Root of Mandi : The Gandhian way of learning 

In today's world , the first thing a child is taught is to get good grades and keep oneself ahead in the rat race. The Conventional Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) are falling short of the main objective of their objective.The SLO are misunderstood, are based on wrong measures and contribute to ineffective learning.Some of the ineffective SLOs include :

-Studying work of a theorist

-Applying statistics for analysis of data

-Use research methods to carry out research projects

These SLOs are not direct,their outcomes have to be proved and most importantly , they are of no significant use to the student.

Our Father of the Nation gave us some wonderful treasures which we can implement in our lives and live in a better way.One such treasure is the Gandhian way of learning-NAI TALIM.

Nai Talim is a spiritual principle which states that knowledge and work are not separate. Mahatma Gandhi promoted an educational curriculum with the same name based on this pedagogical principle.

It can be translated with the phrase 'Basic Education for all'. However, the concept has several layers of meaning. It developed out of Gandhi's experience with the English educational system and with colonialism in general. In that system, he saw that Indian children would be alienated and 'career-based thinking' would become dominant. In addition, it embodied a series of negative outcomes: the disdain for manual work, the development of a new elite class, and the increasing problems of industrialization and urbanization.

The three pillars of Gandhi's pedagogy were its focus on the lifelong character of education, its social character and its form as a holistic process. For Gandhi, education is 'the moral development of the person', a process that is by definition 'lifelong'.

Gandhi's model of education was directed toward his alternative vision of the social order: "Gandhi’s basic education was, therefore, an embodiment of his perception of an ideal society consisting of small, self-reliant communities with his ideal citizen being an industrious, self-respecting and generous individual living in a small cooperative community. Nai Talim also envisaged a different role for the teacher, not simply as a professional constrained by curricula and abstract standards, but rather as a person relating directly to the student in the form of a dialogue: "A teacher who establishes rapport with the taught, becomes one with them, learns more from them than he teaches them. He who learns nothing from his disciples is, in my opinion, worthless. Whenever I talk with someone I learn from him. I take from him more than I give him. In this way, a true teacher regards himself as a student of his students. If you will teach your pupils with this attitude, you will benefit much from them. Gandhi's disciple, Vinobha Bhave, developed the idea further as a means of social transformation: "The crux of Nai Talim lay in overcoming distinctions between learning and teaching, and knowledge and work. Vinoba discusses the need to redefine the relationship between teacher and student, "they must each regard the other as a fellow worker..." Instead, the ‘teacher’ was to be skilled in a kala/hunar (and to derive sustenance from this and not a teaching salary). The student was to live, work and grow with the teacher and his/her family. In this process s/he would learn the kala/hunar — the skill as part of a way of life, code of ethics, web of relationships, etc.". Finally, Nai Talim was conceived as a response to one of the main dialectics of modernity as Gandhi saw it--the dialectic between human being and 'machine' or 'technology': 

MAHA MANDI derives its roots from this wonderful way of learning. It is a tool for a student to effectively use his/her skills and knowledge to achieve productive outcome and test one's learning then and there. The mantra of "Socho, Becho ,Sikho" indeed tells us that work and knowledge are not separate. And effective learning is a result of consciously chosen appropriate activities that lead to effective outcome!

Let us all witness this awesome mode of learning, in 11th edition of Mandi, right here,on the streets of Mumbai,on 8th August 2015! Till then ... 

"SOCHO, BECHO, SIKHO"