It is the time of the year, when seniours are going to start
their last semester of this two year journey after wrapping up their
final field work or as we in TISS call it Experiential Learning (EL3).
On the other hand the juniours would be preparing presentations after
their first EL all set to sail for their longest semester at TISS. The
journey of ELs are perhaps one the best things of the journey at TISS.
There are offcourse so many things which are not just different in TISS
but something which leaves permanent mark on our lives.
Even
after two years now I still remember packing our bags rather stuffing
three guy's stuffs into one bag, only to find girls carrying almost
double the number of bags even though they were half in number. With all
the excitement we reached MGBS and boarded the bus to Achampet. Even
though we went there fearing the worst, but I found the villages there
much better than what I was used to in Eastern India. There were proper
houses, electricity, water and sanitation facilities. TISS mess food had
prepared us to appreciate even mid day meal food also. Yet some of us
had to struggle, but that is the part of learning. Now when I was
listening to one of my super juniors telling me about her EL, memories
of those fights, arguments, late night strategy meet to achieve the best
possible results all came flooding into my memories. What I learnt at
the end of our presentation (we were the first team to hit the ground
and last to present, so lot of learning) was that the whole exercise was
never about some survey or anything. It was all about learning about
ourselves. How we work and respect each other and especially respect the
people who we work for. Just because they can not recite Marx, Kant or
Sen thinking they know less than us or have less wisdom, is what most of
us think. But what they miss in big theories they more than make up for
it in real life experiences which we can only dream to match. Back
during the presentations I found out something we only read about. While
we all might think that if we put together a bunch of amazing people we
will get the best results. But sometimes things are not so simple. I
found many teams performing worse than many teams which did not have
talented people. A team with a good film-maker and a good photographer
could not even come up with a decent photo-story. What many might call
resource curse. On the other hand a team which had people whose
photography abilities are hardly even amateurish managed to put together
a decent short documentary. Though there was also a team with amazing
lot of people who not only enjoyed their EL but also put together an
amazing presentation and a documentary.
In 2008 Indian Flag was planted on lunar soil. But how did Indian reached their? What started with sending sounding rockets for the benefit of the newly formed developing country ended up being the leading space programme in the world? It gives all the details on how the Indian Space Programme evolved. Starting literally from scratch, and fight foreign embargoes and technology denial regimes it evolved in to country’s if not world finest institution. It shows how it started under the visionaries like Vikram Sarbai, Homi Bhaba, and the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru, and was subsequently supported by different governments. The space programme it self shows that if given in the right hands and in down in the best way possible it can not only be India’s best but also world’s best. It is surely inspiration for all the crumbling government institutions. In the later chapters it also gives us an insight into the future of ISRO. It also have the interview Dr G.Madhavan Nairof ISRO, Dr....
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