… Joseph Haydn’s jingoistic composition extolling the virtues of deutcheland and his emperor notwithstanding, I like (and love) my dear Haydn’s oratorios immensely – the seasons and the creation.
Yes. Children above all. Yeah!
ave adolescens, morituri te salutamus!
August 8, 2015
The adolescents require so, oh SOOO much external structure in their lives.
At another level, they also resist that, rightly so. So, these seemingly contradictory pulls make dealing with them, that much more challenging and endlessly tiring.
As a wag said, an adolescent is a teenager who acts like a baby when you don’t treat him (or her) like an adult. Truly and verily. Read the rest of this entry »
DANGER! N0H0P3 idiot flu virus pandemic
July 30, 2015
[ This post is an old one, a version of which was written may be 6/7 years back or so. It is provided here purely for ‘educational’ purposes. ;-) ]
…Are you afraid that you are going to be one of those people who may die because of this A(H1N1) swine flu virus?
If you indeed do, probably you deserve to die ASAP one way or the other, anyway… Good riddance too.
This is because, you did not bother to check the facts.
You did not bother to read, digest, reflect on what’s happening. Read the rest of this entry »
(or) நாமிருக்கும் நாடு, நமதென்பதறிந்தோம்! (1600 words, sorry)
Preamble:
The School that I am currently working with, is in an area of Tamilnadu, which is known to be a very violent place for the past so many decades – so much so that, even the police personnel and revenue department staff would like to avoid this tension filled and bottomless despair invoking milieu.
So.
There was way too much of violent and disrespectful behavior by the children (primarily stemming from abominable & pathetic parentage and the vitiated socio-political atmosphere) of the School, with which I was involved rather closely from the fag end of 2010.
the impotence of being ARchiVist
May 15, 2015
oops! sorry. erase erase. backspace backspace. ^H^H. delete delete. yo, i didn’t’ mean it. peace, peace. look ma, no tricks.
… this kinda ARchiVist has only some random data taken from randomer archives – and then based on them – goes on to theorize a whole series of generalizations and half-baked, jaundiced hypotheses… and bazinga, he has suddenly become respectable! *&^@%#$ (pic off)
tee hee. ha ha. hee haw. was reading a really wild oscar. and his importance of being earnest, in right earnest. so got carried away. apologies. but, this post is also a ‘trivial comedy for serious people,’ mind you…
எனது செல்ல தன்னார்வ பஜனை NGO நண்பர்களுக்கு…
April 30, 2015
எச்சரிக்கை: இப்பதிவில் – இணையத்திலிருந்து எடுத்த கேலிச்சித்திரங்கள் அதிகமாகவே இருக்கின்றன. பொறுமையாகப் படிக்கவும்/பார்க்கவும்.
… நமதிந்தியாவில் – இந்தத் தறிகெட்டலையும் தன்னார்வத் தொண்டு(!) நிறுவனங்களை நெறிப் படுத்தும் வகையில், கொஞ்சமேனும் செயல்பாடுகள் ஆரம்பித்திருப்பது எனக்கு மிகவும் மகிழ்ச்சி கொடுக்கிறது. :-))) Read the rest of this entry »
kinder, über alles
March 16, 2015
holmes, borges & valmiki on memories
October 5, 2014
“… There is a goddess of Memory, Mnemosyne; but none of Forgetting. Yet there should be, as they are twin sisters, twin powers, and walk on either side of us, disputing for sovereignty over us and who we are, all the way until death.”
–- Richard Holmes in “A Meander through Memory and Forgetting” (an essay off: Memory: An Anthology/ Wood Harriet Harvey, Byatt AS / Chatto & Windus, 2008/
home & school – a complete partnership
September 13, 2014
Very many years ago, we had a meeting (the participants were mainly teachers, parents and teacher-parents) at our earlier (Bangalore) school and the following is a set of notes / discussion pointers that we used to kindle thoughts, seed discussions and to thrash out various vexatious issues and stuff…
The whole context for the meeting was circumscribed by the idea that – parents and schools are NOT on the opposite sides of the child, pulling the poor child literally apart; that these two stakeholders are on the SAME side as that of the child, helping and assisting it to realize its potential to the fullest extent possible.
Off: http://www.bristol.k12.ct.us/uploaded/Mountain_View/Docs/global-curriculum.gif (thanks: bristol public schools – mountain view)
Anyway, I thought it would perhaps be a good idea, to share the quick notes (from our archives) — that we made for ourselves, when we went for this meeting/discussions — with the readers of this weblog.
Of course, by no means, any claim is made about this listing being reasonably complete or even being logical; we would like to revisit this – so, feel free to comment on it.
It is reproduced hereunder verbatim – it is kind of dated, sketchy and in a ‘telex kind , of incomplete language,’ but probably would be useful, as long as there are decent schools and responsible parents… Oh, the hope. Read the rest of this entry »
‘education’ – big picture vs details
September 11, 2014
…Or, a bird’s eye view VS earthworm’s view, if you will; this post is part of the infamous ‘education’ series at this blogsite. This is an unfairly long essay – so, feel free to runaway, NOW! :-)
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In my earlier avatars I have been part of the surreal corporate world, and I have met with quite a few folks there, who proudly uttered pearls of wisdom such as, they are the “big picture people, ya know” – accompanied by a swagger and those irritating & condescending ‘air quotation’ marks made with their index fingers.
Invariably, they were bosses and/or pretenders. They never interested me. I never respected them. It is their loss, ahem! ;-) I continue to meet such vainglorious people off and on (yes, it takes one to know one). I tell myself that we do require diversity, don’t we? Honestly, we require diversity in every field – some species die, some survive, some mutate, some become mutant monsters, some are well meaning, some are not, some are for positive actions, some others are for mere reactions…
… In any case, any kind of diversity results in that, much-required colourfulness, in an otherwise staid world. Like in the corporate world, how I would have loved to have something else instead of the drab grey, dull coloured shirts and trousers and drabber black suits and cleanshaven faces and powerpoint slidesets…
we expect way too much from teachers…
August 19, 2014
… and also from schools, and very little from us. Of course there are a few exceptions, as I would mention always, but then…
I think, we as parents (mostly clueless, that is – it takes one to know one and all that…) have these romantic notions of an ideal school being populated by ideal teachers and ideal peers for our children – and keep looking for it. And, when we can’t locate one (obviously, what do we expect!) we keep complaining ad nauseam about the state of affairs…
We are not satisfied at all with the situation, and spread the happy news of our disaffection, discontent and cynicism all over the place – and for some unfathomable reason, the inherent spreadability of any negative news defies ALL physics that I know of – it spreads so fast, in spite of not having much of truth, and absolutely inertia-free!
We expect to find bleakness and negative situations, and voilà, we find them in mind boggling abundance! Read the rest of this entry »
‘education’ – this, i believe…
August 16, 2014
And so it was.
A few weeks back, yours truly got a chance to ‘formally’ discuss with a group of young, impressionable & wannabe teachers – from many countries including mine and backgrounds – but mostly from South and Meso Americas – about my (current & random) views on this beastess called education – and as I had made the following rough notes for another occasion, I chose to make use of the same and ranted (the text below was given as a handout to them post the talk, because they wanted to get the real drift of the discussions, poor things).
So, I held forth, pontificating ad nauseam – based on my experience and approaches, bestowing my infinite wisdom on these hapless folks. Yes, before you rush headlong to trash me, I know – it is not that I am great teacher or even a reasonable teacher, mind you; and, you must remember that old saw about the ’empty vessels…’, yeah?
However, I also do believe in dialogue – and soon there was this multilogue – not exactly a balanced flow – but pandemonious rapids of information and opinions flowing in from all directions. The discussion was to have been for one hour, but it went on for 3 hours (thanks to the enthusiasm of the youth) over three cups of steaming black coffee.
Anyway… It is always so damn nice to see dedicated and work-ethic infected youth. Them with their dreams and aspirations to make the world a better place. Their wide-eyed wonder and spirited enthu for life, the hope. Their leftist leanings and Che Guevara Tee-shirts. Their takes on Western and Indic philosophies, the yoga of learning. Their ideas of literature (especially the illiterature of the likes of Arundhati Roys) and how bad the ‘education’ scene is, back in their own nations… Their sense of youthful humour, chiseled bodies… It is so damn nice to listen to clueful, knowledgeable and articulate youth full of positive energy – with their brains in full-crunch / alert mode.
I wish them and the future, all the very best that the mothership earth has to offer. (and wish the same to sanctimonious me too!)
bhaanushingo: chitto jetha bhayashunyo
August 15, 2014
I have checked with a few folks and they also have experienced and continue to experience these…
… Sometimes it is a piece of music that keeps repeating itself in the head – such as a 7th Symphony of Beethoven or a Toccata (in C minor) of Bach or a Bhimsen Joshi rendition of Ahir Bhairav or a MS Subbulakshmi’s ‘kurai onrum illai, Govinda’ – I have no wants, Govinda.
Sometimes there are these haunting images – such as the mind boggling scenes from a Andrei Tarkovsky or a Kurosawa Akira film, that deliciously torment you… Read the rest of this entry »
orphanic gardening – some notes
August 6, 2014
(OR) the story of ‘maan dhonia!’
Oh well.
And so, in one of our trips to the hills, Sonati gave us a nice looking plant whose leaves smelt much like our own Coriander (Kothamalli in Tamil, Coriander sativum, Kannada – Kothambari, Kashmiri – Daaniwal, Malayalam – Kothambalari, Marathi – Dhane, Telegu – Dhaniyalu), but had a very stronger odour and tasted as nicely pungent as any self-respecting Coriander would, that is – till may be a couple of decades back.
… Back to our dear Lady. In the ‘middle’ of cooking, she would suddenly walk out with a purposeful look (but with a knife in hand, so I dared not crack any joke, which was sad) and gait (starting with a quick demi plié), and bring just a couple of raspy leaves from her garden patch and mince them and garnish her tasty preparations; of course, decorated thusly, aha, the dishes would delightfully be fragrant and appetite inducing. Read the rest of this entry »
This quote, twisted absolutely out of context and attributed to Vladimir Illich Ulyanov (aka Lenin) was one of my favorite lines…
You may ask: why single out our dear, hard(ly)-working & poor naxalbari brethren, aren’t they merely nonsensically mouthing those mantras which CPI and CPM folks had uttered earlier?
But, the latter parties have stopped uttering such inanities long long back, haven’t they? Only the wayward bullet-party loving Maoists are still continuing with this, yeah?
… In my *real* youth (=wasted days of my past!), I used a Tamil equivalent (which went something like: paaraalumandram panrigalin thozhuvam = பாராளுமன்றம் பன்றிகளின் தொழுவம்!) just like many other ignorant and arrogant comrades, rather mindlessly – as all I could see of our illustrious parliament members was a distilled personification of corruption and decadence… Of course, I was mighty ignorant too, I must confess. Read the rest of this entry »
mindfulness & insight meditation retreat
July 6, 2014
… with Patrick Kearney (www.dharmasalon.net) | 17th August to 24th August, 2014 (Sunday to Sunday) | At Bodhi Zendo (www.bodhizendo.org) | Perumal Malai, Kodaikanal, Tamil Nadu, India |
- Contact: Ramji +91 9585524836 | causmicdance @ gmail . com – and ah, I love the wordplayfulness here! ;-)
- Fee for Accommodation, Food and Teacher’s Travel – INR 750/- per day
- www.bodhizendo.org (Bodhi Zendo) | www.dharmasalon.net (Patrick)
Flyer with the above content. Read the rest of this entry »
popular astrology for children – 101 (hic)
June 18, 2014
Move over, you ‘world famous astrologers’ such as Besan Daroowallah, go start making besan laddoos, or even start brewing liquor… But, stop making those terrible, horrible, no-good, very bad horrorscopes please!
Try to earn a honest day’s wages, surely it is not that very difficult…
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I pretend to ‘do’ mainly science with our ‘earth children’ – but I also drift off in various directions, to do history, geography, angrezi (hic), math and stuff. Heck, I even pretend to be a choir conductor. Don’t get me wrong, there are quite a few other adults (who actually are more able & capable than yours truly) in the picture too, so there is no need to ring the alarm bells… The truth is that, they are all busy working, whereas I am busy posting blog entries! Read the rest of this entry »
student – teacher ratio! *argh!*
June 1, 2014
Ha Ha! Sorry. I actually wanted to title the post ‘Fathers-children ratio’ or ‘Mothers-children ratio’ – or to avoid any possible controversy, ‘parents-child ratio.’ But, sanity prevailed on me, obviously.
This is one of the really cutesy questions people (not all folks, but the urban types) rather habitually ask, when they are seeking admission for their wards into any school. And, of course, on the face of it, it sounds like a very normal, anxious question, but…
I will tell you why.
The assumption behind this duh question is, a ‘good’ ratio of say, 10:1 (or less) would automatically ensure that their ward would get individual attention, their child would be personally addressed with respect to its unique abilities and ‘weaknesses,’ the child will have all round growth and would ace in all competitive exams eventually and get into some nondescript IIT and then land a software pogromer’s job in some silly IT services company, neighbor’s (and relatives’) envy, owner’s pride and all that!
On the contrary, a ratio of say, 20:1 (or above) would automatically mean that the school is desperate for resources (funds, teachers and what not!) and/or the children do not get individual attention at all, the classes will be chaotic, the development of multifarious capabilities of your child would be stunted and so he will merely graduate from some nondescript IIT and then land a software programmer’s job eventually, in some silly IT services company, oh the horror, the horror! Read the rest of this entry »
plants dying of frostbite in bangalore, that too in april ? (and of course, THE richard feynman!)
May 1, 2014
… life goes on in spite of the 2014 elections, results, all the hair_splitting discussions, chest_thumpings, blood_curdling war cries and much release of the intestinal gases by our armed chair ineffectuals… Of course, it is good that much of it happens over the Internet.
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What was I saying? Oh yeah, the hailstorm… and all hail discordia!
… … It is amazing, but that’s what happened. And, I hope this teaches me humility, seriously.
A few weeks back – to be precise, on the evening of 14th April, we had a sudden thunderstorm and a heavy squall in our suburb of Bangalore. And for 20 minutes or so, there was this hailstone business (ice pebbles of the size of 1 – 2.5 cms in diameter, on an average, incredible!) pounding on everything that was exposed to the elements – and to assist it, there were these incredibly howling high velocity winds!
In and around the place where we live, tin and asbestos roofs developed gaping holes, many compound walls were smashed, many decade old & sprawling trees were uprooted, oh the danse macabre. Read the rest of this entry »
Dravidian Disclessia… proudly marching on to Dicklessia!
April 11, 2014
The first part of this offending two-part series is at: Dravidian Progress: From Dyslexia to Disclessia and then… proudly marching on to Dicklessia! (part 1/2)
In the previous post, it was kind of ‘proved’ that the dastardly & Dyslexic Dravidian Leadership has plunged our dear Tamilnadu into a veritable educational and educative stellar mess.
But moronicities have a momentum of their own – they don’t just stop; they don’t just say enough & exit. They follow a delectable downward spiral. Therefore… this is the second & final part of my illustrious thesis — ‘Subaltern Studies in Dravidian Regress!’™ ;-)
And so.
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Then came Disclessia! Aha!
disklessia \disk*les”i*a\ (d[i^]sk*l[e^]ss”[-e]*[.a]) n.
Any of the various backbone disorders caused by a damaged or a congenitally faulty structure, in a person claiming descent from the Dravidian idea, that constitutes a set of impaired discs, and causing an impairment of the ability to be bold, forthright or to be brave or to be just; to have a propensity to kowtow to perceived authorities; to randomly ingratiate oneself with the powers that be.
Usually, we human beings take pride in the fact that we have a functional Spine or a Backbone, if you will; what we call a backbone consists of a stacking of vertebral bones between which, there are discs, to provide the functionality of a bearing. Sometimes, there would be some malfunction involving the discs, and this impairs the proper functioning of the backbone. However, in the case of the effete Dravidian leadership, these discs are entirely missing because of which – it lacks a functioning spine. Dravidian leadership is Spineless, period. Read the rest of this entry »
Dravidian Progress: From Dyslexia to Disclessia and then… proudly marching on to Dicklessia! (part 1/2)
April 9, 2014
Foreword: ummm… if you HAD to listen to an old, depleted guy for TWO whole BLOODY hours, extolling the virtues of LEMURIA and the virtuousness of DRAVIDAM ad nauseam, repeating that, Tamilnadu is where it is – all developed, progressive and beautiful – only because of the Dravidian movement and on and on and on…. even an otherwise sane(!) person like me would become an extremely ill-puttogether polemicist, even by my very own bloody standards!
Well, that’s what has happened to me, atleast. And, the fact that this old man is actually well read otherwise and scholarly and is sane, is all the more galling!
Yes. I am of the firm & considered opinion and conviction that, Tamilnadu is where it is now – not BECAUSE of the Dravidian movement – but, IN SPITE of the Dravidian movement. Got it, old man? It is in, whatever that is left of its basic genius, that the Tamil people have gotten some sustenance from, and not from some thieving, idiocy propagating mobs, got it?
Warning: Dear reader of this post, If you seriously believe that the idea of Dravidianism has done any good to my dear Tamilnadu, you should not proceed any further; reading this post would be dangerous to your health. Go back to the hell-hole from which you surfaced for Oxygen. This is PG45 stuff, and is not meant for Twitter trolling adolescents. Period.
Okay. You have been warned enough; read on the rest of the post, if you must; but, don’t squeal rather pathetically, later — got it? Read the rest of this entry »
othisaivu.in 
