What did the four years at FLAME teach you ?

What did the Four years at FLAME teach me? This is not for the students to answer...Its for the Teachers to answer.. Students are oft asked this question...especially when they are passing out.. Maybe its time for the Teachers and the Founders to ask themselves this question "What did the 4 years teach you ..?"

So let me reflect .. I learnt that young people have a mind of their own!.. I learnt that just because they are your students , they will not respect you. They may be afraid of you. They may not say anything to something they disagree with. But a 17 year old, with so much happening in his or her brain, is not going to listen you, because you are their Teacher or they are your students. They will first ignore you, then ridicule you and maybe...just maybe if you are lucky they will begin to see you a little differently. Most of their issues are not with you the person.. they feel they owe it to the world , to change it ! And the lesson for all of us is to let them think that way.. we should never prevent them from dreaming and questioning and believing that they can change the world... We are a bunch of cynics who could not change the world much anyway.. what makes us think that they cannot.. let them at least try! Let them at least fall ...and get up again and fall again... Let us not be shepherds who are trying to keep students in line...let them explore and find out.. Kabeer, Namrata, Harsh, Phuntsong, Richa, Aarti, Gopi , and Salomi..this ones from you!

I also learnt that they actually listen to you but don't want to admit they are listening to you! I wonder why ! I never thought they ever listened, but they often have surprised me with something I said even 3 years before! So don't ever think they are not listening.. I think their conscious mind is fighting for them...telling them don't listen to these adults, they will start controlling your freaking lives! so ignore, fight, argue but don't fall in line! But all these are speculations! Only speculations! I have no idea why they do that! Urvi, Vanessa, Aditya, Samar , Avi , Sushant , Samrit , Himay , Akshay, Jitu ,

Vidhi, Vishwa, Vishesh and Yashwant, Nishant ...I learnt this from you..!!

The third lesson I learnt, and mind you this is the most important lesson.. They have a MOB MENTALITY AT ITS WORSE! You talk to each one of them as an individual, they would be the most loving , caring and obedient kids...but the minute you herd them together and treat them like a mob...they will come at you like a ton of bricks!!!! So first establish a personal rapport with each one of them , treat them as special people with special needs.. care for them , look after them...indulge in them once in a while and they will be your best friends.. but only when they are alone..never ever let them become a Mob....!!! Thats a secret worth sharing! Pranav, Husein , Nayantara, Dharmi, Gaya, Karishma, Niyomi and each one of you FSLE guys!

The fourth lesson is they become Adults overnight!!... you give up on them, you feel they are beyond repair.. they will never ever change, they are losers, they surprise you with their maturity.. I dont know whats it about these kids.. they just become adults overnight! Gayatri, Sonali, Rashi, Ami, Ashish, Hemlata , Agam, Aalisha I learnt this from you...

The Fifth Lesson is, they are out there to surprise you everyday ! Every Day! I cant imagine the discussions amongst the Faculty, you mean so and so did this ? you mean so and so wrote this assignment ? You mean he made this film ? You mean he came drunk ? You mean she brought alcohol bottles to campus...from the profane to the stupidest things, from the unhealthy to the most creative lies , from the obscene to the most serene things they will do and surprise you with it every day ! They really do surprise you every day ! Anurag, Atisha, Eritu, Vishwa,Hardik Hemakshi ,Imli, Kavita-s (KAvita number 2 - did you really have a boy friend at NDA?) ,Madhavi, Malay , Malavika, Mritikka,Nandi , Parmarth,Vidhi , Ria, Ujjwal and Urvi Palwankar..

Now if I have missed some names here.. it means they have done all of the above... If I have put your names twice, it only means you came into the radar too often!

Having said all this.. I must say , I am not going to say Good Bye to you guys.. FOR YOU WILL NEVER EVER STOP SURPRISING US !!

LOVE YOU!

PARAG SIR

Goodbye to my Entrepreneurship Students!

Good bye dear students! It will be so hard for me not to come back to campus without your stressed faces , yet seeing you grow up into people who took challenges ...sacrificed the life of a normal student and opted for something far more demanding and totally unexpected ..Adieu and of course I salute your courage and your humility. I salute your resoluteness in the midst of all adversity. You never lost your cool. This is the stuff leaders are made of.

As I look back at the entire year I cannot even begin to list the amount of work you have done in just doing your Major. I am sure it was more like a full time 24x7 course, more demanding than anything you faced in your life before!

Our first session was on the film called "An Enigma Called Entrepreneurship" ...with an assignment of 2500 words..returned back a few times until you got it right!

In the same session I gave you less than 7 days to finish a 10,000 words essay on several books. Most of you had never finished a book back to back before! then came the mother of all cases "Dharavi"!!! It was so amusing to see you people go through the case and not be able to figure what is happening !

But you never gave up! Not once did you guys complain about anything! Not even once! I am sure the back office talk was all foul, but you did respect me enough not to vent it out in front of me!

Then as the Dharavi case began to be put together , I could almost see your eyes glow in confidence and you began to believe that you can do anything.. no matter how demanding it was...

You then had Boris And Ala and you went through the Innovation workshop with them and with Prof.Sandip Mistry.

Subsequently, you had to start your own enterprise with a small seed capital , work at it, maintain accounts, be raided ... it was ll learning and fun..

You had Psychology classes, then you had Theology and Ethics and writing classes. Then Dalia gave you Anthropological insights into rural marketing... The Drama "Sheer and Utter Nonsense" was a revelation!

The mother of all challenges was the Discover India Project. The jury was truly international. PG's are supposed to be "constipated"...they proved me totally wrong .! Both the groups did a fabulous job and were so immersed into the creation... I just cannot tell you how happy and proud I felt...I had goosebumps when I saw you present your work .. The jury was just too stunned!

And then Bala came. Huge reputation. Ex Harvard Professor. Teaching Strategy. I was putting my reputation on the line and you made my day when he said your students are as good as anyone he has seen! Thank you guys!

Remember, you may or may not find everything useful, but this course taught you 2 important lessons...to believe in yourself and to have the confidence to work very hard..

To Keval for his unflinching faith and fabulous intellect,

to Amol for his Love and devotion,

to Anirudha for his dedication,

to Sukirti for her transformation,

to Siddhartha for his insights,

to Kushal for his endearing smile,

to Aarshin for his perseverance,

to Mayank for his faith in the course..

to Monil for his admiration and faith ...

to Vidhi for her love and care...

to Himay for transforming into a man...

to Ankit for his positive energy

to Smit for his fabulous observations and hard work...

to Kruti for her sincerity and hard work..

to Ritika for her faith in me...

to Mini for her quite contributions,

to Shreyas for his passion ,

to Samkit for his Project Report,

to Aditya for his amazing ability to manage his anger...

to Ayush for his questions to everyone I may have missed ,

to Shivani who has the potential to make a unique music academy,

to Archit who always did his work on time...

to Naman who actually started working!

to Trauneet who saw life beyond his horizons!..

to Ankush who trusted me so much!

to Parth for his cool attitude and calm demeanor (sorry mate!)

to Rachit who has great creativity and intellect.. My hats off to all of you...

This teacher will always miss you ... Go make your family , institution, organisation proud of you.. To my dying day I will not forget what you taught me most...to believe in the youth of tomorrow...to believe that if you give the young a challenge...there is a Dhoni in every one of you.. Captains enough to win the nation glory and pride...

Goodbye.. God bless.

Thoughts on Students....

I was on the panel for the Group Discussions and Personal Interviews (GDPI in our lingo!) for students applying to FLAME (http://www.flame.edu.in/) for the Undergraduate Program.

One of the observations I have about the youth today is that the generation gaps are pretty high! For example interviewing an Undergraduate is quite different from interviewing a Postgraduate. Postgraduate’s are far more focused , mature and have more or less "fallen in line!" and have gone through the charade often enough to say the right things, make the right noises and sifting through their real persona takes a lot of doing. But the Undergraduates are raw and open and have aspirations quite different then their seniors...

The key issue is how do you select the right candidate for a Liberal Education Program? As it is, the word "Liberal" means many different things to many different people. For most youngsters it means "license" to do anything! Many think to be Liberal means to be Bohemian or Rebellious.

So for the first time, I decided that we will pick up an "Ethical Dilemma" as a case study. Instead of the usual stuff they use for the GDPI topics such as "is college education necessary” or the oft repeated "Should the youth do something about corruption ".

The ethical dilemma was interesting. It was about a teacher who had to choose between a sincere student not submitting his homework in time and giving him the same punishment as any other student or should a differential treatment be given. As a panel we decided to concentrate simply on the verbs the students used whilst discussing the topic.

I was surprised that we had missed out on quite a few issues including student’s perceptions about teachers... Everyone wants fairness, but only for others... for themselves they want "different" standards and as the discussion went on, I realized that the youth today actually do not know what system they belong to.

They actually do not believe they belong to a system beyond themselves. Many think they have no system they belong to. The whole thing seems to be centred on "identity”. What do they belong to? A community, a family, a Society or country? These are issues that have not even touched them. I think the school system does not prepare them to look at a larger canvass and help them get in touch with their own identities.

But all in all it was heartening to see that when pushed, students do want to look at the system they belong to. They simply have not been given an opportunity to explore their real identity issues and one of the most important things a college education, especially at the undergraduate level should do is to help students explore their identities.

Parag