A rainy day

I was waiting for the rains for about 8 months now and finally it rained today. Just when I had washed a load of jeans and bed spreads. Still, love it.

I just love the moment when the sweet smell of the wet earth first hits the nose and clicks the brain... :)

I walk outside to see if it's raining and yes, it is.

Standing on my balcony I lean on the wall with my eyes closed and let the rain soak my face. Oooh, the cool drops feels like its straight form heaven. All I can hear is the pitter patter of the rain drops hitting the concrete below.

Sometimes I wish I had never moved to the city. My days in the village were filled with so many happy moments. I love the feeling of squishing the mud with my toes when the rain drenches every part of my skin. I could hear the frogs sing. I enjoyed runing out in the rain for "sip-ups". Making boats and 'ships' were the major pass time, when ma is making a hot cup of coffee specially for me. Laying well tucked in on the bed with all the windows and doors open :D

As soon as it started it stopped, making me wonder if it was a dream.

Teaching Vs Learning

Got reply from my teachers today. I had sent them teachers day wishes. Looking back, my teachers (including my parents) are the ones that made me who I am. And I love them for that. Love you all.. :D

Hands down.. there is nothing as great as being a teacher. Until now I used to thing the opposite.

Its true that I worked as a guest faculty at a University for some time but at that point I was simply scared of being a teacher. All those people watching me very carefully, expecting dont know what, judging me, when I am the only one standing infront of them... alone.

Teaching small or big kids, is a huge responsibility. My biggest fear was I'll be molding their future, their lives... what if I was wrong? What if I taught them to be not them but someone else???
Now the same things makes me want to be a part of that great tradition. My students sometimes call me and tell me what they are doing now and where in life they are. That makes me proud.

I now understand that teaching is not just telling them what to do or not do or talking about a subject that you are 'expert' in. They can figure all that on their own. Teaching is just another word for learning. Most of us think these two are opposite words. But I realized it some time ago that its one and the same.

Teaching is basically giving others a new perspective. Not just your own but others too, especially of their peers. Everything that we learn is just a matter of perspective. Most of us are not able to see the other side of the picture until we turn the picture around. Teachers do just that. Help the students to turn the picture around by making them realize that there is another side to it.

You must be wondering how teaching and learning can be the same. Well, think about it. When teaching or when you giving other a point of view that they have never seen before you too get a new point of view. You learn. People from older generation used to say "Knowledge increases when you share it" and we all know that it is true. We have experienced it.

Doing combined study for exams and helping your friends with their homework and assignments. All these are almost always done thoughtlessly. We never thought that you get to learn something out of it. We just do it to help the other person. When I think of it now, I learned more clearly when I helped out others. I would miss out some lessons when I am learning on my own but make it up in combined studies. It was all a matter of give and take.

Now you see.. Sharing your knowledge is teaching which increases when you are learning. Hence, teaching and learning are one and the same. Like two side of the same coin. Its just a matter of perspective.

Happy learning...

Good old days

Saw the movie Always Kabhie Kabhie today. It was an okay movie, typical teenage dilemmas in school days but put in terms of this generation with mobile phones, internet and loads of pocket money. It kinda reminded me of my school and college days, when the only pass time was to spend time with friends talking, playing trick on one another, reading, gossiping or going for walks.

Hymavathi Kulam

One such evening in Kariavattom campus I can never forget is when 6 of my friends and I went inside the forests of the campus to the 'Hymavathy Kulam'- the pond where the ghosts dwell. Friends sneaked upon one another, making really weird noises from behind the trees and the huge rocks. Scary but fun walk it was.






Another time my friend and I had to attend a wedding. Like I said 'had to'. After lunch and best wishes we walked out to find that there were no autos or buses anywhere nearby. So I decided to walk when she wanted to wait for the bus. Being me I started walking. She had no choice but to follow me. Once we tackled the 1st kilometer she also started to enjoy the walk and we decided to walk all the way to Kovalam. We reached there around 4pm thirsty and fully spirited, decided to have a really cold drink. It started raining the moment we went into a restaurant and ordered our favourites - Lime Soda. Still can taste that lime soda I was sipping while watching the sea over the shoulders of some foreign tourist, getting drenched in rain.

Kovalam Beach Light House

Walking back home after school was the best part of the day. Blocking the road lined up with friends, eating pakodas and ullivadas and reviewing the days events... in short it was a blast. Singing loudly in the crowded hostel rooms, class rooms and corridors, playing catch with the kids across the quadrangle, sharing a snack and coffee in the canteen, etc are memories that still bring a happy tear in my eyes.



Well, good old days we call them. But what our next generation experience in their school days will one day be 'good old days' for them too.. But alas, some children never get a chance to experience all that. They 'grow up' never even knowing what it is like to be in school. They too have dreams like we did. They too deserve to be happy healthy and safe. They need education, our help, our support.



Please help a child reach his/her dream - http://www.ndtv.com/micro/supportmyschool/default.aspx



Let the good old days last for ever and always...

My addictions

Have you ever had the feeling that you have to go out and do something but just cannot get up from the couch?

Well, that's the case with me now a days. My heart tells me I want to go for a long walk or go to the shop near by to get milk and green chillies. But my body doesn't budge. It simply refuses to listen to me and move. The only thing that moves are my fingers changing the channels or the movies on my TV.

How did I get so addicted to the couch? Well, How can I ask such a stupid question? I know the answer.. I always was.

As far as I can remember I was in love with TV, books and movies. Now I can add computer to the list. Whenever I get free time I do nothing but watch TV, or do something online like read (switched to ebooks from paper backs and hard binds) or blog. Its never ending, you know.

If I'm watching TV there is something good in one channel or the other. Thank goodness, channels are never gonna get scarce. As I am interested in almost everything its pretty difficult to shut off the TV. Its F.R.I.E.N.D.S. on Star World or Food Paradise on TLC or Nat Geo Rush or Buck Stops Here on NDTV 24x7 or Trailers on Channel V or All About Ads on Profit or Monsters Inside You on Discovery or movies on all the movies channels you can think of or (last but not the least) Cartoons. Even if I get bored with all the 184 channels that are on my finger tips I can always plug in the hard disk and watch the movies and documentaries that I had downloaded.

That brings me to the online devil... Funny term.. Online... They say the new technology 3G mobiles keep you online all the time, keeps you connected to the world. Tell that to my friend whose 12 year old hardly finds time to talk to her after posting her thoughts and scrapping her friends. My friend has to get to know her child through Facebook, Orkut and Blogs. Tell that to the teachers who finds it a humongous task to keep their students "online" (in the traditional sense).

Well, you can' t always blame the internet. There are plus points too, like what I do online... :P
I mainly download movies, music, documentaries, books, series, etc., check my mails (most of which are forwards from friends and family, which I wish were not), blog, randomly search some topic and read, look for good recipes and other how to do stuff, post pictures in social networking sites, etc.. Pretty boring I know. But then at least I do get up from the couch in front of the TV and move to the couch in front of my PC. :)

You know what my second biggest addiction is? Walking. Can you believe it? I know, I know its too good to be true and so extremely extreme. But its true. Whenever there is no couch and I feel bored I go for long walks.

I used to go for long walks during my college days. I have walked all the way from Trivandrum to Kovalam, from Kakkanad to Marine drive and back, from Karapparamba through beach to Chalappuram, from Statue to Sreekaryam, to name a few.  I still go for long walks on the beach with my husband on weekends (whenever we find time to get off the couch that is).

So as I told you... my mind and body seem to be in totally different frequencies sometime. Like when I have a couch around and my mind tells me to get off my butt and go for a walk, my body responds as if there is Lakshman Rekha drawn around the couch. In all this confusion I have gained a lot... you know what I mean... ;)