Accepting charity is fine, doing charity is not, for the likes of me in Germany

Well, the title is a rather tall claim to make on the basis of just a couple of such incidents. But still these incidents happened and so I have to write and tell you about them. The first incident occured at a well known charity shop in town very close to where I live, and the second has to do with a One-World Shop in a nearby village. And the third story I tell here, just to put things in perspective and to show how things could and should really be; it took place in a Gymansium in a little town outside Wuerzburg. Nothing really happened in any of these occasions, but still a lot happened. So here goes...
Read more...

--more--

Remembering Rabin Goswami Sir

I am not sure why I have not been able to write about Sir in all these days although his death affected me very badly. On hearing the news of his demise on Friday, 26th June, 2026, I first froze, then came acute cramps, on the third day I started to cry and kept crying for the next three days.  It was only on Wednesday when I needed to write a condolence message on behalf of Sishugram that I first forced myself to find words to say what I felt. But even then I wrote about what he meant for all of us, as a senior and very active member of the Trust Board, as the Koka for all our girls at Sishugram, as a teacher, as a writer and editor, as a lover of plants and vegetables, there were so many roles that he played...

Read more...

--more--

Discovering Umbria

This was a trip to the lesser known but historically rich and naturally beautiful heartland of Italy : Umbria.  Everyone has heard of Tuscany in Italy, but not everyone has heard of Umbria, which is pretty much the region in the very heart of Italy and lying to the east of Tuscany. The big cities of Italy Rome, Florence, Venice,... are elsewhere. But many have heard of places like Assisi (the home of St. Francis) and of Perugia, the capital of Umbria. Umbria has no coast and hence also no beaches. But it has hills, it has valleys and it has history going back a very long time. 

I was in the Umbria region of Italy from the 19th to the 25th May 2026. The main attraction was meeting my dear Italian friend Silvia Barbina who lived in Foligno [also known to be the 'Centre of the World'], and worked in Camerino over the hills. Since my Finnish friend Helena was also in Italy around the same time, she also came over to Foligno, and the three of us had a wonderful time. As we later realised, Foligno was the perfect place to base ourselves to explore the Umbria region. I will tell you why later.

Read more...

--more--

If you want to know what socialism can do and what real development can mean, go to Odisha

Naveen Patnaik in no longer the Chief Minister of Odisha; why I do not know, because what he has done for the people and the state of Odisha is still very visible for all to see... The few days I spent in Cuttack, Bhubaneshwar and the countryside last week convinced me that he had somehow done a lot and also got it right... 
Read more...

--more--

Telling signs

When you begin to get subtle hints that your presence (or absence) does not make a difference...

You know, in India a person is measured not by the person he or she is but by what job, what position he or she holds... the Ministers and the Babus have the right of way everywhere, also cricketers and filmstars, I guess.  Of course if you are a university or IIT professor, it is not so bad either... but give it up, and say you are bekar, or that you are self-employed, or that you have retired, ... and slowly you begin to notice the difference. I guess the first time I noticed was when some people at RGU asked me to come and give a talk... I agreed and even started preparing for it. But then one of the organisers asked me for my institutional affiliation and I said I didn't have one anymore. I never heard back from them! I'm not sure when I have actually last spoken (or been invited to speak) at an event that I have not organised myself. Not that I want to speak anywhere but slowly the realisation seeps in.
Read more...

--more--

Bidding farewell to a troubled year

2025 was not easy, by many counts. The world was imploding at various fronts, there were wars and famines and natural calamities, the powerful few were playing their dirty games to keep the rest of the world out, common people were suffering yet powerless to change their fate; at a personal level, 2025 is the year when my dear friend Tithi left for another world and left me stunned and unable to cope.  It was also the year when I was forced to admit that although I have a strong and healthy body, even I can fall sick seriously; it was also the year I felt very strongly blessed by the healing power of the love and affection of my many wonderful friends.
Read more...

--more--

Sishugram of my memory and of my dreams

Sishugram, a Girls Home that I help to run in North Guwahati is celebrating its Golden Jubilee this year. Established in 1975, Sishugram has been part of my life right from its inception. In this article, meant for publication in the Golden Jubilee Souvenir, I chart out the broad outlines of my association with it. This is no report of the Managing Trustee. Nor is it some kind of a factual recounting of milestones and achievements. It is just a rambling recounting of my sometimes close, and sometimes distant association with Sishugram for almost the entire fifty years of its existence. For context, my mother Smti Renuka Devi Barkataki was one of the founding trustees of the Sishugram Trust and was associated with it since its inception in 1975 till her death in 2017. At the outset, I pay homage to her memory and to the memory of her close friend and associate Smti Minoti Chowdhury; both of them were very closely associated with Sishugram, both are no longer here today to see Sishugram attain this golden milestone. May they guide us, if only in spirit, also in the years to come.

Read more...

--more--

4. What after finishing school? Higher Education/Vocational training in Germany

Written with inputs from Zeynep Acharya, Petra Varma and many others; and also from official internet sources

In a certain sense it can be said that the decision for what a child in Germany will go on to become in life is already decided in the 5^th grade with the choice of which type of secondary school that child joins; of which there are essentially three kinds -- the Hauptschule, the Realschule and the Gymnasium. Let us take a closer look at what choices students have after finishing one of these three forms of secondary school.

Read more...

--more--

3. Some further aspects of the German school system

Written jointly with Zeynep Acharya and with inputs from various official internet sites

This is the third part of a series of essays on the German school system, the first was the school through the eyes of a student, the second was the school system through the eyes of a teacher and this third part is about some important points that have not been mentioned so far.

Read more...

--more--

2. The German School System – A View from the Teacher's Room

Written jointly with Zeynep Acharya and from her view point, with inputs from various official internet sites

I have been a teacher in Germany for many years, and during this time I have accompanied children and young people at very different stages of their educational journey. As a teacher, I face a class full of young people every day, each of whom brings their own unique story. When I look at our school system, I see a complex web of opportunities, challenges, and traditions. Let me begin by saying that what I describe below from my own experiences in Hamburg is only a representative example – Education is a state subject in Germany and hence the details of the education system vary slightly from state to state.

Read more...

--more--