Two Decades Of Life And Counting (2/3)

Class 2 at 7 has jumped in,

Teachers playing tricks with the kids,

Those who score full on test,

will be given chocolates,

The biggest of the gift that time it seemed!

8th birthday was also approaching,

Class 3 was awaited with lot of excitement,

An unexpected burn injury followed,

Keeping her in  bed for 3 months .

No school, only the room became her world,

Teachers, relatives and friends coming to cheer her up!

The recovery took a lot of time,

And here came her birthday 9th!

Class 4, new friends, allotment of houses,

Evening slot fixed for the games and Tv noises!

Class five at 10 saw making of friends group in class,

Those silly fights of not talking to anybody in the other group, alas!

Like,

You're not my friend if you talk to her,

You  go in that group if them you want to cheer!

Making best friends was a new concept,

Fights all over about whom to as a BFF accept!

11th Birthday celebrations at home were all going high,

After-all, she was entering a new decade of her life.

Fussing to mom and dad about all her silly demands,

From barbie dolls to those  99 in 1 video games!

In less then a year, the group of friends changed,

From fighting for a seat to pranking with the skirts , it ranged!

Birthday 12th here it was,

Class 7 science began making more sense,

Basketball  and football were the new craze,

Demanding the same at home,

to be bought , played and chased!

First away from home trip approached,

With all excitement bags were packed

and parents to say yes, were forced.

Cried all night when the day to leave for the 5 days trip arrived,

Kid still she was, after-all,

going way from parents  for the first time in life!

Chess and scribble starting making sense in the 13th year of life,

Class 8 was a year of several new friendships for her that would thrive!

Boyfriend and girlfriend were heard of, for the first time ever,

Afraid of all this, she broke up with two of her friends forever.

This forever thou, didn’t last very long,

And they all reunited like the words of a song.

At 14, her studies became a  matter of concern,

From regular home exams to new CCE pattern.

That was a year of class 9 when NOTES came into being,

Studying online and sharing important questions it bring!

New friendships followed through sharing of mere notes,

Whether through landlines, new emerging Facebook,

 or any other modes!

Two Decades Of Life And Counting (1/3)

Two decades back ,

Far off in the world somewhere,

Was born a baby girl,

Marked by all, to be a bright chirping bird.

Daddy's little one,

Mommy's life,

Grandpa's doll,

To Grandmother's first morning call!

Time traveled by, it was the dawning of year two,

From crawling to standing on the feet has taken place already,

Speaking those half a word languages in lieu,

Wearing those frocks tiny and wee.

Papa recording those,

half spoken rhymes and words,

As a memory to be cherished for ever as stows,

In,now, long forgotten cassette recorders.

Year three has settled in quick,

Time to enter a new world, the school,

First day was revolting, endless sobbing and troubling teachers,

Roaming around in the school and mewl.

Not talking to any classmate,

Not putting the school bag aside, 

whether in class or outside,

Water bottle was as if a precious gem!

Year four was in,

From playing with any toy whatsoever,

The things went specific.

Dolls were the new craze,

Kitchen set the next chase.

Running towards the buses as soon as the bell rang,

Going home was the best retreat after a short yet very long day.

Year 5 meant a year of new learning,

From A B C D, the focus has changed to math,

Learning math with stones and pebbles zing,

Coloring every object you see in books or notepads!

Joining the dots was the best game to play,

Molding and making small silly objects with the clay!

The countdown of 12 classes started at the age of 6,

Those short ABCDs have now turn to those 8 liners mix,

Those half days at school have now turned to full ones,

Following by mom taking notes of all that has been in day's run.

Being pro active in all school activities,

From fancy dress to balloon race fancies!

A Late Night Post..

These late night thoughts never lets you sleep on time!

A Time when disasters in the mind happen.

Those dark hours when the brain is all at work.

Yes, in me, like several others, resides a day dreamer,

And a night thinker.

The album of memories flashing in the mind ..

And then I feel it will take me forever to make some people realize,

that distance are only numbers..

That physical attractions are common,

But mental  connections are rare..

So rare and pure,

So hard to handle

but definitely worthy of all the struggle we go through, 

still, we end up letting them go..

Only if everyone spoke their hearts and not their minds,

Wouldn’t the world be indefinite beauty!

To be yourself,

in the world that’s constantly trying to make you something else isn't an easy task,

those who manage to stand still,

 are the real achievers!

Never underestimate the power, the feel,

the truth lying behind those good morning texts,

Those random compliments in the middle of the night.

Those random apologies on silliest of the mistakes

to keep some relations alive..

The child within, wants to reconnect with those who were once ours,

But the ego, the hatred, the anger, the insecurities wins over.

The child within, is the real us,

The child that wants to come out, express, and reunite,

The child, that knows nothing, 

understands nothing else but love!

And than you realize,

Nobody can protect you from the sufferings,

You cant just walk away, let go, there isn't any therapy that would heal it all,

You have to go through it,

Live it,

And find happiness in the suffering itself until and unless your dreams are back in place,

your goals are put up again,

Until and unless you are ready to fight back again,

accepting whatever has happened,

Giving life another chance.

School: A Temple of Learning or Business Houses!

Exams are over, results are out, new sessions are beginning this upcoming week. Everybody is busy with school purchasing and preparations for the new grade! There is an obvious enthusiasm in the kids. 

We all know the basic necessity for schools/colleges or any sort of studies are the books! The books that prepare us, the books that help us learn, the books that teaches us lessons, help clear exams and score well. I tagged the books as the basic necessity because no student is a student without books in hand. The question arises, why the basic necessity that serves so many purposes are sold in the market with prices that costs us an arm and leg! We say ' education for all' but how will everybody afford education if the basic need 'books' too will be sold at unbelievable prices! Parents are already burdened with the high fee structures of the schools and now the books too have added to it. On one hand we talk of providing access to free education for kids up-to 14 years of age and on the other hand we let the private institutions take all that they can out of the parents.  Parents too have no option other than to adhere to the demands of the school in this super competitive world, in search of quality of education!

According to an article in Indian express on July 31st 2015, CBSE has made a very clear statement saying the schools affiliated to it have to follow the syllabus prescribed by NCERT up-to class 8!

The circular was issued by the board following a series of complaints stating that many schools have been forcing students and parents to buy textbooks other than those prescribed by the NCERT.

It states: “The board has received reports and complaints regarding the pressure exercised in many schools on children and their parents to purchase excessive number of textbooks. It was brought to our notice that parents are being forced to buy textbooks by private publishers, other than NCERT which are not not only costly but voluminous, and unscientifically designed.”

Today, when we're aiming at not over burdening the kids with more books in bag than required, the burden of books to the kids and their ever rising prices to the parents is seen only increasing all these years! Last week, while accompanying my neighbor to buy books for her kid who just got promoted in class IV, the shopkeeper billed her for Rs. 2500, out of which Rs. 1950 were for books he would 'probably' be finishing it all this year in school. After coming home I just thought of checking the prices of books available with NCERT as per their prescribed curriculum, and this was totally shocking because all the books prescribed by them, in their publication, in total, cost less than Rs. 500 for whole class IV syllabus. The books we just bought not only are expensive but some of them are unnecessary too.

We live in a country where rich are less in percentage, middle class are the next share holders and majority are the lower middle class or poor, as we name it. Everybody wants their kids to have quality education no matter what social background the people come from. But our structures are designed keeping in mind the rich, the higher middle class. Rs. 2500 is not big deal for them, but what about the majority of our people, who earns around Rs. 10000 a month, actually less than that, will he have no difficulties spending Rs. 2500 for his kids books? Of-course, he will invest, he won't deny, because he knows what education today means and how education would help his kids in future,but the burden it bears upon him, his mental burden, nobody  knows that!

I don’t think the English book offered by NCERT is any way less than the private publication English books.

I don’t think the Hindi and Hindi grammar books offered by NCERT at half a price teach our kids something less than what we pay for the private publication books.

I don't think the Math NCERT book teaches less maths or some lower standard of 'addition', 'subtraction', 'division', or 'multiplication', than those expensive private publication books!

I don’t think the complementary handwriting book have really helped the majority perfect their handwriting either!

I don’t think questioning a 9 year old on what is Windows XP and New Logo Primitives will help him anyway in future until and unless he knows how to operate a computer!

I don’t really think the books on "lets speak English" have really helped much of the kids in speaking English, but practicing basic English in class with the teachers in day to day lives was a better option to rely upon!

Well, "Ache Din" are definitely here for the schools, the book sellers, but not for the buyers, the parents!