And just when you are about to give up on life..

...it rains. It drizzles and it pours.. and then drizzles some more! As the heavens open up, the world suddenly turns into this beautiful place and life is once again, a bliss. That I am totally smitten with the rains is no secret, and the love just grows. I lusted after the rains in Allahabad, mushed over them in Bangalore as well, but I am totally floored by the rain in Joka. Less than a day into the monsoons, the campus has already turned a shiny green, what with all the moisture glistening over the leaves. The freshly-bathed frogs are holding concerts at their chosen venues, many of which happen to be by the lake-side, and the ripples in the lake(or is it the fishes beneath?) dance in unison. Isn't it serendipitous that our classes got over by 1.30 today, unlike usual days when we stretch till 5.30? Alright, here is my favorite rain song. Which is yours?

Joka Diary - 5

Time flies.. even when you are living away from family, pining for your home, buried under piles of books and subjected to a constant threat of exams and evaluations! To be fair, you also have the great company of fellow sufferers to alleviate your distress, partly at least. There are 43 other souls in the throes of the examination, burning the midnight oil, facebooking away to glory while the elusive nirvana lies somewhere in the powerpoint presentations that the faculty so graciously provides. It happens to me all the time, I open the laptop to look at the presentations, but unknowingly and invariably end up on facebook. Seriously, I hate facebook, so much that I am contemplating joining the 'I hate Facebook' group on facebook. Anyhow, the first term is over, and we are now in the second week of the second term. The classes are already running on full steam. However, people are occupied with other important things, viz. internship, study tour, placements, lattice and such. As for me, I am my usual lethargic self, trying to have a good time while sitting firmly on my lazy butt. Before coming to Joka, I had great plans of working on my personal development, and using this one year to come up with a better and improved me. I don't see any of it happening though. I remain as wasteful, non-committed and useless as ever. Alright, to give myself some credit, I have finally started cycling. For the other activities, we still have 6 terms left. Lets see.. tomorrow is a new day.

On mother's day -- about my child!

When Pari joined the new school, I had expected it to be a very different experience for the child and was overly concerned about her ability to cope with it. However, it is turning out to be more of an experience for the teachers and staff there than for Pari, or so it seems. Every day, my parents go to pick her from the school, their hearts trembling with fear and return with some new report which makes them tremble even more the following day. For one, Pari has cleared communicated to her teachers that she would write just one page a day and no more. So only the first subject in the day gets the golden opportunity to be done by her majesty, and the remaining are happily ignored. However, the writing work has to be completed to keep up with the norms of the school. The class teacher sends her notebooks home for completion of both classwork and homework. This arrangement is working out quite well since my mom is pretty hung up about getting tasks done in time. And so, mummy meticulously finishes all the writing work before Pari even wakes up from her afternoon siesta. You see, once she wakes up, Mom gets no time at all. She has to cook for Pari and feed her twice in the short span of 4 hours or so. And whoever has seen Pari eating would understand how insufficient that time is compared to the enormity of the task to be accomplished.

Writing work is only one of the grudges that Pari holds against the school. She complained to the teacher a couple of days back, I'll provide the transcript below.
Pari- 'It is too hot here.'
Teacher- 'Hmm.. yes.'
Pari- 'I have an AC at home. Why don't we have one here?'
Teacher- 'OK.. you bring your AC to school tomorrow.'
Pari- 'No, I won't.'

Later, when my mom reached to pick her, the teacher mentioned this to her. Even before she could finish,Pari screamed out -'She wants our AC. Nani, don't give it her!'

I can only imagine my poor mother's plight. Thank you mumma for keeping up with that headstrong child of mine. Wish you a Happy Mother's day!

Technological romance

The college has asked for a short profile of all students, and I need a scanned picture of self to put into it. Now, I do not have any of my pictures scanned, so just checked with the husband if he has a copy. The man wasn't sure of it but promised to look for it all the same. Today he sends me this mail with my picture attached --

"Tumhari tasveer to mere dil mein basi hain.... to seena cheer ke usme USB cable laga kar yeh picture computer par download kari hai."

The technical detailing was really required!

The girl who wanted to say something..

Pari has joined a school in Allahabad. It is not the best school there, but then who knows what defines 'best', so I have put her in a school that I felt was good for her. I did try getting her into other schools. The entire week that I was in Allahabad, immediately before joining the course was spent visiting different schools and pleading with them to consider my child for an admission. In comparison, my admission into this MBA course was a cakewalk. There were 2 major obstacles- Pari has been attending a montessori so far, and has barely started writing, while the schools here expect a decent amount of writing from a child her age. Further, Pari is born in Jan, which is the most inappropriate month to be born in as per the recent CBSE directive. All, please plan your child such that he/she arrives only between March-September. Pari missed the train by a couple of months or so it seems. So even after finishing 2 years of formal schooling, she is still eligible for only LKG. At this rate, we would grey by the time she reaches the first standard, and in all probability look more like grandparents than parents of the child in question. Anyways, after much heart-burn and more importantly petrol-burn, I finally gave up, and agreed to put her in the only school that was willing to accept her in UKG, with some conditions ofcourse -- my mom's school. No, she doesn't own the school, but has taught there for a couple of years. It is comparatively far from home, and huge, and not a convent.

I had many apprehensions when I approached them for admission. I could see my little girl getting lost in the sea of children, and wasn't sure how well she would be able to cope with it. I mean her montessori had only around 25 children. However, once there, I was amazed at the warmth of the staff there. Obviously, they don't treat everyone the same way, it is only because they know my mom. I also felt that they hold her in really high esteem, probably because mom was rather over-qualified for this place. She had been a lecturer and taught under-graduate students earlier, apart from having taught IGCSE syllabus when she worked abroad for a couple of years. Whatever be the reason, it was very reassuring to see them treating Pari as family. For the first few days, mummy actually accompanied Pari to the classes and sat with her while she got adjusted to the new surroundings. We definitely got some undue advantage, but I think it is only fair to a child, who has shifted from a tiny playschool to a big school, from Bangalore to Allahabad, from parents to grand-parents. I had already left Allahabad by the time Pari started school, and so had to be content with the daily progress reports recieved via telephone. From what I was told, I felt Pari was settling down well in her new school... till this happened.

Generally, there is a separate assembly of primary children for the morning prayers. However, yesterday there was a special assembly in the school where in the primary section had joined the senior section and all children from nursery to Std 12th had prayers together. It being a special day, some additional events had been organised in addition to the usual prayers. I am told that after the events, Pari walked up to the Director of the school, who was addressing the assembly at the time. She asked the Director to give her the microphone, 'I want to say something'. To say the least, the poor lady was stunned. However, she did lower the microphone to Pari's level. And thus spake my 4 year old--'I liked the Marathi song, but why didn't we sing the national anthem today?' The assembly diluted in a fit of laughter. The director wasn't too pleased with this, but she still entertained the child, and said -'Why don't you tell them your name..' to which our lady snootily replied -'But I have already told them!'. She probably meant her classmates and teacher, ignoring the remaining junta. In any case, I am sure the entire school knows her name by now.

Waiting to get back..

A member of my erstwhile team pings me on gtalk. After an exchange of usual pleasantries, he says he often has this urge to ping me when he sees me online. I ask him why, and he says- 'I keep forgetting that you have left. Whenever I see you online, I tend to think that you are working from home.' Its been over a month since I quit the company!

One of my classmates turns up for classes in full formal dressing, and a dash of makeup. I get a little nervous and check with her if there are any presentations today, since I haven't prepared anything. She replies with a sad smile - 'No. I was missing my office.'

Corporate life isn't all that bad, what say?

Joka Diary - 4

I graduated from college in 2003, almost 8 yrs back. Coming back to college after such a long break is not easy, and especially for a rigorous course like this. I am having trouble sitting in the classroom for long hours, attending lectures from morning to evening and focussing on the discussions. No matter how hard I try, my mind tends to wander after half an hour of lecture, and by the time it returns, the discussion has already gone too far and I am unable to follow. I am not new to this, it happened all the time in school, college, even office meetings but I was able to join back whenever I chose to concentrate. However, the classes here are really fast-paced. Its like watching your first English movie, after years of watching Indian television serials. You have no previous experience to help you comprehend, you struggle with the thick foreign accent and by the time you get a hang of the thing, the movie gets over. I still can't watch English movies without subtitles, while for most Hindi movies, I think I wouldn't miss anything even if the volume is turned off.

Back to studies, apart from listening skills, it seems I need to re-develop my writing skills as well. I have simply not written anything except for my name on some bank papers in the last so many years. Writing in ruled notebooks is a major challenge, I am not able to stick to the bottom line and my letters just fly all over the page. Also, my handwriting is not what it used to be, and I keep making mistakes while taking notes. I think we can ask the instructor to be allowed to take notes on the laptop, but then it might not give me the feel of actually studying, which I so like. For now, I am giving it a decent try, but the examiner is going to have a tough time when he/she marks my answersheet. On a slightly different note, it has made me realise how difficult it is for Pari to write in a 4 line notebook when she has started writing just a couple of months back. I feel really guilty about all the times I have scolded her for not writing neatly.

Coming to Pari, I am really missing her now. There are a number of students, all of them obviously men who have come to the campus with their families. Strangely, most of them have daughters, and the children are always running around the hostel when we return from the classes. When I mentioned Pari to one of my classmates, he said what I am doing is commendable. I heard it as condemnable. Probably because thats what I think of leaving my daughter behind.