Walk with me

Dear Tanvi 

Your 6 th Birthday was special. Special in many ways.

One , because I couldn't give you enough of me on your last birthday and you missed me then. Yet you were always so kind and forgiving in your own special ways , comforting me as my mum taking me in her lap , sometimes as my dad holding me in his arms , your soft words cooing in my ears as if you knew What I yearned for. 

I am blessed to have an angel like you who can read my mind , walk through my heart and never leave in despair. You are my savior bringing a smile on my face with your unknowing thoughtful ways that touch my lost soul. Your love for me is divine and pure, you tell people how much you love snuggling with me, draw my picture in almost every piece of paper. I would have never known this definition of love, had I not been your mother. I feel fortunate for you being my daughter and teaching me ways of love and life. You have taught me patience, care, unconditional love and living with joy. I have yelled at you sometimes, you have forgiven me. I have scolded you sometimes and you have forgiven me yet again. I have not given enough time to you sometimes and again you have forgiven me. You have been my granny who has loved me, pampered me more than I ever pampered you. You have feared losing me and longed for me when I was away. You have fallen sick when we were apart even for a few hours and you have remembered me in your deep slumber. You made your first friend in me and you haven't let this friendship take a back seat. I owe you my everything. You have strolled in pink stilettos and adorn my bracelet to feel like me, look like me and be like me in every way you could possibly imagine. I behold a very deep and spectacular place in my heart and I want you to know how much I loved celebrating your special day this year. 

Second, this birthday you were as enthusiastic as ever before, and a much more than a bit more. We had a day of watching our little bee turning into a frantic shopaholic buzz. You took charge of what you wished to wear on your special day with details so intricate that would put any designer to shame. A pristine white evening gown with a dash of shimmer to give it that sparkly mesmerizing glow that could evade all the darkness in one wave of the magic wand. To complement to your incandescent love for life , you picked up glam sparkly charms to adorn your angelic feet and your beautiful long Rapunzel inspired tangled hair sweeping the gloominess in the air and unfurling the peace and joy of childhood. You have a desire to live and enjoy every moment in life and it is contagious. You smile brings a smile to us and your love brightens our heart. This was first time ever I had seen you so vivid for long five hours stomping from one shop to the other to get nonpareil boutique look. 

Lastly , it is your this special day that reminds of myself taking another role in life , Motherhood. It has been a great journey since then, with lows and highs, celebrations and losses, and has taught me more about my Parents. I have overlooked and undermine my mother's virtues and never acknowledged her support in making me a person I am today. You have made me agnize the parents' love is unconditional and unhindered. As parents we wish to see children get along without us and as children it seems the hardest task ever. You have taught me the gap in teaching and learning and why having roots before the wings is so important. You have made me strong as a parent but vulnerable as a child. You have given me a privilege that I am still learning to enjoy. Your laughter has infused in me love and respect for my parents as now I know why they always wanted to see me smiling. They have endured discomfort in life to give me pleasure and made me strong even if they had to go weak in their knees to teach that. I respect how my parents came home unemployed after my wedding to allow me to venture into the sky and set my eyes to create my new world, world you and your dad make. I can't tell in you in words how much love I feel for you as you grow up in my world and my heart only to take on to a different world a few years later. Let me celebrate growing as a mother with you until then and as I do that, owe my gratitude to my parents for having me as their reason to smile.  

Thanking God a zillion times for making me a part of you .

Dedicated to My Dad, Mum and My Daughter Tanvi 

Daunted by Mini Fashionista

We were late. We came home at around 2 a.m from a friend's place post Chinese New Year Party. Tanvi was almost asleep but still talking. Sometimes I wonder did I have too much of high protein diet to have a gabber like this? I was closing the door, rushing to put her to bed when she announced, 'Oh No Mum, take my sandals off and change me into my Night wear.'

Well, this is my soon to be 4 year old daughter.

I must admit that I would like her to be quite organized but in such wee hours of morning , my daughter doesn't let go off it wee bit. Deep inside I feel quite high about it, but she amuses me with her rolling eyes and fastidious sensibilities.

Following the bedtime ritual of pee pee and good night story, a rather short one, we slept in peace. Only this was shortlived. My Fashionista woke up to find something unusual. She seemed to be rather disappointed with the blizzard of footwear and clothes in the living room. She was quick in reiterating, 'Mum, you are not suppose to leave things in living room. Could you please put them back where they belong to?' Before I could even match to my daughter's promptness , living room was looking more clean than ever before.

Everyone was happy but our daughter still wasn't. She was interested in what she was wearing today and if they were a correct match for her, made by me. For first time parents who believe a good fashion sense is just matching pair of clothes, the transformation of our little beanie from obedient to argumentative has been startling. Her room is filled umpteen dresses just picked from wardrobe and left unattended on the floor, bits and pieces of crumpled paper half filled with shabby colour combinations, hair accessories and plastic rubbish only to prove that she  is child prodigy of fashion. Well, she is not one. Perhaps she has perceptions of one though.

One thing I am stirred by is, her masquerade flight of fancy . She will gladly take on the helium balloons and wrap them as wings and pretend as if she was flying in the air, or just pick her dad's tie and swing it to make believe as if monkey's tail. The journey of my bumble bee's unsteady gait to independent confident show stopper has been quite eventful and entertaining, with ocassional hiccups for us as parents.

Lost in the Land Of Zombies

Until I saw Go Goa Gone, I had never thought so deeply about Zombies. Rave Parties, Beaches and Drugs create zombies out of you. Well, the thought seemed quite weird . Nevertheless, it left me intrigued about Zombies, do they really exist or are they fictional?

From their citation in Haitan fables to latest embodiment as a victim of replicating virus, zombies have defied to send across a social message beyond their restricted cognitive skills.

With great introspection, I feel there is a Zombie inside all of us. Sometimes our conditioning and life skills take over our zombie effect and sometimes vice-a -versa.

The recent Himalayan Tsunami has vitiate acres of land and heartlessly swiped away thousands of people , causing irreparable loss for years to come.It has created a void not just on land, but in the hearts of people as well. With large number of people dead and thousands stranded, the state is no less than a ghost town.

Ironically, Uttarakhand, which is often referred as the "Land of the Gods", primarily because of many temples and pilgrimage centres , has reached the Peak of its sins in these heartbreaking times. While some of us are feeling sad, depressed and helpless looking at the videos going viral on social media sites, there are some living midst the dead who have stooped to paradigms unknown to human. Little did the pilgrims knew that undertaking this journey to hills in hope of washing away their sins will beget sins unheard of.
Amid the corpse lying unattended, in times of unexpected and unprepared disaster by Nature, nothing has stopped man from showing his Zombie side, from looting to harassing the helpless, robbing even those who have perished in calamity, preying upon those who came for prayers. Some of them who have escaped the horror scenes have paid exorbitant prices for their own and loved ones' sustenance.

The current scenario is no less than terrifying, mindless Zombies in tumultous times heading towards the end of humanity.In the real plague, would we wait for a real hero to emerge to bring us the acumen, we need for sustenance and progression? Nature's reply to the outbreak of sins have given us a lot more questions to ponder upon.

Go GRRReen

Go GRRReen was the co-curricular activity, I introduced to the students of DPS International, Singapore, during my brief stay there. Well, many of you would be easily able to decipher what it was. For those who won't be able to, 3 Rs denote Reduce, Reuse and Recycle w.r.t environment

Least did I know at that time,that it is intertwined with my lifestyle as well.

I thought I am a Vegan until I stumbled upon the definition of Veganism.

'Veganism is a way of living, which excludes all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, the animal kingdom, and includes a reverence for life. It applies to the practice of living on the products of the plant kingdom to the exclusion of flesh, fish, fowl, eggs, honey, animal milk and its derivatives, and encourages the use of alternatives for all commodities derived wholly or in part from animals.' - Donald Watson

Yes, I have always refrained from eating meat and fish, but being brought up in a culture where milk and eggs were thought not only to be nutritive but also a wholesome food, I couldn't have managed to escape. Never did it run through my mind that Vegan is, what it eats. I never thought that by any means I am harming or exploiting any animal. For sure, I was not Vegan, because I never thought that by eating eggs or consuming dairy products,I m being cruel to animals in any way.

I never thought Go GRRReen is not just an idea but a philosophy, that so closely adheres to our body systems, food habits and lifestyle.

While in environment , the 3 Rs refer to
Reduce - Reducing the amount of waste you produce
Reuse - Instead of throwing things away, find new ways to use them.
Recycle - segregating and processing used material that can be turned into new products.

The same is applicable to lifestyle as well
Reduce the toxins in the body, Go Vegan. http://living-vegan.blogspot.sg/2011/03/study-vegetarian-diet-reduces-toxins.html
Reuse the food scraps to cut down on food wastage. http://www.thedailygreen.com/living-green/blogs/save-money/food-waste-recycling
Recycling all vegetable and fruit scraping through a compost.
( http://www.homecompostingmadeeasy.com/foodscraps.html )

Sometimes it is difficult to decide from where to begin. But all that matters is the end. So I would say, no matter at whatever point of time you are in life, it's never too late to think, rethink, unlearn and relearn .
Certainly, I have started to think Vegan. It should not be far away when I will live Vegan.

Stranger Danger

As much as I  feel apprehensive about teaching my soon to be three year old about the dangers of a stranger and how to protect herself  from dangerous situations and people,  I feel this will go a long way in providing survival skills to deal with it more confidently and with strength.

Just as the same way we teach our children against possible hazards of fire or heat or safely crossing a road helps them understand avoid unpleasant experiences at a very young age.

Nevertheless, I don't want to scare my child that every stranger is bad and would harm her, but I need to teach her dangerous behaviour and equipping her with skills that may potentially save her life.

I am trying to introduce the concept of stranger to my child, who he or she is, what to do if he or she approches her, tries to woo her with candies or any thing else, try to take her away when mommy is busy elsewhere, or tries to touch her body and what she could do in such unexpected situations.

Although it seems like a complicated advice to a three year old, but they can amaze you with their understanding and implementation. I discovered it today when a stranger in a bus was trying to offer something to her and her immediate reaction was looking at me as if looking for an answer. In split seconds, she declined the offer by the stranger in polite yet firm 'NO'. Well, I must say I wanted to pat her there and then. I felt tiny winy success in giving her the tools to protect herself when I am not around.

Although I have started to warn her about possible stranger dangers, the sad yet the real part is, children are more likely to be victimised by the acquaintainces rather than the strangers.Nearly all predators engage in picking, cuddling, hugging, patting etc. The predator does that in front of parents giving a signal to children that it is right and they approve of it.

The abusers are not just strangers lurking in the dark. They are family, friends, neighbors, people involved in community organisations with access to children.

As  parents, it is our duty to teach our child possible ways to escape dangerous situations and people . But not always our children will be able to do so. For those times, they need you.

Be careful in choosing your friends, leaving your kids with them, intentions of your acquaintainces, maintaining your privacy and space and arm yourself with tools to ensure we are doing the most we can do most to prevent our children from being victims

Breaking Dawn

' What do you call a person who keeps on talking, when people are no longer interested ?, 'A Teacher'.

This is what I stumbled upon, on one of the social media sites with more than 2K likes, one of them being by my ex student,. Certainly it left me thinking at the way, we as teachers have raised our students. Didn't we wanted children to respect us the same way, we respected our teachers? Didn't we wanted our students to look upto us and remember us for our teachings ? Then what happened wrong? Where did we miss a note?

 As we went on to pursue our degree in Education, we realised taking attendance, keeping records, following a structured curriculum and assessment in even more structured way is what we will have to do at schools.Many of us who took teaching in schools, at some point were told, teaching is all about managing the classrooms, managing the students, the curriculum and above all the results.

Have we ever thought, of not wanting to go into the classroom for delivering a lecture but igniting an imagination, not just regulating and disciplining students but giving them air to mould themselves and have a self control, not act as sole harbingers of knowledge but be their guide in quest of knowledge?

Well, considering the traditional linear method of teaching, we wouldn't had  to worry about our future.
Till date, I had always said to my husband, ' We teachers needn't worry about recession.' Only until now, where we may not worry about recession but being redundant.

The old chalk and talk learning can now be taken up by any individual who's confident to stand up in front of faces glaring at you Googl(e)ing aimlessly. The textbooks, structured curricula and teachers to disseminate it are a thing of mechanistic past. The sooner we embrace the fact that we are living in networked leaning era, the quicker we will understand how the role of teacher has to change along with it.

The big challenge for teachers that lies ahead is not how much do we want our learners to know, but how do we want them to know what is needed and what is not and how much are we willing to grow with them in this process.as future teachers , we need to cater to broader curriculum with constant upgradation to new learning and skills. We need to learn when required, unlearn when posing a hindrance and relearn to upgrade.

Post Google age, the role of teacher is becoming far more than important. Only the way it comes across is different now.

Don't forget to engage your learners in the teaching with end of concept, tweet reflections.That's something that will keep your learners hooked. And you never know, someday again I might come across some interesting quotes on Teachers ;-))

NYC: Why am I falling for you?

What started as a hate and solely hate relationship is turning over a new leaf with each day.

They say if you make it here, you can make it anywhere. That's true, really true to the core. New York city is tough. It demands a lot from you especially if you don't belong here. It really doesn't matter if you are in love with this place. It's all the more important that this place loves you too.

My brief stint with the city showed me its true side. It moves at a distinctly fast pace that overwhelms you, often leaving you with the feeling, why are you here in first place?

The city is full of people soaring with ambition to match huge skyscrapers, weirdos that can take your breath away , or may be not as compared to city cabs and needless to say, unparalleled cup of coffee in the world.

As a bystander, I have figured out nothing is normal in New York. Whether it's the fight in the middle of the road, travellers applauding a weird passenger in local or unspoken cool rule of apathetic behaviour towards others, there is no standard for anything. Everyone has a world of their own and their own standards. No one judges anyone, as if others would have cared if they did.

Yet, there's a lot to this city that draw you close, closer enough to feel the warm snuggly side of it. As I walked through the streets of towering skyscrapers in Midtown Manhattan, my feet raced up to match the others, keen on knowing what was the hurry. By the time I figured out the speed is the keyword, I was in Fifth avenue, best known as an unrivaled shopping street. Louis Vuitton, Prada,Gucci, Versace,Ferragamo, you name it, they have it here.

Did I mention how blue the sky is in New York, even when it's bone chilling cold in the end of January. New York city can be brutal in winters but there's usually a cheerfulness in the air. Or perhaps I had set off with that mood. What could have been a better idea to rekindle this love with a Bagel and Hot coffee on my way.

Though NY is home to myriad iconic halts for a first time visitor like me , to name a few Empire State Building, The Top of the Rock at Rockfellar Centre, Central Park, Ground Zero, Battery Park, never fail to dazzle you whilst strolling down on a cool windy evening. But what captured my eyes and my soul the most was The Times Square.Whatever the season , it is sure to be full of slow moving tourists gazing at brightly illuminated hub of Broadway, miserable Elmos happy to photographed for some bucks and many loose screw loudmouthed people wandering in the milieu of what seems like a long pedestrian zone.But it is the recipe for a stupendous exothermic reaction , giving out Colour, Light and above all Life.It is a sin to come to NY and not visit Times Square.If the energy here cannot spark the fire inside you, you are already dead.

Visually, the city keeps you on your toes. But not as much as below as above. The NY subways have been used and abused. Not only they look ugly but employ an archiac train system with just enough gap at the doorways for a baby to slide in incase you are not cautious enough. And it is just an epic feeling when you decode the MTA map and catch the train you were supposed to just in time.

9/11 memorial is one of the places in NY which will set your heart beat a skip. Not only, the two water pools are remembrance of one of the tallest structures that stood distinctly touching the sky but also a tribute to thousand of lives lost forever. Ground zero transcends a feeling of tranquility amid brutality and terror.

Just a walking distance from Ground zero is a historic park in the southern Manhattan, the Battery park. It provides scenic views of waterfront and a great relaxing environment in the center of Financial district. I clearly remember cutting across strong spine trembling winds on my way through the Park just to get a view of Statue of Liberty. It seemed more like some sort of an Antarctic expedition rather than pleasure trip.

In the city that never sleeps yet can give you sleepless nights, a city swarming with people yet you can feel so lonely here, I would keep my memory lane alive remembering so much I got to see and do in this city.

On buttered white bread, with a cup of very good steaming-hot tomato soup alongside, and a view of yellow taxis circling Columbus Circle around the Central park, it’s hard not to fall hard for Big Apple, again and again and all over again.