My Teaching Experience In a Government school (Teach India )

I have been longing to write about my teaching experience to government school kids through teach India.But i seriously must say i had a long wait before i actually started teaching as those kids have holiday on 2nd and 4th saturday of the month and most of the other Saturdays were declared holidays for some arbit reasons. When it finally started just before going i was a little nervous as im not good with kids and didnt know how i would connect with them but was damn excited as it was an opportunity for myself to know how good i am as a teacher :P [I always thought i am the worst teacher with a bad temper i later realized i am not that bad after all :)].

Ya now i was told that i should introduce myself to them and ask them if they had any question and most important of all , i was asked to talk to them only in english even if they talk in my and their local language kannada.

But it was only after going there i realized how different the scenario was from the theory or advice given!!

There were a bunch of 5 kids all studying in 6th or 7th standard, in front of me and we were squatting on a mat and i gave a brief introduction of myself , i was shocked by the cold gaze i got and when i asked them to introduce themselves they were still blinking , and then finally i decided to go against what i was told(No talking in kannada) and i asked in kanglish ... finally they gave a smile and one kid among them told "hey miss is asking us to tell our names "[:D i found it very funny being called miss ;) !!] then one by one they gave out their names ,
there were 1 or 2 who were hesitant to even tell their names .After this i was a little more confident and did my second mistake by asking them in english , "You all are interested in learning and reading english right ???"

But was comepletely demotivated for a second when they told a big "NO" . It was only after i composed myself i asked them again in kanglish wondering what they meant , because a
negative answer to that question would defeat the purpose of my visit there.

Then Thank God !! they told in broken english that they want to learn english and read english books but they didnt know anything but to read alphabets and then try to spell it but didn't
understand the meaning of more than 90% of the words they read or heard , Adding to it they told that had not understood what i had asked them and when i told them what they had replied they shyly apologized for their impertinence. It was a breather for me.

It was then the reality struck me ! I have a bunch of grown up kids of 13/14 years and English is introduced to them as a subject only when they go to 5th standard! Thanks to the education system in karnataka,And also hypocratic bunch of so called " kannada Para"(For kannada) people who are strictly against introducing english to government school kids from class I , When they themselves send their kids to international schools , feeding them english in every walk of life . I dont understand what the hell they are going to achieve by not providing english as a subject for these poor kids who cannot afford a private school . Learning english does not mean forgetting kannada right ? And the irony is that all the office papers even in government are in english , if there were only such govt schools who the hell would understand it ?
When English is globally accepted language of communication [If china can start why cant we ?] aren't we cheating these poor kids , when all others have access to the language , wont these little one's feel left out ? I hope they act soon and not put these kids in such situation.

Ok i know i deviated from the topic but i couldn't resist making those comments. Ya then it was all smooth , I realized the real situation they were in and used methods with english mixed with kannada ,and it was real fun and was actually amazed at the rate at which some of them learn , its not that they are dull heads its just that they are not used to it . It was a relishing moment to see the gleam in their eyes with the satisfaction of they having learnt some thing new.

It was also funny the way 2 kids were trying to patofy ;) , In the middle of the session one girl was like miss[;)] i don't feel like going home only if u teaching LOL that was my first session girl! was my reaction , Immediately as though in competition the other girl is like miss if I read English book i don't feel like reading Kannada only !, to which my reaction was a little serious that it should be a balance of the two languages , as a wrong message would be conveyed otherwise.

When the sky smiled :)

Night sky has always been a delight to me . I always find it divine ,spiritual , enchanting and more. I think nothing but gazing at the sky makes one humble . Those cloudless nights where the countless stars twinkles . It has always been fun to locate the pole stars or the Ursa major(sapta rishi mandala) ... in sky.

But 31st November was no exception but when looking at the sky it was a little unusual to sight two stars which were so close by and so bright , though 1 looked like the morning star Venus the other one i had never seen before so close to Venus and so bright!!! and the fun part was when we a bunch of friends were looking at them , clouds were playing a trick , to make one bright at a time and then suddenly become so dull as to disappear , There were funny thoughts like it being a secret signal :P being conveyed don't know who though ! , it being a UFO . But a little analysis after getting home said it was Jupiter the largest planet and supposedly the king gods in roman and Venus !! And it was forgotten for the day.

It was only next day ie Monday 1st December when me and mom went to terrace for a stroll and as usual looked up the sky , the sight bewitched me it was indeed so beautiful so mysterious and great trick (I'm sure astronomers will completely disagree as it is physics ! But i like to forget the physics part and like to think its some one trying to write a smiley) The three celestial bodies Jupiter Venus and crescent moon which were in the position of a smiley .

After enjoying it for sometime , I immediately rushed to get the camera and here it is I have attached the image.

Two planets which are miles apart appear to be in perfect line to make the beautiful twinkling eyes of the sky and the crescent moon in perfect shape as to show the sky is indeed very happy. Oh ! what a sight to see !!!!!

Yahoo ! search Pending

India Vs England match on Nov 26th Cuttak,England played first and scored a decent 270 something,But then India had a good start .
Hehehe wondering when the hell did she start following cricket,No ways !!
This blog is not about cicket nor about the match.
At 10:30pm ,When i was fighting for remote with my bro who was watching this stupid game (But surprisingly india is winning big time of late ) when india was 198/3 , And there was an appeal that some guy is out and it was referred to 3rd Umpire.It was what flashed then interested me.

As usual there were several ad's up and below the screen.But this was Yahoo! India Search (I guess i saw best search too ;)).
And the screen above flashing PENDING PENDING ...... (:P It was the batsman's fate for the day mind you ). But with the current state yahoo is in and google displaying search time in ms and s,
PENDING.....
Yahoo! search
Found it pretty funny , This ad acts more against it than for it :D

Popping Negative Thoughts

Its been a long time since i wrote my last blog , I dont know why i am writing this blog too , but i think i have too many negative things in my mind which is just bugging me for past few weeks so thought let me put it out than they coming in my thoughts all the time and making me more negative.

Firstly , one day when vijaynagar main road was blocked , i just turned to see whats the reason , couldnt beleive my eyes ,there were so many dead tree trunks lying by the roadside, Reason to chop off ??
underpass construction!!!!
Involuntarily a tear dropped down my cheeks ,wonder what people might have thought but ,I have grown up with those tree i still remember one of them was a small sapling when i first started going to school and today its dead and people like hawks pouncing on it to snatch the trunk for firewood, But with all this are we really building on the infrastructure i dont think so , i still take 3 hours to reach home. I guess its more a mismanagement than infrastrucre problem.
Do they even realize that it is more important to have trees than build on infrastructure ????
If they cant bring that tree back to life they dont have any right to chop it.


Next, I watched madhur bhandarkars much talked about fashion , It was such a depressing movie !! made me feel so bad for a long long time , it was not those ramps , it was not kangana raunat who was always on drugs nor was it priyanaka who was crying all the time in solitude that touche me , It was the flow of the movie and the thought of that model who was found in delhi railway platform who was once a model n now a beggar away from family and also carol that depressed me,Why the hell these fools dont understand that its just a pyrric victory ???? why do so many people lose their worth character and integrity to get into that world.
god save those souls


As if all this was not enough , i bought The White tiger , by aravind adiga which won booker prize. I dunno what sadistic pleasure these authors get by blasting india ,It is we the people make this place, i agree that there are many negative things in india but isnt that the case anywhere on earth???
yes indian villages are still in darkeness but isnt it we who select our
politicians ???
And coming to ganga and 3600000 gods being criticized , Isnt hindu the only religion which gives freedom to worship any god and respects other religion equally ??? It is the sanatana dharma which emphasizes vasudeva kutumbakam! what right do they have to critize such a religion may be its too tolerant compared to others for such people, Which other religion has a female god ????
I think main problem in india is people are plagued by the disease of blaming others for anything and everything including me , and all the authors who know nothing but to pen their frustration.

May be a reader of this article will find this too arbit and senseless with no connection between them at all but i dunno how these 3 things were interwined and just adding to my negative thoughts.

ugh i feel better now

Teach India Initiative an Eye Opener

As i had received a message to attend the induction program of the times of India initiative TEACH INDIA i set out to go to haleguddadahalli , padrayanapura community center which was the office of Oasis NGO .

I can call it a day of realization , I don't know about other people ,but being born and bought up in Bangalore i used to claim that i know this city so well ,but today that belief was completely shattered.

Just as i crossed the vijaynagar pipeline road the trauma started , those very narrow roads and overflowing garbage everywhere but that is ok as some of the roads i have traveled before were like that.

But We could not find our way to the community center as none knew the address and thankfully a NGO representative asked to come to some nearby place and she picked us up from there and took us to the community center thanks to her.

Where we were briefed about the activities of the NGO and as me and my friend were choosing weekend option to teach they advised that we could opt for computer education or teaching math for school drop outs which we blissfully agreed.

Then they told us that Oasis was conducting a medical camp near by and asked us to have a look at it , we just nodded our head and just followed there came the jatka!!

Oh my god i just can't believe it , as we walked trust me the roads were so narrow that only one person could walk and on either side there was open drainage with some DDT spread all over , and oh i felt something touch my head ugh it was those clothes hanging down from the a thread hanging between two houses which were not more than 10 by 10 in size and there were at least 10 heads popping out to see us and the same place also hosted some ingredients to make incense sticks which filled half the room the rest half by those 10 people , the road never seemed to end!!!
On the way had to jump over a open drainage which had decided to cross the road with no one bothering to cover it. Then finally we did see the place where the medical camp was going on which was so damn crowded and people were literally fighting to get their turn , we excused ourselves giving some lame reason and then just ran away from the place i just could not talk for sometime, i was so shocked as i never expected the other face of this silicon city of India where i had spent 22 years of my life to be like this.

It really made me think for the first time about life , when we keep cribbing so much for small problems there are so many people who are living in such conditions, how insignificant are those when there are these people whose major problem is how to earn next meal for the family ,I was so damn guilty later for excusing myself from entering the medical camp.

So thank you Times of India it was truly an eye opener , Where teach India is a great initiative as education is the greatest gift anyone can give and I'm sure it will help make their lives better.

Delhi Bomb blast

This is a terrible incident , just read the news that there were serial bomb blasts in delhi following bangalore and ahmedabad.
what the hell is happening in this peaceful world ???
It is impossible to blame police and other anti terrorsim or intelligent forces as it is unrealistic to find the culprit in a country which has 1 billion plus population .
But will lighting the candle for the dead or making a peaceful protest ,post disaster help ???
you must be kidding me if they would be sensitive enough to be convinced by this idea they would not have killed so many innocent people in the first place.
But should we simply sit and watch ? and be in constant fear as to when the next target will be our city? I know the fear as few days back when there was news about serial blasts in bangalore i was so nervous to get back home as on route from my office to back home there were 3 blasts though they were of a very low intensity it does not matter a blast is a blast its a mark of FEAR !

Is this a problem without any solution or it does not have a solution because there are people who don't want to have one ?

Simple pleasures of life

Having written my bucket list yesterday , I just want to write some small things which many a times we fail to notice and enjoy in this stressful hectic life,but these things gives immense joy and peace than most other things.
I am just listing some of my favourite one's

1.When communting to office if you have ever put your face out to let the breeze blow past you ,only then you can know the pleasure of this simple task which gives a out of the world experience.

2.It has just rained and you have been to a park for a walk , it is only when you walk barefooted on the lush green lawn you realize that this titillating feeling brings a better relief than any magnetic therapy.

3.Instead of watching soap opera's if one day find time to go to the terrace at night , those amazing star constellation and of cource moon and venus is a delight to one;s eye.

4.On a weekend when wondering what to do , just sleeping on the couch and reading a favourite novel along with some apple or nuts to munch is one of the best way to kill time

5. Its raining outside and there are water droplets on the window pane which against the bright light outside looks like crystals only if you have tried to make patterns with it you know what an interesting task it is.

6. On a wonderful evening with clounds competing to look great with Crepuscular rays escaping in between, watching a flock of birds fly atleast makes me feel so light and instigates my mind to fly along with them.