Itihasa made itihasya...

During the workshop - Kids mull on Pralayan's observations Two things have been quite close to my heart: one is my belief in education, particularly school education and its role in transforming students in becoming reflective, empathetic and importantly where they become active and critical subjects and not merely moronic consumers. Secondly I believe in history's (as a subject) pivotal role in achieving such goals. All my efforts in the classroom is geared towards this end and I constantly strive (not always successfully) to put across history in a way that goes beyond the obvious markers with which history is associated - dates, names, events etc.

The swirls and twirls of the dancers The greatest challenge that any history teacher faces is to get students involved into the past. How does a teacher make the past familiar to the student, in a way that students can identify with the past, or its parts, at some level which brings out the relevance of history? This becomes a more complex and difficult task when a teacher like myself attempts to reconstruct the past focusing on the processes that go to shape certain events (rather than the events themselves which constitutes the subject matter of History in most history books. Alas!) in the past or understand those aspects of the past which helps to relate the present of festivals, entertainment, sports on the one hand (i.e. popular culture) and the present of social, political and cultural issues on the other.