Posted on by dancinglightofgrace

A Litany of Minor Errands

The walls are dripping again. Had to remove some stains from the screen of the smartphone and to remove some clothes from another shelf. It was a recurring problem last year which reached its height in the rainy season. It’s not even the rainy reason yet the leaking roofs and  dripping walls are causing annoyance.
I ask my mother if I should make tea. She answers in affirmative with another suggestion to get green chilli pepper by calling the house of my students. Father isn’t happy about her lack of planning with the kitchen store. I call the father of the students who doesn’t pick it up. He calls me back when I am busy making tea. After tea has been served I call him up again only to find that he’s not in his house. He’s busy elsewhere. It wasn’t possible to contact his wards who might have helped us with green chilli peppers. I let it go.
Mother knocks at the door once again. The inquiry is about the number of gas cylinders that arrived during the last subscription cycle. I think they were three in number. Then, she starts thinking loudly about where those were used. Since I wasn’t familiar with those details I couldn’t help her much. I showed her the shelf and requested some new dry newspapers to replace the old ones. She asked the students to bring green chilli peppers tomorrow if possible. They nodded.
I observed chickpeas which were getting boiled. I switched the gas off. Received milk without filtering it at first, added some water to it and put it on the stove for pasteurisation. Heard someone asking to switch the water pump on. After a while, I heard the call to switch it off. Served tea to parents. Had just a bit of it myself. Ginger tea. It’s about dinner time.
Proposed to refill the sugar tank. It was suggested to do it tomorrow during the day.
Students arrived on time.  Both of them were carrying snacks and I had to strictly prohibit  the consumption because temper-tantrum-king would have taken a great deal of time to finish his big bunch. He might have resisted cleaning his hands as well. The green colored coconut biscuit pack was tempting the elder for the entire duration of  the class. He was busy repairing the chain of his bag when they were about to leave.
We continued discussion on passages from the English workbook. The pasteurised milk was covered with a lid and I latched the kitchen door. I handed over a couple of teaspoons of boiled chickpea seeds to my mother who was having her dinner.
The students paid attention to the passage when asked. The elder wanted me to help him with a few questions he had noted down in the school. They were in Science. He had also written a few practicals in the new notebook. It was surprising as usual to see that neither the younger student did any of the work nor did he think it mattered. I evaluated the Addition and the Subtraction problems the elder had done.
There were a few errors. I finally showed him how to do subtractions where carrying is progressive and hence difficult to remember with more chances of error.
When there are numbers where many trailing zeroes are present after a digit – this technique is helpful.
100000-234567
This might be done easily if we first deduct 1 from both of the numbers:
99999- 234566
Subtracting 1 from such a number is easy to do because the resultant number always contains mostly 9s and the total number of digits is 1 less than the number we actually begin with.

[ 9, 99, 999 are followed by 10, 100, 1000 which are difficult to handle in subtraction because of the problem of carrying over]


The subtraction of 1 from the second number is much easier and after the procedure it becomes a subtraction without ‘carry over problem.’
Thereafter we continued with passages from the English workbook. Pink in color, these passages were not printed very well. We managed. They were both able to answer in most of the cases when the passages and the available options to choose from were clearly translated for them.
One of the passages was from the chapters on Music. It was about Evelyn. The next was about Ustad Bismillah Khan. Then there was a passage from the chapter on ‘The Little Girl.’ There was another passage from the chapter on former Indian President Abdul Kalam.
They were losing patience and they were hungry. After about forty minutes the younger one decided to leave. The elder asked him to wait for five more minutes. Then they both left.

Posted on by dancinglightofgrace

Yellow Forest and Steel Bangles

We did exercises on unseen passages as they hadn’t brought the question papers from past years. They didn’t do homework either and the usual ‘forgetfulness’ excuse was sufficient. Both of them were wearing their school uniforms. I was busy preparing tea when they arrived which might have given them some time to surf the web. The elder told me the smelly socks were changed.
The passages were about Computer, Sardar Patel and Games/Sports. I carefully explained to them what input and output devices are. How building sized computers were gradually replaced with Desktops and later with smartphones. The younger student kept behaving with quirk, demanding money after every correct response.
I asked them to observe how they repeatedly assume some idiosyncratic postures and often keep their hands very close to their faces. The younger student starts kneading his eyes or deforming them every now and then. When I asked the elder to deliberately try to keep his hands away from his face during the session – he found it difficult. He’s concerned with his appearance, acne etc.
The younger student brandishes the steel bangle like it’s a weapon. Then he exaggerates its price. The elder snatches it away from him. There’s no sufficient reason for these quirks. There never was. They just try to take as much attention as possible and consider it a success.
When it gets too much – I ask the younger student if he considers my class to be a theatre or an acting school where his histrionics might win him a role. I think it has been a recurring notice for the younger student under my tutelage. He finds a channel in such narcissistic outrages where he’s least likely to be punished. He has no regard for mannerisms, order or decency. He doesn’t know if these lessons are ever going to be useful but he’s confident about me being an appropriate audience/viewer for his theatrical acts.
I prepared tea, served it to my parents and had it myself. Washed bathroom. Mopped verandah floor. Grandmother informs me about the demise of a distant relative.
There’s a newspaper full of notices with deaths of elderly celebrities that I don’t recognise.
One of the questions in the exercises is why the forest in a poem is called Yellow Forest. They know it because we had read the lesson. They think that the season which is about to arrive is The Fall. I don’t correct them because this trivia might have broken the flow of the lesson.
They check time when they get bored. The younger one wants to leave. I tell him to leave. The elder persists and the younger follows. They complete an hour. Today they arrived together and left together. Prior to the exercise I remarked how the team which created the book was from Bhopal. The CBSE board books are created by the Delhi team. We discussed how board examination papers are designed by these teams.
Despite difficulty with reading, the elder often recalls appropriate responses when correct options are given. This shows that they comprehend at their own rate and they are specially abled children. Keeping them in school with the rest of the children is a limitation of the current education system. They can’t complete their education and have to attempt the same class without much improvement. I hope the elder student passed this time around.

Posted on by dancinglightofgrace

Grammar and Maths

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.

Posted on by dancinglightofgrace · 2 Comments

An Ordinary Weblog Post!

1. I came here after a long time. Moon rays are soothing. Sun is already scorching and it’s not even March.

2. Orion belt is beautiful. How harmoniously the stars of proportionate size studded in it.

3. I saw an asteroid. It’s second such within one week.

4. I am reading Kathasaritsar these days. Magical fantasies. Mythological figures.

5. Couple of airplanes passed by.

6. Beautiful parrots returned to their nests.

7. Read an advertisement for an institute for liberal studies for an acquaintance. He’s not eligible.

8. Dogs are barking and a devotional storytelling ritual in a nearby temple.

9. The rehearsal as well as presentation of play Tendor For Tajmahal was cancelled.

10. Within a very few days my rankings on vocabulary jams have dropped because of low participation. Trying to get my priorities straight again.

Posted on by dancinglightofgrace

End of the day!

1. Plenty of vocabulary jams. My ID is 01. I invite you to play with me on vocabulary.com.

2. Kavitha J and Paul H scored well today on most of the jams.

3. I attended a birthday party, registered some books in library, emptied dustbin ash, helped in cowshed, wrote couple of blog posts, clicked some pictures, filled water and sat down for a while.

Posted on by dancinglightofgrace

If a rocket can hit wicket…

Birds are returning to their nests. They are little birds, and the mothers are very angry with them. Piglet gimcrack rucksack backpack acknowledged ledgerdemain. One mother bird is not happy. As it has a toothache. This is because the other mother bird has a bad temper and she scratched it.

Birds are chirping around me. The sky has been covered by a layer of clouds. Kane: the Polynesian God stopped by the way. He stopped by to talk. I had nothing to say. You should tell him about the clouds. The somersault by the Merle on ley lines. There are clouds in the sky.

Granny allowed me to eat some guavas. They were unripe…on branches. Some of them fell as I was giving them to Grandma for sauce. Chutney has nothing to do with knee. Snickersnee need Edo ode diode module site. I was on my way to make chutney when I smelled it. It was a pleasure to meet you at the moment. After I ate my guavas I was overcome with fainting and fell on the floor. It was a temporary heart attached to this question. If a rocket can hit you it can hit me.

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Caravan!

It’s the world family day.

2. It’s something or the other everyday

I have been a nomad since my earliest lives. I belonged to one and to all. In every group I was the first one to break the sectarian bias. Though I favour Ramalinga vegetarian and vegan movements I can clearly understand why cannibalism and wrong turns exist

4. I only have my body and it’s microcosm as well as macrocosm. Contention point with siblings was always lack of any grounding regarding pursuit of family objectives. Why do neighborhood families have taller buildings: because they need them. Why does USA manufacture more weapons? I got accustomed to village life which had fresh air and plenty of space. Now technology which is incompatible with space is available only to very rich and very famous and yet they succumb to Cancer and other diseases. Ramalinga left with a fragrance of camphor in that room. Where did he go? He said he entered into all bodies. Didn’t all those who succumbed to Cancer or other diseases? No. Because their thirst and hunger lives on whereas Ramalinga or Gandhi left monuments which act as tome to me.

Is whole world really a family ?

Truth be told: adept is one who needs no food, water or respect nor company or help.

I have needs: clothes. Water. Entertainment. Events. Help. Company.

I can’t roam around this city without good clothes or a lot of food and water.

South East

Those who say the whole world is a family must decide first who or what is the world. I am the world and the family.

Those who haven’t attained pure body of gnosis and bliss have no right to say that the whole world is a family. They are serving a doctrine, a media house, a policy or a nation state or themselves to sell their shoddy goods.

Posted on by dancinglightofgrace

Storms!

1. A dog heard the grandmother calling me inside to have another meal. I had a tea at aunt’s place where I walked a few steps with my cousin who is an author and a programmer.

2. Programmers as well as authors do the same thing: they write codes using information available to them in some language. I used to wonder about my past team lead”s attention to details. He was a Libra Moon and Ascendant and he had infinite patience to navigate through the XML style sheet language documents. He used to catch bugs in codes quite easily because he had good experience with maintenance and support team. I joined as a developer for my first project and later I was required in a maintenance and support team where instead of attending webinars I was busy learning new things online. Learning needs patient application of knowledge base and creative branching out with returning harmonics. In simpler words: you need to keep some type of record for whatever you learn. Teaching a subject or learning it by writing a book about it is truly absorbing and it results in perfect condition where you master a certain skills set which doesn’t require reference to the tome or the pupils.

3. It was Narasimha Jayanti: the birth of the manticore incarnation of lord Vishnu who saved his devotee Prahlad by killing his demonic father Hiranyakashya. Since Holika dahan, which was on Falguni Purnima, it was after 55 days this event is recognised. Which means victory of Truth over falsehood.

Vaishakh Purnima: Buddha’s Appearance!

4. It’s the Purnima or the full Moon of Vaishakh: the day of appearance of Shakyamuni Buddha some 2600 years ago. Couple of years ago I was walking in stadium experimental about the diurnal variations in my height. Now I have been following the news and stadium is not open yet.

5. Crickets are chirping and mosquitoes are singing in chorus with coolers and fans.

6. There was dust storm as I was enjoying cricket with neighborhood kids. Then I enjoyed talking about prospect of working on a programming project. I wanted to play vocabulary quizzes but preferred socializing over it.