Dear Colleagues          

While season is changing, another round of random reflections for your perusal:

  1. On February 14 this year, several spiritual forces came together. Basant Panchmi is the birthday of Goddess Saraswati, promoting learning, arts, music, creativity. Her blessings inspire learning and knowing in all aspects of human life. The fasting season of ‘lent’ also began that day. And Valentine’s Day began as remembrance day for some martyrs called St Valentine.
  2. In this part of the world, it is also spring season. Spring is full of colours, flowers and new fragrances. Love is in the air when spring arrives. Public performances of poetry, arts, music and dance fill the air. However,  climate changes are affecting seasons such that spring now arrives and leaves rather suddenly.
  3. Every visit to Bhubaneshwar makes me wonder why I continue to live in Delhi. Clean air, organized traffic on the roads, courteous public transport and welcoming vendors..…everything that a modern city should have. Add sports, especially hockey, and its full menu! Only similarity with other metros is in numbers of billboards, albeit with different face than in Delhi!
  4. Yesterday was February 29, as 2024 is designated as ‘Leap’ year. Once every four years, an extra day is added to shortest month in Gregarian calendar….February. This enables the calibration with extra 6 hours that it takes for earth to complete its elliptical orbit around the sun…365 days plus 6 hours. In Samwat calendar, extra months are added every few years, since each lunar month has 30 days cycle. Human systems tend to be rigid & fixed, while astronomical ones show resilience and drift?
  5. A recent taxi drive sprang some surprises. After gaining some comfort through my greetings, the driver asked me  if I was involved in research for social development. I said yes, but wondered how did he find out? He clarified simply…while waiting to pick me up in front of the office, he took photo of the signboard and fed that to ChatGpt. Sure enough, a short note on participatory research arrived on his mobile! Time to retire?

Thanking you, stay well

 

 

About the Author

A Ph.D. from Case Western Reserve University (Cleveland, USA) and an electronics engineer (IIT, Kanpur) with a graduation in management (IIM, Calcutta), Dr Rajesh Tandon is an internationally acclaimed leader and practitioner of participatory research and development. His journey with PRIA started in 1982, as a young IIM graduate wanting to do more than just complete his PhD fieldwork.

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