OM !OM! OM!

OM …OM…OM…

I interact with children ages 8 to14 as a part of my job

A boy studying in class 4 (around 10 years) seemed to be angry all the time. He was huge… much taller and heavier than his class mates. That also made him stronger than the rest of the class. He often got teased by his peers and that obviously made him angry. Since he scored over his peers in terms of his strength, he would get even with them by harming the little ones physically. Depending on his mood, he would either catch the child by his collar and bang his head against the wall or just lift a child and drop him down. The ‘culprit’ may have laughed at his awkward way of running during the games period or just refused to include him in the football team!!!Efforts to make him realize that the consequences of his actions could be fatal were futile.
After one such incident, he was sent to my room along with the little girl who was crying inconsolably…..she looked scared and shocked ….I’m not sure which feeling was more pronounced. She had laughed at him when he fell off from the slide while playing in the garden and he had twisted her hand to get even!!!
I thought he looked guilty…perhaps he was feeling bad since the girl was crying continuously interspersed with ‘See my hand it is so red it is paining he beat me etc etc’
Probably he realized that he had used his strength disproportionately on her delicate hands. He confessed that he had not imagined that the consequences would be so grave. In that vulnerable moment, he expressed that he usually lost control when he was angry and that he wanted to become ‘good’ Could I help him? I was not expecting this. Nevertheless I was impressed but I must confess that I was at a loss as to how I could help him since it was not my arena. I quickly thought about the strategies (to shoo away the anger) that I had given to my own children when they were young. All this while the boy and the little girl were looking at me expectantly…..
Then I came up with an idea and told him with all my wisdom ‘Whenever you are angry, clench your fist and say Om, Om, Om three times in your mind. Your anger will slowly go away’. I just could not think of anything else. He seemed to like the idea and went away with a promise to follow the strategy in future. The little girl had also stopped crying by then and she too seemed to approve of this idea. I also felt happy at having disposed of the matter successfully (I thought)
A few days later when I .chanced to pass by his class I noticed that a boy had opened my hero’s pencil box and scattered his pencils all over the place. He was very ANGRY!!. I waited with bated breathe and watched expectantly…what would he do?
He got up from his place, stomped to the centre of the class, clenched his fists and screamed loudly three times OM, OM, OM.There was pin drop silence in the class. A few boys hurriedly picked up the pencils and put them back in his box. The timid ones were taken aback with his roaring voice and were quietly scared. He went back in a huff and sat down on his seat seemingly satisfied with his performance.
He had followed my strategy!!! At least he had not physically harmed anyone I thought to myself.Every time I think of this incident, I cannot but help laughing loudly

Grab every opportunity

Last year I was asked to attend a workshop on ‘AIDS AWARENESS’. It was not a part of my work profile so as a normal expected behaviour I protested.
‘Why should I know about AIDS?’ ‘Once I attend this workshop, I will be asked to take sessions for students and maybe teachers also’ ‘I will be detracting from my core profession of being a special educator’ and many more such thoughts came to my mind. I also voiced a few of these thoughts to the authorities but they went unheard and ultimately I had to attend the two day workshop. So I went for the first session in protest.
This was being conducted by the Maharashtra Aids Society and was a well planned and informative session. As the session proceeded, I learnt so many new things…it was an eye opener. We always think and believe that a particular issue does not concern us. We do not know anyone who is suffering from AIDS, what can I do about it etc, etc

But believe me after attending the session I learnt a lot and understood the gravity of the situation in India. I felt responsible for spreading awareness among teenagers (since I had access to them) who could become victims due to lack of awareness about AIDS. Surely we conducted AIDS awareness programs for teachers and students of high school(I volunteered to do it!!). Many young students came up with many valid questions and I was happy that I could satisfy their curiosity. Before attending the workshop,I was inhibited to talk about sex or any related topics openly. In fact I had never spoken about this to my own children when they were small.Fortunately they were science students and probably managed to gain information from their own sources. And here was me explaining facts to students without a shade of embarassment. I had surely benefitted.
But the most important lesson that I learnt from this ….Everything that we learn in life is never a waste. GRAB every opportunity to learn and make the most of it.

Speak Up for a Clean Mumbai!

My friends say that I am a very calm and patient person and I agree with them! But whenever I see someone littering the roads by spitting or throwing empty bottles, wrappers etc, I feel outraged. .In spite of a strong desire to do something about this, nine out of ten times I let it go without a reaction because we have been brought up to believe that in Mumbai people are supposed to mind their own business.

I was traveling in an auto rickshaw from Bandra Hill Road to Bandra Station. Although it is a short stretch , it is generally jam packed and the vehicles move at a slow speed waiting for the signal to turn green. While I was also waiting thus, I noticed a car just in front of me (I don’t remember the make but it was a big car) full of a bunch of young college boys talking in loud voices and generally having fun, Suddenly one of them lowered the glass of the window and threw three empty Pepsi bottles and wrappers of lays, biscuits etc out of the window. The meek or the complacent part of me asked me to ignore what I had seen but the other side of me coaxed me to act…..and act I did before the signal could turn green.
I asked the auto rickshaw driver to go ahead so that we were besides the car. The poor fellow managed to skillfully dodge through the vehicles. I knocked at the window of the car. The boy who had thrown the stuff ignored me. I don’t know if I am right but I thought that he looked guilty and probably did not like the expression on my face and guessed the reason for my knocking the window. However, his friends coaxed him to open the window after I tapped the second time. I tried to remain as calm as I could and simply asked ‘Is this the place to throw this garbage?’ The boy hurriedly apologized and pulled up his window after which I noticed that there was pin drop silence in the car. The boys who were enjoying themselves just a few moments ago were absolutely quiet. Just then the signal turned green and we were off on our respective routes.
That was all that I could do. But when I sit back to think of the repercussions that this incident would have had, I can say that all boys in the car will definitely think twice before littering in a public place the next time . Then the people who witnessed the incident (especially the auto rickshaw driver, the driver of the car, few people walking on the road etc) also learnt a lesson incidentally.
I appeal to all those who read my blog “Please speak up!!!Let’s have a clean Mumbai”

In the shoes of a Learning Disabled Child!!!

I have nurtured this desire to learn some form of music someday. But in the rat race of the daily routine never really got even near to do anything with music except maybe listen to FM Radio. A friend started learning the key board and that kindled a desire in me to follow suit. Peer pressure u see!!!

I have no clue about the language of music. I was introduced to the Notes. Chords, Major and Minor notes etc. I was very enthusiastic in the first few sessions but as the difficulty level increased all seemed like Latin and Greek . I was thoroughly confused and in one session I could not understand the new concept that was being introduced but was hesitant to ask for clarification. Although the teacher was very kind and encouraging, I started feeling a kind of failure. I felt everyone around me was much better than me. My classmate, a six year old boy could play the notes so effortlessly and here was I putting in so much efforts without getting the desired results. Friends, the negative tape in my mind started sending the messages “I can NEVER learn this” “Music is not my cup of tea” “I am no good” etc etc. My keyboard was not the right model since it did not have the chords. Hence I had to just sit and do nothing in one session. The teacher asked me to practice what was taught earlier and wanted me to buy a specific key board to be with the class. On that day I really felt like a child who has forgotten to get his text book or his craft material to class! I actually started having thoughts of giving up.

A truth that I already knew dawned more clearly on me .I could visualize a child with learning difficulties experiencing exactly the same feelings that I was going through…I had nothing at stake…no tests, no exams, nobody shouting or reprimanding me for my failures and still….I was feeling so low about myself.
Imagine what the child who has so much at stake….so many people to please…parents, grandparents, teachers, tuition teachers etc, etc must be going through when he is unable to do things the way his peers are able to do. He has never tasted success in his academics. He is confused as to why he is not able to do things that his friends can do so effortlessly. His little head is always worried about how he could score better in his tests so that he could make the significant people in his life happy and so many other thoughts!!!

I always felt I could empathize with the child and understand what he is going through…..but this experience has actually put me in the shoes of someone who is overwhelmed with new things to learn….and this has made me realize first hand what a child would actually be going through…

Mentoring at Teach India

I thought it was very important to share my experience as a mentor to a student of std 11.To give you a very brief background, the boy who is my mentee has secured 86% in the SSC exams and has also managed to secure admission in a reasonably good college in the science stream.

He is an intelligent and bright boy and hence does not need to be taught any study skills.In fact he can teach these to us!!!What he requires was self confidence and that could be increased if he could speak fluent English so as to be at par with his peers in college. So together we set our goal

'To speak fluent English' by the end of the academic year.

Armed with this, I asked him to write about his first day in college. He wrote about half a page. Taking this as a base, I drew his attention to the importance of maintaining the same 'tense' throughout the piece of written work. We discussed a few examples and then he started correcting his work. He is a bright child and grasped well. In a few instances he has used wrong words to express e.g has written.The teacher came to 'learn' the poem in the English period instead of 'teach'.So I explained the relationship between 'teacher' and 'teach' and explained the concept of root words.

Then we spoke about adjectives and how use of adjectives enhances the quality of the written work. We discussed a lot of examples of use of appropriate adjectives and also learnt the meaning of a few new words. As he learnt newer things I could see his expression change.....He wanted to continue to learn more but I had to get back to my commitments.I am convinced that I shall be able to make a difference in this child's life!!!!