Happy Deepawali

Take my word.. Children are intelligent in the issues concerning to procure whatever they need.

Recently, my brother when asked to pick 'one' from the shuttle racket that he was demanding from a loong time and the fire crackers for diwali, picked the racket without any hesitation which, according to my dad, left a horrendous look on my mom's face who made the offer. He sure is smart!!(Afterall he is my Bro..) My dad burst into laughter while narrating on the phone. My mom should know its not with me,who always was a *good boy* to leave everything for her choice, she is dealing with.

This doesnt stop with just 'things'. Last december I was at my sisters house and was talking to mom on phone telling her that I will be back starting tomorrow. Nephew of mine insisted on him talking on the phone and pestered me to handover the receiver and said "Padma, mama is not coming anywhere and will stay here" and hung up the phone with not more than a single word. I was taken aback! Even I dont call my mother with her name and he is just 3 years old!!! Finally he succeded in making me stay over there for three more days by using a lot of children's ways and using crying as the final option.

They have all their weapons ready to shoot at. They make their face look angry, sad, pleasing and almost everytime a stubborn face can be expected for sure if nothing works.They look so pleasant with any emotion they unknowingly try to puton with a smile on their face;everything would go their way.If the things are not going their way they always opt for the not-so-concealed weapon which everyone fears, further denying anyone from granting their wish. Ofcourse its the crying part!

ANd finally my Bro got the racket and ofcourse even the firecrackers. Its almost four years since I have enjoyed diwali time at home. We live in the same rented house since past twenty one years in a street which consists of almost six houses. Everyone accepted our intrusion into their lives as if we belong to their family and now its actually difficult to see us deseparate. Two of the houses consists of grandfathers and grandmothers whose children live far from them and its difficult to come home for every diwali. Since I was the only child in the street, I am the only one who used to enjoy all the crackers and most of the sweets.

I miss the serious looks my mom delivers as I accept the sweets offered by one of the grandmothers.
I miss my dad scolding me for not being careful and them backing me up asking my dad to shutup!!
I miss the night which was usually very long making me escatic and boast about the amount of crackers I lit,consisting of three packs one from my dad and the two from the other two families, back in school.
I miss my grandma who is always scared and keeps on repeating the same lines.. to be careful and always use a loong thread to light a bomb and so on....
I miss everyone and every part of my home right now!

Damn the nostalgia!I soo wish to be at home :((

I have never been able to churn out the long, verbose, grand greetings like those on the e-cards. so in a plain, simple way

"Happy deepawali". Have a fantastic and most importantly a safe day. Enjoy yourselves.

Things never to be given a shot

So for a change never watch movie's' and football videos and fall asleep on the night before the exam instead of slogging. You will(may) definitely end up

! answering the paper for the first 6 mins in which 4 mins 45 seconds are wasted reading the questions and the other 15 seconds to decide the questions to be attempted which virtually turn out to be zero albeit the ego which makes you attempt a question wasting another minute.

the next one hour forty minutes end

! calculating the relative writing speed of your fellow beings who are seriously penning down everything they know and something you dont know and probably will never know.

! counting the number of fans in the examination hall and may equalize them with the number of hairfollicles the invizilator has.

! notice someone who surprisingly looks gorgeous at that moment. Examtime is indeed weird.

! Hoping an end to the dreadful examtime, you look at the clock every fifteen minutes to notice the minute hand at the same position and the seconds hand making a swift 15 secs move and clinch your teeth with anger.

! (blank unromantic thoughts for sometime)

Last fifteen minutes..
You try to fill in the paper with some ink.

Winding up you look into your own paper once again and find something meaningful which is going to be latin and french to the professor.

Once you are out of the room, hearing people call the paper and prof with "special" names takes the edge off your inner side which feels guilty for not slogging. Otherwise you may end up cursing movies and football.

So why take chance?

Never try to change the habit of reading on the final day for the sake of change.

whats truth and whats not!

I found a post here which led me to a very funny blog which states many things reasonable(!!!) enough for the people who accept that as a legitimate source to believe Mahatma Gandhi considers Junior Bush to be a war criminal and Dear Leader Kim Jong Il to be the defender of the earth while Gandhi was actually assasinated long back. Neither my teachers told me Gandhi was a good predictor nor I read it in any of the books written about gandhi :( Man he should have been a helluva great foreteller to envision such things!!

People can use the Web to make 'people' believe Arsenal lashed the hell out of Manchester United as their striking pair Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar scored thrice and people actually fight against each other to have their say in who is gonna remain in the Arsenal team!!! And dictators are using the opportunity to the fullest. Ok if we get on this issue further, even media can be(come) a culprit.

Not patient enough to go throuh that post, then this is what I found. Check it out, I don't think I disappoint you.
Whats the truth and how can I believe something I see in the everyday newspaper is indeed real?I fear these thoughts which makes me get back to the unfinished movie!!

Now dont doubt me whether I am actually watching a movie or not.

We need no education of this kind

I consider myself lucky to spend my school life in a single school without any change. Change of friends, place, rules, ambience and change of teachers. The teachers who had taught me abc of everything from rhymes, sciences, fun and the outside world are someone special in my life. They know me, my nature and my next move in a game(atleast some of them).This is the case with almost everyone in the class. They knew everyone from their name to their favourite actor. For our batch, "they" consists primarily of sadasiva sir, hanumanth sir,kenneth sir and hindi sir.

Ten years of our life; our parents felt relieved to have them. They taught us everything... being kind, helping others, to know our rights and duties, pinpointing the mistake, fun and discipline. Sadasiva sir is simply known for the discipline while hanumanth sir and hindi sir always backed us. Kenneth sir never took a side and never directly blamed us instead he used to tell real life stories which made us realise the mistake from our side. We did make mistakes and were scolded and shown the wrath of the stick but that was all after reasoning out everything behind the mistake;what led to the mistake and further decided to teach us wrong and right but its not treated as a punishment unless and untill the mistake is intentionally done. And there is no discrimination between the top student and the below average student. Sadasiva sir used to have a very exceptional habit of nicknaming each and every student in the class and those were really funny and some are objectable but who cares! Ofcourse there is an unspoken rule that students shouldnot tease eachother calling the nicknames that were given by sir. Now we chid among ourselves calling eachother with those names. If a student is somehow at the receiving end in the school then he can be assured that he is gonna get the same yet again and now from parents. If a teacher has punished my son he has done something terrible is the idea parents had and those were the days.Those teachers are with us from the starting of our life and the relationship that existed between us is something special which makes us to consider their view in a fatal decision even now.

But now, its all different. Students nowadays doesnt even know teacher's name and knowing every pupils name has become difficult for present day teacher. The school has become big, not in a small way, but in every possible way. The student number has gone into thousands and the buildings and classrooms are increased and the strength of teachers is increased. The only thing that has been decreased on paper was the ground area. People like me crib over that when we meet our teachers and they laugh saying parents are not interested to send children to a school which has more gaming facilities. The important of all is the relationship between teacher and the student which is deteriorating with the years. Parents fighting with the management whenever the teacher scolds the pupil for a purpose and students knowing their rights without having any idea of the duties makes everything even worst. World has changed and the attitude is changed and I dont have any idea if this kind of primary education is going to help the little children, who are now waiting outside the principal office for an admission , down the lane after few years.

That was all about the essential education and coming to the higher education, its even worse. Professor doesn't care for anything except the one hour he uses to teach. Its fine now. We are grownups and there is no need to spoon feed or whatever the reason is from their side. But I hear something from a professor who taught us and I am glad i didnt take his course. He blurted out saying students below 3 dont understand the rules.(Our CPI system is based on four point scale). Its not out of anger, he has time to think but still he accused students based on their level according to him which I have never seen in my childhood and these guys have done Phd's :((
Its not that Phd has something to do with commonsense but still a professor has to be a teacher initially and I go nuts thinking further. He is concerned with the exam timetable he has prepared for the institute and now insists on punishing the students who has taken courses from a particular group(after taking the permission from the respective prof's) which will definitely clash. He calls on a meeting not for resolving the problem but to decide the punishment. Reasoning behind the mistake is not a concern which as a teacher is primary according to me while he is deciding the future of someone.

Now that particualr child who is in the principal office if been given admission may later become a professor similar to this prof. Such professors are not to be given a chance;for that the world should revert to the normal state where teachers used to be teachers and students used to be students and education used to be education rather than everything being a business and ego satisfaction being the primary concern.