Silence

  Thank youuuuuu mammmm, the students of grade V sang and Ms Desai, their Science teacher smiled while cleaning the board, collected her teaching material and left the classroom. Upon reaching to staff room she met Mr Nadan who was the SST teacher of grade V. Ms Desai asked him, if he had no challenges in handing those four students in the class named Riya, Aarush, Varuni and Samiksha who hardly opens up in the class. Mr Nandan, as if was waiting for someone to knock him, quickly said yes, I do face challenges since those never speak out but what to do they are so and don’t perform well in the assessments too. Ms Desai who is recently awarded as a best teacher, whose lesson plans are the most descriptive and dam good has the sense of students not opening up and performing well. While Mr Nadan has been serving in this institution for 10 years and he is also known as Mr Perfect of the school but has nothing to do now. The four walls of a classroom are the visible boundaries and...

  The WHY is not yet answered and perhaps there would be no BECAUSE in the suicide case of Amayara, the student of Neeraja Modi School, Jaipur since the one who knew the reason, is no more. My brain was really frozen for the days in this context. I could not move an inch in my thought process but the reason was very clear that I didn’t want to play a blame game by finding out the visible faults but the root cause. Else being a principal and teacher it would have been easy to blame parents and as usual for parents it was easy to blame school and teachers which they did. I had clear answers to unanswered questions Amayara left us with, that we got failed in nurturing children rightly, failed in shaping the secured childhood, failed in being careful guardians, failed in teaching the importance of a human life, and failed in raising the children of 21 st century. Amayara's steps toward the jump is not just a death but a progress report card to all elders where the progress proves our ...

Perhaps Yes. Perhaps no. Perhaps Similar. Though it’s my favourite vegetable, it's over spicy today. Dal was yummm but you forgot to add salt. Really mom, Tinda……? No way. What a combination of lauki & shimla…really, just tasteless. Paneer looks very good but don’t you think oil is extra. These are some daily dialogues one can listen to in any family. You  See, same person cooking with years of experience still there are ifs & but, sometimes something is less and other times it’s extra but let me also tell you there is nothing like perfect but a balance of all the ingredients which makes a dish taste good. Both over and less affect the recipe. Just imagine if a simple dish gets affected with more or less, how much it is essential to understand when to when not to, how much is not too much. Parenting has no specific pattern but specific people as decision makers i.e. mother & father. Parenting actually is nothing to do with the third person be this a teacher, counselor o...

       O n June 5th I bought a few plants and these were left in the balcony among all other plants to get settled with the fellow plants and environment as these came from nursery and my place was quite new for these new comers. After a few days these were set in big sized pots and I started watering all in the same way since it was very hot those days. A small plant could not settle with the new environment and still available in my balcony but has no life. Another plant perhaps tried its best to live but over watering or unfavorable environment didn't allow it to live a happy life. Not died but lost all its beautiful green leaves and I really have no idea if it is going to live or leave. There is a beautiful song चिट्ठी ना कोई संदेश.....and a few relevant lines - एक आह भरी होगी,  हमने ना सुनी होगी जाते जाते तुमने,  आवाज़ तो दी होगी   .......They must have spoken in their language and unfortunately I could not understand.      ...

 W e are living in an era where everything is advertised, anything can be advertised and lac of brains are simply working on catching the catchy taglines. In other words they are trying their level best to catch our brains. And the journey started from 1970s with the ads of Nirma washing powder, Lux Soap and Colgate etc and today it’s Indigo selling same day flights “Sleep With Your Wife”. I am not being paid for favouring Nirma, colgate or Lux and neither my opinion is going to affect Indigo but its my own satisfaction that I am not supporting such cheap & unhealthy marketing strategies that’s all. I have no idea where was this billboard displayed, since how long and was really displayed or not. I came across a post on Linkedin today and found this disturbing and I really wish this should disturb each one of us. I always questioned why an advertisement be it men’s wear, radio, TV,  or anything else needs a woman in short clothes unnecessarily but it’s a trend. I am questi...

I t's pretty true that I am not a parent but fortunately I got a chance to avail lifetime subscription to be amongst children of the right age 3-18 years and along with this could see children raised in families which seems to me a bonus to my personal understanding of children. I always put my efforts to understand children, honestly because I am also one of those who always felt that being a child I was not understood or misunderstood as it suits to the readers of this article but to some what percentage this is the truth with most of us.  So my first step towards learning to understand children and my conclusion which took years till I started writing a few weeks ago can be concluded this way that "children have their own feelings and at the same time limitations of understanding at each age group" and I validate my journey of understanding them today.  Not only me but you all must have experienced children for getting hurt over- -not getting a compliment for timely wo...

  O ver the years during my professional journey I have met thousands of parents and especially those who were looking for a school to admit their child either for the first time or switching from one school to another, I got a chance to interact. I always asked them what they were expecting from school and honestly 80-90% had a common response “GOOD EDUCATION”. Yes, you are correct, they all had a great answer but ohhh… they meant only GOOD GRADES decorated in the grade card as answer and had no idea what was the actual definition of “GOOD EDUCATION” while the actual answer lies in the depth of these two words and our own understanding only plays an important role here. I understand it this way that looking at beautiful roses is the end result, however the right environment, enough opportunity, required fertilizer, watering and timely care is something which makes the plant get us beautiful desired roses. And I am sure you got my point. Schooling is a journey where children grow d...

L ife isn’t just a one-time experience-it feels like a journey of the soul, repeating itself, striving to reach its true form. We take birth willingly, embrace death when the time comes, and move forward. This realization has brought me at a better point. Not because I’m running in a race, afraid of missing out, or trying to console myself for something I don’t have, but simply because it makes sense to me. One day, the world will continue as it always has, but I won’t be the same. Just like our grandparents, who once lived here but is no longer with us—yet life carries on. Perhaps they have been reborn somewhere, living a new journey, different from their past ones, might be in our own homes as kids and we don't know. If I were to die today and be reborn five years later, I would enter a new world, shaped by a different time and circumstances. I wouldn’t think, act, or speak the same way and so won't bother about todays situations but might be the current ones. My physic, my h...

  Does your child displays any of these- - Not complying with parental requests - Having a bad attitude - Speaking harshly - Being careless, showing disrespect - Arguing, Lying, Hitting others - Not Sharing, Not Engaging in Self Care - Fussy Eating - Not going to Bed on Time Are you looking for a change in your child’s behavior? If yes, then this is for you! We all know praise works, but have you ever wondered why sometimes it doesn’t bring the change you expect? The secret lies in how you praise. That’s where special praise comes in!   What is Praise? Praise is simply positive feedback—it acknowledges and appreciates a child’s good behavior.   What is Special Praise? Special praise is also positive feedback, but with some added elements that make it far more effective. When used consistently, it has the power to reinforce positive behavior and bring about real, lasting change in your child’s actions.   The Essential Components of Special Praise Be Enth...

  Yes, it is. We have two mind sets- rigid mind set and improvement mind set which can be termed as fixed & growth mindset. The rigid mind set is simply to have our own boundaries to think, accept, assess, judge and act upon anything within the limited thought process. Not open to accept the different ways.  A teacher asked children competing in a spell be competition after the result announcement, what they were thinking of.  The boy who achieved less marks and was declared runner up said, he had lost the competition. Is it really feasible for a child to conclude winning & losing at the age of learning? Do we have any idea how did these terms affect them in long term? Can we find a way in-between  wherein they learn? Are we really helping them out to live a better life? The life would be never ever a final result on any step but for sure will remain a journey and we all will be only & only learning throughout the journey.  Lets help ourselves and ou...

  8 -year-old Aniket was sitting on the couch for the last two hours, glued to back-to-back cartoon shows. Watching him, I couldn’t help myself and slipped into a flashback of my childhood. Back then, we didn’t have this luxury of endless options. We had to wait for specific times to watch shows like Ramayana on Sunday mornings, Udaan on Friday evenings, and Wagle Ki Duniya on Wednesdays. Even the elders had their routine with the 8:30 PM news. Waiting was a way of life, and it taught us patience, contentment, and the joy of shared experiences and moreover the life was balanced. Today, the scenario is completely different. Children like Aniket have everything at their fingertips—unlimited shows, endless games, and instant gratification. This overindulgence comes with its set of challenges, affecting their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. The Impacts of Over-Indulgence Reduced Patience and Resilience: Constant access to entertainment erodes the ability to wait. Ki...