Educon 2013

Educon 2013 was a GERA (Global Education Research Association) Conference held in neighboring country on 2^nd and 3^rd Sep. I, Pahadi, Maag and Anna had an opportunity to attend it. Allow me to introduce these four characters of our journey to Nepal. Let us start from me- most of you know me and rest can pull out my profile from the blog. Pahadi is a research scholar from Jammu. Maag is a professor in a college in Indore and last but not the least Anna from Kerala. In short I had friends from Kashmir to Kanyakumari traversing Madhya Pradesh. All 4 were like tires of a car, if anyone of us was not there our trip would not be called complete. There is a lot more to tell about fantastic 4, but Ill get back to them in coming posts. We were preparing ourselves for the Conf. from last year, at that time; it was just a thought which all of us made real through mutual understanding. Our mentors informed us about the conference that it is going to be organized in Nepal and we should attend it. One I heard about going to another country, I thought, I can do it, if conditions favor me. 

When we planned to visit there, we had a setback when we were forced to book the rooms at the venue of Conf which were too costly. Even we thought of cancelling once, but our mentors (organizers) allowed us to stay in hotel of our choice and hence again we made our mind to attend it. I am thankful to them about this arrangement, not because we saved some money but because of this trip, we learned a lot, we actually had a great time. Now we made our mind and decided to visit, but again Anna backed and tried to cancel his trip, I think that this action of Anna was due to a fear which occurs when someone is about to accomplish something which they tried to achieve from long time. I don’t know, maybe I am wrong, but that’s what I felt. Pahadi was determined about the plan, so she called Anna and made him to come there. Finally this time we all prepared ourselves to feel the essence of unconditional Nepal. Tickets and registrations were made in advance only. Hotel was also selected, not booked, but confirmed.

Terry Fox Run

It was a regular day, I was working in office, doing my job, the best way I can. One of my colleagues approached me and asked “will you join Terry Fox Run-a marathon”. I said “when”. He said it’s going to be tomorrow and provided tit bits of marathon. So before we go further into marathon, let me tell you about the marathon. The marathon was ideated after a young 18yr old Canadian athlete having bone cancer ran for 5300kms and raised 10 million dollars for cancer research. Now people like us, corporate all come together and run for the same cause and donation money is given to cancer research foundation. I and Dua (a colleague) started from our place and reached IIT Madras (venue) of marathon. There we took some pictures with background as IIT’s banner. 

In the meantime, other colleagues also joined us and we board shuttle from main gate to start point of Marathon. It was for about 7kms and was completely inside IIT campus only. The entire area of IIT is about 250 hectares as if; it’s not a college but a village. The best thing, campus even consists of animals living inside, we can say nature and humas existing together. While we were running in marathon, all of us had a different reason for being there, one wanted a change from dead end office life, other wanted glamour, while others wanted time pass. But one thing was sure, none of us were there for supporting cancer, still we supported the supreme cause in another way, by being a part of the crowd. Singh (another colleague) said that for sustenance, for running we all need some inspiration.     

 We had a talk on this matter and thought that all the major runners like Paan Singh Tomar, Milkha Singh had some inspiration which helped them to reach where they are. Therefore we also searched for inspiration and even changed our temporary inspirations from time to time. I hope you are getting me. We were running after inspiration, still all of were true for the cause also, and ran for complete 7 kms. After marathon, we collected our certificates and then returned home.