Newerways

Kshitiz had just won the documentary-making competition on Life in Mayoor School. We were watching this for the nth time on the laptop. It was sheer fun watching it again and again. Kshitiz clicked on the project folder and opened up the list of projects he had made for the cultural week and annual functions in school over the years. They varied from short stories to informational projects to movie trailers and documentaries. Watching this all reversed the time clock for me. Every project had some story, enthusiasm, excitement, excellence, our fights, above all, togetherness. We always had our ups and downs doing such things. I could hardly do what my children could do on the computer. I was their constant companion with suggestions on how what they were doing was shaping up and what would make a difference. Sometimes my suggestions were considered and at other rubbished. We all worked very hard in our spheres to do our best, they on the technical side and me on the emotional to encour

My school was a fantastic place to be in. It was one place that opened the gates for exposure for me. It gave us the memories we would cherish forever. In junior classes whenever my sons would prepare for debates, speeches, recitations, elocution, extempore, stage performances I would imagine my class fellows speaking their mind over the podium. Though I was never directly involved in these activities I remembered my teachers’ giving practices. Their emphasis on full stops, commas, sarcasm, humours, and an array of emotions was really commendable. The voice modulation, ascent and descent in tone, the monotone was all I imagined very explicitly and vividly. Those were not the days of internet but reading and experience were the guiding fronts. Assimilation of these inputs I realized, years later had become my strength. I may not have mastered the talent but loved to repeat the same with my children. I was particularly impressed when my son organized a talk show on “social networking

My life continued to revolve around my two sons and house. I was full of contentment for all that I had. The desire to learn to drive a car was never there, even when coaxed to learn that flame never kindled. No amount of persuasion could take me behind the steering wheel. “I have a full-time driver (my husband) who would take me wherever and whenever I shall go” is all I could say to justify my action. I started learning to drive after immense persuasion from all quarters. Every day I touched the vehicle, I convinced myself of my [dis]abilities to learn it. The dogged helplessness I felt after helping a stray dog to make an obituary and a near-fatal accident at a right-angled crossing near my home paved the way to let driving be a distant dream for me. Overcoming those mental barriers to resume my driving lessons took almost three years. I finally succumbed to my sisterly pressures and took to wheels. My sister would always call me at four in the evening to ” Take the car and go.” Ano

Journey of children’s life from infancy to adulthood is marked by many milestones. The years pass by and they begin to spread their wings to fly leaving behind them a few memories. As I dusted the old “Scrabble” I remembered my younger son saying “It is not interesting to play scrabble with you any more”. “Why” I queried his reply was pert “because you play to lose”. It is always very difficult to keep the children involved during summer vacations when you want them to be engaged, creative, constructive and disciplined; managing all these fronts is where you need to show your talent in. This is where the scrabble fitted in very well for me. Day after day for hours and for years we played scrabble. Initially I would be the mentor to both of them. I sometimes made exceptions to continue the game taught them to make words so that it would not come to a dead end. Being older I was the inevitable winner and I always managed to hide my excitement about my winning status. It was a logical con

I was no wizard, still scared of Mathematics as I was before in my schooldays. Maths included arithmetic, algebra, and geometry. I was good in algebra and geometry, but arithmetic failed me at every step. Multiplication, division, addition, and subtraction scared me then and continue to do the same even today. Careless mistakes were a rule the more I tried the more disastrous were the results. This vicious cycle ended only when I opted for biology in class twelve. Math is an integral part of life, this realisation helped me lay stronger foundations for my children. My progeny inheriting my math gene was a scary thought. I slipped everywhere in life in all the calculations, but I never wished this for my children so, I decided to give them a head start. A mathematical mind which I craved even for myself. The early remembrances of mathematical marvels were my maternal grandmother and her sister who could do oral calculations of the grocery bought by their staff and the transactional di