She sings Bhojpuri folk songs in Akashvani, Jamshedpur. Her efforts to bring poor children to the social mainstream have won kudos from several quarters. She also teaches.

Meet 54-year-old Jyotsna Asthana, a teacher of Jhanda Singh Middle School (JSMS) in Mango, who will be felicitated at a function in New Delhi on September 5 for her contribution to education.

Asthana, who is currently on deputation at Sakchi sub-divisional jail for teaching undertrials and convicts, received the award confirmation letter today. “I am really glad. I thank those who encouraged me in the field of education,” Asthana told The Telegraph.

Asthana is satisfied with what she’s doing at the jail. “I started teaching in jail in 2003. Initially, the inmates wondered how a middle school teacher would prepare them for school finals. But my patience has paid off. Now, they take their studies seriously.”

Asthana came to Jamshedpur from Bihar after marrying S.K. Asthana, now a retired government officer. Asthana said she was indebted to her father, N.B. Verma, an advocate, who inspired her to become a social worker.

I was just reading a question from one of my colleague (who is a software engineer) about Joining MBA. Its a question every techie wants to know the answer.Now what after 2-3 year of service? where he stands? still he is just a coder or he needs to grow and wants to be a Manager. If he will do the MBA, his career will take a turn? he may grow to Managerial position? how beneficial is doing MBA in making the Pay Lucrative, all this question started haunting you.

I am posting one of the Article appeared in “the smarttechie magazine in May 2006 issue, which was well researched and try to give answers of some of your questions:

There are still a few things left that Google can’t search, software can’t solve and mortals don’t understand. One such mystical thing is the perfect career. When it comes to something as important as your career, there is plenty of advice on offer and yet, there really is no sure shot at success. We at The SmartTechie have often wondered if management training was one way to ensure a good career?

Do techies need a Master in Business Administration (M.B.A) degree? Who better to answer that question than the gurus themselves…the people who have done the same thing you did, a little ahead of your time and went on to do wonders in the IT industry—the same industry that you probably work for.

Our findings were stunning: More than 80 percent of the bigwig techies or the gurus managing Indian and multinational IT companies do not have an M.B.A. Just one percent of the total IT jobs for engineers require M.B.A. And finally yet futuristically, with IT companies starting to offer product to Indian market, the MBA trend will snowball.

However objective and eye-rolling the data is, there is truly a sense of subjectivity lost in the entire process. And that’s exactly what Jack Welch of GE and Louis Gerstner of IBM called the Getting Executed (GE) factor. When it comes to success in business, an M.B.A degree might be optional. But a GE attitude is mandatory. Any successful techie, or for that matter a successful human being, is not without it. So, there we go picking thoughts on how much of an M.B.A is optional and, how much is real or GE based.

Vijay Bahadur Singh walks to Parsudih Middle School every morning, unlocks the gate and returns home after the school closes at 4pm.

This has been Singh’s rigorous schedule as headmaster of the school for the past 22 years. The frail frame of the aged Singh notwithstanding, what comes across as a real surprise is the fact that he has been solely instrumental in the running of the school for so many years now.

In spite of being the headmaster, he also teaches the 129-odd children studying at the government-aided school. Singh has approached the district superintendent of education (DSE) office to help him in the running of the educational institute.

“Last time, when they promised help at the government level, the then DSE was transferred to another place, but now we have approached the new officer and told him to intervene,” said Singh. His tenure got over on June 30 last year but since nobody else was recruited Singh took it upon himself to teach the students of the school.

As long as he was the headmaster officially, the children could avail the mid-day meal given in government schools but with his retirement, the mid-day meal scheme at the school has been withdrawn.

“With no fresh recruitment happening, there is precious little that I can do, but in no way can I jeopardise the future of these children coming to the school to receive education,” said Singh.

The sanctioned posts of teachers at the school stands at five, but with no recruitment since the past so many years, the student strength at the school has witnessed a downward slide over the years. Catering mostly to children of the lower strata of the society, the sole hand pump at the school has also run dry.

With walls steadily giving way and the seven rooms in the school building narrating a tale of negligence, the school established in 1939 has never got a coat of paint ever since. Standing pitifully in an open space right opposite Shyam Talkies in Parsudih, it tells a tale of injustice meted out to it by the government and directly puts a question mark on the success of the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyaan being run under the Jharkhand Education Project.

The school has student of nursery classes to VII.

While one government recruited teacher passed away in 1992, the other teacher retired from service in 2001 and ever since the show is being run by the headmaster.

Officials at DSE office aware of the sorry state of the school but said they are helpless to do anything.