Ananda Mahto: Tata-Dhan Academy This is me, Ananda Mahto. Well, it used to be me. I’m not as youthful these days. I teach written and spoken English at the Tata-Dhan Academy. I’ve been teaching for a decade now (not at the Academy-I’ve only been here about three years) and it has been amazing. Along the way, I have come to learn lots of new things about the teaching and learning process. I like to think of myself as a “lifetime learner” and to ensure that I’m not totally crazy in thinking of myself in that way, I give myself different projects-like learning how to use statistical software, how to record music, how to edit videos, or how to design websites. Some of these things that I learn come in useful; others just keep me busy.
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I had a pretty rough time with my Written Analysis and Communication (WAC) classes last year-correcting the papers seriously takes me forever-but things have started to stabilize, and these days, I have a lot of fun with the class, particularly with the online discussions. The WAC course runs for three of the five terms of the Programme in Development Management, and one regular component is a weekly online discussion forum. Recently, PDM 10 finished their first WAC course and in the discussion q uestions alone (many of which are introspective or reflective) they wrote a combined 400 pages or so! I really like all of my PDM students (even though they sometimes drive me crazy). It makes me happy to think that the time that they are spending here will help them to make a difference in the world, and I’m glad to be a part of that process.
I love my animals. They are like my morning meditation or daily thoughts and prayers. I’ve managed to get the cats and dogs at the Academy to become “friends” with each other (and, I’ve also managed to get many people at the Academy to change their views towards animals).
THE PEOPLE!
Jena and Sangeetha make every day at the Academy better for me. Jena, the “Poor Fellow”, encourages me to learn more. He’s revived my earlier interest in economics and has influenced my exploration of data analysis software. We also both enjoy discussing random nonsense over a nice big cup of tea or coffee.... Sangeetha has been my “Indians” and “DH ANites” interpreter (since sometimes I don’t understand concepts like Indian time or why some DH ANites use “sir” and “madam” with the same freq uency of the words “the” or “a”). She’s also one of my best English students; she’s never offended if I correct her, and usually, I only need to correct her once. Shanthi remains my field mentor. It’s always great to work with her during her course on participatory learning methods. During the field visits, she is always full of stories, and for those of you who know Shanthi, I’m sure you’ll agree that she’s a great storyteller. Ramya and Rajkumar make my work at the Academy MUCH easier. I think it is safe to say that Rajkumar can do everything-or at least it seems that way. And, we seem to think similarly, so he sometimes even does things that I need to have done before I even realize I need to do it, which is awesome. Ramya still has a lot to learn, but she has a great positive attitude and she will always figure things out instead of just saying “no” or “it’s not possible.” Both of them have also been a big source of help for the online courses that I’ve taught.
M ADUR AI SYMPOSIUM & OTHER WORK
As was the case with the 2007 Symposium, I did not get to attend any of the events. I was working on the daily bulletins. There were a lot of people who made the bulletins a success-too many to name here. The event was a mixture of fun and frustration, and I don’t think that Jena, Rajkumar, or Dhanabalan would disagree with me that we won’t miss having to go to sleep at 3AM and get back to work at 7AM. Now, there are boxes of materials that we need to go through and synthesize into other symposium-related publications. In general, though, one reflective generalization that I can make from the experience is that I really don’t like managing projects and people-I don’t think it’s something I’m good at (unless you’re talking about a classroom). Centre for HRD and Tata-Dhan Academy wanted to try something different this year: an online course on proposal writing. It was scheduled to run for 12 weeks, and the experience was OK, but far from what I would call a success. (My actual choice of words to describe the outcome was that it was a failure, but others said I was being too critical.) Honestly, I’m not sure that most DH ANites can dedicate the time req uired to make the best out of an online class-a conservative estimate is that it req uires five hours a week.... Also, at the time, the Academy’s infrastructure was insufficient to deliver the course effectively. To date, unfortunately, the course is still incomplete, although I hope that the participants learned something during the sessions they had.
I also conducted a few short programmes on web design and development and managerial oral communication. The web design workshops were definitely interesting, and we had a good opportunity to review DH AN’s existing web presence. However, there are still some technical difficulties which need to be solved if we are to offer similar courses to outsiders. And, of course, I wrote. My big piece of writing this year (well, not really this year, but it got printed this year) was the Primer on Linking Disaster Risk Reduction with Development Efforts written for ACEDRR. Along with that, we finally printed some copies of a small booklet I had written about fieldwork diary writing and process documentation. Jena wanted to compile a booklet of data for his budget session, so I helped him with that. And I tried to design an annual report for the Academy, but.... END!