Day - 1

Frantic activity in the air

Organizers running here and there

Hey, are the bouquets ready?

Make sure the gifts are packed, there’s no time to be slow and steady.

Allahabad, Panchkula, Delhi, Guwahati, Mumbai

 Patna, Ajmer, Bhubaneswar, Chennai

They walked in to a welcome of flowers and lamps

In rustling silk and suits fit for the ramp.

The reception committee on their toes

Guests neatly seated in rows

The anchor team in a state of unrest

Each ready to put forward their best

Cameras are ready to do the shoot,

Videographers with recorders in their boot.

The Rapporteurs with laptops charged and set

Their fingers ready to type with zest.

Familiar faces greeted with smiles

Long lost friends who had travelled for miles

Agendas were drawn, and a movie shown

(Kapil) Sibal’s poem found expression

On reforms and further suggestions

And then a soulful song, the wonder world of books

A dance, and orchestra, a tableau that took

A trip through Haryana and gave it a look.

A film on CBSE and the CCE

To open a window on what will be and can be

A change, a whole new range.

Hey! That was shown in Bhopal, I heard somebody shout

But then that’s what reinforcement is all about

‘Gardener’ went on a little too long

The guests waited impatiently for the dinner gong

Day – 2

On Day 2 reforms are what we ponder about

Yet the publishers with the latest have already come out

With books and questions out in print

Who will win the publishing sprint?

Ameeta Wattal, spoke eloquent

To shatter myths on teaching time spent

Beater teacher to teacher teacher

Teach and test, is it still the best?

I can teach but will he learn?

Let us our old methodology burn.

Subhash Kunthia did speak on the CCE

And all within that which should not be

For a child, to be under the scanner day after day

Was to throw in a spanner, in learn while you play

Circulate the trained-teacher pool

Would lengthen the metre of the education spool

Vineet Joshi next spoke

Empathy for the ‘Iqbals’, he did evoke

He also made a call for industry and school

To work together in a common pool

To condition the Indian child to global rules

Minister Purandeshwari next showed her oratory

Obama’s  remark on Indian education being best

Should spur us further on

And not make us on our Laurel’s rest

‘What question did you ask your teacher today?’

Was what Finnman’s mother posed him day after day

Lalitha Pillai did next wonder

Whether we map Quality without blunder

Kamath stressed the need for self governance

That is all to CCE as an ordinance

The feel of the world, the shift of a phrase

Tweaked soul searching to a great new phase.

And in it…about it and above it

Child, videographer and principals had caught it,

To keep a bird’s eye view on all that’s new

Upon a landing a principal did perch

To keep a keen and vigilant watch,

Another declared she’d 50,000 cash,

To keep wheels moving through this bash,

Aside I heard a naughty remark—

“Here is a catch to quickly kidnap!!”

Day – 3

Marmar Mukhopadhyay shook the learning tree,

Thinking to Learn and Learning to Think,

Was the motto pushing classroom Learning to the brink.

In Office Systems and learning with efficiency,

Computerization and ICT would remove the deficiency.

So said JC Kapur, adding, “its demand driven—

Therefore in school governance, this opportunity be given.”

Jitender Nagpal re-charted learning dominance

Including Hands ‘n’ Hearts and not just the Brains,

From a Challenged Child, to a Child that Challenges,

Bringing in Holistic Health, from the outer Fringes.

Goswami Abhishek did us move and shake

Spelling out, Guru as “Ji—You are You!”

One must practice, creating Wonder anew.

Prof. Balasubramaniam, wired movement to attention,

Recommending physical exercise, to enforce retention.

Learning comes, not only from teachers,

But also, from dear Mother Nature.

Videographers roam with their roving eye,

Prowling for prey by and by

Volleying and quizzing all the guests.

Driven by sweet malice and by their zest,

But pinning erudite educators isn’t easy game,

Specially when there’s a movie cam ready to frame.

Some said that they are too busy as their reply,

Others rushed off to drink some ‘chai’.

They baited and waited for Vineet Joshi

But failed sadly despite being pushy.

Some of them were really sweet,

Interviewing them was a treat,

You would have thought that they know it all,

But they said have doubts, all in all.

So you see our role as the scribes was to describe,

Did the conference balance the jibes and the vibes?