16th June to 30th July

Well being 1 and half month late, I don't remember the details but main things include 2 group debriefs with Sanaya, which was more a obligation than any useful. I didn't find working with her quite comfortable. It ended with me mailing her about how she could accuse me of an act I haven't committed, to which she didn't reply. Seriously, there was no support, but only a watch woman asking for deliverables. I asked her several times for help, for which she either didn't reply, or said that she couldn't help. Luckily my new PM is Anoop, who is an awesome support.

Sheetal and Khush came back from US. Was so good preparing for their welcome. And time spent after they came back flew in a whizz. They had come with some extra terrestrial energy. Many things changed in Urban Ashram. Sonal's mom started coming for cooking which increased the variety of food and the taste. The energy flow started to be different. The number of people who came also increased somehow. An open gift space was opened where anyone could put any number of gifts or take them. Few people started waiting at the gate to see off the people who used to go early. Prem told us about so many different things in her mind, which she wanted to do. Then we went for a weekend retreat to Chinmaya Vibhooti. I could go only for one day as I had a PTM and VSC on saturday. The retreat was amazing, simply amazing. For retreat experience refer to the doc created and shared.

Divya had come back from Delhi. Oh my god, are there people like this also. She had literally stunned me with the personality she holds and carries. She must have gone through a lot in life to be this way. True respect. Maturity well above her age, beautiful, intelligent, wohooo and to add to it, still humble. Ufff. We went around house searching knocking on doors to find a place. The first place we found couldn't be continued due to kitchen issues. Then she found another one with help of her parents. Her father is too an amazing person. In Elisha's absence I taught History in the class.

We prepared a team for Subroto Cup, but we lost. We couldn't have 5 players in our team because they were above 14 years old. But the kids played great. Teacher investment improved. We started giving birthday cards to teachers. 

3rd April to 15th June

Well EOY's over, the major thing going on must have been the SSC exam and grading them. Divesh was leaving so helped him slightly. Went for Vipassana. Just to script it out, I had thought of 3 difficulties in order least to most: 1. Sitting doing nothing . 2. Diet change. 3. Being quiet.   Well as it turns out, it happened completely opposite. First 4 days I had problem of excess dreams, but 5th day onwards, it improved and minor headaches increased. My roommate was an ayurvedic doctor who had memory loss, taught 1 boy studying in class 12 about Mechanics on last day. Came back to find my house properly being used as marriage home by neighbors to which I was very happy. Loved the love and care of everyone who came. After marriage got over, Bhusan helped me shift to new home. In new home in expectation of going home, just started enjoying. Went for results giving, met Ishpreet, met few kids. :)

Then went home, ate, watched TV and slept. To mark few events, my cousin Sweety didi came with her mother in law and her son. I took Nipun to Science city. Went to Aquatica with mom, sarita mausi and Neha. It was fun and I feel we could have enjoyed more. But ok, everything which happens, happens good. While coming back we bought a few plants for our home. I had been requesting my mom since I don't know how long. Apart from that I became a regular viewer of many soaps and serials. I have almost finished watchin Big Bang series 4 with 1 to 3 done this summer only.

Back here, cleaned house, felt relaxed, 3 more eleveners joined our school. Shama from Goodwill and Elisha nd Divya from Delhi to teach class 8. I got to know today that how relieved are parents because our school has started class 8. I feel so damn lucky to have a corporator who I hear fought to get our school class 8.

The first day today was good. I played verbal games, spent more than an hour in class 1 which was good. :)

4th March to 2nd April

March was mostly characterised by wonderful experiences at Urban Ashram- including cleaning the dry leaves, removing the tiles, reading amazing spiritual books, Yoga and visit at Mother Teresa home. Class was similar.to remaining year. I showed the movie Nayak. EOY took hell of effort, going to Viman nagar office, checking tenners's papers, seeing the not so good performance of kids etc. Good news- New principal Rahul Jadhav came and he seems to be a damn amazing principal to work with. There was a meeting at Sidharth's house regarding the working with PM. Writing results came good. Went once to Srilekha's home. It was a good experience.

18th Feb to 4th Mar

Well I don't remember much important things happening but most important being, my deciding to initiate cooking at home and taking kids out for picnic. I bought sports equipment and food for kids for picnic. Well picnic with kids was good. Earlier only 5 arrived and then 4 came later because of my calling. The weather was good at Sarasbag and we enjoyed(well I did). Cooking wise, bought hot plate and very little utensils. Started with maggi and progressed to my latest attempt pulao. Got a flat base utensil from Khushmita. First day of pulao, a lot of water got spilled and rice was a bit uncooked but yesterday only a little water fell but spices were a little up and down. Today's cooking was better. Black chilli was a slight more but ok. It was good. Oh ya I also started going for Yoga to urban ashram.

3rd Feb to 17th Feb

Last week of the unit so trying to finish syllabus. Teaching bones, muscles and joints with sticks, cello tapes and sticks. A lot of talking with Aniket and school team related to BTCP finalisation. Time at Urban Ashram was also good. Spirited talk by Shilpa on gratitude and last bonfire on terrace of Urban Ashram. Unit test and parent teacher meeting on Saturday. Well I would say the parent teacher meeting with highest turnout. It went also good. Asked Dudhbhate and Pranav to come for conference. Sunday the 12th was overall good. Kids pulled it up good, Dudhbhate started crying there which made me nervous like anything, so lessened my expectation. Session by Gio was good on remediation and open forum was fantabulous. I think the open forum also had the highest turnouts and specially 10ers were waiting because of the Namrata's case. Many valid points were raised but city team didn't reply anything owing to a legal advice to remain silent. Then Nikhil considering the importance of the open forum also got a minutes made as city team didn't but Shaheen
(who was not even there in meeting) just bluntly said that the facts in the minute were wrong, but personally speaking I could remember everything written happened in the open forum. Like I don't know , the mail just opened my eyes, that yes professional life has to be full of lies. Someone not being present decides that real events testified by eye witnesses did not happen. What the hell!!!

Hm. Then Namrata got reinstated. This Wednesday was also very good. Laughter on the swing. This week we had holidays on Wednesday to Friday due to elections and I had a real calm time. I also got to know today that the reliance prepaid number I am using since last 5 months is being registered in the Reliance system as someone else's postpaid number since 2 years. Whatt??? Then today, i.e. Friday we(Surya, Neha, me and Sheetal) went to Vaswani mission, there we got to know that Jahan bhai's family were also coming. The show was purely phenomenal. Then we went for dinner at Supriya. The food was really great. Wonderful day. Then just came back around an hour back and am on net.

30th Dec to 2nd Feb

30th Dec: Reached Mumbai. Had Birthday celebration in train itself with Arnav and Neha. Missed Borivali station so got down at Dadar. Freshened up at Neha's place and slept. :D Wow amazing birthday going on. Slept from 9 to 11 AM. Wow. :D :D Then bought some spices and went to orphanage, where a couple had come to celebrate birthday of their 1 year old kid. Then played with kids for around an hour and came back home. Then again slept. Wow. Sleeping birthday. Then Sathya came and we ate in a nearby restaraunt. Tried making ticket to come back to Pune but unsuccessful. Sathya gave me an amazing book as gift, "Jonathan Livingston Seagull" and "Emotional Intelligence" to Neha.
31st Dec: Woke up at 4:30, freshened up and left for station. Got the bus of 6:45 and reached Pune at 10:20. Rushed back home to go to school that 5 kids came. WHAT????? I did so much running for 5 kids to teach for an hour? Rubbish. Spent new year eve by sleeping 9 to 9.
1st Jan to 2nd Feb: Well went all through in just trying the normal routine stuff. Time at Urban Ashram became amazing. Once, when I was really pissed at how things were going, Sheetal gave me 3 Tsunamika and Khushmita gave me a brownie. We also had a bonfire and Shilpa introduced me to EFT. It was a good day. Class wise just some new kids started a new misbehavior streak. I attended a session by K B Jinan on how to handle kids. It was good. Also started loving books of J P Vaswani. Got the food from Anwesha. Wowoo, the food mom sent is just so yummy.

Ahmedabad Retreat

It started with session with Jeet and Geet Sethi. The main points included the necessity of Consistency, Compassion and humility. The example of Prakash Padukone and the Billiards player who won an amazing game just after the news of death of his father was inspiring to me.

Then I had a feelings map with Jeet Patel, who coordinated a very good time. He shared and set the tone for sharing. People truly shared their struggles and successes. Then I got to know the work of Aanganwadi through Neeta Behen. The slow and steady work of Manav Sadhna had really showed  fruits. Well what impressed me most was the truth and commitment I could see in her eyes and voice. Then there was a dance performance by Ekatva kids. Purely amazing and marvellous.

2^nd day was for Flow with Love project. I met a man who was running a small(may be micro will be correct word) NGO as he used to go to village with few friends to help people. I suggested that he might like to join some NGO which he was not ready as he was assured of all NGO’s being corrupt or having to bribe hugely to get donations. This made me realize how many people are cynical.  Then I roamed around Ahmedabad talking and asking for shelter with people. After I lost hope I decided to show some love to beggars, and sit and care for them. So sat and cleaned beggars and saw the insult and poor health and hygiene beggars face.  One beggar was physically handicapped and so became a postmaster due to quota but was suspended 2 years back due to manipulation and cheating by juniors. Unable to find any other job and been in the lifestyle of 26000 per month, he resorted to begging, hiding from his family what he really does and lies that he works in a private company. This made me realize how small I am and how much more of world I have left to see. How hard it is to be not able to share with anyone in your own family what you do for a living. How lonely a person can get in a quest to support the same family. How prejudiced our minds are towards who don’t look good.

Last day was almost to relax. Nothing important happened.