I parked the bike inside the garage. It was twilight. There were goats returning in a herd. Students were leaving when my father asked me to take help from them to push it up the ramp to park it inside. He had returned with vegetables and groceries. Mother was also not in the house. She first went to a grocery store and then to the house of some acquaintance.
My class concluded with an exercise in their Grammar workbook. It had many questions on articles/subject-verb agreements/comparitive-superlative degrees/countable-uncountable nouns etc in fill in the blanks format with three choices to select from.
Together they answered about half of them correctly though it was just by using chance. They didn’t grasp any of the questions though I kept explaining those. The younger brother kept shifting his answers at random just to sound correct. As soon as he learned that his choice was incorrect he shifted to the other choice.
He made ink star even today in his left hand’s palm with my pen. Prior to that he was using that to pinch his elder brother. Both of them were fighting eachother physically before class commenced as I was busy organising utensils in the kitchen.
Since there’s Republic Day tomorrow, they’re going to attend school only for cultural programs and enjoy sweets. They had completed their homework though the younger student used red ink to complete it. When I tried to explain him that teachers are supposed to use that and he should use a blue ink- he told me that nobody asked him to not use that even in his school.
Today they didn’t use their smartphone which was a great change. I gave them five addition and five subtraction problems as assignement. The younger one was reluctant to not it down.
He was dancing every now and then and then they kept quarreling. Looking into the mirror of the window he told me how he appears bigger in some mirrors and smaller in others. Asked my permission to use body lotion. Then they asked about its price.
I told them about the museum near this city where mirrors give various images in which you appear obese or lean, taller or smaller. I told them they can visit that place though it charges a ticket for a visit. Then I told them that maybe only grown ups are supposed to visit as this archeological site has many valuable items.
We did a couple of problems in Maths. I wasn’t prepared. I used the solution. It uses Congruence. A bit of construction and then proves that two equal length chords intersect at a point which when joined with the centre of the circle subtends equal angles with both of them.
In the next problem there were three girls sitting on the periphery of a circular park. They have a ball which they throw at each other. The distance between first two of them is six meters. The distance between the second two of them is also six meters. The distance between first and the third is to be obtained if the radius of the circle is given. This one uses a triangle by connecting the centre of the circle with the position of the girls. Area of a triangle is one by two multiplied with base of the triangle multiplied with the height of the triangle. The two orientations of triangles are such that one of them gives the half length of the chord and doubling it gives the requisite length.
Grammar, Pythagoras Theorem and Algebra!
Describe something you learned in high school.
- Grammar: Active and Passive voice. Narrations etc
- Example: I wrote this article. ( Active voice)
- This article was written by me. ( Passive voice)
- Emphasis is on the subject or doer of the action in the first case, whereas in the second case it’s on the completion of action by ( someone.)
- As I was a Hindi medium student Grammar and English writing were considered important to learn. Government Hindi medium schools had syllabus which begin to touch English language with any seriousness only at standard sixth.
- No wonder all such students including convent school Hindi medium students faced difficulties with competitive exam books and magazines which were in English language. Later, we continued to face difficulty with engineering studies because syllabus was taught in English. I tried to help dozens of such students with translation of lessons even when I was myself in engineering.
- Apart from communication skills we took great interest in Pythagoras Theorem, working out Algebra and other problems because of our teachers who were dedicated to achieve excellence. I remember initial zeal when as a teenager I wanted to be the first guy every time around a challenge was given by our teachers and I often was this first guy which hurt sentiments of many students as well as teachers. I had a lot to learn about Educational Psychology and competitive exams.
Rekha Madam!
1. She alighted from an e-rickshaw. I was walking with my gaze into ethereal shrine. I had a hunch: it might be her. She was waiting for someone.
2. I could have done it some other day. Why not now? To be genuine in my salutation for once.
3. She was wearing a white saari and she had grey hair with freckles on her cheeks. What I paid attention to, in particular, was the dot. The red bindi on her forehead.
4. She asked me how I was doing and i mirrored that with words. She asked me about my current job and my educational qualifications. I told her. Then she asked me about why I quit the job. Before I could complete: she said I would get more tuitions. You have started : you would get work in time.
5. I had heard her conversation with a student of hers. It was a long ago. I went to take her permission for something. The student was telling her : “I feel as if you don’t love me.”
But I love you and all others. Don’t ever think like this.
The student felt good.
She explicitly asked him to touch her feet.
6. I was baffled. Her love was wierd to say the least.
7. Satya Prakash was fond of mocking the sounds of her slaps. She used to beat naughty ones.
8. Myopia and hypermetropia ever remained the highlight of my study under her supervision. Kuldeep Shukla.
9. She ever remained a mystery.
10. Her hobby was Mathematics. On Sunday she used to practice Mathematics. She became a librarian like Laotzu. I thought I saw a look alike of Laotse outside JK cyber cafe. Previous one was in Vrijpura.
11. The student who touched her feet took Saurabh Singh to our section of MMHS and asked him to show one flying kick as he was learning karate.
I was wondering why it was such a big thing for I could do that. Gyanesh Chaturvedi had taught me kingry kick.
12. I used her dots till the end of the infinity. If someone implanted suggestions in me: it was her. Grammar. She was a grammarian and mathematician. She knew Hindi and English. If someone could be called hypatia of Maria Mata it was her. Her name is Rekha and there’s no parallel to her. Do parrallel lines meet at infinity? Her name was Rekha and she played with dots.
13. She triggered the avalanche of tears on our farewell day. I saw a tear in corner of her eyes as Ruchi was giving the parting speech. Ah, how could I have seen that. I would have cried in private but she made it a vidaai samaroh. When it comes to crying Rudra Academy always gets the first prize. Natarajan Pencils : champions once again!
15. A Sanskrit dictum says: good people appear harsh but they’re soft inside: like coconut. Others are like plums : soft only on outside. She could teach Sanskrit as well.
16. I saw Neelima and Maya mam in a dream recently and it resulted in meeting her.