Summer Holidays

The mere mention of summer holidays transport me to those long long days which we used to spend giggling,munching and playing with friends, unmindful of the scorching heat, unmindful of Ma's stern stares and reprimands.
How I used to love licking the sweet tamarinds,ice lollies and candies, following my cousins all around the house like a tail - that was the best I could manage since nobody gave me any particular attention,I being the youngest of the lot.
So it was kind of reliving those magical moments when I went to my masi's place this time.My young ones were thoroughly pampered and so was I.
Taking some time out of our schedules is a must , if only to remodel our perspective, if only to let our children too get a taste of that magical world found only in our extended families. We should really drop our inhibitions and complexes (however high or low they might be) and take time out to be with our kin.It is therapeutic. It is for me.
My children are happier,they have enjoyed themselves thoroughly with their cousins.
I am happier and more positive towards my life.

Introspection

Are moral values passed on to us or instilled into us by our parents ? Does the peer influence play a significant role in strengthening our outlook towards morality?
I am one of the lucky ones who got honest parents and siblings, I certainly look up to them whenever I am in distress.
I am still luckier that for almost 8 years, I was a part of the teaching fraternity. I had a chance to influence young and vulnerable minds and was able to mould them into IT professionals .Indeed , the compliments of some of the students transfer me to some alien world where I feel loved, respected and admired. It is almost embarrassing to feel so good. I have resigned voluntarily but twinges of remorse are there.
Glimpses of that alien world come rushing to me now and then leaving me sad and wanting for more.Though I have my family and well wishers around me but there is this emptiness which encompasses me at times,refusing to go away and often finding home in my soul. I want to teach again. I want to lose myself in those magical moments of teaching again.
There are yet more times when I wonder at how well I've fared through these 36 years of my life.
Again, I am lucky that I am able to not only retrospect but introspect too.The bad moments torment me and I refuse to let destiny take the blame.
I have never been able to take good decisions and sometimes I feel, I might have even let my parents down.
Why couldn't I have been more restrained? Why couldn't I not empathise with my mother's problems when I was just on the threshold of crossing my teens?
I should have looked deeper inside me ,I should have been able to find my own solutions. Instead I chose to drift away to meaningless values of all those around me .I should have listened to that tiny voice belonging to me, so lovingly reared by my mother.
Now I do and that I do, people find it difficult to bear me.Only my children and students find me fit to follow and emulate. And these very values which have been instilled into me by my parents,which have not been influenced by my peers make me feel at peace with myself.

Chilren's Aptitude tests

I passed out of my X in 1987 .As far as I was concerned , my career stream was chosen according to my marks. I was very good in PCM and even Biology ; got an amazing rank in JET (I was 9th in Punjab) and therefore landed in a prestigious engineering college in the department of Computer Sciences. But inspite of being a good teacher today in my Department , I am not satisfied with what I did , I always keep on thinking about what I could have done .I don’t have the aptitude for being an engineer but I am a good listener , a good adviser and a good lecturer ( at least my students say so). Life has been kind to me but would it show the same kindness to my children? What kind of training should they get to get the best out of their personalities? If my daughter is a bit absent minded but still good at her studies , should I pressurize her to score more? I often think about this predicament of mine , how should I introduce her to the gift of enjoying life without wasting her talents? Because that is exactly what I have done at times : wasted my talents and precious time too.

Admission of my child to L.K.G.

My daughter is already in the prestigious Sacred Heart Convent School and an 'O' grader throuhout - she is in std. IV right now. I, myself am an educationist and my husband is a second officer in the Merchant Navy , in short , both of us are well educated. So I was pretty confident that my son too would get admission in the same school. Moreso, it was one of the basic needs for me since in the absence of my hubby , it becomes very ough on me to run between two schools , not to mention various other chores. Therefore it was a shock when the respected Sister refused admission to my son and would not listen to any of my pleas , this despite the fact that many other people were flaunting late admissions in the same class on the basis of jacks and what not. I kept on wondering for many days and I still wonder what exactly is the criterion that these prestigious schools follow to select students for classes which are bursting at their seams with a ratio of almost >60 students : 1 teacher and where sometimes the teacher doen't know what to answer if you ask about your child's shortcomings / merits ; they have a standard answer that everything is fine . In retrospect , I think any good English medium school would be fine for me which has a reasonable student teacher ratio , where my child would not be just another cute face and where the presence of an intelligent sibling would ensure that my other child would get admission also.
I, myself being a teacher can very well appreciate the anxieties of all those working mothers/parents who have to rush about to make each day a success and I must say that I was very much disappointed when a good school and no doubt a good Sister failed to understand and appreciate the same.