Back to school..

School has restarted.
Meet my new children in Std. I …
Meet Aneeket.
The child who is bouncy and noisy.Yet he is so thrilled to be in his ‘big brother’s school.
I was suddenly asked to fill in some statistical details by the office.
I gave the kids chalk and told them to draw on the floor.

kids drew flowers, trees,animals, cars and what -not

And dear Aneeket drew a boy with tears .

A few minutes ago I had   told him to sit away from his newly acquired friend.

Kids are so sensitive.

I felt lousy.

I hugged him and told him to move back to his coveted  seat

I was repenting my action 😥

Truly a rewarding lesson on the first day of school—for the teacher.

Will you be my …

Mayank greeted me this morning with a huge chocolate bar.

When asked the reason for this gustatory gift.he reminded me of the upcoming valentine’s day. I nearly fell ….

I was dizzy with surprise .

I couldn’t believe that commercialisation has  reached the  such levels ..

I consoled myself that he must have just mimicked his mother in wishing me a happy V day.

His mother met me at “going home” time and hugged me..saying,”happy V day!”

I somehow controlled my laughter.

If Mr. Custodian of Culture could hear this ?? I wonder what his plans would be ?

Celebrating  such ‘days’ is no longer a choice..the friendly neighbourhood malls and gift shops give you no choice.

And Mayank is all of 5 years and 4 months old.

I was  stunned..

Should I put my foot down and refuse the chocolate bar..Or simply avoid creating an issue and divide it among the children…

On Teachers’s  Day my standing instructions to ‘my’ children: I accept gifts ONLY in the form of hugs.

I didnt know.. primary section school kids of this century end up celebrating  V’s day.

Next time I will be forewarned. Infact at the end of the day when my fifith standard kids reminded me of V’s day..I just told them I believe more in showing love to family and friends  through out the year and not ‘showing’ it  sporadically according to the diktats of Tv and other media.

Adventure…living on the edge?

 Last week I  suddenly  found myself escorting 25 girls to the Summer Education Camp in Dudhsagar Forest Camp . This is part of the Bhagwan Mahavir National Park  near Collem. As  the duty was totally unexpected I had a thousand questions buzzing in my mind. I contacted the organisers and realised that we would be staying in tents…

My mind went into a tizzy. I packed my bags with a little apprehension , a little thrill and because of the inevitability- with a I don’t care attitude too!

The next morning we left the school towards Collem. The parents had a thousand questions . I was as curious as them!We reached Collem at 9 AM. The organisers were to meet us there and take us into the jungle.They were soon located. They told us that we were to walk for 1/2 a kilometre and there a vehicle would be waiting for us. We soon reached a rivulet.A pick-up came and took our bags. We crossed the rivulet by treading in crystal clear waters….shoes in hand , the kids shreiked in happiness and playfully splashed water around. Our adventure had begun.

To be continued…

Time to let go ??

These last few weeks have been hectic.

An academic  session is coming to an end.

I have been stealing glances at some blogs and commenting too.But somehow couldn’t manage enough time to write.

The day I bid farewell to my Std. II kids was very emotional.

I felt I was sending them away to an unknown place.

Sahil was worried why I held on to him with a tight hug for a long time.Being the most restless and talkative kid in class, he has all my empathy… But I know it will be an uphill task for the new teacher next year.

Abhipsa , being the reticent and shy artist has all the ingredients to bring out the protectiveness in me..

Shruti, the perfectionist makes me want to ruffle her dress and shuffle her books so that she relaxes and learns that there is  more to life …

Akansha, the kid who is expecting a  sibling after ruling the house for seven glorious years gets a special hug. I know she will face a few tough months ahead getting used to sharing space …. 

Mayuresh with his thick glasses had finally learned to write …

So many thoughts and time slipping by..

I know that this hurt is inevitable every year. It is a sweet pain. As a teacher one wants to be gradually dispensable…

A teacher has to develop detachable attachments,else she will wallow in her past pupils and fail to take the new ones in to her fold.

I had read somewhere that parenting is like kite flying..one has to let go to succeed in the job..

Help!!

My son has stopped being a pillion rider. He has become a pillorying rider.

Each  section of the 5 km ride to school is analysed and commented upon.Each honk’s length is criticized . Each turn is dissected….

I am waiting for the time when I will sit behind him and get back my pound of flesh.I can’t glare or grumble at crazy drivers. THEY have his sympathy..whatever their blunders!

Teens …..age the parents .They banish the parents to’useless land’.

In my case this is just the beginning..

Small children ?

Today the fourth standard kids and I  went to a nearby shopping area to use skills of money transactions .I had requested kids to bring Rs. 5 or Rs. 10 if permitted so as to help them in this activity.Those who didnt bring could borrow from me.

I took them around 7-8 shops selling groceries, fancy items, stationery, vegetables, tailoring  and craft -work items, bakery…

Most kids bought grapes, sugar candies, pens, shampoo sachets, detergent sachets….

Most kids were impulsive in their purchases.Some showed  a great sense of premeditation, planning, vision. Aishwarya bought a small packet of cardamoms and two lemons.Aman kept going up and down ..taking his time in searching for something suitable.He finally bought lemons and radishes for his home. Jenisha bought two packets of wafers and decided to go home to share it with her parents and sister.In  a class of 40, while most kids  ate atleast one of their purchases , I was surprised to see such children..their self control and the degree of maturity.

The other surprising thing I observed was that they  cajoled the 10 senior citizens sitting in the park to taste their tiffins.They chatted happily to them, shared jokes and puzzles.They cleaned the park after their snack time without being told to.

They are just 8 year olds!

An auditor comes calling at night.

As a parent I am restless. I keep auditing myself and my skills of parenting. And like all auditors , I keep finding glaring errors. Was I too soft in allowing him to  play computer games for  60 minutes this week ? Was I too harsh  when i refused to allow him to read the third story book this week ??   Was I barbaric when I forced down the badam milk down his gullet ? Was I  hitlersque in not allowing noodles more than once a month ?

Was I ?

Wasn’t I ? 

What would his reaction be ? What would I have done in his place ?

Whay? Why?

Could I have done this /that in a better way? WAS there a better way?

I was an auditor as a child too. I would point out how better I could have been brought up,That is in MY view ( highly prejudiced  ;)My mother would console me by telling that iItoo qwould get my chance and I could do it the right way then.Now I have  my son saying that i am not an ideal mom !

His ideas  of parenting are quite well thought out-even as a  12 year old.

I am not worried. I am more worried about his ideas of  ‘sonning’

More on that soon .

Most often my  auditing is done at night. If I am  tired sleep takes over otherwise auditing takes over the sleep.Many a times my son would have found it amusing that I would be extra careful on some mornings in handing out decisions /orders.He would have expected  the usual  military general barking orders….and he is stunned to see a liberal, ‘cool’ mom accepting his verdicts without a syllable of dissent. Mornings such as these must be  a kid’s dream beginning of a new day.

Where are we heading ?

This morning  I was conducting an activity in which the kids had to  jointly ‘write’ an article to a newspaper . The second standard kids were shown newspaper articles and stories. I suggested that they choose an incident that had occurred that afternoon in the class.. a quarrel between two kids as an incident to be ‘written’.They were very interested.

They  ‘reminded ‘me to write the date, place, day etc..

I began writing on the blackboard all that the little ones narrated in sequence.Suddenly a girl said, ”  pahele ladke ne doosare ki khoon kar di..(the first boy killed the second..).  ” This stumped me for a fraction of a second. I quickly reacted by saying , ” We are newspaper reporters, we write only what has really happened.” I was shocked by the extent of their involvement in the gory details of the fight and also about their awareness levels  wrt recent happenings in the country and their ideas of how a fight could end!! Fortunately we were  alluding to the kids as pahele ladke ne and doosare ladke ne…otherwise  things would have gone a bit too far.

Quickly I managed to bring the story to a conclusion . The kids ended up by saying, ..” tabhee ghanti baji aur teacher ko dekhte hi bachche apni-apni jagah par baith gaye…(the bell rang and the kids went back to their places on seeing the teacher. )

The story had  other surprises too.  One of the kids who really fought is Ahil who doesn’t speak much. The other ‘fighter’ is Sahil who loves to describe things graphically.The narration of Ahil stunned me because he took active part in narrating his side of the duel very well. And Sahil was too  stunned to  counter /react /defend effectively !!Luckily for him I was busy writing.

The titles they suggested were:

Do ladkon ki ladai,

bachchon ma maraamaari,

school me ladai,

____ me ladai  ( the name of the school.. )

They even suggested that a snap should be put. I drew a rectangle and some stick figures in it.

Tomorrow ‘we’  report on a wedding. Looking forward to it.