learning and growing

"What advice will you give someone who is aspiring to crack a job like yours?" I came across this question somewhere on the internet last month. Since then I have been wanting to write on this, on my blog. Well, to start with, I don't have a glamorous job. I am a teacher and there are different opinions on and about this profession. I have heard people say that when one does not get any other job they become a teacher. Some say, it is the easiest job on earth. Some say, there is too much studying every day in this profession. Some say it's a very conventional branch for female candidates. Once my cousin brother told me that one must be really 'chatty' to excel at the job. I say, one must be knowledgeable and talk sense and deliver even more sensible things with practical examples to excel at the job. I did not obviously expect an 'engineer' to not give importance to experiential learning.  Also, teaching is not the only thing that teachers do as a part...

After two long years, they sat for their exam. Two years back was when I invigilated for the first time as an assistant superintendent in one of the schools in Haryana. I was an external in that school and I remember how I was thoroughly nervous. There are way too many rules in CBSE. To stand for three hours straight and execute every part of the job minutely, come what may, is not an easy task.Then the pandemic started. Everything was online. Every class required twice the effort and thrice the grit. All I wanted was for this period to pass asap. Last week I invigilated two times and strangely I was happy to execute all those minute details despite the fact that it was not so delightful or pleasant to execute all of it, in the summer heat. To see students write their paper in person was a sight of joy. To see them think, struggle and write their answers and leave the examination room with smiling faces and discussing answers was an elated feeling after two long years. All nerdy talk. ...

Local markets are a thing.I often ask myself how do small vendors and shop owners manage? They work hard and that's an undeniable truth. It's not like the normal 'go-go-go' of people like us who are blessed with a regular service. It's a different sort of rush and effort on their part. Chance plays an important role in their day to day work, relying heavily on the number of customers that one would get in the mornings, afternoons and evenings. It depends on the number of deals they strike with their customers.They do it every single day. A no working day obviously attributes to a loss, if not a huge loss. For example, a shoe maker makes shoes and sells them. If we assume that the price of a pair of shoes is around Rs 500 and Rs 40-60 it's cost of production, then his profit is around Rs 450,for every pair that he sells. So selling around ten pairs in a month would hardly earn him around Rs 4500. So that's his monthly income. Yet so many people from all aroun...

 Day before yesterday, while praying to God, I told God, I would like to meet him and then laughed at the mere possibility of it. Yesterday morning, a man knocked on our door. This man was sent to us by our neighbor who call him ' Halim chachha' . So he came to take away a worn out induction heater,some other worn out gadgets and broken umbrellas. The moment he entered our house, he smelled so bad( a truth is a truth). As my mother was helping him with all the things, he just said that he does this work not out of need but just to keep his mind sane because both his sons work abroad and he can spend a lovely after 60 life, if he wants to. I was listening to him and I caught his reflection on one of the framed portraits that we have of God near the stairs. He was adjacent to the portrait and it reflected his image somehow. So that was definitely God telling me " Hey,there. " ( I would like to believe that).  The story does not end there. So after this was over, I got b...

There is something that I had missed out on, in my previous blog. I will dedicate this blog to that something. So, a month back, my youngest student came to me with an old pen case. By a pen case I mean the plastic pouch/box inside which pens are kept in a shop. I hope I have been able to convey the idea properly. So these plastic pouches also have a transparent plastic sheet right on the top that gives the customer a glimpse of the pen that's inside. Why am I telling you all this? Here's the fun part. So this student told me that she had kept her pet inside it. And I was very keen to find out what pet it was? So, she showed me a black carpenter ant that she had kept inside the pen pouch. It doesn't end there. She also told me that she would love to have another black ant to make sure that it can give company to the other ant that was inside. She showed me the little hole that she had made for the ant. The hole was more like a ventilator for the ant according to my student....

 I am here because I just realized I have not written in a while. I also realised that I did not write any 'goals accomplished' post last December or a new year post this January. It's the last day of January and I promised myself yesterday that I will write today and here I am. So I will just try to fit in all that I did not write and also things that I want to write today in one post. But before anything, a very happy new year to all,reading this.                   I can go on and on with the number of things that I had learned last year right from completing one professional course to managing home and giving tuitions and getting to know the work culture of my home state in a whole different light. However, if there is something that I really pride myself for, I would say it's how I learned to take care of my mental health. I learned to sum up the courage to say NO to a lot many things that were no more serving the purpose. I placed h...

I am writing my blog because I am free till 11.30am. Last time I did say that I shall let you know where I work and since then till now, I never got the opportunity. I won't take any names but I am a proud employee of the largest educational conglomerate in Eastern India. It's in my home state and is a blessing. For sometime now I have no plans to leave my home state. I will have to conduct a training session for the teachers within the next two hours and as I was preparing myself for the same, I thought of taking a breather. Writing my blog was the first thing that came to my mind.    Honestly, sometimes I feel that a holiday on a Saturday would be well appreciated. It's a weekend after all. Then I remind myself that I have not reached that stage yet. I took a short break after I returned from Rajasthan. But it was a break from my career, not my educational pursuits or life. So, to sum it up, I ended up doing a lot more in the past two and a half months. A lot of pending...