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Books, books and books...
In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.
A visit to Delhi’s 17th international bookfair as it always is, was a tiring and an insatiable feast. Once is not enough and for more I don’t have the time, simple. As a member of the library committee of the school and my known penchant for reading I was sent to the book fair along with the librarian. The fair was choc-a-block with books, CDs and teaching aids. At least a week is required to savour the full flavour of the fair. A single day is just not sufficient. Surfing through the sea of books brought back whales of memories of my association with these finest creations of mankind.
As a little girl I would wait for the newspaper vendors in the morning, hide the prized magazines somewhere my sisters wont be able to find, come back from school and would not rest until I finished reading the magazine from start to finish. Soon my dad was posted to Prague. Bereft of my greatest friends, I craved for any reading material. Czech was greek to me and the Embassy library didn’t have any children books. But it turned out to be a blessing in disguise. The bleak minus temperatures were warmed up with the literary genius of Prem Chand. Then followed the Nancy Drews and Hardy Boys from American library. In the later years in Prague I was able to read some simple Czech comics. But I missed out on the standard reading material of this age. Simply missed a tryst with Black Beauty and was not able to dive Twenty Thousand Leagues under the sea. However, Czech version of Tom’s adventures was somehow a romantic experience, as my classmate played the role of Tom on the TV version and all of us girls dreamt of being the Becky.
Lady luck favoured me because my best friend turned out to be a prolific reader.Or wait! Was it the other way round? Did we become best buddies because both of us devour the written word? Life will always remain circular. Anyways, both of us read all those books of Gibran, Bach and Rand almost simultaneously. And yes Holmes. How could I forget him? Well Holmes its going to be even if Conan is turning green in his grave. There was this naïve time when I believed that all of us can become Holmes if we followed his methods of logical deductions. But soon found out that we will end up as beguiled Watson in absence of that X factor. By the way I read Gone with The Wind twice and often marvel at the excellence of the author’s craft of sculpting those unforgettable characters.
On the flip side never finished Nehru’s Glimpses Of World History, which I got as a Prize for topping in class XII boards in school . It’s a shame because history should be read for knowing who we are. Then I happened to share Pearl S Buck’s father opinion about daughters with my father. He opined that daughters are meant for serving. My dad was thrilled and he often quotes him to get his work done. Though I also subscribe to the idea, a few quotes should not be shared for your own benefit.
Hardy, Maugham, Henry, Laxman have made me cry, smile and muse all through journey of my life. There have been more and there will be many more. I think I can go on and on and on, but will rather stop now.
What have been your experiences?
Tagged
I was tagged by Jac some long days ago.
Instructions: Remove the blog in the top spot from the following list and bump everyone up one place.
Then add your blog to the bottom slot, like this:
1) MikeChau 2) Jessie Griffith 3) Colleen 4) A window to my soul 5) Moods and colours
Next select five people to tag: 1) Bernie 2) Digiviz 3) Shankari 4) Manish 5) Gangadhar
What were you doing 10 years ago?
Was strengthening Dove’s wings. Consulting mom, mom-in-law and Dr. Spock’s "Baby and Childcare" my life veered around health, food, stories and lullabies for my kid.
Five snacks you enjoy:
Anything cooked by Aqua Genius… that amounts to many more than the five required.
Five songs to which you know all the lyrics:
Tere Bina Zindagi Se Koyi Shikwa To Nahi (From “Andhi&rdquo
Aapki Nazron Ne Samjha Pyar Ke Kabil Mujhe ( From “Anpad&rdquo
Forever and Ever (Demis Roussos)
We Shall Dance (Demis Roussos)
Payo Ji Maine Ram Ratan Dhan Payo ( Mira’s Bhajan)
Five things you would do if you were a millionaire:
Own a house deep in the woods
Set up educational institutions for deprived kids
Release my album (Gift of Rs. 100 for listening)
Set up libraries
Donate for research on heart, diabetes and kidneys
Five things you like doing:
Growing plants
Reading
Exploring Net
Arguing, fighting with AG (or any other way to irritate him)
Be with my students
Five favorite toys:
Dove (Sorry have only one)
Spring
Nothing will die;
All things will change
Thro’ eternity.
’Tis the world’s winter;
Autumn and summer
Are gone long ago;
Earth is dry to the centre,
But spring, a new comer,
A spring rich and strange,
Shall make the winds blow
Round and round,
Thro’ and thro’,
Here and there,
Till the air
And the ground
Shall be fill’d with life anew.
Alfred Lord Tennyson
Spring is here once again.Sprouting leaves,budding flowers and a pleasant fragrance.It's bound to come everytime when cold winter departs and autumn is long gone. Yet, every autumn fills despair and all pervading melancholia in every moment of our existence. If only the patience survives and hope endures, life could be so much better. Let me soak the fragrance and the colours. Let me fill myself with warmth and light. Someway, I might spread it. Sometime again, I might need it.
My First Parent Teacher Meeting
It happened when I had just joined a public school as a computer teacher. I had been appointed as an employee of an external agency whose proprietor had hired me on the basis of a telephonic interview.
The PTM is always an exciting affair in school. Colorful sarees, matching jewels and high heels – almost a fashion parade for teachers. You never know which father may turn out to be a handsome hunk. My apologies to the teacher’s fraternity for leaking this trade secret, but the cat has already jumped out of the bag. Cannot put it back now.
Was very fresh and raw and had taught only a few classes before the PTM arrived. All the teachers dismissed my jitters as uncalled for, as Computer Science was just a SUPW subject and no parent was going to bother to talk to me. I took their words to be true and just relaxed. Seating myself on the teacher’s chair with my saree properly arranged I thought of spinning some webs and gathering some wool as I am so often prone to do. Comfortable and relaxed.
Things do not take the course you plan for them. As the meeting started a few parents came by and I felt good.My nervousness abated. However as the clock progressed a big influx of parents started pouring in.
“Madam, you need to help us. We can teach our child any subject be it English , Hindi Maths or Science. But teaching Logo is beyond our capacity.”, most of them said.
“ Madam, if we move FW 10 and move BK 5 , where do we reach?”, one of them asked.In addition she wanted me to explain the whole program of drawing steps in Logo. God bless the school interviewer! She had coldly told me that first she’ll test how I teach Logo then only she’ll give me C to teach, even though I had told them that I did not know Logo at all. Had cleared my written test in C. However I learnt Logo in a day or two when I started to teach. Though I didn’t know that I would have to teach the parents too. Anyways, brushing aside such requests and assuring the hapless parents that their wards will be properly trained I marveled at what my colleagues had said just an hour before.
In the middle of this disarrayed scenario there came a gentleman who wanted to talk to me for a minute. I told him pointblank that he will have to wait. There were parents who had come earlier and I couldn’t attend to him before them.
“Mrs. B. Er…Could I….?”
“Sorry Sir, you’ll have to wait.”
He tried again and then sat quietly in mute resignation.
After perhaps an hour when everybody was gone I turned to him and asked him to take the visitor’s seat.
“In which class does your ward study?”
“I am not married, yet.”
“Meaning?”, I wondered
“I am Mohan. Do you remember we had that talk on the phone.”
“Oh My God! Sir. Why didn’t you tell me earlier.”
This was my employer and I had goofed up. I kept the poor guy waiting for almost an hour. Got nervous, thinking of the repercussions.
“Well was just enjoying how you moved the turtle backward and forward”, he said with a wide grin.
And the room was filled with a hearty laughter.
“ I wonder how you are going to explain fflush(stdin) when you got to C.”, he said with a chuckle in his voice.
“Yes, I am thinking of that too. Ha ha…”
And thus my first PTM and the first meeting with my employer came to an end.