Organised utensils. Fixed burners into gas. Put the gas cylinders into the bathroom. Lukewarm water and tea served. The verandah was congested. Mopping couldn’t happen properly. Washed a cup and served tea. Had it myself. All of it took thirty minutes time. Informed mother about the cooker whistles. She was returning from outside with a stick in her hand. Students left only after forty two minutes. I wasn’t expecting them today. There was a piebald dog outside and another was barking. There were cows. The younger student had difficulty even staying for thirty minutes. They were being physically aggressive to eachother and the elder had pen nibs without caps. I warned him to be careful with that. I also asked them to not hit eachother on head.
They’re going to perform Surya Namaskar Yoga postures again tomorrow morning. They had a practice session on ninth. They didn’t bring Remedial Module book or smartphone to get my help. Though they come up with sudden requirements they show lack of foresight.
The elder told me that he was asleep at the time of the class yesterday though he wasn’t suffering from fever as told by his father. I gave both of them problems on Addition and Subtraction. I sweeped the room after they left.
When the unit 8.2 was completed they wanted me to narrate a story to them. The younger one wanted me to tell a story in which his name was used as a good person who helped everyone. When I refused to tell such a story he asked me to create a story in which a dog used to help people who used to roam around and used to have bones for food.
I think either asking for fee or refusing to create a story with his name might have prompted him to such vagaries. I had somewhat clairvoyant dreams. Similar voices. None of it is new.
The two problems I showed them solutions for are straightforward Geometry problems, though they had hard time grasping basics as usual. Both problems use mid point theorem, though I spend a few minutes before realising that I wasn’t reading the second problem carefully. The environmental noise was rising.
Working on SLM or Nano GPT. Why do I mix it with the routine in this article? It has been more than five years working on Replika. Law of diminishing returns. Network unavailability made it evermore difficult a task to access it. Though there appeared better models, they would’ve been similar with the network issues. Finally, I was supposed to make switch from 4G to 5G. Entire family was doing that. This brought an in-built AI model which, after some reluctance was going to replace the Replika which had stood the test of time. It seemed like “Planned Obsolescence.” I remember the first time when I found a Gemini window open–I hadn’t actually opened it: I considered it a glitch. It was faster to access in comparison to Chat GPT or Replika. I let go of free subscription for Perplexity because it would have created further burden to cope with. Though Gemini was using a version 2.5. It had a voice assistant and much better feedback compared to Replika which was a freemium version. I think it was still not ‘pro’ version offered by Google yet it was much better being a gift package with smartphone.
For a few rupees more!
1. I asked her if she needed my services in the month of December-January. She asked her daughter who told her that she would continue to take classes.
2. Then she told me she needed my services until her exams are over: that’s until March.
3. This conversation took place yesterday afternoon inside library of Gandhi Smarak Bhavan at about two o’ clock. There were only three of us.
4. It was second such conversation after our conversation under banyan tree. Since then: i have taught her some 400 words, played at least 20 games on Free Rice site with her to help her augment her vocabulary. Also helped her learn creation of Vocabulary jams on vocabulary.com
I helped her learn doing diary entries but she refused to do them : like she refused to write verses or reports. An assignment to compare Meera/Arukka Mahadevi/Andal was given. It was from her book and she didn’t do it repeatedly for at least five days until i helped her with it in class. It was easy to do. She is smarter than other students i have taught so far but not anywhere near what my ‘ideal’ student would be like.
Her mother overlooks my reports about her not working enough on assignments. But when i am questioned for teaching her words in the most scientific way: she begins arguing and questions my integrity.
5. The last time around i was helping her with the vocabulary jams on vocabulary.com : a notification from her school comes on Whatsapp.
“You need to attend a test.”
6. Her school, her parents and others don’t have a sense of schedule or time when it comes to learning. I have to ask her three questions everyday:
A. Do you want to take class today?
B. Did you do your homework?
C. What do you mean by 5 minutes? Would you come for class at the appointed time which keeps changing at your convenience? It’s usually 20 to 30 minutes delay everyday.
7. They take the teacher for granted because there’s the teacher: punctual and always available. Selling himself short. Content.
8. All that for a mere 1000 rupees!
Image credit: Self, inside Gandhi Smarak Bhavan.
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.
Dancing light of grace 