Now Diving

Bangalore, India
For all the things I want to say, but don't, normally...

Saturday, July 24, 2010

About being a Teacher & making the most of life...

Yes, I forgot about my lil' vent-space, till K'Tall (heh.. the name) reminded me that I could blog, when i told him I was terribly bored. I brushed it off with a "I'm in too much of a snappy mood to write". Hell Yeah I was! Somethings refuse to budge in my life, lets not get into that. Anyhoooo, I just had a flash-flood like realization, that I'd run out of ideas. Ideas strike me only, and only when I'm extremely busy with work! Since work has been normal and routine for the past week, I didn't really need vent-space. Besides, I'd been meeting Wag-kid and rAD-R quite often. Loads of fun! Really!

So again, I'm back! Blame it on the really important work I'm currently pursuing to complete. Well, the BIG update is that Aw and me have joined an NGO as volunteers, and well... *pause pause*... We Teach. Being a teacher, the non-textbook kind, changes the status of Dream 1 on the list to A.c.c.o.m.p.l.i.s.h.e.d. The girls at this school we teach at are quite adorable. (Thank Heavens they're girls... so well-behaved and nice like all girls usually are).

There's Girl1 - the attention seeking, question-always-answering, smiling-to-buttering(eh?), bounty-points-wanting girl, who sits right in the front, trying to supply right answers to me which I gladly wave off with a smile.
Girl2 - the last bencher, chatter box, bully (really.. trust me), whom I caught trying to ape me while i wrote on the board (Dude... chalk... its been so long!). Well, she quietly slipped into her best behaviour when I asked her if she had something to say with the most smashing smile I could offer. Guilt trips work like a charm!
Girl3 - Always giving me wrong answers, and super shy, so the answers are given in the softest of whispers. I promptly correct her in whispers as well. We work like that. :)
Girl4 - Eager, confident and wants to be politically correct, so we caught her peeking into the book. Eager works for me though.. brings in energy to my class.
Girl5, Girl6, Girl7 - Who waved me goodbye as i left, asked me to come back next week and left me enough warmth and fuzziness to last me all day.

NGO-time is packed into my week very conveniently, and I can't get over the fact that I'm finally doing this! :) (Hope you're smiling too, its quite an amazing feeling).

This is how I'm making the most of life. Hanging onto every moment passed now - every smile passed over to me (non-obviously, of course), every instance of eye-contact made (Oh! Could I die for that!), every meeting made with Goofy (last few, sighhh, heavy heart) and the others, every sign of shop-a-holism i've shown (love, love, love it!), among many other every things.

PS : I can eat with chopsticks now, thank you rADR! Although, my food-mate must possess patience.
Wag-kid, hehe, may thou inspire many :P
Goofy, wait for a more sigh-sigh post about you.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

A Very Beachy Affair This...

Every one, without exception, always has someplace where they find Peace. The place can vary, and so can the kind of peace that they are looking for. For the menfolk(I love commenting on them), it could be as silly as dropping themselves loosely on a bean bag with a gaming joystick in hand and punching the air out of an animated figure. For me, it has always been the beach.

Life threw me into City(Read this), and City had a beach, a very long one at that. Mind you, City was always piping hot, with tropical weather at its best 9 months out of 12. The other three months were bearable, considering it was winter. So, I always loved the beach at night. City has a beach which i'm going to call Ellie, of course.

Being in City all alone, made me fall in love with Ellie. Normally a very stressed out day at the workplace, would normally end with me calling ThunderBird (one of my best friends who helped me get past City), and zooming off to Ellie. The long paved red walkway for 60-something couples to walk along, after a wholesome dinner was the first thing that struck you as different. Ellie was rather small, but the market, food and entertainment section (often like a fair) was restricted to one stretch of the beach. The other half was for regular thinkers (like me, ahem) and young couples (City had very few of those) to plonk themselves by the water.

Each time I made my way to the sea-side, sand in my shoes, a strong-warm wind blew towards me, and I'd trod carefully, looking for any sharp objects that I'd like to avoid stepping on. Plonking myself on the sand, I always made it a point to look in the direction of the fair. A little giant wheel (oxymoron that) with its rotating lights, carts selling awful chilli bajji's, the little Gas-lights that lit them, and my favorite object of attention - The Balloon Shooting stalls. These stalls normally had a bunch of little children, waiting for a strong gust of wind to blow these balloons off the flimsy cloth wall. Once that happened, they'd tear down chasing behind them, laughing loud, eventually bursting them on their way back.

Then, a long hard look into the sea, which almost always decided to blow some peace my way. Thankfully ThunderBird never asked why I wanted to go. I've thought hard about my transfer, work problems, mended a broken heart, made my will stronger by Ellie. Everything that needed hours of pondering over, would be reserved for a trip to Ellie. This, had to be followed by dinner at Mash and that was a ritual. I'd always look forward to those heavenly plates of hot food. So, decide to walk back to the road, towards mash, tousled hair, salty lips and the smell of the sea.