Thrilled, excited,joyful etc.

Years roll by and I guess all of us at one stage think, I should have done this. When we are in our twenties, that seems ok because we feel there are so many years ahead...

but when we hot 40+ , our impressions of life get cemented and we just take a back seat.

My recent article on this was published on HugPages as a featured article and the response was so good. A small step, but a step forward..and I was thrilled.

So am sharing the link here ( as I cannot rewrite the blog again ) ..

https://hubpages.com/family/It-should-be-WHY-NOT-not-WHY-SHOULD-I

So read on and if some where some one, is touched by my words , then my efforts are worth it. 

Are Mammoth walls being raised by this microorganism ?

It is lock down time .....and a lock down of what ? Human movement to prevent the spread of virus . Nothing more , nothing less, but  OH MY  GOD ! Has'n't the world has gone lopsided ? When I witnessed the Chennai floods I thought ' what a calamity '...that pales in comparison now.

This teeny weeny .125 microns length organism, is holding  the world to ransom and is building colossal walls among a single species... and this is not from a medical point of view, but purely from an angle where we are witnessing a debacle where the wheels of life are trudging through the sands of time.

Our mind space has been kidnapped, daily wage laborers have been robbed of their live hood, so many industries of all scales have come to a stand still, 'can you hear me, can you see me ' have become the mantras of the educators, media is trying to capture everything that is there and also not there, and routines at home have gone through their own concoctions, after being arrested within four walls.

When we were hit with natural calamities like floods or cyclones, there is an out pour of humanity and so many people come forward to render the services they could. Lives were impacted but around every corner , there was some how a helping hand, without waiting for  governmental directions and social media was mobilized for the same.

Now too,in spite of so many  restrictions on movement, there is no dearth of philanthropists. Right from a daily helper who buys something cool to drink, for the policemen sweating it out in the sun to those running community kitchens on their own, to the the huge donations, help is pouring in . Of course there always lingers a question of whether it is enough or sustainable but the fact remains that such pure noble intentions are still circumnavigating the globe.

At the very same moment, on the very same planet where kindness is spreading it swings , it is sad that mammoth walls are being built without a single brick being used - walls that divide people, cemented by flimsy political opinions, twisted religious beliefs and opportunistic monetary actions,

Some countries are mobilizing the situation  for global economic power, some people are flaunting personal freedom as a reason not to follow rules  when it is mandated, some are being driven by pure carelessness, some are divided on pure religious lines - what ever the reason, times like these demand social and self responsibility and evasion of this responsibility, just keeps compounding the problem for all, there by extending the impasse.

 ' My opinion is right ' attitude will only strengthen these walls and just think of  the difficulties the coming generation will face because of these walls. Life should not be sapping them of energy in their attempts  to scale it or break it.

 but honestly does this little virus really deserve so much  ??

The virus spreads, there is no vaccine/medicine as of yet and social distancing alone will help curb the spread.

I agree that for many people, for whom food itself is struggle.  social distancing becomes a big luxury but what about the rest who can afford to stay inside ?  Why roam around when we can stay at home ?

Can't we just hold on for some more time, till it passes ?

We are holding on tightly to social media, our beliefs , our lifestyle, etc.

Let us leave all that and hold on to ourselves for some time !!!!

Let us hold on to the lessons that these trying times are teaching us.

Let us learn to be gentle with nature or the next hit back might be too much to bear.

Let us learn that world over, politicians will be politicians, forever a mixture of strong and weak people and the onus of electing capable people lies with us but also what lies within our control is not to let these political views run or ruin our lives.

Let us learn and teach the next generation that it is important to respect and feel proud about our own religion but that does not mean we can belittle another religion or disrespect it. In fact a person who has imbibed the knowledge from their religion into themselves, would never speak ill of another doctrine.

Let us learn that no religion can teach any thing wrong and it is the little human minds who bend it and twine it around their personal agenda.


Let us learn to understand life is how we make it to be , painted with a myriad of beautiful colors or dull depressing hues.

Let us at least teach our next generation  that , education is about evolving to a better person and taking the right decisions when required . It is not always about money, houses, cars or social standing.

Let us spread good will and break the walls today itself - they might be become too strong to break later.

and let not the most intelligent species on earth , confine its thinking to spaces, smaller than this COVID19.

Let us pray that this too will pass.

Karna, Corona and the 'Educated' Us!!

   Long ago , so long ago , meaning any time in the last one month because the days are merging into one another....anyway long ago, I  saw few  posts, few among the  plethora of floating messages across the globe which went something like this ...
" I forgot what we spoke about, before Corona " ,
" Soon BC will start to mean before Corona"

and the one I loved was " There are two pandemics going on , one is corona and the other is stupidity, the second one being more deadly ".

Absolutely true isn't it ? Today we stand at this exigency , where hoards and hoards of money, towering pillars of power and the so called ' advanced' technology have all failed in making this world a better place. In fact if we reflect back, they have only served in creating this planet as it is now.....and I mean right now, this moment as you read these words , not the world we were living in two months back.

Today's world is the one in which ...
              We are literally arrested in four walls....
              We have realized meeting loved ones is an extreme luxury....
              The departed souls would have given anything to breath normally....
              Most aspects of life have been turned upside down...
              One  section of  the population have become the front line warriors, fighting to stop the                        spread , while the other sections stay at home to conveniently complain about the system.....
           
and finally a world where nature is trying to get it's foot hold back.Some weeks  of human absence, has made us witness so many wonders and there is no room for discussion as to who are the most destructive species in this creation.

Soon this too will pass but the question remains as to how we are going to emerge from this . Will we rise as Phoenix did, which destroyed itself after 1000 years to rise again as the same bird or will we rise again as evolved human beings ?

Isn't it absolutely imperative and I cannot stress it more, that we need to pull ourselves out of this with a complete change in perception as to how we see this world and relate to it. Technology, money and power might be dysfunctional today in providing a wholesome solution to clear this COVID-19 turmoil, but for me personally the single point of failure as has been all the educational systems around the world.

Why do we need to education in the first place?
We need it  to mature as better human beings , to handle our lives and the world in a improvised way.
We need education to  uplift ourselves and decide from which platform we need to grow, to which platform.
We need it and should be using  education to imbibe ourselves with the courage to make the correct decisions when we reach cross roads
.... and we when we finally reached the cross roads, we forgot to use even our basic common sense  and COVID-19 is spreading.
If most of the people had taken the simple decision to stay at home, would have this corona spread so much ? So if education cannot be used at the right phase of life in the right way, what is its very  purpose ?
Only in providing money, jobs and a luxurious lifestyle ?

This failure exactly reminds of an incident from our history.

Let me zoom back a little, by little, I mean around 5000 years back when the great epic Mahabharata took place.For me, this epic is a conglomeration of  never ending life lessons and my daughter being a big fan of Magabharatham and Krishna, it is a kind of  parallel track running in our house. The recent addition to this epic club has been my husband. Hot star to the rescue and we started watching these episodes during BC itself ;-)  ( I mean Before Corona ).

The three larger than life stalwarts on whose twisted sense of pride and  righteousness was hosted Duroyodhana's arrogance, were Bhishmar, Guru Dronacharya and  the great Warrior Karna.
A throw back on these three people  can be found in my other blog

http://joyinme-always.blogspot.com/2016/07/bheeshma-karna-dornacharya-you-and.html

Those were times and I think it still holds true that for a warrior, death should befall them when fighting bravely but for these three, their death was a complete surrender to Dharma after being enlightened by Lord Krishna.

Karna awaited the fight against Arjuna for many years and when the stage was set for the same, his chariot wheel got stuck in the mud. His charioteer refusing to help him, Karna had to get  down without weapons to dislodge the wheel himself , and Krishna chose the moment to ask Arjuna to fire his arrows !
Karna gets infuriated that this was not being played fair  and swears that he will launch the divine weapon Brahma Astra which can destroy the entire Kurukshethra... and at that turning point , this great warrior flounders that too, as he forgets how to fire the weapon using his Mantras. His education and knowledge failed him

Karna is at his wits end and demands what was wrong in him trying to attain a great status, that he is finally meted out such an injustice.


It is at this juncture Krishna tries to give him clarity. He completely agrees that , Karna not being allowed to bring forth his greatness just because he was a charioteer's son is indeed wrong and society or for that matter, no human being has a right to look down on another just because they happen to be born some where, but  where Karna failed was in his reaction to it, in not converting what he learnt to knowledge and wisdom

He strove to educate himself in the best of arts, to propel himself alone. He surrendered himself, his talents and his sense of righteousness at the feet of Duruyodhana just because his friend gave himself some recognition. He never prevented Duruyodhana from his dance of arrogance.

He never fueled his anger towards the betterment of his group, so that walls created on birth basis were broken. He never used his education, his talent and his power that he so pain painstakingly learnt, towards the progress of the society - it was just fodder for Duruyodhana's bloated ego....and so  Krishna said that finally , his learning failed him instead of uplifting him at the most important moment of his life,

and once Karna's cobwebs in his head cleared, he surrendered

and today , aren't we in the very same  situation....?

Today's education is food for money , jobs, houses, cars and whatever - nothing wrong in aspiring for that ,  but look at the damage we have done to the creation in the process.....scores of animals and plants getting destroyed, we ourselves are floating in pollution and sometimes humans can be so cruel, that it lies at the edge of insanity.

Most of the people do not intentionally harm anyone - we are just being pulled along the current trends of life, but will that excuse suffice or does nature's cycle differentiate between intentions ?

If countries with  people, who were infected with COVID-19 had the sense to lock their international borders would the disease have spread ?

If each person who returned to her/ his home country had bothered to check on how the virus spreads and used their common sense to stay in self quarantine would the disease have spread ?

If those, who carelessly roam around ,  think for a moment about all those people who putting themselves at risk,so that we remain safe, would the disease spread ?

So for me, today's dilemma is also an educational failure.

and, as the world grapples, Corona has hijacked our entire mind space, created so many divisions among a single species  ....and made me pen these words.

With hope that this too will pass and for once we emerge as better human beings, and let education actually educate the world ...........and lead to wisdom.

                                                                                                     

When..When .. When Again ?? Tribute to Stephan Hawking

    In the middle of a hectic day , pops up this message in whats-app ( we don't miss checking whats-app even if the day is hectic ..do we ?? ) , that Stephan Hawking has breathed his last.....

It took some time to sink in for many reasons...I used to love his books, his thinking, his perseverance, his connect with the layman.... what ever you call it... but it is quite some time that I had turned towards cosmology( my first love always ) ....reading aboutit , discussing with people who had the same interest as me....and then it hit me  !! My God , what a loss to the human race of this century  !!! Felt the same when Abdul Kalam passed away .

I feel very remorse when writing this for various reasons, so many questions and facts rushing into my head.

First , that his wonderful , brilliant ever working mind has stopped. Let him rest in peace.

Second , when will we next see such a spurt of thinking on a cosmological scale ?

When will we see a  person , who was  confined physically with few years given to live, break all the boundaries  imposed on him to fly across the cosmos ?

When will we see scientist of his magnitude reach out across the world ?

But where the above, the only reasons for me feeling bad today  ? Definitely not.

Am sure that  across the globe , there are so many , many geniuses , in so many countries .....But  how many are actually allowed to think beyond the high walls imposed by the society and our education system ?

These geniuses are getting stifled , cut and primed by the society and the current education system. They are not being allowed from a tender age  to break the boundaries of the mind. Success scaled on monitory benefits are set as benchmarks for them...

Not only the current generation has to combat with all this , they are being surrounded by so much of technology which is trying to take over all their thinking . Even birthdays need a face book remainder.

Yes , I take a lot of pride in my own patents and know , that technology growth is a part of the evolution , but am concerned at the same time , on the other facets of it, especially on the way its chiseling the minds and attitudes of the Youth.

So when we see minds which want to soar the cosmos, please don't cut their wings  !!!!!

Let us allow the growth of  many more Abdul Kalams and  many more Stephan Hawkings. Its their attitude which has carved their name in the history of the mankind.

Education systems are meant to evolve a human being , not to convert them into mark producing machines . When someone can fly. why test if they can crawl better than the rest  ?

Stephan Hawking has lived a wholesome life and inspired thousands across the globe.

Rest in Peace Sir !!!

Bhishma, Karna , Dronacharya, you and me.....with Krishna.

      The fascination continues…..with the Mahabharatham , the never ending saga. There is always an unheard story , a new interpretation and always a new lesson !

          I have never been too familiar with many incidents of the war , except for the ones we always keep hearing. I remember from our dear Amir Chithra Katha comics how Bhishma in his white dress, was lying on a bed of arrows and how , someone shouted into Dronacharyar’s ears , that ‘Ashwathama , the elephant is dead ‘….keeping the Ashwathama loud and the elephant low, and how Karna was shot by Arjuna ……but I never knew how it all came about...just the pictures playing on my memory.

   Duruyodhana’s bloated ego and vanity , were compounded many times by the presence of three stalwarts , Bhishma , Dorna and his cherished friend Karna. Their courage, skills , heavenly weapons and boons they had, were towering sky high.  Duruyodhana, knowing that all these  were bound to him, by Bhishma’s oath and Karna’s friendship and Dhrona’s blinded love for his son , ….did not look beyond that and thought victory would be his.

        Though Bhishma and Dorna had a lots of  good will towards the Pandavas, at one point the so called ‘  sense of duty ‘ of Bhishma towards the kingdom of Hastinapur and Dorna towards his son took over. Their sense of integrity being questioned by Duruyodhana, they were minds were made conducive enough to unleash their full fury on the Pandavas.. and  destroy the entire battle field.

    They were ready to use the divine weapons , ( always paralled to the nuclear weapons of today ) like Brahmaastrams. In-spite of being so blessed to have been enlightened with the Gita by Krishna, Arjun was still very reluctant to attack either Bhishma or Dronacharyar, one being his mentor and other his Guru. With Bhishma , Dronacharyar and Karna could have easily swayed victory towards the Guravas...but did they ? 

      So how did Pandavas actually win the war ? For me ,the reason is Krishna . Krishna slashed away the three iron walls protecting Duruyodhana, without raising a weapon..after all he stepped into the battle field with an oath that he would not use any war weapons.

He ripped off layer by layer of the beliefs. And After he spoke, all three of them were ready to be killed – the greatest ever known warriors of the one the worlds’s greatest battle, were ready to be killed in single stroke without raising their weapon….. !!!!!!

   And what a conversation !!!...what Krishna points out to them keeps running in my mind…and were they incidents targeted to win the war or to break down all the Bhishmas, Dronacharyas and Karnas living in us ???

  Bhishma’s sense of Dharma and his perception of right and wrong are world renown. He prided himself on it… and it was all directed towards his promise that he would stand by the king of   Hastinapur. During the course of the war, when his integrity was challenged by Duruyodhana, he turned out in full fury.  Neither were the Pandava's army able to stand a day of his onslaught nor were the Pandavas themselves ready to kill Bhishma, whose lap they grew up on...so can Duroyadhana be allowed to win the war ?

It was at this point that Krishna was ready to break his vow of not raising a weapon during  the war and was about to attach Bhishma with a wheel . He  refrained from attacking Bhishma only after Arjuna promised he would raise his weapon ..but would he actually attack him ? Moreover Bhishma can choose his time of Death.

Krishna now makes time stand still and enlightens Bhishma ' Your Sense of Dharma is no Dharma at all. It is a false ego to stand by your oath to protect the throne of Hastinapur ... and the conviction to protect the king  was bloated to such an extent , that you allowed the Guravas to start disrobing Draupadi  - that silence you held is most reprehensible. Your defense of the throne , allowed  to pamper his son's atrocities . Your stand for the oath, is making you fight for adharma... and protecting your oath is more important to you than doing what is right ......

and how many Bhishmas reside among us ?

 How many times have our self imposed definitions prevented us from doing what is right ?

 How many times our financial status , lifestyles, caste barriers , so called ' family honour' prevented us from reaching out to others ?

How many times the will to uphold religion,caste, culture has caused harm to others and even taken lives ?

Now , can we kill the Bhishma in us ?

The next threat looming large in front of the Pandavas was their Guru , Dronacharyar -

The threat was large, not only because of his immense strength and war  weapons, but also because of the reluctance of the Pandavas to attack their own Guru. Drona, for the master warrior he was, was driven in life by the love for his son, Aswathama - he even become the  Guru of the Pandavas for the only reason that he can take revenge on King Daurpadan for failing to provide food for his son's hunger when they were reeling in poverty.

Now in the battle field, hearing that his son Ashwathama was dead ( while in reality it was an elephant called Ashwathama who had died ), Dronacharya was ready to launch the Brahma Asthiram.
        When Krishna froze everything around to get the attention of Dronacharya, the great guru fumed as to what was wrong in loving his son, wanting the best for him  and now wanting revenge ? Did Dronacharyar really love his son muses Krishna  ?
     Then he beautifully explains ' You have never loved your son . You were only obsessed by him. Love would have made grow and evolve into a great human being but your obsession only sought and provided him comforts. Love would have molded him into an independent person but your obsession for being there  always for  him, has  positioned him in the war , where he cannot survive without you defending him
.Love should have taught him dharma , instead your obsession allowed him to be wrapped up in the friendship of Duroyadhana . Now is he fighting a losing battle for Adharma.

   You cannot even call your self a Guru because the sole intention of a Guru is to impart knowledge to his disciples but you took Pandavas as disciples to groom them , to revenge  Daurpadan and make Ashwathama the king. In fact the obsession lead Ashwathama to even attack an unborn child without qualms.
Dronacharya was now ready to die for Dharma.

  As parents, is our love for our children allowing them to evolve as , independent ,confident, righteous human beings or is our love stifling their growth ?

Is our love providing them too much of luxury, cutting their wings in process ?

Is our love providing a cover for their mistakes , not allowing them to judge and there by getting accustomed to doing what might not be right and fair ?

Is our love keeping them in the comfort zone ,where the will to pursue their passion is crushed ?

Now , can we kill the Dronacharya in us ?

    Next moving to my favorite  Karna. Krishna made Karna chase Arjuna , there by intentionally allowing his chariot wheel  to get stuck in the slush and mud. Thus one of India 's greatest warriors was left defenseless and  Krishna provoked  Arjuna to attack him right then and there. Fuming against the injustice, Karna tries to evoke the divine weapons, which too fail him.

     To the completely confused and disillusioned Karna , Krishna then explains.. Krishna whole heartdly agrees that the treatment meted out to him by the society is wrong. Why should not a charioteer's son be skilled enough and why should a birth deter any one from acknowledging his skills ? The question posed by Krishna was whether the reaction of Karna to this was correct  ?

    The frustration which was brewing within Karna ,drove his life. It was Karna's  perception that the entire society was against him and it was only Duruyodhana's hand which was up holding his respect .It was Krishna who pointed it out to him "  If Duruyodhana wanted to really uplift you , why did he not uplift the entire charioteer class. Your skill and your commitment towards his friendship is fueling his ego that he can commit any atrocity . Your noble thoughts, noble deeds were all washed away in his friendship. You had no self doubt when Daurpadi was attacked or when your brother's son was unjustly killed . Duruyodhana's wish  is your will, not dharma. You should have focused your energy in creating a new social class,, instead you stand in war for Adharma"........and finally so was Karna too willing to die , again for dharma....

Karna died but can we kill the Karna within us ? How many wrong deeds and actions have been justified in the name of ' life dealing an unfair hand '?

How many times has friendship not corrected but actually supported wrong deeds ?

How many times , has the restlessness within our selves not allowed us to grow ?

and finally Duruyodhana's three pillars- Bhishma driven by his vow, Drona driven by son and Karna driven by his friendship gave up their reins to Krishna to up hold Dharma....

When will we uproot the Bhishmas , the Dronacharyars and Karnas in our mind ? Now or after Krishna comes in his next Avatar ?

Happy thinking.. !!!!

.

beige, peach,pink ...gender matters.

    Many a time I find these gender based arguments outright silly....for me,each human being is born  to live a complete life on this planet . Neither should they  expect  someone to handover their rights to them on a golden plate or assume the rights to treat another person badly..... but some situations leave me stumped....no..no...nothing serious except for the million dollar question..can men really not see colours.... ??

        Between two men in my house ( who else but my hubby and my 11 year old son :-) ) who cannot  see the difference between pink and red .. and my  4 year old daughter who used to say ' that's NOT dark brown ....that's chocolate brown by the time she was 2 years.....stand I , also particular about colour combinations and dress designs....

      My daughter's birthday was approaching and my son, who never used to bother about his clothes , suddenly wants to select for his sister.... and for him, some colours are good only because some weird superhero wears it.. and for me , there are  umpteen parameters which go into deciding whether a dress looks good :) .

         I thought I can solve the predicament, by doing my  daughter's birthday dress shopping on-line...and get it done in half an hour max.  One quiet  afternoon..( the only reason my house is quiet is because my little one is sleeping and my son is doing something on his own ) , I sat down to have look at girls dresses ..and all for my high hopes !!!     Soon both were over my shoulder , wanting every thing which popped up. My son with his funky selections and my daughter wanting her dress to look exactly like a princess.
      Soon my husband joined and with my son started telling me to take the ' peach dress'.. I was searching up and down .....and finally they were pointing out a beige dress...and believe me, they STILL call beige as peach !!!!....I have heard and specifically searched that men do see colours different from women....and it ain't a crime..right  ? If I have talk about the colour sense of the men at home , I should also mention the pathetic direction sense that I have ( can I blame that on my gender ?? )   The beauty lies in the difference and accepting it.  Finally after three days of searching, I,...opps sorry, WE did select a dress. 

       When my daughter was born I had decided that I would use the loads of toys  and books my son had for her ( which were all vehicles or transformers and books on war planes and stuff.. ) .. but will nature allow it ?? . My son used to sit on my lap and stare at a page of car parts for an hour.. while daughter refuses to even see the book. By the time she was one, she instinctively used to play  only with dolls .....all her brother's cars and vehicles held no fascination for her. As she grows older , her world is dominated by fairy tales , castles , fairies and pixies...and of course her dolls. Who am I to fight against the strong maternal instinct ? When my son was kid, I remember so well, him asking me ' does the horse use petrol or diesel'  :- ) .I grew  up in a house hold of girls ( we are three sisters ) and studied in all girls school till 12th std .  Meeting my nephews or cousins were restricted to  holidays and so ,  I am still learning as my son grows. Books like famous five and enchanted wood which used to hold me in awe , my son finds them boring and it took some time for me to understand that it is indeed boring for him.

        Looking at my children , I understand that , what come naturally must only be nurtured and not changed. 

   What is most important is that they respect the opposite gender for what they are...and understand that all are human beings, who have every right to weave a beautiful lives around them in this journey called life !!

     

Series on Educational Therapy-2 : When the English Alphabet blanked me out !

..."Then the floods came and.."  oh my,,,wasn't this the common phrase for so many activities that saw a halt  in Nov and Dec of 2015 in Chennai.. and so was it for me.

    The day I finished my course on educational Therapy, was the day when the sky was pouring in Chennai, leading to the floods,followed by endless days of school holidays. Not only were the rains washing away parts of Chennai .. so were the days,slowly blanking out my knowledge on what I learnt to be an educational therapist..It was like learning a new software language with full enthusiasm and not writing a line for code for months after that.

    After weeks, slowly the skies cleared ....and Chennai was trudging back to normalcy. My passion towards the therapy had not reduced and I preferred to operate in a school than start my own private practice , as teaching by itself was a complete new world for me.... , but I was lost on  the first step that I had to take. I then did what I knew best ..from my IT job !! The umpteen presentation slides I used to make when I was Project Manager geared me up and I did what I knew best , make a presentation...I put down, what my course was all about into ppt slides :-)  ...( I can see many of friends smiling as they read this :-)

.. Then next what  ? With this open question on my mind , I came to know of a school which was requiring an educational therapist.The initial discussion with  some of the staff and the vice principle , made me very comfortable....and then came the mail ! 

 In two days, as per the school procedure I should take a demo class for three students of the upper kindergarten( UKG ) for reading and writing skills.

 I felt ..' fine' ..this should not be a problem....and was it ?    It was much more than a problem , because if I had seen it as a problem, knowing me, I would try to think of a solution..

    but now ..I  never felt more nervous and blank in my life because I had absolutely...(I stress the word 'absolutely' ) no clue, as what I had  to take. By the time they reach UKG , some schools would have started sentences, some are on letters, some teach only phonics.....

I resorted to the internet to see, if  I can get an idea and there were more than enough , but still I felt foggy. Then  I tried to understand what  I was actually stumped about....

   .... the content ? no, because I can read and write... :-)
   ..... the school ? no , I was very comfortable in my first discussion and actually liked certain approaches they had taken
   ...... the principle ?  ..may be !!  just kidding   :-) :-) ..in my  career, I have interacted with a kaleidoscope of people....so handling new people should not make me feel like this.

Then it dawned on me that it  was the kids , which were standing in front of my eyes...  If I landed up teaching them something they know or were supposed to know, that would be on the right track..but what if,  I taught them something which was beyond them and they felt it was their fault they did not understand ? 

  Finally, it was the thought that I might make a child uncomfortable, by teaching with the wrong approach, was what was troubling me. 

I see it as three categories 

What a child, at a particular age , knows .... 
What the child, at a particular age is  is supposed to know ......
and what is not mandatory at that age and we as adults, teach them the same and they land up feeling its their fault that they have not understood it ...?

      For some this might seem a very trivial issue to worry about , but for me it was'nt . It could be because teaching itself was new experience for me.and this is a genuine  feeling that so many children at an young age actually experience....feeling at fault for something they have not understood.

       Many a time as parents we tend to think   ( and also verbalize it towards the children) that if some children can  attain certain levels in certain skill sets why can't my child also attain the same level...and finally we are driven by the end result, not understanding that for the child the learning process itself is the achievement and not the end result .. not the grades 

   Human beings are all created with different capabilities .. so how exceptional are kids ? Just because our education system imposes a rigid standardized box,into which every child is supposed to fit into and grade them according to their speed at which they do ..should we commit the same mistake...?

  As parents have we all achieved the highest and equal successes in life ? Sounds absurd doesn't it .. so its the same for the kids. We must never compare and never pin the fault on them for something which is not in their preview or control...We,as parents must first be what we want them to be....and by not stifling them into the common platform,each child has the opportunity to bloom beautifully in this life

     Now coming back to my story , I did land up making a plan of what to teach .Armed with all my colorful books and charts,I  appeared at the school ( still very nervous ! ) ...and it all disappeared the instant I met the kids...one little girl smiled sweetly at me and that was it !! 

    Only kids have the ability to be unpretentious and just allow us to be ourselves..   It was finally those little ones who made me so comfortable and who is to judge that it was me who actually learnt  :-)

Yours
Suji

The celebration or the celebrities ..where is the problem ?

          Movies and Politics have always been something distant  for me .. not that I don't watch movies , I occasionally do , but I wouldn't bat an eyelid if by some miracle there was not going to be single movie made for the next thousands of years .....

    Yet ,this blog is revolving around it, as suddenly I noticed issues brewing around  Amir Khan's statement about him not feeling safe in our Country or Salman Khan's so called ''expected release'  , and followed by  public out leash, ( which is what drew my attention than the original issue itself ) . I went to our dear google out of curiosity . Not only do I personally feel that many movies are socially irresponsible by glorifying violence,alcohol, teasing etc, but many times this social irresponsibility flows very much from reel to real. Though there is always the argument that , violence or alcoholism would happen even without movies, for sure movies compliment the scenario to a large extent .

 There is or there could be a political angle to all these issues or the issue could be woven from a suttle reality , which I am neither interested in digging into nor do I want to debate on why Amir Khan made such a statement or why Salman was released.. my thoughts are with the  same public which is justifiably outpouring its irritation today and is the  one who also celebrates them.....

 ......and my biggest question is ' If these actors were not celebrated upon to such an extent and the public did not make their movies hits allowing them to amass exorbitant sums of money , would they be in a position of power ? Would their statements matter in a political scenario or will they be in position to  buy their freedom ?   Even from an angle that an actor's  statement could have been misunderstood ( his intention being completely something else ) , would it still be used for 'dirty politics' if he were not celebrated like he is today ?

.....There were times when people used to drop everything to watch movie being shot at . Then with the advent of  cable TV, the world of movies just moved from the silver screen to the small screen , only escalating the craze....it still incomprehensible to me on why on Independence day , they have to interview on TV, an actors and actresses.... does really India have nothing else to boast of, after Independence except movies.......? Irrespective of the negative impact , movie starts are put on pedestals.

   Movies are just for entrainment , nothing more nothing else. It is  an industry which does host a lot of talent and nothing wrong with person's decision to to take any career in movies ....what I find uncomfortable is the to the level the common man celebrates the celebrities. Let me be very clear when I say that  its each individual's wish  in appreciating a person in the entertainment field, but are we stretching the appreciation tooo far ,,,,,,and that is the wave which is used to make millions today ..in advertising , in politics , in court cases ..name it.

    So am closing with an open question ?  Does the problem lie with the celebrities or the celebration  ??

Hoping to feed your thoughts..... .......................

Luxury..in the midst of Chennai floods

     Well.. as you read this , you know I have been connected back to the internet ( and that has been since yesterday evening )., and I guess it would not have penetrated my mind even if the broadband network had not been restored. During and after the Chennai floods, the bursts of little signals we got in the terrace , to convey our safety to my dear ones through single sms after so many attempts  , was for me the best network connectivity.....

    Many a time over the past few years I keep to reading up on why the climate cycles changes , but once the North east monsoons  were to set , I guess I got addicted to seeing weather forecasts , not the rain , thunderstorm sunny pictures you get as a summary but the details reports on how the rains are actually going to move. The sound of rain would make me grab the mobile , even at the middle of the night to check the weather reports , Insat pictures and websites which track cyclones across the globe.

 The next reflex action on seeing heavy rains , was me storing water at home. We live in a gated township , where during heavy rains,the water supply and power is stopped... as result once during the initial heavy rains ( I have lost track of how many times there have been heavy rains in the past weeks : -(  ) , we had not much water except a bucket or so .. and hence the reflex action.

     After the loooong holidays , Monday, Dec 30th both my kids went to school and it started as a sunny day . Being to hooked to weather reports which were forecasting rains  , I did land up buying all the food required for the house.....but bang monday evening,  the sky unleashed itself. Five roads crashed to form mammoth holes in Chennai.
Tuesday , was a day of no mercy from the Rain God ( who insisted on showing his power in North Tamil Nadu ) ..

     By tuesday evening , enough warnings kept pouring in, from individual weather bloggers ofcourse, not from the IMD which stuck to its forecast of isolated heavy to very heavy rain fall in coastal Tamil Nadu and Pudcherry ( before a flood !!! ) ........and there was an instinctive fear . Whatsapp was already buzzing with messages on which roads where blocked, where water levels were rising ..and next came calls from relatives and friends that water had started creeping inside their houses. I will never forget that night, where the priority was knowing their safety and roads leading to our township were already getting cutoff with water.

     In spite of all this , that night took us by surprise .... our township itself was flooded as a near by lake overflowed.....all the individual villas were in water. We were in the first floor and water had crept till the fourth step ( with cars already in the water ) . We packed a few bags and were ready to move the fourth floor, in case water levels kept rising. .....and then the rains stopped ( Rain God must have got tired ! ) .

   Neighbours started chipping in to help out and those from flooded homes were already evacuated to the in-campus school. Gas supply was also cut......no power , no water , no gas but believe me none of that mattered. We were in a dry place , had food , water and kids did not panic...... only issue was no network to convey our safety to my parents and sisters. We even had our own entrainment channel in the evenings because around 5 pm when I used to light the candles, my three year old daughter will start her singing ..and she used to go on non-stop. It was her way of handling the dim candle light nights

  During the four days before the water receded and all the basic supplies were back , believe me, not one moment made me feel bad for the situation we were in. My heart went to those who had lost everything and they way human hearts were rising above Chennai waters....

Once connectivity was back , and when I mentioned  those four days were luxury for me , one person remarked as to how I can call this luxury....if this is not luxury , what else is    ?????

Chennai will emerge from this also !

 .



 
 

Series on Educational Therapy - Is it easy to say thank you ?

     Thank you has crossed my lips many times, as a formality,  to teach my children, heartfelt to many, as part of work,.. it has been conveyed many times in actions and but how do I convey my  complete sense of thankfulness to people I have never met and will never meet, as they are no more.

 After a 17+ years in the telecom software industry, little did I know what I was signing up for, when I joined the educational therapy course, except that I wanted something part time and with the time factor at my will. The time factor at my discretion was honestly my driving priority because I knew how much it was eaten up during my long  IT career.

But then,  after I started my course on educational therapy  .....wasn't  I bowled over...? It was actually stepping into a new world. A new world where every one whom I met ( let me stress this ..literally every one ) was driven by one emotion - to make learning a pleasurable  experience for children, especially those who find it difficult to understand language and numbers with our current teaching methods.

For me , everything was different, compared to what I had been doing till now - it was seeing a new world with the same eyes- starting with the very thought process, the approach, the patience, the commitment to move step by step ahead, even its baby steps which keep fumbling, the goals to works towards to,teaching methods-   every thing has made me feel very excited, happy and most of all equipped to some extent.

The road towards understanding / research on learning disabilities is definitely come over decades but for me it was new, especially techniques which have been researched by doctors and have proven to show good results.


What was even more captivating was ....

-  How few people, decades back  ( I am not getting into  names) , were driven by one goal - that there has to be a way, wherein  children who see letters and numbers differently can be helped.

- How they never gave up and made people, especially parents and school understand that , it  requires alternate teaching methods and that  the shortcomings of adults with regard to teaching/ comprehending the language and numbers cannot be imposed on children.

- How they went about establishing the techniques in a systematic way, which finally evolved into a national level institute.

..and finally how they made me and so many others across the globe understand that , a child falling short of academic achievements in the current education system, is not a burden it has to carry for life..  and that its  not a life sentence.

     How many reading this article ( I mean the so called adults )  can raise their hands to say that they are skilled in all the world's skills - not one. Some are talented in certain fields , while some are in others. Its exactly the same for kids - some might be skilled in reading / writing and numbers intuitively while others are not.

And for those who are not, isn't it common sense to teach them in the right way, instead of blaming them for their academic failure and making their lives miserable.

If at any point in their lives , if the pioneers in this field had given up , I would not be writing this today .....and I am still at loss to say thank you.

The only way I know , is to put to use the knowledge I have gained, to enhance the educational experience of children.

As I take further steps into this world, I will keep sharing what I learn , as a series of articles....

Till then ...wish me luck to learn well.

If Yoga is Hindu , then is internet and Electric bulb American , .. and how about Zero .. Indian ??

   Traversing through this century , where the exposure quotient of the young generation is growing exponentially, the lines between ethical and unethical thinking are becoming blurred . For young teen ' being cool' in the gang will stand out as a life definition.

In this evolving mindset of children, for me as a parent  ( and I vouch its for every parent ) ,how strong,the mind and the physical health of the children are is a critical factor. Keeping them under our wings is not the solution, they should learn to be strong and then fly from within - self defense of the body and self defense of the mind is what will help them sail through life . In this era of shifting waters , a calm mind will definitely surf with ease and not get damaged in the process 

   One of the first decisions I took as a parent was that , Yoga meditation and any self defense mechanism like karate, is too be mandatory for my kids.I have been doing yoga for the past few years and knowing personally how much it helps , I try to motivate as many people as possible.
  It was indeed good news when June 21'st was declared as the international yoga day because at least from an awareness point of view , it would trigger a few . Then the proposal that Surya Namaskar ( a  form of Yoga postures ) was to be made mandatory in school,  was indeed a step in the right direction . This is something which done on a daily basis , helps the body to such an extent ......and I am talking about the human body, the human body alone - the person can be a Male , Female, Transgender and is   irrespective of which religious practice they follow ....yesterday I saw an article in the news paper  where some religious committees are against the Compulsory yoga in School because its ' Hindu ' !

 I grew up  a house hold where my mother is very religious and in our Pooja room we had so many pictures of the all the Hindu Gods and in the midst was also the Moon and Star ( for Mohammad ) and Revered Mother Mary with Baby Jesus. 

Drawing boundaries in the name of religion or caste has always been incomprehensible to me . Every religion is about appreciating the creation and the creator. Its about tuning into it for the enhancement of the human body and mind. Etching enemy lines between religions only serves to reduces the Omnipresence of the Creator. Religion is not about a set of rules that shows one human being to be a superior to another . So when I read that Yoga cannot be taught in schools because its ' Hindu' , it really makes me wonder about everything we use in our daily life ?

Is the religion of the inventor or the culture of the place where every gadget or invention we use being analysed ? If Yoga is Hindu , then is the Internet American , The train Scottish , paper Chinese ? what about the number zero - Is it also Hindu ? Can we restrict their use 
As long as something is complementing your life , its origin does not matter. 

By making Yoga in schools compulsory , it would benefit thousands of children. Many of them, who have never had access to Yoga classes or are from families whose parents are not aware of its importance will get a chance to blossom.,, and for all we know , they might motivate their parents - Yoga is an investment for life.

Will you enroll your child in a school which does not support sports or do we analyse where each sport originated from . 

Yoga is not about Hinduism . If India can come together for cricket why not for Yoga ?

Let us not curb it in the name of Religion - All religions and their Prophets have been only showing pathways to  elevate the human - lets not make into a sword which hurts others.

" Where the world has not been broken up into fragments

By narrow domestic walls

Into that heaven of freedom, my Father, let my country awake."

- Rabindranath Tagore