Shutting Down Schools?

I read on Deccan Chronicle that 6000 schools in AP will be closed this year because in these schools the enrolment was 20 students or less for the previous academic year.

If schools are not attracting sufficient students in rural areas, should we not try to understand the reasons? Surely shutting down the school entirely is not a solution? What are these kids then supposed to do in lieu of school? The article I read (it has been archived by Deccan Chronicle, so the link to it is not working any more) mentioned that *some* of these students would be redirected to other schools in nearby villages. And how are these children going to travel to these ‘nearby villages’, that’s what I want to know.

I am sad that schools are shutting down in villages where there is probably a higher need to keep such schools going. If these schools were profit based organizations, would they meekly shut down, or try to attract and retain more students?

Can some non-profit non-government organizations be contacted to take over these schools, so that even those twenty students are not denied education? Who knows how many doctors, engineers, scientists and world altering global citizens may emerge out of these villages that are, basically, the heart of India?

 

Basil in Banjara Hills

The newly built Lumbini mall houses this pure vegetarian restaurant on the fourth floor. The interiors are well decorated and there was no crowd, we were given seating as soon as we arrived. Since we were hungry, we asked to order right away and the staff obliged most graciously. For starters we ordered the crudites and the “tandoori phool” (which was a cauliflower marinated in yogurt and some spices and “charred” according to the restaurant). The crudites were served with a yummy peanut chutney and the tandoori phool had what I call an “interesting” taste – for some reason it seemed smothered in Wasabi, which is not a traditional Indian spice.

The restaurant does not actually favor any cuisine in particular, it had Indian, Chinese, Continental and Italian dishes on the menu, so there is something for everyone to choose from. We ordered some mocktails, I had the coco-loco which was pretty good.

Main course for us consisted of dum biryani and stuffed capsicum, the stuffed capsicum is a gravy based curry which complemented the biryani pretty well. The biryani was served with a mirchi ka salan and some raita. By the time we ate all this, we were stuffed, and did not order any desserts. So I have no comments on those :)

Overall the food was decent, the staff was very attentive and the fact that there is complementary valet parking and a good decor with no waiting makes it a pleasant place to go have a meal. The only problem, if I have to come up with something, was that the staff kept asking us how the food was but I can’t hold it against them.