Dew

I was working on Environmental Studies Homework with my six year old daughter. ( Oh yes, it is nice to study some things again with a little student friend as long as it is not Algebra and Geometry, I can confidently say! ) "My Family" was the first lesson. The text read: Tina is six years old. Her father is a doctor. Her mother is a teacher. She has a little brother. She likes to go for a walk with her grandparents. Tina has a pet dog. She loves to play with her dog. Her mother teaches her. Tina helps her father clean the living room on Sunday. The lesson had pictures illustrating the whole scene in the house so the children understand how Tina was related to each of the family members, their roles in her life and how others in the family connect with Tina. Beautifully done, I thought!... The next day, my son brings a book from his Kindergarten class. The Homework for the week was to match the capital letters and the corresponding small letters. The next page had ...

I am new here today. The family is excited to run the Mixer for the first time. I am the eldest of the three jars. I am taller, my blades are broader but not as sharp and I can hold about 1.5 litres of stuff. I have a handle and a lid and South Indian households typically use me to make vegetable soups, batters of various  kinds for their dosa and many spice blends for their half a dozen varieties of sambhar. I am sparkling clean and have this squeaky shine on me today. I am generally very happy and designed to be useful. Here, the lady opens the lid and puts in about a kilo of some pulse mix in. Closes the lid as quickly and turns the mixer knob to full speed. My blades do the job of the grind and before I can even begin to understand what was the spice mix I just spent time grinding, she puts a spoon inside and ruffles the mix a bit. Another churn and I guess she is happy that the mix came out to her expectation. There seems to be a contented look on her face....

On a conversation with a friend, I got to know that the Class 10 results are out and a common friend’s daughter was upset because she scored just a 95%. Apparently, she expected to top the class and missed it by 2%. Yes, 2% is lot in Indian schools. A hundred people may have scored over-and-above your score.  With three cheers to this obsessive compulsive disorder of worrying about scores ( I have once been there too!, I must confess.. in June 1996). I am writing the following list of thoughts that flash in my mind: Ask the value of a nanosecond to a Olympic runner. What matters is being the winner. The fact that someone ran faster in the race by 30 seconds, is a big ' Lost or Won’ , number!! Between 11:59 P.M and 12:01 A.M is just two minutes on the clock but two different dates, which means a lot when it comes to an admission in an extra-ordinary pre-school that admits kids born on or before 31st July, and your tiny tot was born on 12:01 A.M on 1st August!!! One...