Role play

During school days, Teacher’s Day was indeed very special. We had a tradition of senior students going to junior classes and doing role play of our teachers. That one opportunity to teach and to step into their shoes was special and to a large extent sensitised us pertaining to the grand role of teachers in shaping the overall discourse.

Looking back now, I feel, we need that tradition to spread every where. We need to graduate into a society where becoming a teacher should be a conscious choice made by individuals and the incentives should be top notch. It should not be a forced last resort. We need the best motivated minds, to nurture our future, to play that role. Happy Teacher’s Day.

Two mathematicians

She was our Mathematics teacher in high school. I have never seen such a dedicated teacher with that much devotion for the subject. She was always trying to find out better ways of teaching and of explaining. Always solving new problems. Absolutely relentless.

He, my father, was also a Mathematics teacher. Every evening in his tuition classes, he had a special batch of students hailing from humble households for whom there was no fees involved. He spent his entire youth in social service through various platforms.

Two mathematicians. Two fundamental virtues. Two strong influences for yours truly.

Book Review - A Short History of nearly everything

Author - Bill Bryson
My Rating 3/5

A great read for teenagers of this age who would love to be told the story of this world in a free flowing way with little shades of wit. Right from the Big Bang till Darwin made a monkey out of humans, this books explains it all. It also helps you to understand basic scientific principles in a very lucid way and to understand the scales of various things which are usually difficult to fathom. It surely helps us to understand why various things exist today and which are the things which could have been instead. Every chapter is indicative of the humongous research that must have gone into the making of this book. Thoroughly educative read! 

Just the heart

As we trekked towards Kakwagre village, we saw one bamboo house from a distance. The dogs had sensed the visitors already and came running towards us. The children followed them and stopped at a distance. Then they ran away to call the elders who were working in the field nearby. Within no time they arrived sweating from the hard work, The kids had already arranged some chairs in the porch. 

We sat and listened to the mother father duo as they described their daily routine and the problems they face residing at this remote place. Mostly, it’s the education of their children that bothers them. The little ones walk hours everyday for school. Sensing that we were exhausted from our little trek, they served us whatever they had with them. The mother stated fetching water everyday is a challenge. I simply admire the hospitality one gets in villages. You don’t need a fancy place and resources for that. Just the heart. 

They just knew

As I took a deep satisfying breath after completing the trench we were digging, I looked across to find some men making a mesh like structure of bamboo along the rain-fed channel to check the soil erosion. They used the leaves and other stuff lying around to fill the gaps. "It will trap the good top soil", said a middle aged women sitting at a distance.

This structure resembled a typical boulder check dam which we make on higher grounds. Instead of boulders, they used locally abundant bamboo, These men got this skill from their forefathers. And their forefathers from their forefathers. The essential knowledge was passed if not the reasons behind it. There are so many things which science is backing up today with rationale. But several already exited in the form of traditional knowledge systems. They perhaps cannot explain the logic behind it, and yet somehow, they just knew.