Monday 28 September 2015

Story by our parents!

As you may recall, we had an activity in Bhasha Utsav wherein parents were adding one sentence at a time, to create a story. Here is the final copy of it.

It was a rainy Saturday morning and I was running late for work. My car broke down and I had to take a lift from a stranger. I was anxious and excited at the same time since he looked very familiar. I thought I saw him somewhere before in a shop. He had a large mustache and dark brown eyes that pierced right through me. He was looking scary and sent shivers down my spine. Suddenly, he pulled out a gun. I was terrified. He said, "Don't worry, it's a toy!" Why would anyone do such a thing? Maybe he worked for a theater company, I thought. He was rehearsing for his role in the play that was going to be aired shortly, wherein he had to play a kind-heart. When I knew that, I felt much relieved. After all, I guessed, today was not the day to die. Knowing that, I was relieved and I wished him good luck with his role and continued walking towards my office. I had hardly gone a few steps when I heard a BOOM!!! that sounded like a gun shot!! As I looked up I realized the nail pierced his tyre and it became flat, making that sound. I called him to my office for a cup of coffee. It turns out he was my distant cousin. Very distant. We haven't met since last fifteen years or so. Things change and so has our relationship but it could be better had I kept in touch with my cousins.

Good job, parents and thank you for your participation :)

Sunday 20 September 2015

The amazing routes of Internet data

Have you ever wondered how the information from websites hosted on different servers from around the world reach you? The following link offers some cool insights on the data routes.

Dreams, Aspirations and Absurdity: A Literary Sketch


Dreams seem to be the most immature entity of man for it hardly considers any reason from an apparent observation. Hence, to rely on it with a social or practical dependence causes a sceptical flow of unknown parameters of thought. If it is considered that a tree thinks before giving birth to deep-red swollen apples, and that too with the surety that it won’t even by mistake give birth to undesirable oranges, and that man even after applying all his judgemental sense and rational capabilities fail to think or rather fail miserably to materialize most of his thoughts which he often boast as Ideals, must emend his own existence, and the relation of it with dreams.

A man is a follower of his own dreams, but also the creator of his own strangeness within which he likes to live in and unscrupulously this very element of his existence becomes the quintessential of his dreams and a deduction of that might liquidate the essence of dreaming or rather living a life which like a shadow in indolent steps walk in a mazy motion, and dreams follow it like an unknown killer as well as a latent saviour, for when in absolute blindness he tries to feel a wall, solid and supportive, a faith, almost a diaphragm separating the claustrophobic practicality and the fictional comfort, a reality where one can breathe out his own desires and act as an architect of truth, provides him the pedestal for consideration of what lies too far, yet in reachable extent it mingles with the achievable. Still a hemlock to human mind it darkens the limpid flow of life. With the establishment of aspirations it establishes the absurdity in sensible thinking and thus one fails to indulge himself into reasonable depiction of thought and feelings, reasonable in the sense of the already established order of socio-economical living. These dreams are not figments of one’s thought that perturb the sleep at night, peeps when in subconscious the psyche lies, but rather the fragments which constructs the goals for which a man survives and suffers. The peril of such dreaming lies in the choice of surviving and suffering and herein a man gives all his maturity and experiences and yet at times feel like left behind in the lurch with no positivism about his very own idea, though with an optimism he keeps on aspiring his own defined speculations of art, society or economy; he swims in an aquarium with the freedom and thrill of an ocean for he detests his limitations and thus squanders away all his socially limited experiences to create a new order for his own creation, his own ideas which in already established domain might seem absurd with all its newness, in fact are supposed to carry the germ of further creation for the yet to be born generations and yet to be accepted philosophies of life. This very process creates an absurdity of belief and reasoning or rather the absurdity is the only gentle and trustworthy guest in the ball-room of knowledge and learning, desire and yearning. This “absurd” is what aspirations and ambitions are tiled with, almost a chemical fusion, not a mixture mechanical enough to be separated with an easy blow of experimentation of the thoughts of man which in its own socio-political-economical domain fights for an anti-establishment of the already constructed palette from where men chose their regular colours of life to draw the regular picture of life on canvas of transitory moments of living, and plunge for the establishment of the very dream, the idea of hope and new, acting through the positivism of capitalism of his buoyant aspirations or dreams which in an utter combination lies with the “absurd” and the “strange” of his own ambitions which the immature judgements, a consequence of his almost indescribable experiences are contrived of.

Perhaps this is what man is about; in sleep he dreams of his own tacit thoughts and when awake, in his own dreams he sleeps and creates a life of aspirations and ambitions to which he falls prey to and amazingly makes it a prey for himself, a food for his own passionate breathing. Perhaps human beings is the only species who makes the mistake of dreaming and aspiring, or perhaps not, but they surely are the most dreamy and suspicious promise holders who dreams of a better world but plunge into a better living.

Mr. Chatterjee

Thursday 17 September 2015

Rainy inspirations

Our student Anoushka Srivatsan from grade 6 was inspired by rain and came up with this poem, encouraged by her English teacher Mr. Chatterjee. Just when I though rain is to no good and it should stop I am ready to take it back - it inspires poetry! :)



Saturday 12 September 2015

School of Life

"The word 'melancholy' puts its finger on a particular species of sadness, which isn't an illness or even a problem: it's part of being human."

 We stumbled upon this lovely video that shows melancholy it its true light. 





Sunday 6 September 2015

Over-parenting Annonymus

A 26-step program for good parents gone bad by Wendy Mogel

I’ve written these steps to provide encouragement to well-intentioned, devoted, loving, intelligent parents who feel powerless to stop themselves from overindulging, overprotecting, and over-scheduling their children. Parents who get jittery if their offspring aren’t performing at a high level in every area. And parents who have unwittingly allowed traits like self-reliance, resilience, accountability and a spirit of adventure to slip to the bottom of their parenting priority list.

1. Don’t confuse a snapshot taken today with the epic movie of your child’s life. Kids go through phases. Glorious ones and alarming ones.

2. Don’t fret over or try to fix what’s not broken. Accept your child’s nature even if he’s shy, stubborn, moody, or not great at math.

3. Look at anything up close and you’ll see the flaws. Consider it perfectly normal if you like your child’s friends better than you like your child.

4. Work up the courage to say a simple “no.” Don’t try to reach consensus every time.

5. Encourage your child to play or spend time outside using all five senses in the three-dimensional world. How come only troubled rich kids get to go to the wilderness these days? Send your kids to camp for the longest stretch of time you can afford. Enjoy nature together as a family.

6. Don’t mistake children’s wants with their needs. Don’t fall for a smooth talker’s line about the urgent need for a cell phone “in case of an emergency, Mom!” or a new car “because it’s so much safer than your old van.” Privileges are not entitlements.

7. Remember that kids are hardy perennials, not hothouse flowers. Let them be cold, wet, or hungry for more than a second and they’ll appreciate the chance to be warm, dry, and fed.

8. Abstain from taking the role of Sherpa, butler, crabby concierge, secret police, short order cook, or lady’s maid. Your children are hard-wired for competence. Let them do things for themselves.

9. Before you nag, remind, criticize, advise, chime in, preach, or over-explain say to yourself: “W.A.I.T.” or “Why am I talking?” Listen four times more than you talk.

10. Remember that disappointments are necessary preparation for adult life. When your child doesn’t get invited to a friend’s birthday party, make the team, or get a big part in the play, stay calm. Without these experiences she’ll be ill-equipped for the real world.

11. Be alert but not automatically alarmed. Question yourself. Stop and reflect: Is this situation unsafe or just uncomfortable for my child? Is it an emergency or a new challenge?

12. Learn to love the words “trial” and “error.” Let your child make mistakes before going off to college. Grant freedom based on demonstrated responsibility and accountability, not what all the other kids are doing.

13. Don’t be surprised or discouraged when your big kid has a babyish tantrum or meltdown. Don’t confuse sophistication with maturity. Setbacks naturally set them back. They set us back too, but we can have a margarita.

14. Allow your child to do things that scare you. Don’t mistake vulnerability for fragility. If you want her to grow increasingly independent and self-confident, let her get her learner’s permit when she comes of age; don’t offer a nuanced critique of her best friend or crush.

15. Don’t take it personally if your teenager treats you like crap. Judge his character not on the consistency of in-house politeness, clarity of speech, or degree of eye contact but on what teachers say, whether he’s welcomed by his friends’ parents, and his manners towards his grandparents, the neighbours, salespeople, and servers in restaurants.

16. Don’t automatically allow your child to quit. When he lobbies passionately against continuing an activity or program that “isn’t how I thought it would be!” it’s tempting to exhaust yourself selling him on the benefits. Instead remind yourself that first impressions are not always enduring; that a commitment to a team or group is honourable; and that your investment (of time and/or money) is not to be taken for granted. But do take his reasoned preferences into account when making future plans.

17. Refrain from trying to be popular with your children just because your parents weren’t as attuned to your emotional needs as you might have wished. Watch out for the common parental pattern of nice, nice, nice…furious!

18. Avoid the humblebrag parent lest you begin to believe that your child is already losing the race. Remind yourself that kids’ grades, popularity, or varsity ranking are not a measure of your worth as a parent (nor theirs as people). Recognise that those other parents are lying.

19. Wait at least 24 hours before shooting off an indignant email to a teacher, coach, or the parent of a mean classmate. Don’t be a “drunk texter.”  Sleep on it.

20. Consider the long-term consequences of finding work-arounds for the “no-candy-in-camp-care-packages” rule. If you demonstrate that rules are made to be broken and shortcuts can always be found, you have given your child license to plagiarise and cheat on tests.

21. Maintain perspective about school and college choices.  Parents caught up in the admissions arms race forget that the qualities of the student rather than the perceived status of the school are the best predictor of a good outcome.

22. Treat teachers like the experts and allies they are. Give your child the chance to learn respect. It’s as important a lesson as Algebra 2. Remember how life-changing a good relationship with a teacher can be.

23. Praise the process and not the product. Appreciating your child’s persistence and hard work reinforces the skills and habits that lead to success far more than applauding everyday achievements or grades.

24. If you want your child to be prepared to manage his future college workload and responsibilities, take care before you hire a tutor, a private coach, or college application consultant. There’s no room for all of them in a dorm room.

25. Rather than lurking, snooping, sniping or giving up, practice sensible stewardship of your child’s online activities. Evaluate her level of self-respect and good judgment in other areas.

26. Treat ordinary household chores and paid jobs as more important learning opportunities than jazzy extracurriculars. With real-world experience, your child will develop into an employable (and employed) adult. That said, accept that older children will get chores done on AST (Adolescent Standard Time).