so my name is Judy and I’m gonna talk to
you a little bit about the work that I
do why I chose to do it how I do it but
before I begin that I’m going to tell
you a little bit about my story because
that’s very important I have to build a
context for you so yeah and before that
I have to make my dedication this talk
as well as every other piece of work
that I’ve ever done in my life is
dedicated to my school the jb there at
high school for girls and my principal
eight children F Thatcher to my story I
grew up in camps corner in a very very
privileged neighborhood of South Bombay
and always had enough food on my plate
always had everything that I needed
never extra but always enough when I was
young and I’d wait for my school bus
outside my house I would see this family
who is living on the pavement right
there and I think how they began that
day as I waited for the bus two parents
three kids reeking of alcohol sleeping
on toppling sheets that had been spread
out and as the years passed I I had this
pressing question in my head that I
managed to articulate much later I asked
a lot of people why the kids in our
family didn’t have access to kind of
books that I read or why they didn’t
have the kind of toys that I had and
when I finally asked my mother that one
day she said though you in in the most
well-meaning way she said that you know
this is how things are
I remember feeling very distinctly a
pain and a protest within me one that I
couldn’t articulate back then but one
that I’m very grateful that I lost sleep
over for the simple reason that I felt
if my child had to ask me that at some
point I would like to be in the position
of saying that you know this is how
things are but they’re getting better
each day because we’re all doing
something about it the area that I lived
in also gave me access to a lot of
things the choice of music that I grew
up with the kind of literature that I
had it on me the kind of people that I
had around me and one of the things that
helped me with was getting into this
school that I studied in so this school
is extremely special for the simple
reason that it went far beyond what a
regular
icse school is expected to do it went
beyond academics there were three core
pillars that the school focused on one
who is confidence
the second was compassion the ability to
give the ability to not stereotype the
ability to embrace diversity and culture
and the third thing was choice the fact
that you always have choice it’s always
your choice to be able to choose
excellence over mediocrity these two
things were consistently drilled into me
as I grew up of course when I stepped
into college is when I realized how very
deep my schooling experience had been
and how profound the process of learning
had been for me because as soon as I got
into college I was faced with this
massive culture shock
I’d look at people and I’d judge them
based on the genes that I wore I look at
them and say okay a behind-the say I had
you know like I had this disgusting
attitude I was able to see how people
spoke and interact and I was a total go
Wendy you know and and one side of it is
that it’s this very ugly bias but the
other side of it is also that how do you
help it you’ve never been out of that
cocoon privileged space in your
schooling years and I was aghast at my
own attitude and I felt that okay if
this is something that I’ve realized
about myself I need to I need to work on
this I need to negotiate with this and
so at the first chance that I got I felt
like finding out what I could do about
this I made a 12 year plan attempting to
kind of articulate what I could do to
take my schooling experience
out to the world or to the country the
second thing I did was to challenge
myself in in my own ways of identity and
being people was so very very very
different in in in the cities we have
double doors
we have CCTV cameras with security
garden and the villages I lived in a
place which has no doors no there was so
open for me that interaction was
extremely important to kind of negotiate
with what my identity had become why
because I want to use a term here and I
call it the economy of words when we the
privileged say that here’s the tragedy I
forgot to charge my phone oh I’m gonna
soup my maid then land up today I was
binding a and mu C but hey we just use
these words right we use tragedy
disaster crisis problem without even
thinking what it actually means to
people who are in the middle of the
crisis or the tragedy tragedies hunger
of thirst of not having good
accommodation of not having adequate
transport facilities the economy of word
is the economy of words is so very
important and that kind of formulated my
whole attitude because English has no
value where where I was living and I
started I started working on the choice
of words they used as part of this 12
your plan something that I decided was
that okay if I don’t have qualifications
and if I don’t have the necessary means
to enter into the education sector right
away what are the ways that I can
actually put myself out there in the
education space and how is it that I
will actually make an impact so um
another gap that I I’m an astute out was
that majority of the education system in
our country has female staff as part of
it the the gender imbalance is very very
high and some way I worked out that
where there are these many women there’s
probably going to be those many
pregnancy and maternity leaves so I
started
I started approaching schools and I
started walking up to to the heads to
the principals and saying that listen I
know that you have a pregnant teacher in
the school I’d like to save your money
on getting a substitute let me step in
because I want the experience of
understanding what schooling is like and
within a year I had worked in over 100
120 schools like that just by invitation
substitution diving in when teachers
went on sickness ly fig leaves and on
maternity leaves
so there’s Rajasthan there’s the whole
why am I so hell-bent on the school
space and why is it that I’m driving
everything that I that I want to do
through that space because if you
examine it for a second and and just
look at it which are the spaces where we
can actually influence people in groups
schools are spaces where miracles are
waiting to happen you have 30 40 50 in
some places 80 children in one classroom
listening to a teacher and if that
teacher is worked upon and that teacher
is motivated if that teacher is driven
if that teacher is taught how to be a
catalyst how to transform that young
mind we have a developed nation like
that so what do I really do after having
put my foot into various spaces
traveling around and attempting to
understand a little bit of the urban
space the rural space I started
developing a way of constructively
engaging with schools and and with
teachers how am I doing this
how am I doing this how am i working
with IB schools and with government
schools and all these different boards
and all of that the idea was to go
beyond the board the idea was to go
beyond marks the idea was to go beyond
grades the idea was to go beyond the
student and to touch the child to go
beyond the teacher and touch that
catalyst so I use integral education and
my work integral education is Sri
Aurobindo is method of Education
and in a nutshell to explain it quickly
it is about who you are where you want
to go at the pace you want to go to be
the best version of yourself it’s it’s
basically the kind of education that we
would all want and I’ll take a minute
here to quickly tell you what my
thoughts on education are because we all
call the Indian system an Indian
education system but I completely
disagree with us because for me I think
it is some kind of a leftover colonial
academic process there’s a vast
difference between academics and
education academics is small education
is large academic this temporary
education is lifelong academics is about
structure is about boxes education is
about breaking those boxes making new
open spaces we don’t have an education
system in India if we if we accept that
then we know that ok we have a problem I
was very far about D academic I don’t
know where the word came from but I
wanted to do – just like I wanted to die
cast the mold of privilege that I had so
in all of this professional space what I
did was in a more personal space I
started giving up my degrees so I don’t
have anything after the tenth standard
no diplomas no degrees the
recommendation letters no civvies I’m
working on my first CV as of now as a
part of another training process but no
CV is no recommendation that there was
no visiting cards no website I said to
people that I I am the solution I have
the solution and I just waited to be
called overtime I’ve worked in various
states in different spaces one of the
things that I did was to also work at
the domra children’s home where I
interacted with children who were
rescued from some horrendous spaces one
case study is that of an 11 year old
child who has who had had two abortions
and I was working on some kind of an
employability model with that child all
these organizations and programs have
great modules right they have some
really interesting ideas and some very
creative ways of looking at how to put
the solutions in place but still you
have to go beyond the curriculum how
would you engage with an 11 year old who
has had two abortions who has lived her
life at the bat in the back of trucks
you begin at something that we all have
a space within and the more I used
integral education in these spaces the
more I saw that there is immense
potential in this and it is a definite
solution if it is used well the other
thing I do is that I engage with
panchayat I I work with I work in a lot
of rural areas I engage with a lot of
villagers I randomly travel to villages
I sit down with them I talk to them
about what their lives are like I
attempt to understand what a problem is
from the inside now why am i emphasizing
on this is because we have some amazing
world organizations international bodies
we have a lot of experts coming in from
outside telling us what to do telling us
how to solve our problem without ever
having lived in that village without
ever having understood what it is to to
live a day like that I find that
extremely problematic I find that a new
form of colonialism so I start
propounding even that that if you have
to engage with the problem you engage
with it from the inside couple of points
that I want to bring up now based on
what we’re doing today
why inclusiveness what does it even mean
and why do we have to have a forum of
young people discussing inclusiveness
what has happened to us and where have
we come they were discussing
inclusiveness and what does it mean to
that we have diverse speakers who have
done some great things have done some
different things what does it really
mean to me it means that you have to
exclude certain things to make spaces
inclusive to me it means that you have
to you have to exclude things that one
would never compromise on if you are the
one being excluded it’s something to
think about
because these were the big words and we
have these kind of forums and
conferences all the time it’s really
something to think about I spoke about
the problems of privilege earlier I
spoke about how I negotiate with the
fact that I had everything but I had to
negotiate with how I would actually use
it how it made me judgmental how it did
narrow me now I speak about the power of
privilege every single person in this
room if we had to actually
constructively creatively think about
how to put our energies together and
make a change yeah you got ten days you
work in an NGO you clock ten credits or
you get into like a good university that
doesn’t work you do these fancy
fellowships you want to go into the act
so that you can get some kind of a
social certificate so that it looks good
on your CV or profile ticket but on
behalf of the social sector I really
want to say on behalf of the people who
I really have tried to understand I just
want to say that if we do this a bit
more consciously would be fair because
the social sector is not for the
privileged to make their lives more
privileged the social sector is made up
of people who have hearts and dreams and
emotions and feelings and everything
that you and I have so if you choose to
volunteer if you choose to engage if you
choose to interact do it consciously
don’t enter an exit because you have to
put it down on a CV collective ownership
something else but I want to talk about
we all say India’s problems right if I
ask you to about five good things of
other country it’s gonna be a bit hard
everyone see our diversity language
festival color gave oh great if I should
know about the problems it’s a lot
easier we list out 30 problems I don’t
know whom I waiting for I don’t know
what we’re waiting for we waiting for a
messiah who’s going to ride in on a
white horse and change everything in
this country I don’t know are we saying
that it’s the government’s problem to
fix every single problem are we saying
somebody else has to do it
are we saying this valley car being a
Diwali curving
Conte area who’s going to do it
it’s collective ownership are we losing
sleep over anything are we too numb to
feel the pain that so many people go
through is there so much food on our
plate that we cannot even begin to
understand what hunger is for somebody
else collective ownership one of the
last points is about change you know do
we really really want change because if
we do want change we can figure out how
to do it if we do want change we will
negotiate with what’s happening in our
in our minds right now we’re all sitting
in a plush building you know with with
with a lobby which is super fancy we’re
sitting in an air-conditioned room we’re
talking about the world and we’re done
what problems with our more solutions
with our creativity if you really want
change you go out there and you do it
yeah when I didn’t have qualifications I
looked for a gap I started volunteering
wherever I could where there was a
pregnancy leave I got out I taught
myself things and without the backbone
of a paper trail if it’s possible for
one person it’s possible for everyone
how about getting real how do we do this
we’re talking about a country where
education of poverty is a billion-dollar
business some statistics that I’d like
to share with you as part of the 12 year
plan that I made when I was a kid with a
simple dream that you know what I had
something and I wanted to share it and
I’m gonna figure out how to do it over
the last 11 years I’m the I’m in the
11th year of my 12 year plan and I’ve
now worked in over 13 states in the
country I’ve now interacted with more
than 9,000 teachers without like I said
any kind of recommendation spaces and
I’ve worked with over 780 schools
yes to say that change is possible he
has to say that we need to accept as a
problem he has to say that you look
beyond the problem and at the solution
in a creative way in an innovative way
but attempt to be the insider [Applause]
you a little bit about the work that I
do why I chose to do it how I do it but
before I begin that I’m going to tell
you a little bit about my story because
that’s very important I have to build a
context for you so yeah and before that
I have to make my dedication this talk
as well as every other piece of work
that I’ve ever done in my life is
dedicated to my school the jb there at
high school for girls and my principal
eight children F Thatcher to my story I
grew up in camps corner in a very very
privileged neighborhood of South Bombay
and always had enough food on my plate
always had everything that I needed
never extra but always enough when I was
young and I’d wait for my school bus
outside my house I would see this family
who is living on the pavement right
there and I think how they began that
day as I waited for the bus two parents
three kids reeking of alcohol sleeping
on toppling sheets that had been spread
out and as the years passed I I had this
pressing question in my head that I
managed to articulate much later I asked
a lot of people why the kids in our
family didn’t have access to kind of
books that I read or why they didn’t
have the kind of toys that I had and
when I finally asked my mother that one
day she said though you in in the most
well-meaning way she said that you know
this is how things are
I remember feeling very distinctly a
pain and a protest within me one that I
couldn’t articulate back then but one
that I’m very grateful that I lost sleep
over for the simple reason that I felt
if my child had to ask me that at some
point I would like to be in the position
of saying that you know this is how
things are but they’re getting better
each day because we’re all doing
something about it the area that I lived
in also gave me access to a lot of
things the choice of music that I grew
up with the kind of literature that I
had it on me the kind of people that I
had around me and one of the things that
helped me with was getting into this
school that I studied in so this school
is extremely special for the simple
reason that it went far beyond what a
regular
icse school is expected to do it went
beyond academics there were three core
pillars that the school focused on one
who is confidence
the second was compassion the ability to
give the ability to not stereotype the
ability to embrace diversity and culture
and the third thing was choice the fact
that you always have choice it’s always
your choice to be able to choose
excellence over mediocrity these two
things were consistently drilled into me
as I grew up of course when I stepped
into college is when I realized how very
deep my schooling experience had been
and how profound the process of learning
had been for me because as soon as I got
into college I was faced with this
massive culture shock
I’d look at people and I’d judge them
based on the genes that I wore I look at
them and say okay a behind-the say I had
you know like I had this disgusting
attitude I was able to see how people
spoke and interact and I was a total go
Wendy you know and and one side of it is
that it’s this very ugly bias but the
other side of it is also that how do you
help it you’ve never been out of that
cocoon privileged space in your
schooling years and I was aghast at my
own attitude and I felt that okay if
this is something that I’ve realized
about myself I need to I need to work on
this I need to negotiate with this and
so at the first chance that I got I felt
like finding out what I could do about
this I made a 12 year plan attempting to
kind of articulate what I could do to
take my schooling experience
out to the world or to the country the
second thing I did was to challenge
myself in in my own ways of identity and
being people was so very very very
different in in in the cities we have
double doors
we have CCTV cameras with security
garden and the villages I lived in a
place which has no doors no there was so
open for me that interaction was
extremely important to kind of negotiate
with what my identity had become why
because I want to use a term here and I
call it the economy of words when we the
privileged say that here’s the tragedy I
forgot to charge my phone oh I’m gonna
soup my maid then land up today I was
binding a and mu C but hey we just use
these words right we use tragedy
disaster crisis problem without even
thinking what it actually means to
people who are in the middle of the
crisis or the tragedy tragedies hunger
of thirst of not having good
accommodation of not having adequate
transport facilities the economy of word
is the economy of words is so very
important and that kind of formulated my
whole attitude because English has no
value where where I was living and I
started I started working on the choice
of words they used as part of this 12
your plan something that I decided was
that okay if I don’t have qualifications
and if I don’t have the necessary means
to enter into the education sector right
away what are the ways that I can
actually put myself out there in the
education space and how is it that I
will actually make an impact so um
another gap that I I’m an astute out was
that majority of the education system in
our country has female staff as part of
it the the gender imbalance is very very
high and some way I worked out that
where there are these many women there’s
probably going to be those many
pregnancy and maternity leaves so I
started
I started approaching schools and I
started walking up to to the heads to
the principals and saying that listen I
know that you have a pregnant teacher in
the school I’d like to save your money
on getting a substitute let me step in
because I want the experience of
understanding what schooling is like and
within a year I had worked in over 100
120 schools like that just by invitation
substitution diving in when teachers
went on sickness ly fig leaves and on
maternity leaves
so there’s Rajasthan there’s the whole
why am I so hell-bent on the school
space and why is it that I’m driving
everything that I that I want to do
through that space because if you
examine it for a second and and just
look at it which are the spaces where we
can actually influence people in groups
schools are spaces where miracles are
waiting to happen you have 30 40 50 in
some places 80 children in one classroom
listening to a teacher and if that
teacher is worked upon and that teacher
is motivated if that teacher is driven
if that teacher is taught how to be a
catalyst how to transform that young
mind we have a developed nation like
that so what do I really do after having
put my foot into various spaces
traveling around and attempting to
understand a little bit of the urban
space the rural space I started
developing a way of constructively
engaging with schools and and with
teachers how am I doing this
how am I doing this how am i working
with IB schools and with government
schools and all these different boards
and all of that the idea was to go
beyond the board the idea was to go
beyond marks the idea was to go beyond
grades the idea was to go beyond the
student and to touch the child to go
beyond the teacher and touch that
catalyst so I use integral education and
my work integral education is Sri
Aurobindo is method of Education
and in a nutshell to explain it quickly
it is about who you are where you want
to go at the pace you want to go to be
the best version of yourself it’s it’s
basically the kind of education that we
would all want and I’ll take a minute
here to quickly tell you what my
thoughts on education are because we all
call the Indian system an Indian
education system but I completely
disagree with us because for me I think
it is some kind of a leftover colonial
academic process there’s a vast
difference between academics and
education academics is small education
is large academic this temporary
education is lifelong academics is about
structure is about boxes education is
about breaking those boxes making new
open spaces we don’t have an education
system in India if we if we accept that
then we know that ok we have a problem I
was very far about D academic I don’t
know where the word came from but I
wanted to do – just like I wanted to die
cast the mold of privilege that I had so
in all of this professional space what I
did was in a more personal space I
started giving up my degrees so I don’t
have anything after the tenth standard
no diplomas no degrees the
recommendation letters no civvies I’m
working on my first CV as of now as a
part of another training process but no
CV is no recommendation that there was
no visiting cards no website I said to
people that I I am the solution I have
the solution and I just waited to be
called overtime I’ve worked in various
states in different spaces one of the
things that I did was to also work at
the domra children’s home where I
interacted with children who were
rescued from some horrendous spaces one
case study is that of an 11 year old
child who has who had had two abortions
and I was working on some kind of an
employability model with that child all
these organizations and programs have
great modules right they have some
really interesting ideas and some very
creative ways of looking at how to put
the solutions in place but still you
have to go beyond the curriculum how
would you engage with an 11 year old who
has had two abortions who has lived her
life at the bat in the back of trucks
you begin at something that we all have
a space within and the more I used
integral education in these spaces the
more I saw that there is immense
potential in this and it is a definite
solution if it is used well the other
thing I do is that I engage with
panchayat I I work with I work in a lot
of rural areas I engage with a lot of
villagers I randomly travel to villages
I sit down with them I talk to them
about what their lives are like I
attempt to understand what a problem is
from the inside now why am i emphasizing
on this is because we have some amazing
world organizations international bodies
we have a lot of experts coming in from
outside telling us what to do telling us
how to solve our problem without ever
having lived in that village without
ever having understood what it is to to
live a day like that I find that
extremely problematic I find that a new
form of colonialism so I start
propounding even that that if you have
to engage with the problem you engage
with it from the inside couple of points
that I want to bring up now based on
what we’re doing today
why inclusiveness what does it even mean
and why do we have to have a forum of
young people discussing inclusiveness
what has happened to us and where have
we come they were discussing
inclusiveness and what does it mean to
that we have diverse speakers who have
done some great things have done some
different things what does it really
mean to me it means that you have to
exclude certain things to make spaces
inclusive to me it means that you have
to you have to exclude things that one
would never compromise on if you are the
one being excluded it’s something to
think about
because these were the big words and we
have these kind of forums and
conferences all the time it’s really
something to think about I spoke about
the problems of privilege earlier I
spoke about how I negotiate with the
fact that I had everything but I had to
negotiate with how I would actually use
it how it made me judgmental how it did
narrow me now I speak about the power of
privilege every single person in this
room if we had to actually
constructively creatively think about
how to put our energies together and
make a change yeah you got ten days you
work in an NGO you clock ten credits or
you get into like a good university that
doesn’t work you do these fancy
fellowships you want to go into the act
so that you can get some kind of a
social certificate so that it looks good
on your CV or profile ticket but on
behalf of the social sector I really
want to say on behalf of the people who
I really have tried to understand I just
want to say that if we do this a bit
more consciously would be fair because
the social sector is not for the
privileged to make their lives more
privileged the social sector is made up
of people who have hearts and dreams and
emotions and feelings and everything
that you and I have so if you choose to
volunteer if you choose to engage if you
choose to interact do it consciously
don’t enter an exit because you have to
put it down on a CV collective ownership
something else but I want to talk about
we all say India’s problems right if I
ask you to about five good things of
other country it’s gonna be a bit hard
everyone see our diversity language
festival color gave oh great if I should
know about the problems it’s a lot
easier we list out 30 problems I don’t
know whom I waiting for I don’t know
what we’re waiting for we waiting for a
messiah who’s going to ride in on a
white horse and change everything in
this country I don’t know are we saying
that it’s the government’s problem to
fix every single problem are we saying
somebody else has to do it
are we saying this valley car being a
Diwali curving
Conte area who’s going to do it
it’s collective ownership are we losing
sleep over anything are we too numb to
feel the pain that so many people go
through is there so much food on our
plate that we cannot even begin to
understand what hunger is for somebody
else collective ownership one of the
last points is about change you know do
we really really want change because if
we do want change we can figure out how
to do it if we do want change we will
negotiate with what’s happening in our
in our minds right now we’re all sitting
in a plush building you know with with
with a lobby which is super fancy we’re
sitting in an air-conditioned room we’re
talking about the world and we’re done
what problems with our more solutions
with our creativity if you really want
change you go out there and you do it
yeah when I didn’t have qualifications I
looked for a gap I started volunteering
wherever I could where there was a
pregnancy leave I got out I taught
myself things and without the backbone
of a paper trail if it’s possible for
one person it’s possible for everyone
how about getting real how do we do this
we’re talking about a country where
education of poverty is a billion-dollar
business some statistics that I’d like
to share with you as part of the 12 year
plan that I made when I was a kid with a
simple dream that you know what I had
something and I wanted to share it and
I’m gonna figure out how to do it over
the last 11 years I’m the I’m in the
11th year of my 12 year plan and I’ve
now worked in over 13 states in the
country I’ve now interacted with more
than 9,000 teachers without like I said
any kind of recommendation spaces and
I’ve worked with over 780 schools
yes to say that change is possible he
has to say that we need to accept as a
problem he has to say that you look
beyond the problem and at the solution
in a creative way in an innovative way
but attempt to be the insider [Applause]
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