User:Biladams
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== Bill Adams ==
Bill was born in 1946 in Lowestoft, Suffolk England to poor but honest parents."We're poor because we're honest," his father would say, making a virtue out of reality. - Bill was only half convinced. He went to Roman Hill School where most of the teachers were authoritarian, and no one had ever made it to 'A' level. At ten years old he and a friend were paraded in front of the whole school. "You mark my words", said the headmaster, "These two will end up in prison". (Luckily for Bill, the headmaster was only half right. - Of course, this was very unfortunate for his friend!). Bill hated school, and left at 16 years of age with a reputation as being a wizard at maths, and always being top of the class, but with few qualifications. (This still meant he passed out top of the school - it was a very bad school!!!
Bill was also not happy with his home life, so at this tender age he left that too, and moved to another city. He went to work for the Ministry of Transport. He was the only young man in an office full of single young women. Here he found true happiness. (Sigh!). However, it was short lived. Within five months the Ministry of Transport forcefully asked him to resign. He did. - The moral of this story is: do not start living with your immediate boss, unless she has a lot of power in organisation! Within weeks he was back in Lowestoft working for Pye TV in their Cost Dept. Two years later he was Head of the Sales and Bought Ledger Accounts Department!! Time to move on! He went to Birds Eye Foods(Unilever) as Assistant Transport Manager.
From the age of 17 years Bill joined a blues group. The group were awful but loud! His main employment was incredibly boring and he decided that he was not cut out to work in an office. At the age of 20 he joined the Suffolk Constabulary. After training he was assigned as a village policeman. He got a big hat, big boots, a bicycle, and lots of power and authority. Bill found police work stultifyingly easy. (One Commendation for arresting two murderers - Bill had arrested them for attempted theft, - only to find they were on the run after killing someone!). However, this was the only excitement in two years. Also, the police force was changing, - they took away his bicycle and gave him a van, and Bill was restless again. Let's get an education he said to himself, - so he did.
He resigned from the police force, and got a job unloading lorries at Marks and Spencer - (47 hrs per week). Five nights a week he went to night school to get the qualifications to go to university. - This was a bit of a killer! Within a year Bill had won a scholarship to [[Ruskin College,]] Oxford, and six months later he took up his place. After working for a living, University was a pleasant relaxation, so Bill looked for more courses to go on.
In 1976 Bill left his University Education behind. He had obtained:
BA (Hons) Degree in Sociology (Social Policy and Social Change) - University of Essex. (Vice President of Student Union, Chairperson of various University Sub-Committees, Manager of University Radio Station)
Oxford University Post Graduate Special Diploma in Social Sciences (Social Psychology. Industrial Sociology) - Ruskin College, Oxford. (College drunk, and 'ne'er do well)
Post Graduate Certificate In Education, (Teaching Qualification Behavioural Studies/Communications) - University of Leeds. " One of only two real people on the course" - His Rogerian Head of Department said. - Bill had obscenely abused him as an incompetent, underqualified, pompous, self opinionated, half wit. - God knows what the other "Real person" had done!}
For the next seven years Bill lectured in Behavioural Sciences and Communications. He set up and/or taught various Behavioural and Communication courses, Sociology 'O' and 'A' level, Creative Writing Course, Writing for Marketing Courses, Social Psychology and Media Courses, Presentation Courses, Business Communication Courses, Social Studies Courses, Study skills courses, Remedial English courses, Group Work courses, etc etc...... First at Barnsley College of Technology, (Now the University of Barnsley), later at Huddersfield Polytechnic, (now the University of Huddersfield) and at Leeds Polytechnic, (now the Leeds Metropolitan University).
At Huddersfield, Bill devised and taught a course for trainee social workers. This was a strange and mystical experience for him, (as anyone who has ever met a social worker will appreciate), and it got him wondering what would happen if a normal person went into social work. After much pondering on this, he decided to set up and manage a social work project.
The project he set up was a housing/support project for single homeless men who had been barred from every other project, The client group included murderers, rapists, child molesters, unmedicated schizies, arsonists, alcoholics, and drug abusers. The twist was that the client group should run the hostels and houses themselves without "Care" staff, wardens, etc. The Garforth House Project was the first project of it's kind in the UK. Bill continued to lecture part time, and began to organise training courses. He set up courses to train Managers, social workers and volunteers. He became a consultant for various social work/housing agencies. He was a founder tutor for Project Comtran, (Bradford), a project to train community volunteers for social work projects. He organised a year long training course for the National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NACRO). - Happy Days - but something had to give!!
During this period (1982 -1991) Bill began to write for his wife, who was a Features Editor at the BBC. Soon others were asking him to write. All this culminated in Bill writing and presenting "humorous, controversial" scripts for a weekly 'Thought for the Week' type programme for local Radio. Bill's scripts were then syndicated nationally in the UK in the form of a programme called 'Wordpower'. Also during this period Bill and his wife Abha formed their own Community Theatre company which produced and toured Indian plays in English to great critical acclaim, and commercial success. (Funded by Leeds City Council Education Dept). As well as this, Bill was employed 2 hours a week to coach teenagers at soccer by Leeds City Council. In 1991 with middle age stretching out before him, Bill decided that new adventures awaited him in India. There he could do as he pleased, be warm, and write to his heart's content.
For the first three years in India, Bill spent his time writing songs, plays, and articles, and copy writing for various ad agencies. He ran training courses when he felt like it. His Corporate Clients included Hewlett Packard, Indian Quotation Systems Pvt Ltd., Software Operation Pvt Ltd, HCL, TERI, and the Parasrampuria Group. He voiced FM commercials from time to time. For the first three years he was visiting faculty at the National Institute of Fashion Technology, (NIFT), where he taught Personal Management and Presentation Skills. He wrote all of the Ministry of Textiles publicity material for the Festival of India in China. (Weird or what?)
He has written for several Newspapers and Magazines including Tehelka, Outlook Magazine and The Pioneer. He is the author [[“The Five Lessons of Life”]] which was published in India, the UK, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, South Korea, and Europe, (Portugal, Spain, Italy, Germany, and Holland), in 2000 by Random House. Publication in 2001 in the USA and Canada. Published in Iran 2002. He is co-author of “Soccer in South Asia; Empire Nation and Diaspora” ( Frank Cass Publishers 2002) At present he is working on a book which combines education and parenting. This is scheduled for world-wide release in 2008.
With the advance from ‘The Five Lessons of Life’ he went to England and registered with the FA. In 1998 he set up The Super Soccer Academy, (SSA). The first of it’s kind in India! Each week in winter it trains 400+ young children in modern soccer. (25% girls). [The Super Soccer Academy] now employs 10 coaches. (Bill is Director of Coaching).
Bill started his soccer coaching activities when still relatively young as a player-coach for his University Old Boys team. (University of Essex). On qualifying as a college lecturer in 1976, Bill found ample opportunity to extend his soccer coaching and teaching activities with children of all ages. From 1981 Bill supplemented his work as Senior Manager/Management Training Consultant by part time employment as a soccer coach for Leeds City Council. This was his passion until his move to India in 1992. In India thorough his Super Soccer academy Bill has coached children from many different schools from the age of 7 years upwards. He has kept up his contact with the soccer in the UK, and is at present a registered assessor with the English Football Association’s Soccer Star Search Scheme. He has been a soccer coaching consultant with Assam Valley School, Tynedale Biscoe School, and the YMCA Srinagar, Kashmir, and also Bishop Cotton School, Shimla.
He introduced highly successful Soccer Adventure camps into India. Every May approx 120 children are taken to the Jungle at Saat-tal in UP where they live in tents and do kayaking, swimming, Rock climbing and Repelling in the mornings, and three hours of Soccer in the afternoon. (To facilitate this we have built a soccer pitch in a dried up glacial lake bed.
Bill founded the India Youth Soccer Association in January 2001.Bill was a founder Trustee and the Technical Director.
Drama Experience
Bill’s passions include playing guitar. He compares professional entertainments and has been described by Raghav Menon in the Hindustan Times thus: " Genial and outgoing, Adams is a much admired compere of polish and humour whose presence enlivens an evening with a low key whimsy". He has voiced many Radio Advertisements including ads for Murati, and Oracle.
Bill's has written three musical plays for children all of which have been critically well received. His last play "Sab Chalte Hai" was a commercial success, featured on the Star Plus TV’s 'Arts Update' programme, and received wide spread critical acclaim. It was also featured on the Indian Express editorial page.
He made his comedic stage performance debut at the age of 50. - A friend asked him to MC a show and be funny. The Show at the India International Centre was a big hit and they were asked to perform it at the British Council Auditorium. Here Bill was spotted by Joy Michaels, a leading theatre director who sent his details to Uma De Cunha India’s leading Film Casting Director.
Subsequently Bill has been offered parts in various productions. Most famously he turned down the chance of a part in Largaan. (The part was small, the shooting schedule long - and in Gujarat, and the money was crap).
He appears in one stage show and one movie a year.
In 2000 he had the part of Albert the cuckolded husband in ‘Potovanje Predalec’ A four part TV min-series made for Slovenian TV. ( Bill had 8 full pages of script and approximately 10 major scenes).
In March 2003 he played the part of the famous explorer, Sir William Lampton in award winning Director’s Pankaj Botalier’s ‘The Great Arc’ - This was a drama-doc and Bill had about 5 scenes and two lines.
In 2006 he played the Governor of Madras in The Last Viceroy a drama made for Channel 4 in the UK.
Bill is happily married to noted educationist Abha Adams, with two sons (Ben and Sean) and a foster daughter (Chanda).
