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As life happened to us, friends became busier by the day. One day, Aditi, Aradhika, and I decided to meet. We met at the Tea Villa Café. It had an appealing ambiance and the food, I had heard, was delicious. I knew that I would not be able to pay since I had not received my salary (due in a day or two) so I was a little hesitant. I told this to Aditi and Aradhika and the next second they were like, “Amhi ahot na…” (Just leave that to us). I recall another incident when another friend of mine, Sanika, has paid at times too without hesitation. It was not a matter of whether one had money or not, another just paid. There was never a frown upon her face when she had to pay and neither did I think even once before paying when it was my turn. We just paid for each other. Another dear friend, Shamli, has also been very kind. Viraj, Shamli, and I hung out a lot of times. Whenever the three of us would meet, we would generally meet for lunch. Viraj was struggling with his job and would clar...

Gone are the days when streams in education equalled intelligence, isn’t it? NO! Though it is correct that the scope of varied subjects has widened when we look at them as careers, has the mindset widened? Science students do get a lot of backing when it comes to their studies and their being busy, and arts to wo log lete hain jinse jyada padhai nahi hoti … NO! If so, then why is it that being a science student is equivalent to a lot of studying? The answer is simple: being a science student is, in reality, equivalent to a busy schedule but not self-study. To add to it, when a student attends coaching classes, he looks outright busy. Subah 4 ghanta classes karega, fir college jayega jahape wo adha to timepass karega, aur fir practicals attend karke ghar aa jayega. Iske baad shayad extra classes bhi attend karega . All in all, this so-called studying is nothing but attending lectures to gather information for self-studying. Irrespective of the stream, the gathered information has to...

I have come to believe that a book chooses the reader and it knows when the reader should pick it up. Has it ever happened that you have bought a book a long time ago and yet never happen to read it? It seems that all your curiosity to read suddenly ends till one day, you finally start reading it, and not only read it but understand it better. That’s exactly what happened to me. I had bought the world-famous novel ‘To kill a mockingbird’ in 2012. I picked the book a lot of times from my shelf but never read it. The desire to read this classic in my lifetime wouldn’t go from my mind, yet somehow I didn’t read till March 2020. I was conducting a prelim of class 10 students and had nothing to do. I looked into my bookshelf and picked up Mockingbird; finally! I will not bore you with the redundant details of the book as Google will do that for you. I will get to the point. I love this book the characters, the plot, and the setting. The book is written from the perspective of a 6-year-o...

The ones who know me as a teacher might find it difficult to believe if I tell them that I never wanted to be a teacher in the first place! I mean, I wanted to, then things changed so I didn’t want to, and I ended up becoming one. Let me clarify! I was never good at maths (the cliché that language teachers are generally never good at maths). I was good at languages and this was proven right by the aptitude test my school had conducted during my class 10 th . After a long discussion with my parents, I decided that I will become a teacher and make a career in English. I had scored 85% in class 10 th (Mind you, it was 2007 and my school topper was at 88%. These were a lot of marks back then). Many, when I chose Arts, believed that I had tricked my parents into it and that my parents would never let me chose anything but Science with this percentage. Even teachers in college were surprised because any percentage post 75 was equivalent to choosing science. One of the teachers went to t...

Today’s topic is broad enough to consume the space of two, three or more blogs but I will make a long story short. Today’s education system and the competition are becoming a killer. Children have lost their childhood thanks to the so-called ‘our children should know everything right from the start’ concept. Kids of 1 st and 2 nd grade are under pressure. Concepts that can be difficult to grasp at this age are crammed in their brains. Some are good at it, some find it tough to cope and many just manage. This ‘manage’ category is the middle class of education. No need to write any further. The pressure deepens as a student starts climbing the so-called ladder of success. Really? Taking someone’s childhood away; you call this success? Thanks to our highly educated (sarcasm intended 200%) ministers that our education has become meaningless; especially our education till grade 10. Nobody cares about 10 th anymore as it is nothing more than momentary happiness. I am friends with ...