The speeding light at the end of the tunnel may be a freight train coming your way!

Metallica concert scrapped in Gurgaon and goes well in Bangalore, F1 administration does a good job of executing an international event as Lucknow awaits the 7 billionth baby as the earth's retaliation shows in Bangkok with floods and rare October snow in US Northeast.

The speeding light at the end of the tunnel may be a freight train coming your way!

Metallica concert scrapped in Gurgaon and goes well in Bangalore, F1 administration does a good job of executing an international event as Lucknow awaits the 7 billionth baby as the earth's retaliation shows in Bangkok with floods and rare October snow in US Northeast.

Teaching to learn

Another Saturday morning found me giving art classes in Saksham- an NGO school for underprivileged children of a huge labor class population in Gurgaon. I went with 20 copies of face expressions, a chart I found somewhere that serves as a guide of sorts for amateur cartoonists. Though I went solely with the intention to discuss and draw facial expressions, it turned out to be a language-translation class of sorts that took me by (pleasant) surprise and tested my ability to teach, translate and engage 24 enthusiastic kids in the age group of 10-15. Here’s the chart-



The class started with asking the children what they understood of each expression. All conversations with them were in Hindi. But the printout wasn’t clear enough, so I had to write most of the words on the board and explain the meaning of each in Hindi. I realized later that I was over-expecting the children to know what words like ‘hysterical’ and ‘eavesdropping’ meant. Of course. Some children asked me to use the word in a sentence, leading to this silence from my side with my head spinning for a while on Saturday morning on how to break this down in an interesting way for a 12-year-old. It better be interesting; in case I used too ‘grown-up’ examples, it could lead to disconnect with them. This led me to acting out some of the words. This is where the fun started. I got giggles with explaining ‘love struck’ with participation from the backbenchers, some blanked out looks with ‘hung-over’. Most words were not easy to explain to my satisfaction, like the difference between ‘arrogant’ and ‘obstinate’. Asking them what Bollywood actor they thought were arrogant and obstinate got us some interesting common answers! Cricket and Bollywood- two great aids in teaching, I tell you; always works with children to get them interested.

Children understood the more ‘physical’ meanings of words like ‘pained’ and ‘hurt’ than the emotional meanings, which gave me this ‘it-will-take-them-a-while-to-figure-that-one’ sense. ‘Horrified’ meant more than just what you felt in a horror film, like a mother’s reaction to what children could do to their rooms. ‘Optimistic’ was not the same as ‘Happy’ and ‘Blissful’ and had to be explained in contrast to ‘Pessimistic’. A lot of the examples were examination related because at this age, I figured exams brought in some amount of reactions and emotions- no thanks to my formative years of high stress on academics. These were- I was ‘relieved’ when the exams were over’; the parents were ‘shocked’ at the child’s results; I was ‘ecstatic’ when I was declared first in class. Some words that I still have to act out convincingly are ‘smug’ and ‘sheepish’! In case you find this funny, try doing this in front of 24 odd children. It takes an experienced stage artist to hold, engage and convey effectively! Words like aggressive, disapproving, grieving, frustrated and exasperated took a while to communicate. They were also writing down the hindi meanings of each word in their sketch books, which made me realize how important this class was for them.

It felt like a good day with one substantial hour spent here, with some amount of self-introspection, questioning my ability to communicate to an audience with simple words.

Teaching to learn

Another Saturday morning found me giving art classes in Saksham- an NGO school for underprivileged children of a huge labor class population in Gurgaon. I went with 20 copies of face expressions, a chart I found somewhere that serves as a guide of sorts for amateur cartoonists. Though I went solely with the intention to discuss and draw facial expressions, it turned out to be a language-translation class of sorts that took me by (pleasant) surprise and tested my ability to teach, translate and engage 24 enthusiastic kids in the age group of 10-15. Here’s the chart-



The class started with asking the children what they understood of each expression. All conversations with them were in Hindi. But the printout wasn’t clear enough, so I had to write most of the words on the board and explain the meaning of each in Hindi. I realized later that I was over-expecting the children to know what words like ‘hysterical’ and ‘eavesdropping’ meant. Of course. Some children asked me to use the word in a sentence, leading to this silence from my side with my head spinning for a while on Saturday morning on how to break this down in an interesting way for a 12-year-old. It better be interesting; in case I used too ‘grown-up’ examples, it could lead to disconnect with them. This led me to acting out some of the words. This is where the fun started. I got giggles with explaining ‘love struck’ with participation from the backbenchers, some blanked out looks with ‘hung-over’. Most words were not easy to explain to my satisfaction, like the difference between ‘arrogant’ and ‘obstinate’. Asking them what Bollywood actor they thought were arrogant and obstinate got us some interesting common answers! Cricket and Bollywood- two great aids in teaching, I tell you; always works with children to get them interested.

Children understood the more ‘physical’ meanings of words like ‘pained’ and ‘hurt’ than the emotional meanings, which gave me this ‘it-will-take-them-a-while-to-figure-that-one’ sense. ‘Horrified’ meant more than just what you felt in a horror film, like a mother’s reaction to what children could do to their rooms. ‘Optimistic’ was not the same as ‘Happy’ and ‘Blissful’ and had to be explained in contrast to ‘Pessimistic’. A lot of the examples were examination related because at this age, I figured exams brought in some amount of reactions and emotions- no thanks to my formative years of high stress on academics. These were- I was ‘relieved’ when the exams were over’; the parents were ‘shocked’ at the child’s results; I was ‘ecstatic’ when I was declared first in class. Some words that I still have to act out convincingly are ‘smug’ and ‘sheepish’! In case you find this funny, try doing this in front of 24 odd children. It takes an experienced stage artist to hold, engage and convey effectively! Words like aggressive, disapproving, grieving, frustrated and exasperated took a while to communicate. They were also writing down the hindi meanings of each word in their sketch books, which made me realize how important this class was for them.

It felt like a good day with one substantial hour spent here, with some amount of self-introspection, questioning my ability to communicate to an audience with simple words.

Light one up, Mr. Roboto

Sarkozys are parents to a baby girl as multiplexes jack up Ra.One prices and Bangalore Metro flags off today while Philip Morris's net income rose 30% to 2.38 bn, Libya starts afresh without Muammar Gaddafi and Tokyo tech fair opens with robotic clapping of hands.

Light one up, Mr. Roboto

Sarkozys are parents to a baby girl as multiplexes jack up Ra.One prices and Bangalore Metro flags off today while Philip Morris's net income rose 30% to 2.38 bn, Libya starts afresh without Muammar Gaddafi and Tokyo tech fair opens with robotic clapping of hands.

Rebuild

I close my eyes and imagine I am in a large clearing in a forest. As I look around, in front of me, all my past achievements materialize together in one large abstract shape. The shape has grown by tens of feet and is now as large as a building. These are things I have always been proud of. I brag about it, use it as a totem pole of pride, my flags and feathers are stuck on in it and I show it off to people. I use it as a support and a descriptive to who I am. I like to think I have done great things and I am my own Superman and Thor.

Now here’s the problem. I am not able to do new things with my life because this colossal pole will not move anywhere. It’s fixed, solid. I have built my home around it; using it as a support to hold up parts of my house. The roots are growing around it and I am in the process of getting fossilized.

I stand up and walk a few feet away from this ‘shape’. As I think hard about letting go of this all, I begin to scale up in size. I am now as tall as this abomination. Suddenly from nowhere, a Samurai sword appears in my hand. I look at the beautiful weapon. Its not just any sword. It’s a beautiful high-carbon steel Katana. I seem to know Kenjutsu and how to handle this work of art. I now have a job at hand.

All this building over the years of past achievements has been stopping me from advancing to next levels and take larger steps. It is time to destroy what I already have done, and move to new things. The less I have, the less I carry and faster will I move. It’s either a skinny hermit running through a forest or a fat rich man on a cushion. Let it all go now. As my mind focuses on the central core in my chest, my body has moved swiftly and slashed down this behemoth of a structure- created with my pride over past achievements. It has been reduced to a rubble. I put the Katana back into its sheath and look at the rest of the clearing. The forest looks larger and there is more to explore, because I want to. I run into the dark greens.