Srividya's blog

Butterflies and You!

280320102036

 

A poem as written by A...N....., unedited.

 

Dear Ms. S......,

 

Butterflies are beautiful, but you are more beautiful.

Butterflies are flying in the sky, but you are teaching us on land.

Butterflies bring us nectar, but you give us love and knowledge.

Butterflies are colourful, but you make us get more knowledge.

Butterflies are pretty, but you are more pretty.

Butterflies are very nice, but you are more kinder.

Butterflies are camouflaged with joy, but you are teaching us with joy.

 

I was taken aback by the camouflaged word since, he identified that word with the butterflies, saying " they change colour to protect themselves from enemies". Well, they take you by surprises. As the poet in him started unfolding, i was amazed to see how a child was able to construct sentences out of his own trying to connect words related to butterflies. (i had made a card with butterfly and wanted him to write something for his teacher using butterflies) And the result was this.

 

This is a card made for his teacher, to thank her for everything. He moves on to the next grade from 16th April.  

 

 

Holidays are here!

4:10 pm: Finish my work and waiting not to miss the moment when he barges in.

4:12 pm: rains lashing out and still no signs of the lift coming up.

4:15 pm: waiting..waiting..should be here any moment...go out a bit to see any movement of vehicles, and of no luck.

4:17 pm: ding..see the doors of the lift open and scream "yay" in excitement. I see a face hung down, sober, sober coming out.

"Hey..WE H..A..V..E HOLIDAYS, WE H..A..V..E HOLIDAYS"

"But amma, i miss my teacher Ms. S.... , I wont see her in my next class."

"It's ok A. She might come for some subject. Dont worry...She will be there in school..so, you can see her again"

"But amma, i want my teacher again. I miss her. I wish i go back to the first day of grade 1. Then i can see all my friends and teachers. "

" Why, you are going to the next grade. You've worked hard for this and you deserve to be in grade 2."

Well, it was difficult to console this little boy, for whom relationships are really everything. He takes to heart these small small things and makes his life a little miserable, like mother.

Did we all not wait for the holidays to begin and scream and shout out in joy on the last day of school? Did we ever say that we wanted to go back to the previous class? Well, some teachers are so special, but, maybe we were living in a different not-so-stressed- era where, playing was everything. You come back from school and play to your hearts content and then return back with heavy hearts and sweating bodies, after all that-i'm-not-going-to-serve-dinner statements from mommy. Those days are different. I really did not expect my boy to come out indifferent from the lift. It has taken a long time for him to cheer up and now, he still goes back to the shell of -i-miss-my-classmates-and teacher.

Well, to Ms. S, you have mada a difference to these kids. The afterwork is all ours, to cheer our children up. :-) No, seriously, she is a lovely lady and she would be missed. But, as she mentioned, she would keep track of her little chicks as the Mother hen always does, no matter how far they are.

He moves to Grade 2 with a wonderful expected performance in Grade 1, receiving certificates of excellence in all four subjects and being the star boy of his class. I love you, my son. You still are my little baby in a bigger frame. 

Senior A's hand at forms of art

280320102029

Art is something that does'nt come naturally to Senior A. It is quite frustrating for him to spend time cutting and gluing, though, he loves the activity by itself for a change. They involve those fine motor skills, which he had never been interested to do, right from the montessori days. Being a boy, he was naturally inclined towards the non-art works which included sensorial, math, language and large motor activities. But, these are the works of art done at school and the best one is the weaving exercise with yellow and orange strips.

At the PT Consulation, his teacher was very appreciative of the other part of his development namely, art, referring to his much patient work of weaving strips of papers dexterously to make a very neat and attractive mat. She said that she had asked him to hurry up and his tardiness was annoying her. She commented that at the end of it, he had weaved a beautiful mat and she held it high up to show it to the class. These are things that take you by surprises, knowing his nature and abilities well.

Believe it or not, he  brought the laminated weaving home and had been holding it and looking whenever he could, occasionally resting it on the coffee table for us to view and also sneaking in time and again to have a peek at it. We could surmise that he enjoyed making it without any help (Remember, he "only took instructions to cut the paper and how to proceed!"..these are his words which i respect) and that, it was HIS own.

Thank God, he has a new dimension for us to refer to.

Good morning!

Then:

A sudden gush of water from above turning the blue sheath, white; a devlish gust of gale trying to find an entrance thro any small aperture; without any luck, still howling around like an artic fox; trees just swaying their branches in fury; shoals of cars jus pilin up the ECP causing so much uncertainty to the already mounting checking-the-watch-by- a-millisecond instincts;

oh, when will nature stop unleashing it's fury on us mortals!

Now (half hour later):

The grey clouds suddenly clearin away to patches of snow, the once invisible coastline becomes clearer by the minute; the grey waves of water swirling towards beautiful shades of blue and green, the vessels show brimly on the waters; cars continue to ease through the ECP, trees stop the rustling and move on with their plan.. it sure, is a wonderful day!

Good mornin' everyone!

For my ears:

This is the explanation received for asking my 6-1/2 yr old to drink Vitasoy(A brand of Soy Milk)

Me: Please take a vitasoy from the drawer and drink it fast. We have to go for the class.

A: Oh, no! I don't like Vitasoy. I want ...(some other dairy milk)

Me: Why? Why dont you drink this now? I dont have any other. I'll have to buy them only later.

He understands that there is nothing left and no other choice than to drink this dreadful medicine.

A: I don't want to drink it. It's sooooooo yukky...(the expression sure conveyed the idea well ahead of his words @ speed of lightning)

This had been continuing for a minute before i finally asked him for an explanation for his refusal.

Me: Your sister has been drinking and why can't you drink? She does'nt complain of it being "......"

(Touch wood or whatever...i don't want her to start this whining, again for this drink)

A: She drinks it because she is an Indian.

Me thinks and couldnt bring myself to understand what this is supposed to mean : Then who are you?

(Aha..was i waiting for this event to happen? This is another excuse for him to reiterate or rather shoot boldly on our heads, the point that he is not an indian.)

And so what??

A : You know, she was born in India. So, she can have all these.. (was this anyway related to this drink??)

I don't know for sure.. But, all i know is that the talk about who is born where and why has been going in full swing among his classmates that he keeps them all intact in his agile memory.

Well, now to the point of he drinking the milk or not...He just drank half and threw the remaining, which made me very upset and send signals to him that such acts of his would not be entertained at all, at any cost, period. (an adult's final word)

 

***********************************************************************************************************************

As a part of an exercise asking him to correctly find a word that i was asking for, i happened to notice that he was squeezing his eyes to look for the word. This was not very new since i had seen him do this quite a few times, but not frequently. I asked him why he was doing that and he said " can't you see that i cannot see properly?"

Well, i don't know seriously about that, since his school used to have eyechecks every year as a part of the health screening. And he was cleared in all those reports.

Me, just to clarify : Why, what is it that you cannot see?

A : This light is going into my eyes and instead of me seeing, it is getting reflected.

Me, confused and still couldnt put together his words to what they mean. He was trying to explain the same thing again and again and all i could conclude was that he was bringing home the fact that he wanted to wear glasses.

I had heard him say a few times before that he wanted to wear glasses, since they are nice. But, how seriously does he know the implications of wearing a pair of glasses? I remember being very fond of braces and glasses myself when young that i had approached doctors to diagnose the problems, but without any help. All my dentist-aunt would suggest that it is nice to have teeth the way they are than to modify them by wearing braces. And my ophthamologist would repeatedly test my vision and certify that the headache is not due to vision problems. So, he would suggest to have my head(serioulsy, that needed to be) checked :0.

 

I think, it is time for me to consider seeing the pediatrician on this case, given the history of glasses going on in the paternal family. 

 

 

You have done us proud, Son!

Six full years of non-stop effort ensuring predominantly projects, assignments, papers, exams and competitions to juggle with during the last four years- vacations were a few to remember or none to recall, it was work, work and work just enveloping this young lad. Rain or Shine, driving or pooling to the school was mandatory, for how long could a teen depend on his parents for pick up and drop off. Nevertheless, he was not going to be boggled by any of those. 

Getting into the International Academy, which ranks among the top schools of the United States, being funded by the city of Farmington Hills, was hailed as an achievement by itself. If that was the case, getting admitted to Caltech, UMich, and a certain other institute in Illinois (which unfortunately, my frail sluggish memory finds it hard to log them) would be termed as a fantastic record. That was what we too, as an outsider, felt about the news. Congratulations poured in even as they started shutting down the idea of sending him to one of the most popular Universities in the West. That was called fate and if that was so, what do you term this one to be??

"I got in" is the subject of the mail received by us for letting us know about his admission into the prestigious university in US, The MIT.

This certainly is one too, and can also be termed destiny or a favourable fortune for this teenager. Yes, you must be wondering what i'm bragging about in these few lines. Well, this kid of indian origin has followed the likes of thousands of others to get an entry into this Institute. It was purely his continuous tryst with numbers and figures, the support of his parents and the grace of the Higher Force which has culminated into what is called as destiny here. It feels great that this nephew of ours has laid the foundation for his future gen cousins to such prestigious colleges and this foundation seems a mammoth struggle to achieve, given the history of his origin and efforts.

There is so much of relief in the air, not only among his people there, but, even thousands of miles across the globe. The innumerable number of competitions from Math Olympiad to State Level Math competition, to name a few, have seen him victorious at all times. And every competition brings forth a much higher level of expectation from all of us which he has seemed to fulfill, at all costs. His admission into any top university was forseen and he has once again, done all of us proud. His parents, being pillars of strength for all his endeavours, have been very supportive and his father has been his mentor all along.

You have done us proud, Kishore!! We hope you soar great heights and bring big smiles on everyone's faces. And speaking about targets, it reminds us of your father's doctoral degree, which automatically gets credited to your name. The next supposedly small target,looking through the history of your future institute's 75 Noble Laureates, is to become one yourself. May you never be limited by any force and continue to leap forward in your journey. Wish you a very wonderful journey into the World! 

Balloons from GOD

The setting, A birthday party at a bouncy castle. After the party, when all the balloons were slowly being loosened to be given to the Gs and Bs who had made the function a blast of a time, some kids were quite particular about the "pinks" to an extent that there was no pink in the arena at all.

Colourful oranges, camouflaged as pinks  from a distance, were up for grabs only to be discarded later at their promiscuous descend from the twines. It was a sight to watch, a chaos to be shun away from, because of the noise wading through the hall. Yet, when things settled and finally all had one to their content, there were these flock of "i -dont-care-whatsoever-for-a-balloon" pinks and blues who had eventually one in their hands sparking off with an idea to let go off them in the air.

And in glee, first went blue, then a red and the third was an orange. With so much of enthusiasm, they watched their balloons soaring high up away from anyones' mechanical reach, cutting through their hindrances successfully and into hindsight. It was dark and hard for the blokes to really keep up the trail.

What was interesting was this : One of the kids (6 1/2 yrs old) who had let go off his balloons remarked, " I just left the balloon up in the air. It was going high up and up and it would have gone to GOD. "

Now, i was watching all of these as they happened without any big feeling when i heard this statement and was suddenly shaken off, in disbelief. Yes, what ensued later is also "ditto".

The monologue continued: "You know, it has gone to GOD for his blessings."

It became a dialogue here : " How do you know that?"

"If it goes high up where no one can reach, that means it has gone to GOD."

"What will GOD do with the balloons?"

" He will bless and send it back to us when we have our birthdays"

This shook me too.. What an observation...Have i ever thought of anything so trivial as this?? Or has my mind been so busy to think of all the so-called-big-things- but-yet-so-silly that i framed this as trivial?? Well, a small mind is really big, and a big adult mind is so small, just as how we have been taught by this incident. We think too much of little things that we make a mountain out of a mole hill. Yet, the thoughts of a small mind are working without being taught at lightning speed and without being conducted.

I just went back to my days, as far as my remembrance goes, in talking about GOD or even thinking about something above us. And i seem to get this same answer everytime i go back. They are in our adolescence or even after that, when the pressures of exams were mounting on us or something large had to be done through a higher force. Those were the times when we had talked or even thought about GOD in seeking his help. But the kids these days are clear in whatever they say and do not muddle over anything. Do i mean to say that we're making better parents?? No, certainly not, They are making good kids. I definitely have to admit their innocence and exposure.

I defintely have to also admit that i'm his mother and not he, my son. These are small small words of wisdom that they teach us without a guile.

We're waiting for the balloons from Him on the 17th day of  June, definitely!