"Aap hume badha hassate ho, jab aap chale jaoge tab hum yahi yaad karke royenge " ("You make us laugh a lot, after you leave, we will remember this and cry " ).
One single line that left me speechless and not in a state to say anything to that sixteen year old girl. Worrying and speculating about the future is not the kind of hobby that I like to indulge in. I am more of a believer of the fact that the present, this moment is the only thing we have as of now, and it is better to seize it. It took me some time to get over what the girl had expressed, and I just left after asking her to not to worry so much about what the future holds.
I was discussing this incident with my friend and co-intern Shivangi, when she told me "unhe kahiyo rulane ke liye thodi na hasate hain" ("Tell them, we don't make you laugh so that you cry "), this line hit me hard and it made me realise what that sixteen year old girl had said was actually what we all do!
In our day-to-day lives, we often think of the past, the happy moments and instead cherishing those memories we end up brooding over them. Instead of being glad for the fact that we had the opportunity to live such moments, of being with our loved ones and enjoying, we tend to be upset comparing those moments with the present situation. A famous quotation by Dr. Seuss is the only thing that comes to my mind in such situations, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened". The next day when I go to visit the kids, I will surely tell them of the same and make them understand it's significance.
As on the teaching front, two days were spent explaining articles and doing a worksheet which consisted of thirty sentences, half of which were done in class and half given as homework. There were two Maths worksheets which were pending to be discussed, they were seen to as well. Yesterday, a test was conducted on articles, and the result seemed satisfying enough.
However, not everything is going perfect and just as planned,the thing that seemed disturbing was when we were discussing the Maths worksheet on BODMAS,the children appeared to have forgotten basic decimal multiplication and division, on which we had spent about a week. This fact troubled Prateek and me a lot. There isn't any point in going ahead and doing things of higher level when things done just a week before are not clear. There had been a test on the same earlier, and the results were pretty good! It is confusing to see those kids who got all questions correct not only in homework but also in class and in the test not being able to do a basic question! This is not how things were meant to turn out and thus we decided that we wouldn't do anything new, but rather do more questions on decimals, give out hand written notes, solve worksheets in class and maybe take another test. It is important to get these basics clear before one can proceed with higher stuff. Yes, that is the plan for the next two classes atleast.
Disregarding the prevailing disappointment, the kids have managed to surprised us once again! They are organising a "function" for us, scheduled around the date when we would officially be leaving Parichay. They are organising the entire thing on their own without the guidance of any elderly! This was meant to be a surprise for us, however being kids, it is definitely difficult for them to hide such a thing.
Yesterday while leaving, we were just talking with the kids, and we got to know that one girl(the same sixteen year old girl) dances very well. I asked her whether she would be dancing during the function or not, she replied in negation stating that her mother wasn't allowing. She then asked me whether I would like to see her dance, when I replied in affirmative, she said "phir hum zaroor dance karenge, kya hojayega? bas thodi daant hi toh sunni padhegi ghar par "("then I will definitely dance, what will happen ? I will only be scolded at home").
Once again, that girl had left me with no words to say! We left after persuading her to not to go against the wishes of her family members.
On our way back I was just remembering Mr. Bajpai's words on our first day, he had told us that these kids are so innocent and filled with love that we'll definitely enjoy our time here. Truer words were never spoken. Seriously.
One single line that left me speechless and not in a state to say anything to that sixteen year old girl. Worrying and speculating about the future is not the kind of hobby that I like to indulge in. I am more of a believer of the fact that the present, this moment is the only thing we have as of now, and it is better to seize it. It took me some time to get over what the girl had expressed, and I just left after asking her to not to worry so much about what the future holds.
I was discussing this incident with my friend and co-intern Shivangi, when she told me "unhe kahiyo rulane ke liye thodi na hasate hain" ("Tell them, we don't make you laugh so that you cry "), this line hit me hard and it made me realise what that sixteen year old girl had said was actually what we all do!
In our day-to-day lives, we often think of the past, the happy moments and instead cherishing those memories we end up brooding over them. Instead of being glad for the fact that we had the opportunity to live such moments, of being with our loved ones and enjoying, we tend to be upset comparing those moments with the present situation. A famous quotation by Dr. Seuss is the only thing that comes to my mind in such situations, "Don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened". The next day when I go to visit the kids, I will surely tell them of the same and make them understand it's significance.
As on the teaching front, two days were spent explaining articles and doing a worksheet which consisted of thirty sentences, half of which were done in class and half given as homework. There were two Maths worksheets which were pending to be discussed, they were seen to as well. Yesterday, a test was conducted on articles, and the result seemed satisfying enough.
However, not everything is going perfect and just as planned,the thing that seemed disturbing was when we were discussing the Maths worksheet on BODMAS,the children appeared to have forgotten basic decimal multiplication and division, on which we had spent about a week. This fact troubled Prateek and me a lot. There isn't any point in going ahead and doing things of higher level when things done just a week before are not clear. There had been a test on the same earlier, and the results were pretty good! It is confusing to see those kids who got all questions correct not only in homework but also in class and in the test not being able to do a basic question! This is not how things were meant to turn out and thus we decided that we wouldn't do anything new, but rather do more questions on decimals, give out hand written notes, solve worksheets in class and maybe take another test. It is important to get these basics clear before one can proceed with higher stuff. Yes, that is the plan for the next two classes atleast.
Disregarding the prevailing disappointment, the kids have managed to surprised us once again! They are organising a "function" for us, scheduled around the date when we would officially be leaving Parichay. They are organising the entire thing on their own without the guidance of any elderly! This was meant to be a surprise for us, however being kids, it is definitely difficult for them to hide such a thing.
Yesterday while leaving, we were just talking with the kids, and we got to know that one girl(the same sixteen year old girl) dances very well. I asked her whether she would be dancing during the function or not, she replied in negation stating that her mother wasn't allowing. She then asked me whether I would like to see her dance, when I replied in affirmative, she said "phir hum zaroor dance karenge, kya hojayega? bas thodi daant hi toh sunni padhegi ghar par "("then I will definitely dance, what will happen ? I will only be scolded at home").
Once again, that girl had left me with no words to say! We left after persuading her to not to go against the wishes of her family members.
On our way back I was just remembering Mr. Bajpai's words on our first day, he had told us that these kids are so innocent and filled with love that we'll definitely enjoy our time here. Truer words were never spoken. Seriously.
These kids seem to have an ability to surprise you every time! But I must say, they are lucky to have such wonderful people putting in so much effort behind their learning.
ReplyDeleteI'm sure they are not just your students, but some great young friends to stay for a lifetime!
Yes they do! Whenever I think now they can't do anything else,I'm even more surprised!
DeleteYes, I think so too. We're not leaving each other too soon :)