Of teachers and divine kids...

Was reading silverine's latest post (poomanam.blogspot.com), and couldnt help dvelving into nostalgia on my school days as well...

Somehow, after I have moved north, people's impression of me has been that of a totally studious girl....I even remember someone asking me -' you must have always been the teachers favourite na' - I just give an enigmatic smile in return when i come across such glorious presumptions...This again is some kind of regional bias - like southies are good at science and maths theory...

When I was a kid - I was always hated by teachers unanimously - I mean, hate not in a' I- dont - know - if -she-exists' way but more as 'oh-my - god- she - exasperates- me' way. The fact that I was the sister of school's naughtiest boy just didnt help my cause either - Most of my 1st day classes of every year would begin thus.

Teacher - gud morning children...
children - good mooooooooorrrrrrrrrrninnnnng maam (me very vociferously)
Teacher - (looks around with a spy like look on her face) - So I heard that yogesh's sister - is in this class
Me (proudly) - its me maam!
Teacher - come here - 'SLAP'
me 'Doiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii.....' a vague ring in my ears....

Post shedding copious tears at home, brother would reveal that he just happened to break the teachers scale into two/ made rockets during tests etc etc last year when she was his teacher - I wouldnt blame the teacher who decided to be more pre-emptive and defend her terrain with me....

But even this problem was averted soon by yours truely by denying the existence of a brother profusely once i was old enough....

An even worse problem that posed itself was my latent dislike to homework and my sob story with uniform - The damned blue ribbon or the black socks or the badge had an almost morphy lawish love for me and they refused to appear when I summoned - which led to me being summoned in the prayer hall - I made it look like I was the 'school' monitor by looking very proud! - talk abt leadership skills at a young age ;-)

And then comes the pain - homeworks - I remember taking almost everyone's help in getting them done - my naani had the habit of writing down recipes from magazines - I offered her to do that and made her do my homwork - all these ingenuous methods notwithstanding , most of the days my homework note was empty. This led to teachers almost gang attacking my dad when he came for PTA meetings....My dad was just bothered abt one thig..

'Does she score well??'

teacher - Yes - she has been scoring 90+ ...but...

Appa again -then what is the problem maam - she is a bright girl u need to 'channelise' her 'energies'... Over time teachers were so fed up with me that they just stopped with giving comments like 'intelligent but lazy (??!!) on my report card...

Eventually it took a while for me to bear with school, once i figured out my passions like debating/ quizzong and so on...but till now I cant bring abt myself to say I 'enjoyed' my school days - I think it was really ridiculous, the way they bothered abt absoultely inconsequential things like ribbon being in black or blue/ lizard picture missing in zoology book...

I see it happening even today and I just wonder when will our system grow up to let kids have fun and enjoy learning....!Damn the socks - just get into the class and have fun with maths..!

Hey you all - been a long time since I blogged - am indeed having a 'blast' in this town thank you...hope all other mumbaikars are fine & safe...

I really dont want to ramble on about who dunnits and more such conspiracy theories....am sure we have heard enough of them - after seeing the way media reacted to the blasts I somehow have a vague fear in my underbelly that there is a news editor who jumps in glee everytime there is a crisis - one man's sorrow is big business for everyone...if ratings were given to TV programs, most of what we saw on tuesday should have been banned, thanks to the amount of gore on splendid display....

To me the biggest impact of these events is the paranoia gripping the city - I was in the first class compartment yesterday with other women returning from office - there was an (ahem!) 'unidentified' bag in the luggage shelf and there we all went our eyes widening with fear and looking suspiciously at each other - One girl just asked whose it was and an eerie silence filled up the compartment - A proper cool chick ( with shocking pick jacket et all) came running from the other end , picked the bag and said to all of us 'cool it guys its mine'....there was a palpable relief in everyones faces....And suddenly the journey started breathing life again...

Me, a mute spectator to the event decided that Am just being 'mute' - I mean here I was all my life believing that I am 'idealistic' and I have something to say on anything that concerns the nation - But the first thing I did after the blasts was to call up my husband, enquire for his safety and stay put at office - the blast sites were just 2 Kms away - and loads of hands & blood were needed...My husband calls it 'denial'...may be - but more honestly could have also been selfishness - all this so called resillience from Mumbaikars is plain 'collective denials' according to me...If it didnt happen to me, it didnt happen to anyone is the attitude...

Or may be I am just measuring the world in my colours...but heck, right now the world just seems to be black...!

Was reading a column from Washington post, which said that 'India has been too patient' with Pakistan - another column says ' we are bearing the terrorist attacks as stoically as we bore the foreign invasions'....As a nation are we timid???

My theory is that this is largely the effect of the religion of the majority Hinduism - sorry for getting philospohical here - but the main teaching from bhagwat Gita - is to Just do ones own duty and not bother about the result' we have the right to follow only our own Dharma and not influence what others do.... - a far cry from the 'hand for hand' and 'eye for an eye' prophesicing....

Well of course, all these3 scriptures in any religion are open for interpretation thats why we have fundementalism is present in all religions...

Would like to recollect what I read when 9/11 happened....

'Terrorism really has no religion, it stems from fundemantalism of any nature and it affects anyone irrespective of religion...'

Nearly 20% of the people dead in the blasts are muslims.....

we can only say ' ishwara allah tere naam - SABKO shanmathi de bhagwan'.....