Goddesses of Very Small things

Making the Big from the Small...

       The matter of inspiration for this writing was one of my visits to my kid’s school. It gave me an unexpected opportunity to get a glimpse of a grade I class during the class hours. Oh!! It was a pretty big pandemonium there!!!! The chatterboxes were all doing a variety of things in the class and the poor teacher was standing there teaching (read shouting :)). Some of them even roaming about and there was this one tiny tot who managed to get out of the class (presumably to the washroom) and back in without the teacher noticing...WOW!!! – The scene said a lot of unspoken things.

      Teaching, the noblest walk of life was always a passion for me. Even from my childhood, I remember, I studied my lessons pretending to teach others. Or when it was the exams, I remember teaching my friends though I had not learned myself :P. In my dance classes, where I spent a majority of 15 years of my childhood, I was already teaching dance whenever my teacher was busy. I should say this gave me a tremendous opportunity to explore my teaching skills and that was when I realized my love for teaching.

       Anyways as time passed, for appeasing a lot of personal and financial goals, I had to fore go my teaching ambitions and landed up being a software programmer. I should say I was totally unaware of what life had in store for me……

      19 Dec 2006, I got my own lifetime student: P and the life time tests on my (highly accomplished) teaching skills started. It has been like teaching, teaching, and teaching him whatever I can :P, and whatever ‘HE’ wants!!. And now this little devilish creature is in his 2nd grade..., and guess what... I have already started “NOT” looking forward to my teaching sessions… because of just one reason - There I am passionately making my lecture, telling him inferences and reasons, making him memorize and write, and my adorable student sitting and asking me 101 questions of all the other things in the world and his opinion on each one of them … SIGH!!!!! It is really a terrible blow to the ego of “The self-proclaimed Teacher” in me…..:):):)

        If this is it, with just one little student whom you know in and out to manage…. What if you have to deal with a group of pixies at one go?? 

        This is exactly what the primary school teachers go through day in and out (Not that I degrade the higher ones  ... absolutely no...). But our society has this bad way of evaluating a teacher by asking in what grade he/she is teaching and if she says primary there is a pathetic “Oh...” sound following it. Qualification is one thing but the value of contribution to the society also has to be taken to account when we decide the social and financial value of any profession. 

       Primary school teachers definitely deserve much more respect, dignity, and of course pay for what they are doing. Considering they are actually laying the foundation for each of the children’s behavior and conduct in the society and the pain they have to endure for the same, let alone the pain for giving each of them personal care, we as a society are giving very less or no credits to them. They are not just teachers as we call them but…

The Gods/Goddesses of very small arrogant, irritant little creatures called Children!!!!

Fragrance of Life

My Life- My Existence

A thought struck me today!!!!-“What am I doing in this world!!!!!”-  Phew!! Even I feel disappointed that I am so philosophical. But pondering over the thought:-

As a mother I have  a very straight answer to this thought- I am raising my child :P  With that said, actually there is no time for such thoughts having tits and bits of work, complaints, 1000 questions to answer and if you are one of those working mothers.. Lo! You lead a life of a juggler not allowing any of the balls to fall down. But looking around, I see all the living beings doing exactly the same thing raising their kids, though not in a way that we do. We as highly civilized mortal beings are off late highly governed or overly influenced by a lot of social norms. As according to the rule, it being more complex being an Indian, we go to school, try to get the highest educational accolades, try for the best job around, find a partner (or agree to be in a relationship with a person chosen by our parents), fend for our livelihood, have a child or two, raise them again as per the social norms, see them getting settled and then what!! We die…. This is a kind of general outline of an average middleclass Indian. Is there anything else/more to life??

You may laugh at the thought of me getting an answer to this question and time and again lot of very great philosophers have died trying to find this. You are absolutely right. This is a question which I don’t have the answer for. But thinking on I fell upon the following points:-

• I can/should add more colour to my life by doing things that I love/enjoy to do.
• I can definitely make a meaningful purpose to my life by trying to raise my child in a good /appropriate way that, someday ( our civilized) society benefit from him.
• And if possible I can still add some value to my life by making myself useful to the people around me.

So that as I rot, I can at least give a big Sigh!! And say that I did whatever I loved to do and was helpful to at least couple of people around me. Above all I was able to contribute one better person to the society and my very existence did not go in total vain... :)

Good fragrances leave good imprints....and may God help me leave mine.....

Kashmir- The Paradise on Earth.

Kashmir- Paradise which turned Hell.

“Khuda se mannat he meri,… Lotta do Jannath he teri….:- a song on the Beautiful or once Beautiful Kashmir…” As I boarded the bus back home, it hit me from the speakers. I squeezed myself in and after a lot of pushes and pulls, managed to get myself a side seat. The lyrics still ringing in my ears, I caught glimpse of the busy traffic passing by. The music was so melodious but the lyrics were disturbing now, but why now? I am not sure.  The words felt so real. It was a painful appeal to God to bring back the old Kashmir…

The Kashmir, I remember from my school lessons was always described ‘The Paradise On Earth’. But can we still describe her with the same words? Paradise is a place where all people will unanimously be so eager, happy and excited to go. What would be your reaction now if you were offered a trip to Kashmir.. Fear..Doubt.. Anxiety.. Or would it be a strict NO..?.

If so have we ever imagined the emotional trauma, the Kashmiri people are undergoing. What would be their daily life like, the women and the children with no or very little hope or dreams, with so much a foggy future before them, let alone the physical and mental atrocities done to them in the name of religion, sex or what not. Where each day is a new fear of the uncertainties, beyond, fear of life and death, where is the question for a dream or aspiration.

In this century we claim to be at the epitome in all fields, let it be education, science, arts, literary, sports whatever.. But still are we able to do anything to stop all these nonsense. Yes, it’s not a national issue but involves other countries also. In that aspect, it makes me wonder where have all the moral values like humanity, consideration, sympathy, concern, righteousness, honesty and integrity gone. Is the world deteriorating in human values? Can’t we just believe in the policy of ‘Live and Let Live’ to stop all these. Why couldn’t all the high bred democrats come together and decide to follow this policy and stop the constant war. Why are we still fighting like the dogs and cats? They fight for a very basic necessity –Food which is very noble. Or is it for food that we are also fighting?

If then the blame would go to the economy. It was so much easier in the beginning of civilisation where people just exchanged whatever they had and lived a content life .Now we have all the complicated formulae and jargon associated with economy, the dollar, the share market, the rupee, its ups and downs, the exports, imports and what not and people’s food (or cost of food) somehow dependent on them.

As far as my understanding, the initial rift for Kashmir the most beautiful place on earth was because of the economic value it promised to the nation. And with the fight over it, all these years what have we made of the same paradise- a battlefield! tearing the lives of its people in the name of religion. Where is religion here? There is only a big conspiracy to destroy the economic value of a priceless land in the name of war. Who is to be blamed....?

-          Author -Anjana Jayasankar