P. Vikram,
Project Associate,
Bharati Project,
IIT Madras.

14-2-20 has been a very pleasant day with things happening just the way they must. Having reached the Panighata highschool ..just a few hundred metres away from a banks of MAA Ganga.. there was a warm welcome by the Teachers and HM…the smiling faces of students (learnt that the school strength is 1500+) and their eagerness to learn new good things had set the right stage.

As each class can accommodate about 70 students .. we had to adjust with that. Still some students were sitting outside the class and looking inside from the entrance. The main focus however is on effective delivery of the content (rather than on counting the no. of heads in the class ..) so that those who attended the session(s) will be in a position to teach to others.

To draw the attention of the students (or the audience in general) to what is being taught… it is customary for me to use mathematical magic acts that are simple but amazing..and this time too..it’s no different. Very soon after the class began formally…the students came into ‘order’ and hence learnt various techniques of speed/Vedic maths including magic squares, cube roots, number guessing game etc. It’s my experience that telling stories and useful information occasionally (like that regarding vigyanprasar (science groups/kits), arvindgupta toys/ integrity pledge (pledge.cvc.nic.in) various competitions and resources to learn) will keep their interest levels high throughout the session and it worked here as well. As the teachers attending sessions should also feel that their subject is being touched…I use a combination of science equipment and maths to teach any subject and this makes every person to feel that this class is useful for ‘me also’. When I teach them..how to make that simple ‘all in one’ science kit ..no words can explain you their happiness..this is mainly bcoz…they are seeing such a thing for the first time!

Now this was the right time to introduce Bharati script because now each and everyone in the class is ‘with the person’ who has been teaching such new and useful content for the last 2hrs or so. Learning the script is a matter of about 15min for such children..but it is not to push things on to them. They must be convinced about the need for the new (Bharati) script. It is very essential because, later in their life if someone asks why the script has to be learnt, these students shouldn’t curse me… ‘Hey why have you taught me this and went away just like that!!.’ So giving proper reasoning about the shortcomings of the existing scripts and telling the merits of the scientifically designed script plays vital role in making people accept/ adopt it. They should also be made to understand that by investing about 1hr of their valuable time (with interest)..at this juncture.. they will be getting benefits for the rest of their life (which is at least 60years on an average).. especially when they travel to different parts of the country.

Once the platform was ready, and when they were all keen in learning this ‘unifying script’(generally every person who crossed age of 30 would have taught/ dreamt off having such a script which makes life easier), a student was asked to come on the stage and write the vowels & consonants in Bengali script. As already 1 page pamphlet was distributed in the class.. students became busy in noting down the Bengali & equivalent bharati script. I showed how easy it is to write the letters and this takes less than 15min. Just learning individual characters will be of limited use. The full spectrum of advantages of the script can be got by practicing how to write words both on paper and also by learning the mobile app. So the students were shown some examples and then they were given chance to show their skill in writing their names / other words in bharati script. Teachers were demonstrated about using the mobile app. Very soon after the ball went into children’s court…‘bhayya’ ‘sir’….’bhayya sir’, ‘sir.. bhayyA’.. ‘sir sir’ are the voices one can here ..what’s that. Yes you guessed it right… they wrote their names and are now willing to show it to bhayyA/ sir.

This is a difficult phase to control children (for several reasons)..it is not possible to physically check all books..and making children understand about the availability of limited time is something that I need to master. Some of them were given chance to write on board. While most of the children grasped the things at the first instance ..some of them need some more time to get things fixed in their minds.

As the bell rang for lunch, we had to close the session so that new set of students will get opportunity. During the break…the children who attended the morning session have gone round the school and spread the word. So those who attended the 2nd session had greater hopes and I tried my best to teach new items..as I have a good database of items in my mind. Probably guessing this two students who attended morning session also sat in the class for post lunch session. When I noticed them…I requested them to give chance to ‘ new students’…because…already several students were willing to come in…if there is a chance.

The program was initially planned for 1day only ..but the students and teachers were not ready to give send off in day 1. Their interest in having session the next day could not be denied. So I had opportunity to interact with new set of students on 15th. On the whole, about 220 students & 4 teachers got introduced to the Bharati script while 400+ students got a mathematical flavor directly from bhayyA in the two days.

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For more information on Bharati script: www.bharatiscript.com