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.

11th to 20th Dec-huhh

This is the shortest time interval in which I am writing blog since I think after 2nd week of insti, i.e around 6 months back. Last 9 days have been actually on better side. Mostly grammar in school, integrating with PMC teacher, Aniket's observation on 13th was decent. He asked me to work on Investment of kids, ate dinner at Iyer's. It was good, chutney and sambhar were pretty concentrated. Wednesday was start of almost a change in my life. The experience of Urban ashram was phenomenal. I remembered my comfort on Saturdays. Awesome. Well Friday after the school went bad but on Saturday I went convinced that it will be good and taught loads of maths and it was almost. Sunday was conference. Hmm. I will call a below average overall. I felt the sessions could have been better planned. The hopping around in Pune with Abhimanyu and Karthik was good. Monday also I spent on maths. Tuesday on Unit test of maths and then PT and games.

November till mid December

I came back to Pune confused, disheartened not sure if anything had changed. The journey before vacation had taken away full energy. Sunday I came, train late around 5 hours. Tensed completely what would happen. Got to know only a few days back that Monday is not school. Sunday evening went in just arranging the house slightly and  slept. Monday went in checking mails and replying. Work of Unit plan 4 had just started. I went school on Tuesday to find that only 5 kids had come. So on Tuesday we just played, miscellaneous ways. GK and some more time pass stuff. Vineela hadn’t come back so had her kids also. Wednesday the number just increased to 7 but that also meant no serious study. Thursday was a holiday for some crap. So I went on Wednesday to Ramneet’s home. Stayed there, talked about all sort of random stuff. It was a good time. Defense people get so much luxury, ya I agree their work is also very hard and it is well deserved. Ramneet’s sister and brother in law are both pass outs from AFMC that means both are in army and are working as Major. At night we talked about how profitable is the BPO sector. You just need the right contacts, but isn’t all jobs about having to do right kind of work. Just work to find the needy, finding provider is easy or else you can create also and lead it. Thursday morning, Ramneet didn’t wake up but I could not sleep more. At around 9 I got a call from Divesh saying that holiday is cancelled and I should come. Then I called kids and informed that vacation has ended and forcible called Pinku to school for some study. I meanwhile arranged the cupboard. Friday the attendance increased a little and Saturday a little more but still it was less than 15 only. On Friday it was birthday of Maulana Abul Kalam Azad and teachers called me to speak on him, I hadn’t prepared anything but just gave a random speech with the little knowledge I had. Weekend just got over in more planning stuff. From next week the attendance of kids increased, Kalpesh had got seriously ill and Hruthvik shifted to village. I was sad, chatted with Sandeep and he consoled me. I had started reading Teach like a champion. I met Sivaram a couple of times, it helped me a lot. The PDPM debrief was more a formality. The conference was good, some good sessions. On 1^st December, there was co-observation with Sandeep and Aniket. I was so nervous that I slept late, woke up early. Phonics went good, grammar not so good. I got confused in explaining “But”. Sandeep left a quite positive note. Meet with Aniket also went good. He said it was the my best lesson he has observed. Then I met Sivaram, it was good, I felt very good, learning so so much from his experiences. Then meet with Siddharth- It was better than I expected, as should be with a city director. He gave a book Swift, which is about how change happens. Next day in phone check-in I told Aniket what all I need. I realized that I have full technical support but what I need is emotional support. I told him this completely, but he didn’t quite understand it. Ok. I let it out from my side. The week went overall good. Tuesday again a holiday for Muharram. I went to Anwesha’s place. It was such a good day. May be the best after I came back from home. Good food, good conversations, all in all an amazing day. In phone check-in I asked Aniket about many doubts related to TAL which I read on Sunday. On Wednesday, meet with all new teachers and my co-teacher didn’t attend. By the way she stopped coming to my class from that day because few teachers were absent. Well Thursday and Friday were normal routine stuff. On Friday I had a wish to do exercise, so exercised for around 2 hours. On Saturday I went to Upper Otta met all kids, got to know to Raghwan’s home also. I was very happy to see Chaitrali studying and also only planning to study whole day.

Mid Sept to Nov

Well September went only in trying to get class in decent position. Initial work of "What will I do about it" started. It was a nice experience working with Ashwin, Seema, Swati and Sunny- all of them among leaders both in classroom and clearly in coming years. First meet in Barista in which I got late. Second in TFI office, where I was late again. Uhh.. I had stopped being late since last 2 years. Pune traffic is jam in evening. I didn't expect that having a smooth experience before this. And in 2nd meet, guilty of being late I was standing out of office when Chaitali spotted me and asked me to come in. Next few meetings were in Seema and Swati's home. Well they have a beautiful home and also had Dabeli for snacks. Abhimanyu and Anwesha remained a constant support of pillar all throughout. Jagriti also became a friend in the meantime. There were some One team events where we got a chance to meet different people. One in East street where the organisers were also late, then in MG road park for Joy of Giving where the junta was quite less, may be also due to the rain that day. Well I also went through a time or may be a week of ill health. Bad time but at least got some help from Divesh when needed. Also went through a rough time with Hruthvik, to the extent that I went to his home before vacation to teach him mother phonics. I gave holiday homework to all kids and a photocopy of history book to all.

Vacation: I went home by the Azad Hind, had to pay 200 for Auto, then my ticket was not confirmed but RAC, the train also had a pathetic rush, so it didn't matter if I had confirmed ticket also, the bogey was full due to Diwali rush. Got to meet an IT proffessional while going to Kol. Reached around 4-5 hours late. Took bus only to home, to see Sanjay mamaji there. Next day I went for new home opening of Arun chachaji, and on the way back bought a 32'' TV. On small Diwali I went to nanibari. Met Madhu mami for first time.Well we could not talk much, maybe due to 2 reasons- I was a bit confused and secondly because it was late night. Diwali was not so special, just like any other day. Next day just went by. On Bhai dooj I got many good food to eat. I also went out with Prerna and Trisha. Good time spent in City Centre 2. Saturday my uncle and aunt came. Sunday we went to Science City. Good time. Then there was feast in nanibari. My father and Kitty both got ill that day. Monday was dull. Tuesday we went to South City(Pizza hut meal was good) and also to Natural Height.Wednesday they left. Thursday and Friday just went by like that and again Azad Hind express. There was a lady who had AC waitlisted e-ticket who had first experience of travelling without ticket. She started crying and I assured her that it would just cost some money nothing else. She was a teacher too. Another person in compartment was doing BeEd. Wow travelling with 2 teachers in same compartment. Another difference I noticed was this. Never did I see or may be 1 in 200 times did I find a girl in 20s travelling in sleeper during trip to Kanpur and back but in this trip I could spot many. :P

Mid July-August

Today is 26th November and am writing for July and August.Well I am writing this 2^nd time because last time’s writing got lost because Microsoft office crashed so everything in very short now:

Conference:

·       Lady helping in shifting and all young people relaxing

·       Bus’s clutch failed so got into last bus which was full of luggage too.

·       Rutika’s vomiting

·       Binu’s boyfriend, Aniket’s shave and Neha’s parents

·       Electric Diva and some performances

·       The chart written by everyone and visiting card

·       Final hugs.

·       Luggage left in bus

·       Meeting with Ishpreet in Divesh’s home

Other small things:

·       Recharge by Sumang and Archana’s sim

·       Talk with Anuj and Sanket

·       Rangoli welcome by kids and management going bizarre

·       Assurance by Divesh

·       Scholarship exam, Jyoti teacher’s nuisance and meet with Hitesh

·       Registration of house and being late in school

·       Splitting of class.

·       PM debriefs-phonics and grammar.

·       Independence day sound system

·       Amazing Sinhagad trip with Hitesh, Binu, Prashant and Nishant. The wind point, the tasty food, the pure fun.

Mom’s visit:

·       Mobile discharge and enquiry counter confusion

·       Cleaning spree and shopping.

·       Surat trip: Bus late, mall visits, shopping, the alchemist, taiji’s home food- chowmein and dosa, return back.

·       Heavy rain and coming back.

·       Late night drop at station.