Languages are an inevitable part of history. One, histories are written in some or other languages, and secondly, the study of languages is also a part of studying history. In other words, languages are the carriers of history. That’s the reason why every community in the world tries some or other way to conserve their language. And the best way to conserve the language is to pass on its legacy to the next generation. Plano Marathi school from Dallas is doing exactly the same, stick to basics and deliver the best!

How it started –
The birth of Marathi school was more an amateur and little but well-spirited effort. A few people from Maharashtra Mandal started giving primary lessons of the language to kids in the Marathi community. It was an informal school held at somebody’s house. excerpts like Shlokas, introduction to letters, primary writing, and reading of Marathi were taught to children. This was in the year 2004 and it continued for the next few years, thanks to the dedicated volunteer efforts of Mandal people. Around 2009-10 it was decided that school will be run as an activity and under the shelter of Maharashtra Mandal and this was the point when the Marathi school started expanding its wings.

While talking with Mr. Mandar Gandhe – Marathi School co-ordinator of Plano, He told us that, The Plano Marathi school then was shifted to a new place owned by EdGurukul in 2009 and since then it is working unstoppably well. The school has classes from KG to 5th grade and those are conducted for one hour every Sunday. The school in its new premises started growing slowly. Very soon the school time was increased up to three hours, from 9 am to 12 noon on every Sunday. It was run in three batches, up to 2019, when physical schools were stopped due to Covid, the institution had 28 teachers and 10 odd volunteers.

Curriculum and Volunteers –
The school has a proper curriculum for Marathi and teachers give their lessons accordingly. Every senior teacher is accompanied and assisted by a co-teacher. This system has helped to bring flexibility in human resource handling issues and also to give training to voluntary teachers. To reduce the pressure on teachers about organizing co-curricular activities, some volunteers also have been appointed. Over a decade, the school has gained immense faith of parents who are not only enrolling their wards for classes but also showing interest in volunteering. Believe it or not, ‘Plano’ now actually has a waiting list of volunteers willing to wholeheartedly contribute to school!

Covid time and increase flow of students –
During Covid, teaching Marathi through online mode was indeed a challenge for teachers. Imagine a teacher teaching about how to draw a Marathi letter, from where to start and where to end. This effort is itself difficult in physical mode and online mode makes it tedious even more. Yet, teachers accepted the challenge and are doing it successfully. The wonderful thing is that the number of students actually increased during online education, reaching up to 175 students. Now, the situation is very spontaneous! The school management needs to deny admissions to some students due to full batches.

Association with School Districts –
The school is now getting recognition from ISDs also, while students are getting credit points for learning Marathi as a foreign language.
Mr. Gandhe told that the foundation work of this accomplishment was done by other Marathi Schools. He specially mentioned that Vaishnavi Apte from Irving Marathi School has done several meetings and followup with the ISD’s. She played a significant role in the high school credits work. This integration with School ISD’s would help to encourage more students to learn the language along with their formal education, feels Mandar.

Inculcating Marathi Culture Informally –
Along with formal classes, the school also organizes various activities at different festivals. MakarSankrant festival was held with the active participation of students, an inspiring lecture was organized to underline the greatness of Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj on Shiv Jayanti. In addition to this, initiatives like Pizza Parties are also held by the school. Such get-togethers were held during the Covid period by following all rules.
On Diwali day, 200 models of forts were imported from India and distributed to students. The initiative was very well welcomed by parents and enjoyed immensely by students. This also helped artisans from India financially who were otherwise struggling due to loss of work in the Covid period. Indeed, it was a proud moment for the school said, Mr. Mandar.

The foundation for the success of school :

The success of the school is because of the team effort’ of the volunteer teachers and coordinator group. Everyone here put their heart and hard work while doing the work for school, humbly says Mandar.

Eying for future – 
The Plano Marathi school has already started planning for the future like starting physical school again in the post-Covid era. “The school is now entering into a more organized phase. Many people have contributed in past, laid a foundation, worked consistently and hence we could reach here. BMM(Bruhan Maharashtra Mandal) always took us under their wings and yet gave us all freedom to run a good Marathi school. Children in our school chat in Marathi with their grandparents back in India, that too in longer communications. So, maybe we are getting real success in connecting the dots and connecting the roots.

Isn’t this a real achievement,” exclaimed proudly Mr. Mandar Gandhe.

If you are also interested in your kids joining the Marathi School then visit their website https://dfwmm.org/content/plano-marathi-shala-team . This website will have present information about school teachers and other activities.

Nowadays, Indians are shaping the world! From Technologists to Doctors, to Athletes, to even politicians! Spectacularly, many Indians have esteemed jobs in giants of the workforce industry! Google, Tesla, Microsoft. Meet Ashok Elluswamy, the foremost person to be hired on the Tesla Auto-Pilot team!

How did Ashok get the position?

Well, as a director of any area, you probably think that you would need a lot of accomplishments to even apply for the job. In this case, that Is false! On a Twitter post, Elon Musk had given a link to apply for the job. Though Ashok Elluswamy had many marvelous achievements, that didn’t matter to Musk. He had no interest in knowing whether the applicant had any degrees or whatsoever.

As a previous student of Carnegie Mellon University, Ashok received a heap of support from his former teachers. His former teacher, John Dolar, praised him by saying this.“He was one of the top students and showed initiative in learning a wide variety of topics.”- cited Dolar

From that moment on, history was created. It was special, it was mesmerizing, as Ashok was going to rewrite history as it was before.

Facts About Ashok – 

• He achieved a bachelor’s degree from the College of Engineering Guindy.
• Master’s degree from Carnegie Mellon University!
• He was associated with Volkswagen, and WABCO before joining the company, Tesla.
• He was but a mere software engineer, who always wished best for his company.
• After joining Tesla, Elluswamy intially worked in the autopilot section as an IT manager.

Elon Musk even took to Twitter that Ashok was selected as a director.
Praising Ashok Elluswamy and his team, Musk acknowledges them as some of the smartest people in the world.

As Ashok Elluswamy has made a name in the booming workforce with his position, this gives inspiration to many upcoming engineers that want to make a name in the industry. While Ashok has changed his history, he has also changed America’s history.With deep respect in our hearts, we all know that Ashok Elluswamy will create a revelation in Tesla.

While rushing our lives day to day and eying for so-called developed, urban life, many times we forgot that this world is not there only for the human race. There are hundreds of species and what we should learn is their co-existence. While thousands live their lives ignoring this fact, people like Dr. Amol  Khedgikar put an example of the successful amalgamation of the wild and human world, making co-existence an actual thing.

Journey into the wildlife –
Dr. Amol started as a young 7-year-old kid who wanted to help animals in distress in any way possible. Started helping injured birds, animals and began with convincing people to not kill snakes, This passion soon grew into a lifelong obsession and wildlife conservation became not only his profession but his purpose in life.
Dr.  Amol started his journey as a wildlifer in India itself. As a veterinary student and then a practitioner, he visited Katraj zoo near Pune in Maharashtra several times. There he started learning the first lessons of dealing with wild animals including snakes. Working regularly on this, he got an opportunity to visit Konkan repeatedly and that enriched his experience as a wildlife handler. At this coastal area of India, Amol first started watching and understanding the behavior of crocodiles.
Later, after some years, when he started working in the US, he got the opportunity to look into the life of crocodiles. There he first noticed some change in the potency of male crocodiles, a decrease in their population, and resultant effects. The same thing he had observed in India also and that experience came in handy to him in the US too. This research on Crocodiles gave him exposure to the amazing world of allegators and a rich experience. Since then, Amol has worked in different regions across the globe including India and other countries. Whatever may be your work area, consistency is the key to success and that proved true to him. Dedicated efforts for his research not only gave him fame and success but also insight into the amazing world of animals. Years of good work have made him a man with loads of knowledge, experience, and of course, insight into the world and life at large.

Service to community, service to humanity – 
Dr. Amol has been a great help for the community in Dallas and around, as he has rushed many times to rescue snakes and other animals. In all such situations, people call him, and Amol or his team provides their valuable help. ‘ We go to many places for such rescue work, but we also put a condition to people. As a value or say it a principle, we ask people not to kill the animal until we reach and rescue it. It is their world also,’ says Dr. Amol. As he will continue this rescue work in the future, now he is trying to build a more wide and strong network of rescuers which could save the lives of many wild animals and also help people. No doubt, with his kind of love and dedication to the wild world, he is going to achieve this very soon.

Dr. Amol believes that every person on the planet can make a positive difference to their environment regardless of where they are. They just need to identify where they can help and just getto it!
Amol in Marathi means invaluable, beyond any price. Dr. Khedgikar has left no stone unturned to prove this name. Indeed Invaluable he is…!