Every day, my mother watches YouTube videos about traditional medicine, nutrition, and staying fit. Almost every day, she discovers something new. Sometimes it is a new ingredient. Sometimes it is a new way to prepare something we have eaten all our lives. And sometimes, it is an instruction that finds its way straight into my kitchen. Recently, it was moringa. We had to mix moringa into the flour before kneading. Other times, it was jowar. The form might change, but the message stayed the same: we could always add something more to our food to make it healthier. She then wonders why her grandparents and parents never told them about the nutritional value of what they ate. Perhaps they did not know these things in the language we use today. Or perhaps they understood food differently. Today, YouTube has become her teacher. It tells her what to eat, what to avoid, what to add to our flour, and what our bodies might be missing. Every new video seems to reveal another secret to good healt...
Surely, SUPW (Socially Useful Productive Work) was something I enjoyed at school not because we could do something worthwhile as the initials stood for, It was like a silver lining during the exams when we could take leave to prepare for exam or perhaps even skip school for a Saturday Sunday outing by missing on a half day school which had two periods of SUPW .
SUPW class was meant to give us an opportunity to be introduced to newer skills which we under normal circumstances avoided. It was CBSE's smart initiative to make it a part of its curriculum. Strikingly a number of projects that I have executed until now owe their roots to those formative years.
The cognitive abilities acquired then, have been the foundation stones to many projects taught to my children. Every time an idea was required I had something new to offer for which I was gratefully thanked by my two teenagers. Though my creative talent oscillated between bad to good I had a wonderful and enriching experience which I valued almost always.
The only project which I ever did and the inspiration for which I owe to my father was a huge Paper Mache wall in my home. That was a simple case of plagiarism but between father and daughter it has no legal repercussions. Before I actually sat down with my project I did a number of pilot tests most of which were unsuccessful. Finally something clicked and wow! I achieved the desired result.
The hunt for the ply board, their rates, quality and the transporting charges added new dimensions to the project. A special mention I wish to make here that it was something I had decided to do all by myself. I was open to suggestions from everyone but the final decision was my privilege. Believe me! That was a real learning experience. I learnt being decisive and enjoying the fruits of my labor.
The craft work would then start by late night and continue till midnights, how many, I seem to have lost count of them.
The work progressed at a snail’s pace stretching from days to weeks to months. Every morning I would go and sit right in front of my last night's work and sit admiring it. I loved to see it and showing it for it was something really exquisite.
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