travel with us.   Finally, the day of February 5th 2018 arrived!! I could not sleep the night leading to KER. My mind was full of thoughts and expectations on how KER would turn out for me. Though I had some negative th...

 Towards the end of January in 2018, my school gave students from grade 6 to 9, a chance to participate in an initiative called KER . KER, which is the short form for K ids E ducational R evolution, is the brain child of Shaheen Mistry . Shaheen Mistry is the founder of Teach For India (TFI), an organization which strives to eliminate educational inequality in India. Teach for India, which works in seven cities across India, recruits college graduates and working professionals to serve as full time teachers for two years. These highly qualified teachers are placed in low income schools, which do not have the funds to provide the study material to the children. The teachers use their own money for the betterment of the school and use their ingenuine and fun methods to teach the children. Kids Education Revolution is a very unique initiative where 100 kids selected across the country come together to come up with new teaching methods. This was the first time that students...

In this post, I will be blogging on "day 2" and "day 3" of the ecoLogin trip. In day 2, we visited the "elephant camp" . The elephant camp, which is run by a family, has 3 elephants which were rescued after being subjected to cruelty by their previous owners. We had the oppurtunity to touch the elephants and feed them chunks of papaya. After this, we took part in a treasure hunt inside a forest in the camp. Each of us were given a sheet of paper with questions asked in riddles. We had to find the answers and locate them in the forest. This enhanced my sense of direction and my observation skill. As a cue, when the treasure hunt was over, it started to rain heavily! Thankfully the trees sheltered us from the rain as we ran back into the house in which the family lived. While waiting for the rain to subdue, we drew images of animals and birds using stencils. When we could finally go outside, we saw that the whole forest was flo...

In this post, I will be blogging on my experiences on attending a school trip conducted by ecoLogin six months back. ecoLogin is a tourism service company that offers activity filled tourism experience in interesting and offbeat locations. Sixteen students(including myself) along with two teachers had attended this three day trip. We reached the school at 7 A.M and boarded a private bus that had been arranged for us. All of us were exhilarated as we were going to spend three days away from our parents.😜 We boys (six of us in total) occupied the back seat and were talking about the days coming front as well as the fun that we were going to have. The three hour long bus ride was very lively. It was the first time that the boys and girls in my class interacted together in a friendly manner. We passed time by playing games such as UNO and cards. We reached the Irula Tribal Women Welfare Society(ITWWS) located at Tandarai near the temple town of Tiruvanamalai, 172 km from Chennai....

  In this post, I will be blogging on my trip to the smallest state in India, " Goa " two years back. I had visited  Goa  along with my parents and grandmother. As the flight took off from the Kamaraj domestic terminal Chennai, I watched with a grip of alarm and wonderment as the plane curved from the sea back to land. After an hour and a half's time of travelling with puffy clouds, we finally reached  Goa ! Woohoo!😃 I was   exhilarated   as I placed my first step on the   "Jewel of the West Coast" , which is my nickname for Goa .  We were driven to our resort, " Ramada Caravela"  by the taxi owned by the resort. On reching the resort I was awestrucken! With a large pool in the centre and coconut trees everywhere, the 5 star resort was a treat to my eyes. The rooms were private suites and were built in a cottage style. As it was christmas time, the resort was lighted up in a breathtaking way. The resort owns a stretch of the Varca Bea...

In this post, I will be blogging on my visit to the famous and powerful  Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple . The Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple , also  referred to as the Bhuloka Vaikunta (Vishnu's abode on Earth), is dedicated to God, Guruvayurappan. Guruvayurappan is Vishnu, worshiped in his form Krishna. T he idol is in a standing posture and is four - armed, carrying the conch Panchajanya, the discus Sudarshana Chakra, the mace Kaumodaki and a lotus with a holy basil garland. The idol represents the majestic form of Vishnu as revealed to Krishna's parents, Vasudeva and Devaki. The idol is made of Black Bismuth.   W e advanced to the temple through the east gate. Dozens of shops were lined across, selling various items centered on Guruvayurappan.  I believe that the Guruvayur Devaswom Board should plan for a better crowd management. Devotees are moved to the sanctum in batches, which is taking lot of time. Once a batch has proceeded towards the s...

In this post, I will be writing on the places I had visited in the town of Guruvayur. To start with, I went to Anakotta (Punnathurkotta) followed by the Mammiyur Mahadeva Temple . Anakotta in Malayalam, translates to "elephant fort" is situated 2 kilometre away from the  famous Guruvayur Sree Krishna Temple. In a ten acre plot of coconut groves along with small temple, a dilapidated Punnathurkotta palace, few buildings, it is the abode for 60 to 85 elephants.  The Anakotta premises and the animals are owned and managed by the Guruvayur Devaswom Board.  There is also a small disused temple in the Anakotta. I felt the Anakotta was the perfect place for a elephant to live. It is more like a miniature forest, environment friendly to animals and the elephants have lot to eat and drink. The mahouts know and understand each elephant and are very caring. When we reached there, the elephants were either eating royally, towering over everybody else or were bending low l...

This blog is the first in a trilogy about my trip to Guruvayur, a temple town in the Thrissur district of Kerala.I along with my parents, embarked on my exhilarating journey by reaching the majestic 142 year old  Chennai Central Railway Station(MAS) .We had reached the station early,in fear of getting stuck in the rush hour evening traffic. Being a Friday, t he station was overflowing with people, either bustling around to catch their trains or having a sip of aromatic coffee.  My observation about the Chennai Central is that it is not clean and the railway tracks smelled of urine and excreta. There are trash bins kept at places, but not effectively used by the travelers. I would want the management to put down strict rules so that people don't litter at this important landmark of Chennai. In addition, there are no private food joints as it used to be in the past. This is creating additional difficulty for the travelers. A bit of renovation of the entire building...

Today, I am going to blog about my trip to Kerala. I had visited Kerala for two weeks to stay with my grandparents. First, I headed to Thiruvananthapuram, capital city of Kerala state and in the southern tip of the western coast of India. It is a clean city with lot of fresh air and greenery.I made a trip to quite a few temples including the famous  Padmanabhaswamy Temple , Attukal Devi Temple.  I was impressed when I visited another landmark place in Thiruvanthapuram, the 189 year old  Kerala State Central Library .It was established during the reign of the magnificent music composer and king,  Swathi Thirunal .  (Click on Swathi Thirunal for more details).  The library was rich with so many books across ages. I posed for a picture in front of the majestic and beautiful  Kerala State Legislative Assembly Building . After which I stood, gaping at this wonderful piece of architecture. This is the new legislative building. The old one which is ...