Today is my dad's birthday. He is the inspiration behind my Ikigai.
Esha's CLABIL (Central Library of Audio Books in Indian Languages) and The Children's Post of India are both steps in that direction.
We don't think of urban, privileged children as knowledge have-nots, but only as a parent did I realise, that no one writes news for children. No one asks them, "Tell me what you want to read about."
Last year, the research that we did on understanding the knowledge acquisition behaviour of the knowledge have nots was an eye opener. So much that we assume, and so much that we don't know.
Today, as the paper completes 3 years and the CLABIL project is in its 10th year, I want to take a minute and talk about my dad, and his unending quest for knowledge. He loved to learn, about everything and anything. He observed a lot. Remembered everything he saw or read. The only handicap was - he had to give up education in Grade 8 to earn for the rest of the family. So, he did not know English. And all his life, I saw him struggle with that. Most of the books were in English. All the new research was published in English.
He was not alone. So many others - other small traders like him, children and girls who are not sent to school, children who cannot read because of a special need, and children for whom English is not even a third language. In short, 70% of this country.
What he could not get in his lifetime, he left as a searing need in my heart - to create a world where no one thirsts for knowledge. Where it comes to them in a language they understand, in a format that works for them, and at a time of their choice. In short, what Google and Wikipedia did for us, it is time to do for everyone else.
Happy Birthday, Dad. And Thank you for giving me my Ikigai.
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