POUSHYA - A New Waldorf Initiative in Powai, Mumbai, India

On Sunday, July 12, 2009, there was a one day workshop on Waldorf education, organised jointly by the Mumbai Gateway Branch and the founding members of Poushya: Vidhya, Mouli, Nirupama and Hemangi, who are actually also Gateway members. This new Waldorf initiative Poushya, (a new beginning), is located in the Powai flat of Vidhya and Mouli, where the workshop was also held.

Visit to Sadhana Village, Pune

On the weekend of 27/28 December, a group of us visited Sadhana Village, which is a home for mentally challenged adults undergoing social therapy, about forty kilometers from Pune in Maharashtra, India. This group consisted of Ulrich and Cornelia Roesch, Padmini and Seshadri Desikan, Kaiser Irani, Dilnawaz and I..

KASHMIR - A Meeting Of Three Cultures

Kashmir is the northernmost state of India, a state of breathtaking beauty with the high Himalayan Mountains, gushing rivers and pristine lakes. The flora and fauna are of an alpine and temperate variety, very different from those found in the tropical plains of the country. Kashmir includes the regions of Ladakh in the east and Jammu in the south, which is why the state has been given the official name of Jammu and Kashmir, or J&K for short. The capital city is Srinagar, situated on the picturesque Dal and Nagin Lakes with the river Jhelum flowing through.

Alternative Education In Mumbai The Tridha Rudolf Stelner School

Many parents and teachers today are not satisfied with the education in mainstream schools. It tends to be one-sided, emphasising mainly the process of thinking and learning by rote, which involves mere habituation and unintelligent memory. Creativity and innovation take a back seat, because the main goal is to pass the class with good results. Children as young as two must learn how to read, write and count and, now increasingly, how to use the computer. The competition and the pressure in the classroom seems to be increasing day by day, and there is a great need to find alternatives to this kind of conventional education.

Beware of the Intelligent Consumers

Walk or drive down the streets of our Mumbai-nagri and you will have any number of advertisement-hoardings attacking you, screaming down at you, compelling you to buy that something, demanding of you to try out that new product, to watch this or that show on TV, to see the latest film, to take a particular flight to somewhere, etc., etc. You simply can’t miss the urgency of their messages, the “it’s now or never” hysteria, as if your very existence depended on buying, or not buying, that particular product.

Wonderland of Early Childhood - The Waldorf Kindergarten

Dr. Rudolf Steiner has given very important guidelines on the understanding of child development, based upon his spiritual insight and research. The Waldorf Kindergarten, which caters to the three to six year olds, before they enter Class One, can truly be called a Wonderland of Early Childhood.

Alliance for Childhood

My neighbour’s nine year old daughter came to me and asked me, “Aban aunty, can I sing you a new song?” Since she attends a nice English medium school, I thought I’d hear “All things bright and beautiful” or something equally pleasant. She began, “Sexy lady on the floor…” I almost fell off my chair! “Is this what they teach you in school?” I asked. “No, I picked it up myself. They don’t teach us singing in school, we have to study.” True, most schools concentrate mainly on the syllabus and exams, where’s the time for singing, drawing, dancing, painting? Indeed, art is considered a waste of time! A pity because then the children learn most inappropriate songs, like the one my little neighbour sang, and gyrate with jhatkas and such, which they “pick up” from films and TV.