Dreadful December
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| From YFD |
In ways more than one,
The month had a maggi-ish fun,
The roads were all maggi-ish-ly confusingly done,
Although signs of that yummy warmth were none !
The work was progressing in a maze of haze,
No path seemed to help remove my state of daze,
For me, taking directions became a craze,
And yet i realized demoralization i had to brace!
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Well that was work, and then comes "play",
About which i .. oh .. i doubt there is anything i can say!
To top, "tiffin bhaiyya" ditched night and day,
And there was MAGGI; the savior day after day!
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| From YFD |
And then comes Sleep - work, play, and sleep,
And that too was hard to safe keep,
Often i felt i should simply weep,
So my worries would take pity on me and stop getting more steep!
And then there was (IS!) the weather to compound things,
As i said - no yummy warmth, just the Cold wind sings,
A song of how the cold pierces like million pins,
And makes life look like a cold metal chain with zillion chinks!
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| From YFD |
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To tell you more, teaching English became ,
A nightmare, a wild horse difficult to tame,
The pedagogy confounded me like rules of a difficult game,
It WAS like deadly convoluted maggi, but.. i like maggi all the same...
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| From YFD |
I got dreams of a deadly noodle noose,
Made of all the work-load left loose,
And the ever-ungettable plans for the 'samoohs',
And my ambitious plans for action project were getting booos!
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| From YFD |
My four 'samoohs' had taken place of my food and drink,
And one was my sleep and play and my HARD drink,
for it had 31 kids, difficult to handle, going off the brink,
31 levels in English; impossible to teach in sync,
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| From YFD |
Well, it was all definitely maggi-ish,
A picture maddeningly funnily amusingly 'mashed potato-ish',
At one point i thought i was doing injustice; teaching rubbish,
But then, that was 'WAS', and what is 'IS' is a much tastier non-messy dish...
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| From YFD Courtesy: Sayani |
The month ended with 10 fruitful days,
I prepared my kids for English exams in some common, some innovative ways,
I attended teacher workshops and feasted on novel teaching technique giveaways,
Fabulous it feels now, my mind says :)
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| From YFD Art Exhibition Photos courtesy: Sayani |
Events like the school art exhibition added to the fun,
And though there still are some messy roads to be undone,
I am sure there will always be enough for me to brave the urge to run,
And So, friends, the Dreadful Cold December did have some light, some sun ...
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| Courtesy: Ashwani |
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| From YFD |
P.S.:
I have come to love my work...
Makes me wish i was trained before,
And, I know this opportunity is no quirk,
So i'd make the most of it while facing whatever is in store.....
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| From YFD |
Report for the Month 27 Oct to 27 Nov.:
New November
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| From YFD |
As the month of October
Melted into the wintry November
The clouds quietly travelled along the horizon
To cover the parched land below
With the cool waters from the heaven
And, at the same time
Their black shadow...
It all started as a fairytale entry
Into the Pink City, not so pink
The city dust gave way to beautiful hills
And there we were, at the new home
The new life
The new November
From YFD
From YFD
The first week passed with detailed readings
As we soaked in the Sun and the place ...
The Sand of this desert land Laced our feet
As if it was it’s special way to greet !
I hadn’t yet begun with any serious work
So dependent on my “to be” experiences ...
We met our mentor Mr. Dilip
A man of great knowledge,
A person with interesting thoughts...
And Mrs. Reena
A super quick decision maker
A fountainhead of ideas ...
We visited all schools, this was the start
Kicking off the process of making our findings ...
Dilip Ji: AEP Coordinator; From YFD
Reena Ji, Director, Digantar; From YfD
The second week brought in work
- We would teach English to students at Bandhyali
It also brought insights
- The system here was malfunctioning ...
I found myself in the midst of little children
Whom i’d teach rudimentary English
Then I had ‘big children’
Who would be in secondary and higher secondary
And those in the middle
Who came across as a mass of typical teenagers
ALL knowing nearly no English ...!
There was scepticism in my small head
And gazillion ideas, seconded by intent thoughts
On how I’d go about doing the job so entrusted
It seemed impossible at times
And then suddenly achievable
... oh my poor head, my small head
Was finally, so much, at work
From YFD
From YFD
The system, as I saw, is full of paperwork
And the (in)famous intensive documentation
In the school, there were no classes (1st, 8th, 12th )
No boundaries
Of my idea of a “school”, I found no traces.
The rules were created, complied to, maintained, and broken
All by the students themselves!
The school was a home to all sorts of students
Some of whom wanted to study even more
While some just wanted to play and have fun...
I could see each student had her own identity
For each teacher knew all aspects about ‘em...
Sapna, Udan, Lehar; some of the learning groups’ names
Signified an ideology, a culture
Of learning via thinking and applying
Rather than simply knowing...
I could see no curriculum, no set pattern
No bounds to possible creativity in teaching work ...
From YFD
The third and fourth weeks
Were strewn with surprises and shocks
Surprises, each time the children
Displayed their immense capabilities
Shocks, each time I discovered gaps in the system...
And found myselfs in disagreement
With the approaches towards great philosophies...
I have been teaching; four weeks now
My throat is sore, feet hurt
Literally...
But the challenge is on, my small head is growing
With loads of planning, loads of the very paperwork I dislike
I am slowly getting onto the next level
Now, Children learn, while I learn
All of us give and take, together
And learning multiplies!
From YFD
The coming month shall show me more
As I become a part of “community visits”
And more intensive planning for my children here...
The processes and systems here may not necessarily grow on me
But the philosophy sure will
The coming month shall show me a lot more ...
From YFD
Bynote:
The landscape here is picturesque
As beautiful as ... some description of heaven
The clouds sweep across the skies
Like waves across the ocean
The colors, golden, yellow, blue, grey, orange, crimson
Strike startling images, everyday, on nature’s canvas
The hills, brown and green in varying shades
Stay in the horizon with stately appeal
....There are endless admirations I have
Of this place
I can go on,
But for now I will just suffice to say
This place is beautiful
As beautiful as ....
From YFD
From YFD
From YFD 'SUNSET' Courtesy:Sayani
